Oouiy la the Balk aftri Sweating HYDRIATICS: OR MANUAL OF THE WATER CURE, ESPECIALLY AS PRACTISED BY / • % VINCENT PRIESSNITZ IN GRjEFENBERG. COMPILED AND TRANSLATED PROM THE WRITINGS OP CHARLES MUNDE, DR. OERTEL, DR. BERNHARD HIRSCHEL, AND OTHER EYE-WITNESSES AND PRACTITIONERS. ✓ J BY FRANCIS GR^ETJER* - ^„ THIRD EDITION. NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM RADDE. 1843. w&F Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by WM. RADDE , in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of j New-York. University Press, JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 114 Nassau-street, New-York. CONTENTS. PA OB Preface • • • ........................ ............... ......7 Introduction................................................n Considerations on water in general...........................17 By what means does water act upon animal organization 1........23 Requisites of pure and wholesome water..........• ..........24 Effects of cold water as a beverage...........................26 Effects of cold-water bathing and washing......................31 History of Hydriatics previous to Priessnitz..................-34 Application of cold water in surgery...........................51 History of Hydriatics from Hahn to Oertel.....................53 Historical sketch of Priessnitz and the origin and success of his Institution in Graefenberg............„•...................58 Theory of the water-cure according to Priessnitz...............70 Diet......................................................78 S weating..................................................81 Entire-baths................................................86 Half-baths.................................................89 Seat-baths, (hip-baths)..........■............................90 Foot-baths.................................................92 Head-baths.................................................93 Eye-baths..................................................94 Leg-baths.................................................94 Douche....................................................94 Drizzling-baths.............................................95 Jet-baths...................................................95 Mere ablutions............................................. .95 4 CONTENTS. Fomentations...............................................97 Cold affusions............................................99 Drinking.............................................«.....99 Clysters, Injections, Rinsings..............'................101 Treatment or Single Diseases...........................104 Weak digestion, debility of the stomach......................105 Mucous coatings...........................................106 Heart-burn, etc............................................107 Diarrhoea.............................*...................108 Dysentery...........................<... j............... ..109 Cholera................................................ ..109 Constipation.....................................*.......115 Hemorrhoids..............................................115 Hypochondria and Hysterics............................... 117 Nausea and vomiting......................................lig Cramp in the stomach......................................118 Colic.....................................................i lg Hemorrhages..............................................120 Bleeding from the nose, Vomiting and spitting of blood, Hemor- rhage through the urethra, Ischuria,.....................121 Uterine hemorrhage, Irregular menstruation...................122 Pregnancy..............................................122 Whites....................................................123 Pollutions and Gonorrhoea...................................123 Nervous debility.........................................j2g Somnolency, Sleeplessness..................................l2g Lock-jaw........................................ _ , „_ Congestions of blood,......................................y,g Head-ache...................................... .„„ Tic douloureux......................................^ ,„q Gout and Rheumatism.................................. , t 13fl Inflammations of the eyes, Pains in the eyes, in the ears........139 Tooth-ache................... D. ...................................140 Pams of the throat, Inflammation of the throat.................141 CONTENTS. 5 Croup, Pains of the Chest..................................142 Inflammation of the lungs...................................142 Stitche^in the side.........................................144 Inflammation of the brain....................................144 The rose, erysipelas.......................................145 Scarlatina, Measles, Small-pox..............................146 Itch, Tetters...............................................149 Scrofula, Rickets .........................................150 Swollen glands..........................................151 Influenza, Catarrh, Cold....................................151 Inflammatory fever, Nervous fever, Typhus..................152 Cold or intermittent fever...................................156 Dropsy...................................................] 