Manuscript Notebook Containing the Diet and Exercise Recommendations of a Woman Osteopath in Tennessee

Title: Manuscript Notebook Containing the Diet and Exercise Recommendations of a Woman Osteopath in Tennessee
Publication: [Gallatin, Tennessee]: [1920s]

Description: Black leatherette "Physician's Visiting List" notebook given to doctors by the Maltine Company, measuring 7 x 4.25", of which 36 pages contain handwritten notes. A collection of manuscript diet and exercise recommendations prescribed by Dr. Sunora Whiteside, in what is likely her own notebook, or possibly a notebook belonging to one of her patients. Whiteside studied at the Southern School of Osteopathy in Kentucky and at the Kirksville College of Osteopathy in Missouri; according to newspaper records, she was in practice in 1917 with another woman osteopath in Nashville, and in 1923, she was living in Gallatin; one of the pages of this notebook is headed, "Dr. S.L. Whiteside, Gallatin, Tennessee," dating it to the 1920s. Whiteside subscribed to the ideas of Dr. John Tilden, who believed that specific combinations of foods, together with fasting, would cleanse toxins from the body, which would, in turn, cure disease. Thus, the first eight pages of the notebook provide recommendations for foods to eat at different meals as well as which foods should and should not be consumed together, i.e. "meat is best digested in an acid medium, and is found helpful used in combination with tart foods...the tomato, a very stable fruit, is especially adapted for use with meat or other protein." This section also includes entries for "Tilden salad" and "Tilden buttermilk." Next are two pages headed "Exercises for strengthening abdominal & intestinal walls," such as "III. Push imbilicus out, tense. Iv. Tense rectum with ex. III." This is followed by several sections of menus, including "My Menu on Breaking Fast," "Tilden Nov. Menus," and "Dr. Whiteside's Short Fast," which included bathing with lemon water every two hours and cleansing the bowels with enemas several times a day. Two folded, carbon copied, typed pages are laid in, containing menus for breaking fasts, signed "Time to write the Doctor for more menus--go over the list until I send you more. Sunora Whiteside." Corner of front cover chipped, damp staining to front endpapers and first five leaves, soiling to covers, occasional staining to pages, slight mildewing to front pastedown.

Seller ID: 10045

Subject: Medical