HERR JOSEPH SALOMONSON AND HIS NEW MODE OF LIVING

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1664, 20 January 1904, Page 9 (Supplement)

HERR JOSEPH SALOMONSON AND HIS NEW MODE OF LIVING

A man with a strange mission has arrived in London from Ascona, on Lake Maggiore, Switzerland. His object is to induce English people to abandon the use of salt all liquids. He himself has not drunk of anything for two years and two months, and hopes to attain a great age by persevering with that peculiar form of abstinence. At Ascona he has founded a colony of men and women disciples, who rigorously eschew salt and liquids, work in the fields in primitive garb,- and, when the weather is suitable, sleep on the bare ground. From which they are supposed to extract natural magnetic currents.-: . ’

Herr Joseph Salcxmonson, the “reformer” in question, has already gained a number of' adherents in London and on the Continent, including several well-known physicians and scientists. He claims that the mode of living advocated by himself and his followers is the only one that is natural and healthy, and that by its adoption a man or woman may add considerably to the span of life. „ . , “There is not a sound- man an the world,” he told the writer, “and yet people who eat salt and drink water live to be as old as ninety, or even a hundred. When we -live a natural life. I see no reason why we should not attain to two hundred or two hundred and fifty years. “In. prehistoric times human beings lived to those ages, because they ate food, intended for human consumption, and what moisture they reouir©A. extracted from the air by their bodies.

“Has your health Approved, Herr Salomonson, since you abandoned eahing salt and drinking liquids ?” “Immeasurably.” was the reply. “During the twenty-six months that no drop has passed my lips I have lost in weight 621 b, but I feel younger and stronger, although I am fifty years of age.

“What are the general sensations of abstaining from liquids for a long period P” “It gives one a buoyancy of spirits like that experienced by a man who climbs a high mountain. The step is more elastic, the brain is clearer, and a sense of happiness and contentment permeates one’s being. Cares weigh

THE E. BATTERY N.Z.F.A. CAMP, HEATHCOTE VALLEY, CHRISTCHURCH.

lightly, and at any hour of the day or nigiit one is capable Of any amount oi mental or phys.cal exertion.” Salt, according to Herr Salomonson, who is a man of considerable education, is the first link in a chain of modern evils. . It leads to the eating of animal food, which in its turn necessitates the taking of liquids. “The abolition of these three so-call-ed ‘necessaries,’ ” he proceeded, “would do away with all sickness. Drugs would not be required; in fact, they would have no effect on a body built up by natural means. In this country you establish sanatoria for ailing persons, whom you continue to supply with food upon which thevery bacteria you seek to destroy thrive the best.

“Salt is not only ruinous to the body, but it is damaging to the soul and destructive of the intellect, while water or any other form of liquid is a mere burden to the stomach, and has no value at all.'”

Herr Salomonson himself is a pic-turesque-looking man, and creates a sensation whenever he appears in a. London street. He wears a long brown cassock and a pair of sandals. A great mass of hair falls over his shoulders, and his collarless neck is hidden by a long, wispy beard.'