while he was expounding on this subject he explains how the first idea of the celestial bed came into his mind . when he was in Philadelphia he speedily insulated a common bedstead and filled it with copious streams of electrical fire conveyed by metal rods enclosed in glass tubes through the partition , from the adjacent room where the great globes were wrought &amp;hellip; . I recommended the trial of this , then whimsical bed , to several of my medical , philosophical and gay friends &amp;hellip; . later he states that after he had put them at ease by means of a few drinks he went so far as to ask them for their opinion of the bed . delightedly he states that they talked not as other men might have done of the critical moment - no , they talked comparatively of the critical hour . Graham &apos;s audience obviously wanted information on aphrodisiacs . he was dead against the popular Spanish fly preparations . cantharides poisoning obviously occurred in the 18th as well as in the 20th century . Graham &apos;s advice on the subject was to the point if rather crude . modern psychiatrists , including Dr Kinsey , talk of voyeurism . this term merely means that sexual stimulation can occur quite frequently as a result of visual stimulation . Graham recounts the tale of how a hairdresser , who found himself impotent was suddenly filled with sexual desire while he was dressing a particularly lovely woman &apos;s hair . imprudently , he downed tools and ran home to make his wife happy . such was the power of voyeurism in this case . another Graham anecdote on this subject is about an old debauched woman who still desired masculine attention but who could not arouse a lover &apos;s interest . her cure , he says , was to take a lovely young woman to bed with her . if her lover &apos;s ardour flagged the presence of his mistress &apos;s companion was sufficient to restore the status quo . this is about as far as Graham goes with regard to obscenity . a great many of his contemporaries would have left him standing . for the most part the lectures were good sound stuff . for instance , he was keen on washing the body frequently . this was not a particularly popular habit in the 18th century . Graham states , rather poetically , that it is necessary to tune body and mind for the most cordial and perfect enjoyment of prolific love . to do this he said it was necessary that the lovers should possess the sweetest , freshest , and most personal cleanliness from the top of the head , to the end of the most distant toe - at all times and under every circumstance . Graham was also very much against double beds . he stated that there was nothing more unnatural , nothing more indecent , than man and wife continually pigging together in one and the same bed &amp;hellip; and to sleep and snore and steam and do everything else indelicate together 365 times every year ! sleeping in double beds was , according to Graham , a state of matrimonial whoredom . he was also a great advocate of fresh air , which must have been pretty startling at the time . sea voyages , an active and useful life , taking exercise daily in free open air , were all recommended as adjuncts to good health . his attitude towards alcohol was dogmatic . particularly he refers to that poisonous composition of sloes , tartar , logwood , watery cider and brandy which is called port wine . Graham realised , nearly two hundred years ago , that alcohol diminished physical , and more important to his audience , perhaps , sexual performance . some of Graham &apos;s ideas seemed to sow the seeds of Victorianism as far as sex was concerned . masturbation and fornication he abhorred . I must speak plainly , gentlemen , every act of self-pollution , every repetition of natural venery , with even the loveliest of the sex , to which appalled and exhausted nature is whipped and spurred by lust &amp;hellip; is an earthquake , a blast , a deadly paralytic stroke to all the faculties of both soul and body . blasting beauty , chilling , contracting and enfeebling the body , mind and the memory ! and yet in other ways he was right up-to-date . writing on the encouragement of matrimony he advocated that the first step would be to suppress all public prostitution , as it destroys the vigour of the genital parts , necessity tempting them to too frequent acts of venery . some 180 years later , an act of parliament finally drove the majority of prostitutes off the streets of Britain . another of Graham &apos;s ideas for encouraging matrimony was to give certain rewards to the lower and middling class of people , and tax those proportionate to their circumstances who did not marry . he also advised that parents should receive a small premium on the birth of every child . he thus foresaw modern income tax laws and the national insurance and the social security system operating in this country . he advocated the control of certain hereditary diseases by practical eugenics . persons of certain descriptions , whose constitutions are infected with inherent diseases , ought not to marry &amp;hellip; they ought to be tied back to old women &amp;hellip; that are past child-bearing . public opinion in this country has never really supported ideas along these lines , but 28 states in America have laws that permit or direct sterilisation for various causes . since these laws have been enforced , over 27,000 people have been sterilised in the United States . the year 1783 was the turning point in Graham &apos;s career . until that time everything he touched had gone right . but now it was obvious that the Pall Mall establishment was losing money . Graham attempted to increase his profits by lowering prices , always a dangerous practice , especially for a quack . eventually creditors pressed and the temple was closed , its treasures , electrical machines and even the celestial bed being sold up to pay bad debts . Graham returned to his native land and was soon in trouble with the magistrates of Edinburgh for giving a lecture deemed improper for