THREE LECTURES 
ON 
HYGIENE AND HYDROPATHY. 
BY 
ROLAND S. HOUGHTON, A.M., M.D., 
EDITOR OF t; BULWER AND FORBES ON THE WATER TREATMENT.” 
TO WHICH ARE PREFIXED 
THE CONSTITUTION AND LIST OP OFFICERS 
OF THE AMERICAN 
HYGIENIC AND HYDROPATHIC ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS 
NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY FOWLERS AND WELLS, 
CLINTON HALL, NASSAU STREET. 
1851. Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1850, by 
ROLAND S. HOUGHTON, M. D. 
in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 
BAKER AND PALMER, STEREOTYPERS TO 
LOWREY BARNEY, M.D., 
PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN HYGIENIC AND HYDROPATHIC ASSOCIA- 
TION OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, 
THE FOLLOWING PAGES 
'Arc Ecspcctfullji Inscribed, 
BY THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS. 
rASi. 
PREFACE 7 
CONSTITUTION 11 
LIST OF OFFICERS 14 
ADDRESS AT THE HYDROPATHIC CONVENTION 15—40 
Preliminary Remarks—Dr. Warren’s Valedictory at Cincinnati—Query : 
Did he intend to disparage rational Hydropathy ?—Reasons for believing 
that he did not, but that his remarks were directed against Homoeopathy— 
Need of organizing the Water-Cure system in America upon a rational and 
scientific basis—Constitution explained : I. It recognizes the doctrine of the 
vis medicatrix naturae—Nature’s teachings seldom regarded in allopathic 
teaching, in general—The vulgar idea about the efficacy of bleeding too often 
pandered to—The province of Nature in medical and surgical cases illus- 
trated—II. The necessity of remedial agents in medical treatment fully re- 
cognized—Nature’s powers not always adequate to the removal of disease 
—Popular ignorance on the subject of Hygiene—Those who obey the laws 
of health almost entirely exempt from sickness and suffering—Physicians’ 
first duty in medical treatment to bring about a return to the observance 
of the laws of health—In this way, air, light, food, rest, clothing, and per- 
sonal cleanliness are converted into remedial agents—A knowledge of Hy- 
giene a sealed book to nine tenths of allopathic graduates—Had Hygiene 
been studied as diligently during the past fifty years as poisons, there would 
have been no need of this new Association—III. Wateb the best, safest, 
and most universal remedial agent—No obstinate, exclusive, ultra ground 
taken by this Association—Water not assumed to be the only remedial 
agent to be employed—Practitioners of other schools not denounced as 
“poisoners and assassins”—The profession of medicine comprehends a band 
of honorable men—Reasons why medicines are now deemed so essential 
to success in medical treatment—The people really like to take medicine— 
Sir Charles Scudamore’s opinion in regard to the opposition of medical 
men to the spread of Hydropathy—Dr. Erasmus Wilson’s opinion—Con- 
trast between the “routine treatment” of fever and the “water treatment” 
of the same malady—The former wastes the capital of health, while the 
latter saves it—Rational Hydropathy completely successful in inflamma- 
tory disorders—Water antiphlogistic, purgative, diuretic, and nauseant, 
also tonic and alterant—Liebig’s opinion about the “ change of matter” by 
means of the water treatment—Hygienic and hydropathic treatment will 
often succeed when the materia medica has been exhausted in vain—Con- 
cluding remarks on the need of educated physicians in order to insure the 
success of the hydropathic treatment. 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA 41—83 
The year 1849 marked by the ravages of war and pestilence—The progress 
and spread of Asiatic cholera—Picture of scenes in New York during the 
summer of 1849—Absurd theories about the origin of the cholera—Chem- 
ists analyzing the air in bottles !—Savans peering in the dark like owls !— 
Doctrine of the animalcules—“ Fungous growths”—The ozone humbug !•— VI 
CONTENTS. 
The “ no-electricity-in-the-air” theory as long-lived as the sparks !—Seneca’s 
doctrine of the hatefulness of orer-acuteness as illustrated by the late Ed- 
gar A. Poe—The true way to solve the problem of the cholera to look 
straight before us, investigate its history, locale, and the peculiarities of the 
class on which it preys—The clime of Hindostan described : a land of mon- 
soons and miasmata, a fit home for this horrible plague—Among the Aff- 
ghans, Persians, Turks, and Russians, the cholera sweeps off persons of 
pernicious habits, the unclean, and the crowded—The cholera districts of 
London described—M. Bureaud Riofrey's description of Paris—Outbreak 
of the Cholera in New York on the 11th of May, 1849—Description of the Five 
Points—Ravages of the cholera in New York, Nashville, Sandusky, New 
Orleans, etc.—Its victims from the same class as in the old world, the squalid, 
the licentious, and the intemperate—Persons in good hygienic condition ex- 
empt from cholera—This position proved by established facts cited from 
the history of the cholera in Hindostan, Russia, Galicia, Sarepta, Holland, 
etc.—Hygienic habits of Howard the Philanthropist—“ Temperance and 
cleanliness” Howard’s preservatives—Howard the first to solve the enigma 
of plagues—Popular ignorance on the subject of Hygiene—Quotation from 
Prof. Dickson—Course of the Board of Health in New York censured— 
Progress of hygienic principles in England—Quotation from The British 
and Foreign-Medico-Chirurgical Review—“Health of Towns Associations” 
effecting much good in England—“ St. Giles” renovated by the London au- 
thorities—Quotations from the London 7'irncs and Chronicle on the sanitary 
condition of the English metropolis—A parallel to bo found in the city of 
New York—Our cellar population and city nuisances—The only remedy to 
be found in the action of an enlightened public opinion, and this opinion 
to be formed and brought to bear on our municipal authorities only by 
means of energetic, organized efforts—Concluding remarks on the noble 
example set us by England. 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, AND NOT EMPIRICAL 84—132 
The Water-Cure not often favored with an open manly attack—Anecdote 
of an English medical professor—Bulwer’s experience at the hands of “the 
faculty”—Reception of the Water-Cure in America—Its enemies prefer 
“ fighting shy”—Illustration in point—Course of “ The Sanitary Commit- 
tee of New York”—Unprovoked slur upon Hydropathy—Language of the 
medical counsel to the Board of Health criticised—Defense of the Water- 
Cure from the charge of empiricism—Antiquity of the water treatment— 
Opinions of Hippocrates, Asclepiades, Antonius Musa, Celsus, Aretaeus, 
Galen, Caslius Aurelianus, Alexander Trallianus, vEtius and Paulus rF.gi- 
neta, Rhazes, Avicenna, Savoranola, Paracelsus, Mercurialis, Van der Hey- 
den, Sir John Floyer, Dr. Baynard, Frederick Hoffman, T. Sigismund Hahn, 
De Moncta, Nicolo Lanzani, Cyrillo, Giannini, Dr. James Currie, etc.—The 
Water Cure pedigree ns long as that of any other system—If the Water- 
Cure is “ quackery” now, it must have been “ quackery” 2300 years ago— 
Professional ignorance of Dr. Currie’s name Hnd writings—Extract from 
Dr. Currie’s letter to Sir Joseph Banks—Sketch of the career of Vincent 
Priessnitz—Success of his treatment at Graefenberg notwithstanding his 
lack of medical science—Decline of modern allopathy—Opinions of Doc- 
tors Paris, James Johnson, Billing, Franks, Reid, Madden, Sir Astley Coop- 
er, Brown, Sir William Knighton, Gregory, Abernethy, Baillie, Locke, 
Smollett, Goldsmith, Sir James Mackintosh, Crabbe, Davy, Lord Langdale, 
Dickson, of London, Magcndie, Prof. Chapman, of Philadelphia, and Dr. 
Andrew Combe—Loftiness of the medical calling when worthily pursued— 
Injurious tendency of a study of poisons in preference to the teachings of 
Nature—Difference between Hydropathy and “routine practice”—Mercu- 
rial poisoning—Prof. Elliotson’s preference for bleeding, purging, and 
blistering, in his treatment of inflammation, to the neglect of the skin—Dr. 
Edward Johnson’s offset to Sir Astley Cooper’s challenge—Advantages of 
the hydropathic over the allopathic treatment—Eulogy on Hydropathy— 
Concluding remarks. PREFACE. 
The Water-Cure in America, notwithstanding its rapid 
progress in popular favor, may be said to have existed in 
an entirely unorganized condition prior to our last summer. 
The Hydropathic Convention, held at Hope Chapel, in 
this city, on the 19th of June, effected a great and im- 
portant change in this respect. The constitution then 
adopted, after an earnest and spirited discussion, in which 
nearly every member of the Convention took part, is broad, 
liberal, and comprehensive in its terms ; and it may safely 
be asserted that there is nothing in its provisions to pre- 
vent any physician of character and intelligence—no matter 
of what school—who may have taken the pains to make 
himself acquainted with the real merits of rational hy- 
dropathy, from becoming a member. With this end in 
view, the writer respectfully invites every medical man into 
whose hands this publication may fall, to examine with the 
closest scrutiny the different features of this instrument VIII 
PREFACE. 
(an accurate copy of which is included in this collection). 
He is confident it will be found devoid of all one-idea-ism, 
and sectarian bigotry. 
A national hydropathic association has now been organ- 
ized upon a strictly rational and scientific basis. Its mem- 
bers are not fettered by chains and shackles. Taking the 
broad ground that Water is “the best, the safest, and 
most universal in its application,” of all “ remedial agents,” 
and that Nature is most to be studied, in all her wide and 
diversified operations, by the really wise and prudent phy- 
sician, the constitution expressly encourages the members 
to watch and pay heed to “ the various modifications which 
may from time to time result from the progressive ad- 
vancement of medical science.” They are left free to use 
Water, or not, according to the best of their judgment, 
in any individual case; and they are equally free to em- 
ploy other remedies whenever they may see any occasion 
for their use. The writer, for one, claims “the largest 
liberty” in this particular, subject alone to a becoming re- 
gard for his own self-respect, and to a proper sense of his 
responsibility for the welfare of his patient. Ultraism and 
bigotry, in his opinion, have no place at the bedside of the 
suffering invalid. 
So much for the platform of the new Water-Cure So- 
ciety. Conceiving that the objects and principles it em- PREFACE. 
IX 
braces are as noble, generous, and useful as those which 
engage the attention of any association of medical men on 
the face of the earth, the writer would express the hope 
that rational hydropathy, under its new auspices, may 
hereafter continue to find constantly increasing favor in 
America, among all who have the courage to think for 
themselves. 
One word in regard to the contents of this publication. 
The introductory address was pronounced in June at the 
Hydropathic Convention, and is mainly devoted to an elu- 
cidation and explanation of the main features of the con- 
stitution adopted by that body. The second address is 
intended to enforce the position that we are to look for the 
causes of the cholera—that terrific plague, which seems 
even now disinclined to loosen its grasp upon the Western 
and Southern portion of our national confederacy—not in 
the moon or stars, or far up in the air, but in the common 
sources of disease in every-day life, in our pernicious per- 
sonal habits—in a word, in a lack of attention, on the part 
of communities and individuals both, to the teachings of 
Hygiene. 
The concluding address was designed to prove that ra- 
tional hydropathy is devoid of empiricism. Originally 
prepared for delivery before a miscellaneous audience, it 
can hardly lay claim to any particular merit on the score X 
PREFACE. 
of profundity; but sucli as it is, in the full conviction that 
it is not without its imperfections, it is frankly offered “ for 
no more than it is worth.” 
And, finally, the writer begs leave to remind his readers 
that this collection is mainly intended for the perusal of 
those who are interested in hydropathy—really, sincerely, 
and permanently interested—not for the mere enthusiasts 
who barely exist upon a nine days’ novelty, and who skip 
from one patliy or ism to another, impatiently tiring of each 
in its turn, but for those true spirits whose aim is both 
high and far—enthusiasts, too, in their way, but easily 
sobered down under the combined influence of reason and 
experience. 
No. 8, West Eleventh Street, 
JYew York, Sept. 17, 1850. CONSTITUTION 
OF THE 
AMERICAN 
HYGIENIC AND HYDROPATHIC ASSOCIATION 
OF 
PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS. 
PREAMBLE. 
We, the undersigned, physicians and surgeons, believing in 
the doctrine of the vis medicatrix nature, or the inherent tend- 
ency of the human constitution to free itself from disease ; and, 
furthermore, that of all the remedial agents which the experi- 
ence of ages has shown to be requisite to assist nature in her 
operations, Water is by far the best, the safest, and most uni- 
versal in its application, do hereby agree to the following 
CONSTITUTION. 
I. This Association shall be styled, “ The American Hygi- 
enic and Hydropathic Association of Physicians and 
Surgeons;” and its objects shall be the diffusion of those 
physiological principles which are usually comprised under the 
term Hygiene, and the development of the therapeutic virtues 
of Water to their fullest extent, on a strictly rational and scien- 
tific basis, and with especial reference to the established laws 
of the human system, both in health and disease—a proper 
regard being always paid to the various modifications which 
may from time to time result from the progressive advancement 
of medical science. 12 
CONSTITUTION. 
-II. Any physician residing in the United States of America, 
having received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, or a license 
to practice the healing art, and who can exhibit satisfactory 
proofs of his competency to practice hydropathy, may be elect- 
ed a member of this Association by the votes of a majority of 
those present at an annual meeting. 
III. The officers of this Association shall be a President, 
two Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, and a Treasurer, who shall 
severally exercise the functions pertaining to their respective 
offices. They shall also constitute an Executive Committee, 
whose duty it shall be to prepare business for the annual meet- 
ing ; and any three of the officers aforesaid may form a quorum 
to do business as such committee. 
IV. The officers shall be elected at the annual meeting of 
the Association by the votes of a majority of the members 
present. They shall serve for one year, or until their success- 
ors are chosen. 
V. There shall be a meeting of this Association annually at 
such time and place as shall be determined on by the Executive 
Committee, and due notice given to each member beforehand 
by the Seci'etary of the Association. 
VI. Special meetings may be convened by the Executive 
Committee whenever they may think it expedient. 
VII. The Constitution may be amended by a vote of two 
thirds of the members present at the annual meeting; due no- 
tice of such amendment having been given at the previous an- 
nual meeting. 
VIII. This Association shall not legislate respecting the 
practice of its members; nor shall any rules be made respect- 
ing the ethics of medical practice. 
IX. A public oration shall be delivered before the Association 
on the evening of the first day of its annual meeting. An ora- 
tor and a substitute shall be selected at, each annual meeting. CONSTITUTION. 
13 
for the year next ensuing; and in case both shall be prevented 
from fulfilling the appointment, a substitute shall be designated 
by the Executive Committee. 
X. Two standing committees shall likewise be appointed by 
the Association at each annual meeting: one on Hygiene, and 
the other on Hydropathy. Each committee shall consist of 
three members; and it shall be the duty of each committee, 
at the close of its official year, to present a report at the annual 
meeting of such facts and arguments as its members may deem 
proper. 
XI. A Committee on Credentials and Qualifications, com- 
posed of three members, shall likewise be appointed at each 
annual meeting, to serve for one year, or until their successors 
are appointed, for the purpose of examining the credentials and 
qualifications of candidates for membership. All nominations 
of candidates shall be first submitted to this committee, and the 
action of the Association upon all such nominations shall be 
based upon their report. 
XII. Each member of the Association shall pay to the Treas 
urer at each annual meeting the sum of two dollars, to be de- 
voted to the payment of all necessary expenses of such meet- 
ings; the surplus (if any) to be paid into the treasury. Special 
assessments and appropriations shall only be made by a vote of 
three fourths of the members present at the annual meeting 
at which such measure has been introduced. The meeting of 
June 19th, 1850, shall be deemed the first annual meeting of 
the Association, and the dues of members shall be payable to 
the Treasurer on that day. 
XIII. Honorary members of the Association may be elected 
at each annual meeting upon the recommendation of the Com- 
mittee on Credentials and Qualifications. All such members 
shall be entitled to the privileges of membership, except the 
right to vote or to serve as officers of the Association. OFFICERS FOR THE YEAR 1850-51. 
(Ifrecutioe Committee. 
PRESIDENT. 
LOWREY BARNEY, M.D. 
VICE-PRESIDENTS. 
CHARLES MUNDE, M.D. 
T. T. SEELYE, M.D. 
SECRETARY. 
THOMAS L. NICHOLS, M.D. 
TREASURER. 
RUSSELL T. TRALL, M.D. 
6tanking Committees. 
ON HYGIENE. 
R. S. HOUGHTON, M.D. 
E. A. KITTREDGE, M.D. 
HUBBARD FOSTER, M.D. 
ON HYDROPATHY. 
S. O. GLEASON, M.D. 
BUTLER WILMARTH, M.D. 
T. C. COYLE, M.D. 
ON CREDENTIALS AND QUALIFICATIONS. 
JOEL SHEW, M.D. 
W. A. HAMILTON, M.D. 
N. BEDORTHA, M.D. ADDRESS 
DELIVERED AT THE FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF “THE AMERICAN HYGIENIC 
AND HYDROPATHIC ASSOCIATION OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS,” 
AT HOPE CHAPEL, NEW YORK, ON THE 19lH OF JUNE, 1850. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen : 
It is with feelings of no ordinary pleasure and satis- 
faction that I rise to address you on the present occa- 
sion. The success which has so far attended our united 
efforts to place Hydropathy upon a firm foundation in 
America, is a sure guaranty that the cause of human- 
ity and truth will be greatly promoted by the labors of 
the association this day organized. The pleasure I ex- 
perience is, however, commingled with some little per- 
sonal regret, that the shortness of the time allowed me 
for preparing to address you has prevented my devoting 
to my task that careful study and nice research which 
you have a right to expect. I shall endeavor to atone, 
however, for any short-coming on my part, by making 
my observations as brief and pertinent as possible, in 
order to afford my professional brethren who are to 
follow me in order, a fair opportunity to supply my 
defects. 16 
ADDRESS AT 
An opinion has been recently expressed with regard 
to the remedial uses of water, by a distinguished medi- 
cal practitioner of our country, which requires at our 
hands 'something more than a mere passing notice. I 
refer to a new position taken by Dr. John C. War- 
ren, of Boston, in his valedictory address as retiring 
President of the American Medical Association, at the 
annual meeting of that body, held in Cincinnati a few 
weeks ago. The public prints have taken the pains to 
chronicle the fact that this address was extemporane- 
ous ; we are consequently obliged to rely upon a news- 
paper report of the remarks in question. The passage 
to which I would invite your attention is thus rendered 
by the Cincinnati Gazette of the 9th of May: 
“ With respect to cold water (observed Dr. War- 
ren), it was so valuable, so necessary, so beautiful 
an agent, that it would not be wonderful if an enthusi- 
ast were to be excited in its favor; but such was not 
its repute in the early part of his practice, when it was 
not permitted to come in contact with the whole person, 
and was often excluded from the sick chamber. But 
there were fashions in medicine, and lately the fashion 
in this respect had changed. He recollected when it 
was fashionable to give calomel in almost all diseases, 
in all ages, in both sexes. When a person had a cold, 
he took a grain of calomel; and when attacked with 
fever, the physician ordered him from one to one hun- THE HYDROPATHIC CONVENTION. 
17 
dred; and, notwithstanding the horrible consequences 
which so frequently presented themselves, the practice 
had been continued to a late period. A young practi- 
tioner in those days would not dare to go into consulta- 
tion and admit that he had used no calomel in a case 
of typhoid fever. Now, it had been proved by eminent 
men that typhoid fever may be got over without calo- 
mel, and perhaps with little other medicine. What, 
then, was the use of the physician'? To direct the 
course of the patient and prevent his falling into errors 
from which nature might divert him, but which his own 
inexperience and that of his friends would be urging 
him into. He recollected, further, when it was com- 
mon, in all cases of consumption, to administer prussic 
acid, phytolacca, and digitalis. And what did he now 
see approaching from the northeast ? A direct wave 
from the banks of Newfoundland, threatening to roll 
over the country—the supply being even insufficient to 
the demand for cod-liver-oil. (Great laughter.) But 
they had only to stand by, let the current pass, and 
some other fashion would come up. In reference to 
the application of water, Dr. Warren expressed his 
regret that so valuable an agent should have become 
affiliated, in this country, with one of the most re- 
markable medical fictions which any generation had 
produced 
I need not say, gentlemen, that it is to this last 18 
ADDRESS AT 
observation that I would more especially direct your 
attention. What Dr. Warren lias advanced with re- 
gard to the frequent changes of fashion in medicinal 
practice—from the calomel panacea to the now-popular 
cure-all, cod-liver-oil—sufficiently indicates that his 
views on the subject very nearly coincide with our 
own; his abhorrence of the one “ remedy,” as but too 
often employed, is fully as great as his contempt for 
the mere fashionableness of the other. His profes- 
sional estimate of the value of water is precisely like 
ours. To quote his own words, “ it was so valuable, 
so necessary, so beautiful an agent that it would not 
be wonderful if an enthusiast were to be excited in 
its favor.” And yet Dr. Warren found reason to 
regret that this agent—“ so valuable, so necessaiy, 
and so beautiful”—“ should have become affiliated, in 
this country, with one of the most remarkable medical 
fictions which any generation had produced.” Now 
what does this mean 1 “ Fiction” denotes “ false- 
hood ;” ergo, the medicinal uses of water in America 
have, in some way or other, become “ affiliated” with 
imposture. What is this imposture ? Are there any 
special reasons for believing that Dr. Warren referred 
to the Water-Cure as a “fiction” in his Cincinnati 
Address ? In support of this position, the following 
suggestions are not altogether without point: 
In the first place, Dr. Warren was addressing an THE HYDROPATHIC CONVENTION. 
19 
audience composed of medical delegates from all quar- 
ters of the Union, in annual convention assembled, for 
the express purpose of sternly frowning down any nov- 
elty whatever that “ disturbed their peace.” 
In the second place, two years before, at the session 
of this same association at Baltimore, Hydropathy 
had been contemptuously spoken of in a Report pre- 
sented by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, of Boston. 
The best that that well-known and popular poet would 
say of the Water-Cure was this : “ that much indirect 
benefit may result even from the experiments of the 
liydropathist, notwithstanding the illusions and im- 
positions that surround the fountain of ike Silesian 
boor.” 
