Temple of Health
During a research tour of Europe in the summer of 1779 Dr Graham acquired a new patron in Lady Spencer, mother of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. In May 1780, Graham opened his first Temple of Health, housed in a magnificent building in the centre of the Adam brothers’ speculative development at the Adelphi. Here he displayed his extraordinarily elaborate electro-magnetic apparatus, treated patients with musical therapy and pneumatic chemistry as well as electricity and magnetism, published marriage guidance material, gave medical lectures and sold medicines such as “Electrical Aether” and “Nervous Aetherial Balsam.” He performed with the help of a succession of Goddesses of Health, displayed as models of physical perfection. The young Emma Hamilton (then known as Emy Lyon), who eventually became Lord Nelson's mistress, is thought to have been employed as the goddess Vestina. His gigantic porters were quickly nicknamed Gog and Magog, after the Guildhall Giants. The Temple of Health was a huge success and Graham became the talk of London, featuring in satirical plays, poems, prints and newspaper skits. During the 1780s he was publicly associated with well-known society figures such as Charles James Fox, John Wilkes, the Duke of Richmond, Admiral Keppel, the Duchess of Devonshire, leading courtesans such as Mary Darby Robinson ("Perdita") and Elizabeth Armistead, and other borderline showmen including Gustavus Katterfelto, Philip Astley and Philip de Loutherbourg.
Read more about this topic: James Graham (sexologist)
Famous quotes containing the words temple and/or health:
“But what we gain’d in Skill we lost in Strength.
Our Builders were with Want of Genius curst;
The second Temple was not like the first;
Till you, the best Vitruvius, come at length,
Our Beauties equal, but excel our Strength.”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)
“I am astonished at the singular pertinacity and endurance of our lives. The miracle is, that what is is, when it is so difficult, if not impossible, for anything else to be; that we walk on in our particular paths so far, before we fall on death and fate, merely because we must walk in some path; that every man can get a living, and so few can do anything more. So much only can I accomplish ere health and strength are gone, and yet this suffices.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)