The Regeneration of the Body: Sex, Religion and the Sublime in James Graham's Temple of Health and Hymen

James Graham opened his Temple of Health and Hymen early in 1780, in the fashionable district of Adelphi, London. In Spring, 1781, he moved it to Schomberg House, Pall Mall, where it remained until 1783. The Temple offered the sick and the curious a remarkable multimedia 'show' that combined drama, medicine, science, metaphysics, religion, music, sex and even politics. The set for this show included a 'magnificent and most powerful Medico-electrical Apparatus' that filled ten rooms (3) and a Celestial Bed guaranteed to maximise sexual pleasure and to induce conception. Actors included an Apothecary, Porters, and even a Goddess of Health (who 'posed in various stages of undress' ). At the centre of the 'show', playing a variety of roles, was the doctor himself, who claimed the power not merely 'of easing excruciating pains' but of 'snatching' the sick 'from the grave' (88). Famous for his good looks and charming personality, he claimed to be (thanks to his medical therapies) in such good health that he would live for 150 years. The Temple also offered 'genuinely libidinous lectures', delivered by Graham, and a range of the doctor's publications, with titles such as: A Lecture on the Generation, Increase, and Improvement of the Human Species; Private Medical Advice to married Ladies and Gentlemen; to those especially who are not blessed with children; A Sketch: or, Short Description of Dr. Graham's Medical Apparatus; and Il Convito Amoroso! Or, a Serio-comico-philosophical Lecture . . . To which is subjoined a Description of the stupendous Nature and Effects of the Celebrated CELESTIAL BED, delivered by Hebe Vestina!, The Rosy Goddess of Youth and of Health. Visitors could also purchase an ample supply of Graham's 'Three Great Medicines': Electrical Ether, Nervous Aetherial Balsam, and the Imperial Pills. With this much on offer, it is hardly surprising that the Temple of Health soon attracted 'overflowing audiences'. Graham's patrons included, as the 'leading fencing master' Henry Angelo noted, 'ladies as well as gentlemen of the highest rank'. In his Reminiscences, Angelo recalled Not all patrons needed to be snatched from the grave. As Graham complained: 'the greatest hindrances have arisen from multitudes crowding into the Temple of Health! under the pretence of attending sick friends, but merely to gratify their curiosity, by staring at the apparatus' (90). Graham drew on both Enlightenment and religious (both occult and more orthodox) traditions: he advertises his (fictitious) medical qualifications, his membership of the society of Freemasons (42) and his inclination towards the Quakers (51); the painted windows of the Temple of Health locate his practice in a tradition that passes from Hippocrates and Galen to Boerhaave and Sydenham (42), yet their iconography alludes to Paracelsus and the Rosicrucians (34), the 'goddess of the pure elementary fire of the philosophers', the 'anima mundi' (43), the Trinity, and the crucifixion. To make matters still more complicated, Graham mediates between religious and Enlightenment (medical-scientific) traditions by drawing on aesthetics, in particular the religious sublime exemplified by Edward Young's Night Thoughts. Graham has frequently been presented as a 'masterquack' or entertaining diversion, a footnote to medical history. When his religious beliefs are mentioned, they are usually relegated to a period some ten years after he opened the Temple of Health, during which he appears to have suffered from religious mania. His political ambitions are rarely discussed. The literary, theatrical aspects of his Temple are assimilated to the role of showman and quack: they are devices to draw an audience, promote himself, and market his medicines. Recent critics have pointed out that the distinction between 'orthodox and quack, or professional and amateur' …