T H E 
PRACTICE 
V 
OF THE 
WATER-CURE. 
WITH AUTHENTICATED 
EVIDENCE OE ITS EEEICACY AND SAFETY. 
CONTAINING 
A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE VARIOUS PROCESSES USED 
IN THE WATER TREATMENT A SKETCH OF THE 
HISTORY AND PROGRESS OF THE WATER 
CURE WELL AUTHENTICATED 
CASES OF CURE, ETC. 
BY JAMES WILSON, M. D. 
AND 
JAMES MANBY GULLY, M. D. 
Practitioners at the Water Cure Establishment at Malvern, Eng. 
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. 
NEW-YORK: 
WILSON AND COMPANY, 
1 8 47. JOHN R. W1NSER, 
Cheap Cash'Stereotyper, 138 Fulton-st. PREFACE. 
This Pamphlet has been put together in a hasty manner, as 
a reply to a series of professional attacks, decrying the Water 
Cure as an imposition, and all who practice it as impostors. 
In so far as it may be considered a personal defence, I have 
entered upon it with unwillingness, and in deference to the 
wishes and opinions of others. I have come into court with 
witnesses, and the reader is at liberty to cross-question them, 
while I claim the privilege granted to persons under such cir- 
cumstances,—the privilege of speaking in my own defence. 
To account for the style in which the pamphlet is written, I 
may remark that it is intended for non-professional persons, 
although I am persuaded that if medical men would take the 
trouble to read these pages, they would find facts, which it 
would be worth their while to consider, albeit they are not 
clothed in a learned dress. 
Popular works on the art of healing are considered infra 
dignitatis, but I may be allowed to think professional dignity, 
—even supposing it infringed upon—to be of secondary con- 
sideration in this matter, seeing that it will not assist in res- 
toring a shattered constitution, make a man happy in the pos- 
session of sound digestive organs, cure gout and rheumatism, 
or prevent apoplexy and consumption. 
To write on the Water Cure for medical men alone, would, 
at the present moment, be a waste of good ink and paper; in IV 
this I was confirmed by a recent visit from an old medical friend, 
whose first complimentary question was, “ Well, are you here 
Btill, and is there really something in the Water Cure ?” I 
asked if he had not had the curiosity to read any of the works 
written on the subject; “Not a syllable,” was his reply. In 
the meantime the multitude are suffering, and to a great ex- 
tent unnecessarily, under a variety of diseases, and if medical 
men will not inquire for them, they shall have the opportunity 
of inquiring for themselves. Facts are simple as well as stub- 
born things, and they can be well understood by persons to 
whom their rationale cannot be fully explained. 
In addition to the statement of cases,—to show tliat I am not 
solitary in some of my opinions, I have introduced those of 
several eminent English practitioners. I have also thought it 
advisable to give a sketch of the history of the Water Cure, 
with an account of the processes used in the treatment, and 
some explanation of the manner in which they act on the hu- 
man body. If this volume should have the effect of producing 
in the reader even a slight interest in this important subject, 
my first object will have been gained. 
James Wilson. 
Malvern, February, 1846. 
PREFACE. THE 
PRACTICE OF THE WATER CURE. 
HISTORY OF PRIESSNITZ, AND THE INTRODUC- 
TION OF THE WATER CURE. 
The name of Priessnitz may already be said to belong to 
history: it is a name that may now be heard in almost every 
town in Europe, coupled with the grateful remembrance of 
those who have experienced the health-restoring powers of the 
Water Cure, or who have learnt from this method how to avoid 
suffering. Gifted with the moral and physical attributes of 
men of genius and talent, this originally “ humble countryman” 
has providentially been so placed and surrounded by circum- 
stances, as to work out a great and lasting system of treatment, 
for preventing, alleviating, and curing diseases; and genera- 
tions yet unborn will reap the benefits of the steady untiring 
labors, the undeviating honesty and temperance, and the crea- 
tive genius of the peasant philosopher of Graefenberg. How 
well and appropriately does the motto apply to him, “ In nulla 
re hominem ad Deos homines accedunt, quam salutem homini- 
bus dando.” Most truly, man cannot approach more nearly to 
the beneficent Creator, than by restoring the health or afford- 
ing relief to his fellow-creatures. 
By entering into some brief details of the slow and progres- 
sive mode in which the Water Cure was constructed, and by 
relating some of his sayings and doings, you will be able to 
form some opinion of this extraordinary person. It is thirty 
years since he commenced using water as a remedy, and he is 
now forty-nine years old. His birth-place was on the moun- 6 
THE PRACTICE OF 
tain called Graefenberg, about a mile above the little town or 
village of Friwaldau, in Austrian Silesia. Before he was 
twenty he was called upon to manage the small farm on which 
his family lived, in consequence of the sudden blindness of his 
father. With regard to his appearance, it is that of a respec- 
table farmer, who if it were necessary would not be above taking 
an hour’s salutary exercise at the plough. He stands about 
five feet eight, and is stiff in his carriage; although strong, 
robust, and healthy, looks much older than he is, and care-worn. 
He is capable of great exertion, and from the last twenty-six 
years his only beverage has been water. Most of his observa- 
tions are dictated by reflection and sound common sense, but 
he is reserved to a fault, and talks as little as he by possibility 
can. His motive for carrying his taciturnity so far, is to avoid 
fatigue and excitement; being aware of his highly nervous 
temperament, he has cultivated the habit as a means of tran- 
quillity, in the midst of the never-ceasing occupation and tur- 
moil caused by the great number of patients by whom he is 
surrounded. That such is his motive, is shown by an obser- 
vation that he made, viz., “ if I had talked as much as people 
wished and expected, I should have have been a patient myself, 
or perhaps dead long ago.” This is likely enough, when it is 
considered that he is engaged from six in the morning until 
ten at night, and has barely had a day’s relaxation for twenty 
years. 
The first idea he obtained of the healing power of pure wa- 
ter, it is said, was from a man in some neighboring iron-works, 
who used it in different ways for burns and injuries. He was 
at once struck with its superiority to oily and greasy applica- 
tions, and that there was something more to be done with so 
potent a remedy. His attention became fixed on the subject, 
and from it he began to reflect on health and disease. In 
doing this he first remarked that the ploughman with his rud- 
dy face and bare feet, did not complain of stomach-ache or 
headache, or of the delicacy of his nerves, that “ he whistled as 
he went for want of thought,” and seemed perfectly unacquaint- 
ed with what, in a refined state of society, is called ennui, 
anxiety, or the blue d—Is. And moreover, that after having 
been wetted to the skin for hours, he did not shiver or take cold. 
Again, he observed individuals of another complexion, who for 
years had gone through all the dissipations of Vienna, or who 
had passed a studious life in warm rooms. He also observed 
the dairymaid, the sempstress, and the fine lady who seldom 
walks. From the striking contrasts observable between all these individuals, he formed his first notions of life, health, and 
disease. He commenced his practice by treating the injuries 
and slight ailments of his neighbors; applying his compresses 
warm or cold, according to the state of inflammation or other 
symptoms. To this he soon added sponging different parts, and 
sometimes the whole body with water, recommending plain diet 
and drinking water at the same time. In the midst of this he 
met with a serious accident. A heavy waggon went over him 
and broke several of his ribs, and as the two practitioners of 
the village gave him little hope of his recovery, he took the re- 
solution of trying his own plan. He recovered rapidly, and his 
cure, after the unfavorable opinion that had been given, made 
a sensation in the neighborhood. Many now applied to him 
for advice, and he was very successful in many cases. This 
gave him an opportunity of studying on a larger scale the phe- 
nomena of disease and the different effects produced by water, 
and he soon formed a theory, and contrived new modes of apply- 
ing his remedy to produce the results he required. 
The powerful aid of obtaining at will so salutary a process 
as that of sweating dwelt on his mind, and his fertile imagina- 
tion soon contrived the simple and admirable plan of enveloping 
the patient in blankets. This answered all his views on that 
point, finding that when properly used and followed by a bath, 
it was not attended by debility; that it relieved the internal or- 
gans, and strengthened the skin and the constitutional powers. 
The Russian mode of sweating with steam, as well as the 
mode by using heated air for the same purpose, he had long be- 
fore heard of, but he at once detected the fallacy, and saw that 
it went directly against the first principles of his system, hav- 
ing the insurmountable objection, that of weakening the powers 
of the whole skin and nervous system, and producing only “ skin- 
deep sweating.” The following anecdote will show how con- 
vinced he is on the point, and that he will hear of no compro- 
mise. Captain Raven, one of his most intimate friends, who 
was kind enough to interest himself in my proceedings, wished 
him to assist me in my researches : he replied, “ You remem- 
ber Dr. of St. Petersburgh, I devoted myself to him for a 
long time, and he went away understanding the Cure; he is 
now, I hear, sweating all his patients by applying hot-air to the 
skin and lungs.” The Captain observed, “that no doubt he 
had the long-established prejudices of the people to contend 
with, that he was obliged to play up to them, and that was his 
sole reason then said Priessnitz, “Well, then, it is not hon- 
est, for he is convinced it is not right, and that it is in direct 
THE WATER CURE. 
7 8 
opposition to a principle which he understands ; he knows bet- 
ter, and I cannot forgive him, or take any interest in any of 
them again.” 
He was still much puzzled how to treat many of the striking 
critical phenomena which take place during the Water treat- 
ment, and here it is, that the Water Cure has gained by his 
being thrown on his own resources ; had he known how, or had 
he been licensed to use medicines, in many of his dilemmas he 
most probably would have had recourse to them, instead of find- 
ing out a surer and safer plan of treatment by the aid of diver- 
sified modes of using water. He was also dissatisfied with his 
imperfect plan of treating fevers and inflammations, but by 
continued reflection, and like Newton, “ en y pensant toujours,” 
he arrived at the process of enveloping in the wet sheet—the 
crowning discovery of the Water Cure. With the aid of this 
invaluable remedy, he was enabled to graduate and modify his 
treatment as he pleased. He soon after discovered its power- 
ful and extraordinary effects when used in the treatment of 
chronic diseases. The use of the different local baths, and the 
douche, had preceded the discovery of the wet sheet. 
All this, however, did not go on smoothly or without obsta- 
cles and opposition. He was denounced as an unlicensed and 
dangerous impostor,—fined, and his treatment suspended. Con- 
fident, however, in the goodness of his cause, and backed by nu- 
merous patients, he appealed against the sentence, and it was 
set aside. Priessnitz and his system of treatment had now be- 
come of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the Pa- 
ternal Government of Vienna; and in its anxious care for the 
health of its subjects, a commission of medical men was sent to 
inquire into the real state of affairs. Fortunately for the Wa- 
ter Cure, old Baron Turkheim, the head of the medical depart- 
ment of the empire, was also at the head of this, a man celebra- 
ted for his independent spirit, his great learning, and scientific 
acquirements. He staid some time at Graefenberg, and on his 
return to Vienna, being at a medical society, he was asked 
what he thought of “the new charlatanism;” he replied, 
“ Priessnitz is an honest man, and no impostor; and his mode 
of treatment is more successful than ours ; believe me, gentle- 
men, you have much to learn from this countryman.” This 
made the sages of Vienna still more angry and violent against 
the Water Cure and its founder—shutting up the avenues of 
their understanding against the evidence of their senses, not- 
withstanding the accumulated facts which presented thern- 
THE PRACTICE OF THE WATER CURE. 
9 
selves among their patients, who leaving them with little hope, 
returned in perfect health. 
The commission analyzed the water to discover its mystic 
virtue ! but they were disappointed to find that it was nothing 
more than pure spring water! The sponges he used were 
also examined with great care, to see if they contained any 
secret remedies. After this Priessnitz threw away the sponges, 
and has never used them since, finding that rubbing with hands 
—“ flesh to flesh”—was better. At the time I speak of he was 
called the Schwamm, or sponge doctor. 
He was now taken under the protection of the Government, 
and additional police placed at Friwaldau, to note the number 
of patients, and report the deaths and other results of the treat- 
ment. To 1841 he had treated 7,219 strangers, and there had 
been 39 deaths. Some of these I found by the registry had 
died before commencing the treatment, and some others were 
reported in a forlorn state before anything was attempted. 
Although Priessnitz is a kind-hearted man, there was a time 
when he was not sufficiently philanthropic as to wish that his 
mode of treatment should be understood by others, and he ob- 
jected to having works written explanatory of its theory and 
practice; however, many small works were published and 
widely circulated, and the numbers of his patients were in- 
creased instead of being diminished, as he expected. The 
work that had the greatest effect was one by Professor Munde; 
this was followed by another from the same author, as a hand- 
book on the Water Cure treatment, which has since appeared 
in an English dress, with some alterations and additions. 
The renown of the successful treatment of disease by the 
Water Cure, had gone on for some time before Priessnitz had 
any imitators, with the exception of Mr. Weiss, who was at 
that time the farrier of the village. At the commencement of 
Priessnitz’s career, Weiss and he had something to do together, 
but they soon disagreed, and have been at enmity for many 
years. 
Priessnitz has had eight children, the first was a boy, those 
that followed all girls. There is an interesting fact con- 
nected with this which I shall relate. When first married his 
wife had no great faith in the Water Cure ; in truth, it was 
then in a rude state, she therefore insisted that the first child— 
the boy—should be treated in the ordinary way; this he pro- 
mised, and when it was attacked with measles, the practition- 
ers of the village were called in, but it died. All the other chil- 10 
THE PRACTICE OF 
dren he has treated himself in all their complaints, measles, 
whooping-cough, scarlet fever, &c.; and I have heard Mrs. 
Priessnitz say that she had never had a moment’s apprehension 
about them. This fact certainly does not tell against the Wa- 
ter Cure. I was present during the treatment of one of his 
children in fever. The child being from home had been neg- 
lected, and when brought home had severe fever with delirium; 
on the third day it was convalescent, and carried out in the 
nurse’s arms. Another of his children was very delicate from 
its infancy, and supposed to have been infected by an impure 
nurse, his wife having been prevented nursing. It was rickety, 
and there appeared little prospect of its living: this child was 
two years under a regular system of water treatment, and when 
I left Grafenberg had nearly recovered, and promised to be a 
fine healthy child. On several occasions during this long pe- 
riod a crisis had taken place of a remarkable nature. During 
ten months that I observed the child, the changes in its consti- 
tution and appearance were very marked, and there was every 
evidence of its growing up to be strong and healthy. Mrs. 
Priessnitz, after her last confinement, had a severe attack of 
childbed fever, induced by the excitement of being visited for 
several days after her confinement by a number of ladies of 
rank. She was enveloped repeatedly in the sheet, followed by 
a tepid bath, and the fever was completely removed in two days. 
Priessnitz observed, “ Our enemies can do us but little harm, 
it’s our friends who kill usreferring, I dare say, to feasting 
and drinking companions, as well as to his wife’s case. Some 
years before this, and before his reputation was established, he 
would go any distance to treat a patient; he went, not being 
well at the time, in an open car, in the depth of an almost Si- 
berian winter, to visit a patient in a distant village; he was 
then requested to go on further, so that by the time he reached 
home late at night, his lower limbs were frozen. The next 
day his legs were swollen, accompanied with fever and inflam- 
mation in the stomach and bowels. After some preliminary 
treatment, he said to his wife, “ I must now go immediately 
into the shallow bath, and be rubbed, or I shall be laid up with 
a dangerous illness, perhaps a fatal one; do you see that it is 
properly done, and the proper effect produced before I get out.” 
He remained several hours in the bath, two bath servants car- 
rying on the ablution, and rubbing without intermission until 
the circulation was equalized. Two hours after the bath a 
profuse spontaneous perspiration set in, and the next day he 
was without a symptom of anything wrong, and feeling only very weak and tired. Is it then to be wondered at, that he 
should have such confidence himself in the remedial powers of 
water, or that his patients, when they see similar results fre- 
quently taking place, should be inspired with the same feeling ? 
The following fact, and I could relate many similar ones, will 
show, that he is not without some kindness and generosity. A 
Prussian lieutenant, about thirty years old, came to consult him, 
with extensive disease (caries) of the bones of the thigh and hip. 
On his arrival, I was told, that he was emaciated, and had hec- 
tic fever; the disease extended from the knee to the hip, and 
there were four openings which discharged above a pint of 
matter daily; there was constant cough and other symptoms, 
showing that the constitution was giving way. He had a tea- 
cup full of splinters of bone which had come away. A few 
months after he had been under the Water Cure I saw the pa- 
tient ; he had gained flesh, was able to take active exercise on 
crutches, and was one of the merriest men in the crowd. I 
went into his room frequently to examine and probe the wounds, 
and extract pieces of bone. He complained of little or no pain 
since he had worn the compresses, and got into a regular sys- 
tem of treatment; and all the functions of the body had become 
perfect, although the discharge was still very great. At the 
end of six months his funds failing, he was preparing to take 
his departure, when Priessnitz told him that it would take 
eighteen months, two years, or perhaps longer, to cure so ex- 
tensive a disease of the bones, and that he might eat at his 
table as long as it was necessary, free of expense. I left him 
there enjoying himself and in perfect health, and the disease, 
although still extensive, certainly better.* 
That “ a man is no prophet in his own country,” the follow- 
ing fact will sufficiently show. Some three hundred yards be- 
low the large house in which Priessnitz lives, there is the cot- 
tage of a miller; his wife was laid up with typhus fever, and 
attended by the two village practitioners. About the twelfth 
day they told the husband that they despaired of her recovery. 
At this juncture he bethought him to ask Priessnitz to see her. 
He immediately complied, and commenced the water treatment; 
in a few days the patient was without a bad symptom, and re- 
covered rapidly. When the Water Cure treatment was com- 
menced, she had a dry black tongue, muttering delirium, and 
THE WATER CURE. 
11 
* Very many patients can go about and even enjoy themselves in tho 
open air, with the treatment by water, having at the same time medical 
and surgical diseases, of which they would be in a dying state in any 
hospital or sick room in Europe or England. 12 
THE PRACTICE OF 
the evacuations were passed without her knowledge. Before 
the miller had recourse to the Water treatment for his wife, he 
had heard that Priessnitz had treated some dozens of cases of 
fever, and had not been known to lose one, but on the other 
hand he could not forget that he had been a working man, or 
that water was not physic. 
A servant maid, about nineteen years old, who had attended 
the miller’s wife, was laid up with a severe fever, just as her 
mistress was recovering from it. Her sister was one of the 
bath servants, and called my attention to the case; I attended 
throughout, and witnessed the whole treatment. The fever 
continued for eighteen days, but during the whole time the 
tongue remained moist; the effect of the different processes 
was beautiful, and every bad symptom was avoided. On the 
twentieth day she was sitting outside the door, convalescent, 
and with very slight debility, which was gone by the end of the 
week. I have several note books filled with cases and inci- 
dents similar to those I have related, but I dare say I have 
already written as many of them as you will read. I have only 
now a few more remarks to make. 
It is said that Priessnitz owes the first idea he obtained of 
some of the original processes of the Water Cure, to hints from 
intelligent patients during their treatment. Be this as it may, 
he has understood and availed himself of them to a good ac- 
count. 
Before the discovery of the wet sheet, and before its use in 
the treatment of chronic disease was understood, great mischief 
must have been done in many cases by the misapplication and 
too frequent use of the sweating process. Many must have had 
their nervous systems much injured. When I was at Graefen- 
berg a great change for the better had already taken place in 
this respect. From the effects I experienced in my own person 
as well as observed on others, from the wet sheet, I saw clearly, 
and indeed predicted above two years ago, in my work on the 
Water Cure, that Priessnitz would become less mechanical in 
his notions, and sweat his patients still less as he went on. I 
have heard that it is so, and it could not have been otherwise 
with a man who is always observing and reflecting. It has 
been remarked that Priessnitz has been a long time in getting 
rid of his own errors and adopting improvements, but we can- 
not wonder at the slowness with which knowledge is gained, 
and salutary changes of opinion come over the mind, when we 
all feel more or less how strong is the force of habit and the 
passion of prepossession. THE WATER CURE. 
13 
Many illustrations will occur to the medical reader ; for ex- 
ample, what time and argumentation it took to convince many 
that salivation with mercury was not necessary in the treat- 
ment of gonorrhoea! 
Whatever additional discoveries may be made or improve- 
ments introduced into the practice of the Water Cure, Priess- 
nitz will always deserve the credit of having established and 
put together a system of treatment which, when contemplated 
by the physiological eye, is beautiful in its power, efficacy, and 
simplicity; but whose value can only be appreciated to its full- 
est extent, by those who understand and have made the human 
body their study, and at the same time are enabled to compare 
it with the results of medicinal treatment, by having practised 
both. 
WATER CURE ESTABLISHMENTS. 
Notwithstanding all the obstacles that have presented 
themselves, it is highly satisfactory to note the rapidity with 
which Water Cure establishments are spreading in this coun- 
try.* It is necessary, however, that some care should be taken 
* When establishments for the treatment of diseases by water are 
formed in every part of America, as they now are in England, which I 
make no doubt will be the case in a very short time, they will ultimately 
have the effect of mitigating, and it may be hoped removing altogether, 
a long list of diseases; I will go further, and say, that I have no doubt 
that consumption, which now carries off its thousands and tens of thou- 
sands, with scrofula, gout, and a number of hereditary diseases,—not 
omitting those produced by drugs,—will become comparatively un- 
known—a tale of former times. The influence of these establishments 
will sooner or later be felt by the whole community; they will also 
become summer resorts for recruiting by a course of scientific bathing, 
and they will be considered agreeable centres of re-union ; all persons 
leaving them will be so many missionaries of temperance, filled with 
the ardent desire that all should participate in the good they have ex- 
perienced, and the immunity from pain which they enjoy from their 
new mode of life. In a country like the United States, where there is 
such free enquiry, and such rapid circulation of thought, it will be car- 
ried on at railroad pace. Consider, for a moment, what a compound 
multiplied effect this will have on generation after generation, gaining 
new strength at every fresh start, the power accumulating by additional 
numbers, by the intenseness of conviction, by habit, and by example; at 
every step there will be fewer sins of the parents to be visited upon, and 
descend to, the children.—Editor New York Edition. 14 
THE PRACTICE OF 
in selecting situations fitted for a system of treatment so essen- 
tially hygienic. All who understand the Water Cure, concur 
in opinion, that for the treatment of chronic diseases, a rural 
situation is of the first importance. Many who have seen the 
system practised under a variety of circumstances, go further 
than this, and declare that it is dangerous to practise it in 
towns. During the last eight years Water Cure establishments 
have been tried in several towns of Germany, but, as might 
have been anticipated, the results were found to be anything 
but satisfactory, and they have been abandoned. An elevated 
position, with bracing air, is one of the most essential adjuncts 
of the treatment; indeed it requires but little thought and expe- 
rience to be assured that it makes the greatest difference in the 
reaction and salutary influence of the different baths,—whether 
the patient goes out, after them, into a clear, bracing atmos- 
phere, or one that is close or damp. The patient soon dis- 
covers, moreover, that the turmoil and mode of living in towns, 
is not compatible with this system of curing chronic diseases. 
Priessnitz attaches the greatest importance to mountain air, 
and pure spring water; when questioned upon the subject, he 
replied, “Man muss Gebirge haben.” He very often com- 
plained that the patients in the little town of Friwaldau, at the 
foot of the mountain, did not progress so well or rapidly as 
those on the side of Grafenberg hill. It is also of consequence 
that the patient should sleep in a pure atmosphere. 
Great numbers of the patients under Priessnitz’s care, occupy 
the small cottages on the side of the mountain, reaching up to 
his house. It was in the small rooms and garrets of these cot- 
tages, that I witnessed the most rapid and extraordinary cures 
that took place during the ten months that I resided at Grae- 
fenbergh; the whole bathing apparatus of the Cure, being two 
wooden tubs, the one serving as a shallow, the other as a sitz- 
bath. Priessnitz, after the experience of twenty-five years, 
considers the quality of the air and water of more consequence 
than the shape, color, and material of the baths, or the size and 
comfort of the rooms. There is no reason, however, why the 
patierit should not have large airy rooms, and every rational 
English comfort. 
During the last ten years the Water Cure has excited great 
interest and attention on the continent; there are now nearly 
a hundred establishments devoted to its practice, many of them 
under the immediate protection and patronage of the different 
governments; but no one is now permitted to form an estab- 
lishment without having received a medical education. THE WATER CURE. 
15 
Patients who visit Water Cure establishments should con- 
sider that they are on neutral ground, that health is the great 
object in view, and that all minor considerations should give 
way before it. All peculiarities of habits, notions, or opinions 
should for a time be laid aside. The Water Cure in many 
cases necessarily requires a length of time ; but it is not with- 
out its pleasures and enjoyments. The good appetite and 
digestion, cheerful feelings, sound sleep, and the consciousness 
of returning strength and health, should not be forgotten as a 
set-off to anything that might be considered tiresome by repe- 
tition. 
I have wished good-bye within the last three years to several 
hundreds of ladies and gentlemen, who declared that the timo 
they had spent in the Water Cure, had been the most cheerful 
and happy period they could recollect,—the one in which they 
had experienced the greatest amount of the feelings of well- 
being,—and that they took their departure with regret. 
But I hold that the Water Cure is after all the shortest cure, 
when the nature and extent of the diseased states that are sub- 
mitted to it, are taken into consideration. If a patient is cured 
in six months of a complication of ailments, which had resisted 
every variety of treatment for seven, ten, or, as it often happens, 
a greater number of years, it cannot be called a long cure. 
When life is prolonged for ten, fifteen or twenty years, by this 
means, which, according to all human probability, would have 
terminated in a year or two, no arithmetician would say that 
six months Water curing had been a long or lost time. 
In many cases where the constitution has not been much 
shattered, the restoration is effected in a- remarkably short time; 
a few weeks being often found to suffice. It must in truth be 
said, that in two-thirds of the patients hitherto submitted to the 
Water Cure, what with the complicated nature of the ailments, 
the advanced age, and the inadequate period given to the treat- 
ment, &c., the only wonder is that so much has been effected. 
Much has been said about the dangers of the Water Cure, 
and the cry has been raised on every frivolous pretext; all re- 
flecting people, however, w7ho have given the subject the least 
attention, are beginning to discover in what the danger really 
consists. When a number of patients are collected together 
as in Water Cure establishments, one would imagine that all 
the dangers would very soon be discovered; for invalids going 
through the Water Cure value their lives, it may be supposed, 
as much as they did when under medical treatment. 
The imminent danger in which the Water Cure patients 16 
THE PRACTICE OF 
consider themselves will be shown pretty clearly by the follow- 
ing fact: A few weeks past, the Itev. Mr. Brown, of Crosby, 
near Liverpool, commenced the treatment; on first entering the 
room where my patients were collected together, he had still 
great apprehensions, and his first anxious inquiry was about 
“ the dangershe told me that the reply he met with was the 
most satisfactory that could have been given him; viz: “ a 
general burst of laughter, which scattered his fears to the 
winds.” THE WATER CURE. 
17 
AN ACCOUNT 
OF THE VARIOUS PROCESSES USED 
IN THE 
PRACTICE OE THE WATER CURE. 
WATER AS A BEVERAGE AND AS A REMEDY. 
It is a matter of congratulation with all those who know and 
feel how great the beneficial result will be, that the conviction 
is daily gaining ground amongst the enquiring and enlightened 
part of the community, that water is the best beverage for man, 
and moreover that it is the only one necessary to keep him in 
the highest state of health and strength. 
In “ An Essay of health and long life,” by that real and 
most estimable physician, the celebrated Dr. Cheyne, written 
some hundred and fifty years ago, he says :—“ Drink is the 
other part of our food. The common drink here in England 
is either water, malt-liquor, or wine, or mixtures of these.— 
Without all peradventure, water was the primitive, original 
beverage, as it is the only simple fluid, fitted for diluting, mois- 
tening, and cooling; the ends of drink appointed by nature. 
And happy had it been for the race of mankind if other mixed 
and artificial liquors had never been invented. It has been an 
agreeable appearance to me to observe with what freshness and 
vigor, those, who though eating freely of flesh meat, yet drink 
nothing but this element, have lived in health, tranquillity, and 
cheerfulness, to a great age.* Water alone is sufficient and 
* Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty; 
For in my youth I never did apply 
Hot and rebellious liquors to my blood ; 18 
THE FEACTICE OF 
effectual for all tlie purposes of human wants in drink. Strong 
liquors were never destined for common use. They were former- 
ly kept (here in England) as other medicines are, in apothecaries’ 
shops, and prescribed by physicians, as they do Diascordium 
and Venice treacle. And it were as just and reasonable to see 
men (and if they go on, it is not impossible I may hear of it, 
since laudanum is already taken into feasts and entertain- 
ments) sit down to a dish of Venice treacle, or Sir Walter Ra- 
leigh’s confection, with a bottle of Hysteric cordial, as to a 
dish of crawfish-soup or venison pastry, with a bottle of Her- 
mitage, of Tockay, or which some prefer, a bowl of punch. 
Wine is now become as common as water ; and the better sort 
scarce ever dilute their food with any other liquor. And we 
see by daily experience, that (as natural causes always pro- 
duce their proper effects) their blood becomes inflamed into 
gout, stone, and rheumatism, raging fevers and pleurisies ; their 
passions are enraged into quarrels, murder and blasphemy; 
their juices are dried up, and their solids scorched, shrivelled, 
or bloated.” f 
- Water was thtr drink provided (by- the .-banoficent Creator)for 
our first parents in Eden/and thmwjhont tha-sftciplnr.es we 
find tire- mjofjju wci'ful -evidence that it should .bs preferred-be- 
fore all -otliMS-j In the book of Daniel, first chapter and six- 
teenth verse, are these remarkable words:—“Prove thy ser- 
vants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to 
eat, and water to drink. ” Then let our countenance be looked 
upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat 
of the portion of the king’s meat, and as thou s?est deal with 
thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter, and 
proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days their coun- 
tenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children 
that did eat the portion of the king’s meat, f Thus Molaa-r-took 
army the of their ment, flTiTi tup ivrrTiiiT Tnrv 
-BflUUUJ Djn,Mr:”_y 
fcooking fni Lkrr-4lnmglMho -mm.ivwe-fowh-tko mosPsatis^ 
Nor did not with unbashful forehead woo 
The means of wickedness and debility ; 
Therefore my age is a lusty winter, 
Frosty, but kindly. 
O, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their 
brains! that we should with joy, revel, and applause, transform our- 
selves into beasts! 
O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, 
let us call thee—devil!!—Shakespeare. THE WATER CURE. 
19 
factory ovulenee-m-^rrcunTmendLitton of water ao tho 
&ieat--fe>CTgrftgor-(lt-wag the drink provided by the beneficent 
Creator foroiir fiv._»t •parents .A When the king of Israel made 
‘‘great provisions” for the Syrian army, the drink was water. 
When Abraham sent away Hayar, he gave her a bottle ot 
water. (-The angol fchat-ramc to Hagar in thc-wrkfemess, 
pointed her to a pkeu uf water J When Rebecca received the 
offer of gavg tp seryant .water, t- Gid- 
eon s threenundrea valiant soldiers' drank water. At Nabal’s 
feast of sheep-shearing, the drink provided was water. (Elijahp 
when fod hy drank waterV and-when ho came-to-t-he 
widow of Zidon, asked -only for water. When tho -angol 
VmrmaJaU him iii r,. pvi-ry4 . i n it,- ..for flir. jnnmoy IWoh; the liquid 
in the oruioo -Geed-Obadiah fed the one hundred 
prophets on bread and water. Job’s traveller went to the stream 
for water. The king of Assyria promised the Jews, that on 
submission they should eat their own vine, and drink the water 
of their own The Israelites promised the Edomites 
to purchase water. {Timuthy’s-uirual drink-wac watdt-, the 
“ liHb-r~wiim” bning-pr<vmbwl modio+ually John the Rnptint 
took water. A4-^he-^weh-of-SamanaTliath_Jaeoh_aiid_Jes»s 
King Saul in the cave had water. Samson and 
his mother drank water.(end watcu in the element nhmrn"by 
Gnd-tn typify the rhnincnflilenningn of the hnnvmly 
Notwithstanding that theory and practice have demonstrated 
in every possible way that water is best, yet the majority of 
mankind have yet but a faint idea of the extent of its salubri- 
ous effects when taken in proper quantity internally, or applied 
in different ways externally. In the former this arises from 
the practice of taking hot tea, coffee, wine, spirits, and irrita- 
ting medicines, &c., from an early age. The long indulgence 
in these fictitious habits produces an unhealthy state of feeling, 
attended with the fear that cold water would produce unplea- 
sant sensations, and some injury to the stomach; there is, 
therefore, a barrier to its use, made up of fear, dislike, preju- 
dice, and custom. But when this formidable barrier can be 
leaped over, or broken down, by a little reasoning and reflec- 
tion, after a few essays the individual finds, and is convinced 
that he has been deprived of a great source of pleasure, and of 
one of the most powerful conducers to health. By the great 
change in the feelings, the greater aptitude for mental and 
bodily exertion, the marked accession of cheerfulness and gai- 
ety, from taking water, all these changes in a short time make 
a convert. The relish for food, and the greater quantity that 20 
THE PRACTICE OF 
can be taken, and easily digested, the light and refreshing 
sleep without disturbing dreams—these, with the former, make 
him an advocate. The improved skin and complexion, confer- 
ring the freshness of youth, the clear eyes, the sweet and 
wholesome breath—all these, united to the foregoing, produce 
a zealous disciple, wishing others to share his benefits. By 
the proper use of cold water, the whole apparatus of digestion, 
from the teeth to the liver, is improved, and resists decay. 
What can exceed the beauty, freshness and purity of a glass 
of water taken from the spring ? It leaves no mawkish taste 
behind it, no fictitious or unpleasant odor. When it is taken 
during a walk before breakfast, after a bath or general ablution, 
it cleanses all the passages, purifying the mouth, and filling it 
with sweet and pleasant fluids, making the individual cheerful, 
hungry, and wide awake. What a contrast this is to creeping 
down stairs with the eyes half-closed, huddling up to the fire, 
and swallowing scalding nervous-making tea or coffee, eating 
a few bits of toast, without appetite, and requiring some relish 
to make them go down! 
This drinking cold water moderately in the morning, as a 
general result, makes the pill-box and purgative draught a su- 
perfluity, for it dilutes the viscid secretions, such as bile, slimy 
matters, &c., that have collected during the night, and makes 
them pass off. The determination being already to the skin 
by the wet sheet or sweating, and the bath, or by simple wash- 
ing all over, the cold fluid being then taken into the stomach, 
at first lowers its temperature, and that of all the organs con- 
tained in the abdomen, helping still more to lessen any irrita- 
tion and heat, or undue collection of blood in these parts. 
The water is rapidly absorbed by the stomach, not digested as 
many suppose : and pure water does not escape into the ali- 
mentary canal. When it is all sucked up by the stomach, it 
goes into the general current of the circulation; mixing with 
the blood, it is first carried into the lungs, and then sent on by 
another set of tubes, the arteries, to the tips of the fingers and 
the points of the toes; and every intermediate part feels its 
benefits, giving new life and activity to everything it has come 
in contact with. It is then in great part thrown off, (mixed 
with waste matters,) by the skin, in invisible steam; by the 
kidneys and by the breath. When a glass of water is swal- 
lowed, the stomach, by its motions, diffuses it over all its surface 
before it absorbs or takes it up, just as you would wash the 
face—and it has the same refreshing and beautifying effects, leaving it at a more natural temperature, and giving it a more 
healthy color. 