I must say of this, in passing, that it was a most 
unworthy fling, and one that will redound far more to 
the discredit of its poetical author than the person he 
sneers at as a “ Silesian boor.” When Dr. Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, of Boston, with all the advantages 
of a good medical education, has succeeded in curing 
with his drugs and medicines one-hundreth part of the 
number of cases that have been successfully treated 
by Vincent Priessnitz of Graefenberg, notwithstand- 
ing his lack of “ medic&l science” (so called), by the 
sole means of water and hygienic remedies, then, 
and not till then, will he have any right to talk of u il- 
lusions and impositions.” 20 
ADDRESS AT 
In the third place, it is not unreasonable to infer 
that as Dr. Holmes’s Baltimore flippancy, in 1848, 
was found so palatable to the members of the American 
Medical Association, so Dr. Warren, in like manner, 
might have deemed it most expedient to administer a 
similar u sop to Cerberus” in the year 1850. 
Fourthly and lastly, the prevailing appetite of the 
great body of u the regular practitioners” (so called), 
for some strong language like that of Dr. Holmes, 
just quoted—some bitter tirade against any innovation 
in medical treatment, which might possibly have the 
effect of sending some of their number back again to 
school, to “ learn their lesson over again”—might be 
regarded by some minds as convincing proof, of itself, 
that I have correctly indicated the reason of Dr. War- 
ren’s assuming his novel position with regard to Hy- 
dropathy. 
But, gentlemen, while I am constrained to admit that 
the vagueness of the language employed by Dr. War- 
ren at Cincinnati lends some coloring of probability 
to the foregoing explanation, yet there is one other cir- 
cumstance to be taken into account which seems to 
me to settle the whole question beyond dispute. Here 
is a passage from a little work,* written by this same 
Dr. Warren not many years ago, in which he ex- 
* Physical Education and the Preservation of Health. Second 
edition : foot-note to page 80. W. D. Ticknor & Co., Boston. THE HYDROPATHIC CONVENTION. 
21 
pressly says : u The hydropathic practice has unfor- 
tunately been combined with homceopathy in this part 
of the country. There is no proper connection be- 
tween them. Hydropathy, in a reasonable extent, 
is supported by good sense and exact observation; 
homoeopathy is in opposition to both.” I regard this 
passage as conclusively settling a question which has 
elicited a good deal of discussion in more quarters than 
one. The similarity of the position assumed at Cin- 
cinnati to the one he has occupied in his published 
treatise, renders it morally certain that Dr. Warren 
intended no disparaging allusion to rational Hydrop- 
athy ; but that, in using the term u medical fiction,” 
he had reference solely to homceopathy, a totally 
distinct system of practice, although Dr. War- 
ren would seem to be of the opinion that u the Water- 
Cure” is “ affiliated” with it. If it is “ affiliated,” the 
relation is a novel one to me ; and I have yet to learn 
that it has been even dreamed of (much less recognized) 
in the convention we have this day held. 
And now, gentlemen, you have a right to ask, “ To 
what does all this tend 1 It is no new thing to us, this 
flippant denunciation of the founder of Hydropathy by 
the old-school physicians in general, and Dr. Holmes 
in particular—this vague declaiming against they know 
not what, and will not learn. But what moral do you 
propose to draw from the language you have quoted 22 
ADDRESS AT 
from Dr. Warren, of Boston ?” Why, simply this : 
So long as the healing virtues of water are left to 
work their own way into the confidence of the “ regular 
profession” (so called), and the community in general, 
unaided by the combined efforts of a strictly medical 
association, organized on the right basis—just so long 
will the Water-Cure in America be exposed, however 
unjustly, to the ban of u empiricism,” and just so long 
will its educated and conscientious practitioners be 
subjected, in consequence, to the taunts and jeers of 
every routine doctor in the land. 
The question now arises, wdiether the association this 
day organized will accomplish the purposes for which it 
is designed. What are those purposes? And what is 
the creed of the members of the society, that distin- 
guishes them most plainly from all other schools ? 
I. In the first place, the preamble to the constitu- 
tion avows the belief of the members in the doctrine 
of the u vis medicatrix natures, or the inherent tendency 
of the human constitution to free itself from disease.” 
Is this any novel doctrine ? No! it dates as far back 
as the times of Hippocrates himself, u the father of 
medicine.” But is it a generally received doctrine 
among the routine physicians ? Do they recognize in 
their treatment any strong curative tendency on the 
part of nature, or do they place their main (if not their 
sole) reliance upon the drugs that they prescribe ? Alas, THE HYDROPATHIC CONVENTION. 
23 
that I should be compelled to say, that their mode of 
treatment evinces very little (if any) confidence in the 
vis medicatrix natures. Look at their formidable 
array of remedial agents—the long list of narcotics, 
sedatives, astringents, alteratives, stimulants and ton- 
ics, antiphlogistics and cathartics, antispasmodics and 
emetics, sialagogues and errhines, epispastics, diuretics 
and diaphoretics, disinfectants and expectorants, anti- 
lithics, escharotics and antacids, emollients and demul- 
cents, anthelmintics and antidotes—and does not the 
existence of this sort of standing army of medicines 
plainly point out the main features of the allopathic 
campaign'? Does it not presuppose that nature has 
been. prostrated by disease—prostrated so hopelessly 
that its only chance for rallying lies in their goading ? 
Are we not led to believe that the human constitution 
may be so completely overwhelmed by any given mala- 
dy that it can only be rescued by being overwhelmed 
with medicines 1 Are we not led to infer that the body 
is so poor, so senseless, nerveless, enfeebled, as to be 
incapable of resisting the march of disease, and hence 
the necessity of pouring into its cavities and tissues a 
strong counteracting force 1 Does allopathic teaching 
impress upon our attention this reasonable inference: 
that, as nature has endowed the eye with a faculty of 
self-protection, to the end that the beautiful and deli- 
cate organ of vision may be the more thoroughly secured 24 
ADDRESS AT 
from all dangers of which the senses could not take 
cognizance in sufficient season for action, so, in like 
manner, it has implanted within our vital organs—those 
organs that constitute, as it were, the very seat of life— 
a species of enlightened instinct, that, like a watch - 
ful sentinel, detects an enemy and gives an alarm long 
before the eye of reason or science could discover any 
mischief? Does allopathic teaching, anywhere in this 
country, impress, as it ought, upon the minds of the 
thousands of students who are every year graduated, 
this grand truth : that, in their warfare against disease, 
they are to consider themselves bound to closely ob- 
serve and carefully follow the dictates of nature, as 
shadowed forth in the symptoms which the sick-bed 
presents ; and that they are* not to interfere with dis- 
eased action when, to the best of their judgment, that 
action is a right action; but that they are to reserve 
their “ heroic treatment” until such time as there is 
good reason to fear that nature is in danger of suffer- 
ing from an unequal encounter ; does allopathic teach- 
ing, I ask again, impress all this ? Alas, no ! 
Let me give one forcible illustration of my meaning. 
When those shocking accidents occur in this city of 
New York, of which we are so often apprised in our 
daily prints—when some unhappy wretch is picked up 
stunned and senseless in the street, no matter from 
what cause, what kind of a scene is presented when the THE HYDROPATHIC CONVENTION. 
25 
crowd gathers round? Wo betide the doctor if he 
does not seem inclined to bleed ! [The crowd has the 
utmost confidence in bleeding; it caught the infection 
from the allopathic teaching of a day which has happily 
gone by.] Well, in obedience to the mob, the routine 
doctor, without thinking of using water, which would 
render blood-letting unnecessary, or even thinking of 
the present law of allopathic surgery—never to bleed 
in such cases without waiting for reaction—abstracts 
blood from his patient, and shakes his head with learned 
despondence as the patient dies under his hands. The 
crowd thinks it was u all right,” so far as the doctor 
was concerned, but the case was “ too far gone,” and 
“ he knew it before he began, though he did not tell 
them so.” “ Oh, what a wise doctor !” is the univer- 
sal sentiment of the crowd, particularly on beholding 
the learned shake of the head I have already described. 
The newspapers chronicle the incident, next day, and 
pathetically intimate that the man persisted in dying, 
u notwithstanding every thing was done for him that 
the best medical advice could suggest.” What a tragi- 
cal farce! Would that there were more doctors than 
there are who dare to think for themselves in such a 
case as this—who disregard mobs and set bleeding out 
of the question ; and why ? Because Sir Astley Cooper, 
if he were alive to-day, would have the less reason to 
repeat his famous declaration of old, that “ the science 26 
ADDRESS AT 
of medicine is founded on conjecture and improved by 
murder 
Say what they will, our allopathic brethren may rest 
assured that when they yield to the clamor of an igno- 
rant and superstitious multitude, as too often happens, 
a part of all this ignorance and superstition is reflected 
back upon themselves, and makes its own mark upon 
their treatment and science. If it is allowed to become 
a popular belief that it is the sticking-plaster which 
heals up the cut linger, why, it is not an uncommon 
thing for a doctor to learn to believe it himself in the 
long run! There is no standing still for a medical 
man; if he advance far enough to attain his doctorate, 
he must still keep advancing, if he would be true to 
his calling and to himself; otherwise he will subside 
into that very poor thing, a routine doctor, and, as I 
have said before, learn to believe, by-and-by, that there 
is some magical virtue about the sticking-plaster which 
accomplishes more than merely keep the cut edges in 
union; he will persuade himself finally that it changes 
the secretions, sets the exhalants and absorbents hard at 
work, modifies in some way or other the action of the 
capillary blood-vessels, and so works a cure. Tell such 
a man that all the sticking-plaster can or ought to do is 
to supply one leading, necessary condition for a perfect 
and speedy cure—that is, keep the cut edges together, 
and let nature take care of the rest in her own way— THE HYDROPATHIC CONVENTION. 
27 
and ten chances to one he will denounce you as an 
u empiric !” But what is the use of wasting ammuni- 
tion upon such a poor thing as that 1 
But before I leave this particular branch of my sub- 
ject, one wrord about surgery. It is the privilege of the 
great operator—the wielder of the scalpel, the trocar, 
and the knife—to win far more of popular applause 
than the consulting physician. The world at large 
thinks it a wmnderful thing to take a man’s leg off in 
so many seconds by a stop-watch ; they never stop to 
think that a carpenter might do precisely the same task 
in about the same time, and very nearly as well, bar- 
ring want of practice. Now, what I wish to say is 
this : the surgeon’s task is ended when he has ampu- 
tated what the system could no longer retain with safety 
—in other Avords, when he has supplied the one lead- 
ing, necessary condition for a cure to be effected. Na- 
ture does the rest. Just so in the case of a fractured 
arm; it is not the surgeon, with his splints, and band- 
ages, and dressings, who makes the fragments unite; he 
only supplies the necessary condition; he brings the brok- 
en parts properly together, and he keeps them together. 
Nature does the rest. And so, gentlemen, in a variety 
of other disorders, both medical and surgical, which I 
have not time to specify to-night. Suffice it if I have 
said enough to convince you that we have good reason 
to assume the existence within the human organism of 28 
ADDRESS AT 
some strong vital principle (I do not care by what name 
it is called), which is constantly warring against dis- 
turbing influences, in all shapes, in all stages, and in 
all conditions—more or less feebly, of course, according 
to the state of the system. 
II. In the next place, gentlemen, we fully recognize 
the necessity of remedial agents in medical treatment. 
Although, as I have just explained, we look upon na- 
ture as always presenting a strong and reliable con- 
servative tendency in the human economy, still, in a 
world inhabited by so vast a number of individuals who 
know little or nothing of nature and her laws, and 
whose daily life is more or less artificial, we are com- 
pelled to take cognizance of this important fact: that 
precisely in proportion to any individual’s neglect or 
disregard of the laws of his being, will be his liability 
to disease, and the stronger its hold whenever it has 
fastened itself upon his system. In a healthy organ- 
ization, disease can find but a very poor foothold ; the 
man who is habitually prudent and careful of his health 
—the man who appreciates the value of thorough ven- 
tilation and a healthy skin, a rational diet and judicious 
clothing, tranquillity of mind and correct habits gen- 
erally—has little to fear from the attacks of disease. 
Such a man as I have described has no business to 
make a remark like this—which one may hear every 
day—“ If I should be taken down very ill to-morrow, THE HYDROPATHIC CONVENTION. 
29 
I hardly know what kind of treatment I should depend 
upon.” I say he has no business to talk in this way; 
and why ? Because, so long as, with his healthy or- 
ganization, he faithfully observes the laws of his being, 
he is proof against disease, and he ought to know it. 
Disease does not come upon us without cause; there 
are laws which regulate human life as well as any other 
system or constitution, mental, moral, or physical; and 
the man who breaks any of the laws of his being, know- 
ingly and deliberately, ought to know, if he suffers any 
physical distress, that he is atoning for his transgres- 
sions ; he is not suffering from any sudden providen- 
tial visitation, according to the popular cant of these 
modern times. The Supreme Intelligence that fash- 
ioned the earth and every thing that it contains, or- 
dained laws over all—laws of life and health, as well 
as of light and gravitation; the whole universe is sub- 
ject to law—nothing is left to caprice. 
You are now prepared, gentlemen, to sustain me in 
the position which I am next to establish: that when- 
ever a person is attacked with disease, who has habit- 
ually disregarded the laws of life and health, it is the 
first indication to make him return to their observance 
—to take him out of his close, ill-ventilated bedroom, 
and place him in an atmosphere which will be better 
adapted to human respiration; to strip off the mountain 
of clothes that he is sure to be sweltering under, and 30 
ADDRESS AT 
reduce him to a state of more rational comfort; to 
bathe the foul skin, all clogged up with impurities, and 
so set its myriads of pores free to go actively to work; 
to withhold all improper articles of diet, and to enjoin 
that rest and tranquillity of mind which befit the sick 
chamber. In other words, gentlemen, we convert air, 
and light, and food, and rest, and clothing, and personal 
cleanliness into remedial agents—these six, styled 
u non-naturals” in the books, but usually comprehended 
under the designation of Hygiene. Does allopathic 
teaching give due prominence to these agents'? Do 
they stand in the front rank in the materia medica ? 
Alas, no ! I say it more in sorrow than anger, but it is 
none the less true that a knowledge of these six agents 
—indeed of Hygiene generally, in all its wide and di- 
versified details—is a sealed book to nine tenths of our 
allopathic graduates ; and that it constitutes a branch 
of medical science which has been more generally neg- 
lected than perhaps any other. Had the same zeal 
been devoted to the investigation and dissemination of 
hygienic principles during the past fifty years, that we 
have seen bestowed on the study and preparation of 
poisons, it is very unlikely that those who, in this year, 
1850, feel the necessity of going back to the first prin- 
ciples of medicine, would have been this day engaged in 
the formation of an American Hygienic and Hydrop- 
athic Association of Physicians and Surgeons. TIIE HYDROPATHIC CONVENTION. 
31 
III. In the third place, gentlemen, I am to say- 
something in regard to the remaining principle resting 
at the foundation of our Society. You have seen that, 
in the first place, we believe in the curative tendency 
of nature under favoring hygienic circumstances, and 
in the second, that we recognize the necessity of reme- 
dial agents—always taking care to resort in the first 
instance to hygienic treatment—whenever the aforesaid 
hygienic circumstances are unfavorable. In the next 
place, we take the ground that u of' all the remedial 
agents which the experience of ages has shown to be 
requisite to assist nature in her operations, water is 
by far the besty the safest, and most universal in its 
applicationWe do not take herein any obstinate, 
exclusive, ultra ground; we do not assume that water 
is the only remedial agent which the experience of ages 
has warranted our using, and that those who employ other 
agents in their practice, are, from that very fact, no bet- 
ter than “poisoners and assassins;” we occupy no such 
position, nor will we submit to have it forced upon 
us from any quarter whatsoever.” We recognize in 
the profession of medicine a band of earnest-minded and 
honorable men, all having one common object in view— 
that of healing the sick, and all having an inalienable 
right to practice medicine according to the best of their 
judgment in any given case. We all know that as the 
tendency of mankind for years and years past has been 32 
ADDRESS AT 
to depart more and more from the ways of simplicity 
and nature, so have diseases multiplied, and artificial 
remedies been devised to counteract the effect of arti- 
ficial diseases. Taking the world, then, as we find it 
—and this we can not help doing—it is not in the least 
surprising that a body of practitioners has been trained 
and educated in the belief that medicines are in all 
cases necessary in order to insure any kind of success 
in medical treatment; and there is no use in denying the 
fact that the great mass of the people really like to take 
medicine, and accordingly keep up that active demand 
for it which makes the drug business so lucrative at the 
present day. We must bring to the consideration of 
this subject, therefore, a wide liberality. We must 
make all due allowances for human prejudices, and for 
the infirmities of human nature. Sir Charles Scud- 
amore, M.D., F.R.S., etc., an English practitioner 
of more than forty years’ standing, but a warm and 
earnest friend of rational Hydropathy, says expressly 
on this very point: u In regard to the opposition of a 
great part of the medical world to this innovation [of 
Hydropathy] on the ordinary practice of physic, look- 
ing at human nature, we must attribute a little of it to 
its interference with settled interests.” It would make 
a terrible inroad upon allopathic practice, gentlemen, 
if the pill-box, the potion, and the u elixir pro.,” the 
blister, lancet, and drastic purge were all swept out of THE HYDROPATHIC CONVENTION. 
33 
use! The routine doctor would find his occupation 
gone, and the druggist would subside into a smiling 
shopman, retailing perfumery, tooth-brushes, and soap! 
“ We must attribute a little of it (says Sir Charles 
Scudamore) to its interference with settled interests.” 
I am not one of those (if any there be) who would at- 
tribute the whole of the opposition of the allopathic 
fraternity to the spread of Hydropathy to any such 
mean, unworthy motive. No, gentlemen! We must 
attribute a good deal of it to the natural disinclination 
of a learned and dignified profession to go back to school 
again, and learn something about what was not taught 
them in their day: the medicinal properties of water. 
We must also allow something on the score of that pro- 
fessional sensitiveness, which recoils from contact with 
any new theory unless it has a fitting introduction to 
the scientific world. On this point allow me to quote 
the pertinent and conclusive language of Dr. Erasmus 
Wilson, the celebrated London anatomist: u The 
Water practice has effected important results in the 
treatment of disease, and will, I trust, be instrumental 
in restoring to medicine one of her most valuable and 
important auxiliaries. Medical men may be jealous 
that these benefits have been { conjured from the vasty 
deep’ by other hands than those of the high-priests of 
Therapeia, but they have no just reason of complaint; 
the treatment of disease by water had been improperly 34 
ADDRESS AT 
neglected ; now, however, its merits may be tested, and 
the test aided by public encouragement; moreover, the 
remedy will revert to those who are alone qualified to 
employ it, and we may fairly hope that a correct system 
for its use will be established by their labors.5’* This 
language, gentlemen, is in precisely the right spirit. 
Would that it could find a cordial response from our 
allopathic brethren all over the land, and would that 
they could study the capital Treatise of this same Dr. 
Wilson, uon Healthy Skin” with one half the zeal 
which I know they devote to his work on Anatomy. 
And now to return to the consideration of the posi- 
tion we have assumed in regard to the employment of 
water as a medicinal agent. As I have already stated, 
we have taken the ground that water is “ the best, the 
safest, and the most universal” of our remedial agents. 
I again repeat, this is not a position of exclusiveness, 
or of one-idea-ism, but rather of comparison. And 
now to proceed to make that comparison. Let us 
suppose, for example, that, somehow or other, a full- 
grown man, of tolerably good constitution, falls ill of 
fever, and Dr. Routine is sent for. Upon his arrival, 
the patient is required to sit up in bed, and the worthy 
leech proceeds to bleed him, until he sinks down faint- 
ing. This course is adopted, because allopathy regards 
the lancet as its most powerful remedy to counteract 
* Vide “ Bulwer and Forbes on the Water Treatment,” p. 132. THE HYDROPATHIC CONVENTION. 
35 
inflammation. It certainly does counteract it, for the 
pulse of 120 is very soon knocked down by means of 
the lancet, until no pulse is apparently left; and why ? 
Because the man faints. Perhaps, when the patient 
recovers his consciousness, he recovers his fever too, 
and his pulse runs up again to 120; what then 1 
Why, Dr. Routine sets him up once more in bed, and 
bleeds him a second time, and a third, and a fourth, 
and a fifth, if necessary. I hardly need add that, in 
connection with all this bleeding, Dr. Routine nause- 
ates, and purges, and blisters, as the occasion suggests. 
Well, what is the result of all this active practice? 
How does the account stand ? Before the patient fell 
ill, I have said that he was possessed of a tolerably 
good constitution ; so I set that down as his capital of 
health. Now Dr. Routine, in the course of a month 
or two, apparently gets the upper hand of the fever; 
that is, the pulse is no longer 120; there is no burn- 
ing heat of the surface, or high color in the face; the 
patient does not toss to and fro, with delirium threat- 
ening ; and the functions of the body are not so en- 
tirely suspended as they were. Perhaps the patient is 
able to u walk outthat is, hobble feebly along on 
the arm of an attendant, muffled up in flannels and 
warm clothing, “ to keep off the air,” and wearing a 
pale, cadaverous, anxious, care-worn countenance. In 
the course of a few weeks more, he is able to take a 36 
ADDRESS AT 
little more active exercise, and eventually he recovers 
a little bloom on his cheek; but follow him on to the 
end of the chapter. What grisly monsters are those 
that Dr. Routine has let loose upon his unhappy 
frame 1 Pain, feebleness, and general derangement of 
the system; catarrh, headache, dyspepsia, and dropsy; 
a small, puny, wiry pulse, and other symptoms indi- 
cating ossification, or some other change about the left 
valve of the heart, precisely such effects as Magendie, 
the celebrated French physiologist, has proved to con- 
stitute the result of profuse blood-letting. Has not 
Dr. Routine made some little inroad upon the capital 
of health'? 
And now, gentlemen, let us glance at the other side 
of the picture. Suppose that, instead of Dr. Routine, 
the friends of the patient had called in a regularly 
educated physician, familiar with the various uses of 
water. How would he treat the easel Why, sim- 
ply enough. He would endeavor to accomplish the 
same end that Dr. Routine had in view—that of 
“ knocking down” the pulse; but he would set about 
his task in a very different way. Instead of opening 
the veins and letting out the vital fluid, he would leave 
the capital of health untouched; he would cool down 
the heat of the patient, and at the same time keep 
down the pulse by means of copious applications of 
water, both externally and internally. At the same THE HYDROPATHIC CONVENTION. 
