W. R. C. Latson

William Richard Cunningham Latson (1866 – May 11, 1911) was an American

He was a member of the Advisory Board for the American Bureau of Personal and Vocational Psychology.[3] Latson was associated with the Health-Culture Company and was editor of their magazine Health Culture.^[1] Latson was married to Beatrice Cochrane Knountz, they divorced in 1906.^[4]

Latson was interested in physical culture and was considered an expert on self-defense. During the early 20th-century he authored many newspaper articles on boxing, exercise and self-defense. In 1906, Percy Claude Byron was commissioned to take a series of studio photographs depicting "Dr. Latson's Method of Self Defense".^[5] They appeared in The Denver Post as illustrations in a June 11, 1911 article titled "When a Thug Attacks You".^[6] The photographs were published many years later in the book Once Upon a City: New York 1890 to 1910, in 1958 and in the June, 1972 issue of the American Heritage magazine.^[5]

Latson took interest in Hindu occultism and oriental mysticism. He described himself as an "esoteric psychologist".^[7] Historian Robert Love commented that Latson in his office at Riverside Drive "presided over elaborate secret rituals — Hindu dancing included — designed to free his female patients from their libidinal restraints."^[8]

Vegetarianism

Latson was a vegetarian. In 1900, he authored Food Value of Meat, Flesh Food Not Essential to Mental or Physical Vigor, which argued that mental and physical health can be attained without the consumption of meat.^[9] Latson noted that all the food elements in meat can be obtained from non-flesh products such as cereals, fruits, nuts and vegetables.^[9] The book was positively reviewed in the Medical Record for presenting the "physiological and chemical facts relating to the subject in a pleasing, readable manner".^[10]

Death

Latson is alleged to have had an affair with Alta Marhevka (real name Ida Rosenthal), his secretary.^[5] Marhevka was fascinated by oriental mysticism, occultism and theosophy.^[11][12] She described Latson as her "Man God".^[13] Marhevka changed her name and renounced her Jewish faith after studying oriental mysticism with Latson.^[14][15][16] Latson was found dead with a gunshot to the head, in his apartment at 660 Riverside Drive on May, 11, 1911.^[17] Although a suicide note was found, suspicion was pointed to Marhevka the last person to visit his apartment. A few days later she attempted suicide and was arrested.^[18] Marhevka believed that Latson had survived physical death and she would meet his soul on the astral plane. She stated that they intended to commit suicide together.^[11] An autopsy found that Latson had taken poison before he shot himself.^[19]

The coroner's jury returned a verdict that Latson's death was suicide and Marhevka was cleared from all suspicion.^[20] After being charged with her own attempted suicide, Markevka denied she made a suicide pact with Latson and that her own attempt was due to an unwell state of mind at the time.^[14][21] In court, she said that her attempted suicide was a "most foolish act" and she wanted to move on with her life and forget the incident.^[12]

Selected publications

• Practical Dietetics: Food Value of Meat, Flesh Food Not Essential to Mental or Physical Vigor (1900)
• Common Disorders with Rational Methods of Treatment (1904)
• Walking for Exercise and Recreation (1905)
• The Attainment of Efficiency (1910)
• The Enlightened Life & How to Live It (1910)
• A Catechism of Health (1911)
• Secrets of Mental Supremacy (1913)

Gallery

• 
  Latson in 1908
• 
  Alta Marhevka, Latson's secretary in 1911
• 
  Drugless Methods of Cure advert, 1913
• 
  Works by Dr. Latson, 1913

References