ETC. ETC.

I.—Vincent Priessnitz.

“Discover what will destroy life, and you are a great man—what will prolong it and you are an impostor! Discover some invention in machinery that will make the rich more rich, and the poor more poor, and they will build you a statue! Discover some mystery in art, that will equalise disparities, and they will pull down their houses to stone you.”—Bulwer.

Priessnitz was born at GrÄfenberg, October, 4th 1800. His father became blind in his nineteenth year, and remained so until his death, which took place in 1838, a period of thirty-two years, during fourteen of which his son was his guide. His mother was killed by a bull in 1821.

Priessnitz’s family have been in possession of the estate he now owns, consisting of about 180 acres of land, for upwards of 200 years, so that a mistake arose in calling him a peasant, instead of a farmer’s son, or yeoman of Silesia. Two centuries ago (1645), when the country was invaded by the Swedes, a soldier, attempting to carry off a female of the family, was pursued and slain by one of Priessnitz’s ancestors on the spot now called the Priessnitz-Quelle (or spring). A tablet placed over the spring, commemorates this event.

Priessnitz was born, in what is now called the “stone house,” (opposite the large establishment) which he inherited with the land.

He began dabbling in the Water-cure, when only twelve or thirteen years old. Having sprained his wrist, he pumped upon it and applied a wet bandage, which produced an Ausschlag, or eruption; he not knowing whether it would be beneficial or otherwise. The question was, however, soon decided; for the sprain was cured. Finding the same plan, in other sprains, cuts, and bruises invariably succeed, he recommended its adoption to his neighbours.

He next applied the wet bandage to swollen joints and local pains, and was gradually led to its application in gout and rheumatism. Observing that the wet bandage remained cold from want of heat in the part affected, he covered it with a dry one to prevent evaporation, and confine the heat. The appearance of eruption in many cases before amelioration or cure, led him to suppose that there was generally some peccant or foreign matter required to be drawn out, or eliminated. Thus drawn on to think and reason on the subject, his powers of invention were kept in constant activity to find new expedients for producing the desired effects in the fresh cases presented to him; until the present complete and efficacious system, or science was gradually developed and matured.

In treating a cut hand in one person he found it heal kindly; in another, it became angry and inflamed: whence he concluded that the blood of the one was healthy, and of the other impure. Reflecting on the effect of bandages and baths, in extracting and attracting heat, and exciting eruptions when applied, he resorted to the elbow bath, and bandages up the arm, to relieve the hand. Other modes of treatment were progressively discovered and added.

When sixteen years of age, after loading a waggon with hay, Priessnitz was standing at the horse’s head, whilst his companions were cogging the wheel; before this was effected the horse struggled, overcame him and rushed down the hill, which was very steep. Unwilling that the animal should destroy itself, Priessnitz would not relinquish his hold, his foot caught in a bush and he fell between the horse’s feet, was dragged, trampled upon and severely bruised. He was taken up senseless, with two of his front teeth gone, and three ribs on the left side broken, he was carried home, and a doctor sent for: who, after causing great pain by probing and punching the side, applied his remedies, at the same time prognosticating that his patient would never perfectly recover. Priessnitz having no respect for treatment or opinion, declined the doctor’s further attendance.

He then began to manage himself. By frequently holding his breath, and pressing his abdomen on the side of a table, for a painful length of time, he forced back the ribs into their proper position. Wet bandages were constantly applied and changed, and water drunk in abundance. By perseverance in these means he rapidly mended, and in twelvemonths his health was completely restored.

His own faith and that of many of his neighbours in the power of water was thus established; and ere long the peasantry from all sides flocked to him for aid. Some thought him endowed with the power of witchcraft; others honored him as a prophet; all wondering at his success in curing disease. Sponges used by him in washing his patients were regarded as talismans—as containing within them something gifted with a mysterious and marvellous operation. Broom-sticks were placed across his doorway, to see whether on coming out he could get over without displacing them, it being a prevalent opinion that only those practising witchcraft can.

His antagonists took advantage of this disposition of the people; and their opinion that Priessnitz was possessed by an evil spirit was encouraged by the priests, who denounced him publicly in the church. Some idea of the excitement got up against him may be found, from the fact, that the peasantry were in the habit of throwing stones at the early visitors to his house.

Numbers, however, came to him for advice, which he then only gave at his own house; afterwards he was induced to visit his patients. This seemed to dissolve the spell, and his reputation began to decline, notwithstanding he claimed no remuneration nor accepted any fee: from hundreds his applicants fell off to tens. He soon perceived that what is simple, costing neither money nor trouble, loses its value, or is but coldly appreciated; he therefore returned to his previous usage of giving advice only at home, leaving people to believe as much as they pleased in the magical virtues of his remedies.

His reputation now rose higher than ever, and spread far and wide. Strangers from distant parts came to GrÄfenberg, so that he was compelled to increase the size of his house for their accommodation; and thus his establishment commenced.

He was not yet, however, allowed to proceed smoothly in his career: many viewed his growing reputation with jealousy. The two medical men and the Burgomaster at Freiwaldau set on foot a conspiracy to crush him. Their persecutions lasted thirteen years: but, as frequently occurs in similar cases, these were among the circumstances that eventually advanced his success; since but for this pressure from without, he never would have so completely developed the power of water over disease; and the physiological and pathological truths that have in consequence come to light, must still have lain buried in darkness. During all this period, he was strictly watched, to see if he applied aught else than the pure element; calling for the exertion of his utmost ingenuity, to supply, by water alone, the place of every other remedy.

He was frequently brought before the Syndic at Freiwaldau; but all endeavours to convict him of any unlawful act (which the administration of drugs or herbs in an unlicensed practitioner would have been) had failed, when in 1828, a more determined attempt was made to put an end to his proceedings. Witnesses were brought forward to prove that he had injured them, and others that he had pretended to cures that had actually been performed by the medical men. But none, when examined, could deny that Priessnitz had benefited them, and taken no payment in return.

There was a miller, whom both the doctor and Priessnitz claimed the merit of curing. On being examined, the miller was asked which of the two had effected the cure? “What shall I say?” answered he: “Both; the doctor relieved me of my money, and Priessnitz of my disease. In return, I have given him nothing—not even thanks, which I take this opportunity of offering him for the first time.” This was of little avail; his calumniators had resolved his downfall. Accordingly, he was next accused of quackery, in illegally tampering with the public health, and ordered to be put under arrest. An appeal to the tribunal at BrÜnn, caused this unjust sentence to be reversed; and he then obtained permission to have a cold-water bathing establishment. Discontented at this, his persecutors shortly after brought him to the court at Weidenau, a neighbouring town, on the hypocritical plea that the connection between his accusers and the authorities of Freiwaldau might, contrary to their wishes, give a colour of unfairness to the proceedings. The tribunal of Weidenau could not reverse the sentence of that at BrÜnn, but prohibited Priessnitz from treating any persons but those of his own parish or district. He replied that water was free to all, and that he was not in the habit of inquiring whence an invalid came previously to administering aid. Feeling he was right, he persisted in acting as before; and for some time, no further notice was taken of him.

In 1831, his enemies took a bolder course, by raising an alarm of the craft being in danger. This enlisted in their cause the medical men at Vienna, who brought the subject under the notice of the emperor. He sent Dr. Baron Turckheim with a commission of district and staff surgeons to GrÄfenberg, to investigate and report on the new system, and the proceedings of its originator. Notwithstanding that most of these gentlemen were prejudiced against both, they were astonished and pleased at what they witnessed; and their report was of so favourable a nature, that Priessnitz was allowed by imperial authority to carry on his establishment, with the addition of the privilege enjoyed by staff surgeons of giving sick certificates to public employÉs and officers under his care. This state of things was, however, again shortly afterwards disturbed. In 1835, the emperor Francis being dead, fresh intrigues induced the government authorities at Troppau (a town about fifty miles from GrÄfenberg) to withdraw the permission Priessnitz had received for giving sick certificates. He was urged to appeal to the higher powers, but declined, saying—“The matter must right itself,” and steadily refused giving sick certificates, even to foreign officers. These complained, through their ambassadors, to the authorities at Vienna; and for them, Priessnitz’s power of granting certificates was restored. The Austrian officers and employÉs being still excluded, also exerted themselves through friends in the capital; and the matter was, in the end, satisfactorily arranged.

In 1843, the Prussian government, doubtless under medical influence, forbade all officers or employÉs proceeding to any hydropathic establishment out of Prussia, unless expressly recommended by their medical advisers.

The greatest difficulty in obtaining passports to the Hygiean temple is also encountered by the Russian Poles. It has been observed by many from both these countries who, nevertheless, reached GrÄfenberg, that their medical men strongly recommended their not going to Priessnitz, and willingly gave certificates for any other establishment, even though in a foreign country.

For thirty years, although all publications against Priessnitz and the Water-cure were tolerated in the Austrian dominions, none in favour of either were permitted. But, as though willing to do tardy justice and urged on by public opinion, in July, 1845, the Vienna Gazette inserted a favourable article on both subjects.

From the age of seven to twenty-one, Priessnitz was in constant attendance on his blind father; and on that account, escaped the liability of being drawn as a soldier. Early in life he married a distant relation of his own name, daughter of the Schulz or chief magistrate of BÖmishdorf, who was by trade a miller. He has had nine children, of whom six daughters and one son are living. The first-born, a sickly boy, died of apoplexy. When taken ill, the wife and relations insisted on having a physician from Nicholasdorf: this was at the commencement of Priessnitz’s career, and he reluctantly yielded. He has since said he would not have given way, had he imagined the doctor could have killed the child so soon, for a powerful medicine being administered, death was the almost immediate result. Priessnitz supposes it was calomel. Whatever it was, it produced spasms and death.

This was a severe lesson to Mrs. Priessnitz, who since that event has left the treatment of her children entirely to her husband.

As has been said, the various manipulations which now form so complete a system, were gradually introduced just as Priessnitz became aware of their necessity and had experience of their effect.

Finding that pain was relieved by natural perspiration, he instituted the sweating process by covering the patients up well in bed. Some time later he improved on this, by introducing the blankets. On a patient becoming faint, whilst under the process, he found that opening the windows to admit fresh air, and washing the face, afforded relief, and ordered it with equal advantage generally. At first he sponged the throat, then the chest, and gradually the whole body; finding the extension of this practice most beneficial in every case, he ventured on the tepid (i. e. 62° Fahr.) bath and ultimately the plunge or cold bath.

The relief afforded by local bandages to the finger, arm, leg, and other parts of the body afflicted with pain, or to which he wished to attract the vicious juices, suggested the use of the waist bandage, which he found fulfilled many useful purposes, especially in relieving pain in the abdomen, feverishness, and restlessness, and also in bringing the abdominal functions into a healthy state.

Satisfied of the benefit derived from local cold bandages, he thought they might be extended over the whole of the surface of the body; and this originated the wet sheet, which supersedes the lancet by relieving the overcharged system of heat, and is the most powerful sedative known. It has gradually superseded the sweating process, though not in all cases. Priessnitz recommended the weaker patients to remain in the blanket only a sufficient time to get thoroughly warm; but they, thinking to accelerate a cure, sometimes remained in it too long, and fainted from exhaustion—a reason assigned for confining his treatment more especially to the wet sheet.

In chronic cases, which resisted the application of bandages, tepid and cold baths, he long tried local baths, to cause internal excitement and reaction; thence arose the hip, arm, foot, and head baths, which were generally successful: but in some obstinate cases, where they were not so, Priessnitz wished for a more powerful agent, and hit upon the douche, to which his attention was drawn by reflecting on the benefit he had received by pumping on his sprained wrist.

The rubbing sheet is a much later addition, being an improvement on rubbing with wet hands, or using sponges. It is a means of rousing latent heat, and administering an ablution to delicate persons, who could not endure an immersion in the bath.

