| Larkin Baker Coles | |
| Birth Date: | 1803 |
| Birth Place: | New Hampshire |
| Death Date: | 1856 |
| Death Place: | Louisville, Kentucky |
| Occupation: | Physician, minister |
Larkin Baker Coles (1803 – 1856) was an American physician, minister, Millerite preacher, anti-tobacco activist and vegetarian.
Coles was born in New Hampshire.[1] He graduated from Castleton Medical College in 1825. He trained as a minister and was associated with William Miller.[1] Coles married Sarah Marshall Dyar on February 14, 1827. They had five children of whom two died in early youth.[2] He resided in Boston in 1844 and joined the Boston Medical Society and the Massachusetts Medical Society.[1]
Coles' best known work was Philosophy of Health, first published in 1848 which went through many editions.[3] It had sold 35,000 copies during its first 5 years. The twenty-sixth edition appeared in 1851. The book espoused Christian health reform with arguments for exercise, fresh air, vegetarianism, non-use of stimulants, sexual purity and drugless medicine. Coles defended vegetarianism from a nutritional, physiological and religious basis.[3]
Coles died in January 1856, whilst visiting Louisville, Kentucky.[1]
Coles was an early crusader against tobacco. He authored The Beauties and Deformities of Tobacco-Using in 1853, which described tobacco as "a deadly narcotic".
Coles's health views influenced Ellen G. White.[1] White frequently lifted passages from Coles's work without attribution.[1] [4] [5]