It appears almost incredible with what rapidity cold water is 
taken up by the healthy stomach. I once, by way of experi- 
ment,* swallowed thirty tumblers of water from the spring 
before breakfast—each equal to half-pint—two of which I 
sometimes took at once. I was nearly three hours about it. 
At nine o’clock I was so hungry that I could hold out no lon- 
ger, I had intended to have tried another dozen. When I went 
out at six, I had a wet bandage on the stomach tightly applied, 
and covered by a thick dry one. When I went to breakfast, 
the abdomen was diminished in size, for my bandage no longer 
stuck so close. I never enjoyed a morning’s walk more, and 
during the day felt perfectly well. At first, when the stomach 
is much out of order, and the patient has not been accustomed 
to drink water, it is well to begin as gradually as he plea- 
ses. He soon gets to like it, not from thirst as is supposed, 
but from its refreshing effects, just as people take wine or 
spirits without being thirsty, to relieve a low feeling, or produce 
a tipsy one. Often when sitting down to my bread and butter, 
milk and strawberries, with an appetite that would have made 
dry bread delicious, I could not help comparing my state to that 
I could vividly recall, after taking two pills over night, and a 
white—no, a black draught in the morning. What a contrast 
in every sense of the word—in the moral as well as the physi- 
cal man—one as unwholesome, irritating, and depressing, as 
the other was cleanly, refreshing and exhilarating. 
It is necessary to observe, that most persons who are delicate 
or ailing, by getting up before their usual time, and walking 
before breakfast, produce lassitude, headache, and other disa- 
greeables for the rest of the day; this unpleasant state does 
not occur if part of what I have described is done beforehand, 
and followed by a few tumblers of water. 
Simple as the mere act of drinking water may appear, there 
are a variety of diseased states in which its use requires dis- 
cretion and management. There are cases in which it produ- 
ces great disturbance, and others in which the progress towards 
THE WATER CURE. 
21 
* At this time, be it remarked, I had recovered, and was in high 
health, and going through a course of experiments ; I should mention, 
that after the twentieth tumbler, I felt a slight dizziness accompanied 
with a tipsy feeling; but not in any way disagreeable ; it disappeared 
on taking breakfast. Patients should not make such attempts, but 
rather be on the right side, of doing too little rather than too much. 22 
THE PRACTICE OF 
cure is interfered with, by drinking too large a quantity, or at 
improper periods. 
The majority of people in large towns, from their mode of 
life, of eating and drinking, over-exertion and many unnatural 
habits, which would sooner be fatal, were it not for the won- 
derful power of the machine to accommodate itself, and resist 
such a complication of efforts to destroy it, have their stomachs 
and constitutions more or less in a disordered state, which 
water properly administered would go a great way to rectify. 
Abernethy went so far as to say, that in London there was not 
a perfectly healthy inhabitant, and from what I observed during 
many years practice, I cannot say that he exaggerated in his 
statement. In truth, when admitted behind the scenes, we cer- 
tainly do discover the melancholy fact, that every second per- 
son has some ailment more or less distressing to complain of. 
However, this state of things admits of great amelioration, and 
by very easy and simple means—the judicious use of water. 
In fine, there is no agent applied to the body, externally or 
internally, that has such influence in awakening all the vital 
powers to their great restorative capabilities, in arresting the 
progress of disease, or preventing, when inevitable, a fatal ter- 
mination, as pure water. Administered at various tempera- 
tures, it is the most powerful remedy we possess, the most 
manageable in its scientific application, the most easily ob- 
tained, and the most certain in its results. So varied are the 
modes in which it can be applied, that there is no remedy that 
can be made to produce so many diversified and opposite 
effects ; a stimulant, a sedative, a diuretic, a sodorific, a deriva- 
tive,—and a cleanser and restorative in the fullest sense of the 
terms. Unchaining all the powers of the constitution, giving 
nature a genial impetus, and leaving uncurbed her desire and 
efforts to heal; and all this without the necessity of straining 
any individual function; and after its most marvellous and 
mighty results in the most acute and dreaded diseases, leaving 
behind no trace of its operation, no mark or after-suffering, to 
point out where or how its power had been exercised—a con- 
queror without bloodshed—the giver of sound constitutions 
without levying a tribute—a divine and universal remedy!— 
universal in its application—universally dispensed for the use 
of all mankind—and in days to come, destined to be universally 
placed at the head of all remedies. This,—my opinion,—writ- 
ten long before the Water Cure was heard of in England, is 
still, after much reflection, and a more matured experience, my 
confirmed belief. THE WATER CURE, 
23 
THE SWEATING PROCESS. 
This is effected in a very easy and simple manner. The 
bedding is removed and a blanket of the largest size is spread 
out on the mattress. The patient lying down at full length, is 
enveloped in it as comfortably as possible, and so as to fit well 
about the neck and feet. The best covering over this is a 
small feather or down bed, with a light ticking, which must be 
tucked in about the neck and shoulders, and all the way down 
to the feet. It is well to elevate the head as high as the pa- 
tient finds it convenient, or comfortable. In this state he is 
left till perspiration comes on. It is then allowed to continue 
for a longer or a shorter time, according to circumstances, It 
generally takes two or three hours before the patient is in full 
perspiration; but it is a good plan when it is slow, after the 
first hour, to begin rubbing the hands gently against each other, 
and up and down the sides, doing the same with the feet, but 
not so as to fatigue, or affect the breathing. As the packing- 
up takes place early in the morning, not to lose any part of the 
day, the patient has generally a good sleep for an hour or more. 
When perspiration has fairly set in, the window is sometimes 
thrown open, particularly in summer, and, from time to time, 
half a tumbler of cold water is given to drink. When it is 
considered that sufficient perspiration has taken place, the bed 
and blankets are thrown off, and the patient steps into a bath, 
(if it be in his room,) containing about a foot and a half of cold 
water, where he is well washed and rubbed, assisting himself 
as much as possible, but without being in a hurry. It is well, 
in some cases, to have a basin of cold water at the side, in 
which the patient just gives his hands, face, and breast a rub 
before he sits in the bath. When the large bath is used, the 
patient walks to it still enveloped in the blanket, a cloak thrown 
over if necessary ; here he plunges in at once, if it is large 
enough. Sometimes it is necessary to have two baths, one 
with cold, the other having water with the chill taken off or 
even tepid. In this case, he enters first into the warmer bath, 
and after a good rubbing, transfers himself quickly into the 
colder one; where the same thing takes place for a minute or 
two, returning again to the warmer one. Where the douche 
is in the house, it is sometimes made use of instead of the bath. 
After all these processes, he dresses quickly, and goes out to 24 
THE PRACTICE OF 
walk for an hour or longer, drinking from time to time a tum- 
bler of water. 
This mode of producing perspiration, followed by the cold 
bath, was at first thought the greatest discovery, and the most 
essential modification of the Water Cure treatment. Stirring 
up the system, and producing purgation and waste by the skin 
—strengthening this again, as well as the internal organs, by the 
bath, was considered by Priessnitz and his partizans so power- 
ful, simple, and harmless an operation, that—combined with 
the other salutary adjuncts of the Cure,—no diseased state 
could resist it. For a long time this went on, and although in 
many cases, the results answered their expectations, in many 
others some disappointment, not to say mischief, took place. 
Priessnitz, however, was too keen an observer not to see in the 
end that he had been mistaken, and had carried it too far. There 
is now a numerous class of patients in which he does not use 
the sweating process, but he has not yet made all the reforma- 
tion that I believe he will ultimately find necessary. Not so, 
many of his imitators in different parts of Germany, who con- 
tinue to this day to practise the serious errors, which he has 
been gradually removing for several years. Conscious of the 
errors he has fallen into, and always reasoning and observing, 
he is more cautious, having learnt from experience that errors 
are more or less the lot of every system, and that an approach 
to perfection is only to be attained by constant thought and ex- 
ertion. But he does not like to be reminded of the change in 
his practice. 
The application of the cold bath after a profuse perspiration 
is thought by the many, and even by most medical men, to 
be highly dangerous; but, in fact, there is nothing more inno- 
cent or exempt from danger when directed by a competent 
practitioner; it is on the whole not more dangerous and cer- 
tainly not as disagreeable as “ two pills over night, and a black 
draught in the morning.” The practice of taking a cold bath 
after sweating is of very ancient date, having been practised 
by the Russians and other northern nations from time imme- 
morial, but with this important difference—that they produced 
the sweating by the application of hot vapor. This makes a 
great difference from producing it by the effort of the internal 
organs and the concentration of animal heat; one is much more 
debilitating than the other, and the re-action after the bath is 
not so good or permanent. Added to this, there is the great 
objection of taking hot air or vapor into the lungs. I took a 
great many Russian baths at Vienna,—in some measure for THE WATER CURE. 
25 
experiment,—and I am convinced of the immense difference of 
the two processes, when they come to be frequently repeated, 
as in the Water Cure. The safety of this process, as I have 
described it, (the contrivance of which is due to Priessnitz,) is 
owing to the comparative calm and absence of irritation in all 
the internal organs, or exhaustion of the nervous energy; the 
fresh air alone being inhaled by the lungs, and the cool liquid 
being introduced into the stomach,—both of which increase the 
determination to the skin, and the sweating, when the latter 
has once commenced. 
When the body is in a state of perspiration, heated and ex- 
cited by dancing, walking, singing, or talking, there is nothing 
so dangerous, more especially if the individual is weakly, or 
has chronic disease, than drinking largely of cold water, or en- 
tering a cold bath. We have numerous examples of the fatal 
effects of this imprudence. At Naples, during the extreme 
heat, and while the body is in a state of perspiration, one ob- 
serves the inhabitants drinking iced water freely, at all the cor- 
ners of the streets, but the perspiration they are in, is in a 
great measure a passive one, arising from, and kept up by the 
heat of the climate. A Polish gentleman told me that one of 
his countrymen, a young physician, having heard from so many 
quarters that hundreds were in the habit of taking the cold 
baths in a state of perspiration, he,—without thought or ac- 
curate inquiry,—after a long ride, exhausted and wet with per- 
spiration, went and bathed in a river; he was attacked with 
apoplexy, which carried him off in a few days afterwards, 
showing that he did not understand, or was not aware of the 
different state the body is in, according to the mode of producing 
the perspiration. There is the same objection to the cold bath 
after James’s powder or any sudorific medicine. 
Perspiration once set in, is allowed to continue from a period 
of half an hour to an hour. As a general rule, this perspiration 
must be put a stop to, as soon as the patient feels a sense of 
fatigue, and before any feeling of debility comes on. 
It would be but natural to suppose this process, continued 
day after day for months together—as has been the case with 
hundreds of invalids,—would cause great debility, and pull 
down the individual to “ the shadow of a shade but such is 
far from being the result in the majority of instances, where it 
is proper it should be used. Prince Lichtenstein told me that 
he had gone through this process nearly every day for eighteen 
months. When he commenced, he was weak, reduced in flesh, 
and in a deplorable state of health, from ten years’ suffering 26 
with a leg doomed to amputation by all the first surgeons in 
Europe. At the time I was speaking to him, (and he was still 
continuing the treatment,) he was in robust health, and in a 
condition to excite the envy of a first-rate pugilist. He had 
gained nearly three stones in weight, and the leg had made 
great advances towards complete recovery. 
In most cases where there is a determination of blood to the 
head, or where there is reason to suspect the existence of chronic 
disease in the brain, the sweating must be practised with very 
great care and discrimination. Where there is extensive chronic 
inflammation in the digestive mucous membrane,—in some 
cases of hypochondriasis, irritability of the heart, nervous de- 
bility, &c. &c., this process must be deferred, or not used at 
all. Where these contra-indications do not exist, and the 
sweating still produces a loss of flesh, or an increased state of 
irritability,—when the patient does not feel well, and obtain 
full re-action after the bath, in such cases it is advisable to dis- 
continue it. 
It is sometimes necessary to apply a wet compress on the 
forehead before and during the perspiration, changing it from 
time to time: and there are also cases where the patient is 
made to sweat in the wet sheet, but they are rare. Whenever 
there is the least tendency to fever, where the symptoms of a 
cold or influenza are coming on, the sweating process must not 
be attempted: it generally aggravates all the symptoms. In 
these states the patient must be placed in the wet sheet. I 
have observed that those whose skins are white and delicate, 
persons who have much fat, the gouty and rheumatic, sweat 
easily, and in great abundance. On the other hand, where the 
temperament is phlegmatic, where there is a tendency to piles, 
or congestion of the abdominal viscera, it is not so easy. 
Sometimes the perspiration is partial, not appearing at all 
on certain parts ; this is supposed to arise from the existence 
of diseased action, or the accumulation of morbid matter in the 
part; when discovered, it is well, previously to enveloping the 
patient in the blanket, to apply a compress or bandage, wrung 
out of cold water, to the part. With the repetition of this pro- 
cess, great changes takes place; at first the perspiration is 
small in quantity, clear in its nature, and difficult to be pro- 
duced ; as the patient advances it becomes more profuse, and 
impregnated with the most disagreeable odors—viscid and glu- 
tinous,—of a dark yellow and even brown color;—and sour, 
fetid, &c., in its smell. Sometimes there is no mistaking the 
smell of sulphur, at others it resembles the disagreeable odor 
THE PRACTICE OF THE WATER CURE. 
27 
that is produced by mercurial salivation. When these morbid 
phenomena appear, the perspiration may be considered of a 
critical nature. As a general rule, where there is no evident 
reason why this process should not be used, sweating followed 
by the cold bath, is not debilitating; wrhat is lost in one way is 
repaired in another. The appetite is so much increased, and 
the functions of the skin and digestive organs so improved, that 
the loss of a little fluid by sweating has only a salutary effect. 
Fat is replaced by hard elastic flesh, and languor and debility 
give way to a state of cheerfulness and activity. 
Great, however, as the remedial powers, of this natural means 
of relieving the body and throwing off' disease, may be made, 
much injury has in many instances occurred from its abuse: 
more particularly when combined with the plunge-bath and 
douche. Mr. Mayo mentioned a case by letter to one of my 
patients, in which the mos't serious injury wras suffered by the 
nervous system, and the brain put in imminent danger, by the 
misapplication of these powerful remedies. On my way to 
Graefenberg I was tempted to visit an establishment beauti- 
fully situated ; fortunately I only remained ten days. I was 
sweated, plunged, and douched, regularly, and knowing little 
practically of the system at that time, I obeyed orders: the re- 
sult was a serious aggravation of all my distressing symptoms. 
During a period of above twelve months that I continued the 
Water Cure, I did not sweat once, as a prescription, and most 
properly so. 
It is necessary to bear in mind that it is not the mere pour- 
ing out of sweat that relieves or cures disease. What is de- 
sired to be done by the sweating process is to rouse the system 
to those efforts of cure which constitutes the peculiarity of 
treatment by the Water Cure. The sweat poured out is only 
an indication that these efforts have been made ; in the same 
sense that the crisis is only an indication of similar efforts on 
a more continuous scale. Hence, if we find that the process 
taxes the patient’s powers, and especially his head, it is proper 
for the first time or two to take him out of the blankets and use 
the bath, when a considerable heat has accumulated in the skin, 
and before any sweat has flowed. In this manner we are en- 
abled to coax, as it were, the skin into sweating, without ex- 
citing the brain and nerves in a harmful way; for after a few 
trials of this kind, the skin opens and gives out its fluids, with- 
out any injurious straining of the system. 
Another way to counteract the headache, which sometimes 
attends sweating, is to place a towel well wrung out of cold 28 
THE PRACTICE OF 
'water, over the stomach and bowels,-and then envelope the pa- 
tient for the process. A brisk walk, or a light meal, taken two 
or three hours previously, ofttimes too curtail the process; but 
it is generally better to obtain the sweat without those aids ; it 
is then more entirely the work of the system; there is less of 
forcing in it; it is more natural, and therefore more beneficial. 
But if such helps as these for hastening the sweating be gen- 
erally unadvisable, what shall be said of those means that are too 
commonly had recourse to, to procure a speedier perspiration ? 
I allude to the use of hot air and hot vapor. Why, that they 
actually mar the aim of the treatment, failing to rouse the in- 
ternal organs at all, and leaving the skin in an enfeebled and 
sensitive state. The truth is, that the heat which causes the 
sweat should be of the body’s own accumulation, and proceed- 
ing from its innermost parts ; whereas this air or vapor is arti- 
ficial heat applied to the skin only, and going only skin deep in 
its effects. By Priessnitz’s method the blood is driven to the 
surface ; by the hot air vapor it is drawn to the surface from a 
very short depth; the consequence of which is that the diseased 
parts within are not benefited, inasmuch as they do not come 
into play at all; whilst the skin is relaxed, and its accumulated 
blood liable, on the application of the cold bath, to be driven in 
upon the internal parts which are not in so good a state to re- 
ceive and react upon the shock. 
A further result of this mistaken mode of forcing sweat is 
the actual decrease of the appetite instead of the increase of it, 
which follows that by the blankets; and on the back of this 
comes decrease of weight and strength as the ultimate conse- 
quence of the hot air vapor. It is the more necessary to dwell 
upon this point, as the practice is growing too common, out of 
the impatience of invalids, who may rest assured that it is a 
most ruinous economy of time to them. 
The inhalation of hot and dry air, (such as patients are made 
to breathe who sweat in rooms in some instances raised to the 
temperature of 170° Farhenheit) is in every way deleterious. 
It carries off all the moisture that ought to lubricate the wind- 
pipe and air passages of the lungs, and thus renders the mu- 
cous linings of those parts especially sensitive. Not only so, 
the immediate contact of the stimulating atmosphere with the 
sensitive lining of the air-tubes was never intended by nature, 
and the mucus is poured out for protection from such contact. 
Accordingly, this hot, dry air, by abstracting the moisture, 
tends to produce cough and sense of stricture about the chest. THE WATER CURE. 
29 
This was the leading objection to the use of Arnott’s stove in 
chambers, as all may remember ; and it was a very valid one. 
But farther, it is in complete opposition to the principles of 
the Water Cure to inhale heated air at all. Rightly proceed- 
ing on the doctrine that the blood is to be rendered healthy so 
as to permit the body to work its own restoration, the admission 
of pure cool air into the lungs for the purpose of oxygenizing 
that fluid is above all essential. Now, hot air being rarified, 
does not contain one half the oxygen that cold air does, and the 
blood consequently loses just by one half its vivifying and 
strengthening agency: the dark blood from the veins is not 
sufficiently changed by the air, and a blood unfit for the pur- 
poses of life is allowed to flow through the body, and especially 
in the brain, where it congests, and produces the tense head- 
ache that attends the inhalation of hot air. The consequence 
of all which infallibly is, that when rheumatism, and one or 
two other complaints, are relieved by this hot air sweating, 
(and they have been so relieved,) their return may be relied 
upon; no cure has been affected, because the very first princi- 
ple of cure—the formation of a healthy, rich blood, to enable the 
body to effect its own restoration—has been sinned against. It 
is one of the abuses of the Water Cure that ought to be depre- 
cated by all who understand that cure and wish its success. 
THE WET SHEET. 
The application of a wet sheet, as it is used in the Water 
Cure, is, I believe, one of the most extraordinary and valuable 
remedies that has ever been discovered ; whether we look at it 
in its admirable effects, or the extensive range of diseased 
states to which it may be applied with benefit. 
The bare idea, however, of lying in a wet sheet, staggers 
people more, I find, than any part of the Water Cure. There 
are many who believe that some of the processes of our treat- 
ment may be of service, and can imagine that water has some 
virtues, notwithstanding that it is only “ simple water that we 
sometimes drink, and wash our face and hands inbut this 
strange idea of a wet sheet brings with it visions of damp beds, 30 
THE PRACTICE OF 
wretched inns, colds, rheumatism, lumbago, and death. It 
must be confessed, that it is but natural, that this should be the 
first impression, for a wet sheet and a damp sheet sound very- 
much like each other,—a distinction without a difference; but 
notwithstanding the puzzle, the wet sheet, and its accompani- 
ments, will remove and cure all the effects attributed to the 
“ damp sheet,” or sheets. 
When a person lies all night in damp sheets, the air not being 
completely excluded, and being at the same time more or less 
deranged in his internal economy, there is great danger that 
illness in some shape or other will be the result; the equilibri- 
um of the vital functions has been interfered with, the insensi- 
ble perspiration checked, and the nervous system put into an 
uncomfortable and irritated state. Priessnitz thinks (for a 
friend of mind asked him the question) that the alkali used in 
the washing has something to do with the unpleasant conse- 
quences ; but there are sufficient reasons, added to those above 
mentioned, to account for the danger of sleeping in damp sheets, 
without the one mentioned by Priessnitz, even supposing it had 
anything to do with it. The wet sheet used as a remedy is 
something very different from a damp one; the one is danger- 
ous, the other a life preserver. 
It is an application which has often, and will full oft again, 
save many children’s tears, many a father’s grief, and mother’s 
lamentation. 
I shall now describe how it is made and applied, and its 
effects. A strong linen sheet is dipped in cold water, and 
wrung till no more water can be expressed without difficult)'. 
At Graefenberg they have a good plan of doing this: the sheet 
is thrown round a pole, or round rail, and the two ends meet- 
ing, it is easily twisted into a cord, and the water wrung out; 
when this is done, the servant enters the room, and the patient 
jumps up ; the bedding is thrown off, and a large blanket laid 
out on the mattress; on this the sheet is smoothly placed. The 
patient, lying down full length, nearly on his back, with his 
head as high as he pleases on the pillow, has the sheet wrapped 
round him, fitting close just above the collar bones, and down 
to the feet, which are included ; the blanket is then quickly ap- 
plied, by drawing first one side and tucking it in well about the 
neck, under one shoulder, and round the legs, and then the 
other side over in the same way as has been previously done 
with the sheet; additional blankets may be laid on if necessary, 
and a light feather or down bed is then placed over all, and well 
tucked in from the neck to the feet. In this state the patient is THE WATER CURE. 
31 
allowed to remain for half, three quarters of an hour, or an 
hour. For about five minutes the sensation cannot be called 
very agreeable, but it goes off very quickly, and then it is any- 
thing but disagreeable, often very pleasant, producing a very 
soothing and calming effect. None of the heat of the body 
being able to escape, it is at first rapidly taken up by the cold 
sheet; if in a few minutes the hand be passed over the body 
and then applied to the sheet, the former will be found to be 
cold and the latter quite warm. Matters are now changed— 
the surface of the body is cool, and the sheet warm, and so the 
struggle goes on between the two, till both are warm; when 
this takes place, the patients take the cold or chilled, the half 
or full, bath as may be, dress quickly, turn out for a walk of an 
hour or so, and drink some tumblers of water, “ and then to 
breakfast with what appetite they have.” The alderman that 
offered a ragged boy a guinea for his appetite would have given 
a hundred for such a one as this, and something more for the 
good digestion, and absence of apopletic symptoms afterwards. 
Independently of the calming effect that this mode of applying 
a wet sheet has on the nervous system and the internal organs, 
it has a great power in improving the tone and texture of the 
skin, increasing its reactive power, and lessening the unfavor- 
able influence that cold and damp, or sudden changes of tem- 
perature have upon it. It has a peculiar effect on the pores, 
which is difficult to describe. The cold bath is much more 
agreeable, and taken with much less reluctance after the wet 
sheet, for it removes that state of the surface which produces 
a sense of chill or a slight shudder on the application of cold 
water; it prevents that dry or rough state of the skin which 
sometimes takes place from applying cold water frequently in 
the day and for a length of time. After a long journey, or 
travelling day and night, a wet sheet and cold or chilled bath 
remove every symptom of fatigue, and any disposition to cold or 
other inconvenience induced by exposure, &c.; all this can be 
done in an hour anywhere, and the individual finds himself re- 
novated, and in a fit state to undergo any exposure or exertion. 
After a feverish night, awaking with headache, malaise, or in 
what is called a state highly bilious, let this process be gone 
through, using at first a shallow bath, with ten inches of water, 
at 65° or 70° Fahrenheit, and a good rubbing for five or six 
minutes, and when sitting down to breakfast with a keen ap- 
petite, gay and exhilerated, it will be acknowledged that the 
wet sheet is worthy of all praise and remembrance. 
In the eruptive fevers of children, nothing can be more ad- 32 
IHE PRACTICE OF 
mirablc than the effects of the wet sheet; in scarlet fever, 
measles, and small-pox,—in gastric fever, or a tendency to con- 
vulsions ; in fact, in all their indispositions it is a perfect safe- 
guard. An erroneous impression prevails that it would drive 
in eruptions; the effect is precisely the reverse ; it brings all 
matters to the surface with certainty and promptness that is un- 
equalled, and its own alone. 
Scientific medical practitioners are aware that there are two 
ways of giving health and strength to a frame laboring under 
disease; viz., by relieving the irritation of some particular part, 
which disturbs and oppresses the other organs ; and by directly 
giving tone to the really enfeebled body. 
The curative and strengthening operation of the wet sheet 
mainly consists in the former of these ways. In all chronic, as 
in all acute disorders, there is one organ, or series of organs, 
whose irritation or inflammation proves oppressive to the other 
organs, and the cure is to be found in the reduction of this irri- 
tation. The fact goes far to explain the very extensive, almost 
universal, employment of the wet sheet in disease. Its extra- 
ordinary power in allaying irritation, is one of the most curious 
facts of the Water Cure, and of which it is really difficult 
to give a full and satisfactory rationale. When properly 
modified to meet the actual state of the patient, it may be said 
to be the most soothing application that can be administered to 
the external sentient surface. It may be compared in its calm- 
ing effects to a poultice placed all over the body, but this is only 
stating a fact in other words. It carries off feverish heat, and 
this heat is employed in converting the moisture in the sheet 
into vapor; so that the patient may be said to be in a steam 
bath of his own making. This warm vapor settling on the skin, 
makes it soft and moist, and is very often mistaken for perspi- 
ration ; but the wet sheet, used for the purpose of reducing irri- 
tation, is not, as a general rule, allowed to remain long enough 
to induce sweating,—which is a directly opposite process, and 
intended for a different purpose from the wet sheet. But what- 
ever be the physiological principle upon which the wet sheet 
acts, it will be found during the treatment of most diseases by 
the Water Cure, an indispensable remedy, and one on which 
the practitioner can safely rely. 
Being applicable where there is morbid irritation, it is an in- 
valuable remedy in all internal and external inflammation, acute 
and chronic. In acute disease it is frequently changed, the 
patient not being permitted to remain in it longer than suffices 
to warm the sheet, which in fever, for instance, may be a quar- THE WATER CURE. 
33 
ter of an hour or even less. It is thus changed several times 
consecutively, increasing the time as the heat is reduced, and 
the shallow-bath, cold or chilled, follows. In this process two 
evident effects are produced, an immense quantity of heat is 
carried off from the surface, the pulse becomes soft, and falls 
in rapidity. 
After this, when the patient has been some time in bed, the 
heat on the surface again accumulates: but as the internal or- 
gans have been relieved, and the skin placed in a more favora- 
ble state for perspiration, this last commonly ensues, and na- 
ture relieves herself. Should, however, perspiration not take 
place, and instead of it, a return and continuation of the dry 
feverish skin, the wet sheet is recommenced as before; and so 
on every five or six hours perhaps. It should be remarked, that 
in complaints, which a high degree of fever accompanies, it is 
generally necessary to employ only three or more blankets for 
a covering. 
This is the ordinary mode of applying the wet sheet in acute 
disease ; and its application is only modified in frequency, ac- 
cording to the intensity of the feverish or inflammatory symp- 
toms. 
Among the advantages of this safe, simple, and refreshing 
means of reducing fever and inflammation, is that of not caus- 
ing any actual loss of strength to the patient, as by bleeding 
and strong medicines, and, as a necessary result, it is not at- 
tended by long convalescence or debility. It may be compared 
to putting out a fire by throwing wine-glassful after wine-glass- 
ful of water on it, instead of raking out the coal and cinders. 
The fire by this gentle method has been extinguished without 
making a dust, or producing any injury to the surrounding fur- 
niture. 
But in chronic diseases of long standing, a variety of modi- 
fications are called for, both with reference to the symptoms 
originally presented, and to those which arise in consequence 
of the Water treatment. 
Patients often present themselves in whom the vital energy 
is so wofully lowered by long disease and bad nutrition, with 
bad blood, that any considerable amount of stimulus would 
prove too much for their powers. These persons would never 
at first get warm in a cold wet sheet, because, as this with- 
draws the animal heat from the surface, the internal parts do 
not possess vigor enough to labor to supply that which has 
been abstracted. The patient, therefore, remains cold and mis- 
erable, and is, moreover, liable to have the head congested and 34 
THE PRACTICE OF 
headache follow on the wet sheet. In such cases—and they 
are to be judged of beforehand by close examination of the pe- 
culiarities of the patient,—it is expedient to wring the sheet 
out of warm water, and have it applied around the body at a 
temperature of about 70° or 75°; a temperature which, as it 
does not suddenly abstract a large amount of heat from the de- 
bilitated body, gives the latter a smaller shock, and more time 
and opportunity to supply, by the action of the internal organs, 
that which has been lost on the external surface. Gradually, 
as by the aid of drinking water, and by the reduction of irrita- 
tion by the sheet, the internal organs and the skin recover, and 
the patient acquires appetite and power of blood-making; the 
temperature of the sheet is then lowered until it comes to be ap- 
plied quite cold, by which time the heat-begetting power of the 
body equals the heat-withdrawing power of the sheet; after 
which the balance is changed, and the body generates more 
caloric than the sheet can withdraw in the time usually given 
to laying in it. 
This chilled or tepid sheet is an important modification of 
the treatment, and a very necessary one in a variety of bad 
cases. I am aware that Priessnitz does not use it, and that a 
non-medical practitioner of the Water Cure deprecates it, and 
has gone out of his way to abuse it. But it is not the less 
certain that every medical man of any professional accumen 
will see the propriety of adapting the activity of his practice to 
the organic activity of his patient,* and not run the chance 
* In many diseased states, where cold water is not admissible, the 
application of warmth and moisture is a valuable remedial agent. By 
fomentations, properly used, many a patient in a prostrate condition 
may be brought gradually into a state to bear all the processes of the 
Water Cure with benefit. Priessnitz, who is considered an authority 
in the use of cold water, sometimes uses hot water In a case that 
came under my observation,—that of the Duchess of Hanaultkeuting, 
—he ordered the legs to be put in hot water, up to the knees to relieve 
certain urgent symptoms for which cold water was found not to answer. 
What, 1 would ask, could be done with cold water in the following 
case 1 (I may mention that I am at liberty to refer any one to the pa- 
tient.) A gentleman about fifty years old, had acquired a large fortune 
by his own talents and exertions ; but in doing so his constitution was 
nearly broken up. During the last ten years he had been in a state of 
constant suffering from the stomach and nerves. All the usual modes 
of treatment had been constantly tried in vain during this period, and 
he was at last incapacitated from any exertion. The evening he arrived 
at my house, he was carried to bed in a fainting state. On examination 
I found that he was literally reduced to skin and bone. The mouth and 
throat were covered with ulcers ; one, the size of the thumb nail, had 
nearly eaten through the upper lip. There were symptoms indicating THE WATER CURE. 
35 
of oppressing the already oppressed internal parts, when the 
whole object of the treatment is to relieve them from oppres- 
sion, and thus give them opportunity of throwing off the chronic 
malady. Without any derogation from the well-deserved fame 
of Priessnitz, it may be right to qualify the practice he pursues, 
in cases where medical investigation is required to detect the 
actual powers of the body to be treated. Why should not a 
chilled sheet be used as well as a chilled bath ? 
For a similar reason, it is necessary in some instances to 
apply the wet sheet only over the trunk of the body, leaving 
the extremities, or at least the legs with the dry blankets 
around them. For there are persons whose organic energy 
may suffice to supply the surface immediately over the vital 
organs with caloric, but would fail to do so with regard to the 
limbs, which are more distant from the active centre of vitality. 
The sheet is then made to reach only to the hips; and this is 
persisted in until, as in the former instance named, the appli- 
ances of the Cure increase the amount of organic energy in 
the body generally. As this is in progress, more and more of 
the sheet is gradually applied over the limbs. As a general 
rule, it is better not to include the feet for the first few times 
of packing in the sheet; the exceptions being those individu- 
als in whom there is either a great amount of feverish heat, or 
the nutrition of whose body has not been much encroached 
upon by long disease. This necessary modification is practised 
by Priessnitz to some extent. 
It is not unfrequently necessary to exclude particular por- 
tions of the trunk from the operation of the wet sheet. Thus, 
in asthma, for example, the patient is ofttimes able to bear and 
the existence of ulcers on the mucous membrane of the stomach and 
bowels. The heart and lungs were sound; the pulse fifty, weak and 
intermitting. Everything taken into the stomach caused pain, and he 
complained of a sensation of dying, and a feeling of sinking through 
the bed. Fcr three weeks the patient could take little else than barley- 
water. For some time the principal remedy was a warm fomentation 
to the stomach and bowels, repeated three times a day for an hour, with 
tepid ablutions. 
I must confess that I was for some days doubtful as to his recovery, 
but he wa3 in too weak a state to be removed or to return home. By the 
use of the remedies I have mentioned, combined with absolute rest of 
all the organs,—he got into a state to bear a daily increase of Water 
Cure treatment,—and ended with a douche bath. 
He is now quite well,—and when he meets with a virulent or unrea- 
sonable opponent of the Water Cure, he draws up his trowsers, and 
shows astrong and brawny calf, saying, “ Look at this specimen of con- 
densed water, six months ago it was only skin and bones. 36 
THE PRACTICE OF 
derives the greatest benefit from the remedy, when a dry towel 
is placed between the skin of the front of the chest and the 
sheet; when otherwise he would be unable to get warm in it, 
and the difficult breathing would he most distressing. Where 
also the heart is nervously irritable, the same application of a 
dry towel over the region of that organ is found to render the 
sheet bath bearable and efficient for good; when the sheet 
becomes warm, the dry towel can be put at the side in some 
cases. But this only applies to nervous disorders of the con- 
tents of the chest; all inflammatory diseases, there, from a sim- 
ple catarrh to the most serious states, require that the sheet 
should be in immediate contact with the surface of the chest. 
There is no case in which this indirect application of the 
sheet to the stomach and bowels is desirable ; it would seem 
that that part being the starting point of almost all ailments, 
both bears and requires the full operation of this most powerful 
and wonder-working agent in the Water Cure. The sheet 
will always be found first heated over this region. 
The time in which it is necessary to remain in the wet sheet, 
must vary with the powers of the individual submitted to it. 
Suppose a patient to be forty or forty-five minutes before he 
feels thoroughly warm in it, it is generally advisable to leave 
him for an hour and twenty minutes, or an hour and a half 
from the first packing. The accumulation of warmth then 
produces sufficient circulating power in the skin to re-act upon 
the subsequent ablution in the shallow-bath or dripping sheet. 
