A West Michigan Sanitarium Once Led the World in the Treatment of ‘Diseases of the Rectum’

Everybody's has to be famous for something, right? For one doctor in Grand Rapids, it was for the care of diseases in a part of the body not generally discussed in polite company.

The doctor was Willard Burleson and his Burleson Sanitarium focused on diseases of the rectum.

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The doctor describes his method for curing piles (what we'd today commonly refer to as hemorrhoids) and fistulas as being painless and without the use of chloroform or a knife.

The doctor proclaimed in a pamphlet from the san:

I have cured many thousands of cases of Rectal Diseases, including every possible condition (except cancer) that could exist.

He claimed his practice grew from locally around Michigan to patients from every state, nearly all Canadian provinces and as far away as India to receive treatment.

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The sanitarium was founded in 1899 first at 103 Monroe in Grand Rapids - where Comerica Bank is downtown today then to a building at Fulton and Jefferson. The practice moved to the Morton at 55 Ionia and finally to a dedicated building on Greenwood Avenue in East Grand Rapids.

Paul Conrad maintains a robust website dedicated to the sanitarium.

Images of the sanitarium like this post card pop up occasionally for sale on eBay.