DR. JAMES H. SALISBURY AND THE
SALISBURY DIET
by CLYDE L. CUMMER, M.D.
The life of James H. Salisbury should
be of interest to the
historically minded for three reasons.
The first and least is that
he devised and popularized a dietary
regimen still remembered al-
most half a century after his death.
The second is that he was a
pioneer exponent of the germ theory of
disease and carried out
laborious and painstaking
investigations. The third and tragic
one is that had he persisted in his
researches for another decade
after he abandoned them, he might have
found some of the right
answers and thereby achieved
everlasting fame. To us Ohioans
there is added interest in his
residence in Cleveland during his
most active years.
Several biographic sketches furnish
substantially the same
facts.1 The son of Nathan
and Lucretia (Babcock) Salisbury, he
was born October 13, 1823, in Scott, a
tiny village in Cortland
County, New York, less than ten miles
south of the southerly
end of Lake Skaneateles. Young
Salisbury attended Homer
Academy near his birthplace, a school
presided over by Pro-
fessor Samuel Woolworth, later
secretary of the Board of Regents
of the University of the State of New
York. Then he went to
the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at
Troy, New York, founded
in 1824 and credited with being the
oldest school of science in
this country. Here he received the
degree of bachelor of natural
science in 1846. His medical degree was
obtained from Albany
Medical College in 1850, and in 1852
Union College made him
a master of arts. Inasmuch as he had
been appointed assistant
chemist to the New York State
Geological Survey in 1846 and
chief chemist in 1849, his medical
studies must have been carried
1 National Cyclopedia of American
Biography; Dictionary of American
Biography; H.
A. Kelly and W. L. Burrage, American Medical Biographies (New
York, 1920); Who Was Who in America;
Albany Medical Annals, XXVI (1905),
777; Journal of the American Medical
Association, XLV (1905), 729; Historical
and Biographical Cyclopedia of Ohio.
352
Dr. James H. Salisbury 353
on while he was in the service of the
state. He served as chief
chemist until 1852. At this time he
also had an office in Albany
for the practice of medicine.
It is pertinent to consider the Albany
Medical College briefly.
In Salisbury's class there were
twenty-four graduates, all but
three of whom were from New York state.
The faculty was
unusually large for the time,
comprising eight excellent teachers.
The best known member was Alden March,
the professor of sur-
gery, who had been graduated from the
medical department of
Brown University in 1820 and had served
as professor of anatomy
and physiology at the Vermont Academy
of Medicine (later
Castleton Medical College) from 1825 to
1835. President of
the New York State Medical Society in
1857, he was one of the
founders of the American Medical
Association and in 1863
became its president. He and James H.
Armsby, professor of
anatomy and physiology, founded the
Albany Medical College in
1839. Salisbury's facilities for
learning chemistry were espe-
cially favorable, because the professor
of chemistry was Lewis
C. Beck, an outstanding teacher and
author of a textbook on the
subject which was widely used and went
through three editions.2
Obviously Salisbury had the benefit of
excellent scientific train-
ing in high-grade educational
institutions.
He lectured on elementary and applied
chemistry at the
state normal school in 1851-52 and
published papers on the
anatomy and histology of plants in 1848
and on the history and
chemical investigation of maize in
1849. The latter was issued
by the New York State Agricultural
Society, and for it the author
received a prize of three hundred
dollars.
One of his publications shows that he
began his studies in
"microscopic medicine" in
1849 and his investigations into
"healthy and unhealthy
alimentation" in 1858. The latter was
carried on by microscopic work on
healthy living animals under
the influence of chloroform. After
"long, tedious, persistent and
2 Frederick C. Waite, "Early
Institutional Training in New York State," The
Pharos of Alpha Omega Alpha, XIII (1950), 32; Frederick C. Waite, personal
communications.
354 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
painstaking labor, during which several
hundred animals had
fallen sacrifice to the work, the
mystery was solved, and the great
blood gland was found to be the spleen,
and the smaller ones
the mesenteric and the lymphatic."
As we of today know, this
hardly solved the problem.
The period from 1843 to 1863 was marked
by several pub-
lications reporting numerous chemical
and microscopic studies
of fruits, vegetables, and grains and
researches which "resulted in
the discovery of what appears to be the
cause of the so-called
'blight' in apple, pear and quince
trees, and the decay of their
fruit; and the discovery of the
so-called 'blister and curl' in the
leaves of the peach trees." This
appeared as an Ohio State
Agricultural Report in 1863. From 1849
to 1865 he wrote many
articles in which he attempted to
demonstrate that various infec-
tious and contagious diseases were
produced by specific germs,
each kind causing its special disease.