Moreover, this slowness in warming in the sheet implies an 
inveterate degree of irritation and oppression in some internal 
organ, which therefore requires a full quantity of the soothing 
and derivative effects of the remedy in question. 
When, however, the patient speedily—that is, in ten or fif- 
teen minutes—gets thoroughly warm in the packing, an hour is 
the outside time requisite for him to remain. There are some 
cases where even this is too long, and they are known by head- 
ache, swimming, and sensations of fainting showing them- 
selves. In these cases the irritation to be removed, not being 
of that inveterate kind which interferes with blood-making and 
heat-making, caloric soon accumulates, and to such an extent, 
as to cause the sheet to pass from its soothing to its irritating 
and depressing stage of agency; and the pulse falls so low as 
to cause irregular circulation in the brain, and the phenomena 
above mentioned. 
Between these extremes of peculiarity as regards the action 
of the wet sheet, there are numerous shades. But to detect THE WATER CUKE. 
37 
any of them, and thus to obtain all the good available from 
the remedy, requires not a small amount of medical knowl- 
edge, and experience in the practice of the Water Cure. 
As one great result of the wet sheet is to produce augmen- 
ted and healthy secretions from the mucous membranes—espe- 
cially the digestive—the state of those membranes should be 
accurately examined previous to ordering it and during its use. 
Ill the course of its employment, in a great number of cases, 
that portion of the mucous membrane which lines the ducts of 
the liver pours out a great quantity of bile and mucus, giving 
rise to the phenomena conjointly called “ biliousness.” It is 
by virtue of this power that it effects such wonders in cases of 
inveterate constipation, with obstructed and turgid livers; and 
though this peculiar action is desirable in so many instances, 
there are others in which it is important to avoid it. Of those 
the practitioner must judge by the practice of his medical 
acuteness. 
The secretory agency of the wet sheet alluded to, points out 
its impropriety,—or the care with which it must be used,—in 
all cases where the feebleness of the bowels readily leads to 
exhausting diarrhoea. 
So long as there is internal irritation to remove, the patient 
goes on daily gaining power of speedily warming in the sheet, 
and the time for his remaining in it consequently diminishes. 
But when irritation is subdued, the wet sheet, if continued too 
long, tends to produce the symptoms of depression already 
mentioned; the patient does not feel comfortable in it, though 
it be warm ; he gets out of it weary and weak ; and his head 
begins to suffer. 
From the few preceding observations, it may easily be im- 
agined how admirably the effects of this remedy must be, in 
cases where there is constitutional irritation following surgical 
operations, or where the body has received any severe shocks 
or injuries. 
Many suppose that the Water Cure is a lowering system of 
treatment, and that the wet sheet is intended as a lowering 
remedy. There is no doubt that it has this effect in some cases 
when too frequently repeated, and when its use is not properly 
regulated. The idea, however, of its being a lowering remedy, 
has arisen in a great measure from many persons loaded with 
fat, becoming thinner under its application; but as a general 
rule, the lowering is in weight rather than in strength; for in- 
stance, when the patient is bloated, encumbered with fat, and 
more especially if accompanied with a pendulous abdomen, the 38 
packing in a wet sheet reduces weight rapidly, but it is fat 
only that is lost. On the other hand, in very many cases, 
weight is as rapidly gained by its use. A few weeks past a 
young lady left here, having gained twenty pounds in weight, 
in little more than two months. When she commenced the 
treatment with the wet sheet, she was thin and delicate. 
Many curious phenomena take place in some patients by 
frequent use of the wet sheet; amongst the most singular is 
that of its becoming a beautiful rose color. This will some- 
times continue for a week or two, then cease, and in a few 
weeks return again. In other cases, the sheet is found, when 
taken off the patient, after an hour’s packing in it, to be gluti- 
nous, and to have extracted fasti d matters from the skin. 
The merit of the discovery of the wet sheet is, I believe, due 
to Priessnitz without any contestation, and had he claims to no 
further originality than this, it is enough to earn for him the 
thanks of all those who have experienced its benefits, and the 
honors with which he will be remembered by posterity. 
Many suppose that he hit upon this novel application by 
accident, but there is no doubt that he arrived at it by a reg- 
ular course of inductive reasoning. The wet compress applied 
to local injuries, to parts inflamed externally, to diseased skin, 
and over the seat of internal inflammation, acute and chronic, he 
had long used, before he thought of applying the same rem- 
edy in a more extensive form. Applied locally, he observed 
that it relieved the parts from heat and pain, extracted morbid 
secretions, and produced many other remarkable and salutary 
effects. Observing the hot and dry skin, the accompanying 
feelings of weariness and often of pain in fever, he must have 
said to himself, why not apply the same remedy to the whole 
body which I find so serviceable when applied to local parts 
laboring under heat, pain, &c. He tried it—and when he saw 
the result of the operation of the wet sheet in the first case of 
fever, I can easily imagine him to have cried out like Archim- 
edes, “ Eureka!” For a long time he only applied it to fevers 
and inflammations, but latterly he discovered that it was a valu- 
able remedy in the treatment of chronic diseases ; the use and 
extraordinary effects produced by it in these states, after a 
time opened his eyes more fully to the abuse which had been 
committed with the sweating process, more particularly when 
he found that in many cases the crisis was produced more 
quickly, and that the recovery was more complete and rapidly 
produced by the wet sheet, than by subjecting the patient to 
undue or unnecessary sweating; we find, as we go on, that 
T II E PRACTICE OF THE WATER CURE. 
39 
too much forced purging of any kind is bad, whether it be by 
the skin or by the bowels. 
THE DOUCHE BATH. 
The douche is one of the processes of the Water Cure 
that requires much judgment in prescribing. Its powerful 
effects as a remedy has been known for ages, but it is only of 
late years that it has been fairly studied, its many valuable 
properties fully appreciated, and its application reduced to a 
rational system. The reason why this has been the case (and 
the same remark is applicable to other modes of using water) 
is sufficiently obvious. To obtain all the remedial action re- 
sulting from any one of the processes of the Water Cure, it is 
necessary that they should be used conjointly,—the effect of 
one hanging upon the other, and thus increased, lessened or 
modified, in their ultimate operation. Until the time of Priess- 
nitz, no man of genius had devoted all his powers exclusively 
to the study; many had a knowledge of the virtues of certain 
applications of water ; other physicians of great talent, learn- 
ing, and experience, predicted what has since been established, 
—that water, from the varied effects it can be made to produce, 
is, as nearly as possible, an universal remedy, resembling many 
of our most potent drugs, including bleeding and blistering: 
but with this great advantage, that it is more certain in produ- 
cing the effect desired, and not followed by the destruction and 
mischief which so often follows the long-continued use of 
strong medicines, whether drawn from the mineral or vegetable 
kingdoms; and the same remark applies to blistering and 
bleeding. 
The douche is formed by a column of water, descending per- 
pendicularly from ten to twenty feet, and from one to four 
inches in diameter. To prevent its separating into a shower 
bath, when the fall is great, it is necessary to conduct it 
through a tube for some distance in its descent. 
The best time for taking this bath is after breakfast, from 
ten to twelve o’clock; it is used, however, before breakfast, and 
in the evening in certain cases, sufficient exercise being taken 40 
THE PRACTICE Oi 
beforehand, to produce general warmth and activity in the sys- 
tem. It should be taken first on the palms of the hands, fol- 
lowed by washing the face, head, and chest. It is then allowed 
to fall on the shoulders, hips, and loins, then the arms and legs 
may be subjected to it for a time. The stomach and abdomen 
must not be placed under it. The duration of this bath is gen- 
erally from five to ten minutes. 
When a patient is somewhat advanced in recovery, after a 
few minutes’ application of the douche, the whole surface of 
the body assumes a beautiful deep rosy color, which lasts du- 
ring the period of dressing; accompanied by a feeling of activity 
and well-being, producing courage in the mind, and strength in 
the muscular system, with an inclination to active movement. 
There is slight apprehension at first when the splash of the 
descending water is heard, but after the first essay it goes off; 
nor does the patient ever willingly return from a large douche 
to a smaller one. Taking the douche is not attended by the 
disagreeable sensations experienced during a shower bath, and 
is looked forward to with pleasure. 
The douche is a powerful auxiliary to the general treatment, 
but its use requires great discretion,—a careful inquiry into the 
state of the constitution of the patient, and a knowledge of the 
pathological state he may be laboring under. It puts the whole 
system into a state of activity and excitement, forcing the blood 
to the surface, acting on the stomach and bowels, and increas- 
ing the activity of all the functions. When used at the proper 
time, it forwards the crisis that the system may be preparing. 
It is never applicable as long as any amount of local irrita- 
tion exists; and to ascertain the exact point at which such irri- 
tation being about to cease, the system requires to be stimulated 
and aided in its efforts to throw it on the exterior, some tact 
and experience is required. If a patient be sent under the 
douche in whom there is an inflammatory condition of the stom- 
ach, for instance, this will certainly be exasperated, and the 
head will simultaneously suffer. For, as the shock of the fall- 
ing water is first impressed upon the extremities of the nerves 
which proceed directly from the brain, it is conveyed immedi- 
ately to the latter organ, which, sympathising strongly at all 
times (and especially in the supposed case) with the stomach, 
transmits to the inflamed digestive organ the shock itself 
received from the skin; and thus brain and stomach are 
thrown into disorder at once, and headache, tremblings of the 
legs, somnolence, and sometime? nausea, are induced. 
For the same reason the douche is inapplicable in cases erf THE WATER CURE, 
41 
apoplectic fullness of the head, though not always so in con- 
gestive or atonic fullness of that organ. And great care is 
requisite in determining which of these states predominates. 
In pure congestion of the brain, unaccompanied with any in- 
flammatory condition of the digestive canal, well-regulated 
douching is of the first benefit, and will prevent the palsy of 
the limbs, which more or less extensively follows, if it be left to 
itself. Whereas the same in apoplectic fullness, would in all 
probability hasten a seizure; and unfortunately such has been 
the result in some establishments where the advise of compe- 
tent medical men has been dispensed with. 
So also when that species of indigestion is present, in which 
the nerves of the entire abdomen have lost their power of con- 
trolling the circulation there, and now the liver, now the stom- 
ach, and again the bowels, are the seats of transitory inflam- 
mations, and the constant symptom is an irritated or depressed 
state of mind, the douche is rarely applicable, or requires to be 
used with reference to the passing condition as shown by the 
pulse, tongue, &c.; it may thus be beneficial to-day and inju- 
rious to-morrow, and the physician must exercise his attention 
and discrimination accordingly. Such cases are but too fre- 
quently those which come for assistance from the Water Cure, 
after seeking it for a long time in vain from other plans of 
treatment. 
On the other hand, the douche is highly beneficial and may 
be freely employed when, by fomentations, wet-sheeting, and 
sitz-baths, &c., local inflammations of the mucous membranes 
of the digestive or urinary canals, have been subdued, and the 
tonic effects of the treatment alone are required. This is the 
reason why it is so seldom used in the outset of the treatment; 
for the inflammatory states in question form the basis of the 
great majority of diseases that are presented to the Water Cure. 
Again, when the malady of the solid organs of digestion,—the 
liver, spleen, and sweetbread,—consists in a sluggish retention 
of blood in their substance, which impedes their function, and 
thus generates slowness and imperfection of digestion, torpid 
bowels, &c.; the state, in short, to which the term “ obstruc- 
tion” is commonly applied; in such cases, a stimulus applied 
to the extremities of the nerves, and transmitted through the 
whole nervous system, rousing the circulation, is what is 
wanted, and is well supplied by the douche. 
When a similar state of “ obstruction” exists, and has existed 
for a long time in some portion of the brain or spinal cord, 
maintaining a state of palsy of more or fewer of the voluntary 42 
THE PRACTICE OF 
muscles; in palsy of some years’ standing, and when the ap- 
petite and digestion are good, this application of the douche is 
of the first consequence. But, as before explained, there must 
be no local internal inflammation. 
When more or fewer of the limbs have been stiffened by old 
rheumatism or gout, and the chronic inflammation and derange- 
ment of the digestive organs, which first caused this lamenta- 
ble state, has been subdued in a great degree or entirely, the 
douche plays a powerful part in re-producing that action of the 
joints themselves, which affords the natural lubricating fluid in 
them, as well as rousing that action in the nervous system, 
which enables the muscles of the limbs to resume their func- 
tion, and thus assist in getting the joints into play again.— 
Here too the internal inflammation must be first of all got rid 
of; in every case this is a sine qua, non. 
In patients who,—from the devastating effects of mercurial or 
iodine courses, — have'that portion of the nervous system 
which regulates the circulation and secretion, shattered, and 
the functions of digestion and blood making are rendered 
vicious, and the blood therefore impure and unfit to nourish 
the body in a healthy manner, the douche, by powerfully rous- 
ing the flagging nerves in question, and thus causing improved 
circulation and digestion, is essential; in conjunction, however, 
with other appropriate parts of the Water treatment. 
Such is a very brief outline of the conditions of body which 
require or are opposed to the employment of this powerful agent 
of the Water Cure. Circumstances of the pulse, the nervous 
energy, and of the skin, may and do from time to time arise in 
the course of a general malady, which call upon the practi- 
tioner to use the douche for a few days and then stop ; but it 
is impossible to detail those circumstances in any book, how- 
ever extended ; medical precision and tact, combined with ex- 
perience, alone can appreciate them. 
This is a bath containing from ten to fourteen inches of 
water, and used in the bed-room ; it may be cold, chilled, tepid, 
or warm, according to circumstances. It is the most useful 
THE SHALLOW BATH. THE WATER CURE. 
43 
bath in the Water Cure as a general ablution. It has the 
advantages of being at the bed-side, and answering all the pur- 
poses of the plunge bath, without any of the risks and incon- 
venience that frequently, and in many cases, attends the latter. 
The shallow bath is either used alone, after the sweating pro- 
cess, or after the envelopment in the wet sheet. In this bath 
the patient is in a sitting posture, and remains from two to ten 
minutes, being employed in rubbing and washing the different 
parts of the person; the attendant performing the same office 
on the back. Once or twice during the bath, fresh water may 
be poured over the head and shoulders, or the patient may do 
this with a washhand jug, or a large sponge. 
From the sitting position in which the patient is placed, the 
feet and hips are necessarily more cooled and powerfully acted 
upon by the water than the other parts of the body. After the 
bath, the determination of blood is greatest to the lower ex- 
tremities, and the great nervous centres of the brain and diges- 
tive organs are relieved by their sympathy with these parts. 
By the general ablution and rubbing a chill is prevented, and 
the circulation equalized on the whole surface of the body. 
When used alone, it is simply for the purpose of maintaining 
vigorous circulation on the surface, and the best time for taking 
it is on getting out of bed in the morning. 
Employed after the envelopment in the wet sheet, it operates 
by indirectly fixing the circulation on the external skin. The 
wet sheet has the property of equalizing the circulation of 
blood when it is congested on the mucous membrane or in any 
internal part, and an increased quantity of blood flows towards 
the skin. But as the warm vapor, which has been for some time 
surrounding the body when enveloped in the sheet, renders the 
skin soft and sensitive, it becomes necessary to obviate this by 
stimulating the skin with water, and inducing a slight shock, 
the secondary effect of which shall be to send a rushing tide 
of blood to the surface, and render it independent of the exter- 
nal atmosphere. Thus the blood is first of all gently drawn to 
the surface, by the soothing and gradual action of the wet sheet 
and the vaporous warmth that is generated, the skin at the same 
time being rendered sensitive; taking advantage of which sen- 
sitiveness, you, in the second place, induce by friction in the 
shallow bath, a rush of blood to the skin; and by repeating this 
double process day after day, a healthy and equable circulation 
Is induced throughout the body; the blood being at length per- 
manently fixed in proper quantity in the skin, at the expense 
of the morbid excess which existed heretofore in the diseased 44 
THE PRACTICE OF 
internal part. The more intense and great fixature of blood 
in internal parts is, the more frequently this process requires to 
be repeated and the longer continued. In some acute inflam- 
mations indeed,—as of the lungs or brain,—friction in the 
shallow bath requires in some cases to be persevered in for a 
length of time, after using quickly repeated wet sheets. 
The temperature of the shallow bath, after one wet sheet, 
will be regulated by the considerations that have been noted 
when speaking of the wet sheet itself. (See Wet Sheet.) 
As a sequel to the sweating process, the shallow bath is 
employed to obviate the relaxation of the skin which would 
infallibly ensue, were that surface merely dried after the out- 
pouring of sweat by its blood-vessels. To these last the cold 
acts as a grateful and beneficial tonic and stimulant; but the 
secondary effect is still to fix a good quantity of blood on the 
exterior. The duration of the bath after sweating varies from 
two to eight or ten minutes. The temperature, as a general 
rule, is always cold; the frame that is suited for sweating 
being in most cases able to bear the common temperature of 
water. 
For the purposes aimed at in using ablution and friction after 
the sheet or blankets, the shallow bath is in almost every par- 
ticular preferable to the plunge bath. The plentiful friction 
produces an equally great and fixed circulation of blood in the 
skin ; whilst the shock of the water being more gradually ap- 
plied, no risk is to be apprehended of the brain suffering from 
the sudden and violent revulsion which accompanies the plung- 
ing up to the throat in cold water, the skin still glowing with 
heat. A physician should well examine his patient’s powers 
and be well certified of the integrity and strength of his brain 
circulation, before he orders the plunge bath. 
With the shallow bath and frictions the patient is completely 
under the control of the practitioner, and I am convinced by 
experience that all the remedial intentions are equally well 
fulfilled, without any of the risk of the plunge bath. A gen- 
tleman under my care last summer, (Sir J. M—,) told me that 
he had suffered severely by going into the plunge bath; he used 
the shallow bath here with the greatest benefit. Even where 
the plunge bath is used, there is no use to prescribe it for gen- 
tlemen far advanced in years. 
With the shallow bath the practitioner has immense power 
over the circulating and nervous system of the patient. I have 
seen several severe cases of apoplexy completely cured by its TH E WATER CURE. 
45 
use. In a letter to Lord Alfred Paget, Lord Lichfield relates a 
bad case of apoplexy cured by Priessnitz, a short time before 
the letter was written. 
THE SITZ BATH. 
This bath is a most important part of the Water treatment, 
and the occasions for its employment are to be found in almost 
every disorder whether acute or chronic. 
When seated in the bath, the water should reach to the navel, 
and the patient must use friction to the abdomen, from time to 
time with the hand. A tumbler of water should also be placed 
at the side, and a portion taken at intervals; it adds to the 
refreshing effects of the bath. 
The sitz bath is used either as a tonic or a derivative. In the 
former case it is taken cold, and for a time, varying from five 
to fifteen minutes, seldom exceeding the latter period. 
The rationale of its operation in this character is sufficiently 
simple. The stimulus of the cold causes the blood vessels of 
the part and neighborhood to which the water is applied, to 
contract and thereby rid themselves of any excess of blood: 
and as this stimulus has not been carried to a great extent, 
there is very little subsequent return of relaxation in those 
vessels; still there is some; and it is for this reason, that it 
becomes necessary to apply the stimulus again after short in- 
tervals ; short sitz baths always require frequent repetition, 
sometimes as often as six or seven times in the twenty-four 
hours. It will appear from the above, that the short or tonic 
sitz bath, is applicable in all cases where there is an enfeebled 
or congested state of the parts contained within the hips, for 
instance, in excessive menstruation, leucorrhoea, loss of mus- 
cular tone, and protrusion of the lower gut, &c., &c. 
It is, however, more especially for its derivative effect that 
the sitz bath is most frequently employed. The class of dis- 
orders for which such effect is desirable, is far more numerous 
than those in which the tonic result is wished; and it includes 
some phases of brain congestion, obstructions of the liver, con- 
gestion of the stomach and its nerves, stoppage of courses, and 46 
THE PRACTICE OF 
constipation of the bowels,—diseased states which include all 
the forms of digestive and nervous complaints. Here the stim- 
ulus of the cold is applied so long that the blood vessels of the 
parts contained within the hips, after a violent tonic contrac- 
tion, fall into a state of great consequent exhaustion and relax- 
ation, whereby a great quantity of blood is admitted and retained 
in them. The result is doubly advantageous ; for first, a mass 
of blood is drawn from the upper organs of digestion, the liver, 
stomach, &c., and even from the head, whose obstruction and 
congestion it therefore relieved; and secondly, this blood so 
made to congest in the lower organs of digestion and in the gen- 
ital and urinary organs, secretes the matters peculiar to those 
parts, and thus the bowels are made to act, and the monthly 
evacuation of females is removed, and the functions of the kid- 
neys and bladder is promoted. 
The temperature at which it is fit to take the sitz bath is 
important. Its tonic effect,, as already explained, is best, and 
indeed only obtained by the cold degrees, that is, under sixty 
degrees. The degree at which to obtain the derivative effect 
will vary with the organic capabilities of the patient, and these 
the physician must ascertain by previous investigation. It 
must also have reference to the patient’s power of taking exer- 
cise after it; for if he remain cold for want of exercise, the 
tonic and not the derivative result will ensue, and it has been 
shown that the cases for these are diametrically opposite. Pa- 
tients in a very low condition of vital activity, but in whom it 
is desirable to produce derivation of blood to the lower organs 
of digestion, should in the first instance be submitted to water 
of a tepid temperature or nearly so, and the degree should be 
lowered as the strength increases. The amount of derivation 
in such event is not so great nor so permanent as when water 
at forty to fifty degrees is used; but a judicious practitioner 
will suit his remedies to his patient’s power, and not go by blind 
rules. The Water Cure is the cold water cure only in time 
and place, and where the individual peculiarities permit, or the 
patient has been brought into a state to benefit by it. 
The sitz bath is a powerful antispasmodic ; it removes flat- 
ulence, colic, and vomiting, of the most violent and obstinate 
nature. In the treatment of dysentery it is an invaluable ad- 
junct, &c. THE water cure. 
47 
THE WET SHEET BATH, OR DRIPPING SHEET. 
This is used as follows:—The sheet is steeped in cold 
water, and wrung just sufficiently to prevent its dripping too 
much. In this state it is thrown over the patient, who, embra- 
cing the fore parts with his arms, and hands, commences rub- 
bing his chest, face, and fore part of the person, at the same 
time that the attendant pursues the same process on the back, 
loins, and lower extremeties. This may be continued for two 
or three minutes, or more, when it is replaced by a dry sheet, 
when the same thing takes place, till the patient is well dried. 
This is an excellent portable bath, very useful as a daily ablu- 
tion, and very convenient in travelling. It is always followed 
by a pleasing general warmth, approaching a glow, and has 
great advantages over the usual mode of washing. By its 
daily use, it renders the surface less sensitive to changes of 
temperature, and removes the disposition to take cold. After 
the first instant, it is not a disagreeable application. 
In some cases it is repeated frequently in the day, and may 
be made a powerful stimulant and tonic. It is a very refresh- 
ing application, and carries off feverish heat. 
THE HEAD BATH. 
The patient lies full length on a mattrass or on the floor; a 
dish, containing about four inches of water, is placed so that 
the back part of the head rests in it; the head is sometimes 
turned on the right, sometimes on the left side, as may be in- 
dicated. This bath lasts from five to twenty minutes. 
THE FOOT BATH. 
This bath is taken in a vessel containing from two to five 
inches of water, and continued from five to twenty-five minutes, 
according to the effect wished to be produced. During the 48 
THE PRACTICE OF 
period one foot must be rubbed against the other, or an atten- 
dant must use friction with hands. The brain and the great 
nervous centre at the pit of the stomach, sympathise strongly 
with the feet. I have seen a violent attack of hysterics, at- 
tended with insensibility, removed in three or four minutes by 
the cold foot bath. This bath is of great use in the Water 
Cure. 
THE ELBOW BATH. 
This is taken in a basin containing from six to ten inches 
of water. It is of great service in injuries and diseased states 
of the hand. It may continue from ten minutes to half an hour 
or longer. To illustrate the use of this bath, I may mention a 
duel with sabres which took place at Graefenberg, and at which 
I was requested to give my assistance. One of the combat- 
ants, after a severe wound, lost his presence of mind, and 
instantly put out the left hand to defend himself; he immedi- 
ately received two cuts down to the bones, one on the wrist, 
and the other across the palm of the hand. He was taken to 
his room in a fainting state, and after the surgical part of the 
business, a wetted compress and bandages were applied, and 
the elbow was then placed in a basin of water. The patient 
soon experienced a diminution of pain, and in twenty minutes, 
declared that he was hardly conscious of the existence of the 
wounds. In the evening there was some cerebral excitement, 
which was removed by a sitz bath. The next morning he was 
enveloped for an hour in the wrung sheet; it produced the 
most tranquillizing effect, and freed the patient from some irri- 
tative fever. All the wounds healed rapidly, and without any 
pain, drawback, or confinement. 
THE WET COMPRESS, OR BANDAGE. 
Some of the phenomena resulting from the continued appli- 
cation of water by means of the wet comoress and bandages, I THE WATER CURE. 
49 
am sure would not be credited by many, without ocular demon- 
stration. It was in a great measure by using their “ charmed 
water” that the number of “ miraculous cures” we read of in 
past times were performed. 
Dr. Macartney, the late Professor at Trinity College, was 
the first in Great Britain to call attention to the admirable 
effects of water applied in this way. He called it his “ water 
dressing.” Mr. Liston, of London, and Mr. Symes, of Edin- 
burgh, two of the first surgeons of the day, have adopted it, in 
preference to all lotions and ointments, in the treatment of 
wounds, ulcers, &c. 
The application is of two kinds—one, in which the wet linen, 
when applied, is left exposed to the air, producing a cold or 
a cooling sensation, by the free evaporation of the moisture 
which it contains, or by renewing it frequently. The other, 
from which the water is completely wrung out and carefully 
protected from the air by a covering of dry linen. This is a 
warm application, all free evaporation being prevented. 
The first of these, or the cold fomentation, is used when 
there is active superficial inflammation going on. It reduces 
the heat, and diminishes the quantity of blood sent to the part. 
It is applied to the head when there is a determination of blood, 
inflammation, or delirium. It is assisted by the partial baths, 
and wet sheet. It is used in compound fractures, and all cases 
where a lessening of action, or the prevention of inflammation 
is indicated. 
The second, or warm fomentation, is the most soothing 
application that can be applied to the external sentient surface. 
In larcerated wounds, and other injuries, ulcers, &c., it has the 
most healing influence of any application known. 
The heating compress or fomentation is usually applied to 
the abdomen in the treatment of nearly all chronic diseases, 
more particularly where there is diseased action going on in 
the liver, stomach, bowels and kidneys, or in the large ganglionic 
nerves behind the pit of the stomach. It is used in the follow- 
ing way:—A bandage sufficiently broad to reach from the pit 
of the stomach, to an inch or two below the navel, and long 
enough to meet when passed round the abdomen; after being 
dipped in cold water, it is wrung as nearly dry as it can be ; over 
this, a dry bandage of thick linen is applied sufficiently tight 
to be comfortable to the patient. This is worn in some cases 
day and night, and renewed when the wet bandages become 
dry, or every two, three, or four hours, as may be required. 
In some cases, where there is great want of reactive power, 50 
THE PRACTICE OF 
it is better to confine the wet part to the front of the abdomen. 
In some instances it produces hysterical symptoms in delicate 
and excitable females ; in such cases, if it be otherwise neces- 
sary to wear it, it should be kept on only for an hour or two at 
a time, or wear it only while walking. By this management, 
the nervous system of the digestive apparatus becomes gradu- 
ally accustomed to its action. 
Compresses are worn on the chest for cough; around the 
throat for different forms of sore-throat; on the nape of the 
neck for inflamed eyes, &c., &c. 
When this continued fomentation or poultice has been 
applied for some time, it draws to the skin and general cover- 
ing of the abdomen, any undue action in the lining membrane 
of the stomach and alimentary canal, reducing the irritation or 
sub-inflammation; also by its soothing and sedative properties, 
and the renewed reaction on the skin each time it is replaced; 
it regulates the bowels, by increasing the peristaltic motion, 
and facilitating the expulsion of faeces. It relieves heart-burn, 
spasms, and the train of symptoms accompanyng bad digestion. 
After a time, more especially when there is a tendency to cri- 
sis, the bandage, when washed, is found to be saturated with 
different secretions from the skin, making the water thick and 
turbid. And frequently a curious phenomenon takes place, 
which has not yet been explained. After the bandage has 
been worn some weeks, there is a secretion thrown out on the 
skin of the stomach and abdomen, of a beautiful dark blue 
color; this continues for a week or two; sometimes ceases sud- 
denly for weeks, and returns again. It is of frequent occur- 
rence, and I have always found it of precisely the same color. 
As yet I have only seen it in bad dyspeptic cases, and where 
mercury had been taken at some previous period. 
This water-dressing is applied to eruptions, and different 
kinds of local affections that appear during the crisis, to gouty 
hands and feet, &c. 
After a time, various forms of eruption appear on the skin, 
from which exudes a glutinous liquid, accompanied with a 
strong, disagreeable odor. Medicinal substances formerly taken 
are sometimes detectable in the secretion in question. 
Similar phenomena take place on the application of com- 
presses around the different joints. The smell and color of 
ointments and other applications that had been used a long 
time previously are brought out by the compresses. 
A patient under my care, in whom some of these striking 
effects occurred, was visited by Mr. Travers, an eminent and one THE WATER CURE. 
51 
of the most scientific surgeons in London. In this case there 
was suppuration took place in the knee-joint, and when it had 
pointed and had nearly reached the surface, the bandages were 
found to be marked all over with yellow matter, although the 
skin was perfectly whole. This continued for some weeks, 
and the swelling disappeared. 
There are a number of circumstances which guide in the 
application of the compress as a remedy for immediate and 
local uneasiness, or for the general disorder. Into these the 
character of this work does not allow of entering upon. 52 
THE PRACTICE OF 
DETAILS 
OF 
THE WATER CURE. 
WATER DRINKING. 
We now come to those details which more immediately op- 
erate in changing the quality of the blood; and these are wa- 
ter drinking, food, air, and exercise. 
A great number of cases—of nervousness, for instance—de- 
pend on irregular distribution of blood alone. In such, large 
quantities of water are decidedly injurious, they augment the 
lervousness tenfold. In another set of cases—those with 
)lood tending towards the head—they are decidedly dangerous. 
Again, when the patient has a very irritable pulse, and is con- 
stitutionally a person of vivid sensations, large water drinking 
is rarely admissible. From three to six tumblers daily are the 
limits in such instances as the above; and that should be taken 
in very divided quantities, a wine-glassful at a time being often 
as much as is good. In all these cases, as well as in some of 
the worst instances of nervous indigestion, the great centre of 
the nutritive nerves is so exquisitively sensitive, that the shock 
of even half a tumbler of cold water upon the stomach is trans- 
mitted to the brain and there causes giddiness, confusion, ner- 
vous aching, &c., and this the more certainly the lower the 
temperature of the water. On this account I have now and 
then raised the water to 55° or 58°, when the drinking of it 
was indispensable, until the nerves of the stomach became 
more able to bear the natural temperature ; and have been con- 
soled for the heresy therein implied by the benefit therefrom THE WAT EE CUKE. 
53 
obtained. For, as the external remedies derive from the inte- 
rior to the exterior of the body, the stomach becomes less sen- 
sitive, and both the temperature and the dose may be carefully 
increased. This stimulating property of cold water taken in- 
ternally should always be kept in mind. Most of those who 
know nothing, but assert a great deal, about the water cure, 
say that water drinking lowers the powers of the body, whilst 
many professors of the water cure order such extravagant do- 
ses of it as to make one think they consider it a very weak 
agent. Both err in not recognizing the stimulating character 
alluded to, and which requires due apportionment to individual 
cases. The cold of the water stimulates the blood-vessels of 
the mucous membrane, and expels the blood from them. For 
this reason it is that it is necessary to drink some water after 
every bath, this last always causing a flow of blood, for the 
time, towards the internal membranes, to remedy which, cold 
water is drunk and exercise taken immediately. Indeed, with- 
out these precautions, the external processes would fail in half 
their good effect, or be positively harmful. But if the blood- 
vessels of the mucous membrane are excessively irritable, this 
stimulation by the cold may cause violent reaction in them, and 
thus actually increase the quantity of blood in them. Here, 
then, is a reason for care in the quantity of cold conveyed by 
the water to the stomach. Further, the cold of the water stim- 
ulates the extremities of the nerves which come from the brain 
and spinal cord to the muscular coat of the stomach, and con- 
vey sensations to and from those parts. The result of this 
stimulation is contraction of the muscular coat, and this con- 
traction constitutes hunger, one of the well-known conse- 
quences of cold water drinking. But here, again, if too much 
cold be applied, this contraction will amount to spasm of the 
stomach, an event I have witnessed in not a few instances of 
persons who treated themselves by certain Water Cure trea- 
tises, which record the wonderful effects of wonderful imbibi- 
tions of cold water. 
Added to the stimulus of cold is the stimulus of weight, 
which so heavy a liquid as water cannot fail to afford ; and to- 
gether with the weight, the bulk should be considered. It is 
true, that absorption of the water speedily takes place ; but it is 
more or less speedily, according to individual peculiarities. 
Very many sufferers from nervousness and nervous indiges- 
tion will give marks of very slow absorption, by rejecting a por- 
tion of the water after an hour or more. Absorption is quick- 
ened by exercise : but if the patient be distressed by too large 54 
a quantity of water taken at once, exercise becomes a painful 
or impossible thing to him. Between the inordinate stimula- 
tion of cold and of weight and bulk, the stomach distresses, and 
almost paralyses, the brain and seat of the will; whereas, if 
taken in proper quantity, water is one of the most effectual sus- 
tained of the animal nervous system and of locomotion ; many 
persons, whom walking before breakfast would distress, are 
enabled to do so with comfort and alacrity by taking small 
draughts of cold water. Here, then, is another reason for dis- 
criminating in the prescription of water drinking. 
Supposing the water absorbed and carried into the circula- 
ting blood, it then proves a stimulus to every capillary blood- 
vessel in the body. It thus quickens the great functions of nu- 
trition, of deposit, and of waste, which are carried on in these 
minute and mysterious extremities of the wondrous circulating 
system. Quickening their office, it also quickens that of their 
great centre—the heart, and the pulse becomes more rapid with 
copious water drinking. But as a large proportion of the ca- 
pillaries of the body exists in the brain and spinal cord, their 
increased function in those organs proves a source of augment- 
ed nervous phenomena, the sensations becoming generally 
more vivid, and processes of digestion, &c., going on in the 
viscera being felt, which the brain had previously failed to re- 
cognize. Some excitation of the nervous system is unques- 
tionably unavoidable in the course of rousing the self-restora- 
tive power of the body; but the exposition I have briefly offered 
of the mode in which water drinking operates on the nervous 
and circulating systems may warn persons, as yet uninformed 
of the science of the Water Cure, from the folly and hazard of 
prescribing or taking the huge doses of water which were at 
first thought and taught to be essential in all cases of disease. 
