Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 30, No. 1, Spring 1991
John Wesley on Health as W h o l e n e s s PHILIP W. OTT A B S T R A C T : This paper explores John Wesley's concept of health as wholeness. Three themes gleaned from the medical community of his day--the idea of the well-working of the body as a whole, the view of "sympathy" throughout one's total being, and a belief in the natural means of promoting health--were critical for Wesley. Moreover, the themes were interconnected. Because of the symbiotic relation between body and spirit, a well-working body was fundamental to Wesley's wholistic view of health. Furthermore, sensible regimen was viewed as the natural way of realizing a life of health and wholeness.
John Wesley's celebrated avowal to be "a man of one book ''~ has, in the past, served to focus Wesleyan studies on those theological themes salient to the Methodist tradition--Justification by Faith, Witness of the Spirit, Christian Perfection, and others. John Wesley is now being reread with an awareness of his broad interest as well as the varied sources that defined his life and thought. ~ This present study will explore John Wesley's involvement in matters of health. In particular, attention will be given to the impact of the English medical community on Wesley's understanding of health as wholeness. I will suggest that three concepts characteristic of seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury medicine were critical for Wesley: the idea of well-working of the body machine, the view of "sympathy" throughout the whole being, and the belief in the natural means of promoting healing and health. References to Wesley's involvement in health care are replete throughout his writings. Early in his ministry Wesley established a visitation program for the sick and dispensed medicine to the poor in London and Bristol. In 1747 Wesley published his collection of simple remedies under the title Primitive Physick. He also procured an electrical apparatus by which he administered a form of therapy. In addition to these measures, John Wesley urged his readers toward a life style conducive to good health. Through a careful observance of sensible regimen, the individual could translate the concept of stewardship of life into the concrete practice of health care. 3 On a personal level, Wesley's concern for matters of health was, no doubt, influenced by his own health status. His Journal entries attest to the rigors Philip W. Ott, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana. Address requests for reprints to the author, at the department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Evansville, 1800 Lincoln Avenue, Evansville IN, 47722. 43
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of his schedule and the resultant demands placed upon his less than robust body. Several times during his life Wesley battled with serious illness. A vivid description of a critical period in Bristol follows: Between ten and twelve the main shock began. I can give faint account of this, not for want of memory, but of words. I felt in my body nothing but storm and tempest, hail-stones and coals of fire. But I do not remember that I felt any fear (such was the mercy of God!) nor any murmuring. And yet I found but a dull, heavy patience of mind, which I knew was not what it ought to be. The fever came rushing upon me as a lion, ready to break all the bones in pieces. My body grew weaker every moment; but I did not feel my soul put on strength. 4 On another occasion, friends in London, witnessing a bout he had with consumption, feared his death. 5 Wesley himself, "not knowing how it might please God to dispose of me" and desiring "to prevent vile panegyric," wrote his own epitaph on the evening of November 26, 1753. 6 From a pastoral perspective, John Wesley understood his commitment to minister to the total well-being of the individual to accord with the biblical mandate "to do good to all m e n . . . [according to] the ability that God giveth. ''7 As Wesley explained in a letter to the young Alexander Knox, God wills "inward and outward health. ''8 The emphasis on the health of body and soul reflects a wholism that is implicit in Hebrew scriptures and that carries over in the New Testament. Both Hebrew and Christian scriptures stress a unity of being wherein the body is acknowledged as integral to the concept of selfhood. In the recently published sermon, "The Image of God," Wesley emphasized the wholeness of the original created order. With Adam it was "ordained by the original law that during this vital union neither part of the compound should act at all but together with its companion; that the dependence of each upon the other should be inviolably maintained . . . . ,,9 While Adam's sin did introduce disorder and dis-ease into the original creation, it did not interrupt the vital union between body and soul. As E. Brooks Holifield observes, "Precisely because he could not accept a dualistic severing of the soul from the body in the original creation, Wesley had to assume that body and soul remained interdependent after the Fall. ''1~ Consequently, the body is not to be viewed as a "a second class citizen. ''11 John Wesley's commitment to the total well-being of the person was equally consistent with the classical understanding of health. Contemporary considerations of the concept of health have emphasized the relation of the word "health" to its classical roots. The English word health literally means "wholeness," and t o h e a l connotes, "to make whole. ''12 These words are related to the Old Latin form, salvus, (salve, salvation), the Old English, hal (hale), and the Old High German, heil (whole, holy). The words point to completeness, integrity, wholeness. In the classical sense of the word, health suggests,
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as K e n n e t h Vaux has stressed, not only being in a state of equilibrium (wellworking or wholeness), but also implies being at peace. I3 Clearly, the meaning of health goes beyond the physical dimension. To define health as the mere "absence of disease" is to limit the concept. It has become common in recent times to speak of a wholistic understanding of health. The emphasis, however, has its roots in the ancient Greek tradition. Socrates criticized the Greek physicians for their neglect of the total person. He observed, "Just as one must not attempt to cure the eyes without the head or the head without the body, so neither the body without the soul." In fact, Socrates argued, one must attend "first and foremost" to the concerns of the soul. TM In short, if the soul is at ease, the health of the body could be more readily affected. Socrates' basic orientation can be traced through the ancient Hippocratic tradition. According to Ren~ Dubos, the Hippocratic understanding is t h a t disease is not caused by "capricious gods or irrational forces. ''~ Rather, disease must be understood as a n a t u r a l phenomenon developing in accord with n a t u r a l law. In his book, Man, Medicine, and the Environment, Dubos summarizes the Hippocratic perspective: 1. The well-being of man is influenced by all environmental factors: the quality of air, water, and food:.., and the general living habits. Understanding the effects of environmental forces on man is the fundamental basis of the physician's art. 2. Health is the expression of harmony among the environment, the ways of life, and the various components of man's nature . . . . 3. Whatever happens in the mind influences the body and the body has a like influence on the mind. Mind and body cannot be considered independently of each other. Health means therefore a healthy mind in a healthy body. . . . 4. Whenever the equilibrium is disturbed, rational therapeutic procedures should be used to restore it by correcting the ill effects of natural forces; these procedures include the use of regimen, drugs, and surgical techniques. 5. The practice of medicine implies an attitude of reverence for the human condition and must be based on a strict code of ethics. ~ The elements of the Hippocratic tradition should be highlighted. The physician is to give attention to the total person, including those factors beyond the physiological which have a bearing on one's health. When one's physical well-being is disturbed, an effort must be made to establish once again an equilibrium and allow the n a t u r a l powers to affect the healing process. The Hippocratic emphasis was carried on in England through the work of Dr. Thomas Sydenham. Sydenham, popularly called the "English Hippocrates, ''17 gave particular attention to the curative processes of nature. Wesley had carefully read Sydenham and, in the Preface to Primitive Physick, commended Sydenham for his practical approach to medical care. Wesley in-
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cluded Sydenham among "some lovers of mankind who have e n d e a v o u r e d . . . to reduce physic to its ancient standard . . . to make it a plain intelligible thing . . . . ,,~s Wesley also had praise for Dr. George Cheyne. ~9 Cheyne's An Essay of Health and Long Life, 2~and The Natural Method of Cureing [sic] the Diseases of the Body, and the Disorders of the Mind Depending on the Body, 21 both of which were studied by Wesley, clearly reflect the classical approach to medicine. In these works Cheyne wrote extensively of the interrelationship of body and soul and the consequent need to be attuned to the total person. Herein Cheyne espoused the wholistic emphasis that marked the Hippocratic tradition. This unitarian or wholistic perspective has moved through the history of medicine much like an underground current or stream. From time to time it surfaces in the form of a restatement. During the first half of the twentieth century, Arturo Castiglioni, in his A History of Medicine, wrote that "the physician above all should keep in mind the welfare of the patient, his constantly changing state, not only in visible signs of his illness, but also in his state of mind, which must necessarily be an important factor in the success of treatment. ''22 More recently Leon Kass observed that "bodily health does not depend only on the body and its parts. It depends decisively on the psyche with which the body associates and cooperates." Kass continued, "In a most far-reaching way, our health is influenced by our temperament, our character, our habits, and a whole way of life. ''23 Wesley clearly anticipated this assessment. He stands within this understanding of wholism. Wesley's reading in selected physicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had greatly influenced his understanding of health as wholeness. From Drs. Thomas Sydenham, Hermann Boerhaave, George Cheyne, and others, Wesley gleaned themes which, though common to the period, went back to the classical Greek tradition of medicine. The first theme to be noted is the idea of the well-working of the body. The concept of well-working rested upon a particular understanding of the body. In the latter half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century, the body was increasingly viewed and studied in terms of mechanical principles. This paralleled the Newtonian understanding of the natural order. Nature was viewed as one vast, orderly machine. The human body, as created, shared the orderliness or balance characteristic of the created order. Archibald Pitcairn, 24the late seventeenth-century physician and mentor to Drs. Hermann Boerhaave and George Cheyne}5 reflected the Newtonian commitment to orderliness. For Pitcairn, in medicine as in astronomy, the laws of motion reign. The living body is made up of canals of various shapes and sizes through which the different sorts of fluids pass. Health and disease can be understood in terms of the motion or hindrances to motion throughout the body parts. Pitcairn's description of the body functioning in accord with the