This combination of novel and invaluable appliances will effect any purpose attempted by the pharmacopoeia. In fact, so complete and efficacious is the system, that it may justly be termed a science putting into the shade all hygeian discoveries from the days of Hippocrates to the present time.

“Notwithstanding there are several defects in point of beauty, and a sternness of outline in almost every feature,” there is something in the whole expression of Priessnitz’s countenance peculiarly pleasing as well as striking; and one reads there kindness of heart as well as firmness and decision.

Among all his neighbours, his character stands deservedly high. From his infancy, he has been a pattern of sobriety and virtue, a good Christian, kind neighbour, an excellent husband and father; ever prompt to acts of benevolence and, though secretly, to acts of charity. Poverty deprives no invalid of his succour. Many, for months together, enjoy the hospitality of his table, and benefit by his advice, who have no means of making any pecuniary return. Indeed, Priessnitz never demands a fee, nor complains if none be given. Nevertheless, he has become rich by the exercise of prudence and economy.

It is worthy of record, that he never wrote a line or caused anything to be inserted in newspapers on the subject of his discoveries, or employed any of the means of publicity usually resorted to make known his establishment; yet this is frequented by denizens of all nations, and his fame extends to the antipodes.

When the author went to GrÄfenberg in 1841, there seemed a deficiency of English; of whom he found but three. There were members of every grade of society from the crowned head to the beggar, all submitting themselves to Priessnitz’s directions.

Anxious to make my countrymen acquainted with a system which had benefited thousands, and from which I had personally derived great advantage, immediately on my return home I published a work suggested by my visit to GrÄfenberg, which proved to be actually the first that had appeared in England on the subject. Many English were thus induced to undertake a journey to see Priessnitz, and several books shortly afterwards came out, attesting the writer’s high opinion of his skill, with their faith in the efficacy of his method. The number of English pilgrims to the Hygeian temple increased; and it is at present one of their favorite resorts. In 1848, a letter numerously signed was sent to America, and was inserted in the New York Tribune.

“To the Editor of the Tribune.

“Sir, GrÄfenberg, 14th August, 1849.

“The undersigned, desirous to alleviate suffering, and to promote the health and comfort of human beings, wish to call attention to the Water-cure as practised by Vincent Priessnitz. Not a particle of medicine is ever administered in any form or quantity. No bleeding, blistering, or leeching is ever employed.

“It is not pretended that the Water-cure is a universal specific for all diseases; but there are sufficient facts to prove that all diseases curable, and many incurable by any known means, can be healed by a proper application of the Water-cure, which the following cases will demonstrate.

“Count Mitrowski, an Austrian nobleman, aged fifty-four, who had long been afflicted with gout, and whose name we are permitted to use, was found insensible in his bed in an apoplectic fit. Some medical men were quickly in attendance and Priessnitz was sent for. The professional men considered the Count past recovery; and one of them said that he would throw his drugs away and become an hydropathist if this patient was restored. It was proposed by some to bleed the invalid, to which Priessnitz objected, if he was to bear any part of the responsibility. So far gone was the patient, and so nearly extinct did vitality appear, that a priest administered the extreme unction, and according to the custom of the country, a lighted candle was placed in each hand of the apparently dead man. By cold water treatment alone under the sagacious direction of Priessnitz, this gentleman recovered consciousness on the third day, drove out in a phaeton on the fourth, and gradually returned to his former habits.

“The only son of a Sovereign Prince, aged three years, suffered for fifteen months from chronic obstruction of the bowels, which baffled the skill of his medical attendants, and resulted in total atrophy. For twenty-seven days the child had had no relief, when, by the physician’s advice, Priessnitz was called in. He saw the child; and at his suggestion the Prince and his family came here, in order that Priessnitz might daily superintend the treatment. In a few days the disease yielded to the water-cure, and at the end of three months, the child returned quite well.

“A lady of rank suffered severely from frequent head-aches, cramp in the stomach, indigestion, and other maladies, which cannot here be particularised. She constantly threw up her food, even whilst in the act of eating, and could not have the slightest relief without medicine, and even then had great pain and difficulty. She had been under medical treatment for fourteen years, during which time she consulted fourteen eminent physicians. In little more than a year under the Water-cure, she was restored to perfect health.

“A gentleman had one of the worst attacks of small-pox, complicated with measles. From the fact of his vomiting blood any medical man will judge of the malignity of the disease.

“In a fortnight he was out of doors; and in four weeks all traces of the disease were rapidly disappearing.

“Here is one case of a gentleman advanced in life and long an invalid,—another of a tender infant,—a third of a lady,—a fourth of a person labouring under what is generally considered a fatal disease, and all restored.

“The undersigned trust you will kindly insert this statement, which they are impelled to offer from a desire to make known to others the benefit derivable from a system in the efficacy of which, as well as in the sagacity and skill of its founder Priessnitz they have the fullest confidence, and to which, humanly speaking, some of them owe their lives, and are,

“Sir,

“Your most obedient servants,

“P.S.—We, the undersigned, cannot vouch for the exactitude of each particular in the four cases, related above, not having been at GrÄfenberg during their occurrence; but we are happy to state our conviction and experience to be fully in favor of this mode of treatment.

In 1845 a work of a very different tendency appeared, which, though approving of the hydropathic treatment in itself, denounced Priessnitz’s application of it, and calumniated him personally in the most unwarrantable and groundless manner. The author was R. H. Graham, M. D.; and so unpardonable was his attack on Priessnitz that it drew forth the following letter.

“To the Editor of the London Times,

“GrÄfenberg, 2nd February, 1845.

“Sir.—We, the undersigned British and Americans, who have resided here for periods varying from three months to two years and upwards, and who consequently have had ample opportunities of acquiring correct information, deem it our duty publicly to assert that a work, entitled ‘A true Report of the Water-cure, by Robert Hay Graham, M.D.’ abounds in gross exaggerations, mis-statements, and calumnies respecting Priessnitz. It would lengthen this document too much to go into a detailed repetition of all those portions of Dr. Graham’s work which we could contradict; we therefore refrain from noticing any in particular: it will be sufficient to say, that from personal observations, we can deny several of Dr. Graham’s allegations, and, from information upon which we can rely, we are convinced that many more are totally devoid of foundation.

“We have seen a letter dated January 15th, 1845, from Captain Wollf, whom Dr. Graham gives as his authority for some of his most unfounded assertions, and to whom he dedicates his book; and we beg attention to the following extracts from that letter.

“‘I not only’ says Captain Wolff, ‘was a passionate Hydropathist, but am still, to this day, known as an out-and-out one ... the information which I gave Dr. Graham, concerned solely the scientific part of the Water-cure, and could not, of course, be otherwise than favourable; I being, as above stated, an Hydropathist. With regard to the wretched stuff you allude to, as to whether Mr. and Mrs. P. drink wine or grog, whether Miss J. S. and other English ladies were treated with or without clothes, the tiresome story about Munde, or whether the Princess L. did or did not employ the Water-cure, with such like, I have never concerned myself; for I lived at GrÄfenberg exclusively for the Water-cure.’

“Thus does Dr. Graham’s principal witness fail him! It is only necessary to add, that we do not place the least reliance on any of Dr. Graham’s statements. We are led to say thus much from regard to truth, and from esteem for a great and good man, who has been basely vilified.

“In our opinion Priessnitz, from long practice, varied experience, and close observation, guided by his extraordinary genius, has acquired so intimate a knowledge of the action of water, of its dangers and advantages as regards the human body, both in health and disease, that the most delicate invalid may safely rely on his judgment; and in this opinion we are sustained by the fact of his great success in the treatment of almost every variety of disease, which surpasses that of any physicians on record. The patients who seek his aid may be divided, with few exceptions, into two classes:—those who by medical men have been pronounced incurable; and those, whose diseases are the result of medical treatment: and, out of the large number whom he yearly treats, it would be absurd to expect that he should never lose one. But we cannot believe that the Water-cure is the best remedy for disease, without also believing that he, its discoverer, is the best practitioner of it; and to convince us to the contrary would require somewhat stronger and more unexceptionable testimony than that of Dr. Graham. From the portrait which Dr. Graham draws of Priessnitz, one who did not know him, would be apt to imagine him as full of assumption and Charlatanism, whereas he is as far from either as any man; being as remarkable for his simplicity and truth, as for a native modesty and unassuming propriety of demeanour, which, combined with his kindliness of heart, win respect and regard from almost all who approach him. Requesting that you will do us the favour to give insertion to this letter, We are, Sir, Your obedient Servants,

If Dr. Graham’s object was to injure Priessnitz, it was, unquestionably thoroughly defeated; for his fame continued to increase, and at the end of the same year, GrÄfenberg was honoured by a visit from the Archduke Charles, heir apparent to the imperial crown of Austria, who treated Priessnitz with the greatest consideration, and shewed great interest in the Hydropathic treatment. On his arrival, an address was presented to him, numerously signed by the visitors at GrÄfenberg, and presented by—

The Archduke seemed much pleased with it; and as it was a novelty in Germany, where addresses are unknown, we think a translation may be interesting to our readers.

Address presented to Archduke Franz Carl, at GrÄfenberg, October 4th, 1845.

“We, the undersigned natives of various countries, enjoying here the hospitality and protection of a paternal government, hasten to take advantage of the propitious occasion offered by the presence of your Imperial and Royal Highness, to lay our homage at your feet. How could we fail to evince the sentiments of gratitude which we entertain towards your illustrious house, for the favour it has deigned to grant for the development of a system, which has produced such happy results on ourselves, on that around us, and on the thousands of invalids who have preceded us. The protection of Government having been extended to the establishment at GrÄfenberg and Freiwaldau, your Royal and Imperial Highness has judged it not unworthy to see with your own eyes the marvellous effects of a treatment, which gradually spreading over the universe, will preserve the human race from the double curse of intemperance and disease. For this condescension we tender our thanks. In all times and in all countries the use of cold water as a curative means has been acknowledged. The great physicians of past ages already had recourse to it. Travellers relate singular cures effected by its means amongst even the most savage tribes. In recent times we occasionally see light feebly penetrating through the darkness of prejudice and routine, and revealing the neglected virtues of this simple gift of nature; but these facts remaining isolated, the germs of such a noble discovery had hitherto always remained undeveloped. It was reserved to the soil of Austria to give birth to the immortal author of a system which can already rank among the sciences. Priessnitz, a simple farmer, in a poor and retired hamlet, obeying only the promptings of his genius, has triumphed over all obstacles, and, still young, has marched with a rapid step towards the destiny of great men. Relying solely on observation and experience, he realised truths which the science of ages could not reveal. The fame of his marvellous cures resounded at first in the immediate neighbourhood: but his star always rising and never vacillating, at last ended by shining throughout the world. Invalids from the most remote countries hastened in great numbers to submit themselves implicitly to his directions. Many disciples of medicine even hesitated not to throw aside their prejudice, and become enlightened by his discoveries. His cottage became the refuge of suffering humanity, his hamlet the seat of a new doctrine; still, far from being intoxicated with so much success and such unexpected good fortune, Priessnitz has in no way deviated from his original simplicity and primitive manners. His greatest ambition is the accomplishment of the laborious task he has imposed on himself; his sweetest recompence the affection and veneration of all who surround him. We know not which to admire most, the rare genius of this gifted man, or the firmness and modesty which characterise him. Guided by gratitude, and the admiration we feel for the Hydropathic system and its origination, we have ventured to present this humble address to your Imperial and Royal Highness, trusting that the visit of such an enlightened Prince will be a good augury for the further dev[e]lopment and extension of the curative system from which we have ourselves experienced such happy results.”

