Charles Reinhardt

Charles Emmanuel Reinhardt (1868–1920) was a British physician, animal welfare activist and anti-vivisectionist.

Charles Reinhardt
Born	Charles Emmanuel Reinhardt 1868
Died	1920
Occupation(s)	Physician, writer

Biography

Reinhardt was the first physician to advocate open-air treatment in England.^[1] He established the Hailey Open-Air Sanatorium at Ipsden, Wallingford and acted as visiting physician.^[2][3] The sanatorium contained a number of sleeping chalets.^[3] He was Honorary Secretary of the Open-Air League and co-authored a handbook on open air treatment.^[4][5][6] In his book Diet and the Maximum Duration of Life, Reinhardt argued that colon cleansing was responsible for postponing old age.^[7][8] Reinhardt was influenced by the research of Élie Metchnikoff and was one of the earliest physicians to promote the consumption of yoghurt.^[9] In his book 120 Years of Life: The Book of the Sour Milk Treatment (1910), he described yogurt as the "deliberate employment of microbes which confer a benefit upon their human host."^[9]

He changed his second name to Reinhardt-Rutland in August 1914.^[10] He took the name from his great grandmother Jane Rutland (1703–1799).^[11]

Animal welfare

Reinhardt was an anti-vivisectionist.^[8] He was associated with the National Anti-Vivisection Society.^[12] He served as Chairman for the Council of Justice to Animals^[13] and was an executive committee member for the Horses and Drivers' Aid Committee. In 1912, Reinhardt attended a meeting at Torre Abbey in which he defended animals as akin to humans because they feel pain and experience suffering.^[14] Reinhardt opposed excessive meat eating but promoted dairy products.^[7]

Selected publications

• A Handbook of the Open-Air Treatment and Life in an Open-Air Sanatorium (with David Thomson, 1902)
• The Consumptive Poor of England: A Problem and a Solution (1905)
• Notes on the Open-Air Treatment of Consumption (1906)
• 120 years of Life: The Book of the Sour Milk Treatment (1909)
• Elixir Vitæ Nova: A Treatise Upon the Use of Lactic Ferments (1909)
• Diet and the Maximum Duration of Life (1910)
• A Plea for the Humane Slaughter of Animals Used for Food (1911)
• Old Friends in Hard Times: A Little Book for Lovers of Animals (1912)
• The Seventh Son (1912)
• Mental Therapeutics: Or, Faith, Medicine, and the Mind (1914)