37 
time, he would apply the same element to the task of 
cleansing the stomach, and ridding the system of any 
incumbrance; previously taking care to summon to his 
aid those hygienic appliances, fresh air, proper cloth- 
ing, rest, quiet, and good nursing generally, which I 
have before referred to. Now, how will this treatment 
answer'? Why, in the first place, the man will be 
about as well as ever in a week ! There will be no 
pallor on his cheek, no languor about his frame, no 
halting in his gait. The fire has been put out with 
the proper element, and there is an end of it; there is 
no sequel to the story. 
Is this too strong a contrast, gentlemen'? Has it 
not been proved true to the life, over and over again, 
all over the country? And has it not been proved true, 
in like manner, that in acute complaints generally, as 
well as in fevers, water is the safest and most reliable 
agent for reducing inflammation? I know that facts 
bear me out in all these positions, and I know, further- 
more, that they are carrying conviction every day to 
the minds of every liberal-minded allopathist in the 
country who is willing to avail himself of every fair 
opportunity of witnessing a good trial. 
I may now consider it as an established truth, that 
the water treatment, judiciously applied, is completely 
successful in violent fevers and all manner of com- 
plaints of an inflammatory type; it is very evident, 38 
ADDRESS AT 
therefore, that water is a powerful anti-phlogistic, 
purgative, diuretic, and nauseant. Let us now see if it 
has any tonic and alterant effects—does it accomplish 
any invigorating change in the system ? Certainly it 
does, and more rapidly than any other known treat- 
ment. What did the great German chemist, Liebig, 
say to Sir Charles Scudamore ? “By means of the 
Water-Cure treatment a change of matter is effected 
in a greater degree in six weeks than would happen, in 
the ordinary course of nature, in three years.” “ How 
is all this brought about?” some one of you may ask. 
Why, not only is the water a tonic and an alterant, 
but so is the food, and so is the air, and the exercise, 
and the whole variety of hygienic and hydropathic 
remedies. And so I might go on, gentlemen, to the 
end of the chapter, and prove to you that this poor, 
despised element, ivater, in competent hands, will 
often bring about results which the wrhole of the allo- 
pathists’ materia medica has attempted, but in vain; 
but time w’ould fail me. I am aware that, as yet, I 
am only upon the threshold of the theme I have 
broached; but this is the misfortune of an occasion 
like the present. I can only trust that I have sug- 
gested some few thoughts, in passing, which may in- 
duce you to prolong the investigation in your own way 
and style at some time hereafter. Should I have only 
succeeded, in these few practical remarks, in interest- THE HYDBOPATIIIC CONVENTION. 
39 
ing only one of you in the subject I have presented, 
you will believe me when I say that I shall be abund- 
antly repaid. 
One word, ere I close, in regard to the need of edu- 
cated physicians to conduct the wTater treatment in 
a scientific manner. It is, doubtless, familiar to most 
of you that Dr. John Forbes, of London, late editor 
of The British and Foreign Medical Review, physi- 
cian to the queen’s household, etc., exposed himself to 
great obloquy on account of his efforts to induce his 
brethren to countenance and adopt rational Hydrop- 
athy, or (to quote his own words) u to rouse anew the 
attention of the legitimate members of the profession 
to the great value of cold water as a therapeutic 
agent; and thus, if possible, to stimulate them to 
rescue its use from the hands of ignorant, non-med- 
ical pretenders and charlatansExperience has 
shown that the allopathic fraternity, both in England 
and America, will not take any public steps to respond 
to this appeal. Three years and more have elapsed, 
and yet Hydropathy has been hitherto left to fight its 
own battles as it best may. But a new era, I trust, is 
now about to dawn upon the Water-Cure in America. 
The Association just formed can not fail to have a 
tendency, if its objects are faithfully and vigorously 
carried out, to vindicate the claims of rational Hydrop- 
athy to confidence and respect, and commend them to 40 
ADDRESS, ETC. 
a wider and more general acceptance. We can do 
nothing, however, unless we take care that our ranks 
are solely supplied with qualified practitioners, capable 
of applying the remedy of our choice according to a 
scientific method, u at the proper time, in the proper 
cases, and in the proper mannerfor in this way only 
can we sincerely testify our devotion to the cause of 
humanity and truth, and the genuine improvement of 
medical science. HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
41 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, AT 
CLINTON HALL, NEW YORK, ON THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 
6th, 1849. 
A memorable year is drawing nigli its close—a year 
vividly suggestive to thousands and myriads, both in 
the old world and the new, of unnumbered scenes of 
terror and death. War and pestilence have done their 
work; the shock of arms in the heart of Europe has 
thrilled the whole world ; Hungarian u independence” 
is a dream now over; Kossuth still lingers in the do- 
mains of the Turk; and heavy in the scale lies the 
sword of the Czar. 
But I am here to speak, not of u grim-visaged war,” 
but of his rival in destruction, the pestilence of Asia. 
In its onward progress from the jungles of the East, 
this horrible disease, moving, as is its wont, in spite of 
mountain, desert, and plain—of Persian heat, Ionian 
blandness, and Russian snows—defying alike the fierce 
sweep of the simoom, the cold blasts of the north, and 
the midland calm—crossing at a bound the swollen 
river, the sheeted lake, and the boundless ocean—has 42 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
once more committed its ravages in our midst. It has 
burst through quarantines, and refused to be barred out 
by boards of health. It has performed its “ mission,” 
but it has hardly yet gone—seemingly lingering in the 
track of the ruin it has made. In the course of its 
march it has advanced and retreated; it has wound its 
tedious, snake-like course, now here, now there—deci- 
mating this place, leaping over that, and depopulating 
a third; appearing at one time coy and capricious—at 
another stern, exact, and relentless—at all times fear- 
ful ! To the squalid denizen of the sweltering and 
crowded town—to the pampered devotee of unbounded 
sensuality—to the far-off emigrant, journeying through 
the soft clime of Mexico or the rugged territory of our 
Indian tribes, in adventurous quest of the rich ores of 
the Sacramento, the dread cholera has alike appeared, 
and laid on each and all his cold, withering, and mer- 
ciless grasp. Countless the victims ! Hasty their sum- 
mons, and awful their fate ; thus to sink, languidly and 
helplessly, into untimely graves, at the bidding of a 
pestilence that “ walketh in darkness,” and a sickness 
that “ destroyeth at noon-day!” 
As we look back upon our last summer—upon that 
season which is, to most of you, one of relaxation and 
joyousness, of sunshine and flowers—what u thick- 
coming” recollections of the then-prevailing anxiety 
and gloom! What sad remembrances of lost friends HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
43 
and kindred ! What mournful memories of selfish fears 
and unmanly weakness ! Funeral processions darken- 
ing our streets ! Timorous townsmen hurrying along 
from the daily bulletin, in superstitious dread of the 
imagined contagion ! Senseless braggarts proclaiming 
their immunity in alcoholic protection ! Credulous citi- 
zens breathing in their “ antidote” from little scented 
bags, or binding on the fetters of astringent drugs ! 
Brandy and red pepper on every shelf—sulphur and 
charcoal in everybody’s pocket—camphor and opium in 
everybody’s mouth ! Fishermen starving—“ the butch- 
er” thriving—and fruits and vegetables thrown back 
on the market! Peaches tabooed—“ sweet” grapes 
voted “ sour”—and innocent melons looked on with 
horror! Cities and towns half deserted of their in- 
habitants, and cramped-up country inns overflowing 
with the exiles—so potent the spells of the general 
panic! Business “dull”—the “fancies” drooping— 
and Wall street empty ! Blind Justice at a stand-still, 
and lawyers, like their clients, lounging for their health 
on public stairways at rural retreats ! Medical practi- 
tioners agreeing about nothing : one doctor scouting the 
bare thought of cholera; another one arguing that the 
disease is death despite all treatment; a third proclaim- 
ing he has never lost a case; and a fourth announcing 
an “ infallible” specific—perchance dying of it on the 
morrow! Analytical chemists bottling up air in 44 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
fruitless search for some secret virus, some mystic 
u ozone”—impalpable to ordinary, unaided senses— 
impalpable even to senses inured to the abracadabra 
of the crucible and the alembic! Profound savans, 
u heavily laden” with scientific lore and academic hon- 
ors, vying with the owl by strenuous efforts to see in 
the dark: one viewing naught in the intense gloom but 
u fungous growths ;” another, vast hordes of infinitesi- 
mal animalculm, with funny little tails; while a third, 
as he turns his electrical grinding-glass, is absorbed in 
a new theory based on the sparks—and quite as long- 
lived ! 
Just so, in the days when the quiet old monk invent* 
ed gunpowder, the metaphysical schoolmen were won- 
dering u whether fishes think !”—u whether the stars 
have eyes, and, if so, do they see V’ 
Let us devote an hour to the moral of this picture. 
u Nothing,” says Seneca,* “ is more hateful to true 
wisdom than excessive acuteness !” Of this position 
the late Mr. Poe, one of the most ingenious writers 
our country boasts, once published a remarkably clever 
illustration. I shall proceed to give some idea of the 
tale, as its point is decidedly u pat to my purpose.” 
It seems that the astute prefect of the Parisian po- 
lice had vainly exhausted the resources of his calling 
in endeavoring to discover a highly important purloined 
* Nil sapientise odiosius acumine nimio. HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
45 
letter. He had positively ascertained the house it was 
concealed in, and spent month after month in a per- 
sonal ransack every night. He had taken the whole 
building, room by room, devoting the nights of a whole 
week to each. He had closely examined the whole of 
the furniture, chair-rungs, and jointings ; opened every 
possible drawer; scrutinized the bottoms and tops of 
bed-posts ; probed the cushions with fine long needles, 
and then the beds and bed-clothes, curtains and car- 
pets ; “ looked to the mirrors between the boards and 
the platesopened every book, turned over every 
leaf, and measured the thickness of every book-cover ; 
nay, he had even gone so far as to divide the entire 
surface of the house into compartments, which he and 
his party had carefully numbered, so that none might 
be missed; and then they had scrutinized with a pow- 
erful microscope each individual square inch throughout 
the premises, including the two houses immediately 
adjoining ! Thoroughly mystified and excessively cha- 
grined—for an enormous reward had been offered for 
the restoration of the purloined letter—the worthy 
official made known his dilemma to one of his friends— 
a gentleman whose genuine shrewdness was tempered 
by good judgment. 
“ The fact is,” said the prefect, u the business is 
very simple, indeed, and I make no doubt that we can 
manage it sufficiently well ourselves ; but then I thought 46 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
you would like to hear the details of it, because it is so 
excessively odd.” 
(( Simple and odd ?” asked the prefect’s friend. 
u Why, yes ; and not exactly that either. The fact 
is, we have all been puzzled because the affair is so 
simple, and yet baffles us altogether.” 
u Perhaps,” was the reply, u it is the very simplic- 
ity of the thing which puts you at fault; perhaps the 
mystery is a little too plain—a little too self-evident!” 
Now this was a suggestion wholly beyond the range 
of the prefect’s philosophy; the man who had exam- 
ined every square inch with a microscope could not 
brook the idea of having been foiled in any such way 
as that. 
Profoundly amused, he retorted on his friend, u Oh, 
good heavens! who ever heard of such an idea? Oh, 
my dear sir, you will be the death of me yet!” 
After such a reception of his friend’s hint as this, 
the prefect could get no better advice than to make a 
thorough re-search of the premises. A month later, 
he again met his friend, as luckless as before. 
“ Confound it!” said the prefect, “ I made the re- 
examination just as you suggested; but it vras all labor 
lost, as I knew it would be.” 
But now behold a new turn in affairs ! 
“ How much did you say was the reward offered?” 
asked the friend. HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL, OF THE CHOLERA. 
47 
“ Why, a very great deal—a very liberal reward—I 
don’t like to say how much precisely; but one thing 
I will say, that I wouldn’t mind giving my individual 
check for fifty thousand francs to any one who could 
obtain me that letter. The fact is, it is becoming of 
more and more importance every day; and the reward 
has been lately doubled. If it were trebled, however, 
I could do no more than I have done.” 
“ Why,” said his friend, drawlingly, between the 
whiffs of his meerschaum, “ I really think you have 
not exerted yourself to the utmost in this matter. You 
might do a little more, I think—eh I” 
“Howl in what way I” 
“ Why, you might employ counsel in the matter— 
eh 1 Do you remember the story they tell of Aber- 
nethy Vf 
“ No ; hang Abernethy !” 
“To be sure; hang him and welcome. But once 
upon a time, a certain rich miser conceived the idea of 
spunging upon this Abernethy for a medical opinion. 
Getting up, for this purpose, an ordinary conversation 
in a private company, he insinuated his case to the 
physician, as that of an imaginary individual. c We 
will suppose,’ said the miser, £ that his symptoms are 
such and such; now, doctor, what would you have di- 
rected him to take I’ ‘Take!’ said Abernethy; ‘why, 
take advice, to be sure.’ ” 48 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
“ But,” said the prefect, a little discomposed; u I 
am perfectly willing to take advice, and to pay for it. 
I would really give fifty thousand francs to any one 
who would aid me in this matter.” 
“ In that case,” replied his friend, opening a drawer 
and producing a check-book, “ you may as well fill me 
up a check for the amount mentioned. When you 
have signed it I will hand you the letter.” 
The prefect, at this, appeared absolutely thunder- 
struck. For some minutes he remained speechless and 
motionless, with open mouth, and eyes starting from 
their sockets; then, apparently recovering himself in 
some measure, he seized a pen, and, after several 
pauses and vacant stares, finally filled up and signed a 
check for fifty thousand francs, and handed it over the 
table to his confidential adviser. The latter examined 
it carefully, and deposited it in his pocket-book ; then, 
unlocking an escritoire, he took thence a letter, and 
gave it to the prefect. This functionary grasped it in 
a perfect agony of joy, opened it with a trembling 
hand, cast a rapid glance at its contents, and then, 
scrambling and struggling to the door, rushed at length 
unceremoniously from the room and from the house, 
without having uttered a syllable since he had been 
requested to fill up the check. And now for the ex- 
planation. 
Acting on the idea that the prefect had been foiled HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
49 
by the simplicity of the mode of concealment adopted, 
his friend had himself visited the house in question, 
and actually discovered the missing document in full 
view, in a trumpery card-rack. “ Soiled and crum- 
pled”—“ re-folded in a reverse direction, in the same 
creases or edges which had formed the original fold”— 
“re-directed and re-sealed” — “torn nearly in two, 
across the middle, as if a design, in the first instance, 
to tear it entirely up as worthless, had been altered or 
in the second”—and “ thrust carelessly, and 
even, as it seemed, contemptuously, into one of the 
uppermost divisions of the rack, in the view of 
every visitor,” it had scarcely been glanced at during 
the prolonged search of the over-wise official! 
Just so with the Cholera. Our medical “prefects” 
have been equally astute and equally persevering; they 
have bottled up air for chemical analysis; they have 
sought with really painful diligence for the secret virus, 
the mystic “ozone;” they have striven to raise a plen- 
tiful crop of choleraic fungi, or draw in a net-full of 
picturesque animalculse ; but the world is no wiser than 
it was before. At one time, indeed, an electrical 
“ Eureka” was shouted forth in Paris, when lo! alas ! 
both thunder and lightning became manifest in the 
heavens, but with no effect whatever upon the raging 
pestilence. And so died the last of the theories—dis- 
appearing literally in a flash of lightning! 50 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLi.ua. 
In this dilemma, the question arises, may we not 
safely borrow a hint from the tale of u the purloined 
letter'?” Is it not worth while to look straight before 
us 1 And even if we should not be able to solve the 
subtile and intricate problem of the cholera, in all its 
wide and extensive bearings, may we not at least en- 
deavor to ascertain its moral, with a view to prevent, 
if we can not cure ? Herein, I conceive, lies a fertile 
field for profitable inquiry. 
What, then, do we behold on looking thus straight 
before us ? What seems to constitute the especial prey 
of this monster epidemic 1 Who and what are the un- 
happy wretches thus swiftly exterminated by this ruth- 
less demon ? These are the questions that now demand 
our closest attention. 
Let us first glance at the birthplace of the cholera, 
and the scene of its development; let us see if we can 
discover any peculiar reason why the clime of Hindostan 
should yield a poison so malignant and so fearful. A 
land of monsoons, abundantly supplying dampness of 
air; of a burning sun “ volatilizing into greater subtilety 
the gases of decaying organizationof various mias- 
mata poured into the air from jungle, marsh, and allu- 
vial deposit, from fields of indigo, cotton, and rice, from 
“ the muddy and slimy banks of the broad Oriental 
streams where could we find a more fitting home for 
this horrible plague ? Where shall we look for more HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
51 
easy victims than the enervated European, sweltering 
in his crowded and ill-constructed barrack, or the de- 
graded Pariah, groveling in his u close and fetid” Hin- 
doo village 1 
Look next at the Affghan, the Persian, and the Turk, 
and where do we find the mortality most frightful ? In- 
variably in those spots where the inhabitants are of un- 
clean and debasing habits, and the air contaminated 
with foul impurities—reeking with “ the effluvia which 
constantly stream up from dense masses of people, pay- 
ing little attention to personal cleanliness, and to the 
prompt removal of decaying substances.” 
Pass on next to u temperate Europe.” The cholera 
in Moscow, in 1847, was chiefly confined to the poorer 
classes, who subsist on miserable or raw kinds of food, 
and impure water, and whose condition in life, in other 
respects, is equally deplorable. 
The cholera districts in the city of London are thus de- 
scribed by the sanitary commissioners : u The neglected 
and filthy parts of the metropolis; the parts unvisited 
by the scavenger; the parts which are without sewers; 
or which, if provided with sewers, are without house- 
drains into them; or which, if they have both sewers 
and house-drains, are without a due and regulated sup- 
ply of water for washing away their impurities, and 
also for the purposes of surface-cleansing and domestic 
use.” The mortality in these districts (say late ac- 52 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
counts) is thus returned by the registrar-general: Out 
of a population of two millions, no less than 14,538 
persons died in fifty-five weeks ; and of this number, 
6G57 died after less than one day’s attack of the actual 
disease; and of the remainder, 2446 died ere forty- 
eight hours had elapsed after the cholera had actually 
marked its presence. In other words, very nearly one 
half were cases of sudden death.* 
Some few of the reasons why the city of Paris should 
suffer so fearfully from epidemic cholera, arc thus forci- 
bly stated by M. Bureaud-Riofrey, a distinguished phy- 
sician of the French capital, and now, I believe, a resi- 
dent of New York: 
“ It would seem, at first sight,” this writer observes, 
“ that one need entertain but slight dread of epidemics 
in our large cities. At Paris, one admires the houses 
so splendidly built, and then the apartments so luxuri- 
ously furnished ; he is next amazed at the richness of 
the gilding, the glasses, the mirrors, the bronzes, the 
statues, the vases, and most recherch6 woods; every 
thing would seem to exclude the idea of insalubrity. 
Yet, in spite of all this brilliant exterior, Paris is, per- 
haps, the most unhealthy of capitals ; it wants air, 
water, cleanliness, and above all, sewers. It wants air 
in this sense, that almost all the houses are narrow, and 
the ceilings low; in a Parisian apartment one feels im- 
* London Times. HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
53 
prisoned. It wants water, because it is sold at an ex- 
travagant rate; water is six times as dear in Paris as 
in London, where every thing is so dear. It wants 
cleanliness, for hygienic measures are incomplete or 
powerless. Each house, and in every house, each flight, 
are the foci of vapors more or less foul. The remains 
of food, the water of washings, corrupted and sur- 
charged with decomposing and fermenting organic mat- 
ters, the emanations of workshops, the residue of man- 
ufactures, the accumulation of all excretions cast into 
the street, and turned and re-turned a hundred times 
daily by the seekers for rags ; this accumulation of or- 
dure, or of excretions in fermentation, alters, in a very 
great degree, the purity of the air of this capital, which 
believes and proclaims itself to be at the head of the 
civilization of the world.”* 
In view of this picture, what room for wonder that 
the cholera “ holds high carnival” at Paris! 
Crossing over the Atlantic, we are now arrived on 
more familiar ground. In the city of New York, the 
cholera broke out, for the first time last summer, on 
the 11th of May. The scene of the outburst, I hardly 
need remind you, was a part of “ the Five Points,” in 
the Sixth Ward. This horribly “foul and offensive” 
region is so widely u pre-eminent for its destitution and 
* Du Cholera: Moyens preservatifs et curatifs, ou Philosophie 
des Grands Epidemies. Par M. Bureaud-Riofrey, D. M. P., etc. 54 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
vice,55 that the loathsome cholera could hardly have 
chosen a more fitting locality for its first appearance. 
The outward condition of the early victims is thus de- 
picted by the resident physician : “ In a rear basement, 
surrounded with filth and wretchedness, I found the 
body of a woman, who a few minutes before had expir- 
ed. There was no mistaking the cause of death : the 
pinched and sharpened visage, the corrugated, blue, and 
attenuated appearance of the body showed too plainly 
the nature of the disease which had marked its victim : 
Asiatic cholera was manifested in every expression. 
While there, I endeavored to obtain what information 
I could from the persons by whom she was surrounded; 
yet I found it almost impossible to get a reply to the 
most simple interrogatory. In truth, the idiotic condi- 
tion to which rum, debauchery, and extreme wretched- 
ness had reduced the intellects of these loathsome ob- 
jects of humanity, completely incapacitated them from 
comprehending the meaning of the most simple ques- 
tion.” No less than seven cases occurred in this 
wretched tenement; and the cholera thenceforward 
gradually spread throughout a the Points.” 
We now began to hear something of u precantio7iary 
measures,” in the way of purifying this horrible plague- 
spot ; but to a reflecting mind it seemed very much on 
the well-known principle of locking up the stable after 
the horse had been stolen. Houses, alley-ways, yards, HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
55 
and styes were accordingly cleansed; and 3000 swine 
were removed to the outskirts of the city. All this was 
very well; only it ought to have been done long before, 
to produce any marked effect in the way of prevention. 