56 Syphilis..................................................157 Diseases from the abuse of mercury..........................159 Ulcers, Cancer and caries...................................160 Fungus....................................................162 Stinking perspiration of the feet, Cold feet....................163 Frozen limbs, Chilblains....................................163 Weakness of the joints.....................................164 Fractures of the legs........................................164 Slight wounds and lesions..................................164 Examples of successful cures by means of cold water, most of them previous to Priessnitz.............................165 List of the now existing Institutions for the water-cure.........180 On the importance of the water-cure for the diseases most pre- vailing in the United States, viz: Consumption, rheuma- tism, dyspepsia, yellow fever and lake fever...............183 PREFACE. At a time when the old established system of school medicine, with its abundance of drugs and remedies for expelling diseases from the human organism by exciting artificial and temporary opposite disorders, has found in Homoeopathy a threatening rival, which promises by means of a few simples given in incredibly minute quan- tities, to neutralize maladies in the way of producing their artificial compeer in the organs—at this very time, a third method made its appearance, proposing to rely on the indwelling, healing power of nature alone, to provoke and regulate which, it employs in lieu of every other auxiliary the simple, wide-spread element of fresh unadulterated water. Surprising indeed was its success 8 PREFACE. and its rapidly spreading fame in chronic diseases, fevers, and the cholera, wonderfully coinciding with the univer- sal movement for a dietetic revolution, for the exclu- sion of every exciting beverage and in favor of cold water alone; with this difference only, that while the temperance societies confine themselves to the negative side and prohibit chiefly from economical and moral motives, the new hydriatic system endeavors to manifest its positive beneficence and the excellencies of cold water, by curing diseases and preserving heahh by means of baths, sudations, washings and dietetic potations. Since the year 1829, when the infant establishment of Priess- nitz in Grffifenberg for the water-cure counted only forty- nine patients, the annual number of visitors has increased to fifteeen and seventeen hundred, among whom not the least numerous part were royal and princely per- sonages, counts and countesses, barons, generals, the highest civil officers, and in short, people of the most refined classes of society, the majority of them aban- doned by their physicians, or tired of years of medicinal PREFACE. 9 cures and mineral baths. More than forty similar regu- lar institutions have formed themselves in other parts of Germany and Europe in general, and we see their number increasing daily, and hundreds of books and pamphlets communicate the principles and particulars of this novel mode of treatment, or carry on the literary war for and against the exclusiveness of the old school. From these publications the compiler has selected prin- cipally the account of Dr. Munde as one of the earliest patients restored by this water method, one of the most observing and constant eye-witnesses of the healing methods and a confidential friend of Priessnitz, originally himself a layman in medical science, but on that very account more intelligible and unprejudiced; and of the learned and respectable Dr. Hirschel in Dresden, whose history of the medical use of water and its literature he has partly extracted, in order to show that the preference given to the pure spring arises by no means from igno- rance of the principles and history of learned medicine ; the remainder, and the arrangement of the whole, are 10 PREFACE. thoifruits of an attentive perusal of the most distinguished recent writings on the subject. Thus he presents this short compilation to the American public in the full hope that their impartial examination will acknowledge the importance of the question, and that a judicious appli- cation of the new discovered usefulness of so old an acquaintance as the blessed element of water will bring relief and cure to many a suffering man. INTRODUCTION. What is health and what is disease ? The remedies which were first resorted to by mankind were mostly symptomatically directed towards the single organs, and as manifold as the latter they were sought in a direct counteracting of the nature of the malady—Allopathy. The discovered principle of polarity and its reaction, gave rise to the Homozopalhic System. Either of these acknowledged the existence of a healing power in the organism which they endeavored to succor; but the theory of the water-cure addresses itself to this power exclusively, and with the rejection of every specific means finds the universal auxiliary for exciting and strengthening the vital power in cold water alone, va- riously applied and assisted by sudations. In this essay, destined to recommend cold water, if not as a universal nostrum, yet as the most universally use- ful, and, in a great many cases at least, exclusive means for the prevention and radical cure of diseases and in- vigoration of body and mind, we will not expatiate at the very outset in general encomiums of this pure element, as we suppose its excellencies to be sufficiently acknow- ledged, and in the assurance that the subsequent relation 12 INTRODUCTION. of the rise and growth of the institution in Gnnfenberg and its astonishing effects, the