Page was born inNorridgewock, Maine on February 23, 1840.[3][4] Page was educated at the Eclectic Medical College, New York City.[1] During theAmerican Civil War, he enlisted as a private in the Thirteenth Massachusetts Volunteers.[3] He was shot in the neck atFredericksburg and for bravery was promoted as Lieutenant in the 87th Regiment, United States Colored Infantry.[1] In 1863, Page was captured byConfederates at Brazier City and was held as prisoner of war for thirteen months.[3][1] He was exchanged in 1864.[1]
He practiced medicine inBoston. Page is listed in the 1902 medical registry as a "Form B" physician, which meant that he had applied for registration before January 1, 1895 and had practiced medicine for several years inMassachusetts up to June 7, 1894. He worked as a regular physician.[5]
Page practiced hydrotherapy and defended the ideas ofSimon Baruch.[6] He was associated with thephysical culture movement and wrote articles forBernarr Macfadden'sPhysical Culture magazine.[1] He was an early advocate of therapeuticfasting, which he believed could cureobesity.[7]
Page wasan opponent ofvaccination.[1][8] He criticized thegerm theory of disease and defended the anti-vaccinationist Immanuel Pfeiffer.[8] Page promoted the idea that improvedsanitation was more effective than preventingsmallpox than vaccination. He contended that smallpox could be eliminated if slum districts, houses, and backyards were completely cleansed.[8] He 1916, he commented that the medical community were taking "coincidence for evidence", by attributing the decline in smallpox to vaccination, rather than to sanitation.[8]
^Coe, Harrie Badger. (1928).Maine, Resources, Attractions, and Its People: A History. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 840
^Walloch, Karen L. (2015).The Antivaccine Heresy: Jacobson v. Massachusetts and the Troubled History of Compulsory Vaccination in the United States. University of Rochester Press. pp. 270-271.ISBN978-1-58046-537-3
^Ward, Patricia Spain. (1994).Simon Baruch: Rebel in the Ranks of Medicine, 1840-1921. University of Alabama Press. p. 222.ISBN0-8173-0589-0
^Page, Charles Edward. (1884).The Natural Cure of Consumption. Fowler & Wells. p. 148
^abcdWalloch, Karen L. (2015).The Antivaccine Heresy: Jacobson v. Massachusetts and the Troubled History of Compulsory Vaccination in the United States. University of Rochester Press. pp. 120-121.ISBN978-1-58046-537-3