Still, as I have all along repeated, there are cases of torpid, 
obstructed function, in which it is both safe and necessary to 
prescribe copious water drinking. In these, nothing short of 
considerable stimulation of the nervous and circulating sys- 
tems by the cold, the bulk, and the action in the capillaries im- 
plied by the water, suffices to bring into play the conservative 
power of the body. But there is nothing to fear for the head 
or heart in such cases ; the functions of both are far too much 
oppressed to be suddenly driven to the other extreme. Yet in 
no cases is it desirable to swallow the twenty or thirty tum- 
blers before breakfast which we are told are so delightful and 
refreshing; it is to be hoped they were tumblers of short mea- 
sure. 
THE PRACTICE OF From wnat precedes, it is plain that water should be drunk in 
that state of the stomach which best fits it to receive and to 
transmit its stimulus, as well as to absorb it most readily. If 
the stomach does all these readily, a smaller quantity of wa- 
ter produces an equal result with a larger quantity, in a less 
favorable condition of the stomach. When the stomach is 
empty, and has been so for several hours, its nervous as well 
as its absorbent energy has accumulated, and the water stimu- 
lates, and is absorbed with alacrity. When the brain has been 
at rest for several hours, it and the whole nervous system are 
in the best state for receiving stimulation from the stomach. 
Accordingly, these conditions obtaining for both organs in the 
early morning, after sleep and before breakfast, that time is 
best fitted for water drinking, the principal portion of which 
should therefore be practised then. In other parts of the day, 
for a like reason, water should be taken three or lour hours 
after meals, and after every bath or process whatever. Exer- 
cise of some sort should follow the drinking, in order to pro- 
mote absorption. If very much heated with exercise, the wa- 
ter should be drunk very slowly. In most cases of mucous in- 
digestion, a tumbler of very cold water taken in sips an hour 
and a half after a meal, or even earlier, assists the stomach, 
heated and jaded by the process of digestion, in its laborious 
function: this is the only exception that I am aware of, to the 
rule of drinking with the stomach empty. 
THE WATER CURE . 
55 
AIR AND EXERCISE. 
As in the preceding article, so in this, I am compelled to 
animadvert on the indiscriminate rule, or rather no rule, that 
has been imported into this country. Of air, indeed, it may be 
said, that an invalid cannot have too much, provided it be of the 
right temperature and hygrometric quality ; seated or exercis- 
ing, let him take as much as he pleases. But this is not the 
climate for such happy combination of atmospheric qualities, 
and to thrust all patients alike into all winds that may blow is 
heroic, but may prove hurtful to some of them. Still, anything 
like “ coddling” should be avoided; patients should have abun- 
dance of air, and it is only necessary to regulate well the out- 
goings of asthmatic, pulmonary, and certain neuropathic per- 56 
THE PRACTICE OF 
sons, who should especially avoid east and southeast winds and 
night air. The morning air, like the morning sun, is the finest 
in its operation on the nervous system, and that system is then 
in the best position, after sleep, to receive its influence. The 
walk before breakfast is therefore the most requisite of any in 
the day. The air of towns is inimical to the cure of chronic 
disorders, except some rare instances of that protean disease, 
asthma. That of hills is the best, because the most dry and the 
most stimulating; and it thereby affects the greatest changes 
in the blood. Low situations, and even high situations with a 
clayey, retentive soil, mar very much the curative process. 
The air of rooms in which patients under the Water Cure 
sit, should never, even in the winter, exceed 55° or 58° ; and 
even lower is desirable. That of their bed-rooms should be ten 
or fifteen-degrees lower, and indeed can scarcely be too cold. 
When the body is warm with bed-clothes, air at 35° or 38° is 
much more conducive to sleep than that at 65° or 70°, to which 
temperature some persons raise the atmosphere of their bed- 
rooms. Everybody, (especially excitable neuropathic invalids) 
sleeps better in winter than in summer. 
With regard to exercise, it must be regulated entirely by the 
state of the patient’s nervous system, and by the food he takes 
and digests. If there be none of that nervousness which be- 
gets tremulousness of mind and body, and if the stomach allows 
of the digestion of a fair quantity of meat and other nutritious 
articles, the patient ought to walk a good deal in order to dis- 
sipate the nervous energy and the aliment. To tell persons to 
live low and take constant exercise, or, on the contrary, to feed 
them highly and keep them on the sofa, with the view of 
strengthening them (as I have known to be attempted,) is an 
absurdity of which one would imagine an educated physician 
incapable, did we not hear sometimes of the injunction to 
“walk, walk, walk,” being laid indiscriminately upon all pa- 
tients alike. Only consider what parts are drawn upon in the 
act of walking. You bring into play the seat of the will, the 
brain, and spinal cord; examine, therefore, what is the condi- 
tion of those parts, whether it be one of irritation and excessive 
function, or of oppression and deficient function; if the former, 
you most unquestionably increase the irritation by exercise of 
the will in long walking, just as you would inflame your eyes 
by prolonged use of them; if the latter, you do right to urge the 
will into action, in order to overcome the oppression. But 
when you excite the brain and spinal cord by walking, you ex- 
cite, by sympathy, the great organic centre at the digestive or- gans; so that it behoves to consider the state of those organs, 
whether it be one of irritation and excessive function, or of op- 
pression and deficient function. Now it so happens, that these 
conditions of the digestive organs correspond with similar 
states of the brain and spinal cord, and that therefore the same 
rule, as regards exercise, applies. Thus, in nervous indiges- 
tion, it is not well to take long walks or great exertion, for 
stomach and brain are acutely sensitive; whilst in congested 
liver torpor, pervades both it and the seat of the will, which 
should therefore be exerted in a strong and prolonged manner. 
Not only so; exercise wastes the blood and the nervous energy 
of the frame, and whence is a fresh supply to come ? From 
the food which the stomach is to digest. But if the stomach 
cannot digest much food ? Why, then you must not waste 
that which the food and blood supply more quickly than they 
can renew it. And this brings me to the proposition with 
which I started, that the amount of exercise must be regulated 
by the nervous energy, and the quantity of food taken and di- 
gested. I know it is proposed, and in some places acted upon, 
to eat a great deal, to walk incessantly, and to employ an im- 
mense quantity of the roughest portion of the Water Cure, in 
all cases. Very possibly this succeeds; but I know it cannot 
succeed without a vast amount of disagreeables to be borne by 
the patient; and I also know that cure is obtained with a regu- 
lated amount of those means, and free from the greater part of 
the disagreeables. 
With this rule, regarding exercise, the practitioner will de- 
termine whether walking, riding, or driving, be the appropriate 
form of it, and the amount of each. It is only necessary to 
add here, that in all cases where the patient’s limbs are in 
condition to walk at all, more or less of that exercise should 
be taken after each bath; or failing the capability of walking, 
artificial exercise, in the shape of considerable friction of the 
limbs, should be practised. 
THE WATER CURE. 
57 
DIET. 
Some writers on the Water Cure have made a boast, that no 
restrictions in diet are required in that mode of treatment. 
There can be no doubt, that in the Water Cure, the appetite 58 
and digestive powers augment so rapidly, that at an early stage 
of the treatment food can be taken more freely than in other 
plans of treatment: all the appliances have that tendency. 
But, on the other hand, experience gives me no room to doubt 
that, by appropriate regulation of the diet to each case, resto- 
ration is secured in much less time, and with much less of that 
constitutional tumult which harsh practice rouses. Accord- 
ingly, I have to forbid some patients the use of animal food 
three or four days in the week, and others for a week together : 
to some I forbid all puddings, even farinaceous, after meat: to 
others all vegetable matter but bread, &c. All this is subject 
for weekly or even daily change; and it is impossible to lay down 
rules applicable to all cases. Two facts I have particularly 
noticed, that in some instances of digestive disorder the stom- 
ach tolerates best stimulating food, which contains a good 
quantity of nutriment in a small bulk, such as meat, bread, 
beans ; and that in other instances it is advisable to avoid food 
of concentrated stimulus, and take that which contains smaller 
amount of nutriment in a larger bulk, as is the case with vege- 
table matters. As a general fact, it may be said that nervous 
disorder of the digestive organs is less tolerant of bulk than 
inflammatory disorder; nothing oppresses a nervous dyspectic 
so much as a mass of vegetable matter; whilst animal food, 
put into an inflamed stomach, causes local pain, and exquisite 
restlessness and distress generally. The practitioner, therefore, 
has to determine the particular state of the digestive organs, 
and then choose between nutriment in a small space, which 
stimulates by its concentration, and nutriment spread over a 
large mass, which stimulates by its bulk. Again, as to quan- 
tity, "he must be especially careful on this head, as on it depends 
the amount of exercise and of water processes. Here, again, 
it is idle to attempt a general recommendation, except it be that 
it is safer to be under than over the mark. In no part of the 
physician’s office is more acuteness, firmness, and precision 
required, than in this affair of diet. Persons who would shrink 
from the utterance of an untruth in all other things, do not 
scruple to evade and deceive in this; as if conscious of the 
extremity of mental feebleness displayed in the incapabili- 
ty of resisting the desire which babies and brutes gratify 
without control. When in good health and strong exercise of 
body, it matters little as to the kind of food which man takes, 
nor is it desirable to starve; that would place him in the worst 
condition for resisting the causes of disease; and there is some 
truth in the lines, 
THE PRACTICE OF THE water cure. 
59 
“ Gross riot treasures up a wealthy fund 
Of plagues, but more immedicable ills 
Attend the lean extreme.” 
But when the “ plagues ” have arrived, it behoves to act upon 
the rule of giving the stomach—the centre and sustainer of 
all plagues—as little to do as possible, compatibly with the 
support of the body and with the amount of its exertions, and 
thus afford it the best chance of recovering itself; which, as I 
have all along said, is the only recovery worth obtaining. This 
rule, then, excludes all things that minister rather to the palate 
than to the body’s support; but there are a great many good 
things among those which a patient in the Water Cure, and 
who eats only for the sustenance of his organs, may take. To 
show this, I append a list of lawful articles of diet, and I main- 
tain that it ought to suffice for all except those to whom “ in 
solo vivendi causa palato est,” who live but to eat, instead of 
eating to live. But lest things not mentioned should be con- 
strued into lawful,! subjoin a list of articles which are unlawful. 
Diet Table for Patients under Water Cure. 
I. THINGS PERMITTED. 
Soups.—Plain beef, mutton or chicken broth, or with the 
addition of carrots, young peas, cauliflower, rice, vermicelli, 
semoule, sago, pearl barley, or other farinaceous substances, 
but without other condiments than salt. These to be taken 
only under peculiar circumstances of sickness. 
Fish.—Turbot, soles, cod, haddock, whiting, mullet, trout, 
pike, and perch, simply boiled, and eaten with a little plain 
butter, may be taken occasionally. 
Meat and Animal Products.—Beef, mutton, lean pork, 
veal, venison, roebuck, hares, fowls, turkeys, pheasants, par- 
tridges, woodcocks, but not the trail, and, indeed, game of all 
sorts when not too old, nor too long kept: the meat may be 
roasted, broiled, or stewed in its own gravy, with a few car- 
rots, turnips or potatoes—further, good fresh butter, mild and 
tender cheese occasionally, and fresh curds. 
Vegetables and Roots.—Asparagus, artichokes, spinach, 
cauliflower, young cabbage, sea-cale, French beans, young 
peas, tender beans (but not the skins,) carrots, mild turnips, 
parsnips, beet root, potatoes, rice, macaroni, with gravy or 
milk, but without cheese. 
Condiments.—The only condiments are salt, sugar, vinegar 60 
and lemon-juice. The two latter, with young meats, chicken 
and fish only. 
Sweets and Fruits.—Plain puddings of milk with eggs, 
flour, bread, rice, vermicelli, macaroni, semoule, sago, arrow- 
root, or other farinaceous substances, eaten with butter or 
sugar, or the fruit of pies or puddings, to some ices—further, 
well-ripened pears, grapes, raspberries, gooseberries, strawber- 
ries, oranges, and even apricots, peaches and nectarines occa- 
sionally, remembering always to reject the skin and fibrous 
parts. 
Drinks.—Water, toast and water, barley or rice water, and 
sometimes milk, milk and water, weak black tea, almost cold. 
the practice of 
Soups.—Soups of all kinds, unless made expressly for the 
patient, under peculiar circumstances of sickness. 
Fish.—Eels, salmon, salmon-trout, mackerel, herrings, sprats, 
and white-bait—all sorts of salted, pickled, smoked, or potted 
fish—turtle, oysters, lobsters, crabs, crawfish, prawns, and every 
kind of shell-fish. 
Meat and Animal Products.—Ducks, geese, and the flesh 
of very young animals generally—meat or game pies and pud- 
dings—all pickled, salted, smoked, or potted meat, forcemeat, 
and sausages of all descriptions—butter not perfectly fresh 
and good, strong or decayed cheese, hard-boiled eggs, and 
honey. 
Vegetables and Roots.—Succory, scorzonere, lettuces of 
all kinds, water-cress, mustard and cress, sorrel, celery, rad- 
ishes, cucumbers, leeks, onions, mushrooms, and truffles. 
Condiments.—Mustard, pepper, cayenne, ginger, nutmeg, 
mace, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, caraway seeds, saffron, lemon 
and orange peel, laurel and bay leaves, bitter almonds, orange 
flower water, mint, thyme, sage, parsley, fennel, horseradish, 
shalots, and indeed every species of spice—all fish and game 
sauces, catsup, pickles, and other similar compounds. 
Sweets and Fruits.—Rich pastry and dumplings in gen- 
eral—all puddings, creams, preserves, jellies, comfitures, mar- 
milades, all fruits not perfectly sweet and ripe, and in general 
all stone fruits, melons, apples, currants, nuts, walnuts, filberts, 
and almonds. 
Drinks.—Wines, spirits and liquors of every kind—so also 
negus, punch, bishop, and similar compounds—porter, ale, beer, 
spruce or ginger beer, soda-water, seltzer, or other mineral 
II. THINGS PROHIBITED. THE WATER CURE . 
61 
waters, all effervescing draughts prepared from powders, lem- 
onade or other acid beverages—coffee, green tea, strong black 
tea, aromatized chocolate, and butter-milk. 
Still, it must be repeated, that all tables of diet are general, 
and that the judicious and attentive practitioner must prescribe 
a diet for each patient. There are a few suggestions, however, 
which, not referring to articles of food only, apply to all who 
are undergoing the water treatment:— 
]. Eat slowly, and chew your food well; otherwise you 
leave the stomach to do the duty of the teeth as well as its own, 
besides failing to mix a sufficient quantity of saliva with the 
food, which plays an important part in digestion. 
2. Drink no hot liquids : tepid are the next best: and cold 
the best of all: in fact, unless on special occasions, all liquids 
to be drunk should be cold. 
3. The less you drink of anything at meals the better: not 
because the liquid dilutes the gastric juice, as some have said, 
but because it gives a stimulus to the secretory vessels of the 
stomach, different from that of the dry aliment which is the 
right stimulus, and the consequence is likely to be the secre- 
tion of an improper gastric juice. 
4. After eating, let as little excitement as may be proceed 
from the brain and spinal cord to the stomach, as it may inter- 
fere with digestion. Therefore, remain seated, if in the air, 
the better; or if you move, let it be slowly. For the same 
reason, avoid all subjects which are a strain upon the mind : 
take the thoughts of others in books of easy reading, rather 
than exert your own. 
5. Let five and a half or six hours intervene between the 
three meals of the day: and let the last be a scanty one. Two 
hours and a half should elapse between the evening meal and 
bedtime. And the same time, at least, after any meal before 
any Water Cure process is practised, except foot baths, which 
may be taken as soon as you please. Sweating may be prac- 
tised an hour after a meal. 
6. Avoid fruits at all times, except before or at breakfast. 
Dessert of any kind is inadmissible. It is better to avoid tea 
altogether, but if it be taken, it is safer at breakfast than in 
the evening, the day being before you: whereas it might make 
the night wakeful. 
7. About two hours after a meal, especially dinner, the 
stomach being heated and jaded with digestion, is pleasingly 62 
THE PRACTICE OF 
stimulated by a small tumbler of very cold water taken in sips, 
as you would take wine. It gives a fillip to the muscular 
coats of the stomach, which then contract, and expel any air 
that is disturbing that organ. 
Wine and all alcoholic liquors are among the forbidden 
things in the table. For a man who has appetite enough to 
eat a dinner of fish, flesh, fowl, and sweets, to add to these 
stimulants that of four or five glasses of wine, day after day, 
is one of the most preposterous conventionalities that social 
extravagance ever invented. And yet to see the solemn regu- 
larity with which it is done, one might fancy it was an act of 
superlative wisdom, instead of the stale routine of an absurd 
and injurious custom. Put it in this way: either the stomach 
has appetite, and does not require the stimulus of alcohol to 
make it digest, or it has not appetite, and should not have food 
put into it to digest. Where, then, is the necessity for the 
daily wine-bibbing? Besides, the stomach will only bear a 
certain amount of stimulation, and if it receives it from the 
wine, it is unable to receive it from food also ; so that the di- 
gestion of the latter is materially interfered with by the former, 
and the appetite for the stimulus of aliment diminished in pro- 
portion as that of alcohol is applied. But it is an old tale to 
repeat the numerous arguments against a foolish custom, for 
which there is but one argument—that it is a custom. Of one 
thing I am convinced, that it is less injurious to drink a bottle 
of wine once a week, and be sick after it, than to keep up a 
slow, smouldering irritation of the stomach, by two glasses of 
the same wine taken with stupid precision every day “ when 
the cloth is removed.” 
If such is my creed regarding vinous liquors for those who 
are in apparent health, the reasons for avoiding it in those 
whose viscera are a focus of irritation, as in chronic disease, 
will be potent, and need not be detailed. I would not let the 
opportunity pass of expressing my belief in the infinitely su- 
perior wisdom of abstinence from alcoholic liquids under ordi- 
nary circumstances of health and disease. But were the case 
one of extreme exhaustion from loss of blood, or any other 
depletory cause, or from excessive hysteria, I should not hesi- 
tate to administer any wine or spirit that was nearest; they 
are, strictly speaking, medicinal means of ready application, 
and, as such, may be wisely employed in time and place ; but 
healthy men, and men with chronic disease, do not require 
medicinal means every day after dinner. Yet there are men THE WATER CURE. 
63 
silly enough not only to take a nauseous pill of drugs before 
dinner, but this more pleasant, but equally deleterious draught 
of physic after dinner!—Strange infatuation! 
CLOTHING. 
Throughout this work it has been shown that the essential 
of all chronic disease is excess of blood in the internal organs, 
to the detriment of the circulatory activity of the exterior of the 
body, of the skin especially. On this fact the whole treatment 
described in the preceding pages is based, and it renders the 
clothing of the body a thing of some importance. It is an aim 
to bring to, and fix in the skin, a quantity of blood which shall 
both diminish the excess within, and render the skin more able 
to react upon external agencies, cold, damp, electricity, &c. 
Now this is not to be done by concentration of heat about the 
skin: the more you exist in a hot atmosphere, or in a mass of 
fleecy hosiery, washed leather and triple coats, the less able 
does the skin become to re-act upon cold, and the more, there- 
fore, does that cold tend to drive the blood from the exterior to 
the interior, and increase the congestion of blood there. It is 
said that all this excessive clothing is to keep out the cold: 
but, in this most unsteady of climates, at least, the thermome- 
ter varies from 5° to 20° in a day, and can it be said that the 
same amount of clothing is necessary in both temperatures ? 
On the contrary, the very excess of covering at the higher tem- 
perature, renders the skin exquisitely sensitive to lower tem- 
perature, which comes on, very frequently, in half an hour ; if 
the clothing is only enough at 60°, what is it at 45° ? or if it be 
just enough at 45°, how excessive and enfeebling must it be at 
60° ! To keep the skin in active warmth by a quantity of un- 
der clothing, is a most fallacious and injurious attempt. 
But further, a considerable amount of the waste of the body 
is effected by the skin, and such waste cannot go on without 
free contact of the atmospheric air ; contact which is materially 
prevented by the mass of garments alluded to. The conse- 
quence is, that materials are retained in the circulating blood 
which ought to be expended at the skin, and, by their retention, 
prove a source of disorder to the organs in general. For such 
waste and elimination the presence of blood in the skin is ne- 64 
THE PRACTICE OF 
cessary, as well as that of air upon it: and it is therefore essen- 
tial, on this score also, to fix blood there. 
Lastly, we have to consider the enormous number of nerves, 
having their centre in the brain and spinal cord, which are 
spread over the skin, and conveys sensations thence to the 
brain. When the skin is imperfectly supplied with blood, and 
not reactive, all chances tell painfully upon these nerves, and 
in that manner keep the brain in irritation from that source. 
Now, a steady state of the cutaneous nerves cannot be obtained 
without ensuring a good and fixed supply of blood to the skin. 
On every score, then, it is desirable to avoid all clothing 
which shall have for view to keep the body in a state of artifi- 
cial heat. The skin should be made independent in this re- 
spect ; its warmth should be the result of the chemical changes 
actively going on in its actively circulating blood-vessels: and 
its nerves should be able to throw off, by the re-action of the 
circulation, those sources of irritation which its subjection to 
them proves so disordering to the brain and spinal cord. In 
speaking of the wet-sheet packing I have endeavored to show 
it quiets the brain by withdrawing the skin from all irritating 
sources. 
From all this it may be inferred, that exposure of the skin to 
the free access of air is an essential part of the Water Cure, 
and that therefore the application of much warm under-gar- 
ments is not to be practised. But here, again, reservation must 
be made regarding the organic capabilities of each patient; 
what is excess of clothing to one may not be so to another; and 
to withdraw the flannel jackets of every one who begins the 
treatment, simply because he is a water patient, is a blunder 
of routine which would materially thin the number of the prac- 
titioner’s successful cases. Look at the number of patients 
who have not blood enough to supply the exterior as well as 
the interior of the frame; in such you cannot bring the blood 
to the surface until you have made more of it: the attempt to 
do it by trusting to the re-action to be produced on the admis- 
sion of air to the bloodless skin, is enough to annihilate some 
of those fragile individuals. Look also at the numbers of pa- 
tients who, although they have blood enough, have it centered 
in the chronic irritation of the interior, and who, besides, have 
had the skin hermetically sealed by flannel, or silk, or leather, 
for twenty or thirty years; to strip them of those coverings 
simultaneously with the commencement of the water treatment, 
is a rashness that would be punished by the exasperation of the 
internal irritation into active and dangerous inflammation. Ac- THE WATER CURE. 
65 
cordingly, I make it a practice in similar cases not to interfere 
with the clothing until the appliances of the Water Cure have 
wrought such change in the body’s organic state as to render 
certain the power of the skin to generate its own sufficient 
warmth without the necessity for retaining it by a quantity of 
under clothing. This period varies in individuals, and I fre- 
quently allow several weeks to pass before attempting a change. 
It must always be remembered, that a prolonged feeling of phy- 
sical misery, such as the abstraction of warm clothing is apt to 
beget, is a state of malaise to the brain, which therefore re-acts 
unfavorably on the rest of the body ; and I hold that a patient 
who suffers so much in that way, derives as much injury from 
the miserable feeling as he can possibly derive good from the 
free access of air to the skin. You must fill the skin before 
you give it increased work to do. 
Again, when you do begin to withdraw clothing, it is well to 
do so piecemeal, especially in such cases as I have indicated. 
In a climate like that of America, with its varying barometer 
and thermometer, it appears to me more reasonable, if additional 
clothing be necessaiy, to heap it in the shape of outer garments, 
which may be donned and doffed with the vicissitudes of the 
atmosphere. In withdrawing the under clothing from delicate 
patients, it is often well to substitute some outer covering 
when the temperature requires it, at evening or early morning, 
until the skin is wholly able to support itself. 
When, however, a full-blooded patient presents himself for 
treatment, with, it may be, apoplectic fulness of the head, active 
irritation of the liver, or some similarly conditioned malady, in 
which it is necessary to reduce the whole quantity of blood, as 
well as re-distribute it, I have no hesitation in withdrawing the 
flannel clothing at once and entirely. There is then no fear 
that the air will withdraw more heat from the surface than the 
interior can afford to renew; and we also advance the process 
of waste by the skin, which, in such cases, it is desirable to 
obtain. 
In any case, when once the withdrawal of extra clothing is 
judiciously effected, it aids materially the progress towards re- 
covery ; it is both an evidence of past improvement, and ground 
for more and more rapidly-acquired improvement in the future; 
the reasons for which are to be found in the commencement of 
this article. 66 
THE PRACTICE OF 
HABITS OF LIFE. 
When the nervous system of an individual has been long ha- 
bituated to the application of certain stimulants, and to the im- 
pressions of certain circumstances at certain periods of the day 
or hour, and when, with these, his health has gradually deteri- 
orated and become seriously compromised, the withdrawal of 
these periodical stimulants, and the alteration of these periodi- 
cal circumstances, become an essential part of a plan of medi- 
cal treatment which is professedly hygienic. As in the medi- 
cinal plan of treatment, the vulgar and half-educated practi- 
tioners alone put their whole trust in the drugs that are pre- 
scribed ; so in the water treatment, he has a very narrow and 
vulgar idea of it who thinks that recovery is effected by the 
bathing and water drinking alone, and leaves untouched the 
habits of the patients. It is not the mind alone that is the 
creature of habit, but every sentient twig of a nerve, and every 
irritable capillary blood-vessel of every tissue of the frame. Let 
a man who has hitherto lain in bed until 8 a.m., be roused at 6 
a.m., it is not his brain only that is effected by the change, but 
his appetite for breakfast is altered—he is thirsty, feverish, 
shivering; his aptitude for his avocation is diminished, it is 
more laborious to him : as a consequence, he cannot eat his 
dinner so well, and so on through the day, and perhaps several 
days of disagreeable revolution. The altered impression on 
the animal brain has told upon the organic centre at the stom- 
ach, and thence has changed the organic action of the whole 
frame. Gradually, however, both animal and organic systems 
of nerves accustom themselves to the new order of things, to 
the impression of light, sound, locomotion, &c., between the 
hours of 6 and 8 a.m. ; and inasmuch as it is more in accord- 
ance with the wishes of Nature, as exhibited in the human 
body, that sleep should not be prolonged far into daylight, this 
new arrangement of time for rising eventually, proves a whole- 
some, although at first an unpleasant one. In this, as in the 
remedial treatment of disease, we are obliged to refer to Na- 
ture, and make all our art consist in repeating her dictates and 
imitating her staring facts. For, look at the man who lives 
most closely according to her promptings; he goes to bed early, 
because he is tired; he gets up early, because his brain will 
not sleep any longer ; he works, because his own hunger and 
that of others dependent on him urge him ; he eats, because he THE WATER CURE. 
67 
is keenly hungry ; and, last not least, his stomach digests well, 
and his brain sleeps soundly, because the cares, scramblings, 
envy, and slander of conventional society are not his. He 
lives, as nearly as can be done in a country calling itself civili- 
zed, after the manner of Nature, and he gets his reward in the 
riches of health. 
Now the sufferer from chronic disease who strives to rid him- 
self of it by the means of the Water Cure, must condescend 
more or less to the natural habit of life. He must learn to 
rise early, and to walk or work so as to gain appetite: when 
this appetite is acquired he must eat, whether the hour be fash- 
ionable or not: and he must go to bed early from the motive 
of fatigue alone. And he will do all this in a very short time 
and find pleasure in it. and look back on the former habits as 
on a fevered dream. Let any one measure the time it took to 
fall into the bad habits, and he will find that it takes a much 
shorter time to fall into the new and good ones. And this pro- 
cess is expedited by the various details of the Water Cure 
which have been passed in review; each one, when properly 
applied, adding to the alacrity, impressibility and re-active en- 
ergy of the nervous systems, in which and by which, habits are 
formed and changed. Allusion has been already made to the 
facility with which water patients abandon, not by degrees, but 
immediately, the stimulus of wine, without experiencing any 
disagreeable want. The same applies to previous habits of all 
kinds. They are to the invalid a sort of stimulus, a stimulus 
which his nervous system expected and responded to at certain 
times, and flagged or fidgeted if they were not applied at those 
times. The man who has been in the habit of dining at 7 p.m. 
with all the forms, strong lights, liveried servants, two or three 
courses (though he, perhaps, only eat of one,) and one or many 
guests, discovers when he is deprived of them, that all these 
accompaniments of eating were actual stimulants to his ner- 
vous system, and that he cannot eat without them; one course 
the fewer, the absence of a guest, or even wearing a morn- 
ing instead of an evening dress, makes all the difference in the 
happiness and the appetite of this creature of habit. From 
such wretched slavery as this, he may be emancipated almost 
immediately by the applications of the Water Cure, and with 
little or no suffering to the nervous system. For a few days, 
he will feel a little queer, as if “ somehow there was some- 
thing somewhere wanting,” but the withdrawal of internal 
irritations, and the stimulation of water applied to the extremi- 
ties of his nerves, and conveyed to their centres, very shortly 68 
THE PRACTICE Of 
affords to the latter a sustaining action, which fully compen- 
sates for that which the previous injurious habits had supplied. 
In this manner, the Water Cure becomes a means of eradi- 
cating unwholesome, and of planting healthful habits in those 
who submit themselves to it. Nor is this confined to the body. 
How frequently have I seen persons, who were dying of ennui 
in the midst of the stimulating gaieties of London, find the day 
all too short in this quiet village of Malvern ! I have seen 
men, whose jaded and morbid minds could previously take no 
nutriment save the garbage of English and French novels, de- 
vour the strong meat of History and Biography with keen and 
large appetite. And I constantly remind my patients that the 
treatment is renovating their minds as well as bodies, ridding 
them of the silly wants and unmeaning necessities which were 
in part the cause, in part the effect, of their physical disorder. 
Doubtlessly, much of this is owing to the removal of that dis- 
order which takes the weight off the mental function. But in 
all chronic disease, there is more or less loss of volition, which 
can only be roused by the necessity for acquiring some good 
habit; therefore, although it were not directly essential to the 
body’s health to impose certain rules of life which require ex- 
ertion of the will, inasmuch as they differ from previous habits, 
it is well to insist upon them for the sake of their indirect op- 
eration on the nervous system of the body; I am convinced 
that the mere necessity of undergoing some process three or 
four times a day, aids those processes in bringing about the 
general result of health. And so far from this derogating 
from the credit due to the Water Cure, I think it rather exhib- 
its the philosophical character of that treatment which thus acts 
on mind and body simultaneously. 
With this general view of the operation of habits of life, and 
of the necessity of altering them, under the regime of the 
Water Cure, it is unnecessary to enter into extended details : 
and I shall only schedule a few of the more important habits 
to be dropped and to be adopted. 
Early rising should be practised: the sun, the air, the exer- 
cise, and the water drinking are all more beneficial then, than 
at any other part of the day. No water patient should be in 
bed after 6 a.m. 
The longer the patient is in bed before midnight the better, 
due time being allowed since the last previous meal. Physio- 
logical experiments countenance the old saying, that “ an hour’s 
sleep before twelve o’clock is worth two after it.” 
He should learn to sleep on a hard bed: for excessive heat THE WATER CURE. 
69 
excites the nerves of the skin, and these convey the excite- 
ment to the brain, which thus becomes dreamy or restless. Six 
hours’ sleep is enough for excitable persons : phlegmatic and 
impassible persons require seven or eight hours. If you have 
had either of these quantities, resist further sleep: the second 
sleep is seldom refreshing, and rather disturbing to the brain. 
Avoid hot rooms, easy chairs, and lolling on sofas : all these 
take from the energy and the volition of the nervous system. 
In order to keep the nervous system in wholesome play, let 
all the day be accurately divided by baths, packings, walkings, 
readings, &c., and let each division be rigidly adhered to and 
made a point of honor. In short, make a business of the whole 
treatment; a business with a great aim at the end. 
Avoid extensive correspondence by letters, especially with 
commiserating friends. It so happens, that most friends express 
themselves more anxious about your health than about their 
own: pour faire valoir which anxiety, they usually give you 
dismal pictures of your condition, and' add warnings about the 
“dreadful Water Cure.” Attend to the Water Cure, since 
you have undertaken it, arid not to your friends. 
Besides alcoholic stimulants, give up the scarcely less delete 
rious stimulus of tobacco, in the shapes of snuffing and smok- 
ing. Both tell injuriously on the nerves of the stomach as 
well as on the brain. In the German Water Cure establish- 
ments the patients smoke ; they also eat sourkrout and heavy 
pastry: and, it is said, they get well. Be it so : but, I repeat, 
business-worn Englishmen are not heavy Germans, and could 
not safely bear the rough treatment which the indulgence in 
these hurtful habits obliges in order to overcome the malady. 
Nay more, I defy any one to cure a nervous disorder or a shat- 
tered constitution whilst the patient is allowed to snuff or 
smoke tobacco. I would have no patient who refused- to give 
it up: the physician should control, not pander to, his patient. 
Other precepts regarding habits are suggested by individual 
cases, into which it is too long to enter in a volume. The 
above are of general application: and, for the rest, it suffices 
to state that all habits which strain the nervous system on the 
one hand, or allow it to become torpid from want of employ- 
ment on the other, are to be avoided. 70 
THE PRACTICE OF 
ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS 
URGED AGAINST THE 
WATER TREATMENT OF CHRONIC DISEASE. 
The accusations advanced against the Water Treatment, are 
first stated at the head of each section, and then answered. 
As most of them have been made by medical practitioners, 
generally of the apothecary kind, it is well to mark, that the 
chief refutation of them is drawn from authors who deservedly 
stand high in the estimation of the medical world, whether of 
the drug or water persuasion—authors whom mere apotheca- 
ries never read. 
1. “The Water Treatment Exhausts the Animal 
Heat.” 
From this very absurd proposition, we might appeal to the 
patients who have been treated at Malvern. The great ma- 
jority of them arrive here with the skin so exquisitely alive to 
any the smallest decrease of temperature, that, in some cases, 
we found fires blazing in their rooms in the month of August. 
The same sensitiveness is testified, and indeed maintained, by 
the accumulation of flannel, silk, and soft leather, in which they 
are clothed on their arrival here. How is this to be accounted 
for ? And how is it to be explained that, after a longer or 
shorter trial of the Water Cure, these same patients go out into 
all weathers, in early morning and at night, throw aside their 
multiplied under clothing, and defy rain and snow, and keen THE WATER CURE. 
71 
frost ? We propose, in answer, to turn to the pages of an au- 
thority which our medical brethren will scarcely gainsay. 
Referring again to the doctrine of Leibig, given when ad- 
dressing ourselves to the question of “ thin blood,” and which 
makes the vital activity consist in the transformation of the ele- 
ments of the food into the blood, this again into the solids and 
secretions, and these again into blood, containing carbon and 
hydrogen, to be consumed by the oxygen of the atmosphere; 
—we find in the work of the same learned author, that the 
source of animal heat is attributed to the same process of con- 
sumption of the carbon and hydrogen of the food by the oxygen 
of the atmosphere. He says: 
“ The mutual action between the elements of the food and 
the oxygen, conveyed by the circulation of the blood to any 
part of the body, is the source of animal heat.” 
