John's severe gastrointestinal troubles and recurring bouts of tuberculosis gave him a personal stake in maintaining a rigorous healthy regimen. In 1867, the Whites, hoping to install professionally trained staff at their newly established Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, Mich., underwrote the costs of John's medical studies in New York. Upon his return to Battle Creek, he began to create a spa/hospital/spiritual retreat/publishing empire that was world famous by the turn of the century. In Markel's account, this ever-evolving extravaganza of an institution resembles something out of the pages of Steven Millhauser. Its name was Battle Creek Sanitarium, or "the San" for short.