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mechanical principles of motion represents an early example of the Newtonian influence on biology and medicine. Wesley had read H e r m a n n Boerhaave, 26 Pitcairn's student and a major figure in early eighteenth-century medicine on the continent. Like Pitcairn, Boerhaave studied the body in terms of Newtonian principles. When explaining health and disease, Boerhaave relied heavily on mechanical explanations. 27 Proper interaction of solids and fluids constituted health, whereas disease resulted from the faulty interaction of these elements. 28 Dr. George Cheyne, whom Wesley first read while a student at Oxford, also mirrored the view expressed by his teacher, Pitcairn. Cheyne pictured the body as a machine, comprising "an infinity of branching and winding canals, filled with liquor of different natures." Diseases, he continued, arise from a "vitiation of the quantity and quality or motion of the fluids, or to a bad disposition and texture . . . of their conduits." In short, a healthy body depends upon the free passage of fluids through the various tubes and vessels within the body. Any obstruction of the free vascular movement will result in disease. ~9 Wesley's s u m m a r y description of a body in a state of health clearly indicates an awareness of the accepted medical perspective. In his sermon "On the Fall of Man," Wesley pictured humankind before the Fall. His intent was theological, but the language used was the language of medical physiology. But how fearfully and wonderfully wrought into innummerable fibers, nerves, membranes, muscles, arteries, veins, vessels of various kinds! And how amazing is this dust connected with water, with enclosed, circulating fluids, diversified a thousand ways by a thousand tubes and strainers! Yea, and how wonderfully is air impacted into every part, solid, or fluid, of the animal machine; air not elastic, which would tear the machine in pieces, but as fixed as water under the pole! But all this would not avail, were not ethereal fire intimately mixed both with this earth, air, and water. And all these elements are mingled together in the most exact proportion; so that while the body is in health, no one of them predominates, in the least degree, over the others. ~~ A similar theme can be seen in the sermon "The Image of God." The original state of humankind, Wesley noted, was one of life in a body prepared for immortality. The body was incorruptible in all its parts. Consequently the "juices" moved freely throughout the body. The point seems to be that initially the body as a whole functioned without resistance. It was a free, wellworking system. As for what followed, Wesley could only surmise. He suggested "as probable" that the eating of the forbidden fruit released in the body particles that began to "adhere to the inner coats of the finer vessels." Strictures within the vessels laid "a foundation for numberless disorders in all parts of the machine," and signaled the inevitable process of death21
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That Wesley understood health in terms of a well-working system is underscored by his reference in this same sermon to an antidote that was also present in the garden. This antidote was the fruit from the Tree of Life. According to Wesley, the fruit possessed a "thin, abstersive nature," which would have countered the strictures occasioned by eating the forbidden fruit. The body would have continued to function effortlessly, free of disorders, "notwithstanding he had eaten death. ''~2 These physiological insights expressed in the sermon "The Image of God," by Wesley's own admission, were based more on conjecture than on Scripture. Nonetheless, they are illustrative of Wesley's view of health. Somatic health means a well-working system. The perfect model or expression of health would be Adam before the F a l l - - a balanced, harmonious, h u m a n organism designed for immortality. Since the Fall, the wholeness to be realized is wholeness within the limits of mortality. Within these bounds, however, a well-working system is the goal. Clearly, the concept of well-working of the body as a whole shaped Wesley's understanding of health. His underlying concern, however, was practical. It was not that Wesley viewed health as an end. Health was a fundamental good or value insofar as it enabled the individual to participate in or realize other values. To borrow from Seward Hiltner, it could be said of Wesley's perspective that "health is to enable. It is not in itself the object of enablement. ''33 This, according to Wesley, is in keeping with what God had purposed for the created order. In the original creation God gave to humankind life and health. H u m a n k i n d "knew no sin, so he knew no pain, no sickness, weakness, or bodily disorder. ''34 With the sin of Adam, however, the order of nature was changed. Along with other theologians, Wesley accepted the belief that the presence of disease was due to h u m a n sin. 35 On the other hand, the resurrection stands as the witness to the final resurrection of the body wherein humankind will know perpetual health of mind and bodyJ 6 For the present one lives with the limits of finitude. However, within these limits God has provided an antidote for disorder. In the Garden of Eden the antidote for disorder was the fruit of the Tree of Life2 7 Since the Garden of Eden, the antidote is the life of sensible regimen, along with the faithful use of "that old unfashionable medicine, prayer, ''38 Wesley was cautiously realistic at this point. He knew that in this present life the individual was not immune to the limits of finite existence. One lives betwixt and b e t w e e n - - i n the midst of pain and joy, suffering and hope. But he preached that God has willed holiness and happiness2 9 Health, for Wesley, was basic. Albert Outler's s u m m a r y statement would have been fully acceptable to Wesley. The Christian life of grace and confidence looks to the well-being of the whole man. It sets a high value upon health--of body, mind and spirit. But health is not a terminal value in and of itself. A human life is more than a biological episode. The value of health is to supply an efficient agency for the projects of
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the total self, to provide a fit instrument for the growth and maturation of men and women in community with others and communion with God.4~ A second t h e m e or m ot i f borrowed from the medical community of the seve n t e e n t h and ei ght eent h centuries is w h at Lester King has termed "sympathy." The theme, for example, is expressed in the writings of the physician Friedrich Hoffmann. Like m a n y physicians of the time, Hoffmann viewed the body as a machine, but one whose parts were closely interrelated. Disturbance in one pa r t of the body was communicated t h r o u g h o u t the whole. This p h en o men o n Hoffmann called "consensio." Lester King suggests t h a t the t e r m can be best t r a n s l a t e d as "sympathy." King summarizes Hoffmann's characteristic emphasis. "Disturbances of the h e a r t b e a t can affect the mind and the state of consciousness . . . . A small am ount of blood r e m a i n i n g immovable in very small v e s s e l s . . , m a y cause the entire body to suffer . . . . -41 There is no indication t h a t Wesley read the works of Dr. Hoffmann. Hoffmann's works, however, were widely circulated on the continent and in England. The concept of "consent" or " s y m p a t h y " m a y be traced in those physicians whom Wesley did study. Dr. Thomas S y d e n h a m addressed this issue in his "epistolary dissertation" to Dr. Cole. Here S y d e n h a m observed t h a t the emotions of the mind are capable of bringing about changes in the body. The remote or external causes of hysteria are over-ordinate actions of the body; and still oftener over-ordinate commotions of the mind, arising from sudden bursts of anger, pain, fear of [sic] other similar emotions. Hence, as often as females consult me concerning such, or such bodily ailments as are difficult to be determined by the usual rules for diagnosis, I never fail to carefully inquire whether they are not worse sufferers when trouble, low-spirits, or any other mental perturbation takes hold of them. If so I put down symptoms as hysterical . . . . Leaving the description of the disease, as determined by its leading phenomena, the matters that come next under consideration are the efficient, internal and immediate causes . . . . The affection which I have characterized in females as "hysteria," and in males as "hypochondriasis" arises (in my mind) from a disorder (ataxy) of the animal spirits. 42 Animal spirits, S y d e n h a m concluded, when excited, either by pain or anger, create serious trouble for mind and body. 43 Hoffmann's reference to disorder in one part of the body being communicared t h r o u g h o u t the whole is also characteristic of George Cheyne. "Communications between Bodies and Spirits," Cheyne observed, "seem to consist in laws pre-established by the A u t h o r of N a t u r e . " The body machine, Cheyne explained in A n Essay on Regimen, if disordered, . will sink, debase, blunt, and confound the Operations of the Spirit; and the Spirit violently agitated . . . will disturb the Oeconomy of the bodily functions: .
