Ernest Nyssens
{{short description|Belgian homeopathic physician and writer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ernest Nyssens
| image = Ernest Nyssens.png
| birth_date = 10 July 1868
| birth_place = Chimay, Belgium
| death_date = {{d-da|14 March 1956|10 July 1868}}
| death_place = Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, Belgium
| occupation = Homeopath, writer
}}
Ernest Nyssens (10 July 1868 – 14 March 1956) was a Belgian homeopath, naturopath, theosophist and vegetarianism activist.
Biography
Nyssens studied homeopathy in the United States which he introduced to Belgium.[https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/belgium-theosophy "Belgium Theosophy"]. Theosophy World. Retrieved 6 July 2020. He was a naturopath who was interested in the ideas of Sebastian Kneipp.{{cite journal|author=Wagnon, Sylvain|year=2017|title=Les théosophes et l'organisation internationale de l'éducation nouvelle (1911-1921)|journal=Rehmlac|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316920739|volume=9|issue=1|pages=146–180|doi=10.15517/rehmlac.v9i1.28629 |doi-access=free}} In the 1930s he was a bishop in the Free Catholic Church. Nyssens was a pioneer of the theosophical movement in Belgium. In 1897 with Elisabeth Carter, he created the first theosophical branch of Brussels. Between 1910 and 1915 he was active at a naturist and theosophical institute in Ter Nood, Overijse.
Nyssens was the director of a Theosophical educational community known as "Communauté Monada" at Uccle (1921–1938). The school issued vegetarian food, had a large public garden and the countryside nearby offered beautiful walks. Nyssens taught Swedish gymnastics. The school dissolved at the beginning of World War II.
In 1935, he married Berthe Deseck-Nyssens (1891–1981), secretary general of the Belgian Theosophical Society.
Vegetarianism
Nyssens was a strict vegetarian. He founded the Belgian Vegetarian Society and edited its journal the La Reforme Alimentaire.{{cite journal|year=1910|title=An International Vegetarian Congress|journal=The Medical Critic and Guide|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015059416050&view=1up&seq=402|volume=13|issue=11|pages=392}}Fenton, Alexander. (2000). Order and Disorder: The Health Implications of Eating and Drinking in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Tuckwell Press. pp. 209-226. {{ISBN|978-1862321175}}[http://www.ivu.org/members/council/ernest-nyssens.html "Dr. Ernest Nyssens"]. International Vegetarian Union. Retrieved 6 July 2020. Nyssens authored the book Du traitement alimentaire du diabete par le regime vegétarien (1901), it was published by the French Vegetarian Society.Crossley, Ceri. (2005). Consumable Metaphors: Attitudes Towards Animals and Vegetarianism in Nineteenth-Century France. Peter Lang. p. 242. {{ISBN|978-3039101900}}
Nyssens was a member of the International Vegetarian Union (IVU) Provisional Committee in 1909 and a speaker at the 1913 IVU Congress.
Selected publications
- [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5628056v/f4.image.r=ern%20nyssens Du Traitement alimentaire du diabète] (1900)
- [https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9622206m.texteImage La Cuisine rationnelle, précis d'hygiène alimentaire] (1900)
References
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