Robert Walter (February 14, 1841 – October 26, 1921) was a Canadian American physician and natural hygiene proponent.
Biography
Walter was born in Acton, Canada West. As a young man he moved to Danville, New York, where he studied medicine.Anonymous. (1898). Book of Biographies: This Volume Contains Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens of Berks County, PA. Biographical Publishing Company. pp. 249-251 He graduated from the Hygeio-Therapeutic College of New York in 1873 and the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1888.Montgomery, Morton L. (1909). Historical and Biographical Annals of Berks County, Volume 1. Chicago. p. 504 He worked as a homeopath and hydrotherapist for twenty-five years.Anonymous. (1911). Distinguished Successful Americans of Our Day. Chicago. pp. 144-145 He married Eunice C. Lippincott in 1872. They had three daughters and two sons. In 1876, he established the Walter Sanitarium in Walter's Park, Pennsylvania.Hamersly, Lewis R. (1904). Who's Who in Pennsylvania. New York. p. 765 His book Vital Science makes frequent reference to Biblical literature. Walter was a member of the Society of Friends.
Walter authored the natural hygiene book The Exact Science of Health, in 1903.Anonymous. (1903). The Exact Science of Health Based Upon Life's Great Law. International Medical Magazine 12: 749-750. It was negatively reviewed in medical journals.Anonymous. (1903). The Exact Science of Health, Based Upon Life's Great Law. Dublin Journal of Medical Science 116 (383): 351-152.R. M. G. (1904). The Exact Science of Health Based Upon Life's Great Law. American Journal of the Medical Sciences 127: 1086.Anonymous. (1903). The Exact Science of Health Based Upon Life's Great Law. The Lancet 2: 1786-1787. The book espoused fasting, homeopathic medicine and vitalism. Walter opposed conventional medicine and believed that disease could be cured by people avoiding food and flushing the bowel several times a day. He was an early advocate of colon cleansing. A review in the International Medical Magazine commented that "there are some valuable hygienic suggestions in the book, but they are buried among a mass of platitudes and other unscientific extraneous matter." A review in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences noted that it "bristles with scientific inaccuracies and still more mischievous perversions and misinterpretations of facts." Walter was criticized for not keeping up to date with the progress of modern medical science.Anonymous. (1899). Vital Science Based Upon Life's Great Law. The Medical Bulletin: A Monthly Journal of Medicine and Surgery 21 (6): 237.
Walter died on October 26, 1921, in Reading, Pennsylvania.Anonymous. (1921). Robert Walter. Journal of the American Medical Association 77 (19): 1590.
Selected publications
Vital Science Based Upon Life's Great Law: The Analogue of Gravitation (1899) The Exact Science of Health (1903) The Power That Cures (The New England Medical Gazette, 1914)
See also
Susanna Way Dodds
References