Paul Joseph Edmond Carton 1875 – 1947

Paul Joseph Edmond Carton 1875 – 1947 MD was a French orthodox physician who became the founder of the Hippocratic Foundation after he recovered from tuberculosis,

Carton was a colleague of Robert Dufilho,

Paul Carton, physician assistant of Hospice Brévannes, became the initiator of a natural medicine based on the principles of Hippocrates.

The Hippocratic method differs from conventional medicine insofar as it defines the different causes of disease. According to Paul Carton, the real causes of all disease originates in the immune system rendered deficient by poor hygiene and/or lifestyle (diet, lifestyle, physical activity and work …).

In this perspective, the microbial invasions (including tuberculosis) are then a consequence of one opportunist abnormal weakening the body. He summarized this approach in a phrase he used often: “The microbe is nothing, the terrain is everything.”

In this regard, Paul Carton blamed the medicine of his era, marked by recent discoveries of Louis Pasteur, to think of only treating symptoms of diseases rather than their origin.

As for prevention for the cure of diseases, the treatment advocated by Paul Carton is: detoxify the body of the patient by making him stop behavior harmful to his health (eg, the nutritional point of view, Paul Carton recommended to avoid alcohol and any excess meat and sugar, which he described of “food murderers,“…

At this stage, rest and fasting (total or partial, depending on the physical constitution of the patient) are accompanying measures often prescribed. Once his body cleansed of toxins and/or infection, the patient will strengthen its defenses and improve its fitness by gradually adopting a healthy life, more in line with the laws of nature and one that would suit his temperament.

However, Dr. Carton recommended to avoid abrupt changes because “the body becomes accustomed to its poison”; bad habits changed too radically overnight, potentially make one even more sick than relieve the problem.

Paul Carton also believed that most drugs, vaccines and prescribed medicine is often more harmful than beneficial to the body, especially because of all the side effects they cause, which would not hamper the immune system already affected by the disease itself, which could delay healing or make only apparent and temporary.

Similarly, he considered that surgery should be avoided wherever possible and practiced only as a last resort during acute conditions, only if the lifestyle harm caused irreversible damage or too important to consider remission autonomous.

Beyond a simple method of natural care, the method of Paul Carton claims a holistic approach to person, including its spiritual dimension. To deal effectively Carton insisted on the need to individualize care, adapt, and actively involve the patient in treatment, especially since the requirements often challenge most aspects of the way life.

Therefore, a significant part of his work focused on observing and understanding the temperaments of Hippocrates: Bilious, Nervous, Blood, Lymphatic. It envisages complex types that descend hierarchically these four temperaments to describe the personality bio-typology of the individual.

The features for this classification are related to body measurements. Carton also uses physiognomy, the palmistry and graphology.

He wrote a book on graphology: The Diagnosis of thinking through writing. He founded the journal Nature in January 1922 and published several books cooking. His cookbook was a bestseller.

The famous writer Maxence Van Der Meersch issued a tribute to Paul Carton in his two books: the novel Body and Soul (1943) and Why I wrote Body and Soul, trial defense of Medicine cartonienne (1956).

Maxence Van Der Meersch founded after Carton’s death a newsletter of the Friends of Dr. Carton aired from 1948 to 1950 under the name Keep. A few years after the death of Paul Carton, a little magazine The tale of the spiritual and natural law (Witness), based on his work, was created.  Maxence Van Der Meersch continued to perpetuate the work and defend the ideas of Paul Carton. This quarterly journal provides a link between the sympathizers of medicine Hippocratic cartonienne.

Carton wrote Simple vegetarian cookery, La Tuberculose par arthritisme, Some popular foodstuffs exposed, The ten commandments of health and happiness, Consumption doomed: A lecture on the cure of tuberculosis by vegetarianism, L’Art médical, Le faux naturisme de Jean-Jacques Rousseau, La cuisine simple, Diagnostic et conduite des tempéraments, La météorologie et ses applications dans les pays tropicaux, La santé aux colonies: une expérience de la doctrine hippocratique, La cure de soleil et d’exercices chez les enfants, Alimentation, hygiène et thérapeutique infantiles en exemples, Les trois aliments meurtriers, Enseignements naturistes, Le naturisme dans Sénèque, Le guide de la vieillesse: méthode hippocratique-cartonienne, L’Essentiel de la doctrine d’Hippocrate: extrait de ses oeuvres, Traité de médecine d’alimentation et d’hygiène naturistes, Dictionnaire de graphologie, Le Décalogue de la santé, Le Diagnostic de la mentalité par l’écriture, La science occulte et les sciences occultes, Tegen de tuberculose, Bienheureux ceux qui souffrent, La vie sage: commentaire sur les vers d’or des Pythagoriciens, Les clefs du diagnostic de l’individualité, Enseignements et traitements naturistes pratiques, L’apprentissage de la santé: histoire d’une création et d’une défense, Soins dentaires individualisés, Contribution à l’étude des modifications, La synthèse libératrice naturiste, Diagnostic et conduite des temperaments, Vingt-et-un préceptes de bonne conduite à l’usage des enfants, Les règles du traitement mental, Le Climat et L’homme, Étude médicale et commerciale de culture fruitière, Statistique de la maternité de l’Hôtel-Dieu, Deux maîtres de la méthode naturelle, and many others,