Material TheCopyrighted Nature Doctors
provided the nature cure movement of 100 years ago with a philosophical foundation, but they also continue to ring with meaning for millions today who may never have read Rousseau nor heard of naturopathy. Most nature doctors of the nineteenth century were deeply influenced by Rousseau, most directly J.H.Rausse,Theodor Hahn and Adolf Just, who entitled his famous nature cure book Return to Nature! Vincent Priessnitz, the first nature doctor, was even called the “Rousseau of Water Cure” (vom Walde 1898, 221). Priessnitz, a Silesian peasant, may never have heard of Rousseau, but his homespun philosophy of health evolved in a cultural atmosphere pervaded by Rousseau’s naturism. Certainly many of his patients considered their pilgrimage to Priessnitz’ Gräfenberg a literal “return to nature” which they hoped would result in a return to health.
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