The leading article in the July 1862
issue of the American
Journal of Medical Sciences was a contribution by him on certain
fungi found in decaying straw as the
cause of camp measles,
claiming that inoculations had produced
a similar exanthem.3
A later article stated that inoculation
had been used to prevent
infection. However, Pepper inoculated
twenty-two persons who
had not had measles with this fungus
without results.4
In 1866 the same journal published his
article on the cause
of intermittent and remittent fevers
"with investigations which
tend to prove that these affections are
caused by certain species
of palmellae."5 He stated that in
the valleys of the Ohio and
Mississippi the sputa of the sick
contained small elongated cells
presenting themselves singly and in
rows which he considered
3 J. H. Salisbury, "Remarks on
Fungi, with an Account of Experiments Show-
ing the Influence of the Fungi of Wheat Straw on the
Human System; and Some
Observations Which Point to Them As the Probable Source
of 'Camp Measles,'
and Perhaps of Measles Generally," American
Journal of Medical Sciences, XLIV
(1862), 17.
4 H. von Ziemssen, Cyclopedia of
Medical Practice, translated by R. H. Fitz
and others (20 vols., New York, 1874).
5 J. H. Salisbury, "On the Cause of Intermittent and
Remittent Fevers, with
Investigations Which Tend to Prove That These
Affections Are Caused by Certain
Species of Palmellae," American Journal of
Medical Sciences, LI (1866), 51.
Dr. James H. Salisbury 355
to be alga cells of the species
palmella. These were collected
on glass plates set over marshy ground
and also in great quanti-
ties on the clods of upturned marshy
soil. Salisbury asserted
that he was able to produce the most
intense attacks of intermit-
tent fever by means of fresh clods of
earth if placed within the
open windows of a sleeping room. The
attacks in four persons,
the subjects of two experiments,
followed in ten, twelve, and
fourteen days and were broken by
quinine. This article, also
published in France in the Revue
Scientifique, probably attracted
more attention than any of his other
publications, and for it he
received the McNaughton prize awarded
by the Albany Medical
College Alumni Association.
The American Journal of Medical
Sciences also printed as
its first article in its January issue
of 1868 the description, with
cuts, of algoid vegetations, one of
which appeared to be the
specific cause of syphilis and the
other of gonorrhea.6 The first
he classified as of the genus Crypta
(Salisbury); species, C.
syphilitica (Salisbury). These
filaments were described as
straight, coiled, or arranged in
curves, while in gonorrhea he
found spores. His illustrations show
them as small spherical
bodies in pairs, and there were tiny
circular dots within the cyto-
plasm of an epithelial cell. Was it
possible that he actually saw
the gonococci in these fresh specimens
without benefit of staining?
In 1868 appeared a volume of about
sixty-five pages entitled
Microscopic Examination of the
Blood.7 These studies were based
on fresh preparations on a slide which
had been covered quickly
with thin glass. He noted fibrin
filaments to which he correctly
attributed a role in clotting, and in
Figure 2, immeshed in fibrin
network, are tiny bodies described by
the author as "spores,
granules, colorless corpuscles and
crystals." Some of these are
doubtless platelets, the true nature of
which awaited many years
6 J. H.
Salisbury, "Description of Two New Algoid Vegetations, One of
Which Appears to Be the Specific Cause
of Syphilis, and the Other of Gonorrhoea,"
American Journal of Medical Sciences, XVII (1868), 17.
7 J. H. Salisbury, Microscopic Examination of the Blood;
and Vegetations
Found in Variola, Vaccinia and Typhoid Fever (New York, 1868). A copy in the
Cleveland Medical Library was a
presentation copy to Dr. Jared Kirtland, the
famous naturalist.
356 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
for Osler's recognition. The
interpretations of the significance
of these bodies, as based on studies of fresh blood
smears allowed
to stand many hours, are all erroneous.
In the late sixties there were three
minor papers of interest,
especially to dermatologists and
mycologists. One was entitled
"A Brief Description of What
Appears to Be Two Newly-Dis-
covered Skin Diseases, One Originating
in the Cat and the
Other in the Dog, Both Crytogamic and
Contagious, and Both
Capable of Being Transmitted from the
Animal to the Human
Body."8 He called the
disease in the cat trichosis felinus. It
developed on nursing kittens around the
lips, nose, face, and
eyes, spreading more rapidly on the
hairy parts, attacking the
hair follicles. The spores and hairs
resembled trichosis fur-
furacea. To prove the transmissability
of this infestation to
humans, he made presents of infected
kittens to families where
there was no disease and found that
children playing with them
commenced to break out in five to ten
days. Parenthetically, no
mention is made of the opinions of the
children's parents if and
when they found that their children had
been subjected to this
interesting scientific experiment. At any rate Salisbury was
consistent about the matter, for he
inoculated himself and pro-
duced the disease on his own skin. This
is one of the early, if not
the earliest, description of the
Microsporon lanosum in the Ameri-
can literature.
