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   HYDROPATHY;





             OR,





THE WATER-CURE . 

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HYDROPATHY;
OR,
THE  WATER-CURE:
ITS PRINCIPLES, MODES OF TREATMENT, &c.
KUu0tratrtr tottf) mans ©ases.
COMPILED CHIEFLY FROM THE MOST EMINENT ENGLISH AUTHORS ON




                  THE SUBJECT,
BY JOEL SHEW, M. D.
        NEW-YORK:



WILEY  &  PUTNAM





           1844.
/ 
\:  B  F
3554-oe
        EMered Kcrtiog to »n ncl of Conjren, to Hie year IBM,

                      BY WILEY & PUTNAM,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York.
  Wright's Power-Press,
122 Fulton street, New-York. 
INDEX
Abdomen, inflammation of..p. 124
-------■ diseases of...........130
Abreibung.......................... 48
Accouchment..............„.....134
Air and Exercise.................. 57
Apoplexy............................143
Appendix, on Diet................275
Apparent Death...................146
Bandages, Warm..................53
-------Cold.................... 51
Baths.  ByClaridge.............62
Billing's Theory of  Disease.... 13
Blood, spitting of..................133
Bowels, inflammation of........124
Brain, inflammation of..........112
Burns................................120
Cancer............................... 98
Cases. By Sir Chas. Scudamore 148
Cases. By Dr. Ed. Johnson....211
     Paralysis....................213
     Sciatica......................216
     Sciatica with Lumbago...218
     Constipation............... 518
     Dyspepsia...................219
     Dyspepsia and Rheuma-
        tism.......................222
     Gout, Rheumatism, &c.  224
     ----in hands and knees.225
     Rheumatism with Psoria-
        sis.........................226
     Psoriasis...................  227
     Skin Diseases...............229
     Fistula in  Ano.............232
     Gonorrhoea.................. 234
Cases. By Dr. Ed. Johnson.
     Urinary Fistula.........p. 234
     Consumption................236
     Case of Mrs. J. B. S......239
     Deafness.............241, 258
     Hip Disease................242
     Scarlet Fever...............244
     Symptomatic Fever.......245
     Catarrh......................246
     Baldness.....................247
     Head-ache, &c.............247
     Secondary Symptoms.. .249
     Impuissance with Gout...253
     Contracted Joints........254
     Hernia.............,.........254
     Hsematuria..................254
     Cerebro-Spinal Diseases.255
     Suppressed Measles......256
     Ague.........................257
     Epilepsy.....................259
     Hypochondriasis, &C...259
Cases,  By Dr. Shew........... .262
Catarrh..............................118
Chest, pain of.....................119
----inflammation of.............106
Chilblains..........................105
Cholera..............................100
Cholic...............................132
Clothing............................ 58
Cold..................................118
Cold, torpor from..................147
Cold Feet...........................106
Congestions of blood.............132
Constipation........................124 
VI
INDEX.
Cough...........................p. 119
Cough, Hooping...................112
Cramp of Stomach...............135
Crisis................................. 60
----by Scudamore...............148
Deafness............................121
Delirium Tremens...............138
Diarrhoea............................131
Diet..............................59,275
Diseases  to which the water-
  cure is especially applicable. 76
Diseases, treatment of............85
Douche.............................. 72
Drinking............................45
Drop Bath..........................71
Dropsy, remarks on............... 74
----treatment of..................98
Drowsiness.........................133
Dysentery..........................104
Dyspepsia...........................124
Ear-ache............................121
Epilepsy............................130
Erysipelas..........................Ill
Exercise........................... 57
Eye Bath........................... 69
Eyes, weakness of................114
----inflammation of............113
----sore...........................120
Fainting...........................145
Feet, foetid perspiration of......106
Feet, cold..........................106
Fever, treatment of.............. 94
----intermitting..................98
Finger Bath........................69
Foot Bath........................... 66
Fractures..........................122
Gout and  Rheumatism..........85
Gripes...............................118
Half Bath.......................... 64
Head Bath......................... 68
Head-aehe..........................126
Heartburn.....................p. 129
Hemorrhage, Uterine............134
Hooping Cough...................112
Hydropathic Laconics............265
Hydropathy........................  1
Hysterics.........,...............125
Indigestion........................,124
Injections........................ 47
Itch and Ringworm..............115
Laconics...........................265
Leg Bath........................... 70
Lein-tuch......................... 49
Lock Jaw..........................137
Loss of Sleep....................130
Measles..............................109
Menstruation,  irregular........134
Mercurial  Diseases..............11G
Nasal Baths........................ 48
Nausea..............................132
Nervous weakness...............125
Nose Cold...........................120
Nose Bleed........................127
Observations, &c..................294
Obstructions of Articulations, 105
Oral Baths........................ 48
Paralysis............................140
Piles.................................122
Propositions and Principles. By
  Drs. Wilson and  Gully....... 39
Quinsy..............................ng
Rheumatism........................ 85
Rickets..............................108
Ring-worm.........................115
Scarlatina......................... iQ9
Scrofula............................jgg
Sitz Bath.......................... yg
Small Pox..........................JQ9
Sprains............................. j 22
Stiff Neck ........................119
Stiff Joints ....................... T22
Stitches in Side ................ 123 
index.                        vii
	.. p. 54		..p. 51
	......117		.... 44
	.....135		....127
Throat, inflammation of...	.....119	Wet-sheet, or Lein-tuch..	.....49
	.....127		.....48
	.....121		..... 51
Treatment of Diseases.....	.....85 .....116		.....120
			
               ERRATA.

Page 46, 15th line, for " venal" read " renal."
Page 35,4th line, for " Tod" read " Todd."
Page 275, last line, for  " men" read " man." 
 
PREFACE.
  It will at once  be observed, that in the following pages there is little
claim to originality.  The compiler has for a time  had his attention
directed to the water-cure, and has with interest witnessed its progress.
Having been perfectly convinced of its value, and of its superiority as
a system for the treatment of disease, he has been engaged in writing
with a view to publicity; but as different works upon the subject have
from time to time appeared in Europe—works of merit—some of which
are of very recent date, he has thought best to adopt the maxim  that
"amidst counsellors there is safety," to  substitute in a great  measure
portions of those works in such a way as  it is hoped will render the
present work one of value.  The writings of the several authors will show
for themselves.  Let it be understood, however, that the compiler does
not intend that it shall be inferred that he agrees with all that is said.
  Various have  been the  objections urged against  hydropathy.  By
high authority, we have it classed among the various delusions that are,
and that have been, and of which it is said, they
              "In turns appear, to make the vulgar stare,
               Till the iwoll'n bubble bursts, and all is air."
   So it has been ranked in this country;  but  nearer the  retired  spot
of the " primitive philosopher," it is different.  There, in  abundance,
are to be found the " hard telling facts."  The actual cures have been
performed.   There has been raised the cry of danger! danger! instead
of delusion.   As to the dangers in the practice of the water-cure, what
are they 1  Precisely not greater than are to be found elsewhere.  Not
greater than to open a vein or  an artery—and draw out that fluid upon
which life so much  depends—or to introduce into the stomach or the
circulation, the most  virulent and  deadly poisons in nature—things of 
X
PREPACK.
•   every-day practice.   The administration of pure  clean water  cannot
    certainly be attended with more danger.
      That, by thousands, astounding  cures have been performed in the
    treatment, no one can question.  And so was it in tractoration.   But
    there  the mistake was as to the  how.  The objector who would  class
    the water-cure with  that delusion has not examined the subject—does
    not even know  what the water-cure is. In  the  case of  tractoration,
    where the cures were  performed,  the  subject exercised unbounded
    faith  in the mysterious agency  of  the  tractors.   It is  true, too,  that
    Priessnitz inspires his patients with confidence and courage, and so
    must any and  every practitioner of the healing art, to obtain success.
    But more.  Let  the  objector, professional,  or  non-professional, get  a
    little   way  into  the secrets  of the  water-cure  (for to   him as  yet
    they are secrets.) If he  be an invalid,  let  him awhile, leave, of every
    kind, his vile narcotics and stimulants—in every respect, his hours keep
    regularly.  Let him  " daily wash and  be  clean," and be throughout
    regular and temperate in  his meals, and in all  his  habits.   Let him di-
    minish, if need be, the amount of fluids in  the body, by most profuse per-
    spiration, or, by the wet  sheet,  reduce the temperature of the body, and
    the velocity of the circulation and heart's action, to any required extent.
    Let him purify the blood, not by any of the  thousand-and-one of the
    nostrums of the quack, or of the multitudinous  forms of drugs innumer-
    able, but by the cleansing effect of Nature's own best pure fluid.  Let
    him, if he can command courage, go to the  bath, to the douche; climb
    among the hills and breathe freely the pure mountain air of heaven—and
    all in proportion to his increasing  strength; let him be cheerful always;
    and at evening, according to his inclinations,  let him join in some of the
    social  exercises—the music and the dance; and when in time he finds
    his body  has become amazingly strengthened, and his mind active,
   cheerful, vigorous and blithesome, and that  his old ailments inveterate
   are cast off, it  will be a  thing not easy  to convince him that all is de-
   lusion—a work of the imagination.  By this time he finds that though he
   will, as if to bring spirits from the " vasty deep," against the effects of the
   water-cure, it would be willing in  vain.  There is at least something of
   physical truth in it. A greater mistake cannot be than to class this with
   the tractors, Sir Kenelm Digby's sympathetic powder, or Hahneman'a
   decillionth grain doses of  charcoal, flint, silica or cuttle-fish juice, made 
PREFACE.
XI
too potent by ten  shakes instead  of two.  A wider difference can-
not be.
   The  unprofessional manner  in  which the  water-cure  is  intro-
duced, has been  a  matter of  objection by some.   According to Dr.
Rush, a medical man should be a student his life long: he should gath-
er information from any and every source—should even lay under con-
tribution the  experience of the old woman, whom  he might  meet in a
stage-coach or elsewhere, to add to his stock of facts in the healing
art.   " Life is short, art is long,"  said " the old man of Cos."  Should
an old woman, or any one, discover a drug of which it should be said,
on good authority, that it was capable, in one dose, of producing the most
powerful sweating,  and in another,  of reducing the  temperature of the
body most efficiently, and of retarding the velocity of the circulation to
any required extent, and  which consequently could be  made to fulfil
every intermediate  indication, the student-like physician  would most
certainly set to work and test fairly  and fully the power of the old wo-
man's drug.
   The great physiologist and physician, Magendie, makes the  strong
assertions, that " the science  of medicine is almost the only one char-
acterized  by uncertainty and chance,"— that  "the  existing  system of
medical study confers trifling good on society,"—that" there  is scarcely
a  sound idea on physiology abroad,"—that " the plan hitherto pursued
in the study of medicine, has been too narrow ever to lead to those
happy results that  dignify an age by improving the condition of hu-
manity,"—and that " the prevalent mode of treating disease, harmoni-
zes admirably with, and is quite as senseless as, the method of reasoning
in pathology." The practitioner mixes, combines, and jumbles together
vegetable, mineral  and animal substances; administers them  right or
wrong, without for a moment considering the cause of the disease, and
without a single clear idea on the  why and wherefore of his conduct.
Another  says, " all things considered,  it were better for mankind if not
a particle of medicine existed on the face of the earth ;" and the learned
Hoffman of the  seventeenth century said,  " avoid medicine  and physi-
cians, if you value your health !"
   However strong and sweeping these assertions may at first appear, if
we carefully examine, we shall find  that there is vastly too much of truth
in them.   The study of the mere relation between symptoms and reme- 
                                                                          I
XU                        PREFACE.                                     !

dies, without sufficient reference to the removing of the causes of disease,
has been too much  the  case in medicine.  Hippocrates used but lit-
tle medicine, and his remedies were few and  simple.  His principal
business was to discover and remove the causes of disease.
  Medicine has likewise been followed too much as a mere business—
a means of livelihood, or a source of emolument.  And then  again,  if
we may hazard the opinion, it  is too true that the existing system  of
medicine is often  found going in direct opposition to its  fundamental
principles.   This it is claimed cannot in  truth be said  of hydropathy.
The practice in the water-cure is consistent;  rational and explainable.
  Let us not be  misunderstood in  this matter. Far be it from  vs  to
depreciate, in any way, the value of the profession.   It is error, and not
men, or any class of men, that we have  to contend with.  The  noble
profession of our  choice, we esteem,—a profession, than which there is
none of more importance to society and the race.  But we could sooner
doubt our very existence, than  that the healing art  comes far short of
doing its best work, of conferring its best  good upon society.   That the
profession is a body of worthy and intelligent men, and that of this body
are those who are to be ranked among the highest benefactors  of the
human family, society fully acknowledges.  It is therefore the height of
folly for any one to act against the profession.  The water-cure, and
improvements of whatever kind, wherever they may  originate, must
be introduced to the public generally, through  this profession.
   As if perfection were to  be found, and as if all  medical men,  unlike
those of other professions, were to be perfect moral beings, we hear in
glowing colors, by some, not a little said  about the persecutions in me-
dicine.   We hear the grave questions, "  Who  denounced Harvey, the
glorious discoverer of the circulation of the blood V  " Who ridiculed
vaccination and persecuted its discoverer, Jenner 1"  And then,  again,
when Lady Mary  Montague inoculated her child  with  the  matter of
small pox to mitigate the severity of the disorder,  it is said that  on the
part of some there was manifested such an unwillingness  to have the
experiment succeed, " that she  never cared to leave the child alone with
them one second, lest in some secret way it should suffer from their inter-
ference."  Admit this all true—and more, and we have that which will
but poorly compare with the witch manias, and the violent persecutions
elsewhere.   And be it  remembered,  too, that  among the ignorant 
puepace.                        xiii
 traducers of the  profession, are to be found those who are ever most
 ready to lend their  names and influence to quackery of every form, but
 when anything serious  comes upon them, they are  equally ready to
 avail themselves of  the gratuitous  services  of the  insulted  profes-
 sion.
   The water-cure presupposes that all due attention be given to the re-
 moval of the causes of disease ;—to the prevention as well as the cure.
 The great ignorance  that exists as to the causes of disease, the means
 of prevention, and the best methods of curing, is an ever fruitful source
 of quackery of every kind.  Teach people to understand the laws  of life,
 health and disease, and then they are incapable of the imposition of the
 mercenary and villanous quack.   And then, and not till then, will the
 profession attain its true dignity.   And then will the labours of the true
 physician be rightly  valued.  Then will  the physician's pay be  more
 than now, like that of Boerhaave,  when he practised among his best
 patients.
   The writer has high hopes in reference to what will yet result in this
 country from the introduction of the  water-cure.   If he is mistaken in
 his enthusiasm, in this new world, in the healing art, (for Captain Cla-
 ridge says, Priessnitz, like Columbus, discovered a new world,) so it is:
 he will trust  to the intelligence of his country and the profession—to
 time and maturer experience,  to  convince him of his error.  He is
 young, and can improve.  When a better way is shown, he will follow
it.  But from what he has heard,  seen and knows, as yet he must be in
his humble way an advocate of the water-cure ;  and, in doing this, he
 has  incomparably  more regard  for  the  good which it is  destined to
bring about in society, than for fame,  reputation, or emolument.
   As a matter of course, that always convenient word, " quackery," will,
 by some, be applied to the water-cure  treatment.   But  let  it be
remembered that it is not Priessnitz, or any one, that such are to contend
with, but the  thing itself.  A method of treatment of itself in perfect
accordance with the laws of nature.  A natural remedy, only inten-
sified by art.   Real quackery will have but little to do with hydropathy.
There is in its very nature too much  of primitiveness  and simplicity—
not enough of mysticism—of the wonderful and  marvellous.   Besides,
the practice is  too laborious—often severely so, both for patient and
practitioner.  Let the water-cure be generally understood and practised, 
XIV                        PREFACE.
and the very considerable firm of Messrs. Humbug, professional and
non-professional, will turn bankrupt outright.
  If the water-cure treatment were quackery, we have quackery unique.
With his vile  preparations,  and specifics infallible, the quack may
delude the ignorant, and, villain-like, drug mankind to death—employ-
ing in  every direction, his compeers, to practise upon his thousands of
patients whom  he never sees or cares for, if he can but cheat them out
of their substance;  but to stand by the sufferer in disease, to guide the
remaining energies of life, in accordance with its own laws, in such a
manner as to " remove obstructions, relieve oppression, subdue diseased
action," and strengthen and invigorate the system, thus " placing the
body under the most favorable circumstances  for resisting disease," re-
mains for another besides the quack to perform.  And this we contend
can best be done, when in competent hands, by the primitive natural
treatment, the water-cure.  Than this to quackery, nothing can be more
perfectly, more specifically antipodal.
  The simplicity or oneness of the remedy will be with some a matter
of objection.  It should be understood that nothing is easier than by
the water-cure  to produce, to any given extent, directly opposite results;
therefore its simplicity is greatly in its favor.  Why have drugs been
multiplied without number 1   Precisely because not one of them is to be
always  depended upon.  Not so in hydropathy.  It is contended that
the remedy  here can be relied upon, and is always in competent hands,
not only in all curable cases safe and efficacious, but will ahoays do some
good—which is not true of drugs.
  To the non-professional inquirer, let  it be  said no remedy can be
powerful for good that may not be made powerful for evil.   It may ap-
pear a simple thing to " wash and be clean,"—but even this must be
done rightly.   Although the " sleeping  in wet sheets is by no means
the disagreeable thing that it is usually conceived to be," yet it must be
done  in the right way, or most disastrous may be the consequences.
The Russians find their snow-bath exceedingly delightful  after their
sweating, but  they  know that it can be continued but a few minutes.
The Englishman finding it at once pleasant, remained too long, and thus
sacrificed his  life to his ignorance.
   The  water-cure  implies temperance in detail.  Those who wish to
 adopt the better plan, prevention ratlier than cure, may be assured, that 
PREFACE.
XV
in changing habits, mere feelings must not be taken as a guide.   If they
do,  a blind leader of the blind it  will prove.  The invalid mendicant,
while asking alms, declared that as long as God should let him live/he
would drink  every day a dram, because it gave him strength.  The
minister  of the Gospel (not a physiologist)  said  he would enjoy his
tea and coffee and his pipe, even if they did cut short life, rather than be
deprived of the good things which God gives us.  But  whenever the
drunkard reforms, however uncomfortable at first he may feel, we soon
find  nature is true to herself.   He feels like death, but yet he does not
die.   Soon like life from the dead he is a new and renovated man.

                                                          J. S.

  Broadway, New-York,
           February 13, 1844. 
 
HYDROPATHY.
   The word Hydropathy, as used to denote the Water-Cure,
 has been objected to, as not being etymologically correct in
 signification.  It is derived from two Greek words, togeth-
 er meaning,  water disease.  It is, however, a term well un-
 derstood.  Hydrotherapeutics,—which means, healing with
 water,—has been substituted, and is decidedly a better term,
 as far as etymological correctness is concerned.   Hydria-
 tics has also been used.  The best term is the plain English
 one, the Water Cure.   But whichever term is used, it is not
 less correct than  many others in common use among the
 best speakers and writers.
   That parts of the  Water Cure have, to some extent, been
 practised  in  the  healing  art,  no one will pretend to deny.
 As a general thing, water was used to a greater  extent, as
 a remedy, in the earlier periods of the history of medicine,
 than in later  times.
  Hippocrates, the father of medicine, determined  that, in
 certain kinds of baths, warm water would produce a  chill,
while cold water would produce a contrary effect.  We are
also  told,  that  to  produce diaphoresis, or sweating, he did
not resort to the use of  internal remedies, but merely poured
              1 
 2                 HYDROPATHY ; OR,
 warm water over the head and body, and then heaped clothes
 upon the patient,  which would  produce the desired effect,
 without  the irritation  of the internal organs,  consequent
 upon the administration of powerful diaphoretics.   This, as
 will be seen hereafter, somewhat resembled the  sweating
 process of the water-cure.   He also recommended the  use
 of water in  various ways, and in the most serious diseases.
 Celsus and Galen also  recommended the use of water, both
 in sickness and health  ; and many similar examples might
 be  quoted.
  The honor of making certain various  discoveries, in the
 application  of water  to the human  body as a  remedial
 agent, is due Vincent Priessnitz, a peasant and native of a
 small colony called Graefenberg, situated two miles from
 the town of Freiwaldau, and about half  way up one of the
 mountains of the  Sudates in Austrian  Silesia, Germany.
 This has always been his place of residence, and was also
 that of his father before him.
  His discoveries were at first the result of accident.   He
 was, in the common acceptance of the term, " unlearned,"
 having at most only a very limited education, but possessed
 naturally a strong and observing mind.
  He tells us it was in the year 1816, when he crushed one
 of his fingers,  and, as it were, by instinct plunged  the in-
jured part into water until it ceased bleeding.   He felt the
 coolness agreeable to the benumbed part, and found that by
 repeatedly holding  it in water, without the least inflamma-
 tion or suppuration, after secreting only a little white mu-
 cous matter, it healed in a very short time.  Then he was
 told, as he says, by some old men of the neighborhood, that
 they  could relate  many instances where cold water had 
                    the  water-cure.                 3

 been used in similar cases, and had always proved salutary
 above every other remedy.  In the year 1819, he met with
 the misfortune to break the ribs upon one side, by a loaded
 waggon.  The physician, called from the nearest town, de-
 clared the injury incurable thus far:  that there would  be
 lumps formed, which, on  the  least exertion, would cause
 pain, and thus continue through life.  He prescribed some
 herbs, a decoction of which, in wine, was to be laid upon the
 injured parts.  These fomentations gave him so much pain
 that he was obliged  to  tear them off.  Recollecting his
 cured finger, he  commenced using swathings of cold wa-
 ter, and thus obtained immediate relief.   Then, to press out
 his ribs to their natural position, he stretched himself, with
 the abdomen over the edge of a chair, thus leaving the up-
 per part of the body free;  and then, by repeatedly holding
 in  the breath, he was able to extend the ribs towards the
 natural position.   He persevered in this way, and with the
 wet sheets, and in a few days,  without having any wound
 fever, he  was  able to walk, and finally effected a perfect
 cure.
   Having thus gained  a little  experience,  he afterwards,
 from time to time, found opportunity for  performing cures
 among  his  neighbors  and  kinsfolks, until he had finally
 adopted all the various forms of applying water to the hu-
 man body, and which has enabled him to practise the heal-
 ing art with greater success than any other individual that
 has ever lived in  any age.
  Gaining thus at first a kind of celebrity among his im-
 mediate neighbors, it gradually spread until his house began
 to be frequented by  considerable numbers of sick persons
from adjoining parts.   And although his cures were often 
4                  HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
of the most astonishing kind, and generally performed gra-
tuitously, there were not wanting those who were anxious
to put an end  to the " mischief,"  as it was called.   The
laws of the country are particularly severe  upon quackery
of every form; and no one is allowed to sell medicines  of
any  kind  except those  who are regularly certificated for
that  purpose.
  One physician alleged that the sponges used by Priessnitz
contained some remedial property, which, if true,  would
have  placed him under the jurisdiction  of  the  law.  His
sponges were accordingly dissected and  examined, and  of
course nothing found.
  Another prosecuted  him for quackery, pretending  that
he,  and not Priessnitz,  had cured  a certain miller  of the
gout.  Accordingly both the physician  and Priessnitz, to-
gether with the miller, were summoned before the  court.
The  miller, in answer to the question,  who had relieved
him,  answered, " both"—-the doctor of my money  and
Priessnitz of my gout.   And thus Priessnitz was acquitted
from this charge.  His government afterwards sent a com-
mission of medical inquiry to Graefenberg, and finding that
there was no  quackery about the establishment, that the
only agent used was pure water, with attention to air, exer-
cise and diet, and that his practice was not only entirely
safe, but highly beneficial, he was, on their favorable report,
allowed to continue his operations.
  He has thus  continued to go on,  using only the simple
agent, pure water, for the treatment of all curable diseases,
and the relief of those that are incurable.   Persons of all
ranks, grades, and professions, have placed themselves under
his charge ;  a large proportion being such as had failed by 
THE  WATER-CURE.
5
very attempt to get relief in any other way.   At present,
says Captain Claridge (1841), there are under his treatment
an  archduchess, ten princes and princesses,  at least one
hundred counts and barons,  military men of all grades, se-
veral medical men, professors, advocates, &c,—in all about
five hundred.
  At first his numbers were comparatively small.   In 1829
the number was only 45.  In 1840, it was 1576.   Between
1830 and  1842, he had treated in all 7500 patients, and  of
this number Captain  Claridge  informs us  he  lost but 36.
This will  appear remarkable, when  it is  remembered how
large a  proportion of the whole number go there only as a
last resort, and whose diseases had withstood every other kind
of treatment, and, in many instances, for a great length  of
time.  Since 1840, his numbers have been a little lessened.
by  the  numerous similar establishments that have been
formed in  different parts.   Austria and  Prussia  have af-
forded him the largest number.
  The  water-cure has  now stood the test  of more  that
twenty years' experience.  Some ten years ago the estab-
ishment of Priessnitz was the only one of the kind in exis-
tence.   Since that time they have increased in all to about
one hundred. They are scattered all over Germany. Austria
Prussia, Russia, and Belgium, all have  their water-cure
establishments.  The government  of France,  like that  of
Austria, sent an efficient medical officer to the  Graefenberg
establishment to inquire into  its merits, and  accordingly
they are rapidly multiplying there ;  and,  latterly, England
is following the example of her continental neighbors.
  Of the  correctness of  the reports  respecting  the cures at
              1* 
6
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
the Graefenburg establishment,  and of the great power of
water, there can be no sort of question whatever.
   Dr. Edward Johnson, for years a pupil of  Sir Astley
Cooper, a practitioner of more than twenty years, in which
time  he  has  had occasion to write  at different  times as
many as  twenty thousand prescriptions  in a single year,
a man well known as an author as  well as a practitioner,
after  remaining at Graefenberg during a  whole  winter,
trying the various processes upon his own person, and after
having abundant opportunity of witnessing the cures per-
formed there, says, " Priessnitz in  his  practice has met
with an amount of  success perfectly unparallelled  in  the
history of disease  and its treatment."   And  he  further
says,  " I am  perfectly convinced that I can  cure a greater
number of diseases, and  in a shorter  time,  by the hydro-
pathic treatment, than  I can by the exhibition  of drugs  ;
and that there are  many diseases  which I can  thus cure
which are wholly incurable by any other known  means."
   Again : Dr. Johnson  says, " There is  no well-educated
man in England, who dare for his reputation's sake, refuse
to admit that a remedy  which can produce  (at will)  the
most profuse perspiration, and which can also (at will) lower
the temperature, and the velocity of  the  heart's  action, to
any  given degree,  even to the extinction of life—I  say
there  is no well-educated man in England who  dare deny
that such a remedy must possess an  immense power  over
diseases of every kind."
   Sir Charles Scudamore, in his  valuable work on  Hydro-
pathy, says, " The principles of the water-cure  treatment
are founded in truth and nature,  and rest, therefore, on an
immutable basis.  The practice may be occasionally abused,
and then evil, instead of good, will  result.  If I could think 
THE  WATER-CURE.
7
that such a consequence was necessary, I would not for one
moment be its advocate.  But, convinced as I am, that we
have in our power a new and most efficacious agent, for the
alleviation of disease in various forms ; and in proper hands
safe and effectual, I should be no friend to humanity nor to
medical science, if I did not give my testimony in its re-
commendation."
   The Rev.  John Wesley, A. M., published a work in 1747,
which went through thirty-four editions, called " Primitive
Physic, or, An Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Dis-
eases."   After deprecating the manner in which drugs were
employed in  the healing art, he proceeds to speak of the
healing virtues of water ; and it would seem, by  the list of
diseases given by him, as curable by the use of water, that
his observations were strikingly correct as  to its powers as
a remedy.
   Of medicines,  he says,  " The common method of com-
pounding and decompounding medicines, can never be re-
conciled  to common sense.   Experience  shows that one
thing will cure most disorders, as well as twenty  put to-
gether.   Then why do  you add the other nineteen ?  How
often, by thus compounding medicines of opposite qualities,
is the virtue  of both utterly destroyed ?   Nay, how often
do those  joined together destroy life, which singly might
have preserved it ?"
  This  occasioned that caution  of the great Boerhaave,
against mixing things without evident necessity, and with-
out full proof of the effect they will produce when joined
together, as well as of that  they  produce when asunder;
seeing that several things which, separately  taken, are  safe
and powerful  medicines, when compounded, not  only  lose
their former powers, but become a strong and deadly poison. 
8                  HYDROPATHY ; OR,

  As to the merits of the discoveries  of Priessnitz, there
seems to be some difference of opinion, even  among those
who admit his great and unexampled success in the  treat-
ment of disease.   Some would appear to  inculcate that he
is only wisely, ingeniously, and  energetically  carrying out
principles  and practices which  have been understood and
practised from the time of Hippocrates down.
  On this point, Sir Charles Scudamore holds the following
language:—"I  think that some  writers on Hydropathy
have not expressed sufficient praise and acknowledgment to
Priessnitz, as the inventor of a treatment constituting  a
complete,  systematic plan.  To follow in  a path, is always
comparatively easy.  It is quite true, that  parts of the whole
plan, and  the principles, have been  known and  practised
since the time of Hippocrates, and by none more  ably and
scientifically than the late Dr. Currie of  Liverpool.  But
all  that can be quoted from  history, bears no comparison
with the regular and systematic whole which Priessnitz has
so happily constructed, and by which he has raised himself
an imperishable fame."
  Of the  abilities of Priessnitz, all are agreed, that for good
judgment, clearness, and decision  of character,  he is pecu-
liar.  To  the phrenologist, a few admeasurements of his
head will  be interesting.  As given  by R. Beamish, Esq.,
they are as follows :—

  Circumference across  brows.............................. 22  inches.
  Circumference across causality........................... 21^  "
  Lateral arch from root of nose  to occiput.......... 13£  "
  Transverse arch, from ear to ear......................... 14    "
  Anterior arch, from ear to ear............................ 12   ••
  Posterior....................................................... Ill  "
  Anterior lobe.................................................  7    "
  Height from root of nose to comparison...............  3    M 
                   THE WATER-CURE.                  9

   No line divides the perceptions from the reflecting  pow-
 ers, marking rapidity in forming a judgment on  what the
 perceptions take cognizance of.   The middle line is well
 developed, viz: Individuality, Eventuality,  and  Compari-
 son.  The  perceptions are large ; so,  also, Constructive-
 ness and  Acquisitiveness ;  reflecting  organs full. Of the
 sentiments, Firmness,  Benevolence, and Hope, are large ;
 Conscientiousness is full,  but Veneration only moderate.
 Self-esteem and Approbation are large, Concentration full,
 the domestic group moderate, Secretiveness very large, De-
 structiveness large, Combativeness  and  Caution moderate.
 The eyes are  small, and are in constant motion ; the lips
 are  frequently compressed.   The  temperament  is highly
 nervous.
   Priessnitz,  notwithstanding his accumulation of wealth
 (upwards of  £50,000), his  astounding success, and the
 manner in which he is  courted and respected by the first
 nobles of Germany, is  said to retain the humility of his
 former station of life, that of a peasant.
   " Some complain that he says too little," says Captain
 Claridge; " and some who go there merely to learn the
 treatment, complain  that he never explains any thing  to
 them."   "It must be evident," he continues, "that a man
 who has the whole year round from 500 to 600 patients, be-
 sides  the  peasantry of the  neighborhood that may requii e
 his aid, cannot have much breath to  throw away.  Let auy
 person speak to him of his own, or of his family's case, and
 they will find his reply that of a man  of profound sense—
 a reply which  he never wishes to retract, and for which I_e
 will give his reasons in  the most unaffected  manner pos-
sible.  But in respect to the second complaint, it must be
            1* 
 10                HYDROPATHY ;  OR,

avowed that he has no very great  regard for medical men,
because no one has suffered more from their vindictive feel -
ings than himself;  besides, he  has  ever  found it a work of
supererogation to  endeavor to  disposses them of their pre-
judices ; nor has he time or inclination to enter into disputes
upon a mode of  treatment  which he knows,  as directly
emanating from nature, to be always true to herself."
   As to theories respecting the action of water upon  the
system, it cannot be  expected that Priessnitz  would  be
able to give them in a very scientific form or mode of ex-
pression.   He deals more in facts than in theories.
   His assertions are short, comprehensive, and full of mean-
ing.  He says that  the  application of cold water  cures
diseases by strengthening the general health and fortifying
the system; and this is precisely in  accordance with Liebig,
when he says that the abstraction of heat cures diseases by
exalting and accelerating the transformation of tissues.  And
again, when Priessnitz declares, as  he does, that cold water
has a tendency to bring " bad  stuff" out of the system,  it
 is in exact accordance with Liebig's declaration, that it pro-
 motes the union of certain matters with oxygen, by which
 they are carried out of the system, and which matters, if not
so carried out,  become causes  of disease.  And the same
 kind of reasoning on  the nature of things has taught Priess-
 nitz, as it has Liebig, and all  ether, medical philosophers,
 that all diseases must be  cured by  the inherent energies of
 the living system itself.   According to Dr. Gregory, " all
 remedies are merely to be employed with the view of placing
 the body under the most favorable  circumstances for resist-
 ing diseases."
    According  to  Scudamore, he has  " one single  theory of 
                    THE WATER-CURE.                 11
 disease, which serves for all persons and all disorders;  that,
 viz., of the humoral pathology, upon a general principle, not
 attempting  any division of the humors,  according to the
 ancient physicians, but contented  to believe, that in every
 disease the  blood is more or less charged  with morbid  mat-
 ter ; and which nature is always ready to throw out of the
 system, if properly assisted in her efforts.   He considers
 that the use of medicine of every kind is a false interference
 with nature, and tends  to interfere with  her efforts ;  and
 that, on the other hand, if fortified and assisted, by the
 agency of water, internally and externally, in conjunction
 with good  air,  abundant exercise, and the  avoidance  of
 hurtful stimulants, she will acknowledge the help given, and
 will, in a longer or shorter time, throw off disease ;  usually
 rendering a  proof of such salutary operation, by the produc-
 tion of some kind of  crisis."
   Respecting  this  doctrine, the  Humoral Pathology, by
 which all diseases are  attributed to a diseased state of the
 fluids of the body,  it may  be said, physicians are beginning
 to admit that there is  more of  truth in it than has generally
 been admitted.
   The simplicity of the remedy in  the water-cure is a mat-
 ter of objection by many, and may  be the  means of leading
 those into its  practice  who are in every  way unqualified.
 The agent being one of great power  for good  or  evil,  it
 will in such  hands be  liable to the most disastrous conse-
 quences.  Priessnitz never  treats  two  patients  precisely
 alike.   This shows the necessity, not only of understanding
 all the various applications of water, but also of possessing
a thorough knowledge  of the human system, both in health
and disease. 
12                HYDROPATHY ; OR,

  Priessnitz,  by his doings, has proved to the world  two
things :  first, that the water-cure is the most natural  and
best  system of treatment; and second,  that  he is a man
possessing a  genius most  remarkable.  As an example of
the power of  the remedy, of his skill, and of the  necessity
of understanding well the treatment, take the following case
from Captain Claridge :
  A  person who had recently lost his wife and two children,
was attacked with brain fever.   Priessnitz ordered him  a
tepid bath, in which  he sat and  was rubbed by two men,
who were occasionally changed.  The  man became so  de-
ranged,  that  it was with difficulty that he could be kept in
the bath.  In ordinary cases,  this disease succumbs to the
treatment in two or  three hours ; but the patient in  this
case  became speechless at  the end of this time.
  Priessnitz, with that coolness which is so leading a feature
in his character, said,  " Keep on until he either talks much
or goes to sleep."  The latter the man at last did, but not
until he had been in the bath for  nine hours and a half,
when he fell asleep from exhaustion at half past ten at night.
He was then put to bed, and the next day the fever  had
left him, and, though weak, he was able to walk about.   If,
in this case, Priessnitz had become  alarmed, after the first
two or three hours, and had discontinued the mode of treat-
ment, to try some other experiment, the consequence might
have proved fatal. 
THE WATER-CURE.
13
  Dr. Billing's Theory of Disease.  By Dr. Ed. Johnson.

   The First Principles of Medicine, by Dr. Billing, is a
work  too well  known,  and too  universally esteemed, to
need any encomium from me.  For years no medical work
has issued from the press which was received by medical
critics and the medical profession at large with  such  uni-
versal approbation as  this of Dr. Billing.  In every medi-
cal library it took  its place at once, as a standard  work,
and remains so to the present hour.  Though essentially
theoretical, yet its  theories are everywhere so completely
supported  by multiplied  practical facts and  illustrations,
which its author's position as a senior physician to the Lon-
don hospital enabled him to  accumulate—and  the amount
of clinical information with which it abounds is so great, the
simplicity of its style so felicitous, while the common-sense
plainness with which the questions are argued is so strong
and convincing, that its hypotheses  have  almost  the force
of facts.
  It will be observed how beautifully Liebig's theory of
life (as far as it regards morbid actions) and Billing's theory
of disease, reciprocally support each other—and  both, the
principles of the water-cure.
  Dr. Billing's theory is that " all" diseases are caused by
impressions made on the nervous centres or their nerves,
by which the nervous influence (whatever it be) is exhausted
or morbidly diminished.   That  the  capillary blood-vessels
which (in health) are always held in a state of semi-contrac-
tion (tone) by virtue of this  nervous influence,  shed upon 
14                 HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
them by the nerves, become relaxed and weakened—(Lie-
big's diminution of vital resistance)— having their diameters
enlarged, whenever the exhausted nerves fail in supplying
them with the quantity of nervous  influence  necessary to
preserve their tone, or state of semi-contraction upon  their
contents.  That the weakened, relaxed, and enlarged capil-
laries now admit a larger current of blood,  whose  motion
through them becomes slower.  That they are, in fact, in a
state of congestion.  And that altered function or functional
disease is the  result of this altered condition of the capilla-
ries, and altered size and altered  velocity of the  stream of
blood which  they carry. , When  this  congestion takes
place in the veins, it  constitutes  simple  congestion—when
in the arteries, it  is accompanied by  degeneration of the
arterial coats—and  now takes  the  name of inflammation.
This degeneration of the coats of the inflamed arteries is
Liebig's excessive action of the destructive force of oxygen
—the enlarged arteries now containing an excessive  quan-
tity of oxydised blood, while the resistance opposed to its in-
fluence is  (as we  have just seen) diminished.  This de-
generation does not take place in the veins,  observes  Dr.
Billing.  No—because the veins do not contain oxydised
blood.
  Man is  almost  entirely, composed of  capillary  vessels.
His  body  may be compared to  a sack stuffed with  hair,
every hair being a tube, of a determinate diameter,  (which
particular diameter is necessary to the condition of health,)
and carrying a stream of fluid, which stream  must also be
of a determinate  size.  And this bundle of capillary or
hair-like tubes is  everywhere permeated  by nervous  fila-
ments or threads, which shed upon them their electroid in- 
\   ------,_
                   THE  WATER-CURE.                  15
fluence, whose office it is to preserve their tone or necessary
diameter—upon  the  preservation  of  which their  healthy
functions depend.   When  any cause deprives them of a
due supply of the electroid or nervous influence, by ex-
hausting the nervous  system or any part of it, the healthy
diameter is lost, becoming larger, and they now admit  too
large a current of fluid, and the velocity of its fluxion is  re-
tarded, producing congestion.
  When any cause, as the  exhibition  of stimulants,  elicits
from the nerves too great a quantity of  nervous influence,
then also the healthy  diameter  is lost, but in  a contrary  di-
rection.   The diameter  now becomes  too small—the ves-
sels  contract  too much—and the  size of the current of fluid
is now too much, diminished.   This illustration will, I  trust,
enable the unprofessional reader clearly to understand Dr.
Billing's beautiful theory of disease.
  Inflammation, then, consists of  weakened,  relaxed, en-
larged, arterial capillaries, admitting a too large current of
blood,  whose progress through them is also retarded, giving
rise  to congestion  or engorgement,  degeneration  of their
coats,  and consequent  alteration of their secretions.
  " All the business," says Dr. Billing,  " of constant sup-
port  and renewal of parts, and  supply of secretions, as the
growth or repair of  bone, muscle, membrane, and  other
structures, the formation of bile,  saliva, mucous, and  other
secretions, is carried on by the extreme minute branches of
the blood vessels ;  and  whilst  these preserve their proper
size  and tone, all goes on  well; when their action  is de-
ranged, disease commences, often prefaced by pain, or other
disorders of the  nerves."   " Some  capillaries are too small
to adroit many of the red particles (oxydised blood-globules) 
16                 HYDROPATHY ', OR,
unless when they are enlarged by inflammation, as in the
eye, which, when inflamed, changes from white to red ; be-
sides that, even the red capillaries are so minute, that they
are not visible individually to the  naked eye,  till enlarged
by inflammation." " During health the capillary arteries go
on with their work of nutrition and secretion,  the  muscles
are fed, the mucous surfaces are lubricated just enough to
prevent any sensation from the substances  which pass along
them, the serous  surfaces are  made  sufficiently  moist to
slide upon each other without sensation,  and the  skin is
kept soft by  an insensible  vapor.   All this time  there is
another process going on  also, which is the removal of su-
perfluous matter by the absorbents : if it were not for these,
there would be inconvenient accumulation  of what is depos-
ited by the arteries."
  " The deposit or precipitation of solid matter by the arte-
ries is not difficult to  be understood ; and we can, by refer-
ence to chemical action,  account for  the  removal  also of
solids ; for solids become  fluid or gaseous, by what is called
spontaneous decomposition," (Liebig calls  it transformation
of tissues by the chemical action of oxygen,) " and thus re-
movable by absorbents."
  " The action of the arteries  also  is  acknowledged to be
contraction, whether considered muscular or not; but there
is some difference of opinion as to  the  degree  of action of
the arteries in inflamed parts.   It is very  common  to say,
that in inflammation there is an increase of arterial action;
but a consideration of the phenomena, and of the nature of
arterial action,  will show that in inflamed  parts  the ca-
pillary arteries  are weaker in their action ; that there
is diminished arterial  action, for the action of arteries 
                    THE WATER-CURE.                 17

 is contraction.  Now the arteries in inflamed  parts are evi-
 dently  larger than before—less contracted-that is, acting
 less."
   " It  is the opinion of some persons even at  the present
 day, that  the  motion  of the  blood  is accelerated in in-
 flamed parts; though the experiments of Parry and others
 prove the contrary to be the  case, as follows from the capil-
 lary arteries being enlarged; inasmuch as where fluid passes
 through  a  given space, the current beyond that  will be
 slower  in proportion to the wideness of the channel; as in
 a wide part of a river, where the  current becomes slower ;
 and the same may be observed by  passing  water,  mixed
 with grains of amber, through a glass tube with a bulbous
 enlargement in the middle ;  the current will slacken in the
 bulb, and resume its velocity beyond it."
   " The difference between congestion and inflammation is,
 that in congestion there is merely distension of the vessels ;
 in inflammation there is, in addition, alteration  of tissue__ac-
 tual deterioration, more or less of the structure of the capil-
 laries.  *  *  * *  The fault commences in the tissue.  As
 soon as a want of that harmony between the nerves and ca-
 pillaries,  which is necessary to organization, takes  place,
 their fine tissue  begins to compose," (the action of oxygen
 becomes, according to Liebig,  greater than  the resistance
 of the vital force—the same sense expressed in different lan-
guage,) " the particles which were held together by this in-
scrutable agency begin to be precipitated from one ano-
ther, &c, dsc."
  " When accidental mechanical injury, or other cause,
changes the action of the capillaries, either by a direct im-
pression on themselves, or by primarily injuring their nerves, 
18
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
the  derangement of their action is the commencement of dis-
ease—secretions become altered, checked, or profuse—nu-
trition is either diminished so as to produce  emaciation, or
there  is  an excessive  deposition—vapoury  exhalations are
diminished to dryness, or increased to fluid—bony matter is
deposited in wrong places—or albuminous,  fatty, or other
particles, so as to constitute tumors—the nerves of parts be-
come morbidly  sensible, so as  to derange the functions of
those parts—portions, on losing their vitality, undergo spon-
taneous decomposition, (destructive  action of oxygen, either
owing to an unwonted quantity of oxydised blood being car-
ried to  the  part, or from the diminished resistance of the
vital force,) and are removed by the absorbents."
  " Irritation, continued excitation of the nerves of a healthy
part, as just shown, at last produces inflammation, by ex-
hausting that nervous influence which gives the capillaries
power ; they thus become weakened, aliow  of over-disten-
sion, and the part is in the state of inflammation or conges-
tion."  "Thus, in a part inflamed, there is diminution of
organic action, (contraction,)  in consequence of which the
blood is admitted in excess.   As long as the capillaries are
supplied with nervous influence, as long as they possess per-
fect organic action (contraction) they preserve a due size;
when they lose it, either from the influence not being sup-
plied from the nervous system, or are robbed of it by heat,
electricity, cantharides, or any other cause,  they give way,
and admit more blood than before."
  Having given this explanation of the nature of inflam-
mation, (which is also maintained by many other very able
writers, as Professor Macartney (I think) and several others,
and proved by the microscopic observations of German ex- 
                   THE WATER-CURE.                 19

perimentalists,) he proceeds to show that fever and that class
of diseases called neuroses, or nervous disorders, as chorea,
hysteria, tetanus, epilepsy, &c.—all those diseases which
are characterized by  irritation or morbid sensibility—con-
sist in inflammation, that is, a  relaxed, enlarged, and con-
gested condition of the capillary arteries  of the nerves—in
a word, inflammation  of the nerves.   Indeed, if Dr. Billing
be right in his assertion, (and I see not how it can possibly
be refuted,) that all diseases have exhausted nervous influence
for their cause,  then  it follows that all  diseases whatever
must  consist essentially in  weakened, enlarged, and  con-
gested capillaries, since the  relaxation   of the capillaries
must be the first effect which is produced by exhausting that
influence which alone preserves to  them their  normal size
 or diameter.
   Such being the one proximate cause or essential nature of
all disease, the  principle of  cure is one also.   Thus there is
 (properly) but one disease, and one cure.
   The proximate cause is relaxation and enlargement of the
capillaries—the  indication of cure, therefore, is to constringe
 the capillaries—to cause them to contract and resume  their
 iralthy dimensions.
   Dr. Billing having established this position by a multi-
 tude of illustrations and practical facts well known to med-
 ical men, together with illustrative cases of particular dis-
 eases, as rheumatism, palsy, dropsy, consumption, skin dis-
 eases, hysteria,  nervous affections, locked jaw,  gout, &c.
 &c, then proceeds to show that all medicines, numerous as
 they are, together with bleeding, produce their good effects
 on disease by the  power, and  in proportion to the power,
 which they possess,  directly or indirectly, of causing  the 
20                 HYDROPATHY J  OR,

relaxed capillaries to contract and resume  their healthy di-
mensions.
  He reduces all medicines whatever to no more than four
—sedatives, tonics,  narcotics, stimulants.
  Sedatives, direct  and indirect, amongst which are inclu-
ded purgatives, emetics, and bleeding, are such as " dimin-
ish the action of the heart and other organs by repressing
the nervous  influence," thus  lessening the velocity with
which the capillaries are supplied with blood by the injecting
force of the heart;  and such as, by emptying the capillaries,
facilitate their contraction by removing or lessening the re-
sistance offered to their contracting sides by the contained
blood.
  Tonics are such as, being circulated in the blood through
the capillaries, have the direct effect of constringing them ;
or causing them to  contract upon  their contents, and thus
to force or squeeze the fluid onwards.
  Stimulants are such as elicit from the nerves a tempora-
ry, forced, and more than ordinary quantity of nervous  in-
fluence, causing a  corresponding degree of capillary con-
traction.   But the effect of these last remedies is but tem-
porary, since all forced excitement of the nervous centres
must ever be followed by a corresponding degree of exhaus-
tion.
  Narcotics are such as, by dulling  the  sensibility of  the
nervous system, procure sleep,  and thus afford an opportu-
nity to the inherent curative power,  or vis medicatrix  na-
turae, to restore the tone, or normal degree  of contraction,
of the  capillaries.
  Thus,  then, however numerous be the forms or symptoms
of disease, there is,  de facto, but one disease.   And, howev- 
THE WATER-CURE.
21
er numerous may be the means and appliances of the heal-
ing art, there is in fact but one intention to be fulfilled—the
restoration of the capillaries to their normal dimensions by
constringing their coats.
   I was once asked by a physician, for whose talents I en-
tertain the highest respect, how I reconciled with this theo-
ry that disease  called worms in the bowels.   But to this I
replied, that a worm in the bowels, until it has produced
irritation, is no more a disease than a fly on the hand, or
a flea  on the back—and when that irritation has been pro-
duced, then it is that irritation which constitutes the dis-
ease, of which the worm was the remote cause, as a mus-
quito is the remote cause of the inflammation which its bite
produces—and we have  already seen that irritation (which
Dr. Billing with much more propriety calls morbid sensibil-
ity)  consists in inflammation of the capillaries of the nerves.
But  no one would think  of calling a musquito a disease !
  It is the inefficiency of drugs which  has multiplied their
number.  Two,  or  two thousand, are  required, because
there is not one which can be depended on.  If one could be
discovered which would  always effectually produce the ne-
cessary degree of capillary contraction, then that one would
be sufficient.
  " In some cases of disease," says Dr. Billing, " when the
secretions of the skin and kidneys are deficient, we renew
them by bleeding, digitalis, antimony, &c, which lower the
force of the pulse, thereby diminishing the distension of the
capillaries, in conformity with the above statement.
  Medicines, such as mercury, iodine, &c, have an effect
on the arteries  themselves, directly or through the nerves,
so as to make the inflamed  capillaries contract independ- 
22                 HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
ently of the consideration of the vis a tergo (state of the
heart's action)  or quantity of circulating fluid.
   "Inflammation is always the same debility of capillaries."
   " We see that solutions of metallic salts,  such as nitrate
of silver, tartar emetic, acetate of lead, bichloride of mercu-
ry, &c, and some  acrid vegetables, such as mezereon, <fec,
act on the capillaries as astringents."
   " We know  that substances applied to the primae via?, or
skin, are absorbed and carried into the circulation, and we
judge that in this way these metallic salts, oxydes, &c, are
carried  to the capillaries of diseased parts, and strengthen
and cure.
   " All organic action is contraction."  All organic or ani-
mal strength, therefore, depends upon the power of the dif-
ferent  parts  of the body to contract.  And, for the same
reason,  all animal weakness depends upon  a loss, more or
less, of  the power of contraction.  And again, for the same
reason,  all remedies which strengthen can only do so by in-
creasing the power of contraction.*
   " Mercury and iodine remove morbid growths by starving
them, which they effect by contracting the capillaries."
   I therefore consider mercury neither stimulant nor seda-
tive, but tonic; that is, by its specific action on the capilla-
ries, whether directly on their tissue, or through the  medi-
um of their nerves, it causes them to contract."
   " When introduced into the system, it  (mercury) circu-
lates through the capillaries, and gives them tone to contract.
Liquor  arsenicalis  (solution of arsenic), nitrate of silver,
  * See this same argument enforced under the head of contracting
in my work on " Life, Health, and Disease." 
                   THE WATER-CURE.                23

the sulphates of copper  and iron,  mezereon,  dulcamara,
calchicum, &c,  have a  similar action.  This  is also the
rationale  of  the  mode  of operation of the so-called altera-
tives, and of what  is  called stimulating the secretions of
the internal organs.   When their capillaries are weak, they
have their tone restored by mercury, and the secretions are
thus renewed ; but it should not be forgotten that mercury,
like some other tonics,  in excess becomes poisonous ; and
may  cause inflammation  in  other parts,  as  it  does in the
gums, on the principle adduced before, that  one degree of
contraction of the capillaries is necessary to reduce inflam-
mation, while a still further degree will stop  nutrition and
bring on  wasting and disease."
   " And  to  this influence (constringing the capillaries) I
attribute  the universal efficacy of antimony as an  anti-
phlogistic remedy,  it being doubly valuable in acute  cases,
from its sedative effects on the heart  and pulse,  combined
with its locally tonic or astringent effects on the capillaries of
inflamed  or congested parts,  as well as on those of all the
secreting structures.
   " I think  from the various  statements already made, it
may be  deduced, that the diseases of morbid sensibility,
were it proved that  they  depend upon  inflammation" (and
Dr. Billing  has  endeavored  to  show that they do,)  " are
not curable  by common depletion: the medullary tissue is
too fine to be affected by the force of the circulation,  or re-
lieved by taking off the  vis  a tergo,  by bleeding, digitalis,
&c. : hence neuralgia, tetanus, hydrophobia, chorea, hys-
teria, &c. must be  reached through the circulation, by what
have been called  tonics, iron,  bark,  arsenic,  &c."—and
we have  seen that these  operate only by constringing the
eapillariet. 
24                 HYDROPATHY |  OR,

