Larkin B. Coles

Larkin Baker Coles
Born	1803 New Hampshire
Died	1856 Louisville, Kentucky
Occupation(s)	Physician, minister

Larkin Baker Coles (1803 – 1856) was an American physician, minister, Millerite preacher, anti-tobacco activist and vegetarian.

Biography

Front cover of Philosophy of Health, 1857 edition

Coles was born in New Hampshire.[1] He graduated from Castleton Medical College in 1825. He trained as a minister and was associated with William Miller.[1] Coles married Sarah Marshall Dyar on February 14, 1827. They had five children of whom two died in early youth.[2] He resided in Boston in 1844 and joined the Boston Medical Society and the Massachusetts Medical Society.[1]

Coles' best known work was Philosophy of Health, first published in 1848 which went through many editions.[3] It had sold 35,000 copies during its first 5 years. The twenty-sixth edition appeared in 1851. The book espoused Christian health reform with arguments for exercise, fresh air, vegetarianism, non-use of stimulants, sexual purity and drugless medicine. Coles defended vegetarianism from a nutritional, physiological and religious basis.[3]

Coles died in January 1856, whilst visiting Louisville, Kentucky.[1]

Anti-tobacco activism

Coles was an early crusader against tobacco. He authored The Beauties and Deformities of Tobacco-Using in 1853, which described tobacco as "a deadly narcotic".

Influence on Ellen G. White

Coles's health views influenced Ellen G. White.[1] White frequently lifted passages from Coles's work without attribution.[1][4][5]

Selected publications

• Philosophy of Health: Natural Principles of Health and Cure (1848, 1854)
• The Beauties and Deformities of Tobacco-Using (1853)

References

1. Numbers, Ronald L. (2008). Prophetess of Health: A Study of Ellen G. White. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. pp. 108-110. ISBN 978-0-8028-0395-5
2. Dyar, Harrison G. (1903). A Preliminary Genealogy of the Dyar Family. Washington, D.C. p. 17
3. Hoolihan, Christopher. (2001). An Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine and Health Reform, Volume 1. University of Rochester Press. p. 187. ISBN 1-58046-098-4
4. Armstrong, David. (1991). The Great American Medicine Show. Prentice Hall. p. 102. ISBN 978-0133640274
5. Davis, Robert. (2008). The Healthy Skeptic: Cutting through the Hype about Your Health. University of California Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-520-24918-9