Andrea Carlo Francisco Rabagliati (1843 in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

– 7 December 1930 in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) was a

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and author of books on dietary practice.

Career

Andrea Rabagliati was the son of Giacomo Rabagliati, a political refugee from Italy, and Caroline Kinnison. Giacomo first appeared in an article in the ''Scotsman'' newspaper in December 1827, offering his services as a teacher of French, Italian, and Spanish. The ''Scotsman'' stated, "suffice it to say, that he (Giacomo) is expatriated from Italy for having carried arms in defence of the liberties of his country, and seeks an asylum and a field for the exercise of his talents in the city." Andrea graduated with a Master of Arts from the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, spent some time in

Demerara Demerara ( nl, Demerary, ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state fro ...

in what was then

British Guyana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was ...

, then arrived in Bradford as a young house surgeon at the Royal Infirmary. He was invested as a Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (F.R.C.S.E.). He lived in Whinbrae, Ben Rhydding, Yorkshire, England. He married Helen Priscilla McLaren, daughter of Duncan McLaren and

Priscilla Bright McLaren Priscilla Bright McLaren (8 September 1815 – 5 November 1906) was a British activist who served and linked the anti-slavery movement with the women's suffrage movement in the nineteenth century. She was a member of the Edinburgh Ladies' Emanci ...

(sister of

John Bright John Bright (16 November 1811 – 27 March 1889) was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, one of the greatest orators of his generation and a promoter of free trade policies. A Quaker, Bright is most famous for battling the Corn Laws ...

), on 25 May 1877. She was the President of Ben Rhydding Women's Unionist Association for 28 years and of the Wharfedale Conservative Women's Club for several years after World War One. They had five children including

Euan Rabagliati Cuthbert Euan Charles Rabagliati, , (1 January 1892 – 6 January 1978) was a British soldier, pilot, race car driver and intelligence officer. He served in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) during the First World War and is credited as being the firs ...

, Duncan Silvestro Rabagliati OBE, Catherine Rabagliati MBE (Mayor of Paddington) and Herman Victor Rabagliati.

Dieting

Rabagliati has been described as an advocate of

alternative medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

and the " nature cure". Biographer Carole Seymour-Jones has noted that in his book ''Air, Food and Exercise'', Rabagliati described how "cancer, influenza, pneumonia and almost all modern diseases could be cured by diet." Rabagliati was a convinced vegetarian, who favoured two meals a day, with eight hours between them. One of his notable patients was

Beatrice Webb Martha Beatrice Webb, Baroness Passfield, (née Potter; 22 January 1858 – 30 April 1943) was an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer. It was Webb who coined the term ''collective bargaining''. She ...

. She was prescribed a milk and soup diet with two ounces of rice for a few weeks. She was influenced by this diet and in 1902 converted to

vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism may ...

.Preece, Rod. (2011). ''Animal Sensibility and Inclusive Justice in the Age of Bernard Shaw''. UBC Press. p. 205. Rabagliati believed that people could add fifteen years to their lives by following his diet. Rabagliati held some unorthodox ideas, for example he believed that bodily energy and heat do not come from any food source. Instead he speculated that humans obtain "vital energy" from sleeping. He authored a book about this in 1907 and wrote the introduction to

Hereward Carrington Hereward Carrington (17 October 1880 – 26 December 1958) was a well-known British-born American investigator of psychic phenomena and author. His subjects included several of the most high-profile cases of apparent psychic ability of his times, ...

's ''Vitality, Fasting and Nutrition'', which expounded on these ideas. A review in the ''

Edinburgh Medical Journal The ''Scottish Medical Journal'' is a general medical journal, which publishes original research in all branches of medicine, review articles, history of medicine articles, and clinical memoranda. The editor-in-chief is Ghulam Nabi (University ...

'', suggested he was advocating a "modified form of

vitalism Vitalism is a belief that starts from the premise that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things." Wher ...

". His 1907 book was mocked in the ''Scottish Medical and Surgical Journal'', which commented "we are in doubt as to whether to take this book seriously or not. If the latter, it is one of the best scientific jokes perpetrated for many a day."Anonymous. (1907). ''The Functions of Food in the Body: Does Either Bodily Energy or Bodily Heat come from the Food? By A. Rabagliati''. ''Scottish Medical and Surgical Journal'' 20: 479.

Publications

*''Aphorisms, Definitions, Reflections, and Paradoxes, Medical, Surgical and Dietetic'' (1901), Bailliere, Tindall and Cox, 291p
''Air, Food and Exercises;: An Essay on the Predisposing Causes of Disease''
(1904, 3rd Edition)
''The Functions of Food in the Body: Does Either Bodily Energy or Bodily Heat Come From the Food?''
(1907), Elliot Stock, London, 46p
''Conversations With Women Regarding their Health and that of their Children''
(1912), C.W.Daniel, London, 318p *''Initis Or Nutrition and Exercises'' (1930, 2nd Edition), C. W. Daniel Company, London, 200p *''Towards Life: Happy, Healthy, Efficient'' (1923), C. W. Daniel Company, London, 224p, * ''A Catechism of Health'' (1928) C. W. Daniel Company, London. *''A New Theory of Energy (Paperback)'' (2005 reprint), Kessinger Publishing, 48p,

Career

Dieting

Publications

References

Further reading