In 1868 he described a case of chloasma
produced by
Microsporon furfur and also a parasitic
disease of the conjunc-
tival membranes.9 In the
first instance treatment included local
applications on alternating days of
diluted aromatic sulfuric
acid and bisulphite of soda, with
"a good substantial diet of rare
beef and bread." Both articles
were illustrated with good cuts of
the fungus elements.
The Steatozoon folliculorum, "the
little animals that infect
the fat follicles of the human
face," were described as having
8 American Journal of Medical
Sciences, LIII (1867), 379.
9 J. H. Salisbury, "Brief Mention
of Two Interesting Parasitic Diseases, with
Their Treatment," Boston Medical
and Surgical Journal, LXXVIII (1868), 78.
Dr. James H. Salisbury 357
been found in the skin and surface
adipose of butchered hogs as
small opaque masses the size of wheat
kernels.10
An evaluation of Salisbury's efforts is
found in Baas's
History of Medicine, translated into English with editorial addi-
tions by Henry A. Handerson:
"Historically too the papers of
Dr. J. H. Salisbury on the contagium of
various diseases are
likewise of interest," and later:
In the United States a theory of
infection by cryptogamic vegetation
was advanced by Dr. J.K. Mitchel of Philadelphia as
early as 1849. Dr.
J. H. Salisbury (now best known for his
theory of the therapeutic effects
of large draughts of hot water) also in
the sixties believed that he had
discovered the cause of syphilis,
gonorrhoea, malaria, measles and
rheumatism in certain microscopic algoid
vegetations. His observations,
however, were not confirmed by
subsequent observers, and the whole
subject had fallen into comparative
obscurity until reviewed by the
publication of an English translation of
Ziemssen's Encyclopedia about
1874. Bacteriology became at once the
chief subject of medical discus-
sion in the journals and societies, and
has been pursued with never
waning interest.11
In examining this encyclopedia we find
scattered through its
twenty volumes numerous references to
Salisbury's researches,
the most lengthy dealing with the
causation of malaria.12
This partial recountal of Salisbury's
researches bespeaks
his energy, his powers as an objective
observer, and his genuine
investigative zeal. Obviously he
reached many wrong conclusions,
but surely it was better to have
labored and reached the wrong
conclusions than never to have struggled
at all, especially if
the efforts stimulated others, as
undeniably they did.
For chronological perspective we must
remind ourselves
that the late fifties and early
sixties, during which Salisbury did
most of his apparently futile and
well-nigh forgotten work on the
germ theory of disease, might be
likened to the early dawn.
10 J. H. Salisbury, "Probable
Source of the Steatozoon Folliculorum," St. Louis
Medical Reporter, III (1868-69), 693.
11 J. H. Baas, Outlines of the
History of Medicine, translated by H. E.
Handerson (New York, 1889), 844, 1010.
12 See footnote 4, above, for
bibliographical data.
358 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
Daybreak came in the seventies when
Koch and Pasteur founded
bacteriology. Had Salisburg persisted doggedly and availed
himself of bacterial staining as
developed by Weigert in 1871-75
and the methods Koch published in 1877
for fixing and drying
bacterial films on coverslips and
staining them with Weigert's
anilin stains, the probabilities are
that he might have "struck pay
dirt," but when the seventies
came, his interests were entirely
elsewhere and the discoveries which
might have been his were
made by others.
Exactly where Salisbury carried on his
investigative work
is not entirely clear. That he started
in the practice of medicine
in Albany, New York, is shown by the
Albany city directories, in
which he is listed as a physician at
the corner of Lodge and State
streets from 1850 to 1854. He is said
to have settled in Newark,
Ohio, for practice but the date is
uncertain. On June 28, 1860,
he was married to Clara Brasee, the
daughter of the Hon. John
Brasee of nearby Lancaster.13 That
he was active in this part
of Ohio is evidenced by the article on
measles,14 which gives his
address as Newark. In another article15
he thanks Dr. S.
Boerstler and Dr. Effinger of Lancaster
for valuable material.
In the early years of the Civil War he
served as a con-
sultant for the medical service of the
Northern army. This
experience was probably a determining
influence in his life and
served to deflect his interest to the
study of diets. Camp Den-
nison, located in southern Ohio on the
Little Miami River about
ten miles north of Cincinnati, was the
site of a painstaking study.
The results were reported to the
surgeon general of Ohio in 1863
and appeared as a lengthy article in
the latter's published reports
in 1864.16 In this Salisbury stated
that he was greatly surprised
to find that camp diarrhea essentially
was "consumption of the
13 The Biographical Cyclopedia and Portrait Gallery with an Historical
Sketch
of the State of Ohio (6 vols., Cincinnati, 1883-95) states that Brasee
served two
terms in the Ohio senate, practiced law,
and "accumulated a large estate."