As it was, it only served “ to lessen the extent and 
malignancy of the disease.” 
On the 26th of May, several cases occurred in Mul- 
berry street, four hundred yards from “ the Points;” 
and on the 8th of June the cholera broke out in the 
First Ward (in the southern part of the city, on the 
North River side), among our foreign, immigrant pop- 
ulation, and raged for two weeks “with considerable 
violence.” From the 10th of June to the 20th of 
August, 170 deaths by cholera occurred in the Seventh 
Ward, on the East River side—a region in which many 
of the population were “ emigrants, and persons utterly 
destitute of the ordinary comforts of life.”’ The cholera 
next appeared in the Twelfth and Sixteenth Wards, in 
the northern part of the city, where it raged with great 
violence for about two months. “ The cause of its 
long-continued and malignant character in this part of 
the city,” says the resident physician, “ can only be 
accounted for from the fact that there were found many 
filthy localities spread over the surface which was occu- 
pied by the epidemic. Several bone-boiling establish- 
ments were discovered, with immense piles of bones 
scattered around, while heaps of the same were found 56 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
with meat attached, and all in an advanced state of de- 
composition, and exhaling a stench which was horrible 
in the extreme. These, together with manure-heaps, 
pools of stagnant water, and a horse-killing establish- 
ment, were believed to contribute much toward prolong- 
ing the epidemic character of the disease; in conse- 
quence of which the sanitary committee was obliged to 
close the establishments until the disease ceased to exist 
among us.” 
In this connection, I must advert for a moment to a 
branch of the duty of the city inspector during the 
cholera season; hardly a day passed, at one time, when 
he was not summoned to abate some atrocious nuisance. 
Prominent among these were the overflowing grave- 
yards, some of which presented an appearance so hor- 
ribly loathsome that one could hardly avoid coming to 
the conclusion that the cholera was nothing but a just 
punishment for such gross irreverence for the remains 
of the dead! 
But to continue my recital: 
In the latter part of August, the cholera extended 
over a large proportion of the northeastern part of the 
city, while it rapidly declined in most of the lower 
Wards. About the first of October it had nearly dis- 
appeared from our city, having swept off altogether over 
5000 victims, to say nothing of 3000 who perished of 
kindred disorders. HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
57 
Of the ravages of the cholera in other parts of the 
continent—from Boston to Independence, from Quebec 
to New Orleans—my limits do not permit me to speak 
in detail; nor, indeed, is it needful, when the graves 
at Nashville, St. Louis, and Sandusky are yet so 
green. I shall not, therefore, proceed with a tedious 
enumeration of the peculiar attractions presented to 
the cholera by our new country and our new people. 
We have already seen that in Asia and Europe the 
conditions of its spread, and of the liability to attack 
of individuals in a community are precisely identical, 
allowance being made for the respective difference in 
the grades of civilization. 
We have also seen that the same liability, the same 
conditions of spread, precisely, prevail in New York. 
Suffice it to add that, in the new as in the old world, 
the chief victims of the cholera come from the same 
classes: the destitute poor, the badly fed, the insuffi- 
ciently clothed, the crowded, the dirty, the licentious, 
and the intemperate. 
Here, then, we have accomplished one stage of our 
journey. We have ascertained with precision the 
especial prey of epidemic cholera, and the classes which 
mainly supply its victims. We are next to inquire 
how the cholera affects the more favored classes—that 
is, u favored” as regards hygienic condition. How 
does it influence those who not only possess the “ com- 58 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
forts of life,” as they are ordinarily termed, but who 
care enough for their health to try to preserve it— 
those who yield a ready and constant obedience to the 
laws of their being—and those especially who take 
pains that the excretions both of lungs and skin shall 
not be impeded by want of personal cleanliness 1 
It is well established that throughout all India those 
villages which were most exposed to the malaria from 
marshes and lakes, and whose inhabitants were of un- 
clean and degraded habits, were scourged the most 
fearfully. For instance : “ The town of Muttra, situ- 
ated forty miles higher up the Ganges, and more re- 
mote from the approaching pestilence than Agra, was 
yet attacked first and suffered more severely, both as 
to violence of symptoms and to actual mortality.” 
Now what was the reason ? Why, “ Muttra is a filthy 
and crowded town,” while Agra, on the other hand, is 
u dry and airy.” Again: “ At Madras, while the chol - 
era was very fatal among the dense masses of the Hin- 
doos in the Black Town, it was less prevalent among 
the soldiers in Fort St. George, and was not seen at 
all in the scattered and well-ventilated houses of the 
English merchants and residents, although their duties 
in many cases called them daily into the town and 
fort.” And yet once more : “ The mortality among the 
natives in the town of Kurraehee was one in every ten 
of population ; that is to say, 1500 died of cholera in HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
59 
six weeks, out of a population of 15,000. This town,” 
we are informed, “ consists of mud houses, with mere 
crannies as windows or means of ventilation ; while the 
houses are built so closely together, and the streets, 
barely wide enough to allow a loaded camel to pass, 
are so very tortuous and inaccessible to currents of 
air, that all ventilation must be arrested, unless during 
a perfect gale of wind.” Now note the contrast! The 
mortality among the officers stationed at the same 
place, was only one in sixty-six, instead of one in 
ten; the difference resulting from their far superior 
sanitary condition—their houses permitting a freer 
current of air, and their diet and habits being, as a 
general rule, far more consonant to the laws of Hygiene. 
To turn now to Russia; the beneficial result of good 
sanitary measures has been strikingly apparent in the 
city of Moscow. In 1830, the disease extended to 
every part of the town; in 1847, it was chiefly confined 
to the districts south of the river upon which it is sit- 
uated, the inhabitants upon the north side not only 
being of the better class, but using freely most excel- 
lent water, which is brought from springs eighteen 
wersts from the city, by waterworks erected since 1830. 
The German villages of Galicia and the colony of 
Sarepta—to say nothing of Holland—all of whose in- 
habitants are particularly noted for their neatness and 
cleanliness, have likewise suffered but little fromcholei’a. 60 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
And so generally throughout the civilized world; just 
as certainly as the epidemic sweeps off the crowded and 
unclean poor, the grossly licentious, and the brutally 
intemperate, in the cholera districts, just so certainly 
it passes by unharmed all those individuals who, besides 
living in open and airy localities, have sound lungs, a 
sti'ong digestion, a healthy skin, and a constitution un- 
impaired by the abuse of drugs. I have yet to learn 
of he death by cholera of a single individual so situated, 
free from organic disease, of cleanly, regular, and tem- 
perate habits, of tranquil mind, and accustomed to de- 
vote that care to the preservation of health which affords 
the only real safeguard against disease. Indeed, a person 
so favorably constituted as regards hygienic condition, 
may be set down as proof against disease in almost 
every shape. 
Perhaps the nearest approach to this imaginary con- 
dition is to be traced in the career of that extraordinary 
man—of whose singular life I am here reminded— 
Howard the Philanthropist. u This man,” says 
one biographer, “ visited all Europe, not to survey 
the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of tem- 
ples ; not to make accurate measurements of the remains 
of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosities 
of modern art; not to collect medals, or to collate man- 
uscripts ; but to dive into the depths of dungeons; to 
plunge into the infection of hospitals; to survey the HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
61 
mansions of sorrow and of pain; to take the guage and 
dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt; to 
remember the forgotten; to attend to the neglected; to 
visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the dis- 
tresses of all men in all countries.” “ He traveled,” 
says another, u between fifty and sixty thousand miles, 
for the sole purpose of relieving the distresses of the 
most wretched of the human race. The fatigue, the 
dangers, the privations he underwent or encountered 
for the good of others, were such as no one else was 
ever exposed to in such a cause, and such as few could 
have endured. He often traveled several days and 
nights in succession, without stopping—over roads al- 
most impassable, in weather the most inclement, and 
with accommodations the meanest and most wretched. 
Summer and winter, heat and cold, rain and snow, in 
all their extremes, alike failed to stay him for a moment 
in his course; while plague, and pestilence, and famine, 
instead of being evils that he shunned, were those with 
which he was most familiar, and to many of whose 
horrors he voluntarily exposed himself, visiting the 
foulest dungeons, filled with malignant infection ; spend- 
ing forty days in a filthy and infected lazaretto; plung- 
ing into military encampments, where the plague wTas 
committing the most frightful ravages, and visiting 
where none of his conductors dared to accompany him.” 
The habits of Howard, under such circumstances, 62 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
were remarkably simple. “ Water,” says Dr. Aiken, 
“was one of liis principal necessaries, for he was a 
very Mussulman in his ablutions ; and if nicety had 
place with him in any respect, it was in the perfect 
cleanliness of his whole person.” “ These ablutions,” 
says Dr. Brown, “he regularly performed in the depth 
of the coldest winter, by plunging into a bath whenever 
he had the opportunity of doing so ; and when he had 
not, he would frequently lay himself down for some 
considerable time between two sheets, wet for the ex- 
press purpose of communicating to his body the desirable 
degree of cold.” According to another author, “ Both 
on rising and going to bed, he often swathed himself in 
coarse towels, wet with the coldest water; in that state 
he remained half an hour or more, and then threw them 
off, refreshed and invigorated, as he said, beyond 
measure.” 
In a conversation with a friend, Howard once deliv- 
ered himself of some of his views in the following 
terms : “ Nature is intrepid, hardy, and adventurous ; 
but it is a practice to spoil her with indulgence from 
the moment we come into the world. * * Thus we 
are forever giving hot things when we should administer 
cold. We bathe in hot, instead of cold water; we use 
a dry bandage when we should use a wet one, and we 
increase our food and clothing when we should, by de- 
grees, diminish both. If we should trust more to Nature, HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
63 
and suffer her to apply her own remedies to cure her own 
diseases, the formidable catalogue of maladies would be 
reduced to one half, at least, of their present number.” 
With regard to the best mode of self-preservation 
from infectious diseases, Mr. Howard expressed his 
viewrs as follows : “ I have frequently been asked what 
precautions I used to preserve myself from infection, 
in the prisons and hospitals which I visit. I here an- 
swer, once for all, that, next to the free goodness and 
mercy of the Author of my being, temperance and 
cleanliness are my preservatives. Trusting in Di- 
vine Providence, and believing myself in the way of 
my duty, I visit the most noxious cells, and, while thus 
employed, I fear no evil. I never enter a hospital or a 
prison before breakfast, and in an infected room I sel- 
dom draw my breath deeply.” 
u Temperance and cleanliness !” u Temperance in 
all thingsand scrupulous cleanliness of the entire 
person ! Have we not here in Howard’s preservatives 
a tangible clew to this cholera labyrinth ? Does not 
the unparalleled experience of this great philanthropist 
in the plagues of the East strengthen the position I am 
striving to establish : that epidemic cholera is one of a 
class of fearful disorders whose exact nature and es- 
sence it is quite unlikely that w7e shall ever determine ; 
that its most strongly marked exciting cause is gross 
neglect of the laws of health ; and the only method by 64 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
■which it can be extinguished is by a wide, general, and 
uniform return to their faithful observance ? If these 
views be correct—and both reason and experience con- 
firm this doctrine, that the true moral of the cholera 
is to be found in Hygiene—may we not claim for 
Howard that he was the first to solve the enigma of 
plagues 1 
But “ what is Hygiene V’ Fancy some puzzled one 
going to his family physician and asking him this ques- 
tion ; in all probability this would be the answer: 
u Hygiene ? Why, Hygiene has something to do with 
keeping people well; so it’s no affair of mine. But 
don’t you go and worry yourself now about what you 
can’t understand; leave all that sort of thing to me. 
You’re doing well enough as it is ; so what’s the use 
of trying to make yourself better? Don’t make any 
foolish change in your habits—no matter what the 
books say; and if you do chance to get ‘ under the 
weather,’ why—I’ll come and set you on your legs 
mighty quick, I promise you !” Such is the tenor of 
advice on this subject which generally proceeds from 
mere “ routine practitioners.” Long accustomed to 
regard men as individuals, they are totally incapable 
of taking an enlarged view of Hygiene, as applied to 
great masses ; they can not understand the meaning of 
the term, u Public or Municipal Hygiene,” or, as some 
one has styled it, “ the political economy of health.” 65 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
To them, the rich are—“ the rich” with fat fees to 
dispense; and the poor are—u the poor,” with vulgar 
half dollars. It never occurs to a mind of this order 
that the relations of the two are closely connected ; 
that both great classes are making in common this 
voyage of life ; that both are u linked inseparably to- 
gether” — “ wafted by the same favorable breezes, 
tossed by the same rough billows, and wrecked in the 
same rude tempests.” Alas, that such blindness, 
such hardened selfishness, should prevail so widely! 
Alas, that the moral of the fearful cholera, the hor- 
rible plague, the squalid ship-fever and the loath- 
some typhus, should remain so long unheard and 
unheeded! 
u Proffer any remedy for any ailment,” says Pro- 
fessor Dickson, a adduce but a shadow of proof that 
you have invented a means of relief from any particular 
grievance, and crowds of followers and heaps of wealth 
shall be your recompense. But the far greater boon 
of protection, prevention, which science vouchsafes to 
the wretched victims of disease with so much certainty, 
is scarcely valued enough to be investigated. It is dif- 
ficult to persuade individuals or communities into 
measures the most reasonable and promising, even 
when experience has confirmed their applicability and 
importance. And thus it is in moral and social life. 
We neglect the child, and punish the guilty man. We 66 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
refuse the means of education, but stringently inflict 
penalties upon ignorance. 
u Hygiene, the science of prevention, whose pure 
and elevated object is the extinction of disease, has 
had until recently no separate functionary in our so- 
cial institutions, no definite place in the progress of 
our improving civilization. And even now her voice 
is feebly uttered, scarcely listened to, and almost void 
of authority. We have no professors of Hygiene in our 
colleges ; our boards of health are clothed with little 
power, and their recommendations destitute of influ- 
ence, except in times of occasional panic, or wThen di- 
rected against nuisances palpably offensive. No place 
of honor or profit is assigned by the body politic 
to the philanthropist who volunteers his services in 
this department. Commissions are appointed and re- 
port ; associations organize themselves, and publish 
documents, and present memorials ; registers are made, 
facts recorded, and principles clearly deduced; yet all 
with so little effect that no single great step has any- 
where been taken in the right dii*ection. 
“ It is difficult to make definite alterations in the 
fixed face of things : to open parks amid the dense 
masses of brick and stone that constitute our cities ; 
to tunnel with sewers the earth encumbered with the 
thick foundations of thronged edifices ; to raze the 
crowded blocks which impede the air and the light; to HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
67 
ventilate tlie narrow hovel; to drain tlie damp cellar ; 
to illumine tlie dark abode of the poor. Such are the 
obstacles, and they seem almost insurmountable, which 
impede the hygienic movements of old and settled 
communities, and paralyze the energetic philanthropy 
which yet refuses to succumb. Are they not full of 
warning to us, a nation yet in infancy or youth, whose 
cities are just starting into growth and expansion, and 
taking on the form destined to be permanent for good 
or evil ? We have not, even in the new world, a mo- 
ment to lose; nay, too much time has been already 
lost in careless neglect of these matters, so important 
to us and our posterity.’’ 
But perhaps this labor in the field of prevention may 
not prove so attractive to a pedantic mind as the effort 
to solve insoluble riddles. The question now arises, 
which is the more useful ? Is not the diffusion of the 
principles of Hygiene likely to be appreciated generally 
and widely at a time like the present! Or, must we 
turn into owls—waste our energies over a confused 
mass of “ scientific” conjectures—conjectures sure to 
result in nothing—unless, perhaps, an increase of the 
number of solemn dunces ! Shall we give up the cer- 
tainty of benefiting our race, for the profitless contem- 
plation of such queries as these: u Do fishes think? 
Have the stars eyes, and if so, do they see ?” 
Out on such wretched—such miserable drivel, when 68 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
tlie question at issue is one of life or death to thousands 
and millions ! Out on the theory of “ fungous growths,” 
or of paltry animalculse ! Out on the doctrine of “ no- 
electricity-in-the-air !” Out on the scheme of analyz- 
ing the cholera (as if one could imprison it!) in a 
chemical bottle! Out on such follies so long as the 
“ Old Brewery” pollutes our precincts, and so long as 
our ears are pained and our souls sickened by the hor- 
rors which cry out against us from the pestilential 
“ Five Points !” 
A few words now in regard to the course of the 
Board of Health of the city of New York, during the 
past year, in relation to the cholera. I have already 
observed that their attempts last summer to cleanse 
some few of the plague-spots in our midst, were rather 
late in the day; that it strikingly resembled locking up 
the stable after the horse had been stolen. Now, how 
is tins'? We were first threatened with a “visitation” 
of cholera on the 5th of December, 1848—just a year 
ago—but it seems that the epidemic held itself in abey- 
ance a little over five months, or until the approach of 
the warmth of May. What, then, was accomplished 
by our Board of Health, in the way of preparation, dur- 
ing these five months of abeyance'? Were the “ Five 
Points” visited, nuisances abated, graveyards closed, 
and the destitute poor washed, fed, and clothed? Was 
the well-known track of the cholera in our city prepared 69 
for the outburst ? Alas, no ! Forewarned as all were, 
literally nothing was done; and when the plague did 
break out, it found an easy prey. Lo! then, the panic 
and the timorous flight! Lo ! then, a forfeit of more 
than five thousand lives! Lo! then, a loss in the com- 
mercial relations of our business metropolis tvhich even 
time can hardly repair! And is it not galling to a re- 
flecting mind to know and feel that all this might have 
once been averted—cither wholly or partially—by a 
timely use of the knowledge which reason and experi- 
ence have so abundantly afforded ! 
The medical counsel to the Board of Health—to judge 
from their occasional addresses to the public—appear 
to have been content to put forth the usual humdrum 
prescriptions as the day demanded. I shall only refer 
here to one or two points in their official bulletins. 
The learned gentlemen express their belief, in one of 
the number, that “the cause of the disease exists in 
the atmosphere,” but subsequently make this striking 
admission : “ With regard to the peculiar condition of 
the atmosphere which predisposes to the disease, we 
know nothing.” Now all this is very much like the 
dilemma of the Parisian prefect: he knew to a cer- 
tainty the Very house “the purloined letter” happened 
to be concealed in, but where it actually was it was far 
beyond his philosophy to fathom ! One thing was cer- 
tain ; it was not he that was to blame, but that abom- 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OE THE CHOLERA. 70 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
inable house ! Just so with the medical counsel; they 
are not to blame, but the abominable atmosphere / 
They feel sure that the causes of the cholera are in 
the atmosphere ; but how they got there, and why they 
are there, in spite of the effluvia of the “ Old Brewery’’ 
and the “ Five Points” full in their nostrils, they can 
not possibly, for the life of them, tell! Strange that 
so great an amount of positive knowledge should accom- 
pany so great an amount of admitted ignorance ! 
Again; in a long address of advice to our citizens, 
the learned counsel actually devoted nearly two lines 
to a recommendation of/* the tepid bath !” They did 
not forget, though, to dwell more at length on the 
coddling system of wearing flannels in midsummer, the 
proper doses of laudanum to be taken, and the pro- 
priety of giving, besides a strong mustard poultice, a 
little brandy and water, with a view, as they said, of 
u restoring warmth!” This last prescription was a 
wonderful hit. It is really astonishing how many cases 
of cholera suddenly broke out in the vicinity of bar- 
rooms, and how rapidly the patients found themselves 
convalescent after a free potation of this attractive 
beverage! It is noteworthy, too, that, though only 
two lines could be spared for merely alluding to the 
subject of personal cleanliness, the learned counsel 
should particularly specify “ the tepid bath,” notwith- 
standing the weakening effects of the season. Some HYGIENE TIIE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
71 
of you may possibly happen to recollect that a state- 
ment also appeared in one of our journals, setting forth 
that the most eminent members of “ the regular faculty” 
had denounced the use of any other than the warm 
bath during the prevalence of epidemic cholera. It is 
very fortunate for some of us that we were not obliged 
to bathe after this puny, coddling, enervating fashion, 
amid the intense heat of our last summer ! 
It is really refreshing to turn from all this supersti- 
tion and senility, and glance at the progress of hygienic 
principles in the domain of Old England. The ablest 
medical quarterly of the day * is earnestly calling upon 
the East India Company to employ the absolute power 
which they possess in their magnificent empire, in at- 
tempting to remove those causes “which, in Asia, as 
well as in England, confer on the poison of the cholera 
its terrible and malignant power.” “ If, as we believe,” 
the editors say, “ a wise recognition of the conditions 
of existence of the poison of cholera can lead, in some 
measure, at least, to their removal, and to a propor- 
tionate diminution in the mortality from this terrible 
scourge, then we hold it incumbent on the great com- 
pany, whose magnificent dominions are the garden of 
the earth, to avert from the Hindoo, in his close and 
fetid village, from the Englishman, in his confined, 
* The British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review for July, 
1848. 72 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
crowded, and ill-constructed barrack, some portion of 
the evil, which has acquired magnitude and strength 
from our ignorance and neglect. The company can not 
alter the laws of nature, they can not prevent India 
from being the country, more than all others, subject 
to cholera, on account of its marshes, forests, plains, 
and rivers, its heavy rains, its burning suns ; but they 
can do much to weaken the force of the poison, and to 
strengthen the frame against its influence.” 
The editors prove by irresistible facts and arguments 
that the poison of cholera derives its power chiefly or 
entirely from the hygienic conditions attending its at- 
tack ; and that, whenever the condition of health is 
high, the poison becomes powerless. u Examined in 
this way,” they then proceed, u this epidemic loses all 
its terrors. We see no longer the terrible burst of a 
mysterious plague, which seemed to be ushered in by 
whirlwinds and thunder-storms, and, like those mighty 
powers, to perform its work of destruction unrestrained 
by human efforts. On the contrary, we see that it is 
our ignorance which has given it power, our carelessness 
which has prepared its easy prey.” For the frightful 
mortality which the cholera has occasioned, the editors 
say: “ We must all take our share of reproach. The 
medical profession is the most to blame, because it has 
not hitherto sufficiently recognized the simple causes 
which give such astonishing activity to morbid poisons. HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
73 
We have contemplated epidemics through an atmos- 
phere of prejudice, which has distorted their form and 
obscured their real proportions. But we are now be- 
ginning to learn ; and, if we do not deceive ourselves, 
we are at last on the right patli to disarm of its malig- 
nity one of the most terrible plagues which has ever 
ravaged the earth. We have reassumed our proper 
character of preventers as Avell as curers of disease.” 