This being established, let us next ask by what means this 
heat is maintained under varying circumstances. And let the 
same author answer: 
“ In the animal body the food is the fuel; with a proper sup- 
ply of oxygen we obtain the heat given during its oxidation or 
combustion. In winter, when we take exercise in a cold 
atmosphere, and when consequently the amount of inspired oxy- 
gen increases, the necessity for food containing carbon and 
hydrogen increases in the same ratio; and by gratifying the 
appetite thus excited, we obtain the most efficient protection 
against the most piercing cold. A starving man is soon frozen 
to death; and every one knows that the animals of prey in the 
arctic regions far exceed in voracity those of the torrid zone. 
“ In cold and temperate climates, the air, which is inces- 
santly striving to consume the body, urges man to laborious 
efforts, in order to furnish the means of resistance to its action, 
while in hot climates, the necessity of labor to provide food is 
far less urgent. 
“ Our clothing is merely an equivalent for a certain amount 
of food. The more warmly we are clad, the less urgent becomes 
the appetite for food, because the loss of heat by cooling, and 
consequently the amount of heat to be supplied by the food, is 
diminished. 
“ If we were to go naked, like certain savage tribes, or if 
in hunting or fishing we were exposed to the same degree of 
cold as the Samoyedes, we should be able with ease to con- 
sume ten pounds of flesh, and perhaps a dozen of tallow candles 
into the bargain, daily, as warmly-clad travellers have related 
with astonishment of these people- 72 
THE PEACTIC E OF 
“According to the preceding expositions, the quantity of 
food is regulated by the number of respirations, by the tempera- 
ture of the air, and by the amount of heat given off to the sur- 
rounding media.” 
To apply this. Our “ warmly-clad” patients come to Mal- 
vern without appetite, and afraid of the slightest cold air. We 
subject them to the action of cold air, by causing them in due 
time to throw off their warm clothing: we further subject 
them to the action of cold water applied to the skin in the shape 
of baths ;—and, lo! in a few days they get an appetite ! How 
this comes to pass, lec the above quoted paragraphs say. Wedefy 
the whole medical fraternity to disprove the truths they contain. 
Well, then ; behold the patient with an appetite,—in other 
words, with the capability of supplying carbon and hydrogen 
abundantly to the blood; behold him taking exercise, and thus 
augmenting the number of his respirations, in other words, sup- 
plying oxygen to meet the carbon and hydrogen which his ap- 
petite affords; behold, in consequence of the mutual action of 
these elements, an increased rapidity of supply and waste, of 
vital activity and chemical combustion,—and therefore an 
AUGMENTED AMOUNT OF ANIMAL HEAT. 
But it may be said that all this applies only to the operation 
of external cold, and affords no argument against the assertion 
that the drinking of cold water abstracts the animal heat. This 
is true, as far as the mere withdrawal of heat is concerned: 
but the ultimate effect on the increase of food taken, and of 
oxygen consumed, and therefore of animal heat generated, still 
holds. Hear Leibig again: 
“ The cooling of the body, by whatever cause it may be pro- 
duced, increases the amount of food necessary. The mere ex- 
posure to the open air, in a carriage, or on the deck of a ship, 
by increasing radiation or vaporization, increases the loss of 
heat and compels us to eat more than usual. The same is 
true of those who are accustomed to drink large quantities of 
cold water, which is given off at temperature of the body, 98'5.° 
It increases the appetite, and persons of weak constitution find 
it necessary, by continued exercise, to supply to the system the 
oxygen required to restore the heat abstracted by the cold 
water.” 
What can be more confirmatory of the philosophical princi- 
ples on which the Water Cure proceeds than this proposition 
of so justly distinguished a writer ? And every word of it is 
practically proved on these Malvern hills, where, by exercise 
in the open air, after the various processes of the treatment and THE WATER CURE. 
73 
drinking water, the capabilities of taking food and of resisting 
cold are gained for those who heretofore possessed neither. 
To hear the absurdities uttered on this subject, one might be 
led to imagine that the evolution of animal heat was a process 
carried on to a very scanty degree in the human body, and that 
the quantity of it generated in twenty-four hours in an adult 
man, would be utterly expended on the water of the shallow 
and hip-baths taken in that period. The non-professional 
reader will, therefore, be surprised at the following statement, 
made on accurate experiments undertaken by natural philoso- 
phers of the highest character. 
“ According to the experiments of Despretz, 1 oz. of car- 
bon evolves, during its combustion, as much heat as would 
raise the temperature of 105 oz. of water at 32° (the freezing 
point) to 167°, that is, by 135 degrees; in all, therefore, 105 
times ]35°—14207 degrees of heat. Consequently, the 13-9 
oz. of carbon, which are daily converted into carbonic acid in 
the body of an adult, evolve 13-9 x 14207°=10747'3 degrees 
of heat. This amount of heat is sufficient to raise the tem- 
perature of 1 oz. of water by that number of degrees, or from 
32° to 197509-3°; or to cause 136-8 lbs. of water at 32° to 
boil: or to heat 370 lbs. of water to 98,5° (the temperature of 
the human body;) or to convert into vapor 24 lbs. of water at 
98,5° ! If we now assume that the quantity of water vaporiz- 
ed through the skin and lungs in twenty-four hours amounts to 
48 oz. (31bs.,) then there will remain, after deducting the ne- 
cessary amount of heat, 146380-4 degrees of heat, which are 
dissipated by radiation, by heating the expired air, and in the 
excrementitious matters.” 
Why here is heat generated by one individual in twenty-four 
hours, almost sufficient to boil the water in which he bathes, 
and that which he drinks! And yet persons calling them- 
selves educated medical practitioners and physiologists, talk 
about the Water Cure “ exhausting the animal heat!” 
Should, however, the reader desire to learn the most effectual 
way of destroying the power of generating animal heat, let 
him pursue the plan which so many shivering patients who 
come to Malvern have followed. Let him drink spirits and 
wine, eat condiments, swallow purgatives, and especially mer- 
curials, take “ a course of iodine,” and, as an occasional in- 
terlude, lose a little blood; and we stake our reputation that 
he will shiver to his heart’s content, and find himself many 
degrees lower in the scale of Fahrenheit than cold water, cool 
air, early rising, and exercise can possibly place him. 74 
THE PRACTICE OF 
2. “ The Water Cure Destroys the Tone of the 
Stomach.” 
Is it the cold of the water imbibed which destroys the tone 2 
How then comes it to be given, by universal consent, in fevers, 
where the tone of the stomach is already low enough ? Is 
there a physician in these days bold enough to assert that warm 
water destroys the tone of the stomach less than cold ? Where 
is the tone of the stomach in gout ? Yet from Hayden down- 
wards, cold water is the recognized beverage for gouty persons, 
Dr. Pereira tells us that the drinking cold water “ facilitates 
the recovery of epilepsy, hysteria, and fainting, and alleviates 
gastric pain and spasmand further, that “ large draughts of 
cold water have sometimes caused the expulsion of intestinal 
worms —effects which, we submit, it could not have produced, 
had the cold water had the result of “ destroying the tone of the 
stomach.” He also states, that “ ice-cold water, or even ice, 
when swallowed, causes contraction (certainly indicative of 
increased tone) of the gastric blood-vessels, and thereby checks 
or stops sanguineous exhalation (certainly indicative of de- 
creased tone) from the mucous membrane of the stomach 
that on taking ice, or ice-cold water, “ temporary contraction 
of the alimentary canal is produced: that a feeling of warmth 
follows that of cold in the pit of the stomach, and quickly ex- 
tends over the whole body, (so it does not exhaust the animal 
heat!) accelerating somewhat the circulation and promoting 
the secretions of the alimentary canal, of the kidneys, and the 
skin.” Finally, the same elaborate writer says of cold water, 
that “ it is a vital stimulus, and is more essential to our exist- 
ence than aliment.” In all which we are at a loss for any 
signs of destruction of the stomach’s tone. 
Is it by dilution of the gastric juice that cold water impairs 
the tone of the stomach ? The last cited author seems to 
think the affirmative, when he says, “ Water serves at least two 
important purposes in the animal economy; it repairs the loss 
of the aqueous pRrts of the blood, caused by the action of the 
secreting and exhaling organs ; and it is a solvent of various 
alimentary substances, and therefore assists the stomach in the 
act of digestion, though, if taken in very large quantities, it 
may have an opposite effect, by diluting the gastric juice.” 
Unfortunately for the truth of this proviso, with reference to 
the Water Cure, no medical man practising it as he ought to do, 
would prescribe cold water to be drunk “ in very large quanti- THE WATER CURE. 
75 
ties ” at a meal, nor for two hours at least afterwards; on the 
contrary, not more than a small tumbler should be taken whilst 
eating. And, as regards copious drinking of it when the stom- 
ach is empty,—in the early morning, for instance, when it is 
especially recommendable,—we have the best authority for 
saying, that no gastric juice at all is secreted in the stomach, 
until the natural stimulus of nutritious aliment is applied to 
its cavity,* and therefore no dilution of it can take place, and 
no diminution of tone thence be caused. 
Lastly , is it by its bulk that cold water impairs the tone of 
the stomach ? If the six or eight tumblers of water, imbibed 
by a person before breakfast, all remained in the stomach un- 
absorbed, its bulk would probably irritate the stomach to the 
point of vomiting, and the exhaustion of the stomach subse- 
quent on such effort, frequently repeated, might induce atony 
of its coats, as repeated vomiting from any cause tends to do. 
But this cannot take place in the course of the Water Cure ; 
first, because its practice does not countenance the taking of 
more than one tumbler at a time, and insists on exercise in the 
intervals between each ; and, secondly, because it is well ascer- 
tained that the absorption of water by the stomach is a sur- 
prisingly rapid process, “ all drinks,” according to Dr. Beau- 
mont, “ being immediately absorbed, none remaining on the 
stomach ten minutes after being swallowed.” We heard a 
medical practitioner, who had seen a case similar to that of St. 
Martin, (a perforation from the surface of the belly into the 
cavity of the stomach,) say, a short time ago, “ that the suck- 
ing up of water by the coats of the stomach, resembled the 
manner in which rain is taken up by the burning sands of a 
desert.” And all physiological investigation proves that the 
empty stomach has amazing vivacity of function in this particu- 
lar. For the rest, we are contented to refer again to the words 
of Liebig, that “ large quantities of cold water increase the 
appetite;” and to the daily exhibition of this fact in our patients. 
And we therefore contend that that which augments the appetite 
of the stomach cannot be destructive of its tone, It were well 
for mankind, had they no more effectual way of destroying the 
tone of the stomach than by drinking water! 
* Case of Alexis St. Martin, in Dr. Beaumont’s “ Experiments and 
Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology ol Digestion,” 
p. 96. Edinburgh, 1838. 76 
THE PRACTICE OF 
3. “ The Water Cure produces Dropsy and 
4. “ The Water Cure injures the kidneys by inducing 
excessive heat. 
We place these opinions in juxta-position, in order that the 
reader may form some idea of the anilities which mere preju- 
dice is capable of uttering. Here are two states: one sup- 
posing a want of action in the kidneys, the other an excess of 
action in them. How in the name of logic can both acknow- 
ledge an identical cause ? Yet both are gravely asserted to 
arise from drinking water! Let us endeavor to place those 
who hold by the retention of the water in the body, and those 
who assert its too rapid exit therefrom, at ease on both points. 
Two kinds of dropsy are described by all medical writers on 
the subject: that which arises from inflammatory, or some 
analogous action in the seat of the dropsical collection (the 
chest, belly, or the cells underneath the skin:) and that which 
ensues upon obstruction of the circulation by reason of disease 
of the heart, the lungs, the liver, the spleen, or some of the 
large veins of the body. Of late years, it has been shown by 
Bright, Christison, Gregory, Osborne, Martin, Solon, and 
Rayer, to be connected in some instances with a particular 
organic disease of the kidney; of which we shall by and by 
say more. With whatever condition, however, of the dropsical 
part the disease may be allied, one fact is invariable in the his- 
tory of dropsy, viz., the diminished action of the kidneys, and 
therefore the diminished quantity of fluid evacuated by them; 
a diminution of which patients in the Water Cure, we venture 
to say, never yet complained. Referring to the dropsy con- 
nected with local inflammation, we find the greater number of 
authors attributing it to suppression of the perspiration, or of 
any of the natural secretions and discharges, and to the driving 
in of any eruption. Referring also to the dropsy dependent 
on disease of the heart, lungs, liver, &c., we find all medical 
writers explaining this by the stoppage of the circulation in 
consequence of obstructions in those organs, and the subse- 
quent congestion of blood and effusion of its watery parts in 
some of the cavities. But in all the treatises on this disease, 
from Hippocrates downwards, the medical or the non-profes- 
sional reader will seek in vain for the use, or even the abuse of 
water as a cause. It is true that many of the older writers tor- 
tured their dropsical patients (who are always thirsty) by for- 
bidding liquids ; but every practitioner is now well aware of the THE WATER CURE. 
77 
absurdity, and oven injury of the restriction, which, however, 
still obtains as correct with very many of the laity. Upon this 
erroneous and injurious notion, the opinion that “ water drink- 
ing causes dropsy” is calculated to play, as they who emit it 
well know. But would any educated practitioner venture, in 
a case of dropsy, to act upon such a notion, and debar his pa- 
tient from as much water as he chose to drink ? We opine 
that he would be pointed at as an ignoramus and scouted by 
his brethren for his utter want of scientific and practical know- 
ledge. If, then, the free taking of water be not conducive to 
the increase of dropsical disease, when the kidneys and skin 
are carrying off liquids imperfectly, how should it produce 
dropsy when both the kidneys and skin are acting freely—nay, 
carrying off more than the usual quantity of fluids by virtue of 
the exercise enjoined in the Water Cure? The proposition 
carries absui'dity on the face of it. 
But we further maintain, that in those cases wherein the 
dropsy is attributable to obstruction of circulation in the liver, 
spleen, or sweet-bread, the copious drinking of water, aided by 
the other applications of the Water Cure, is a powerful agent 
in the cure of dropsy. If there be a diseased state which our 
plan of treatment is more especially calculated to remove, it is 
to be found in that obstruction of the liver and other solid or- 
gans of digestion, which, in the majority of instances, gives rise 
to dropsy. Of the removal of such obstruction, we have already 
given the rationale. And inasmuch as in the case before us, 
the dropsy is attacked in its source, and the torpid liver, &c., 
put into action, we have good reason to prefer the Water 
Treatment before that which only aims at stimulating the kid- 
neys by all kinds of irritating diuretics, leaving the original 
seat of the mischief in the liver to take its chance, or, possibly, 
to be deteriorated by those very diuretics (calomel, colchicum, 
squill, and so forth) applied to the stomach. 
This leads us to the consideration of that species of dropsy 
which is connected with the organic disorder of the kidneys 
denominated “ granular disease,” and described by Bright, 
Ciiristison, and others. When it is alleged that the Water 
Cure causes disease of the kidneys, we are not aware that par- 
ticular allusion has been made to this “ granular” condition ; 
—very probably, they who pronounce the opinion never heard 
of such a condition. But as medical writers have never yet 
spoken of any other state of the kidneys as productive of dropsy, 
we conclude that the disease in question is the one intended to 
be seen through the haze of prejudiced ignorance which sur- 78 
THE PRACTICE OF 
rounas this opinion. If the authors who have published on 
this subject are to be relied on (and they comprise the most 
respectable names in medicine,) the causes of the complaint in 
question are, 1, suppressed action of the skin ; 2, drinking of 
spirituous liquors ; 3, the employment of stimulant diuretics ; 
and 4, courses of mercury. But none of them allude in any 
way to copious dilution with water as a cause. 
With regard to the suppressed action of the skin, it can 
scarcely obtain in the Water Cure, wThere the increased action 
of that important surface forms a prominent feature, and where- 
in sweating is a principal agent. On this last, indeed, Dr. Os- 
borne places his greatest reliance in the cure of dropsy : as- 
serting that “sweating being accomplished, the disease, if free 
from complications, never fails to be removed.” 
Neither do spirituous liquors figure in the Water Cure, 
which may, therefore, quoad hoc, be declared guiltless of caus- 
ing renal dropsy. Why do not our medical brethren, who utter 
warnings about water and dropsy, raise their voices on the sub- 
ject of spirits and dropsy ? for all the writers above cited speak 
of spirit drinking as the most fertile cause of this kind of drop- 
sical disorder, which, according to Dr. Bright, destroys not 
less than five hundred persons annually in London alone. 
Then, as regards the employment of stimulant diuretics, 
they enter not into the simple pharmacopoeia of the Water 
Cure. Dr. Osborne states, that these medicines, as squills, 
cream of tartar, and even the diuretic salts, are not guiltless in 
contributing to the production of this disease of the kidney; 
and that by over-stimulating the kidneys, they become the 
means of stopping the urinary secretion, and inducing the re- 
nal disease and its consequences. And Dr. Gregory, in his 
report of cases, says, “ that the most remarkable diminutions 
in the urinary secretions took place after the administration of 
squills and cream of tartarevidently pointing to their effect 
in exasperating the malady. Further, in quoting these authors, 
it is neceseary to remark, that they speak of the “ stimulant 
diuretics,” and particularize some of them, as above. The lai- 
cal reader will understand the force of this when he learns that 
diuretics are classed by physicians into the “ aqueous” and the 
“stimulant,” the latter including the saline, the acrid, the olea- 
ginous, &c. It is not probable that accurate writers should 
have passed over the “ aqueous” diuretics had they been detec- 
table as a source of dropsy from the cause in question; the 
rather as, besides simple water, these include the infusions of 
simple herbs and grains, copiously imbibed. So that, taking THE WATER CURE. 
79 
authority of a high character, that terrible agent, water, does 
not produce dropsy so frequently as those pleasant medicines, 
squills, colchicum, &c. 
Lastly, a reviewer in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical 
Journal, (supposed to be Professor Christison,) accuses 
mercury of causing diseased kidney leading to dropsy, and 
alludes to Dr. Blackall’s observations to the same effect. 
He says : “ Two decided examples, if not more, we have seen, 
in which no doubt could be entertained as to the influence of 
this mineral in producing the morbid degeneration of the kid- 
ney. Mercury seems in this case to act very much like other 
excessive stimulants, and by over-exciting the glandular part 
of the kidneys, to lay the foundation of the morbid change.” 
Sir Astley Cooper also classes mercury as a not infrequent 
cause of dropsy of the belly, speaking of it in that agency as 
“ by no means an extraordinary case.” 
Still we have nothing of water in all this; and mercury is 
assuredly no part of the Water Cure. The fact is, and edu- 
cated medical men know it, that when a large quantity of wa- 
ter is introduced into the circulation, it passes off by the skin 
in the shape of sweat, if external heat be applied: or by the 
kidneys, if the surface be kept cool, this being a process of fil- 
tering only, and unaccompanied by the stimulation which 
marks the operation of saline and acrid diuretics, whose aim is 
to force the kidneys at the expense of other organs. It re- 
quires no depth of reflection to conclude which is the more 
likely to bring on renal dropsy. We may add, by way of rider, 
that Dr. Copland enumerates “ the drastic operation of pur- 
gatives” among the causes of dropsy : but does not place co- 
pious dilution in the list. 80 
THE PRACTICE OF 
PROPOSITIONS 
ON 
THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF THE 
WATER CURE. 
I. A series of unnatural symptoms constitute 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 symp- 
toms are more or less rapid and pressing in their character, 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 oil 
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 indi- 
vidual, this effort is not successful, the body dies from ex- 
haustion. 
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 THE WATER CURE. 
81 
are invariably connected with disease of some internal organs, 
especially the stomach and bowels, and are regulated in their 
character and intensity thereby. This is 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 impor- 
tant organs. 
IX. Chronic disease is the enfeebled effort of the same or- 
gans 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 sys- 
tem 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 scien- 
tific 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 inflammation, and con- 
gestion. 
XV. In endeavoring to develope the powers of the system, 
the dissipation of this inflammation or congestion must be con- 
stantly kept in view, as the end of which the constitutional 
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 strengthened in order 
to dissipate the inflammation or congestion referred to. 
XVII. Curative treatment is therefore made through the in- 
strumentality of the nervous system. 
XVIII. Violent and sudden stimulation of the nervous system 
of the internal organs, is invariably followed by exhaustion and 
increased inflammation and congestion. Hence the impropriety 
of alcoholic and medicinal stimulants. 
XIX. But the gradual and judiciously regulated stimulation 82 
of the nervous system according to the organic powers, con- 
duces to the development and maintenance of its strength. 
XX. This stimulation is the more steady and certain in its 
results 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 applied, those 
parts containing the largest portion of the nervous 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 exter- 
nal 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, requires the 
development of its powers, exercise of the limbs is requisite, 
the stimulation of the air, diet, and water aiding thereto. 
XXIV. Pure water, pure air, proper diet, and regu- 
lated EXERCISE, ARE THE GREAT AGENTS IN EFFECTING THE 
CURE OF DISEASE BY AIDING THE NATURAL EFFORTS OF THE 
BODY, THROUGH THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF THE NERVOUS SYS- 
TEM. 
XXV. In the due apportionment of these agents, ac- 
cording TO THE POWERS OF THE CONSTITUTION AND THE PHASES 
OF DISEASE, AS ASCERTAINED BY MINUTE MEDICAL EXAMINA- 
TION, CONSISTS THE SCIENTIFIC AND THE SAFE PRACTICE OF THE 
Water Cure. 
XXVI. As strengthening of the system by the regulated 
stimulating of the nervous system is the means, so the throw- 
ing off disease by more important on 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 important or- 
gans, 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 applied to the great centre of the 
nerves, the brain. 
XXVIII. These and the mal-apportionment of the stimula- 
tion included in water, air, diet, and exercise, give rise to the 
only “ Dangers of the Water Cure.” 
THE PRACTICE OF THE WATER CURE. 
83 
XXIX. The proper apportionment of the stimulation in ques- 
tion originates and maintains a steady effort of the system to 
save its vital parts at the expense of parts which implicate life 
less immediately. 
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 efforts 
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 diverting 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. 
XXXVI. It is, however, possible, and in a great number of 
cases happens, that complete recovery from disease is effected 
by a slow process without any perceptible evidence of a crisis, 
either external or internal. 84 
THE PRACTICE OF 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
OF 
RECOVERY BY THE 
WATER CURE TREATMENT. 
I have now sufficient materials by me to fill a moderately 
sized volume with cases like the present ones. Similar re- 
sults may be found recorded by many other physicians of great 
reputation. There are here, however, a sufficient number to 
show that the patients write like very rational persons, and that 
the subject is worthy of grave reflection and investigation. 
ADMIRAL BEAUMAN’S CASE. 
This letter is a voluntary offering of the gallant Admiral, 
and it is the anxious wish of the writer to have the results of 
his treatment publicly known. 
Malvern, July 18th, 1843. 
Gentlemen, 
As I am firmly convinced that I owe my present state of 
health, and even my existence, to your instrumentality, it be- 
comes a pleasing duty to me to record by letter, as my friend 
Mr. Marsh has done, the benefit I have experienced from the 
system of treatment you adopted in my late illness. This duty 
is further pressed upon me by the knowledge I have, that many 
are deterred from trying the Water treatment in consequence THE WATER CURE. 
85 
of fears regarding its dangers,—fears which my case amply 
shows to be totally without foundation, when it is scientifically 
applied. Previous to coming to Malvern, I was considered by 
some of the most eminent of the faculty to be in a hopeless 
state. I mention this in evidence that it was not my fears for 
myself which exaggerated the gravity of my sufferings; what 
these were I need not detail. Suffice it to say, that when I 
came under your care I was nearly reduced to a skeleton,—• 
that the spasms of the stomach, and the spasms about the heart, 
seemed to threaten me with sudden death, and that only a few 
nights after I- reached Malvern, and before I commenced the 
Water Cure, I was for several hours in a state of insensibility. 
In short, I did not consider my life safe from hour to hour. At 
this time, after nearly three months of treatment, my body is 
well covered with hard, solid flesh, my appetite and sleep are 
good, and my other functions in excellent order. The kindness 
and confidence with which you undertook a case so forlorn as 
mine, backed by the attention displayed in the treatment of it, 
deserve and have my grateful remembrance. But indepen- 
dently of what I have experienced in my own person, of the bene- 
fits to be derived from your mode of treating disease, when 
other modes were confessedly of no avail, I have seen enough 
in a number of the cases of others under the Water Cure at 
Malvern, to convince me of its perfect safety and superior effi- 
cacy ; and 1 trust that this short letter, which you are at liberty 
to use as you please, may induce many sufferers like myself to 
profit by a trial of it. I shall be too happy to make this state- 
ment wherever I go. 
I remain, gentlemen, yours truly obliged, 
Francis Beauman, 
Rear-Admiral. 
P. S. As to the physical annoyance in the Water Cure, that 
I heard so much about, I can only say that I found, even in my 
weakly state, every part of the treatment I underwent anything 
but disagreeable, particularly lying in the wet sheet: indeed, I 
found it so exceedingly pleasant, that I regret much that you 
discontinued it the last five days before my departure from Mal- 
vern. I may also observe that I have not taken medicine of 
any description since I first consulted you. 
To Doctors Wilson and Gully. Fs. Bn. 86 
THE PRACTICE OF 
GOUT . 
Malvern, Sept. 16th, 1844. 
My dear Sir, 
I cannot leave Malvern without again expressing to you my 
thanks for the encouragement you gave me to try the effect of 
the Water Cure, as you practice it, and for your kind attention 
to me during the time I have undergone the treatment. 
I have now gone through the perspiring process, followed by 
the baths, fifty times, with the other parts of the treatment; I 
found them anything but disagreeable ; indeed, I may say, quite 
the reverse ; and they have been most beneficial to me. During 
nine months before I came here, I was never able to move 
without my crutches, and a great part of that nine months, I 
passed in my bed or on the sofa. My nights were restless, my 
pulse high, and my tongue charged. I am now turned sixty- 
three years of age, and have been subject to the Gout more than 
forty years. I paid little attention to it the first twenty years, 
and as soon as the fit was over, I never missed taking my wine 
daily. My knees, hands, and other parts were so crippled, that 
I had made up my mind to pass the rest of my days in my arm- 
chair or bed, or to hobble about with my crutches. 
The effect of the treatment has so ameliorated my situation, 
I can now go up and down stairs with ease and comfort, with- 
out a stick, and the other day walked half a mile on the high 
road. I frequently ride on horseback four hours a-day, and my 
general health, I thank God, is as well as ever it was in my life. 
I sleep well, my appetite is good, I can use my arms freely, and 
tie my neckcloth, a thing I had not been able to do for years; 
in fact, I feel myself comfortable and independent. Had I come 
here a year ago, and undergone the same process, I have no 
doubt but I should have saved my left knee from being con- 
tracted ; as it is, I am content to walk a little lame, and shall 
be too happy to remain in the same state I am in at present for 
the rest of my days. Pray excuse this long scrawl, as I know 
you have not a minute to spare, and believe me, 
My dear sir, yours most truly, 
T. C. Marsh. 
To Dr. Wilson. 
Park Hall, Epping, Essex. 
Nearly twelve months after this was written, Admiral Beau- 
man read me a letter from Mr. Marsh, in which he describes 
himself as having been in perfect health since he left Malvern; THE WATER CURE. 
87 
Some years ago, being myself in pursuit of health, I accom- 
panied the late Right Hon. Lord Farnham on the continent as 
his physician. He suffered from gout, but died from the effects 
of dosing with colchicum. It was an interesting and marked 
case of the destructive effects of that pernicious drug. 
IMPUISSANCE, COMPLICATED WITH GOUT, ETC. 
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 become impuissant. 
He remained for two years, married while there, and in due 
time became the father of two children; and was, moreover, 
perfectly cured of gout. 
The above case of His Serene Highness Prince Nassau, as 
related by Dr. E. Johnson, was considered beyond the reach of 
any remedial measures. When he commenced the Water 
Cure treatment, his prospect of marrying was about as great as 
that of his being Emperor of Austria. All his joints were crip- 
pled with gout, and it had already slightly attacked his heart and 
brain. When I left his Highness his recovery was nearly com- 
pleted. This case was nearly as hopeless as that of Probart. 
This letter was given by Mr. Case, (a gentleman well and 
esteemedly known in the county of Lancashire) to Dr. Came- 
ron, in consequence of inquiries which the latter was making 
for some noble patient in London. Dr. Cameron sent me the 
letter to add to my stock, and the writer of it has kindly as- 
sented to its publication. 
Belle Vue Hotel, Great Malvern, 
October 25th, 1842.} 
Dear Sir, 
It is with much pleasure I sit down to comply with your re- 
quest to communicate shortly respecting my own sufferings 
from gout, and the effects produced on me during my short visit 
to this plaee, using the cold water remedy under the advice of 
Dr, Wilson. I have been a martyr to gout from a very early 88 
THE PRACTICE Of 
age, and have already reached my sixty-fifth year. From the 
year 1816,1 have generally been attacked periodically, spring 
and autumn, the violence and suffering of the fit increased 
yearly. The joints of my hands, feet, ancles, knees, and elbows, 
much enlarged, and containing chalky matter, and the legs liable 
to be much swollen at night after exercise. I left my own 
house, Thingwall Hall, near Liverpool, on Friday morning, the 
7th instant, and consulted the doctor on the same evening, com- 
mencing operations on the following morning, viz., the blankets 
and cold bath. I had much difficulty in reaching the well, 
where I drank four glasses of water, and returned with a fine 
appetite to breakfast; again took walking exercise, and another 
bath before dinner; and this has been the daily course, wearing 
the wet compress and dry bandage over the stomach. When 
I left home, I had active gout in both elbows ; this very shortly 
disappeared. I have repeatedly tried, I believe I may safely 
say, every reported remedy without much success, and felt 
much doubt and hesitation in submitting to the treatment with 
cold water. However, I have no reason to regret the trial, 
feeling better and stronger than I have done for years. My ca- 
pability of taking walking exercise has daily increased, and I 
can now, without much pain or fatigue, walk seven or eight 
miles a day. From the repeated perspiration and ablutions, 
the skin is softened and rendered more elastic, the swelling of 
the legs has disappeared, and the lumps on the hands and fin- 
gers materially reduced. In fine, by a continuance of the sys- 
tem I am sanguine in being enabled to eradicate the enemy, 
and, as far as I can judge, without any the slightest risk in 
bringing on other complaints. I live moderately, and though 
allowed by the doctor a glass or two of sherry,* I have given 
even that up from choice, and really feel not the slightest desire 
or any such stimulant. Although at home I have been much 
in the habit of taking aperient medicine almost daily, I have 
* Lest any one should suppose from the above, that I indulge my pa- 
tients with wine, it is necessary to remark that permission was given 
only for a day or two, the conviction on my mind from past experience 
being, that the patient would of his own accord relinquish the stimu- 
lant in that period—so rapidly and certainly does the stimulus of wa- 
ter supersede that of wine, and convince at the same time, from the 
contrast in the feelings both moral and physical of the individual, that 
to take wine is a misfortune, and a stupid fallacy. I may add, that 
Mr. Case has forgotten to mention the operation of the douche, and sits 
baths, &c., which he took in the course of the treatment, and which 
assisted in the beneficial result. THE water cure. 
89 
required none whatever here. I shall be happy to communicate 
any further information, and remain, 
Dear sir, yours very truly, 
Thomas Case. 
Dr. Cameron. 
The lady who wrote the following letter was sent here with 
her three sisters by Dr. Begbie, a physician of talent at Edin- 
burgh ; but not to try the Water Cure. 
• 
Dear Sir, 
In compliance with your request, that I should give you a 
sketch of my case, I beg to say that I have been for many years 
annoyed with a liability to take severe cold, with a cough that 
continued for weeks, and sometimes months, more particularly 
the last two years, when I was never more than a week with- 
out it, and closely confined to the house from October till June, 
never being able to go out without catching fresh cold, how- 
ever warmly clothed, and even latterly in going through the 
house if the weather was at all damp. The usual mode of treat- 
ment was medicine, mustard poultices on the chest, leeches, 
and rubbed with irritating liniments; sometimes fly blisters, 
and every cough mixture, and lozenges,—all that could be 
thought of was tried, warm drinks, &c., and generally several 
days in bed at the commencement of every attack of cold. Oc- 
casionally the cold affected the windpipe more than the chest, 
which made the cough at those times incessant. A complete 
change to bracing air, having been recommended, induced my 
friends to bring me to Malvern, but not to try the Water Cure; 
but it had not the desired effect, as I was atta cked with a severe 
cold, similar to what I usually felt, and had I not consulted you, 
must in all probability have been confined to the house for some 
time, as going out always increased it. However, you advised 
the lying in the wet sheet two or three times a day, and rubbing 
three times each day with the chilled wet sheet, wearing a 
warm compress constantly on the chest, warm fomentations 
applied to the stomach for two nights, drinking cold water, &c., 
&c., and walking out three or four times a day, which treat- 
ment I followed, and at the end of three days, the feeling of cold 
in the chest was quite removed, and by the sixth day, the cough 
completely gonoj which indeed appeared quite like a miracle, 
and thoroughly convinces my friends and myself of the extra- 90 
THE PRACTICE OF 
ordinary efficacy of the Water Cure. I now go out without a 
thought about the weather, or fear of catching cold. 
I remain, yours sincerely, 
Elizabeth. S t. 
To Dr. Wilson. 
Great Malvern, August 28th, 1843. 
TIC-DOTJLOITREUX, STOMACH AND LIVER COMPLAINT, ETC. 
Malvern, October 16th, 1843. 
Dear Sir, 
It is with great pleasure I now add my testimony to that of 
so many others, of the great efficacy of your mode of treatment 
by “ Water, air, exercise, and diet.” After a trial of exactly 
five weeks, I find myself benefited in every way, and much 
more so than I could ever have hoped or expected. 
I have been severely afflicted for the last sixteen or seven- 
teen years past with a most violent tic-douloureux in my face, 
which is now easy from the water cure system; and my 
stomach is wonderfully restored to its former state of health, 
which had been upset for years by the powerful medicines 
given to me to remove that distressing complaint. 
I came here suffering under stomach asthma, the liver com- 
plaint, and swelled anil dropsical ankles, all of which are now 
perfectly removed, and I have every reason to express my full- 
est trust in your judgment, prudence, and discretion, with per- 
fect confidence in your long practical experience in the medi- 
cinal, as well as the system you now pursue. 
I am happy at having it in my power to state to you, that I 
have ascertained that all the numerous patients who have been 
residents in your house during the time in which I have been 
among them, fully concur with me in these sentiments, and 
offered to add their testimony to mine. 
With best wishes for the success of yourself and the Water 
Cure system, 
I remain, my dear sir, yours most truly, 
Thomas Stanton St. Clair, 
C.B. & K.H. Colonel. 
To James Wilson, Esq., M.D. &c. THE WATER CURE. 
91 
THE PRINCESS SAPIEHA’s CHILDREN. 
The following cases are of such interest that I shall present 
them to the reader with some details as published in my “ Wa- 
ter Cure.” The Princess is so thankful for the preservation 
of her children, and the benefit experienced by herself, that she 
repeats what is here written whenever she has an opportunity. 
Her children were all born strumous and with very large heads, 
except the last, which was owing to her having gone through 
the Water Cure treatment some time before, and during the 
whole time she was enciente. This child was born with a small 
head, grew rapidly, has been in perfect health, and without any 
of the peculiarities which characterized the six previous ones. 