14 Footnote 3, above.
15 J. H. Salisbury, "Experiments
Connected with the Discovery of Cholesterine
and Seroline, as Secretions in Health,
of Salivary, Tear, Mammary and Sudorific
Glands," American Journal of Medical Sciences, XLV
(1863), 19.
16 Annual Report of the Surgeon General, to the Governor of the State
of
Ohio for the Year 1864 (Columbus, 1865), 87.
Dr. James H. Salisbury 359
bowels" and was the same as
so-called "hog cholera" and that
it was caused by the too exclusive use
of amylaceous food.
All cases were put on broiled beefsteak
and coffee with anti-
fermentative medicines. In an appendix
to one of his books it
is stated that the army authorities
were so pleased with his favor-
able results that they asked him to
devise an army ration, so he
went to Cincinnati, hired six laboring
men to "board with him,"
living on army biscuit and coffee.17
In eighteen days all had
"consumption of the bowels,"
or chronic diarrhea, and so did the
doctor, who had lived on the same diet.
Each had from six to
thirty stools per day. Then all were
dieted on beefsteak and
coffee and were soon well.
After this he proceeded to set up an
establishment in New
York for manufacturing desicated food
to see what processes
could be used. Report was made to the
surgeon general in
Washington, who ordered supplies of the
rations suggested.
Arrangements were nearly completed when
Richmond fell. With
the end of the war the new army ration
was abandoned. At the
same time Professor Horsford of
Cambridge was engaged on the
same problem, working by himself and in
his own way in Wash-
ington, but when he saw Dr. Salisbury's
report he wrote, "You
have hit the nail on the head,"
gave up his researches, and went
home. At least that is what Salisbury's
book says!
The first trace we find of Salisbury in
Cleveland was his
connection with the Charity Hospital
Medical College.18 In its
organization he assisted Dr. Gustave C.
E. Weber and on the
faculty he became the first professor
of physiology, histology,
and pathology in 1864, giving two
courses of lectures. For this
post he was thoroughly qualified
through superior talents and
training. It seems entirely likely that
his coming to Cleveland
was another by-product of his army
experience, for Dr. Weber
was the surgeon general of Ohio in
1861-63 and in that capacity
had doubtless been acquainted with Salisbury.
17 J. H. Salisbury, Brief Statement
of the So-called "Salisbury Plans" of
Treating by Alimentation, the Various
Diseases Produced by Unhealthy and Indiscreet
Feeding (London, 1887).
18 Charity Hospital Medical College, Annual
Catalogue, Session 1864-5.
360 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
Instruction began with a class of
seventy-three in the Hoff-
man Block, a business building on the
southeast corner of the
Public Square and Superior Street on
the site now occupied by
the Cuyahoga Building. Salisbury also
had his own office for
the private practice of medicine in the
same building. According
to F. C. Waite, Salisbury resigned
after four years following a
disagreement with Weber, a fact which
should not be regarded
as a reflection on him, because Weber
was notoriously difficult and
consequently had many resignations to
deal with.19
We have noted that Salisbury's
interests and place of resi-
dence seemed to have been influenced by
his army days. Con-
sistent with this observation is the
definite statement in the sketch
of his life from which we have quoted
before that in January
1864 he devoted himself to treating
chronic diseases, especially
those which had hitherto been
considered fatal, and that "his
success in this field is widely
known." There appeared two pub-
lications by him on his dietary
theories which were widely cir-
culated. One was a thin octavo of
sixty-four pages published in
England,20 while the second
was published in New York and in the
third edition comprised 332 pages.2l
These volumes set forth in
great detail the rationale of his
method of dieting. The regimen
was adapted with some variations and a
plethora of repetitious
detail for such unrelated conditions as
Bright's disease, diabetes
mellitus, obesity, rheumatism, uterine
fibroids, consumption, loco-
motor ataxia, and so forth.
Minute directions are given for the
preparation of the beef,
which was to be entirely muscle pulp of
lean meat made into
cakes. Connective and "glue"
tissue was to be avoided as well
as fat and cartilage. The beef was to
be scraped or chopped and
the resulting pulp patted into cakes
with just enough pressure
to make them hold together during
cooking. When a patient was
started on the diet, it was to consist
entirely of animal food: lean
19 Frederick C. Waite, Western
Reserve University; Centennial History of the
School of Medicine (Cleveland, 1946).
20 See footnote 17, above.
21 J. H. Salisbury, The Relation of
Alimentation and Disease (3d ed., New
York, 1895).
Dr. James H. Salisbury 361
beef, chiefly minced, with a little
toasted bread in some cases,
broiled lamb, or mutton. As side dishes
Salisbury allowed
oysters, raw or roasted; fish, broiled
or boiled; chicken, turkey,
or game, broiled or roasted. All meats
were to be cooked. Grad-
ually other foods were added. The
reason given for this sort of
diet was that since men and women are
about two-thirds car-
nivorous and one-third herbivorous,
their diet should be two-
thirds lean meat and one-third
vegetable. "By such a natural diet
we can maintain healthy bodies and
minds and live long," he
contended. Comment is made on the fact
that the Salisbury diet
did not include eating raw meat, as
some had stated, and that it
never had, because raw meat did not
digest well and led to the
possibility of tapeworms.