public discussions . apparently Scottish public opinion was not as broadminded as its English counterpart for Graham repeatedly fell foul of the law and was even imprisoned in the tollbooth for his late injurious publications in this city . during the years 1784 and 1785 , Graham may have had some ideas of becoming a regular physician for he attended lectures in chemistry , anatomy , the practice and theory of medicine and materia medica at Edinburgh University . he never qualified , however . a little later he showed signs that his former eccentricities were leading him along a path that was to end in insanity . in 1788 he was sent off from Whitehaven to Edinburgh , in the custody of two constables as this unfortunate man had , for some days past , discovered such marks of insanity as made it advisable to remove him . Graham had for some years been devoting more of his time to an obsessional type of religious activity . his pamphlets and tracts at this time demonstrate characteristics suggestive of schizophrenia , and it has been put forward that Graham became a drug addict . in view of the strong ideas that he held with reference to drugs , and there is good evidence in his writing that he practised what he preached to his dying day , this would seem to be unlikely . whatever the precise diagnosis , it is evident that Graham suffered from some form of mental derangement which steadily and progressively dominated him . and yet he had relatively lucid intervals . during his more sensible periods James was up to all his old tricks again . before he had left London , after the temple of health closed , he introduced a new craze in an exhibition in Panton Street , Haymarket . Henry Angelo &apos;s description of this is worth while quoting in full . I was present at one of his evening lectures on the benefits arising from earth-bathing ( as Graham called it ) , and in addition to a crowded audience of men , many ladies were there to listen to his delicate lectures . in the centre of the room was a pile of earth in the middle of which was a pit where a stool was placed : we waited for some time when much impatience was manifested , and after repeated calls of doctor , doctor ! he actually made his appearance en chemise . after making his bow he seated himself on the stool . then two men with shovels began to place the mould in the cavity : as it approached to the pit of his stomach he kept lifting up his shirt and at last took it entirely off , the earth being up to his chin and the doctor being left in puris naturalibus . he then began his lecture , expatiating on the excellent qualities of the earth bath , how invigorating it was , etc . quite enough to call up the chaste blushes of the modest ladies . whether it was the men felt for the chastity of the female audience , or that they had had quite enough of this imposing information , which lasted above an hour , either the hearers got tired or some wished to make themselves merry at the doctor &apos;s expense and there was a cry of doctor , a song ! the doctor nodded assent and after a few preparatory hems , he sang or rather repeated , the fair married dames who so often deplore , that a lover once lost is a lover no more . he gave various similar exhibitions about the country until 1790 . during the last few years of his life there is ample evidence that Graham &apos;s mind was obsessed with religious mania and that he was becoming , eventually , a victim of his own tomfoolery . in his last pamphlet he signed an affidavit dated 3rd April , 1793 , that from the last day of December , 1792 to the 15th day of January , 1793 he neither ate , drank , nor took anything but cold water , sustaining life by wearing cut up turves against his naked body , and rubbing his limbs with his own nervous ethereal balsam . the latter was one of his famous quack medicines originally dispensed at the temple of health . this was a feeble attempt to get back into the public eye . his health failed rapidly and he died at his house opposite the Archer &apos;s Hall in Edinburgh on 26th June , 1794 from a sudden haemorrhage . getting such a flamboyant character as Graham into perspective is not easy . that he was an out and out quack is of course fairly established . but he had qualities that distinguished him from the majority of his brethren . first of all he had great personal courage . there is the evidence that he went as far afield as America to make his fortune in times when travel was a hazardous adventure . he also had the courage to gamble everything he had on what must have been a hunch when he established his temples of health . Graham also had a first-class brain . he could judge people and handle them adroitly . in London anyway his judgement seldom failed him . Scottish public opinion , incredibly enough he misjudged badly . probably he had become too anglicised by 1783 to be sound in his assessment of the minds of his countrymen . originality and foresight were well developed in Graham &apos;s personality and his ideas and teaching on hygienic and social problems were years ahead of his age . the opinion of orthodox medical practitioners on quacks is always interesting . apparently Graham , although dubbed a charlatan by most of the doctors , was much sought after for cures by members of the profession itself . one example is the case of Dr Glen . this Edinburgh character was a man not noted for his generosity . one of his few actions of public spirit was to present a bell for the local orphanage . ( his fame was said thus to be sounded throughout the city . ) Dr Glen was rather at a loss to know what to give Dr Graham in the way of a professional fee after he had cured him of an eye complaint . some members of the Edinburgh faculty suggested asking the good doctor to dine at a fashionable tavern and presenting him with a purse containing 30 guineas . Dr Glen was privately assured that Graham would decline the gift . to his chagrin Graham at once accepted it with a very low bow and graciously thanked him kindly . 