Mary Gove Nichols raised children, treated patients, published writings, and sought to live what she believed.

The Goves moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, where Mary ran a girls' school, and this was where she began her health reform career.

In July 1848, she remarried to Thomas Low Nichols,[7][8] a writer who also had an interest in health reform and progressive views on women's rights.

She lectured to all-female audiences on anatomy, physiology, and hygiene to relieve women of what she saw as unnecessary physical and mental suffering.

She recommended that women exercise daily, breathe fresh air, shower with cold water, avoid the fashionable tight-laced corsets of the day, and abstain from coffee and meat.

[2] She has been described as the "first woman in America to lecture on topics of anatomy and physiology and she included lessons on vegetarianism, and prevention and cure of sickness.

[9][17] The name of the institute referred to the goddess of water, reflecting their interest in hydropathy, but also promoted asceticism, fasting, and spiritual penance.