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and the perfect State of Health, and the best Perfection of all intelligent Creatures consisting of an intelligent Spirit and a material Machine, depends on the perfect Sanity and Harmony of both united, in their separate Order and Rank." The concept of sympathy was basic to Wesley's wholistic perspective. For Wesley, the well-working of the body was critical to the individual's emotional well-being. As Wesley quoted on numerous occasions, a "corruptible body presses down the soul. ''45 By corruptible, Wesley intended physical disorders and the accompanying pain. In the present state of h u m a n existence, when one part of the body is disordered, the total person suffers. Wesley noted, "If but one of these slender threads, whereof our flesh is made up, be stretched beyond its due proportion, or fretted by any sharp humour, or broken, what torment does it create!'46 It is a matter of the soul "sympathizing" with the body. '7 Even when bodies function reasonably well, care must be taken "to answer their necessities, to provide for their sustenance, to preserve them in health, and to keep them tenantable, in some tolerable fitness for our soul's use. ''48 In his sermon "The Heavenly Treasure in Earthen Vessels," Wesley reiterated the same theme. Working with a metaphor borrowed from Dr. George Cheyne, Wesley emphasized that the operations of the soul depend upon the body, just as the quality of the music played by the musician is directly related to the quality of the instrument. As Wesley explained, "An embodied spirit cannot form one thought but by the mediation of its bodily organ." Thinking is not "the act of pure spirit, but the act of spirit connected with the body, and playing upon a set of material keys." The quality of music is directly related to the nature and state of the instrument. Consequently, Wesley observed, "if these instruments, by which the soul works, are disordered, the soul itself must be hindered in its operations. Let a musician be ever so skillful, he will make but poor music if his instrument is out of tune. ''49 Wesley would have had real feeling for Carroll Wise's assessment: "Man cannot get away from the body. His life is lived in and through it." The body, Wise continues, "is part of the self and affects the self, and the self has profound effect on the body. ''5~ For Wesley, "sympathy" worked both ways. J u s t as the "corruptible body presses down the soul," so the "soul presses down the body. ''51 The latter emphasis is consistent throughout Wesley's writings. In the Preface to Primitive Physick Wesley appended a few "Plain Easy Rules" which he adapted from Dr. George Cheyne. Wesley echoed Cheyne, "The passions have a greater influence on health than most people are aware of. ''~2 Until the passions or emotional concerns are brought under control, the use of medicine will be to no avail. In his Journal entry for May 12, 1759, Wesley cited a case in point: Reflecting today on the case of a poor woman who had continual pain in her stomach, I could not but remark the inexcusable negligence of most physicians in cases of this nature. They prescribe drug upon drug, without knowing a jot of
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the matter concerning the root of this disorder. And without knowing this, they cannot cure, though can murder the patient. Whence came the woman's pain (which she would never have told had she never been questioned about it)? From fretting for the death of her son. And what availed medicines while the fretting continued? Why, then, do not all physicians consider how far bodily disorders are caused or influenced by the mind, and in these cases which are utterly out of their sphere, call in the assistance of a minister . . . . 53 Wesley expressed a similar concern in the sermon "Heaviness through Manifold Temptation." Depression, he warned, could have a debilitating influence on the body. Indeed, "deep and lasting sorrow of the heart m a y . . , sometimes weaken a strong constitution, and lay the foundations for bodily disorders as are not easily removed. ''~4 The emotions, which Wesley commonly called passions, m u s t be kept within "due bounds." Experience seems to show, noted Wesley, " t h a t violent and sudden passions dispose to, or actually throw people into acute diseases. ''~ While the physician in time may treat the disease, "Calming of the Passions," as Dr. George Cheyne stressed, "is the Busin e s s . . , of Virtue and Religion. ''~6 Wesley could not have agreed more. "The love of God, as it is the sovereign remedy of all miseries, so in particular it effectually prevents all bodily disorders the passions i n t r o d u c e . . , and by the unspeakable joy and perfect calm serenity and tranquility it gives the mind, it becomes the most powerful of all the means of health and long life. ''~7 Today it m a y not be possible to arrive at u n a n i m i t y on what constitutes emotional or psychic h e a l t h - - w h a t Wesley termed "inward health." Wesley wrote in a time when insights of modern psychology were not available to him. It is to his credit, not t h a t he offered a sophisticated understanding of emotional health, but t h a t he addressed the issue and its interrelationship to somatic health. From reading in Wesley one can gain understanding of what he intended by the phrase inward health. As with outward health, Wesley also thought of inward h e a l t h in terms of wholeness or well-being. This can be illustrated by t u r n i n g to his description of the converse of inward wholeness, namely, "lowness of spirits," or depression. In his essay on nervous disorders Wesley observed t h a t what is sometimes called nervous disorders is nothing more t h a n the "hand of God upon the soul" resulting in the individual being dissatisfied with the things of this world. Then, too, there are those nervous disorders t h a t are physical by nature. The type of nervous disorder Wesley purposed to address in his essay "Thoughts on Nervous Disorders" were those characterized by "lowness of spirit." Wesley's description is enlightening: Does not this imply, that a kind of faintness, weariness, and listlessness affects the whole body, so that he is disinclined to any motion, and hardly cares to move hand or foot? But the mind seems chiefly to be affected, having lost its relish of everything, and being no longer capable of enjoying the things it once delighted
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in most. Nay, everything round about is not only flat and insipid, but dreary and uncomfortable. It is not strange if, to one in this state, life itself is become a burden; yea, so insupportable a burden, that many who have all this world can give, desperately rush into an unknown world, rather than bear it any longer, as This s u m m a r y statement reflects, by way of contrast, Wesley's classical understanding of health. The opposite of being "low-spirited" would be to experience completeness and wholeness, emotional balance and equilibrium. In short, it means being at peace with oneself. Again Wesley anticipated insights t h a t are widely acknowledged in our own time. His emphasis on "inward health and outward health" is true to the contemporary insistence upon defining health in positive t e r m s - - a n d not merely as the absence of disease. This perspective also has an affinity with the ancient Hebrew concept of "Shalom." For Wesley, if there is no peace, one's health is in jeopardy. To be whole is to be a full, creative, productive participant in the community. In truth, it is to have the capacity to function in ways consistent with what it means to be created in the Image of God. Albert Outler captures Wesley's intent: A person loved and loving will come to possess the kind of health and goodness which harnesses psychic energy to productive uses, which takes the bruises and the denials of every day living in stride, which handles lapses and failures without self-contempt, or self-abandonment29 The third theme t h a t was formative for Wesley was the ancient concept of the healing power of nature. Dr. Thomas Sydenham knew t h a t its roots went back to the Hippocratic claim t h a t "natures are the physicians of disease. ''6~ The Hippocratic tradition stated, Nature ["physis"] heals diseases. Inherent mechanisms act auto-matically as reflexes, much as the reflexes that we use in winking the eyelid or moving the tongue, for nature is active without training and without schooling in the essentials. 61 Belief in the healing power of n a t u r e was a common emphasis within the medical community of seventeenth-century England. Sydenham, for one, applauded Hippocrates as "the Romulus of medicine . . . whom we can never duly praise." Sydenham continued, "The great sagacity of this m a n had discovered t h a t Nature by herself 'determines diseases, and is of herself sufficient in all things against all of them. '''62 For Sydenham, the Hippocratic perspective accorded fully with the divine intent of God. The Supreme Deity, by whose power all things are produced, and upon whose nod they depend, hath in his infinite wisdom, so disposed all things, that they betake themselves to their appointed works after a certain order and method;
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they do nothing in vain; they execute only that which is the most excellent and which is best fitted for the universal fabric and for their own proper natures. They are engines that are moved not by any skill of their own, but by that of a higher artificerY In some instances, therapeutic measures may be necessary, but in the end, "every choice and noble remedy, wherever found, receives its principal virtues from Nature. Hence," Sydenham continued, "the gratitude of antiquity has well named the nobler medicines the ~hands of God,' rather than of men. ''64 George Cheyne shared this characteristic emphasis. Again, as was the norm for the period, Cheyne understood the body, or "human engine," as skillfully made by an artisan, and oriented toward the preservation of life. Consequently, the body tends to move toward a state of normalcy or equilibrium. Cheyne's interest in and commitment to the healing power of nature is reflected in the title of his popular book, The Natural Method of Cureing [sic] the Diseases of the Body, and the Disorders of the Mind Depending on the Body. John Wesley was attuned to this classical respect for the healing power of nature. Wesley's reference to "fever" as the "natural means ''~ by which the body meets with disease echoed Dr. Sydenham's position. Nature, wrote Sydenham, "strives to expel the morbid influence . . . . [and] calls in the aid of fever for the isolation of tainted particles from the remainder of blood . . . . -66 One could say that "fever itself is Nature's instrument . . . . ,,~7 The clearest example of Wesley's commitment to the natural was his consistent stress upon the relation between sensible regimen and good health. Wesley believed that sensible regimen called for the responsible use, and not the abuse, of the non-naturals. Traditionally, the non-naturals included air, food and drink, exercise, sleeping and waking, evacuations, and passions of the soul. From a twentieth-century perspective, these six non-naturals seem to be very much a part of nature. Recent studies have acknowledged the somewhat obscure nature of the term and suggest that Galen's "necessary causes" later came to be known as the non-naturals. 6s In any case, it appears that Wesley was first introduced to the concept while a student at Oxford, where his life-long interest in medicine began. In addition to the study of the classics, English literature, and philosophy, Wesley's reading (both formal and informal) included works from the field of natural philosophy (sciences) and medicine. He was to acquaint himself with the works of such physicians as H e r m a n n Boerhaave, Thomas Sydenham, and George Cheyne, all of whom made reference to the non-naturals. 6~ While it appears that Wesley himself never used the term non-naturals, his writings and his insistence on sensible regimen reflected an awareness of the conviction prevalent in his time. The non-naturals, handled in a responsible way, could promote health and well-being. He published Primitive Physick with the avowed purpose of placing in the hands of the general populace "a
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plain and easy way of curing most disease," and appended to the Preface a few "Plain Easy Rules" adapted from Cheyne's An Essay of Health and Long Life. The rules covering the six non-naturals were presented as aids to good health. The tenor of these rules is captured in the following summation: Observe all the time the greatest exactness in or manner of living. Abstain from all mixed or high-seasoned foods. Use plain diet easy of digestion. . . . Drink only water if it agrees with stomach. Use as much exercise daily in the open air as you can, without weariness. Sup at six or seven on the lightest food; go to bed early and rise betimes. To persevere with steadiness in this course, is often more than half the cure. TM Clearly, Wesley saw a direct correlation between sensible regimen and health. Wesley believed t h a t his own personal history witnessed to the effectiveness of sensible regimen. His Journal entries frequently included reflections on his health status. While demands on his schedule did take their toll, the fact remains t h a t Wesley led a very active life for more t h a n eighty-five years. Musing on his eighty-fifth birthday, Wesley saw reason to praise God "for a thousand spiritual b l e s s i n g s . . . [and] bodily blessings also." He admitted t h a t he was "not so agile as in times past," but observed t h a t he continued to write sermons "as readily, and, I believe, as correctly as ever." Predictably, Wesley attributed such a long and productive life "to the power of God, fitting me for the work to which I am called," along with the prayers of faithful Christians. Wesley also cited some "inferior means." 1. To my constant exercise and change of air. 2. To my never having lost a night's s l e e p . . , since I was born . . . . 4. To my having constantly, for above sixty years, risen at four in the morning . . . . 6. To my having so little pain in my life, and so little sorrow and anxious care.71 To mention four or five of the non-naturals in a particular context, as here, was not u n u s u a l for Wesley. He concluded his "Thoughts on Nervous Disorders" with instructions regarding air, food and drink, exercise, sleeping and waking, and passions. 72 An extended discussion of the non-naturals is outside the focus of this paper. However, a reference to three of the non-naturals will serve to illustrate Wesley's belief in the n a t u r a l means of promoting health. In 1742 Wesley read Cheyne's book, The Natural Method of Cureing [sic] the Diseases of the Body, and the Disorders of the Mind Depending on the Body. In a letter to Susanna Wesley, J o h n commended the book by Cheyne, but expressed concern, fearing few would read it. 73 As for Wesley, careful attention to diet was the rule. Wesley's practice, which he encouraged as a pattern for all, was temperance in food and drink. As a rule of thumb, one should resist the temptation to eat more t h a n the body requires. Wesley turned to this subject in his
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sermon "The More Excellent Way." Good people eat with gratitude, but not to excess, he observed, at least, "not so far as to make themselves sick with meat, or to intoxicate themselves with drink. ''7~ Wesley approached the subject of sleep with the zeal of an evangel. From years of careful observance Wesley concluded that men need six to seven hours of sleep. Women, he felt, could use on the average an additional hour. 75 Too much sleep, just as too little sleep, m a y be detrimental to one's health. Indeed, Wesley believed, staying in bed beyond the required amount of time was t a n t a m o u n t to committing a slow suicide. Wesley encouraged others to follow his own pattern of retiring and rising early. Throughout his writings, Wesley urged the Methodists toward a life of physical activity. In agreement with George Cheyne, Wesley stressed that a "due degree of exercise is indispensably necessary to health and long life. ''7~ tt is expedient that one should walk every day, preferably not less than an hour before dinner or an hour after supper. If a person is too weak to walk, the individual may compensate by riding for two or three hours on horseback. Only as a last resort should the individual turn to riding in a carriageY If weather prohibits these outdoor activities, one m a y choose an indoor activity such as working with a dumbbell or riding a wooden horseJ 8 J o h n Wesley's insistence on the sound practice of the non-naturals mirrored a long-standing conviction of the medical community. Wesley enveloped this commonly accepted opinion in a theological framework which stressed, among other points, that through the responsible use of the non-naturals, the individual could live out the biblical mandate to be a good steward of the "exquisite machine," the body. 7~ The themes examined in this essay are interconnected. Because of the symbiotic relationship between body and spirit (soul), a welt-working body is fundamental to Wesley's concept of health. When and where the body is impaired, the total person is diminished. For the present, sensible r e g i m e n - - t h e appropriate use of the non-naturals--is the divinely appointed pattern for a life of health as wholeness. It would be difficult to determine the impact of John Wesley on the health of eighteenth-century England. The late Robert S. Morison, citing Wesley as "one of the formative influences on middle-class England," judged that Wesley "provided an effective blend of social and public health practice with a sense of individual responsibility for oneself and others. ''8~ If this assessment stands, it rests in part on Wesley's concern to promote "inward and outward health. ''8'
References 1. Wesley, J. In Jackson, T., ed., The Works of John Wesley [hereafter, Works], 14 vols. (1872) Grand Rapids, 1979, Vol. 5, p. 2.
