"The Hydropathic organ of intelligence, The Water Cure Journal, has a very extensive circulation, has obtained a strong hold on the public mind, and, all things considered, takes a very commendable stand on the subjects of medical and dietetic reforms, and is exerting a wide-spread and salutary influence in these directions. The name, if applied to individual cases of disease is a misnomer, but viewing the work in its adaptation to effect a thorough eradication of the whole evil of human physical disorders, to its deepest foundation, the name is entirely appropriate. As this work is now in the field under a good organization and extensive patronage; it seems to me that economy would dictate that all the friends of health reform possessing a general similarity of views with those promulgated through this periodical, on its main topics, should throw the whole weight of their influence into this medium of communication with the public mind, to do what they can to augment its circulation, and improve its matter.

Although Dr. Jennings never accepted the Hydropathic or water-cure practice, indeed he condemned it strongly, he combined forces with Dr. G. W. Strong, a Hydropath, and together they opened the Orthopathic Water Cure Institute in Forest Dale, Cleveland, Ohio, in 1854.

Although Graham devoted most of his energies to the Hygienic Movement, in 1854 he lectured on the water-cure. His greatest influence was in the field of diet. Harpers New Monthly Magazine, Jan. 1880, says in an article entitled "Isms of Forty Years Ago"; "His (Graham's) rank as a benefactor will not seem slight to those who reflect on the gain to the public health and wealth resulting from the enlarged use of fruits and vegetables, and that variety which so distinguishes the American from the European table."

In his Nervous Debility, Trall says: "It has been most unfortunate for the Hygienic system, that so many of its early advocates, authors and practitioners put water so prominently forward as a remedial measure. In consequence of this error, misapprehension or indiscretion, the people generally have been led to suppose that our system is what its opponents (who, by the way, know better) are continually misrepresenting it to be, viz., a method of treating all disease with water alone." It must be admitted that in his earlier years Trall was, himself, guilty of this same fault.

Most of the early American Hygienists and Hydropaths were medical men who had grown skeptical of drugs and bleeding and were seeking other means of caring for their patients. Perhaps there was nothing more natural than that they should turn to the "water cure", which came well recommended from Europe. Only gradually, under the influence of Graham and Jennings, did they evolve the Hygienic System.

The fact is that the popular protest against drugs and bleeding had been gaining headway for nearly a century before the Grahamites appeared upon the scene; and though, at first, haphazzard, finally took form in a number of medical sects--homeopathy, physio-medicalism, eclecticism, bio-chemistry (after Schussler), hydropathy. Graham held that right living is a more certain means to health than is a resort to doctors and drugs, so that Grahamism, which was a synonym for hygienic living, soon began to be looked upon as a substitute for drugs. Indeed it was asserted that if the laity would practice hygiene, there would be no need for the physicians to practice medicine. Graham is the real father of the Hygienic movement, an honor he must share with Jennings.

Graham was an advocate of the popular teaching of physiology, always contending that hygiene must rest on a rational basis of physiological principles, and his followers were the first group to urge the introduction of the study of physiology into the public schools. The American Physiological Society resolved, "that a thorough knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of the human system is essential to the highest intellectual development; and that the greatest mental activity and power cannot be secured without a correct observance of physiological law". If the following resolution was not framed by Graham's own hand, it was undoubtedly taken from his published writings: "Resolved--That life, health, and all the physical interests of the human body are established upon precise and determinate principles, and that the highest welfare of man as an organic and animal being depends on the fulfillment of the constitutional laws of his nature." The Grahamites seem also to have been the first to demand the popular teaching of sex hygiene.

Shryock says: "What Trall and his followers really did was to superimpose Grahamism upon hydrotherapy, and later, in the most catholic spirit imaginable, to add every other hygienic procedure available. Trall acknowledged his indebtedness to Graham and Preissnitz (Silesian founder of the 'water cure'), but claimed to improve both." His evolution may be traced in the changes of names his magazines underwent. Beginning as the Water Cure Journal, it became, in turn, The Hygienic Teacher, The Herald of Health, The Gospel of Health, and New York Journal of Hygiene.

From its very inception the Hygienic School took radical issue with the schools of medicine, rejecting both their theories and their practices. It repudiated their fundamental principles and built upon a new and radically different basis. It rejected the old conceptions of the nature of disease and its relation to health and life. Trall says: "It is a prevalent opinion that the advocates of this system accept the philosophy of the Allopathic System but rejected its remedies, employing water, diet, etc., as substitutes for drug medicines.

"The true system of the Healing Art--hygienic medication--rejects not only the drugs, medicines or poisons of the popular system, but also repudiates the philosophy or theories on which their employment is predicated. It is in direct antagonism with the Drug System, both in theory and in practice. It does not propose to employ air, light, temperature, water, etc., as substitutes for drugs, or because they are safer or better than drugs. It rejects drugs because they are intrinsically bad, and employs hygienic agencies because they are intrinsically good. "I would reject drugs if there were no other remedial agents in the universe, because, if I could not do good I would 'cease to do evil'. I would not poison a person because he is sick."--True Healing Art, p. 22.