Joseph Wallace (vegetarian)

Joseph Wallace
Portrait from Fifty Years of Food Reform (1898)
Bornc. 1821
Ireland
Died (aged 89)
London, England
Resting place
Brookwood Cemetery
Other nameLex et Lux
Occupations
  • Alternative medicine practitioner
  • patent medicine creator
  • writer
  • activist
Known forVegetarianism and anti-vaccination activism
Spouse
​
(m. 1878)​
Children7

Joseph Wallace (c. 1821 – 29 April 1910) was an Irish-British alternative medicine practitioner, patent medicine creator, writer and activist. He promoted the "Wallace system", a regimen based on a vegetarian diet without fermented foods, and sold patent medicines while offering consultations. With his wife, Chandos Leigh Hunt, he co-authored Physianthropy (1885) under the pseudonym Lex et Lux.

Biography

Wallace first worked in malting and distilling.[1] He later devised the "Wallace system", which he described as a method for the cure and eradication of disease.[1][2] The system used a vegetarian diet without fermented foods; its adherents were known as "Wallaceites".[3] Wallace patented, prepared and sold medicines, and provided consultations.[4]

In 1878, Wallace married Chandos Leigh Hunt, who had been his patient and pupil.[5][6] In 1885, they co-authored Physianthropy: Or, the Home Cure and Eradication of Disease, using the pseudonym "Lex et Lux".[2]

In October 1905, Wallace attended a meeting at Congregational Memorial Hall, London, for octogenarian vegetarians. Speakers included Wallace, then aged 84, C. P. Newcombe, T. A. Hanson, Samuel Saunders, John E. B. Mayor and Samuel Pitman, brother of Isaac Pitman.[7]

Wallace died at Russell Square, London, on 29 April 1910, aged 89.[8][9] He was buried at Brookwood Cemetery on 3 May.[8]

Legacy

Wallace and his wife were profiled in Charles W. Forward's Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England (1898).[1] Rollo Russell cited Wallace's dietary recommendations in the "Medical Testimony" section of his 1906 book Strength and Diet.[10] C. P. Newcombe's The Manifesto of Vegetarianism (1911) contains a memorial dedication to Wallace.[11]

Publications

  • Physianthropy: Or, the Home Cure and Eradication of Disease (as Lex et Lux; with C. Leigh Hunt Wallace; 1885)
  • Wallace's Complete Series of Twelve Specific Remedies for the Absolute Eradication of All Diseases, etc. (1885)
  • Fermentation: The Primary Cause of Disease in Man and Animals[12]
  • Cholera: Its Prevention and Home Cure[12]
  • The Necessity of Smallpox as an Eradicator of Organic Disease[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Forward, Charles Walter (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England. London: The Ideal Publishing Union. pp. 132–134.
  2. 1 2 Korshelt, Oskar (1890). The Wallace System of Cure (PDF). Glasgow: H. Nisbet & Co. p. 5.
  3. ↑ Miller, E. P. (January 1906). "Vegetarianism Spreading among the Upper Ten in London". The Phrenological Journal and Science of Health. 119 (1).
  4. ↑ Davis, Sally (16 October 2019). "Isabel De Steiger's Art Works Alphabetical by Title". Roger Wright & Sally Davis. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  5. ↑ Owen, Alex (2004). The Darkened Room: Women, Power, and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 134. ISBN 0-226-64205-4.
  6. ↑ Elsley, Susan Jennifer (April 2012). Images of the witch in nineteenth-century culture (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Liverpool. p. 187. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 December 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2026.
  7. ↑ "Diet and Longevity" (PDF). Herald of the Golden Age. 10 (4): 75. October 1905 – via IAPSOP.
  8. 1 2 "Deaths (continued)". The Times. 2 May 1910. p. 1. Retrieved 27 January 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Deaths Jun 1910: Wallace, Joseph". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 27 January 2025.
  10. ↑ Russell, Francis Albert Rollo (1906). Strength and Diet: A Practical Treatise with Special Regard to the Life of Nations. London: Longmans, Green. p. 390.
  11. ↑ "The manifesto of vegetarianism / by C.P. Newcombe". Wellcome Collection. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
  12. 1 2 3 Daniel, Florence (1917). The Healthy Life Cook Book. London: C. W. Daniel. p. 121.
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