In the ensuing summer a most flattering testimony was decreed to Priessnitz by the Emperor of Austria. It was a gold medal (called a Verdienst Medaille or medal of merit), and was presented to him by the Governor of Troppau, on the 7th of July, 1846, at the altar, with great ceremony, in the very church in which he had been formerly denounced. Shortly after, an incident occurred which had nearly deprived the world of this great man: this was the marriage of his eldest daughter, then only seventeen, to an Hungarian nobleman of large fortune. The young couple started for Hungary; and Priessnitz, on taking leave of them, was observed to be much affected. Later in the day, whilst visiting his patients, he found it difficult to lift one hand to his head. He hurried home, where he hardly arrived when he was suddenly struck with general paralysis, and was quite insensible. His attendants resorted to his own remedies, he was placed in a tepid bath and rubbed by four persons for nearly two hours before he began to regain his senses, when he ordered the tepid water to be changed for cold; and he has since been heard to say, the former would not have been attended with sufficient reaction, and consequently would not have had the desired effect. He now ordered his own treatment and recovered in a few days; his health was afterwards re-established by a fortnight’s visit to his daughter in Hungary.

A few months since he was rejoiced by the birth of a son. This event conferred great happiness on him; for, as may be remembered, his first-born whom he lost was a son, and all his other children until the last, were daughters.

It is to be hoped, that Providence will spare his valuable life to see his son grow up, so that he may initiate him experimentally in the theory of Hydropathy, which can never be perfectly disseminated in any other way.

Several monuments and fountains erected at GrÄfenberg, testify the admiration and respect in which Priessnitz is held. The English and the Hamburghers are at present engaged in erecting similar testimonies. The latter have placed his bust in the Exchange at Hamburg.

Judging from the strides Hydropathy is making, it is fair to conclude that in the course of time these examples will be followed by every nation in the world.1

II.—Hydropathy.

The term “hydropathy,” has been cavilled at; its etymological sense meaning “water-disease,” whilst its conventional sense means “water-cure.” If disposed to dispute about terms, we might say that “physiology,” in its etymological sense, means merely a discourse about nature; whilst, in a conventional sense, we understand it to treat of the science of animal life. For want of a better word, that of “hydropathy” was adopted, to express the manner of curing disease, by cold and tepid general and local baths, wet sheets (sometimes called linen baths), dripping-sheets, douche and friction, air, exercise, and drinking water. To this may be added, simplicity in our habits, and temperance in our manner of living.

In fact, by the term “hydropathy,” were intended all those appliances by which nature may be put in the best possible way of assisting herself, since no allopathist, homÆopathist, or hydropathist, will pretend that anything he can administer has of itself any healing virtue. It is a common observation, that riding, climbing, and exercise, give us strength; the horses, hedges, mountains and ground, do not, however, impart strength, but they afford the opportunity, the necessary resistance to develop or increase that strength which is in us. The weak man, do what you will, can only develop the strength which is in him, and the strong man the same. Let, therefore, the reader judge which is best calculated to cause that development—hydropathy or drugs.

III.—What Does Hydropathic Treatment Effect?

It promotes the vital energies, quickens the action of the absorbents, strengthens the nerves, allays irritation, promotes healthy action of the vital organs.

The extreme vessels deposit healthy particles, which the absorbents remove.

Dr. Gibbs, in his “Letters from GrÄfenberg,” states that water, applied hydropathically, acts in the following ways:—

And taken internally, it acts—

The hydropathic treatment causes the elimination of all foreign matters from the body, and thereby promotes contraction, without which there can be no health, which Dr. Billing has shewn to demonstration; he states “that the proximate cause of all disease is relaxation and enlargement of the capillaries: the indication of a cure, therefore, is to constringe the capillaries, and cause them to contract, and resume their healthy state.”

“As all organic action is contraction, all organic or animal strength depends upon the power of the different parts of the body to contract.” If it be true, that the effect to be brought about in the treatment of all disease is to unload and constringe the capillaries, how can this be better achieved than by the sweating or wet-sheet process, and the cold bath; Dr. Johnson says—“The hydropathic treatment, which unloads the capillaries by sweating, and constringes them by cold, is clearly an efficient substitute for bleeding, purging, vomiting, uva ursi, digitalis, antimony, mercury, arsenic, nitrate of silver, sulphate of copper, iodine, iron, and multitudes of other remedies, enumerated by Dr. Billing, merely by their power of unloading and constringing the capillaries.”

Priessnitz’s theory:—

If these are the results of hydropathy—and that they are so, has never been disputed; nay, the truth is even proved by the following great medical authority unconnected with the water cure: it must be admitted that the sooner drugs are dispensed with the better.

British and Foreign Medical Review, and Quarterly Journal, October, 1846.—Extract.

“The water cure is a stomachic, since it invariably increases the appetite.

“It is a local calefacient in the wet sheet covered by a dry one.

“It is a derivative; cold friction at one part, by exciting increased action there, producing corresponding diminution elsewhere; the compress frequently acting, if not like a blister, at least like a mustard poultice.

“It is a local as well as a general counter-irritant.

“It is essentially alterative in the continual removal of old matter: its renewal is shewn in the maintenance of the same weight.

“An important hydropathic principle is, that almost all its measures are applied to the surface. One of the most formidable difficulties with which the ordinary physician has to contend is, that nearly all his remedies reach the point to which they are directed through one channel.

“The only means of relieving certain diseases is by inundating the stomach and bowels with foreign and frequently to them pernicious substances.

“Hydropathy employs a system of most extensive energetic general and local counter irritation.

“A fifth physiological feature of hydropathy is the number of coolings. The generation of caloric has been traced to its right source. It results from the burning up of waste matter, which by accumulation would become injurious.

“It is singular enough that almost all arguments used against cold bathing are the strongest theoretical arguments in its favor. Dr. Baynard, a most sarcastic writer, gives us the following anecdote:—

“Here a demi-brained doctor of more note than nous, asked, in the amazed agony of his half-understanding, how ’twas possible that an external application should affect the bowels, and cure pain within? ‘Why doctor,’ quoth an old woman standing by, ‘by the same reason that, being wet-shod or catching cold from without, should give you the gripes and pain within.’

“If a rude exposure of the surface to cold and wet is capable of producing internal disease, there is no doubt that a close relation exists between these agents and the morbid conditions of internal parts.”

After devoting upwards of thirty pages to prove the value of Hydropathy, the reviewer sums up as follows:—

“After what has been said and written in favor of Hydropathy.—Judgment must therefore be entered by default against its opponents, and hydropathy is entitled to the verdict of harmlessness, since cause has never been shown to the contrary.”

IV.—How are the Effects described in the last Chapter produced?

Are the effects, as described by hydropathists and by the British and Foreign Medical Review, produced without purging, vomiting, drugging, or the lancet—or by what other means are such essential results to be attained? We answer, by hydropathy alone are they to be produced, through the medium of the external and internal skin or mucous membrane, the most important organ in the human structure, and the most neglected by the guardians of the public health; and by the promotion of all the secretions and excretions.

The AbbÉ Sanctorius, a Florentine, might be said to have spent twenty years of his life in a balance determining the amount of matters thrown off by the pores of the skin. To ascertain this, he first cleaned and then placed small glasses, some not longer than thimbles, on various parts of the human frame, when the result proved that every man ought to pass off from his person, daily, from six to seven pounds. Two and a half pounds are supposed to be released by the ordinary modes of evacuation, and the remainder by the pores of the skin. Now, if this exhalation is impeded, and the necessary amount not eliminated (which must happen if the skin has lost that energy, which exercise of the body and cold ablutions can alone support), what becomes of the superfluous juices thus retained in the system? The answer is easy; they circulate through the internal organs and become the source of fevers, inflammations, dropsy, and all sorts of diseases. Medical men see these effects, but do not suppose them to have resulted from suppressed perspiration. Instead of attacking the skin, they assault the stomach and bowels, weaken the digestive organs, and by that means create disease; whilst water, on the contrary, is a remedy, possessing at once dissolving and strengthening properties, which would seem to neutralise each other, but that we have daily evidence to the contrary.

Herein lies the great secret of hydropathy: by its modes of application, morbid humours are drawn to the surface and eliminated, the body is cooled, and the skin put into a state to perform its indispensable duty. In internal inflammations, the morbid heat from the internal skin or mucous membrane is drawn off by the application of cold and irritation to the surface, and the disease subdued without charging the stomach with anything but pure spring water, which in contradistinction to drugs, produces the most salubrious effects.

The following extract shows that the skin is the great drain through which matters injurious to the system, and superfluous heat are drawn off and accounts for hydropathy being so universal a remedy.

A Practical Treatise on Healthy Skin, by Erasmus Wilson, 1 Vol. 1845.—Extract.

“The structure of the skin and the diseases to which it is liable, have latterly received from many of the medical profession considerable attention. The skin is that soft and pliant membrane which invests the whole of the external surface of the body, as also the interior which is called mucous membrane.

“The construction of these two membranes may easily inform us, without having recourse to fanciful hypotheses, how disease, affecting any part of this membrane, either internally or externally, may pass to any other part and affect the whole; and thus how a faulty digestion in a lady, a disease of the investing or mucous membrane of the stomach, may show itself in eruptions on the face. We see at once, too, how it happens that, calling into more active action the shower bath and flesh brush, dyspepsia may be avoided or cured. It serves also to explain the circumstance noticed by Fourcroy and Vauquelin, that the skin, with all its products, ‘is capable of supplying the office of the kidneys,’ and carrying off, as we know it to imbibe nourishment, the indispensable excretions for which the proper organs may be deficient.

“In explanation of this circumstance, we must remark, that the skin, internal or external, in which terminate all the arteries and commence the veins, in which too, the nerves of sensation commence, and the nerves of volition terminate, not only envelopes the whole body internally and externally, but is also the secretory organ of every part, and the immediate means of communication with the external world.

“The skin is the organ of contact with the external world, and the means of making us acquainted with every part of the universe. The senses of touch, of hearing, of smell, of taste, are all exercised by the skin.

“By the vessels terminating in the skin, or of which it is formed, all the phenomena of nutrition, and decay of appetite, and sensation, health and disease are produced.

“Whatever may be the climate or temperature in which the body is placed, it is kept at nearly one uniform and vital heat by the varying and adapting operations of the skin.

“The skin is the organ by which electricity is conducted into and out of the body.

“Its functions are, in short, proportioned to its vastness; and as it envelopes every part, so manifold are its purposes.

“The structure of the skin is highly curious; it consists of two layers; the one horny and insensible, guarding from injury; the other highly sensitive, the universal organ of feeling, which lies beneath; the latter feels, but the former dulls the impression.

“The following will show how, by the perspiratory organs, excess of water is removed from the blood, and the uniform temperature of the body preserved.

“Taken separately, the little perspiratory tube with its appended gland, is calculated to awaken in the mind very little idea of the importance of the system to which it belongs; but when the vast number of similar organs composing this system are considered, we are led to form some notion, however imperfect, of their probable influence in the health and comfort of the individual; the reality surpasses imagination and almost belief.

“The perspiratory pores on the palm of the hand, are found to be 3,528 in a square inch; now each of these pores being the aperture of a little tube of about a quarter of an inch long, it follows that in a square inch of skin on the palm of the hand, there exists a length of tube equal to 882 inches, or 73½ feet. Such a drainage as 73 feet in every square inch of skin, assuming this to be the average for the whole body, is something wonderful; and the thought naturally intrudes itself, What if this drainage were obstructed? Could we need a stronger argument for enforcing the necessity of attention to the skin? On the pulps of the finger, where the ridges of the sensitive layer of the true skin are somewhat finer than the palm of the hand and on the heel, where the ridges are coarser, the number of pores on the square inch was 2,268, and the length of tube 567 inches, or 47 feet. To obtain an estimate of the length of tube of the perspiratory system of the whole surface of the body, I think,” says Dr. Wilson, “that 2,800 might be taken as a fair average of the number of pores in the square inch, and 700 consequently of the number of inches in length. Now the number of square inches of surface in a man of ordinary height and bulk is 2,500, the number of pores therefore, 7,000,000, and the number of inches of perspiratory tube 1,750,000, that is 145,833 feet, or 48,000 yards, or nearly 28 miles.