“ When at Graefenberg, I was introduced to the Princess 
Sapieha at her request; all her family were under the treat- 
ment, including herself and sister. This lady had lost four 
children with affections of the brain and stomach, after having 
consulted all the first men in Europe, and was without hope of 
eventually saving two of the survivors, a girl and a boy. The 
four who had died, had been carried off at different ages, from 
two to seven years, by convulsions and vomiting, which nothing 
would arrest. The most violent and energetic means were had 
recourse to. The last, of the age of seven, vomited for four- 
teen days before the fatal termination. Hearing from some of 
her neighbors of the 6 miraculous cures’ made by the Water 
Cure, she determined to go and consult Priessnitz. The little 
firl, six years old, had incessant cough, which had been gra- 
ually increasing for three years; she expectorated large quan- 
tities of thick yellow sputa, frequently mixed with blood; she 
had hectic fever, and was reduced to skin and bone. This was 
complicated with an affection of the brain, and a tendency to 
convulsions : her physicians declared the case to be one of con- 
sumption, and that the child could not last longer than six 
months. Eighteen months before this she had had an attack 
of convulsions; blisters were applied, from the nape of the 
neck to the loins, and the child was confined for above six 
months to her bed. Priessnitz said there was still hopes, and 
that it was ‘ scrofula fallen on the chest.’ During the first six 
months’ treatment by the Water Cure, the child gained flesh 
and appetite, the fever ceased, but the cough and spitting, mixed 
with blood, were undiminished. The family physician, who 
had accompanied them, was still against proceeding with the 92 
THE PRACTICE OF 
Water Cure, saying it was utterly useless. When the mother 
asked what then he would propose, he said, ‘ an issue in the 
arm.’ ‘ Oh !’ she replied, ‘ thank you; you have applied that 
once, and the child was laid up for several months, and narrowly 
escaped with the erysipelas it brought on.’ These contending 
opinions, however, had such an effect upon her own health, 
that she had frequent fainting fits. In this state of things, she 
consulted me; on examining the child’s chest, I found the whole 
of the right side very dull on percussion. On placing the ear, 
there was a strong bronchial rale throughout; under the right 
collar-bone, there was a small cavity, and the gargouillemem 
and pectorilque were distinct. I gave the following opinion at 
once, in these words : ‘ You have no chance that I can see ex- 
cept by the Water Cure, and I am happy to say that I agree 
with Priessnitz in thinking there is a chance; the child is daily 
gaining flesh, and the great point is to keep up the nutritive 
powers, keep off fever, and relieve irritation in the chest as 
much as possible.’ I added, ‘ If it was my child, I should send 
it from the low situation here in the town, up to the hill.’ My 
advice was taken. 
“ Her progress during the summer was very rapid; she be- 
came quite fat, with a ruddy complexion ; but the coughing 
and spitting, though considerably diminished, still continued, 
and still mixed with blood. About a week or ten days after I 
had first seen the child, I took Dr. Coq, an intelligent, and one 
of the leading physicians of Ghent, (who was going though the 
Cure, to see it; his opinion and advice were similar to my own. 
“ The Princess and her family were under my care during the 
winter in Italy, her daughter going on regularly with the sys- 
tem. Two months after my return home, I received a letter 
from the Princess, which gave me great pleasure and confirmed 
my prognosis. Relative to her daughter she says :— 
“ ‘ Je profite de cette occasion pour vous dire que Sophie va 
de mieux ; elle tousse moins tous les jours, et ses nuits sont ex- 
cellent. J’aime a vous dire, Monsieur, que vous etes pour 
beaucoup dans cette amelioration, et je vous en remercie de 
tout mon coeur. Je joins en mille compliments pour Madame 
Wilson, et pour vous l’assurance de mes sentiments distingues. 
‘ Sapieha.’ 
“ I have since heard that the invalid has quite recovered. 
“ The treatment has been as follows:—Every morning, at about six o’clock, she is placed sitting in a bath, containing 
about nine inches of water, at a temperature of sixty-five to 
seventy degrees of Fahrenheit; in this she is well rubbed with 
the hands gently, all over, during a period of fifteen or twenty 
minutes ; she is then dressed, and goes out to walk for an hour, 
drinking several small tumblers of cold water during the ex- 
ercise. The bath is repeated every night, an hour or two be- 
fore bed-time, the same as in the morning. When taken out 
of the bath, a double piece of linen steeped in cold water, and 
well wrung out, is placed on the chest, covering the front part, 
and reaching from the collar bones to the pit of the stomach. 
This is completely protected from the air by a similar covering 
of dry linen; it is worn night and day, and changed at noon for 
a fresh one. When the cough was violent at night, and it 
sometimes lasted for hours, I found the application of a fresh 
wet compress always relieved it. I should not omit to mention 
that soon after going to Priessnitz, she was attacked with a 
violent convulsion, ending in a stiffened state of the whole body, 
and complete insensibility. When this occurred, Priessnitz 
happened fortunately to be in the town ; he put her at once into 
a ‘ shallow chilled bath,’ where she was rubbed for three quar- 
ters of an hour, before she showed any signs of consciousness 
or of life. During this period, she was taken out three times for 
a few minutes, placed on a bed, and rubbed with wet hands. 
When this state is coming on, there is great dilatation of the 
pupils, and it has since been prevented going any further by 
* head baths,’ which she has taken every day since this attack. 
For the last five months the head has been perfectly free, but 
the head baths are still continued once a day at noon. 
“ I may mention, era passant, the state of her brother. He 
has had a strong disposition to the complaint of which his bro- 
thers and sisters have died. It comes on the in following way :— 
the face becomes suddenly deadly pale, the features shrinking, 
the eyes more or less fixed, the pupils dilated to their fullest ex- 
tent, and vomiting begins. In from five to ten minutes, by the 
cold hip bath, in which he remains twenty minutes, these symp- 
toms are completely removed, and in half an hour he is out 
playing as well as ever. In the first bad attack, before going 
to Priessnitz, he was treated in the following way:—blisters 
were placed on the stomach and all along the back-bone, and 
the raw surface dressed with a preparation of opium, and 
calomel and opium in large quantities given internally. This 
was a seven months’ business in bed and in his room. He 
THE WATER CURE. 
93 94 
THE PRACTICE OF 
is now past twelve years of age, and his teeth are all com- 
pletely destroyed by the mercury. When he went to Graefen- 
berg, his eyes were so much affected by the remedies, that there 
were great fears he would become completely blind; for this 
he went through the Water Cure, and now sees perfectly well. 
He has continued the treatment under my care in a gentle 
manner, and though still a delicate-looking boy, is in perfect 
health. The diet in both these cases is cold milk, with bread, 
morning and night, and a simple dinner of meat, vegetables, 
and light pudding, and water alone as their beverage.” 
The state in which we found the patient sent by Mr. Coul- 
son, reminded us forcibly of that of Lord Byron in his last ill- 
ness, as described in his life by Mr. Moore.—Lord Byron 
called medicine “ the destructive art of healing.” How truly it 
proved to be so in his own person, you will see, when I give you 
the details of his last illness :—“ Of all his prejudices,” says 
Mr. Moore, “ he declared the strongest was that against bleed- 
ing. His mother had obtained from him a promise, never to 
consent to being bled, and whatever argument might be pro- 
duced, his aversion, he said, was stronger than reason. ‘ Be- 
sides, is it not,’ he asked, ‘ asserted by Dr. Reid, in his Essays, 
that less slaughter is effected by the lance, than the lancet— 
that minute instrument of mighty mischief!’ On Mr. Millin- 
gen observing that this remark related to the treatment of ner- 
vous, but not of inflammatory complaints, he rejoined, in an 
angry tone, ‘ Who is nervous, if I am not ?—and do not those 
other words of his apply to my case, where he says, that draw- 
ing blood from a nervous patient, is like loosening the cords of 
a musical instrument, whose tones already fail, for want of a 
sufficient tension ! Even before this illness, you yourself 
know how weak and irritable I had become; and bleeding, by 
increasing this state, will inevitably kill me. Do with me 
what else you like, but bleed me you shall not. I have had 
several inflammatory fevers in my life, and at an age when 
more robust and plethoric; yet I got through them without 
bleeding. This time, also, will I take my chance.’ After 
much reasoning, and repeated entreaties, Mr. Millingen at 
length succeeded in obtaining from him a promise, that should 
he feel his fever increase at night, he would allow Dr. Bruno to THE WATER CURE. 
95 
bleed him. On revisiting the patient early next morning, Mr. 
Millingen learned from him, that having passed, as he thought, 
on the whole, a better night, he had not considered it necessary 
to ask Dr. Bruno to bleed him. What followed, I shall, in jus- 
tice to Mr. Millingen, give in his own words:—‘ I thought it 
my duty now to put aside all consideration of his feelings, and 
to declare solemnly to him how deeply I lamented to see him 
trifle thus with his life, and show so little resolution. His per- 
tinacious refusal had already, I said, caused much precious 
time to be lost; but few hours of hope now remained, and, un- 
less he submitted immediately to be bled, we could not answer 
for the consequences. It was true, he cared not for life, but 
who could assure him, that unless he changed his resolution, 
the uncontrolled disease might not operate such disorganization 
in his system, as utterly and forever to deprive him of reason! 
I had now hit at last on the sensible chord; and, partly annoy- 
ed by our importunities, and partly persuaded, he cast at us both 
the fiercest glance of vexation, and throwing out his arm, said, 
in the angriest tone, ‘ There you are, I see, a d d set of 
butchers—take away as much blood as you like, but have done 
with it.’ We seized the moment, (adds Mr. Millingen,) and 
drew about twenty ounces of blood. On coagulating, the blood 
presented a strong buffy coat; yet the relief obtained did not 
correspond to the hopes we had formed ; and during the night, 
the fever became stronger than it had been hitherto, the rest- 
lessness and agitation increased, and the patient spoke several 
times in an incoherent manner.” Surely, this was sufficient 
to convince the most school-bound of the worse than inopera- 
tive nature of the measure. Far from it. On the following 
morning, the 17th, the bleeding was repeated twice, and it was 
thought right also to apply blisters on the soles of his feet! 
Well might Mr. Moore exclaim: “It is painful to dwell on 
such details.” For our present purpose, it will be sufficient to 
state, that although “ the rheumatic symptoms had been com- 
pletely removed,” it was at the expense of the patient’s life; his 
death took place upon the 19th, (April,) that is, three days after 
he was first bled. 
Might I not venture an opinion, that a similar treatment 
would have been attended by the same result in both cases ? 
Many months have now elapsed since this patient left Malvern, 
but a few days ago he wrote by a patient he sent here, to say 
that by following his instructions, he “ still continued in perfect 
health, and still called himself a ‘ miracle.’ ”—This is his case: 96 
THE PRACTICE OF 
INDIGESTION, ETC., WITH THREATENING INFLAMMATION 
OF THE BRAIN. 
This case was a very interesting one, and was sent here at 
an hour’s notice by Mr. Coulson, a distinguished surgeon in 
London, under whose care he had previously been. The pa- 
tient, a gentleman of forty years of age, had undergone exces- 
sive mental excitement, accompanied with constant and dis- 
tressing sinking about the stomach and bowels, fever alter- 
nating with a tendency to fainting and cold sweats, all of which 
he had endeavored to light against by frequent taking of stimu- 
lants. With all this he had been unable to procure even a small 
amount of sleep. In our first interview with him at Malvern 
his speech was almost incoherent, his gestures violent, and his 
whole appearance that of a person on the verge of insanity or 
inflammation of the brain. His tongue was fiery red, his 
bowels constipated, and his skin dry and harsh, except when the 
cold sweat suddenly appeared on it, together with the symp- 
toms of fainting. All this plainly indicated the use of the wet 
sheet, in which he was to lay for an hour twice a day, with sitz 
baths in the intervals. In twenty-four hours this patient be- 
came calm, and slept almost all the time he was in the wet 
sheet, of which he spoke as the most soothing and delightful 
remedy he had ever experienced. On the first night after com- 
mencement of the treatment he slept five or six hours consecu- 
tively. His bowels also opened and his tongue became paler; 
of course no stimulants whatever were allowed, although up to 
the moment of his treatment he had taken them largely, and he 
expressed surprise at not feeling the want of them. At the end 
of a week he pronounced his feelings to be better in all respects 
than they had been for more than a year. Nevertheless we 
thought it advisable he should continue the general treatment 
for a fortnight longer, which he accordingly did; and at the 
end of three weeks returned to London, speaking of himself as 
“ a miracle,” and extolling the Water Cure in enthusiastic 
terms. 
Remarks.—Nothing could be more striking than the imme- 
mediately sedative effects of the wet sheet upon the highly ex- 
cited nervous system of this patient. It is impossible to con- 
ceive of any medicinal opiate acting so quickly and so efficiently; 
neither had the sleep any of the disagreeable characters of that 
obtained by opiate, for he awoke soothed, refreshed, and with 
a moist tongue. This effect too continued throughout the case: THE WATER CURE. 
97 
the patient never retrograded for a single day. Although when 
he came his limbs would scarcely carry him half a mile, within 
a week he was able to mount to the highest of these hills. The 
harassing condition of mind disappeared, and he frequently ex- 
pressed his surprise at the totally altered view he took of the 
circumstances which had previously so painfully excited him. 
We confess our ignorance of any medicinal treatment which 
could remove the symptoms enumerated, and restore the general 
health so rapidly and completely as the much-abused means 
employed in this case. 
DANCING WITH SCARLET FEVER. 
The following case will engage the deepest attention. The 
lady is the wife of a merchant at Hamburg. She was at Grae- 
fenberg with her whole family during the ten months I was 
there. I give her case as related by Dr. E. Johnson. 
MRS. KLAUKE’s CASE. 
In the month of May, 1842, Mrs. Klauke, (aged about twen- 
ty-seven,) was seized with pains in the head and back and 
calves of the legs. Her face, neck, arms, and legs, and sub- 
sequently the whole body, became brightly scarlet, and she com- 
plained of a soreness in the throat. The pulse was rapid, and 
skin dry. She was packed in the leintuch 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 lein- 
tuch ; 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 treatment was con- 
tinued 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 ad- 
ministered every night. During the whole time she ate and 98 
THE PRACTICE OF 
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. 
What will the reader say to a lady dancing with scarlet fe- 
ver ? If she was not alarmed herself at such an apparent act 
of temerity, surely out of the two or three hundred persons who 
were in the room with her, there were some who must have 
been afraid of catching it. I think I may answer for them— 
not one. Now I cannot imagine any human being, who has 
seen the frequent and sometimes terrible results of scarlet fever, 
and who has heard of its fatality, so devoid of common human- 
ity, as not to be curious to know the reason for this general ab- 
sence of fear in two or three hundred persons, with a patient 
red with scarlet fever in the midst of them. The reason is 
simply this : they all knew that there was no danger attending 
scarlet fever when properly treated by the Water Cure system, 
and the majority would have been glad to have had it there and 
then, rather than run the risk of being attacked by it when they 
could not obtain a judicious Water Cure treatment. They 
knew and saw that patients could eat and drink,—that in many 
cases they could go out and walk, and as in the present in- 
stance, dance—with scarlet fever. 
These two or three hundred persons also observed the pa- 
tients when the scarlet fever was gone, and they found that it 
had left no mark behind it. Turn now from that picture, and 
look upon this. 
Three weeks ago, a clergyman’s wife at Worcester, who was 
under my care, advised another clergyman’s wife to send her 
daughter, a fine, full-grown girl about fourteen years old, to 
consult me. I found that she was perfectly deaf after scarlet 
fever. The only communication with her was held by signs 
and with the fingers. She was accompanied by her sister, a 
fine, handsome, healthy-looking girl, some years older. This 
morning I was told by the same clergyman’s wife that the 
“ eldest of these young ladies and two of the younger children 
were dead with scarlet fever, and buried.” I heard there was 
something attempted with water in these cases added to the or- 
dinary treatment. Something of cold washings and spongings 
with vinegar and water. Dabbling with water and vinegar ! 
I do not ask my brethren that they should, from worldly pol- 
icy, or even common humanity, study the Water Cure; I ask it 
from them for mercy’s sake. When I first came to Malvern, I THE WATER CURE. 
99 
offered the parish surgeon to treat as many cases of fever as he 
pleased, to show him how the system was practised, and to tell 
him all I knew about it. During one winter I passed at Nice, 
the scarlet fever was very fatal; I was told by one of the lead- 
ing practitioners, that he calculated there were from twelve to 
fourteen deaths a day by it. My wife had it in its severest 
form, and I declare that neither of us had a moment’s appre- 
hension. The Princess Sapeiha’s nurse had it soon afterwards; 
I treated her in the same way, and without any medicines. The 
ulceration of the throat was severe in both cases ; for this I 
used, in addition, fomentations of warm water applied every 
second hour, for an hour, with a yard of flannel well wrung 
and renewed every ten minutes, a compress being worn in the 
intervals ; no one can form any idea of the relief afforded by 
this application without experiencing it. 
SYMPTOMATIC FEVER. 
This was one of Mrs. Klauke’s children, whose treatment in 
scarlet fever has just been related; I was present, and assisted 
at the greater part of the treatment. I give the case as it was 
related by the mother to Dr. John King and to Dr. Edward 
Johnson some time afterwards. 
“ Alexander Klauke, aged three years, a fine lively child, 
much predisposed to inflammation, was attacked with fever, and 
inflammation of the bowels, about a month previous to the 
present disease. In the evening, the child was placed in a 
bath not quite cold, in which he remained twenty minutes, ad- 
ditional cold water being added, as the temperature rose by the 
hqat from his body. 
“ During this time cold water was poured with 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 a sofa, covered 
over with a dry sheet and blanket, with the back part of his 
head in a head bath, for ten minutes ; by this time reaction had 
taken place, when wet compresses were applied to the head and 
back of the neck, and the body, from the arm pits to the hips, 
was 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. 100 
THt PRACTICE OP 
“ The child was again placed in bed, where he slept till the 
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 running high, and accompanied with 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. To- 
wards the last, the heat being diminished, he was allowed to 
remain ten minutes. A thick wet compress was applied to the 
head and breast in addition—these being the parts where the 
heat was greatest. 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 last wet sheet, he was placed at once in a bath of 
(seventeen degrees of Reaumur) 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 bath being not so long, as when the fever 
was not as 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 himself at intervals for additional 
icet sheets. Orders were given that the inclination of the child 
should be obeyed. 
“ In the course of the morning the child himself desired 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 the rest of the body, this being the general guide for the 
duration of a bath; and it is worthy of remark that the more 
the fever was reduced the more tranquil the patient became, 
till at last he remained with perfect tranquillity in the bath. 
The same treatment, slightly varied, was continued for four 
days, when the child was well, and was sent out to play with 
the other children.” 
A child in fever, when under the Water Cure treatment, will 
often direct what should be done; I have often heard them ask 
for a fresh sheet, as in the present instance, when it was pro- 
posed that they should go into the bath. Their instinctive THE WATER CURE. 
101 
feeling is generally right and should often be obeyed. When 
they are sufficiently refreshed by the gradual cooling of the 
wrung sheet, they will themselves ask to be put into the bath, 
rather than lay any longer in the sheet, or have it changed for 
a fresh one. 
CASE OF SMALL POX. 
A young man aged twenty-one, 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 
destination, was in high fever with delirium. Until this was 
reduced, an abreibung was kept applied in the quickest suc- 
cession : so immediately hot did the wet linen become. The 
delirium quickly subsided. When the fever was much abated, 
he was put into the leintuch, and this was followed by the 
shallow bath. Very soon a copious small-pox eruption appear- 
ed. Leintuchs were continued, 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 
vaccinated in his infancy; but, notwithstanding, the pustules 
were universal and of full size. No pitting ensued. (This 
case is related by Sir Charles Scudamore.) 
APPETITE AND SLEEP RESTOKED. 
An Austrian officer, aged sixty, had been very stout and 
remarkable for the goodness of his appetite; but by degrees 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 twenty-four, 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 improvement. It was in the begin- 
ning of spring; the weather very cold, and he was not strong 
enough to take much exercise. Hence a slower improvement. 
Treatment: in the first of the morning a leintuch, followed by 
a shallow tepid bath; an abreibung twice a day; usually a 102 
THE PRACTICE OP 
second leintuch, 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 comfortably for 
seven hours; and he quitted Graefenberg recovered from every 
inconvenience. 
HYPOCHONDRIASIS, PSORIASIS, AND SCIATICA. 
The gentleman, (an Englishman) about sixty years of age, 
who was the subject of these three severe afflictions, belonged 
formerly to the civil service in India. I made his acquaint- 
ance at Graefenberg immediately on my arrival, and am in- 
debted to him for introductions to several valuable cases besides 
his own. He had labored under these affections for eight years. 
Shortly after he had become the subject of sciatica and psoria- 
sis, (which latter disease his French medical advisers denomi- 
nated dartre farineuse) his mind became excessively excited 
by some family occurrences, 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 equi- 
librium 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 per- 
fectly 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 fore- 
finger between the leaves, he re-seated himself. “ Some time 
ago,” said he, “ I was perusing the book of Deuteronomy ; and 
in the course of my reading, the passages which I have copied 
into this pocket-book rivetted my attention. They were so ex- 
actly characteristic 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 pas- 
sages of Scripture contained. No language of mine can so 
truthfully or so forcibly convey to you the horrors under which 
I was laboring both in body and mind. Read them,” continued THE WATER CURE. 
103 
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 me 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 assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, 
£ Would God it were even;’ and at even thou shalt say, ‘ Would 
God it were morning!’ ” 
“ At the time,” continued he when I had done reading, “ that 
I was perusing those passages, those terrible denunciations 
were most of them actually realized in my person. I trembled 
as I read—for at that moment I was covered ‘ from the sole of 
my foot to the top of my head ’ 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 £ 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.” 
This gentleman had then been under the Water Cure about 
three months. His sciatica had entirely left him—the erup- 
tions were nearly gone—the itching had wholly ceased—while 
the state of his mind was perfectly calm, cheerful, rational, 
and full of thankfulness. (Related by Dr. E. Johnson.) 
CURE OF DEAFNESS AND RESTORATION OF SMELL. 
A gentleman aged twenty-four, of healthy appearance, when 
twelve years old, had a nervous fever, which exceedingly weak- 
ened his constitution and rendered him very deaf; from that 
period he 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 also was very defective. Began 
treatment very gently with abreibung, leintuch, and sitz-bath; to 104 
drink water very freely, and take abundant exercise. After a 
fortnight, his appetite and strength were improved, and treat- 
ment was increased to the use of the sweating blanket, followed 
by the plunging bath twice a week. The douche on the other 
days; head bath twice a day; and to snuff water freely several 
times in the day. 
There ensued a critical diarrhoea several times, after which 
the hearing improved. When this diarrhoea occurs, boils sel- 
dom happen also. The sniffing of the water was at first disa- 
greeable ; but finding advantage from it, he persevered; and 
when I last saw him, his hearing and smell were both recov- 
ered. He was strong, active, and in good spirits. (Related 
by Sir Charles Scudamore.) 
THE PRACTICE OF 
SYPHILIS. 
The subject of this case, a Bohemian gentleman, resident in 
Vienna, appeared to have been affected with two distinct disea- 
ses—piles and syphilis of six years’ standing. He had been 
under the care of the most skilful medical men, who salivated 
him to such an extent, and so reduced him by their medicines, 
that he could not walk fifty yards without the greatest exertion 
and fatigue. In this state he arrived at Graefenberg, encased 
in flannel and thick wrappers, in order to prevent his catching 
cold, under the advice of his physicians. He was suffering 
with great thirst, nausea, fever, continued pain at the back of 
the head, pains in the limbs, eruptions, costiveness, and exces- 
sive debility. 
Under the Water treatment he improved daily, and to such 
an extent, that in two months he could walk six miles with 
comparative ease ; and in December last, in severe frosty- 
weather, he walked about with one coat on, namely, a pilot of 
light texture. His flannels, wrappers, and superfluous cloth- 
ing had been discarded soon after reaching Graefenberg. At 
the period of my departure he had been four months at Grae- 
fenberg. The piles yielded to a regular action of the bowels, 
although he had been troubled with them for some years. 
It is a remarkable fact that after the wet sheet baths, which 
formed part of the treatment of this case, the water wrung 
from the sheets always had a milky consistency and fetid 
smell. (Related by John Smethurst, M. D.) THE water cure. 
105 
Remarks.—The period is not far distant when the Water 
Cure treatment will supersede every other mode at present 
practised for this disease. The cure is radical, effected with 
great facility, and not followed by secondary symptoms. Ev- 
ery medical practitioner who has seen much of the secondary 
effects of mercury will hail the new treatment as a great boon. 
Once fairly tried in our great hospitals, the Water Cure treat- 
ment will become general. I had the opportunity of seeing the 
results of the treatment in a great number of cases, presenting 
every form of syphilis and venereal disease. There was a very 
bad case here when Drs. Dewsbury and Crawford were in my 
house; the recovery was complete in three weeks. Eight 
months have now elapsed, and the patient has remained per- 
fectly well. Did space permit, I could relate a great number 
of similar cases, attended with the same happy result.—J. W. 
GOUT IN AGED PATIENTS. 
An Austrian field marshal, eighty-two years of age, had been 
a gouty martyr through a long life, and visited Graefenberg 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 gradually improved, and finally threw away 
his stick, walking and riding on horseback with almost the 
activity of former years. 
An old Polish general, nearly eighty years of age, also 
received nearly equal benefit from the treatment of his gouty 
sufferings and infirmity. (Related by Sir Charles Scudamore.) 
The Prussian field marshall Titchell, at the age of eighty- 
four years, was going through all the processes of the Water 
Cure for his general health, and for gout, at the time I was 
under the same treatment. His constitution was much im- 
proved, and his gouty sufferings relieved. I have introduced 
these cases to show that the Water Cure cannot be so “ des- 
perately dangerous,” when individuals at this advanced period 
of life can go through it with benefit, The next case of rheu- 
matism is also an illustration.—J. W. 106 
THE PRACTICE OF 
RHEUMATISM TREATED AT THE AGE OF SEVENTY. 
A gentleman residing at Leamington, put himself under my 
care last summer. He had suffered a great many years with 
rheumatism, and liad been treated by all the most noted prac- 
titioners with little or no benefit. During the last twenty years 
he had been forbidden to touch cold water. I found him in the 
following state : the hands, knees, and feet distorted and en- 
larged ; the patella of each knee firmly fixed and immoveable ; 
all the locomotion he was capable of, was a few yards on 
crutches. For the seven preceding winters he had not ven- 
tured out of his house, and he was carried up and down stairs. 
A few weeks after he had commenced the treatment by water, 
he was able to walk a considerable distance with one crutch, 
and shortly afterwards a stick was found a sufficient support, 
and he went out in all weathers wittiout any disagreeable result. 
He left Malvern in the autumn and has returned here to spend 
part of the summer. He has told me that during the winter 
lie had taken a cold bath nearly every morning, and walked out 
every day. Many medical men were very angry with him, and 
a report was raised that he had fallen down in a fit coming out 
of church, “ the necessary and inevitable result of his morning 
ablutions !” His door was crowded with carriages to inquire 
his fate ; so that he was obliged to go and walk about the town 
to quiet the tumult. In the midst all this, a little liberality is 
so very refreshing, that I cannot resist recording, that Dr. Jeph- 
son, meeting this gentleman walking about the streets of 
Leamington, said to him, “ Well, I do not care how you got so 
well, or who made you so, I congratulate you on your great 
improvement.” He has not taken a grain or a drop of medi- 
cine for the last ten months. 
LETTER FROM THE MOST NOBLE THE MARQUIS OF 
ANGLESEY. 
Beau Desert, October 8th, 1843. 
My Dear Doctor, 
I have your instructions conveyed in your letter of the 6th, 
and they shall be implicitly followed, as shall be also any other 
alterations you may be disposed to make in my treatment, being THE WATEK CUKE. 
107 
convinced (and this in the midst of much suffering,) that if 
anything can relieve me from my most dreadful of all disorders, 
your skill, and zeal, and great experience and prudence, will 
bring me through. I mark this latter word more particularly, 
because I hear of the most absurd and malicious reports being 
abroad of your having very nearly killed me ! 
Quelle folie, or rather quelle mechancete !!! Why, in general 
health I never was better than since you took me in hand, and 
I can declare that since the 21st of September, 1842,1 have 
never for a single day had occasion to assist in any way what- 
ever, stubborn bowels which reluctantly yielded for years and 
years, only to the most powerful and pernicious drugs. 
It is true that to Homoepathy I owe much, from having first 
taught me to abandon druggery; but then Homoepathy had 
nothing to offer (me at least) in order to affect that which the 
free use of the pure simple water within and without, have, 
under your prudent and judicious management, so admirably 
effected. Still I am often in great pain—and no wonder;—a 
desperate malady that for six or eight and twenty years had 
been in full possession of me, and which has probably been 
immensely aggravated by the swallowing of a mass of the most 
violent and poisonous drugs—a quantity, which I do believe if 
noted down would not be credited. It is no wonder, I say, that 
even water cannot in thirteen months effect a cure. But it has 
kept me in excellent, and even robust general health, and if, 
instead of being seventy-five I was only fifty-five, I should not 
be without hope of your totally subduing the enemy; but as I 
shall probably hardly give you time to obtain a complete vic- 
tory, I must continue to bear my malady with all the patience 
and resignation that I can muster. If I do outlive it, (which, 
however, I own I do not expect,) I shall owe it entirely to your 
system. So persevere, my good doctor, as you have hitherto 
done, and believe me you will find a confiding patient; and 
may you and the admirable system you have introduced into 
this country with so much talent, perseverance, and success, 
go on and prosper through good report and bad report. 
You will be glad to hear that Lady Adelaide is in high 
health, and a steady advocate of the Water Cure, and I hear 
most favorable reports of Lord Lichfield. Lady Anglesey is 
tolerably well. We all send our best wishes to Mrs. Wilson, 
and I remain, my dear doctor, Yours truly, Anglesey. 
J. Wilson, Esq., M. D. 108 
THE PRACTICE OF 
STOMACH AND LIVER DISEASE, WITH ASTHMA. 
Malvern, 9th October, 1843. 
My Dear Sir, 
It affords me the greatest pleasure before leaving Malvern to 
add my evidence in favor of the admirable system you practise, 
and my thanks for the kindness and attention with which you 
treated my case. 
I have been upwards of eleven years in India; in the year 
1836 I returned home on leave of absence, and had a most 
severe attack of influenza, and have not been well since. I 
returned again to England in May last. I had stomach 
asthma, and spasms of the stomach in their severest forms, 
with indigestion and constipation of bowels, and torpid liver of 
many years standing. I was treated with bleeding, leeches, 
blisters, and medicines, but all my symptoms returned again 
with the same severity. I then tried the mineral waters with 
no benefit, suffering two severe attacks while taking them ; in 
this most miserable state I determined to place myself under 
your care. I am in every way more than satisfied with the 
result. After from three weeks to a month’s treatment, I met 
by accident your neighbor, my friend, the Rev. Mr. , who 
did not recognise me with my altered appearance. When I 
came to you in August I was clothed in flannel, and wore a 
great coat, and was still chilly and cold; now in October I am 
without flannel, wear a single light coat, and am warm and 
comfortable. 
I had what is called a crisis, and a severe one ; the phenom- 
ena attending it would not be believed by many without wit- 
nessing them, but I felt perfectly well at the time, ate heartily 
with an appetite three times a day, and took plenty of exercise 
with alacrity. A friend of mine, Captain , whose case 
is well known to all in your establishment, had a crisis at the 
same time; it was considered one of the most formidable that 
occurs, yet I observed his gaiety was not diminished, and Ins 
general proceedings as little disturbed as my own. 
So great has been the benefit I have received, and so con- 
vincing are the many proofs I have witnessed of the extraordi- 
nary benefits to be derived from the Water Cure treatment 
fairly carried out, that it is my anxious wish to see others 
under similar suffering avail themselves of so certain and safe 
a cure. Wishing you many years of health to continue your THE WATER CURE. 
109 
present employment so eminently for the service of others, I 
have great satisfaction in subscribing myself, 
My dear Sir, 
Yours very faithfully, 
J. Douglas de Wend, 
Captain 44th Regiment. 
TUBERCULAR CONSUMPTION. 
We do not, as some of our kind neighbors would have it 
supposed, profess to “cure consumption,” cancer, or incurable 
diseases, but we do profess and believe, that we could in the 
majority of cases prevent their occurrence by a judicious Water 
Cure treatment. We moreover go further and assert, that in 
some cases great amelioration may be effected by the same 
means, even when these states are in existence. The follow- 
ing is an illustration. It may be said that it is an anomalous 
or solitary instance, still it serves my purpose, which is to show 
the extraordinary restorative and preservative powers and prop- 
erties of water. 
The young lady, the subject of the following case, is about 
twenty-six years old; from the age of seven years she has been 
in delicate health, with all the characteristics of a scrofulous 
constitution. Her mother died of tubercular consumption, and 
she has a sister whose death is daily expected from the same 
disease. It is above four years since her own lungs gave 
evidence of becoming diseased, being troubled with a constant 
cough, and two years later the expectorated matter was streaked 
with blood. Last winter she was laid up, and lost all her 
strength ; hectic fever, and night perspirations also set in with 
considerable severity. At this time she met with my work on 
the Water Cure, and was much struck with the case of the 
Princess Sapieha’s daughter. I may mention that she is a 
young lady of great courage, intelligence and originality of 
mind; and commenced the treatment herself, without consult- 
ing any one. She soon found herself relieved from the fever 
and night perspiration, her appetite returned, and she was able 
to take exercise. For several months she went on with an 
active system of treatment, walking from six to eight miles a 
day; her appetite increasing, and feeling in short, in excellent 
health, but the cough and expectoration continued. At this 
time her feet began to swell, look red and felt sore; she wrote 110 
THE PRACTICE OF 
to some one professing the water treatment, who told her to 
desist from it immediately. She did so, the feet recovered, and 
she was again seriously ill. In the spring she came here. On 
examining the chest with the stethescope, I found the upper 
half of the left lung nearly solid, with a cavity of considerable 
size in the summit; the pectorilque and other signs of a cavity, 
were not to be mistaken. The right lung, with the exception 
of from three to four inches of the upper part, which also gave 
evidence of being affected, was as far as could be ascertained, 
sound. A few mornings after this, I requested Dr. Gully to 
make an investigation ; he concurred with me exactly in opin- 
ion. The patient was put under a regular course of treatment, 
and soon got into perfect health, in which she remains at this 
moment. The solidity is evidently much less than it was four 
months back. Some weeks ago she was examined by Dr. 
College of Cheltenham, and Dr. Savage of London. Their 
observation was, “ that she ought to be dying.” My opinion 
is, that reparation will take place, and Dr. Gully coincides with 
me. When she leaves off the treatment she becomes ill, and 
well again when it is resumed. There is nothing to prevent 
her going on with it, until the desired result is obtained. 
The following satisfactory recovery took place last winter. 