Such language as this is so warm and earnest, and 
yet so rare, that I can not refrain from further cita- 
tions. In speaking of the nature of the specific cause 
of cholera, the editors say, with as much truth as 
force : a The phenomena of great pestilences occur on 
so vast a scale, their consequences are so stupendous, 
their immediate action so impregnated with an almost 
universal suffering and fear, that men have found noth- 
ing to compare them with but the most terrible and 
awful convulsions of nature. * * * Even at the 
present time, many of our best writers entertain some- 
thing of the same belief. Everybody knows the lofty 
opening of Hecker’s History of the Black Death. 
There, as harbingers of great pestilences, the powers 
of creation are represented as coming into violent col- 
lision, the thunder mutters from beneath the earth, 
fiery meteors blast the fruits of the soil, the atmos- 
phere burns with a sultry and unbearable dryness, or 
overflowing waters send up unwholesome mists—nature 74 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
spurns the ordinary alternations of life and death, and 
over the doomed people the destroying angel waves his 
flaming sword. And yet, after all, is there no poetical 
exaggeration in this I Is nature, indeed, so hard a 
stepmother to us ? Are these pestilences altogether 
independent of the passions, and uninfluenced by the 
condition of manl We do not believe it. The causes 
of the devastations of diseases lie lower than the his- 
torian deems ; it is in our false habits, our pernicious 
customs, our disregard of the fundamental laws of 
health and vigor, that we are to seek for the true rea- 
son of the mortality of pestilences.” 
The conclusion of the article is equally able: 
u The true philosophy of the science of medicine 
is the knowledge of the causes of disease. Or, if 
these causes be too subtile and refined for our gross 
senses, it is the knowledge of the several conditions, 
external or internal to the body, which give those 
causes power. In the future history of medicine, we 
shall see men returning to the principles promulgated 
by its earliest founders. They will perceive that the 
treatment of the fully-formed disease is at the same 
time the most difficult and the least useful part of 
their noble profession. They will learn to arrest the 
evil at the fountain-head, and not to dam the current 
swollen by a thousand tributaries. And if the princi- 
ples which we have analyzed in this article be correct, HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
75 
it will not be the least triumph of this philosophy that 
it has indicated the true mode in which the great epi- 
demic of our time can he most easily and most effectu- 
ally controlled. It bars out the disease—not with 
quarantines and cordons sanitaires, hut with a cleanly 
people, and uncontaminated air, The evil which 
springs from the bosom of nature only needs for its 
removal an observance of the rules which nature her- 
self reveals.” 
Noble, thoughtful words! Would that they could 
he heard, and their point apprehended, not only by 
every member of the healing fraternity, hut as well by 
every reflecting mind in the whole wide world ! 
I have next to speak of the results of the efforts 
that have so far been made in England itself to ad- 
vance the cause of sanitary improvement. Numerous 
‘‘"Health of Towns Associations” are now in opera- 
tion, and a great deal has been done in the way of 
bettering the condition of the poor. Free baths and 
wash-houses are in process of gradual establishment in 
the large cities, and in London itself the famous St. 
Giles, the former “ Five Points” of the metropolis of 
England, has been renovated by the authorities—its 
streets widened, and its poor dispersed. But it is 
mainly to the late invasion of cholera that we are to 
ascribe the present zeal of the London press in behalf 
of the cause. The articles on the subject of hygienic 76 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
improvement which are now in course of publication 
in literally burn with indignant eloquence, 
and answer for themselves the stale objection that lay- 
men can not understand the laws of life and health. 
u We can not tell,” says the London Times, “ why 
the fetid sewer, or the exhalations of the reeking 
graveyard, should be the cause of cholera one year 
more than another, and wre can not form any concep- 
tion of the reason why the epidemic should ever cease 
in the polluted districts of Lambeth or Shoreditch, 
during eight months any given year. Our conclusions 
are all yet entirely empirical. All we know is, that 
when the cholera is present these are the spots in 
which it first declares itself—these the points from 
which it mainly radiates into quarters of the town 
which are inhabited under more endurable sanitary 
conditions. The heavy pressure of the disease in such 
localities offers the best suggestion for depriving it, for 
the future, of its main power. If we would avoid a 
speedy recurrence of this visitation, it is in behalf of 
the proper purification, and the closing up of the cen- 
tres of feculence, that we must mainly address our- 
selves to all who are compelled to live within the limits 
of the bills of mortality. A proper system of sewer • 
age has yet to be established; a suitable supply of 
water, both in quantity and quality, must be poured 
into every alley and court of this huge town. We HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
77 
must seal up graveyards; banish noxious trades to 
the suburbs; remove cattle-markets, slaughter-houses, 
and their attendant pollutions, and do, in short, by leg- 
islation, all that legislation can effect.’5 
Is not this sensible hygienic advice, if it does come 
from a lay source ? And is it not equally adapted to 
the meridian of this city of New York? But again : 
A writer in the London Morning Chronicle, in giv- 
ing an account of a visit paid to a portion of that city 
in which the cholera had been exceedingly destructive, 
gives the following account of the manner in which the 
inhabitants were supplied with water : 
“ In No. 1 of London street the cholera first ap- 
peared seventeen years ago, and spread upward with 
fearful violence; but this year it appeared at the op- 
posite extremity, and ran downward with like severity. 
As we passed along the reeking banks of the sewer, 
the sun shone upon a narrow slip of the water. In 
the bright light it appeared the color of strong green 
tea, and positively looked as solid as black marble in 
the shadow—indeed, it was more like watery mud than 
muddy water; and yet we were assured this was the 
only water that the wretched inhabitants had to 
drink.” The water for that part of London is sup- 
plied, it seems, by a company, which, under the plea 
of not being able to supply a sufficient quantity to other 
sections, suddenly, withdrew during the cholera season 78 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OE THE CHOLERA. 
one half of the scanty supply usually doled out to the 
squalid occupants of the city courts. 
“ From the poor gasping wretches,5* says the Times, 
“ thus consigned in cold blood to the horrors of a water 
famine, this company were, be it remembered, at the 
same time drawing a profit of at least ten per cent, per 
annum upon their paid up capital!” 
The Times has accordingly denounced this company 
for its action, and the city government for permitting 
it, in terms of fierce and unsparing invective. It pro- 
nounces the weekly charge of eight pence per house 
grossly extortionate, and claims that the city can be 
steadily supplied with “ cool, fresh, lucid water, sent 
sparkling and pure up every court and alley, and to 
the very garrets of the meanest houses, at an average 
general rate not exceeding two pence per week per 
house—-just about one fourth of the present charge.” 
This rate (it adds) would be more than saved by the 
diminished outlay in cleansing and drainage; by the 
lessening of fire-assurance risks, and so forth ; “ by the 
popularization of health-and-strength-giving baths, now 
the costly luxury of comparatively few; and lastly, by 
the prevention of those tremendous epidemics—cholera, 
typhus, scarlatina, and all the other filth-murrains of 
cities—whose victims are mourned with bitter wailing 
and lamentation by many a ruined family in many a 
devastated home.” 79 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
In still another article, in reply to an official an- 
nouncement of Alderman Sidney that the city was safe 
from pestilential disease, the Times thus sets forth an 
appalling array of facts illustrating the condition of 
the poor : 
“We can not proclaim to the country, as Alderman 
Sidney desires, that the city of London is safe. There 
are at this moment in the metropolis five hundred 
thousand powder-barrels, awaiting, open-mouthed, the 
sudden spark which, whenever it may fall, will infal- 
libly produce a tremendous explosion. Those powder- 
barrels are the stagnant cesspools, the breeding coffins, 
and the subterranean slaughter-houses of the city. 
The spark whose kindling touch they await is the in- 
visible, floating cholera sporule, and the dreaded ex- 
plosion is a fresh outburst of devastating pestilence. 
Empty these powder-barrels, Mr. Alderman Sidney, 
and then we will report the city safe. Cleanse, in 
Fox Court, the 1 public ordure pit,’ wdiich has already 
destroyed four victims, and from whose yawning mouth 
fresh poison is still steaming up. Let in the light of 
day—let in pure air and unpolluted water to the fever- 
ed, scrofulous outcasts of that other court, where the 
very pump yields an offensive stream, where half the 
entire population have perished of the plague, and 
where the miserable survivors, helpless and hopeless, 
are awaiting their turn to die. Purify the city of 80 
these deadly plague-spots, which shame humanity, and 
are the opprobria of civilization, before you boast of 
the health of the city, and expect the fugitives from 
its horrors to return. We sympathize with those, who, 
being rich, have lost business by the cholera panic; 
but we sympathize still more with those who, being 
poor, have lost by it all that they had to lose—their 
lives. We are not insensible to the anxiety of wealthy 
tradesmen,c paying hundreds a year’ for their premises, 
and earning only 6d. per diem by their trade; but we 
sympathize still more with the poor outcast whom we 
saw on the 27th of September, lying dead of cholera, 
in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, with the word ‘ un- 
known’ written over against his bed; we sympathize 
still more with the friendless pariah who, on the 28th 
of August, was found a shriveled corpse at No. 21 
Fleur-de-lis Court, where, for two long days, she had 
been left unvisited, probably in excruciating agony, 
her groans unheard, her malady untended, her dying 
eyes unclosed, her corpse uncoffined; we sympathize 
still more with the poor steel polisher, whom the city 
authorities suffered, last Monday week, to perish of 
cholera, at No. 7 Robin Hood Court, St. Andrew’s, by 
reason of want of food. We say that, while in the 
heart of the city such occurrences as these, day after 
day, belie religion and insult humanity, we must ex- 
pect to incur, not in one only, but in a succession of 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
81 
plagues, the revenge of outraged Nature, and the re- 
tribution of offended God. We have said, and we 
repeat it, that the poor of the metropolis are worse off 
now than they were in 1832; that the supplies of air, 
and light, and water have not kept pace with the wants 
of a growing population, crowded by the unchecked 
rapacity of extortionate house-owners into pestiferous 
dens, in which no merciful master would kennel his 
hounds. The Common Council may suppress or muti- 
late the reports of its medical officer ; they may contest 
the authority of the Board of Health; and they may 
shut their ears to the wailing of the decimated poor; 
but they can not tamper with the bills of mortality, 
nor resist the authority of public opinion, nor stifle the 
voice of the press. They can not in the face of irre- 
fragable evidence to the lamentable condition of the 
city poor, with which our columns daily teem, persuade 
the community that the health of London is satisfac- 
tory, and that the risk of cholera is at an end.” 
Let me not be told, gentlemen, that these London 
horrors can find no parallel in this city of New York. 
It is not so. If there are u 500,000 powder-barrels” in 
the English metropolis, ripe for an explosion, there are 
at least 100,000 in our own community. Our Croton 
water is not always preferred to the noxious rills from 
the fetid pump. We, too, suffer from the gross pol- 
lution of the cattle-market and the slaughter-house; 82 
HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL OF THE CHOLERA. 
we, too, have our u reeking graveyards” and “ breed- 
ing-coffins.” It is only a few days since the Grand 
Jury of the Court of Sessions presented “ Potter’s 
Field,” on Randall’s Island, as a most horrible nui- 
sance. They have also found in the northern part of 
the city u cow-stables, distilleries, and establishments 
for cutting up and boiling dead horses and other ani- 
mals.” In another place, near the heart of the city, 
they have found a single inclosure containing 1200 
cows. That these are nuisances of the most loathsome 
description, as the Grand Jury admit, there can not be 
any rational doubt; “ the putrid stench which issues 
from them corrupts the atmosphere of the whole neigh- 
borhood, even at this advanced season of the year. It 
seems incredible that human life can possibly be sus- 
tained within the pestilential effluvia of such places 
as these; and yet,” as the Grand Jury inform us in 
their presentment, u all these places were in full oper- 
ation throughout the last season, while the cholera was 
raging!” 
But time would fail me, gentlemen, were I even to 
attempt to complete an enumeration of the horrors in 
our midst. I would fain add something in regard to 
the 25,000 wretches who live in cellars, knowing noth- 
ing of the luxuries of air, light, cleanliness, and whole- 
some food; but I can only say of them (in the words 
of Professor Dickson): u The unutterable pollution, HYGIENE THE TRUE MORAL, OF THE CHOLERA. 
83 
the squalor, the anguish there endured, must make 
angels weep, and touch with pity the arch-fiend him- 
self, whose dread abode contains no pang more intol- 
erable, except its eternity of despair.” 
One word, ere I close, of the remedy for these evils. 
I conceive that this remedy is most easily to be found 
in the prompt action of our local government, when 
properly enforced and demanded by an enlightened and 
concentrated public opinion. It is the manifest duty 
of the intelligent and the thoughtful to form that pub- 
lic opinion, and bring it to bear upon the municipal 
authorities. We, gentlemen, must do our part to 
bring the matter before the city government. On the 
Common Council of the city of New York devolves the 
responsibility of the public health; on us the duty of 
holding them to their task. Let us resolve, then, to 
hold meetings, ascertain facts, and present reports. 
As a starting-point, let us call on the authorities to 
renovate the “ Five Points,” to abate the nuisance of 
the “Old Brewery.” We have a noble example in 
the earnest action of our English brethren. St. Giles 
is no more ! But let us not be content with mere 
imitation—let us strive to excel them. So may we 
hope to escape in future the dreaded recurrence of the 
loathsome plague, the stern revenge of “ outraged 
Nature,” and the just retribution of “ offended God !” 84 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, AND NOT EMPIRICAL, 
A LECTURE DELIVERED BEFORE THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, AT 
CLINTON HALL, NEW YORK, ON THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 
13th, 1849. 
The Water Treatment is not often favored with an 
open, manly, spirited attack. On its first introduc- 
tion into England as a distinct system, a few years ago, 
it met with a peculiar kind of opposition. A shrewd 
physician to one of the largest hospitals in the city of 
London, gave a lecture to his class, “ expressly devoted 
to instructing them in what they were to say, and how 
they were to act, should any of their patients, when 
they got into practice, consult them as to the propriety 
of trying this new treatment.” They were not to run 
it down—not to ridicule it—because that, said he, 
would be the certain way to induce them to resort to it. 
On the contrary, they were to speak of it with respect 
—to acknowledge that it was useful in certain cases 
and certain constitutions, but always to conclude by 
assuring the patient that in his or her particular case, 
it would be highly7- improper and extremely dangerous. 
And this is the ruse—this the quirk—practiced by the AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
85 
great bulk of medical men in England up to the present 
moment. They have ceased to rail at it—ceased to 
laugh at it. They admit that they sometimes recom- 
mend it. But they always conclude by assuring the 
patient that his own case is one in which it is totally 
inadmissible.* 
A notable instance of this kind of u management” 
is pithily narrated in Bulwer’s u Confessions of a 
Water Patient.” After detailing the various consid- 
erations which had led him—an invalid for years—to 
resolve upon a change of medical treatment, and finally 
to resort to the Water-Cure establishment of Dr. James 
Wilson, at Malvern, Sir Edward proceeds : u On my 
way through town, I paused, in the innocence of my 
heart, to inquire of the faculty if they thought the 
Water-Cure would suit my case. With one exception, 
they wrere unanimous in the vehemence of their denun- 
ciation. ‘ Granting even that in some cases, especially 
of rheumatism, Hydropathy had produced a cure, to my 
complaint it was wTorse than inapplicable—it was highly 
dangerous—it would probably be fatal. I had not 
stamina for the treatment—it would fix chronic ailments 
into organic disease ; surely it would be much better to 
try what I had not yet tried.’ What had I not yet 
tried—I, who had ranged in vain from simple to mine- 
ral'? A course of—prussic acid ! ‘Nothing was bet- 
* Dr. Edward Johnson. 86 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
ter for gastric irritation, which was, no doubt, the main 
cause of my suffering. If, however, I were obstinately 
bent upon so mad an experiment, Doctor Wilson was 
the last person I should go to.” But none of this 
“ managing” seems to have made much impression upon 
the author of “ Harold.” He was not “ deterred by 
all these intimidations, nor seduced by the salubrious 
allurements of the prussic acid, under its scientific ap- 
pellation of £ hydrocyanic.’ ” A little reflection taught 
him that “ the members of a learned profession are 
naturally the very persons least disposed to favor inno- 
vation upon the practices which custom and prescrip- 
tion have rendered sacred in their eyes. A lawyer is 
not the person to consult upon bold reforms in juris- 
prudence. A physician can scarcely be expected to 
own that a Silesian peasant will cure with water the 
diseases which resist an armament of phials.” And 
with regard to the peculiar objections to Doctor Wilson, 
he had read in his own pamphlet “ attacks upon the 
orthodox practice sufficient to account for—perhaps to 
justify—the disposition to depreciate him in return.” 
This matter settled (to go on with the story), there 
was another kind of opposition to meet and overcome. 
“ Still,” adds Sir Edward, “my friends were anxious 
and fearful; to please them, I continued to inquire, 
though not of physicians, but of patients. [This 
was a contingency which the hospital lecturer had quite AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
87 
overlooked!] I sought out,” our author continues, 
u some of those who had gone through the process. I 
sifted some of the cases of cure cited by Dr. Wilson. 
I found the account of the patients so encouraging, the 
cases quoted so authentic, that I grew impatient of 
delay. I threw physic to the dogs, and went to Mal- 
vern.” The result of Sir Bulwter Lytton’s trial of 
the water treatment, I may here add, was singularly 
gratifying ; and, as many of you, doubtless, are already 
aware, forms the theme of one of the most beautiful 
tributes to the hydropathic system as yet made public 
—a tribute which some one has very prettily styled 
u the poetry of the Water-Cure.” 
In our own country the water treatment has 
met with every possible variety of reception, from the 
frigid shiver of supercilious incredulity to the cordial 
■welcome of grateful appreciation. In spite of the one 
and thanks to the other, it has steadily and surely won 
its way into the confidence and respect of a large num- 
ber of the most intelligent minds throughout our Union. 
As on the continent of Europe—to say nothing of Eng- 
land—it has enrolled in America a formidable array 
of enthusiastic advocates, ready and willing to defend 
it from open calumny or indirect aspersion, at all fitting 
times, and in all proper places. Some of these advo- 
cates it has actually drawn from the very ranks of “ the 
regular faculty”—from among men, who, dissatisfied 88 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
with the teachings of modern allopathy, and too honest 
to practice what they did not believe right, “ had be- 
come bold by despair—bold enough to try if health, like 
truth, lay at the bottom of a well!” There are others, 
again, among “ the old-school practitioners,” who are 
frank enough to admit, and honest enough to feel, that 
no true physician can ever become too old or too wise 
to learn : such men assume the position of eclectics, 
and each one selects, according to the best of his judg- 
ment, those peculiar features of the various systems of 
treatment which impress him most favorably, rendering 
a certain degree of homage to all alike, but avowing 
allegiance to no one alone. Among physicians of this 
type, the water treatment has met with partial 
favor, though some few of the old, lingering, tenacious 
prejudices have prevented its receiving even from them 
its proper share of study and attention. I now come 
to mention a very different class—the great bulk of our 
medical men—the mere u routine practitioners,” 
incapable of rising above the mists of superstition and 
error ; content to believe that immediate dosing is ab- 
solutely essential to infant salvation, five minutes after 
birth, and ready to admit that it is one of the chief 
duties of grown-up man to be bled, and cupped, and 
leeched, blistered, purged, and cod-liver-oiled ; always 
provided that the blood be let and the stomach drenched 
by some one of their own number. I hardly need add AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
89 
that to all these men the Water-Cure is “a system of 
total, downright, outrageous quackery.” Not that they 
have ever read a word on the subject, or watched any 
cases. No! They would rather put out their eyes 
than lend any such countenance to “ irregular practice!” 
Gentlemen, I speak with freedom of this particular por- 
tion of the medical profession; but before I have closed, 
you will see that I am more than sustained in my cen- 
sures by the highest dignitaries of the fraternity of 
healing. These are the practitioners whose awful havoc 
in u the old country” extorted this pithy admission from 
Sir Astley Cooper : “ There is a great deal of ac- 
tivity in English practice!” 
I have said, gentlemen, that it is not often that the 
water treatment is favored with an open, manly, 
and spirited attack. Would that its enemies in Amer- 
ica would commit themselves more frequently in some 
tangible wray ! But no ! They prefer “ fighting shy;” 
they never descend to particulars or details, but fire off 
a volley against the rival systems—generally in a lump 
—and then vanish in the smoke. There is no getting 
at them ! I remember once picking up a medical jour- 
nal of u considerable” note—to use a cant, but ex- 
pressive phrase; and, finding my attention attracted 
to an article incidentally assailing the Water-Cure 
system in no measured terms, “ Now,” thought I, “ I 
am sure to find something worth carefully reading-^- 90 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
some scientific assault not to be easily gotten over!” 
I read carefully on. The story was this : It seems 
that some ailing clergyman, after trying a long while 
“ the regular treatment” of some one or more of these 
“ routine practitioners,” as often happens, “ was noth- 
ing bettered, but rather grew worse;” so he went off 
straightway to some hygienic and hydropathic sana- 
torium, where he not only rapidly recovered his lost 
health, hut acquired enough knowledge, besides, of the 
laws of his being to understand how to preserve the 
health thus easily regained. To evince his gratitude 
for his prompt recovery, this gentleman published an 
account of his cure, and it was this publication which 
had roused the wrath of the medical reviewer. “ The 
clergy,” we were told, “ were always dabbling with 
quacks ; it would be far more to their credit to be 
minding their own business than running about from 
one empiric to another, bringing discredit upon them,” 
—the “ routine doctors.” It was here that the shoe 
pinched! Not a word about the processes which had 
aided Nature to cure him—not a syllable of scientific 
criticism upon their merits; the wdiole article, in real- 
ity, was nothing more or less than a bitter tirade upon 
the clerical profession for not happening to entertain 
so exalted an opinion of the “routine” mode of medi- 
cal treatment as the practitioners of that school thought 
their just due—for not properly appreciating, perhaps, 91 
AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
like Sir Edward Bulwer, tlie rustic virtues of the 
hitherto untried—prussic acid ! 