“This is only a specimen of the extraordinary structure.

“Besides the perspiratory vessels, the skin is provided with vessels for secreting an oily substance, which is of a different nature at different parts of the body; with vessels to repair abrasion and provide for its growth, and carry off its decayed parts; with nerves and blood-vessels that are probably as numerous and extensive as the perspiratory vessels.

“It must at the same time be remembered, that the interior skin or mucous membrane, is provided with equally numerous and complicated vessels, to answer some analogous purposes. The whole of them may be affected by applications to the external skin.”

Dr. Wilson has, in his work, introduced some equally curious and instructive passages, as to the formation and uses of the oil-glands, the structure and functions of the hair, the influence of diet and clothing, and the effect of exercise and cleanliness on the health of this extensive organ.

V.—Is Hydropathy a Panacea? and what Complaints are curable by it?

Dr. Rauss, author of a work on hydropathy which passed through several editions, says, “It is almost impossible for any one to die of an acute disease, in whom reaction can be produced, and who from the commencement is treated Hydropathically.

“Those unacquainted with this treatment will naturally doubt its wonderful power; and the physician, when he reflects upon the number of patients who in acute diseases have perished under his hands, will no doubt treat it with derision; nevertheless,” says the Doctor, “as I am not advancing a doctrine that may be controverted, I here publicly make known that I am ready, by deeds as well as words, to prove all that I have stated.” “To state,” adds the Doctor, “$1” The cure of all acute diseases, of whatever nature or kind, with these exceptions, is to Priessnitz merely child’s play; in no instance of nervous fevers or inflammations, in any stage, was he ever known to lose a patient; and what is worthy of remark in acute cases, a cure is effected in a few days without the subsequent debility which results from other treatment. Whilst I was at GrÄfenberg, all descriptions of acute attacks came under my immediate notice, and I assert, without fear of contradiction, that they were all cured, with but one exception,—and that a highly valued friend of my own, a medical man, who was attacked with inflammation of the lungs. The doctor, who was advanced in life, retained his old prejudices, and consequently refused to submit to the treatment until too late. Confident in the power of Hydropathy for the last six years, whenever occasions offered (and they were not few during my sojourn in Ireland), I applied the treatment with invariable success. A case of inflammation of the mucous membrane is worthy of notice. One M. D. declared his belief that the patient would not live two hours; the other, that he could not exist until the evening. On the application of the wet sheet and tepid bath, the resuscitation of the man was as by miracle. In a case of diarrhoea, the rubbing sheet and its bath acted to the astonishment of the family. A young man had been under medical treatment for diarrhoea for a month, when he could not sleep more than a quarter of an hour at a time. He abandoned drugs, and was cured by hydropathy in three days. Dr. Engel of Vienna, and many other writers on the subject, are quite of the same opinion as Dr. Rauss as regards acute disease. This mode of treatment is efficacious in chronic diseases accompanied by atony; in all nervous affections, spasms, pains of which medicine will not discover the cause; in cases of obstruction of the bowels, and all the systematic evils which arise from them, such as indigestion, hypochondria, piles, jaundice, &c; in gout, rheumatism, scrofula, and most diseases affecting women; in fact, it is successful in a number of complaints altogether beyond the reach of medicine. I have had frequent occasions for admiring the result of the treatment in cases of ague, nervous, typhus, putrid, and scarlet fevers; but its most signal triumphs are obtained over those serious derangements of the system produced by the abuse of drugs, or when consumptions are produced by iodine, arsenic, or the consequences of mercury, tartar emetic, or other dangerous medicaments, have manifested themselves.”

It may be stated without the fear of contradiction (not a word has been written to the contrary), that in small-pox, scarlatina, measles, croup, and all the complaints incidental to children; in fevers, inflammations, cholera, cholic, dysentery, diarrhoea, and, in fact, all acute diseases, hydropathy competently administered is omnipotent; and that in chronic complaints it effects more than can be obtained by any other means. The question is frequently put, “Will hydropathy cure all complaints?” I answer it is no catholicon, no panacea; nor is any cure for all diseases to be found.

Thus Pope viewed it, and thus it must be viewed by all who think on the subject. What the advocates of hydropathy assert is, that sudden fevers, of whatever nature they may be, diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, English or Asiatic, in fact, all complaints that are termed acute, when the vital energies can be roused are sure of being cured; and that in old-standing complaints, usually denominated chronic, the water cure will do all that can be done by drugs, and that it is all-powerful over many complaints which are beyond the reach of all pharmaceutical remedies.

VI.—Is Hydropathy new? Why is it not generally adopted?

It is frequently said, by way of detracting from the merits of the Water-cure, that it is not new, that ages buried in the past have been witnesses to its merits. To this it may be replied, its advocates admit that the application of water to the cure of disease is as old as the hills;—but let me ask, breathes there a man who can point to the page, or call the dirty manuscript, from cavern or chest, wherein lies hid the present process of Hydropathy’s main arms, the wet sheet, sweating process, the douche, etc.? Where shall we find the sage of ancient or modern times, buried in herbalistic lore and practice, that ever succeeded so completely in the cure of diseases, by thrusting nothing upon his patient’s stomachic organs but pure unadulterated water, as Priessnitz? We seek not to prove its novelty, but its utility.

It has been shewn that water as a curative agent, has been known from the remotest period; but its means of application were insufficient. In the days of Pliny, it agitated the Roman world. In the sixteenth century, great efforts were made in our own country to introduce it into practice, and again more lately, the subject was agitated, but it did not advance. Thus it has been with all great discoveries—witness Steam. Le Caus, who discovered its powers two hundred years ago, was consigned to a mad-house. The French Academy of Science denounced Fulton’s discovery as a chimera and absurd, as it did Hydropathy a few years since. Others, anxious for the existence of a hidden treasure, were ever in search of it, each step conducted slowly nearer the goal; but a Watt, was required to give full and vigorous development to its powers. Thus, it has been with water, which, unaided by its present manifold modes of application, was nearly as ungovernable as the steam without the engine.

All nations recognised and many partially profited by the healing properties of water; but the genius of a Priessnitz was required to explore its capabilities and resources, and, by reducing them to a science, confer an inestimable boon on mankind and scatter to the winds the accumulated fallacies of ages.

If all these effects which we have shown, are to be produced by Hydropathic appliances, is it not evident there is something to be learnt? An acquaintance with its details, its modus operandi, can only be acquired by study and experience, as Lady Morgan says, “knowledge is a fruit which no longer grows upon trees; on the contrary, it partakes more of the nature of the truffle, and must be dug for by those who are desirous of tasting it.”2

A Medical Education does not necessarily assist in the knowledge of Hydropathy; on the contrary, it acts as barrier to the acquirement of a perfect insight into it. Hydropathy and Allopathy in their practice are like the poles asunder.

The question is frequently mooted, if Hydropathy is so harmless and yet so certain in its operations, how is it that the medical professors, whose object is to relieve their fellow-men, and prolong their lives, do not take it up? To this it might be answered, “It is a difficult thing to force any to believe the evidence of their own senses, if their instincts or their interests (which are one and the same) happen to point another way.”

“In the practice of Medicine, as in every thing else, there are vested interests, those in the receipt of large sums of money are content with things as they are, those in more limited practice have not the courage to enter upon anything new, however persuaded of its utility. Others are deterred by the fear of being considered Quacks, or losing cast[e] with their brother practitioners, and all see, that, in the ordinary occurrences of life the application of Hydropathy is so simple, that were it generally practised, nine tenths of the faculty would have to throw up their briefs. A writer in Chamber’s Journal justly observes,—“If the subject be new and startling, and still more so, if any interest or prejudice be disturbed by it, the clearest demonstration on earth is of no avail.”

Since the education of medical men (totally at variance as it is with all the principles of the Water-cure), gives them no advantage whatever over a non-medical man in judging of what is, or what is not a fit case for Hydropathy; or, in prescribing its practice, any opinion from the faculty, opposed as their interest, and prejudices are to it, ought to be received for as much as it is worth, and no more. One thinks Hydropathy available in gout—another doubts that, but believes it to be good in fevers or inflammations—a third would not hesitate to apply it in dysentery or diarrhoea—a fourth, for a cold—and so on through the whole category of disease; but, with the gravity of true sons of Aesculapius, to their own patients they recommend caution, which at once deters them from trying it. When these practitioners are asked, how they arrived at the conclusion, that the complaints they name may be cured by this treatment, their reasons are entirely speculative; and when pressed as to why they do not apply it, inasmuch as they admit it to be good, they argue the impossibility of contending with public prejudices.

Might we not ask, who are the authors of this state of things? Few people think for themselves, either in Law, Physic, or Divinity. As long as incomes from one thousand to thirty thousand pounds a year (and that there are the latter is proved by the returns of the Income Tax), are made by members of the profession, no reform with their consent can be expected. At one period, after the amputation of a limb, bleeding was staunched by the application of boiling pitch. ParÉ deprecated this treatment, and recommended the taking up arteries, as is now done. He was treated with derision: “What” said the old practitioner, “would you hang the life of a man upon a thread?” When Harvey propounded his theory, he lost caste with his brethren, and a medical writer doubts if any practitioner of the period, who had passed forty years, believed in the circulation of the blood.

Jenner, to secure himself from the fury of a mob, sought refuge in the house of Colonel Wilson; and there is still a minute in the books of the Foundling Hospital, the first public establishment that adopted Vaccination, stating that as its application could not be entrusted to the faculty, the Committee recommended that the operation of vaccination should be performed by the Clergy.

Lady Mary Wortley Montague was so persecuted, that she always regretted having introduced inoculation into the country.

VII.—The Lancet.

The use of the Lancet is a subject that ought to interest every friend to humanity in an especial manner. By this, our mortal foe, more have fallen than by the sword. The use of one is as unjustifiable as the other. “Blood is the life,” this is the language of holy writ; he who sheds that, deprives us of a part of our existence.

“The use of the Lancet,” says Dr. Dickson, “was the invention of an unenlightened, possibly a sanguinary age; and its continued use says but little for the after-discoveries of ages, or for the boasted progress of medical science.

“Will the men who thus lovingly pour out the blood, dispute its importance in the animal economy? Will they deny that it forms the basis of the solids,—that when the body has been wasted by long diseases, it is by the blood only it can recover its healthy volume and appearance?

“Misguided by theory, man, presumptuous man, has dared to divide what God, as a part of creation, has united; to open what the Eternal, in the wisdom of his omniscience made entire.

“It is on the face of it a most unnatural proceeding. How can you withdraw blood from one organ without depriving every other of the material of its healthy state?

“The first resource of the surgeon is the lancet. The first thing he thinks of, when called to an accident, is how he can most quickly open the flood-gates of the heart, to pour out the stream of an already enfeebled existence.”

Capt. Owen, in detailing the mortality which took place among his people on the coast of Africa, by yellow fever, says, “he had not one instance of perfect recovery after a liberal application of the lancet. And in the subsequent report of the Select Committee on the Western Coast of Africa, there occurs the following passage. “The bleeding system has fortunately gone out of fashion; and the frightful mortality that attended its practice, is now no longer known on board our ships.”

“Let the reader,” says Dr. Gibbs, in his letters from GrÄfenberg, “enter the crowded hospitals in England or the Continent, and see how mercilessly the lancet, the leech, and cupping-glass are employed in the diseases of the poor. Look at the pale and ghastly faces of the inmates.”

