Edward S. Cowles, M.D. of Portsmouth, NH Biography from A History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire (1915) Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Louise Temples - pc_genie@ix.netcom.com Copyright. All rights reserved. ************************************************************************ Full copyight notice - http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm USGenWeb Archives - http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************************ Source: A History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire and Representative Citizens by Charles A. Hazlett, Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, Ill, 1915 See a portrait of Edward S. Cowles, M.D. at http://www.usgwarchives.net/nh/rockingham/biopics/CowlesEdwardS.jpg Page 857 EDWARD S. COWLES, M. D., proprietor of Dr. Cowles' Psycho- therapeutic Sanitarium, Portsmouth, N. H., was born in the state of Virginia, Sept. 22, 1889, a son of John and Harriet (Spencer) Cowles. The father, John Cowles, was a large land owner in Virginia. He and his wife Harriet were the parents of nine children. Edward S. Cowles received his education in the public schools of Virginia; the Hampton (Va.) High Schools; the College of William and Mary, Wil- liamsburg, Va.; the University College of Medicine, Va.; and the Harvard Medical School, where he made a specialty of nervous and mental diseases. Dr. Cowles is a member of the Phi Kappa Alpha literary fraternity, and of the Phi Beta Pi medical fraternity with a Harvard Chapter. In 1914 Dr. Cowles organized the Portsmouth Peace Society in Portsmouth, N. H., with such speakers as Dr. Edwin D. Mead and Lucia Ames Mead of the World Peace Movement, William Thayer of Concord, N. H., and the Hon. Frank B. Sanborn, of Concord, Mass. Dr. Cowles' Psychotherapeutic Sanitarium was established in Portsmouth in 1912 for the treatment of nervous and mental disorders. (Psychotherapy Page 858 comes from psycho--the mind, and therapy--treatment, meaning scientific mental treatment. ) The institution consists of several buildings, delightfully situated. One building is devoted to the treatment of neurasthenia, psychas- thenia, hysteria, nervous prostration, insomnia, chronic fatigue, faulty sex habits, worry, headache, fear, self-consciousness, stammering, certain kinds of eye and ear troubles, etc. Also to those cases of heart, stomach, and bowel disorder which are due to a disturbance of the nervous system. Another building is devoted to the treatment of mental diseases, and there is a third building devoted to the treatment of alcoholic and drug cases. The craving for the drug, whether morphine or alcohol, can be eliminated in a three days treatment, but Dr. Cowles advises that the patient have mental treat- ment to strengthen his will-power and give character and strength to his emotions, personality and nervous system. Dr. Cowles, though conversant with all the psychotherapeutic methods in vogue, has evolved a method of his own which has given him the most grati- fying results. A careful examination of each patient is made and the treat- ment adapted to his individual peculiarities, every side of his nature--physical, mental, social and spiritual--being closely studied in order that the largest measure of help may be given. In each case, whatever the form of the disease, the patient is assured of receiving the best possible medical care, with the advantage of baths, proper foods, medicines, and graduated exercises; work or rest, as the individual case may require. Trained nurses are employed, and the atmosphere of the Sanitarium is distinctly that of a home, its life and activities being natural, alive, and wholesome, establishing in the mind of the patient the idea of his own normality, and making impossible the formation of artificial habits of liv- ing. In addition to nurses there are expert medical assistants, with eminent Boston specialists as consultants.