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2. See Outler, A. C., "John Wesley: Folk Theologian," Theology Today, 1977, 34, 150-160. 3. See, for example, my previous articles, "John Wesley on Health: A Word for Sensible Regimen," Methodist History, 1980, 18, 193-204, and "John Wesley and the Non-Naturals," Preventive Medicine, 1980, 9, 578-584; also Vanderpool, H. Y., "The Wesleyan Methodist Tradition." In Caring and Curing: Health and Medicine in the Western Religious Traditions. New York, Macmillan, 1986. 4. Wesley, J. In Curnock, N., ed., The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. [hereafter, Journal], 8 vols. London, The Epworth Press, 1938, Vol. 2, p. 514. 5. Ibid., Vol. 4, p. 90, footnote #1. 6. Ibid., Vol. 4, p. 90. 7. Wesley, J. In Telford, J., ed., The Letters of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. [hereafter, Letters], 8 vols. London, The Epworth Press, 1931, Vol. 4, p. 121. The reference is specifically to the publication of Primitive Physick and Electricity Made Plain and Useful. However, these are but concrete expressions of his broader concern for health care. 8. _ _ , Letters, op. cir., Vol. 6, p. 327. 9. In Outler, A. C., ed., The Works of John Wesley [hereafter, Works, Bicentennial Edition]. Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1986, Vol. 4, p. 296. 10. Holifield, E. B., Health and Medicine in the Methodist Tradition. New York, Crossroads, 1986, p. 15. 11. Hiltner, S., "The Bible Speaks to the Health of Man." In White, D., ed., Dialogue in Medicine and Theology. Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1967, p. 63. 12. Kass, L., Toward a More Natural Science. New York, The Free Press, 1985, pp. 164-172. 13. Vaux, K. L., This Mortal Coil. New York, Harper and Row, 1978, p. 104 ft. 14. As cited by Kass, op. cir., p. 175. 15. Dubos, R., Man, Medicine, and the Environment. New York, Frederick A Praeger, 1968, p. 57. 16. Ibid. 17. From The Works of Hippocrates. In Sobel, D. S., ed., Ways of Health. New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979, p. 194. 18. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, p. 311. 19. Ibid., Vol. 14, p. 312. 20 . . . . Letters, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 11. 21. _ _ , Journal, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 545. 22. As quoted by Cousins, N., Anatomy of an Illness. New York, Bantam Books, 1979, p. 112. 23. Kass, op. cit., p. 175. 24. For a succinct discussion of Pitcairn's views, see King, L. S., The Philosophy of Medicine. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1978, pp. 109-118. 25. Schofield, R. E., Mechanism and Materialism. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1969, p. 49. 26. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, p. 313. 27. King. op. cit., p. 121ff. 28. Wesley, The Medical World of the Eighteenth Century. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1958, p. 75. 29. As quoted by King, L. S., "George Cheyne, Mirror of Eighteenth Century Medicine," Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 1974, 48, 517-539. 30. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 6, p. 219. 31. Wesley, Works, Bicentennial Edition, op. cit., Vol. 4, p. 297. 32. Ibid. 33. Hiltner, op. cit., p. 67. 34. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, p. 307. 35. Holifield, op. cir., p. 14ft.; also, Vaux, K. L., "Theological Foundations of Medical Ethics." In Marry, M. E., and Vaux, K. L., eds., Health~Medicine and the Faith Traditions. Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1982, pp. 215-228. 36. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 7, p. 480. 37. _ _ . Works, Bicentennial Edition, op. cir., Vol. 4, p. 297. 38. _ _ . Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, pp. 313,314. 39. In his sermon, "The New Creation," Wesley looked to the day when there would arise "an
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unmixed state of holiness and happiness . . . . " Works, op. cir., Vol. 6, p. 296. See also Holifield, op. cit., esp. p. 19ff. 40. Outler, A. C., Psychotherapy and the Christian Message. New York, Harper and Brothers, 1954, p. 179. 41. King, L. S., The Growth of Medical Thought. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1963, p. 172. 42. Sydenham, T., The Works of Thomas Sydenham, M.D., 2 vols., R. G. Latham, trans. London, printed for the Sydenham Society, 1868, Vol. 2, p. 90. 43. Ibid. 44. Cheyne, G., An Essay on Regimen, 3rd ed. London, Dan Browne, 1763, p. 158. 45. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 6, p. 219; also Vol. 7, p. 346. 46. Ibid., Vol. 7, p. 480. 47. Ibid., Vol. 6, p. 95. 48. Ibid., Vot. 7, p. 480. 49. Ibid., Vol. 7, p. 347. 50. Wise, C., Psychiatry and the Bible. New York, Harper Brothers, 1965, p. 1. 51. Wesley, Works, op. cir., Vol. 6, p. 94. 52. Ibid., Vol. 14, p. 316. 53. , Journal, op. cit., Vol. 4, p. 313. 54. _ _ , Works, op. cit., Vol. 6, p. 94. 55. Ibid., Vol. 14, p. 316. 56. Cheyne, G., A n Essay of Health and Long Life. London, printed by George Strahan, 1725, p. 171. 57. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, p. 316. 58. Ibid., Vol. 11, p. 516. 59. Outler, Psychotherapy and the Christian Message, op. cit., p. 211. 60. Sydenham, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 16. 61. From The Works of Hippocrates. In Sobel, op. cit., p. 194. 62. Sydenham, op. cit., Vol. 1, pp. 16,17. 63. Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 120. 64. Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 98. 65. Wesley, Journal, op. cit., Vol. 4, p. 79. 66. Sydenham, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 30. 67. Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 54. 68. See Jarcho, S., "Galen's Six Non-naturals: a Bibliographic Note and Translation," Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 1970, 44, 372-377; also, Rather, L.J., "The 'Six Things Non-natural': a Note on the Origins and Fate of a Doctrine and a Phrase," Clio Medica, 1970, 3, 337-347. 69. Boshears, O.K., Jr., "John Wesley, the Bookman: A Study of His Reading Interests in the Eighteenth Century." Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, 1972. 70. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, pp. 313,314. 71. _ _ , Journal, op. cit., Vol. 7, p. 408. 72. _ _ , Works, op. cit., Vol. 11, pp. 519,520. 73. _ _ , Journal, op. eit., Vol. 2, p. 545. 74. _ _ W o r k s , op. cit., Vol. 7, p. 31. 75. Ibid., Vol. 7, p. 29. 76. Cheyne, An Essay of Health and Long Life, o19. cit., p. 106. 77. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, p. 268. 78. Ibid., Vol. 11, p. 520. 79. Ibid., Vol. 7, p. 138; also, Vol. 7, p. 225. 80. Morison, R. S., "Rights and Responsibilities: Redressing the Uneasy Balance," The Hastings Center Report, 1974, 4, 3. 81. Wesley, Letters, op. cit., Vol. 6, p. 327.