Salisbury had a strong predilection for
a fibrous theory of
the causation of many diseases and
stated that it took from one to
three years of rigid dieting to remove
fibrous diseases thoroughly
and break up the diseased cravings
which "have been at the bot-
tom of the conspiracy in producing such
pathological states.
Extirpating a growth never removes the
cause and never results
in a radical cure. The same old
alimentation may develop still
further and other growths." To
prove his point he stated that
fibraemia or hemofibrosis could lead to
the excessive development
of glue or connective tissue in skeins
in the blood vessels and
blood stream and had illustrations to
show fibrin in blood films.
This we would have difficulty in
admitting as abnormal, since the
specimens were prepared from fresh
blood allowed to stand, and
of course fibrin would appear in normal
individuals. Among
the fibroid diseases he included
locomotor ataxia, ovarian tumors,
goitre, and all "sclerotic
states." Copious and frequent drinking
of hot water was an essential part of
the treatment for the pur-
pose of washing out the alimentary
tract. A pint of hot water
from 100 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit was
to be sipped slowly an
hour or so before each meal and again
before bedtime. Lemon
juice could be added if desired.
In addition to his own publications
there were two others
which give us an inkling of the way in which
Salisbury was
362 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
publicized. One was a small pamphlet of
fourteen pages pub-
lished in Toronto in 1894 entitled Who
Is Dr. Salisbury and
What Is His Treatment?22 The title page stated that it was
by a grateful Canadian, with
testimonials from prominent pa-
tients. This effective piece of
international publicity was pub-
lished so that "an intelligent
public may see that Dr. Salisbury
is neither quack, fanatic, nor
cure-all, but a clever, modern phys-
ician with a practical method."
There is no way of knowing whether Dr.
Salisbury himself
countenanced this publication. It is a
concise distillate of ideas
which appeared in the larger and more
verbose works under his
own name. After a biographical sketch
referring to his English
ancestry, it summarizes his
investigative work, especially on the
germ theory of disease, and then states
one of his principle con-
tentions as follows: "Certain
foods taken in too large proportions,
or exclusively, did not digest, but
fermented, filling the digestive
organs with yeast, carbonic acid gas,
alcohol, vinegar-not only
giving no nourishment to the body but
rather establishing diseased
conditions therein." Dietary
experiments are noted and finally
his conclusion that the aliment most
sustaining and most easily
digested is beef, after which come
mutton and turkey, curing
many whose diseases were long
established by feeding on lobsters,
fish, and vegetables.
This exposition is followed by an outline
of his system and
by a recital of case histories
contributed by those who had had
rheumatism, obesity, nervous disability
and loss of sleep, catarrh
of the stomach, painful irritation of
the skin, and so forth. These
reports lose nothing in human interest
and convincing quality
from the inclusion of names and
addresses and, in some instances,
fervent praise.
The eloquently grateful patients
included those prominent
in public life: an underwriter, the
governor of Manitoba--who
wrote, "I have been trying the
treatment, not so rigidly, perhaps,
as you yourself have done, but with, I
think, much benefit"--a
22 Who Is Dr. Salisbury and What Is His Treatment, by a
Grateful Canadian,
with Testimonials from Prominent Patients.
Dr. James H. Salisbury 363
bank president, the speaker of the
senate, Sir this and the Hon-
orable that; and a magnificent climax
came from across the
Atlantic Ocean and was signed,
"Yours very truly and gratefully,
Argyll."
A telling paragraph immediately
preceding the Duke's let-
ter states that it was an additional
satisfaction to be able to say
of the doctor that his charges were
reasonable and his society
that of a cultivated English gentleman.
And to make everything
clear, the Duke's testimonial is
followed by a footnote telling
where the doctor's published works
might be purchased and fin-
ally by his New York address.
The Salisbury gospel was spread in the
British Isles by a
disciple in England, Mrs. Elma Stuart,
who told how she had
been restored by the Salisbury
treatment from an unhappy
invalid, crippled with gout and
rheumatism, miserable from
dyspepsia and insomnia, to such buoyant
health that she was able
to gallop on horseback and ride about
in a tricycle.23 The second
edition of this work was a small octavo
of about 150 pages bound
in blue cloth. Stamped in the center of
the front cover in gold
was the title What Must I Do to Get
Well? And How Can I Keep
So? while in the upper left-hand corner is a steaming tea
kettle.
That Salisbury countenanced this
publication is shown by the
author's statement that she had begged
and obtained his per-
mission to make copious extracts from
his work The Relation of
Alimentation and Disease.