  " Inflammation is  that  which destroys  the  life of the
part, whereupon  the separation of  the dead portion takes
place :"—this is nothing more than  Liebig's theory of the
destructive force  of oxygen, told in other and more general
terms.
  But  it is not necessary further to multiply quotations from
Dr.  Billing's  first principles.   The whole scope and ten-
dency  of that work is to prove the position that there is but
one immediate cause of disease, viz. weakness, or exhausted
nervous energy—but one disease,  viz.  a relaxed and con-
gested  condition of the vital capillaries—and but one remedy,
viz. the restoration of the capillaries to their normal or na-
tural dimensions.
  It is true Dr. Billing admits of four different kinds of re-
medies, but we have already seen that these are but four
different instruments for enabling us to produce  one grand
effect,  and this  is,  in  every case, the restoration of the
capillaries to their healthy size.  Even narcotics, given to
procure sleep, would be of but little service, if they did not
more than this;  for the pain or other disease would return
on waking.  But they  do, indirectly, more than  this—for,
by procuring sleep, they give time  and opportunity to the
inherent powers of the  system  to restore the capillaries
to their  healthy standard degree  of semi-contraction—in
one  word,  to recover their  tone.
   Now how does all this bear upon the hydropathic treat-
ment of disease ? In what manner does Dr. Billing's theory
of disease support, and  justify,  and recommend  that treat-
ment ? It bears upon it  immediately, and in the strongest and
most conclusive manner.  According to Dr. Billing's theory
the great object is, in all cases, to unload the engorged capil- 
                   THE WATER-CURE.                25
laries, and to constringe their coats.   What are the two
main features of the hydropathic treatment ?—profuse sweat-
ing, and  the application (partial or general, as circumstances
may require) of cold—that is,  profuse  sweating to unload
the capillaries, and the application of cold to constringe their
coats.   For I suppose it will not be denied by any one, for a
moment, that cold possesses this power of constringing the
living fibre in a most remarkable degree.   Both surgery and
medicine are perpetually compelled to resort to cold water
and even ice for this express purpose, as, for  instance, in
haemorrhages, the reduction of strangulated  hernia, &c.
The efficacy of cold  wet cloths, applied either in the  inside
of  the thighs or to the  back,  in bleeding from the nose,  is
sufficiently well known, and even proverbial.   That feeling
of creeping, chilliness, and even shivering, which is produced
by the application  of  cold,  is a very common  and well
marked proof of the  very powerful influence of cold in con.
stringing the capillary vessels.
   The mode of operation of the hydropathic treatment may
be  illustrated by what  is done in the dropsy of the  belly.
The surgeon  first taps  the belly, and draws  off the water.
Then he applies around it a bandage, in order to support its
loose and flaccid sides,  and assist  it in recovering its natur-
al  dimensions.   This  is precisely what the hydropathic
treatment does in ordinary diseases—inflammations, fevers,
the neuroses, &c.  &c.—it taps the capillaries (by sweating)
and then  supports and constringes  their sides, by  the cold
bath.
   Dr. Billing himself  seems fully  aware of the  value of
cold water  and cold air,  as a remedy.   At page  23,  after
describing inflammation to consist  of weakened, relaxed, and
              2 
26                HYDROPATHY ; OR,

congested capillaries, he says : " The way to diminish  the
inflammation  is by  increasing  the action (contraction) of
the arteries, as by cold, or astringents, which make the ar-
teries contract, that is, increase their action."
   " When the congestion or inflammation subsides without
solution of continuity, it is called resolution ; and it is very
intelligible how cold, and astringents, promote this desirable
termination."  Again :  " A still farther proof that they (the
capillaries) are in a state of morbid congestion,  is the effect
of cold to the loins, in renewing the  secretions; and the
constringing effect of cold water, or cool air,  in  pro-
moting the secretion of insensible perspiration,  and thereby
softening the congested skin, in scarlatina."
   "By studying the operations of nature* we are led to
imitate by  analogy.  Independently of the regulation of
temperature, the usual benefit derived from a poultice is  that
of preventing premature scabbing, by the soft moisture  as-
sisting the pus  to  protect the granulations.   The German
water-dressing has  much the advantage over the poultice."
And again :  " Cold will cause the vessels  to shrink."   The
effect  of cold water in constringing the capillaries,  that is,
in causing them to shrink, may at any time be witnessed
by plunging the hand, when hot, into cold water.  When
a person has  been heated by exercise, the  veins on the back
of the hand  will be observed, in most persons, to be very
enlarged ; and  in  delicate, thin,  and weakly persons,  they
 are almost always  so  towards evening.   Whenever these
  * It is this " studying the operations of nature" to which the late
Sir A. Cooper was so largely indebted for his extraordinary success in
surgical practice. 
THE  water-cure.
27
veins are in this condition, if the hand be plunged into cold
water,  and  held  there for a short  time, they will be found
greatly diminished in size when the hand is withdrawn.
  " But often," says Dr.  Billing, "the case is more obsti-
nate, and a torpid, congested, or perhaps we should say sub-
acutely inflamed, state of  the liver, requires not merely re-
peated doses of calomel or other materials, but leeches and
poultices, or cold wet cloths to the epigastrium,"  (region  of
stomach.)   And  here, in a note, he observes, " the applica-
tion  of cold is, I  think,  not sufficiently often  used in inflam-
mation of the viscera of the chest and abdomen when the
surface becomes  decidedly hot."
   Speaking of consumption, he says: " Some years ago, a
gentleman of the name of Stewart adopted a rational mode
of treatment, with which he had considerable success ; but,
because he  could not work miracles,  his  plan was  unjustly
depreciated.  His method was entirely tonic, and especially
the cautious use of cold and tepid  ablutions of the skin—a
modification of cold  bathing—a remedy that is found  so
universally beneficial in promoting the resolution of strumous
(scrofulous) tumors.
   "  One  thing  of which  I am convinced is, that the true
principle  of treating consumption is to support the patient's
strength to the utmost"—and it must be remembered that
the  grand  aim, and principal effect of the  water-cure,
is to strengthen  the system;  thereby giving the inherent
curative  power  the fairest opportunity  of doing  its own
work.
   Again : " Schwann, (Muller's Handbuch der Physiologie,
Coblenzj  1833,)  by experiment  on the mesenteric  arteries
of small living animals, has demonstrated that I was right 
28
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
as to the modus operandi of cold as a  remedial agent  in
inflammation"—viz. that it acts by constringing the capil-
laries.
  With regard  to the oneness of the effect to be produced,
in treating diseases, notwithstanding the hosts of different
drugs and chemicals with which our national pharmacopoeia
groans, Dr. Billing has the following  observations : " I have
explained how  some medicines become useful in such a
variety of diseases  as almost to realize  the dreams of the
ancients and alchymists respecting a panakeia, or an  elixir
vitae ;  and thus why one empirical remedy, antimony, held
the reins of the " currus triumphalis" until superseded by
the more modern blue  pill.  I  have shown that tonics are
not stimulants ; and why they may be combined advanta-
geously with  sedatives,  with stimulants, or with narcotics
(the ultimate  effect of all being the same) ;  how stimu-
lants are tonic; how sedatives are tonic; how narcotics are
tonic.  I have shown how every medical man has his hobby
to carry him to the same point, which, though he thinks it
very different from his  neighbor's, is as like it  as one four-
legged jade is to another ; how one man thinks he has made
a discovery that he can cure cholera with sugar of lead,
and that there is nothing equal to it; whilst tartar emetic,
calomel, Epsom or Glauber's salts, or common salt, or mus-
tard, or lemonade, or vinegar and water, &c. &c. will do the
same thing; though none  of them  more  quickly carry off
the  vomiting  and  purging  than  two of  these hobbies  in
double harness—tartar emetic with some neutral salt, I care
little which."
  Thus, then, it will be perceived  that the reason  why we
have such a multiplicity of effects  to be  produced, si be-
cause there is not one out of all our  drugs  which can be re- 
                   THE WATER-CURE.                29
lied on, at all times, for producing the one effect desired.
That one  effect is the constringing  of the  capillaries to
their normal diameters, when they have become weakened,
enlarged, and congested—and in producing this effect cold
water never fails.
   These last observations of Dr. Billing  (and indeed his
whole  theory) are a  complete answer to those who object
to the water-cure on account of its apparent oneness and
simplicity ; since he shows that there  is but one proximate
cause of all diseases, and that but one  remedy is necessary ;
and that the great multitude of drugs  has only arisen from
the  inefficiency of any one of them, at  all times, to produce
the  desired  effect.   According  to Dr. Billing,   there is
scarcely any one drug which would not alone be  sufficient
to cure almost any disease,  provided that one could always
be relied on to empty and constringe the capillaries.   And
he  clearly states that  different drugs are  only so many
different means  by which different practitioners produce the
same effects.
  ' Now,  then, if it be true  that the one great effect to  be
brought about in the treatment of all  diseases be to unload
and constringe  the capillaries,  how   can this  be better
achieved than by profuse perspiration  and  the cold bath ?
The hydropathic treatment, which unloads the capillaries
by sweating, and  constringes them by cold, is clearly  an
efficient substitute for bleeding, purging, vomiting, uva ursi,
digitalis, antimony, mercury, arsenic,  nitrate of silver, sul-
phate of copper, iodine, iron, and multitudes of  other re-
medies,  enumerated  by Dr.  Billing  as being  beneficial
merely by  their powers of unloading and  constringing the
capillaries.
   " In  fact,"  says  Dr. Billing, " experience proves  that 
30                HYDROPATHY ; OR,

cold to  the head, with  moderate saline and other sedative
medicine, will cure  typhus,  or prevent the  typhous state
from occurring  in synocha; whereas when wine, with  or
without opiates, is employed, the disease frequently proves
fatal.   I had one very useful opportunity of seeing the con-
trast of the  different  modes of practice during the fever
which prevailed in Italy,  1817, the proportionate mortality
being very much greater in an hospital, where the stimulant
practice prevailed,  than in that under the direction of Dr.
Aglietti, in Venice, who (I suppose out of compliment) called
his  manner  of practice  the English,  consisting of contra
stimulants (sedative evacuants), antimony, salts, purgatives,
&c, internally, with the external application  of cold  water
and free ventilation."
   Such are the opinions  of Dr. Billing with regard  to the
nature of disease,  and with regard also to the  modus oper-
 andi of all medicines whatever, in curing it, viz., by empty-
 ing, constringing, aud strengthening the weakened, relaxed,
 and  gorged  capillary  arteries.  And  if these  opinions be
 true,  the hydropathic  treatment  is  obviously and  even
 glaringly a remedy of almost  universal application—if  not
 to cure, at least to relieve—since its two grand features  are
 those of sweating,  and then of constringing, strengthening,
 and giving tone to the whole  capillary system.  And  yet,
 opposed as this treatment is,  without consideration, by  the
 great body  of  medical men, if I were to repeat all the lau-
 dations bestowed on Dr.  Billing's book, both  by the medi-
 cal press, and private individual practitioners,  they would
 fill a volume.
    But it requires very close attention, habits  of reflection, 
THE  WATER-CURE.
31
 and a perfect freedom from all prejudice, in order  to  dis-
 cover how completely  principles sometimes agree even
 where the practice is exceedingly different.   And indeed to
 illustrate this truth is one of the objects of Dr. Billing's
 work—to show how the different hobbies of different medi-
 cal  men are  all carrying their unconscious masters to one
 and the same point—capillary contraction.   And when we
 recollect that all the functions of life are performed  in  and
 by these same capillaries, we ought not to be at all surprised
 to find that it is upon these that all  causes  of disease pro-
 duce their first impressions, these are the organs whose ac-
 tions first become deranged, and that it is upon  these that
 all remedial agents must be made to  operate, in  the treat-
 ment and cure of all disorders.
   Such  are the views and opinions of Dr. Billing.   And it
 must be  remembered that Dr. Billing is no obscure physi-
 cian—all theory, and no practice—but that  he has been for
 years, and is still, senior physician to one of the largest hos-
 pitals in  England, viz.,  the London—enjoying a field  for
 practical observation and experiment  which can  fall to  the
 lot of but few.
   I will  make only one more quotation—its object  is still
 farther to show that the simplicity and  apparent oneness
 of  the  hydropathic  treatment  is  no argument  against
 it—disease  itself being  more  simple and more   unique
 than is generally supposed.   Thus Dr. Billing cures ague,
 blue cholera,  and influenza, on the  same  principles,  and
 with the same remedies,  epsom salts,  and  antimony,  and
sometimes bleeding.   Yet there can scarcely be  three dis-
eases more  apparently dissimilar—and certainly no three 
 32                HYDROPATHY ;  OR,

 diseases can differ more as  to severity and  the degree of
 danger.   " There is," says Dr. Billing, " but  one simple
fever,  and  which  is  exanthematous   (eruptive), petechial,
 though the rash may never be sensibly developed, as in scar-
 latina maligna; and  it is continued,  synochaus, (synocha,
 tfuvs^w), whether with high or low pulse, high or low tempera-
 ture ; and that, when the sensorium is oppressed in addition,
 it is typhous."  This whole  passage is printed, in  Dr. Bil-
 ling's book, in italics.   It is surprising to me how Dr. James
 Johnson could speak in such high terms of praise  concern-
 ing Dr. Billing's views of disease, and of the modus oper-
 andi  of all remedial treatment, and yet that he  should
 write   disparagingly   concerning hydropathy—since  the
 whole of Dr. Billing's  work is, de facto, one long argument
 in its favour.
   Thus I have shown that the principles of hydropathy are
 in strict harmony with the opinions held, and the doctrines
 publicly taught, by two of the most celebrated and scientific
 men (each  in his own department) with regard  to the na-
 ture of life, health, and disease, and the true end and object
 of all remedial treatment, viz., Liebig and Billing—the two
 Atridae of medical science—the  Agamemnon and Menelaus
 —the 5vu 3cotfuJ7]rops Xawv—of the medical profession.
   I will now quit the more  particular arguments of science,
 and endeavor to show that  all general reasoning—all anal-
 ogy—all  the deductions of experience—also unite to add
 their testimony to that already given.
   With regard to any danger to be apprehended  from the
 hydropathic treatment, it only  differs from ordinary  prac-
 tice just thus much.  In  ordinary practice, even  in the most
 skilful  hands, there is always more or less danger, in the ad- 
THE WATER-CURE.
33
 ministration of the most common and useful  drugs,  for all
 these  are  poisons of the most virulent kind, as mercury,
 arsenic, prussic acid, opium, oil of vitriol, aquafortis, lunar
 caustic, iodine, strychnine  (nux vomica), copperas, &c,
 &c, all medicines daily and hourly administered internally,
 whereas in the  practice of hydropathy there  is never any
 danger at all—provided always it be practised by  compe-
 tent persons.
   It is evident to the most ordinary understanding that such
 virulent poisons as those mentioned  above, and which are
 in hourly use, cannot be introduced into the human sto-
 mach, even in minute doses, without always  doing  a cer-
 tain amount of mischief—and indeed this is admitted on all
 hands—and that even minute doses  may, and often  do, in
 delicate habits, or from  some peculiar diathesis, produce
 very powerful and dangerous effects.   A case in  point oc-
 curred, some time since, in one of our hospitals.  A woman
 had been taking mercury—and one day, while sitting up in
 bed, eating some broth,  her head fell suddenly forward, and
 she died instantly.   A post-mortem  examination  explained
 the  mystery.   The  atlas—the  pivot  which  supports the
 head, and on which it turns—had been eaten away  by the
 mercury until it became too weak to support the weight of
 the head.   It  snapped while  bending over her  broth, the
 neck became bent double, and instant death ensued, the in-
evitable consequence of compression of the spinal cord by
the doubling of the neck.
  Strychnine, according to Andral, produces softness of the
brain.   A young lady,  having  paralysis of the  lower ex-
tremities, after trying many  remedies,  was recommended
by her physician to  rub in  strychnine.  After a time she
            2* 
34
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
 went to a watering place, and there died.  Dr. Pereira,  of
 the London hospital, commenting on this case in his lec-
 tures, declared that he had no doubt that this young lady's
 death was hastened by the strychnine.
   In  a case of paralysis at  the   Dreadnought  hospital,
 strychnine was exhibited, at first in doses of one-sixteenth
 of a  grain  three  times  a-day,  then one-eighth, then one-
 fourth, then one-half, all  without any apparent effect.   But
 one night the surgeon was suddenly called to the man, who
 was said to be in a fit.  It  was a first attack of tetanus,  or
 cramp.  This first attack was almost succeeded  by  a se-
 cond, which  killed him.  There can be no doubt that it was
 the strychnine which destroyed him.
  That hydropathy can kill—and that it may kill—in the
 hands of the ignorant practitioner—is  perfectly true.   It
 would not be worth two straws if it could  not.   For  that
 which, when abused, can  do no harm, cannot be capable  of
 much good when properly used.   Such a remedy is  mere
 "chip in porridge."  But where hydropathy has destroyed
 a single victim, the practice of medicine has slain its tens
 of millions—a position so notoriously true that I scarcely
 think any medical man of character will be found to ques-
 tion it.   And the  danger to be dreaded from  the  use of
 deadly drugs is greatly augmented  by the  great diversity
of opinions which are entertained as  to the effects which
 they produce on the body, frequently causing one drug to
 be given with the view of producing two opposite effects.
  In a very learned and  laborious work published by Dr.
Pereira, one of the physicians to the London hospital, and
chemical professor at that institution, entitled " Elements
 of Materia Medica,"  occur  the following passages  on the 
THE  WATER-CURE.
35
subjects of opium and mercury, two drugs  more univer-
sally in use than any other two in the whole list.   " Seve-
ral  physicians," says Dr. Pereira, " as  Dr. John Murray,
and Dr. Anthony  Tod Thomson, consider opium  to be
primarily stimulant;  some, as Drs. Cullen and Barbier, re-
gard it as sedative" (that is, just the contrary to stimulant);
" one, viz. Dr. Mayer, as both—that is, a  stimulant to the
nerves and circulatory system, but a sedative to the  mus-
cles and digestive organs ; another, viz. Orfila, regards it as
neither;  while others, as Miiller, call  it alterative."   Now
here are five different men holding no fewer  than five dif-
ferent opinions with regard to the effects  produced on the
body by this deadly drug, opium.  When these five physi-
cians give opium, it is clear that they give it with the  view
of producing five different and contradictory effects !
  But Dr. Pereira proceeds thus with regard to mercury:
" Again, mercury is,  by several  writers,  as  Drs. Cullen,
Young, Chapman, and Eberle, placed in the class of sialo-
gogues ;  by many, as Drs. A. T. Thomson,  Edwards,  Va-
vasseur, Trouseau, and Pidoux,  among excitants; by some,
as Conradi, Bertele, and Horn, it is considered to be seda-
tive ; by one, Dr. Wilson Philip, to be  stimulant in small
doses, and sedative in large ones; by  some, as Dr.  John
Murray, it is placed  among tonics ; by another, viz. Vogt,
among  the resolventia  alterantia;  by one, viz. Sundelin,
among the liquifacients ; by the followers of Broussais, as
Begin, among revulsives ; by the  Italians, as Giaccomini,
among contra stimulants, or hyposthenics;  by others, as
Barbier, among the incertai sedis"—or those drugs whose
modus operandi is not understood.
  After reading  such a statement as this, one can hardly 
36
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
be surprised that the word physician should have  been de>
fined to signify, "a man who puts drugs, of which he knows
nothing, into a stomach of which he knows less."
  With regard to any  danger likely to  result from going
into the  cold  bath  when covered with  perspiration,  such
danger is perfectly chimerical, and a mere popular fallacy
■—contrary to  all  the  deductions of science-—contrary to
all daily and  hourly experience ever since the creation of
the world—and for which no shadow of a physiological rea-
son can be given; while  all physiological reasoning  goes
directly to prove that it is safer to go into cold water when
the temperature of the  skin has been raised,  than  when it
has not been  raised ; and that if there be danger at all, it is
in going into cold water without first raising the temperature
—and in this there certainly is some danger.   And of
course it is with the elevated temperature  that  we have to
deal in this argument, and not with the mere presence of
perspiration on the external surface.   For  it  can certainly
be a matter of no importance whether the skin be  covered
with a certain quantity of that peculiar  grease called per-
spiration, or whether it be covered with an equal amount of
hog's lard or  white paint.  And it is quite evident, and all
modern writers agree that it is so, that re-action (the great
object to be attained) will be most certainly  produced, and
internal visceral congestion  (the  great evil to be avoided)
will be most certainly prevented,  by going into the water
when the surface of the body is warm.   And I need hardly
observe that the body is not made hotter in proportion to the
profuseness of the perspiration, but that,  on the contrary, it
is cooler  than before that effect is produced, for perspiration
is a cooling process.  So that it will not do to say  'that al- 
THE  WATER-CURE.
37
though it may be good to go into water when the body  is
moderately warm,  it is nevertheless bad to do so when it  is
extremely  hot.'   For when perspiration  is present  it  is
never extremely hot.
  As to the sudden .checking of perspiration, this too is
a chimerical danger.  For the oosing of perspiration al-
ways subsides of itself, almost at the moment that the
means which produced it are withdrawn.   And the per-
spiration which is still visible on the body, is merely that
which  has been already produced, and left upon the skin,
by an action of the vessels which has now already ceased.
The perspiration which is now seen  upon  the body has
no more connection with the system than so much oil  or
other greasy matters.
   I  say, too, that the supposition of danger is contrary
to all daily and hourly experience.  For, are  not our
out-of-door  laborers, our wagoners, our  sailors, our hay.
makers, and all  our farm  servants,  constantly exposed,
while  bathed in perspiration, to the effects of a natural
cold shower-bath, in the shape of rain, and that too with
perfect impunity ?   Is not the  constant  practice of boys
to bathe  in rivers, without thinking for  a moment,  or
caring a straw, whether they be in a perspiration or not 1
Does the North American Indian, when traversing his
hunting  grounds, and when  he finds his path obstructed
by a river,  ever pause for an instant  to consider whether
he be in a perspiration or not, before he plunges into the
flood ?  But the Indian is used  to it.  To  be sure  he  is,
and  it is to that very use and  wont to which he owes his
great strength, activity, and unimpregnable health.   And
why should not Englishmen use and accustom themselves 
38                HYDROPATHY J OR,

to the same thing ?  What is to prevent it ?   Why should
it not be?  I cannot even conceive a reason.
  If there were peculiar danger in being caught in a show-
er while perspiring, every showery day would crowd our
hospitals with its victims, and April  would be  the most
deadly month in all the year.  Nature has not adapted the
inhabitants of  the  earth to the circumstances of  the
earth's surface  so bunglingly.  On the contrary, the na-
ture of every living thing has been beneficially fitted to
the  nature of those circumstances  among  which it was
destined to dwell; and had a shower of rain possessed such
deadly properties, our heads would have been furnished
with a natural umbrella to defend it from the rain, as our
eyes are  accommodated with natural curtains to defend
them from the dust.
  In an exceedingly clever pamphlet  lately published by
Mr. Jackson, entitled " The Spleen a Permanent Placenta,
the Placenta a Temporary  Spleen," it has been reasoned out
with the most  beautiful  precision and great force, that
the  spleno-hepatic vein (one of  the  large  veins within
the  abdomen) is the propelling organ  which  drives  the
blood through the portal  system of veins and circulates
it through the liver ;  and that  it is congestion in this vein
which is frequently the cause of a great number of dis-
eases (epilepsy, amongst others).  If these views be correct,
they will account most satisfactorily for the good effects
of cold water, externally applied, in relieving that  large
class of diseases  depending  on  congestion  of  blood
in the liver—or what is called  a  sluggish liver.   The
application of cold to the bowels  would necessarily  cause
the spleno-hepatic vein to contract  upon its contents,  and 
THE WATER-CURE.
39
so empty itself, and propel the blood onwards through the
liver, and thus remove all congestion there—just as cold
applied to the back of the hand causes the veins there to
contract upon  their contents, thus emptying themselves,
and shrinking to their proper  size.  Whatever  causes
vessels to contract, augments the velocity of the blood's
circulation  through  them.  And congestion of one sort
or other, as we have just seen, is the proximate cause of
all  diseases whatever—and there is nothing which can so
quickly and certainly produce this contraction of vessels,
and removal of congestion, as the application of cold.
Propositions on the Principles and Practice of the Water-
            Cure.  By Drs. Wilson and Gully.

  The following propositions will show that the applications
of the water-cure are  in strict accordance with  the  facts
and phenomena of the living organism ;  and that without
an intimate acquaintance with these last it is utterly impos-
sible to make the applications with safety to the patient or
with credit to the practice or the practitioner.  Let the criti-
cal medical reader appeal, if he pleases, from our propositions
to the doctrines of the schools as embodied in the works of
the most celebrated modern writers on health and disease,
and say whether we have not accepted those doctrines.  In
truth, the premises of health and disease, established by ex-
periment and observation, stand untouched, as far as they
go ; far be it from us to contravene them.  It is only in the 
40
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
conclusions of practice that we differ from the great body
of our medical brethren.   We assert the perfect right to do
this so long as we can give scientific  reasons for  it.   Such
reasons are contained in these propositions.   Time and ex-
perience are  also  daily accumulating facts of cure which
come to the support of the justness of these reasons.
  I.  A  series of unnatural symptoms constitutes  a disease.
  II. This disease is referable to a morbid condition of some
of the textures of the body.
  III. All  disease  is originally acute,  that is to say,  the
symptoms are more or less rapid and pressing in their char-
acter, and more or less characterized by fever.
  IV. Acute disease is the effort of the morbid organ or
organs to throw off their disorder upon some less  important
organ or organs.   Thus,  acute inflammation of  the  liver,
stomach, or lungs, causes fever, that is, an effort  to throw
the mischief on the skin, the bowels, or the kidneys.
  V. If, from the great extent of the mischief to be thrown
off, and the feeble constitution, acquired or natural, of the
individual,  this effort is not successful,  the body dies from
exhaustion.
  VI. If this effort  be only partially successful, more or
less  of  the internal  mischief  remains, but gives rise to
symptoms of a less rapid and pressing and more permanent
character.  These  symptoms  then  constitute  a  chronic
disease.
  VII.  Except in the case of  accidents to the  limbs, we
know of no disease which  is not essentially internal.  Skin
diseases are invariably connected with disease of some in-
ternal organs, especially the  stomach and bowels, and are
regulated in their character and intensity thereby.  This is 
                   THE  WATER-CURE.                41

so true, that where there  is a skin disease the crisis effected
by the water-cure invariably takes place on the spot where
it exists.
  VIII. Acute disease, then, is the violent effort of internal
and vital organs to  cast their mischief on external and less
important organs.
  IX.  Chronic disease is the  enfeebled effort of the same
organs to the same end.
  X.  But as from the diminished power of  the constitution
this is always ineffectual, the morbid state of the organs
tends constantly towards disorganization,  or what is called
organic disease.   This is  more certainly the case,  if the
original causes of the malady are at work.
   XI.  Disease therefore  is curable when the power of the
system is sufficiently strong to throw the morbid action from
a more to a less  important organ.
   XII.  Disease  is incurable when the power in question is
insufficient  for the last-named  purpose ; and when it has
become organic,  that is, when a change  of structure has
taken place.
  XIII. From these premises it follows that the aim of sci-
entitle treatment should  be to aid the development of the
power  of the system and its efforts to rid its vital parts  of
mischief.
  XIV. That mischief invariably consists  in the retention
of an unnatural  quantity of blood in them,  to the detriment
of other parts of  the organism,—a  retention commonly
known by the terms acute inflammation, chronic inflamma-
tion, and congestion.                  .
  XV.  In endeavoring to develope the powers of the sys-
tem, the dissipation of this inflammation or congestion must 
42                 HYDROPATHY \  OR,
be constantly kept in view, as the end of which the consti-
tutional efforts are the means.
  XVI. But as the circulation of the blood everywhere is
under the influence of the organic system  of nerves, the
power and efforts of these last are essentially to be strength-
ened in order to dissipate the inflammation or  congestion
referred to.
  XVII. Curative treatment is therefore made through the
instrumentality of the nervous system.
  XVIII.  Violent  and sudden stimulation of the nervous
system of the internal organs, is invariably followed by ex-
haustion and  increased  inflammation and congestion.—
Hence the impropriety of alcoholic and medicinal stimulants.
  XIX. But the gradual  and judiciously regulated stimula-
tion of the nervous system according to the organic powers,
conduces to  the development and maintenance of its strength.
  XX. This stimulation  is the more steady and certain in
it sresults the more  universally it is  applied  to the entire
nervous system.
  XXI. To the external skin, therefore, and to the internal
skin, (as  represented by all  the lining membranes of the
lungs and digestive organs,) this stimulation should be ap-
plied, those  parts containing the largest portion of the ner-
vous system spread through them.
  XXII. Pure air applied to the lungs, proper diet, and water
applied  to the digestive organs,  and water applied to the
external skin,  fulfil   this  intention  of stimulation and
strengthening most effectually.
  XXIII.  Further,, as that portion of the nervous system,
(the brain and  spinal cord,)  in which the will resides, re-
quires the development of its powers, exercise of the limbs is 
THE WATER-CURE.
43
requisite, the stimulation of  the air, diet, and water aiding
thereto.
  XXIV.  Pure water, pure air, proper diet, and  regulated
exercise, are the great agents in effecting the cure of disease,
by aiding the natural efforts of the body, through the instru-
mentality of the nervous system.
  XXV. In the due apportionment of these agents, according
to the powers of the constitution and the phases of disease, as
ascertained by minute medical examination, consists the scien-
tific and the safe practice of the water-cure.
   XXVI. As strengthening  of the system by the regulated
stimulation of the nervous  system, is the  means, so the
throwing off disease  by more important  or less important
organs by  that  acquired  strength,  is  the end of  that
practice.
   XXVII. During the efforts of the system thus aroused for
so beneficial an end,  if agents are employed which divert
those  efforts and tend to centre  stimulus on the more im-
portant organs,  augmented  mischief is the certain result.
Such  agents are to be found in alcoholic  and  medicinal
stimulants,  applied to the internal skin and nerves : in hot
and impure air applied to the external skin and  nerves ; and
in exciting and  factitious pleasures and anxious cares, ap-
plied to the great centre of the nerves, the brain.
   XXVIII.  These and the mal-apportionment of the stimu-
lation included in water, air, diet, and  exercise, give rise to
the  only " Dangers of the Water-Cure."
   XXIX. The proper apportionment of  the stimulation in
 question  originates and maintains a  steady  effort  of the
system to save its vital parts at the expense of parts which
implicate life less immediately. 
 **                 HYDROPATHY ; OR,
   XXX. The result of this effort is shown in one of the fol-
 lowing ways : 1, the re-establishment of obstructed and sup-
 pressed secretions ;  2, in the elimination of diseased  matters
 through the bowels, kidneys, or skin ; 3, in the formation of
 a critical action of some sort on the skin.
   XXXI.  Such result constitutes the Crisis of the Water.
 Cure.
   XXXII. The  Crisis being the result of the extrinsic ef-
 forts of the vital organs, is to be viewed  as the signal of
 their relief, not as the instrument of their relief.
   XXXIII.  Still as, during the crisis, the tendency from
 the internal to the external organs is most strong,  it  is more
 than ever necessary to avoid the causes which act  in divert-
 ing this tendency  and in reconcentrating the mischief on
 the internal parts.
   XXXIV.  At the  same time,  the tendency in point being
 then strongly established, it is not necessary to stimulate the
 system  further  in  that direction,  and all treatment except
 that which allays irritation accordingly ceases.
  XXXV.  A crisis being the evidence of cure of the internal
disease, no recurrence of the latter is to be apprehended, unless
the morbid causes are re-applied.
                        Water.

  If water, the all-abundant fluid of Nature, is in reality
the best remedy, and if it is  capable of being made  the
means of fulfilling the various indications which  its  ad- 
THE  WATER-CURE.
45
vocates claim for it, it need hardly be said that the great-
est attention should be paid to its quality.  For whatever
purpose it is used, whether dietetic or remedial, it should
always be pure and soft.  When of proper purity, it is the
greatest diluent in nature.  As a standard of purity, we
may take rain or snow water, that falls unobstructed from
the clouds.
  Pure water, in its nature, does not irritate any organ or
tissue of the whole body.  If at all impure, it is liable to
be otherwise.  Every family, whether in city or country,
should  endeavor by all possible  means to have an abun-
dance of pure water.   When all other means fail, cisterns
and filters can easily be resorted to.  The expense would
be nothing in comparison to the health and  comfort that
would result from a proper attention to this all-important
matter. Some strangely attach a kind of miraculous im-
portance to spring water; as if spring water only would
answer as a remedy.   This is much like the idea respect-
ing Priessnitz's sponge, and is in exact keeping with the
popular notions which many have of remedies of various
kinds.  Pure water  will produce  like results under  like
circumstances always.
                       Drinking-

  The quantity usually directed by Priessnitz is from eight
to twelve tumblers  daily.  His general advice is, " Do 
46
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
not oppress your stomach, although I wish you to drink as
much as you can conveniently."  As to the time of drink-
ing, as a general rule, most should be taken before break-
fast,  rather less before  dinner, and least before supper.
Much drinking late in the day would be liable to disturb
the rest at night.  It should be taken, as  a general thing,
only after digestion.   Some, we are told, at Graefenberg,
drink enormous quantities, without any apparent incon-
venience, always taking active exercise at the same time;
yet, it should be remembered, that serious consequences
may   result from  the over-distension of the  stomach.
None should be drank while the body is very cold.  It, in
connexion with exercise,  healthfully  promotes perspira-
tion, and acts, also, in a highly beneficial manner upon the
venal secretions and organs, especially if they are in any
way  affected with chronic disease.   The  less the quanti-
ty taken at meals  the  better will be  the digestion as a
rule.   The aqueous portions of proper  food furnish a suf-
ficiency  of fluid, and in  those cases  when  it has been
deemed necessary to drink much at  the meal time, the sys-
tem would be much better with the water only, and then
the following meal,  temperate in  quantity, without the
drink.  Liebig,  we are  told, considers the purity of the
water of the utmost  consequence ; that if it  have not
more than two per cent,  of saline  matter, it would  prin-
cipally pass to the  bowels; but if of proper purity, eight-
tenths would in the shortest time pass off by the kidneys.
Water, when of proper purity, and  taken at proper times,
with  appropriate  exercise, will be found  to produce a
healthfully tonic effect upon the stomach  and bowels, and
must also exert often an important influence upon the blood 
                  THE WATER-CURE.                47

in freeing it from  various  irritating substances which it
may contain.
  In  fevers,  where  there is intense thirst, the copious
drinking of pure cold  water,  at proper  intervals and in
proper quantity, is highly grateful and salutary.  It is as-
tonishing that  there should have been so much error on
this subject, when Nature so distinctly points out the true
remedy and the best.  In all cases of thirst, the voice of
Nature should be heeded in this respect, and her demand
should be freely gratified.  But the physiologist will ap-
preciate the  fact, that the appropriate remedy may be
made to produce great mischief, and will act accordingly.
                      Injections.

  Internally, in the form of injections, water is often ad-
vantageously used for a variety of purposes.  In conges-
tions  and inflammations of different kinds in the abdo-
men,  it  is a  most powerful  agent.   And whenever the
evacuation of the bowels is needed, it, in this form, and
in connexion with drinking in suitable quantities, cannot
be too highly recommended.   In cases of very weak per-
sons,  it will be best to employ the tepid form.  It should
always be slowly introduced,  and  care be taken  that air
be excluded from  the instrument, by having it  entirely
filled  with the  water.   When  the first is rejected, a se-
cond or third,  and so  on, should  be repeated until  the de-
sired  object is attained.  Persons  in health should  in no 
48
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
way allow themselves to continue in practices which are
sure to bring about a necessity for this valuable remedy.
It, like all others, may be misused.  When used, it is use-
ful—but when abused, it is hurtful.  Injections are also
profitably  used in  diseases of the eye,  ear,  nose, &c.
These will need instruments appropriate  for the part into
which they are to be introduced.
                 Oral and Nasal Baths.

  Rinsing the mouth and nose are often advisable.  Draw-
ing water up  the nose  and expelling it, has a cleansing
and strengthening effect upon the mucous  membrane of
that organ.
           Rubbing Wet Sheet.  (Abreibung.)

  A linen sheet of coarse quality,  suitable  for holding
considerable water, and at the same time serving well for
friction, is here used.  It  is better to press and not wring
it out of the water, and may  be allowed even dripping.
The patient  standing ready, it  is to be thrown over the
head or  closely about the neck, so as to create a slight
shock, and immediately very active friction is to be used
by the assistant behind, and  the patient, if able, or anoth-
er assistant, before.  This should be continued from one 
                   THE WATER-CURE.                49
to five minutes, when the skin will have become reddened
and warm.  This must be  immediately followed briskly
by a coarse dry sheet or dry  cloths, until the surface is
perfectly  dry  and  in a complete glow.  The patient ia
then immediately dressed  for exercise, or for bed, as  the
case may  be.  The temperature of  the water used should
correspond with the strength of the patient.   Those who
are so feeble as to render it necessary for them to remain
in bed, can be often much benefitted by a judicious rub-
bing while in bed.   This is a highly useful and convenient
application, and, if judiciously made, will produce nearly,
if not quite all, the good effects of  a bath, and will often
be found much more convenient of application.
                Wet-Sheet, or Lein-tuck.

  The first reclining upon this sheet will be disagreeable.
If it is to be used to reduce the temperature of the body, as
in high fevers, it is well to have it  of coarse quality, in
order to hold more water.  To apply it,  the mattress of
the bed or couch should be made  bare, one or more large
thick woollen  blankets next, and  the  sheet last,  upon
which the patient is to lie.  He is to be quickly and snug.
ly enveloped, from the neck to the feet,  first with the wet
sheet and then with  the  blanket.  These adjusted with
care, the packing is finished by covering over  the whole
a light  feather bed, and a  quilt, or  a sufficiency of other
bedding without the feather bed.    It will be well for the
             3 
 50               HYDROPATHY ;  OR,

 patient to drink a little water occasionally ; and especial-
 ly if there be great thirst, it should be taken often, but not
 in too great quantity.
   In cases of acute rheumatism, or gout,  where it would
 be troublesome for the patient to be moved, or in any case
 where it might be better for the patient to remain quiet for
 a longer time, two or three sheets can be used instead of
 one,  to act  as a refrigerant for a longer  time.  A long
 towel  from the  armpit down, upon each side,  has  been
 recommended, so that the whole body be  exposed to the
 wet linen.
   In cases of acute fever, the sheets must be changed ac-
 cording to the degree of heat, every quarter or half hour,
 until the dry hot skin becomes softer, and more prone to
 perspiration.  This is usually the first process of the day,
 and is repeated or not, according to circumstances.
   The  wet sheet process i3 of great advantage  in a
 variety of chronic as well as acute cases; such as are at-
 tended with an irritable and inactive skin, and in a multi-
 tude of skin-diseases.   A frequent  change of the sheets
 in such cases would be unnecessary as a rule.  It will
 sometimes be well to let the  temperature raise until per-
 spiration takes place.   Determination  of blood to  the
 head  is  to  be  removed or prevented  by cold applica-
tions to it.  Should the feet remain cold in the wet cloths,
they should be extricated and wrapped in dry cloths only.
At the close of  the process the patient  should be briskly
rubbed until the surface is dry.
  "The wet sheet produces two diametrically opposite effects,
accordingly as it is used.  If it be changed frequently, as
 fast as the patient becomes warm, as, for instance, in ca- 
THE  WATER-CURE.
51
ses of fever, almost any amount of heat may be abstracted
slowly and gradually from the body.  But if the patient
remain for half an hour, the most delicious  sensation of
warmth,  and  a gentle  breathing perspiration are pro-
duced ; while all pains and uneasiness are removed. It pro-
duces all  the soothing influence upon the entire system
which is produced by a warm poultice on an inflamed sur-
face."—Johnson.
   For very delicate patients it has been suggested that the
sheet be pressed out of tepid water, as introductory to the
cold.
   Respecting the application of cold water over the  whole
body: " Let us now suppose that heat is abstracted from
the whole surface of the  body ;  in this case the whole ac-
tion of the oxygen will be directed to the skin, and in a
short time the change of matter must  increase throughout
the body.   Fat, and all such matters as are capable of com-
bining  with  oxygen,  which is brought to them  in  larger
quantity than usual, will be expelled from the body in the form
of oxydized compounds."—Liebig.
   " If therefore the body contain any morbific matters, these
 will be  expelled  in  the form  of such compounds."—
 Johnson.
    According to Liebig, the same results may sometimes be
 accomplished by a very scanty diet.
           Wet Bandages (Umschlags.)
Locally,  water  maybe applied in various ways.   Ban- 
52                 HYDROPATHY J  OR,

dages are made to produce the same effect upon any part of
the body, as the lein-tuck upon  the whole body.   As cool-
ing or refrigerant applications, they should be applied of a
size suited to the part inflamed, folded from three or four to
eight times, dipped in very cold water, and are to be renewed
from every three or four to ten minutes, according  to the
necessities of  the case.
  As to the effect of the various partial applications of cold
water to the system, " they act by  determining the force of
oxygen from one part to another.   They produce all  the
effects of both bleeding and blistering, except the pain."—
Johnson.
  " If," says Liebig, " we surround a part of the body with
ice or snow, while the  other parts are left in a natural state,
there  occurs,  more  or less quickly, in consequence  of the
loss of heat, an accelerated change of matter in the  cooled
part.
  " The resistance  of the living  tissues to the action of
oxygen is weaker at the cooled part than in the other  parts;
and this, in its effects, is equivalent to an increase of resis-
tance in these other parts—the whole action of the inspired
oxygen is exerted on the cooled part.
  " In the cooled part of the body,  the living tissues  offer a
less resistance to the chemical action of the inspired oxygen ;
the power of the oxygen to unite with the elements  of the
tissues is, at this part, exalted.
   " In  the  cooled  part the change  of  matter, and with it
the disengagement  of heat, increases;  while, in the other
parts,  the  change of matter  and  liberation of heat de-
crease."
   " And thus," says Dr. Johnsoo,  " by the judicious  use of 
THE  WATER-CURE.
53
cold water alone, all the good effects of blistering and bleed-
ing are most readily and certainly produced, without any of
the  bad  effects.   The  bad effects  of repeated bleeding in
certain diseases  are well  known to medical men.  We
know perfectly well, that it often happens that a patient is
saved by bleeding, from dying of an inflammation, only that
he may die of a  dropsy ; that a patient  is often saved by
bleeding  from  dying of haemorrhage  from the lungs, only
that he may die  the sooner of a consumption."
            Warming, or Stimulating Bandages.

   These are applied by folding  linen two  or  three  times,
and dipping them  in  cold  water,  or they may be made
slightly tepid;  they should  be  well  pressed or wrung out,
and are not to be changed until they begin to dry.   They
must be well adapted to the part, and also well secured from
the action of the air by a dry bandage, which is better to be
a non-conductor of heat, so that the part may be raised in
temperatnre.  The combined action of heat and moisture
thus produced is  highly beneficial in a great variety of in-
durations, swellings, tumors, &c.  In the water-cure, they
are also much used  in derangements of the digestive organs,
affections of the abdomen, diseases of the liver, &c.
  For the abdomen, a convenient form is made by folding
and  sewing together two or three thicknesses of linen, of
sufficient length to pass round the body two or more times,
the width varying according to the size of the person ; one
end is wet and wrung out, enough in length  to cover the ab-
domen, or to pass round the body if desirable, and then ap- 
54
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
plied as tightly as comfortable—and the dry folds over in the
same manner ; the whole secured by pins, or better by tapes
attached for the purpose.  There should always be enough
of dry cloths of some kind to prevent a permanent chill.
                     Sweating.
  In this process, the patient, being naked, is closely en-
veloped in a large thick blanket, with the legs  extended
and the arms close to the body.  The blanket must be
tightly drawn  and well tucked under, so that every part
of the body, from the head down, is in immediate contact
with it.  Then over all there must be  a sufficiency of
clothing of some sort, (cotton comfortables are good,) all
well tucked under  so  as  to retain  all the animal heat.
'' Thus hermetically enveloped, the patient exactly resem-
bles a mummy."   This constrained position and the irri-
tation of the blanket are at first disagreeable, particularly
until perspiration commences, which takes place in from
one half hour to two hours' time.   Those that perspire
with difficulty, should move the legs and rub the body with
their hands, all that the position will allow.  It is how.
ever more desirable to obtain the end without the exertion,
if it can  be  done.  Sometimes the  head,  all  but  the
face, is also covered.   When sweating commences, the
windows should be thrown open, so as to admit fresh air,
and the patient be allowed to take small draughts of water,
a wine-glass or more every ten or fifteen  minutes.   This
will not only be  refreshing,  but will  also  promote the
sweating.  If there be headache, or a determination of 
                  THE WATER-CURE.                55
blood to the head, cooling bandages should be applied, and
changed as often as necessary.   If from the  length of
time of the envelopment, it be necessary,  a urinal should
be placed at the patient before the wrapping up.  To allay
the pain of swellings,  tumors, &c. warming applications
should  be  applied before  the envelopment;   otherwise
the pain would be liable to an increase, before perspiration
commences.   Those who are very restless, should be con-
fined by additional cloths and girths; otherwise the time
would be too much prolonged.  With the best that ban be
done, some will require four or five hours' encasement.
   The best time for sweating in chronic cases, is early in
the morning.  As a rule, only once a day.  The  repetition
would be  the exception.  In acute cases, the  time of
sweating will depend upon the fever, exacerbations, &c,
and should be resorted to when necessary without refer-
ence to the time of day.
   When the process has continued long enough, the cover-
ings (all but the  thick blanket) are to be removed.  The
blanket must  be loosened,—about the legs in particular.
An attendant should wet with a cloth the  parts to be ex-
posed to the air.  The patient, if able, goes immediately
to the bath, washes the head, face,  neck and chest very
briskly, and then enters the bath immediately, and remains
from one to six or eight minutes, keeping up constant mo-
tion and friction ; and then immediately, on leaving the
bath, the whole surface must be  made thoroughly dry by
rubbing with cloths, &c.
  Those who  are able should then take exercise in the
open air, or in a well-aired room.   Those not able should
be well-rubbed by attendants.  No danger is to  be dread- 
 56                HYDROPATHY ; OR,
 ed from the sudden transition from heat  to  cold,  in this
 kind of sweating, if every thing  is  properly done, as abun-
 dant experience proves.
  This highly valuable part of the water-cure  can very
 easily be made the means  of much evil.   It is an engine of
 great power,  and therefore should be practised with the
 utmost caution.   In cold, phlegmatic habits, where the
 skin is inactive, the sensibility dull, and the circulation
 sluggish,  it is productive of great benefit.   But  in the
 sanguine temperament, where the circulation is active and
 the sensibility acute, or if in any case it is carried too far»
 it is productive of great mischief.   The relationship  or
 equilibrium, between the two great vital functions, circula-
 tion and respiration, would be  destroyed.  The velocity
 of  the circulation would  be increased,  without a corres-
 ponding increase of respiration, thus destroying an equi-
 librium, absolutely necessary to health, and which destruc-
 tion, if maintained for a considerable time, must inevitably
 terminate with the most serious results.
  " Profuse perspiration operates upon the body, first like
 the surgeon's lancet, in reducing  the volume of  the con-
 tained fluids.  Secondly, it operates like the physician's
 blister, by determining from the centre to the circumfer-
 enqe.  It thus relieves congestion of the vital organs, and
 lightens the whole system. But it does vastly more than can
 beachieved either by bleedingorblistering : for it extricates
 from  the body an increased amount of carbon and  hydro-
 gen, thus producing a deficiency  of these elements within  it.
 This  deficiency of  carbon  and hydrogen  is equivalent
 to a call for more food, in order  to  supply the place of the
lost carbon and hydrogen.  And thus it promotes appe- 
                   THE WATER-CURE.                57
tite, which is more than can be said for either lancet or
blister, by their warmest admirers."—Johnson.
  Priessnitz does  not resort to sweating as much as he
once did.   We are told that formerly, where he sweated
fifty patients, he does not now sweat half a dozen.
  In some cases it has been recommended to use a wet
sheet for sweating, of suitable size to reach from the arms
to the knees only.
                     Air and Exercise.

   It will be observed that these important adjuncts to any
 kind of treatment, share largely in the water-cure. Priess-
 nitz insists that all who are able shall take an abundance
 of out-door exercise regularly.  The value of such exer-
 cise is inestimable.   Every one  who observes at all res-
 pecting it, knows the invigorating effect it has upon the
 system.  The cases given by different authors in this work
 will furnish sufficient directions in reference to these ad-
juncts :
   " Priessnitz's first  endeavor is  to alleviate pain, so that
 the patients  may avail  themselves  of air and exercise.
 How far this object is attained may be judged of, from the
 circumstance that out of 500 or 600, the usual average
 number of patients  under his charge, there are seldom a
 dozen of persons in bed at one time.  If their complaint be
fever, he  is so completely master of the case, that no one
 ever keeps his bed,  and seldom  his room, for more than
 two or three days, excepting in cases of typhus, a malady
 which generally takes twelve or fourteen days to eradicate,
           3* 
58                HYDROPATHY ', OR,
but hardly ever longer.  The same remark will apply to
rheumatism.   If the sufferer can only  reach  Graefen-
berg, he may be sure of immediate  relief, such as else-
where would be called a cure, and which is repeated many
times a year ; but the cure can only be regarded then as
just commenced, it being Priessnitz's object to eradicate
the cause of malady from the system.  What is understood
by a cure at Graefenberg, is a perfect cleansing of the
body of all  impurities,  a radical cure of that which has
been the source of disease.   Cases of no very long stand-
ing succumb to the treatment, sometimes in two or three
months ; others resist for one or two years.  Supposing,
for an example, a  young man to be attacked by gout, let
him apply to Priessnitz, and he will be cured immediately ;
but  another, who has inherited it from  his  family, and
who has been a bon vivant himself for a number of years,
cannot expect to be  made a new man, but with the exer-
cise of patience ;  yet he will have this satisfaction, that
during the cure he will find himself, in other'respects, in
perfect health, never  be confined to his room, and be able
to take plenty of exercise."—Claridge.
                      Clothing.
  Priessnitz requires of his patients that they lay aside
their flannel and cotton.   He  holds " that  they weaken
the skin, render people delicate, and less able  to  contend
against atmospheric changes."   When objections  are
made, he says, " Wear it, then, over your shirt; but when
you are accustomed to cold water, you will not miss it. 
                   THE  WATER-CURE.                 50

After the bath,  which you have now taken, run or walk
until  you provoke perspiration.   You need then have no
fear of catching cold."
                         Diet.
   Some who advocate the water-cure, as practised by Priess*
 nitz, have made objections to the diet.   It is not pretended
 but that it is improveable.   When  it is said of his patients
 that " they eat too much,"  it is only saying what is true of
 civilized  man  the world over.  When Professor Mott of
 this city,  (New York,) in one of his lectures, said there was
 as much need of temperate eating societies, as there was of
 temperate drinking societies, he  by no means  meant  to
 be understood as placing a  low  estimate upon popular tern.
 perance societies ; he was  fully aware  of the undeniable
 fact, that  excesive alimentation is  in civilized man a most
 fruitful source of disease.  Admitting that the diet at Graef-
 enburg is  not in all respects what it should be, to  obtain the
 best results in treating disease, it only goes the more strong-
 ly to prove the power and value of the water-cure.   In some
 very important particulars,  Priessnitz has  shown  his good
sense and  judgment, all must admit, who are well informed
 on  the subject of diet.  " He deprecates," says Claridge,
" all exciting things, such as tea, coffee,  wines  and spirits,
and recommends  cold aliments rather than hot."  A rule
for dieting (in disease, second in importance to no other,) is
that which relates  to quantity.   In the process of starvation,
it is a well-known principle that the substances or parts of
the body least essential to life are the first to be wasted, and 
60                 HYDROPATHY }  OR,

on this same principle, in cases of shipwreck and other ac«
cidents, tumors have been known to disappear rapidly, and
old ulcers to heal in a very short time, with those who have
been thus subjected.  This rule, of course, will not apply in
all cases of disease.
  " I know a gentleman," says Dr. Johnson, " who was en-
tirely cured of an obstinate permanent stricture by adopting
a very severe course of abstinence, as it regards both food
and drink,  for two or  three weeks.   I am also acquainted
with several other very severe cases of disease, entirely
cured by the rigorous adoption of a severe diet—but always
in connexion with a very mild course of the water-treatment."
                      The Crisis.
  One most remarkable  feature  in  the water-cure, is  the
Crisis, as it is termed.  It is said that  at Graefenberg it is
really amusing to observe with what  anxiety it is looked
for  by the patients.   In most cases it proves the certain
harbinger  of  a good cure.   " The patients themselves are
constant witnesses of this fact, and  it is no wonder, there.
fore,  that they should look  forward with pleasure and hope
to its advent in their own persons.  A patient is no sooner
missed from the table, than  the  question goes round, «Has
so-and-so got a crisis V  And  if the reply be in the affirma-
tive, the report spreads like the news of a fresh victory, and
his friends assemble around  him—not with  long faces to
condole him—but with merry smiles, and laughing jests, to
congratulate  him on his happy fortune."  " The following
allegorical  lines  from  Southey,"  says  Capt.  Claridge, 
THE WATER-CURE.
61
" might with great justice be literally applied, by the indivi-
dual who has passed through the crisis, and been restored to
health" :

          " Most blessed water !  Neither tongue can tell
          The blessedness thereof, nor heart can think,
          Save only those to whom it hath been given
          To taste of that divinest gift of heaven.
          I stopped and drank of that divinest well,
          Fresh from the rock of ages where it ran ;
          It had a heavenly quality to quell
          All pain.  I rose a renovated man ;
          And would not now, when that relief was known,
          For worlds the needful suffering have foregone."

   " The crisis  is generally ushered in by a sense of uneasi-
ness, a loss of  sleep and  appetite, an alternate change from
heat  and  cold, and lastly by all the symptoms of fever,
which is sometimes violent,  but always of short duration, if
properly attended to.  At its termination, the alvine and
other evacuations are more  plentiful,  and accompanied by
a more copious separation of extraneous matter than ordi-
narily ; sometimes by several of the excretory passages at
the same time.  This  increased secretion  is generally ac-
companied by  a variety of eruptions of  the skin, by boils,
abscesses, ulcers, &c."—Weiss.
   " The term crisis applies to any very marked disturbance
of the system,  or cutaneous change ; as the crisis fever,
odorous  perspiration,  odorous urine, vomitings, diarrhoea,
haemorrhoidal discharge of blood, and various kinds of erup-
tion on the skin."
   In  very many cases of cure, there  is said to be  no per-
ceptible crisis of any kind.    There appears to be no very
general rule respecting it. "In some old and obstinate cases 
62
HYDROPATHY J  OR,
of gout, mercurialism, &c, it is said to take place as many
as from three to five times before the cessation of the disease^
and the re-establishment of perfect health.
                  Baths.  By Claridge.

   The entire or public bath at Graefenberg, is about thirty
feet in circumference, and sufficiently deep for a man of the
ordinary height to plunge into up to his neck.   The water
is constantly renewed  by springs  in the mountains,  the
waters of which are conveyed through pipes into the bath,
and  escape by an opening for that purpose,  so  that  no  im-
purities may remain ; besides which, the bath  is emptied
and  cleaned twice a day : but this remark applies to Grae-
fenberg only, as at Freiwaldau, with but few exceptions, the
houses are supplied with  portable baths.
   The immersion of the body covered with sweat, into cold
water, is exempt from danger, provided  the organs of per-
spiration are in a state of repose.  The risk which is incur-
red of catching cold, if, on arriving at a river to bathe,  we
remain until the body is cold and dry, cannot possibly exist
in this case; as  we thereby  abstract  from the body  the
heat which it requires to produce reaction,  and thus lose
the good effect of bathing.   Then if we walk fast, or a long
distance to the bath, it is  requisite to repose a little in order
to tranquilize the lungs,  after  which  we  must undress
quickly and  plunge head-foremost  into  the water,  having
first  wetted the head and chest to prevent the blood mount-
ing to those regions.   This precaution is strongly enforced
at Graefenberg.   During the bath the head ought to be im- 
                   THE  WATER-CURE.                63

mersed several times into the water.  Great care is  requi-
site in not exposing the  body, between  throwing aside the
blanket after sweating and entering into the bath.
   It is  highly advantageous to keep in movement  in the
bath, and to rub with  the hands any parts afflicted.  The
skin is thus stimulated, and the  sensation  of cold abated.
People whose chests are  affected  must exercise moderation
in the use of the bath,  entering it only by degrees, and not
staying in it too long.   In general, the time for remaining in
the bath is governed by the coldness of the water, and the
vital heat of the bather ; but no general rule can be adopted
with respect to this.  At Graefenberg, where the temperature
of the water is from 43 to 50 degrees,  no one stays longer
in the bath  than from six to eight minutes,  many only two
or three.  Priessnitz advises his patients to avoid the second
sensation of cold, which is a sort of fever, by leaving the
bath before it is felt: by this means the  patient will avoid a
too powerful reaction, provoked  by a great subtraction of
heat. This precaution is indispensable at the epoch of the
treatment,  marked by fevers and eruptions.   Then a reac-
tion, produced by an immoderate use of the bath or douche,
would compel the invalid to keep his bed for  some  days,
without at all accelerating the cure.
   On leaving the bath, which is found more  refreshing than
any one can imagine who has not experienced its effects,
you are covered with a sheet,  over that a cloak is thrown,
and thus you go to your room, where the whole body is dried
and rubbed ; then you  must dress quickly, and walk to keep
up the  warmth.  To  effect this  by the heat  of stoves or
beds, would be acting in  direct opposition to the treatment.
A glass or  two  of water immediately after the bath, is
agreeable, and should not be omitted whilst walking. 
64                 HYDROPATHY ;  OR,

  When irritation is highly excited during the cure, baths
should be suspended, as they would augment it.  A general
washing of the body, and  sitz-baths, are then  resorted to.
Sweating is also replaced  by the envelopment of the body
in a damp sheet, the repeating of which operation, together
with  the  sitz-bath,  will  cause  the irritation  to cease.
                    The Half-Bath.
  The half-batfi is about the size of those generally used in
our houses,  and is  only employed  in  cases in  which the
whole bath would be too much for the strength of the inva-
lid, who may require  to be  bathed for a longer time, in
order to excite  the morbid humors.   It is, in effect,  less
active  than the entire bath,  and being attended with less
danger, is frequently administered to new-comers, for about
a week preparatory to the  large bath; the temperature of
the small or half-bath is never lower than sixty degrees.
  Tho  water in these half-baths is  only about  three to six
inches deep.   When it is necessary that the invalid  should
have the advantage of an entire bath, water is poured upon
him or the attendant constantly wets  the body and head
with the water of the bath.
  When these small baths  are used, in order to be less ex-
citing, the upper part of the body is sometimes covered, and
the bath hermetically closed, so that the head only appears.
This is in cases where it is necessary that the invalid  should
remain in  them  for an hour or two.  We have known
Priessnitz order this for five or six hours at a time,  and
repeat  it several days successively, in order to provoke irri- 
THE WATER-CURE.
65
tation and produce fever.   Last year, a doctor afflicted with
an atonic gout, was subjected to this treatment, and was com-
pletely cured.  It is, indeed, a common thing at Graefen-
berg to see  invalids remain  for hours  thus enclosed  in the
small bath, and continue doing the same for days, until fever
is produced ;  this brings the morbid matter to the skin in
the form of abscesses, which sometimes discharge themselves
in sufficient quantity for the matter to fill several glasses.
When this crisis takes place, the baths are suspended during
the discharge of these humors, by which the system is  much
benefitted.
   The half-bath is frequently taken by the  patient imme-
diately after he has been confined in the  wet sheet.   It is
accompanied by a general sprinkling of the body with cold
water  and  rubbing.   Whilst  still  sweating,  the  patient
should hasten to the bath, throw off the covering, previously
wetting the head and chest, and the attendant  should pour
a pailfull of  water upon the head, when  the face and the
body must be well rubbed.   This last part of the  process is
often continued for ten or fiften minutes together, sometimes
much longer.  When the patient quits the  bath he dries
himself,  dresses, and  proceeds to take  exercise in the open
air immediately;  but persons who have not the  means of
consulting  a doctor  acquainted with  Priessnitz's  mode of
treatment, are not advised to attempt this.
  In almost all cases of fever the patient is first wrapped
up hermetically in a wet sheet, which is changed as soon as
it becomes warm, and repeated until the fever has subsided.
As each  of these  sheets will  become hot  from having  ex-
tracted a certain  quantity of the  caloric from  the body, it
necessarily follows that  a chill will succeed  the subsiding 
66
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
of the  fever; the patient  is then placed in the bath and
rubbed all over, by two persons, with the bare hand, until
all the symptoms  are abated.  The patient then joins in the
promenade, or at the public tables.  If at night feverish
symptoms return, the same operation is performed, and re-
peated  until a perfect cure is effected.
                      Foot-bath.
  The foot-bath is employed almost exclusively as a coun-
teracting agent against the pains of  the upper part of the
body.  Priessnitz prescribes these baths for precisely the
same purposes that the faculty order warm ones, yet every
one knows that the feet, after a warm bath, become cold,
and then the reaction is upwards, whilst, on the contrary,
after a cold bath the  feet become warm and the reaction
is downwards.   Headache, and tooth-ache, whatever may
be their causes, particularly those that are  of a violent
nature, inflammation of the eyes, and effluxes of blood to
the head, are  almost always relieved by means of the
foot-bath.  To this should be added the application of wet
bandages, without dry ones over them.  The tub, or basin,
in which these foot-baths are taken, ought only to contain
water from two to three inches deep, or just enough to co-
ver the toes ; for the tooth-ache, one inch is sufficient; and
the bath may be applied for some fifteen minutes to half
an hour.   In cases of sprains, the feet must be put in wa-
ter up to the ancles.   The water, when it becomes luke-
warm,  should  be changed.   The feet, during the  whole
time, should be well rubbed by the hand, or against each 
THE  WATER-CURE.
67
other, in order to promote a strong reaction.  Care must
be taken that the feet are  warm before they are  put  into
water, and exercise should be taken immediately after-
wards,  to  bring back the heat to them.  Rubbing them
with a dry hand assists this very much.  Cold foot-baths
are sure means of preventing tendency to cold in the feet;
the application of hot water only weakens the skin,  and
renders the feet more susceptible to cold.  When they are
extremely  cold, instead of exposing them to the fire to
warm, it is much better to produce the effect required, by
exercise.   If we want any proof of the reaction caused
by  the foot-bath,  and its powers of preservation from
catching cold, we have but to feel our feet an hour or  two
hours after the bath, and we shall then find them extreme-
ly hot.   If we cannot avoid being exposed for a long time
to a piercing cold, it is well to take a cold  foot-bath  two
hours previous  to going out.  After great fatigue, a foet-
bath of this description, before going to bed, is most re-
freshing.   Gouty subjects should not use these baths with-
out advice; but  to people  in  general, Priessnitz  re-
commends  their frequent use.   He contends, that in the
feet many of the most serious complaints commence.
  Homer, when he stated  Achilles to be  invulnerable ex-
cept in  the heel, no doubt  knew that the feet were the
most important parts  of the human frame.   The poorer
people,  who wear neither shoes nor stockings, or whose
feet are constantly exposed to a sort of foot-bath, are sel-
dom subject to those complaints which attack the  upper
region of the body.
  An Irish gentleman, thinking to do his shepherd a  ser-
vice, who had lived in a low marshy situation for many 
68                HYDROPATHY ;  OR,

years, sent him to another estate, which was high and dry,
and asking him how he liked it, he replied, " Not at all;
he had never been well a day since he had been there, for
there was not a drop of water to wet his feet."
                     Head-bath.
   Head-baths are  used  for rheumatic pains  in the head,
common headaches, rheumatic inflammations of the eye,
deafness, loss of smell and taste.   They tend to disturb
the morbid humors, which nature generally evacuates  in
the form of abscesses in the ears.   They are also used to
prevent the flow of blood to the head, but in this case only
for a few minutes,  in order to avoid too great a reaction.
These should be followed by exercise in the open air,  in
the shade.  This  bath  is used as follows : a washhand
basin should be placed at the end of a rug upon the  floor.
On this rug the patient should extend himself, so that his
head may  reach the basin, at the bottom of which may be
placed  a towel for the head to rest upon.  Then the back
of the  head must be placed in the water ; then one side ;
and lastly, the other side of the head.  All this is termi-
nated by again placing the back part of the  head  in the
water.
  The  duration of this bath depends upon the nature and
extent of the disease.  In chronic inflammation of the eye,
each part of the head should remain  in water for  fifteen
minutes ;  and as long for deafness, loss of smell and taste.
All this will occupy an hour, during which time the  water
should  be renewed twice. 
THE  WATER-CURE.
69
  If these baths and foot-baths are continued with perse-
verance, success is certain.   This success is generally an-
nounced by violent head-aches, until the  formation of an
abscess takes place, which finishes by breaking.
  For the common head-ache, the back of the head may
be exposed to  the water from ten to fifteen minutes, and
each side from five to ten minutes ;  if it is obstinate, a
foot.bath and a sitz-bath, both slightly chilled, should be
used for half an hour each.
                     Finger'bath:

  For whitlows the finger is placed in a glass of water,
three times a day, fifteen minutes each time, the finger and
hand bandaged; then the elbow must be placed in water
twice a day, and a heating  bandage placed on the arm
above it; this will  have the effect of drawing the inflam-
mation from the hand.
                      Eye-bath.