John Wesley on Health as W h o l e n e s s PHILIP W. OTT A B S T R A C T : This paper explores John Wesley's concept of health as wholeness. Three themes gleaned from the medical community of his day--the idea of the well-working of the body as a whole, the view of "sympathy" throughout one's total being, and a belief in the natural means of promoting health--were critical for Wesley. Moreover, the themes were interconnected. Because of the symbiotic relation between body and spirit, a well-working body was fundamental to Wesley's wholistic view of health. Furthermore, sensible regimen was viewed as the natural way of realizing a life of health and wholeness.
John Wesley's celebrated avowal to be "a man of one book ''~ has, in the past, served to focus Wesleyan studies on those theological themes salient to the Methodist tradition--Justification by Faith, Witness of the Spirit, Christian Perfection, and others. John Wesley is now being reread with an awareness of his broad interest as well as the varied sources that defined his life and thought. ~ This present study will explore John Wesley's involvement in matters of health. In particular, attention will be given to the impact of the English medical community on Wesley's understanding of health as wholeness. I will suggest that three concepts characteristic of seventeenth- and eighteenthcentury medicine were critical for Wesley: the idea of well-working of the body machine, the view of "sympathy" throughout the whole being, and the belief in the natural means of promoting healing and health. References to Wesley's involvement in health care are replete throughout his writings. Early in his ministry Wesley established a visitation program for the sick and dispensed medicine to the poor in London and Bristol. In 1747 Wesley published his collection of simple remedies under the title Primitive Physick. He also procured an electrical apparatus by which he administered a form of therapy. In addition to these measures, John Wesley urged his readers toward a life style conducive to good health. Through a careful observance of sensible regimen, the individual could translate the concept of stewardship of life into the concrete practice of health care. 3 On a personal level, Wesley's concern for matters of health was, no doubt, influenced by his own health status. His Journal entries attest to the rigors Philip W. Ott, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana. Address requests for reprints to the author, at the department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Evansville, 1800 Lincoln Avenue, Evansville IN, 47722. 43
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of his schedule and the resultant demands placed upon his less than robust body. Several times during his life Wesley battled with serious illness. A vivid description of a critical period in Bristol follows: Between ten and twelve the main shock began. I can give faint account of this, not for want of memory, but of words. I felt in my body nothing but storm and tempest, hail-stones and coals of fire. But I do not remember that I felt any fear (such was the mercy of God!) nor any murmuring. And yet I found but a dull, heavy patience of mind, which I knew was not what it ought to be. The fever came rushing upon me as a lion, ready to break all the bones in pieces. My body grew weaker every moment; but I did not feel my soul put on strength. 4 On another occasion, friends in London, witnessing a bout he had with consumption, feared his death. 5 Wesley himself, "not knowing how it might please God to dispose of me" and desiring "to prevent vile panegyric," wrote his own epitaph on the evening of November 26, 1753. 6 From a pastoral perspective, John Wesley understood his commitment to minister to the total well-being of the individual to accord with the biblical mandate "to do good to all m e n . . . [according to] the ability that God giveth. ''7 As Wesley explained in a letter to the young Alexander Knox, God wills "inward and outward health. ''8 The emphasis on the health of body and soul reflects a wholism that is implicit in Hebrew scriptures and that carries over in the New Testament. Both Hebrew and Christian scriptures stress a unity of being wherein the body is acknowledged as integral to the concept of selfhood. In the recently published sermon, "The Image of God," Wesley emphasized the wholeness of the original created order. With Adam it was "ordained by the original law that during this vital union neither part of the compound should act at all but together with its companion; that the dependence of each upon the other should be inviolably maintained . . . . ,,9 While Adam's sin did introduce disorder and dis-ease into the original creation, it did not interrupt the vital union between body and soul. As E. Brooks Holifield observes, "Precisely because he could not accept a dualistic severing of the soul from the body in the original creation, Wesley had to assume that body and soul remained interdependent after the Fall. ''1~ Consequently, the body is not to be viewed as a "a second class citizen. ''11 John Wesley's commitment to the total well-being of the person was equally consistent with the classical understanding of health. Contemporary considerations of the concept of health have emphasized the relation of the word "health" to its classical roots. The English word health literally means "wholeness," and t o h e a l connotes, "to make whole. ''12 These words are related to the Old Latin form, salvus, (salve, salvation), the Old English, hal (hale), and the Old High German, heil (whole, holy). The words point to completeness, integrity, wholeness. In the classical sense of the word, health suggests,
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as K e n n e t h Vaux has stressed, not only being in a state of equilibrium (wellworking or wholeness), but also implies being at peace. I3 Clearly, the meaning of health goes beyond the physical dimension. To define health as the mere "absence of disease" is to limit the concept. It has become common in recent times to speak of a wholistic understanding of health. The emphasis, however, has its roots in the ancient Greek tradition. Socrates criticized the Greek physicians for their neglect of the total person. He observed, "Just as one must not attempt to cure the eyes without the head or the head without the body, so neither the body without the soul." In fact, Socrates argued, one must attend "first and foremost" to the concerns of the soul. TM In short, if the soul is at ease, the health of the body could be more readily affected. Socrates' basic orientation can be traced through the ancient Hippocratic tradition. According to Ren~ Dubos, the Hippocratic understanding is t h a t disease is not caused by "capricious gods or irrational forces. ''~ Rather, disease must be understood as a n a t u r a l phenomenon developing in accord with n a t u r a l law. In his book, Man, Medicine, and the Environment, Dubos summarizes the Hippocratic perspective: 1. The well-being of man is influenced by all environmental factors: the quality of air, water, and food:.., and the general living habits. Understanding the effects of environmental forces on man is the fundamental basis of the physician's art. 2. Health is the expression of harmony among the environment, the ways of life, and the various components of man's nature . . . . 3. Whatever happens in the mind influences the body and the body has a like influence on the mind. Mind and body cannot be considered independently of each other. Health means therefore a healthy mind in a healthy body. . . . 4. Whenever the equilibrium is disturbed, rational therapeutic procedures should be used to restore it by correcting the ill effects of natural forces; these procedures include the use of regimen, drugs, and surgical techniques. 5. The practice of medicine implies an attitude of reverence for the human condition and must be based on a strict code of ethics. ~ The elements of the Hippocratic tradition should be highlighted. The physician is to give attention to the total person, including those factors beyond the physiological which have a bearing on one's health. When one's physical well-being is disturbed, an effort must be made to establish once again an equilibrium and allow the n a t u r a l powers to affect the healing process. The Hippocratic emphasis was carried on in England through the work of Dr. Thomas Sydenham. Sydenham, popularly called the "English Hippocrates, ''17 gave particular attention to the curative processes of nature. Wesley had carefully read Sydenham and, in the Preface to Primitive Physick, commended Sydenham for his practical approach to medical care. Wesley in-
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cluded Sydenham among "some lovers of mankind who have e n d e a v o u r e d . . . to reduce physic to its ancient standard . . . to make it a plain intelligible thing . . . . ,,~s Wesley also had praise for Dr. George Cheyne. ~9 Cheyne's An Essay of Health and Long Life, 2~and The Natural Method of Cureing [sic] the Diseases of the Body, and the Disorders of the Mind Depending on the Body, 21 both of which were studied by Wesley, clearly reflect the classical approach to medicine. In these works Cheyne wrote extensively of the interrelationship of body and soul and the consequent need to be attuned to the total person. Herein Cheyne espoused the wholistic emphasis that marked the Hippocratic tradition. This unitarian or wholistic perspective has moved through the history of medicine much like an underground current or stream. From time to time it surfaces in the form of a restatement. During the first half of the twentieth century, Arturo Castiglioni, in his A History of Medicine, wrote that "the physician above all should keep in mind the welfare of the patient, his constantly changing state, not only in visible signs of his illness, but also in his state of mind, which must necessarily be an important factor in the success of treatment. ''22 More recently Leon Kass observed that "bodily health does not depend only on the body and its parts. It depends decisively on the psyche with which the body associates and cooperates." Kass continued, "In a most far-reaching way, our health is influenced by our temperament, our character, our habits, and a whole way of life. ''23 Wesley clearly anticipated this assessment. He stands within this understanding of wholism. Wesley's reading in selected physicians of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had greatly influenced his understanding of health as wholeness. From Drs. Thomas Sydenham, Hermann Boerhaave, George Cheyne, and others, Wesley gleaned themes which, though common to the period, went back to the classical Greek tradition of medicine. The first theme to be noted is the idea of the well-working of the body. The concept of well-working rested upon a particular understanding of the body. In the latter half of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century, the body was increasingly viewed and studied in terms of mechanical principles. This paralleled the Newtonian understanding of the natural order. Nature was viewed as one vast, orderly machine. The human body, as created, shared the orderliness or balance characteristic of the created order. Archibald Pitcairn, 24the late seventeenth-century physician and mentor to Drs. Hermann Boerhaave and George Cheyne}5 reflected the Newtonian commitment to orderliness. For Pitcairn, in medicine as in astronomy, the laws of motion reign. The living body is made up of canals of various shapes and sizes through which the different sorts of fluids pass. Health and disease can be understood in terms of the motion or hindrances to motion throughout the body parts. Pitcairn's description of the body functioning in accord with the
