Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 598.5

THOMAS TRYON (1634-1703) The way to health, long life and happiness, or, A discourse of temperance, and the particular nature of all things requisite for the life of man : as, all sorts of meats, drinks, air, exercise, &c. : with special directions how to use each of them to the best advantage of the body and mind : shewing from the true ground of nature, whence most diseases proceed, and how to prevent them ; to which is added A treatise of most sorts of English herbs, with several other remarkable and most useful observations, very necessary for all families : the whole treatise displaying the most hidden secrets of philosophy, and made easie and familiar to the meanest capacities, by various examples and demonstrations : the like never before published / communicated to the world for a general good Printed by H.C. for R. Baldwin 1691 2nd edition, with amendments. [16], 500, [2], 18 p. 19 cm.

Alternate title: Tryon’s way to health. Additional authors, etc: Newman, Dorman, bookseller and Baldwin, Richard (d.1698), bookseller. The first edition of this work was published in 1683, under the pseudonym ‘Philotheus Physiologus,’ and both editions were issued with the additional Dialogue containing Ovid’s verses on abstention from eating flesh. Thomas Tryon was an early advocate of vegetarianism. Mystical and more than a little puritanical, he was influenced by Pythagoras and the spiritual writings of Behmen. He recommended a vegetable diet, abstinence from tobacco, alcohol, all luxuries, and notably believed in the efficacy of music in healing. Benjamin Franklin became a ‘Tryonist’ after reading The Way to Health as a youth.

See Related Record(s): 598.6

Cited references: Osler 5527; Cushing T171; NLM 17th c. #11994

John Martin M.D. Endowment