  Water  is held to the eye, which for a minute is kept
closed, and then opened for five minutes in a small glass,
made for the purpose, in  circumference about the size of
the eye.   The head-bath is generally used with this bath,
but the latter is repeated oftener, and in most cases where
there is inflammation, a fomentation is applied to the back
of the head on going to bed, and another at the back dur- 
70                HYDROPATHY J OR,

ing the day.   For weak eyes the forehead is bandaged on
going to bed.  Sitz and foot-baths form part of this treat-
ment.
                       Leg-bath.

   The thighs  and legs, when afflicted with ulcers, ring-
worms, wounds, or fixed rheumatic pains, ought to be put
into a bath so as  to cover the parts  afflicted.  The ob-
ject of these baths is for them to act as stimulants.   They
may be taken for an hour, and sometimes longer :  they
always determine abscesses, and where  they  already ex-
ist, they cause an abundant suppuration.  They are also
applicable to any other members  afflicted in a like man-
ner.
                    The Sitz-bath.
  For want of a better term, we adhere to that of the Ger-
mans, and instead of a sitting we call it a sitz-bath.
  This is a small flat tub, of about seventeen inches in di-
ameter, with water seldom more than three or four inches
deep; in  this people  sit  as  in a hip bath, with their feet
resting on the ground, for different periods; a quarter of an
hour, half an hour, an hour, or more, as may be  deemed
sufficient. This, in some cases, is repeated two or three
times a day.   The sitting bath is considered by  Priessnitz
to be of so much importance in his treatment, that those
patients are  considered  quite as exceptions for whom it is 
THE WATER-CURE.
71
not prescribed.  It  has the  effect of strengthening the
nerves, of drawing the humors from the head,  chest, and
abdomen, and relieving flatulency, and is of the utmost
value to those who have led a sedentary life.
  The object of using so little water in this bath, the half-
bath, and foot-bath, is, that a re-action  may the sooner be
effected.  If a greater body of water were used,  it would
remain cold during the whole time of its  application, and
cause congestions to the upper regions;  whereas, in this
case, it almost immediately attains the heat of the blood ;
and admits of an immediate re-action.
   To prevent the  former,  the patient should apply a wet
bandage to the head:  and  to succeed  more effectually  in
the object for which the sitz-bath  is prescribed, he should
rub the abdomen as much as possible with a wet hand.
                 Drop Bath.   (Weiss.)

  This term is applied to single drops of water falling from
a height of several fathoms.   For this form of bath a ves-
sel  is  used filled with very  cold water,  and  furnished
with a very small aperture, through which water passes in
the form of drops.   The small aperture should be partially
closed  by a plug, to prevent the drops from following each
other in rapid succession.  By these means their operation is
considerably increased, and it becomes  yet more potent if
we  allow the drops to fall upon a particular part at  certain
periods, and rub the part during the intervals.   The  reac-
tion about to commence will indeed be thus interrupted, but 
72
HYDROPATHY J OR,
will afterwards make its appearance in a more powerful and
energetic form.
  The violent excitement and irritation of the nervous sys-
tem produced by these baths, render it necessary to restrict
the use of  them to  half an  hour ; nor are  they indeed
adapted for vital parts, or such as are abundantly supplied
with nerves.
  They are often used with more effect in  obstinate and
chronic cases of paralysis, than the douche or affusion, with
which  they  may alternate.  Powerful and  continued fric-
tion with a horse-hair glove is never in this case to be ne-
glected after the baths.
                    The Douche-bath.

  The douche, of all the  means  employed,  is  the  most
powerful in moving the bad humors, and disturbing  them
from the position which they may have occupied for years:
they are  also used in the greater  number  of chronic dis-
eases.  The douche corrects the weakness  which the skin
may have contracted in the process of sweating, and also for-
tifies it.  It hardens the body, and renders it capable of sup"
porting all variations in the atmosphere.   It  exercises a
powerful action upon the muscles and nervous system, by
the re-action which it provokes.  What is understood  by a
douche, at Graefenberg, is a spring of water running out of
the mountain, conveyed by  pipes into small huts, where it
falls from the top in a stream about the  thickness of  one's
wrist,  which fall  constitutes  the  difference between the
douche and a shower bath ; outside this hut is another for 
THE WATER-CURE.
73
dressing,  constructed  like  the first,  in the  rudest way
imaginable.
  There are six douches in the forest of Graefenberg, the
fall of the first is fifteen feet; the second ten feet; the third
twenty feet; the fourth eighteen  feet.  The douches set
apart for women have  a fall of twelve feet  each: the  dia-
meter of the fall is the same as in those of the men.
  At the colony there  is a douche which is available all the
winter ; this is not the case  with the others.  About half a
mile out of the town of Friewaldau, there are four more
douches, resorted to by both sexes.  Nearly  all the douches
are at some distance from the  places of residence of the
patients, which occasions a walk to arrive at them, so  that
the body  is in a glow,  and  better calculated to be bene-
fitted by  the  effect  of the  water,  when  submitted to the
process.
  Parts afflicted should, for  the greater part of the time, be
exposed to the action of the douche, though it must be re-
ceived occasionally upon all parts  of the body, except on
the  head  and  face, unless  this is especially  ordered by
Priessnitz.  Weak chests should also avoid  it on that part
and the abdomen, otherwise the fall  of  the water on the
lower part of the stomach or  belly is  not injurious.  The
atony of this region  will not, however, always  resist these
means.  The relief afforded by the douche, sometimes in
a few minutes, in arthritic cases and rheumatism, is almost
miraculous.
  The douche  being intended to  put the morbid humors
in movement, ought to be  discontinued when  it  produces
feverish excitement, and  be commenced again when that
has  ceased.
               4 
74                 HYDROPATHY ; OR,

  The time recommended for the douche by  different au-
thors is, from one  half minute  to  fifteen minutes.  This,
as all  other strong impressions on the body, as  a rule,
should never be made  with  a full stomach, and  generally
not more than once or twice daily.
  " The most intense impression which can  be  made  by
the application of cold water is  by the douche—and there
must be in the system a very considerable amount of vital
force to enable the patient to bear this mode of application.
A misapplication may so far lower the vital resistance as to
make the re-action exceedingly  difficult or even impossible.
It may knock the patient so violently down as to make it
difficult for him to get up again—thus giving  rise to drop-
sical  swellings  of the legs and feet,  venous congestion,
piles, varicose veins, and other symptoms of deficient vital
action.  It sometimes produces the most extraordinary ef-
fects, as weeping, laughing, trembling, &c.   In  its proper
place, however, it exercises a most powerful influence over
disease;  and seems to exert an especial impression upon
the absorbents.  I have seen tumors of long standing most
rapidly absorbed,  and disappear, under  the  use  of  the
douche."—Johnson.
                       Dropsy.
  Many object to the drinking of cold water, on the ground
that animals  only drink to quench their thirst.   This is
true, but they do not live in  our  artificial state, nor are
they subject  to the influence of the mind.  It cannot be
denied that the nearer people approximate to nature, the 
THE  WATER-CURE.
75
less they need adhere to any prescribed rules ;  but man
resorts to water to establish his health, therefore the quan-
tity must be increased, not only for the  purpose of allay-
ing his thirst, but to dilute, purify, and restore, in quanti-
ties  which must  depend upon  the inconvenience or pain
experienced.  By this simple means, serious indispositions
are  often  prevented.  Another  argument  made  use of
against drinking cold water is, that it produces dropsy.
In the first place, it is evident, that if this were true, such
a complaint ought not  to exist amongst us, for whoever
heard of an  Englishman drinking too much water 1   But
we affirm, on  the contrary, that this disease is caused by
the  injudicious administration of drugs ; the use  of too
large a quantity of them ; by omitting to drink cold water,
and by neglecting to wash or bathe body daily in that ele-
ment.
   If the skin is so much relaxed that it no longer throws
out those matters which daily reach it from the interior
of the body, fluids are collected underneath the skin which
ought to be evaporated, and which cause inflation, pale-
ness, and cold.  This is what is called dropsy.
   The more the human body is injured  by drugs, the more
 it is  in need of strong perspiration, because it endeavors,
 by the aid of this physical agent, to relieve itself of all dis-
 eased matter.  From this it may be inferred that no persons
 are  more in need of the cold water-cure than those who
 have taken too much physic.   Further, strong poisons, of
 whatsoever nature they  may be, whether  mercury, blue
 pill, calomel, bark, or spirituous liquors, to excess, frequent-
 ly cause death oy dropsy ; sometimes this disease is caused
 by catching cold, but only those are liable to it  who have 
76
HYDROPATHY J  OR,
 produced a disposition to the complaint by relaxing the
 skin.  The only remedy formerly known was to draw off
 the water by  tapping,  which operation,  often  repeated,
 gives a respite to life  for a short time.   This illness, in
 its infancy, may always be speedily cured by Hydropathy,
and, in its most advanced stages, if there be any strength
left in the constitution,  this  disease will be eradicated by
the water-cure ; it being the property of this treatment
to revive the activity of the skin, and enable the latter to
indulge freely in the necessary ejection of perspiration.
   From  the returns of  the year 1841, within the  city of
London,  and bills of mortality, amongst  a people alto-
gether opposed to the use of water,  we find that from
dropsy  alone  the  deaths amounted to no less a number
than 584.  Any one who never takes  physic  nor intoxi-
cating liquors, and keeps to a water diet, may be perfect-
ly sure of never being attacked with dropsy.—Claridge.
Diseases to which theWater-Cure is more esp  ially adapted.
                   By Dr. Johnson.
  I shall now proceed to enumerate  a few  of those  dis-
eased conditions of the  body to  which  the  water-cure  is
most especially adapted.  But I would here premise  that
this mode of treatment, when properly modified,  and care-
fully adapted to the peculiarities of individual constitutions,
and to the nature of the disorder,  can seldom fail of con-
ferring more or less benefit,  let  the  diseased condition be
what it may.  This is true from the very nature of the re-
medy, the effect of which is to strengthen the general  sys- 
THE WATER-CURE.
77
tern.   And undoubtedly a certain amount of strength may,
by it, be accumulated in the body, although the actual dis-
ease itself may not be eradicated.   In cases where it is im-
possible that the disease should be cured, the general health
and strength may be so much improved as to render it far
more easily endured.
   I must also premise, that besides those diseases which I
am about to mention, as well as many  others concerning
which want of room must necessarily keep me silent, there
are a multitude of anomalous and undenominated disorders,
so entirely varied  in form, character,  and  symptoms, that
any attempt to enumerate them here is perfectly out of ques-
tion—and yet many of these are unquestionably such as can
be entirely  removed by hydrotherapeutic  treatment, upon
the principles herein laid down as the foundation  of that
mode of cure.


                     Acute Diseases.
   The diseases over which  the water-cure is said  to pos-
sess the most  rapid and  striking  influence, are  acute dis-
eases.   Fevers, febrile diseases, inflammations, &c, <kc.—
such of them, of course, as are curable by any means—are
said to be removed with a certainty and  rapidity  which is
little  less than magical.  A fever which,  under ordinary
treatment, would  confine  the  patient to his bed  for six
weeks or two months, is frequently overcome in two or three
days,  and the patient is thus restored to health before there
has been time for the approach of that extreme weakness
and emaciation so constantly  the  result  of a long illness,
even after the disease itself has been vanquished. 
78
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
  In all curable acute diseases, therefore, the water-cure is
peculiarly and especially available.


              Neuralgic or Painful Diseases.
  In all painful disorders also—disorders the chief charac-
ter of which is severe and acute pain—this  treatment pos-
sesses the most extraordinary and even unaccountable pow-
ers of relief.  Severe pain is a sensation almost entirely un-
known at Graefenberg.


                      Indigestion.
  There is a most extensive class  of symptoms,  manifest-
ing themselves in various groups,  in  different persons, at-
tacking almost every individual, more or less severely, and
more or less frequently, throughout the whole range of the
upper and middle classes;  sparing  neither  age,  sex, nor
condition ; undoubtedly the cause of more human suffering
than any other disorder, and which class of symptoms has
received the general appellation.   These distressing sensa-
tions are exceedingly various, and  indeed only agree among
themselves in being universally accompanied by evidences
of a disordered stomach.  The term indigestion is an ex-
ceedingly absurd  one—inasmuch  as it implies  that  the
faulty action of the stomach is always the cause—whereas
the faulty action of the stomach is much  more  frequently
the effect of disorder in  some other organ.   Ignorance  of
this fact, (well known to medical  men, however,)  has led
persons to do themselves infinite mischief, and  actually  to
bring on disorder  in a  previously  healthy  stomach,  by a 
THE WATER-CURE.
79
misapplication of remedies.  For  instance, a man gets a
headache and a disordered condition of the stomach, at one
and the same time.  He never hesitates  a moment as to
what he should do, but forthwith sets about physicing his un-
fortunate and most innocent stomach—taking it for granted
that it is the disordered  stomach which has produced the
disordered  brain; whereas it much more  frequently  hap -
pens that it is the disordered brain which has productd the
disordered  stomach.   He addresses  his  remedies to the
wrong organ, thus doing no good  to  the one and  infinite
mischief to the other.
   I believe that indigestion hardly ever (now-a-days)  com-
mences in the stomach.   But the healthy functions of the
stomach are continually  disturbed, by a distressed, irritated,
fagged, worn-out condition of the  brain and nervous sys-
tem—from  which system alone  the stomach, like every
other organ, must derive all its vigor.  But how  can the
stomach derive vigor from the brain and nervous system, if
the brain and nervous system  have no vigor themselves 1
Indigestion  is  almost peculiar to the upper and middle
classes, and, amongst these, is nearly a universal disease.
There must, therefore, be a universal cause for  it, which
cause must be peculiar to these classes.  But excess, either
in eating or drinking, is  not now, by any means, a universal
fault in, nor is it peculiar to, these classes.
   But there is a morbid cause, which is almost  peculiar
to the upper and  middle classes,  and which is, also, al-
most universal amongst these classes.
   This cause is a morbid, undue,  and excessive excitement
of the brain and nervous system.    And the  morbid sensi-
bility which necessarily results from this constant excess 
80
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
of nervous excitement I take to be by far the  most fre-
quent source of indignation.  For it must  be remembered
that the stomach derives  its digestive powers  from  the
eighth pair of nerves, along which nerves the nervous
influence  is transmitted to the stomach like electricity
along the  conducting wire, or steam through a tube.   If
this nerve be divided in a healthy dog, while digesting his
meal, digestion instantly  stops and becomes impossible.
  Among the upper and  wealthy classes,  this  excessive
excitement is derived  from artificial, and unnaturally re-
fined, sources of  pleasure.  The theatre,  the  ball-room,
music, dancing, gaming,  political ambition daily disap-
pointed, fashionable emulation  perpetually on the strain
—petty contentions  of all  sorts—late hours  and luxu-
rious habits—these, in the upper ranks, are the causes of
excessive excitement—morbid  sensibility—anxiety—in-
digestion.
  In the middle classes,  the same morbid  results are  ob-
tained, by the same means, from sources somewhat differ-
ent.  And the cares of business, the anxieties  of specu-
lation, solicitude  for the  welfare of a numerous  family,
pride hourly contending with poverty, debts, doubts, dan-
gers, and  difficulties—these do for men  of the  middle
rank, what the causes above enumerated do for  those of
the upper.
   Seme  of the more   prominent  features  of this  many.
hoaded monster I will  here enumerate.   They are nausea,
pain abouf the region of the stomach and sides,  head-
ache, heart-burn, a sense of fullness, distension,  or weight
in  the stomach,  a feeling as if a ball were lodged  in the
throat, acid or offensive eructations, flatulence, vomiting, 
THE  WATER-CURE.
81
especially of a clear liquor ( like  pure  water),  some-
times of an  acid quality, and often in large quantity, a
sensation of sinking or fluttering at the pit of the stomach,
and loss  of appetite ; costiveness or irregularity  of the
bowels,  with a morbid  appearance of the evacuations ;
pain of the back and turbid urine ;  a disagreeable taste
in the mouth,  especially on waking ; a feeling of sting-
ing, or  heat, as of cayenne pepper, in the mouth;  tooth-
ache, palpitation,  pulsation in the region of the stomach,
irregularity of pulse ; short, dry cough,  and  occasional
difficulty of  breathing ;  giddiness, languor, lassitude, de-
pression of spirits,  with fear of death  or of impending
evil.
   Whenever this  long train of distressing symptoms has
arisen from  excessive irritation of the nervous system—
from morbid  sensibility, without organic lesion—as  it
does in nineteen cases  out of twenty—it can be  cured,
beyond question, by the hydropathic treatment—by exalt-
ing  and accelerating the change of matter.


               Leucorrhcea, or Fluor Albus.
  This most  distressing,  enfeebling,  and exceedingly
common  disease—a disease which resists almost  every
other  mode  of treatment—depending, as it  does,  upon
chronic inflammation of the uterus, is well calculated to
be effectually removed by the invigorating method adopt-
ed  at Graefenberg, and   other  hydropathic festablish-
ments.
  Attempts have lately been made  to show that leucor-
rhcea depends upon an ulcerated condition of the os uteri.
           4* 
82                HYDROPATHY J OR,

It is extremely probable that the  os uteri  may  be fre-
quently found  in an ulcerated condition  in  females  la-
boring under leucorrhcea, but the more probable inference
is that the ulceration is the effect, and not the cause, of
the morbid discharge—whose acrimonious nature is often
fully sufficient to account for the ulcerated  condition of
the os uteri.  Besides, supposing the ulcerated condition
to be the  cause  of the discharge, that condition  could
not have  come on without previous  inflammation.  But,
whichever of these two conditions, inflammation or ulcera-
tion, be the true cause, the cold  water remedy is equally
well adapted to  remove it—seeing that both  causes are
themselves caused by a weakened condition of the organs
concerned.


                   Epileptic Fits.
  Whenever this disease depends, as it very frequently
does, upon a clot of blood pressing on the  brain, it is
curable by the hydropathic treatment, united to  that of
a severe diet.   Besides the cases given in the list of cases
in this work, I have been witness to another very remark-
able one.   The patient was the subject of epilepsy  for
four years, and the fits recurred regularly every ten  days.
He  has not now  had a fit for three months, and is  about
to return home perfectly cured.


                 Gout and Rheumatism.
  The  cases of rheumatism  and gout which have been
cured at Graefenberg  are almost  without  number.  And 
THE  WATER-CURE.
83
 when it is considered that these diseases depend upon in-
 flammation of particular structures of the body, and  that
 this inflammation again, in its turn, depends upon a weak-
 ened  condition of the nervous system, it is  sufficiently
 easy to account for the fact.


                    Spinal  Irritation.
   Spinal irritation, resulting from subacute or chronic in-
 flammation of the vertebral theca, and giving rise to a long
 train of the most distressing symptoms, is perfectly cura-
 ble by cold water treatment.

                 Difficult Menstruation.
   Painful, excessive, suppressed, or insufficient menstrua-
 tion, is another distressing  affection over which the hy.
 dropathic remedy possesses the  most absolute control.

                       Influenza.
   Of late years a vast number, of persons have suffered
 greatly from protracted influenza ; and occasionally  this
 disease is so obstinate as to resist all ordinary remedies.
 It yields most readily, however, to the Graefenberg method
 of cure.
   Constipation, hysteria, rheumatic gout, catarrh, rheu-
matism of the head or  of the heart, bilious  head-ache,
sciatica, lumbago,  mercurial  diseases, secondary symp.
toms, inflammation of the  kidneys, impotence, neuralgic
or  painful affections of the nerves—all these are com-
pletely under the control of the cold water treatment. 
84
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
   But my limits will not allow me to devote more space
to the particular mention of individual diseases.   More
will be found in the list of cases.
   Besides these, however, there is a whole host of anoma-
lous, undenominated diseases, which cannot be referred to
any particular class, which  come within the scope of the
cold water-cure.   And there is probably no disease which
cannot be benefitted, more or less, by the exaltation of the
living energies, and the improvement of the general health
and strength.
   In fine, all  those diseases depending upon functional
weakness—all those depending upon nervous debility, and
morbid sensibility—-all those depending  upon inflamma-
tion, acute, subacute, or chronic,  uncomplicated with per-
manent organic lesion—all those depending upon morbid
matters in the blood or other  humors-—these constitute
that long list of diseases which are peculiarly calculated,
from their nature and causes, to be removed by the hydro-
therapeutic remedy.
   It is not, however, to be inferred that this remedy is un-
able to cure any cases of .organic lesion.  On the contra-
ry, whenever these cases are, from their nature, capable
of cure at all, without the aid of surgical operations, the
cold water treatment undoubtedly offers a better and more
rational  chance of success than any other—as some of
the cases herein related prove—as, for instance,  the cases
of fistula, epilepsy, and paralysis. 
THE WATER-CURE.
83
                 Treatment of Diseases,
As witnessed by Professor Munde, at Graefenberg, and confirmed by
             Dr. Bigel;  as given by Capt. Claridge.
                  Gout and Rheumatism.
   Gout has different names according to the part it affects.
Thus it is denominated chiragra, when it attacks the hands ;
podagra,  when it occupies the feet; and gonagra, when it
is established in the knees.
   It is thought to be caused  by subtle  fugitive acrimony,
which some suppose to be a composition of  lime and phos-
phorus, others from the acid of urine, whose acrimony tra-
verses, with the blood, all parts of the body, and  occa-
sions dreadful pain wherever it remains.  These concretions
are of a calcareous nature, as  is seen by  the sediment of the
urine of those subject to  the  gout,  and the  linen  in which
they perspire at Graefenberg, as they leave there traces of
lime ; besides which, the boils which often ensue  are criti-
cal deposits, containing the arthritic matter.
   The ancient physicians called gout the daughter of Bac-
chus and Venus.   Truly, persons devoted to these two di-
vinities offer the greatest.number of examples.
   Since  I  followed the water-cure, I look upon  medical
treatment for the gout as an act of insanity.  Medicine is
of no  use in this disease, for,  although  it may bring some
momentary relief, it is essentially hurtful, since these reme-
dies almost always produce forced evacuations, derange the
digestive organs, and favor the formation of a greater quan-
tity of bad juices.  I declare,  with a perfect knowledge of 
86
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
 cause, and a deep conviction founded on numerable and no*
 table  facts, that the sudorific process and  cold water are
 the only means of curing this disease.
   Warm and  vapor baths,  aided by  medicinal  remedies
 can produce perspiration, but they are weakening, and few
 constitutions  can bear them.  The process of Cadet  de
 Vaux may be remembered, who said that gouty people
 should drink forty-eight glasses of hot water daily.   What
 did this produce ?   The  drying up of  the body by an im-
 mense loss of  juices, the  degradation  of the  most robust
 constitutions, and diseases worse than gout itself.
   Priessnitz's  method of cure unites  all the advantages of
 the cure by warm water,  without its inconveniences ; like
 the latter,  it attacks and raises the vitiated juices, and expels
 them  from the system with advantage ;  it fortifies the sys-
 tem in hardening it, and by re-establishing the digestive
 functions ; whilst warm water ruins them completely.  In
 fact, the cure  of Graefenberg requires only  constancy and
 perseverance, according to the standing of the disease.
   Gouty subjects, who could find no relief whatever in medi-
 cine, were those that Priessnitz cured the quickest, howev-
 er violent the disease.  I have heard him say that eight or
 ten weeks  were sufficient to cure them radically; the rea-
 son of which undoubtedly  is the good state of the  digestive
 organs, unimpaired  by  medicine, and, consequently, a less
 quantity of vitiated juices.
   Whatever  may be the reason,  it is very certain that the
 maintenance of the digestive  organs in their normal state
is  that which is most important to health.   It is  not with
emetics and purgatives,  it is not with mercury, or mineral
waters, of which they are  so prodigal, that doctors preserve 
THE WATER-CURE.                 87
the integrity of the digestive organs ;  they know this,  and
shut their eyes  to the evil consequences of this debilitating
system.
   The cure  of gout requires the  application of the whole
treatment.   It should be felt on the entire system  before it
is particularly applied to the parts afflicted.  The first object
to obtain is by the sudorific process and baths to relieve that
excessive irritability of the skin,  which  is  the source  of
so much  pain ; adding  to  this, exercise in  the open air.
By degrees gouty subjects should leave off flannel next to the
skin, which they do in summer on the  fifth day of the treat-
ment, in winter a little later, and always without the slight.
est inconvenience.   When the invalid is not too weak, ho
may go immediately  to the douche, which he must let fall
equally upon all parts of his body  ; but this  must  be used
only for a few minutes; it is  only when he  is enabled  to
sustain it easily, that he  should expose the suffering parts  to
it, to put the humors which are there established in motion.
   The process of strong perspiration  is of  the greatest im-
portance in cases of gout, particularly for  those who have
tried other remedies.  Whilst enveloped in a woollen blanket,
the patient  ought to apply bandages  or umschlags to the
diseased parts,  and to renew them  according to the process
indicated : few  pass more than  five or six weeks under the
influence of this treatment without  having a crisis ; I mean
to say, without the sufferer being charged with eruptions or
boils.
   At  the appearance of the crisis, it is necessary for the
douche to be moderated, in order not to augment the crisis;
the process of perspiring ought  to be mitigated, and the pa-
tient should remain a shorter period in'the bath.  It is often 
88                 HYDROPATHY ; OR,
 necessary to take only sitz-bath and foot-baths, particularly
 those subject to congestion of  blood to the head, or  when
 the gout is subject to that part.   When the crisis is  intense,
 it  is sufficient  to be wrapped  in a wet sheet and use cold
 ablutions :  on coming out of the sheet, it is better to avoid
the use of the bath.
   The  treatment  thus  mitigated  is continued,  excepting
 where irritation approaches  to danger, in which case it should
 be suspended, excepting the general fomentation, or banda-
 ges, which should be renewed day and night, and sitz-baths.
 These  are sufficient to re-establish calm.
   I should not forget  to warn the gouty subjects, that they
 should, during  the treatment,  drink a great deal  of cold
 water.   This liquid, taken abundantly, attenuates the hu-
 mors,  and  favors  perspiration; to which should  be added
 as much exercise as can be taken, either by riding on horse-
 back,  or walking.  Then sawing a block of wood,  or, as a
 case  of necessity, riding in  a carriage must supply  its
 place.   But if obliged to stay at home, the  quantity of cold
 water drank should not be  lessened.   Further, I know an
 instance of gout in the head being cured by merely drinking
 water,  and  making ablutions  of cold water,  although the
 invalid was incapable of leaving his room.
   There are a  great many gouty people whose gout  is not
 merely local, but is  manifest  in  the  whole of the  body.
 When  it exists in the  upper regions, foot-baths are persisted
 in, to draw it to the inferior extremities, not forgetting to
bandage the diseased parts, in order to disturb and put it in
movement; these baths should be taken once or twice a day,
for at least half an hour each time.
   It is a common case to see gout affect the lower extremi- 
                    THE WATER-CURE.                89

 ties ;  the feet are often the seat  of the disease :  cold foot-
 baths are a quick and powerful remedy.   The  water for
 the foot-bath  should  not be  deeper than up to the ankles.
 The sister of a friend of mine, residing near Toplitz, suffered
 a long time, pain in the foot and leg; she tried many remedies,
 besides the baths of Toplitz, without  the slightest benefit;
 it even increased the disease to that degree that  she could
 not walk. A violent paroxysm came on, during which she
 imagined the use of cold water might do her good : the first
 foot-bath that she took enabled her to walk: encouraged by
 this success  she renewed it,  and was  in a few days  com-
 pletely rid  of the complaint.  I saw her two years after,
 and heard  her say she had not the slightest remains of
 her disease.
   When the gout is fixed in the hips, or any of  the lower
 extremities,  it is  called sciatic gout.   Sitz-baths  being so
 efficacious,  one should not be afraid on  finding  that they
 augment  pain; this  betokens a  movement given to the
 arthritic humors.  This is still more increased by applying
 the douche to the suffering parts ; the humor at last descends
 to the  feet, where it has been drawn by the foot-baths, which
 should be alternately taken with sitz-baths.
   It is necessary to apply the douche strongly to  the parts
 affected by gout, and to continually apply wet bandages, as
 well as to rub it very  hard when in the cold bath; also, if
 practicable, with the  dry hand, when wrapped  up in the
 blanket to perspire.  These frictions move and displace the
morbid humors.  The head is the only part which should
 not be  subjected to the douche ; it is sufficient to apply ban.
dages  to it,  particularly on the temples, where the pain is
more acutely felt,  and to take daily foot and sitz-baths, in 
90                 HYDROPATHY ; OR,

order to attract  the humors to the lower extremities.   In
this case the sudorific process should be shortened.
   We  will now  show  the  treatment  of tic-doloureux,
which is itself a kind of gout; we have already said that the
douche should  not be applied to the head.  The first thing
is to water the whole of  the body with cold water; if this
is insufficient, a sitz-bath should be taken for  two hours, a
great deal of water drank, and from  the  sitz-bath, immedi-
ately to the foot-bath.  This treatment is often sufficient to
put an end to the paroxysm ; if, however, it does not cease,
place a cold wet bandage round the head, and take exer-
cise in a place where the temperature is cold.   The pain
got rid of,  the patient should keep quiet for some  days, and
abstain from perspiration ; during the days of  relaxation, a
sitz-bath must be taken one day, and a foot-bath the next,
and wet bandages frequently renewed to  the afflicted parts,
not forgetting to drink plenty of cold water ; it is  necessary
to  take exercise in the open air after each  bath.  This is
the way I treated the dreadful  nervous tic which had almost
reduced me to despair, and at  last triumphed.   I  must con-
fess that I made a firm resolution to execute  all  the requi-
site operations during the advancement of the disease.  But
what  is not a man  capable of undergoing who  wishes  to
live 1 Those who are attacked by gout, should  have immedi-
ate  resource to  ablutions and  sitz-baths  ; the paroxysm is
thus always shortened, and sometimes stopped on its  first
appearance.   This treatment is so far  advantageous, that
the day after, or even the same day, the patient can be ex-
posed  to the open air, without running the risk of a relapse.
This is an advantage which belongs to no other  treatment.
   Between the paroxysms, persons afflicted with  arthritic 
THE WATER-CURE.
91
pains in the head, would do well to take  head-baths, to put
the gouty humor in movement, and disengage the head from
it,  which often happens  in the shape of an abscess in the
ear.  Whatever  pain  these abscsses may cause, the head-
baths and cold fomentations or bandages on the part affected,
should not be neglected.   Their opening causes great relief;
if they do not open, it is because the humor has been ex-
pulsed by perspiration.
   Head-baths should only be employed when the treatment
has already affected the whole system,  in  order  to avoid
too great  a reaction in the superior organs.   As to the pain
caused by the formation of the abscess, which is determined
by the head-bath, it  differs essentially from that characteri-
zing the tic nervous ;  it has much less acuteness,  although
it troubles the sleep for some nights ; it is more pungent than
destroying, fatigues the teeth and temples, and is continual-
ly drawing towards the ear.
  I shall not  end this chapter on  gout in the head without
warning the invalid, that a strict observance of the regimen
at Graefenberg is for him one of the most important duties ;
any working of the mind  prejudicial to the body, so shaken
by  the sudorific process ; the exercise of the mind would be
contributed to the general state of irritation.  I have already
said this process  should be mitigated; I shall add, that it
were  better to perspire every other day.   But how,  it will
be exclaimed, support a life of such dressing and undressing ?
I  answer  by  asking, whether any  other treatment is less
tedious  and more efficacious ?  There is one source from
whence we  may take  courage; it  is in the sentence pro-
nounced by medical schools, who have  declared gout  an
incurable  disease. 
92
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
   All that I have said about gout and its treatment, equal-
 ly applies to rheumatism,  which bears such a great resem-
 blance to it, that it is supposed to take the same origin, and
 often one is confounded with the other,  therefore is  the
 treatment the same ;  which consists  in abundant  perspira-
 tion, the douche, and bandages on the parts affected.
   The reader will  perhaps be interested to read the recital
 of some  of the  cures of gout  which  were performed  at
 Graefenberg during my  stay there.
   A king's counsellor had suffered for six  years with the
 gout, which, having affected different parts of the body,
 ended by settling in  the  feet, which were inflamed, and
 remarkably red.  Foot-baths, in a hot decoction of plants,
 ordered by the faculty,  so increased  the pain, that the in-
 valid, reduced to despair,  had recourse to cold  water; re-
 peated cold foot-baths, after some days, caused the inflam-
 mation  and redness   to  disappear.  Astonished   by the
 happy effect of cold water, he came to Graefenberg, where
 he submitted to the treatment.   Being 65 years of age, he
 was  obliged to proceed with great  care,  therefore he only
perspired  in the  wet  sheet, and did  not  take the douche.
 The  remainder of the treatment was not altered ; at the
 end  of two months he went away  radically cured.
   A clergyman arrived at Graefenberg, who had  the gout
 in his hands and feet to  such a degree that he could not use
 them ; fifteen days after he had commenced the treatment,
boils appeared ; this was a sign of the quick termination  of
the disease; but  something important occurred to render it
 necessary for the invalid  to  return  home  after  only  six
 weeks' treatment; this was during  the times of the crisis.
 He continued  the  cure  at home ; and  in six weeks after 
THE  WATER-CURE.
93
 his  return home, was not only perfectly cured of the gout,
 but of an asthma, from which he had suffered a long time.
   A little girl, seven years of age, suffered from the time
 she was one year old, with pain in the chest;  after having
 tried medicine in vain, her parents took her to Graefenberg.
 Priessnitz immediately said it was rheumatism, and that he
 would undertake the cure : he ordered a  cold wet  bandage
 to be worn on the chest; fever was the result, and an  in-
 crease of the pains.  The child was wrapped in a wet sheet,
 which was changed several  times during the day ; each
 time that the sheet was changed, she was washed with tepid
 water ; frightened by the fever, which continued during ten
 days, the parents then  remembered that the doctor who had
 sent them to Graefenberg, said, if the treatment increases
 the disease, it must be discontinued  immediately.  They
 then resolved  to take their child home directly.   For this
 journey they were obliged to  fetch a conveyance from some
 distance.  During the two days they were gone, the crisis
 ended, and the child was so well, that on its parent's return
 they found it playing  in  the fields.   The treatment per-
 severed in for  some  weeks longer, perfectly  re-established
 the little invalid's health.
  A clergyman, on coming from a baptism at some  distance
 from  home, returned  with a cold, and  a stomach  over-
 charged with  food.  The same  day  he  was  attacked  by
 rheumatic pains in the back and arms.  No doctors  being
 able to  cure him, this  state lasted for  a year.  He then de-
 termined to go to Graefenberg, when, after having drank,
 perspired, and bathed  for three  weeks, an  eruption took
 place all over the body, which delivered him from pain. The
continuation of the treatment cured the eruption, as well  as 
94
HYDROPATHY J OR,
 a difficulty of breathing, which was complicated with  his
 rheumatism.
   Arthritic  pains, after being endured for twenty-six years,
 forced a major of cavalry to leave the service. Having tried
 the water-cure at home, he found that it did him so much
 good,  that he  went to Graefenberg.  He remained there
 fifteen months, when he was radically cured, and afterwards
 rejoined the army.
   A doctor  who had had sciatic gout for five years, in the
 left leg, which was very  much swelled,  and , quite  black,
 went to Graefenberg, where, after three months' treatment,
 such a number of boils came out,  that he  was no longer
 able to walk :  after some time,  these boils closed, and left
 the invalid in a perfect state of health.
   Through a cold, taken on coming out  of the theatre, a
 person was all at once deprived of the senses of smell and
 taste ; and,  after a treatment of four months at  Graefen-
 berg,  was perfectly  restored  by an abscess in the head,
 which opened in one ear.
  Some days after my  arrival  at  Graefenberg, a case of
 deafness had been cured by a similar abscess in  the  ear :
 nine months were required to cure  this obstinate disease.
 The invalid  thus cured has, in gratefulness, written a work
 on the method of curing at Graefenberg.


        Inflammatory Fever,  Nervous Fever, dfc.
  Inflammatory fever, as well as all kinds of acute fever,
are certain to be cured by the use of cold water generally,
 through the  medium  of fomentations, viz.,  the wet sheet
and sitz-baths, renewing the one and the other, according to 
THE WATER-CURE.
95
 the malignity of the disease.  Some doctors have contested
 the possibility of curing the nervous typhus fever with cold
 water.   I shall answer by referring them to the writings of
 Doctors Curry,  Reuss, Mylius, and Weigt, when they may
 be convinced of this truth.  They will, perhaps, honor the
 testimony of the medical men  alluded to with some cre-
 dence, as those  professors of medical  science  have cured
 thousands by following up the cold  water  system in such
 cases.   I  shall illustrate the  treatment  by relating two
 cases of this  disease, which I witnessed during  my stay at
 Graefenberg.
   Soon after my arrival there, I was attacked by a  strong
 fever.  I first took a foot-bath, then a sitz-bath, wherein I
 remained for an hour.   A friend of mine,  seeing the fever
 augment, and my face get quite red, was  frightened, and
 ran  to  Priessnitz,  who  came to see me at nine o'clock at
 night; he immediately placed me in a wet sheet, which was
 renewed in half an hour. I remained in it for an hour, dur-
ing which time  I  slept, as Priessnitz had  predicted; after*
 which I was washed with cold water, and again placed  in
the wet linen, when I  soon began to perspire abundantly,
and to feel much relieved; I then slept until three o'clock
in the morning,  when  I was again washed, and replaced in
the wet sheet.   I then began to perspire once  more, until
six o'clock, when, covered with perspiration, I was plunged
into  a cold  water bath,  where I  remained  but  a few  mo-
ments.  I then went out to  take a walk, and  returned  at
eight o'clock to the breakfast table, exempt of all  fever,
heat, or even weakness.
  I have often since seen this process employed on chil-
dren attacked by strong fevers, and always with great sue- 
96
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
 cess.  It often happens that the fever is obstinate, and lasts
 longer than usual. The treatment should then be sustained
 until it has destroyed the cause of the disease.
   The time which a nervous typhus fever lasts, and its per-
 nicious consequences, are well  known.   What a difference
 is there between the results of drugs and water !  Such are
 the miracles performed by Hydropathy.
   There is a case  which did not occur to myself, but of
 which I was an eye-witness.  A merchant was attacked by
 nervous fever and delirium.   The illness began by a sensa-
 tion of burning in the stomach, which soon caused sickness.
 He took a sitz-bath, which did him no good.  As the head-
 ache and sickness augmented, he drank water until  he vo-
 mited, which  relieved  him :  nevertheless, in an hour,  (ten
 o'clock at night,) the invalid became worse, and lost his
 senses.  In this state he ran all over the house, with a light
 in his hand.  From time to time his reason returned, and he
 was astonished to find himself thus ;  but the  delirium soon
came on again.  Thus he passed the whole  night.   It was
 only at nine o'clock the next morning that Priessnitz, hear-
 ing of the event, came to see him ;  he found him in bed,
his eyes staring, his mouth open, his tongue dry and burn-
ing,  and totally deprived of his senses.  Priessnitz immedi-
ately ordered a sitz-bath, in which the patient remained for
half an  hour, and  was rubbed  with cold water.  After
this, the invalid was placed  in a wet sheet, which was re-
newed every ten minutes ; in an hour he took another sitz-
bath for half-an-hour, and was again placed in a wet sheet.
 He soon began to perspire, and  give evident  signs of being
 relieved.  These operations were continued  until evening,
 when his reason returned. He slept all night. In the morn- 
THE WATER-CURE.
97
ing he was in a great state of perspiration,  but  quite free
from  pain.  At eight o'clock in the morning, he asked  for
something to eat, and received bread and milk; and for din-
ner he had a soup made from meat, with barley in it.  The
remainder of the  day was passed  quietly ; the second and
third  nights were passed nearly in the same way as the first.
On the fourth day he tried  to  take a cold  bath,  but  was
seized with shooting pains in the head, he therefore took a
tepid-bath at the temperature of 61° Fahrenheit.   This  ill-
ness began on the 8th of  September. On the 14th of  the
same month, the invalid was sent out to a dinner, at which
he partook of every  thing he found upon the table.   A few
days  after this,  he  quitted Graefenberg  perfectly cured.
There had been a similar  case at Graefenberg a few days
before my arrival, the termination of which was equally for-
tunate.   I was informed of this by some invalids who had
 preceded me.  Priessnitz says, that this disease,  taken in
the commencement,  is easily and quickly cured ; later, it re-
quires more time.   Nevertheless, whatever  may have been
its duration, cold water is always efficacious.
   During the author's stay at Graefenberg, several other
most extraordinary  cases of fever occurred.  One man
was  kept  in the half bath for nine hours  and a half, two
other individuals were put in  between  forty and  fifty  wet
sheets in the course of twenty-four hours.  We need hardly
add,  that success attended all these operations ; because wo
affirm that Priessnitz,  in cases of  fever, is never known
to fail.
             5 
98                HYDROPATHY J OR,

                  Intermitting Fever.
  This  disease appears every year in the fortress of Neus-
tadt  and Cassel, in  the Prussian territories; the invalids
come every year in great numbers to Priessnitz, who quick-
ly cures them, by placing them, during the paroxysm of the
fever, in a half-bath, for long or short periods, during which
time they are well rubbed with cold water.  They use a sitz-
bath, and drink plentifully of cold  water, until it  causes
them to vomit, or produces relaxation ; and a cold wet ban-
dage is placed upon the abdomen, which produces perspira-
tion. This is all the treatment necessary for a disease which
frequently  resists quinine, the  specific  remedy,  and all
the other drugs and  specifics  which medical men  employ
against it.


                         Dropsy.
   This is one of the diseases, when of long standing, that
cannot be cured at Graefenberg.  When in its infancy it is
curable.  The treatment consists in perspiration and cold
wet bandages, applied to the parts afflicted.


                        Cancer.
   I shall doubtless astonish my readers, when I assert, that
cold water is the most certain cure for cancer : this is never-
theless  true.  The treatment is  the same as that of ulcers,
with the exception of the employment of perspiration. For
cancer, the invalid should perspire for a long period every
 day.  One remarkable case which I witnessed at Graefen- 
                    THE WATER-CURE.                99

 berg, was that of an invalid, who had formerly suffered from
 a cancer in  the mouth, which  was cured,  but  the disease
 not eradicated.  Some years after,  an abscess formed on
 the left instep.  After nine months of medical treatment, the
 doctors found that they could not prevent the disease enter-
 ing the bone.  It at length became so serious, that no other
 resource was left but amputation.   This the invalid refused
 to submit to, saying he would go to Graefenberg. The doc
 tors endeavored to dissuade him, but  he persisted in his re-
 solution, which, however, he only carried into execution af-
 ter remaining nine months in the  hospital, where he became
 a skeleton,  and so weak that he could not walk  a step.
 Three weeks after his arrival at Graefenberg, he could walk
 with the assistance of a stick ; the ulcer alluded to cured !
 Another appeared on the right foot, which kept the invalid
 confined to his room six weeks.  At length the cure was ef-
 fected, and the ulcers disappeared  altogether.   One  would
 scarcely believe, that a patient, who was reduced  to skin
 and bone, should, during this  treatment, become so stout,
 that his clothes would not fit him, notwithstanding his hav-
 ing perspired for some hours every day : yet such was the
 fact.  There  is nothing to fear in the cold water treatment;
 for although a quantity of the juices  are lost by perspira-
 tion, they are more than replaced.  By means of the enor-
 mous appetite possessed by all the invalids at Graefenberg,
 they not only gain that which they have lost, but require
new strength.  This is not the case with any other method
of perspiration.
   On the arrival of the invalid  last alluded to, Priessnitz
praised him for having refused  to submit to amputation,
which could  not have cured him, the cause of his disease 
100
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
being syphilis.  This case required altogether nine months
to cure.  This is certainly a long time ;  but previous to
that, the invalid had passed the same time in an hospital,
where, after being tortured by drugs, hot rooms, &c. his
misery was rendered complete, by the doctors declaring
that nothing remained but amputation.
  A lady had a cancer in the breast.   The disease contin-
ued to increase, in spite of all the remedies, internal and
external, applied ; at  last amputation  was proposed, to
which the  invalid agreed.  On seeing the instrument, she
fainted;  the operation was postponed till the following
day ;  in the interim,  some one  spoke  of Graefenberg,
where she  determined  to go.   After following the treat-
ment  there for six weeks, the breast became so much bet-
ter, that she  returned home,  where Priessnitz  advised
her to continue the cure, which was soon crowned  with
complete success.


                      Cholera.
  The treatment of this  complaint  depends much upon
the constitution of the  patient, and  of the nature of the
attack.   The temperature of the wate-" ought to be high-
er when the constitution  is weak,  and the sweating less.
When the  invalid  is deprived of sense, the treatment
should commence with  cold clysters; the patient attack-
ed with  vomiting and  stools,  divines doloureuses, should
be placed in a  sitz-bath of the temperature of 62 degrees.
If, at the same time, he has headache, a cold fomentation
should be applied, and some one should continually rub the
stomach and the abdomen,  whilst another rubs the back, 
                   THE WATER-CURE.               101
 the arms and legs, with the hand, which should be often
 dipped  in cold water, and this rubbing should be continu-
 ed until the  natural heat is  established in the skin.  The
 patient  must drink large quantities of  cold water, this
 puts an  end to the vomiting  or  looseness.   It  produces
 both in the case of an invalid, who  is not attacked by it,
 and by continuing it, it causes the evacuations to cease.
 There is no other  disease  wherein it is  so  necessary  to
 drink  abundantly of cold  water.  I witnessed a case of
 cholera, where the patient drank thirty  glasses of water
 in one hour.  Priessnitz effected a cure  in three days.
   When the symptoms are  abated, the patient  should  be
 placed in bed, and there rubbed  continually with a dry
 hand, until the heat returns  in the body, which should then
 be made to sweat well.  When the perspiration appears,
 the invalid  may be considered cured.  On the re-appear-
 ance of symptoms, the same process must be restored to.
 When  perspiration takes place, the  windows  should  be
 thrown open for  any time the patient pleases ; he  then
 ought to be placed in the bath, and afterwards, if  strong
 enough, should take exercise  in  the open  air, and not
 omit to  wear a  bandage  on the stomach  continually.
 The use of cold water internally, is  indispensable  during
 the sudorific  process, and it should also  be continued af-
 terwards.
  In case the invalid be exceedingly weak, he should be
 kept in  the most  perfect repose, which  tends very much
 to the re-establishment  of  exhausted  strength.   But  if
 the invalid's  constitution  be robust, the water he  uses
 should  be quite cold, and he may  fearlessly be  made  to
perspire abundantly.  The disease should be treated with 
102
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
the same energy when it arrives at its climax.  In the
first attacks of this disease, the treatment is followed by
such success in so short a period, that it astonishes ; but
it has  not the same  effect  when the disease has been ne-
glected in the beginning ; however, with patience and per-
severance, it is even then sure of success.
  I shall finish  this chapter  by the following  remarks,
which I recommend to  the reader's attention :—Although
water  was intended to  be drunk, it should also be used in
baths and ablutions ; the fresher it is the better.  Should
it be necessary to  raise the temperature of  the  water, a
little hot water can be  mixed with it.  The  cure of chol-
era can only be  effected by  re-producing perspiration ;
this great function cannot be animated but by rendering
that energy to the organs of  the skin which it had lost,
and which is only  gained by the irritation caused by cold
water.
  Water should be kept at an equal temperature to sus-
tain this salutary irritation ;  care should also be taken to
renew the water in the bath when it becomes heated.
  When the invalid is placed in the bath, the water should
just reach the  navel; to obtain this height, the extremity
of the bath should be raised the opposite to where the pa-
tient is seated.  The thighs and legs being out of water,
should be energetically rubbed to bring back the heat.
  It will easily be understood, if the water of the bath
were too cold it would be dangerous ; if re-action did not
take place, death might ensue.  The temperature of the
water  should, therefore, be  proportioned to the remaining
strength of the invalid.
  The fomentation should be of a heating nature. 
THE  WATER-CURE.
103
  The ablutions should not be made longer than necessa-
ry to refresh the heated parts, as they are employed after
the  sudorific process;  that  is to say,  for three or four
minutes.
  If the lower extremities are attacked  by cramps, they
should  be placed in water, and well  rubbed until the
cramp ceases.
  For violent pains in the stomach, cramps in  the intes-
tines of the bowels,  and frequent stools, evacuations di-
vines, alternate clysters and sitz-baths should be used.
  Any one attacked by cholera should eat little, take no
milk, and drink water abundantly.
  The cold water treatment should be continued for a long
time, as  well to evacuate  the injurious  humors which
might remain in the body, as to restore  strength.
  Priessnitz, in his establishment, has successively  treat.
ed seventeen cases  of cholera, and has  cured them all in
a few days.  I did not myself witness these facts ;  they
were related  to  me ;  but the following case  took  place
during my stay at Graefenberg :
  The inspector of a large village belonging to the crown
arrived  at Graefenberg ; he had been  ill  for six weeks,
but being of a robust constitution, he had during that time
resisted all symptoms of cholera excepting sickness.   He
was much astonished at being ordered to drink milk, and
eat bread and butter,  which he did at Priessnitz's, as he
placed entire reliance in him.  After this  repast, he re-
turned to his room, where he  found a sitz-bath, at the tem-
perature of about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, already await-
ing him.  He was still more  astonished, when, after some
minutes, a discharge of wind greatly relieved the  pains 
104
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
of the  stomach.  On leaving  the bath, he  went to bed,
prior to which a heating bandage was placed on the stom-
ach, and he slept until the following day.   This was the
first time of sleeping  since the  commencement of the
disease.  He was  completely cured, and returned home
quite well.   To dissipate all doubts which might be raised
on the  nature of this disease, I shall add the recital of the
invalid  on his  arrival at Graefenberg.  " The cholera,"
said he," ravaged the village which I inhabited.  The in-
habitants were  terrified, and refused to assist the  sick ;
they had also suspended all labor, expecting to die. Think-
ing it was my duty to  set them an example, I  visited all
the sick, and touched those who were timid, to give them
courage.  This conduct produced the effect I had expect-
ed, but it gave me  the  cholora, for which I was immedi-
ately treated by a doctor of the village, but without find-
ing any relief;  from thence to Vienna, without any bet-
ter success.   Graefenberg was my last  resource : I went,
and there regained my health."


                      Dysentery.
  Colds, and the abuse of  unripe fruit, are the principal
causes  of this disease.  It is composed of frequent evac-
uations of bloody glaires, accompanied with violent pains
of the stomach, a burning at the anus, and spasms of the
bladder ; in  other  words, a constant desire to evacuate,
without being able to render anything but glaires.
  The  treatment is the same as that for diarrhoea. 
THE  WATER-CURE.              105
              Obstructions of Articulations.
  I witnessed three of these cases whilst at Graefenberg,
The first patient was a young man seventeen years of age,
who was soon cured.  The two others, one twenty-five,
the other twenty.eight years of age, remained  at Graef-
enberg from nine months to a year.   All three owed their
disease  to a fall on the knee, which was the only part af-
fected.  Neither of them  could walk  without a  stick.
They finished  the cure at home.
  The treatment of this disease consists exclusively of a
bath for the diseased part for two hours, and the douche,
which should be taken twice a day.   During the bath, the
leg should at times be well rubbed.
  When the disease is of long standing, it is necessary to
add to  these two  means the sudorific process.  It is sel-
dom that the cure ends  without boils  or abscesses break-
ing out on the diseased  parts.   The douche  should then
be  left off, and only recommenced when they have healed.
Then the diseased part should be douched  for twenty or
thirty minutes.   As this operation would be too long  for
the body, the latter must be well  covered and protected
from the splashing of the water.


                      Chilblains.
  Priessnitz applies heating fomentations, or bandages,
to the affected parts, which soon cure  them, if the com-
plaints are recent.   If they are of long  standing, the in-
valid should perspire.  It is rightly supposed that in  the
humors of the person there must be some vitiated  juices,
           5* 
106               HYDROPATHY ; OR,
which are discharged by  the  diseased parts.  This pro-
cess accords with the general  custom known of covering
a frozen limb with snow until  heat is re-established.

             Habitual Coldness of the Feet.
  This is remedied by taking cold foot-baths twice a day
for from fifteen to twenty-five  minutes, and  binding them
at night in a heating bandage.  A great deal of exercise
should also be  taken.  Thus the distribution  of blood re-
turns  to uniformity, and each part of the body receives
its share.

            Fceiid Perspiration of the Feet.
  This is generally relieved by foot-baths, and wearing a
heating fomentation or  bandage on them at night; but
it is not cured without the sudorific process  to purify the
blood.

               Inflammation of the Chest.
  This disease is caused by a  congestion of  the  blood to
the lungs, soon  followed  by an universal want of circu-
lation.
  In this kind of disease,  the first thing  to  be done is to
refresh the  blood, which is in some degree boiling, and to
dissolve the obstruction and stagnation of this fluid in the
affected parts.   To obtain this, cold water should not be
applied immediately to the parts affected.  The impres-
sion of cold, adding to the already too great compression
of the vessels, would increase  the inflammation.  The 
THE  WATER-CURE.
107
entire bath would also be hurtful, in sending the humors
from the surface to the centre, and thereby overcharge the
diseased member with a still greater quantity of blood.
   Sitz-baths are the most certain means of allaying the
inflammation, by the property which they have of refresh-
ing  the blood, and causing a strong re-action in the low-
er extremities,  which  are far removed from the diseased
parts,—a re-action which takes the blood away from the
afflicted organ.   This operation should be effected in the
following manner :
   The temperature of  the water for the sitz-bath should
be 60° Fahrenheit, and be renewed every half-hour, until
the  invalid feels feverish.  This fever being provoked by
the  water, the  symptoms of which usually are trembling
of the limbs, chattering of the teeth,  &c,  the revulsive
action  of the sitz-bath should be seconded by the appli-
cation of wet cold bandages on the chest, which should be
thoroughly  covered with these wet bandages, but  not re-
covered with dry ones.  The bandages ought to be renew-
ed from time to time.  Care should be taken to cover the
other parts of the body well, in order to give free circu-
lation to the blood.   It is  also requisite to rub the ex-
tremities with cold water, whilst the invalid is in the bath.
The hands  only should  be  used in this operation, taking
care to keep them damp.  Directly you perceive that the
hands and feet of the patient are warm, you may conclude
that  the mass of blood  is refreshed, and the circulation be-
come healthy ; the invalid should then be placed in bed, wrap.
ped in a sheet, the property of which is to cause an irrita-
tion, in order to promote a still stronger  circulation, not for-
getting, whilst  the invalid is in bed, to cover the chest 
108
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
with a cold wet bandage, so that that part of the body may
be strengthened.
  When the disease is obstinate, it is sometimes necessary
to renew the wet sheet and  sitz-bath.  Each time they
are renewed,  the patient must be washed in water with the
chill off.  During the whole of the treatment,  cold  water
should be frequently drank, but only in small quantities at
a time.
  The advantages of this proceeding,  which must be evi-
dent to all, are confirmed by the success which always at-
tends the treatment of cases of this disease, which Priessnitz
undertakes.   These  cures  are always  effected in  a few
days.  Thus a remedy is found for a  disease which  has
baffled all medical science.
                   Scrofula, Rickets.