Here are a few excerpts:
Let us then pay a tribute of praise and
gratefulness to his genius,
solicitude, and unvarying perseverance
that so long and carefully
thought out and discovered for us this
simple, efficacious and safe means
of the prevention and cure of
disease-Dr. Salisbury's treatment.
I believe that you can send a telegram
from London to New York,
and be answered within 3 hours, and
receive a reply to a letter within
sixteen days. His telegraph address is
9, West 29th Street, New York
City, a letter describing your case
would meet with his prompt attention,
as would also a telegram.
23 E. Stuart, What Must I Do to Get
Well? And How Can I Keep So? By
One Who Has Done It. An Exposition of
the Salisbury Treatment (London, 1889).
364 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
It is my earnest hope that, through the
influence of this little book,
I too may have my share in forwarding
far and wide the mission of the
powerful beneficent Salisbury Treatment.
After the lapse of the years it is
interesting to speculate
about the actual value of Salisbury's
diet. Obviously no single
dietary system could be suitable for
all of the numerous and
diverse maladies in which Salisbury
claimed improvement. How-
ever, we must attempt to place
ourselves back in the days of its
popularity and to realize that
dentistry had not yet provided
adequate apparatus for proper
mastication to the large number
with poor teeth or no teeth, and that
finely minced and properly
cooked meat gave them an easily
digested source of protein, whose
value in keeping up the health of the
aged and aging is only now
being generally appreciated. Also food
was relatively abundant
and cheap, general knowledge of
nutritional and caloric values
practically nihil, and trenchermen
abounded around groaning
tables. Even the fashions of the day
favored the fat. Salisbury's
diet was undoubtedly effective in
reducing the corpulent, and it
is reasonable to assume that it was
really helpful in many
stomach disorders then broadly grouped
as dyspepsia. In many
instances the dyspeptics had become so
by living on the hearty
food of the type provided at the Yankee
farmer's breakfast or on
the greasy articles and hot breads
commonly associated with so-
called Southern cooking. For all these
people Salisbury's regimen
with its simple and digestible food
would have served as a
wholesome corrective. We are curious
about whether those who
adhered strictly to its rules for the
dieting in the early stage
obtained the necessary supply of
vitamins A, C, and D, and
whether many were the victims of
scurvy. Nevertheless, I learned
recently of an elderly couple, a woman
physician and her hus-
band, who lived on the Salisbury diet
for many years and became
octogenarians.24 Salisbury himself lived
to be 81 and his partner
Dr. Lewis to be 92. Undeniably the diet
was famous and
extremely popular and Salisbury had
many adherents here and
abroad.
24 Personal communication, Mrs. Richard
Stifel, Shaker Heights, Ohio.
Dr. James H. Salisbury 365
Salisbury's later published works and
the pamphlet and
book written for the general public
give his address as New
York City. On the other hand, older
Clevelanders remember his
name in association with this city, so
I determined to ascertain
exactly where he lived and practiced
after severing his connection
with the Charity Hospital Medical
College. The statement in one
of the biographical encyclopedias that
he lived in New York City
from about 1880 is only partially
correct. Old city directories
of the two cities were helpful in
supplying the answer. Until
1875 he remained in the Hoffman Block
at the corner of the
Public Square. After that we find him
at various addresses on
lower Euclid Avenue between the Public
Square and what is now
East 6th Street. In 1897 and thereafter
his name is not found
in the Cleveland directories.
His name first appeared in the New York
City directory in
the issue of 1882-83 at 32 West 26th
Street, in 1883-84 at 9
West 29th Street, and in 1890-91 at 170
West 59th Street. Polk's
Medical Directory lists both him and his son Trafford B. Salis-
bury, M.D., at 250 West 57th Street in
1902 and 1904.
It was difficult for me to explain the
dual locations from 1882
to 1894 and to understand how he
divided his time between his
two offices until a former near
neighbor in Bratenahl25 informed
me that Salisbury spent about eight
months including the winter
in New York, caring for a large
practice of wealthy and socially
prominent patients, and four months
including the summer in
Cleveland, where he also had an
extensive following. The rea-
son for being able to carry on in the
two cities during the last
ten or twelve years of his Cleveland
career was that he had a
partner, Dr. Joseph Morgan Lewis.26
Indeed in Cleveland the
25 Mrs. Benjamin P. Bole (Roberta
Holden) of Cleveland, who aided me with
personal recollections.
26 Dr. Lewis (1839-1930) had been one of
Salisbury's students at the Charity
Hospital Medical College. For many years
he served as superintendent of the
Newburg State Hospital for the Insane.