Among the numerous diseases which bleeding can produce, Darwin says, a paroxysm of gout is liable to recur. John Hunter mentions lock-jaw and dropsy; Travers, blindness and palsy; Marshall Hall, mania; Blundell, dysentery; Broussais, fever and convulsion. “When an animal loses a considerable quantity of blood,” says John Hunter, “the heart increases in frequency of strokes, as also in its violence.” Yet these are the indications for which professors bleed. Magendie mentions pneumonia as having been produced by it; and further tells us, that he has witnessed among its effects “the entire train of inflammatory phenomena;” and mark, he adds the extraordinary fact, “that this inflammation will have been produced by the very agent chiefly used to combat it.” We read in scripture, “He that sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” It has ever been supposed, that this applied to the assassin; but holy writ is deeper than this! and no doubt the time will come, when one man will no more think of bleeding another, than he would of committing any other act that should expose him to public ignominy.

The operation of blood-letting is so associated in the minds of most men with the practice of physic, that when a sensible German physician, some time ago, petitioned the king of Prussia to make the employment of the lancet penal, he was laughed at from one end of Europe to the other.

“The imputation of novelty,” says Locke, “is a terrible charge against those who judge of men’s heads as they do of their perukes, by the fashion; and can allow none to be right, but the received doctrine.” Thus Hydropathy, like many other valuable discoveries, and even Christianity itself, must wait its time; a circumstance much to be lamented—because all that is sought by bleeding is effected without this soul-harrowing process. Let such as doubt the fact, go to GrÄfenberg, there they will learn that during the whole course of Mr. Priessnitz’s practice, not a single drop of human blood has been spilt; and yet all diseases for which the lancet is applied are hourly relieved. This is a fact so notorious, that no pen has ever been raised to deny it; so long as interest governs prejudice, practitioners may continue their destructive practice with impunity; but where are the feelings? As observed by a writer, “what a long dream of false security have mankind been dreaming! They have laid themselves down on the laps of their medical Mentors, they have slept a long sleep; while these, like the fabled vampire of the poet, taking advantage of a dark night of barbarism and ignorance, have thought it no sin to rob them of their life’s blood, during the profoundness of their slumber.”

Dr. Kitto, in his clever work on consumption says;—“On the subject of bleeding, purgatives, mercury, and a low course of diet, I shall have occasion to show, in the course of my observations, that these agents are not only unnecessary, but actually mischievous, particularly bleeding, which has proved more fatal than the pestilence or the sword. Nature is our best and surest guide; and if we would follow only her admonitions, we should not so frequently have to witness the impotence of our efforts to alleviate suffering; or to mourn the unfortunate results of cases, which, despite the boasted improvements in the healing art, but too frequently terminate in the grave.”

VIII.—Authorities in Support of Water as a Curative Agent.

Thales, like Homer, looked upon water as the principle of every thing. The Spartans bathed their children as soon as born in cold water; and the men of Sparta, both old and young, bathed at all seasons of the year in the Eurotas, to harden their flesh and strengthen their bodies.

Pindar, in one of his Olympic Odes, says, “The best thing is water, and the next gold.”

There was a Greek proverb to the effect that the water of the sea cured all ills.

Pythagoras recommended the use of cold baths strongly to his disciples, to fortify both body and mind.

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, who added friction to cold bathing, was accustomed to use cold water in his treatment of the most serious illnesses. It was Hippocrates who first observed that warm water chilled, whilst cold water warmed.

The Macedonians considered warm water to be enervating; and their women, after accouchement, were washed with cold water.

Virgil called the ancient inhabitants of Italy, a race of men hard and austere, who immersed their newly-born children in the rivers, and accustomed them to cold water.

Pliny, in speaking of A. Musa, who cured Horace by means of cold water, said that he put an end to confused drugs; and he also alludes to a certain Charmes, who made a sensation at Rome by the cures he effected with cold water. On being asked what he thought drugs were sent for, he said, “he could not imagine, except that men might destroy themselves with them when they were tired of living.”

Celsus, called the Cicero of doctors, employed water for complaints of the head and stomach.

Galen, in the second century, recommended cold bathing to the healthy, as well as to patients labouring under the attacks of fever.

Charlemagne, aware of the salubrity of cold bathing, encouraged the use of it throughout his empire, and introduced swimming as an amusement at his court.

Michael Savonarola, an Italian doctor, in 1462, recommended cold water in gout, ophthalmia, and hÆmorrhages.

Cardanus, of Pavia, 1575, complains that the doctors in his time made so little use of cold water in the curing of gout.

Van der Heyden, a doctor at Ghent, in a work published in 1624, states that during an epidemic dysentery, he cured many hundreds of persons with cold water, and that during a long practice of fifty years, the best cures he ever made were effected with cold water.

Short, an English doctor, 1656, states that he had cured the dropsy and the bite of mad dogs with cold water.

Dr. Sir John Floyer published a work, called “the Psychrolusic,” in 1702, showing how fevers were to be cured with water. From that period to 1722, his work went through six editions in London.

Dr. Hancock, in 1722, published an anti-fever treatise upon the use of cold water, which went through seven editions in one year.

Dr. Currie of Liverpool, who published a work in 1797, on the use of water, introduced that element extensively in his practice with astounding results.

Tissot, in his “Advice to the People,” published in Paris, 1770, shows the importance of cold water.

Hoffman, the famous German doctor, says that if there existed anything in the world that could be called a panacea, it was pure water: first, because that element would disagree with nobody; secondly, because it is the best preservative against disease; thirdly, because it would cure agues and chronic complaints; fourthly because it responded to all indications.

Hahn, who was born in Silesia, in 1714, wrote an excellent work upon the curative agency of water in all complaints, a copy was lately found upon a book-stall, and purchased by Professor Oertel, for little more than one penny, and has been re-published; it is interesting to all who regard with attention that great moral change which the Water-cure is calculated to effect.

In Dr. Hahn’s work, it is stated that Pater Bernardo, a Capuchin monk from Sicily, went in the year 1724 to Malta, and there made some most astonishing water-cures, the fame of which spread throughout Europe: he used iced water internally and externally, and allowed his patients to eat but very little. He made a proposition that the doctors should take 100 patients, and said if they, by their mode of treating them, could cure forty, then would he undertake to cure sixty more easily and securely, and in a shorter time. His remedy of iced water, was just as effectual in winter as in summer. A case is cited of a man, ninety-two years of age, who was at the point of death from the virulence of a fever, and was cured with cold water only.

Evan Hahnemann, father of Homeopathy, in a work published at Leipsic, 1784, recommends fresh water, without which, he says, ulcers of any long standing cannot be cured, and adds, if there be any general remedy for disease, “it is water.”

The Rev. John Wesley, a.m., published a work in 1747 (about a century ago), which went through thirty-four editions, called “Primitive Physic, or an Easy and Natural Method of Curing most Diseases.”

After deprecating the manner in which drugs were imposed upon mankind, the mysteries with which the science of medicine is surrounded, and the interested conduct of medical men, the Rev. gentleman proceeds to shew, that he was fully aware of the healing powers of water; and from the long list which he has given, and which follows, it will be evident that he thought water capable of curing almost every disease to which human nature is exposed. He writes:—

“The common method of compounding and decompounding medicines, can never be reconciled to common sense. Experience shews, that one thing will cure most disorders, at least as well as twenty put together. Then why do you add the other nineteen? Only to swell the apothecary’s bill! nay, possibly on purpose to prolong the distemper, that the doctor and he may divide the spoil.

“How often, by thus compounding medicines of opposite qualities, is the virtue of both utterly destroyed?

“Nay, how often do those joined together destroy life, which singly they might have preserved?

“This occasioned that caution of the great Boerhaave, against mixing things without evident necessity, and without full proof of the effect they will produce when joined together, as well as of that they produce when asunder; seeing (as he observes) that several things which taken separately are safe and powerful medicines, when compounded not only lose their former power, but compose a strong and deadly poison.”

In recommending to his followers the use of water, Mr. Wesley proceeds to state, “that cold bathing cures young children of the following complaints:—

“Water,” he further adds, “frequently cures every nervous3 and every paralytic disorder. In particular:—

“To this children should be used from their cradles.”

We then find the following prescriptions:—

“For Asthma.—Take a pint of cold water every morning, washing the head in cold water immediately after, and using the cold bath.

“Rickets in Children.—Dip them in cold water every morning.

“To prevent apoplexy.—Use the cold bath and drink only cold water.

“Ague.—Go into a cold bath just before the cold.

“Cancer in the breast.—Use the cold bath. This has cured many. This cured Mrs. Bates, of Leicestershire, of a cancer in her breast, a consumption, a sciatica, and rheumatism, which she had had nearly twenty years.

N.B. Generally where cold bathing is necessary to cure disease, water-drinking is so, to prevent a relapse.

“Hysteric colic.—Mrs. Watts, by using the cold bath two and twenty times in a month, was entirely cured of an hysteric colic, fits, and convulsive motions, continual sweatings and vomitings, wandering pains in her limbs and head, and total loss of appetite.

“To prevent the ill effects of cold.—The moment a person gets into a house, with his hands and feet quite chilled, let him put them into a vessel of water, as cold as can be got, and hold them there until they begin to glow, which they will do in a minute or two. This method likewise effectually prevents chilblains.

“Consumption.—Cold bathing has cured many deep consumptions.

“Convulsions.—Use the cold bath.”

And so on. In this valuable little work, from which are the above extracts, confirmative of the value I set upon cold water, Mr. Wesley prescribes the use of water for almost every complaint.

Slade, in his “Records of the East,” very judiciously remarks, with reference to the Turks, that “notwithstanding their ignorance of medical science, added to the extreme irregularity of their living, both as regards diet and exercise, one day dining off cheese and cucumbers, another day feeding on ten greasy dishes; one month riding twelve hours daily, another month never stirring off the sofa; smoking always, and drinking coffee to excess; occasionally getting drunk, besides other intemperances—combining, in short, all that our writers on the subject designate injurious to health—the Turks enjoy particularly good health: and this anomaly is owing to two causes; first, the religious necessity of washing their arms and feet and necks, from three to five times a day, always with cold water, generally at the fountains before the mosques, by which practice they become protected against catarrhal affections; second, by their constant use of the vapour bath, by which the humours that collect in the human frame, no doctors know how or why, occasioning a long list of disorders, are carried off by the pores of the skin. Gout, rheumatism, head-ache, consumption, are unknown in Turkey, thanks to the great physicians, vapour bath and cold bath! No art has been so much vitiated in Europe, by theories, as the art of preserving health. Its professors, however, are beginning to recur to first principles; and when bathing shall be properly appreciated, three-fourths of the druggists will be obliged to close their shops.”

The question here arises: how is it that with so much evidence in favour of water, it has never been brought into general use? Many reasons might be assigned, but the principal one is, that until the present day no system of treatment has ever been based on scientific principles. It was in embryo, and, like Steam, wanted its time for development. If people studied their health as they do their interest, they would at least enquire into this, the best means of preserving it.

But in our present state of civilisation, nature is known by name only. None save those reduced to the last stage of poverty ever satisfy their thirst with water! Men, women, and children, rich and poor, old and young, all avoid water—perhaps because it costs nothing (for, in our artificial life, we are led to esteem things according to their venal price), and, like air and sun, is shared in common with our poorer fellow-kind.

The Germans are water-drinkers, but the English have a distaste for it; few ever drank half a pint undiluted at one time, in their lives, imagining that water will cause inconvenience, whilst in the course of the day, they think nothing of drinking wine, soda water, brandy and water, and tea, to a great extent, all of which are injurious. A lady of my acquaintance carries her distaste for water so far as to ruin the health of her children by it. For some time the eldest, about four years old, had been sickly: when at Rome, the mother consulted a medical man, who said that the child wanted nothing but water, which was given it, and the child got well immediately. I met the same family at Kissingen, when at a spring the nursery-maid asked me if she might give the child water, saying the children were always asking for it, but her mistress did not like them to drink water alone. “Certainly,” I replied, “give her as much as she chooses to drink.”

In addition to cold water, fresh air and exercise are most important means of health. They are especially useful in giving life and activity to the skin, which seldom meets with proper attention, people generally not being aware of the evil consequences attending their neglect of that most important organ of the human frame.