  These two diseases are  also curable by  Hydropathy.
However, when rickettiness has entered the whole develop-
ment of the body, nothing  can be done  by water for  the
distortion of the limbs.   The douche is the principal instru-
ment in this cure, with the aid of the sudorific process, en-
ergetically  employed.   Wrapping   up in a  wet sheet is
highly desirable.   The cold-bath  should be taken  twice
daily ; the articulation and the glands, if swollen, should be
well rubbed, and  bandages constantly   employed.   The
glands of the throat and nose require frequent  garglings,
and sniffing water up the nose.
  It has always been recommended to ricketty  people, to
bathe in rivers under the current of the water ;  as, for in- 
THE WATER-CURE.
109
stance, under the water-fall of a mill. This somewhat resem-
bles the cure at Graefenberg.


            Scarlatina, Measles, Small  Pox-
   The fever which  generally accompanies these diseases
constitutes their whole danger.   Directly it is observed, the
patient  should be wrapped up in a wet sheet, there to re-
main day and  night.  If the fever is  virulent,  the sheet
should be renewed when it becomes warm.   When the in-
valid perspires, the entire body should be washed with water
at the temperature of 61° Fahrenheit, that is, not quite cold,
and yet not tepid.   This  is a certain means of moderating
fever, and the heat which  accompanies it.  In this way,
particularly with adults, the prejudicial results  of those dis-
eases, so common in any other mode of treatment, are pre-
vented.
   It is not advisable to bathe the whole body with cold wa-
ter : strong constitutions could bear it, but it  is to be feared
that reaction would  not follow in weak persons; if so, death
would be inevitable.  Fever is, as I have already said, the
only  danger to be feared in these diseases.  It is its violence
which closes the pores, and prevents the breaking out of the
eruptive matter.  The way  to moderate it, and  facilitate the
eruption, is as already described, the efficacy  of which is
daily sanctioned by  experience.
   Mr. Munde, in alluding to these maladies, says, "I will
now  mention three cures which, without medicine, and with
nothing but cold water, I performed in my own  family.  The
first is a case of measles in  an adult;  the two others are of
scarlatina in my two young children. 
110
HYDROPATHY J  OR,
   " My servant, 20 years of age, caught the measles.  As
she refused all remedies, I proposed to her, in order to quiet
the fever, which was very strong, that she should be wrap-
ped up in a wet sheet.  Having agreed to this, she soon be-
gan to perspire profusely : this determined me to leave  her
there for seven or eight hours; she was then  washed with
water at the temperature of 61° Fahrenheit.  This first per-
spiration was followed by abundant eruptions  of red spots,
which covered the whole body.  I repeated the same process
the next day, when the fever completely ceased.  The  pa-
rents  having learned how I was healing their daughter,  im-
mediately came to take her home, fearing that such a treat-
ment  might be attended with dangerous consequences.  In
twelve days the invalid came back to her service, assuring
me that, whilst at  home, she had taken no other remedy
than cold water.
   " Two of my children, one eight years old, the other five,
were attacked with scarlatina; the eldest  first.  He was
wrapped up in a wet sheet, whilst my other children, as  yet
unattacked, were repeatedly  immersed in  cold  water.  In
three  days, the one five years of age became ill; no doubt
because he had previously  taken the infection.   The others
did not take it at all.  The  second  little  invalid kept  his
gaiety and appetite, and was  not wrapped up in a wet sheet,
but only washed all over, morning and evening.  The fever
with both was very moderate.  All was going on according
to my wishes, when my  wife became so alarmed as  to sus-
pend the treatment for four days.   The consequence was,
that the fever soon redoubled its intensity, and  the children
were in such pain that they could not move.  It was so vio-
lent at the back of the eldest's head,  that  inflammation of 
THE  WATER-CURE.
Ill
the brain was to be feared.  By my wife's desire, who now
saw  the folly of her fears, I  again  began my treatment.
This time I gave the invalid a sitz-bath, after which he was
enveloped in a wet sheet, which I renewed every half hour.
He soon went to sleep: this sleep lasted two hours, and gave
proof of the efficacy of my  proceedings, and courage to my-
self to go on with sitz-baths and general fomentations. The
regular  order of the system being re-established, I replaced
the invalid  in his dry  bed, where he slept for several  hours.
In two days all danger disappeared.   On the tenth day of
the disease, a total scaling of the skin came on.  The in-
valid, excepting a little weakness, was perfectly cured. The
illness of the youngest was so simple that he only required
ablutions.   He kept his brother company during the  whole
of his illness.   Three weeks after the  commencement of
this eruption, I took them out walking in cold weather, with-
out the  walk being followed by any  bad consequences.   I
however must add, that two days previous to exposing  the
new,  fine,  and  delicate  skin  to the  fresh air, they were
bathed,  morning and evening,' in cold water."


                       Erysipelas.

  This  disease is often produced by an effort of nature to
deliver itself of a dangerous humor of the skin.  Outward
impressions, also, sometimes cause it.
  This  complaint, which is only the reflection of an interior
disease, should not be immediately subjected to cold ablu-
tions, as that would repel the eruption which  brings vitia-
ted  juices  to the surface.    In  the  ordinary  treatment 
112
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
 none  but dry applications are resorted to, which  are  in-
 efficacious.
   At Graefenberg the use of cold water for the treatment
 of this disease ha's never been  known to have unfortunate
 results.   It is true it  is not merely  outwardly treated, as
 the  entire body  is  subjected to the cure.  The  invalid
 should perspire in a wet sheet, drink a great deal of water,
 and apply heating bandages  to  the  diseased parts.  This
 treatment, which excludes all cold water ablutions, is always
 successful.


   Hooping Cough', and other diseases and indispositions in
                 Infancy and Childhood.
   I believe I have already said that agitation, extreme heat,
 and feverish irritation in children, are remedied by the gene-
 ral fomentation of a wet sheet.  The special irritation  of
 the hooping cough is not so quickly cured by these  means,
 but nevertheless it is much relieved.  Care must be taken
 that the water drank  at first is tepid ; afterwards it  should
 remain half an hour in the patient's room, well covered up,
 when it may be drank.


               Inflammation of the Brain.
   This disease, which is as rare with  adults  as it is com-
mon in infancy, either proceeds  from internal  causes,  or
from exterior  injury.  Its  treatment  only differs from  that
of inflammation of the chest, inasmuch as the cold  fomen-
tations on the  head should be frequently renewed, as  well
as the wet sheet in which  the  invalid is  wrapped.  It  is 
THE  WATER-CURE.
113
sometimes necessary to renew them every ten minutes.  If
the disease appears to  get worse,  the sitz-bath should be
taken alternately with  the wet sheet.
  I shall now relate a miraculous cure which was perform-
ed by this process in the little town of Freiwaldau.   A la-
borer fell from a height,  and having fractured his skull, in-
flammation of the brain ensued, and the invalid was entirely
given up by the doctor of the place. Priessnitz visited him,
and the next day he came to his senses, and, after some
time, was perfectly cured.
        Ophthalmia, or Inflammation of the Eyes.

  Inflammation of the eyes is generally catarrhal or rheu-
matic, and requires the same treatment as rheumatism and
gout.  I never saw it acute, but always chronic.
  To the rheumatic  treatment, Priessnitz adds eye  baths
and the douche.  The latter must be received in the joined
hands; from which, water coming  from a  height  will  re-
bound as high as the eyes.  Head-baths are equally indis-
pensable, as well as fomentations, to these organs.  Chronic
ophthalmia is, of all  the diseases curable at  Graefenberg,
the  most obstinate,  and that  which  requires the longest
treatment.
  A captain  thus  attacked, felt, after several head-baths
which he continued for three quarters of an hour, a pungent
pain in the head, accompanied by swelling of the ears.  An
abscess  was expected in one of these organs,  when the pain
gave way to a virulent deposit,  formed in the thick part of
the cheek ; after this, the eyes were re-established. 
114
HYDROPATHY ; OB,
   Another sufferer came to Graefenberg with an exfoliation
in the corner of the eye.   To the whole of the  treatment,
Priessnitz added eye-baths ; after each of which the invalid
was to look fixedly at the light, and immediately re-plunged
the eyes, in cold water.   This  man,  who was  perfectly
blind  on coming, was, on leaving Graefenberg, able to read
with  spectacles.
   A  third patient  presented a very remarkable  case  of
blindness,  the results  of a cold,  caught during hunting,
by  which he lost his sight.   He had  been nine months
blind  when he  arrived at Graefenberg; after  each process
of perspiration,  which  he submitted to twice a  day,  the
bath and the head-bath, matter, mixed with  blood, came
from the eyes.   One might say  that some pounds exuded
from the eyes in the course of three weeks.  I did not see
the termination of this cure,  before leaving Graefenberg ;
but I  can affirm, that the last time  I spoke to the invalid,
he  could distinguish colors, and also objects  at a certain
distance.


    Pain in the Eyes, and  Weakness in these Organs.
  Both these diseases give way to baths, applied to the back
of the head, aided by a bandage  placed over the eyes, to be
worn  day and night; to eye-baths, foot and sitz-baths, &c.
This treatment generally meets with success.   The banda-
ges are requisite to remove the excessive heat from the part
attacked.   Mr.  Priessnitz  has many ways of  treating  the
eyes, which depend upon circumstances. 
THE  WATER-CURE.               115
                   Itch and Ringworm.
  These diseases are more easily cured by cold water, than
by any other means.   The process of perspiration in  the
wet  sheet, leads to success;  but  ringworm is frequently
more difficult to cure than the itch.  It requires longer
time, and a more energetic use  of cold water.  The douche
is also indispensable in cases of ringworm,in order to bring
the morbid  humors to  the  skin.  The most difficult ring-
worms to cure, are those which have been driven in by  bad
treatment.  This disease is really equal to the gout in point
of obstinacy, for it reappears upon the skin after having used
the douche a long time.  After the process of perspiration,
and  cold baths too,  it  again shows  itself under  forms much
more serious in their aspect, than in the beginning.   We
should  here  warn  the sufferers from ring-worm, that  the
diet prescribed at Graefenberg must be observed in all rigor.
Three men attacked with this disease, arrived at Graefen-
berg at the same time as myself; the first of these after
several years' trial of the principal mineral  waters recom-
mended in this disease, which he had  employed without
success.  Having  followed the  treatment with energy for
two  months, he returned home, resolved to continue the
treatment  mildly all  through the  winter ; after  which, he
was to  come again  to Graefenberg, to finish the cure.  At
the  time of his departure, he was more than half cured.
The  two others remained at Graefenberg, one  for eight
months, the other six, both leaving it radically cured.  The
treatment  of  one  of these was  attended  by an acidity
r'sing in the throat, and by the vomiting of matter containing
chalky substances.   The acidity  of the  throat was such
that it caused the tongue to be ulcerated. 
116
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
   Both, after following the treatment some weeks, saw their
ringworms reappear with greater malignity and more abun-
dant  suppuration, attended by  the  formation of a great
number of boils.   Following these two cures with great at-
tention, I was  not  surprised that Priessnitz  insisted  upon
the use of strong douches, which he directed  to be applied
to the hips of one of these invalids ;  he wished a ringworm
to appear that had  been there formerly.   After a time,  it
again shewed itself, spreading as far as the knee, and look-
ing very bad.   It is but a few days since I received letters
informing me that both the ringworms were radically cured.


                   Mercurial Diseases.
   Diseases  arising from the use  of  mercury  are those
which confound  completely medical men.   However ex-
tensive the ravages made by this poisonous drug in the sys-
tem may be, the invalid has every thing to hope from Hy-
dropathy, as no method known can be put in competition
with it as an antagonist to mercury.  This is a fact admit-
ted by all doctors who have witnessed its effects.


                         Ulcers.
  These require no other treatment than the  bandages, and
the sweating process, they being the principal instruments
in their cure.   The more ancient the disease, the more ne-
cessity is there  for  perspiration;  ulcers cicatrize of them-
selves, when the mass of blood is purged  of  heterogeneous
humors.   We  must  not be surprized at seeing them en-
large  under the influence of the bandages;  if,  however, 
THE WATER-CURE.
117
 this aggravation proceed  too  far,  the  bandages must be
 dry; all the wounds must be bathed afterwards in lukewarm
 water.


                        Syphilis.
   At  Graefenberg, by  means of  the sudorific  process,
 Priessnitz  cures syphilis in the surest  and safest manner
 possible.   I  have  seen it  in all forms, treated  and cured
 with  more or less promptitude, according to the virulence,
 complication, and long standing  of the disease.  Previous
 to  commencing a  cure of the disease, it is necessary to
 counteract the effects of mercury, which most patients have
 taken.   What shall we say to the cures which medicine af-
 fects to have performed, when, at Graefenberg,  we see, in
 almost all  the cases where invalids had supposed  themselves
 cured years before, a return of the sime symptoms in the
 same part ?  This phenomenon naturally destroys our  con-
 fidence in  mercurial  treatment.   Many persons will doubt
 the possibility of curing this destructive complaint by simple
water, and  insist upon it that mercury alone is able to  con-
tend effectually with it.  May  we not ask, if the cures ef-
fected by the latter  agent were  radical, how is it that, after
many years,  the disease should reappear?  From this  fact
we conclude  that mercury has the property of  envelop-ng
the syphilitic virus, rather than expelling it from the system.
That  mercury may remain concealed a long time, we have
daily  evidence in  the salivation  which the water-cure so
often provokes at Graefenberg.
  Is it not rational  to think that, in the majority of pretend-
ed cures, the disease is only the more  firmly fixed in the 
118              HYDROPATHY J OR,

system, by this metal?   Its escaping afterwards from the
system, by means  which we cannot always account for,
leaves its prisoner at liberty, when the mercury again shews
itself in the primitive forms that signalized its introduction.
Whatever may be the nature of the  disease,  whether gon-
orrhoea, ulcers, chancres, buboes, &c,  at  Graefenberg the
treatment is  the same ;  and  that  is,  sweating, bathing,
douching, fomenting bandages, and drinking water.   Gon-
orrhoea, with a discharge, requires the constant application
of a cold fomenting bandage round the  part, and injection
of cold water many times a day ; to  this must be added the
sitz-bath for an hour or two, repeated twice a day.   Great
attention should be paid to diet.  All aliments ought to be
cold.
  As we have not space to cite one  twentieth part  of, not
partial but radical, cures of this disease, performed during
our stay at Graefenberg, we shall proceed.


        The Gripes, Catarrh, and Cold in the Head.
   To be quickly rid of these  complaints, it is sufficient to
perspire in a wet sheet, and then to wash the body with water
of the  temperature  of 61  degrees of Fahrenheit, to assist
perspiration.  Much cold water should be drank whilst in
bed.   The gripes sometimes produce great heat in the head ;
this is appeased by means  of sitz-baths, and  cold wet ban-
dages upon the head.   During my own treatment, and the
time I was studying  the water-cure at  Graefenberg, I fre-
quently gave advice to  persons attacked with these com-
plaints: all  those who followed it, avoiding  physic, and
living according to the diet prescribed, have applauded this 
THE WATER-CURE.
119
method of treatment, and the promptness of the cure.  For
wind,  and internal pains in  general, take a sitz-bath, not
quite cold, but more so than tepid, for an hour, twice a day,
rubbing the  abdomen  well all the  time; to this  add cold
clysters once or twice a day,  and wear a heating bandage
round  the waist.


       Common Sore  Throat, Stiff Neck, or Cough.

   Gargle well and often with cold  water, rub the  throat
and chest several times a day with the hand dipped in cold
water; wear a heating bandage round the neck and on the
chest at night.   Foot-baths and perspiration must be re-
sorted to in obstinate cases.


         Quinsy, and  Inflammation of the Throat.
   Priessnitz orders fomentations or bandages of  very cold
 water round the throat;  garglings of cold water, foot-baths,
and much perspiration.  A person who had previously been
cured  of the  quinsy  by mercury, had a second  attack of
this disease.   The  above treatment  cured  her.   When  to
the disease, strong  feverish irritation is added, the  invalid
should be placed in the wet sheet.

                    Pain at the Chest.
   When it is rheumatism,  its treatment does not differ from
that of gout, which has been previously described ; rub the
part well with a wet  hand, and wear a large bandage or fo-
 mentation from the neck to the stomach at night. 
120              HYDROPATHY ; OR,
                     Sore Eyes.
  Place the back of the head in cold water three times a
day, ten minutes each time;  then use an eye-bath for five
minutes, twice a day.  After the eyes are closed  in the
water for about a minute, they should be opened the other
four minutes.   At night a  heating bandage  should  be
placed at the neck : this and the head-bath have the ef-
fect of drawing all inflammation from the front.  In most
cases foot-baths twice a day  are highly beneficial.

                       Wounds.
  Keep the wounded part  in tepid  water  until it ceases
bleeding, then  put on a  heating bandage ;  when this be-
comes warm, put  another larger one over it, so that it
may extend fur  beyond the part afflicted.   If the foot is
wounded, let it remain in the water for an hour twice a
day, to draw out the inflammation ; then apply the band-
age  night  and  day,  but continue  it up to or above the
knee, in order to extend the  circulation.

                     Nose  Cold.
  These colds are considered healthy, as relieving the sys-
tem of some of the bad humors.   To cure it, sniff' cold
water up the nostrils often,  and wear a heating bandage
on  the forehead at night.

                       Burns.
  Apply constantly to the part cold wet cloths, without a
dry one over them. 
THE  WATER-CURE.
121
                       Deafness.

  Rub the body all over twice a day with a cold wet cloth;
wear a heating bandage over the ears at night, and drink
plentifully of water.   This process will very often relieve
deafness ; but in obstinate cases,  the  whole treatment
must be resorted to.

                       Ear-ache.

  This disease requires the same treatment as inflamma-
tion of the eyes ; that is  to say, the ears must  be banJ-
aged, and linen  well wetted with cold water should be in-
troduced into the ear ; and a similar bandage worn around
the head.  In case of obstinacy in the disease, the pro-
cess of perspiring, and the cold water, are indispensable.

                      Tooth-ache.

  There is nothing  more simple, and  at  the same time
more  efficacious,  than Priessnitz's treatment for tooth-
ache.  Two basins are filled with water, one of which is
cold, the other tepid ; the mouth should be filled with the
tepid  water, and held in  the  mouth  till it begins  to be
warm, then change it; during this, the hands should be
dipped constantly  in cold water, and with them violently
rub the whole of the  face, cheeks,  and behind the  ears;
this operation  should be continued till the pain ceases.  It
is also good  to rub  the  gums even until they bleed.  I
never saw toothache resist this treatment at Graefenberg.
Sometimes it is  necessary to add cold foot-baths, the wa-
ter  not higher than the anclef.
            6 
122
HYDROPATHY ',  OR,
            Sprains, or Stiffness of the Joints.
   If a sprain injures, or any nail runs into the foot, apply
foot-baths (tepid)  thrice a day for half an  hour or more
each time.  The sprain should be well rubbed.  The wa-
ter in the bath  must come up a little above the part af-
fected ; a cold  bandage should be worn day and night.
If the wrist is sprained  or the hand wounded, elbow-baths
should be resorted to, and the  arm bandaged up to the
shoulder: these^bandages  should always extend  far be-
yond the part affected.

                      Fractures.

   Either  before or after the reduction of  the fracture,
there is  no  better means of keeping down inflammation
than cold water.   A cold wet bandage should be applied
to the part; this should remain an hour, and  then a larger
bandage must be applied to carry the inflammation away
from the  part.  For  instance, if the leg be wounded, the
bandage should be carried up the whole thigh.


                        Piles.

  It is well known that  piles are caused  by an accumu-
lation of blood in the vessels which water the large intes-
tine.  These are  closed cr open, which means that they
either let out blood, or are dry and confined  to the swell-
ing of the veins.  There is also  a  third sort, which dis-
charges slimy humors.
   This is not a local disease.  It is a visible part of a 
THE  WATER-CURE.
123
diseased state of the whole system, which is expressed by
a congestion of blood to the vessels of the  abdomen.
  Its cure requires the most strict regimen, particularly
abstinence from spices, spirituous liquors, and indigestible
food.  The treatment at Graefenberg, eminently cleansing
and strengthening, is a radical cure for them.
  When the disease is taken at its commencement, it will
give way to an easy regimen, the drinking of a great deal
of cold water, fomentations on the abdomen, short sitz-
baths, and a moderate sudorific process.   But if the piles
are already formed and running, the treatment must be
more severe and of longer duration.   Frequent sitz-baths,
entire baths, and the  douche, end by curing them.  The
sudorific process is indispensable to expel the prejudicial
humors, which  are at once the cause and effect of the
disease.  The use  of cold water externally, without the
rest of the process, would probably, by leaving the vitiated
juices in the system, transform the disease  into another
still more serious.
  At Graefenberg,  I have seen blind piles open and disap-
pear by degrees, leaving the body in a perfectly  healthy
state.   I appeal  to the testimony of all those troubled with
piles, of what use are medicinal remedies ?—a little relief,
and never a cure.   Doctors themselves are forced to admit
this.  Several of them, aware  of what is going on at Grae-
fenberg, recommend, and use themselves, the cold water for
this disease.

                   Stitehes in  the Side.

  The treatment is the same as for the foregoing  disease, 
124                HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
when the pleurisy is slight; foot-baths, and fomentations on
the affected parts, are sufficient to cure it.

        Dyspepsia, Indigestion, Constipation, dfc.

   Costiveness is a prevalent inconvenience, and often be-
comes a disease.   The causes are various;  the principal
are, a sedentary life ; the bending  of  the  body during sit-
ting ; the hardening of the liver, the weakness or atony  of
the intestinal canal: we must also add, the habit of drink-
ing too little water.  To cure it, it is  necessary to take ex-
ercise, to drink a great deal of cold water, to wear a wet
linen bandage on the abdomen, and two or three clysters
daily—one immediately following the  other, should it be re-
quisite. Cold food  should be taken instead of warm ; fruit
should be plentifully eaten ; and care should be taken not  to
eat any thing greasy or heavy.  When costiveness has con-
tinued for several years, add to this regimen, sitz-baths and
foot-baths ; douches, directed on  the  abdomen, correct the
weakness of this part.

              Inflammation of the Abdomen.

   The invalid attacked with an inflammation of the  abdo-
men, should immediately take a shallow sitz-bath, where he
will remain more or less time, according to the state of the
disease ; the water of this bath should be tepid, or about 62°
Fahrenheit.  On leaving the bath, he  should  be  enveloped
in a wet sheet, after having a cold bandage placed on the
stomach ; both should be removed'about twelve times a day.
Each time  the bath is changed, the  invalid is  washed al 
THE WATER-CURE.
125
over with cold water.   In the mean time, the invalid often
drinks cold water, in  small quantities.   If weak persons,
women,  or  children, are thus  treated, the water used for
baths and washing should not be quite cold.

                Weakness of the Nerves.

   This disease is rarely relieved by physic, whilst at Grae-
fenberg it is cured with certitude and promptness, whatever
may be the cause.   A lieutenant had his nerves in so great
a state of irritation, that the least  noise, the barking  of a
dog, the firing off a pistol,  would cause  such  a head-ache,
that he would faint.   To relieve  this, he  had accustomed
himself to warm foot-baths.  Tired of suffering, he came to
Graefenberg,  perspired a little, took  every  day two cold
baths, besides head-baths and sitz-baths, as revulsive mea-
sures.  This treatment  was limited  to three weeks, after
which he continued his journey.   He intended following
up the cure at home.  Priessnitz approved of his resolution,
and advised him to walk a great deal; to  ascend the hills
to ride often on horseback, in order to fortify himself, also
to be enabled to bear fatigue.
   Another invalid came to Graefenberg with  trembling in
the upper part of the body, brought on by the excessive use
of spirituous liquors.  He returned home, radically cured,
after two months' treatment; the change from wine to water
was not followed by any accident.


               Hypochondria and Hysterics.

  A disarrangement of the nervous system, joined to the in- 
126
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
action of the functions of the abdomen,  cause the invalid
much uneasiness and discontent.  These are the character-
istics of this complaint.  To  cure which completely, it  is
necessary to follow  the  treatment  at  Graefenberg.  This
disease being moral as well as physical,  requires pure air,
fine scenery, and society, a complete change in the manner
of living, all of which exert a  great influence upon the mind
of the invalid.  Whoever has lived with hypochondriacs,
must have remarked the  irregularity of their appetite : one
day they will eat too much ; the next, not at all.  The first
advice given  by  Priessnitz is t© drink  plentifully of cold
water during meals, in order to leave space for food.
  Hypochondriacs quit Graefenberg contented with them-
selves :  the  only  cases that have failed were those who left
too soon.

                      Head-ache.

  Head-aches are almost always  cured by foot-baths  and
head-baths of fifteen minutes  each.   First, the back of the
head, and then the sides, the  first for ten minutes,  the lat-
ter five minutes each, should be  placed in the bath, then
the head should be bound up in a cold  wet linen bandage,
not covered by a dry one : much  water should be drank to
relieve the stomach, and exercise in the open air.   Should
the head-aches return, it will  be necessary to perspire  and
use cold ablutions.
  For perspiration, the preference should be given to the
wet sheet, asit calms pain.   I have seen at Graefenberg
and elsewhere, violent head-aches,  which had continued
throughout the day, cured by a cold  foot-bath of one hour,
aided by abundant potions of  cold water. 
THE WATER-CURE.
127
                    Tic Douloureux
  Is one of those diseases given up by the doctor, as well
as the invalid.   Scientific men say it is caused by a disar-
rangement of the nervous  system,  whence  results an  in-
crease of sensitiveness and irritability; some, however, think
it is in the humors,  which contain an acrimony capable of
irritating the nerves, and producing  those  dreadful pains
which characterize this disease ; both  opinions appear to
have some foundation.
  I nevertheless hold the first opinion to be the most  rea-
sonable, inasmuch as it is the beginning of the disease to
which the humors join their acrimony.  There is, however,
a tic  douloureux purely nervous.  On  this, the cold water
cure is as inefficient as every other; but that  arising from
the humors is cured at Graefenberg.  I speak with  a  per-
fect knowledge  of  this disease, having suffered for three
years, and having made observations upon several who suf-
fered from this complaint.  Eight months' treatment, perse-
veringly followed, cured me, after trying all  the remedies
of physic in vain.

                   Bleeding at the Nose.
   To stop bleeding of the nose, the throat and nape  of  the
neck should be  washed with cold  water, and a cold  wet
linen  bandage  applied  to the  stomach; cold foot-baths
should be  taken ; if necessary, take a sitz-bath, and wash
the body with cold  water.   It is also frequently stopped by
placing a wet cold bandage upon the genitals.

  Weakness of the Digestion, and Debility of the Stomach.
  These debilities  arise from intemperance in eating and 
128
HYDROPATHY |  OR,
drinking.   The abuse  of beer in Germany undermines
the health of many young people for life ; then comes the
irregularity  in the hours  of meals,  the  hot eatables and
drinkables, artificial food seasoned with spices, the abuse of
tobacco, above all,  smoking after eating, and drinking beer
plentifully whilst at dinner.   To all these causes we must
add the abuse of drugs, particularly mercury, the disease of
the skin imperfectly cured, and more especially the want of
ablutions, and drinking of cold water.
  The first means  to be  adopted towards curing a deranged
stomach is to avoid the causes which are here enumerated.
Substitute sobriety for intemperance, the simplicity of na-
ture for artificial food ; neither take too much nor too little
at fixed hours, preferring cold to hot, avoiding spirits of all
kinds,  also tea and coffee ;  breakfast and  sup upon  cold
milk,  dine upon meat  and vegetables, avoid all  irritation
of the mind;  do not  wear  too much  clothing, which
impedes circulation, and to  this mode of living add much
exercise in the open air, wash, and drink water.
  These rules adopted, a stimulating fomentation to cover
(he abdomen and lower part of the stomach should be worn.
The patient  must sweat lightly in the morning, and take the
cold-bath  immediately after  ; in the evening take  a  sitz-
bath, and during the whole time, all parts of the stomach
and abdomen should  be rubbed with wet hands.   If you
can procure the douche, so much the better, but you must
avoid receiving it on the stomach. If a douche cannot be pro-
cured,  then  the body can be  sprinkled with cold water, be-
ginning with the  shoulders,  and causing the water to de-
scend to the abdomen.   To  these means add the  drinking
of cold water, taking care not to drink too much at a time, 
THE WATER-CURE.
129
particularly at meals ;  the best tune for  drinking water is
before breakfast.  Take a good deal of exercise, but mode-
rate it in the evening, and avoid too great heat.
   I saw an invalid arrive at Graefenberg, who had taken a
considerable quantity of mercury ;  he had for several years
felt pains  in the stomach, accompanied by violent  head-
aches ; each returned every twelve  hours, and deprived him
of all his faculties, more particularly his digestion.  He had
tried medicine in vain, without obtaining the slightest relief.
He was  completely cured at  Graefenberg,  not only of his
pains,  and of his bad digestion, but his system was purified
by sweating out  the mercury with whtch it was saturated,
which no  doubt was the origiu of  his disease.  His treat-
ment was  what I have described.

                      Heartburn.

   The  habit of eating  too much,  the use  of greasy  food
difficult of digestion, and too sedentary a life, are generally
the causes of this disease.
  It is combated with success by  drinking water early in
the morning until you  produce vomiting or even diarrhoea,
then the disease gives way quickly if it is not an old one  ;
if it is, it become schronic, and must be treated by sweating
baths and ablutions.
  The burning liquid which arises from the stomach to the
throat is often caused at Graefenberg by the abundance of
greasy food with which the table is  supplied.   At the period
of the crisis, it frequently makes its appearance, at the ter-
mination of humors, of which part is discharged by the first
courses.   I was sharply attacked  by  it at  this period  of
            6* 
130
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
the treatment,  and a diarrhoea, which I brought  on by
gorging myself with cold water during two days, complete-
ly cured me.

                   Loss  of Sleep.

   Sobriety at table, a great deal of exercise in the open air,
and ablutions with cold water, are  the  most efficacious re-
medies  for this  kind of  inconvenience.   The  ablutions
should be made on going to bed; they are more efficacious
than  baths.  Sleeplessness in children is invariably  cured
by the application of the wet sheet.


                         Epilepsy.

   Priessnitz  does not undertake to cure this disease.  He
merely  thinks that cold  baths and cold  water,  drank in
abundance, would somewhat relieve it.

                 Diseases of the Abdomen.

   All diseases  of the abdomen, by  whatever  name they
may be called, are cured  at Graefenberg.   They are in
general the result of congestion, empatement, and obstruc-
tions of the organs which  they confine, and of their weak-
ness, which to dissolve and strengthen are the great objects
to be attained, and for this the method  adopted by Priessnitz
is admirably calculated, with the aid of water, air, exercise,
and  diet.   At Graefenberg, I met  with a vast  number of
invalids, who  for many years had  not been able to obtain
any evacuations, except by the power  of art; these Priess- 
                   THE WATER-CURE."               131

nitz invariably relieved in less than a fortnight; no  doubt
the new mode of living contributed very powerfully to it,
and we cannot too often repeat the necessity which exists in
this complaint of adhering strictly to the rules  of diet,
which are to take in the morning and evening cold milk—
to abstain [from all hot aliments, and to avoid all spirituous
liquors and spices.

                       Diarrhoea.

   When the diarrhoea is recent, it is sufficient to drink cold
water, to wear a fomentation on the stomach, and only to
use food easy of digestion.  Diarrhoea is  very often  the
work of nature, to carry off prejudicial humors, which you
must not prevent; if, on the contrary, it is chronic, accom-
panied by weakness,  Priessnitz's  method is marvellously
calculated to effect the cure.   The sitz-baths are here par-
ticularly beneficial;  they  ought  to be repeated three or
four times a day, for  half an hour each time.  It is neces-
sary to drink  an abundance of cold water, and  to use cold
water  injections, eat  little, take no  exercise, and it is still
better  to keep  the bed.   During the time  that I was at
Graefenberg, I saw an invalid arrive who had a diarrhoea for
six weeks, which had reduced him to a consumption.  Priess-
nitz cured it in the course of a few  days.   In the chapter
on cholera, there are chronic diarrhoeas, where  the  abun-
dant evacuations of the glaires are alternate with constipa-
tion ;  they are  confined by a deep  weakness of the intes-
tines ; here cold injections are a great relief.  These diar-
rhoeas are  only to be cured by a long use of cold water,
which will finally establish, and give a proper tone to the
organs of the abdomen. 
132
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
                  Nausea and Sickness.
   At Graefenberg, nausea and  sickness, as well as  dizzi.
ness, are frequently  produced, as the effects of the  treat-
ment.   Nothing  is used but a great deal  of cold water a
a  beverage, until these symptoms  disappear ; a  relapse,
though  repeated  several times, requires no other remedy:
to this  is added,  a strict abstinence from indigestible  ali-
ments,  and great repose of mind and body.   When nau-
sea and sickness are a disease essential to the stomach,  the
whole  treatment   at Graefenberg is indispensable.  The
sudorific process and half-baths are of remarkable efficacy.

                         Colics.

   These always  give way to sitz-baths, fomentations, or
bandages on the  abdomen, clysters, and cold water  abun-
dantly drank, even when of a  rheumatic nature.

                  Congestions of Blood.

   Congestions of blood are generally to the head, and be*
gin after meals, or hot  and stimulating beverages, as well
as after any extraordinary excitement.  Persons subject
to this complaint should abstain from either drink or food
of a stimulating nature,  eat  moderately, drink a great
deal of water at  table,  take a little exercise after meals,
avoid all violent  discussions, as well as physical or moral
excitement; all  occupations of the mind, immediately af-
,ter meals, are hurtful. They must  add to this regimen
tb* use of cold  water, as a beverage, also elysters and 
THE  WATER-CURE.
133
sitz-baths, where they should remain at least from half an
hour to an hour, not forgetting to put cold wet bandages
on the head.   Cold wet bandages should often be repeated
on the diseased parts, to strengthen the inactive vessels,
and give a tone to  the weakened organs.  Often a foot-
bath and cold bandages are sufficient to cure the head.
The cure of this disease is effected  without the  sudorific
process, which would cause an overflow of blood to  the
head.

                     Drowsiness.

  Drowsiness, which is subject to frequent returns, is of-
ten caused by bad digestion, particularly from overcharg-
ing the stomach.  This is remedied by moderation in eat-
ing and drinking.   On  its appearance, a cold bandage
should  be  applied on the abdomen; two clysters of cold
water should be taken daily, and much cold water drank,
particularly in the morning.  Entire baths, ablutions of
the whole body, as head-baths, should be resorted to, after
which  the head  should be  well dried and rubbed.  It is
well to repeat the head-bath and friction on going to bed.
After meals, instead of remaining at home, exercise should
be taken, which prevents sleepiness.

            Sickness, and Spitting of Blood.

  The bleeding of  these organs can happen to those suf-
fering  with piles.   Site-baths should  be taken, and ook
bandages worn at night on the chest.  All kinds of irri-
tation should be  avoided, and  entire repose of the mind 
134
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
and body observed.   An abundant drinking of cold water
is indispensable.  Bleeding  of the  lungs,  the  effect of
pulmonary consumption, is not curable by cold water. It
is unnecessary to add, that great sobriety and abstinence
from all heating beverages should accompany this treat-
ment.

                 Hemorrhage, Uterine.

   In hemorrhages of the matrix apply cold bandages to
the abdomen, and if these are not sufficient,  cold water
must be injected into the matrix:  to these means must be
added an abundant drinking of cold water.   This treat-
ment  requires  the  advice of some Hydropathic practi-
tioner.

                Irregular Menstruation.

   Order is established in this important function, by slight
perspirations, general cold ablutions, sitz-baths, and foot-
baths, much exercise, and plentifully drinking cold water.
Instances of cures of this complaint at Graefenberg are
innumerable.

                    Accouchment.

   Experience has demonstrated the utility of cold ablu-
tions, and exercise in the plain  air,  to  females  who  are
enceinte; to this ought to be added simple diet, and  the
drinking plentifully  of cold water: wine, coffee, and li-
quors should be avoided.  Madame Priessnitz is accus. 
THE  WATER-CURE.               135
tomed, during the last six weeks previous to her accouch-
ment, to take a cold bath every day.   To this she owes
the happiness  of a prompt  and easy  accouchment, and
her speedy establishment in health.

               Cramps of the Stomach.
  Cramp in the stomach is almost always produced by
faults of regimen ; yet it is sometimes occasioned by the
diseases of the skin being driven  in, or through  some or-
ganic fault of the stomach.   This defect is generally can-
cerous, and leaves little hope of cure.
  Persons attacked with cramp in  the stomach  ought to
use cold food, wear constantly a fomenting bandage on the
stomach, perspire every day, take two or three sitz-baths,
and drink abundantly of cold water, particularly whilst in
pain, carefully avoiding warm drinks, and all reflections
which would lead to  melancholy.
  A counsellor, who  had suffered  during fourteen years
from violent cramps  in the stomach, was ordered, during
the paroxysm, to drink cold water until it caused vomiting ;
the pains were for the time augmented, but they returned
no  more.

                       Tetanus.

   " This affection is denoted by an involuntary  and con-
tinued spasmodic contraction of the muscles of the head,
throat, and neck, or  of the trunk,  and of the extremities.
The spine  and  neck  become rigid, the  head is bent back-
wards, and to these symptoms areadded giddiness, dimness 
136                HYDROPATHY  ; OR,
of sight, difficulty of breathing, palpitation, and spasm of
the stomach.   The intervals between the paroxysms vary.
During the attack, the patient's body is rigid, and stretched
out in a straight direction, or drawn backwards or forwards,
or to either  side.  The rigidity is attended with violent
pain ;  the countenance is pale, and covered with cold per-
spiration, whilst  the rest of the body  retains  its  natural
heat; respiration is difficult, speech is impaired, and con-
sciousness  is partially or completely  lost.   These  exacer-
bations generally continue for a few minutes—in rare cases
during half an hour.   The attacks then cease, leaving a
dull sensation in the  limbs for a length of time.
  Tetanus is generally complicated  with  other diseases,
the most frequent causes are, wounds  implicating nerves
and tendons,  lacerations and  contusions, fractures, injuries,
in  which  a  foreign body remains  in the wound, colds,
potent poisons, suppressed haemorrhage, loss of fluids, con-
cussion of the brain or spinal chord, and  violent mental
emotions.
  In the treatment of tetanus, our attention must be directed
towards the removal of the primary disease, if, indeed, the
tetanus be not idiopathic.  If we succeed in curing the ori-
ginal affection, the spasmodic contractions  will generally
cease.   Foreign bodies must be removed from the system,
suppressed affections should be reproduced.
  During an exacerbation,  little or nothing  can be done.
Cold affusion, half-baths, aDd friction,  are the only remedies
which we can call to our assistance.   After having adopted
one of these processes, we must convey the patient to bed,
and endeavor to bring on perspiration by sufficient covering.
The intervals between the exacerbations must be employed 
THE  WATER-CURE.
137
in enveloping the patients in wet sheets. The patient should
perspire but slightly, and perform  an ablution afterwards
with cold water.   The quantity  of cold water taken inter-
nally must depend upon the constitution of the individual,
but the potations should be as copious as possible ; in addi-
tion to this treatment, we may rub the body frequently,
and apply warm bandages  to parts chiefly affected with
spasm.  Every  mode of employing cold  water  which  is
attended with loss of time is injurious ;  the shorter the time
required for the  application, and the more frequently it can
be repeated, the more beneficial will be its action.   In ob-
stinate cases,  we  may resort  to cold plunging-baths,  cold
affusion, and  even to the douche ; but the body must be-
come thoroughly warm before we repeat any one  of these
applications.  The douche and  friction should  be chiefly
directed to the spine.  Half-baths are  of essential service
for the relief of spasmodic contraction ; but the  tempera-
ture of the water must be at 64° to 73°  Fahrenheit.  As
long as the patient is in the bath, he must be rubbed by two
persons continually, whilst water of the same temperature
is to be poured over him.   Where an injury is the cause of
tetanus, the wound must be kept moist with wet bandages,
applied, if possible, in the course of the nerves implicated."
—Weiss.

                       Lock-Jaw.

  " Lock-jaw is  brought on by the same causes as the former
disease, and requires the  same treatment.   Where children
are affected with lock-jaw, we must never forget to inquire
into the cause, which may be, gastric irritation,  produced 
138
HYDROPATHY J OR,
by acidity, worms, &c.  Where we have detected a cause
of this nature,  we should endeavor, as soon as the spasmo-
die contractions cease, to  purge the body by clysters, by
copious potations, and bandages round the abdomen.  The
patients must observe a rigid diet, eat little, drink cold water
copiously, and  pass much of their time in the open air."—
Weiss.

                   Delirium  Tremens.

  " Where this disease is ushered in by premonitory symp.
toms,  they will be observed to consist of loss of appetite,
loss of sleep, confusion of ideas, and general debility.  The
accession generally presents itself with delirium.   The pa-
tients are prepossessed  by one  idea,  of which they cannot
divest their imagination.  For the most  part, they believe
themselves to be pursued by men or animals, or by crea-
tions of their  own imagination.   They  fancy themselves
attacked, especially at  night-time,—hence their inclination
to leap out of bed.   The majority of the superficial muscles
of the  body are in  constant motion ; sleep  is totally lost;
the countenance is pale; the eyes are bright, and vacantly
fixed ;  the tongue is  moist;  the akin hot, and covered with
a clammy, fetid perspiration ; the region  of the  liver  and
stomach is swelled; there is slight thirst, and the action of
the bowels is  disturbed.
  This disease is, generally speaking, of short duration ;  an
attack  may extend to ten or eighteen days,  and is brought
on by the immoderate indulgence in the use of brandy and
other spirituous liquors.
  The chief point in the treatment, is to  purge the alimen- 
THE WATER-CURE.
139
tary canal by copious water-drinking.  If vomiting ensue,
it must be encouraged by perseverance in the use of cold
water internally;  where there is no vomiting, we must pro-
duce purging by the use of clysters and bandages round the
abdomen.   When the  alimentary canal  is thoroughly
cleared, we should wrap the patient in wet sheets, and apply
at the same time cold  bandages to his head repeatedly.
The patient should remain in the envelopement until  dia-
phoresis  ensues.    The  sooner perspiration  appears,  the
oftener the sheets may be changed; but five or six repeti-
tions in the course of the day should suffice, for, by chang-
ing the sheets very often, too much heat will  be abstracted
from the body.   Immediately after the first envelopement,
the patient must  be subjected to an ablution with cold water
and conveyed to bed, if he feel exhausted.   The bed should
be kept clean and well aired.   Where there is considerable
determination  to  the head, as  the continuance of delirium
will indicate, it will become necessary to persevere with the
cooling  bandages to  the  head ; warming  bandages to the
abdomen afford also great relief in these cases.  To prevent
the patient from  escaping, the doors and windows must be
well fastened;  for if  we attempt to restrain him  by coer-
sion, his state will be  rendered worse ;  we must, therefore,
snatch those moments when the patients feel most composed
in the early stage of the disease, for the use of the  envelope-
ment.
   These patients  are very quickly brought to their senses
by a judicious use of cold water.   At first, they are  cer-
tainly much exhausted, but fall asleep the sooner, and sleep
must be regarded as the true crisis.   The longer the patients
sleep, the sooner  they will recover ;  they occasionally con- 
140
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
tinue in this state for twenty or  thirty hours without once
waking; nor should their rest be interrupted if they  do not
wake for a longer period, as this proceeding would certainly
prove injurious.
  I have frequently succeeded in curing this affection in a
very short  time, within twenty-four or  forty-eight  hours.
Our chief endeavor should be to  wean the patient  of  the
baneful habit of intemperance, which is  not  an  easy task.
We must keep these patients at least during one year under
very strict surveillance, and firmly deny them  the  use of
all intoxicating liquors, and totally disregard their represen-
tations  and entreaties.  Exhortations, earnest representa-
tions,  and  reproaches, seldom suffice to  keep drunkards
from  their unmanly, immoral propensities ; they will fre-
quently entreat us, on  their knees, to indulge  them in their
habit for once, promising at the same time to abstain  during
the remainder of their lives from drinking ;  but be not mis-
led by these idle phrases ;  for if we listen  to them once—
but once accede to  their wishes—they will  become more
impetuous  in  their  requests, and where prayers are of no
avail, they will resort to threats.   We must remain firm and
unmoved, nor should we  rest until we have totally crushed
their vicious propensity.  It is for this  purpose  necessary
that we  should  have the drunkard in our command, or  we
shall  not succeed.   He must never have money at his dis-
posal, or be trusted with the management of his own affairs ;
for he will sell and pawn every thing to gratify the ruling
passion."—Weiss.


                       Paralysis.

   " This term implies  a loss of the power of motion in  the 
THE WATER-CURE.
141
 muscles  of the whole body,  or in single  parts ;  a state,
 therefore, differing materially from loss of motion in conse-
 quence of stiffness, distortion, or anchylosis of joints.
   Total paralysis deprives the whole body of sensation; par-
 tial paralysis is of more frequent occurrence—e. g., paralysis
 of one side, (hemiplegia;) or of the upper, or more frequently
 of the lower extremities, (paraplegia.) Paralysis is occasion-
 ally confined to single organs, as  to the lungs, the rectum,
 the bladder, &c. ;  it sometimes comes on suddenly, at other
 times gradually and insidiously ;  in the latter case,  a sensa-
 tion of frigidity, numbness, formication, and tremor, is ex-
 perienced in the part threatened with an attack.   A para-
 lysed limb is cold, flabby, emaciated, or anasarcous.
   The predisposition  to paralysis  is denoted by a certain
 debility,  diminished irritability,  checked or suppressed vi-
 tality of  certain parts.  The exciting causes are,  diseases
 or injuries which diminish or  destroy the power of motion.
 Pressure  on the cerebral  and spinal  nerves  will  produce
 paralysis,  which always results when these nerves are in-
 jured, or pressed upon by accumulations of blood or  other
 fluids, or  are violently stretched or lacerated, in cases of ex-
 ostoses, or of  curvature of the spine.   The  nervous  in-
 fluence is moreover weakened,  or totally destroyed  by
 various other  injurious  impressions;   by  loss  of blood,
 effusion on nervous matter, by loss of semen, want  of food,
 diarrhoea,  the use of various drugs, exposure to the poison-
 ous vapors of lead, mercury, arsenic, &c.
   Paralysis is  frequently incurable, or the cure is  at least
attended with difficulty.  Hydrotherapeutic treatment may
be resorted to with some  chance of success as  long as an
occasional sensation of itching or pain is yet perceptible
in the paralysed limb,  or a slight degree of mobility still 
142
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
 exists in the part affected.  The paralysed patient must be
 wrapped every morning in the wet sheet, and should remain
 in that position until he is thoroughly warm ;  the envelope.
 ment must be followed by an ablution.  Where the patients
 are not too weak, they may perspire in the envelopement
 every third day; they must also wear warming bandages on
 the parts affected, where this proceeding is practicable.  A
 wave-bath, (in a river,)  if possible, should be taken every
 other  day, and alternate with a  douche.  The action of
 these baths will be greatly increased if we have the patients
 well rubbed with horse-hair gloves for a few minutes before
 the bath.
   In cases where the bladder or rectum  are affected, cold
 sitting-baths and cold clysters are indicated in addition to
 the  douche.  Where  douche cannot be obtained, cold af-
 fusion must be resorted to,  the  stream  of  water being
 directed  to the parts affected.   The treatment in paralysis
 should tend to excite and invigorate ; cold water, therefore,
 must be used at short  periods, but frequently.  Our chief
 endeavor must  be to increase the action of the skin ; hence,
 the patients should not be debilitated by sweating, nor by
 the  use  of derivative  baths ;  but  we must  endeavor to
 strengthen them by  friction  and cold ablutions.   Where
 the skin  is dry or brittle,  this inconvenience is to be met
 by the envelopement in the wet sheet.
  The internal  use of cold water must  depend upon the
 constitution of the patients ; but they should drink as much
as possible, excepting the paralysis affect the urinary organs,
 which would be debilitated to a greater extent by the water.
 If, in the course of this treatment an eruption present itself
 on the 'part affected, or  if we  observe its temperature to 
THE WATER-CURR.
143
increase,  or reaction, or even exhalation, to have  taken
place, these will  be very favorable symptoms, and should
excite the patient to persevere with the treatment, as con-
siderable  relief may be thence expected.   In every thing
that relates to diet the patients must conscientiously perform
their part; they should take much exercise in the open air,
avoid excesses  of every description, and confine themselves
to mild, nutritious food."—Weiss.

                       Apoplexy.

   " This disease is denoted by a sudden loss of conscious-
ness, sensation, and voluntary motion.  Apoplexy is  gene-
rally sudden in its attacks : if it be  attended  by precur-
sors,  they will  be—headache, giddiness,  a  red bloated
countenance,  violent  pulsation  of   the  temporal  and
carotid arteries, stammering, nausea,  spasmodic contrac-
tions  of  the  muscles of  the face,   an irregular  pulse,
uneasy sensations at the  back  of  the neck, and  great
anxiety.
   In an attack of apoplexy, the patients fall suddenly, and
are senseless ;  the breathing is difficult, and stertorous ; the
mouth is  covered with foam;  the pulse and beat of the
heart continue, but unequally; the eyes are prominent and
fixed ; the countenance is  covered with cold perspiration;
the hands and feet are cold.
   Death may ensue in a  few minutes after an attack, or
in a few hours, or it may  be delayed for two or three days :
the disease may,  however,  terminate  in  perfect recovery,
leaving paralysis,  sometimes  of the  half of the  body;
(hemiplegia,) but more frequently of single limbs or organs ; 
144
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
or disturbance of the mind, and general debility, may also
be its sequences.
  Plethoric, robust persons, with a  large head, and short,
thick neck, are predisposed to apoplexy.  The disease occurs
most frequently  between the fortieth and  sixtieth  year of
life, and is brought on, or favored, by the following exciting
causes : inflammation of important viscera,  of the brain in
particular ; nervous  diseases;  lesions of the heart or large
blood-vessels,  causing  disturbances of  the circulation; de-
bilitating, depressing passions;  considerable loss of blood,
and  other fluids.
   The treatment of this dangerous disease is no easy task
for the most  experienced  physician ; the  non-professional
reader should, therefore, never  venture to undertake the
treatment.  Where  medical  aid cannot be immediately ob-
tained, the following rules should be observed: in  the first
place, all  the  wearing  apparel  must be removed, and  the
patient must be placed in the  sitting posture ; a few buckets
of cold water should then be poured over him, whilst seve-
ral persons rub  his  body continually.  If vomiting ensue,
it must be encouraged,  by  administering to him  at first
tepid,  and subsequently cold  water.   Clysters  should  be
immediately used.   When the patient is somewhat restored,
he must be enveloped  in the wet sheets, to perspire.  The
sheets should not be  closely adapted to the body, least of
all confine the neck.  The patient must lie almost  in the
sitting posture in bed, and  requires  careful  watching, that
we may be able to afford  him the necessary assistance in case
of another attack.   With the second accession, he  must be
immediately  removed from the sheets,  and  subjected again
to friction and affusion.  If the desired perspiration appear, 
THE WATER-CURE.
145
it should be encouraged, if possible, for some time, and we
must administer cold water to the patient, provided he can
swallow.   When the patient is removed from the envelope-
ment, every thing should be in readiness  for a rapid ablu-
tion, in  order that we may return him quickly to bed, and
cover him well up ;  for it is imperatively necessary to keep
up the  action  of the  skin.   If the patient improve consi.
derably with this treatment, we may repeat it every twenty.
four hours until he is able to leave his bed.  The envelope.
ment in the wet sheet must be subsequently continued once
daily ;  the patient, however, need  not perspire, but should
merely  remain in   the  sheets  until  he  becomes warm.
Where  the skin is very dry and brittle, and evinces but lit-
tie  activity, the patient must sweat again every third or
fourth day; and the parts chiefly affected must be covered
with  warming bandages, rubbed,  and frequently washed
with cold water.  If the parts do not acquire  their perfect
activity by these proceedings, the douche must be brought
into application, and the whole of the treatment necessary
in paralysis."—Weiss.

                        Fainting.
  " Fainting is a well-known malady, denoted  by a certain
diminution or total  suspension  of consciousness, sensation,
motion, respiration, and circulation.  A  severe  form  of
fainting, the total suspension of all the evidences of vitality,
but  where life continues, is called  suspended animation,
(asphxyia,) in common parlance  " a  trance."  Fainting is
sometimes preceded by weariness, a disordered head, vertigo,
dimness of sight, palpitation, nausea,  anxiety, and pallor of
countenance.
            7 
146
HYDROPATHY ',  OR,
   The duration of a fainting fit is, generally speaking, con-
fined to a few minutes;  the patient then recovers with sigh-
ing, the passage of flatus,  with vomiting, or evacuation of
the  bowels, and the warmth of the body and  the  color  of
the countenance then gradually return.
   Hysterical or hypochondrical persons, and patients suf-
fering from congestions, are most subject to  fainting.
   The  first point in the treatment of syncope, is to remove
all articles  of  clothing  which  confine  the  body,  as  tight
cravats, waistbands, and garters.   The  patient  must then
be placed in the sitting posture,  and sprinkled  or washed
with cold water, until the fit is over.   To diminish the pre-
disposition  to  fainting,  the  body should be  washed  daily
with cold  water, and the  patient should drink nothing but
pure cold water,  avoiding all warm narcotic beverages, and
should,  further, take much exercise in the open air.  Clys-
ters are likewise indicated."—Weiss.


                     Apparent Death.

   " This is distinguished from actual  death, by the absence
of  symptoms of decomposition;  of the cadaverous  odor
and of  the blue or green spots on the skin.  Persons, ap-
parently dead,  frequently  retain consciousness,  feeling,
and especially  the  sense of hearing  for several days; but
they are totally incapable of moving or of giving other signs
of life.
   The  causes  of asphyxia are various, viz., exposure to
deleterious gases, carbonic  acid gas, the air in sewers and
cellars,  where new fermenting wines are  deposited,  difficult
parturition, constriction of  the  air passages ;  it is  also the
effect of continued  violent cold, &c. 
THE  WATER-CURE.
147
  The first attention must be paid, in the  treatment of the
half-dead, to the removal of all wearing apparel, and to pro-
cure them pure fresh air, especially in summer time.  Our
next proceeding must be to pour cold water upon them oc-
casionally from a certain  height; they should then be well
rubbed and brushed by several persons, the pit of the stomach
and the soles of the feet  more  particularly: we may also
endeavor to inflate the  lungs, and use clysters.  Where all
these attempts are fruitless, we may tickle the fauces with
a feather, and try  a warm bath, especially in cases of hang-
ing, strangulation, and of drowning."—Weiss.


                   Torpor from  Cold.

   " Persons in a state of torpor from  cold  should be laid on
snow in a moderately cold place, and the whole body should
be covered with snow ;  and where this is not to be obtained,
they should be immersed into cold water, leaving the mouth
and nose only free ; in this bath the patients must remain
until symptoms of life are observed.  They are then  to be
conveyed to an unwarmed bed,  and  the  whole body must
be rubbed with flannel, but cautiously, to avoid injury to the
skin.  When animation  returns, cold  water must  be ad-
ministered to the patients  until they can  assist themselves
to drink.   Frozen limbs,  or parts affected by frost, should
be treated with snow or cold water,  and with foot and hand-
baths ; bandages  and ablutions  may also be  brought into
operation.  Where open sores or ulcerations are observed,
we  must use water of a higher temperature, to heal them."
—Weiss. 
148
HYDROPATHY J  OR,
Remarks on Crisis, and Cases.  By Sir Charles Scudamore.

