Two of the Three White Children Stricken

There was anxiety in every home in Battle Creek. Would the dread disease strike and lay low some of the precious children?2BIO 13.3

And then it happened! In the first week of February two of James and Ellen White's three boys complained of severe sore throats and high fever, and they could hardly utter a word—undeniable, frightening symptoms. They had diphtheria.2BIO 13.4

Fortunately—in the providence of God, no doubt—there had come into their hands, probably through an “exchange” of papers at the Review office, either the Yates County Chronicle, of Penn Yan, New York, or some journal quoting from it, an extended article entitled “Diphtheria, Its Causes, Treatment and Cure.” It was written by Dr. James C. Jackson, of Dansville, New York. How eagerly James and Ellen White read it. It made sense, and they immediately put its prescriptions into use, following every detail. The treatment called for was simple—employing only a washtub, towels, sheets, and blankets—but demanded diligent attention and earnest labor. In great detail Dr. Jackson pointed out the procedures that would bring relief and finally a cure. These were attained by the simple means we today call hydrotherapy—with proper baths, packs, rest, and fresh air, and above all, absence of anxiety.2BIO 13.5

Jackson reported that over a period of years, while employing these means in hundreds of cases involving young and old, not one patient had been lost. The methods he set forth were those that he, a physician with a good understanding of physiology, had reasoned out and put together. He stated: “Our success has been so great, while as yet our plan of treatment has been so simple, as really to introduce a decided change in the medical practice in the particular disease, in this locality. I do not know of a physician of any school in this town who has not practically abandoned the administration of cathartics in cases of diphtheria, and ...adopted in fact our method.”—Ibid., February 17, 18632BIO 13.6

He further reported:2BIO 14.1

Whereas great numbers of persons, four years ago, died of the disease in this town, and whose deaths caused a real panic among the people, the disease has become no more to be feared than any other morbid condition of the body common to our people. Owing to our residence here [he and associate physicians operated a water cure institution in Dansville, New York], and as the result of our teachings on the subject of health or to some silent influence affecting the views of the people of this town, there is much more care given to the conditions of living of children, especially in the cold season of the year, than formerly.—Ibid.

To James and Ellen White, who already highly valued “air, water, and light” as “God's great remedies” (Ibid., February 10, 1863), what Dr. Jackson wrote made more sense than either drugs or a poultice of Spanish flies compounded with turpentine. The symptoms had overtaken their children very rapidly, and the Whites lost little time in carrying out—scrupulously—the directions of Dr. Jackson. They had appointments to speak in Convis, Michigan, on Sabbath and Sunday, February 7 and 8. By following Jackson's method of treating diphtheria, which involved the better part of Friday night, on Sabbath morning they saw that they could safely leave the sick children in the hands of those who helped in the home. They drove the fifteen miles to Convis Sabbath morning and took services both morning and afternoon, meeting with new converts to the Adventist message.2BIO 14.2

Sabbath evening they returned to Battle Creek for another night of broken sleep as they treated and watched over the children. Sunday morning they were off again to Convis for morning and afternoon meetings, as promised (Ibid.).2BIO 14.3

While the White children were making a speedy recovery, Ellen White was called one evening to the home of Moses Hull and his wife. Their oldest child, 6 years old, had been suddenly and severely stricken. The parents themselves were in Monterey, holding evangelistic meetings. As reported by James White in the Review, “Mrs. White pursued the same course of treatment as with our own children, and the child appeared well the next morning.”—Ibid., February 17, 18632BIO 14.4

As significant as the events of that week were to James and Ellen White, the pressing needs of the cause, particularly as they related to the war and the state of the churches, and confusion in the field brought about by ill-advised moves in organizing churches, left little time for the experience to become more than a passing incident. They had simply employed home remedies in combating a passing illness. James White hastened into print the Jackson article, which had been so helpful to them in their hour of emergency, on the first page of the next issue of the Review, “out of a sense of duty” to the readers. He introduced its eight columns with a two-paragraph note recounting his and Ellen's experience. But no future reference is made to the article, and seemingly it made no lasting impact upon James and Ellen White.2BIO 15.1

It was a time of many issues and many pressures. But it was also a time of the dawning, on their part, of a concern in health matters. On the same Review page that reported the two trips to Convis while the children were being treated for diphtheria, James White inserted an editorial entitled “Pure Air.” This article was motivated, most likely, by overheating and improper ventilation in schoolhouses and churches where they had meetings, and by reading Dr. Jackson's article, in which the importance of fresh air, properly employed, was strongly advocated. After vividly presenting the baleful effects of the hot and stuffy atmosphere that pervaded some places of worship and inhibited both the Spirit of God and the minister in accomplishing their missions, he quoted four lines from a five-stanza poem credited to “M. H. L.”:2BIO 15.2

Throw open the window and fasten it there,
Fling the curtain aside, and the blind,
And give free entrance to heaven's pure air;
‘Tis the life and the health of mankind.2BIO 15.3

He remarked how the farmers, who perhaps could not read, knew how to take care of their horses in winter, to preserve their health; yet some, in caring for meeting rooms, act like “idiots,” creating health-imperiling conditions. He closed his editorial by referring to his and his wife's personal practice:2BIO 16.1

We usually sleep with two windows open at opposite sides of the room, summer and winter, and take a cold-water sponge bath in the morning; hence a healthy atmosphere, not destroyed by heat, is most congenial to our feelings. But few men have as strong lungs as we have, notwithstanding they were once broken down and weak.2BIO 16.2

But few women have the strength of lungs that Mrs. White has, though she has been given over by physicians to die with consumption.2BIO 16.3

Had we allowed ourselves to be smothered in close sleeping rooms, and given up to every pain and ache of the lungs, and throat, and head, and kept up a perpetual dosing with this and that medicine, we might now be silent in death, or dragging out a miserable existence, of no benefit to anyone. Air, water, and light are God's great remedies. If the people would learn to use these, doctors and their drugs would be in less demand.—Ibid., February 10, 18632BIO 16.4