detailed account of the various applications of water, according to this new method, for so many specific and individual occurrences of disease, and as the historical extracts show, the high esteem in which water was held by the nations of anti- quity and by the scientific men of all ages, will carry a complete and well supported conviction in its favor. But first of all it seems necessary to call the attention of our readers to the consideration of the two main ques- tions : first, what is health ? and, second, what is dis- ease 1 in order to find the right point of view from which to decide on the medical and dietetic value of cold water in itself, and the rank and relation which it occupies with regard to other medical systems and to the science at large. For answering these questions it appears to be the shortest and most comprehensive way to take a full and living view of human organism, as we see it composed of a number of organs, namely, the brain, heart, lungs, stomach, liver, bowels, limbs, arteries, veins, nerves, sinews, each of them living its own peculiar life, acting according to its individual laws, and yet all of them in harmony with and in dependence on each other, and exercising their respective functions only for the benefit of the whole, and under the direction of the prin- cipal systems of the body, the nerves, the blood, the digestive and the cutaneous system, through which they and the whole receive their life. This harmonious co- operation and subordination of all parts of the orcanism we call health. When on the contrary, instead ofhavino- INTRODUCTION. 13 the vital activity concentrated in and regulated by the two chief centres of life and health, the one in the chest and vicinity, comprehending the heart and lungs, by which the blood is renewed and provided for the whole body, and the all nourishing siomach with its appurte- nances under the supremacy of the other in the head, con- taining the brains with their all pervading hard and soft nerves—when instead of these two seats of vegetative and human animal life, the organism suffers one or more of its organs to attract the chief action of life to itself, forming as it were a new centre, or to act contrary to the harmony and welfare of the whole, in particular for instance by turning the regular flood of life and warmth from the centre towards the periphery backwards—we call this disease. It was quite natural that human intel- lect left to itself should, in its first steps towards medical science, think first of those substances in nature the effect of which according to observation appeared directly to counteract the symptoms of the disease, and that these remedies were selected also for single organs which manifested themselves as the chief seat of the disease. Whole systems of the organism took their turns as chief objects and reputed causes of the maladies, and with increase of chemical science and a knowledge of nature in general the number of tonic, purgative, vomitive, anti- phlogistic, blood-cleansing and other means was conti- nually multiplied. Allopathic medicine was developed in all its branches, but though founded upon different theories and principles, the different systems through almost all their changes agreed in acknowledging an 14 INTRODUCTION. indwelling, organically working, restoring and healing power of nature, acting variously and specifically accord- ing to the different organs, to call forth which, to support it, to qualify it, was the task of science, and for which she had to select according to her anatomical and physiolo- gical knowledge, from the endless treasures furnished to her by her auxiliary natural sciences. This healing power of nature remained equally acknowledged, or was even more attended to in all its various modifications, when homoeopathic medicine, founded by its discoverer Hahnemann upon the principle of polar reaction, equally valid for organic bodies as in the electrical and magneti- cal sphere of inorganic nature; a system which, with the rejection of all the lore of contrary and external means, endeavored to expel the perverted and inharmonious action of disease from the single organs and entire systems of the human body, by awakening with infinitely minute doses of different poisons the homogeneous pole of disease, —thus, as it were, imitating the travellers in burning prai- ries, who save themselves from the approaching flames by kindling a back fire of the same element. The disciples of the old and those of the new regime exerted every power of invention, and made use of every literary weapon to combat and excel each other, and this just at a period in which the cholera and other dis- eases added to the chronic evils which public opinion had long since marked out as impregnable for the usual medical artillery, gave ample scope to try the validity of either by experience—when a new rival appeared by the Bide of the contending parties, simple and unpretending, INTRODUCTION. 