The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-10-18
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THE nbACK TO
NATURE" CURE ];
A Resort in New Jersey
Where Patients Go Naked
and Sleep in Graves.
: sSSsssa&ssssaass

health by living very much as did old
Adam and his wife. They go about in
their pine groves entirely naked, sleep
either in the earth or on it, cover their
bodies with mud and eat little save
fruit and nuts.
Their guide, philosopher and friend,
In short, their physician, Is Charles
Iauterwasser of Littleton avenue,
Newark, and he, in turn, is an enthusi-
astic disciple of Adolf Just of Germany,
whose sanitarium in the HartZ Noun
tains, established a few years ago, now
attracts thousands, and tales Of whose
cures find their way in increasing num-
ners to this country.
Lauterwasser is a hydropathic physi-
clan and for a number of years has
made his living by administering a
water cure at his home in Newark.
When he first read of Just's teachings
he smiled, cynfcally, but he continued
to read.
1t seemed preposterous to hope for
the cure of all manner of diseases by
putting patients into premature graves.
He grew curious, however, as he read,
until he went out into his yard, dug a
shallow grave fer himself and lay down
In it.
He stayed there some time, and the
longer he stayed the more interested
he became. He now declares that no
man will ever die while in one Of these
graves, no matter how i'll he may be.
up there in my camp he, says, sdf
any of my patients are very sick and
groan and feel that death is near, lay
them in the grave and then / need
bother no more SO long as they are
there. ~ HSaa ~ ~ ~ va
Almost at once they get relief. You
have no idea how powerful the earth
is. 1t is full of electricity and it seems
to draw all sickness out of one
The camp is called Bethesda. 1t has
a charming little lake and is surround
ed almost completely by pine trees.
Lauterwasser hunted all over New Jer-
sey and over a part Of Pennsylvania
and New York before he found this
SPOT
1t is in Longwood Valley, in Milton
township, with the long mountain that
separates the valley from Green Pond
looming high on one side. There is but
one road through the valley and the
place is quite secluded.
Kill &C yCdtS dSO tic C1Lip was OPCa"
ed with fifteen patients. Last year.
during the season, from April to No
vember, it had more than thirty, and
this year, so far, there have been sixty.
Stories of the strange cures effected
there are being spread about northern
New Jersey, and now and then physi-
clans find their way to the place. Like
every one else, they knock at the gate
f,,Ir +.,s<.
When they pass out, however, at the
close of their visits they are usually
thoughtful, for they have found many
things hard to explain.
This would be good place to send
rheumatic patient" said one doctor
laughingly as he was about to enter the
camp not long ago.
In two or three minutes he saw men
suffering from rheumatism lying stark
naked on the ground, with nothing but
a blanket over them and not even that
between the body and the earth.
There were sufferers from dropsy, con-
sumptives, others with cancer in the
stomach, still others with serious eve
diseases and one slowly recovering
from locomotor ataxia. One man who
went to the camp apparently hopeless
CFlpplc with dDOuL d tilOMtu
ago now walks about a little.
No medicines are used: nature does
it ALL Indeed they call 1t the Back
to Nature" cure. and they believe they
can cure almost any i'll that the hu-
man body ever falls heir to, making
almost q single exception of insanity.
Further than this, they do not pretend
to do it themselves, but assert that any
80 L, .,,,Jl
back to the simple life of prehistoric
man and follow closely the ways of the
wild animals. si
There is one young man in the camp
who has gained sixty-four pounds in
year. He went to Bethesda in the
spring OF last year, living skeleton,
wasted to skin and bone from stom-
aeh disorder that was apparently eat
ing his life out.
He then weighed eighty-two pounds.
In the fall he returned home much
better, but the progress he made by
living the simple life of the camp bore
it's real fruit during the winter, and he
gained steadily. 4
Last spring, when he returned to the
camp to complete the cure, he weighed
146 pounds. What he has gained since
no one can tell, for they allow no scales
in the camp, since patients might be
cast down if they found they were not
gaining as rapidly as they believed they
should.
Another young man went to the camp
last April after five years in Newark
Hospital, where little had been done Tor
him. He, too, was a living skeleton,
suffering from an ossified knee, a Sc
rious disorder of the spine and one or
two other complaints. He wore brace
when he left the hospital, and without
it he could not walk. and then only with
great difficulty and much pain.
Soon after he reached the camp he
took his brace off, and has not worn
it since. He now walks without any
aid, although. of course, his limp IS
quite perceptible. But his radiant gen.
eral health is what attracts visitors.
One patient who was seriously Ill
stayed at the camp for several weeks
until he felt himself somewhat better,
when he insisted on returning home
The doctor told him that if he did ne