Paul Joseph Edmond Carton (12 March 1875 – 20 October 1947) was a French physician, naturopath and practitioner of

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 ...

Biography

Carton was born in

Meaux Meaux () is a commune on the river Marne in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is east-northeast of the centre of Paris. Meaux is, with Provins, Torcy and Fontainebleau, ...

. He received his medical education at the Ecole de Medecine de Paris. In 1903, Carton suffered from tuberculosis. He became disillusioned with the medical establishment and took interest in

naturopathy Naturopathy, or naturopathic medicine, is a form of alternative medicine. A wide array of pseudoscientific practices branded as "natural", "non-invasive", or promoting "self-healing" are employed by its practitioners, who are known as naturop ...

and vegetarianism which he claimed helped recover his health. Carton was a vegetarian and promoted "naturist vegetarianism". He was a member of the French Vegetarian Society.Sica, Paola. (2016). ''Futurist Women: Florence, Feminism and the New Sciences''. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 67. Naturist vegetarianism was a dieting and health system that involved abstinence from

alcohol Alcohol most commonly refers to: * Alcohol (chemistry), an organic compound in which a hydroxyl group is bound to a carbon atom * Alcohol (drug), an intoxicant found in alcoholic drinks Alcohol may also refer to: Chemicals * Ethanol, one of sev ...

drug A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...

meat Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted, farmed, and scavenged animals for meat since prehistoric times. The establishment of settlements in the Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of animals such as chic ...

, processed foods, spices and tea.Atkins, Peter J; Lummel, Peter; Oddy, Derek J. (2016). ''Food and the City in Europe Since 1800''. Routledge. pp. 222-223. It embraced natural hygienic principles,

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shou ...

hydrotherapy Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy and also called water cure, is a branch of alternative medicine (particularly naturopathy), occupational therapy, and physiotherapy, that involves the use of water for pain relief and treatment. The term ...

and prayer. Carton was influenced by

Hippocrates Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of ...

and his conception of naturism was entirely opposed to

nudism Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms a ...

which he equated with moral degradation. He advocated

asceticism Asceticism (; from the el, ἄσκησις, áskesis, exercise', 'training) is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from sensual pleasures, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their p ...

in relation to clothing, drinking, eating and sex. Carton was opposed to the overfeeding of patients. He believed that strict control of eating would allow patients to be cured. He campaigned against the consumption of

butter Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment ...

, meat and

white bread White bread typically refers to breads made from wheat flour from which the bran and the germ layers have been removed from the whole wheatberry as part of the flour grinding or milling process, producing a light-colored flour. This milling pro ...

. He operated a sanatorium at Brevannes, near Paris. The sanatorium had a laboratory for testing his dietary and hydropathic ideas. In 1921, he created the Societe Naturiste Francaise' (French Naturist Society) and in 1922 the journal ''La Revue Naturiste'' (''The Naturist Review''). He authored an influential vegetarian cookbook in 1925 which went through many editions. His recipes focused on fresh fruit and vegetables, grains and large quantities of cream and eggs. Students of Carton include André Schlemmer (1890–1973) and Jacques Chauveau.

Philosophy

Carton was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and held anti-materialist views. His ideas about naturist medicine were influenced by Catholicism and

vitalist 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 ...

philosophy. His dietary principles became known as Cartonianism. There was a religious element to his dietary principles. His belief in

original sin Original sin is the Christian doctrine that holds that humans, through the fact of birth, inherit a tainted nature in need of regeneration and a proclivity to sinful conduct. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (t ...

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

, and the Christian

sacrifice Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...

was central to his medical worldview. He held the idea that health should be earned and that pain had a purifying role. Disease was the result of violation of physical and mental laws. Carton was also interested in

occultism The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism an ...

. He believed that humans are a microcosm reflecting the macrocosm of the universe. He argued that humans are constantly evolving as the universe does and that evolution has endowed people with vast states of conscience. His philosophy combined occultism and vegetarianism into a system of mental and physical health.

Reception

Carton's health views were seen as extreme and were ignored by the medical community of his day. However, he was seen as an original thinker for mixing nutrition and vegetarianism with Christianity, occultism and

Neo-Hippocratism Neo-Hippocratism was an influential movement and was the subject of numerous conversations and theorizations between the seventeenth and mid-nineteenth centuries. The movement saw a revival in popularity with physicians after the First World War. It ...

. Historian Stephen Harp has described Carton, Jacques Demarquette, and the Durville brothers as leading advocates of naturopathy during early 20th-century France. The best-selling novel ''Corps et âmes'' (Bodies and Souls), written by French writer

Maxence Van der Meersch Maxence Van der Meersch (4 May 1907 – 14 January 1951) was a French Flemish writer. Life Maxence, of delicate health, came from a relatively well off family — his father was an accountant. On 27 October 1918, he lost his sister, Sarah, who w ...

and published in 1943, was inspired by the character and medical doctrine of Carton.

Selected publications

*''La Tuberculose par arthritisme. Étude Clinique. Traitement rationnel et pratique'' (1911) *''Les Trois Aliments meurtriers: la viande, le sucre, l'alcool'' (1912), translated ''The Three Lethal Foods: Meat, Sugar and Alcohol'' *''Consumption Doomed'' (translated by

Dorothy Richardson Dorothy Miller Richardson (17 May 1873 – 17 June 1957) was a British author and journalist. Author of ''Pilgrimage'', a sequence of 13 semi-autobiographical novels published between 1915 and 1967—though Richardson saw them as chapters of o ...

, 1913) *''Some Popular Foodstuffs Exposed'' (translated by

, 1913) *''La Cure de soleil et d'exercices'' (1917) *''Traité de médecine, d'alimentation et d'hygiène naturistes'' (1920) *''Le Dialogue de la santé'' (1922) *''Le Naturisme dans Sénèque'' (1922) *''Bienheureux Ceux qui souffrent'' (1923) *''L'Essentiel de la doctrine d'Hippocrate'' (1923) *''La Cuisine simple'' (1925), (translated by Elizabeth Lucas as ''Simple Vegetarian Cookery'', 1931) *''Le Faux Naturisme de Jean-Jacques Rousseau'' (1931)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carton, Paul 1875 births 1947 deaths 20th-century French physicians French cookbook writers French medical writers French male non-fiction writers French vegetarianism activists Hydrotherapists Naturopaths Orthopaths Pseudoscientific diet advocates Simple living advocates Tea critics Vegetarian cookbook writers Vitalists