Emmet Densmore (May 19, 1837 – March 2, 1911) was an American businessman, physician and natural hygiene advocate who promoted an early version of the

Paleolithic diet The Paleolithic diet, Paleo diet, caveman diet, or stone-age diet is a modern fad diet consisting of foods thought by its proponents to mirror those eaten by humans during the Paleolithic era. The diet avoids processed food and typically incl ...

Biography

Densmore was born in

Crawford County, Pennsylvania Crawford County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 83,938. Its county seat is Meadville. The county was created on March 12, 1800, from part of Allegheny County and named for Colonel Wi ...

. He was the son of Joel and Sophia Densmore.Anonymous. (1910)
''Men and Women of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporaries''
L. R. Hamersly & Company. p. 485 In his youth he worked at his father's sawmill and worked as a printer at

Meadville, Pennsylvania Meadville is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. The city is within of Erie and within of Pittsburgh. It was the first permanent settlement in Northwestern Pennsylvania. The population was 13,388 at the 2010 censu ...

.Crossman, T. E. (1911)
''Proceedings of the National Wholesale Druggists' Association Thirty-Seventh Annual Meeting at New York City''
New York: Burr Printing House. pp. 190–191 Densmore spent two years at Allegheny College. In 1862, he developed with his brothers one of the first successful oil wells in Oil Creek, Pennsylvania. He bought and sold oil wells and for several years worked with his brother

James Densmore James Densmore (February 3, 1820 – September 16, 1889) was an American businessman, inventor and vegetarian. He was a business associate of Christopher Sholes, who along with Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soule helped contribute to inventing one ...

in developing the Sholes typewriter. This typewriter later became known as the Remington typewriter. During 1871–1872, Densmore owned British patents for the typewriter and introduced it to London. In 1885, he developed with his brother Amos, the Densmore typewriter. The first Densmore typewriter appeared on the market in 1891. Densmore obtained his M.D. from the New York University Medical College in 1885. He was President of Garfield Tea Company, Brooklyn which produced "Garfield Tea", made entirely from herbs.Anonymous. (1911)
''Emmet Densmore, Of Garfield Tea Co. Dead''
''The Pharmaceutical Era'' 44 (4): 169.Hutto, Richard Jay. (2018). ''A Poisoned Life: Florence Chandler Maybrick, the First American Woman Sentenced to Death in England''. McFarland. p. 133. Densmore married several times. He married Elizabeth Heard in 1855, Helen Barnard in 1881 and Mabelle Hoff in 1905. He owned a 110-acre ranch in Los Alamitos, the majority of land consisted of fruit trees.Guinn, James Miller. (1902)
''Historical and Biographical Record of Southern California''
Chapman Publishing Company. pp. 1216–1217 He was President of the Barnard Densmore Company which manufactured

distilled water Distilled water is water that has been boiled into vapor and condensed back into liquid in a separate container. Impurities in the original water that do not boil below or near the boiling point of water remain in the original container. Thus, di ...

and preserved fruits in Los Angeles. Densmore was a believer in

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

and

spiritualist Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century The ''long nineteenth century'' i ...

phenomena. He wrote the introduction to

Hudson Tuttle Hudson Tuttle (October 4, 1836 – December 14, 1910) was American Spiritualism, Spiritualist author, publisher, and lecturer. He was constantly connected, as editor or contributor, with reform and spiritualistic journals. Hudson Tuttle was bo ...

's book ''Arcana of Nature''. Densmore was a proponent of

intelligent design Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for its bold attempt to ...

. He commented that "I am one of those unfashionable scientists who perceive design in the universe. It does not matter what title we give the Supreme Ruler: Natural Law, or God, or what you will: there seems to me conclusive evidence of intelligent design in the Great Artificer."

Dieting

Densmore promoted a fruit and meat diet, which he believed was the natural food of primal man.Anonymous. (1893)
''Review: How Nature Cures''
''The Medical Standard'' 13: 93.Johnson, Adrienne Rose (2016). ''Paleo Diets and Utopian Dreams''. ''Skeptic''. 21 (3): 11–12. He stated that "bread is the staff of death". Densmore opposed the consumption of bread, cereal,

pulses In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...

and vegetables. He believed that all

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets ...

foods were not beneficial and urged the use of sweet fruits in their place.Anonymous. (1893)
''Review: How Nature Cures, Comprising New System of Hygiene; Also, The Natural Food of Man''
''

The Popular Science Monthly ''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, inclu ...

'' 43: 417. His recommended diet consisted of fruit, meat, nuts, fish, eggs and milk. He believed that the natural life of man should be 120 years. Densmore was a fierce opponent of the medical profession and vegetarianism. He opposed the use of all drugs and believed that dietetic and natural hygienic measures could cure disease.Brown, P. S. (1988)
''Nineteenth-Century American Health Reformers and the Early Nature Cure Movement in Britain''
''

Medical History The medical history, case history, or anamnesis (from Greek: ἀνά, ''aná'', "open", and μνήσις, ''mnesis'', "memory") of a patient is information gained by a physician by asking specific questions, either to the patient or to other peo ...

'' 32: 174–194. He advocated

fasting Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see " Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after ...

as a treatment for illness. Densmore authored the book ''The Natural Food of Man'', and moved to Britain just before 1890. His book was influential to

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

. Medical experts criticized the book for promoting a

fad diet A fad diet is a diet that becomes popular for a short time, similar to fads in fashion, without being a standard dietary recommendation, and often making unreasonable claims for fast weight loss or health improvements. There is no single defini ...

. A review in the ''Edinburgh Medical Journal'', noted that Densmore's belief that

carbohydrate In organic chemistry, a carbohydrate () is a biomolecule consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms, usually with a hydrogen–oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 (as in water) and thus with the empirical formula (where ''m'' may or ma ...

foods are injurious to health is not supported by

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

and "in demolishing a vegetarian fad, it seems to us Dr Densmore is only constructing another fad of his own." Densmore argued that cereals were "unnatural and disease-inducing foods". Articles were published that contested his "anticerealism". James Burn described his diet as "anti-vegetarian quackery". Densmore edited the London monthly magazine, ''Natural Food'' (1890–1895) and with his wife Helen, edited the health magazine ''Earnest Words''.Anonymous. (1920)
''Who Was Who 1897–1916''
A & C Black Limited. p. 191 In 1890, Densmore and Helen founded the Natural Food Society in London which offered a system of dietary principles that was more enjoyable and practical than "orthodox vegetarianism or the ordinary fare".

Death

Contradictory information exists about Densmore's death. Obituaries in several medical journals and newspapers have stated that Densmore died at

Cassadaga, Florida Cassadaga (a Seneca Indian word meaning ''"Water beneath the rocks"'') is a small unincorporated community located in Volusia County, Florida, United States, just north of Deltona. It is especially known for having many psychics and mediums, and ...

after two years of illness on February 18, 1911. The ''American Library Annual'' lists his date of death as March 2, 1911, in New York.Anonymous. (1912)
''The American Library Annual''
New York: Office of the Publishers' Weekly. p. 75 Densmore left a large part of his fortune to the

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...

. He requested for his body to be given to a medical school for dissection.

Publications

''The Natural Food of Man: A Brief Statement of the Principal Arguments Against the Use of Bread, Cereals, Pulses, and All Other Starch Foods''
(1890)
''How Nature Cures''
(1892)
''Fruit as Food''
(1896)
''Consumption and Chronic Diseases''
(1899)
''Sex Equality: A Solution of the Woman Problem''
(1907)

Biography

Dieting

Death

Publications

References

Further reading