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mechanical principles of motion represents an early example of the Newtonian influence on biology and medicine. Wesley had read H e r m a n n Boerhaave, 26 Pitcairn's student and a major figure in early eighteenth-century medicine on the continent. Like Pitcairn, Boerhaave studied the body in terms of Newtonian principles. When explaining health and disease, Boerhaave relied heavily on mechanical explanations. 27 Proper interaction of solids and fluids constituted health, whereas disease resulted from the faulty interaction of these elements. 28 Dr. George Cheyne, whom Wesley first read while a student at Oxford, also mirrored the view expressed by his teacher, Pitcairn. Cheyne pictured the body as a machine, comprising "an infinity of branching and winding canals, filled with liquor of different natures." Diseases, he continued, arise from a "vitiation of the quantity and quality or motion of the fluids, or to a bad disposition and texture . . . of their conduits." In short, a healthy body depends upon the free passage of fluids through the various tubes and vessels within the body. Any obstruction of the free vascular movement will result in disease. ~9 Wesley's s u m m a r y description of a body in a state of health clearly indicates an awareness of the accepted medical perspective. In his sermon "On the Fall of Man," Wesley pictured humankind before the Fall. His intent was theological, but the language used was the language of medical physiology. But how fearfully and wonderfully wrought into innummerable fibers, nerves, membranes, muscles, arteries, veins, vessels of various kinds! And how amazing is this dust connected with water, with enclosed, circulating fluids, diversified a thousand ways by a thousand tubes and strainers! Yea, and how wonderfully is air impacted into every part, solid, or fluid, of the animal machine; air not elastic, which would tear the machine in pieces, but as fixed as water under the pole! But all this would not avail, were not ethereal fire intimately mixed both with this earth, air, and water. And all these elements are mingled together in the most exact proportion; so that while the body is in health, no one of them predominates, in the least degree, over the others. ~~ A similar theme can be seen in the sermon "The Image of God." The original state of humankind, Wesley noted, was one of life in a body prepared for immortality. The body was incorruptible in all its parts. Consequently the "juices" moved freely throughout the body. The point seems to be that initially the body as a whole functioned without resistance. It was a free, wellworking system. As for what followed, Wesley could only surmise. He suggested "as probable" that the eating of the forbidden fruit released in the body particles that began to "adhere to the inner coats of the finer vessels." Strictures within the vessels laid "a foundation for numberless disorders in all parts of the machine," and signaled the inevitable process of death21
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That Wesley understood health in terms of a well-working system is underscored by his reference in this same sermon to an antidote that was also present in the garden. This antidote was the fruit from the Tree of Life. According to Wesley, the fruit possessed a "thin, abstersive nature," which would have countered the strictures occasioned by eating the forbidden fruit. The body would have continued to function effortlessly, free of disorders, "notwithstanding he had eaten death. ''~2 These physiological insights expressed in the sermon "The Image of God," by Wesley's own admission, were based more on conjecture than on Scripture. Nonetheless, they are illustrative of Wesley's view of health. Somatic health means a well-working system. The perfect model or expression of health would be Adam before the F a l l - - a balanced, harmonious, h u m a n organism designed for immortality. Since the Fall, the wholeness to be realized is wholeness within the limits of mortality. Within these bounds, however, a well-working system is the goal. Clearly, the concept of well-working of the body as a whole shaped Wesley's understanding of health. His underlying concern, however, was practical. It was not that Wesley viewed health as an end. Health was a fundamental good or value insofar as it enabled the individual to participate in or realize other values. To borrow from Seward Hiltner, it could be said of Wesley's perspective that "health is to enable. It is not in itself the object of enablement. ''33 This, according to Wesley, is in keeping with what God had purposed for the created order. In the original creation God gave to humankind life and health. H u m a n k i n d "knew no sin, so he knew no pain, no sickness, weakness, or bodily disorder. ''34 With the sin of Adam, however, the order of nature was changed. Along with other theologians, Wesley accepted the belief that the presence of disease was due to h u m a n sin. 35 On the other hand, the resurrection stands as the witness to the final resurrection of the body wherein humankind will know perpetual health of mind and bodyJ 6 For the present one lives with the limits of finitude. However, within these limits God has provided an antidote for disorder. In the Garden of Eden the antidote for disorder was the fruit of the Tree of Life2 7 Since the Garden of Eden, the antidote is the life of sensible regimen, along with the faithful use of "that old unfashionable medicine, prayer, ''38 Wesley was cautiously realistic at this point. He knew that in this present life the individual was not immune to the limits of finite existence. One lives betwixt and b e t w e e n - - i n the midst of pain and joy, suffering and hope. But he preached that God has willed holiness and happiness2 9 Health, for Wesley, was basic. Albert Outler's s u m m a r y statement would have been fully acceptable to Wesley. The Christian life of grace and confidence looks to the well-being of the whole man. It sets a high value upon health--of body, mind and spirit. But health is not a terminal value in and of itself. A human life is more than a biological episode. The value of health is to supply an efficient agency for the projects of
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the total self, to provide a fit instrument for the growth and maturation of men and women in community with others and communion with God.4~ A second t h e m e or m ot i f borrowed from the medical community of the seve n t e e n t h and ei ght eent h centuries is w h at Lester King has termed "sympathy." The theme, for example, is expressed in the writings of the physician Friedrich Hoffmann. Like m a n y physicians of the time, Hoffmann viewed the body as a machine, but one whose parts were closely interrelated. Disturbance in one pa r t of the body was communicated t h r o u g h o u t the whole. This p h en o men o n Hoffmann called "consensio." Lester King suggests t h a t the t e r m can be best t r a n s l a t e d as "sympathy." King summarizes Hoffmann's characteristic emphasis. "Disturbances of the h e a r t b e a t can affect the mind and the state of consciousness . . . . A small am ount of blood r e m a i n i n g immovable in very small v e s s e l s . . , m a y cause the entire body to suffer . . . . -41 There is no indication t h a t Wesley read the works of Dr. Hoffmann. Hoffmann's works, however, were widely circulated on the continent and in England. The concept of "consent" or " s y m p a t h y " m a y be traced in those physicians whom Wesley did study. Dr. Thomas S y d e n h a m addressed this issue in his "epistolary dissertation" to Dr. Cole. Here S y d e n h a m observed t h a t the emotions of the mind are capable of bringing about changes in the body. The remote or external causes of hysteria are over-ordinate actions of the body; and still oftener over-ordinate commotions of the mind, arising from sudden bursts of anger, pain, fear of [sic] other similar emotions. Hence, as often as females consult me concerning such, or such bodily ailments as are difficult to be determined by the usual rules for diagnosis, I never fail to carefully inquire whether they are not worse sufferers when trouble, low-spirits, or any other mental perturbation takes hold of them. If so I put down symptoms as hysterical . . . . Leaving the description of the disease, as determined by its leading phenomena, the matters that come next under consideration are the efficient, internal and immediate causes . . . . The affection which I have characterized in females as "hysteria," and in males as "hypochondriasis" arises (in my mind) from a disorder (ataxy) of the animal spirits. 42 Animal spirits, S y d e n h a m concluded, when excited, either by pain or anger, create serious trouble for mind and body. 43 Hoffmann's reference to disorder in one part of the body being communicared t h r o u g h o u t the whole is also characteristic of George Cheyne. "Communications between Bodies and Spirits," Cheyne observed, "seem to consist in laws pre-established by the A u t h o r of N a t u r e . " The body machine, Cheyne explained in A n Essay on Regimen, if disordered, . will sink, debase, blunt, and confound the Operations of the Spirit; and the Spirit violently agitated . . . will disturb the Oeconomy of the bodily functions: .