15 without any scientific armor, but announced by almost miracles, gratefully acknowledged forthwith by members of the first classes of the sick and well, and defended soon by many able medical men—the water cure or hydria- tics, called also from its combination with sudatory pro- ceedings, hydrosudopathia. The history of its first deve- loped appearance in recent times will occupy one of the following chapters, describing more particularly the ori- gin, activity and extension of the institution of Priessnitz in Grrefenberg, in the Austrian part of Silesia; what medical and dietetic use of water has been made from the earliest times by entire nations, legislators, and learned doctors, till we come down to our contempora- ries, will -be shortly explained in the next following extracts from Dr. Hirschel's work. Priessnitz's views and theory, as worded by Dr. Munde in his first edition, will likewise find their place below. Here it may suffice to mark out in anticipation the leading features of the new hydriatic method, and its position to the other medi- cal doctrines. She rejects for the cases which she receives into her sphere of activity (and very few diseases and states of health are excepted) the use of all simple and compound medicinal means save cold water, which she uses in its various applications as the only beverage, in entire cold baths after previous sweating, in half- baths, seat-baths, foot-baths, exciting or cooling fomen- tations, douche, shower-baths, clysters and other injec- tions, washings and arrosions, for dissolving, dissipating, and carrying off generally and locally situated noxious humors, and preventing their reproduction by improved 16 INTRODUCTION. digestion, for calling forth the reaction of organic warmth and life, towards the whole periphery or individual or- gans and places, restoring in particular also the nervous system and the mind to their leading supremacy, for reducing excessive heat and feverish excitement to such a degree as is most favorable for the development of the necessary decisive crises, etc., etc. In all these opera- tions the water-cure not only acknowledges the im- portance and efficacy of the healing power of nature in general, or as merely co-operative, like other medical theories, but it appeals to it and its polar activity exclu- sively, using her only elementary means merely for re- moving obstacles and opposition, and by means of its temperature for regulating and restoring its natural and healthy operation. An abundant, and yet, from the means used, most safe perspiration is used only as a wholesome preparation for the use of water, whilst the simple diet which it has in common with homoeopathy is intended to protect against disturbing influences. CONSIDERATIONS ON WATER IN GENERAL. There is contained in water a truly Divine power! Moses exclaims under holy inspiration: " The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters;" that is to say, God's blessing is united with this primitive element of nature, and its enjoyment is a benefit to his creatures ! Throwing a general glance upon our terraqueous globe, we perceive with astonishment that the same is overflowed by water for more than two thirds of its sur- face. We see the terra firma intersected by brooks and riv- ers, and fertilized by this very means; we behold heav- en's sun drawing up the aqueous vapors and reuniting them in rain, whose descent imparts fertility to the earth, and perfects her fruits. When winter makes his appearance, hiding the earth with the white covering of snow, we behold the water transformed into ice, thawing at the reapproaching warmth of spring, and streaming down in rapid waves. We recognize with grateful admiration what fountains are inclosed within earth's rock-bound bosom, which, breaking out to* the light of day, yield us the purest and best water. Whilst the sight of the ocean transports us with admiration towards the majesty of God, whilst riv- ers encourage our industry, and create that activity by which nations are united to nations in the exchange of the 2 18 ON WATER CURES. mutual productions of their ingenuity and soil, our eyes and hearts experience the more joyful feelings, when resting upon those regions, where fountains are pouring from out the rocks, and soon after as silvery rivulets wind through verdant banks their serpent-course in search of the valleys, where by their union streams are formed, and the mighty river. It is to water that God's omnipotence and wisdom gave the power of moistening, of penetrating, and of fertilizing all soils on earth. In all the three realms of nature we recognize the importance of this element, as our fathers called it. It dissolves the metals, and greatly contributes towards the first formation and growth of the minerals. Water forms the upper stratum of land, and the earth washed upon dead rocks becomes fertile by it. The whole vegetable kingdom, from the cedar of Leba- non to the humble moss; from the gigantic flower of America to the smallest floweret germinating by the brook; the trees of primeval forests, as well as the fruit trees of blooming gardens, all owe their growth to water. This takes place in the following way. Water, by moisiening the earth, makes it more susceptible, by the solution of the salts contained in it, of developing the vegetable germ and expanding the roots, and conveys to the plants nourishment from the earth and the air; for, warmth introduces it, in the form of vapor, into the atmos- phere, where it forms the beautiful welkin, from which it drops down again as dew, mist, and fertile rain, refresh- ing the leaves and blades. Of what supreme importance water is, may be seen by ON WATER IN GENERAL. 