By protecting the skin from the air, we concentrate on it the heat that is ever exhaling from the body, and thus complete what warm baths, spirituous liquors, want of exercise, close rooms, and heavy nourishment, have begun. We do not perceive that by keeping the body warm, we weaken the skin, which becomes so sensitive to external changes, that we are incessantly obliged to augment the thickness and number of its coverings. At last, a time comes when nothing more can be added to the clothing already too heavy. Then weak and irritable persons, whose numbers—our erroneous system daily augments!—remain at home, not aware of the innumerable inconveniences to which such a resolution exposes them, and not knowing that the habitual washing of the body in cold water, would enable them to leave their heated apartments, abandon flannel, and expose themselves, without the slightest danger, to the healthy effects of fresh air.

It is the enervating softness and delicacy of modern customs, which present the greatest obstacle to the use of cold water. Man looks for agreeable impressions, and avoids whatever does not produce them. But with a little courage, he would discover that the inconvenience of a more rigorous and simple mode of life was but momentary, and when he had found his health of mind and body improved by it, it would soon become agreeable, whilst from luxurious sloth ensue enervation and disgust. Being unable to change the nature of the elements, we should harden our bodies, familiarise ourselves with the inclemency of the seasons, and turn them to the benefit of our health. It is in vain that the man whose fortune permits him to change the climate, looks for a milder sky; if his effeminacy accompanies him, he will be like a lady of whom Priessnitz speaks, who near the fire was cold. A warmer air would enervate his skin more and more; and then he would be as sensitive to cold, even in a Neapolitan climate, as, with a hardened body, he would be at his ease in the hut of an Esquimaux.

Another obstacle to the external use of cold water, is the false belief that colds, which are the sources of much illness, result from it. People cannot understand that a cold bath, followed by suitable exercise, warms the feet and the body, and that there is no surer preservative from cold.

The same incredulity is affected with regard to the revulsive effect of the cold foot-bath; nevertheless nothing is better proved than its efficiency in relieving the head. Every one knows that, after having washed the face and hands in cold water, an agreeable warmth ensues, which is not the result of warm water. That after any part of the body has been exposed to cold, rain, or snow, it becomes hot; and that the reverse is the case after the use of warm water; which accounts for people in Summer feeling cool after a warm bath.

When we wash the body with cold water, we should do it quickly, lose no time in dressing, and afterwards take exercise. Washing should be avoided when the parties are cold, because then the re-action or re-production of heat is slower. These precautions would prevent the most delicate persons from taking cold, though not in the habit of using cold water.

Professor Oertel was the first to publish to the world the astonishing cures which were effected at GrÄfenberg; and he was followed by Brand, Kroeber, Kurtsz, Doering, Harnish, and a host of others, whose writings contributed to establish the reputation of Priessnitz, who by means of the various forms in which he administers water, attacks all diseases susceptible of cure, and very frequently establishes the health of those who have been declared incurable.

IX.—Ablutions.

There can be no doubt, if the public were in the habit of using cold ablutions every morning, their health would be improved, and the number of consumptive cases much diminished.

There are many ways of using ablutions, according to the health and strength of the parties.

Strong people ought to go into a cold bath the moment they get out of bed; then rub themselves well for three or four minutes. If not in their usual health, the bath should be protracted, and more friction used.

Another or general mode is to have a washing tub, water only two or three inches deep, put a towel into the water, leave the bed quite warm, step into the tub, take up the towel with as much water as possible, and squeeze it over the head and shoulders several times, rub the body well with the towel, then sit down in the tub, and with wet hands rub the abdomen, etc., for a minute or two.

Delicate persons may be washed all over with wet towels; sometimes it is desirable to wash first with tepid water, then with cold.

Where there is a great whiteness of skin, which indicates a want of circulation, or parties feel themselves indisposed, dripping sheets are prescribed; the friction here used arouses the vital energies, and in general produces a most refreshing feeling throughout the system.

Priessnitz never prescribes cold immersion till the body be prepared for it. When patients have been desirous of bathing in a river, he has always opposed it; saying, “Bathing excites nervous sensibility; too much bathing excites the system to an injurious extent.” The various baths resorted to in hydropathy, are to effect an object, and as such are medically applied. Sea bathing for some constitutions is remarkably wholesome, but to others it is injurious.

X.—Use of Cold Water for Drinking and Injections.

Dr. Arbuthnot, in his work on aliments, says that “Water is the chief ingredient in the animal fluids and solids; for a dry bone distilled, affords a great quantity of insipid water: therefore, water seems to be the proper drink for every animal.” Berzelius, the great Swedish chemist, proved the truth of Dr. Arbuthnot’s observations, by distilling the entire corpse of a moderate sized man down to water, with the exception of eight pounds.

And Milton has expressed his concurrence with those authorities in eloquent language, when speaking of Samson:—

About twelve ordinary size tumblers of water a day are generally drunk whilst under the treatment; instances occur where that number is increased to twenty, and even thirty glasses, but such are very rare.

At the beginning it is difficult to drink so much water; but by degrees we become accustomed to it. All the operations of the cure lead to the elimination of heat, which naturally causes thirst. Some persons on first drinking water feel sick, or have diarrhoea, which proves that the stomach is not in a healthy state. In this case, instead of discontinuing the drinking of water, the quantity is increased. When pain in the stomach comes from its being overcharged by food, water, in large quantities is recommended to be persevered in until relief is obtained.

We know that emetics produce this effect, but such remedies weaken the stomach—while water has the contrary tendency.

Cold water, as a beverage, fortifies the stomach and intestines, by clearing them of the bad juices they contain: favours the generation of new juices, and mixes with the blood by absorption. It spreads itself quickly through all the organs, attenuates, purifies, and dissolves the sharp or thick humours, and discharges them by means of perspiration and urine. Considered as a dietetic for slight indispositions, bad digestions, and generally in all cases of disease for which the faculty recommend aperients or mineral waters, it cannot be too highly appreciated. In the morning, after a cold ablution, whilst taking exercise, drink a few tumblers of water, and conclude every meal with a tumbler of water. It will have the same effect as a purgative or mineral water, without, like them, weakening the digestive organs. All persons may drink cold water at all times of the day with impunity, if they are not inconvenienced by it. That taken before breakfast, during exercise, produces doubtless the best effects. It is above all after sweating that drinking cold water produces an expectoration of phlegm. Water may be drunk after breakfast, but not so as to overcharge the stomach. During dinner the aliments should be moistened by some glasses of water, then the stomach must be left to repose; some hours afterwards again water may be drunk until supper-time. Drinking after supper is no less useful; but it may break the rest, by causing an invalid to rise often in the night. After drinking, exercise is indispensable, it stimulates the action of the water, and accelerates a cure. When in exercise, though in a perspiration, water may be drunk in any quantities. Water ought always to be drawn fresh from the spring, and drunk as cold as possible. The decanters which contain it ought to have stoppers, to preserve it cold and fresh. After every operation in the cure, a glass of water should be drunk; and it should be given in small quantities when in the sweating process. I know a gentleman who has all his life been a free-liver, and who, notwithstanding, is in good health, which he attributes entirely to drinking a couple of tumblers of water the last thing at night and first thing in the morning.

Under the denomination of injections, we principally understand clysters. When the patient is not in the habit of using them with cold water, they must not at first be applied for longer than two minutes; but by degrees the intestines become accustomed to the water, which is often absorbed like that introduced into the stomach. When necessary, a second injection is repeated immediately after the expulsion of the first.4 Cold injections are used for constipation and diarrhoea, two diseases diametrically opposite, but which arise from the same cause, the weakness of the intestines. Thus the contradiction is only in appearance, the great object of injections being to establish the tone of these organs, and regulate their functions. Injections ought to be aided by the use of cold water in other ways.

There are also other injections in use at GrÄfenberg, such as for the ears, nostrils, and genitals. Particular syringes are used for these purposes.

XI.—The Cold Bath.

The cold plunge-bath should be sufficiently deep for a man of ordinary height to plunge into, up to his arm-pits. The water aught[sic] to be continually renewed by a spring.

We have quoted many authorities to shew the advantages resulting from exposing the body to the action of cold water.

When cold baths disagree with us, it is because we are not in a state to use them, or we stay in too long.

When the body is overcharged with drugs or alcohol, when the juices are dried up, or when there is an apoplectic tendency, and when in other diseased conditions, the circulation is languid, cold plunge-baths must be used with great caution. Many suppose that all the patients in a hydropathic establishment, are indiscriminately ordered this sort of bath. In this they err, because many are never allowed their use, and others only after a long application of the rubbing sheet and tepid baths. Strong robust constitutions may take the plunge-bath at once; but in the Water-cure this is not allowed until the body is prepared for it, and then only for a short time; generally for three or four minutes. Priessnitz objects to persons staying long in the water: of course the objection applies to invalids. For those who bathe in the sea, or other water, he does not pretend to prescribe.

Every day’s experience proves that the immersion of the body, covered with perspiration into cold water, is exempt from danger, provided the internal organs are in state of repose.

The risk which is incurred of catching cold on stripping and bathing in a river, in this case cannot apply, as the body heated by artificial means is at once immersed, whilst the bather often, injudiciously, waits until chilled before he enters the water.

If we walk fast, or a long distance, to the bath, it is requisite to repose a little to tranquillise the lungs; then before perspiration ceases, we ought to undress quietly, and either plunge head foremost into the water, or wet the head and chest previously, to prevent the blood mounting to those regions.

Whilst bathing, the head ought to be immersed several times. After the sweating or packing process, great care is to be observed in not exposing any part of the body to the air previous to entering the bath. The patient should keep in movement, rubbing himself well the whole time. This stimulates the skin and abates the cold.

The time for remaining in the bath, is governed by the coldness of the water, and the vital heat of the bather; a second sensation of cold is to be avoided, or re-action may be difficult.

On leaving the bath, the patient is covered with a dry sheet, upon which the attendant rubs, until the body presents a warm healthy glow. The invalid should then dress quickly, drink a glass or two of water, and walk out in the air to get warm; to effect this by the heat of stoves or beds would be acting in direct opposition to Hydropathic rules.

When irritation is excited during the cure, the cold bath is sometimes suspended and tepid baths resorted to. Every house ought to be supplied with a cold bath, as its habitual use by the members of the family would secure them against colds, influenza, etc.

Priessnitz says, “that the effect of going into cold water without being previously heated, and doing so in a state of perspiration, is like a blacksmith hammering upon cold, rather than hot iron. Cramp frequently attends the former, whilst a healthy reaction is always the result of the latter.”

XII.—Is going into the Cold Bath in a State of Perspiration attended with Danger?

“The transition from a Vapour-bath to snow, or to a Cold-bath, has been practised by the Russians for time immemorial” with the most beneficial results,—“this,” adds Dr. Johnson, “is conclusive, that there is no danger whatever in going into the Cold-bath while covered with perspiration; unless it can be proved that perspiration produced by hot vapour is a very different thing from perspiration produced by a blanket;” and, adds the learned doctor, in his valuable work on Hydropathy, which every one ought to read; “All physiological reasoning goes to prove, that it is safer to go into cold water when the temperature of the skin has been raised.

“If there be danger at all, it is going into cold water without raising the temperature of the body. It must be the temperature that is the question; for it cannot be of consequence whether the body be covered with grease called perspiration or hog’s-lard. Re-action will most certainly be produced, and congestion as certainly prevented by going into the water when the body is warm. Profuse perspiration does not make the body hotter, in proportion to its profuseness, on the contrary, it is cooler than before, for perspiration is a cooling process.

“When perspiration is present, the body is never extremely hot. Checking perspiration is a chimerical danger; the oozing of perspiration subsides of itself, almost at the moment the means that produced it are withdrawn, and the perspiration on the body is that which has been already produced, having now no connection with the body.”