I am not aware, gentlemen, that this peculiar mode 
of “ managing” refractory clergymen has proved re- 
markably successful. Some one has said that no one 
can he made witty by an act of Congress : I presume it 
will hold equally good that no clergyman can be cured 
by a medical scold! 
The latest slur upon the hydropathic system, from 
any prominent source in the city of New York, is 
marked by the usual shyness of allusion. During the 
late prevalence of epidemic cholera, the medical coun- 
sel to the Board of Health were selected entirely from 
the ranks of u the old-scliool practitioners ;” so were 
the physicians to the various wards, to the cholera 
hospitals, and the police stations. Now somebody saw 
fit to offer a resolution in the Board of Health, some 
time last June, directing “ that a hospital for the re- 
ception of cholera patients be established in this cityr, 
in which the practice of homoeopathic physicians should 
be pursued.” This resolution having been referred by 
“ the sanitary committee” to the medical counsel, those 
learned functionaries reported as follows : “ Should the 
above resolution be adopted, they see no satisfactory 
reason why the same courtesy should not be extended 
to the Hydropathists, the the Chrono- 
Thermalists, and, indeed, all others claiming to have 92 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
specific modes of treating the cholera. By intelligent 
and well-educated physicians generally,” the learned 
counsel proceed to say, “ Homoeopathy is looked upon 
as a species of empiricism. It is neither practiced by 
them nor countenanced by them. Concurring entirely 
with their professional brethren on this subject, the 
undersigned conceive that the public authorities of our 
city would not consult either their own dignity or the 
public good by lending the sanction of their name or 
influence to Homoeopathy, or any other irregular 
mode of practice.” So far the report of the medical 
counsel. I come next to speak of “ the sanitary com- 
mittee.” The following is a citation from their elabo- 
rate apology for adopting this report: “In looking 
round, the committee found the medical profession ex- 
isting in a certain form, exercising certain rights and 
'privileges conceded by law, and recognized by long 
usage and general suffrage. The medical profes- 
sion was, in fact, one of the legitimate divisions into 
which society had resolved itself, and for the perform- 
ance of the most important functions subservient to 
the public good. Taking this view of the subject, the 
committee felt it to be their duty to have nothing to do 
with medicine, except as they found it embodied in 
what is understood and known, both by the public as 
well as physicians, as the regular profession. While, 
in this way, they paid all suitable respect to so honor- 93 
AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
able a profession as that of medicine, the committee 
felt that they did no injustice to those who suppose 
themselves in advance of the age, and profess them- 
selves gifted with superior knowledge and wisdom.” 
There is a musty old proverb, gentlemen, in com- 
mon use, which inculcates upon the cobbler the exceed- 
ing propriety of sticking to his last. John Randolph 
told the member of Congress, who had spent most of 
his life in repairing watches, that he understood the 
tick-ticks of watch-making a great deal better than 
the tactics of legislation. Both proverb and anecdote 
are probably unfamiliar to the nine common councilmen 
of u the sanitary committee.” They certainly have 
made a most momentous discovery, that the medical 
profession is solely composed of “ the routine practi- 
tioners ;” that all other physicians are, by fair infer- 
ence, nothing but a set of outlawed wiseacres; and, 
above all, that certain particular “ rights and priv- 
ileges” are “ conceded by law” to the “ routine” doc- 
tors ! Why, it is a standing theme for dismal whining 
among all of that class, that the laws of New York 
have thrown the profession open to the public, allowing 
to all physicians alike u a fair field and no favor,”' and 
leaving the various matters now in dispute among the 
rival schools to the sole arbitration of public opinion. 
The people of New York have found out to their cost 
that ten thousand acts of their State Legislature will 94 
not make a single good doctor, merely of their own 
virtue; and that no patient will tolerate the unsuc- 
cessful physician—no matter how numerous the drugs 
he dispenses—no matter how skillful his lancet-hand— 
the moment he is convinced that health can be regain- 
ed through simpler modes of medical treatment, and 
at a far less sacrifice of “ blood and treasure.” As I 
have already said, the laws of New York leave the 
public free to do precisely as they please in regard to 
this matter ; conceding no rights or privileges whatever 
to any one branch alone of the medical profession. 
And now to go back to the medical counsel. It was 
perfectly natural that, when the proposition to give a 
hospital to a rival school Avas referred to them for their 
opinion, they should veto it at once; as sincere allo- 
patliists, they could not Avell have done otherAAuse. They 
had been “ called in” themselves, to take care of a 
rich patient, and that patient—the city of NeAV York ; 
and they would not have any intermeddling—any u mix- 
ing up” of different kinds of treatment. I can not 
blame them for this, in the least; but Avhat I do find 
fault with is the gingerly manner in Avhich they flog 
Hydropathy over other people’s shoulders. The Water- 
Cure physicians had nothing to do with the question 
at issue; they had not petitioned for a separate hospi- 
tal for cholera patients, but quietly acquiesced in the 
order of things as pre-arranged by the Board of Health, 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, and not empirical. 
95 
busying themselves, in the mean time, in attending 
as usual to their own private practice. Why, then, 
this unprovoked fling from the medical counsel—this 
stab in the dark ? Why should the learned gentlemen 
go out of their way to assail the hydropathic system? 
a mode of practice, I venture to say, they know nothing 
about from personal study and personal observation! 
But it is useless, gentlemen, to inquire why this 
gross and insulting charge happened to be insinuated. 
It is sufficient for my purpose that the tenor of the 
language in which it was couched can only admit of one 
construction. The water treatment, say the med- 
ical counsel, is an irregular and empirical mode of 
practice : in other words, it is downright quackery— 
for that is nothing but the plain English of their 
guarded denunciation. And being u quackery,” as 
they would have us believe, the learned gentlemen take 
pains to assure the Board of Health that, in their opin- 
ion, u the public authorities of our city would not con- 
sult either their own dignity or the public good, by 
lending it the sanction of their name and influence.” 
But all this would follow as a matter of course, admit- 
ting their premises; so the real question that now 
comes up for consideration is simply this: u Is Hydrop- 
athy a rational mode of medical treatment, or is it 
nothing but quackery ?” This is the subject I am to 
speak of to-night; I am to defend the treatment of 96 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
disease by water as being eminently consonant to reason 
and experience; and before I have closed I shall en- 
deavor to prove, by fair inference, that it is a nat- 
ural, simple, and philosophical mode of medical treat- 
ment. 
But before I enter upon the task before me, I must 
once more remind you that I have very little to contend 
with, in reality, in the way of vigorous opposition; al- 
though I have sought diligently—for no one can be 
partial to “ beating the air”—I can not find any attack 
upon the water treatment which fairly penetrates to the 
merits of ihe question. As I have said before, there 
is no getting at any manful assailant. To be sure, the 
“routine doctors” cry out “empiricism” often enough, 
but the moment that any one asks for particulars, they 
hurry away as fast as they can—to drench some poor 
creature, for aught that I know, with cod-liver oil! I 
am compelled, therefore, to fight this battle after my 
own way; but, as the field is wide and the material 
abundant, I do not wholly despair of exciting your in- 
terest. 
In the first place, gentlemen, I desire to say some- 
thing with regard to the antiquity of the water 
treatment. The simple principles which lie at the 
basis of genuine Hydropathy are as old as the science 
of medicine itself, water having constituted one of the 
most powerful remedies embraced in the materia medica AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
97 
of the ancient physicians. We are told that Hippo- 
crates himself, usually styled “ the Father of Physic,” 
and who flourished about 2300 years ago, was in the 
habit of using water as a remedy in the treatment of 
many of the most serious diseases ; for instance, in 
cases of gout and convulsions, lameness and palsy. He 
also recommended temperate bathing for inflammation 
of the lungs, and pain of the back, the sides, and the 
breast. He was the first to advance the doctrine of the 
vis medicatrix natures, or the healing power of nature, 
always tending to the preservation of health and the 
removal of disease. Hippocrates, therefore, advised 
practitioners to observe and promote the efforts of na- 
ture as carefully as possible. The chief part of his 
treatment is said to have been at first a great restric- 
tion of diet; in very acute diseases merely allowing the 
mouth to be moistened occasionally for three or four 
days, and only a more plentiful dilution during a fort- 
night, provided the strength would bear it; afterward 
a more substantial diet was directed, but hardly any 
medicines. Now Hippocrates is said to have been the 
eighteenth lineal descendant from old iEsculapius him- 
self, the profession of medicine having been hereditary 
in that family. What older pedigree could the Water- 
Cure desire? 
During the next three centuries after Hippocrates, 
water was used extensively, especially in fevers. As- 98 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
clepiades was surnamed u the cold bather,” from his 
zeal for cold water; and the poet Horace, in his famous 
epistle to Numonius Vala, has forever embalmed the 
memory of Antonius Musa, the Water-Cure physician 
of Augustus Caesar.* 
Celsus, who flourished sixty years before Christ, 
and who is sometimes called “ the Cicero of doctors,” 
speaks in his writings of the employment of water in a 
great variety of diseases. Aretjeus (A.D. 90) advises 
the use of cold water in various diseases of the brain. 
Galen (in the second century), sometimes called u the 
Prince of Greek physicians,” frequently employed wa- 
ter as a remedy; he supposed it to act as a solvent 
and refrigerant. Galen has stated expressly that he 
had cured many cases of burning, continued fever, by 
giving his patients nothing but cold water to drink, and 
that not one of his patients died who had recourse to 
this simple remedy sufficiently early. The emperor 
Marcus Aurelius, it is well known, conceived so high 
an opinion of Galen as a physician, that he committed 
his two sons to his care during his own absence on his 
German expedition. These two princes happening to 
be seized with fevers, Galen, contrary to the opinion 
of his colleagues, predicted a favorable issue, and act- 
ually succeeded in restoring them to health, in all prob- 
ability by the aid of his favorite remedy, simple, pure 
* See “ Bulwer and Forbes on the Water Treatment,” pp. 223-4. 99 
water, a remedy which Galen appears to have well un- 
derstood when to disuse and when to employ. 
In the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, Caelius 
Aurelianus, Alexander Trallianus, iEtius and Paulus 
iEgineta extended the use of water to a great variety 
of diseases—though mainly employing it in burning 
fevers and acute complaints, rather than in long- 
standing chronic affections. 
In the ninth and tenth centuries we find Rhazes and 
Avicenna strongly recommending the use of water as a 
most efficient and reliable agent in the cure of fevers. 
Passing over the middle ages, Savoranola (in the fif- 
teenth century), and Paracelsus and Mercurialis (in 
the sixteenth), were strenuous advocates of the use of 
cold water. Van der Heyden, in 1649, was the first 
who reduced the practice to a system. In his u Ar- 
thritifugum Magnum,” he says there is no better 
preservative from gout, nothing more efficacious in re- 
lieving the pains than cold water. 
In the eighteenth century Sir John Floyer and Dr. 
Baynard, English practitioners, used the cold baths 
very freely—especially in chronic affections. Their 
joint work, called <c or the History of Cold 
Bathing, Ancient and Modern,” is replete with quaint 
and curious learning, as well as a great variety of sin- 
gular cases, all of which tend to display the extraor- 
dinary efficacy of their favorite remedy. 
AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 100 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
A few years later, Frederick Hoffman, a cele- 
brated physician of Saxony, published a curious work, 
“He Aqua Medicina Universali”—“on water, the 
universal medicine.” Hoffman supposes that the 
water preserves the suppleness of the body, and pre- 
vents an excess of friction in its various parts. Dr. 
T. Sigismund Hahn, of Silesia, used water in almost 
every disease; but his most striking success was in an 
epidemic of typhus, which raged in Breslau in 1737 : 
the great majority of those treated by cold ablutions 
recovered, while those who did not submit to this treat- 
ment almost all died. De Monet a, of Warsaw, em- 
ployed cold water in incipient inflammation of the 
organs lying within the chest, and even in catarrhal 
affections of old men and infants. 
The water treatment in Italy, in years gone by, 
seems to have been regarded with extraordinary favor. 
Nicolo Lanzani, a physician of Naples, published a 
work, about the year 1723, strongly recommending the 
copious drinking of water as the best remedy for fever. 
Many other writers and practitioners in Italy, besides 
Lanzani, regarded water employed internally as the 
most effectual febrifuge. Cyrillo, of Naples, wrote a 
work on the water treatment, which is inserted in 
the Philosophical Transactions of 1729-30. From 
the opposition of Vallisnieri, the use of water began to 
be less frequent, till Giannini recalled attention to the AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
101 
subject by bis work on fevers (published at Milan in 
1805), in winch he concludes that the most efficient 
remedy is the cold immersion. 
In England, the ablest and most scientific work on 
the Avater treatment, among the older treatises upon 
the subject, is that of Dr. James Currie, published 
in 1797, and entitled as follows : u Medical Reports 
on the effects of Water, cold and warm, as a Remedy 
in Fever and other diseases, whether applied to the 
surface of the body, or used internally.” Dr. Currie 
highly recommends the cold affusion in typhus and 
other forms of fever, and also a variety of other dis- 
eases ; he maintains that it ma}'- be resorted to with 
confidence and safety, when its application is regulated 
u by the actual state of the patient’s heat and of his 
sensation of heat.” Dr. Currie’s rules for the proper 
employment of water in fevers are characterized by 
an uncommonly beautiful and scientific nicety and pre- 
cision of language. He says expressly that it is per- 
fectly safe to employ the affusion of cold water in the 
treatment of fever at any time of the day, u when 
there is no sense of chilliness present; when the heat 
of the surface is steadily above what is natural, and 
when there is no general or profuse perspiration,” 
caused by any violent or prolonged exertion. One 
would think that these restrictions were simple enough 
for the ready comprehension of the physicians of his 102 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
own, or of any other day ; and yet Dr. Currie’s mode 
of practice has been long considered by the few “ reg- 
ular practitioners,” who know any thing about it— 
for I grieve to say that it is very rarely that one en- 
counters a physician Avho knows any thing of the 
writings of Dr. Currie—too hazardous for any one to 
meddle with who has not the very highest order of 
medical skill, joined to consummate prudence and un- 
rivaled tact: in other words, it has been deemed 
hazardous in the extreme to undertake to cool down 
the burning heat of fever with pure, simple water; 
but the greatest blockhead in the profession is sup- 
posed, by courtesy, to be perfectly competent to let blood 
•with the lancet, and to hold the lives of his patients 
suspended by the frail tenure of his experience in pois- 
ons. Dr. Currie himself seems to have been perfectly 
aware of the general state of feeling toward his pecu- 
liar mode of practice, for he expressly says in a letter 
of dedication to Sir Joseph Banks: “ A method of 
treament so bold, and so contrary to common preju- 
dices, makes, as it appears, slow progress. The mode 
of operation of our remedy has been misapprehended ; 
the proper period for using it has been misunderstood; 
and, on some occasions, having been resorted to im- 
properly, the consequences have brought it into disre- 
pute.” Thus wrote Dr. Currie in 1797. It is often 
thus when an effort is made to substitute what is plain 103 
AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
and simple for the mystic and the obscure. Men will 
be blind, occasionally, and actually shut their eyes 
rather than encounter the clear light of day. So was 
it in the medical profession in Currie’s times—so is 
it in a great measure now. Then, as in the case of 
Sir Edward Bulwer, the u routine doctors” thought 
that the water was altogether too powerful and dan- 
gerous a remedy; it was a great deal safer to try the 
—prussic acid ! 
I have thus briefly and imperfectly, gentlemen, 
traced historically, century by century, the medicinal 
employment of water, from the earliest period of the 
art of healing. If I am not mistaken, I have displayed 
to you a pedigree for the Water-Cure system, to say 
the least, as long as that of any other. I have related 
to you, concisely, a series of historical facts—dry and 
tedious, it may be, but still bearing directly on the very 
question at issue—the more so, perhaps, because so 
little known. I have proved to you, gentlemen, beyond 
all dispute from any source whatever, that if it be 
u quackery” to employ mere water as a medical agent, 
then was Hippocrates a u quack”—then was Galen 
a “ quack”—then was Hoffman a “ quack”—then 
was Currie a u quack.” If it be “ quackery” now to 
practice the water treatment, then was it “ quack- 
ery” 2300 years ago! And here, gentlemen, I might 104 
rest my cause as proven : but the half has not been 
told you. 
In spite of the rare ability, the calm dignity, and the 
simple elegance with which Dr. Currie unfolded his 
mode of treatment—in spite of his unquestionably 
u orthodox” position, for he was not only a regularly 
graduated Doctor in Medicine, but a Fellow of the 
Royal Societ}7, and also Fellow of the Royal College 
of Physicians at Edinburgh—in spite of his friendship 
for Sir Joseph Banks and his deservedly high position 
in society—in spite of all these seemingly powerful, if 
not irresistible auxiliaries, as regards the attainment 
of success among his professional compeers, the water 
treatment set forth by Currie may be almost said to 
have perished with him. His very name, even, sank 
into neglect, and, as I have already intimated, there 
are very few physicians sufficiently well read in the 
history of their science to know any thing about him. 
Does not this simple statement lend some coloring of 
truth to the indignant exclamation of the author of 
“ Harold u 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 equalize disparities, and they 
will pull down their houses to stone you! Discover 
what will destroy life, and you are a great man—what 
will prolong it, and you are an impostor!” 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
105 
About twenty years after Currie prepared his “ Medi- 
cal Reports’5—to meet, as we have seen, with coldness 
and neglect—and at a time when it would really seem 
as if the u science” of medicine was rapidly sinking 
into a confirmed decline—not to say dying of its own 
drugs and poisons—an incident occurred which prom- 
ises to produce ultimately a most extraordinary change 
in its character and position. One day, in the year 
1819, far away in Silesia, an illiterate peasant boy, 
sixteen years of age, after assisting to load a wagon 
with hay, chanced to be standing at the horse’s head, 
at a time when his companions were chaining the 
wheel, in order to prevent a too rapid descent of the 
hill on which they happened to be. Before this pre- 
cautionary operation was completed, the horse strug- 
gled, overcame the boy who was standing at his head, 
and rushed down the hill, which was remarkably steep. 
The boy clung to the restive animal with no little of 
that obstinate perseverance which has since distinguish- 
ed him above his fellows; but his foot happening to be 
caught in a bush, he fell between the horse’s feet, wTas 
dragged, trampled on, 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 then 
carried home, and a doctor sent for. According to the 
usual routine in all such cases made and provided, this 
worthy leech probed and u punched” the side, to the 106 
IIYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
no little pain of his unhappy victim. He then directed 
a decoction of herbs and wine to be laid upon the parts 
that had been injured; and afterward gave utterance 
to that oracular wisdom which belongs to his class. 
He assured his patient that it was quite out of the 
question that he should ever perfectly recover; his 
wounds were incurable to this extent: lumps would be 
formed, which, on the least exertion, would cause pain, 
and thus continue through life. The boy listened 
attentively; but not particularly liking the inviting 
prospect thus held out to him in full view, for the rest 
of his remaining natural life, quietly notified “ Sir 
Oracle” that he should not require his attendance any 
further ; he intended to try and do something better for 
himself, after a way of his own. Accordingly, as soon as 
the door had closed on Doctor Routine, the young peas- 
ant very unceremoniously tore off the hot and painful 
applications which that worthy had prescribed—satu- 
rated as they were with the “ sovereign” decoction of 
the herbs and wine—and following the bent of his own 
natural instinct and judgment, substituted simple, cool- 
ing, wet bandages in their stead. Immediate relief 
having thus been obtained, the boy then began to go to 
work in earnest. By frequently holding his breath and 
pressing his abdomen on the side of a table, he con- 
trived at last to force back the ribs into their natural 
position. The cooling wet bandages were kept con- AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
107 
stantly applied, so as to reduce any inflammation; 
simple, pure water was drunk in abundance ; suitable 
rest and quiet were secured; and by steadily perse- 
vering in this sort of treatment, the boy-patient was 
able in a few days to walk, and finally to effect a perfect 
cure. The name of this boy was Vincent Priessnitz. 
And now, gentlemen, what kind of an impression, 
think you, began to prevail in the neighborhood with 
regard to this young boy, and bis wonderful self-cure 7 
Some of you may suggest that the sensible people in 
the neighborhood must have had very good reason to 
suppose that Doctor Routine had for once been mis- 
taken ; that the decoction of herbs and wine, u although, 
to be sure, in some cases a sovereign remedy,” (!) was 
not necessarily a specific for all; that it was possible 
for Nature to do something for a sick man, if she 
only had a chance; and that she had this chance when 
the ribs were re-set, suitable rest obtained, and every 
thing like fever kept down with water. No such thing! 
No such heretical, a empirical,” u quackish” notions 
troubled the brains of the good people of Gracfenberg. 