19 those years of dearth, when all the fruits of the earth fail, and hunger and diseases reap their dreary harvest. Finally, in the animal kingdom, it is water which is in- dispensably necessary for the preservation of animals. For their nourishment and growth, water is indispen- sable, and water it is, to use the words of one of its most zealous eulogists, which, under the name of sweat, se- cretes, visibly and invisibly, the noxious stuffs from our body. Water constitutes an essential part of that foun- tain of life and of vital activity, the blood. With regard to industry and commerce, water is of the highest importance. None of the domestic occupa- tions could be performed without it. The preparation of the natural food for the use of life, requires in general the assistance of water, and the most recent times have taught that there is hid in its steam a truly miraculous power. Many of these qualities of water, were gratefully ac- knowledged by our fathers of primeval times. It re- ceived even divine veneration ; the most important trans- actions in life were consecrated by it; neither did man dare to approach Deity itself, without previous purificar tion through water. The holy books afford proof, how much the people of God, the Israelites, acknowledged the significance of water. Does not Christianity itself, in the symbol of holy baptism, afford the highest proof, of the internal unison between bodily purification, and the spi- ritual 1 All these predicaments of water lead us to re- cognize and revere in it, God's mercy and wisdom; but a still higher feeling of thankfulness will animate our hearts, when we perceive and are convinced, that it is at 20 ON WATER CURES. the same time, one of the most natural and prominent means to obtain and preserve the welfare of our bodies, to fetter fleeting health, and under God's protection to reconquer it when lost. In these points of view, let ua now consider water. RETROSPECTIVE GLANCES AT THE DIETETIC APPLICATION OF WATER IN EARLIER PERIODS, AND VENERATION OF IT BY NATIONS OF PAST AGES. Many of the earlier physicians, devoting their in- quiries to nature, recognized the importance of water as a preventive means, and even applied it successfully to different forms of disease. The sages of the Egyptians and Babylonians, uniting their sacerdotal calling with that of legislation and medical science, declared them- selves in favor of water. Sensible that the people only heed a well-meant counsel, when it is expressed with the dignity of a law, they commanded the use of water, in particular as to bathing; in the language of re- ligious legislation, stating purification of the body as a fundamental condition of God-devoted piety. The Jews, living in a clime which by its heat strongly influ- ences evaporation through the skin, and in case of its suppression and neglect produces leprosy and other sick- nesses destructive of health and beauty, made the purifi- cation of the body, by means of washing and bathing, a chief object of their ceremonial laws, and suffered no one who had not purified himself in this way to approach the temple of Jehovah. ON WATER IN GENERAL. 21 In those days of trial, when this nation, escaping from an oppressive servitude, prepared for a noble national life, they learned how to appreciate the value of water- During their long migrations through the desert they ac- knowledged plenty of water in fountains and wells to be the most precious gift of God; and Moses, when they prayed to Jehovah, smote the rock with his staff to make it pour forth the quickening jet of water for the pray- ing and languishing people. What made the promised land a land of blessing to this people ? The abundance of its fountains; and Moses, praising, tells them : " The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land; a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, that spring out of valleys and hills." Moreover, in the language of the holy prophets, those inspired seers, intimately acquainted with God's works, it is the emblem of water by which they an- nounced salvation through the word of life, and rep- resented it to the people. With holy inspiration, Isaiah exclaims : " When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water." But not only the people of the East acknowledged the high value of water; the Greeks and Romans did the same. Popular belief hal- lowed, and animated the fountains ; the most beautiful poems of inspired singers were rehearsed near them ; and as long as the people lived faithful to nature's laws, their beverage was water. The Greeks before all, and among them the glorious 22 ON WATER CURES. Spartans, by a natural diet and the use of cold water from their infancy, acquired the noblest of blessings, health in full measure. Fresh vigor, beauty, strong and com- plete development of the muscles, regular circulation of the blood, gave them fire, endurance and dexterity, and all that which, in prosperous harmony, constitutes the true lord of creation, a perfect man. The use of water, as a beverage and in bathing, made the female sex of those times, the most beautiful and happy; made them amiable as children, charming as maidens, loving and beloved as wives, and venerable as matrons. As soon as among the Greeks, and later among the Romans, the simplicity of food, the use of cold water and of cold river baths, gave place to luxuries, they degenerated in body and soul, and were vanquished by more vigorous nations. Among the northern tribes the Teutonic were distinguished by strength, courage and enduring frames. With them, bathing was likewise a chief object of national education; the new-born babe was immersed into the cold water of the river, and thus, if I may say so, consecrated for future vigorous manhood. Our ancestors considered water as one of the elements that are simple and inseparable. Recent inquiries have, indeed, found and proved an analysis of this, according to which pure water consists, of one part of hydrogen and two parts of oxygen. As to weight, in proportion of 11.06 of the first, and 88.90 of the latter. The purest water, is that which is obtained from rain or snow in high places, and wherever no traces of foreign substances can be discover- ed. Water in its pure state is a colorless, perfectly trans- BY WHAT MEANS DOES WATER ACT ? 