The Rev. Mr. Majendie was in my house at the time; he and 
the patient got into such condition, that they used to walk to 
Worcester (eight miles distant) to church ; this they did from 
mere redundancy of health. 
NERVOUS INDIGESTION, ETC., WITH SUICIDAL PROPENSITY. 
The subject of this distressing malady was a gentleman of 
forty-six years of age, who after eighteen years of active and 
incessant attention to commercial affairs, retired with a mod- 
erate fortune from them in consequence of the growing distress 
both in the stomach and brain, which unfitted him from further 
action, and, ns he said, “ rendered the sight of the ledger intol- 
erable.” It avails not to repeat all the means he had tried pre- 
vious to his trial of the Water Cure; suffice it that they 
comprised all the circle of drug medication, and, what is for 
the most part as bad, drug dietetics, by which is meant the 
system of keeping up a certain amount of stimulation from THE WATER CURE. 
111 
food and wine on the condition of maintaining a proportionate 
amount of stimulation from medicines. He came here complain- 
ing that he only got one hour or an hour and a half sleep in 
twenty-four hours, that he had the most horrible mental sensa- 
tions, the predominant one being that he was doomed to be his 
own destroyer : indeed for the last two years he had never been 
left without some one to watch him. His bowels always cos- 
tive, and his belly protuberant, no pain was present when they 
were pressed; but eating always brought on a more intense 
degree of the mental pain. His volition was quite gone, and 
his moral courage extinguished. The contents of the chest 
were perfectly sound. 
We commenced the treatment of this case with hot fomen- 
tations to the stomach and bowels at bed time, the wet sheet 
bath in the morning and evening, a sitz bath in the middle of 
the day, and he also commenced lying in the wet sheet; the 
result of which was, that on the fourth night he had five hours’ 
sleep. From the bowels too he had on the morning following 
this a good natural evacuation. The mind, however, still held 
by its painful sensations. He now began to lay every morn- 
ing from one hour to one hour and a half in the wet sheet, 
followed by a bath; the sitz bath at noon and the wet sheet 
bath being continued. During this time he went every morn- 
ing walking on the hill, and drank from three to six tumblers 
of water as he felt inclined. In the course of the day he drank 
from eight to twelve tumblers, taking exercise which varied 
from five to ten miles a day. At the end of eleven weeks he 
left Malvern perfectly recovered, having, during the latter half 
of that period, used the douche daily, and broken upon the wet 
sheet by occasional sweatings in the blankets. His capability 
of taking water increased with his progress towards health, 
and he sometimes took fifteen or twenty tumblers a day. The 
changes in the expression of his face, indicative of that in his 
feelings, was striking to all the patients in the establishment, 
and from being the most lugubrious he became the most laugh- 
ter-loving of them all. He slept invariably from the time he 
went to bed—ten o’clock—until the servant awoke him in the 
morning; and his sleep was dreamless. 
The only evident crisis in this case wras an increased action 
of the bowels for a fortnight, carried to the degree of diarrhoea 
for two or three days, but without any pain, griping or debility. 
The wet sheet, however, in which he laid for a long time, ren- 
dered the water in which he was daily washed, dark and 
turbid, with a copious flocculent sediment. 112 
THE PRACTICE OF 
Remarks.—Here is a case in which during two years the 
patient had been gradually getting worse, notwithstanding that 
he had obeyed, as he said, to the letter every system of treatment 
he had followed, backed by perfect rest of mind and body. It is 
plain that in such fearful states of irritation of the nerves of 
digestion and of the brain, all internal medicinal means should 
rather exasperate than alleviate, and such was the fact in the 
present instance. Yet by the soothing operation of the local 
fomentations and the general application of the wet sheet, an 
almost immediate effect was produced upon that irritation, as 
the sleep and rapidly increasing quietude of mind testified. 
The same remedies, by thus reducing irritation, and conjoined 
with the derivative effect of the sitz bath, succeeded at an 
early stage in setting up a regular movement of the bowels. 
Having thus secured the quiescence of the nervous system and 
restored the regularity and quality of the secretions and excre- 
tions, it only remained to renovate the tone of the system, 
which was effected most completely by the douche, and the 
appropriate union of the previously named remedies. It will 
be remarked that the diarrhoea here served as an internal crisis, 
of which mention has been made in the previous pages. But 
although this did not continue for more than four days, there 
was for as many weeks from two to three copious natural 
evacuations every day; and it was a curious feature, as 
observed by the patient himself, that the less he ate the more 
copious was the evacuation, a fact of which he convinced him- 
self by repeated experiment. 
THE CASE OF A PHYSICIAN WITH CHRONIC RHEUMATISM 
AND GOUT, AND TENDENCY TO MALIGNANT DISEASE OF 
THE STOMACH. 
A talented physician, enjoying considerable practice in one 
of the suburbs of London, was the subject of this case. He 
is forty-five years old, during fifteen of which he has been 
afflicted with rheumatism and gout; besides which he has an 
hereditary tendency to black cancer of the stomach, his mother 
having died of that frightful malady. He had been constantly 
under treatment of one kind or the other, until his case was 
nearly hopeless, and his health so broken up as to oblige him 
to think seriously of abandoning his practice. An old friend THE WATER CURE. 
113 
of his, a physician* at the time under treatment of the Water 
Cure at Malvern, wrote to him, advising him strenuously to 
try it, which he determined to do; but previously made a point 
of calling on two of the most eminent practitioners in London, 
who, as might be expected, ridiculed the idea, recommending 
at the same time a course of mercury and iodine. The patient 
having previously tried this with some disastrous results, and 
convinced, as he said, “ that that was all that was wanting to 
finish him off” at once started for Malvern, where he arrived 
in the following condition. The body much emaciated; the 
trunk almost bent double; face pale, sallow, and anxious; 
cheeks sunken; tongue swollen to twice its natural size, furred 
and red at the edges; appetite morbid and capricious, leaning 
to indigestible articles of food; bowels torpid, with bad secre- 
tions ; knees swollen and painful,—one of them lame for sev- 
eral years past; lumbago; incapability of walking more than 
two or three hundred yards without great pain and exhaustion; 
considerable fulness and excitement about the head; little or 
no sleep, and what there was, of an unrefreshing kind. 
We shall not enter into the details of the treatment of this 
case, but will merely mention that by careful management he 
was soon brought into a state that allowed of the application 
of all the processes of the Water Cure, even to the douche; 
and that, although there were many other drawbacks in the 
shape of mental excitements on family affairs, he left Malvern 
at the end of eleven weeks, standing erect, walking ten and 
twelve miles a day on the hills without fatigue, the lameness 
having disappeared together with the chronic swelling of the 
knees; his appetite so great as to require restraint, his sleep 
restored, and the bowels in perfect order. He left this about 
a month ago, highly satisfied with the results, and only regret- 
ting that his professional avocations obliged him to return to 
town, otherwise he would have preferred to continue the treat- 
ment throughout the summer. We venture to say that the 
change in his complexion and expression of countenance will 
be no small matter of astonishment to his metropolitan friends, 
both professional and laical. 
Remarks.—It will be seen that even a medical man may go 
through the “Dangers of the Water Cure,” and come out of 
them, not only unscathed, but restored. Yet it should be stated 
* Dr. Adair Crawford, the learned author of the article “ Inflamma- 
tion,” in tlic Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine. 114 
THE PRACTICE OF 
that this enlightened gentleman would have been deterred from 
trying this only really safe treatment, but for the pressing re- 
presentations of Dr. Crawford, who, from investigation and 
experience in his own person here, was well able to allay any 
apprehensions on the subject. We look forward with confi- 
dence to the day when many medical men will make a similar 
trial with a similar event. 
SCROFULA. 
I extract the following from my work on the Water Cure ; 
when Captain Claridge came to Graefenberg, to confirm his 
growing convictions, 1 particularly pointed out the following 
case to him. 
“ As in many other diseases, medicinal treatment has been 
found very ineffectual. Iodine has been found to do more harm 
than good, and is a dangerous remedy; the great reliance has 
been placed on change of air, diet, and bathing. From what I 
have seen of the ‘ Water Cure,’ it has been very successful in 
the treatment of scrofula. The elevated position in which 
these establishments are formed, the pure air constantly in- 
haled, regular exercise, the tonic effect of a scientific system 
of bathing, the increased powers of digestion, forming new and 
healthy nutritive matter in large quantities, do wonders. But 
independently of all these powerful hygienic means, pure water, 
applied externally, has an effect purely its own, which cannot 
in the present state of our knowledge, be fully explained ; nor 
is it absolutely necessary. We can study the effects of gravi- 
tation, without knowing what gravitation is. We can observe 
the varied phenomena of sensibility, and the different sympa- 
thies of the human bodies, without ever knowing what they are. 
“ The treatment of scrofula by water embraces the whole of 
what is yet known of the modes of its application; no two 
cases can be treated alike. The age and relative strength of 
the patients, the complications, and the extent of the ravages 
which the disease has caused, are the only guides; everything 
depends upon the tact and discrimination of the practitioner, 
and his knowledge of the disease and the remedy. There were 
a number of children under treatment at Graefenberg when I 
was there, and one-grown up person—a young lady from Ham- THE WATER CURE. 
115 
burgh. She left before me, perfectly cured; she was very 
handsome when the tumefaction of the nose, lips, &c., had 
disappeared; she had been about twelve months under treat- 
ment, and commenced it with all the external characteristics 
of scrofula, which she had had from an early age ; her general 
health was also much impaired, attended with considerable 
suffering. For the first few months there was no evident change, 
except in the general feeling of health, which appeared to have 
become perfect. At this time the feet and legs began to swell, 
soon succeeded by copious discharges of thick glutinous fluid 
from the feet; this continued for three months, when it ceased, 
leaving her in the state I have described, without mark or 
external swelling. During the time that this crisis went on in 
the extremities, the warm compresses were kept continually 
applied, wearing large over-all boots, and taking her daily 
exercise with her accustomed facility. The general treatment 
consisted in the sweating process, wet sheet, cold, tepid, and 
chilled baths, hip bath, foot bath, compresses and douche, and 
the drinking of spring water, in proper quantity. In spinal 
complaints proceeding more or less from this cause, the Water 
Cure is equally efficacious. There were several cases I noted 
with great interest which made very rapid progress.” 
LIVER AND STOMACH COMPLAINT, WITH EMACIATION. 
The following was a good case; I cannot mention the gen- 
tleman’s name, but he was attended at the same time by my 
colleague, Dr. Gully: I may mention that Sir Joseph Copley 
dined in my house nearly every day during the progress of 
the treatment. 
Mr. , a Liverpool merchant, in consequence of long 
continued exertion in the climates of South America, irregular 
living, and considerable labor of brain, had at length fallen into 
a state of disease indicated by the following symptoms. 
Complexion pale yellow, without a sign of circulating blood; 
face thin and haggard ; body generally emaciated ; pain in the 
right side of many years standing, bowels confined, appetite 
gone; great lassitude and indisposition to exertion. For these 
ailments he had gone through various courses of medicines, 
mercurials, purgatives, tonics, &c.; he had also tried different 116 
THE PRACTICE OF 
mineral waters, and had finished the list with a course of Mor- 
rison’s Pills ; all to no purpose, for he came to us with enlarged 
liver, and all the symptoms of confirmed stomach disease. It 
should not be omitted that he suffered from frequent tic and 
cramps in the leg. His age was forty-six years. 
Alternate wet sheets and sweatings, with frequent sitz-baths, 
compress constantly kept to the abdomen, and latterly the 
douche, produced, in the course of a few weeks, a decided 
change in his appearance. His appetite became enormous, his 
digestion undisturbed, and the evacuations from the bowels, 
twice a day, very copious; he slept well, and his spirits were 
of the highest order. At the end of a month a crisis of boils 
commenced, principally over the region of the liver and right 
side of the body, which, however, were rather a subject of jest 
than of alarm to him, since, notwithstanding there were as many 
as twenty or thirty at one time upon him, he was never once 
absent from the breakfast, dinner, and supper table, and took 
his walks as he had always done. The only difference in 
treatment required for these boils was an extra wet sheet in 
the middle of the day, which, with the refreshing of the linen 
compresses, he found removed all inconvenience and disagree- 
able sensation, which might have arisen from the existence of 
the boils. Under the action of these boils, the enlargement of 
the liver rapidly gave way, and the diminution of its disease 
was palpably exhibited in his face, winch became round and 
red from being pale and thin. 
Remarks.—In every way this case is satisfactory, and the 
result was obtained in much shorter time than we expected, 
being a little above six weeks. It is further satisfactory, as it 
gives the opportunity of demonstrating what has been asserted 
in the former pages of this work relative to the perfect safety 
of the crisis of boils when these are produced with discretion, 
and treated with judgment. Being withdrawn from busi- 
ness and free from all artificial stimulants, both mental and 
bodily, we perceive how small an affair this crisis is. But had 
this patient left us a fortnight before he did, with the boils upon 
him, and entered upon the cares of his business at Liverpool, 
or had he put himself under a course of drug medication at 
that time, we venture to say that the result would have been 
very different. As it is, we hear at this time (now five months 
since his leaving Malvern) that he is on the point of embarking 
for Canada, and says, “ that he has got a new lease of life from 
*he Water Cure.” THE WATER CURE. 
117 
MISCARRIAGE. 
In relating the following case I must confine myself to the 
leading facts, as I cannot enter into the details for the non- 
professional reader. The lady, the wife of a celebrated sculptor, 
was induced to try the Water Cure treatment, by her friends, 
Mr. and Mrs. Calvert, who had been several months in my 
house. She was suffering from the effects of six successive 
miscarriages. Some of the symptoms were of a serious na- 
ture, and the recumbent posture was found necessary—any 
movement being accomplished with difficulty, and followed by 
great exhaustion. Having practised many years as an ac- 
coucheur, and been present at the confinement of nearly a 
thousand ladies, it may be allowed that I have had sufficient 
experience to form a just opinion in such matters. The 
treatment at first was gentle, and carefully graduated: it con- 
sisted of the tepid wet sheet bath, chilled sitz-baths, and a com- 
press on the abdomen. In a few days the warm wet sheet 
packing, and chilled shallow bath, with sitz-baths reduced in 
temperature, and of longer duration. In the second week she 
could walk about, and used all the baths at the natural temper- 
ature, and packing twice a day in the wet sheet. The third 
week she was able to use the douche, and could ascend the 
hills and take prolonged and active exercise. The rapid resto- 
ration to health and strength in this case, after so long a period 
of debility, and lying on couches, &c., was considered extraor- 
dinary, and a subject of much congratulation by her friends, and 
many patients in the house, who had witnessed her previous 
state of extreme debility. 
Numbers now go to the Water Cure for this distressing dis- 
position alone—for it has been found most successful not only 
in restoring the patient from the immediate effects, but also 
in preventing a recurrence. During my long sojourn on the 
continent, I met with numerous instances both in society and 
at the different Water Cure establishments I visited. This 
desired change is the result of the patients learning a more 
efficient and strengthening mode of managing themselves—sub- 
stituting the stimulus of fresh air, and water properly adminis- 
tered, for the stimulants and sedatives and the destructive 
habits, that are followed by irritation and debility. It will be a 
grand thing and a blessing, when men get healthy wives, and 
women healthy husbands! 118 
THE PRACTICE OF 
CONVULSIONS IN CHILDREN. 
A child in convulsions is perhaps one of the most distressing 
scenes that can be witnessed, and great numbers die in this 
state. During many years of private practice in London, the 
treatment of cliildren came necessarily much under my notice, 
and I can recall at least a dozen cases in which the convul- 
sions were fatal; notwithstanding that all the most approved 
means were used, and all the best assistance that could be ob- 
tained called in. 
The summer before last my child was slightly convulsed 
from teething, and there was every symptom of the attack be- 
coming of a serious nature ; it was deadly pale, grinding the 
gums violently, squinting, and insensible. As soon 
as possible the partial wet sheet was applied, at the same time 
the feet were well rubbed with the hands frequently dipped in 
cold water, and a wet towel placed under the head. In less 
than an hour all the symptoms had disappeared ; the face com- 
posed, and the color of the face rather better than usual. After 
the packing it was well rubbed in a shallow chilled bath for a 
few minutes. After this treatment, a compress was placed 
on the abdomen and worn night and day, with the bath I have 
mentioned night and morning. Although the child was predis- 
posed to convulsions, being very delicate and excitable, and 
teething very rapidly, from having been nursed some months 
too long, there was not the least recurrence of the symptoms. 
I may mention that it is now strong and perfectly healthy, and 
has never taken a dose of medicine of any kind. 
Before settling at Malvern, I had long conversations with 
Dr. Gully in London on this important subject. As I expected, 
there was no difficulty in convincing so enlightened a practi- 
tioner of the power and value of the wet sheet and its accom- 
paniments, and that the wet sheet was “ a real blessing to mo- 
thers,” and I may indeed now add, fathers too. 
Some time after I had been here he sent me a letter in which 
he related the case of a child he had been attending in Oxford 
street. Three weeks or so previously it had been attacked 
with convulsions from teething; the treatment consisted of 
leeching, mustard poultices, and medicines. The child reco- 
vered, but was in a shattered state, with still much attendant 
apprehension from debility and a return of the convulsions. In 
a little more than a fortnight it was again attacked with vio- 
lent convulsions, “ the eyes turned up,” &c., &c.. It was at THE WATER CURE. 
119 
once put in the wrung sheet; in less than half an hour the 
child recovered its sensibility, and before the hour was com- 
pleted there was free action of the bowels in the sheet, the 
child was quite quiet, all the symptoms having subsided. The 
same treatment was repeated next day, and in the evening of 
the same day, conjoined with head-baths as preventives; by 
these judicious measures the child west on well, and without 
any subsequent drawback ; of course a chilled or tepid bath was 
used after the child had been enveloped in the sheet. It is well 
in these cases to put a deep soup-plate, filled with water, under 
the head, for some time during the period that the child is in 
the sheet, and at intervals to pour some of the water on the 
forehead with a large spoon. 
The natives of the Hymalaya mountains induce sleep in their 
refractory children, by putting the head for a few minutes un- 
4er the first spout of water they come to. 
Many modes of treatment resembling the processes of the 
Water Cure, more particularly those that are considered dan- 
gerous and extraordinary, are known and practised by some of 
the native practitioners of India. Mr. Strachen of Clifton told 
me an interesting instance of an English officer being cured, 
when considered in a forlorn state, by having a wetted night 
shirt and cap put on him, and then enveloped in blankets. I 
have no doubt in my own mind that many of the prophets knew 
well the healing properties of water, and many of the processes 
of the Water Cure as it is now practised. 
INDIGESTION AND LIVER DISEASE, WITH ASTHMATIC 
BREATHING AND INTERNAL ACCUMULATION OF FAT. 
The lady who is the subject of the following interesting case, 
is a complete convert to the Water Cure. She has been two 
seasons at Malvern with her family, and has just left. It is 
now nineteen months since she commenced the treatment, has 
been quite well since, and she tells me she is now the same 
figure she was twenty years ago. 
Mrs. H , a lady, about fifty years old, of strong constitu- 
tion, had been for many years in the habit of indulging a pretty 
large appetite to its full extent, and entering into all unhealthy 
ways of fashionable life. The consequences were, in time, 120 
THE PRACTICE OF 
shown in constant pain of the right side over the liver, and in 
the back, which was soon followed by asthmatic breathing, 
laborious action of the heart, and therefore, the greatest diffi- 
culty in ascending stairs. At the same time she became in- 
conveniently fat on the surface, and gave likewise every indi- 
cation of a similar accumulation within, and more particularly 
of that which is so apt to take place about the heart, the kid- 
neys, and coverings of the bowels. The other common symp- 
toms of a deranged state of the digestive apparatus, especially 
costiveness, were all present. With these aliments she came 
to Malvern. On my first visit, I could hear her breathing be- 
fore entering the room. 
It is tedious to recapitulate frequently the treatment of indi- 
gestion and its accompaniments; suffice it to say, that in ten 
days this lady was able to walk up the hills with but little diffi- 
culty of breathing, an undertaking she would not previously 
have dared to attempt; the pain in the side, for which she had 
been frequently cupped by other practitioners, was gone; the 
functions of the stomach and bowels were regularly performed; 
and her spirits rose to the highest state of exuberance. She 
continued the treatment for six weeks, at the end of which time, 
a crisis appeared in one of the legs in the shape of boils; which, 
however, did not confine her to the house. It is now about 
eight months since she left this place, and a week or two back 
we had the gratification to hear, through the medium of a lady 
resident at Malvern, that she continues in perfect health, and 
speaks of herself as “ better than she ever remembers herself to 
have been.” 
Remarks.—In the ordinary mode of treatment by drugs, &c., 
this lady would have occasionally had temporary relief by doses 
of mercurials, salines, and purgatives ; she would have been 
(as indeed she frequently had been) cupped over the side, and 
sometimes at the back of the neck; and many would probably 
have bled her from the arm also. A sound pathologist, look- 
ing to the case as it was presented here, would have no diffi- 
culty in predicting to what such treatment would eventually 
lead. Most unquestionably, dropsy of the chest or belly would 
have been the result, if, in the meantime, some acute inflam- 
mation had not intervened to carry her off. On the other hand, 
the water treatment, by setting up and maintaining a vivid 
action of the skin, by inducing a healthy degree of waste 
through it, and a healthy state of all the secretions, by the 
transfer of irritation from the internal parts to the point at THE WATER CURE. 
121 
which the crisis appeared ; and by enabling the patient to take 
a great amount of active exercise, brought about a state which 
annihilated the local congestion of the stomach and liver, and 
put a stop to the enormous accumulation of fat about the heart 
and other viscera, which they who are in the habit of seeing 
these kind of cases, readily detect. 
There was another interesting case of madness which I shall 
relate—important, as differing in its nature and mode of treat- 
ment from the one I have already given. A gentleman, a little 
past thirty, made my acquaintance soon after my arrival at 
Graefenberg, because, as he said, I was an Englishman; he 
was at Graefenberg to be cured of a tendency to fits of insanity, 
We became great friends—he always met me with a passage 
from one of Byron’s poems,—“ I rove the young Highlander 
o’er the dark heath.” He would often repeat, “ Do you like 
Byron ?” When I answered, he was a great poet, he would 
say, “ You’re a gentleman.—Is not Priessnitz the greatest man 
that ever lived ? and the ‘ Water Cure’ an inspiration from 
heaven ?” When I replied, that I made no doubt when it be- 
came generally known, and when people lived with moderate 
temperance, and learnt to manage themselves properly, there 
would be an end to chronic disease—there would be no more 
diseases of the heart, brain, or stomach—he would catch me 
up in a bruin-like embrace, and almost squeeze the breath out 
of me, crying—“ I rove the young Highlander.” He would 
add—“ But won’t the doctors in England, when you go back, 
kill you ?” “ No,” I replied ; “ they only injure some of those 
who take too many pernicious drugs, and with the most inno- 
cent intentions. I shall never again take a grain of medicine 
of any kind, so I am safe; but they are not such desperate peo- 
ple as you imagine, for they do not even interfere to protect the 
public from notorious quacks and impostors, who kill whole- 
sale, and not ‘ with the best intentions.’ ” “ Ah !” says he, 
“ perhaps that is because those terrible persons you name make 
work for them in the end.” I said, that was rather an uncha- 
ritable construction. I could always find him within a quarter 
of a mile, by his singing his password. When walking among 
the pine trees I am sure he fancied himself in the— 
AN ATTACK OF MADNESS. 122 
THE PRACTICE OF 
“ Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, 
Land of the mountain and the flood.” 
He was going on very satisfactorily, when he went roaming, 
with some other wild fellows, to the frontier garrison town of 
Neisse, where he committed some excesses. On his return, 
fever came on, and being told that he was ill, I went to see him. 
I found him packed in the wet sheet, quite mad, screaming out 
a splendid melange of the most brilliant passages of Byron, 
Goethe, and Schiller. The wet sheet was changed and applied 
above thirty times during the day; he was three times rubbed 
in the shallow chilled bath, for about thirty-five minutes each 
time. The next day it was all over. I found him again quite 
quiet and reduced to a temperate, and very piano—“ I rove the 
young Highlander,” which he repeated with a smile and a 
shake of the hand, and seriously repenting the culpable tricks 
he had played with himself at Niesse. When not under the 
influence of the attack, he was quite sane, only a little too en- 
thusiastic about poetry and music. 
The antiphlogistic and tranquillizing effects of the repeated 
wet sheet packing in this case, was truly delightful to observe; 
for myself, I should find it difficult to express my feelings on the 
subject; no leeches, bleeding, calomel, or blisters, and in three 
days as well as ever, and without a mark. The result was the 
same in the former case, by the continued shallow bath. 
RECOVERY FROM RHEUMATIC GOUT, ETC., 
AT AN ADVANCED AGE. 
I extract this case from my work on the Water cure : “ I 
owe the pleasure of having witnessed the following extraordi- 
nary recovery, to Count Mazenski, a gentleman with whom I 
was on very intimate terms at Graefenberg, and whose little 
daughter I saw cured of hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, 
when in an advanced state, (I mention the name, as most of 
one’s water friends are too glad to have these matters well au- 
thenticated, to care about their names appearing in print; the 
present one I can answer for—at the same time it facilitates the 
inquiries of medical friends going to Graefenberg,) introduced 
me to a near relation—a lady between sixty and seventy years THE WATER CURE. 
123 
old. She came under the care of Priessnitz in the following 
state : she was completely crippled with rheumatic gout; had 
not been out of bed for nearly twenty years ; for sixteen years 
had been supported in nearly an erect sitting posture, with pil- 
lows, being unable to lie on the back, or on either side; her di- 
gestion was also bad; and for seventeen years she had not 
been able to hold a pen. Priessnitz at first refused to under- 
take her case, or to submit her to the influences of water. But 
from a very extraordinary tale which she told, and the entrea- 
ties of her friends, he consented to try some gentle means, 
which were nearly as follows:—Every morning the upper part 
of her person was gently rubbed all over for a few minutes with 
a towel moistened in cold water. She was then well dried, and 
the dress replaced. The legs and feet were then well rubbed 
in the same way, and the same thing was repeated in the even- 
ing. A bandage, well wrung out, of cold water, was placed 
round the waist, covered with a thick dry one, and the same 
dressing to the legs, elbows, and wrists; a few tumblers of wa- 
ter were drunk during the day, more or less, as she felt inclined. 
She was also gently swreated, and was a few times enveloped 
in the wrung sheet. In a few weeks a slight pain was percep- 
tible in the back, and by-and-by a boil made its appearance, 
which, in due time, discharged a quantity of matter so offen- 
sive, that only one person could be induced to enter or remain 
in the room—a strong Polish servant girl, about twenty years 
old. I saw the girl, and questioned her through the Count 
Mazenski. The third day after this, the poor girl had the 
jaundice. In the course of a fortnight or three weeks the lady 
was able to eat almost anything, after years of abstinence and 
care. She could lie down on her back for a short time, and 
turn about as she pleased with very little assistance; and I 
saw her a short time afterwards writing letters, which she did 
half-a-dozen a day, to send to her kindred and friends as the 
greatest curiosities, and to convince them by ocular demonstra- 
tion of what they otherwise would not have believed. She was 
carried every day and placed in a carriage and took a long 
drive. She went on with the treatment for some months after 
this, and recovered the use of the lower limbs in a remarkable 
degree, and her general health was completely re-established. 
Here there was not “ air and exercise,” and no particular diet. 
No doubt it will stagger a little those who think that diet, air, 
and exercise constitute the principal parts of the Water Cure. 
I have said they are necessary and valuable adjuncts to the 
cure of diseases by water, and will restore health alone in a 124 
THE PRACTICE OF 
variety of cases; in a variety of others they will not. I could 
give a number of illustrations even more extraordinary than 
this, to show that water has a mode of action of its own; and 
I may as well mention here as anywhere else, a caution to 
those who may be laboring under long-standing chronic disease. 
If they apply water themselves as laid down in books on this 
mode of treatment, they may get themselves into a dilemma, 
not without danger. 
the author’s case: 
AND RECOVERY BY THE WATER CURE TREATMENT. 
Amongst my earliest recollections are those of my mother 
giving medicines and lotions to the poor; she was a kind of 
Lady Bountiful, and I can distinctly recall, when I must have 
been about five or six years old, a side-table on which there 
was something like a soup plate piled with pence, and hy its 
side lotions, draughts, and pills ; these were for the poor. She 
was the most tender of mothers, and with the best intentions, 
I was very nearly spoilt by indulgence and physic. I never 
could ascertain the fact, but I have little doubt but the first 
thing that greeted my unfortunate stomach on entering into 
this “wicked world,” was a dose of castor oil. To this day 
port wine reminds me so strongly of powdered bark, that I (Ms- 
like it; and black current jelly is still my aversion, for the very 
name brings with it visions of rhubarb, calomel, jalap, and 
Ching lozenges. By this system of management, at ten years 
of age I was a juvenile dyspeptic, with a nervous system 
already morbidly excited, reading works of imagination with 
avidity, with an irritated brain and slightly inflamed stomach. 
At fifteen I had lost my parents, and may say was without 
control. I entered the medical profession, and for more than 
seven years was seldom absent from the hospital or dissecting- 
room ; this, combined with every inattention to diet and exer- 
cise, and taking at the same time stimulants and medicines of 
all kinds, considerably advanced the stomach and nervous com- 
plaints, which had been commenced in my infancy. 
After taking my degrees, I allowed myself no interval of 
rest—the worst possible economy of time I could have adopt- 
ed,—but purchased half of a large practice in London, entering THE WATER CURE. 
125 
into a partnership—midwifery forming a part. Tor about sev- 
en years I was actively engaged in this, with as little attention 
as ever to diet and stimulants. By this time I had become 
really an ailing man. I was always on the physicking list my- 
self—the dressing-table was covered with pill-boxes and various 
draughts always ready. Day after day came the melancholy 
debate, whether it would be better to take the compound rhu- 
barb or the compound colocynth pills—with or without the 
blue—or would it not be better still to try the “ cold drawn,” 
(castor oil,) or rhubarb and magnesia. This irritating conten- 
tion generally ended in my taking, what from my feelings of 
discomfort, I afterwards thought was the wrong dose—the 
truth is, is was all wrong. As may be guessed, I consulted all 
my medical friends, and gave their methods a trial. I rubbed 
in tartar-emetic until I had a crop of boils,—“ the plague of 
Job,”—without his patience,—and took mercury until my 
breath was foetid and my gums sore. By this time I had 
established some serious diseases. I had a stomach and liver 
complaint, with chronic duodenitis, an inveterate skin disease, 
and tic douloureux. My nerves were completely shaken, ac- 
companied with despondency and nervous apprehensions, and 
irritability beyond bearing. I was indeed an old man before 
my time; I understood Ecclesiastes, and felt that all was 
vanity and vexation of spirit. In this deplorable state I aban- 
doned London, and for several years wandered about the conti- 
nent, passing my time principally in Germany and Italy. I 
consulted all the leading men in most of the capital cities of 
Europe, and was still no better. I read again and again every 
work that could enlighten me on my complaints, and ended, 
from personal experience and conviction, in giving up medi- 
cines. A few leeches, with warm fomentations, and dieting, 
affording more relief than anything; in fact, I believe these 
last remedies preserved me. My ailments for a long time had 
become a morbid study for myself, and I am now persuaded, 
that except for closely observing the phenomena of disease in 
my own person, I never could have understood many nervous 
complaints, and the real properties of many drugs. There are 
many men of talent and great experience, who from getting 
into a routine, and having nerves of iron, and the digestion of 
an ostrich, cannot trace the connexion of many painful dis- 
eases, or be persuaded of their source; they overlook some of 
the most real and distressing complaints, or call them “ fanci- 
ful.” At this period I had heard of the Water Cure, and soon 
afterwards a work on the subject fell into mv hands. Having 126 
THE PRACTICE OF 
long contemplated such a thing, I thought I understood it, and 
at once decided on a trial. I should mention that for more than 
twelve months before I went to the Water Cure I had rejected 
my dinner three or four times a week,—not from sickness, but 
from the distress I experienced some hours after taking it— 
there was also inveterate constipation. I was very thin, and 
my calves completely gone. It was altogether fifteen months 
before I was perfectly cured of the skin disease, that being the 
last to disappear.* 
During nearly ten months that I remained at Graefenberg, I 
pursued the treatment with great diligence, and at some other 
establishments afterwards more lightly. It consisted princi- 
pally in the wet sheet packing, shallow bath, sitz bath, and 
sometimes the douche. The compress on the abdomen being 
also regularly worn, as well as a compress on the skin disease, 
as far as I could manage it. During the first three weeks of 
my treatment I suffered from the water turning excessively 
acid, and from my being sometimes obliged to reject it—but 
towards the end of the month a good appetite set in, after hav- 
ing been for years without the sensation. I soon got to relish 
hard cow beef, and veal a day old, with all the et ceteras of 
the Graefenberg table, caring more for the quantity than the 
quality. In the third week I had a sleeping attack, which 
lasted for about six days; I nearly fell asleep on my walks, and 
was frequently obliged to lie down and sleep two hours before 
and two hours after dinner, and go to bed at nine in the evening. 
At the expiration of the fifth month I had gained sixteen pounds 
in weight, and had all the delightful feelings of returning health. 
In the midst of this a crisis of boils appeared on the right leg, 
and the pain in the right side over the liver, which was still 
distinctly felt on pressure, was remarkably relieved. There 
was another curious result—two years previously I had con- 
tracted at Naples an irritation of the lachrymal gland of the 
right eye, and from that time, as soon as I went out in the open 
air, I could throw as many tears as I pleased out of the eye by 
a jerk of the head; it had never stopped, although I had tried 
several remedies. I soon, however, observed that it was ag- 
gravated, when my stomach and duodenum were worse. The 
state of my eye had been remarked by many of my fellow pa- 
tients, and it created a little sensation when I appeared without 
tears or the usual white handkerchief which I had always in 
* It was Dr. Gully’s opinion, and indeed ray own, when T left London, 
that the skin disease would spread all over the body; it had already ap- 
peared a little in the skin under the whiskers. THE WATER. CURE. 
127 
my hand to apply to the eye. It stopped suddenly the day after 
the crisis, and many came to look at “ the cure of the English 
doctor’s eye.” In ten days it returned, and ran again as badly 
as ever, and the handkerchief was again in constant requisi- 
tion. This failure produced despondency in many hypochon- 
driacs who were zealous in pointing out to others that my eye 
was as bad as ever, and that the Water Cure was, after all, 
good for nothing: however, a fortnight after this disappoint- 
ment I had another eruption of boils on the liver and leg—the 
tears were again dried up, and they have stopped from that day 
to this. The dull pain, also, which for seven or eight years I 
had felt more or less in the right side, also disappeared. The 
skin disease, however, was still there, although the itching was 
materially diminished and the skin much less hard and leath- 
ery. I was cold from the first that this would be a slow busi- 
ness. I persevered, and at the end of fifteen months the surface 
of the skin was smooth and without blemish. My color had 
become healthy, and I had gained thirty pounds of flesh. 
