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Author Bibliography (in progress)

Shew, Joel (1816-1855)

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Joel_Shew.pngJoel Shew was an American physician, Grahamite, hydrotherapist and natural hygiene advocate. He was born on 13 November 1816 in Providence, New York, and died on 6 October 1855 in Oyster Bay, Long Island. His death at the early age of 38 was the result of liver toxicity caused by exposure to heavy metals while working in his daguerrotype business. The consequent illness that he and his brother experienced inspired Shew's interest in medicine and physiology. With his wife, Maria Louise Shew (née Barney, 1821-1877) he established the first hydrotherapy institute in New York City in 1843; in 1845 they opened a second water-cure establishment at New Lebanon Springs near Albany, and in 1847 a third water-cure institute in Oyster Bay on Long Island. The Shews were associated with the prominent hydrotherapists and Grahamites of the time. His wife included among her close friends Mary Gove Nichols, and Edgar Allen Poe, whose wife VIrginia she tended during the final stage of consumption or tuberculosis. They divorced in 1850.

An important editor of water-cure texts promoting a vegan diet, Shew edited the American edition of William Lambe's Water and Vegetable Diet, and his wife's book, Water-cure for Ladies (1844). In 1845, Shew founded the The Water-Cure Journal  which, from 1849, was edited by Russell Trall.
IMAGE: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

PUBLICATIONS

Consumption: Its Prevention and Cure by the Water Treatment: its prevention and cure by the water treatment : with advice concerning haemorrhage from the lungs, coughs, colds, asthma, bronchitis, and sore throat. New York: Fowlers and Wells, 1851.

The Hydropathic Family Physician: a ready prescriber and hygienic adviser with reference to the nature, causes, prevention, and treatment of diseases, accidents, and casualties of every kind. New York: Fowlers and Wells, 1854.

Hydropathy, Or, The Water-Cure: its principles, modes of treatment, &c., illustrated with many cases : compiled chiefly from the most eminent European authors on the subject. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1844.

The Water-Cure Manual: a popular work : embracing descriptions of the various modes of bathing, the hygienic and curative effects of air, exercise, clothing, occupation, diet, water-drinking, &c. : together with descriptions of diseases, and the hydropathic means to be employed therein ... New York: Cady and Bubgess [sic] (late Paine and Burgess), 1847.

William Lambe, Water and Vegetable Diet in consumption, scrofula, cancer, asthma, and other chronic diseases ... (With Notes and Additions by Joel Shew). New York, Fowlers and Wells, 1850.

Marie Louise Shew, revised by Joel Shew. Water-cure for Ladies: a popular work on the health, diet, and regimen of females and children, and the prevention and cure of diseases; with a full account of the processes of water-cure; illustrated with various cases. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1844.
 

 

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