At Cork in Ireland, it was told me by one of the first brewers, that formerly his men, while in a state of perspiration, from pressing the grain out of the vats, frequently caught cold and died: at last they adopted the plan of going into cold water, whilst in that state; the result of which has been that they now never catch cold from their occupation, and are as healthy as other people.

XIII.—The Packing Sheet, and Sweating Process.

Take all the coverings off the bed, arrange the pillows, cover over the bed and pillows with a large thick blanket, then put a small sheet into a pail of fresh cold water; if to reduce fever, let it be wrung out less; if there is no fever, more; the drier the sheet, the sooner the re-action; spread this sheet so wrung out, on the blanket.

The patient extends himself, divested of every thing, upon the sheet, which should be brought over him as soon as possible. The blanket is now brought over the sheet, and the attendant tucks it in, beginning with the neck, as tightly as possible, so that his patient can hardly move hand or foot. Other blankets are then added, separately tucked in, and turned up at the feet. Half-a-dozen blankets are not too many; and to produce immediate heat, a feather bed is superadded, leaving the head free. It is astonishing what an amount of covering one may support without inconvenience.

The great object is so to envelop the body as to exclude the air, and prevent evaporation, in order that its own heat may be concentrated upon itself.

In ordinary cases, the sheet is well wrung out, and covered up as before stated; but in cases of severe fever, the wet is only covered with a single dry one. In cases of very great delicacy, but not in fever, the sheet is put into tepid water instead of cold.

This has by some been called a general poultice, as it performs upon the whole body what a poultice or the bandages effect upon members of it. Dr. Alexander of Newcastle terms it a linen bath.

That wet linen should produce good and evil results appears paradoxical. Damp beds are said to lead to injurious consequences, whilst wet linen applied as a covering to the whole or parts of the body, produces the most happy effects.

Accustomed as Priessnitz is to witnessing none but the best results from the application of damp linen, he could not be persuaded that mischief arose even from lying in damp beds.

In the Hydropathic practice the body is so hermetically enclosed in the wet sheet, that not a particle of heat can escape or external air penetrate, by which means the exhalation is concentrated upon the body; this may be termed a linen bath or fomentation.

In the case of people being accidentally put into a damp bed, none of the above precautions are taken; there is no extra clothing, no binding about the neck to prevent the escape of caloric, and therefore to these causes must be attributed the mischief, if any ensue.

It is, however, a question, where mischief follows, whether one-twentieth part of the cases can be fairly attributed to the damp beds. It is highly probable that Priessnitz’s surmise of its being the development of a disease lurking in the system which under the Water-cure might easily be met, is correct.

Wet sheets are resorted to in all fevers, and changed until the paroxysm is abated. In Typhus, the sheet is changed every ten minutes, and as often as forty or fifty times in a day.

As a general rule, Mr. Priessnitz told me, if unwell, without waiting to know the ailment—to take a packing-sheet, until warm, twice a day, followed by a tepid bath.

Packing-sheets may be persevered in for years in obstinate cases. The usual time employed in their application is until the body is warm, which will be from twenty-five to forty minutes. It is a great mistake to suppose the application of the sheet is to produce perspiration. If a genial heat pervades the body, it is all that is required, unless under peculiar circumstances, previous to immersion in either tepid or cold water.

The following anecdote, told me by Major Beavan, is adduced as corroborative evidence in favour of the use of wet linen to lower the temperature of the body. In 1821, the Major having to pass through extensive jungles to join his regiment in the East Indies, a distance of nearly 300 miles, caught a fever. When at the highest stage of the hot fit, it occurred to him that he might cool himself as they did wine and other liquids in that climate. He accordingly had himself wrapped up in a wet sheet for a quarter of an hour, when, finding himself relieved, he added a number of coverings, and fell into a most refreshing sleep of some hours. On awaking, he found mind, body, and appetite restored, all of which had been prostrated to an extreme degree for several days.

The packing-sheet is the greatest sedative known. It generally occurs that persons who, from pain or nervous excitement, have not slept for nights, doze off immediately on being enveloped in the wet sheet.

The packing-sheet brings morbific matter to the surface, and thereby relieves the capillaries. The ablution which follows acts as a tonic.

The relief afforded to the overcharged system through the pores, by the application of the packing-sheet, may be compared to the emptying of a bason with a sponge; each sheet absorbing a certain amount of morbific matter and superfluous animal heat, until the body is relieved.

In fevers generally, the foetid odour of the sheet when withdrawn, is hardly to be endured; and in eruptive fevers, the inclination to scratch the body is allayed, and very little inconvenient sensation is felt either night or day.

In the morning, when fever is most felt, wet sheets and tepid baths allay it; and in the afternoon, any return of it is again subdued as before. The discovery of the wet sheet alone is sufficient to render the name of Priessnitz immortal.

But when, by these means, it would be difficult to produce perspiration, recourse is previously had to a dripping or rubbing-sheet, and then the patient is packed up; or the blanket is warmed before a fire, before the body is enveloped in it.

The sweating process, when used, is always succeeded by a tepid or cold bath, or a dripping-sheet: if a tepid bath, cold water is afterwards poured over the head and shoulders; but if a dripping-sheet, it is repeated until the body is cooled.

Every day’s practice at GrÄfenberg, and elsewhere, shews that no danger attends going into cold water in a heated state.

But Mr. Priessnitz, whether from having a different class of patients, or from the difficulty of getting servants to understand when the patient had perspired enough, or the conviction that the same or better results attend the packing sheet, we know not, has changed his practice, and no longer resorts so frequently to the sweating process. The following extract is from a letter received by the author from a gentleman who has been a long time at GrÄfenberg.

“The object of all Hydropathic appliances may be shortly and intelligibly defined, as assisting Nature to regain that ascendancy by which she of her own accord will throw off what is offensive to her. The practitioner ought therefore to strengthen her in every possible way; and we have the latest discoveries of science as a guarantee that the present (the packing or wet-sheet process) method of carrying out the cure effectuates this end more completely than any other; what therefore is opposed to that, is so much drawn from the strength which it is the object to promote, and inasmuch as sweating, however it may tend to alleviate, undoubtedly weakens, it is a counteracting agency.

“Priessnitz is reaping the benefit of twenty years’ experience. He follows still as he always followed (as far as it was possible for him to read and understand) the mysteries of his great mistress, Nature. Chance, I imagine, has in no way guided his choice; it may have assisted him in interpreting some of the revelations of this great spirit, but he has always had the same unerring basis on which to establish his system. Through imperfect light he may have sweated for a time, but the still small voice of truth has never ceased to whisper in his ear, and it is highly conducive to his honour that he should now have the courage to say that in this point he erred. He does this at the risk of reputation and fortune; he subjects himself to the abuse of high and low; but he acts up to his conviction, which is that the packing sheet, if to be persevered in, is better than the sweating process.”

Though, however, the sweating process is not now so general, it is not entirely abandoned. A lady, a friend of mine, had a cold—she was ordered to sweat lightly twice a day, for two or three days. A gentleman had a swelling in his mouth; he was ordered the same. Others are ordered to sweat once or twice a-week, but the greater part of Priessnitz’ patients never sweat at all.

Priessnitz guards people against the use of hot-air and vapour baths; they weaken and relax the skin. The difference between bringing a great amount of heat to act upon the surface, and causing the body to develop its own heat, must be obvious to every one.

XIV.—Sweating Process.

This process is precisely the same as that which has been already described, with the omission of the wet sheet. To produce perspiration, the body is enveloped in dry blankets. This tedious process in moderately strong people is seldom effected in less than three hours.

In the wet sheet, no water is given—but in the blankets, as soon as perspiration appears, it should be administered in small quantities; for this purpose a tea-pot is desirable.

In the Sweating process it is necessary to place a urinal in the bed of the patient. On proceeding to the bath after either of the operations, the attendant must take especial care to keep the body well covered, or his patient may take cold. On throwing off the covering, let the body be wetted all over instantly. This is an infallible precaution.

When there is a difficulty in procuring a bath, the dripping sheet full of water is used. If the first sheet does not cool, it must be repeated.

XV.—The Rubbing Sheet, or Abreibung.

This, by some, is called “the dripping sheet”; by others, “the wrung out” or “rubbing sheet.” The term “rubbing” is used, because when the sheet is thrown on the body, great rubbing is used outside of it. It is a quick and simple mode of taking a general ablution; and, when frequently repeated, proves most effectual in restoring or increasing the circulation.

The value of friction to the human body is too well known to require observation. Hair gloves, hard brushes, or coarse towels cause a glow and an elastic feeling, though if long persevered in, they irritate and weaken the skin.

For the daily purposes of life, cold ablutions, and friction with dry cloths are sufficient; but to rouse the dormant energies, to give vitality to the system or combat illness, something more powerful is required.

The rubbing-sheet is a small sheet, soaked in cold water, and afterwards wrung out. This the attendant throws over the patient naked, who, standing up, receives it over his head and shoulders. When thus completely enveloped, the attendant rubs (outside the sheet) the back, loins, legs, and feet of the patient, whilst he himself rubs his abdomen and chest. The operation lasts about three minutes; the wet sheet is then replaced by a dry one, and friction again renewed until the body becomes quite dry; after which, if one rubbing-sheet only is prescribed, a waist-bandage is put on, a glass of water drank, and the invalid proceeds to take the air. If two or three rubbing sheets are prescribed, after the first operation as just described is over, the patient walks about the room in the dry sheet, with no other covering, for four or five minutes, occasionally approaching the window, which should be opened, throwing open the slight covering, in order to expose his skin to the air. The second and third rubbing-sheets are applied as the first.

Rubbing-sheets being used to effect several objects, are accordingly well wrung out, or not much wrung out, or scarcely wrung out at all. The first are used where there is a great want of vital energy, slow and languid circulation; the second is the ordinary mode of using the rubbing-sheet; the third is adopted where parties have lain in the packing-sheet or blankets and have no bath to cool them afterwards. Where there is a superabundance of heat, the rubbings are repeated perfectly wet, until the body is cooled.

The Rubbing Sheet is one of the safest and most efficacious appliances in the Water-cure. Every human body has in it 100½ degrees of heat; this is not diminished by the rubbing; by extracting we increase. Whenever persons are unwell, no matter the cause (except there may be eruptions on the body), a Rubbing Sheet is advisable. Where patients have been too exhausted to endure any other treatment, these sheets will resuscitate them in an extraordinary way.

Priessnitz perceived that merely rubbing the body with a damp and afterwards with a dry cloth was beneficial; but he found that whilst one part was under the operation, the other was exposed to catching cold; this gave him the idea of the Rubbing-Sheet, with which the whole body is covered at once.

As a general rule it is safe to begin the treatment of any illness with these sheets; they refresh the invalid, often ward off the complaint or develop the malady. In the cold stage of intermittent fever these rubbings down are persevered in until heat is produced; when the hot stage ensues, recourse is had to packing sheets, tepid baths, etc.

Where there is an excess of caloric, and fever is not declared, rubbing-sheets have a cooling effect, and often put an end to the illness at once. Where there is a want of caloric, as in ague, the Rubbing Sheets cause a determination of heat from the interior to the surface, in the same way that friction, or striking, brings heat out of matter. This may be elucidated by rubbing any part of the body with snow—re-action instantly ensues.

After great fatigue or a chill, or where persons have reason to think they have caught cold, two or three of these rubbings-down have an extraordinarily restorative effect.

They may be used by old or young, strong or weak, with perfect impunity.

In lumbago or rheumatism, or where it is necessary to rouse the vital energies, rubbing-sheets, four consecutively repeated, four times a-day, are frequently prescribed. A friend of mine, after getting wet whilst hunting, sat in his wet clothes, caught cold, and died. I am fully persuaded, if he had applied the Rubbing-sheets on getting home, the fatal result would have been avoided.

