View source for Larkin B. Coles

{{short description|American physician}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name       = Larkin Baker Coles
| image      = 
|birth_date  = 1803
|birth_place = [[New Hampshire]]
|death_date  = 1856
|death_place = [[Louisville, Kentucky]]
| occupation = Physician, minister}}

'''Larkin Baker Coles''' (1803 – 1856) was an American [[physician]], minister, [[Millerism|Millerite]] preacher, [[Tobacco control|anti-tobacco]] activist and [[Vegetarianism|vegetarian]].

==Biography== 
[[File:Larkin Coles Philosophy of Health.png|thumb|Front cover of ''Philosophy of Health'', 1857 edition]]
Coles was born in [[New Hampshire]].<ref name="Numbers">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}}</ref> He graduated from [[Castleton Medical College]] in 1825. He trained as a minister and was associated with [[William Miller (preacher)|William Miller]].<ref name="Numbers"/> Coles married Sarah Marshall Dyar on February 14, 1827. They had five children of whom two died in early youth.<ref>Dyar, Harrison G. (1903). [https://archive.org/details/preliminarygenea03dyar/page/16/mode/2up ''A Preliminary Genealogy of the Dyar Family'']. Washington, D.C. p. 17</ref> He resided in [[Boston]] in 1844 and joined the Boston Medical Society and the Massachusetts Medical Society.<ref name="Numbers"/>

Coles' best known work was ''Philosophy of Health'', first published in 1848 which went through many editions.<ref name="Hoolihan">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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Hoolihan"/>

Coles died in January 1856, whilst visiting [[Louisville, Kentucky]].<ref name="Numbers"/>

==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]].<ref name="Numbers"/> White frequently lifted passages from Coles's work without attribution.<ref name="Numbers"/><ref>Armstrong, David. (1991). ''The Great American Medicine Show''. Prentice Hall. p. 102. {{ISBN|978-0133640274}}</ref><ref>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}}</ref>

==Selected publications==

*[https://archive.org/details/101506243.nlm.nih.gov/mode/2up ''Philosophy of Health: Natural Principles of Health and Cure''] (1848, 1854)
*[https://archive.org/details/60540280R.nlm.nih.gov/page/n3/mode/2up ''The Beauties and Deformities of Tobacco-Using''] (1853)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Vegetarianism|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coles, Larkin B.}}
[[Category:1803 births]]
[[Category:1856 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century American physicians]]
[[Category:American vegetarianism activists]]
[[Category:Anti-smoking activists]]
[[Category:Millerites]]
[[Category:Orthopaths]]
[[Category:Physicians from New Hampshire]]