They paid for it because they wanted someone to run what was then called the Western Health Reform Institute, which ultimately became the Battle Creek Sanitarium . So they could see far enough into the future to take care of things that would extend their empire.Can you talk a little bit about the sanitarium because it's in the story of the Kelloggs?
He lectured all over. The Battle Creek Sanitarium was a very popular place where tens of thousands of people came to this medical resort/spa/grand hotel/hospital because they did operations, and medical treatments, and so on.
It became bigger and better with each passing year. The Battle Creek Sanitarium was the most popular train stop on the Michigan Central Railway between Detroit and Chicago. And as I said earlier, more than 10,000 people a year came there for all sorts of therapies, and spas, and lectures.
And as I said earlier, more than 10,000 people a year came there for all sorts of therapies, and spas, and lectures. He called it a sanitarium . He made that name up-- sanitas from health, Latin for health.
Soon Cantor suffered what would be the first of many nervous breakdowns. He was confined to a sanitarium for recovery. The only way he could prove everyone wrong was by well ordering the real numbers, but he couldn't find a starting point, literally.
Again, you say the word Kellogg's a lot of folks would obviously think about the food brand or the foundation. They wouldn't necessarily think about the sanitarium itself. So can you talk a little bit about what the sanitarium was?
Sanitarium . So they could see far enough into the future to take care of things that would extend their empire.Can you talk a little bit about the sanitarium because it's in the story of the Kelloggs? And, again, if we shot back to the late 1800s, everyone would know about the Battle Creek Sanitarium .
They wouldn't necessarily think about the sanitarium itself. So can you talk a little bit about what the sanitarium was? You talked a little bit about how it started with the Whites kind of educating John and bringing him back.
But he came up with foods that were palatable because eating mushy, overcooked vegetables or grains is not really attractive. And he wanted people to eat healthy when they left the sanitarium , as well as when they were at the sanitarium . And so one of his theories was that if you took a starch in a grain and you cooked it or baked it
But he was very, very ambitious. And he kept building on and more and more to the Battle Creek Sanitarium . It became bigger and better with each passing year.
And that would be easier to digest. And a lot of people with bad stomachs would come to the sanitarium . I mean, after dyspepsia, stomach aches, constipation, autointoxication, where pieces of meat
And Will was very cheap. I think it's interesting-- so both of the brothers in their pursuit with the sanitarium then ultimately with corn flakes,
--the 1920s when it comes to medicine. Progressing forward a little bit, then so from the sanitarium in Battle Creek, where did the kind of invention of corn flakes come to be? How did that progress from kind of this health retreat to now creating what would eventually become the Kellogg's Company?
But as I wrote more and more about the book, I realized that if you told the story of John Harvey Kellogg the doctor, you had to also tell the story of his little brother Will Kellogg, the Corn Flake king, because they worked together for 25 years at the Battle Creek Sanitarium . They co-invented what became Corn Flakes.
He had to manage all these people, different types of people, doctors, nurses, orderlies, masseuses, hydrotherapists, cooks, you name it. And so you couldn't find a better place to learn how to run an international corporation like Kellogg's than running the Battle Creek Sanitarium for his brother Dr. Kellogg.
Can you talk a little bit about the sanitarium because it's in the story of the Kelloggs? And, again, if we shot back to the late 1800s, everyone would know about the Battle Creek Sanitarium . A lot of folks might not know as much about it.