During the time I was going through the cure, the quan- 
tity of water I imbibed averaged twelve naif-pints a day. On 
one occasion I drank thirty tumblers of water from the spring 
before breakfast; I was perfectly well all the day afterwards, 
and felt no effect further than an irresistible appetite. I was 
making a variety of experiments at the time, having become 
quite well, and this was nothing more. I do not think it would 
be advisable for patients to repeat such experiments. The com- 
presses worn on the stomach at one period of my treatment, at 
intervals used to be covered with a deep blue secretion, at other 
times it was thick and glutinous. I also had a severe attack 
of fever. The evening that I removed from the Graefenberg 
hill to the little town of Friwaldou, and had just got into bed, 
(having a crisis upon me,) the town was on fire. The wind 
blew a gale, and the wooden houses and roofs carried on the 
fire like a field of dry reeds. The whole thing was so sudden, 
that I had to throw my traps out of the window, and hurry out. 
After being up all night and wet—the next day I found myself 
in a burning fever,* with intense headache and pain in all the 
* When I was at college, from over work combined with other impru- 
(lencies, I was attacked with fever of a mixed typhus and bilious cha- 
racter. I was attended by Dr. Stokes, who has siuee made himself 
known as one of the most eminent physicians of the day, with unre- 
mitting kindness and attention. I was above a month in bed, leeched, 
blistered, and my head shaved, and great quantities of cold water were 
poured over the head. There was an extreme state of debility for months 128 
THE PRACTICE OF 
limbs. 1 immediately turned to, had four wet sheets running 
for a quarter, half, and three quarters of an hour each; and 
then a shallow bath ; in three hours I repeated the process, 
and again before ten at night. The following morning I was 
better, but had still headache and fever. I went on with the treat- 
ment, and the third day was out and well, hungry and hearty. 
I then heard that Priessnitz, who had been wet to the skin all 
the night of the fire, had also an attack of fever, and had been 
passing his time as I had been, in wet sheets. I have no doubt 
he felt as safe, comfortable, composed, and refreshed as 1 did, 
in this great and merciful discovery. 
Some time after this I had intense jaundice from the passage 
of gall stones ; a lady observed that I “ looked like an orange in 
a white pocket-handkerchief.” I lay an hour twice a day in the 
wet sheet, with sitz baths, shallow baths, compress, and fomen- 
tations ; the sheets and compress were tinted yellow. The skin 
was clear again in ten days, and the relief I experienced from 
the different processes very great. Twelve months last autumn, 
I had a severe attack of influenza, and many in this village 
were laid up with it: wet sheets again, with the accompani- 
ments, and I was enabled to visit my patients regularly, with- 
out an hour’s confinement. 
It is now three years since I have taken a dose of medicine, and 
in the interval have done some hard work, in fulfilling my vow to 
aid with all my means in establishing the Water Cure in my na- 
tive land ; added to which I have endured a no small amount of 
irritation, misrepresentation, and abuse; nevertheless,I am quite 
well, and with the blessing of Providence, trust to continue so, 
and to have as many patients to attend to as will be consistent 
with my self-preservation. Under these circumstances, would 
the gentle and candid reader advise me to abandon the Water 
Cure, and return to the practice of medicine ? 
afterwards. From what I have seen and experienced since, of similar 
states of disease, there is no doubt but that a few sheets, &c., &c., 
would have sent me out walking in some days, with little or no debility. 
I sent one of my books to l>r. Stokes by a patient. When it was 
presented, with my grateful remembrances, he said with a sigh, “Ah! 
I never taught Dr. Wilson empiricism.” Thus this distinguished physi- 
cian, whose good opinion I have always coveted, in the politest way it 
could be done, insinuated that I countenanced quackery. But I have 
learnt patience ; and I have no hesitation in predicting that before two 
years are. passed and gone, Dr. Stokes will be practising in his hospital 
what he now deems a quackery. I do this boldly, from the unbounded 
confidence I have in his intelligence, vast medical knowledge, and that 
uncompromising rectitude, which in him is hereditarv. THE WATER CURE. 
129 
RECENTLY PUBLISHED OPINIONS 
OF 
ENGLISH MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS, 
WHO HAVE WITNESSED THE RESULTS OF THE WATER CURE 
SYSTEM ON SOME HUNDREDS OF PATIENTS. 
THE OPINIONS OF 
HERBERT MAYO, ESQ., 
SENIOR SURGEON OF THE MIDDLESEX HOSPITAL, 
Sir Charles Scudamore visited Mr. Mayo at the time the 
latter was going through the Water Cure : he says, “ I asked 
Mr. Mayo if, during his observation of the Water Cure treat- 
ment, for upwards of a year, he had ever witnessed any acci- 
dent to occur from it.” He assured me not a single one ; he 
added, “ This new system of treatment more than doubles our 
power in doing good. Of course it will meet with much oppo- 
sition ; but none, come from what quarter it may, can possibly 
prevent its progress and its taking firm root. It is like truth, 
not to be subverted.” 
Sir Charles Scudamore further observes,—“ I am happy in 
the opportunity of meeting with my friend Mr. Mayo, whom I 
attended occasionally in London, when suffering most severely 
from chronic rheumatism. I was extremely gratified to find 
him in a satisfactory state of improvement. Formerly, the 
knees and hands were inflamed, swollen, and painful, so that 
he could never obtain rest without the aid of a large dose of 
opium. He then suffered also very much from inflammation 130 
THE PRACTICE OF 
and rigidity of the muscles and ligaments of the neck. Upon 
examination of the knees and hands, I found them perfectly 
free from all signs of inflammation, and reduced to their na- 
tural size. The patient was satisfied with his well doing, and 
praised the Water Cure as having saved him from being a crip- 
ple.” When Mr. Mayo went to the Water Cure, he was con- 
sidered in a hopeless state, and of course for years had expe- 
rienced all the benefit to be derived from all the best medical 
and surgical advice in London. 
THE PUBLISHED OPINIONS OF 
SIR CHARLES SCUDAMORE, M.D., F.R.S. 
It appears to me that the subject of Hydropathy is one of the 
highest importance to the whole civilized world : and that its 
principles and practice deserve the closest examination. 
I think that some of the writers on the Water Cure have not 
expressed sufficient praise and acknowledgment to Priessnitz 
as the inventor of the treatment, constituting a complete sys- 
tematic plan. 
In regard to the opposition of a great part of the medical 
world to this innovation on the ordinary practice of physic, 
looking at human nature, we must attribute a little of it to its 
interference with settled interests. 
The principles of the Water Cure treatment are, I am sure, 
founded in nature and truth, and rest, therefore, on an immuta- 
ble basis. We have in our power a new and most efficacious 
agent for the alleviation and cure of disease in various forms; 
and, in proper hands, as safe as it is effectual: I should be no 
friend to humanity, nor to medical science, if I did not give my 
testimony in its recommendation. 
Liebig observed to me in our conversation : “By means of 
the Water Cure treatment a change of matter is effected in a 
greater degree in six weeks than would happen in the ordinary 
course of nature in three years.” 
In its progress, the condition of the patient improves in an 
evident and sensible manner. The skin, from being pale and 
sallow, acquires a ruddy hue ; the muscles become fuller and THE WATER CURE. 
131 
firmer, fat decreases, and many are glad to lose a curpulent 
abdomen. In young growing persons, it is soon made visible 
that the capacity of the chdst increases, whence the lungs have 
fuller play, and a brighter bloom appears on the cheeks. Ex- 
ercise, at first a difficulty, now becomes a pleasure. The mind 
partakes fully in these benefits of the body; the senses become 
more acute; the faculties more energetic; and buoyant spirits 
take the place of languor, depression, and ennui. 
The practice is not to be lightly undertaken by invalids; 
and it is only the voice of kind warning to say that they ought 
not to attempt self-treatment. So called local diseases, but 
which are really constitutional, require general treatment. I 
heard lately of a gentleman treating his knee, affected with a 
rheumatic inflammation of the joint, by cloths constantly wetted 
with cold water, without employing any constitutional mea- 
sures. Within thirty hours a fatal metastasis to the brain 
took place ! Similar events frequently take place from a mis- 
application, or an over-dose of many medicines. 
The agreement and good effects of each and every process 
depend on nice and correct management. How much more 
then of the whole systematic treatment! A competent bath at- 
tendant is of the greatest importance. There must be, in order 
to success and the avoidance of accident, a good head to direct, 
and a good hand to execute. 
I much fear that from the facility and apparent simplicity 
of the practice, and the temptation to pecuniary gain, persons 
without the qualification of medical education will be induced 
not only to form Water establishments, but conduct them alto- 
gether, and boldly undertake the responsibility of the public 
health. In no illiberal spirit, but from honest feelings, I pro- 
test against this monstrous pretension and error. Diagnosis is 
most essential. Who that is untaught and unexperienced can 
understand the different kinds and the many phases of diseases ? 
and without such discrimination, and also a judicious estimate 
of the powers of the individual to bear treatment, how can its 
amount be properly prescribed ? A second Priessnitz, a man 
of so much original genius and powers of observation, with so 
vast an experience derived in so extraordinary a manner, is not 
perhaps again to be found ; and I hope, therefore, that his ex- 
ample will not be considered a precedent that hydropathy shall 
be practised by other persons wholly unacquainted with either 
the exterior or the interior of the human body, and the compli- 
cated functions of the animal economy. 132 
THE PRACTICE OF 
in the formation of any hydropathic establishment, water, 
as to its quantity and quality, must be the first consideration.* 
Sir Charles Scudamore went through the Water Cure him- 
self for a short time, and he observes : “ The final result of the 
whole proceedings has been a most satisfactory improvement 
of my health, in all the failings I have mentioned ; and I have 
not found the least occasion for medicine since.” 
In the autumn of last year I had the pleasure of a visit from 
Sir Charles Scudamore. He witnessed the Water Cure treat- 
ment of the Marquis of Anglesey and other patients at that 
time under my care at Malvern, and he was induced to visit 
the establishments on the Continent. When it is considered 
that Sir C. Scudamore has been a medical practitioner for 
about forty years, and it might be naturally supposed wedded 
to the old system, his opinions on the Water Cure, and his fair- 
ness as regards Priessnitz, are very gratifying. 
THE OPINIONS OP 
C. T. COOKE, ESQ., SURGEON.' 
To the Editor of the Cheltenham Chronicle. 
Sir,—As it is pretty well known that I have been spending 
the last fortnight at Malvern, partly for the benefit of my health, 
and partly for the purpose of inquiring practically into the na- 
ture of the means now employing there for the prevention of 
diseases and for the recovery of health,—it is not unlikely that 
I may have many applications made to me for information on 
the subject. I feel, therefore, desirous of meeting these inqui- 
ries, by first showing the principle—the great principle—upon 
which those means are employed, and I know not that I can do 
this better, or better state what my own convictions are upon 
the subject, than by requesting you to insert the following let- 
* And it should be added, good air and elevated position. The sur- 
geon, after he has become a skilful and scientific operator, must have 
good instruments to operate with—the learned physician must also have 
genuine drugs. Were it otherwise, an old cotton factory at Manches- 
ter, or a large house in some hot close place, with bad air and water, 
might be converted with benefit into a Water Cure establishment. THE WATER CURE. 
133 
ter, written by me while at Malvern, to one of my medical breth- 
ren in this place. I will only add, that the means adopted are—> 
1. Drinking cold water. 
2. Cold bathing after passive sweating. 
3. Cold bathing without sweating. 
4. The wet sheet. 
5. The wet sheet bath. 
6. Partial bathing of particular parts. 
7. Douche, or spout bath. 
8. Cooling compresses. 
9. Animating bandages. 
10. Frictions. 
These are all modified in their use according to the circum- 
stances of each particular case: and I have no hesitation in 
saying, require the exercise of as much judgment and discre- 
tion as any other mode of medical ministration. 
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, 
C. T. Cooke. 
Cheltenham, September 17,1842. 
Malvern, September 9th, 1842. 
My Dear Doctor, 
To you who so well know what a life of suffering mine has 
been, it will be no matter of surprise to hear that I should have 
been obliged to leave home for the purpose of rest and quiet, 
nor will you wonder that I should have come to this place with 
a view to give fair trial to the extraordinary use of a simple 
remedy, having, as you also know, tried every ordinary remedy 
in vain. I am also anxious to ascertain, by personal observa- 
tion and experience, for the benefit of others as well as myself, 
what are the real pretensions of what is called “ the Water 
Cure” to the estimation which it so loudly claims from the pro- 
fession and the public. To you and to myself it will be no 
marvel if it should substantiate those claims. You have al- 
ways, in your owTn case as well as in your practice, given to 
the skin its fair share of attention, and in my little book on the 
management of health and life, published as long ago as 1826, 
are to be found the two passages I have quoted and enclosed 
for you. It was a pleasure to me to hear, before I left home, 
that you had spoken favorably of Dr. Wilson’s mode of minis- 
tering to disorder and disease ; and I am still further gratified 
by finding patients of yours under his care who bear testimony 
to your liberality of feeling on the subject. As yet, I cannot 134 
THE PRACTICE OF 
speak of myself as being better, but you know the nature of 
my ailment, and will not expect too much any more than I do, 
from even this mode of relief, combined, though it be, with 
what I so much need, comparaiive repose from labor. 
If I am spared to return, it will be a gratification to me to tell 
you all I have witnessed, and all I have experienced, of the 
elfects of Dr. Wilson’s varied application of his one remedy. I 
have already beheld much that would have surprised me, if I 
had not long since learnt that the simplest means were the best 
in the hands of a Minister Naturae, or the Minister of God, and 
had not, from a very early period of my life, defined the prac- 
tice of medicine (in its unsophisticated sense) to be “ good 
common sense directed to a particular object,” and, I might 
add, that object a blessed and blessing one. 
If you should feel inclined to take a drive over any day whilst 
I am here, I should be glad to see you, and to have the plea- 
sure of introducing you to the author of “ A Practical Treatise 
on the Cure of Diseases by Water,” &c., &c. 
I am, my dear Doctor, faithfully yours, 
C. T. Cooke. 
THE OPINIONS OF 
A. COURTNEY, ESQ., SURGEON, R.N. 
I am convinced that water judiciously used, will cure many 
complaints ; that it will cure diseases that cannot be cured by 
medicines, is my certain belief; but if it can cure a variety of 
complaints, it is by being used in manifold ways, and great 
judgment, skill, consideration, and caution, are required in the 
application and use of it. A knowledge of the laws of health 
and disease is essentially necessary to him who would practise 
it; or else, a long experience, combined with the discrimination 
of a Priessnitz.” 
Dr. Hume Weatherhead, a man of eminence in his profes- 
sion, cured himself speedily of gout by adopting the Water 
Cure treatment; and he quotes Dr. Behrend of Berlin, a man 
distinguished for his learning and judgment, who says: 
“ Practitioner as I am of fifteen years’ standing, and editor 
for six years of a medical journal, I was at first a little mis- THE WATER CURE. 
135 
trustful of this novelty, and compared it with many others 
whose authors pretended to reform the medical art, and who 
have completely vanished. But, Sir, that which I saw with 
my own eyes at Graefenberg, and other similar establishments, 
struck me, as it will you, with astonishment. I have seen an 
old intermittent fever cured by cold water without quinine or 
any other remedy. I have seen measles, scarlatina, small-pox, 
nervous fevers, rheumatism, gout, scrofula, tracheitis, and other 
complaints of the throat, syphilis, tic doloureux, and other ner- 
vous affections, tumors in the glands, swelling of the liver, and 
all effects of mercury, and many other diseases, cured by simple 
cold water, without the aid of any other remedy whatever; and 
in a comparatively shorter time, and a more favorable manner 
for the constitution, than could have been attained by any other 
means. Cold water is administered in all diseases, internally 
and externally; but the method of application is varied accord- 
ing to the individual and the cure. Cold water serves some- 
times as a revulsive and sometimes as a depressive agent, and 
if you, sir, had witnessed what I have, you would not doubt 
any more than myself.” 
It is doubtful whether, with all our pretensions to more just 
views of the art of healing, we are one step in advance of our 
ancestors; and, that our practice is anything but a display of 
our success, wre have but to glance at the long catalogue of 
diseases which remains to this day the opprobrium of our art. 
Matthew Baillie, physician to George the Third, and to George 
the Fourth, I believe also, after he had amassed a fortune by 
his profession, declared that he had no faith in medicines what- 
ever ;—that he neither knew their manner of action, nor the 
principle which should direct him in the use of them; or, in 
other words, that he had been steering all his life without 
rudder or compass. Another physician to royalty—the late 
Sir William Knighton, observes, “ It is somewhat strange that 
though in many arts and sciences improvement has advanced 
in a step of regular progression from the first, in others it has 
kept no pace with time, and we look back to ancient excellence 
with wonder not unmixed with awe. Medicine seems to 
be of those ill-fated arts whose improvement bears no pro- 
portion to its antiquity. This is lamentably true, although 
anatomy has been better illustrated, the materia medica en- 
larged, and chemistry understood.” These, the candid confes- 
sions of men who had attained the highest eminence in their 
profession, should surely serve as lessons of humility to medi- 136 
THE PRACTICE Oi 
cal men, and create in them an anxiety to scrutinize rigidly 
any system, however wild and visionary it may at first sight 
appear, before they attempt to enter a protest against it. For 
my own part, I have with astonishment and regret observed 
the flippant manner in which medical men in general, and 
some of our medical journalists likewise, treat really important 
discoveries ; and how, in particular, they have hitherto treated 
the facts brought forward in proof of the success of hydriatism. 
Like drowning men catching at straws, they catch at, and hold 
up to ridicule every little occurrence that they think may tell 
against the system (though such occurrences in general are 
nothing more or less than results of ignorance in those who 
administer the remedy,) while on the subject of the numerous 
cures effected they are silent. 
But what say the relatives, the friends, and the sufferers 
themselves, to the long, long list of diseases which have for 
centuries set drugs at defiance ? What say these persons ? 
Shall a system which can appeal to the testimonies of clergy- 
men and medical men, of peasants and of princes, for its great 
success in those very diseases which have hitherto set medi- 
cines at defiance—shall such a system be rejected? Shall 
those who have long smarted under diseases the most agonizing, 
without reaping any benefit whatever, from medicines; who 
have been for years flying from one medical man to another in 
the vain expectation of finding a cure; shall those martyrs to 
disease who have sought relief fruitlessly from other sources, 
be denied the benefit of a system which has effected so much ? 
Shall he to whom returning seasons bring no relief, withhold 
from the trial of a system whose efficacy has exceeded all anti- 
cipation—I might say, all credibility ? Medical men, whether 
allopathists or hydriatists, have, it is to be hoped, the same end 
in view—the prevention and cure of disease, and the good of 
their fellow-creatures; and cannot in justice, or with a show 
of reason, be at enmity with one another. The thing is not 
personal. No medical man, I am sure, who has the good of 
his fellow men in view, will be backward in recommending to 
those whose diseases he cannot relieve by the usual remedies, 
a trial of a system which aims at the same end as his, and 
which has effected cures in many cases, where medicines had 
failed to give any relief whatever. 
Dr. Wilson’s “ Stomach Complaints and Drug Diseases,” may 
also be of much greater service to the purchaser than the money 
they would cost. The latter contains a fine expose of the oppo- 
sition of Dr. Hastings of Worcester,—of the true cause of his THE WATER CURE. 
137 
opposition to, and dread of, the progress of the Water Cure—a 
cause which indeed appears to lie at the bottom of all opposition 
to it. But I need say no more on this head; grovelling cupid- 
ity and gross ignorance of the various ways- in which the water 
is used, are the reigning characteristics in every argument 
brought against the system. 
Men may just as well argue that black is white, as argue 
against the Water Cure. In gout, rheumatism, indigestion, 
bilious complaints, nervous affections, inflammatory, cutaneous, 
and many other forms of disease, the facts are so numerous of 
its infinitely superior efficacy and safety over drugs, that all 
the fine-spun theories and cunningly devised fables of the drug- 
men will prevail about as much against it as did widow Par- 
tington’s broom in keeping back the ocean. 
THE OPINIONS OF JOHN KING, M.D. 
Calling one morning upon a clerical friend, I found laid 
upon the table of his study, one or two works on Hydropathy. 
I need scarcely add, the subject was of sufficient interest to 
afford a lengthened topic of conversation. On leaving my 
friend’s residence, the result our discussion produced on my 
mind was, that hydropathicism, like many of the isms of 
the day, was fanciful, ideal, a mere phantom of the imagi- 
nation ; and that those who zealously advocated its cause 
were laboring under a species of monomania. I reasoned to 
myself thus: that water, a simple fluid, possessing no specific 
property, could in any way cure disease; that the sciences of 
medicine, anatomy, and pathology, were to be considered as 
vague unmeaning terms, in the honorable and learned profes- 
sion, a member of which I was proud to boast myself, and that 
a science to which I had devoted the best part of my life should 
ever be superseded,—this could never be.* 
It was not long before another opportunity presented itself 
for conversing with my friend, and the all-absorbing topic was 
again naturally resumed and discussed; at the termination of 
* This is the great mistake that medical men, in their haste or fear, 
commit. Science is not superseded, it is, on the contrary, called into 
greater requisition.—J. W. 138 
THE PRACTICE OF 
which, I must candidly acknowledge, some of my stronger 
prejudices yielded, and 1 came to a fixed determination to peruse 
every work which had been written on the subject, with an 
unbiassed feeling. 
The result of my investigation produced these resolutions: 
that, since the simple and proper administration of pure water, 
both externally and internally, could not be productive of much 
harm, if it caused no good, I would quietly and perseveringly 
test, in some measure, its effect. After some few weeks’ 
trial, to my no little astonishment and satisfaction, (for I com- 
menced it in utter faithlessness,) my usual symptoms were re- 
lieved. On I proceeded, with unmoved, unwearied energy and 
zeal, and at the expiration of about two months, though sensi- 
ble of the vast improvement in the powers of my digestive 
apparatus, and energy of mind, I felt almost sceptical as to its 
reality. But it was no delusion, it was unadulterated truth, clear 
as the limpid fluid which I had taken; it was self-evident as 
the rays of the noon-day sun. Continuing daily to carry into 
operation this most valuable discovery in the Esculapian art, 
its vivifying and tonic effect was sensibly felt in my system. 
Dyspepsia, with its accompaniments, flatulency, painful disten- 
sion after meals, acid eructations, with a most unpleasant symp- 
tom, generally known to the dyspeptic, a distressing sinking 
sensation in the stomach, sometimes approaching to syncope, 
had vanished. 
To illustrate this, I will simply recite a case of a clergy- 
man, from whom I received the communication. Whilst 
actively engaged in his ministerial duties, he was attacked 
with severe phrenitis, (inflammation of the brain,) which called 
into action all the energy and skill of his medical attendants. 
It was deemed necessary to carry depletion to a considerable 
extent, by the abstraction of blood, both general and local, the 
application of blisters, and other most powerful and antiphlo- 
gistic means, in order to subdue the inflammatory action. It 
was full three months before he, was sufficiently recovered, 
and had gathered strength enough to resume his professional 
duties. 
Many years after, he was again seized with a similar attack, 
and was incoherent—but what plan was then pursued ? No 
abstraction of blood—no application of blisters, and not one 
particle of medicine was taken. He was judiciously treated 
under the hydropathic plan, and in three or four days, he was 
able to walk out, and was completely restored.” 
We may venture to hope, that as soon as this most invalua- THE WATER CURE. 
139 
ble mode of treatment (hydropathy) becomes more fully appre- 
ciated and universally adopted, pulmonary affections at their 
commencement, as well as the various cases of liver and 
stomach complaints, will be radically cured—a corresponding 
decrease, as there has been of late a proportionate increase of 
disease, may be rationally and fairly anticipated. Doubtless 
we ought to admire with adoration and gratitude, the infinite 
wisdom and goodness of the all-wise Creator of the universe, 
in supplying our wants so munificently with so inestimably 
valuable a fluid, so pure and so plentiful as water.” 
“ Facts are chiels that winna ding, 
And dawna be disputed.”—Burns. 
THE OPINIONS OF THOMAS SMETHURST, M.D. 
My object is to show, that in water we have one of the 
most powerful therapeutic agents yet discovered, that its effects 
in curing disease are wonderful, and that a general adoption, 
now that once it has taken root, cannot fail to take place in 
many and most diseases. 
Many, and no doubt the majority, of my medical readers, 
are still opposed to the Water Cure, and look upon it with a 
prejudiced eye; many more among the public have yet to be 
convinced of its benefits, but it cannot be otherwise. As with 
every great truth, it is slow in forcing itself upon the mind, 
but in the end truth must prevail. 
Some medical men, desirous to give water a trial, have 
tried, and found it wanting, through mismanagement, lack of 
perseverance in themselves, or in their patients, and occasion- 
ally adding a dose of their own, by which the cure was either 
interrupted or defeated. The Water Cure requires patience, 
perseverance, and a knowledge of its great effects; without 
these it is impossible to succeed ; it requires careful study, and 
I doubt not that by a proper and due cultivation, hydrotherapia 
may become even more brilliant in its results. The use of 
medicines, according to the present allopathic principles, in 
going through the Water Cure, is to be utterly repudiated; 
chiefly because all the functions of the organism are kept in 
complete activity whilst under the treatment, as far as the ex- 140 
THE PRACTICE OF 
isting vital power in the individual treated admits of this; and 
that, such being the case, the remedies administered may have 
a different effect to what is anticipated or wished for. 
In concluding this article, we may yet add, in praise of 
Priessnitz, that his riches (£150,000) have not, as too often 
happens, inflated his pride; but that he is the same humble, 
modest, and unassuming man, respected and esteemed by his 
neighbors for his humanity and benevolence. 
THE OPINIONS OF G. H. HEATHCOTE, M.D. 
The term “ Quackery,” has of course been applied to this 
new system. The charge is of formidable sound, it must be 
granted; but it is empty sound after all; it is unsupported by 
a single argument, it is based upon no reasoning whatever, and 
even though it be the opinion of a physician, it is an opinion, 
so stated, as unsubstantial as those dark spots which are en- 
gendered in human vision by looking at the sun—it is an ob- 
scuration from intolerable light. There is no obscurity in the 
system itself, but there are eyes which cannot bear to look upon 
it. I, too, am a physician (excuse a little egotism;) I have the 
honor of having been granted that degree, both by the College 
of Physicians in Edinburgh, and by the College of Physicians 
in London. 
The principle of hydropathy is that of the eradication of 
disease by various curative actions of the vital functions, which 
it has power to excite by the various modes in which it can be 
applied: so that the remedial power of this system approaches 
as nearly to a panacea as mankind, perhaps, is ever destined 
to obtain.” 
The principle of allopathy is that of the eradication of one 
suffering by suffering another—diverse and derivative. It is 
an awkward principle. A physician has said, “ formerly medi- 
cines were prescribed less for the disease than for the name of 
the disease. Having personified disease into some mysterious 
living being, they prescribed medicine, as it were, with a view 
of killing that disease by poison! That which was called a 
dose of medicine to the patient, was thought to be a dose of 
poison to the disease. It often poisoneth both the disease and THE WATER CURE 
141 
the patient.” It is an awkward principle, and, like Russel’s 
political purge for constitutional obstructions, it produces “ un- 
toward events.” 
But when we reflect upon the multitude of these medicines, 
when we consider that each class has a regiment of species, 
and that every day recruiting goes on, adding some new indi- 
vidual to this medicinal army, what must be the natural infer- 
ence of an intelligent mind ? What, but that the old soldiers 
are no longer found efficient; that at last, they are good for 
nothing, and must give way to raw recruits! So that, in fact, 
the general himself, the general practitioner, is laid under the 
necessity of healing without medicines, at least without the 
former army with which he attacked the disease in the last in- 
vasion. 
But more than this, and worse; not unfrequently his army 
mutinies; his mercurial regiment, for instance, goes over to 
the side of the enemy—itself becomes a disease—and both the 
general and the constitution are at length overcome, either by 
the unexpected dereliction of the traitorous drug, or by the pro- 
tracted state of the intestine war! This is to drive out one 
disease by another. It has ever been hazardous to employ mer- 
curial troops. 
This is a figurative illustration, it is true, but it is a just 
expression of undoubted facts. 
That with regard to the use of medicines, it has been dis- 
covered that the principal functions of the body, indirectly ex- 
cited by medical agents, can be directly excited by applications 
of cold water— 
Particularly, that perspiration, the most critical function of 
the body, both in health and in disease, can be commanded by 
the processes of hydropathy, in a manner which no medicine 
has ever yet accomplished— 
That there is evidence that diseases which have not been 
remedied by medicine, have been cured by this new system— 
That in acute cases, the rapidity of the cure is more re- 
markable, and that the remedy leaves no convalescent state of 
debility. 
Thus the principle of hydropathy is to lead us away from 
the vain and absurd task of contending against one disease by 
the introduction of another: and to point out to us the imma- 
terial and inherent curative power itself, which operates, not by 
seeking a foreign and external power to introduce into the body, 
but by taking away out of the body that which diseases it, 
through the instrumentality of its inherent force, created in the 142 
THE PRACTICE OF 
midst of those natural elements which it has power to control 
as long as the Creator wills. I think this is the just expression 
of the modus operandi of the processes of hydropathy. 
THE OPINIONS OF JAMES FREExMAN, M.D. 
Hydropathy has been too much regarded as simple and 
uniform in its operation. The truth is, that it effects almost 
every change which drugs can effect, only by safer and more 
certain means. For instance, the internal purging of calomel, 
aloes, and scammony, is substituted by the external purging of 
the dry blanket or wet sheet; the counter-irritation of a blister 
or mustard-poultice is replaced by a similar power exercised by 
the compress; the tonic effects of cinchona, gentian, or iron, 
are represented by those of the cold bath, douche, or sitz bath. 
This comparison might be further pursued if necessary. 
The application of hydropathy, thus regarded, requires as 
much skill and knowledge as any other remedial method. 
What it really professes is, to possess more power than other 
remedies; to leave the system, not only radically cured of all 
morbid taint, but unimpaired by the injurious effects produced 
by drugs; to remove an old disease without superinducing a 
new one, and without communicating to the patient an un- 
wholesome habit of body, as too often follows the use of opium, 
calomel, aperients, &c.; and, more than all, to be able to cure 
or relieve many diseases in which other treatment has failed, 
even when employed by its most eminent professors. 
In order to show more forcibly the fact that hydropathy 
operates in a manner accordant with scientific medical princi- 
ples, let us illustrate the above remarks by a supposed case. 
Take, for instance, chronic rheumatism. In this malady the 
morbid phenomena are combated by the solvent and eliminating 
action of daily perspiring, &c. &c., instead of the cupping and 
mercurializing of other systems; this is seconded by the coun- 
ter-irritation of douches and compresses, which represent the 
blisters, liniments, and ointments of the apothecary; the cure 
is completed by the tonic action of cold bathing, appropriate 
diet, water beverage, and exercise, which answer to the bitters 
and other nauseous tonics usually administered. Is not this 
strictly consistent with the best principles of medicine ? If THE WATER CURE. 
143 
space permitted, the same might be shown of most other dis- 
eases.” 
SAFETY. 
It is imagined by persons who have not witnessed the op- 
eration of the water treatment, that some of its means are 
attended with danger; it is supposed that weak persons and 
delicate constitutions are unable to undergo its operation with- 
out injury. Nothing is more groundless than this fear; many 
thousand persons are annually submitted to its application in 
the various establishments of Germany. Among them are in- 
dividuals of every age, of both sexes, of all varieties of consti- 
tution and temperament, presenting every possible gradation of 
physical power, even to the most infirm, and laboring under 
every description of disease. Among this large number, which 
comprehends every diversity that the human frame is capable 
of presenting, accidents are much less frequent than under any 
other mode of treatment; indeed, they are almost unheard of. 
Let it not be imagined that the Water Cure is disagreeable, 
or that the patient has anything to “ go through” in submitting 
to its operation. When its use is once commenced, when the 
skin has overcome its first shrinking from contact with cold 
water, and the glow of reaction has been once experienced, it 
will not be pronounced painful or unpleasant. On the contrary, 
it is exceedingly agreeable. It is the most common of all 
events at hydropathic establishments, to hear patients speak of 
their delightful sensations ; and if chance, occupation, or ab- 
sence, prevent the taking of a bath at the usual hour, the loss is 
always regarded as a deprivation of one of the principal enjoy- 
ments of the day. 
A drug is a substance capable of exciting a change in the 
organs or functions of the animal frame; the term comprehends 
all substances answering to that definition. There is there- 
fore considerable truth in the remark of Dr. Frankel, (Aerztliche 
Bemerkungen, &c., p. 7, et. seq.) that water, as employed by 
Priessnitz, is as powerful as any drug in the Pharmacopoeia; 
since it may be stimulant or sedative, tonic or depressing, as- 
tringent or aperient, sudorific, diuretic, <Sic., according to the 
manner of its administration. Thus far there is a similarity 
between water and drugs; but there the resemblance ceases ; 
they are essentially different in the fact, that water is always 
harmless, while most drugs are more or less injurious in their 
immediate or subsequent effects. To satisfy our readers of this 
latter truth it is sufficient to enumerate the names of arsenic, 144 
THE WATER CURE. 
opium, turpentine, prussic acid, corrosive sublimate, calomel, 
foxglove, hemlock, henbane, and iodine, as drugs frequently em- 
ployed in medical treatment. 
Besides the injurious properties of drugs themselves, the pub- 
lic are exposed to another, but no less serious danger, from pe- 
culiar methods of administering them. Thus, we find one man 
professing to cure a class of diseases by a remedy in doses 
which another pronounces poisonous. (Christison on Poisons. 
Art. Digitalis.) 
The nauseous qualities of drugs is another obiectioivfo their 
administration. There is no doubt that much mischief is often 
perpetrated by the disgusting doses which are forced upon chil- 
dren and patients in a prostrate condition ; as, for instance, in 
the last stages of fever. 
A fourth reason for endeavoring to find a substitute for drugs 
is the uncertainty of the benefit of some of those most commonly 
exhibited. We find nation disputing with nation on the use of 
a drug, as if they were discussing a point in politics, or any 
other department of science, in which assertion and not proof 
is the manner of arguing. (Compare the treatment of thoracic 
inflammation by Laennec with any English writer on the same 
subject, particularly with reference to mercury. See also Hope, 
on the Heart, where he says, speaking of the established treat- 
ment of aneurism—“ I must frankly avow that, were I person- 
ally the subject of aneurism, I would rather take the chances 
of the disease than of the treatment.”) 
The fifth and crowning objections to drugs is, that they are 
generally useless. All their beneficial effects may be obtained 
from water. The two following facts will illustrate this state- 
ment :— 
An English gentleman of the author’s acquaintance, suffer- 
ing from a painful disease, had been in the habit of frequently 
taking opium kto procure relief. After the second day of his 
residence in a hydropathic establishment, he was able to re- 
linquish this habit entirely; although, at that time, his malady 
was not otherwise improved. 
Another English gentleman, many months a companion of 
the writer, had taken active doses of purgative medicine nearly 
every day for a year, by the advice of an eminent London physi- 
cian. He was affected with “ torpor of the bowels and liver.” 
He went to a water establishment last summer, and has not 
taken a dose of medicine since. His bowels are now perfectly 
regular. What drugs effect by a violent, local action, water 
effects by its healthful influence upon the system in general.