Susanna Way Dodds

Susanna Way Dodds (November 10, 1830 – January 20, 1911) was an American physician, hydrotherapist and natural hygiene proponent.

Biography Dodds was born in Randolph County, near Richmond, Indiana. She was a vegetarian and advocate of women's rights. Dodds was the fourth woman in America to become a physician.

Dodds' sister-in-law Mary was also a physician. Dodds and her husband Andrew espoused a hygienic method of treating disease. In 1878, Dodds and her sister opened a sanitarium, the Dodds' Hygeian Home. In 1887, they established the Hygienic College of Physicians and Surgeons in St. Louis, Missouri. They focused on "natural methods of treatment: diet, exercise, massage, electricity and hydrotherapy in all of its manifold applications".

Dodds was Vice-President of the Vegetarian Society of America. Natural hygienist Herbert M. Shelton was influenced by Dodds. After Dodds died in 1911, her sister continued to manage the Hygienic College until she sold it in 1912.

Publications

The Diet Question (1884) Health in the Household: Or, Hygienic Cookery (1891) Race Culture: Mother and Child (1910) Drugless Medicine: Hygeiotherapy (1915)