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and the perfect State of Health, and the best Perfection of all intelligent Creatures consisting of an intelligent Spirit and a material Machine, depends on the perfect Sanity and Harmony of both united, in their separate Order and Rank." The concept of sympathy was basic to Wesley's wholistic perspective. For Wesley, the well-working of the body was critical to the individual's emotional well-being. As Wesley quoted on numerous occasions, a "corruptible body presses down the soul. ''45 By corruptible, Wesley intended physical disorders and the accompanying pain. In the present state of h u m a n existence, when one part of the body is disordered, the total person suffers. Wesley noted, "If but one of these slender threads, whereof our flesh is made up, be stretched beyond its due proportion, or fretted by any sharp humour, or broken, what torment does it create!'46 It is a matter of the soul "sympathizing" with the body. '7 Even when bodies function reasonably well, care must be taken "to answer their necessities, to provide for their sustenance, to preserve them in health, and to keep them tenantable, in some tolerable fitness for our soul's use. ''48 In his sermon "The Heavenly Treasure in Earthen Vessels," Wesley reiterated the same theme. Working with a metaphor borrowed from Dr. George Cheyne, Wesley emphasized that the operations of the soul depend upon the body, just as the quality of the music played by the musician is directly related to the quality of the instrument. As Wesley explained, "An embodied spirit cannot form one thought but by the mediation of its bodily organ." Thinking is not "the act of pure spirit, but the act of spirit connected with the body, and playing upon a set of material keys." The quality of music is directly related to the nature and state of the instrument. Consequently, Wesley observed, "if these instruments, by which the soul works, are disordered, the soul itself must be hindered in its operations. Let a musician be ever so skillful, he will make but poor music if his instrument is out of tune. ''49 Wesley would have had real feeling for Carroll Wise's assessment: "Man cannot get away from the body. His life is lived in and through it." The body, Wise continues, "is part of the self and affects the self, and the self has profound effect on the body. ''5~ For Wesley, "sympathy" worked both ways. J u s t as the "corruptible body presses down the soul," so the "soul presses down the body. ''51 The latter emphasis is consistent throughout Wesley's writings. In the Preface to Primitive Physick Wesley appended a few "Plain Easy Rules" which he adapted from Dr. George Cheyne. Wesley echoed Cheyne, "The passions have a greater influence on health than most people are aware of. ''~2 Until the passions or emotional concerns are brought under control, the use of medicine will be to no avail. In his Journal entry for May 12, 1759, Wesley cited a case in point: Reflecting today on the case of a poor woman who had continual pain in her stomach, I could not but remark the inexcusable negligence of most physicians in cases of this nature. They prescribe drug upon drug, without knowing a jot of
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the matter concerning the root of this disorder. And without knowing this, they cannot cure, though can murder the patient. Whence came the woman's pain (which she would never have told had she never been questioned about it)? From fretting for the death of her son. And what availed medicines while the fretting continued? Why, then, do not all physicians consider how far bodily disorders are caused or influenced by the mind, and in these cases which are utterly out of their sphere, call in the assistance of a minister . . . . 53 Wesley expressed a similar concern in the sermon "Heaviness through Manifold Temptation." Depression, he warned, could have a debilitating influence on the body. Indeed, "deep and lasting sorrow of the heart m a y . . , sometimes weaken a strong constitution, and lay the foundations for bodily disorders as are not easily removed. ''~4 The emotions, which Wesley commonly called passions, m u s t be kept within "due bounds." Experience seems to show, noted Wesley, " t h a t violent and sudden passions dispose to, or actually throw people into acute diseases. ''~ While the physician in time may treat the disease, "Calming of the Passions," as Dr. George Cheyne stressed, "is the Busin e s s . . , of Virtue and Religion. ''~6 Wesley could not have agreed more. "The love of God, as it is the sovereign remedy of all miseries, so in particular it effectually prevents all bodily disorders the passions i n t r o d u c e . . , and by the unspeakable joy and perfect calm serenity and tranquility it gives the mind, it becomes the most powerful of all the means of health and long life. ''~7 Today it m a y not be possible to arrive at u n a n i m i t y on what constitutes emotional or psychic h e a l t h - - w h a t Wesley termed "inward health." Wesley wrote in a time when insights of modern psychology were not available to him. It is to his credit, not t h a t he offered a sophisticated understanding of emotional health, but t h a t he addressed the issue and its interrelationship to somatic health. From reading in Wesley one can gain understanding of what he intended by the phrase inward health. As with outward health, Wesley also thought of inward h e a l t h in terms of wholeness or well-being. This can be illustrated by t u r n i n g to his description of the converse of inward wholeness, namely, "lowness of spirits," or depression. In his essay on nervous disorders Wesley observed t h a t what is sometimes called nervous disorders is nothing more t h a n the "hand of God upon the soul" resulting in the individual being dissatisfied with the things of this world. Then, too, there are those nervous disorders t h a t are physical by nature. The type of nervous disorder Wesley purposed to address in his essay "Thoughts on Nervous Disorders" were those characterized by "lowness of spirit." Wesley's description is enlightening: Does not this imply, that a kind of faintness, weariness, and listlessness affects the whole body, so that he is disinclined to any motion, and hardly cares to move hand or foot? But the mind seems chiefly to be affected, having lost its relish of everything, and being no longer capable of enjoying the things it once delighted
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in most. Nay, everything round about is not only flat and insipid, but dreary and uncomfortable. It is not strange if, to one in this state, life itself is become a burden; yea, so insupportable a burden, that many who have all this world can give, desperately rush into an unknown world, rather than bear it any longer, as This s u m m a r y statement reflects, by way of contrast, Wesley's classical understanding of health. The opposite of being "low-spirited" would be to experience completeness and wholeness, emotional balance and equilibrium. In short, it means being at peace with oneself. Again Wesley anticipated insights t h a t are widely acknowledged in our own time. His emphasis on "inward health and outward health" is true to the contemporary insistence upon defining health in positive t e r m s - - a n d not merely as the absence of disease. This perspective also has an affinity with the ancient Hebrew concept of "Shalom." For Wesley, if there is no peace, one's health is in jeopardy. To be whole is to be a full, creative, productive participant in the community. In truth, it is to have the capacity to function in ways consistent with what it means to be created in the Image of God. Albert Outler captures Wesley's intent: A person loved and loving will come to possess the kind of health and goodness which harnesses psychic energy to productive uses, which takes the bruises and the denials of every day living in stride, which handles lapses and failures without self-contempt, or self-abandonment29 The third theme t h a t was formative for Wesley was the ancient concept of the healing power of nature. Dr. Thomas Sydenham knew t h a t its roots went back to the Hippocratic claim t h a t "natures are the physicians of disease. ''6~ The Hippocratic tradition stated, Nature ["physis"] heals diseases. Inherent mechanisms act auto-matically as reflexes, much as the reflexes that we use in winking the eyelid or moving the tongue, for nature is active without training and without schooling in the essentials. 61 Belief in the healing power of n a t u r e was a common emphasis within the medical community of seventeenth-century England. Sydenham, for one, applauded Hippocrates as "the Romulus of medicine . . . whom we can never duly praise." Sydenham continued, "The great sagacity of this m a n had discovered t h a t Nature by herself 'determines diseases, and is of herself sufficient in all things against all of them. '''62 For Sydenham, the Hippocratic perspective accorded fully with the divine intent of God. The Supreme Deity, by whose power all things are produced, and upon whose nod they depend, hath in his infinite wisdom, so disposed all things, that they betake themselves to their appointed works after a certain order and method;
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they do nothing in vain; they execute only that which is the most excellent and which is best fitted for the universal fabric and for their own proper natures. They are engines that are moved not by any skill of their own, but by that of a higher artificerY In some instances, therapeutic measures may be necessary, but in the end, "every choice and noble remedy, wherever found, receives its principal virtues from Nature. Hence," Sydenham continued, "the gratitude of antiquity has well named the nobler medicines the ~hands of God,' rather than of men. ''64 George Cheyne shared this characteristic emphasis. Again, as was the norm for the period, Cheyne understood the body, or "human engine," as skillfully made by an artisan, and oriented toward the preservation of life. Consequently, the body tends to move toward a state of normalcy or equilibrium. Cheyne's interest in and commitment to the healing power of nature is reflected in the title of his popular book, The Natural Method of Cureing [sic] the Diseases of the Body, and the Disorders of the Mind Depending on the Body. John Wesley was attuned to this classical respect for the healing power of nature. Wesley's reference to "fever" as the "natural means ''~ by which the body meets with disease echoed Dr. Sydenham's position. Nature, wrote Sydenham, "strives to expel the morbid influence . . . . [and] calls in the aid of fever for the isolation of tainted particles from the remainder of blood . . . . -66 One could say that "fever itself is Nature's instrument . . . . ,,~7 The clearest example of Wesley's commitment to the natural was his consistent stress upon the relation between sensible regimen and good health. Wesley believed that sensible regimen called for the responsible use, and not the abuse, of the non-naturals. Traditionally, the non-naturals included air, food and drink, exercise, sleeping and waking, evacuations, and passions of the soul. From a twentieth-century perspective, these six non-naturals seem to be very much a part of nature. Recent studies have acknowledged the somewhat obscure nature of the term and suggest that Galen's "necessary causes" later came to be known as the non-naturals. 6s In any case, it appears that Wesley was first introduced to the concept while a student at Oxford, where his life-long interest in medicine began. In addition to the study of the classics, English literature, and philosophy, Wesley's reading (both formal and informal) included works from the field of natural philosophy (sciences) and medicine. He was to acquaint himself with the works of such physicians as H e r m a n n Boerhaave, Thomas Sydenham, and George Cheyne, all of whom made reference to the non-naturals. 6~ While it appears that Wesley himself never used the term non-naturals, his writings and his insistence on sensible regimen reflected an awareness of the conviction prevalent in his time. The non-naturals, handled in a responsible way, could promote health and well-being. He published Primitive Physick with the avowed purpose of placing in the hands of the general populace "a
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plain and easy way of curing most disease," and appended to the Preface a few "Plain Easy Rules" adapted from Cheyne's An Essay of Health and Long Life. The rules covering the six non-naturals were presented as aids to good health. The tenor of these rules is captured in the following summation: Observe all the time the greatest exactness in or manner of living. Abstain from all mixed or high-seasoned foods. Use plain diet easy of digestion. . . . Drink only water if it agrees with stomach. Use as much exercise daily in the open air as you can, without weariness. Sup at six or seven on the lightest food; go to bed early and rise betimes. To persevere with steadiness in this course, is often more than half the cure. TM Clearly, Wesley saw a direct correlation between sensible regimen and health. Wesley believed t h a t his own personal history witnessed to the effectiveness of sensible regimen. His Journal entries frequently included reflections on his health status. While demands on his schedule did take their toll, the fact remains t h a t Wesley led a very active life for more t h a n eighty-five years. Musing on his eighty-fifth birthday, Wesley saw reason to praise God "for a thousand spiritual b l e s s i n g s . . . [and] bodily blessings also." He admitted t h a t he was "not so agile as in times past," but observed t h a t he continued to write sermons "as readily, and, I believe, as correctly as ever." Predictably, Wesley attributed such a long and productive life "to the power of God, fitting me for the work to which I am called," along with the prayers of faithful Christians. Wesley also cited some "inferior means." 1. To my constant exercise and change of air. 2. To my never having lost a night's s l e e p . . , since I was born . . . . 4. To my having constantly, for above sixty years, risen at four in the morning . . . . 6. To my having so little pain in my life, and so little sorrow and anxious care.71 To mention four or five of the non-naturals in a particular context, as here, was not u n u s u a l for Wesley. He concluded his "Thoughts on Nervous Disorders" with instructions regarding air, food and drink, exercise, sleeping and waking, and passions. 72 An extended discussion of the non-naturals is outside the focus of this paper. However, a reference to three of the non-naturals will serve to illustrate Wesley's belief in the n a t u r a l means of promoting health. In 1742 Wesley read Cheyne's book, The Natural Method of Cureing [sic] the Diseases of the Body, and the Disorders of the Mind Depending on the Body. In a letter to Susanna Wesley, J o h n commended the book by Cheyne, but expressed concern, fearing few would read it. 73 As for Wesley, careful attention to diet was the rule. Wesley's practice, which he encouraged as a pattern for all, was temperance in food and drink. As a rule of thumb, one should resist the temptation to eat more t h a n the body requires. Wesley turned to this subject in his
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sermon "The More Excellent Way." Good people eat with gratitude, but not to excess, he observed, at least, "not so far as to make themselves sick with meat, or to intoxicate themselves with drink. ''7~ Wesley approached the subject of sleep with the zeal of an evangel. From years of careful observance Wesley concluded that men need six to seven hours of sleep. Women, he felt, could use on the average an additional hour. 75 Too much sleep, just as too little sleep, m a y be detrimental to one's health. Indeed, Wesley believed, staying in bed beyond the required amount of time was t a n t a m o u n t to committing a slow suicide. Wesley encouraged others to follow his own pattern of retiring and rising early. Throughout his writings, Wesley urged the Methodists toward a life of physical activity. In agreement with George Cheyne, Wesley stressed that a "due degree of exercise is indispensably necessary to health and long life. ''7~ tt is expedient that one should walk every day, preferably not less than an hour before dinner or an hour after supper. If a person is too weak to walk, the individual may compensate by riding for two or three hours on horseback. Only as a last resort should the individual turn to riding in a carriageY If weather prohibits these outdoor activities, one m a y choose an indoor activity such as working with a dumbbell or riding a wooden horseJ 8 J o h n Wesley's insistence on the sound practice of the non-naturals mirrored a long-standing conviction of the medical community. Wesley enveloped this commonly accepted opinion in a theological framework which stressed, among other points, that through the responsible use of the non-naturals, the individual could live out the biblical mandate to be a good steward of the "exquisite machine," the body. 7~ The themes examined in this essay are interconnected. Because of the symbiotic relationship between body and spirit (soul), a welt-working body is fundamental to Wesley's concept of health. When and where the body is impaired, the total person is diminished. For the present, sensible r e g i m e n - - t h e appropriate use of the non-naturals--is the divinely appointed pattern for a life of health as wholeness. It would be difficult to determine the impact of John Wesley on the health of eighteenth-century England. The late Robert S. Morison, citing Wesley as "one of the formative influences on middle-class England," judged that Wesley "provided an effective blend of social and public health practice with a sense of individual responsibility for oneself and others. ''8~ If this assessment stands, it rests in part on Wesley's concern to promote "inward and outward health. ''8'
References 1. Wesley, J. In Jackson, T., ed., The Works of John Wesley [hereafter, Works], 14 vols. (1872) Grand Rapids, 1979, Vol. 5, p. 2.
