skullgreymom:

[Thomas] Culpeper was able to provide his services for free. This, and a willingness to examine patients in person rather than simply examining their urine (in his opinion, “as much piss as the Thames might hold” did not help in diagnosis), 

The colorful American nutritional reformers of the late 19th and early 20th century like Kellogg and Graham look a little quacky from today but it should be remembered that they were at the time on the cutting edge - the very concept of vitamins, nutrients, and even calories were being pioneered, and the notion of matching specific ailments to specific deficiencies - or contrariwise, health to particular - was revolutionary. Nutrition was high tech and you see echoes of this golden age in pop culture still - the notion of spinach making Popeye super-strong, or even the atompunk meal-in-a-pill.

For reasons of settlement patterns, Americans had always enjoyed a much higher share of meat - and lower of greens - in their diet than Europeans, and this high-protein, low-fiber diet did in fact contribute to widespread problems of digestion to which bran and enemas, the nutritionists’ panaceas, were actually reasonable responses.

Anyway what I’m trying to say is that when Kellogg first set up operations he had people mail him stool samples to diagnose, until the Battle Creek postmaster got tired of working in an unrefrigerated office full of human shit.