His daughter, Mrs. Fred Cushman,
Cleveland, informed me that the partners
weighed all food intake and excreta
and performed blood tests routinely on
their patients. After improvement on the
first rigid diet, tea, toast, rice, and so forth were
added. After the partnership
was dissolved, Dr. Lewis maintained two diet homes,
staffed with trained cooks,
where patients could live on selected
diets. Lewis' name was not linked with
Salisbury's in any of the latter's
publications. He was a member of the local
medical societies and the American
Medical Association.
366 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
treatment was often referred to as the
Salisbury-Lewis cure. The
office addresses of the two partners
were identical from 1881 on,
although the actual partnership is not
shown in the directories
until 1884, when the entry is Salisbury
and Lewis. This con-
tinued until 1893, when the partners
fell out with each other and
were listed at different Euclid Avenue
addresses. To prevent any
possibility of mistake a card appeared
in a box in the alphabetical
list in bold type reading as follows:
"Salisbury Plan of
Treatment"
The Relationship of Alimentation and
Disease.
by Dr J. H. Salisbury
Second edition, 322 pages, 19 full page
plates.
Price, $4.00
Suite 37, No. 89, Euclid Avenue
The above address was the same as for
Salisbury's office,
where he remained until 1896, after
which he apparently dis-
continued practicing in Cleveland. By
that time he was seventy-
four years old.
There was also an associate or
assistant whose name did not
appear as such in the directories but
whose office addresses,
including the room numbers, were
identical with Salisbury's from
1884 to 1896. This was Quincy J. Winsor
(1863-1903), a
nephew of Salisbury's. He had come to
Cleveland for his medical
education and received the M.D. degree
from the medical school
of Western Reserve University in 1884.
Winsor carried on with
the Salisbury system until his death in
1903.
Evidence that Salisbury maintained a
residence as well as
an office in Cleveland was furnished by
old residents as well as
by the local directories. In 1867 his
home address is given as
East Cleveland, which could have been
anywhere east of the
present East 55th Street, but in 1872
we find him living on the
lake shore. This is probably the same
location as was listed in
1874-75 and later as Glenville in an
unusually choice portion
which has maintained its exclusive and
suburban character even
to this day by incorporating in 1904 as
the village of Bratenahl.
Dr. James H. Salisbury 367
If you were to drive east today from
Gordon Park and cross the
easterly line of Cleveland into
Bratenahl by following Lake Shore
Boulevard, you would go between a
double row of splendid tall
trees arching high overhead and would
find, on your left, the
former estate of Liberty E. Holden
facing Lake Erie and, on
your right, away from the lake, heavily
wooded grounds like a
small park with a long driveway running
back to Salisbury's old
home, which is not visible from the
highway. This section of
Lake Shore Boulevard from Gordon Park
to the first sharp left
turn was at one time called Salisbury
Avenue.
In Salisbury's time this lake shore
district was served by the
Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
Railroad, which with a Glen-
ville station almost immediately south and east of
Salisbury's
property and another station at Coit's
about a mile east really
furnished commuter service to the old
Union Station in the city
of Cleveland, about four miles away.
A detailed atlas of Cleveland gives
much information about
the local setting in 1874.27 Several
large pieces of property in
this section were listed in the name of
C. B. Salisbury, probably
Salisbury's wife. All told there were
approximately thirty-five
acres, two lots of about four acres
each on the lake front and the
remainder on the other (south) side of
the boulevard.
That Salisbury may have had some
ambitions as a real-
estate promoter is shown by a later
atlas,28 for on a part of the
property north and west of the
boulevard the diagram indicates
a north and south street with building
lots, while the southerly
section also showed locations for more
streets and building lots,
about fifty-eight all told in the two
parcels. This subdivision is
still on paper.
Later Salisbury increased his land
holdings, as shown by
still another map.29 On part
of the site of the Northern Ohio
Fair Grounds (which came to an end in
the winter of 1880-81)
27 D. J. Lake, Atlas of Cuyahoga
County, Ohio (Philadelphia, 1874).
28 C. M. Hopkins, City Atlas of
Cleveland (Philadelphia, 1881).
29 H. B. Stranahan Co., Maps of
Cuyahoga County, Outside of Cleveland
(Cleveland, 1903).
368 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
and directly south of the land which we
have just described there
was laid out a subdivision with two
streets running north and
south called Lewis and Trafford
Avenues. Trafford was a family
name in Mrs. Salisbury's family. These
are now East 96th and
97th streets respectively. This
subdivision comprised thirty-seven
lots.
With its lake shore situation, rustic
character, and world-
famed trotting track, Glenville was a
gay community, probably
the gayest in the Cleveland environs
for almost four decades.30
Whether Salisbury took any part in this
gay life, we are not
informed, but we do know that his only
daughter married William
G. Pollock, a well-known sportsman and
horseman and a leading
member of the old Roadside Club, which
adjoined the race track.