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2. See Outler, A. C., "John Wesley: Folk Theologian," Theology Today, 1977, 34, 150-160. 3. See, for example, my previous articles, "John Wesley on Health: A Word for Sensible Regimen," Methodist History, 1980, 18, 193-204, and "John Wesley and the Non-Naturals," Preventive Medicine, 1980, 9, 578-584; also Vanderpool, H. Y., "The Wesleyan Methodist Tradition." In Caring and Curing: Health and Medicine in the Western Religious Traditions. New York, Macmillan, 1986. 4. Wesley, J. In Curnock, N., ed., The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. [hereafter, Journal], 8 vols. London, The Epworth Press, 1938, Vol. 2, p. 514. 5. Ibid., Vol. 4, p. 90, footnote #1. 6. Ibid., Vol. 4, p. 90. 7. Wesley, J. In Telford, J., ed., The Letters of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. [hereafter, Letters], 8 vols. London, The Epworth Press, 1931, Vol. 4, p. 121. The reference is specifically to the publication of Primitive Physick and Electricity Made Plain and Useful. However, these are but concrete expressions of his broader concern for health care. 8. _ _ , Letters, op. cir., Vol. 6, p. 327. 9. In Outler, A. C., ed., The Works of John Wesley [hereafter, Works, Bicentennial Edition]. Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1986, Vol. 4, p. 296. 10. Holifield, E. B., Health and Medicine in the Methodist Tradition. New York, Crossroads, 1986, p. 15. 11. Hiltner, S., "The Bible Speaks to the Health of Man." In White, D., ed., Dialogue in Medicine and Theology. Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1967, p. 63. 12. Kass, L., Toward a More Natural Science. New York, The Free Press, 1985, pp. 164-172. 13. Vaux, K. L., This Mortal Coil. New York, Harper and Row, 1978, p. 104 ft. 14. As cited by Kass, op. cir., p. 175. 15. Dubos, R., Man, Medicine, and the Environment. New York, Frederick A Praeger, 1968, p. 57. 16. Ibid. 17. From The Works of Hippocrates. In Sobel, D. S., ed., Ways of Health. New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979, p. 194. 18. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, p. 311. 19. Ibid., Vol. 14, p. 312. 20 . . . . Letters, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 11. 21. _ _ , Journal, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 545. 22. As quoted by Cousins, N., Anatomy of an Illness. New York, Bantam Books, 1979, p. 112. 23. Kass, op. cit., p. 175. 24. For a succinct discussion of Pitcairn's views, see King, L. S., The Philosophy of Medicine. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1978, pp. 109-118. 25. Schofield, R. E., Mechanism and Materialism. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1969, p. 49. 26. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, p. 313. 27. King. op. cit., p. 121ff. 28. Wesley, The Medical World of the Eighteenth Century. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1958, p. 75. 29. As quoted by King, L. S., "George Cheyne, Mirror of Eighteenth Century Medicine," Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 1974, 48, 517-539. 30. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 6, p. 219. 31. Wesley, Works, Bicentennial Edition, op. cit., Vol. 4, p. 297. 32. Ibid. 33. Hiltner, op. cit., p. 67. 34. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, p. 307. 35. Holifield, op. cir., p. 14ft.; also, Vaux, K. L., "Theological Foundations of Medical Ethics." In Marry, M. E., and Vaux, K. L., eds., Health~Medicine and the Faith Traditions. Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1982, pp. 215-228. 36. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 7, p. 480. 37. _ _ . Works, Bicentennial Edition, op. cir., Vol. 4, p. 297. 38. _ _ . Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, pp. 313,314. 39. In his sermon, "The New Creation," Wesley looked to the day when there would arise "an
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unmixed state of holiness and happiness . . . . " Works, op. cir., Vol. 6, p. 296. See also Holifield, op. cit., esp. p. 19ff. 40. Outler, A. C., Psychotherapy and the Christian Message. New York, Harper and Brothers, 1954, p. 179. 41. King, L. S., The Growth of Medical Thought. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1963, p. 172. 42. Sydenham, T., The Works of Thomas Sydenham, M.D., 2 vols., R. G. Latham, trans. London, printed for the Sydenham Society, 1868, Vol. 2, p. 90. 43. Ibid. 44. Cheyne, G., An Essay on Regimen, 3rd ed. London, Dan Browne, 1763, p. 158. 45. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 6, p. 219; also Vol. 7, p. 346. 46. Ibid., Vol. 7, p. 480. 47. Ibid., Vol. 6, p. 95. 48. Ibid., Vot. 7, p. 480. 49. Ibid., Vol. 7, p. 347. 50. Wise, C., Psychiatry and the Bible. New York, Harper Brothers, 1965, p. 1. 51. Wesley, Works, op. cir., Vol. 6, p. 94. 52. Ibid., Vol. 14, p. 316. 53. , Journal, op. cit., Vol. 4, p. 313. 54. _ _ , Works, op. cit., Vol. 6, p. 94. 55. Ibid., Vol. 14, p. 316. 56. Cheyne, G., A n Essay of Health and Long Life. London, printed by George Strahan, 1725, p. 171. 57. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, p. 316. 58. Ibid., Vol. 11, p. 516. 59. Outler, Psychotherapy and the Christian Message, op. cit., p. 211. 60. Sydenham, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 16. 61. From The Works of Hippocrates. In Sobel, op. cit., p. 194. 62. Sydenham, op. cit., Vol. 1, pp. 16,17. 63. Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 120. 64. Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 98. 65. Wesley, Journal, op. cit., Vol. 4, p. 79. 66. Sydenham, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 30. 67. Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 54. 68. See Jarcho, S., "Galen's Six Non-naturals: a Bibliographic Note and Translation," Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 1970, 44, 372-377; also, Rather, L.J., "The 'Six Things Non-natural': a Note on the Origins and Fate of a Doctrine and a Phrase," Clio Medica, 1970, 3, 337-347. 69. Boshears, O.K., Jr., "John Wesley, the Bookman: A Study of His Reading Interests in the Eighteenth Century." Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Michigan, 1972. 70. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, pp. 313,314. 71. _ _ , Journal, op. cit., Vol. 7, p. 408. 72. _ _ , Works, op. cit., Vol. 11, pp. 519,520. 73. _ _ , Journal, op. eit., Vol. 2, p. 545. 74. _ _ W o r k s , op. cit., Vol. 7, p. 31. 75. Ibid., Vol. 7, p. 29. 76. Cheyne, An Essay of Health and Long Life, o19. cit., p. 106. 77. Wesley, Works, op. cit., Vol. 14, p. 268. 78. Ibid., Vol. 11, p. 520. 79. Ibid., Vol. 7, p. 138; also, Vol. 7, p. 225. 80. Morison, R. S., "Rights and Responsibilities: Redressing the Uneasy Balance," The Hastings Center Report, 1974, 4, 3. 81. Wesley, Letters, op. cit., Vol. 6, p. 327.
