Martin Luther Holbrook

Martin Luther Holbrook (February 3, 1831 - August 12, 1902) was an American physician and vegetarianism activist associated with the natural hygiene and physical culture movements.

Martin Luther Holbrook
Born	February 3, 1831 Mantua Township, Portage County, Ohio
Died	August 12, 1902 (aged 71) New York City
Occupation(s)	Physician, writer

Biography

Holbrook was born in Mantua Township, Portage County, Ohio.^[1] Holbrook graduated from Ohio Agricultural College and edited the Ohio Farmer (1859-1861).^[2] During 1861–1863, Holbrook worked with Dio Lewis in Boston to promote physical culture and hygiene.^[1] He graduated from Lewis's Normal School of Physical Culture.^[2] He moved to New York City and obtained his medical degree from the Hygeio-Therapeutic College in 1864.^[3]

Holbrook was coproprietor of the New Hygienic Institute at Laight Street in New York City, the property was previously Russell Trall's water-cure institution.^[4][5] A Turkish bath was located at the institute.^[1][4][6] He was a founder of Miller, Wood and Holbrook firm and Miller, Wood & Co publishers of medical books. He later published under his own name, M. L. Holbrook and was an important publisher of medical and hygienic literature up until the 1890s.^[2][7] The printing press was located at Laight Street in New York City.^[7] It shared the same address as Russell Trall's New York Hygeio-Therapeutic College.^[7]

Holbrook was a vegetarian and promoted abstinence from alcohol, coffee, meat, tea, and tobacco.^[2][8] He translated the German raw food book Fruit and Bread by Gustav Schlickeysen. The book promoted a fruitarian diet of uncooked fruits, grains and nuts.^[8]

Holbrook was an advocate of chastity. His 1894 book on the subject recommended a physical culture regimen to increase the body's strength and diminish "morbid craving for unnatural and unreasonable indulgence of the passional nature."^[2] He was a prominent eugenicist and authored the 1897 book Stirpiculture, later re-printed as Homo-Culture.

Holbrook's Eating for Strength, published in 1888 contains several hundred vegetarian recipes.^[9]

The Herald of Health

From 1866, Holbrook was a long-term editor for Russell Trall's The Herald of Health (it became the Journal of Hygiene in 1893).^[2][7] He edited the journal until 1898.^[1] It was a very popular journal.^[10]

In 1898, the journal was renamed Omega and was edited by Holbrook and Charles Alfred Tyrrell.^[11] It merged with Physical Culture.^[5]

Selected publications

Holbrook's publications can be found in the New York Public Library.^[12]

• Parturition without Pain: A Code of Directions for Escaping the Primal Curse (1874)
• Hygiene of the Brain and Nerves and the Cure of Nervousness (1878)
• How to Strengthen the Memory (1886)
• Dr. Holbrook's American Cookery (1888)
• Eating for Strength (1888)
• Physical, Intellectual, and Moral Advantages of Chastity (1894)
• Stirpiculture: Or, the Improvement of Offspring Through Wiser Generation (1897)^[13]
• Homo-Culture: Or, the Improvement of Offspring Through Wiser Generation (1899)

References

1. Anonymous. (1902). Dr. Martin Luther Holbrook. The Publishers' Weekly 62 (1594): 249-250.
2. Hoolihan, Christopher. (2001). An Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine and Health Reform, Volume 1. University of Rochester Press. p. 460-465. ISBN 1-58046-098-4
3. Anonymous. (1902). Obituary Notes. Medical Record 62 (8): 301.
4. Weiss, Harry Bischoff; Kemble, Howard R. (1967). The Great American Water-Cure Craze: A History of Hydropathy in the United States. The Past Times Press. p. 83
5. Whorton, James C. (2016 edition). Crusaders for Fitness: The History of American Health Reformers. Princeton University Press. pp. 139-140. ISBN 978-0691641898
6. "The first Turkish baths in the USA: New York: Manhattan: Laight Street". Retrieved 8 July 2019.
7. Brodie, Janet Farrell. (1994). Contraception and Abortion in Nineteenth-century America. Cornell University Press. p. 338. ISBN 0-8014-8433-2
8. Iacobbo, Karen; Iacobbo, Michael. (2004). Vegetarian America: A History. Praeger Publishing. p. 119. ISBN 978-0275975197
9. "Eating for Strength; or, Food and Diet in Their Relation to Health and Work". JAMA. 14 (3): 107–108. 1890. doi:10.1001/jama.1890.02410030035012.
10. Anonymous. (1876). The Herald of Health. Am J Dent Sci 9 (9): 432.
11. Todd, Jan; Roark, Joe; Todd, Terry. (1991). A Briefly Annotated bibliography of English Language Serial Publications in the Field of Physical Culture. Iron Game History 1 (4-5): 25-40.
12. Lord, Andrew Roberts. (1942). Holbrook and Allied Families. New York: Thesis Publishing Company. p. 58
13. Newcomb McGee, Anita. (1898). "Reviewed Work: Stirpiculture; Or the Improvement of Offspring Through Wiser Generation by M. L. Holbrook". American Anthropologist. 11 (1): 24. JSTOR 658607.