  The very important matter of crisis is always sought for
with much  solicitude  both by Priessnitz and the patient.
He believes that it could not be produced in  a healthy man ;
and that its occurrence is a sure proof that nature  is sue-
cessfully exerting  herself to throw off the  disease,  by the
exit  of bad humor from the mass of blood.  It is a  sort
of wholesale theory, and equally serves for  all  persons, and
for every known disorder ; and assuredly is the  most con-
venient for  one ignorant of medical  science.   I conceive
that Priessnitz must have  been gradually led to this idea
of morbid blood by the  observations which  his experience
enabled him to make ; for, as before explained, he entered
into  the water-cure practice*  by accident,  and not  from
tuition.  His  principles  have arisen out of  practice as an
empiric art, and were not as a precursor first implanted in
his mind.   He has, in innumerable instances, so that the
contrary forms the exception to the rule, witnessed the for-
mation of crisis in the progress of the water-cure, amongst
which boils  take the lead in pre-eminence   and importance
of character.  But the term also applies to any very marked
disturbance  of the system, or  cutaneous  change;  as the
crisis fever; odorous perspiration ; odorous urine; vomitings ;
diarrhoea;  hemorrhoidal discharge of blood; and various
kinds of eruptions on the skin.  It was a fact of ordinary

   * I employ this terra in its just signification, meaning- experience,
not charlatanism, from which I believe Priessnitz to be entirely free. 
THE WATER-CURE.                149
occurrence, presenting itself to the mind of Priessnitz, that
the great crisis of boils, in proportion to their free suppura-
tion, proved in the highest degree remedial, removing chro-
nic pains and internal sufferings of long standing ; and that
no marked amendment did take place until the event of
some crisis.   Also the additional fact must  be  mentioned,
that very frequently indeed the boil crisis would appear in
the immediate vicinity of the disease, sometimes on  the
very spot.  It is no longer surprising therefore that the idea
of humor in the blood should be strongly confirmed in the
mind of Priessnitz, and have grown with him into a rule of
practice.  The patient very naturally cares  not for the ab-
sence  of scientific explanations,  but renders his  faith to
fact, and to the long  list of very extraordinary cures which
have been  performed, after the  failure of regular medical
art.  But it  will  not be  uninteresting to examine more
closely this doctrine of the bad blood, with reference to
crisis and treatment.
   In the case of morbid poisons, as, for example, small pox,
measles, and scarlatina, nature evidently makes a vigorous
effort to free the blood from the virus, by producing in the
skin a characteristic eruption,  attended by a symptomatic
fever.   After a certain period, health returns, and no remin-
iscence of the poison occurs.  I adopt this illustration to shew
that the blood can in this manner,  by the medium  of  the
skin, clear itself of the offending cause, however difficult the
explanation may be.   In the very familiar examples of  cu-
taneous disease, as erysipelas, the shingles, nettle-rash, &c.
we commonly refer to the blood as the source of disorder,
although we can only generalize our notions ; or, by other
theory, we may regard these disorders as the offspring of 
150               HYDROPATHY J OR,
some internal vitiated secretion, as acrid acid in the stom-
ach,* or bad bile, affecting the skin by supposed sympathy ;
—which is equally figurative language, if we are driven to
close and searching analysis.
  Boils and carbuncles do not occur in healthy subjects;
and, when they happen naturally, are always looked upon
as  indicating a bad habit of body.   The  surgeon  may
choose other description, and  call it weak and unhealthy
inflammation, affecting  the outward texture of the body
differently from phlegmon or true inflammation.  I will
not, therefore, for the sake of language,  attempt to dis-
pute the plain notion, so familiarly adopted, of the nature
of  crisis in the water-cure treatment ; but I do think it of
great importance that it should have its sober limits, and
not be made an ignus fatuus to the practitioner or the pa-
tient.   The benefit arising from crisis must not be referred
merely to the depuratory or cleansing  process  for the
blood.  Boils and rashes act  as  counter-irritants, in the
ordinary  and most accepted view, and in this way also
prove  useful;  on the same principle that  we see advan-
tage derived  from blisters, and artificial eruptions pro-
duced by external applications,  tartar emetic, croton oil,
&c.;  and even the use  of setons and issues is connected
with this principle of counter-irritation equally with the
idea of discharging the offending humor from  the blood.
It is very evidently the  formation of an artificial disease,
with the hope that it may be  a substitute for the real one,
and cause its removal.

   * A breaking out, as it is  called, on the lips and chin, would  proba-
bly be produced in any one, by eating for a continuance rich sauces,
especially if made with bad butter. 
THE  WATER-CURE.
151
  It certainly happens in this way that much inconve-
nience must often be sustained by the  patient in the pro-
gress of his cure ;  and he must submit to be worse, before
he can be better.
  The occurrence of boils is not, however, invariably ne-
cessary to the  cure.  Nature determines this, and may
give another kind of crisis ; and even none that is nota-
ble may be the pleasing  fate of some, who still receive
every benefit and recover.
  From all that I have seen, and my opportunity has been
extensive, I am deeply impressed with the conviction that
the employment of a very large amount of treatment, at
one and the same time, in order to urge the circulation to
produce crisis, demands most prudent consideration, and
especially  in irritable constitutions.   I am free to admit
that, in chronic cases of long standing, superficial mea-
sures would be of little or no avail, and that there must
be efficient treatment.  If too active measures be pursued
in these exceptionable instances to which I allude, a sud-
den and too severe crisis might be produced, creating high
suffering and possible danger.  Instead of the favorably
suppurating  boils, such  as are  of untoward  character
might  arise.   I am sure that these  unfavorable  conse-
quences may always be avoided by ordinary care, and do
not belong  to the water-cure  treament, as of right, more
than any accidental untoward result belongs to the regu-
lar  practice of physic.
  Whenever  a threatening appears of too strong a crisis,
the treatment is to be immediately reduced ;  and, being
nicely adapted  also to the particular circumstances of the
case, all anxious embarrassment will be removed. 
152
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
  In conclusion of this subject, I advert with regret to
reflections which I have seen in print on the skill of Priess-
nitz, on account of a  particular case which occurred at
Graefenberg, unfavorable in respect to the constitution of
the patient, and having a fatal termination.  In its treat-
ment at the latter period,  there had been on the part of
the  individual much  improper deviation from the direc
tions laid down, owing to an impatient desire  of urging
crisis for the sake of a more speedy cure.   From  this
cause,  fever crisis set in suddenly and with destructive
violence.  Continued high  irritation and fatal exhaustion
ensued.
  A lamented event of this kind, happily most rare, should
serve as occasion for such reflections as I have already sug-
gested.   No remedy that is powerful for good, can be so
weak an  instrument  as not to be also capable of evil.
Neither the skill nor the prudence of Priessnitz should be
lightly called  in question by any one.  I am  convinced
that, with regular superintendence of a case, he would never
provoke  a  crisis beyond his power of convenient control.
The very large number of patients on his list, varying from
two to five hundred, could  not allow of watch  being  kept
over every case, and he must be sought for rather than seek.
He is most attentive on  every important occasion -t and it
must be  the fault  of the patient if he do  not  report pro-
gress ; and more especially if he do not seek prompt aid in
the event of the least unfavorable occurrence.
  Another and very important consideration presents itself
on  the subject of crisis;—for how long  a time is  its oc-
currence to be viewed as an indication for the continuance
of  treatment 1 Evidently it requires judgment  to know 
THE WATER-CURE.
153
 what may be referred to the influence  of the  constitution
 not yet delivered from its errors ;  and what to simple mor-
 bid action of the vessels of the skin, existing as a secon-
 dary and a local disease.   I know an instance of the oc-
 casional formation of boils on the  legs, causing much in-
 convenience, although the general health is quite restored;
 the full water-cure treatment, which was carried on  nearly
 two years, having been laid aside for one; with the  excep-
 tion  that  the patient applies water  dressings to  the skin
 when it inflames, or to a boil; and uses a cold  bath daily.
   I have now to treat of the practical results of the water-
 cure  treatment, in the narrative of some cases ; selecting
 from the large number which, through the kindness and cour-
 tesy of many friends, I  have had the opportunity either of
 seeing  or  becoming  acquainted with, those which I hope
 may  prove of sufficient interest and instruction.
   That I  may  present to the reader a familiar picture of
 the nature of  the  different processes, I will give some
 account of my  own  treatment;   adopting the maxim of
 Seneca:
    " Longum iter per pra?cepta, breve et efficax per exempla."

   I have for  many years experienced inconvenience from
 rheumatic  and nervous head-ache, with noises and  deafness
 in the left  ear; always dependent on medicine for the func
 tion of the bowels, yet very seldom  requiring active treat-
 ment.
   I waited a  few days, to recover from the fatigue of travel-
ling,  before  I began the treatment.  At 6 a. m. Tuesday,
April  18,  I  was visited  by Priessnitz and the  Badediener,
(bath  attendant,) who rubbed me down  with the wet sheet
           7* 
154
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
for two or three minutes; following it with an equally diligent
application of the dry one.   The cold application being ac-
companied with such  immediate friction, no severe shock
was experienced.   It was merely disagreeable, and that only
in the first impression.   The  reaction  was quickly estab-
lished, and a safer mode of bathing cannot, I think, be im-
agined.   The  best results  must follow from this effective
cleansing process  for the skin, tending to maintain it in
health and to remove its diseased  conditions.   By  the re-
commendation of  Priessnitz, I put my flannel waistcoat
over my linen.
  The wet bandage  was applied round my body, the dry
part being closely  rolled over it.  The cold sensation  was
unpleasant at first,  but  quickly removed  by exercise.  I
next used hand-rubbing for  my head  most freely with cold
water in a basin, and was careful, by  Priessnitz's desire, to
chill the nape  of the neck.   I next took a long walk,  and
drank three half pints of water at suitable intervals.
  At 11 a. m. sheet  process  repeated, and, in addition, a
sitz-bath, with water at 65° Fahr. to reach to the navel.  I
continually rubbed the abdomen and loins  with the water,
and remained a quarter  of an hour.  The  unpleasant first
impression does not  last more than a minute, and it is not
disagreeable to remain for any length of  time, unless the
water should be changed.   At 5 p. m.  this treatment  was
repeated.   I came in from a walk, much heated by exercise
in the sun, waited a few minutes till the pulse became quiet,
and then had the wet sheet applied with a most refreshing
and  satisfactory effect.
  19th. Placed in the wet sheet: the first lying down on it
and investment with it were very disagreeable; but, imme- 
THE WATER-CURE.
155
 diately after the  packing up with the blanket, &c. suffi.
 ciently comfortable;  and, in a few minutes more, so much
 so that the effect was quite soothing and  tending to sleep.
 At the  end of three quarters of an hour,  warmth  came,
 which would have produced perspiration, and, this not being
 desired, I was taken out, and immediately entered the shal-
 low bath, at 62°, and was well rubbed with the water for
 about two minutes.   The immersion  being so slight,  the
 impression of  the cold  water was very bearable, and the
 warmth of surface was afterwards quickly restored.   Rub-
 bing  wet sheet at 11 a. m., and at 5 p. m. this and the sitz-
 bath  at 62°.   Each time rubbed the head.
   20 th.  Same treatment.   Examined my animal heat be-
 fore being rubbed with the wet sheet;  it was 97.5, and the
 sheet 50°; no  alteration produced—shewing the mildness
 of this  refrigerant process.
   After the lein-tuch  this morning, went first into the shal-
 low bath at 62°, and then into the plunging bath, which was
 44°,  and cutting cold ;   returned  quickly  to the  shallow
 bath,  which now  seemed pleasantly  tepid.  I found the
 animal  heat reduced  one degree by  the plunging  bath,
 although the sensible reaction was excellent; and, after the
dry rubbing and dressing,  I was comfortably warm.
   23d.   Same  treatment.  In using the sitz-bath,  found
the temperature  of the water raised by the warmth  of the
body 2 degrees in 5 minutes, 4  in 10, and 6 in 15.  Hence
the necessity of a change of the water, if  a continued cold
sitting be desired.
   Being, in the common language, bilious  from the change
of diet,  and such a free use of milk mornings and evenings,
the bilious secretion suspended with loss of appetite,  took 
156
HYDROPATHY J  OR,
blue pill and colocynth at night, and next morning the im-
proved Cheltenham salts.  It was my object to save time ;
and  I was confident that  I  should have this error  more
quickly corrected than by leaving it to the sole influence of
the water-cure treatment.
  25th.   I used the lying sheet and shallow tepid bath yes-
terday, but no other treatment.  Every success and benefit
from the  medicine.
  26th.   To-day resumed  the plunging bath, and went  on
with the  same treatment  to the end of the  month, but
changed  the mid-day process for the use  of the  regular
head-bath and foot-bath ; having recourse to the latter also,
from being much  subject to  coldness  of feet.  I received
the head-bath for a quarter of an hour, allotting five minutes
to the back, and the same to each side of the head.*  I lay
on the floor, and had a good proof of the superior conduct-
ing power  of  air  over water for sound, in  the strong per-
ception  of any contiguous accidental noises.   From this
application of  cold water I always felt sensible invigoration
of the nerves  of the head.
   The foot-bath was also  sensibly  useful,  tending  to com-
fortable warmth of the feet;  and  the further rubbing  of
the ankles and muscles of the leg much relieved the conse-
quences of fatigue.
  May 1st. In using  the  lein-tuch this morning, applied
a long towel,  wetted, from the arm-pit down the side, and
found its effects agreeable; the  sensations,  from the  com-
plete contact of wet linen, more pleasant on that side than
  * I find a shallow wooden vessel, with a rounded groove to re-
ceive the neck, answer the purpose for this process very  well. 
THE  WATER-CURE.
157
the other.  Indeed, the effect of this process is very sooth-
ing ;  and it becomes a punishment to be unpacked.   Every
one would willingly go to sleep in the wet sheet.  If, in
any particular case, the feet fail to become warm  with the
rest of the body, socks may be worn.
   May 5th.  To-day  used  the douche, the temperature of
which was 44°, for two minutes:  it immediately reduced
the animal heat one degree: but I had a comfortable reac-
tion.   I felt very  sensibly how much the most active this
is of all the processes, when the douche is strong and the
water cold.  I used it afterwards occasionally during my
stay,  but not regularly, as I did not require full treatment.
   I proceeded regularly till the 16th, when I tried the ex-
periment of lying on three  wet sheets instead of one.   The
first impression on lying down was that of greater coldness ;
but when packed up,  this subsided into a sense of pleasant
coolness, that was refreshing.   This remained, so that at
the end of an hour and a quarter I was not warmer than I
had been in ten minutes with the one sheet.   It was parti-
cularly agreeable that the back remained cool so long.  In
an hour and a half, I had the same general warmth as with
half an  hour of the one sheet.   In another quarter of an
hour, I was becoming so warm that the animal heat had
risen  half a  degree.   Had I remained  longer,  I should,
doubtless, have perspired freely.  I was much satisfied with
the experiment, as shewing the long-continued refrigerant
power of the three sheets, in comparison  with the one.
  Two days after, I made the experiment of using the
sweating blanket.   On awaking  at  5 a. m. I had  some
head-ache :  pulse rather full,  at 56° ; animal heat 98°.
In the course of ten minutes after being packed up, I was 
158
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
comfortably  warm; least so in  the  feet, where  I  desired
more weight.  At the  end of an hour  and ten minutes,
when the warmth of the whole body was much  increased
without  sensible  perspiration, the pulse  was increased to
66°, full and soft; the animal heat  99°.   At the  end of
two hours, the perspiration was universal, but not copious,
p.  68, animal heat 100°.  In another half hour, perspira-
tion in a greater  degree, but  not  streaming, p. 68,  animal
heat 101°.  At the end of two hours and three quarters, 1
quitted  the bed, for the full bath, into which I plunged in-
stantly, while hot and perspiring, made two immersions, and
came out exceedingly refreshed.*  On  being dressed,  the
pulse was as in the beginning, and the animal heat 97.5.
   On the following day,  returning from a long mountain
walk, the sun shining, jny pulse  was excited and my ani.
mal heat 101°.
  I waited a  few minutes only for a quiet circulation ; I
wiped off the flowing perspiration, and then, while yet hot
and perspiring, was freely rubbed down with the wet sheet,
holding more water than usual.  I was highly refreshed and
agreeably cooled : my pulse became natural, and the animal
heat, examined during dressing, was 98°.  Hence another
proof of the  perfect safety of applying sudden cold to the
heated bodyf with perspiring surface, when  the animal heat
is raised beyond the natural standard.
  * It is to be considered that  with the elevation of the animal
heat, the nervous energy also is  simultaneously  increased or more
diffused.
  t In a paper on heat, which I had the honor of reading at the
evening meeting of the College of Physicians, March 5th, 1839,1
quoted the experiment of Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Fordyce, and others, 
THE WATER-CURE.
159
  I proceeded with regular treatment to the 20th, and then
desisted.  After this period, in consequence of a severe cold
from remaining in wet clothes, when I had  no opportunity
of changing them, I was attacked with slight general fever,
rheumatic pains, and severe throbbing head-ache.  I imme-
diately had recourse to a lein-tuch, followed by the shallow
tepid bath, and two affusions with cold water.   The relief
was immediate : the animal heat, which had been increased
to 100°, was immediately reduced to 97.5.  One repetition
of this  treatment was  so  successful, that  in twenty-four
hours I  found  myself quite well.
  The final result of the whole proceedings has been  a most
satisfactory improvement of my health,  in  all the failings
which I mentioned; and I have not found the least occasion
for medicine during the last two  months.   On my journey
homewards, which was  most extremely fatiguing,  I took
every opportunity in my power to  use,  on first  rising,  the
rubbing wet sheet, hip bath, head  and foot bath, and always
with the greatest comfort and advantage : a plan which, to-
gether with early rising, drinking cold water freely, and an
active walk, I follow up with the  highest advantage  and
sensible comfort and benefit.
  In relating  the following  cases, I avoid  all  mention of
names ; knowing that the violation of this proper delicacy
has given great offence at  Graefenberg, and disturbed  the
feeling of many persons.
shewing the impunity of passing immediately from an apartment heated
to 260° Fahr. into  a very cold atmosphere; the effect indeed being
agreeable, refreshing, and useful. 
160
HYDROPATHY J  OR,
                        Case I.
  A. B. aged 44, for the last seven years during a residence
in India, liable to severe head-aches; complaining frequent-
ly of heat on the  top of the head, and a weight at the back.
After a time, these head-aches became much worse periodi-
cally, accompanied with sickness approaching  to faintness,
and a momentary  loss of recollection.  These  periodical
returns at length  becoming so frequent as every twenty-five
days, and the illness much more severe, accompanied with
pain in the lower part of the spine, he was advised  to try
change of air from the sultry climate of India, to the Neil-
gherry hills, where, during a  residence of two years, he be-
came much better, the periodical returns being forty-five and
forty-six days apart.  As his general tone of health improv-
ed, the illness also became slighter.   His health  not being
however established, he was directed to return to his native
climate, and proceeded to Europe by the overland route,
via  Malta,  where he changed his  route, and proceeded  to
Graefenberg, via Naples, Leghorn, Florence, Trieste, Vien-
na.   During this journey,  his  complaint returned every
twenty-sixth, thirtieth, or thirty-sixth day, and the illnesses
were not so slight as they had been during the latter period
of his residence on the Neilgherries.  He complained a good
deal of cold feet and frequent head-aches.  The latter might
perhaps be  attributed to improper diet at the hotels, and the
fatigue and irregularity incident to travelling.  It was the
opinion of  his medical friends in India,  that there was no
organic disease, and that his complaint was to be attributed
to indigestion and  the exposure to the climate  of India.
He  had a return  of illness  on the 29th of March,  in the
carriage between Olmutz aad Graefenberg.    Priessnitz saw 
THE WATER-CURB.
161
him on the 30th, and  commenced  treatment on the  31st,
with abreibung and head-bath, the back  and sides being
immersed for a quarter of an hour.  On the 1st of April, he
had lein-tuch at 5 a. m. followed by a tepid bath.  Lein-tuch
again at 12,  followed by an abreibung and head bath ; at
5 p.  m.  an abreibung.   This treatment continued until the
20th of April, when he had a return of illness in the night.
Priessnitz being sent for, he directed his head to be wetted
before using the lien-tuch, and  an abreibung after it, instead
of the tepid bath; the abreibung to be repeated  at 9 a. m.,
12 noon, 3 p. m., 6 p. m., and 9 o'clock p. m., in  addition to
which he was to have an abreibung every fifteen minutes for
one hour  after the faintness.   This treatment of six abrei-
bungs a day, and lein-tuch at 4 in the morning, head-bath at
9 a. si. and 12 noon, continued several days; was then re-
duced to five abreibungs  in a day, then to four ;  and, lastly,
he  went  back to the former treatment,  which continued
until the first of May, when he had another return of illness.
Priessnitz was then  of opinion  that the present treatment
proved too severe for him, and must be modified ; that the
tepid baths were to be left off, but that  he must continue the
lein-tuch  once in the day,  head-bath once, four  or five
abreibungs in the course of the day, and a foot-bath twice
in the day ; and that as soon as the present illness had passed
off,  the head-bath was to be  discontinued, and the  head
to be simply  rubbed with water.   He directed an abreibung
every fifteen minutes, to be  repeated  four times after any
faintness; also one foot-bath after a paroxysm.   On being
told that the patient was fatigued with the exertion of dress-
ing and  undressing every fifteen minutes whilst ill, he di-
rected that he should go into bed between each abreibung, 
 162               hydropathy ; or,

 be kept quiet, and that, if he fell asleep, he was not to be
 disturbed.
  During the first three weeks of the time that this gentle-
 man was under treatment, he was remarkably well: had no
 head-ache whatever, and  never complained of indigestion
since the 20th of April (it  is now 12th of May).  He has oc
casionally complained of head-ache, but is nevertheless bet-
ter than he was before he arrived ; his general tone of health
is improved ; the pain in his back quite gone, so that he can
run down a hill without uneasiness, whereas  even walking
fast down a hill formerly used to shake and jar his system.
His feet are always warm  ; he no longer starts in  his sleep
as he used to do, and can  sleep  on his back  as  well as  on
his side, which he could never do before, since he resided in
India;  and he no longer complains of indigestion after din-
ner.   Before adopting the  treatment, he was always depen-
 dent on the aid of medicine for  the bowels ; since, he  has
not had the least occasion for any.  It  must also  be men-
tioned, that although the two  last attacks of illness occurred
within very  short  intervals of time,  the head-aches were
slight and the illness only  a mild one.  His chest appears
to me to have become wider.  I saw this gentleman almost
daily, and left him in a fair way of recovery.

                        Case II.
  A gentleman,  aged 25, had brought himself into a state
of great nervous  debility from excess of study.  He was at
length  incapable  of any mental application, had  great nerv-
ous depression, and  was hypochondriacal.   The  sight so
much weakened  that he  could neither read nor  write, and
even blindness was apprehended.  Often had severe  head- 
THE  WATER-CURE.
163
ache.  Greatly lost both flesh and strength ; the digestive
functions torpid.  He related to me that he first came to
Graefenberg three years ago, in  the  state of indisposition
above  described.   His treatment then as follows: The
plunging-bath  in the  morning on  first quitting the bed.
After breakfast,  the douche from five  to ten minutes in
the  coldest weather.   In the afternoon,  a sitz-bath  for
half an hour: drank  water in the  usual  quantity.  For
five  months there was  no change in the treatment.   He
observes, " I had  no crisis,  not even the water-rash; my
health improved gradually.   After  this I returned home,
where I  used a cold  bath every  morning, and  avoided
all sorts of spices and  fermented liquors.  My health  im-
proved more and more;  my  eyes  grew  stronger again,
I could read  and write;  and, of my  former  complaint,
there remained merely  a  pressure on the chest; inability
for  strong mental exertion, accompanied with some dis-
like  for society.  Three months  ago I returned  to Grae-
fenberg, when Priessnitz  ordered me to be packed up in
a wet sheet morning and afternoon, followed by the plung-
ing-bath ;  to douche for two minutes;  to take two head-
baths ; and a sitz-bath for a quarter of an hour.  He recom-
mended me to make a practice  of walking in  the  air
with my head uncovered, however cold the weather."  I
saw  much of this  very interesting  person,  who quitted
Graefenberg during my stay.  He was quite well.  The
digestive functions  became regular  very soon  after  the
commencement of the treatment.  This is an example of no
sensible crisis occurring, although the treatment was very
active. 
164
HYDROPATHY J  OR,
                       Case III.
  A gentleman, aged 25, tall and slight, had brought on de-
bility by excess of study,  attended with circumstances dis-
tressing his mind.   For two years, suffered  from great and
almost continued pain in the head, chiefly in the back part;
with pain of the teeth and down the cheek; constant noises
in the ears.  Was also generally weak, and in a very nerv-
ous state.   Circulation irregular, with ice-cold feet.  Bow-
els torpid. Had been at Graefenberg six months. The treat-
ment:—lein-tuch in the first of the morning  for half an
hour, followed by abreibung.   Both repeated in the after-
noon.   Used also daily  head-bath, and  foot-bath, the  feet
being well rubbed for half an hour.   Was desired in addi-
tion to the regular head-bath, to rub the head  very freely
with cold water, whenever it was painful.  Drank water as
usual.   In the first week, the functions  of the  bowels be-
came quite regular, and he was released from  his former
necessity of taking one  or other kind of medicine.  This
benefit arising from the  water-cure treatment is one of the
highest magnitude,  and happens, as far as my enquiry went,
almost without  exception.  This gentleman assured me that
he found himself well at the end of three months, and only
remained at Graefenberg  longer in order to  confirm the es-
tablishment  of his strength.   It was pleasing to  hear  him
describe the altered state of his nerves  for  the better, the
loss of all pains of the head and face ; and the improvement
of his circulation.   He was  no  longer troubled with cold-
ness of the feet.

                       Case IV.
   A female servant, aged 35, had suffered  from difficulty 
THE  WATER-CURE.
165
of breathing during the last  five or six years, in conse-
quence of an acute attack of bronchitis, which she under.
went in India; was unable to ascend a hill, or to make any
extraordinary continued exertion  without much distress.
Has also, during the last few years, whilst residing in In-
dia, suffered from severe affections of the bowels.   One
of these, the last, occurred in August, 1842, and was very
severe, and attended with symptoms of much  inflamma-
tion, for  which she was  leeched  and blistered. She re-
covered  but slowly from this attack,  and it was shortly
followed  by psoas abscess, which pointed below Poupart's
ligament, and was opened.   Towards the end of Septem-
ber, she  was obliged to travel with her master and mis-
tress  on  the way to Bombay, but  was conveyed in  a pa-
lanquin.   During her  stay  in Bombay, in  November,
whilst still very weak, she was exposed, in a tent, to wet
feet during an entire day, in the discharge of her duties,
and caught cold, which brought on, as she states, inflam-
mation of the bowels;  and  being also  at this time  much
occupied in the care of children, one an infant, and  in the
packing  and lifting of trunks,  her  hernia (femoral) oc-
curred at this time, on  the same side on which the abscess
had been shortly before.   She continued in delicate health
till her arrival in Malta, where she sought medical advice
for the  first time since  the occurrence of the hernia in
the end of February.  She left her service early in March,
being unable to carry the children, and went to Graefen-
berg  to  place herself  under the treatment of Priessnitz.
She was very asthmatic at this time.
   He commenced her  treatment  the first week in  April,
ordering her a lein-tuch every morning, to be succeeded 
166
HYDROPATHY } ORf
by  an abreibung, and this followed by a sitz-bath; the
abreibung and sitz-bath to be  repeated at 12 o'clock,  and
the lein-tuch, abreibung and sitz-bath, at 4 o'clock p. m.
every day ;  to wear a wet bandage, night and day, round
her loins, and to wear  a truss upon the situation of the
hernia, which  was not to be removed night or  day.
  After  having  been a month under the fore-mentioned
treatment, she complained of very severe pain in the re.
gion of the bowels ; upon being informed of  which, Mr.
Priessnitz directed that she should have an abreibung every
ten minutes until she should obtain relief, and to walk up
and down the room wrapped in  a dry  blanket between
each.  Every  abreibung relieved her ; and when she had
taken six, she  became quite comfortable.
  In the course of the treatment, the catamenia occurring,
apprehension was entertained at the probable  injury from
continuing the treatment;  in consequence  of which, the
advice of Priessnitz was sought, and he  directed that
there should not be allowed any interruption.  The effect
was, complete relief from the  distressing pains habitually
attending the performance of  this function, the quantity
of the discharge was much increased, but did not continue
longer than  the usual time, and  no weakness was expe-
rienced.   Upon  the return of the periodical function, the
same relief from pain was experienced, the quantity was
not excessive,  the interval was nearer to the  natural pe-
riod than usual, and the discharge did not continue.  She
now enjoys good general health and strength (May 24th),
and no longer suffers from asthma.  Her hernia also she
considers decidedly better; the truss is  still  worn ;  but
she has not noticed, as  formerly, any tendency to the de-
scent of  the bowel. 
THE  WATER-CURB.
167
                       Case V.
  A gentleman, aged 45, of full habit, thus  describes his
case : " I was troubled and annoyed, four days or more,
with pain of the left side opposite the heart.  I met Priess-
nitz, and informed him of it.  He called the next morning
at 9 o'clock ; the pain still continuing, he ordered me, at
11, to take an abreibung for five minutes, that is to say,
I was to  be  rubbed,  and  rub myself that time in a wet
sheet, standing upright.  I was then to wait ten minutes,
walking about the room ;  then take another abreibung for
five minutes ; then to  walk half an hour and take a sitz-
bath for twenty minutes.  All this I did.   At half past 3,
I was ordered to do precisely the same things over again.
However, after the morning operations, I found that I had
taken a severe cold, or that the operations  had made me
ill.  I had pains all over me, my limbs, my back, and my
head  were in pain, and I became very hot and feverish.
The  pains and feverish  symptoms increased;  at four
o'clock, I took an  abreibung five minutes, then  walked
about half an hour ;  then  I had a lein-tuch for one hour,
then a tepid bath five minutes, at 68°.   All the pains soon
left me.  I walked out for half  an hour, had supper, and
went to bed.  At five in the morning, my attendant came ;
and, as I had been feverish in the  night, was so then, and
had some pain in the head after the lein-tuch, which I took
for an hour,  I used a tepid bath at  64° for four minutes,
receiving also one cold affusion over the head.   Without
further treatment, I found myself next day quite recov-
ered."

                       Case VI.
   A gentleman, aged 40, arrived at Graefenberg, in a weak 
 168               HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
state, with bad digestion and constant pain in the right
side.  He went at once from  his lein-tuch into the cold
bath.   He abstained from the douche when the weather
was severely cold, and never took it more than two min-
utes.  He was several months before he got a crisis; but
was cured of his indigestion  before that time.   When
the crisis came, it was on the opposite side, a large boil,
very  painful, accompanied  by much irritative fever for
near  a  week ; but  it has cured the pain in his side, for
which he could get  no remedy before.

                      Case VII.
  The wife of this gentleman was an invalid in many res.
pects—had pains in the loins  and in one leg ;  had for
years been a great  sufferer  from  general  nervous weak-
ness.   She is now quite well.
  Until the crisis, which appeared in the form of several
large boils on  one leg, her treatment was—lein-tuch one
hour,  then cold bath ; at eleven, abreibung and sitz-bath ;
at half past four, lein-tuch one hour ; then, either the
cold bath or abreibung, whichever she pleased.
  When the boils were painful and discharging, she had
tepid  bath after lein-tuch, instead of cold bath.  From
being very debilitated, she has become strong enough for
any exertion.  This lady has  returned to Graefenberg,
out of gratitude to the place where she  and her husband
received the blessings of health.   I saw him on the day
of my departure.   They will now use only slight treat-
ment, to confirm the general strength. 
THE WATER-CURE.
169
                      Case  VIII.
        (By the Patient, aged between 40 and 50.)
   " I arrived at Graefenberg 15th  July, 1842 ;  my com-
plaint, as described by my physician, being ' bad digestion
and sore throat.'
   " I have always been subject to  irritation of the throat,
 more or less, from a boy; within the last eight years, it has
troubled me more, and given either real or fancied cause of
uneasiness.
   "For years,  previous to 1835, I was subject to boils,
 which gave me  much  pain  and annoyance.  Up to  this
period,  my throat gave  me little or no trouble ; was gene-
 rally, though relaxed, free from phlegm.   The end of 1835,
 I  began an aperient pill; I took one, generally, daily, till
 1842, up to the time of my coming here.  Soon  after I
began to take this pill, the boils  ceased, and my throat gra-
dually grew worse : though 1 felt more comfortable in  my
digestion, my throat  got worse—more and more trouble-
some.
   " For nearly 20 years I had  constantly taken wine and
spirits freely.  When I came here I was  much more cor-
pulent than I am now ; and my whole system seemed de-
ranged.  I was nervous, and like a barometer.  I could not
venture, after exercise, into a church, or into any large cold
building, for fear of taking cold, which  I almost invaria-
bly did, and this always affected  my throat; sometimes
laid me  up for a  week in my bed-room.  I attribute this
sensitiveness to having taken, seven years ago, a quantity
of mercury, which has  come out here, making my mouth
sore, and affecting my breath strongly occasionally.   This,
I believe, has now ceased.  I am less sensible now to chan-
             8 
170               HYDROPATHY J OR,

ges of temperature.  For years I have been unable to take
walking exercise in a week, equal to that which I can now
take in a day.  Previously to  coming here  I always rode
everywhere.   I had pains in the stomach and  in  the feet,
with redness in the hands and knuckles, and in the legs :
in all these there is now no pain, having had crises in them.
The arms are still painful, but I have had no boils or crises
in them yet.  My  digestion is better, my  throat is better,
and progressively improving.  I have no pain.
  " Treatment, commenced July  16, 1842.  The  first  5
weeks, lein-tuch, at 5  in the morning, one hour; then, ab-
geschreckte (tepid) bath,  13° Reaumur,  3 minutes; an
umschlag round the body ;  then  walk an hour;  then break-
fast ; at 11, abreibung; then  wait a quarter of an hour;
then sitz-bath a quarter of an hour ;  then walk; then dine.
The same at 4 p.  m.   Got better daily.
   " For six weeks, all the  operations, as above, were con-
tinued ; and the douche at 9 a.  m.  for 2 minutes, which
was  gradually increased to 7 minutes, I took regularly for
six months, and during the winter.
   " The 9th week, in addition to the sitz-bath, I took  the
cold bath  every morning:  then—lein-tuch one hour, tepid
bath one minute, cold bath 2 plunges, then tepid again one
minute.   I have lately omitted the douche and  cold bath,
in consequence of having crises.   When I was  first en-
veloped in the wet sheet, a strong sour smell, like mellow ap-
ples, proceeded from me, and  filled the room ; and  was of
so subtle a quality as to be with difficulty washed out of the
blankets.   I had never experienced this odor before.  Priess-
nitz told me that it must all come out, for I could never get
better till it was entirely removed.   This  smell  has  not
been perceptible the last three days. 
                  THE WATER-CURE.               171

  " I have daily, by order, taken 10 or 12 glasses of water,
5 before breakfast, the  rest distributed at intervals.   Be-
fore breakfast, much mucus has been rejected from the
stomach, very sour and bitter, sometimes of a green color,
sometimes yellow.  I have still eructations of water before
breakfast, but not sour; and now and then a  little  froth
and phlegm.  Upon the whole, I am quite satisfied, and
consider my coming here  providential; for, in England, I
could find no certain remedy for  one thing that did not
cause inconvenience and disorder of some  other kind.
  " When I shewed Priessnitz my throat,  he said, < This
is caused by your stomach, which  must beset right before
your throat will be better ; besides, your nervous system
is all wrong; but  I have hopes I can make a different man
of you ;  you must get thinner, and  then  your digestion
and throat will both get better.'"
  He had  pursued active treatment for ten  months ; a
duration that may appear surprising.   The  throat has
been  his greatest trouble.  The mucous membrane  had
long been diseased ; and at one time the uvula had become
so elongated, that a portion of it was excised.  He might
probably have desisted from such a  regular proceeding
as he was still pursuing,  some  time past;  but his deter-
mination was to stay at Graefenberg, under treatment, as
long as a vestige  of complaint remained  ;  so truly did he
enjoy and estimate the great improvement  which  he had
received.  The odor of which he speaks was connected,
I  have no doubt,  with  the gouty diathesis.  He had ex-
perienced occasional gout.  He told me that, on his first
arrival, he had scarcely the feeling of energy to cross the
road.  I saw abundant proof of his acquired activity; and
he looked strong and well. 
172
HYDROPATHY J OB,
                       Case  IX.
   A fine, lively boy,  aged three years, in general  well,
 yet subject to inflammation of the stomach and bowels.*
   He had an attack of inflammation of the stomach, ac-
 companied  by sickness, with strong fever and determi-
 nation to the head.   In the evening, the child was placed
 in a bath at 70° Fahrenheit, in which he remained  20
 minutes ; cold water was added  as the temperature rose.
 During this time, cold water  was poured from a tumbler
 on his head,  repeated at intervals of a minute; and, as
 usual, his whole body was  carefully  rubbed.  He was
 then taken out and placed on the sofa, and covered with
 a sheet and  blanket,  with the back of his head in cold
 water for 10 minutes.   By this time, reaction  had taken
 pface, when  wet compresses  were  applied  to the  head
 and back of the neck ; and the body, from under the arms
 to the hips,  was wrapped in  a similar way.  He  slept
 quietly till three in  the morning, when the previous symp.
 toms  having partially returned, the first treatment was
 repeated  ; after which the child was again placed in bed,
 where he slept till morning,  and was then quite well,
 and went out as usual.
  One month after this attack, he was taken ill in a simi-
 lar way, but  with symptoms much more severe: the fever
running high, accompanied with delirium.  The treatment
was commenced by  placing him  successively in nine wet

  * In those dangerous attacks of enteritis, attended with  obstruc-
tion of the bowels and excruciating pain, under which the stomach
absolutely resists the  introduction of  all  medicine, I should in future
have recourse to certain water-cure processes and treatment, in prel
ference to the ordinary method of practice. 
•
                   THE  WATER-CURE.               173
sheets, from  which the water was but slightly wrung out.
In each of these he remained about 5 minutes ; towards the
last, the heat being diminished, he was allowed to remain
10 minutes.   The  feet were cold ;  and as long as they
remained so, the wet sheet was only applied down  to the
knees ; meantime, the feet and legs  were rubbed strongly
with the hands.
   While  the extreme  heat continued, the wet sheet was
covered by a thick, dry one, instead of a blanket as is usual.
After the  application of the last wet sheet, he was placed in
a bath of 70°, where he remained nearly an hour : the same
process of rubbing and pouring water over the head being
practised.  The first day, the same  process was repeated
four times ;  the duration of the bath being not so long when
the  fever was not so high.  During the night, the wet
sheet was changed almost every hour.  On the morning of
the second day, the child refused to go into the bath,  calling
out himself, at intervals, for additional wet sheets.   Orders
were given that his inclination should be complied with.  In
the course of the morning, the child himself desired that he
might be put into the bath, where he  remained till the heat
under the arms and on the back of the neck was the same
as the rest of the body ; this equality of temperature being
the general guide for the  duration of a bath.  It is worthy
of remark, that the more the  fever was reduced, the more
quiet the little patient became, till at last he remained in the
bath  perfectly  tranquil.    The same treatment, slightly
varied, was continued four  days, when the child was well,
and was sent out to play with the other children.  In eight
days after this, a pustule appeared on the foot, containing
matter, which discharged  freely. 
•
174               HYDROPATHY ;  OR,

   Observation.—This case might probably have passed into
continued infantile fever, had it not been in  this manner
promptly and successfully treated.   When fever runs very
high, as shewn by the burning skin, delirium, and  other
symptoms, it is a good  modification of the use of the lein-
tuch to cover it with a  dry sheet, instead of the blanket and
packing up in the usual manner.

                       Case X.
   A gentleman, aged 45, tall and stout, received two  in-
juries of the head by a fall, one of which was in hunting,
about seven  years  ago.   The  nervous  system was much
deranged, especially since  the second accident, five  years
ago, when the spine received a strong contusion and shock.
For a  long  time he had been very  nervous, and unable to
compose himself during any sedentary occupation ; having
also heavy and stupid feelings of the head ; muscae volitan-
tes; constant singing  in the ears ; prickings and numb-
ness of  the limbs,  with frequent  cramps ;  unrefreshing
nights, often sleepless, and in the morning more tired than
when he went to bed.  He neglected himself after the first
accident; but after the second, having the use of the limbs so
much impaired that it was with great  difficulty he could
walk half a mile,  he went to Bareges: first used  the baths
at St. Sauveur, for 2 weeks ;  lay in them for an hour and a
half to  2 hours ; then, at Bareges, douched every day for
10 minutes ;  after which,  was put into  bed, where he had
most copious sweating ; and then,  covered with a blanket,
was carried to his lodging.  At the end of four months, his
amendment  was very satisfactory ;  and he quitted early in
August.   Relapsed at the end of the year, and passed a bad 
THE  WATER-CURE.
175
winter.   Next year, he used hot sulphurous baths in Switz-
erland, with  advantage, but  remained  a  great  invalid.
He had several symptoms indicating a disposition  to gout.
He did not use any further treatment till coming to Graefen-
berg, nine months ago.  He has had all  the processes, and
been on full treatment, without having received any decided
benefit to his nerves.  Yet his muscles have become stronger,
and his digestion is improved.  He found  it necessary to
douche very cautiously; for, if he received it with great
force and much continuance, he found his head exceedingly
disordered by it.   It was his intention to give up the treat-
ment and quit Graefenberg if he did not improve in two
months more.
   It seems probable that more than functional error in the
membranes of the  brain and  spinal marrow exists in this
case, so persistent have all the distressing symptoms been.
I do not expect that he will be benefitted by the  water-cure
treatment, and think that he might receive advantage from
undergoing a  regular  course  of alterative  and  purgative
medicine,  to be  followed  by the  use of  the  baths and
douche at Buxton.  It is probable  that  he  may  have re-
course to such measures, should he  be  finally  disappointed
at Graefenberg.

                        Case XL
   A lady, aged 27, had typhus fever, from which she dates
her loss of health.  Subsequently,  she had a fall from a
horse, causing concussion of the brain ; and, on another oc-
casion, a severe contusion of the head, with a  wound  by
the falling of a beam.  For a long  while, she experienced
intense sufferings,  from which she never recovered ; and 
176
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
 she came to Graefenberg with the following symtoms :  fre-
 quent severe pains of the head, with a strong sensation  of
 burning heat of the scalp ;  hearing  and sight  affected ;  al-
 together in a  highly nervous state, and  seldom sleeping
 more than an hour in the  night; all  the functions irregu-
 lar ;  the feet almost constantly affected with icy coldness ;
 with frequent pains and oppression in the  hypogastric  re-
 gion.   She had  always received  more  benefit  from cold
 water applications than any other  means, and  especially
 from  using the mer de glace  (a stream derived  from  the
 melting of ice and snow from the mountains), in Switzer-
 land,  as a bath.  Very  active medical treatment had been
 used at different periods; leeches and blisters  to  the spine
 again and again ; and courses of medicine of various kinds.
   On her arrival she was  put on the following  treatment.
 In the morning early lein-tuch, tepid  bath  (Raeumur 14°),
 and plunging  bath in immediate succession. Abreibung and
 sitz-bath  in  the middle of the day ; a regular  head-bath
 once  in the day ; and whenever painful and heated,  to ap-
 ply cold water freely by the hand, and leave wet compress
 on any  heated part.   The  foot-bath once or  twice a day ;
rubbing the le gs also  with water,  for they were affected
 with weakness and swelling.  An eruption of irritable pim-
 ples appeared, which was treated with wet bandage covered
 by dry.  Priessnitz was glad to see this early crisis.  The
body  bandage was used.  She drank a medium quantity of
 water, and was much in the  air; but  she  could not take
 great exercise.  At a particular period, the nervous system
 was greatly disturbed ; and there was some hysteria, with
 much affection of the head.  In these circumstances, Pri-
essnitz directed four abreibungs in the morning and four in 
THE  WATER-CURE.
177
the afternoon, with intervals of half an hour, during which
she went into bed, to gain composure and warmth.  She
did not complain  of this troublesome treatment,  and ac-
knowledged the very sensible relief which it afforded her.
On my quitting, I compared her state with what  it was on
her arrival, with  great satisfaction.  Her health was in
every respect materially improved ; and the head  so relieved
that she could sleep  comfortably.  There was every pro-
mise of the case proceeding to a favorable issue.

                      Case  XII.
   A clergyman and schoolmaster, aged 35, had too intensely
exercised his mind and feelings, and brought on so distress-
ing a state of nervousness, that,  in preaching, he became
painfully confused in a quarter of an hour.   He had severe
indigestion with opposite states of the bowels,  but most
commonly inert;  head-ache with  confusion, noises of the
ears, and dimness  of sight; as in the last case, heat of the
scalp  and  extreme  coldness  of  the  feet;  depression of
spirits, with distress that he was incapable of any mental
exertion, being an ardent student.  He was much affected
by every change of weather.  His treatment consisted of
lein-tuch and tepid bath, with plunging bath, sitz-bath, head-
bath 3 times  a day, foot-bath twice a day, the soles of the
feet being diligently rubbed; the body bandage.   He drank
water freely ;  and he had abreibung whenever the head
was more  than usually uncomfortable.   After  about a
fortnight, the use  of the douche was added to  the treat-
ment.
   He described in glowing terms, the happy improvement
which he received  after 10 days' treatment,  and  especially
           8* 
 178               hydropathy; or,

 in his digestion and the state of his head ; but when he had
 employed the douche for  a week, he was apprehensive that
 it did not suit  his nerves,  for his head became painful aud
 confused after using it.
   In all  these cases of great morbid sensibility of the nerves
 of the head, it appears to me  that the application of the
 volume douche, if ever used, should be much delayed ; and
 that the jet shower bath,  applied with only moderate force,
 continued from one to  three minutes, is a more appropriate
 remedy.
   It is very obvious that,  in  the management of all delicate
 and  difficult cases, a good medical judgment is  required to
 adapt the treatment to the  many changing circumstances
 which must occur.

                     Case  XIII.
  A gentleman, aged 44, of slight frame and delicate ap.
 pearance, had  received great trials to his constitution, from
 living in various climates  under circumstances of immense
 exertion  of mind and body, so that he incurred a  severe
liver disease, followed by  both  gout and rheumatism.  His
 father had been a sufferer from gout and from tic-douloureux.
 He, therefore, had the hereditary predisposition.   By treat-
 ment, his health was improved up to November, 1839, when,
 from exposure to wet  in  shooting, ho experienced painful
rheumatism or gout, for each name was given, in one knee-
joint.  It was so swollen  and misshapen, that some thought
 it was dislocated.  The frequent use of leeches, of iodine, ex-
 ternally and internally, of calomel, sarsaparilla  and other
 medicines, formed the chief treatment.  The disease increased
 severely.  He describes that " the leg wasted away ; that the 
THE  WATER-CURE.               1?9
hip had the appearance of being dislocated; and that some
inflammation became visible at the lower part of the spine,
with frequent aching pain. The knee was so bent, from con-
traction, that the limb was drawn up almost to doubling, and
quite useless; in addition  to which,  he was reduced to a
skeleton, having lost all  appetite  and sleep."  The actual
cautery to the spine was  proposed; but not having profited
by any of the various means employed, he fell into despair,
and was urged to  try the  water-cure at home.   He here
says, " I was so weak that I could only allow gentle mea-
sures.   My diet was strictly regulated.  I drank plenty of
pure water: morning  and evening had an abreibung and
shallow tepid bath (66° Fahr.) ; in the  middle of the day,
free ablutions of the whole limb, and  wet bandage covered
by dry.   From the commencement I  began  to feel  differ-
ently.  Sleep and appetite soon returned ;  and, my strength
gradually improving, I was able to  bear the use of the sweat.
ing blanket, followed by the half-bath.   Ere long, numerous
boils appeared on the legs, which afforded great relief to the
deep-seated pains."  Had sitz-baths.   In  one month  he
was so much improved that he could use crutches for half
an hour ; and  at the end  of three months he had gained
sufficient strength to undertake the journey to Graefenberg.
 But still having a  very large number of boils in a state of
suppuration, his nerves were greatly disturbed, and he was
rendered very ill  by travelling 500 miles ; was  much  af-
 fected with cramps and hysteria.   He arrived.  Priessnitz
 told him he would recover, but a long time would  be  re-
 quired.   At first,  his treatment was  moderate,  and after-
 wards increased, with  a cautious  use  of  the douche.   He
 drank water very freely.   For a time, its early morning use 
180               hydropathy; or»

was slightly emetic;  but this relieved him of bile and phlegm.
In October,  1840, he could walk a little with two sticks.
The boils  increased  over  the body.  In November, the
weather being unfavorable, he took cold severely from acci-
dental exposure,  and new symptoms arose.   An abscess
gradually formed  between the  bladder and the rectum, and
at length broke, the matter being discharged partly by the
rectum, partly by the urethra.   His cramps and pains of
the bladder and bowels were so severe, that his life was in
imminent danger.   For a fortnight  he was without sleep,
could not take any food, and for ten days had water only to
support him, if support it could be called.   Cold-water lave-
ments, half  and quarter baths, fomentations, and wet linen
rubbings, all more tepid than usual (80°), were freely em-
ployed.  When the abscess found free vent, the symptoms
so much abated,  that a  little  sleep and the  capability of
taking some nourishment returned.  He gradually improved,
so that by the middle of January,  1841, he could again
walk with two sticks about the house.  Now more  active
treatment was resumed; and even the sweating in the
blanket twice a week, and  the cautious use of the douche.
The progress of cure became very favorable.   Before the
end of the summer  he was  able to take  exercise and enjoy
the mountain air; and appetite and sleep returned  favor-
ably.
  In  April,  1842, he was  sufficiently recovered to leave
Graefenberg, with the use  of the limb  quite restored, all
contraction being removed, and the  general flesh, strength,
and spirits quite regained.   He was the wonder of Graefen-
berg !  I saw this gentleman about 10 weeks ago.  He was
in good health and spirits; but felt the necesssity of  avoid- 
THE  WATER-CURB.
181
 ing great fatigue ;  as in such case he was reminded,  by
 achings, that his limb, although so happily restored, could
 not possess the vigor of one that had never been diseased.
 In a review of all the circumstances of  this important case,
 infinite praise was  due to Priessnitz for its management.
 He had been indefatigable in his attentions.

                      Case XIV.
   A gentleman, aged 27,  tall and stout,  very muscular,
 came to Graefenberg, nine months ago,  having a cutaneous
 eruption of a syphilitic character, a hernia humoralis, en.
 larged tonsils, sciatica, and  great disposition  to general
 rheumatism, with a bilious countenance, much indigestion,
 and great nervousness and depression  of  spirits.  Priess-
 nitz at once told him that his case would require a  long
 period for the cure.  The treatment was at first mild;
 but, without unnecessary delay, was made active ; when
 he sweated in  the  blanket each other day;  and,  after
 four months' douching every day, had two sitz-baths every
 day, lasting an hour, the water being  changed twice  or
 thrice ; with  also  abreibung, lein-tuch, head-baths, and
 foot-baths; for this patient was very liable  to pain and
 congestion of the head, with  great  coolness of the  feet.
 He was exceeded by none  in his zeal in drinking water.
 His usual quantity was  16 pints daily ; and one  day  he
 was ambitious to take four pints more ;  from which  he
 had all the feelings of having drunk too much wine, at-
 tended  with a vertigo ; and being alarmed by these symp.
 toms, he returned to and continued  his former quantity
 without inconvenience.   He had passed the last winter at
Graefenberg, and was in the habit of taking his first morn. 
182
HYDROPATHY }  0R|
ing walk before the rising of the sun, and in an  atmos*
phere of from 6° to 10° Fallr. ;  much enjoying the sight
of the glorious orb first appearing in the horizon.   After
breakfast he used with great satisfaction the  icy douche!
for eight minutes;  but  when I found him at Graefenberg,
the duration was  10, and  twice a day.  He had  been
there nine months.  He was  the picture of  health ; and
described himself as being strong and free from all incon-
venience.   His muscles were large and firm, and many
remarked that his  chest had considerably expanded.  In
the general history which he gave me, he  stated that in the
first instance he had been freely treated by mercury and
iodine, sometimes with the effect of removing the immedi-
ate symptoms ; but they recurred; and at length,  feeling
much incommoded by the  medicines, and having  some
addition of complaint,  after an  interval, he had recourse
to the water-cure  treatment.  Under it, he had repeated
severe  crises of boils, from which  he was persuaded that
he had received most material benefit.  In this case, the
copious draughts of water certainly appeared highly use-
ful,and particularly to the bladder,  the mucous membrane
of which had been  so much  affected, that in the beginning
the urine was passed with great  difficulty, and  highly
charged with mucus : but it must be observed that, when
using these great libations, he took immense exercise,  often
walking 6 or 8 miles before breakfast.

                     Case XV.
  A gentleman, aged 40, tall and  slight, appearing free
from complaint, gave me the following  account.  When a
boy at school in Germany, he was compelled, with the rest 
THE  WATER-CURE.
183
of the boys, to take a purgative every Saturday morning; and
thinks that from this unfortunate and absurd practice he ac-
quired the subsequent necessity, and that an increased one,
of resorting to medicine.   He was subject to great depres-
sion of spirits, inaptitude to exertion, rheumatic,pains, short-
ness of breath on ascending a hill, and occasional spitting
of blood of a scarlet hue.   He had tried various medicines,
and long persisted with a slight mercurial alterative;  but,
he  says,  without improvement.   He was dependent  on
lavements for any action of the bowels.   He  went to an
establishment near his home, where he was sweated in the
blanket every day, had the plunging-bath, and other means,
but he did not feel equal to the perseverance in such treat-
ment,  and went  to Graefenberg,  where he had been nine
months when I first  saw him,  remaining,  however, more
from choice than necessity.   His  treatment had been lein*
tuch in the  first of the morning,  avoiding  the perspiring,
followed by the tepid and plunging baths in succession ;  an
occasional abreibung;  two sitz-baths every day, at first
tepid, afterwards cold  ; body bandage*.  He drank from 10
to 12 glasses of water.  After  two  months, he used a douche
daily.   His recovery  was perfect,  and he was an excellent
specimen of the good effects of  the water-cure.  In a  few
weeks after using it, his digestion became quite regular.

                       Case XVI.
   An Austrian  officer, aged 47, tall and  robust, had ac
quired gout in the ankle  and  side of the  foot at 37, and
  * In future this is to be understood, if not mentioned ; the exception
to its use being very rare. 
184               HYDROPATHY ; OR,
since  in  various  parts, never escaping a winter till the
last, and  having fits of from 6 to 9 weeks' duration.  He
had been at Graefenberg 11 months.   On his first arrival,
the limbs were very infirm, the  ankles swollen, and the
feet and knees severely affected with chronic pains, giving
him  a dread of  attempting  walking exercise.  He had
previously been treated with various medicines, and with
calomel very freely.   He began with the use of from 2 to 4
abreibungs daily ; then 2 lein-tuchs,  followed by the shal-
low bath ;  afterwards  by  the  plunging bath ;  next, the
sweating in the blanket each other day, until crisis formed
extensively on  the legs, when it was discontinued ;  and
he had also a strong vesicular rash on the body, with a
line of demarcation exact with the bandage.
  He experienced immediate and very complete relief to
the pains of the knees and ankles when the boils appeared.
Afterwards, they formed  also on the knees, arms, and
shoulders.   When the crisis subsided, he douched twice a
day for 8 minutes, instead of using the plunging-bath, as
he thought it suited him better, and  proved more favora-
ble in producing good  crisis ;  for the chronic  pains had
returned occasionally, but were invariably relieved by the
formation of boils.  When I saw him he was almost per-
fectly restored to health.  He related that he had derived
great strength to his ankles from the daily use of a cold
foot-bath,  deeper than  usual ;  that  when he  did use the
blankets, he found the afternoon more favorable than the
morning for the producing of  perspiration ; and this, he
thought, especially as he had a quick digestion.  For those
who might have a weak and slow digestion, he considered
it, from observations he had made, an unfavorable  time. 
THE  WATER-CURE.
185
 This gentleman was so well recovered that he was about
 to leave Graefenberg.

                      Case XVII.
   A gentleman, aged 47, robust and plethoric, subject  to
 regular gout, hereditary, for 10 years, the fits severe and
 very  protracted; once had a  rheumatic fever, and now
 often suffers from rheumatism,  especially in the shoulders
 and  the arms.   He related that he had been regularly
 treated in his  fits with mercurial purgatives and colchi-
 cum, with a sure control over the symptoms, but without
 lasting benefit: that the last fit, of two months' duration,
 had been left more to itself;  and one knee had remained
 so much swollen, stiff, and painful, that  locomotion was
 extremely difficult.   The usual liniments  and lotions being
 ineffectual, although in combination with the internal use
 of iodide of potassium, he had recourse  to a part of the
 water-cure treatment, using wet bandage, covered by dry,
 constantly to the knee ; and every morning, on first rising,
 a cold bath.  This bold practice was so  successful, that
 he soon recovered the  power of walking.  He had tried
 every  kind of regimen as a  preventive—meat without
 vegetables,  and then a farinaceous diet without meat;
 total abstinence  from  wine and  beer ; and yet his pru-
 dence was not rewarded by success.   Since he had drunk
 water freely, he had  not found any necessity, as far as his
 feelings  dictated, of being at  all mindful in his diet, so
perfect  was  his  digestion, doubtless rendered better by
the acquired power, from  the  improvement in the limbs,
of taking free exercise.  There were chalkstone deposits
in the fingers and elbows. 
186
HYDROPATHY J  OR,
  His treatment was as follows:—In the morning, early,
sweating in the blanket, followed  by plunging bath ;  a
walk  and free  drinking of water;  at 11 a. m. a  douche
for five minutes, having begun with  three ;  on his return
from the long walk to and from the  douche, an abreibung,
which much refreshed him ; at 5 p. m.  2  abreibungs,
within half an  hour of each other ;  umschlags to all the
affected parts.  I left him making very favorable progress
towards his cure.  I should observe, that this patient was
not desired to make use of the body bandage, as  he had
so regular and perfect a state of digestion.