Salisbury had a large income and he and
his family lived well,
enjoying the luxuries of servants,
horses and carriages, and so
forth. Curious to know whether he
continued his interest in
horticulture, I made enquiry and found
that he had had large
apple orchards and grew many kinds of
plants, finding in this
activity much in common with W. J.
Gordon, whose nearby large
estate was willed to the city and given
his name.31
That Dr. Salisbury participated to some
extent in the cultural
life of Cleveland is shown by his
election in 1876 as one of the
vice presidents of the Western Reserve
Historical Society, of
which he was a life member. Other
officers at the time were out-
standing Clevelanders, including Col.
Charles Whittlesey, Dr.
Elisha Sterling, Judge C. C. Baldwin,
and Samuel Williamson,
all deeply interested in historical
matters.32 In fact he had been
associated with this distinguished
group in systematically survey-
30 William Ganson Rose, Cleveland,
The Making of a City (Cleveland and
New York, 1950).
31 After Dr. Salisbury left Cleveland,
his home was purchased by Liberty E.
Holden. It was occupied by Mr. Holden's
daughter, Mrs. Benjamin P. Bole, who
remodeled it by removing a conspicuous tower, from
which those who had the
breath and strength to make the climb
had been able to obtain a view of Lake
Erie. The present street number is 8910 Lake Shore
Boulevard.
32 Western Reserve and Northern Ohio
Historical Society, Tract 31 (May
1876).
Dr. James H. Salisbury 369
ing the numerous forts and embankments
in the river valley to
the south of the city.33
That his aid had been sought in this
scholarly investigation
was entirely natural, since he and his
brother, Charles B. Salis-
bury, had conducted earlier extensive research into
ancient rock
and earth writing and the inscriptions
of the mound builders and
had published a description of their
fortifications, enclosures,
mounds, and other earthworks. This
report is said to be in the
hands of the American Antiquarian
Society and was only par-
tially published in their transactions
and in the Ohio centennial
report in 1863.
There is no evidence to show that
Salisbury was a member
of the Cuyahoga County Medical Society
or that he participated
in the work of the local medical
societies. His name was not
to be found in the 1877 list or the
rosters of 1884, 1889, 1893, or
1894. However, he belonged to many
learned societies, including
the Philosophical Society of Great
Britain, the American Anti-
quarian Society, the Natural History
Society of Montreal, and
the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. In
1878 he was elected president of the
Institute of Micrology, an
office he retained for many years. He
was given an L.L.D.
degree by Union College in 1881 and
also by Amity College in
Illinois.34
Today the perpetuation of his name
depends on his diet,
but even more upon Salisbury steak.
This is defined in one
edition of Webster's dictionary as
Hamburg steak and that in
turn as (a) finely ground or chopped
beef and (b) this meat when
cooked.35 In Cancel's Culinary
Encyclopedia of Modern Cook-
ing36 it appears under the heading of Beef--Mignon as
"fillet,
scraped, not seasoned, broiled, for
invalids." Today it is listed
regularly on the menus of many of the
best hotels, clubs, and
33 Samuel P. Orth, History of
Cleveland (3 vols., Chicago and Cleveland,
1910), 74.
34 Waite, Western Reserve University.
35 Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (5th ed., Springfield, Mass., 1947).
36 I. Gancel, Culinary Encyclopedia
of Modern Cooking (7th ed., New
York, 1920).
370 Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Quarterly
restaurants. That classic household
authority, The Boston Cook-
ing-School Cook Book, includes a recipe for Salisbury steak which
is definitely a variant since it calls
for one-half a cup of cream
with seasonings to be mixed with a
pound of ground beef and
covered with bread crumbs and then
broiled.37
Salisbury died at the age of eighty-one
from cerebral hemor-
rhage at his country home at Dobb's
Ferry, New York, August 28,
1905, after an illness of four years.
His survivors were his wife,
his son, and his daughter, all now deceased. There
were no direct
descendants. His body was brought back
to Cleveland and buried
in a family plot in Lakeview Cemetery.
On a sunny October day I visited this
historic and naturally
scenic cemetery, the burial place of
many Clevelanders, the world
famed, the nearly great, and the humble
and obscure alike. On
a gentle hillside covered with leaves
gorgeous in their autumn
coloring Salisbury's grave was found
marked by a huge rugged
boulder. The thought came to me--as it
probably would have
to any physician--that this might have
been a memorable spot,
the grave of one of medicine's very
great. Long ahead of his
time, with vision to accept the theory
of the specific germ causa-
tion of disease and courage to advance
it to a skeptical and often
scoffing world, possessed of technical
ability to pursue research
almost beyond all of his
contemporaries, and on the verge of
lifting the veil, he failed and
actually staked out only a slender
claim to a place in medical history by
lending his name to a
steak.
37 Fannie Merritt Farmer, The Boston
Cooking-School Cook Book (6th ed.,
Indianapolis and New York, 1943).