In some cases where a patient exhibits great weakness, languid circulation, and doubtful reaction, the sheet is wetted in tepid water, and sometimes the body is subjected to the action of cold by degrees, instead of being covered up at once, as is the case with the dripping sheet. There are invalids who cannot suffer anything cold to touch certain parts of their bodies; in such cases the tender part may be covered with a dry cloth, whilst the dripping sheet is applied, and the sensitive portion approached by degrees.

XVI.—The Douche Bath.

The douche, of all means employed, is the most powerful in stirring up, and removing humours from the position they may have occupied for years. What is understood by a “douche,” is a spring of water, conveyed by pipes through the tops of small huts, from whence it falls in a stream about the thickness of one’s wrist.

At GrÄfenberg, there are six douches in the forest, with the falls of twenty feet, eighteen feet, and fifteen feet, respectively: the douches for women have a fall of only twelve feet, but no difference is made in the dimensions of the stream.

Patients are generally some time under the treatment before being permitted to take the douche. The douche is a most powerful stimulant.

As the sun by repulsion, brings heat out of matter, so the douche, by repelling, brings heat out of the body, and from the interior to the surface. It sets up a powerful action in the system, and is an active and useful agent for the cure of old-standing complaints. The douche should only be used in conjunction with other treatment.

The douche is never had recourse to in acute attacks; it is useful principally in chronic diseases. By its agency the body is hardened, and caused to develop its own force; it strengthens the skin, determines morbific matters to the surface by the pores, and exercises a powerful action upon the muscles and nervous system, by the action it provokes. In arthritic cases and rheumatism, the relief thus afforded is marvellous. It is so powerful a stimulant, that persons are frequently known, on coming out of the douche, to declare that they feel as much elation and buoyancy of spirits, as if they had been drinking freely of champagne.

A douche should be at some distance from the abode of the patient, because the necessary walk to it produces a glow of heat, and renders the body in a better state to produce re-action: no person should douche if cold or chilly.

The afflicted parts should be most exposed to the action of the douche, though it must be received successively upon all parts of the frame, except the head and face, unless otherwise prescribed. It should be avoided on the abdomen and chest when the latter is weak.

The douche ought to be discontinued when it produces feverish symptoms, and commenced again when they cease. The duration of it, in a general way, varies from two to five minutes, but is extended as the case may require, from fifteen minutes to half an hour; the latter being ordered in very especial cases.

An attendant waiting in the anti-chamber, throws a dry sheet on the patient on his coming out from the douche, rubs him dry, and puts on the waist bandage.

The time allotted for douching is two hours after breakfast, or dinner, but this rule is not without an exception; some patients, after their morning treatment, walk an hour, and then proceed to the Douche before breaking their fast.

Patients ought to be most particular in observing their doctor’s orders in the use of the douche.

XVII.—The Shower Baths.

These baths so much recommended by the faculty are not used at GrÄfenberg. Many persons in the habit of using them complain of giddiness and head-ache. This arises from the re-action upwards, which naturally results from their application. As an ablution, a bath, or washing with wet towels is preferable.

Mr. Priessnitz objects to the use of them, as parties take them without previous preparation, or other adjuncts. Falling on the head, they frequently cause congestion in that region.

XVIII.—The Sitz or Sitting Bath.

By this is to be understood a hip bath: that used at GrÄfenberg is a small flat tub about seventeen inches in diameter and twelve or thirteen inches deep; a common washing tub placed against the wall will answer the purpose. The water in this bath is seldom more than four to six inches deep, in which the patient sits with his feet resting on the ground. No rule can be laid down for the duration of this bath, as it is ordered from ten minutes to an hour, and longer, depending upon the effect it is intended to produce. It is sometimes prescribed three or four times a day.

The sitting bath is of so much importance that where not prescribed the case is considered an exception to the ordinary rule of treatment. The sitting-bath cools and strengthens the viscera of the body, and by revulsion or derivation, draws the humours from the head, chest, and abdomen; relieves pain in the gums or face, and dissipates flatulency and cholic; and is of the utmost value to those who lead sedentary lives.

The object of using so little water in this bath, the foot and a half bath, is, that reaction may be the sooner effected. The water is only changed in peculiar cases. The abdomen should be well rubbed whilst taking the bath, and exercise taken immediately after it, to bring on a reaction. Where there is any tendency of heat or blood to the head, a wet bandage in the shape of a turban should be put on the head immediately before sitting in the bath, and continued the whole time. In commencing the hydropathic treatment, or where the patient is low spirited or unwell, or in cases where reaction is slow, a tepid sitting bath of 62 deg. to 64 deg. is usually prescribed. If a patient takes this bath immediately after the rubbing-sheet, or the room in which he takes it is cold, he should be covered with a cloak or dry blanket. Sitting baths must not be taken just before going to bed, excepting under peculiar circumstances.

In a case of asthma when the patient could hardly breathe, a tepid sitting bath relieved him effectually in fifteen minutes. In all cases of accidents to the head, evil consequences are averted by repeated sitting baths. Head-aches are also generally relieved by these baths, which shows to demonstration that the theory of cold water when applied to the extremities driving the blood to the head, is completely devoid of foundation.

XIX.—Eye Bath.

As a preservative to the eyes, they should be kept open in a basin of water for two or three minutes every morning, or oftener. Glasses may also be used of the form of the eye, with water in them. For weak eyes, they are applied two or three times a day for five minutes each time. Where great inflammation exists, water should be thrown with the hand into the eyes several times a day.

XX.—Head Bath.

This bath can be taken in a common baking-dish, or any shallow vessel that can be kept flat on the ground. To take this bath, place a rug or blanket on the ground, and at the end of it, the vessel, containing water about two inches deep. The patient should extend himself on the rug so that his head may reach the dish or bason; then place the back of the head in the water, and keep it there three or four minutes; then each side of the head for the same time, and finish the operation by again subjecting the back of the head to the bath for two minutes. This process relieves headache. In cases of brain fever, and other diseases which cause great heat or pain in the head, these baths are frequently resorted to whilst the patient is in bed,—the back part of the head of the patient being placed in water, which is renewed when hot. In inflammation of the eyes, deafness, or loss of smell and taste, these baths are of great utility.

XXI.—Finger and Elbow Baths.

The wounded finger is placed in a glass of water; and there are cases where a glass is affixed by a string to the wrist, and the patient keeps the finger constantly in the bath. The elbow bath is used whenever the hand is wounded: it draws off the heat, and lowers the inflammation.

XXII.—Leg Bath.

The thighs and legs, when afflicted with ulcers, ringworms, etc., ought to be put into a bath, so as to cover the parts afflicted, for an hour or longer. This bath acts as a stimulant.

Other members of the body may likewise be subjected to baths; but their necessity must, be determined by circumstances.

XXIII.—Foot Bath.

This bath acts derivatively, and is employed as a counteracting agent against pains of the head, inflammation in the face, congestion to the upper regions of the body, fainting fits, bleeding of the nose, or spitting of blood.

Priessnitz prescribes cold foot-baths to effect the same object that the faculty endeavour to promote by warm ones.

The difference between a cold foot-bath and a warm one is, that after the cold one, a warm glow succeeds and remains; whilst cold feet are the necessary consequence of a warm bath. After the feet have been in cold water for some time, the water becomes tepid from the heat extracted. If the feet are put into hot water, heat, instead of being eliminated from the system, is brought to it—the very opposite to what is intended.

Sometimes, water at a temperature of 62 degrees is prescribed.

Cold foot-baths are accused of driving the blood to the head, for which notion there is not the slightest foundation, as the very opposite effect always attends their application. In the case of bleeding at the nose, I have seen them used several times; two cases, in fact, are worthy of notice:—A man was nearly exhausted from loss of blood from the nose; he put his feet into cold water, and the bleeding stopped in two minutes. A young lady, similarly attacked, put a key down the back and a wet towel upon the nape of the neck, without effect; her feet were put into cold water, and the bleeding ceased immediately. These two cases ought to satisfy the inquirer that cold foot-baths, far from causing congestion in the head, relieve the head.

Care must, however, be taken that the feet are warm when put into cold water, and exercise should be taken after the bath, in order to bring about re-action.

To prove that re-action always attends the use of these baths, when followed by proper exercise, we have but to observe our feet an hour or two after using one. After great fatigue a foot-bath is most refreshing. Mr. Priessnitz recommends the frequent use of these baths, as calculated to ward off complaints—many of which originate in the feet.

Friction and cold foot-baths are the best remedy for habitually cold feet.

Poor people who wear neither shoes or stockings, and whose feet are constantly exposed to a sort of foot-bath, avoid many complaints with which the rich are visited. It would be a misfortune to such people to be furnished with covering for the feet, as will be seen by two cases supplied me by friends on whom I can rely:—

An Irish gentleman, who removed a game-keeper from a low marshy estate to one high and dry, asked him one day how he liked the change. The man replied, “Not at all; he had never been well a day since he had been there, for there was not a drop of water to wet his feet.”

A game-keeper, sent to prison to wait his trial for killing a man, being unwell, thought he would adopt his old habits as far as his confinement admitted of. He frequently immersed his feet in cold water, and kept them in motion. Soon after he began this, he recovered.

As a general foot-bath, the water should only come up to the instep; the feet and legs ought to be rubbed by an attendant, or one foot rubbed against the other the whole time. For cold feet ten minutes is sufficient, and the water need only cover the soles of the feet; but for other objects these baths are taken from fifteen minutes to half an hour, often much longer.

XXIV.—The Tepid, or Abgeschrecte Bath.

This bath is precisely the same as the half-bath, and applied in the same way; the only difference being the water, which in this bath is tepid; i. e. ordinarily 62 or 63 deg. of Fahrenheit, sometimes as high as 76 deg. In ordinary cases eight or ten minutes are sufficient, though in gout I have known it continued for hours. Great friction, except in eruptive cases, is applied the whole time.

The temperature during the use of this bath must be gradually diminished by the addition of cold water. After rubbing the body for a short time, the attendant throws a can of cold water on the head and shoulders and then renews the friction, a process repeated until inflammation and pain has subsided. If the patient feels weak or tired under the operation, he is allowed to come out for a few minutes and then begin again. It is customary with Priessnitz to put all new-comers into a tepid bath for one or two minutes, then into the cold plunge bath and back to the tepid. By these means he judges of their powers of re-action, and prescribes accordingly.

Tepid baths are always used in eruptive cases. All practitioners would do well to begin with these baths and proceed by degrees to colder ones. Every day’s experience teaches Priessnitz the value of tepid baths.

Whenever these baths are ordered—for instance for fifteen minutes—instead of taking the whole at once, the dose is administered À trois reprises. After the first five minutes, the patient gets out of the bath and walks about the room, covered with a dry sheet, until he gains a little life and activity in the joints, which will be effected in two or three minutes. He then returns to the bath, and after the next five minutes the same process is repeated. After the third process, the patient is dried and walks about the room in the dry sheet for a short time, by way of taking an air bath. This is an important modification in the use of this bath. When patients are feeble and not able to support a bath so long as is often necessary to remove the attack, of whatever nature it may be, by dividing it in the way described, nature recovers herself a little during each rest, and the sufferer is thus enabled to take the whole; whereas, without any such pauses, the demand made on his strength might be too great. With children this mode of treatment is particularly observed.

XXV.—Bandages, or Umschlags.

Bandages fulfil two objects diametrically opposed to each other, viz., to calm and to stimulate. One object is effected by leaving a good deal of water in the bandage, not covering it with a dry one, and changing it as soon as hot. The other by wringing the bandage well out, covering it with a dry one and only changing it when dry.

1st. The more heat there is in the intestines the quicker the body bandages act.

2nd. Outward cold applications cause a fresh generation of heat.

3rd. By keeping the skin moist, these bandages cause the exudation of peccant humours and eliminate the excess of caloric.

4th. They equalise the temperature of the intestines, and keep up a healthy action in them.

5th. Wherever there is inflammation, their application and renewal lowers the temperature, and their moisture causes the healing of sores or wounds.