On the contrary, the boy, in some quarters, was actu- 
ally suspected of witchcraft; in others, he began to be 
regarded as a prophet; but he was everywhere consid- 
ered a wonderful doctor. Patients now began to con- 
sult him, though at some risk of martyrdom, for the 
first comers were greeted with a volley of stones by the 108 
■witch-fearing peasants. In process of time this vio- 
lence was abated, but the good people began to set their 
wits to work to devise some trap for this suspicious 
character. Broomsticks were placed across Priessnitz’s 
doorway, to see whether he could get out without dis- 
placing them—it being a current superstition in Silesia 
that no one but a genuine wizard could accomplish a 
feat of that nature. It is highly probable that Priess- 
nitz tumbled over the broomsticks, for attention was 
soon after diverted to the sponges which he used in 
bathing his patients: it was supposed that they contained 
some awfully mysterious, powerful talisman, subject to 
Priessnitz’s will alone. Here, however, the peasant- 
doctor completely foiled them; he threw away his 
sponges, and employed instead simple friction with the 
wet hand. The cures, notwithstanding, grew more and 
more marvelous; but at length a new bugbear was 
sprung upon the weak-minded. The enemies of the 
young man took advantage of the credulity of the 
Graefenberg people; they caused it to be circulated 
abroad that Priessnitz was possessed by an evil spirit; 
and this opinion was actually encouraged by the priests, 
who denounced him publicly in the church. In spite 
of all this, however, numbers of patients came to 
Priessnitz for advice, which he then gave at his own 
house. He was afterward induced to leave his own 
precincts to visit the sick ; but this step seemed to 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL. AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
109 
dissolve the spell; his reputation began to decline, not- 
withstanding he claimed no remuneration and accepted 
no 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 ap- 
preciated ; 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 Graefenberg, so that Priessnitz was compelled 
to increase the size of his house for their accommoda- 
tion; and thus his establishment commenced.* 
But I will not weary you, gentlemen, by dwelling on 
the curious details of Priessnitz’s career. There are 
some points I would gladly pause to bring to your no- 
tice, but I am compelled, by a due consideration for the 
narrow limits which propriety has assigned me, to pass 
rapidly on. Suffice it to add that the various annoy- 
ances to which Priessnitz was subjected for more than 
thirteen years—the u pressure from without”—mate- 
rially aided in advancing his fortunes; that a medical 
commission, sent on from Vienna by the Emperor of 
Austria to investigate and report on the new system at 
Graefenberg, in spite of all preconceived prejudices, 
found so much to approve of, that Priessnitz was allowed 
* Captain Claridge. 110 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
by the imperial authority to carry on his establishment; 
that he has since enjoyed the favor of the great—arch- 
dukes, princes, and noblemen of nearly every country 
in Europe, having visited the scene of so many marvel- 
ous cures; that gentlemen and ladies from nearly every 
civilized nation in the world—some of them, even, from 
our own distant land—have left their ailments behind 
them at Graefenberg; and that among no less than 
7500 patients who have gone there for advice and treat- 
ment during the past twenty years, the mortality has 
been surprisingly small. Up to 1841, says Dr. James 
Wilson, there had only been 89 deaths, and some of 
these, according to the registry of the police, “had died 
before commencing the treatment, and some others were 
reported in a forlorn state before any thing was at- 
tempted.” I think I am justified, gentlemen, in say- 
ing that no other human being in the whole wide 
world has ever achieved, in medical practice, a triumph 
like this : only 39 deaths out of 7500 cases ! What 
prouder monument could any physician desire than to 
have for his epitaph a simple statement like that ? 
And by way of contrast, how unutterably mean and 
contemptible the paltry aspersions — the malicious 
slanders, which have been so profusely heaped upon 
this man’s good name ! The small wit of Doctor Rou- 
tine can find no better designation for this extraor- 
dinary being than “ boor” and “ quack.” Gentlemen, and not empirical. 
111 
it is perfectly safe to leave this matter to an impartial 
posterity, always provided that Doctor Routine’s pro- 
fessional reputation shall last long enough to reach 
one ! 
I have said, gentlemen, that the career of this won- 
derful peasant promises to produce ultimately an ex- 
traordinary change in the character and position of the 
science of medicine. There is a striking moral to be 
gleaned from the fact that more than seven thousand 
sick people—some of them, too, cases to which the 
treatment by water was a sort of a forlorn hope”— 
have been successfully treated without any medicine 
—with no u apothecary’s shop between them and the 
sun!” It may serve to awaken the intelligent curios- 
ity of some one of you to be told that it is really pos- 
sible to go through life u without leech or potion,” 
without rhubarb or blue pill; perhaps it may excite 
the incredulity of another, accustomed, it may be, to 
contemplate disease as our natural portion—our evil 
spirit, which can only be cast out by some active drug 
—as if it could be u shot out like a pea from a pea-gun, 
or hunted out like a rat from an old barn.”* This 
conflict of opinion must lie between intelligence on 
the one side and superstition on the other, whether 
in or out of the medical profession. It is too much to 
hope that the truth will prevail and scatter to the 
* Dr. Edward Johnson. 112 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
winds the mists of error in one generation. Still, this 
contest is steadily going on, and there is every day the 
more reason to be gratified at the progress mankind is 
making in the acquisition of that rarest of all sciences, 
the science of health. 
I have said, gentlemen, that modern Hydropathy 
took its origin “at a time when it would really sepm 
as if the science of medicine was rapidly sinking into 
a confirmed decline—not to say dying of its own 
drugs and poisons.” And now to prove that I do not 
“speak without book,” allow me to quote, in support 
of this observation, the language of some of the most 
distinguished members of the medical profession. Dr. 
Paris says : “ The file of every apothecary would fur- 
nish a volume of instances where the ingredients of the 
prescription were fighting together in the dark.” Dr. 
James Johnson says : “ I declare it to be my most 
conscientious opinion that if there were not a single 
physician, or surgeon, or apothecary, or man-midwife, 
or chemist, or druggist, or drug in the world, there 
would be less mortality among mankind than there is 
now.” Dr. Billing says : u I visited the different 
schools of medicine, and the students of each hinted, 
if they did not assert, that the other sects killed their 
patients.” Franks says: “ Thousands are slaughtered 
in the quiet sick-room.” Reid says : “ More infantile 
subjects are perhaps diurnally destroyed by the mortar AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
113 
and pestle than in the ancient Bethlehem fell victims 
in one day to the Herodian massacre.” Speaking of 
the plague, Dr. Maddeyi says : “ In all our cases we 
did as other practitioners did—we continued to bleed, 
and the patients continued to die.” And who does 
not remember Sir Astley Cooper’s famous declaration, 
that u the science of medicine was founded on conjec- 
ture and improved by murder ?” Dr. Brown said 
that he u wasted more than twenty years in learning, 
teaching, and diligently scrutinizing every part of med- 
icine.” Sir William Knighton said: u Medicine 
seems one of those ill-fated arts whose improvement 
bears no proportion to its antiquity.” Gregory de- 
clared that u medical doctrines are little better than 
stark, staring absurdities.” Abernethy said : u There 
has been a great increase of medical men of late 
years, but, upon my life, diseases have increased in 
proportion.” Baillie declared that he “ had no 
faith whatever in medicine.” We are also told that 
u Locke, Smollet, and Goldsmith (all three physicians) 
held their art in contempt;” and also that u Sir 
James Mackintosh was not the only man who left the 
profession of physic in disgust: Crabbe, Davy, Lord 
Langdale,&nd hundreds of others (we are also assured), 
have done the same.” And again : u The ancients,” 
says Dr. Dickson, of London, “ endeavored to elevate 
physic to the dignity of a science, but failed; the 114 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
moderns, with more success, have endeavored to reduce 
it to the level of a trade.” Once more ; says the cel- 
ebrated French physiologist, Magendie : u It is not a 
little remarkable that, at a period when the positive 
is sought in every quarter, the study of a science so 
important to humanity as medicine should be almost 
the only one characterized by uncertainty and chance. 
* * The end of all our efforts should be to study 
the causes of disease, and not their effects, as has long 
been done. * * The physician mixes, combines 
and jumbles together vegetable, mineral, and animal 
substances, and administers them, right or wrong, 
without considering for a moment the cause of the dis- 
ease, and without a single clear idea as to his conduct. 
* * I hesitate not to declare, no matter how sorely 
I shall wound our vanity, that so great is our ignorance 
of the real nature of the physiological disorders called 
diseases, that it would perhaps be better to do nothing, 
and resign the complaint we are called to treat to the 
resources of Nature, than to act as we are frequently 
compelled to do, without knowing the why or wherefore 
of our conduct, and at the obvious risk of hastening the 
end of our patient.” And now, gentlemen, to quote a 
prominent physician of our own country. With re- 
gard to the ravages of that horrible poison, calomel, 
Professor Chapman, of Philadelphia, a few years ago, 
thus addressed his class : “ Gentlemen, if you could 115 
AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
see what I almost daily see in my private practice in 
this city, persons from the South in the very last 
stages of a wretched existence, emaciated to a skeleton, 
with both tables of the skull almost completely perfo- 
rated in many places, the nose half gone, with rotten 
jaws, ulcerated throats, breaths more pestiferous, more 
intolerable than poisonous upas, limbs racked with the 
pains of the Inquisition, minds as imbecile as the 
puling babe’s, a grievous burden to themselves and a 
disgusting spectacle to others, you would exclaim, as I 
have often done, 4 0 the lamentable want of science 
that dictates the use of that noxious drug calomel in 
the Southern States !’ Gentlemen, it is a disgraceful 
reproach to the profession of medicine; it is quackery—• 
horrid, unwarranted, murderous quackery ! What 
merit do gentlemen of the South flatter themselves they 
possess by being able to salivate a patient I Can not the 
veriest fool in Christendom salivate—give calomel ? But 
I will ask another question : Who can stop its career at- 
will, after it has taken the reins in its own destructive 
and ungovernable hands 1 He who, for an ordi- 
nary cause, resigns the fate of his patient to mercury, 
is a vile enemy to the sick; and if he is tolerably 
popular, will, in one successful season have paved the 
way for the business of a life ; for he has enough to 
do ever afterward to stop the mercurial breach of the 
constitutions of his dilapidated patients. He has 116 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
thrown himself in fearful proximity to death, and has 
now to fight him at arm’s length, as long as the patient 
maintains a miserable existence.” 
And now, gentlemen, let me summon a regular phy- 
sician of the highest reputation to account satisfac- 
torily for all this strong language. The late Dr. 
Andrew Combe, of Edinburgh—who is doubtless well 
known to you through his physiological writings, so 
widely inculcated wherever our language is spoken— 
takes this broad ground in relation to the u regular 
practice “As often practiced by men of undoubted 
respectability, medicine is made so much of a mystery, 
and is so nearly allied to, if not identified vTith, quack- 
ery, that it would puzzle many a rational looker-on to 
tell which is the one and which the other.” But let 
me quote a little more freely. 
The most recent of Dr. Combe’s publications were 
designed to rouse up the reflecting portion of his read- 
ers (especially in the ranks of the medical fraternity) 
to u the better observation of Nature, in both the 
study and treatment of diseases ; a path (he says) 
which seems to me to lead more directly to the land of 
promised improvement in our art than any other yet 
discovered. * * By thus insisting (says Dr. Combe) 
on the necessity of a more complete and faithful ob- 
servation of the course of Nature, and of acting more 
systematically according to her guidance, I am far from AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
117 
meaning that we are to sit with our hands across, and 
allow things to take their own way. So far from it, it 
is certain that the principle I inculcate would demand 
more watchfulness, and give room for a wiser exercise 
of judgment, and a more consistent and, I believe, 
successful treatment. 
u Disease arises either from the habits of the indi- 
vidual, from accidental causes, or from peculiarities of 
constitution acted upon by these. Hence, on being 
called to a patient, the first step in the natural investi- 
gation is to examine the constitutional qualities, to make 
ourselves acquainted with the mode of life, feelings, and 
so forth, and to trace the manner in which the cause 
has acted or continues to act. All these influence very 
greatly both the nature of the disease and its probable 
course. They also bear directly upon the kind of treat- 
ment and its probable success. If, however, wre are 
content to regard disease as an entity arising by chance 
and observing no laws, we shall have no inducement to 
trouble ourselves or the patient with any of these in- 
quiries. Such is, in fact, the practical faith of the 
great majority of professional men. They discover the 
existence of an entity which in medical works has a 
certain name, and knowing that in the same books cer- 
tain remedies are said to be good for that entity, they 
prescribe them accordingly, without giving themselves 
much concern about their mode of action, or fitness for 118 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
the individual constitution, age, or stage of the disease, 
and without inquiring whether there is any thing in the 
mode of life tending to reproduce the malady or not. 
In many chronic ailments removable causes are thus 
left in full operation, while the elfect is partially miti- 
gated, but not cured, by the use of active medicines, 
and in a short time the whole evil returns in its full 
force; whereas, if, proceeding according to the order 
of Nature, we can trace the disease to any error in the 
mode of life, to any external source of danger, or in- 
ternal peculiarity of constitution, aggravated by either 
of these two conditions, we can convince the patient of 
the fact, and give him a rational and confiding interest 
in the changes which we may recommend, and thus not 
only promote his recovery, but render him proof against 
all the seductions of quackery. According to the pre- 
vailing kind of intercourse between patient and phys- 
ician—namely, unhesitating dictation on the one hand, 
and ignorant obedience on the other—blind faith is the 
pivot on which their mutual connection turns, a faith 
which is thus necessarily at the mercy of the chapter 
of accidents, and is often supplanted by reliance on the 
first bold and confident quack who comes in the way. 
People wonder that quackery abounds, and medical men 
ask for power from the legislature to put it down. 
They themselves, however, are in no small degree its 
abettors, and they have the remedy already to a great AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
119 
extent, although not wholly, in their own hands. If 
they, who are educated and should know better, accus- 
tom their patients to the principles of quackery, by 
themselves treating them empirically, can they wonder 
that patients who are not professionally educated, and 
are trained and treated on purely empirical principles, 
should be as ready to listen to the assurances of the 
quack as to those of the regular practitioner, whose 
manner of proceeding is often so nearly allied in kind 
as to present no very obvious marks of distinction 
from that of the quack? In fact, medicine, as often 
practiced by men of undoubted respectability, is made 
so much of a mystery, and is so nearly allied to, if not 
identified with, quackery, that it would puzzle many a 
rational looker-on to tell which is the one and which 
the other. And this being the case, it requires no ghost 
from another world to explain why the profession has 
decidedly sunk in public estimation, and does not exer- 
cise that wholesome influence on public opinion which 
it ought to do. 
“ If the mass act empirically, it can, in the very na- 
ture of things, expect only the amount of respect due to 
empiricism. The public mind has advanced immensely 
within the last fifty years, in elevation of view as wTell 
as in extent of knowledge. Medicine, however, has 
advanced only in knowledge; and, on looking back to 
the writers of eighty or a hundred years ago, I incline 120 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
to think that it has actually lost in elevation and com- 
prehensiveness, and even in the perception of its own 
nobleness of sphere. If this be so, we must look within 
for the sources of regeneration, and for the means of 
regaining a dignified and honorable place in society. 
The public mind has advanced, while, in scope and 
general principles,'the professional mind has stood still. 
To regain respect and relative position, the latter must 
shoot ahead again, and on doing so will regain its in- 
fluence also.” 
As an illustration of his views, Dr. Combe proceeds 
to cite a case of pleurisy. This is, u in general (he 
says), a well-marked disease ; its nature is supposed to 
be well known, and the indications of treatment as 
clearly understood as those of any malady to which the 
human frame is liable. It is, therefore, rather a favor- 
able example of the state of professional knowledge and 
principles of treatment. And yet, what do we find ? 
Are medical men agreed how it should be treated? 
They ought to be, as it is frequent enough in its occur- 
rence to give ample opportunities for experience; but 
they are not. In this country many place their chief 
reliance on free and repeated blood-letting and mercury. 
In France the plan of bleeding coup sur coup, in small 
quantities, frequently repeated, is somewhat in vogue. 
In Italy bleeding -was given up by many, and large 
doses of tartar emetic were resorted to. In Germany AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
121 
the cure was often intrusted to homeopathic doses of 
‘medicaments.’ The strange thing is that pleurisy is 
cured by, or at least pleuritic patients recover under, 
each of these plans, while also many recover under the 
‘medecine expectante’ plan of tying in bed, drinking 
ptisan, and waiting upon Providence. Even in this 
country, however, a change has come over the spirit 
of my brethren within my own brief day. When I first 
opened my professional eyes, the lancet was in great 
vigor, and a well-employed medical man almost lived 
in a stream of blood. ‘ Vigorous practice’ was the 
order of the day. In typhus, as well as in inflammation, 
the lancet was the sheet-anchor of many; and quantities 
of strong purgatives were administered, sufficient to put 
disease of every shape and hue to rout. Take the same 
men of vigor now, at the distance of twenty-four years, 
and they will tell a different tale. It is no longer, 1 Be 
bold, and decided, and prompt in what you dobut, 
i Be watchful, and trust something to JYature.’ This 
diversity of opinion and practice seems to me to have 
arisen partly from different constitutional states, arising 
from changes of atmospheric or other influences affect- 
ing the prevailing character of diseases, but much more 
from all parties disregarding Nature’s indications and 
efforts, and acting heterogeneously and without any ra- 
tional principle. In this way, I believe that, under 
each plan of treatment, individual cases recovered 122 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
which would have terminated fatally under a different 
mode; but also, that under all of them many died who 
might have been saved by a more rational and close 
adherence to sound physiological principles. To these 
we may be partially led even by a reference to the 
symptoms usually present. The sense of cold and 
shivering, which commonly precedes, would lead to the 
avoidance of exposure. The pain, increased by breath- 
ing, inculcates absolute rest and refraining from speak- 
ing. The oppressed respiration requires, of course, 
purity of air more than ever. The heat and thirst 
which soon arise demand cooling, simple drinks, and 
occasionally tepid sponging of the arms and face. The 
local stitch asks for mild emollients, such as bran 
poultices; and the impaired appetite requests the stom- 
ach to be let alone. * * * In ordinary circum- 
stances we know that the excitement in pleurisy goes 
on increasing during a period varying from two to five 
or six days ; that effusion of fluid into the cavity of the 
pleura ensues; that the inflammation then begins to 
abate, and after a few days more passes into an active 
state; that the natural action of the part then begins 
to be restored, and the fluid to be absorbed, till by-and- 
by recovery is completed. Or, if the inflammation en- 
dangers life, it either goes on longer than usual or 
gives rise to effusion of a quality and quantity incom- 
patible with recovery, and death at last ensues. In a AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
123 
case of average severity, in a healthy constitution, left 
simply to the quiet and abstinence which Nature almost 
compels, we know, from observation, that such are the 
stages by which recovery is brought about; and all 
that the physician need attempt or care for is to use 
every precaution to prevent excitement from running 
too high or going on too long, and to meet any con- 
tingencies which may interfere and impede recovery. 
Very different, however, is the general course of pro- 
ceeding. Relying on the testimony of an incomplete 
fact—namely, that blood-letting produces excellent 
effects in inflammation, without attending sufficiently 
to the influence of the adjuvantia—the moment the 
practitioner ascertains the existence of ‘ inflammation,’ 
he pulls out his lancet, and bleeds the patient copiously. 
The oppressed vessels being thus partially emptied, 
much relief is experienced, and both patient and phy- 
sician are pleased with the hope that the disease will be 
‘cut short.’ This we shall suppose to have happened 
at the end of twenty-four or forty-eight hours, or first 
third of the ascending stage of the inflammation. In 
a few hours, however, the vessels have contracted, and 
they and the heart adapted themselves to their dimin- 
ished contents, and Nature thereupon resumes her at- 
tempt to carry the disease through its proper stages. 
The pain returns, the pulse rises, and the oppression 
augments. Bleeding is again resorted to, with imme- 124 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
diate relief, and the same phenomena recur. At the 
third bleeding we arrive at the period of the natural 
decline of the disease, and consequently no more excite- 
ment appears. ‘ Now, then, we have cut it short, at 
last,’ sa}rs the doctor, smiling complacently. ‘Yes,’ 
says the gratified patient, ‘that last bleeding did the 
business; but what a pity you did not take more at 
first, and stop it at once !’ With care and good man- 
agement all goes on well, and by degrees the patient 
returns to his former diet and habits. If, however, he 
happen to be a person not of a robust constitution, mat- 
ters go on more doubtfully, and after partial recovery, 
he finds his strength permanently shaken; he may regain 
his former health after a long struggle, or perhaps he 
falls into a chronic disease, and ultimately dies.” So 
much, gentlemen, for “the regular practice of medi- 
cine;” so much for the peculiar mode of medical treat- 
ment which has elicited the enthusiastic admiration of 
our worthy and intelligent1 Sanitary Committee!’ Cen- 
sured—nay, even vilified—by its own chosen favorites, 
modern allopathy (for it is not the same thing as “ the 
regular practice” of the ancient physicians)—modern 
allopathy, I say, stands before us confessedly guilty 
of the very offenses charged against her rival schools. 
Some of her votaries are even declared to practice 
“ unwarranted, murderous quackery /” But 
there is no need, gentlemen, of my pursuing any further AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
125 
this particular topic; to do so now- -to go on, at this 
late stage of my argument, with a more thorough ex- 
posure of the wretched pretensions of the “ routine 
doctors'”—would savor of downright cruelty to a beaten 
foe. I have only, in conclusion of this branch of my 
subject, to remind you, gentlemen, that the strong and 
withering language you have heard proceeds from the 
highest authorities in medicine. It affords me no pleas- 
ure to repeat these strong denunciations, for I yield to 
no man in my warm admiration for all that is lofty, 
generous, and good in the medical profession. I should 
be no friend to humanity and to truth were I remiss in 
acknowledging my own indebtedness to the “ burning 
and shining lights” in the fraternity of healing—to 
their profound study and able demonstration of the 
intricate aitd complicated symptoms of diseases—to the 
heroic daring and unflinching devotion which they have 
ever displayed in the exercise of their noble and god- 
like calling. It is not against practitioners of this 
class that my argument is aimed, or that the biting 
invectives of Abernethy and Paris, Billing and Reid, 
Magendie, Chapman, and Sir Astley Cooper, were es- 
pecially leveled. Were the profession composed of such 
minds as theirs, I should not now be engaged in defend- 
ing Hydropathy from the charge of “empiricism.” 
I now pass on to say something, gentlemen, of the 
real merits and the true province of the water treat- 126 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
ment. I have already proved to you that, in point of 
antiquity, its claims to consideration are, to say the 
least, equal to those of any other school ; nay, in some 
respects superior, for the farther we go back in the 
history of medicine, the more simple do we find the 
prevalent diseases, and, in like manner, the more 
simple and natural the various remedies employed to 
counteract them. I have also proved to you that, 
among those simple and natural remedies, water oc- 
cupied the front rank ; that it was used by Hippo- 
crates—that it was used by Galen—that it was 
used by Hoffman—that it used by Currie. 
We have also seen that, after a long period of neglect 
and disuse, the medicinal agencies of pure, simple 
water have been miraculously revived and developed 
into a system by an illiterate peasant far away in 
Silesia. I say “ revived,” gentlemen, because the 
water treatment has been erroneously supposed to 
have originated at Graefenberg. I have already 
proved to you that this is not so, that in reality Hy- 
dropathy is as old as medicine itself. But far be it from 
me to say aught to diminish the good fame of Priess- 
nitz in any man’s estimation. It is true that I can 
not agree with those who would magnify him into an 
u Oracle”—an infallible autocrat of the new system; 
and such is my respect for his honest, good sense, that 
I do not believe that he desires to occupy any such \ND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
127 
position himself. His good fame is already far too 
well established to need from any one the bolstering 
eulogy of indiscriminate adulation. The world had 
need of just such a man; the condition of medicine 
absolutely demanded that the attention of the profes- 
sion should be roused up to the need of the better 
observation of Nature, in the study and treatment of 
disease, and to the real value of those old and simple 
remedies which we had flung behind us in our onward 
race—pleased, like children, with the vegetable or 
mineral we encountered on the wayside — delighted 
with the glitter and soothed by the charm; but ig- 
norant that we were cherishing the most deadly of 
poisons ! 