                     Case XVIII.
  A gentleman, aged 50, of middling bulk and stature,
had hereditary  gout first 20 years ago, brought on by vio-
lent efforts in swimming, to save himself from drowning,
on a winter's day ; was for years subject to fits of  great
severity, and of 6 or 8 weeks' duration ; has  chalkstones
in various parts, particularly in the  hands  and  feet; dis-
appointed by allopathic medicine, of which colchicum and
mercury formed part, he tried homoeopathic, with no other
result than the longer staying away of the gout; and this
benefit he attributed to the care in diet.   The fits were
of equal severity when they did return.  For some time
he adhered to a diet of fish and vegetables, and for seve.
ral years has wholly abstained from  wine.   Five years
ago, went to Toplitz and Carlsbad, without benefit, and af-
terwards  to  Wiesbaden,  going  through a full course of
treatment  there, still  without apparent advantage.  He
next proceeded to Franzens-bad.in Bohemia, and tried the
mud baths for a month, sitting in the mud, up to his neck, 
                 THE WATER-CURE.               187

at 97° Fahrenheit, for half an hour each other day, with
no other good result than curing his lumbago, which has
never returned.  He came to Graefenberg three years and
nine months  ago,  in a state  of such  lameness and con-
tinued suffering, that he felt himself fast approaching to a
bed-ridden  state.   For the space of two years, with the
interruption only of two months, he made daily use of the
sweating blanket, with this frequency more by his own
desire than the wish of Priessnitz, wishing to force crisis;
but he is convinced  that it was an error, and that  he
was weakened.  In  six weeks,  he  had boils on the in-
steps, which remarkably relieved the chronic pains;  and,
some time after,  the  urine  deposited much  substance,
which appeared to him like wet chalk.  In the beginning
of the treatment, Priessnitz examined him, first at the
half-bath, then after the plunging, and told him his com-
plaint would  be cured in time, and even encouraged him
to expect the recovery of the hands; but I am persuaded
there was too much disorganization of parts to admit of
it.   In some  of the  joints of the  fingers there was an-
chylosis, and here  and  there absorption of cartilage.
However, much of the  chalkstone  deposit had been  re-
moved by  the treatment, and I doubt not he will obtain
further improvement.  After five months, he had an acute
attack, which at first he left to itself, but afterwards used
rubbings in the shallow  tepid  bath, with tepid affusions
and umschlags ; all with much advantage.  He remained
the whole  winter, but considers that the  " winter cure"
did not suit him, the  cold being often  severe, from 4° to
10° Fahrenheit for a continuance ; but he says that the  at-
mosphere was so clear and still, with often a full sun, that 
188
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
the cold was agreeable to those who could take very ac
tive exercise.   When  restored from  the fit, he resumed
treatment.   His skin  was with difficulty excited to per-
spiration ;  and Priessnitz  had desired him  to  use  two
douches a day, and even advised three occasionally ; but
he continued with two, sometimes using a plunging bath
also, and always, twice a week, after the sweating in the
blanket.   He  quitted  Graefenberg for a time,  and  re-
turned.   He has used umschlags always, and drunk 10or
12 half-pints of water daily.   He related  to  me that the
gout now very rarely  and very slightly affects him, and
that he can walk ten miles  with more ease than  one for-
merly.   He looked well.  He had not touched medicine
since he had been under the water-cure treatment, which
 he extols in the highest terms.

                      Case XIX.
  A gentleman, aged 49, robust and rather corpulent, after
lyphilis five years ago, had a  fever in Italy, for  which he
was bled so freely that his strength was exceedingly reduced.
He kept his bed three months ;  was bled from  the arm
15 times, and had leeches, a lso, very freely applied to differ-
ent parts.  On recovering sufficient  strength, he went to
Graefenberg, then having universal pains of a doubtful char-
acter, with much cutaneous eruption; sweated in the blan-
ket every morning for four months; and, instead of being
weakened,  gained strength regularly : always the plunging
bath after it.  At that time the lein-tuch was seldom used, ex-
cept in fevers.  He douched also occasionally, and drank from
 12 to 15 glasses of water daily.  He recovered perfectly, and
 remained well three years.  By many acts of imprudence 
THE WATER-CURE.
189
he lost his health again ;  had an  inflammatory attack on
the chest, for which he was  freely bled, and with relief at
the moment; but other evils  followed—lumbago and sciati-
ca, of the most painful description.  Leeches and blisters
were applied  to  the hip repeatedly,  without  relief.  He
consulted the most eminent  physicians in Germany  ; and,
by  their advice, used leeches, blisters, and mercurial fric-
tions ;  in opposition to which the  sciatica increased.  He
went to  a water  establishment in  his neighborhood, his
convenience  not  permitting  him to  travel to Graefenberg.
He used, first, a plunging bath, then the vapor bath for one
hour, and next  the plunging bath again ;  but this treatment
much disagreed, causing particularly oppression of the chest.
The sciatic pain  still increased, and at length  became so
intolerable, that the actual cautery was extensively applied
to the  hip, of which I saw the evidence.  He took mercu-
rial purgatives  frequently.
  By these means the violence of  the disorder was broken  ;
but he got cold  and had inflammation of the larynx.  After
much interval,  it was with great difficulty he could accom-
plish the journey to Graefenberg, where his anxious thoughts
were directed.  At length, he again presented  himself to
Priessnitz ; then  having  severe sciatica; pain also  of the
femoral nerve ; indigestion ;  hemorrhoidal suffering ;  hy-
pochondriasm, and general debility.  At first, the treatment
consisted of lein-tuch, shallow tepid baths, sitz-baths;  and
wet bandages, covered by dry, to  the  affected  parts.  Af-
terwards, he sweated in the blanket,  and used the plunging
bath, not  finding any disagreement, as he had done with
the vapor bath, &c.   After three or four months, had gen-
eral  crises, but  no boils in  the affected limb till eight months 
190
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
had elapsed, when also the  thigh was covered  with a scaly
rash.   The pains were entirely relieved when the last boils
had suppurated freely.  He next used the douche very re-
gularly ;  and,  when I saw  him, did so  for eight minutes
every day.  The limb had recovered its size and power : he
could walk almost any distance  without inconvenience.
He remarked  that,  till within the  last few weeks, the bad
limb had never perspired when the other parts of the body
freely yielded  to the influence of the blanket process.
  This was a  very important case, and one that did infinite
credit to Priessnitz  and the  water-cure  means.  It  shews
also the necessity of  their  being used  with judgment;  for
till he came  to Graefenberg, he  had been injured  rather
than assisted.

                       Case XX.
   A military  man,  aged 32, had  used mercury for a long
time, which created great  nervousness eventually ;  and, in
a state of much debility, with wandering pains, he went to
Graefenberg.   He  began  with two lein-tuchs, a shallow
tepid bath, and sitz-bath.   Soon after, a plunging bath was
added every other day.   But his zeal led him into error ; he
would go far beyond  his instructions in every thing.   One
morning, he drank  eight large glasses of water,  instead of
the four prescribed, before breakfast; and, omitting the ne-
cessary walking exercise, went into the billiard-room.   The
kidneys had not  actively secreted.  His feet  became cold,
and he was altogether uneasy.  He went out for a  walk,
 accompanied  by  a  friend.    He  soon fell  into incoherent
conversation,  and was got  home with some difficulty.   He
 did not quite  lose consciousness, but was speechless ;  made 
                   THE WATER-CURE.               191

 signs for pen and ink, but could not write.   He had violent
 head-ache.   Priessnitz directed a tepid (62°) foot-bath, with
 free rubbing; sprinkled  water on the  face and head; and
 shortly after were applied three  abreibungs in the course of
 half an hour ;  and wet  bandages to the head : he was put
 to bed.  Intense pain of the head  ensued, with some gen-
 eral fever and extreme feebleness of the limbs.  Priessnitz,
 at his next visit, a few hours after, ordered two abreibungs,
 with  an interval  of ten minutes ; then a foot-bath  for an
 hour, the water  being changed two or  three times ; next, a
 lein-tuch for 20 minutes, followed by the shallow tepid bath,
 in which he was rubbed  for half an hour by two attendants,
 with occasional  effusions of cold water over the head.  He
 now vomited freely, and this gave relief.  The whole treat-
 ment was so successful, that, in another hour, he recovered
 sense and speech, and lost the pain of the head.  In  a few
 days, general treatment was resumed,  and continued with
 great regularity.  He was now always careful to take free
 exercise before  and after every process.  Numerous boils
 formed  chiefly in the upper  part of the back, but also in
 the thighs, and they suppurated favorably.  He was  called
 away suddenly by military duty, but pursued treatment at
 home to a certain extent; and a letter from him to Priess-
 nitz, a short time ago, announced the complete recovery of
 his health.

                      Case XXI.
  A gentleman, aged 18, slight and rather delicate, received
a severe contusion in the perinceum and neighboring  parts
 by a fall from a horse; to which was attributed the for-
mation  of a fistula, and one of a complicated  nature, at- 
 192               HYDROPATHY ; OR,
 tended with  much ulceration  and very severe pain  and
 inconvenience.   The surgeons wished  to operate, but his
 father determined on taking him to Graefenberg.  Priess-
 nitz directed an abreibung  twice a day, and umschlags
 to the affected parts.  In the progressive treatment were
 used  lein-tuchs,  plunging-bath, and douche;  and, at  the
 end of a month, he obtained a perfect cure.   The healing
 was complete.
   This  case cannot fail  to interest  the surgical reader.
The symptoms had been of an urgent character ; the blad-
 der and rectum being affected with very painful irritation ;
and, at the commencement of the water-cure, the ulcerated
parts  appeared in a very unhealthy condition.

                      Case XXII.
   A gentleman,  aged 60, had  suffered  many years from
dyspepsia and general debility of the nervous system, with
often universal pains,  which were called both rheumatic
and nervous.   He  was seized with hemiplegia ; the right
side affected.   He got better  for a short time,  but had
a severe relapse : was sent after a time, to Toeplitz and
Marienbad, but became worse.  The mind and body were
equally  prostrate;  the  digestion was languid; the bowels
wholly inactive without medicine or lavement. In April,1842,
he went to Graefenberg, in opposition to  the advice of his
physicians.  Priessnitz prescribed, at first, two abreibungs
in the day, and a head-bath for  fifteen minutes ; and as he
became stronger, two lein-tuchs, omitting one abreibung, to-
gether with the shallow tepid-bath.  At  the end  of three
months, boils formed in the head, arm,  and  leg, only  on
the affected side, from which evidently great benefit result. 
TnE WATER-CURE.
193
 ed.   Neither plunging-bath nor douche were used in this
 case.   He recovered his health entirely at the end of seven
 months ;  nervous energy was restored ;  he  had the power
 to climb  the hills, to write his letters, and again enjoy his
 spirits in society.

                      Case XXIII.
   A Russian nobleman, aged 36, had reduced the vigor  of
 his constitution by dissipation ; and, on a severely cold day,
 at St.  Petersburg, 10° below zero, paid a visit of ceremony,
 insufficiently clothed.  He had scarcely entered the room,
 when  he was seized with catalepsy, and appeared like  a
 statue !  The ladies who were present were  at first amused,
 thinking that he was acting! but soon they  took the alarm.
 He could not speak ; but, retaining his  senses,  made  signs
 that he wanted water.  He was affused all over from  buck-
 ets, soon drank freely, and in less than  an  hour  recovered
 his power of moving.  But from this day he became an in-
 valid, suffering especially from pain and  nervousness of the
 head, with general debility and  depression  of  spirits, also
 having severe indigestion.   He  was under  medical  treat-
 ment for two years,  and visited  Carlsbad,  Toeplitz, and
 other baths in Bohemia,  without any marked benefit; then
 went to a  water establishment  near  St. Petersburg.  He
 used the vapor-bath, as being considered preferable to the
blanket, and after it the plunging-bath for five minutes, fol-
lowed by cold water lavement, all without taking exercise
to produce  reaction.  The treatment was repeated,  but so
much disagreed that he soon left  the  establishment.   He
consulted  an  eminent physician, who advised another wa-
ter-cure establishment; but that he should first  go to  Kis.
           9 
194
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
 singen for a few weeks, to improve the state of the diges-
 tive organs.  He followed this advice.  He thought him-
 self rather injured than benefitted by Kissingen.   In the se-
 cond trial of the water-cure, the shower-bath in a continu-
 ous mass was applied to the head for some  minutes, eight
 days in succession ;  he also used the plunging-bath.   His
 expression was that he thought he should have gone mad ;
 and, in despair, he quitted for Graefenberg.  Priessnitz gave
 him every encouragement, but thought mild treatment ne-
 cessary  at first:—for two days one abreibung and one sitz-
 bath, then two of each; and in this manner for ten days,
 when he became stronger.   He proceeded gradually to the
 use of active treatment, but never to the fullest extent: the
 douche, once a day, was the strongest part of it.   In half a
 year, he perfectly recovered, and  was again in  possession
 of his spirits and the  use of his faculties, which had become
 impaired by the disorder of his nerves.  He said he owed
 his cure to  the superior method  of  treatment  pursued at
 Graefenberg, and to  the fine mountain air.

                     Case  XXIV.
   A superintendent of mines, aged 24, had found his ner-
 vous system  much deranged by the unwholesome  atmos-
 phere in which  he lived;  and at length experienced an in-
 voluntary  discharge  of prostatic  liquor,  and occasionally
of seminal secretion from slight exertion, attended with pain
in the spine and loins, occasionally severe.   He was in a
miserable  state of nervous suffering,  and went to Graefen-
berg.  For a considerable time he could bear only very mild 
THE WATER-CURE.
195
treatment; yet, after four months,  the discharges ceased.
The pain remained, and also his feebleness.   He douched
and received  the water particularly on the spine and loins.
Boils and " dartres" formed near the seat of pain, and im-
mediately gave the greatest relief.  His recovery was com-
plete in 11 months.  It is unquestionable that the crisis in
this case was  highly advantageous.  The boils suppurated
favorably ; and the pain, which  had been of long duration,
gradually passed away and has never returned.

                       Case XXV.
  A gentleman, aged 83,  having used mercury with great
freedom, and been careless in exposing himself in unfavorable
weather, fell  into  a state of great debility and nervous-
ness, and gradually became almost bald.   He went to Grae-
fenberg in this state, and was described to look more like
a corpse than a living person.   His  first treatment was a
sitz-bath, two lein-tuchs,  followed  by  a  shallow tepid-bath
and free drinking of water.   Afterwards he  sweated  in
the blanket, and used the plunging bath every  other day ;
douching also on most days, but omitting one lein-tuch, and
not using any on the day of the blanket.  He drank water
freely, and took  as much  exercise on the  mountains  as
his strength  would allow.  Soon after his arrival, the few
hairs on the head  which he brought with him disappeared,
and the  baldness was complete.   Boils formed particularly
at the nates,  and  suppurated freely;  when the treatment
was reduced to the use of two  lein-tuchs and a sitz-bath.
Soon after, an eruption  appeared  over the  whole body ;
first vesicular, and afterwards scaly, also more boils.  The 
 196               HYDROPATHY J OR,

 linen was stained with appearances which were supposed to
 arise from  mercury.  At the end of  six months, he gained
 some color of the cheeks, and became stronger; and also
 new shoots of hair appeared on the  head;  and which in
 two  months more so increased, that  when I saw him, two
 months later, he had a fine head of hair ! He was pursuing
 regular treatment, and evidently was quite in a fair way of
 recovery.
  During my stay at Graefenberg, I heard frequent  mention
 of the stains of mercury and of iodine appearing in  the lein-
 tuchs, either of blue or reddish color ; but Priessnitz assured
 my friend, Dr. Buxton, that he had seen mercurial  globules
 issue at the ends of the  fingers after  a continued course of
 the water-cure, in patients who had made a great  employ-
 ment of mercury either internally or externally,  or both,
 notwithstanding that they  had desisted from all use of  the
 medicine  for even several  years !   This appears almost
 incredible.  I cannot doubt the veracity of Priessnitz ; and
Liebig,  with whom I discussed the subject, had no doubt
 of such a fact, and offered  this explanation : that mercury
 combines with animal matter, and may remain so combined
 for an indefinite time ; and that the quick change  of mat-
ter which belongs to the water-cure  treatment would tend
to the separation of the mercury, which might  appear in
a globular or other form.
  I  have  witnessed  examples of the latent stay  of mer-
cury in the system, and shall cite the  following: I pre-
scribed to a poor woman, afflicted with rheumatism of the
wrist joint, threatening  anchylosis, a mercurial  ointment,
which  she rubbed in with only occasional  intervals from
January to the end of May.   No mercury was  taken  in- 
THE  WATER-CURB.
197
 ternally; none used externally after May.   In November
 following, she was seized with  the most violent salivation
 that can be imagined.

                      Case  XXVI.
   A gentleman, aged 24, of healthy appearance, when 12
 years old, had a nervous fever, which exceedingly weaken-
 ed his constitution and rendered him very deaf;  from that
 period, had been weak and  sickly,  and unequal to  much
 exertion.  When he arrived at Graefenberg, four months and
 a half ago, such was his state, with  a bad appetite and
 almost a loss of smell.  His hearing  always very defective.
 Began treatment very  gently  with  abreibung,  lein-tuch,
 and sitz-bath;  to drink water  very  freely and take  abun-
 dant exercise.   After a fortnight, his appetite and strength
 were improved; and treatment was increased to the use
 of the sweating blanket, followed by plunging bath twice a
 week.  The douche on the other days ; head-bath twice a
 day; and to sniff water freely several times in the day.
   There ensued a  critical  diarrhoea  several times, after
 which the hearing  improved.   When this diarrhoea oc-
 curs, boils seldom happen also.  The sniffing of the wa-
 ter was at first disagreeable ; but finding advantage from
 it, he persevered ; and when I last saw him, his hearing
 and smell were both recovered.  He was strong,  active,
 and in good spirits.

                     Case XXVII.
  A young man, aged 21, on his way to Graefenberg, for
the treatment of a rheumatic complaint, found himself un-
well at Vienna, but travelled on, and when he reached his 
198               HYDROPATHY J  OR,
destination,  was in a  high  fever, with delirium.   Until
this was reduced, an abreibung was kept  applied in the
quickest succession, so  immediately  hot did the wet linen
become.  The delirium quickly subsided.   When  the fe-
ver was much abated, he was put into the lein-tuch, and
this was followed by the shallow bath.  Very soon a co-
pious small.pox eruption appeared.  Lein-tuchs were con-
tinued,  according  to the state of the skin.  There was
no return of fever; the appetite was natural.  In ten
days he was able to walk out of doors.  He had been vac
cinated  in  his infancy ; but, notwithstanding, the pus-
tules were universal and of full size.   No pitting ensued.
  It is unquestionable that the water-cure treatment, ap-
plied in the beginning especially, is  admirably adapted to
the cure of eruptive fevers ;  small-pox, measles, and scar.
latina.

                    Case XXVIII.
  An Austrian officer, aged 60, had  been  very  stout and
remarkable for the goodness of his appetite ;  but by de-
grees he became dyspeptic,  very nervous, and,  above all,
lost  his sleep more and more by degrees, till at length he
was not able to procure more than one hour of dosing in
the 24,  for  upwards of two  years.   He  had no regular
sleep whatever : opiates would not  succeed, and he was
in a most wretched state when he went to Graefenberg.
Three months passed away without  any decided improve-
ment.   It was in  the beginning of spring ;  the weather
very cold, and he was not strong enough to take much ex-
ercise.  Hence  a  slower improvement.  Treatment: in
the first of the morning a lein-tuch followed by a shallow 
THE  WATER-CURE.
199
tepid bath ;  an abreibung twice a day ; usually a second
lein-tuch, followed either  by an abreibung or  shallow
bath.   By degrees he improved, gained some appetite, and
sleep returned, at first for an hour only ;  then more and
more, till, by the middle  of summer, he could sleep com-
fortably for  seven hours; and he quitted Graefenberg re-
covered from every inconvenience.

                    Case XXIX.
  A gentleman, aged 50, of the nervous temperament, yet
appearing to have good muscular power, had lived many
years in the West Indies, and become enfeebled in consti-
tution by dyspepsia and complaint of the liver.  On re-
turning to England, he contracted rheumatic  neuralgia,
which principally  affected  the thighs and  legs.  They
were morbidly sensitive both to heat and cold, not being
able to bear the heat  of  the fire even  at some distance;
and instant  severe pains occurred on going into the cold
air.  The skin would not endure flannel.   He wore wash-
leather.  His whole nervous system was so deranged that
he could not bear the least mental application ; not even
to write a letter.  At successive periods  he went to the
two Wildbads  in Germany, last  to that in Gastein, and
from both received benefit.   The strong douche was used,
and which acted so powerfully on him that he could not
continue it.  On his return home, he caught cold, and
had a severe return of the pains.  He was advised to  go
to Bath, and to use the baths of so high a temperature as
106°!  Instantly he found his head  congested as if filled
with blood,  had singing of the ears, and a general dis-
tress.  He  left  the bath quickly; afterwards bathed  at 
200              HYDROPATHY ; OR,
102° to 100°, a few times, but thought himself much  in-
jured.   On  a subsequent  occasion,  he went to Buxton,
and was much benefitted.   He was highly  satisfied both
with the baths and douche.
  The  water-cure treatment, however, attracted  his no-
tice, and he went to Graefenberg about a year ago.  He
has pursued very regular treatment, has had several crises,
and is  materially  benefitted, but still has some returns of
neuralgia.   He  bears the douche and the plunging bath,
and certainly is greatly improved in nervous energy ; and
is by no means so sensitive to heat and cold.  For exam-
ple,  he bore the Graefenberg winter, and could,  when I
saw him, take exercise  in the sun.  Priessnitz expected
his cure to be completed in three or four months.

                     Case XXX.
  An Austrian field-marshal, eighty-two years of age, had
been a gouty martyr through a long life, and visited Graef.
enberg four years ago, when in such a state of infirmity
that he could scarcely put his feet to the ground.  Mild
treatment was used,  but  it proved sufficient to produce
boils, which formed near the affected joints.   He gradu.
ally improved, and finally threw away his sticks, walking
and riding on horseback with  almost the activity of for-
mer years.
  An old Polish general, nearly eighty years of age, also
received equal benefit  from  the  treatment of his gouty
sufferings and infirmity.

                     Case XXXI.
  A lady, aged forty-three, of full habit, for a long time 
THE  WATER-CURE.
201
 subject to menorrhagia to  such an extent as to make her
 feel enfeebled, had much shortness of breath on exertion ;
 with  indigestion  and disturbance of the head.   A year
 ago had paralytic distortion of the face: this did not last.
 Had been upwards of four months at Graefenberg.  Treat-
 ment: lein-tuch  in  the morning early, followed by the
 shallow tepid bath,  A sitz-bath, at first tepid, afterwards
 cold,  twice a day, for twenty minutes, but not during the
 catamenia.   At that period, the wet bandage around the
 body  was to  be  changed  every half-hour; but at other
 times, only  when it should become dry.  Such, with mod-
 erate  drinking  of water,  was  the  principal treatment.
 Crisis (boils) formed on the legs ;  and the discharge from
 them  was considerable  and continued.  She obtained a
 favorable recovery, and the periods became satisfactorily
 regular.  When  I quitted  Graefenberg, she could ascend
 hills without difficulty, and was attentive to take  regular
 exercise.

                     Case XXXII.
  A young lady, aged  nineteen, having been strong and
 healthy, was reduced to a state of great debility by a severe
 nervous fever, and became the subject of intense  headache,
 attended with great  depression of spirits.  She went  to
 Graefenberg in  October.  First treatment: a  lein-tuch
 twice  a day, one sitz-bath,  and  one head-bath.   Soon
 after,  from exposure  to damp  evening air, she had a short
 feverish attack, for which eight abreibungs were applied on
 the first day ;  followed by a lein-tuch.  In less than thirty
 hours the fever was quite removed.   Ere long, crisis (boils)
formed in different parts, and  from that time she scarcely
             9* 
202
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
experienced any headache.  She  drank water freely, and
umschlags, but never had stronger means used than I have
mentioned ; and she perfectly regained her health and had
strength.   When she arrived, she  appeared,  as  I  learnt,
pale and very weak.   On  quitting,  after five  months'  so-
journ, she had a nice color, and was cheerful,  strong, and
active.

                    Case  XXXIII.
   A gentleman, aged twenty-three,  not appearing delicate,
of middling bulk, was undergoing  treatment  for deafness ;
after very slight preliminary means,  he used the sweating
blanket in the morning early.  He  was desired to go into
the  shallow  tepid bath, before entering the cold bath; but
he was disobedient, and at once plunged into the latter, on
a severely cold day, when the temperature of the water was
little more than  40°  Fahr.   On quitting  the bath,  he fell
down insensible.  Priessnitz was called to him, who directed
the  most  free  rubbing of the lower extremities with cold
water, and then  the shallow tepid bath, with abundant and
universal  friction, together with  moderate tepid  affusion
over the head.   He  was quite restored in about an hour.
This example shews  how  careful  the  patient should be to
obey  instructions, and  not attempt to judge  for  himself
when using the  active processes  of the  water-cure treat-
ment.

                     Case XXXIV.
  A lady, aged thirty-two,  disposed  to corpulency and
having a  short  neck, drank,  on  first rising, four pints or
more of water, in a short space of  time, taking only a slow 
THE  WATER-CURE.               203
 walk in the garden.   She was suddenly seized with an uni-
 versal feeling  of coldness over the chest and  in  the ex-
 tremities, very quickly followed by insensibility.  Her state
 appeared  very alarming.   Similar treatment to that  men-
 tioned in  the last case was adopted, and with eventual suc-
 cess ;  but she was not quite restored  till the expiration of
 twenty-four hours,  and  for  a  long time after, she was re-
 minded of the  shock from which she had suffered.  This
 case is sufficient to point out the infinite importance of
 taking active exercise when much water is drunk.   Here,
 the kidneys had not acted.  There was a temporary plethora
 of the vessels ; and some effect must be  attributed to the
 influence  of the cold  water as a sedative to  the nerves of
 the stomach and first intestines.

                      Case XXXV.
  A gentleman, aged  34,  was  attacked, in  the year 1828,
 with secondary syphilitic  symptoms, having had  primary
 disease seven months before, and which, he said, was very
 badly treated.  He exposed  himself carelessly during the
 use of mercury.  Afterwards measures were used with ap-
parent success, for he  got and remained pretty well for se-
 veral years.  At length,  no  fresh  cause having existed,  a
swelling appeared on the forehead, painful,  persisting, and
resisting all treatment.   He went in the summer  of  1837
 to Aix-la-Chapelle, and used the baths with only slight ad-
vantage.  An abscess formed  in  the  forehead and   was
opened.   No healing  process afterwards.   He continually
grew worse.  Twenty months ago he went to Graefenberg ;
then having three foul  ulcers, deep, and each the size  of a
sixpence,  attended with deep-seated pains and often prick. 
204
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
ings near  the surface.   He had also a painful node on the
shin of the left leg.  His constitution was much weakened,
and I was told that his appearance then was alarming, from
the signs of exhaustion and distress.  He was  without ap-
petite,  and procured but little sleep.
  Priessnitz ordered a lein-tuch, followed by a shallow bath,
morning and afternoon ;  a sitz-bath for half an hour in the
middle  of the day; and wet cold-water compresses, not
covered by dry, to be applied to the ulcers, and changed ten
times  a day.   Waist  bandage ;  and to drink water  as
freely  as  possible.
  After three months' treatment, exfoliation of a large por-
tion of the entire cranium, exposing the dura mater, took
place.   I am in possession of this.   When I saw the patient,
smaller portions  were in process of coming away.   Not.
withstanding this, he appeared in a fair way  of  recovery,
for he  was improved in strength sufficiently to walk two
miles ;  appetite and sleep were good ;  the granulations were
healthy, and the whole complexion of the case was changed
very greatly indeed for the better.   It is one that renders a
valuable  testimony  to the efficacy and  simple  character
of the water-cure treatment.  So much of the dura mater
will be# eventually exposed,  that he will  require some  in-
genious instrument  to  be worn for  the protection  of  the
brain.

                     Case XXXVI.
  A gentleman, between forty and fifty years of age, was
suddenly  seized with all the syroptoms of inflammation of
the brain; pain of the head, with  urgent feelings  of con-
gestion appearing at the outset, a hot skin, great excitement, 
THE  WATER-CURE.
205
and very quickly strong delirium.  The attack was met by
active measures; the rubbing down in the shallow tepid
bath,  aud small affusions of cold water for several hours in
succession ; and when the violent symptoms were subdued,
lein-tuchs were used, followed by the further use of shallow
bath and affusion.   This was the chief treatment, and the
recovery was quite accomplished in two or three days.  By
ordinary proceedings, it  is not improbable that more than as
many  weeks  might  have  been required.  Both  Captain
Claridge and Dr. Wilson relate similar cases to this, treated
in the same manner, and with  equal  success.

                     Case XXXVII.
   A  gentleman, aged 25, was affected from  his earliest
youth with dyspepsia, and attacks of head-ache  from vari-
ous exciting  causes, attended  with  heat  of  the  scalp,
flushings of the face, and a distressing sense of the vessels
of the head being too full of blood.  He had been  under
treatment several weeks with advantage.   One afternoon,
his dinner not digesting well, he took a very long walk, and,
during it, was seized with a strong pain between the lower
ribs,  affecting his breath.  It was with great difficulty  he
could reach home, so urgent did the spasmodic pain become.
Priessnitz saw him immediately, and  directed the shallow
tepid  bath (60°), with abundant rubbing for two or three min-
utes,  instantly followed by the cold plunging bath (44°), in
which he remained longer than usual, in order that the cold
might make more  impression on  the spasm ; but, also, this
alternation of tepid and cold process was repeated no less than
four times, till at length his limbs were quite benumbed, and
to a degree of much suffering.  The pain of the side was re- 
 206               HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
 lieved.   He was next exceedingly well rubbed ; put to bed,
 became warm, went into  a sleep;  and,  after an  hour or
 two, awoke perfectly recovered.   I know that this was a
 muscular pain connected  with indigestion and intestinal
 flatulence.  I have several times experienced it, and found
 it removeable by simple means ; as quietude in the recum.
 bent posture, warmth, and a carminative in warm water.
 In this instance the treatment  was out of proportion to the
 occasion.  I suppose that Priessnitz apprehended  internal
 inflammation.  I take the liberty  of thinking that it was
 an error in diagnosis ; the knowledge of  which is always
 so important  in the  administration of any kind  of treat-
 ment.   I saw this gentleman immediately after his recovery,
 and received from him a very  minute account.

                   Case XXXVIII.
   A lady, aged 30, brought on a state of  extreme  nervous
 debility, with  impaired digestion, head-ache and confusion,
 with loss of sleep depression of spirits, and many other ner-
 vous symptoms, by a course of severe literary application.
 She  had  the  highest  medical  advice  in  London;  but,
 although relieved in her most troublesome symptoms,  she
 continued in a state of such great debility, that she could
 not walk  across the room  without assistance.  She tried
 change  of air and scene without success;  and, as a last re-
source, went to a water establishment in England.  An abrei-
 bung twice a day, and sitz-bath once, with body bandage, and
 free drinking of water, constituted her treatment.  In three
 weeks, her amendment  was such as to enable her to walk
 out of doors ;  and  after  a few months,  she was strong
 enough to travel.    She felt convinced that her nervous de- 
THE  WATER-CURE.
207
 bility required further and most skilful treatment.  She ar-
 rived at Graefenberg shortly  before I quitted ; and she was
 in good spirits with the  prospect of her  perfect recovery.

                     Case XXXIX.
   Miss-----, aged five years, a child of nervous tempera-
 ment, first suffered, four years ago, from a painful inflam-
 mation of one  knee, appearing  otherwise  iu  good health.
 Leeches and evaporating lotions were applied freely ; and
 afterwards repeated  blisters.  At a later period, malt and
 hop baths at 88° Fahr. for one hour at a time,  two or three
 times in a week, in alternation with warm salt  water.   She
 had  been at Graefenberg  about 15 months.   When she
 first arrived, she could not put the foot to the  ground, and
 used crutches with  difficulty.   The knee was painful  in
 stormy weather.   I examined the joint, which  was evident-
 ly diseased  from scrofula.  There was  still enlargement;
 but I was told by the nurse it was  very  much reduced  in
 size ; and this indeed was manifest from the loose state  of
 the skin.  It was almost free  from tenderness.   There was
 some motion in the  joint.  She could walk very nimbly
without a stick or any assistance ; first moving on the heel,
then on the toe.   The limb was shortened and the tendons
of the hams  were contracted ; but the improvement was
very satisfactory.  She had been delicate and  weak.   She
was become  strong and healthy.   The case is so important
that I shall particularise the treatment.
  At six a.  m.  the lein-tuch  for an hour, followed  by a
shallow-bath at 64°  for five minutes ; wet bandages to the
waist and around the knee covered as usual: to go out be-
 fore breakfast, and drink  three small glasses of water.  At 
208
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
nine,  the knee was rubbed for five minutes with  the wet
hand, and wet applications were again put on.  At 11, re.
peated, and a sitz-bath for 10 minutes.   At one P. M., the
local treatment and waist bandage.  At half-past two, same
treatment.   At 4  p. m. sitz-bath  for 10  minutes ;  tempe-
rature at a later  period reduced  to 60°; the  knee again
rubbed with  cold  water, and a bandage re-applied.   At
five p. m.  lein-tuch and shallow bath,  which also was re-
duced in temperature by degrees to 60°.   Local treatment
repeated.  Since last June she had douching  at  11, and
omitted the sitz-bath ; but when the weather proved unfa-
vorable, this treatment  was reversed.

                      Case XL.
  A little boy, aged five years, of calm  disposition, when
two  years  old had a fall, by which the  knee was injured.
This,  like  the last, was a scrofulous  enlargement of  the
knee-joint.   He was just arrived at Graefenberg.   The leg
was drawn up two inches from the ground.  Priessnitz ob-
served that the tendons were so contracted and rigid, that
a division of them  by the surgeon would become necessary,
but he would treat  the enlargement of the joint.  The treat-
ment directed was, a lein-tuch for half an hour  three times
a day, followed by shallow tepid bath with local  application
of water, and the drinking of water, as in the last  case.

  Having related,  I believe, a sufficient number of cases to
display the  powers of the water-cure treatment, I shall only
add to their number by alluding, in a cursory manner, to a
few other examples, the details of which would require more
space than  I can afford on  the present  occasion. 
THE  WATER-CURE.
209
   I witnessed two cases of incipient inflammation of the
 lungs,'with much inflammatory affection of the throat, and
 of the mucous membrane of the trachea, promptly and suc-
 cessfully treated  by abreibungs, lein-tuchs, tepid  shallow
 baths, and umschlags.
   In a case of haemoptysis, it was evident to me that the free
 drinking of the water  had  proved injurious ;  although  in
 other  respects the general treatment  had  been very useful.
 I am convinced that in this disorder  the patient should  be
 even painfully restricted in the quantity of drink.   I should
 prescribe iced water, in very small quantities at a time,  as
 almost the only beverage; and the same principle of  man-
 agement I  should  observe  in   any case   of  arterial
 haemorrhage.
   I  witnessed many urgent cases  of disease of the  skin,
 various in their nature.  They were chiefly impetiginous  or
 herpetic.  Dartres is  the  common name  assigned by the
 foreign patients to most of the eruptions.
   One of the worst examples of lepra that I ever saw, pre-
 sented itself  to me in the case of a gentleman, 23 years  of
 age.  It was universal from head to foot.   He had been  at
 Graefenberg  one year; and for a long  time had been on full
 treatment, using the douche every day, and sweating in the
 blanket three times a week, with other processes.   He con-
 sidered himself to be very materially improved : the patches
 were  much less scaly than formerly ;  and in various  parts
 the skin  had assumed a  healthy  cicatrized  appearance.
 Priessnitz told him that in these cases the water treatment
 prospered most  during the spring.    He expected  to be
successful in the cure.   There is no description of cutane-
 ous malady in which, according  to  my experience,  it is so 
210
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
difficult to be effected.  This  patient had formerly taken
various mercurial and other alteratives ; had been at Carls-
bad ; at Gastein in Tyrol;  and at Kreuzenach, a celebra-
ted place for diseases of the skin.
  I believe that the water treatment  is more adapted than
any other to the relief or cure  of obstinate diseases of the
skin.   The continued  frictions, ablutions, perspiring pro-
cesses, douches, &c. must have a powerful influence in ex-
citing an entirely new action of the vessels of the skin ;
but in any case in which, after a fair trial, the water means
did not seem competent to meet the evil, I should not hesi-
tate to add the use of some  mild alterative.   I saw many
cases of scrofula,  some of which were materially benefitted.
In  others, it  was doubtful  whether any improvement had
been effected.
  In the melancholy  diseases of tetanus and hydrophobia,
I should consider the employment of the most active of the
water-cure processes well deserving a trial.  Priessnitz as-
sured me that he had cured a dog of hydrophobia by inces-
sant douching with the coldest water.  Many years ago, one
of my  horses was seized  with locked jaw, and the poor
animal appeared to be fast approaching to a hopeless condi-
tion, the farrier having exerted all  his skill in vain.  The
late Professor Coleman by chance arrived at the  time, and
advised repeated  affusions of  the spine  with  the coldest
water from buckets.   After about an hour, according to my
recollection, the spasms of the jaw, and of  the several  af-
fected muscles became relieved.  A complete recovery en-
sued.   I have thought it not unbecoming to relate these
comparative cases. 
THE  WATER-CURE.                211
           Cases.  By Dr. Edward Johnson.

  Before I proceed to the detail of cases treated at Graefen-
berg, I will  mention two remarkable ones which I treated
myself by cold water alone, more than twenty years ago—
that is, before its efficacy as a remedial agent was  known
even to Priessnitz himself.   I mention these merely to show
how early in life I had been led, by observation and general
reasoning, to form a high opinion of cold, in the treatment
of disease.
  Somewhat more than twenty years ago I became the sub-
ject of a very uncommonly severe attack of acute rheuma-
tic fever.  I was attended by Dr. Birkbeck and Dr. Thomas
Davies, who afterwards became physician to the London
Hospital.  I was  also daily visited by some other medical
gentlemen living  in my neighborhood.   They  were ex-
ceedingly kind and attentive to me, for which I shall never
cease to feel most grateful—and I am quite certain that my
case was treated in the most scientific manner, that is, ac-
cording to the accepted medical science of that day.
  I was three  times bled in the arm,  and took frequently
repeated doses of calchicum, which produced excessive and
continued vomiting. These powerful means, however, failed
to remove the  pain, but reduced me  to so slow a degree of
exhaustion,  that the  fever began to assume the typhoid or
nervous character.  My wife was now told not to calculate
upon my recovery, and ordered to give me  brandy,  repeat-
edly, and at  short  intervals,  during the course  of  the
night.   At  this  time  my   skin  was  excessively hot,
and the  bed clothes  oppressive.  I  begged and   prayed 
212
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
for cold  water to drink, and  to have  myself washed
all  over   in  cold  water.   Everything  that  was  deli-
cious and desirable in the universe seemed to be represented
by these  two words—cold water.   My wife at last yielded
to my entreaties—and  the  more so,  inasmuch as she had
often heard me enlarge upon the efficacy of cold ablution
in fevers  and many other diseases, and lament that popular
prejudice would not suffer me to employ it so frequently  as
I desired.   She had,  moreover,  herself, on one occasion,
been plucked from agony and sudden danger by the use of
snow.
  The cold ablution, and large draaghts of cold water, were
immediately exhibited,  and industriously  and frequently
repeated  night and day.
  In a week, with the exception of the debility consequent
on  the loss  of so much blood, I was quite well.
  The second case occurred in the person of my wife about
a year previously to that which 1 have just mentioned.  On
the evening  of the third day after her first accouchment,  I
came home from Guy's Hospital, where I had been detained
since morning, and found her groaning and weeping with in-
tense pain, the breasts red, and enormously  enlarged, which
the frightened nurse was vehemently rubbing with brandy
and oil. The skin was excessively hot and dry, and the pulse
was leaping  along at the rate of 120.  It was in the month
of January—so I walked into the street with a pail, which
I filled with snow, and bringing  it into the sick room,  I
piled a heap of it over both breasts, continually adding fresh
snow  as  it melted.  In a very few minutes the milk span
out in streams, to the distance of more than a foot, and the
tears of torture were at once changed for those of pleasure, 
THE WATER-CURE.
213
 accompanied by that hysterical sobbing, which is the com-
 mon result of a sudden transition from intense suffering to
 perfect ease.   The mere absence of pain in these cases takes
 all the characters of the most delicious and  positive plea-
 surable sensations.  In  half an hour the inflammation  had
 subsided, the  breasts had become  comparatively flaccid,  the
 fever had entirely subsided, and not only all danger, but all
 inconvenience, had utterly vanished.  But for this timely
 succor, suppuration must have supervened in both breasts,
 and large abscesses  would have been the inevitable conse-
 quence.

                       Paralysis.
   Herr Von Wulffen, an officer in the Prussian army, was
 seized  in 1842 with a paralytic stroke.   Of this he recover-
 ed.   But the  disease continued to recur at short intervals,
 until he had almost entirely lost the use of one side of  the
 body—so that he could  only  walk  very imperfectly  and
 with great difficulty. In addition to this, he was extremely
 rheumatic, and the glands of the neck were swollen.  After
 resorting to an infinite variety of curative means, which
 left him exactly where they found him, he came to  Grae-
 fenberg.
  After his arrival at Graefenberg, and  commencement of
 the treatment, this gentleman did  not experience a sincrlo
attack for two months, although before his arrival he would
frequently be attacked two or three times in a month.  The
swelling of the glands of the neck subsided, his rheumatism
was entirely removed, and his health completely re-estab-
lished.
  At the expiration of two months, however, he one day took 
214
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
an extremely long walk among the mountains, and  came
home very much fatigued, cold, and  with wet feet.   And
now, instead of going to bed, he  went  into the hot and
crowded billiard room, where he continued to play for some
time.   After this he suddenly lost the power  of distinct
utterance, could  with difficulty articulate his words, and
began to talk, all at once, quite incoherently.   Priessnitz
was sent for, who threw cold water over his face and chest,
and then ordered him a foot-bath,  with three  men to rub
his feet, for half an hour.  This recovered him.  He was
then told to walk, but after having walked for  ten  minutes
he became so weak that he was obliged to go to bed.  His
friends now left him in order to go to dinner.   When they
returned they found him quite in  his senses,  but perfectly
speechless, and unable to  write.   In fact, his tongue and
right hand and foot were palsied.  Priessnitz now ordered
him a wet sheet  (merely damp) for ten minutes—then ano-
ther, a little wetter, for ten minutes more—and then a third,
very wet  indeed, for ten  minutes more again.  Feverish
symptoms now followed, with violent head-ache, and great
prostration of strength.   For these symptoms he was put
into the tepid bath for  half an hour, and well  rubbed  by
three men the whole time.  Vomiting now took place, and
in the evening he was up in the saloon at supper as well
and  as sensible as  any  one there;  and laughingly  as-
suring his friends that he was now not only in full posses-
sion of his tongue, but of his teeth too.   Since this time,
which is  now some months ago, he has had no return, has
the perfect use of all his limbs,  and is otherwise in good
health. 
THE  WATER-CURB.
215
   Her Regenhard, of Vienna, had suffered for many years
 from nervous disease and severe  dyspepsia.  Three years
 since he had  a  paralytic seizure of the right half of the
 body—not  severe—and from  which he  recovered.  Six
 months afterwards he had a second attack—more severe—
 from which, however, he partially recovered.  Four months
 later he had a third attack, and  afterwards a  fourth  and
 fifth, the intervals between the fits becoming shorter  and
 shorter, until they returned every fortnight.  His right leg
 and arm now  became nearly useless.  He  was  advised to
 try the baths at Toeplitz, which he did, but without any good
 result.  He returned  to Vienna;  he took the best advice
 which that capital could afford, but entirely without benefit.
 One of his physicians at last, with  a candor and honesty
 which do him honor,  confessed that he believed his case to
 be beyond the reach  of any ordinary medical treatment,
 and recommended him to try the water-cure.  He came to
 Graefenberg in  company with my friend Mr.  Niemann,
 who was also  going to  Graefenberg on his own account.
 He arrived there in May, and was then in his sixtieth year.
 He  was  immediately  put under  a very  mild  treatment
 (merely an abreibung, rubbing the head  with a wet  cloth,
 and a coph-bath).  In six weeks he had crises, but (which
 is very remarkable) only on the side affected. Not a single
 pimple appeared on the sound side.   When the crises  ap-
 peared he  took  lein-tuchs with abgeschrecktes bath.   No
cold-bath, no douche, no sitz-bath.   He continued  to have
crises till  October (five  months).   He then left perfectly
 recovered, never having  had a single attack after  he com- 
216               HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
  menced the treatment.  His  friends at Graefenberg have
  since received two letters from him, perfectly well written
  by that same right hand which  was paralysed and useless
  when he first came to  Graefenberg,  and which  had been
  to him nearly a profitless member for the three previous
  years.
   In gratitude for his recovery he  has  made several orna-
  mental presents to the  grounds about Graefenberg, which
 still remain, and will remain there,  monuments of the cura-
 tive  power of cold water.  Indeed, Graefenberg abounds
 with such monuments, both in iron and stone, erected by
 Gratitude in commemoration of recovered health, and of a
 size and durability which gives them a fair chance of en-
 durance for hundreds of years.
   Captain Wardle, of the Fiquelmont dragoons, the nephew
 of Colonel Wardle, celebrated for  certain charges which
 he preferred against the Duke of York, became  suddenly
 deprived of the  use of one entire side.  He was  blind of
 one eye, deaf of one ear, and  the leg and arm of one side
 were paralysed.   He was twenty-two years of age.   tinder
 the water-cure he  entirely recovered.  The sight of the
 eye  was perfectly restored, his hearing entirely  regained,
 and the full use of his limbs returned.   After his recovery,
 Colonel Bowen saw him on guard at the theatre of Prague,
 the picture of youthful health and manly strength.   He is
still on military duty at Prague.

                      Sciatica.
   Mr. Wangler, merchant, had been affected with sciatica
for eighteen months. He was living at Milan, and the phy-
sicians there recommended him to  have the actual caute- 
THE WATER-CURE.
217
ry* applied to the part.  This, however, he refused. He then
went to a water establishment in the Tyrol, superintended
by  a physician, but  one who  was grossly  ignorant of the
principles on which  the water-cure proceeds.   This gen-
tleman  succeeded at last in persuading him to submit to
the actual cautery, for his sufferings were so great that he
would have  submitted to  almost anything  in  the hope of
relief.   He  showed  me the  deep scar left by the hot iron,
and which was as large as my extended hand.   From  the
actual  cautery, however,  he received no benefit, and, in
consequence of injudicious treatment, he became exceeding.
ly ill, and then proceeded  to Vienna, where he placed him-
self under the most celebrated  medical practitioners, and
underwent  every conceivable mode of treatment.  While
submitting to treatment at Vienna, his bowels suddenly be-
came constipated, and would never relieve themselves with-
out the aid of medicine; and his thigh dwindled away until
it was but little larger than his wrist;  and  he could not
walk  a single step.
   He was now  brought to Graefenberg,  where he has re-
sided for the last  nine months.   He gave me the history of
his case himself, and was  good enough to let me examine
the affected parts.   He is now perfectly well, entirely free
from pain, full  of flesh and animal spirits, and the withered
thigh has entirely recovered its  original very fleshy  dimen-
sions.   He is not in the slightest degree  lame, and  can
climb the mountains with the best  of them, and in any wea-
ther.    He is covered with  the  usual critical  eruption, as
soon as which subsides he will return  to his family at
  * The actual cautery is a hot iron.
10 
218
hydropathy; or,
Milan.  He is  forty-eight years of age.  His  treatmen
consisted of the lein-tuch, succeeded by the tepid bath, the
sitz bath, and douche.


               Sciatica with Lumbago.
  MonsieurVarnod was afflicted with sciatica for three years
so severely that it was with great difficulty he could  walk
even with the aid  of  a  stick.  Every  ordinary  means of
cure had been resorted to without effect.  He was  at last
prevailed upon to visit a water establishment at Innspruck.
With great pain and difficulty he was got down to  the side
of the cold bath ; and  here it required a  great exertion of
courage in a lame  man,  and one who could not on any sud-
den emergency move  his limbs without excruciating pain—
I quite agree with  him,  that  it required  great courage  in
one so situated to allow  himself  to be tumbled heels over
head into the water.   With fear and trembling, however, he
submitted, and to his utter astonishment  found that  while
in the water he  could  move  his  limb without  the  slighest
pain or inconvenience. The pain had entirely vanished, and
from that moment to this it has never returned, nor does he
exhibit the slightest indication of lameness or  weakness  in
either of his legs.  He is  now at Graefenberg for another
disease—a disease of the skin.


                     Constipation.
  Herr Fricks,  the father of the young man whose case  I
am about  to relate, put himself under  treatment also, for
an obstinate constipation which had annoyed him, and in- 
THE  WATER-CURE.
219
terfered greatly with his health, for 17 years.   So obstinate
and torpid had the bowels become, that it would  frequently
require four or five lavements before their contents could be
emptied.
   This gentleman was treated by lein-tuchs and sitz baths—
four of the former daily, (two in the  morning, and two in
the evening, each couple of lein-tuchs being  succeeded by
the tepid bath,) and two of the latter also daily.
   In  a  fortnight  this gentleman's bowels began to empty
themselves,* without any assistance, daily and plenteously,
and  have continued  to  do  so up to  the time when I left
Graefenberg.
   Mr. Niemann,  a gentleman about  35 years of age, was
affected by obstinate constipation.  During five entire years
he never once was able  to pass a motion, without the aid of
either medicine or an  injection.  He is now at Graefenberg,
and for the last four months has  had a regular and healthy
evacuation every  day, without the use either of injection,
or of a  single grain  of medicine of any kind  whatever.
Had  not  this   gentleman's  constipated   condition  of
bowels been thus  fortunately removed, I feel quite sure that
every unprejudiced medical man will  allow that, sooner or
later, severe disease, in some shape or other, must have been
perfectly inevitable.
   This gentleman had no  crisis.


                       Dyspepsia.
   Mr.----, 48 years of age, had been  accustomed for many
years to indulge in a  very  free mode  of living.   His  daily
regular allowance of  wine  was  one full bottle, in addition 
220               HYDROPATHY J OR,
to sundry glasses  of ale,  and  a couple  of glasses  of
brandy  and  water  in  the  evening.    This  was   his
regular  daily  quantity.    Under  this   excitement   his
health  soon  began  to suffer,  and  it   grew  gradually
worse, until, about twelve months since, he was in so shat-
tered a condition, that he found it necessary to adopt some
rigorous and  continued means to repair the mischief his
constitution had sustained.   The symptoms of  which he
complained  were,  excessive languor,  physical weakness,
drowsiness,  and depression  of spirits,  foul torfgue, relaxed
throat, (to such an extent that  he was obliged to have his
uvula removed by the surgeon's knife,) capricious appetite,
and  all that long train of  the most distressing symptoms
which characterize a severe case of dyspepsia, accompanied
by hypocondriasis.   He had been affected, too,  for many
years, with  large furunculi, or boils, of such severe and ir-
ritable  character, that  when one appeared on the chin, it
would cause the whole  of one  side of the face to swell so
violently as to entirely close the  eye of that side.   For these
furunculi  he consulted a  London physician,  who ordered
him  to  take a pill  every day  before dinner,  consisting of
aloes, rhubarb, and extract of camomile.   These  pills stop-
ped the appearance of the furunculi, and from that moment
all his distressing  symptoms became aggravated.
  After very many  fruitless efforts to regain his health, he
repaired to Graefenberg.  At this time he was so weak that
he could not walk the length of a single street.   At Dres-
den, which is  a small city, in attempting to walk from one
exhibition to another, he found himself unable to do so, and
obliged  to dispatch his servant for a coach while he waited
for its arrival.  His breath, moreover, was so short that 
THE  WATER-CURE.
221
he  could  not maintain a conversation for  more than five
minutes together.  In six weeks after his arrival at Graefen-
berg he could sing;  and his  strength is now so great, that
he walks up  and down the snow-clad mountains, often as
early as six o'clock in the morning, without any difficulty,
in all kinds of weather, and  he declared to  me that he be-
lieved himself able to run continuously, at a moderate  pace,
for a distance of three or four miles without stopping. Every
day I  see  him  climbing the  hill-side  in large jack-boots,
breasting the acclivity  with  the  firm and vigorous step of
perfect health and strength.   This gentleman bathes, and
douches, and takes one or two wet sheets every day, wears
umschlags  round the  body,  and drinks  nothing but pure
cold water.   Yet this gentleman had been all his life accus-
tomed to  luxurious  living, and the daily use of wine and
spirits.  He declares that when he came  to Graefenberg he
did not know even the  taste of water—for when he cleaned
his teeth in the morning, he always took great care to  expel
every drop of water with the tip of his  tongue,  fancying
that if he  suffered it to enter the cavity of his mouth, it
could not fail of producing some deadly  mischief; and he
would  as  soon have thought of swallowing poison,  as of
drinking a  cup of cold  water.   And this gentleman did not
leave off the use of stimulants gradually—he left them off
entirely at once—and so far from experiencing any evil
consequences,  he immediately became sensible of relief.
  I will just  mention that this gentleman had for a  great
many years (perhaps 20) a large fatty tumor on his back—so
large as to be quite visible through all his clothes, and giving
to him an appearance of deformity.  When I examined this
tumor a few days ago it had almost entirely disappeared. 
222                HYDROPATHY ; OR,
              Dyspepsia and Rheumatism.
  Herr  Baumann, a builder, from Saxe Wiemar, 45 years
of age, suffering under rheumatism, dyspepsia, nervous  de-
bility, and with  a constitution, to all appearance,  quite
broken.   The first crisis made its appearance in the form of
the usual eruption, and  he felt himself  relieved.   Some
time after  this, however, he had another  crisis, consisting
of what  are called  furunculi, or boils.  He now  began to
mend rapidly.  His dyspeptic symptoms left him, his rheu-
matic pains ceased, his nervous debility gradually vanished,
and his  health is now firm, strong and good.
   Mr. J. B. S-----, a gentleman  of  Manchester, came to
Graefenberg  in  June last.   I had the history of the case
from  his own mouth.   His case was one  of  confirmed  and
obstinate dyspepsia of four years' standing.   Being a man
of property he took the advice of the most eminent physi-
cians, who, having failed in relieving him,  finally recom-
mended  him  to travel in a warmer climate.   In  obedience
to his advice he  went to Rome.   Here he improved a little
for a short time, and  then became again as ill  as he  was
when he sat out.
   While travelling on the continent he  accidentally made
the acquaintance of  a Captain Fuminelli,  of Venice, to
whom he related his case, and the object of his  travel—a
search after health.  The captain, now the strongest man in
Venice, and who had himself been raised from a sickly con-
dition to one of high health,  by the sole use  of cold water,
at once  strongly recommended him to repair to Graefen-
berg, and  he came  accordingly.  When he arrived his
symptoms were  these—first, great general physical debility, 
THE  WATER-CURE.
223
so that  he could not walk even  a small  distance without
great fatigue and exhaustion.  He was the subject of con-
stant heartburn—his tongue  exceedingly foul—his  appetite
capricious—and his stools invariably presented the appear-
ance of little, hard, stony balls.   He was perpetually an-
noyed by sighing and gaping, which  he  could  not resist
even when engaged in conversation—proofs of great vital
debility.  In  addition to all this he had a  constant and se-
vere pain  in his left side.
  This  was his condition  for four  years.  These were the
symptoms which had obstinately resisted the most judicious
medical treatment under the ablest medical advice in Eng-
land.   The  first sensible effects  of the  treatment were
manifested in the changed appearance of the alvine evacu-
ations.  These became large, hard, dry, and solid, and their
expulsion  exceedingly painful.  For this he was ordered a
wet  bandage round the body, covering the whole abdomen
and stomach.   In two days his motions assumed a perfectly
natural  and  healthy appearance.   He  now made rapid
progress.   His tongue became cleaner, the pain in the side
greatly  relieved, the heartburn left him, his appetite became
steady and good, his strength greatly increased, and he felt
so well that  he made up his mind to discontinue the treat-
ment and go home.   He was not, however, yet  quite well,
for as soon as he left off the treatment his health flagged,
and  he describes his feelings as resembling those  of one
who suddenly loses some long-continued  cause  of excite-
ment.  He felt low,  depressed, and was obliged  to resume
the treatment.   After having undergone the treatment for
some weeks longer, however, he entirely recovered both his
health and strength, and could spend a whole day in climb- 
224
HYDROPATHY J OR,
 ing the mountains without suffering more fatigue  than
 would necessarily be felt by a strong and healthy man.  He
 has now been in perfect health for four months, during the
 whole of which time he has entirely discontinued the treat-
 ment, with the exception  of an  ordinary cold bath every
 morning.  He only remains at Graefenberg on bis wife's
 account,  who  has also  been  undergoing  the treatment,
 and whose case he has likewise kindly permitted me to
 publish.
   Mr. J. B. S-----'s crisis occurred about the eighth week
 after he commenced the treatment,  in the form of  a thick
 rash, which  entirely covered his legs, thighs, and  arms.
 Immediately after the appearance of this eruption, the pain
 in  the side began to decrease, and with it the eruption also
 disappeared.   He  declares to me  that he cannot remember
 the  time when he  felt himself in such  good health and
 strength  as he is at this moment.


  Gout and Rheumatism, complicated with Venereal  taint.
  For  thirteen  years Captain  Vogt had been the  subject
 of severe pains in his wrists, ancles, knees, and the long
 bones  of his legs  and thighs.  While suffering thus, he
 contracted the venereal disease, of which he was not
 properly  cured.  From  this  time  his  rheumatic  pains
 were  aggravated  tenfold;  so  much  so that he  was at
 intervals confined to his bed for several weeks at a time.
  In this forlorn condition  he arrived at Graefenberg, and
 was immediately put under  treatment.  The first crisis
 which  manifested  itself was a  return  of  the  chancre,
which he had contracted six years before.  This, however, 
TUB  WATER-CURR.
225
 got perfectly well in a -fortnight.  He has been  here
 eight months, and when I examined him  a few weeks
 since he was completely recovered,  free from  all pain,
 active with his limbs, and  able  to take any reasonable
 amount of exercise on foot or on horseback.  He is cov-
 ered with a critical eruption  all over his limbs and body,
 and he only waits for the subsidence of this to return
 home.  He was on full treatment the whole time,  with
 the exception of the sweating blanket.   He wore um-
 schlags night and  day, which, during  the day, were re-
 newed five times.


             Gout in the Hands and Knees.
   Mr.----, 45 years of age, had gout in his hands and feet
 for twelve years.   He began the treatment in July, 1842.
 At six in the morning, lein-tuch for  half an hour—tepid
 bath for five minutes.  At eleven and at five  the same
 treatment repeated.  He wore umschlags.  On the se-
 cond day he sweated for two hours—took a tepid bath for
 two minutes—after which a  cold bath for one minute—
 then another tepid  for two minutes.  At eleven o'clock
 he took a foot bath for twenty minutes.  At five o'clock
 he took a lein-tuch, for half an hour, with tepid, &c.  &c,
 as in the morning.  This treatment was pursued for ten
 days.  After the tenth day,  immediately after the sweat-
 ing, a cold bath for a minute.   In the third  week he
douched in addition to the other treatment, and wore wet
 bandages on the knees.  He got well rapidly.
10* 
226
HYDROPATHY ', OR*
               Rheumatism with Psoriasis.
   Mr. G----, an officer in the army, aged 59 years, about
twenty years since  began to be  affected in the  muscu-
lar part of the legs and thighs with very  severe pains.
At last they became so exceedingly  sensible  of cold and
damp that, in frosty weather, while sitting within doors,
he was always compelled  to have the lower half of his
body enveloped in a cloak, and no barometer could indi-
cate a coming change in the weather with greater exacti-
tude  than  this gentleman's legs. This state  of things
lasted, with little variation, for twenty  years, not conn-
ning him to the house, but embittering bis life, interfering
with his prospects, and poisoning all the springs of enjoy.
ment.  During these twenty  years  he  was  three times
sent home under a medical board as  unfit for duty—once
from the West Indies, once  from  the Mauritius, and once
from New  South Wales.  His legs,  I forgot  to mention,
had also become, very early in  the disorder, covered with
that obstinate itching disease,  called psoriasis ;  and  for
several years  any attempt to lean forward in  the act of
writing gave him acute pain in the region of the stomach.
After having taken the advice of a multitude of physicians
to no purpose, be was recommended  to travel.  He visit-
ed Wild Bad, in  the  Black Forrest, Wild  Bad Gastein,
on the Norrishe Alys, Buxton, Bath, Ramsgate, and spent
one  whole  winter  in Italy;  but all in vain.   At  last
he heard of the water-cure and  determined to visit Graef-
enberg, where he still remains, the very merriest  man of
the whole two hundred, who are  now, in the very depth
of winter, and with the snow a foot thick, gaily undergo-
ing the water treatment at that place. 
                    the water*cure.               22f
    He has had crises, both in the form of rash and of fur.
  unculi.   He has also had diarrhoea, which confined him to
  his bed for three days.   During these three days he wore
  umschlags night and  day changed every hour—with  sitz
  baths.  When the feet became very cold he had them rubbed
  with cloths dipped in cold water, and wrung out.  In the
  evening he became feverish, for which he was put into a
  shallow bath for five minutes.  This immediately removed
  the fever.  When he was first attacked with diarrhoea
  his appetite Went, and he could only take a little rusk in
  cold water.  It soon, however, returned and  became bet.
  ter than ever.  He is now in excellent health, his pains and
  the eruption  rapidly leaving him, and he is  looking for,
  ward with the utmost confidence to a perfect cure.


 Case of Psoriasis.  Communicated by George Anthony, Esq.,
         an English Surgeon, now at Graefenberg.
   Mr. Burch,  a farmer from  Somersetshire, aged 50 years,
 a stout, strong man,  came to Graefenberg in the middle
 of October last (1842).   He Was  examined,  and the pro-
 gress of his case watched, with great interest by Mr. An-
 thony, and many others, resident at Graefenberg.
  His whole body and limbs were literally covered with
 that most  obstinate, and,  generally  speaking, hitherto in-
 curable disease, called psoriasis.   Deep fissures had formed
 in many parts, and anenormousquantity of scurf and scales
were swept out of his bed every morning, while the itching
with which he  was  annoyed was  almost intolerable.   It
was that form of psoriasis which is sometimes called, though
I think erroneously, lepra  figurata.   He had been afflicted
with this  abominable scourge for many  years;  and had 
228               HYDROPATHY ; OR,

consulted many physicians of acknowledged eminence with-
out the slightest benefit.   Every mode of treatment which
he had adopted had utterly  failed of making the slightest
impression on the disease.
   When he consulted Priessnitz he was told that he would cer.
tainly get well, but that it was by far the worst case he had
ever seen, although  he had seen great  nu mbers, and that it
might take two or three years to effect a perfect cure.  On
hearing this he became disheartened,  since circumstances
would not allow him to sacrifice so much time.  He was
determined, however, not to return without making a trial.
He went down the  hill on which Graefenberg stands, into
the town of Friew aldau, in which many of Priessnitz's pa-
tients,  who  cannot find  room  in Graefenberg,  take lodg-
ings.  He here commenced the treatment, drinking large
quantities of cold  water, and  confining  his diet to bread
alone.   He continued  this plan for about six weeks, when,
to his joyful astonishment, as well as that of Priessnitz him-
self, the eruption almost entirely disappeared.   In this case,
the crisis showed itself in the shape of diarrhoea.
   In order to produce perspiration he slept under a German
feather bed, close to  a German stove, which gave  him  a
profuse perspiration every night—an effect which his medi-
cal man had often labored to produce in vain, and  which
he had never experienced for many years.
   Having now remained as long as  circumstances  would
possibly permit, he left  Friewaldau to all appearance per-
fectly well, with the exception of a few isolated spots.  On
his way home he was accompanied as far as Prague by Mr.
 Ellis, a gentleman  who  is still at Graefenberg undergoing
the water-cure.  Here he all at once returned to a very 
                   THE WATER-CURB.               229

free  diet.  From a very scanty diet, and  one consisting
solely  of bread, milk, and  water,  he  leaped  at  once to
the full diet of the fashionable continental hotels, with wine,
&c.  The consequence of this was a fit of  the gout*and a
relapse.   But from the very marked and  powerful impres-
sion  which was made by the treatment  upon the disease in
the short space of six weeks, no rational doubt can exist,
and  no doubt was entertained  by any of  the gentlemen
who  saw the progress of the case, some of whom were medi-
cal men, that the disease  would have been entirely  removed
could the patient have submitted a little longer to the treat-
ment, and confined himself for a longer period to a more rigor-
ous diet.  It should be remembered that this gentleman was
50 years of age—that his disease had existed not merely for
many  months, but for many years—and that  the various
modes of treatment which he had adopted under the ablest
advice had not only been unable to cure it, but  even to
make the slightest impression upon it.


                Skin Diseases—Psoriasis.
   Mr.  Spangenberg, a gentleman of Hamburg,  a young
man of very high attainments, and the  son of the  late very
eminent Dr.  Spangenberg, (about 24  years of age,) had
been afflicted with a scaly eruption over his face, and entire
body and limbs,  for twelve years.   The disease first made
its appearance in the form of red, itching patches.  These
became covered  with small scurfy laminae, or scales, which
were easily rubbed off, leaving the patches red and shining
as before.  In a very short time,  however,  the scales were
reproduced, and fell off as before.  The itching was exces- 
230               HYDROPATHY }  OR,

sive,  and this distressing condition continued for twelve
years, in spite of the most varied  and persevering efforts,
under the most  able medical advice, to remove it.
  In this  pitiable state he came to Graefenberg, covered
from  head to foot, face and all, with a disease, at once
loathsome, and,  in  an uncommon  degree,  distressing.
His complexion was exceedingly fair, his eyes blue,  and
his hair  flaxen—his temperament  irritable.  And  it re-
quired a good deal of tact  to accommodate the intensity
of the treatment to the  excessive sensibility of his skin,
which made it frequently necessary to change it; for
whenever it was urged too  far, the disease  was aggrava-
ted.  By constantly varying the treatment, however, his
skin became gradually accustomed to the impressions of
the various baths,  and when I arrived at Graefenberg, his
treatment consisted of two lein-tuchs every morning, one
immediately after the other, (the former for half an hour, the
latter  for three-quarters,) immediately succeeded by the
cold bath.  At twelve  o'clock he took a wet sheet,  and
sitz-bath.   At five he took another lein-tuch for an  hour
and a half, succeeded by another cold bath.  All night he
wore wet  linen pantaloons, from his ankles up to his arm-
pits.  He also wore  wet bandages round  his  arms.  All
day he wore wet bandages round the entire body and arms,
which  were  renewed five  times  daily.   In the summer
months he took the blanket and  douched ; but these it
was found necessary to discontinue.
  This gentleman's crisis assumed the form of diarrhoea,
immediately after the  occurrence of which, his disease
began to disappear.  I saw him  almost  every  day, and
examined him repeatedly.   When I left  Graefenberg, he 
THE  WATER-CURB.
231
was so nearly well that a few isolated dark-colored spots,
indicating the parts where the disease had been most vim-
lent, were all that were left.

  The following  case I detail for  an especial  purpose—
for the purpose of showing in what manner the most ob.
stinate  diseases, especially of the skin, and painful rheu-
matic affections (so called),  are constantly produced.
   Herr Von Nehemet, a Hungarian gentleman, three years
ago contracted gonorrhoea.  After  having vainly endeav.
ored to  rid himself of his malady for nine months, it surf.
denly disappeared on  taking a large dose of cubebs*
   Soon after  this  sudden  disappearance,  an  eruption
showed itself on his face and nose, for which he took Pul.
nau water, which seemed to  remove it.   He  was now,  to
all appearance,  well; but the suddenness with which both
the original  disorder  and the eruption had ceased, made
him distrust the soundness and  permanence of the appa-
rent cure.  Distressed with  this feelingof insecurity, and
his family being at Graefenberg,  he  determined to go
thither too, and submit himself to the Graefenberg treat-
ment.   He was soon satisfied that his fears were but too
well-founded.   For,  shortly after  he had begun to adopt
the remedy,  a crop of small  ulcers made their appearance
round  the fundament.  Similar ones soon showed them-
selves on his legs, and presently his hands and fingers be-
came covered with pustules.
  By slow degrees, however, the  whole  of these  S3rm p-
toms  vanished, and  his health  was perfectly  restored.
He left  Graefenberg while I  was still there.
  Now, I think it cannot be  doubted that when this gen- 
 232              HYDROPATHY *, OR,
 tleman's original disease so suddenly disappeared, his sys-
 tem still retained the poison with which he had been first
 inoculated.   Nor can it be doubted, that if that poison
 had not been thrown to  the surface  by the  treatment
 adopted, he must have become, at some future time, the
 subject  of severe disease, of some kind or other.
  I am  persuaded that multitudes of anomalous disorders,
 whose causes seemed buried  in  obscurity, are occasioned
 by suppressed poison—and often by a poison of the kind
 here alluded to.


                    Fistula in Ano.
  The young Count  Thun, a youth sixteen years of age,
 became sensible  of uneasiness in the neighborhood of the
 rectum  while passing his motions.  This uneasiness grad.
 ually increased  until  it became so severe as to prevent
 him from riding on horseback.  The parts were now ex-
 amined  by a surgeon, and found to be thickened, enlarged,
 and hardened.  In a short time the pain became exces-
 sively severe, and other advice was taken, both at Vienna
 and Prague.   It was determined to puncture the part.
 This was done, and a discharge of matter mixed with
 blood ensued.  The disease was now pronounced  to  be
 fistula.   Attempts were made to effect a cure, by means
 of injections thrown into the sinuses through the punc-
 ture ; and that the case was one of perfect  or complete
 fistula is proved  by the fact that a portion of the  injected
 matter always escaped through the sphincter, proving be-
yond question that  the sinus opened into the bowel.   A
 great variety of injections having been used with no bene- 
                  THE  WATER-CURE.              233
 fit  whatever,  the  case  was  pronounced to be incurable
 without an operation.   To this measure the young Count
 could not be persuaded to submit.  He had now been un-
 der  medical  and surgical treatment for twelve months.
 He had five fistulous openings  around the anus, and his
 system had been so much reduced that it was with the ut-
 most difficulty he could walk, even when assisted by the
arm of his father.
   When I saw him he had been at Graefenberg eight
 months.   For the first three months  he took daily three
 wet sheets of  an hour each—each being immediately fol-
 lowed by the cold bath.   He wore umschlags round the
 body, and under the crutch night and day.   At the expi-
 ration  of three months  he  began to douche every day ;
 and he has only now just begun to undergo the sweating
 process.   He  takes all his food, both  meat and drink, per-
 fectly cold.   He has  never taken a sitz-bath ; nor has he
 had any crisis.
  After hearing the detail of the case from the father, whose
 memory was assisted by the son himself, I requested that
 I might be allowed to examine the parts. ■ This request
 was immediately complied with.  The  scars left by the
 healing of the sinuses were distinctly visible.  But  the
 thickening had disappeared, as well as the pain, which I
ascertained by making firm pressure entirely round the
 anus, and especially upon the scarred parts.  Four out of
 the five openings were perfectly and soundly  healed,  but
 there yet remained one, formerly as large as the tip of the
 little finger, but now not larger than  a  pin's  head,  to be
 healed.
  Prepared as I already was by a priori reasoning  from 
234               HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
the nature of animal life up to the nature of animal disease,
and from the nature of disease up to the true nature of rem-
edies, to award great efficacy to the cold water-cure, yet I
must confess that if I had not witnessed this case, and also
the one which follows, with my own eyes, I should have
had great difficulty in believing the truth of the statement.


                    Urinary Fistula.
   Baron Lauengen, of Lauengen,  captain  of cavalry,
struck himself a severe  blow against the pommel  of hid
saddle.  Inflammation  and much  tumefaction  ensued.
After a time the swelling of the part was enormous, and
fluctuation  was distinctly felt.   An opening was made
into it, very low down, from which there immediately es-
caped a very large quantity of urine.  This puncture
never healed, but the urine continued constantly to flow
through it.   He suffered from this state of things for two
years, which two years were spent in fruitless endeavors,
under the advice of the very best  continental surgeons, to
heal this fistulous  sore.   He  then came  to  Graefenberg,
where he has been, if I remember  right, only eight months.
 He was kind enough  to suffer  me to examine  the part,
 which I found to be perfectly  healed and sound,  the  scar
 where the  opening had  been still remaining distinctly
visible near the  raphe.


                      Gonorrhoea.
   A gentleman of Transylvania, a healthy  man, twenty.
 eight years  of age, contracted gonorrhoea.  In spite of 
                   THE WATER-CURE.              235
 all the means which could be devised by his medical ad-
 visers, the disease  continued  for fifteen months.   Four
 months after he had got well he contracted the disease  a
 second time.  The  treatment he had gone through on the
 former occasion had been so painful as well as unsuccess-
 ful, that he could not  make up his mind to submit  to it
 again, but resolved to go to Graefenberg.   He was  three
 weeks on the journey, and he had  had the disease  three
 weeks before he started.  The disorder was of a virulent
 kind.  The treatment which was adopted in this case was
 as follows :  At half-past six in  the morning he took a wet
 sheet.  After the wet sheet he took a tepid shallow bath,
 at twelve degrees of Reaumur.  After this (immediately)
 the  cold bath,  and directly after this the shallow bath
 again.  At ten o'clock he took a tepid sitz-bath, at twelve
 degrees, for half an hour.  At five o'clock the wet  sheet
 and  all the treatment of the  morning over again.  He
 drank thirteen glasses of cold  water daily, and wore um-
 schlags round the abdomen  day and night. This treat-
 ment continued for a week, but on the fourth day the dis-
 ease had entirely disappeared.  It was thought desirable,
 however, to  continue  the  treatment a little longer.  In
. the second week he took the two wet sheets as at the be-
 ginning, but went immediately  after each  into the cold
 bath, without the intervention of the tepid shallow  bath.
 At ten o'clock in the morning be douched for five minutes,
 but not on the seat  of  the disease,  nor on the stomach,
 nor on  the head.   At twelve o'clock he  took a sitz-bath
 cold for five quarters of an  hour.   At the end  of the se-
 cond week he left perfectly cured. 
236
HYDROPATHY ',  OR,
                      Consumption.
Extracts (translated from  the Italian) from a letter received by J.
  B. S____, Esq., at Graefenberg, from Captain  A.  F----, of the
  Marine Artillery,  Venice.
                              Venice,  10th Feb.  1843.
  * * * * Mr. and  Mrs. H.  are much obliged  by your
kindness, and have heard with great pleasure the good effects
of the cure, on which they sincerely congratulate you, and
return  their kind compliments  to you and your lady.   The
reading of your letter has determined H----to visit Graef-
enberg next summer.  He will profit by your advice,  with
respect to the method  which you recommend  him to adopt
while there.   Colonel  S----is very well; he says that he
feels himself ten years younger, (since  his visit to Graefen.
berg, 1842,) and sends his compliments to you both.
  With regard to my  own case, it is  given in few words.
From my twenty-fifth  to my thirty-first year, I was subject
to frequent affections of the chest, for which my physicians
ordered me  to lose  blood, and  gave me palliatives, which
treatment left me constantly liable to relapses.  They said
I was of  a plethoric habit, and that I must have the mass of
my blood diminished.  These diseases were  produced by •
weakness brought on by a too  sedentary life, too much ap-
plication tv study, and too free indulgence  in wine and spi-
rit.  My constitution was extremely delicate,  and the  least
draught of air caused inflammation of the lungs.
  These affections of the chest returned three or four times
a year, until  the last  time, 1827, the lungs were so much
weakened  that I  could  scarcely  breathe.  At  this  same
period (I was then thirty-one years of age) I  was at Zarra
in Dalmatia,  and had a severe attack which lasted several 
THE WATER-CURE.
237
 months, and of which I could not recover.  I was confined
 entirely to my room.  The physicians said that it would be
 death to me if I exposed myself to the open air.   I had a
 consultation of physicians, at which Dr. Pinelli, the princi-
 pal  physician  in Dalmatia, attended, and I  was declared
 consumptive.  1 was studying at  that time  the German
 language, and  whilst reading the  " Conversations  Lexicon,"
 I was struck with the article " Huffeland."  In this article
 great praise  was given to his (Huffeland's) work on Macro-
 biotics, (or the art of prolonging life).  I obtained this work ;
 and it seemed  to me that I recognized  my own case  in it.
 As I was already quite given up  by the faculty, I thought
 that in my position as an officer it  would be best for me to
 attempt an heroic cure, and to put an end to my disorders,
 either by death or recovery.  I bade adieu to all my physi-
 cians, in a  Jialf-dying state, and began to wash myself in
 my  room with  fresh water, by means of a sponge—repeat-
 ing  this operation several times a day—and limiting my diet
 to vegetables,  fruit, and water.
  I  began to feel benefit in a few days, and soon acquired
 courage to go out.   In the course of the  forty days I was
 strong enough to begin  sea-bathing.  It was the month of
 August, 1827.
  The  sea-bathing  which  I  took  every morning, in all
 weathers, joined with exercise immediately after  the  bath,
 continually  strengthened  me more  and more, and in the
 space of five months I found myself the strongest  and the
 healthiest of any of my companions.  From  that time to
 the present day I have had no illness of any kind.'  I drink
no wine, because I  do not like it.  But I could drink it
 without any evil result.
  I prefer vegetable diet; but, for several years that I was 
238
HYDROPATHY *, OR,
at sea, I took animal food, without the least inconvenience.
I expose myself to  all  weathers—and  go without a cloak,
even in  winter, in order  to put my health to the proof.   I
go from a hot atmosphere into a cold one, et  vice versa,
without any precaution.  I wear no flannel, and lead a very
irregular life.
  In  1835, when I was on board ship, I was attacked, in
the Port of  the Pirceus,  with an epidemic fever, which
raged there on account of the marshes ; and which attacked
three-fourths of the crew.  On the second and third attack
of fever, I took, each time, a bath in the sea, and recovered
while my  companions were  ill for several  months.
  The  only  precaution which I observe  is to bathe  every
day in the sea, in all weathers, and  in all seasons, when I
have  the opportunity;  and to take a douche bath* for one
minute, and  wash myself all over with cold water, as soon
as I get out  of bed.  I drink a great deal of cold water—
from  twenty to twenty-five beakers every day—chiefly in
the morning before breakfast.   But  whenever  I  have been
so situated that I could do none of these things, I have still
felt myself perfectly well.
   In  short, at the age of forty-seven, I feel myself stronger
than  I was at twenty-five, before I was attacked  by disease
in my chest.   This is the method which I followed before
I had any knowledge of the method of Priessnitz, with
which I only became acquainted five years ago when I re-
turned  from  the Levant; and which has determined me to
continue it, and to  recommend it to all my friends.
   If  Dr.  Johnson  wishes to make use of this information
* Three buckets of water poured over him. 
THE  WATER-CURE.
239
I have no objection  whatever.   I only request him to put
merely the initials of my name.
  I request you to write to  me before you leave Graefen-
berg,  and to  believe that I am and  shall always be, with
the most perfect esteem, &c. &c.            A. F.
                        Captain of the Marine Artillery.


    Mrs. J. B.  S----'s case, related in her own words.
  From a child I never  recollect to have had strong health.
I was constantly suffering from the illness incident to chil-
dren,  besides  much cough,  with  tendency to  weakness of
the chest, for  which at  an  early  period I was  ordered to
wear  a flannel dress next the skin.  When  at school and
whilst playing, I fell backwards  over a  garden  roller, to
which 1 paid no attention, although finding it difficult eith-
er to  walk fast or to run for a few  days.   From this cir-
cumstance I think may be dated the weakness in my back,
which was first evinced in a  difficulty  to rise from the
ground, if I had been stooping or  kneeling whilst at  work
in  my garden; the feeling being a total  prostration  of
strength  from the lower  region of my back, (precisely the
part hurt) to the knees.   Still I struggled against the weak-
ness until I found  myself incapable  of walking up a slight
hill with ease.  Application was then made to the physi-
cian,  by  whom I was ordered to rub the  part well  with a
liniment  principally composed of essentia] oils, and which
produced a discharge equal  to  that of a  perpetual blister,
and for a time restored strength to my back ; but the disease
invariably returned.
  This state of debility continued until 1841, when I think it 
240               HYDROPATHY ; OR,
 increased ; if I  walked up a  long staircase,  my  strength
 was exhausted ;  the same indeed  after any slight exertion.
 In 1842 I came  to Graefenberg.   I was ordered to leave off
flannel, a lein-tuch for  one hour  to be succeeded  by the
 abgeschrecktes  bath, in  which  I was  well rubbed for
 a few minutes ; an  abreibung  and sitz-bath at eleven
 o'clock, and the same at four  o'clock  in the afternoon.
 In a fortnight  I was ordered to plunge once in the cold
 bath, returning  thence to the abgeschrecktes to assist the
 circulation of the blood.  At the expiration of five weeks
 from my first  arrival  at Graefenberg,  I was suddenly
 seized with an utter prostration of strength, so much so
 that my  legs dragged, and I  feared paralysis.  This was
 succeeded by ague, shiverings, and burnings, pains from
 head to foot, but principally  across the loins.  A  profuse
 natural perspiration relieved me of much uneasiness, and,
 when Herr  Priessnitz came,  he ordered an immediate
 abreibung with umschlags around the waist, to be repeat.
 ed frequently so long as the  pain continued violent in the
'loins.  If I were better in the morning  the bathing was
 to be continued as usual.  This was done.  When  I at-
 tempted  to walk after being dressed, I  found  myself inca.
 pable of the exertion,  being weak  almost as an infant.
 During two days I ate only a little bread and  drank wa.
 ter, the  food that my appetite asked  for.  In four days
 my  strength had considerably returned,  and  in a  week I
 was  well as usual.  After  this  fever I was  ordered to
 douche, which in a very short period produced considera-
 ble swelling in  my left  foot; then I was ordered  a  foot-
 bath, Priessnitz saying, " it was probable a crisis was ap-
 proaching;" which took place in a few  days, and which 
THE  WATER-CURB.              241
discharged  as an issue for seven weeks.   Another sue
ceeded which lasted for five, and  another afterwards for
three weeks, more violent than the preceding, with a mul-
titude of little ones ;  and after each one I  felt  stronger
and stronger, and now have to rejoice that  all pain in the
back, with that prostration of strength, and  every other
symptom of debility, head-ache, &c. &c, have apparent-
ly bid me  farewell.


                       Deafness.
   While I  was staying  at Graefenberg, during the first
week in January of the present year (1843), Herr Pricks,
a young Prussian, aged twenty-seven years, arrived from
Stettin.
   He had  been totally deaf for ten  years, his deafness
having been produced by a severe attack of typhus fever.
During the  course, however, of the whole ten years  his
hearing returned three times, but only remained a day or
two, when he became again as deaf as ever.  Having un-
dergone treatment/or twelve days a large quantity of mat-
ter issued from his  nose.   He immediately regained  his
perfect hearing, and  remained quite well  up to the time
when I left  Graefenberg—a period of about six weeks.
   I will here relate an accident which befel this young man,
in order to show that the water treatment is an edged tool
which cannot with impunity be trifled with—and that, like
every other  remedy which is not mere chip in porridge, it
is only safe in the   hands of those who  know how to adapt
its use to  the peculiarities  and  powers of individual
 constitutions.
            11 
242
HYDROPATHY ; &B,
   He had been packed  in  the  blanket; but, after having
lain there for three hours, did not perspire.   He was order-
ed therefore  to be taken out and put into the tepid bath.
The bath-servant, however, either  to save trouble, or from
misunderstanding, put him into the cold bath.  The  mo-
ment  he came out  he fell  down,  and remained perfectly
senseless for  more than an  hour.   Constant  friction, how-
ever,  with the wet hands, at length restored him.

   General Baron Esch, commanding the cavalry at Prague,
a gentleman  well known in the military world, and who
made  his  first campaign with the Duke of York, at Dun-
kirk,  in 1799, was afflicted with a confirmed deafness of
several  years' standing, for which the most celebrated
physicians in Austria  had  all  been repeatedly  consulted
without relief.  At last he  was induced to go to Graefen-
berg,  and consult Priessnitz, who told  him he thought he
could cure him, but would not  say what length of time it
might require.   He was immediately put under treatment,
and at the expiration of six weeks he had perfectly recov-
ered his hearing.  This case was related to me by Colonel
Bowen, late of the Coldstream Guards, who  is now under-
going the treatment  for chronic inflammation of the eyes,
and who was  a personal friend  of General Esch, and  had
the statement from his own lips.  The General also related
to Colonel Bowen, the case of a young dragoon officer under
his command.


                     Hip Disease.
  One of the first cases which attacted  my attention, after 
THE WATER-CURE.
243
my arrival at Graefenberg, was a case of hip  disease,  in
Elizabeth St-------, a child eight years of age,  and the
daughter of highly respectable parents at Hamburgh.  On
inquiry of the child's governess, she stated that the hips had
become enlarged rather more than two years ago—that the
tumefaction gradually increased—that the child constantly
complained of pain in the knee—that the leg and thigh be-
came gradually wasted—that the knee joint became firmly
contracted, and bent nearly at right angles, so that she
could only walk with two crutches, the other limb being weak,
and the general habit  of the child  delicate, and, in  fact,
scrofulous.  Every medical man,  if any such  be present,
will immediately recognize in this account a very common
form of scrofulous disease of the hip joint.  When I saw
the child, however, all these symptoms had disappeared,  ex-
cepting  some remaining enlargement of the  hip,  and a
little limping in the gait, arising from a trifling shortening
of the limb.  But the  account  thus given of  the  child's
 condition, when  she  first went  to be submitted  to  the
 treatment, was fully confirmed by  the testimony of more
 than a dozen persons who saw the child when she was first
 brought to Graefenberg,  and who had watched her pro-
 gress with great interest.  But besides this, the shortening
 of the limb, the appearances of the hip, with the general
 constitutional aspect of the  little patient, were precisely
 such as would have led  any surgeon  to  foretel,  without
 information, that the patient  had suffered,  or was about to
 suffer, the peculiar train of symptoms which the governess
 mentioned.
    When I left Graefenberg,  I  saw  this child galloping
 about in the snow,  by the side of her governess, without 
244
HYDROPATHT J OR,
anything to distinguish her from a perfect  healthy child,
excepting a little limp in her gait.


                     Scarlet Fever.
  In the month of May, 1842, Mrs. Klauke, (aged about 25,)
was seized with pains in the head and back and calves of the
legs.  Her face,  neck, arms, and legs, and  subsequently
the whole body, became brightly scarlet, and she complained
of a soreness in the throat.  The pulse was rapid, and skin
dry.   She was packed in  the lein-tuch for half an hour;
then rubbed all over in a tepid bath for twenty minutes with
the wet hand.   She was now ordered  to wear an umschlag
round her stomach night and day.  When  she felt cold, she
was  rubbed  down with the wet sheet—when hot, packed
in the leintuch ;  and so on all through.
  The tepid bath  was suspended until by the application of
a succession of sheets the  fever was  reduced.  Then  the
tepid bath was repeated.  Every morning  she was packed
up in a blanket, in which she was allowed to perspire for an
hour ; then she was  put into  the tepid bath.  This treat-
ment was continued for a fortnight.   At the close  of the
sixth day all fever was extinguished, and at the close of the
whole treatment her strength was undiminished.
  In addition to the above a lavement of  cold  water  was
administered every night.   During the whole time she ate
and drank as usual, and one evening went  to a ball, (in the
saloon of Priessnitz's establishment,) and danced for hours,
whilst her whole  body was crimson  with  scarlatina.   On
returning home from the dance she was rubbed down with
a wet sheet, went to bed, and slept soundly. 
THE  WATER-CURE.
245
      Symptomatic Fever.  (Related by the Mother.)
  Alexander Klauke, aged three years, was a  fine lively
child, but with a disposition to  inflammatory affections of
the stomach and bowels.   A month previous to the present
disease he had an attack of inflammation  of the stomach,
accompanied with strong  fever, and  determination to the
head.  In the evening the child was  put  into  a bath not
quite cold, in which he remained about twenty minutes, ad-
ditional cold water being  added as the temperature arose
by the heat from the child.  During  this  time cold  water
was poured from a tumbler glass on the head,  repeated at
intervals of a minute, and, as is usual, his whole body was
rubbed cautiously, by the maid.  He was then taken out
of the bath and  placed on  the sofa, covered over with a
sheet and blanket,  with  the back  part of his head in cold
water, for ten minutes.   By  this  time reaction had taken
place, when wet compresses were applied  to the head and
back part of the neck, and the body,  from  the armpits to
the hips, wrapped in a similar way.  He  slept quietly till
three o'clock in the morning,  when the same process was
repeated, the previous symptoms having returned. The child
was again placed in bed, where he  slept till morning, and
was then found to be quite well, and went out as usual.
  A month after this attack he was taken ill in a similar
way, but with symptoms much more severe. The fever run-
ning high and accompanied by delirium.  The treatment was
commenced by placing him successively in nine wet sheets,
from which the water was  but slightly wrung out. In each of
these he remained about five minutes. Towards the last, the
heat being diminished, he was allowed to remain ten minutes. 
246
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
To the head and breast a thick wet compress was applied
in addition, these being the parts where the heat was great-
est.  The feet were cold, and as  long as they remained so
the wet sheet was only applied down to the knees ; in the
meantime the feet and legs were rubbed strongly  with the
hands.   While the extreme heat continued, the wet  sheet
was covered by a thick dry one instead of a  blanket, as is
usual, the feet only being covered (with the blanket).  Af-
ter the last wet sheet he was placed at once in a tepid bath,
where he remained an hour,  the  same  process of rubbing
and pouring water  over the head  being practised.   The
first day the same process was  repeated four  times, the
duration of the last being not so  long, when the fever was
not  so  high.   During the night the wet cloth was changed
every half hour.  On the morning of the second day the
child refused to go into the water, calling out himself at in-
tervals for additional wet sheets.   Orders  were  given that
the inclination of the child should be obeyed.  In the course
of the morning the child desired  himself that  he might be
put into the bath, where he remained until the heat in the
armpits and on the back of the neck  was the same as on
the rest of the  body ; this  being  the general  guide for the
duration of a bath.
  The same treatment slightly varied was continued four
days, when the child was well, and was  sent out to play
with the other children.   In  eight days after this a pustule
appeared on the foot, which discharged matter freely.


                    Catarrh, or  Cold.
  Mrs.----, an English lady now at Graefenberg, on her 
THE WATER-CURE.
247
 husband's account, was subject, in England, to very severe
 attacks of catarrh, which usually lasted her a month before
 she could get entirely rid of it.  Soon after her arrival at
 Graefenberg she had a very severe attack. She was treated
 by the wet sheet and tepid bath  alternately  for two days,
 which entirely removed every trace of the catarrh.


                       Baldness.
   Assessor Willert came under the hydrotherapeutic treat-
 ment for a very old rheumatic affection. When he arrived
 at Graefenberg his entire head  was perfectly bald  and
 smooth.   I had an opportunity of examining his head soon
 after I myself reached Graefenberg; which I did with the
 more care, having heard that it was  expected, during his
 treatment, that his hair would probably return.  Shortly be-
 fore I left Graefenberg I was requested to go and examine
 Assessor Willert's head once more.  I did so, and found it
 everywhere covered with a fine new  hair, nearly half an
 inch in length.  There can be  no doubt whatever that this
 gentleman's head  will shortly be covered with hair as  lux-
 uriant as at any former period of his life.  His age, judg-
 ing from his appearance, (for I did not inquire,) is  about
seven or eight and thirty.


               Head-Ache, with Giddiness.
  To Herr Slatinsky, a gentleman (about forty years of age)
whose case I am now about to relate, I was introduced by
Mr. Niemann.  On going to his  room  I found  his body
literally covered all over with large dark brown spots, some 
248
HYDROPATHY ;  OB,
about the size of a farthing, some as large as  a half-penny,
and others somewhat larger, and many of them running one
into another, giving to his skin a dark marbled appearance.
He had also had crises in another form  about his legs and
arms, very much  resembling what,  in  England, are  com-
monly called boils.  They seemed to me to partake of  the
nature of what  are denominated,  in medical phraseology,
furunculi—not malignant, but in a very mild  form—dis-
charging a ropy matter from  one  small pin-hole  in the
centre.   All these, excepting one on the breast,  were per-
fectly healed.*
   The eruption on the body, however,  had  but  just made
its appearance, and the patient  was in  high glee,  and ex-
hibited his mottled  skin with all the  pride and satisfaction
with which a man exhibits to his friends some long-desired
object—a horse for instance, or some precious antique—which
he has just succeeded in  obtaining  after much labor and
difficulty.  The whole time he was undressing a smile of
exultation was playing round his mouth,  which plainly said :
"What a happy fellow am I! and how much I am sure you
will envy me when you see the treasure  I  am about  to
show you—the blessed  blotches  wherewith I am blessed !"
And this is the feeling which is common to all the patients
at Graefenberg on the appearance of the crisis—for it is
invariably hailed as a certain harbinger of a speedy and per-
fect restoration to health.  As the crisis disappears the health
returns—and I have never either seen or heard of a single
case in which these eruptions did not entirely  vanish again,
leaving the skin perfectly healthy and clear as before.
  For the three years previously to his coming to Graefen-
berg, this gentleman had been grievously afflicted with violent 
THE WATER-CURBi
249
pains in the  head,  accompanied by  dizziness.   He was
unabled  to  attend  to any  kind of business.   He  could
neither read nor write for more than two or three minutes
together.   He felt as though two nails, one on either side of
the forehead,  were  being violently  thrust into his brain.
And he could never stoop nor turn round without imminent
danger of falling.   This was his condition for three years,
from which all the ordinary medical treatment had  failed
to relieve him.
   I forgot to  mention that, in addition to his other suffer-
ings, he was afflicted with piles.
   On the appearance of the first  crisis all his symptoms
were relieved, but not removed.  Since the  appearance of
the second, however, his head-ache,  his giddiness, his piles,
have entirely left him, and he now  only waits till the criti-
cal eruption  shall also leave him, when  he  will  return to
his country, his family, his friends, and his home,  freed
from a load of misery and disease which could not but ren-
der life rather a curse than  a blessing.


                 Secondary Symptoms.
   Count Byatcshavich, a Polish count, contracted syphilis.
Under a course of  mercury  all his  sores healed except  a
large one in the groin, which resisted all medical treatment.
His health at  last began to flag.  He lost both his flesh and
his strength,  and became reduced  in substance  even to
emaciation.   This state of things continued for one  entire
year, when, hopeless of relief by ordinary means, he  yield-
ed to entreaty, and,  in spite of strong prejudice against the
treatment, came to  Graefenberg-   In six weeks  he was
            11* 
250               HYDROPATHY ;  OR,

perfectly well, and I myself saw him depart, the picture of
health and strength—a  fine young man standing six  feet
without his shoes, and as strong as a giant.

  -----Robertson, Esq., a Scottish gentleman, contracted
chancre in Sicily, 1838, which was healed by external mer-
curial applications.   He took mercury  internally  also, but
it failed in producing ptyalism.   The chancre returned in
a short time, and continued to heal and  return at  intervals,
during the  space of  six months.  During these six months
he took four pounds by weight of Lafecteufs  rob  (a  con-
centrated preparation of sarza and other drugs,) and sixteen
pounds by weight  of Dupuytren's  rob.  He was  then or-
dered to rub in  mercury for what  were called secondary
ulcers;  and these ulcers never healed until  all these medi-
cines and  all  mercurial  applications  were discontinued.
But under the use of simple purgatives, washing  the  sores
with nothing but goulard water, they  healed in eight days.
But by this  time his  system had  become so broken up that
pressing fears  were entertained for his life.  He had  be-
come quite emaciated—the slightest exertion, or a sudden
noise, would cause him  to faint—his spirits were  depressed
even to  frequent weeping—the  inside of his mouth, his
tongue, cheeks, and throat, were  covered with excoriations
and sores—the skin  of his face and forehead was covered
with blotches—and his stomach  and bowels in so irritable a
condition that  when he took a plate  of hot soup he  was
obliged to sit  upon a commode while  eating it.   For this
excessive irritability  he  was obliged to take large quantities
of opium, which he did under the advice of his physician.
At this time the joint of his knee was larger than the thick- 
THE  WATER-CURE.
251
est part of his thigh.   He  was now removed to Naples,
and placed under the care of another physician, who gave
him iodide of  potassium.  From this he derived great ben-
efit, the sores  healing and the blotches disappearing.   He
was desired to travel, but never to return to a hot climate.
His health now became considerably better, but the disease
was still in him, for it was not long before the blotches re-
turned, and he was obliged to have recourse again  to  the
iodide of potassium.  And indeed he  soon  found that, in
order to keep the disease under, it was necessary to take
the iodide of potassium constantly.   He now took warm
sea-bathing at  Peterhead, which brought out several ulcers in
the part first affected.  After this he took sulphur baths, and
also some iodine administered by Mr. Callaway, one of the
surgeons to Guy's Hospital in the Borough.
   He now came to Graefenberg, and submitted himself to
a full course of the water-cure.  When he came there, the
skin of his face  was so excessively irritable that he could
never go out without an umbrella to protect his face from
the wind.
   He had not  been  under the treatment  long before  the
disease, which had been hitherto only suppressed, was driv-
en by the  water to the surface  of the body.   He became
covered with venereal eruptions, and no fewer than twenty.
one ulcers  reappeared on the part originally  infected.  As
soon as these appeared, his general health  began to mend,
and in a few months he was perfectly well, and offered  for
a wager of any amount to walk eighty  miles in two days
—forty miles each day.  He has just left Graefenberg for
Vienna, and related his case to me only a few  days before
he went.   This gentleman was so popular at Graefenberg, 
252
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
and (having the command of several languages) so kind in
interpreting for foreigners when they first arrived, that a
dinner was given  to him at Friewaldau, at which I had the
ihonor to be present.
   This gentleman also mentioned  to me  a  case of gleet
which came immediately under his own notice.   It had ex.
isted for seven years, and obstinately withstood every mode
of treatment which could be devised.  Under the influence
of the water treatment he got perfectly well in a  few
weeks.

   Mr. Kindermann, a government  reporter at Frankfurt on
the Oder, was affected with secondary symptoms.   He had
a venereal fungous growth on the verge of the anus. There
were  also deep  ulcerations on his thighs.   Having failed to
obtain any relief,  and his health having been to all appear.
ance  utterly ruined, it was proposed to  convey  him to La
Charite, the great hospital at  Berlin,  as a  last resource.
His  physician, however,  declared  that such a step would
be  perfectly useless,  and  nothing could  save  his  life.
Soon after this he was strongly urged to visit Graefenberg,
whither he was conveyed in the latter  end of  March last
year.  In the beginning of July of the same year he left
Graefenberg  in perfect health and strength,  and is  now
again residing at Frankfurt on the  Oder.
   This gentleman  is about twenty-six years of age.
   He sweated every morning, with cold bath—two  lein.
tuchs in the afternoon with cold bath again—once a day
he took a sitz-bath—and he  wore umschlags  night and
day.   He was  covered  with crises, observed a strict diet,
and almost lived  in the open air. 
                  THE WATER-CURE.              253

  About seven years ago Herr Von Goltzsch contracted
chancre, which was cured by mercury.  From  that time
his  general health began to decline.  Every  now and
then he had sore throat, and was scarcely ever free from
what he at that  time believed to be  rheumatic pains.
For six years this state of things  continued, during the
whole of which time he was so weak that a strong child
running against him was sufficient  to push him down.   At
last his shin-bones became attacked with the most excru-
dating pains the moment he became warm in bed, which
made it impossible for him to sleep.   Shortly after  this,
nodosities made their appearance along the whole course
of the bones.  He was now strongly urged to come to Grae-
fenberg,  where I had the pleasure  of seeing him, and of
examining  his legs.   He has been under  treatment for
eight months, during which time his throat has  not once
been sore.  He has entirely lost all his pains, and, on ques-
tioning him as to the state  of his  physical  strength, his
emphatic reply was : " When I came here I was as weak
as a child ; but now I would not turn my back  upon ten
devils."


           Impuissance, complicated with Gout.
  The uncle of the reigning Duke  of Nassau, between
sixty and seventy years of age, had  been  afflicted  with
gout so severely, that when he arrived at Graefenberg, he
was almost bent  double.   In addition to this he had be-
come impuissant.
  He remained at  Graefenberg for  two years, married
while there, and in due time became  the  father of two 
254               HYDROPATHY | OR,
children ;  and was,  moreover, perfectly cured  of the
gout.
   There are probably no two affections over which the hy.
dropathic remedy exercises a  more marked and beneficial
influence than it does over the two just mentioned.

                    Contracted Joints.
   A Hungarian girl was brought here with the knee joint
so much contracted that she  was  obliged constantly to
walk with two crutches.  In six weeks she left  Graefen-
berg walking exceedingly well without any crutch at all.

                        Hernia.
   A young man affected with  inguinal hernia consulted a
surgeon at Milan, who undertook to cure him.
   The surgeon applied a plug of wood to the  rupture, sup-
ported by a strong band of iron,  which produced ulceration
to a  great and painful extent.  At the end of six months
the  hernia  was no better, and  he  suffered severely from
the ulcerations.
   He  then repaired  to Graefenberg, where he has been
prosecuting the hydropathic  treatment  for  six  months.
The  ulcerations are quite healed, and his rupture  so much
better  that he  has  already left  off his truss,  and  Priess-
nitz assures him that  there is no doubt of his perfect  re-
covery.


 Hcematuria, or Voiding  of Blood from the Urinary Organs.
   Herr Zelowski had  bleeding from the urinary organs  al- 
THE  WATER-CURE.
255
 most daily for six months before his arrival at Graefenberg.
 On  one occasion he voided  a large tumbler-full of pure
 blood.  He was also the subject of piles.  After ten weeks
 of treatment he was entirely freed from both disorders.  He
 gave rne the history of his case himself,  on the evening be-
 fore he left Graefenberg.


                 Cerebro-Spinal Disease.
   Monsieur De Gallette, an officer in the Imperial Guard of
 Russia,  aged  thirty-five years,  was affected  about two
 years since with severe  giddiness in the head.   He  could
 not  look  vertically  upward without falling either on his
 knees or on his side.  Any sudden motion of the head de-
 prived him in a moment of the use of his lower extremities
 which immediately yielded  to the weight of his  body, and
 let him down.
  He lost also the perfect command of his tongue, so that he
 could not articulate the words which he desired to utter. His
  '            ...
memory too quite failed him,  and all his  faculties were  so
 disordered that he became quite foolish and unfit for society.
 One day, in a room full  of company, he took up a decanter
of water  and  emptied it completely upon his  own  head,
 not knowing what he was about, and wondering  where the
 water came from,  which  was running down his  clothes.
 This gentleman has been four months under the water-cure.
 His giddiness has left him, he can articulate every word
 with the greatest facility, he has quite recovered his memo-
 ry, and all his mental faculties are as perfect  as  ever  they
 were.   He complains now  of  nothing but physical weak-
 ness, from which, however, he  is daily  recovering.   But 
256
HYDROPATHY ', OR,
the most remarkable part of this  case  still remains  to  be
told.   This gentleman has been quite bald for fifteen  years
over the entire roof of his head, and down on either side  to
within an inch of the tips of his ears, for which he has  al-
ways worn a wig.   When he had related  his case, he re-
quested me and some other gentlemen  to raise the candle
and examine the bald part of his head.  We did so, and then
perceived that a fine downy hair is  beginning to grow  all
over the bald part, which promises in a month or two en-
tirely to cover it, and supersede the necessity of a wig. The
hair is already a full quarter of an inch in length, but ex-
ceedingly fine.  A hundred persons can vouch for the truth
of this statement, amongst others Colonel Bowen, Mr. Hopp.
ner, and Mr. Anthony, an English surgeon, who examined
the case with me.


                  Suppressed Measles.
  In June, 1812, Major Heise, in  the Hanoverian  service,
while on active duty, had  measles, during which disease
he  received  orders  to  march to Valladolid in Spain, and
performed  the route from  Madrid to Valladolid  on horse-
back.   On  the  march  he was  exposed day and  night
to the  open air.    The measles suddenly   disappeared.
Six months  after  this  his  body and limbs became co-
vered over with a dry scaly eruption, exhibiting a yellowish
brown patchy appearance, when the scales fell off, accom-
panied  by intolerable itching.  Every expedient was tried
in order to get rid of this eruption.  He visited the baths of
Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.  He took Russian  vapor
baths for  twenty years.  But all perfectly in vain.  Six 
THE  WATER-CURE.
257
 years ago he was attacked with diarrhoea and prolapsus ani,
 occasioning from ten tojtwelve motions daily, with constant
 desire to return to the water-closet.   With these symptoms
 he came to Graefenberg.  Added to this he  had  nervous
 twitchings of two years' standing.  Two weeks after he had
 been under treatment he had  fever with delirium, with loss
 of sleep and appetite, for which he took lein-tuchs and tepid
 bath.  This lasted a week, and was succeeded by good ap-
 petite and  returning strength.  Crises consisting of furun-
 cles now set in, which lasted  nine weeks.  At  the end of
 three months he was ordered  to go to Vienna and to adopt
 the  following more moderate treatment, viz., three abrei-
 bungs daily.  Five days after his arrival diarrhoea and fre-
 quent desire for stool left him.  At first  his treatment con-
 sisted of lein-tuchs, cold baths, sitz baths.   On returning
 from Vienna he took six lein-tuchs  of half an  hour each,
 and  each being immediately succeeded by a cold bath daily
 —douche for  five  minutes daily.   Umschlags  were worn
 night and day on  his body, legs,  and  head.   He was here
 six months, at  the end  of  which time he went  away  per-
 fectly free from all pain,  in fresh and strong health,  and  in
all respects perfectly well.  Just  before I left  Graefenberg
Priessnitz received a  letter from  Major Heise, in which he
expressed his great gratitude for his recovered health.
                         Ague.
  A general  officer in the British army, well known at the
horse-guards, still staying at Bcemischdorf, and whose per-
mission I have to give his name  to  any private applicant,
was attacked with ague.   After enduring two or three fits, 
258
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
in the hope that it would leave him, he sent for Priessnitz.
When  Priessnitz arrived he was in  the third or  sweating
stage.  He was immediately placed  in a bath at 16 degrees
of Reaumur, or 68 of Fahrenheit.  Here he was kept for 20
minutes, being well rubbed all the time by two men.   After
this he walked about the apartment for half an hour, and
then went to bed.  The ague left him, and never returned.


                       Deafness.
  Colonel Bowen, late of the Guards, has been  residing
at Graefenberg seven months, without the slightest benefit
in his own case.  He cannot,  therefore, be reasonably
supposed to be blinded  by any violent prejudices in favor
of Hydropathy.  But he related to me the following cir-
cumstances concerning an intimate  friend of his  own—
and it was afterwards confirmed by many others who were
themselves under treatment at the same  time with  the
colonel's friend.  General Baron Esch, lately dead, but at
that time commanding the cavalry at Prague, a gentleman
extensively known in the military world, and who made
his first campaign with the Duke of York, at Dunkirk, in
1799, was afflicted with deafness, of several years' stand-
ing,  and which had resisted the most judicious treatment.
He  was at last prevailed on to submit himself to the water
remedy—and in six weeks he had perfectly recovered his
hearing,  in the  fullest sense of the  word.   Witnessing,
with his own senses, the singular effect which had thus
been wrought on his friend's ears, it was this which  de-
termined Colonel Bowen to try the same remedy on his own
eyes—but hitherto without effect. 
THE  WATER-CURB.
259
                       Epilepsy.
  The next case which I shall mention is one of epilepsy.
On being introduced to this patient, a  young Hungarian
of about 27, he told me that he  had been the subject of
epilepsy for four years, having a recurrence of the fits
about every ten days.  He had been under treatment for
four months, and was kept en a very scanty diet  the whole
of that time.  He is now perfectly recovered, having had
only one fit since he commenced the treatment, and that
occurred shortly after his first arrival at  the establishment.
He was very pale, and considerably wasted, but was then
gradually returning to a full diet, with a view to his re-
turning home.
  I suppose this case to be one of epilepsy, depending on
irritation, set up  in  the brain, by the presence of some
foreign body, probably a clot of blood ;  and that this clot,
under the deprivation of food,  had entered into combina-
tion with oxygen, in order that it might assist in protect-
ing the vital organs from  the destructive action of that
element, and had quitted the system in the form of oxy-
dised products.   The cases of palsy probably depended on
similar causes, which are removed by similar means.
  This gentleman has made copious notes, both of his case
and of his treatment, which he intends to publish  as soon as
he returns  to Pesth.


        Hypochondriasis, Psoriasis,  and Sciatica.
  The gentleman, (an Englishman,)  about 60 years of age,
who was  the subject of these three severe afflictions, be- 
260
HYDROPATHY J OR,
longed formerly to  the  civil  service in India.   I made his
acquaintance at  Graefenberg immediately on my arrival,
and am indebted to him for introductions to several valuable
cases besides his own.   He had labored under  these affec-
tions for eight years.   Shortly after  he had  become  the
subject of sciatica  and psoriasis, (which  latter disease  his
French medical advisers denominated dartre farineuse,)  his
mind became excessively excited by some family occurren-
ces,  with the particulars  of  which he did not, of course,
think it  necessary  to acquaint me.  In a short time, what
with this excitement, the torture  arising from  his sciatica,
(inflammation  of the  sheath of  the  great sciatic nerve
where it  passes through the structure of the hip,)  and  the
intolerable itching produced by the skin disease, the equili-
brium of his mind became so much disturbed that  he was
not considered in  a fit condition to  be left  by  himself.
Always in a state of high excitement, there were times when
he was perfectly insane.
  For eight years  the  sufferings  of this poor gentleman,
bodily and mental, were indeed awful.   When I asked him
to give  me  a  detailed account  of his sufferings, he  sat
thoughtful  for  a moment, and  then,  going to a  table, he
took up a small pocket book,  and opening it at a particular
page, and placing his forefinger between  the leaves, he  re-
seated himself.   " Some time ago," said he, " I  was per-
using the book  of Deuteronomy; and  in the course of  my
reading,  the passages which I have copied into this pocket-
book riveted my attention.   They were so exactly charac-
teristic of  my sufferings, that I almost fancied myself  the
particular  object of the divine wrath,  and  that I was even
then realizing the fearful denunciations which those passages 
THE  WATER-CURE.
261
of scripture contained.   No language of mine can so truth-
fully or so forcibly convey to you the horrors under which
I was laboring both in body and mind.  Read them," con-
tinued he, " and judge whether I have not great reason to be
thankful that I am now such as you see me."  He handed
me the book, and I read as  follows :  " The Lord will smite
thee  with the botch of Egypt and with the emerods, and
with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be
healed.  The Lord shall smite  thee with  madness, and
blindness,  and  astonishment  of heart.  The Lord  shall
smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch
that cannot  be healed, from the sole of thy foot  to the top
of thy head : and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee ;
and thou shalt fear day and night,  and shalt have none as-
surance  of  thy  life.   In  the morning  thou  shalt  say,
'Would God it were  even;'  and  at even thou shalt say,
1 Would God it  were morning !' "
   " At the time," continued he, when  I had done reading,
" that I was perusing those  passages, those  terrible denunci-
ations were  most of them  actually realized  in my person.
I trembled as I  read—for  at  that  moment I was covered,
ifrom the sole of my foot  to the top of my head1 with an
intolerable itching botch.   I was even  then * smitten in the
knees and in the legs with a sore  botch,' and was covered
with scabs.   Madness, and blindness of the understanding,
and astonishment of heart, were also mine.   I had indeed
1 no assurance of my  life,' for I was often sorely tempted
to destroy  it;  and  every  morning  I  wished  it  were
night,  and   at  night  I  longed  for  the morning—and
every effort  I had made to get * healed' had been utterly
in vain." 
262
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
  This  gentleman had  then been  under the water-cure
about three months.  His sciatica had entirely left him—
the eruption was  nearly gone—the  itching  had wholly
ceased—while the state  of his mind was perfectly calm,
cheerful, rational, and  full of thankfulness.
  So fully satisfied was he that he should get entirely well,
that he left Graefenberg about a week before myself, in
order to bring the whole of his  family back  with him—
partly that he might have the comfort of their society for
the rest of the time that  it would  be necessary for  him to
remain under the cure,  and partly in order  to submit his
daughter, who had ill health, to the same remedy which had
proved so signal a blessing to himself.


                 Cases.   By Dr. Shew.
                          I.
  Mrs.----, a colored woman of active habits, 42 years of
age, has for many years been frequently afflicted with
very severe cephalalgia (head-ache), and often, especially
after excessive  working, attended with  much subsultus-
tendinum (involuntary twitching  of the tendons and mus-
cles).  She  was induced some months ago to discontinue
her tea and coffee, which she had been in the habit of
using very strong, particularly tea, thinking it gave her
more strength, as she said, to  perform her  daily labor,
(habitually  enough  for  two or three ordinary persons).
The consequence was an almost  immediate cessation of
head-ache and twitchings, and  a corresponding increase
of strength.  The use of Graham  bread has wholly pre-
vented the former frequent necessity for active cathartic 
                  THE  WATER-CURE.              263
medicine.  Towards the end of last  month (Dec), after
over-working and probably imprudent exposure, she was
taken with the old pain in the head.   She did not see  fit
to send  for  advice  through the day.  On  seeing  her
late  in the  evening,  the  pain  and violent  throbbing in
the head had continued increasing with  coldness of the
extremities.  First ordered cold bandages to the head, to
be changed every few minutes before  they begun to be
warm, also immediately a partial bath, slightly tepid, and
free  rubbing with  the wet  hands by  two strong persons,
to produce  counter-determination.   This continued for
some time, the feet and skin were warm and in a glow;
water  was also given at  short intervals and in small
quantities, to drink.  After much rubbing with the water,
and  the drinking, nausea and vomiting ensued.  The pa-
tient was then put to bed, and immediately fell asleep.
The cold fomentations to the head were occasionally re-
peated in the night.  Slept soundly till morning, and on
awaking was free from all pain, but very  weak.   Bowels
moved without enema, although badly constipated the day
before.

                          II.
  This  case occurred in  the  person of the  author's
wife, in the month of July last (1843), at the time of the
then prevailing  epidemic catarrhal  fever or influenza.
Of  a sudden,  one morning, she was  attacked with  the
most violent and distressing symptoms of croup.   Very
soon the inflammation and the spasm became so great that
it was impossible to utter even a whisper.  The author be.
ing absent from home at the time, she, fortunately having 
264
nYDROPATHT ; OR,
  presence of mind, immediately wrote  with a pencil, for
  her attendant to dash upon  the  throat and chest, ice wa-
  ter.   This was continued until relief was given.  This
  was perseveringly followed by cold bandages and rubbing
  the extremities.  In the course of about three hours, on
  the author's return, she was comparatively comfortable and
  out of danger.  Had  (he ordinary  treatment, bleeding
  from the arm,  or neck, to fainting, or the application of
  leeches, or blisters, purgatives or the warm bath, been re-
 sorted to, with the most favorable effects of those reme-
 dies, it is not at all reasonable to suppose that  the  result
 could  have been so favorable as it was  in this case.  In
 speaking of spasmodic closure of the larynx. Dr.  Elliot-
 son says,  " I have seen  several cases  of persons, who
 have been  seized with a  sudden difficulty of breathing,
 when  they were supposed  to have only  a common sore
 throat; some of whom have died in three or  four  hours
 and some in a minute."