Would you ask me, gentlemen, wdierein the Water- 
Cure differs most materially from “ the routine prac- 
tice V’ My answer is this: The great remedies of 
the hydropathic school are many parts constituting one 
grand Avhole: they consist mainly of the manifold 
applications of water at various temperatures, of pure 
air, sufficient clothing (neither less nor more), system- 
atic exercise, a regulated diet, and, in general terms, 
obedience to the laws of Hygiene, both physical and 
mental. The general effects of the treatment may be 
said to be these: to strengthen the digestive functions; 
to cool the system ; to increase the appetite ; to allay 
excitement; to purify the blood ; to strengthen the 128 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
muscular fibre of the heart, to quicken the action of 
the skin ; to overcome internal congestions ; to restore 
and augment all the secretions and excretions 5 to ac- 
celerate the change of matter, and thus to renovate 
the tissues of all the organs ; and, lastly, to invigorate 
the vital principle.# 
The great remedies of the allopathic school are 
medicinal poisons. Prescribed quantities of these sub- 
stances are conveyed into the stomach, from time to 
time, until the system is under their influence; in 
other words, until the whole mass of the blood has 
been poisoned. But does the patient suppose—the 
patient, for instance, who has been swallowing mer- 
cury—does he suppose that it is the gums alone that 
are inflamed by this circulation of mercurialized blood 
through them? “Does he suppose that the other or- 
gans, the brain, the heart, the lungs, the kidneys, and 
the eyes bear a charmed life,’ and that they are proof 
against all injury from the circulation of poisoned 
blood through the delicate network of their tissues ? 
What is to protect the heart, and the brain, and the 
lungs, and the liver, and the kidneys, and the stomach, 
and the bones, from the same sort of irritation as that 
which has inflamed the gums and loosened the teeth.”f 
Again, gentlemen, the two different systems vary 
most essentially in regard to the proper channels of 
* Dr. Edward Johnson. 
t Ibid AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
129 
administration. In the allopathic mode of 'palliating 
disease, the unfortunate stomach is the favorite me- 
dium ; the proper receptacle of the bland beverage 
and genial food, “ which was healthy before, is now 
nauseated, its lining membrane inflamed, its nerves 
irritated, and its functions disturbed” by a host of 
medicines, varying in kind, and quality, and degree— 
from the acrid dose of calomel-and-jalap to the nau- 
seous draught of cod-liver oil. Says Professor Elliot- 
son, of London, in reference to the proper treatment 
of inflammation, u If we bleed,” and purge and blister, 
and so forth, u we may generally neglect the skin.” 
u JVeglect the skin /” It is there, gentlemen, that 
we of the hydropathic school have a decided advantage 
over our allopathic brethren—there that we really 
have them u on the hip.” Sir Astley Cooper was ac- 
customed to say : “ Give me a bottle of opium in one 
hand, and calomel in the other, and send me into the 
country, and with these two drugs alone, I will beat 
the country practitioners hollow !” There is an hy- 
dropathist* in England, an old pupil of Sir Astley 
Cooper, who says by way of offset to this boast: “ If 
Sir Astley were alive now, I would undertake to beat 
his calomel and opium with no other remedies than the 
shallow bath, sitz bath, and wet sheet.” Gentlemen, 
this is no idle retort; it has its meaning, and it was 
* Dr. Edward Johnson. 130 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, 
made in good faith. Nay, more; I venture to say that 
there is not an hydropathist living, who understands 
himself and his calling, as he ought to do, who would 
not willingly undertake to beat any allopathic physi- 
cian of the day under the same circumstances. And 
now, gentlemen, how is this? Why so much confi- 
dence in the water treatment? Simply because we 
consider Nature the greatest and best physician; 
simply because we regard it as our province to aid her 
when she needs aid, and only then; and especially 
because we apply our treatment through the external 
skin and its internal continuation—never neglecting, 
on any consideration, that vast organ of drainage and 
excretion—never creating a new disease as a substitute 
for the old one—and never allowing ourselves to be 
contented with the mere palliation of symptoms. 
Gentlemen, it will readily occur to you that I have 
far from exhausted the resources at my command, as 
regards the subject we have been considering to-night. 
I would gladly go on, and develop still further u the 
real merits and true province” of the water treat- 
ment ; but the proprieties of the occasion admonish 
me that I must no longer continue to weary your pa- 
tience. I should like to name to you the great and 
good men in the ranks of “ the regular faculty,” 
who have had the courage to burst the shackles of 
‘■'routine” prejudice, and to “adopt the improve- AND NOT EMPIRICAL. 
131 
merits” of the Water-Cure system; I should like to 
convince you that the treatment is 
“ Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose 
I should like to prove to you, despite your family phy- 
sicians—most worthy and excellent men, I doubt not— 
that the system is less likely to “kill” than to u cure;” 
I should like to show you how it can easily be intro- 
duced into any family, as easily as the allopathic, or 
any other mode of practice, u wherever there’s a will;” 
I should like to demonstrate to a mathematical cer- 
tainty—and you, gentlemen of the mercantile profes- 
sion, would appreciate that—how infallibly it would 
swell your cc capital oe health ;” but my hour is 
ended, my task is accomplished, and it only remakas 
for me to hurry to a close. 
“ Here, then, 0 brothers, I bid you farewell. I 
wish you one of the most blessed friendships man ever 
made—the familiar intimacy with Water ! Not Un- 
dine in her virgin existence more sportive and bewitch- 
ing, not Undine in her wedded state more tender and 
faithful, than the Element of which she is the type. 
In health, may you find it the joyous playmate; in 
sickness, the genial restorer and soft assuager. Round 
the healing spring still literally dwell the jocund nymphs 
in whom the Greek poetry personified Mirth and Ease. 
* * As health depends upon healthful habits, let 
those who desire easily and luxuriously to glide into 132 
HYDROPATHY RATIONAL, ETC. 
the courses most agreeable to the human frame, to en- 
joy the morning breeze, to grow epicures in the simple 
regimen, to become cased in armor against the vicissi- 
tudes of our changeful skies, to feel and to shake off 
light sleep as a blessed dew, let them, while the organs 
are yet sound and the nerves yet unshattered, devote a 
season to the Water-Cure. 
“ And you, 0 parents ! who, too indolent, too much 
slaves to custom, to endure change for yourselves, to 
renounce for a while your artificial natures, but who 
still covet for your children hardy constitutions, pure 
tastes, and abstemious habits—who wish to see them 
grow up with a manly disdain to luxury, with a vigor- 
ous indifference to climate, with a full sense of the 
value of health, not alone for itself, but for the powers 
it elicits, and the virtues with which it is intimately 
connected—the serene, unfretful temper, the pleasures 
in innocent delight, the well-being that, content with 
self, expands in benevolence to others—you I adjure 
not to scorn the facile process of which I solicit the 
experiment. Dip your young heroes in the spring, 
and hold them not back by the heel! May my ex- 
hortations find believing listeners, and may some, now 
unknown to me, write me word, at some time here- 
after, c We have hearkened to you—not in vain.’ ” BULWER AND FORBES 
ON THE 
WATER TREATMENT: 
EDITED, WITH ADDITIONAL MATTER, 
BY ROLAYD §, HOY Oil TOY, A.M., M.D. 
NEW YORK: FOR SALE BY FOWLERS & WELLS. 
CONTENTS. 
I. Confessions of a Water Patient: by Sir Edward Bulwer LYtTon, author 
of “ The Caxtons,” “ Harold,” ,l Rienzi,” etc. 
II. The Water-Cure, or Hydropathy: by John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to 
the Queen’s Household, etc. 
III. Remarks on Bathing and the Water Treatment: by Erasmus Wilson, M.D., 
F.R.S., etc. 
IV. Opinions of Sir Charles Scudamore and other Medical Men in reference 
to Hydropathy. 
V. Observations on Hygiene and the Water Treatment: by the Editor. 
NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 
We most cheerfully commend this handsome volume. * * * The article 
by Dr. Houghton is a comprehensive paper, and contains a great deal of im- 
portant information respecting the bodily as well as mental health of man.—* 
National Intelligencer. 
Nearly all that can be truly, or perhaps authoritatively, said in favor of Hydrop- 
athy, is probably contained in these 250 pages,-—Boston Post. 
We have here the Hydropnthist’s Manual. * * We recommend Dr. 
Houghton’s little work to all who desire an exposition of the Water-Cure from 
the highest authority.—-.Baltimore Patriot. 
This compilation is a useful and valuable one. * * It is full of just that in- 
formation which people want.—Cincinnati Gazette, 
This book is just the one for unprofessional persons to read who wish to 
arrive at the truth.—Providence Journal. 
The extending popularity of the water treatment in a certain class of diseases, 
renders it almost unnecessary to commend the observations in this volume to 
public attention. * * The volume concludes with a Useful paper on Hygiene 
and the Water Treatment, by the editor, Dr. Houghton.—New York Evening 
Post. RECOMMENDATIONS. 
Wo are under much obligation to the editor for his clear, comprehensive, and 
common sense remarks upon life and health. His plain, practical directions 
with regard to the preservation of health are just what the people want. * * 
We heartily welcome Dr. Houghton and Dr. Houghton's book. They are 
both wanted by the people.—Mrs. Mary S. Gove Nichols. 
Dr. Houghton is a gentleman of thorough classical and professional education, 
who, after completing his medical studies with the best facilities afforded by our 
country, has deliberately adopted the principles of the Watkii-Cure as the 
safest foundation of his practice. We heartily wish him success with all who 
are in search of lost health.—New York Courier and Enquirer. 
The typography of the book is really beautiful. It contains, not only what its 
title imports, the celebrated letter of the author of Rieuzi and Harold on the 
Water-Cure, and the valuable paper of Dr. Forbes, but also treatises by Dr. 
Wilson and Dr. Houghton, the editor, with the opinions of Surgeon Mayo, Dr. 
Scudamore, and others, all English physicians of eminence. Hydropathy has 
made many converts in this country during the last few years, and some of our 
own citizens have experienced its invaluable benefits. Were the cold water 
bath more generally used by the southern people, particularly in our long, sultry 
summers, it would conduce incalculably to their health, comfort, vigor, and 
longevity. All persons desirous of reading the experience of those who have 
tried this inappreciable remedy, and who therefore know what they are writing 
about, should procure the above work, and deeply ponder its contents.—New 
Orleans Delia. 
The first article, “Confessions of a Water Patient,” is from the pen of Bulwer. 
the able novelist. The details of his case and cure by water are too well known 
to need comment The second, a paper on Hydropathy, by Dr. Forbes, editor 
of the “British and Foreign Medical Review," is written in a spirit of earnest, 
sincere investigation; it is much more worthy of the careful attention and con- 
sideration of the medical profession than of the condemnation which they have 
poured out upon it and its author. Dr. Erasmus Wilson, in the two chapters 
from his Treatise on Healthy Skin, canvasses fairly the effects and merits of water 
appliances. Then follow the opinions of English physicians of high note, and, 
finally, “Observations on Hygiene and the Water Treatment,’’ by the editor. 
They are just and truthful, and eloquently expressed. To the profession espe- 
cially, upon whom these “Observations” have a pertinent and forcible bearing, 
we commend Dr. Houghton’s article. To all we commend the whole work as 
a valuable compilation. It will have a wide circulation, convincing foes and 
doing good service for the cause of true medical reform.—Water-Cure Reporter. 
The work edited by Dr. Houghton is made up mainly of the; contributions 
of three writers, all known to fame : Bulwer, the novelist. Dr. Forbes, the 
medical author and reviewer, and Dr. Erasmus Wilson—all high transatlantic 
authorities. Bulwer never wrote a more earnest chapter than the one that 
recorded his melancholy and hopeless breaking down from literary labor and 
its fashionable concomitants, and his restoration by the Water-Cure at the 
springs of Malvern. The thoroughly demonstrative and profoundly scientific 
review of Dr. Forbes, coming from one of the ablest professors of the old 
school, was also selected by Dr. Houghton with excellent judgment; while Dr. 
Wilson’s chapters on the Skin, intimately connected as they are with the phi- 
losophy of the Water-Cure, are evidently the work of one who is too careful a 
physiologist to be the blind devotee of a system. 
The portion of the book contributed by Dr. Houghton is not its least val- 
uable part, in a practical point of view. His exposition of the causes of disease 
and the agencies by which health may be preserved or restored, is clear and 
forcible, and one that would give him few patients among those who read and 
follow its teachings. If all doctors should write such essays, and all readers 
profit by them, the physicians would have to live on the sale of their books, for 
there would be little call for prescriptions.—Democratic Review. RECOMMENDATIONS. 
The fifth and last paper in the volume is entitled, “ Observations on Hygiene 
and the Water Treatment,” and is from the pen of Dr. Houghton, of this city, 
the editor of the volume. In this essay the author dwells at some length on the 
prevailing ignorance of the iavvs of health among even the most intelligent 
classes; the value of judicious hygienic management as a means of preventing 
and curing disease ; the necessity of carefully considering the vis medicatrix 
natural in all cases, or the amount of vital energy possessed by each patient, 
tending instinctively to the restoration of health; and on the charges of “em- 
piricism” or “quackery,” which have been brought against the hydropathic 
system. These charges are quietly, but, it strikes us, very effectually met and 
repelled ; and the ground is taken that modern allopathic physicians have them- 
selves become liable to similar charges, inasmuch as one of their own number 
(Dr. Kneeland) has virtually in the American Journal of Medical Sci- 
ences, for July, 1847, that his professional brethren have gradually forsaken a 
simple, safe, and natural mode of medical treatment, preferring to minister to 
the morbid states of their patients by a mere palliation of symptoms, instead of 
aiming in all cases at a sound,_thorough, radical cure. 
We take pleasure in commending this volume to the attention of the public 
(the medical profession especially), as constituting a decidedly valuable and in- 
teresting compilation. The “Old-School Practitioners” will doubtless disagree 
with many of the doctrines advanced ; but of one thing we are confident—they 
could hardly derive an acquaintance with rational Hydropathy (which too many 
of them are apt to slight) from a more respectable and reliable source. The 
public at large always make themselves familiar with such publications; and, 
as a matter of good policy alone, if for no better reason, medical men should 
likewise make themselves competent to form an intelligent opinion of all such 
“new doctrines,” else they can hardly be considered “well posted up.” As sound 
eclectic practitioners, Hydropathy claims from them something more than a 
supercilious “ cut direct.” As Dr. Houghton very justly observes (p. 207), when 
medical writers of the high position of John Fokbes and Erasmus Wilson 
become the voluntary champions of the water treatment, “it can no longer be 
denounced as 1 empiricism,’ or disposed of with a sneer.” Courteous and mod 
erate in tone, and yet sufficiently clear and decided in language, there is an air 
of sound common sense pervading this book, which would alone induce us to 
bespeak for it, as we now do, a wide and general circulation in our community. 
—New York Express. 
HYDROPATHY. 
ROLAND S. HOUGHTON, A.M., M.D., Hygienic and Hydropathic Practitioner, 
No. 8 West Eleventh Street, three doors from Broadway. Patients received for 
full board and treatment, or for day treatment only. Dr. Houghton will also 
treat patients hydropathically at their own residences, in this city and vicinity. 
Letters soliciting advice should in all cases be post-paid, and inclose a suitable 
fee; they should also be addressed to Dr. Houghton, Union Square Post-office, 
Droadtcay, New York City. 
Terms : For day treatment, ordinarily, one dollar a day; for full board and 
treatment, one dollar and a half a day. Consultation iee,Jive dollars. Io Invalids, 
No matter of what disease, the prin- 
ciples of Hydropathy may safety be 
applied, and, in iwue cases oat of ten, 
great benefit nay be derived there- 
from. 
To those in Health. 
Without health even life is not 
desirable, unless a remedy can be 
found. To preserve health no other 
mode of living can compare with this 
system. In fact, were its rules ob- 
served and carried out, many of our 
ills would be forever banished, and 
succeeding generations grow up in 
all the vigor of true manhood. It 
will be a part of our duty to teach 
the world how to preserve health, 
as well as cure disease. 
"Water-Cure at Home. 
Particular directions will be given 
for the treatment of ordinary cases 
at Home, which will enable all, who 
may have occasion, to apply it with- 
out the aid of a physician. 
To Women and Mothers. 
It is universally conceded by all 
intelligent practitioners, as well by 
the old school as the new, that the 
Water-Cure is not equaled by any 
other mode of treatment in those 
peculiar complaints common only to 
woman. The Journal will contain 
i such advice and instruction as may 
be considered most important, in all 
these critical yet unavoidable cases* 
This Journal 
Will be published monthly, containing thirty-two large pages of 
the best matter, with reference to the application of this system, 
adapted to all classes, on the following 
TERMS, 
IN AD VANCE: 
Ten copies one year, 7 00 
Twenty copies one year, 10 00 
AND 
HERALD OF REFORMS. 
OFFICE, CLINTON HALL, 111 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 
Please address all letters, post paid, to FOWLERS A1VDWELLS9 
Clinton Hall, 131 Nassau street, New York. 
New volumes commence on the first of July and January of each year. Sample numbers sent gratis. 
Plcnae be particular in writing the Names of Persons and Places distinctly. 
Single copy one year, $100 
Five copies one year, 4 00 
To the Public. 
We Have obtained the co-operation of the leading Hydropathic 
writers, in order to present the whole combined talent of the en 
tire profession; and have secured the services of nearly all the 
medical reformers of the land. 
To Practitioners. 
Tin's Journal will represent the entire Hydropathic profession. 
Reports of important cases, and all other matters pertaining to 
health, will be laid before our readers. 
Thb Watbr-Curb Journal is pub- 
lished monthly, containing thirty-two 
octavo pages, illustrated with en- 
gravings, exhibiting the Structure, 
Anatomy, and Physiology of the 
Human Body, with familiar instruc- 
tions to learners. It is emphatically 
a Journal or Health, adapted to 
all classes, and is designed to he a 
complete Family Guide, in all cases 
and in all diseases. 
Hydropathy 
Will be fully unfolded, aixl so ex- 
plained that all may apply it in vari- 
ous diseases, even those not curable 
by any otl»er means. Tlvere is no 
system so simple, harmless, and uni- 
versally applicable, as the Water- 
Cure. Its effects are almost miracu- 
lous, and it has already been the 
means of saving the lives of thou- 
sands, who were entirety beyond the 
reach of all other known remedies. 
Philosophy of Health. 
This will be fully discussed, in- 
’ eluding Food, Drinks, Clothing, Air, 
and Exercise, showing their effects 
| on both body and mind. 
Reforms 
In all our modes of life will be 
pointed out, and made so plain that 
“ he that runs may read.’* We be 
Iieve fully that man may prolong liis 
life much beyond the number of 
years usually attained. VVe pro- 
pose to show bow. ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BOOKS 
r'JBLISHED BY 
FOWLERS AND WELLS, 
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American Phrenological Journal and 
Miscellany Circulation, 20,000 copies A year, - Si 00 
A Home for All; or, a New, Cheap, 
Convenient, and Superior Mode of Building, .... 50 
Amativeness; or, Evils and Remedies 
of Excessive and Perverted Sexuality, with Advice, - - 12^ 
A Manual for Magnetizing with the 
Magnetic Machine, for the Treatment of Disease, ... 50 
Botany for all Classes; Containing a 
Floral Dictionary, with more than One Hundred Illustrations, 50 
Combe’s Lectures on Phrenology. By 
George Combe. A complete course. With Illustrations, 1 00 
Constitution of Man, considered in Re- 
lation to External Objects. Revised and enlarged edition, • 50 
Combe’s Physiology, applied to the Im- 
provement of Mental and Physical Education, .... 50 
Combe on Infancy; or, the Physiologi- 
cal and Moral Management of Children. Illustrated, - - 50 
Consumption, its Prevention and Cure, 
by the Water Treatment. By Joel Shew, M.D., ... 50 
Chronic Diseases, especially the Nerv- 
ous Diseases of Women. Dy D. Roscli, ... 25 
Curiosities of Common Water. With 
Additions by Joel Shew, M.i). From the 5th London edition, 25 
Cholera; its Causes, Prevention, and 
Cure; and all other Bowel Complaints, treated by Water, * 25 
Chemistry, Applied to Physiology, Ag- 
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meuts. Designed for Phrenologists, ... 6$ 
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drew Bosirdmav* A good work for skeptics and unbelievers, 50 
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Fascination, or the Philosophy of 
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Familiar Lessons on Astronomy: De- 
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Familiar Lessons on Physiology. De- 
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Hereditary Descent: its Laws and 
Facts applied to Human Improvement. New edition, - - 50 
Human Rights, and their Political 
Guaranties. By Judge Hurlbut. With Notes by George Combe 50 
Hydropathy for the People, with Ob- 
servations on Drugs, Diet, Water, Air, Exercise, etc., 50 
Love and Parentage: applied to the 
Improvement of Offspring, 25 
Lectures on the Philosophy of Mesmer- 
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Moral and Intellectual Science. By 
Combe, Stratton, Cox, Gregory, and others. Illustrated, - 2 00 
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Physiology, Animal and Mental: Ap- 
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Physiology of Digestion, considered 
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Psychology, or the Science of the Soul. 
With Illustrations of the Brain and Nervous System, - 25 
Phrenological Guide: Designed for the 
Use of Students of their own Characters, 12.^ 
Phrenological Almanac: illustrated with 
numerous Engravings. A handsome Annual, ... 64 
Keligion, Natural and Revealed: or the 
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Tobacco: its Effects on the Body and 
Mind. Tlie best work on the subject, ..... 25 
Teeth: their Structure, Disease, and 
Management. By John Burdell, Dentist, 124 
Temperance and Tight-Lacing: found- 
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Water-Cure in Every Known Disease. 
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Water-Cure Almanac, containing much 
important matt for the healthy and the unhealthy. Yearly. 6^ 
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