                          III.
   This case was that  of a highly  respectable lady of
 this city,  formerly of a feeble constitution, but for the last
 four or five years health constantly improving.  Her con-
 stitution seemed to undergo a most remarkable change for
 the better, in consequence of having discontinued the use
 of tea, coffee, and flesh meat.  In short, becoming, as her
 flesh-eating friends said, " a thorough Grahamite."   The
 author being honored as her medical  adviser in this her
 first period of child-bearing, she was  recommended to
 continue perseveringly and regularly her baths, and to take
daily exercise in the open air when practicable, but in a 
                  THE WATER-CURE.              265
large well-ventilated room when the weather or other cir-
cumstances  would  not admit of going out,  as much as
could be borne without bringing on too great fatigue.  At
times it was necessary to quiet somewhat severe neural-
gic  pains  through the abdomen by the application of
warming bandages.  The baths and exercise were con-
tinued  up  to the full time, not excepting  even the day of
accouchment.  The patient  met her  labor  with truly
praiseworthy courage and firmness.  Daily, she was able
to be  up, walk  about, and assist, in performing ablutions
and  bathing.  On the sixth day after confinement, having
gradually increased the amount of exercise, by permission
of the author, she, of a pleasant morning, accompanied
her  husband on a walk of more than three miles without
suffering  inconvenience.  Stopping awhile upon the Bat-
tery, she was refreshed  by  a gentle  breeze from  the
water.  In reference to this remarkable  case, it is proper
to  state,  that this  exemplary and worthy  woman has
taken  a laudable interest  in physiological and hygienic
studies, and has been careful to live in a manner accord-
ingly.   She lived hydropathically—was treated hydropath-
ically ; and,  as a consequence, a comparative freedom from
pain and suffering, was the true and natural hydropathic re-
sult.


      Hydropathic Laconics.  By Dr. Ed. Johnson.
   1. At all times and seasons hydropathy may be practised
with the  most certain advantage; but Autumn, Winter,
and Spring are the best seasons for carrying out the treat-
 ment most effectively.
            12 
266
HYDROPATHY ; OR,
  2. It is general disorder which first produces local dis-
ease—and  it is therefore  the  restoration of the general
health which must constitute the first step towards the re-
moval of local disease.
  3. In  treating chronic diseases,  the effect of the hy-
dropathic method is an  exaltation of the general health
and strength.
  4. " Many persons of great experience practise well
empirically (this is Priessnitz's case) without much brains
or reasoning ; but he who begins upon principle, and then
profits by experience, must become a much  more skilful
practitioner."—Billing's First Principles of Medicine.
  5. The cure of all diseases must be effected by thepow-
ers  of the living system.   Remedies  are merely to be em-
ployed with the  view  of placing the body under the most
favorable circumstances for resisting disease."—Dr. G.
Gregory's Theory and  Practice of Medicine.
  6. Pregnancy is no obstacle  to the hydropathic  treat-
ment ; on  the contrary, by  improving the  health and
strength, a modified employment of this treatment facili-
tates parturition, diminishes the severity and danger  of
labor, and prevents any great degree of subsequent weak.
ness, and diseases consequent upon that weakness.  Mrs.
Priessnitz, a small delicate woman, invariably practises
it both immediately before and immediately after confine-
ment, and occasionally during the  whole term of gesta-
tion.
  7. " In how few cases of indigestion is the stomach if.
self first diseased, though dyspepsia is a most convenient
word, and the poor stomach is blamed for faults not its
own!"—Dr. Billing's  First Principles of Medicine.   The
fault consists in debility of the nervous system. 
THE  WATER-CURE.               267
  8. In some forms of disease enough of the hydropathic
remedy may be carried out at the patient's own house-
but in those cases which  require the fidl treatment, with
all its various adjuncts, it can only be carried out safely
and successfully in the  vicinity  of a hydropathic estab-
lishment, where the patient is constantly under the eye of
the practitioner.
  9. There  can  be no danger in going into a cold bath
while perspiring—first, because it has been practised by
Priessnitz on thousands of patients, for twenty years, and
no single instance of mischief has been ever observed  to
arise from it.  Secondly, it has  been the habitual custom
of the Russians since time immemorial, and no danger has
been observed to  attend it.  Thirdly, the lower classes of
society are constantly exposed to be drenched to the skin,
almost  daily,  during  the rainy months, while  they are
covered with perspiration, arising from their several out-
of-doors employment, and  no evil  has been observed  to ac-
crue from it;  on  the contrary, they suffer less from disease
than the classes above  them.
  10. " The physician, carrying his knowledge into the
streets and highways of life, has labored assiduously (the
lancet in one hand and quinine in the other) to arrest decay
when hurrying forward with a too fatal precipitancy."—i
Dr.  Gregory.
  " The lancet  in  one hand," says Dr. Gregory,  " and
quinine in the other"—these being the two great engines
of relief in acute and chronic diseases—-the lancet to lower
the pulse in acute diseases, and quinine  to  strengthen the
system in  chronic.  Both these  effects are produced by
the right application of the hydropathic treatment.  The
continued application of cold in acute diseases, as by  the 
268               HYDROPATHY J  OR,

cold bath or wet blanket or sheet, for several hours, will
lessen and lower the pulse even to a thread.   While  the oc-
casional use of the bath, accompanied by exercise, expo-
sure to the air, simple diet, early hours, and all the other
adjuncts of the treatment, will strengthen and harden the
system to  a degree  infinitely beyond that which can be
obtained by any other means whatever.   Thus it supplies
the place of the two grand engines of the  old practice—
viz : quinine and the lancet.
   11. Physical man is an impressible mass  of  matter  des-
tined to perform certain actions (both internal and external)
in obedience to the impressions made upon him by certain
impressing causes.  When the impressing causes are right,
the impressions will be right, and the actions performed in
obedience to those impressions, right also.   This is health.
When  the impressing  causes are wrong, the impressions will
be wrong, and the actions resulting from those  impressions,
wrong also.  This is  disease.
   To  substitute right impressing causes for wrong  ones,
therefore, is to substitute right impressions for wrong  ones,
and this is to substitute right actions for wrong ones—and
this is to remove the causes of disease.
   When wrong impressing causes have been removed, and
right ones substituted, there is within the  living body a re-
storative or curative principle, which will remove the wrong
impressions  made  by the wrong impressing causes.   To
remove wrong impressing causes, therefore,  and to substi-
tute right ones, is to cure disease.  But disease can never
be cured while the wrong impressing causes which produced
it are suffered to continue to operate.
   12. A satisfactory explanation of the essential nature or 
THE WATER-CURE.
269
proximate  cause of a common cold has  never been  given.
Liebig's theory of a mutual and equal resistance between
the vital force and destructive force of oxygen explains it
clearly.  What are  the symptoms of an ordinary  cold 1
Defluxion from the nose—sore throat—hoarseness—cough
—sneezing—and a sense of soreness over the whole surface
of the body.   What are the parts affected by these symp-
toms?  The schneiderian membrane lining the  nose—the
parts of the throat near the root of the tongue—the air pas-
sages leading to the lungs—and the skin.  Why are these
parts, in especial, first affected, when a man has taken cold,
in preference  to others ?   Because these are the parts of
the body with which the oxygen of the air must necessarily
come in contact before  it can possibly enter the body so as
to reach the internal organs.  It happens thus :  a continued
stream of cold air, or continued exposure to wet, while the
body is  inactive—or  excessive fatigue, or any  other debili-
tating cause—first lowers the tone and diminishes the re-
sistance  of the vital force throughout the whole body, thus
giving a preponderance to the action of oxygen over the re-
sistance offered by the vital force.  And as the oxygen must
first come in contact with the skin, nostrils, throat, and air
passages leading to the lungs, before it can reach the inter-
nal organs, (these being the inlets by which alone it can gain
admission within the citadel), these are, therefore, precisely
the parts on which, if Liebig's theory be true, its destructive
agency  ought first to be exerted ; and these are the parts
on  which it is first  exerted—and inflammation of these
parts ought to be the first manifestation of an undue intensity
in the action of oxygen; and inflammation of these parts
is the first manifestation of that undue intensity. 
270
HYDROPATHY ;  OR,
   If the effect of the debilitating causes  in lessening the
resistance of the vital force have not been very great, then
the vis medicatrix naturae, or restorative principle, will re-
store  the equilibrium  between the resisting energy of the
vital force and the destructive influence of oxygen, and thus
remedy the mischief,  in a few days.   But if the vital  force
have been greatly depressed, then  the destructive agency of
oxygen will  be  further manifested in the  more  internal
organs, and  fever, rheumatism, or  inflammation of some
deep-seated organ will be the consequence, before the restora-
tive principle has had time  to perform its task of restoring
the equilibrium.   Nothing can more clearly illustrate Lie-
big's theory of disease than the phenomena of a common
cold.
   13. Nothing can  be more self-evidently true than that
the artificial is only another term for unnatural, since every-
thing which is not artificial must necessarily be  natural,
and everything which is not  natural  must necessarily  be
artificial.   There is  no mean power between  art and na-
ture.   Whatever does not result from the one  must  result
from the other.  It is allowed on all hands that the life of
every highly cultivated society is highly  artificial.   It is
therefore unnatural.   But can that  which  is unnatural be
possibly proper ?  Can art  be considered  a  better  judge
of that which is  fittest for man's  welfare than  nature ?
And is not the word nature, when  thus used, obviously only
another term for  God  himself?   All  the  contrivances of
art are the result  of  human ingenuity.  The contrivances
of nature are the result of divine wisdom.
   Those several contrivances which  we call comforts, and
with which, in our polished condition, we surround our- 
                   THE  WATER-CURE.               271

selves, are the inventions and adaptations  of human in-
genuity, by which  we administer,  in an undue degree,  to
sensual enjoyment.   What wonder  they entail upon us dis-
ease and premature death !  The influence of the weather,
and all those various circumstances and impressions  to
which man is exposed in his  primitive condition, are the
institutions and adaptations of divine wisdom.  What won-
der that we should find them necessary to our  health and
well-being !  What  wonder that we should find it impossi-
ble to get rid of our diseases while  we obstinately persevere
in preferring the ordinances and contrivances of art to the
manifest ordinances  and contrivances of God himself!
   But are we not to exercise and use the ingenuity where-
with  God has endowed us 1  Certainly—to use, but not  to
abuse it.  But how do we know that we are abusing God's
gift of ingenuity or reason when  we  surround  ourselves
with  all those appliances of pleasurable sensation which we
•call comforts, but which we  ought  to call  luxurious indul-
gences ?  I answer : by  the  punishment of diseases and
premature death, of  which the evidence of our senses gives
us daily proof.  We know that they are wrong by the evil
consequences which follow them.   How do  we know that
intemperance is wrong ?   By  the evil consequences which
follow it.   How do we know  that  poisons are injurious to
the health 1  By the evil  consequences which are observed
to follow them. How do we know that it is wrong to indulge
in the use of alcohol ?   By the evil  consequences which
follow its use.  How then do  we  know that the domestic
habits of a highly cultivated people are injurious?   As in
the former instances, by the evil consequences which are
observed  to  follow  them—by the mulUtudinous diseases 
272
HYDROPATHY J OB,
and premature deaths which are everywhere  observed  to
be inseparable from a highly-cultivated condition of society,
from which diseases and from which premature  deaths  a
primitive condition of society is comparatively  free.*  Are
there no other unwholesome and unnatural stimulants to
the nervous system besides  those of alcohol, wine, and beer?
Thousands and tens of thousands.  All kinds of artificial
stimulants do not elicit those peculiar phenomena called in-
toxication, but all operate injuriously upon the health—they
all first excite, and finally  exhaust,  the nervous system.
They all entail upon us the retribute plague of number-
less diseases and premature  death.  It is  the  punishment
which God has awarded to  the presuming  pride of art, or
the abuse of human reason.  God did not  create  man for
the purpose of getting money,  nor of surrounding himself
with all those  multiform appliances  of so-called comfort
which none  but the rich can purchase; and  to prove that he
did not, he  has determined that none  shall purchase them
without  purchasing  disease  and decrepitude  along  with
them.
  14. Hydropathy does but assert the supremacy of God.
  15. Hydropathy, when taken with alt its adjuncts, is an
artificial primitive condition  to which the sick  man tempo-
rarily submits himself for  a temporary purpose, viz., that
of giving nature, assisted by art, a fair opportunity of heal-
ing his diseases.
   16.  But  water, when used by the hydropathic physician
as a remedy for disease, is a natural influence  intensi-
fied BY ART.
* One half of civilized mankind die before ths age of eight years. 
THE WATER-CURE.
273
   17.  Total abstinence from every species of stimulating
beverage is absolutely necessary to the success of the treat-
ment.
   18.  Drinking  large  quantities  of  water, without some
specific object,  (as,  for instance, relaxing the bowels,) is
productive  of no  intelligible good,  and  proves injurious
by distending the  stomach, and over-stimulating the kid*
neys.
   19.  Every person in England who is cured of his disease
by the hydropathic treatment, owes a large debt of gratitude
to Captain Claridge,  whose indefatigable exertions and in*
domitable courage, in spite of all opposition, have succeeded
in planting hydropathy in this country—a soil in  which,
protected  by humanity, and watered and pruned by science,
it cannot fail to thrive, and grow, and flourish—a blessing to
the people.
   20.  Of Dr. Billing's work, Dr. James Johnson, in his
Medico-Chirurgical Review, thus speaks: " We know of no
book  which contains, within the  same space,  so much
valuable information ;  the result, not  of fanciful  theory,
nor of idle hypothesis, but of close, persevering, clinical ob-
servation, accompanied with much soundness of judgment and
extraordinary clinical tact."
12* 
 
APPENDIX,
               Animal and Vegetable  Diet.
   ■*' For some years  past," says  Dr.  C.  A. Lee,  in  his
valuable edition of " Pereira on Food and Diet," " there has
been a controversy going on in relation to the best dietaries
for children, and  some experiments have been tried, in order
to ascertain, if possible, whether, as a general rule, animal
or vegetable food is best adapted for their health and nourish-
ment.   The vegetable-eaters  claim  that the results are on
their side of the  question, while the supporters of animal
food are quite as positive that  they have the best of the ar-
gument."
   This  " controversy," if such it may  be called, relates not
less to adults than to children.   The question, however, is
not " whether as  a general rule animal or vegetable food is
best," but whether  a  mixed diet of animal and vegetable
food, or an exclusive diet of vegetable  food, is best adapted
to the  nature of man ;  or, in other terms, " What is the
natural  dietetic character of  man ?"
   At another page of the same work, Dr. Lee says, " Many
facts could be adduced to prove that  an exclusive diet of
animal flesh is  amply sufficient for healthy nutrition."  It
will not be denied but that men may, with other favorabU 
276
APPENDIX.
circumstances, live upon a diet of animal food, and live in
what is commonly called  good health; and, as the writer
justly observes, many facts could be cited to show that  this
is the case.   But this is only a part of the whole truth in the
matter.
  The same  can be  said, with  truth, of  vegetable food,
and  also of a mixed  diet of  the two.   And this all merely
proves that animal man, like other animals, whatever  may
be the natural dietetic character, can be trained to subsist
upon that kind of diet which is not the most natural, or the
best adapted in all respects to his  nature.
  This question relates to what is better known, popularly,
as Grahamism, so called partly in honor, and in part, sneer-
ingly, of  Sylvester  Graham,  the author  of a  large work
entitled " Lectures on  the  Science of Human Life,"  and
public lecturer upon that subject.  And in reference to  this
question,  it  may be  said,  Grahamism is in reality a thing
different from what it is often imagined to be.   It is  with
the many, spoken of as relating merely to anti-flesh eating.
But this is only one item of the many in the dietetic recom-
mendations   of  Mr.  Graham;  nor  yet   that  the  most
important.  His teachings  take  in  the  whole range of
the great  and important subject of Human Life—man not
merely as  an  animal, as  some   charge  upon  him—
but man in his whole nature and relations, animal, intellec-
tual,  and moral.    Of  the  merits of  Mr.  Graham's
work, and   of  the  tendency  of  his    teachings,   Dr.
Bell, of Philadelphia, says :   " Whatever  may be the  esti-
mate formed by different individuals of some of the  doc-
trines advanced in these lectures, there is none, we are  per-
suaded, who will not derive gratification  and instruction 
APPENDIX.
277
from an attentive perusal of them.   The physiological view a
they contain are, in general, correct, and expressed with
perfect  clearness.   Even those particulars, in which  the
author differs from those of our leading physiologists, present
very forcible claims to our attention, from the ingenious
manner in which they are defended and enforced, while the
hygienic precepts peculiar to Mr. Graham, false and  ridi-
culous as they may appear to those who have not given suf-
ficient attention to the subject, have this  important recom-
mendation, that, in any  instance in  which they may be fol-
lowed out in practice, even to their fullest extent, they can-
not fail  of  being productive of an  increased vigor of the
moral and physical powers of the constitution."
  " The bold originality of thought which pervades the lec-
tures, and  their perfect  freedom  from  those errors into
which most writers who  treat on the same subject have fall-
en, by following too implicitly the  dogmas of their prede-
cessors, constitute one of their chief recommendations."—
[Bell's  Select  Medical  Library and Eclectic  Journal of
Medical Science.]
  Over against this testimony of Dr. Bell, take the follow-
ing statement from an account of a fever among the students
of Lane Seminary, Cincinnati,  Ohio.  It is given in a  late
number of the  Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery,
by  Dr. Carroll,  of that city.   He says in the account,
" The mode of living has, no doubt, much  to do with the
origin of typhoid fever: yet I have known  it to originate
in very cleanly families, but seldom among those who lived
well as to diet, and who were in the habit of eating animal
food.   This may,  however, more  frequently occur than I
am aware of.   The only fatal cases among the students at 
278
APPENDIX.
 Lane Seminary took place among those who had for a con-
 siderable time abstained from animal food, and all who were
 Grahamites had the fever."
   To this might be added a statement which appeared in an
 article in  the  Boston Medical and  Surgical Journal, Feb.
 24,  1836, in  which  it was  stated that Grahamism,  or the
 tendency of the principles taught by Mr. Graham, is  to un-
 dermine the constitution and to break down the physiologi-
 cal and psychological powers of the human body—to induce
 insanity and destroy life.   And  frequently have similar
 statements been  made, and by high authority, which, in
 themselves,  would go to show, that  modern  philosophers
 have had the rare sagacity and wisdom to discover that ab-
 stinence from animal food leads to insanity and other most
 serious consequences.
   As to what  may take place  in connexion with abstain-
 ing  from animal  food,  Mr.  Graham's  own  words may be
 quoted :
   " I do not affirm that the mere abstinence from animal
 food and living on vegetable food exclusively, without any
 regard to a proper regimen, will better enable our bodies to
 withstand the action of foreign morbific  causes, than a
mixed diet,  under good regulations.   I continually  insist
«pon it, and wish  it to be distinctly remembered, that  vege*
table food can  be  made incomparably more pernicious than
plain, simple  animal  food in  temperate quantities.   It is
infinitely better to subsist on a mixed diet of vegetable and
animal food under a good general  regimen, than to live
wholly on vegetable food, badly selected, viciously prepared,
and eaten in inordinate quantities, while, at the same time,
we live in the violation of almost every other correct rule of 
APPENDIX;
279
health.   Be it remembered, therefore, that in all the com-
parisons which I  draw between  the effects of animal  and
Vegetable food on the human body, I  always proceed upon
the condition that all other  things are precisely equal.  It
is indubitably true that individuals living on poor and scanty
Vegetable food, in filthy and miserable hovels,—-indulging
habitually in the use of tobacco,  opium, ardent spirit, and
the numerous other intoxicating and stimulating substances
used by human beings, would be far more likely to be mor.
bidly affected by pestilential causes,  than those who, sur*
rounded by comforts, with cleanly and well-regulated habits,
subsist temperately on a mixed diet of vegetable and animal
food.  But the question  is,—»would the same individual, or
any number of individuals, whose habits and circumstances
are in all other respects correct,  be better able  to resist the
action  of foreign  morbific causes,  when subsisting ex.
clusively  on a well-chosen and well-regulated  vegetable
diet, than when subsisting on a mixed diet of vegetable and
animal  food ?  To this  question  I reply, unhesitatingly,
that both physiological science and facts prove that the pure
vegetable diet is  the safest and the best ; because it is best
adapted to the organization and  to the physiological proper-
ties and powers  of the human  body."
  Whatever may be the theories or opinions of men con-
cerning this important question, whether Grahamism does
in  reality tend  to  induce  in  the human body, disease,
insanity and death, let facts decide—"hard telling facts."
  In the year 1832,  at the time  when the cholera was daily
expected  in this country, and  when as a natural conse-
quence there would be much feeling upon  the subject, and
much inquiry as to the best modes of living, in order to escape 
280
APPENDIX-
the ravages of this  frightful disease,  in  accordance with
European opinions it was very generally believed, that what
is  called a generous  diet,  embracing a large  proportion of
flesh meat, flesh soups, &c with the temperate or occasion-
al  use  of wine, or brandy and water  and the like,  and a
strict abstinence from most vegetables and fruits, would be
the best and surest means  to escape an attack of that awful
disease.   It was attempted to  be shown  that the cholera
" originated  and raged most fatally among the Hindoos, who
subsisted upon rice, and were the most temperate people in
the world."  By a medical writer in a New York  paper
(the Evening Post), it was stated that the occasional use
of stimuli, in the form of  generous wine or brandy,  or gin
and water, was found decidedly beneficial during the preva-
lence of the cholera at Constantinople ;—that this epidemic
broke out and raged with great violence among the Jews at
Smyrna, during one of their religious fasts, and had proved
peculiarly fatal among that class of people  generally, in
Asia and Europe, whose diet  was  particularly meagre and
abstemious."
   At this time  the subject of  vegetable diet was the
topic  of frequent remark  and  conversation in  the city of
New York,  in consequence of a lecture upon  the  cholera,
delivered by Mr. Graham,  in which  it was contended that
an abstinence from flesh meat and flesh soups, and from all
alcoholic  and narcotic liquors and  substances, and from
every kind  of purely stimulating  substances,  and  the ob-
servance of a correct general regimen in regard to sleeping,
bathing, clothing,  exercise, the indulgence of the natural
passions,  appetites, &c &c was  the surest means  of es-
caping an attack.  The following extract is taken from the 
APPENDIX.
281
 lecture of Mr. G., as delivered before the cholera had made
 its appearance in this country ;  and the advice it contains
 is equally safe  in any and every case where persons wish
 to change from a worse to a better diet:
  " Were the cholera already here,  and even now commit-
 ting its ravages in the city, my advice would be, in some
 respects,  different.   I should  say to you, beware of great
 and  sudden changes under the influence of panic ; beware
 of extremes !  If you have eaten flesh freely up to this hour,
 I would not say, abandon it totally at once ! but diminish
 its quantity ; let its quality be good, and let it be plainly and
 simply prepared, and eaten without  made gravies, or much
 seasoning, and not more  than once  a  day.   If  you have
 used tobacco freely up to this hour, and cannot forsake it at
 once, without suffering greatly  from its absence, diminish
 your quantity as fast as you can, prudently,  and  get clear
 of it entirely.  Tobacco has been said to be a good preven-
 tive, but such a notion is  destitute of all truth.   Cleanse
 yourselves, therefore, from this  abominable and deleteri-
 ous narcotic !  In like manner, also, get rid of your tea
 and  coffee ;  in moderate quantities they are  decidedly
 pernicious—in excesses, they will  powerfully predispose
 to cholera, and every other disease.  If you have drank
 distilled or fermented liquors freely up  to this  hour, and
 cannot abandon them totally at  once, without prostrating
 the organic  functions of  your system, your condition is
an unhappy one.   If you  go  on and do not perish, your
escape will be almost a miracle. It cannot be more dan.
gerous to  stop short, than it is to go on in such a habit,
especially if your regimen in other respects be wise and
 well ordered, being regular in your meals, temperate  in 
282
APPENDIX.
your quantities, and  gradually diminishing your propor-
tion of animal food and other objectionable articles ; and
getting down to a vegetable  and water level as soon as
you prudently can, and then pursuing the system I have
recommended in my present lecture."
  The articles which appeared in various papers advoca-
ting a different course from that recommended by Mr. Gra-
ham, whether so intended or not.  were generally received
as designed to bear against those dietetic doctrines. The cry
was raised and reiterated,  " If the cholera comes here, all
the Grahamites will certainly die with it."
  After the appearance of the cholera in this country, the
lecture of Mr. Graham was repeated at different times  and
to different audiences.  And  the consequence was, that in
the city of New York, as well as elsewhere, a very consid-
erable number of individuals strictly followed out  the advice
of  Mr. G.  And it is an  important fact,  that in the  city
of New York, among the numbers that perished by this disease,
there was not a single Grahamite to be found--not one;—
and among this  class, the city over, there were but two or
three cases of slight attack, and in each of those there  had
been manifest imprudence.
  It was  the testimony of Dr. Tappan, who superintended
the Park Hospital  of  New York, that out of twelve  house
pupils (students of medicine and young physicians,) who
assisted him in  the hospital  during the  cholera, that  Mr.
Sharrock, who had lived more than a year very strictly on
a simple vegetable diet, was  the only one who escaped an
attack more or less violent.
  It was  also the statement of Dr. D. M. Reese, who prac-
tised much, and with success, among the cholera, that he 
APPENDIX.
283
found  that the disease  was making  its greatest  ravages
among those  who were  great flesh-eaters ;—and that con-
sequently himself and family  abstained  from flesh  meat,
using a milk and vegetable diet while the cholera prevailed,
without having anything  of the disease—except in  one
instance, where Mrs. Reese partook of flesh meat, and as  a
consequence, in a few hours after, was taken with a diar-
rhcea.   He also stated that he advised all his friends to ab-
stain from  flesh, and that all who acted accordingly, wholly
escaped.
   After the time of the cholera,  Mr.  Graham was  inform-
ed by Dr. D. F. Coudie, principal physician to one of the
cholera hospitals in Philadelphia,  that " it was now satisfac-
torily ascertained, that  one of the  principal predisposing
causes of  the  cholera in the Arch-street Prison of  Phila-
delphia, where, for a short time, it committed such shocking
ravages, was the precautionary measure of the inspectors,
in raising the diet of the prisoners, by an increase of flesh,
flesh soup and porter."
  Nor are such astounding facts—facts which cannot possi-
bly be referred  to any other cause than the use of a good se-
lection of vegetable diet, with a correct general regimen—
to be looked for only in  the epidemic cholera.   The  world
is full of such  testimony, if we will but see and appreciate
it; and  which most  conclusively proves,  that under all
circumstances and in all climates, as a permanent rule,  a
good selection of vegetable food,  other circumstances being
equal, is always and in every respect best adapted  to man,
whether in a state of health or disease.
  The biographer of Howard, the philanthropist, says, " In
the period of fifteen or sixteen years,  he travelled between 
284
APPENDIX.
fifty and sixty thousand miles, for the sole purpose of re-
lieving the distress of the most  wretched of the human
race.   The fatigues, the dangers, the privations he  under-
went 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 travelled several nights and
days in succession, without stopping, over  roads almost im-
passable, in weather the most inclement, with accommoda-
tions the meanest  and most wretched.  Summer and win-
ter, heat  and cold, rain and  snow, in  all  their  extremes,
failed alike, to stay him for a moment in his course ; whilst
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 him-
self; visiting the  foulest  dungeons,  filled with malignant
infection,—spending  forty days in  a  filthy  and infected
lazaretto,—plunging into military encampments where the
plague  was committing its  most  horrible ravages ; and visit-
ing where none of his conductors dared to accompany him."
Probably no human being that  ever  lived, has been more
exposed to disease and pestilence in the  worst of forms than
Howard, and through  the whole of his  philanthropic career
he lived upon a rigidly abstemious  vegetable diet, at  the
same time carefully avoiding wine and alcoholic drinks of
every form.   And  near the close of  his life, after his vast
amount of experience and observation, he makes  the  fol-
lowing  record in  his  diary,   " I am firmly persuaded as to
the health of our bodies, that herbs  and fruits will sustain
nature in  every respect far beyond the  best flesh."
   Notwithstanding the abundance  of facts of a similar
kind that might be quoted in numbers sufficient to fill a 
APPENDIX.
285
volume, and the fact that by  far the larger portion of the
whole family of man have subsisted upon a vegetable diet,
or at most using only so small a portion of animal food, as
not to be appreciable, yet strange to say, we are gravely told,
and by high authority, that the habitual use of flesh meat
is necessary to preserve health, and that abstinence from
it leads to insanity, disease, and death.   " A blind man
desires to  show  the  way,"   and  all  the  ridicule,
the sneers, gibes and witticisms, which  have been made
upon this Grahamic philosophy, afford only another  in-
stance in the catalogue, that  great improvements are des-
tined first to be rejected as grievous and dangerous inno-
vations upon society.    And in this respect the conduct of
man  affords a  complete  exemplification of the perfect
truth of the scripture apothegm, " a fool is wiser in his own
conceit than seven men that can render a reason."
   It would be interesting to  enter at  large into the seve-
ral arguments in proof that man is not naturally omnivo-
rous, did the limits of this  work permit.   But an assertion
may be made, and like other  mere assertions, it may pass
for an opinion.  It is  this, if comparative anatomy, physi-
ology, and the experience of mankind, can be brought to
prove any thing in  reference to this question, they show
most conclusively that man is not naturally a flesh-eating
animal, that the abstaining from it does not in any  way
tend to induce insanity or disease,  but, on the contrary,
that a good selection  of vegetable food with an entire ab-
stinence ftom flesh-meat renders  the  human body better
able to resist morbific and pestilential causes and agents
of every nameable kind and under all  circumstances.
   The vegetable diet is universally  spoken of by those 
286
APPENDIX.
 who oppose it as being " a meagre diet,"  " a low diet,"
 "a starving diet," &c; and there have been cases of sick-
 ness where physicians and others  have said that the low
 diet was the cause :  and there have been cases  of death
 in this city and elsewhere, in  which  it has been boldly
 declared by those who could  easily have known better,
 that starvation was the cause of such death.  It  is not to
 be  denied that there may have been cases where individ-
 uals have  been  so  inconsistent as  to restrict them-
 selves  to an insufficient amount  of food.  But  such
 cases  are the   exceptions,  and not  the   rule,   and
 so exceedingly rare that it would  be wholly unnecessary
 to notice them were it not for  the fact that the charge is
 so often made.   With Mr. Graham, as with all  teachers
 upon  diet of any note, bread  in   its various forms
 constitutes the most important article of food ;  so much
 so, that it is emphatically the " staff of life."   According
 to chemical analysis, strange as it may appear  to those
who are unacquainted with the fact, the various kinds of
 flesh-meat .average but about thirty-five per cent,  of nutri-
tious matter, while wheat, rice, and several  kinds of peas,
beans, &c. contain  from eighty to ninety-five  per cent.,
 and even the common potatoe contains nearly thirty per
 cent, of nutritious matter.  So that if any  reliance is to
be placed upon chemical science, it is not true that the ve-
getable  diet is  a low  and meagre diet  as asserted.  A
pound of good wheaten bread contains considerably more
than double the amount of actual nutriment that  a pound
of average flesh-meat does, a pound of rice contains more
nutriment than two and a half pounds of flesh.  Nor does this
 reasoning depend upon chemical analysis only, for its sup- 
APPENDIX.
287
port.  The Patagonians, according to the Rev. Mr. Armes,
who went as a missionary among that people, "subsist almost
entirely upon the guanaco, which they take in the chase.
They will often, in their indolence, suffer their provisions
to run very  low, and, for two or three days,  subsist on
very  little ;  and then, when urged  by hunger, they will
mount their horses and go out in pursuit of fresh supplies;
and when they return with their game, it  is a  very  com-
mon thing for a single Patagonian to consume from fifteen
to twenty pounds of flesh in the course of  a day—indeed,
I have frequently seen a single man, after two or three
days' severe abstemiousness, consume at one meal, in the
course of three hours, the half of a guanaco, which would
weigh from fifteen to twenty pounds.  This flesh was gene-
rally eaten very slightly cooked."
   The Canadian  boatmen and others, who have been en.
gaged in the American North-Western Fur Company, we
are informed on good authority, receive and consume  re-
gularly, when they have no other food, eight  pounds of
clear flesh a day, for every man, or ten pounds if it con-
tains any bone.
   And various similar well-authenticated accounts of the
voraciousness of flesh-eaters and flesh-eating tribes might
be quoted.   On the other hand,  we know that in different
parts of the world, in cold climates as  well as in hot, there
are numerous examples where but a small allowance of ve-
getable food is found sufficient to sustain the body, and that
those who thus live, are often remarkable  for their great
muscular power and ability  to endure fatigue and exposure
to cold.  We have it from good  authority, that,  among the
exiles of Siberia, "none endure the severities of the climate 
288                  APPENDIX.

better than  those who have been accustomed all their lives
to a vegetable diet," and " that in some of the coldest por-
tions of the Russian Empire the people subsist  on coarse
vegetable food, and are  exceedingly hardy and vigorous."
  The Greek boatmen,  and the porters of Smyrna, and la-
borers of various countries, might be  quoted as examples,
showing that a vegetable diet  is  highly favorable to the de-
velopment   of an almost  incredible degree  of muscular
power and endurance, some of whom  are capable of carry-
ing upon their backs very nearly one thousand pounds, and
of  laboring  from  twelve  to  sixteen  hours per day habit-
ually, and  yet eat daily but  about one pound of coarse
bread, or rice, or some other  kind  of farinaceous  food,
with a bunch of raisins, figs, or something of the like
  In fact, if we carefully examine, we shall find  it a uni-
versal rule, to which  there are no real  exceptions, that
among all classes of  men where vegetable food of proper
kind and quantity is used, other  circumstances being equal,
more ability to endure labor and fatigue of every kind  is
the result;  at once showing that the vegetable diet is not a
low or meagre diet, but the reverse.
  The inhabitants of India and  Hindostan are often  cited
by  the advocates of flesh-eating, as being highly susceptible
to disease, and also as being feeble, effeminate, and destitute
of enterprise, as a  proof against the exclusive use of vege-
table food.  But it should always be remembered that all of
the circumstances and habits of any people should be fairly
canvassed before any  safe conclusion can be drawn.   It
would be difficult to  describe a state of things which would
be  more powerful to render a people sickly, effeminate, and
short-lived,  than  is the case  with  the inhabitants of those 
APPENDIX.
289
 countries mentioned, excepting only their use of vegetable
 food. And as we know the very reverse to be true in other
 cases, we should look farther for a true cause. They use to
 great excess various heating  stimulants with their food.
 Arrack, a destructive alcoholic drink, is freely  used by a
. great portion of the natives.  " Almost every man, woman,
 and child," says a late writer," habitually, and often to a very
 great excess, chews a cud  composed  of opium, cheenam,
 or lime and betel-nut, wrapped up in  a sera leaf of acrid
 and  pungent qualities."   The excessive use of tobacco  is
 also  almost universal with them.  And when we add to all
 this, the fact, that for many hundreds of years all their civil,
 political, social, and religious usages and habits have been
 such as are directly calculated to crush all improvement
 and  enterprise, we have a complication of circumstances
 which could not fail of bringing about the most unfavora-
 ble results, even with the best possible diet.
    Since commencing this article, we notice in a work
 entitled " Medical and Physiological  Commentaries," by
 Professor  Paine  of New-York, in remarks upon **Fast-
 ing  in reference to Humoralism,"  two interesting cases
 by the author of that work, showing at least, that starva-
 tion is not always the necessary  result of a vegetable diet.
 He  says, " we ourselves had  a patient, (Capt. Porter  of
 the  U. S.  A.,) who lived exclusively  upon arrow-root and
 water for  nearly a year.  The quantity taken daily  was
 less than a quart.   The diet was continued Unnecessarily,
 without our knowledge, for several months.  The patient
 had been affected with chronic gastritis, (inflammation of
 the  stomach,) which had reduced him excessively in flesh;
 but  he was always able to take a large amount of exer-
             13 
290
APPENDIX.
cise.  The effect of the diet was an immediate improve-
ment of health, and the patient  became a fleshy, robust
man under its use; and this was his reason for the long
adherence to it."
  In the  other case, he says, "We have a son, now ten
years of age, who subsisted exclusively upon human milk,
extracted  by the breast pump,  and whey, till two and a
half years old, and for  five years afterwards upon arrow-
root with  water, during which  time he consumed some
hundreds of pounds.  From having been the constant sub-
ject of very dangerous  disease, and existing in the state
of a skeleton, he  emerged  from that condition, and be-
came robust and fleshy, whilst living upon the arrow-root.
He is now very stout, eats a variety of vegetables, but has
had no animal food.
  It were amusing, at times, to witness the ignorance and
prejudice  existing in the minds of some against the vege-
table diet.  Just now we have, between two  popular pa-
pers in this city, a collision, in which, among other things,
the editor of one accuses the other of being a pupil of
Graham, and " would have all the world live upon bran-
bread and saw-dust."   So  it  was  in  the time of king
George III.  In a time of scarcity of provisions, a law
was passed that none of the wheat for the soldiers should
be  bolted.  By this  procedure  they thought themselves
much insulted, and, to remember  their king for  his great
cruelty, they gave to their new kind of bread the cogno-
men of " brown George."  They soon found, however, that
their new  bread not only grew palatable, but was in every
respect a  better article than their white bread.
  Not many years ago we often heard the wheat-meal 
APPENDIX.
291
bread ridiculed.   " As bad as Graham bread," was a com-
mon phrase with those who opposed it.  But lately people
are becoming wiser.   They find that there is such a thing
as having  an  article too good for the stomach.  So Ma-
gendie, the great physiologist, found that when he fed his
dogs upon  fine bread, in about seven weeks they  were in-
variably starved to death ; but  when he fed them upon
coarse military bread,  "pain  de  munition," they were
perfectly independent, and " were  found in no respect to
suffer ;" and this, too, notwithstanding it was depriving
them of their natural food—flesh.
   " Bulk,"  says Dr.  Beaumont, " is nearly as necessary
to  the  articles  of diet, as the nutrient principle.  They
should be so managed that one will be in proportion to the
other.   Too highly nutritive diet is  probably as fatal to
the prolongation of life and health, as that  which con-
tains an insufficient quantity of nourishment."
   Priessnitz never furnishes his table with any other but
brown bread.   Those who will have white bread furnish it
themselves.  The bread at Graefenberg, by accounts,  is
not what  it should  be  as  to  quality, but is probably at
least of as good quality as is generally used in civic life,
and has, furthermore, the advantage of not being in a too
concentrated form of nutriment, as is true of fine bread.
   Thus much only of the great abundance that  might be
 said for vegetable food.  Those who choose to examine
the subject at large will  find it one  of interest.   If they
choose to read the work of Mr. Graham carefully and un-
derstandingly, laying aside all prejudice, we are confident
they will agree with  Dr. Bell, that the following out fully
the hygienic precepts peculiar to Mr. Graham, " cannot 
292
APPENDIX.
fail in any instance of being productive of an increased
vigor of the moral and physical powers of the  constitu-
tion."  And those who are able thus  to follow out those
precepts, may be assured that the result will be so much
of a freedom from disease, that they will seldom  need the
water-cure, or cure of any kind ;—or rather, it may be said,
they will live in a state very nearly natural and primitive
—a perpetual state of the water-cure.
  We take the  liberty of quoting  from  Mr. Graham's
work the following excellent advice :
  " In conclusion of my dietetic  remarks,  it is important
that I should repeat that,  as a general rule,  no  one in
health should make great dietetic changes  very suddenly.
In some cases of disease, extremes are sometimes necessary,
and the physician may be obliged to cut a man off at once,
from a full diet, and put him on an  extremely abstemious
regimen. But, ordinarily, dietetic changes should take place
more gradually :—not that there is really so much danger
in changing suddenly from a worse to a better diet, as is
generally supposed;—but that the uncomfortable feelings
which at first attend such sudden changes, are such as are
almost certain to drive most people back to their old habits.
And therefore,  as Moses, under the direction of the Lord,
did not attempt to lead the Jews by the shortest way from
Egypt to the promised land, lest the difficulties of that way
should induce them to return to Egypt, so I, for the same
reasons, advise those  who are  disposed to  conform to the
principles which I have advanced, not  to act precipitately
and with more zeal than judgment; but carefully  to ex-
amine the way before them, and proceed intelligently  and
wisely.  And let none expect to find himself in an elysium 
APPENDIX.                  293
in a few days, or weeks, or months, after he enters upon his
experiment.  The effects of the course which I point  out,
are not like those of the way which embraces an abundance
of intoxicating substances, and other means of sensual ex-
citement and indulgence.  However wholesome a pure vege-
table diet may be, it causes no paroxysms of rapturous ex-
citement :—however delicious a draught of pure water may
be to an undepraved palate, it preduces no transports of de-
lirious  ecstacy.  But the real encouragements of the course
which  I recommend, are, in general terms, exemption from
disease and pain,—permanent and uniform health, and tem-
perate  enjoyment of the body,—a serene and contented  and
cheerful mind,—and clear and active intellectual and moral
powers : and it promises not only to  afford  us these bless-
ings in the early part and in the meridian of life, but to
continue them to  us unimpaired, at that period of our exis-
tence,  when, in the ordinary habits of  life, mankind expe-
rience  the rapid decline of all their powers, and the accu-
mulation of those infirmities of age, which render longevity
hardly desirable, and it promises to sustain us in the enjoy-
ment of these blessings, without any change in their quality,
and with but little abatement in their degree, almost to  the
last pulse of a protracted life,—and thus, in the most eminent
manner, fit us for the greatest usefulness in the present state
of being, and, as the mightiest auxiliary to the true religion
of the soul, qualify us for the greatest enjoyment  in  our
future  existence ;—and finally, it promises to compose  our
bodies  at  last,  in  the dreamless sleep  of death, without a
struggle—without pain.   No one, therefore,  ought  to con-
sider that  he has made even a fair beginning of this great
experiment, in less than one year's  time of honest  confor- 
291
APPENDIX.
mity to the principles which I teach ; and five years of such
conformity is  the  shortest  time that  can be considered a
fair trial of the system.  I say to all, then, act rationally
and wisely !   Honestly and diligently seek after truth, and
cordially embrace and  obey it  when you find  it:—and be
assured that ' Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasant-
ness, AND ALL HER PATHS ARE  PEACE !' "
 Observations, Hydropathic, Hygienic, Physiological, 6fC.
  The Macedonians considered warm water  to be  enerva-
ting.   Their women,  after accouchment, were washed  in
cold water.
  The Spartans  bathed their children, as soon as born, in
cold water ; and the  men of Sparta, both old and young,
bathed at all seasons of the year, to harden their flesh, and
strengthen their  bodies.
  " If there exists any thing in the world," said Hoffman, a
celebrated German physician, " that can be called a panacea,
(a universal remedy,)  it is pure water ;  first, because it will
disagree with nobody; secondly, because it is the best pre-
servative against disease ; thirdly, because it will cure agues
and chronic  complaints ; fourthly, because  it responds to
all indications."
  It is mentioned  in  the  life of  Captain Cook,  that
" one  circumstance peculiarly worthy of notice is the per-
fect and uninterrupted health of the inhabitants of New
Zealand.  In all the visits made to their towns, where old 
                      APPENDIX.                  295
and young, men and women, crowded about our voyagers,
they never observed a single person who appeared to have
any bodily complaint; nor among the numbers that were
seen naked, was once perceived the slightest  eruption of
the skin, or the least mark which indicated that such an
eruption had  formerly existed.   Another proof of the
health of these people,  is the facility  with  which the
wounds they at any time receive are healed.  In the man
who had been shot with the musket  ball  through the
fleshy part  of  his arm, the  wound seemed to  be  so well
digested, and in so fair a way of being perfectly healed,
that if Captain Cook had not known that no application
had been made to it, he declared that he should certainly
have inquired, with a very interested curiosity, after the
vulnerary herbs and surgical art of the country.   An ad-
ditional evidence of human nature being  untainted with
disease in New Zealand is, the great number  of old men
with whom it  abounds.  Many of them, by loss  of their
hair and teeth, appeared  to be very ancient, and yet none
of them were decrepit.   Although they were not equal to
the young in muscular strength, they did not come in the
least behind them  with  regard  to  cheerfulness and  vi-
vacity.   Water, as far as our  navigators could discover,
is the universal and only liquor for the New Zealanders.
It is greatly wished that  their happiness,  in  this respect,
may never be  destroyed by such a connexion with the
European  nations  as  shall introduce  that fondness  for
spirituous liquors  which has been so fatal to  the Indians
of North America."—Kippis's Life  of Captain Cook.
   Cold water  is the most proper beverage for men, as well
as animals—it cools, thins,  and clears the  blood—it keeps 
296
APPENDIX.
the stomach, head,  and nerves in order—makes  man tran-
quil, serene, and cheerful.—Faust.
   Water is the most ancient, so it is the best and most com-
mon  fluid for drink, and ought to  be esteemed  the. most
commodious for the promotion of life and health.—Parr.
   By the aids of temperance and hard work, I have worn
out two armies in two wars ; and probably could wear out
another before my period of old age arrives.  J eat no ani-
mal food, drink no wine or malt liquor, or spirits of any
kind.  I wear no flannel, and neither regard wind nor rain,
heat nor cold, when business is in the way.—Dr. Jackson.
   Soft water is the most suitable  drink for man, since fer-
mented liquors are rather the product of art than  of nature.
—Zimmerman.
   Food not too fat or gross, and water as a drink, render
our bodies the most firm and strong.—Boerhaave.
   No remedy can more effectually secure health and pre-
vent disease, than pure water.—Hoffman.
   Without all peradventure, water was the primitive,  origi-
nal beverage, and is the only simple fluid, fitted for diluting,
moistening,  and cooling—the ends of drink appointed by
nature.   Water alone is sufficient and effectual for all the
purposes of human wants and drinks.—Dr. Cheyne.
   If you would live long, live moderately, and avoid a stim-
ulating, heating diet;  such as a great deal  of flesh,  eggs,
chocolate, wine, and spices.—Hufeland.
   He that striveth for the mastery, is temperate in all
things.—The Apostle Paul.
  The people of Russia generally subsist for  the  most
part on coarse, black rye-bread and gariicks.  The bread
is  exceedingly coarse, sometimes containing almost whole 
APPENDIX.
297
 grains, and it is very dry and hard.  I have often hired
 men to labor  for me in Russia, which they would do from
 sixteen to eighteen hours, and find themselves, for eight
 cents per day (the sun shining there sometimes twenty
 hours  in the  day.)   They would  come on  board in  the
 morning with a piece of their black bread weighing about
 one pound, and a bunch of gariicks as big as one's fist.
 This was all  their nourishment for the day of sixteen or
 eighteen hours' labor.   They were astonishingly powerful
 and active ; and endured severe and protracted labor far
 beyond any of my men.  Some of these men were eighty
 and even ninety years old ; and yet these  old men would
 do  no more  work  than any of the middle-aged men  be-
 longing to my ship.  In handling and stowing away iron,
 and in  stowing away hemp  with  the jack-screw, they
 exhibited most astonishing power.   They were full  of
 agility, vivacity,  and  even hilarity,—singing as they la-
bored, with all the buoyancy  and blithsomeness of youth.
—Captain Howland.
  In many parts of Russia, the people of both sexes bathe
 frequently in  the rivers and cold baths.   The women take
with then the  children, even to the  youngest; and  as soon
as old enough, all are taught to swim.  In winter they use the
 vapor bath of a high  temperature, and after exciting the
action of the skin by switching with birch twigs, and using
brisk friction with coarse towels, they plunge into the snow,
 in the  coldest weather,  remaining for a  few minutes, and
then quickly  dress  and take  exercise.   An Englishman,
finding the snow bath so agreeable in these cases, remained
too  long, and  thereby lost his life.   Among the peasantry,
grgat longevity is common. Many  are to be  found of 100 
298
APPENDIX.
to 120 years of age.   As a  general thing,  there  are  no
medical men in their villages.  Rheumatism is comparatively
unknown among them, and complaints of any kind are rare.
Coarse unbolted rye meal bread  is their principal  food.—
Wilson.
  The Laplanders are of a  dwarfish  stature.   It  may be
thought that this is the effect of the  rigor of  their polar
cold.   But we find interspersed among them, and inhabiting
the same country, numerous families of industrious Finns,
who cultivate the earth, and subsist chiefly on its produce;
and this race, though they remain for centuries in the same
country,  do not appear to be in  the least smaller than the
Swedes and  the  Norwegians.   The difference, therefore,
between the Finns and Laplanders must be attributed mainly
or entirely to diet.—Dr. Lambe.
  The Laplanders, Samoides, Ostiaes, Tungaases,  Burates
and Kamtschadales, in Northern Europe and Asia, as well
as the Esquimaux in the Northern, and the nations of Terra
del Fuego, in the southern extremity of America, although
they live almost entirely on flesh, and that often raw, are
the smallest, weakest, and least  brave people of the globe.
—Prof. Lawrence.
  The Zulus depended upon  the products of  the  soil  for
subsistence, and  go  entirely naked.   Licentiousness  is
wholly unknown  among  them.  I have been among them
for  three  years—seen  them  on all occasions—have many
a time seen hundreds  of males and females huddled togeth-
er in perfect nakedness, but  never saw the least manifes-
tation  of  licentious feeling:  and they are as  remarkable
for their  intellectual   activity and aptitude  as for their
chastity.   It is a common thing for the children, in  the 
APPENDIX.
299
 course  of fifteen  months  from the  first time  they ever
 saw a letter, to learn  to read well in the New Testament,
 and to  do sums in the fundamental  rules of arithmetic.
 On  leaving them, I asked what I should bring  when I re-
 turned, they all cried  at  once,  " Bring us more teachers !
 more books !"—Rev. A. Grant, (Missionary.)
   Moses permitted the Jews  to  eat  flesh,  on the same
 principle that  he suffered them to put  away their wives ;
 and the whole economy of the Mosaic dispensation  aimed
 rather to restrict them, than to encourage the Jews in the
 use of this kind of food.  His dietetic regulations concern-
 ing  it, were obviously designed to restrain them as much
 as possible, and confine  them  to the least objectionable
 kinds and preparations.—S. Graham.
   Of the interesting inhabitants of Pitcairn's Island, in the
 Pacific,  it is said they live  almost entirely upon fruits  and
 vegetables.  Their diet is very simple,  yams constituting
 their principal food.  They rise early, and take much exer-
 cise. Their strength and agility are so great that the most
 expert English sailors cannot match them at wrestling  and
 boxing,  carrying weights, &c.  Sickness of any kind is  rare
 among them.   The  females, to some extent,  assist in  the
cultivation of the soil.  They are almost as muscular as the
 males, and taller than  the generality of the sex.   Their
 dress is simple, of their own manufacture, and so fitted as
to admit of a free circulation of air over the whole surface
of the body.  The women all understand the  art of mid-
 wifery.   Their births mostly take place in the night-time ;
 their labors are safe,  and of short duration.   Their   in-
 fants are generally bathed  three times a day in cold water.
The young of both sexes are trained up in habits of indus- 
300
APPENDIX.
try,  virtue, piety, and  religion.  Their  countenances  are
open and pleasing, indicating much benevolence and good-
ness of heart.  The young women  are particularly beauti-
ful.   " A young girl, (says Capt. Pipon,) accompanied us to
the boat, carrying on her shoulders, as  a present, a large
basket of yams, over such roads, and down such precipices,
as were scarcely passable by any creatures except goats, and
over which we could scarcely scramble with the help of our
hands; yet with this load on her shoulders, she skipped from
rock to rock like a young roe."   Their innocence and
simplicity is thus described : " By our bedside had already
been placed some ripe fruits, and our hats were crowned with
chaplets of the fresh blossoms of the nono, or flower-tree,
which  the  women  had gathered in the  freshness of  the
morning dew.  On looking round the apartment, though it
contained several beds, we found  no partition, curtain or
screens;  they had not yet been considered necessary.  So
far indeed from  concealment being  thought of, when  we
were about to get up,  the  women,  anxious  to  show their
attentions, assembled to wish us good morning, and to  in-
quire in what way they could best contribute to our com-
fort,  and to present us with some little gift which the pro-
duce of the island afforded."
   I spent the winter of 1836-37 on the island of St. Croix,
in the West Indies, and devoted much of my leisure time to
instructing the  young slaves.  The little field  negro from
five to ten years old, which never saw a letter nor had any
idea of one till I taught them, on being  promised that they
should have a bible given them if they would learn to read,
would, in the course of one week, learn the alphabet, and learn
to read ba, be, bi, &c.   In three or  four weeks they would 
APPENDIX.
301
learn to read  short sentences, such as, " No man may put
off the law of God;" and in a few months  they would
learn to read the New  Testament.   With all the little
field negroes, which lived  on corn meal, yams, peas, &c,
there was the utmost avidity, as well as aptitude to learn.—
Dr. J. Burdell.
   Certain inflammatory pains of the head have given way
to a stream of cold water applied to it, when nothing else
would  succeed.  By means of a tube, a stream of cold wa-
ter has been applied to the head, for  many hours in the
course of a day ; and the complaint has been thus cured
when evaporating lotions (which are made of spirits, ether,
vinegar, sugar of lead, &c) did not answer the purpose.—
Dr. Elliotson on Treatment of Inflammation.
   Among the Arancanian Indians of  South  America, a
mother immediately after child-birth, takes her child, and
going down to the nearest stream of water, washes herself
and it, and returns to the usual labors of her  station.—Ste-
venson.
   It is wonderful that mankind, at the present day, claiming
as they do, to be so much more enlightened in  science and
useful knowledge than  the  ancients, should yet be so far
behind them in matters of this kind.  In the Mosaic  dis-
pensation, the most rigorous regard  was paid to  bathing
and cleanliness in every thing.  One of the  highest luxu-
ries of Ancient Rome was  bathing.  The Mohammedans,
the Hindoos, and many other portions of the human family,
perform their daily ablutions as a religious duty.   Yet the
most  intelligent portions of Christendom neglect it.—S.
Graham  on Bathing.
   It is said that at Graefenberg a gentleman  declared  that 
302                  APPENDIX.

the cold bath might be taken after  sweating produced by
exercise, with quite as much efficacy as from the blanket,
and that himself had made the experiment.  On Priessnitz's
opinion being asked, he exclaimed,  " Very bad—very bad.
It may be done once, but not the third time."
  Excess in drinking, is almost as bad as excess in eating.
—Hippocrates.
  Intoxicating  liquors and substances, with all their fearful
energy to destroy, and all the tremendous evils they  have
done—and surely  they  are great!—terribly great!—have
still caused less pain and untimely  death, in the  human
family, than errors in  the quantity and quality of food !
A drunkard  sometimes, though  very  rarely, reaches old
age :  a glutton never does !—S. Graham.
  How can they addict themselves to the practice  of vir-
tue and to the service of God, who are ever caring for their
own miserable bodies ?—Plato.
  I have  seen multitudes  of chronic diseases  of every
name and type, which had long and  incorrigibly withstood
medical treatment of every kind,  yield,  in  some instances
immediately, and in others in a few weeks or months, to a
pure vegetable  diet, and general regimen regulated by phy-
siological principles.—Dr. Lambe.
  The Rev. Mr. Mylne, Missionary to Africa, in giving an
account of a severe illness and recovery, says of his col-
league, the. Rev. Mr. Crocker, " Brother Crocker has been
very much favored ; he has had no real attack of fever all
this time, which I suppose is unprecedented for a white man
here ; but he began three months  before leaving America,
to live on farinaceous food, and has strictly adhered  to his
principles since he arrived ; living on rice, cassada, sweet 
APPENDIX.
303
potatoes, &c.—a fact  worthy the  consideration  of emi-
grants to this country."
  By  far the greater number of  the inhabitants of the
earth, have used  in all  ages, and  continue  to use  at  this
time, vegetable aliment alone ; when the addition of meat
to vegetables  is  made, it is  not  a daily allowance ;  and
even in these cases, the proportion of meat  to vegetables is
small.—Dr. J. Bell.
  Temperance implies a knowledge of, and compliance
with, all the laws of our physical system.  There is scarcely
any branch of knowledge more important to mankind than
a knowledge of the structure and  nature of  our own being.
Nor is there scarcely any subject  upon which men  are  so
generally ignorant.  It seems not at all to be known by
mankind in general, or even  suspected,  that every thing
about their bodies is regulated by laws, as certain  as  the
law of gravitation ; and  that  a perfect  knowledge  of and
conformity to these laws, would render permanent health as
certain as the regular motion of the planets.  The world is
full of disease  and premature death, and men speak of these
 things as mysterious providences of God, without ever  so
much as dreaming that they are the natural and certain re-
sults of the most outrageous and reckless violation of the
human constitution.—Rev.  C. G. Finney.
   O,  man knows not, nor ever  dreams, how  constantly
 the goodness of his Creator is acting to redeem him from
the effects of his transgressions !—how, when the day is
 spent in  continued abuses of his body—in the habitu a
 violation of the laws of life,—and when night comes and
 he is lost in sleep, and ceases from his sins—the hand of
 God, in unremitting kindness and parental mercy, directs 
304
APPENDIX.
and  urges  on those renovating processes of  the vital
powers, by which  the  injuries  his  system has received,
from his pernicious practices, are so nearly repaired, that,
when he awakes and  rises to another day, and feels as
fresh and vigorous as at yester-morn,  he will not believe
that the tobacco and alcohol and other poisonous and im-
proper substances which he indulged in yesterday, did him
any harm:—and thus,  for  the  benevolence of God, who
watches over him  with  unceasing care, and  by every
means which can be brought  to act upon his moral  sus-
ceptibilities,  endeavors to  reclaim him from his sins, he
only returns that strange perverseness which, in disobey-
ing God, destroys himself.—S. Graham. 
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