23 parent liquid, destitute of any smell or taste. With a few exceptions, it springs cold from the ground. Al- though water can no longer be considered as an element, the faith and confidence in its healing powers will not be diminished thereby ; nay, we are now enabled better to investigate the causes of its efficacy. BY WHAT MEANS DOES WATER ACT UPON ANIMAL ORGAN- IZATION ? This is now the question, and the answer will be, that it is done by its solvent power, and its freshness. " Water," to use the words of the deserving Dr. Hahn, " is, among all fluid bodies, best adapted to enter into the finest arteries, fibres and nerves of the human body; nay, into the most minute capillary vessels, scarcely visible through the magnifying glass, and to move therein. And as these are constantly in need of a supply of fluids if they are not to exsiccate and to collapse, it is water which we can and ought to make use of for replenishing the body, and keeping it in its natural state, and in young people, for its growth. It acts, by dissolving and dissipating, and thereby pre- vents and dispels those desquamations and obstipations which arise in consequence of a sedentary life, of too nourishing diet, and after partaking of too rich and indi- gestible viands. It furthermore takes away the destructive power of 24 ON WATER CURES. those acrid juices which develop themselves in conse- quence of dissipation, of indulging in unhealthy and heating beverages, and the mad enjoyment of sexual ap- petite. Its dissolving and attenuating power alone would ne- vertheless be unable to produce these effects, unless at the same time water showed its enlivening, refreshing and strengthening efficacy by means of its coolness. Warm baths may be most beneficial in many kinds of sufferings, and experience speaks in their favor ; but for preventing diseases, for the bracing, and roborating of the body; for hardening ourselve3,/res/i water is the most excellent means; nay, it is this cold water which, more than all artificial productions, improves and preserves the freshness of life, that fundamental condition of beauty. It is the simple exercise in open air, and the enjoyment of fresh water, presented by the near well, which renders the families of farmers, and working men in the country so much more blooming and healthy than the children of the richer inhabitants of cities spoiled by coffee, tea, and other luxuries. Water gives appetite even for simple, cheap and coarse food, and the old proverb : " Salt and bread turn the cheeks red," is true, as far as the drinking of fresh water is not neglected. • REQUISITES OF PURE AND WHOLESOME WATER. Pure and wholesome water, which by its fluidity, fresh- ness, by its carbonic acid and power of penetrating, op- erates beneficially upon the organs of life, ought to be fresh, clear, without any odor and taste. The purest and REQUISITES OF PURE WATER. 25 most refreshing beverage, is the water springing forth on hill sides and summits, for river water is generally warm - er, and more mixed with earthy particles. Among the mountain waters themselves, that which springs from rocks is the best, and its enjoyment at the spring itself the most beneficial. As to water drawn or pumped from wells, the water will be the better, the more the well is used, and the more air and light come in contact with it. In deep and close wells noxious vapors are developed. In general, water partakes of the qualities of the earth from which it springs. If that contains salts, and minerals, they will also be found in water. But of such mineral-waters nothing can be said here, where we treat of the simple cold water cure. Deep-lying marshy regions, fortresses with deep moats, and large cities, where the sewers mix but too frequently with the wells, have almost always an unhealthy, stale and bad water, and in such places no water-cure can be used, nor the drinking of much Avater be recommended. The same may be said of strong mineral waters, or of the water in very high mountains, where the constantly melt- ing snow affects the glands. Boiled water, that has become cold again, has lost its fountain freshness, its carbonic acid, and is accordingly less wholesome. Wells in villages and cities ought to be purified from time to time by means of salt thrown into them ; but the wa- ter ought not to be used as long as it retains the taste of it. As to river-water, pure mountain rivers, with a rapid 26 ON WATER CURES. current, will of course be preferable to slow-moving riv- ers in the plain, surrounded by marshes. But such water will be particularly unfit for drinking and bathing as passes through mines and pitch-works, through vitriol, or ores of cobalt or arsenic, and whose deflux is mixed with mineral particles, poisonous, how- ever they be diluted. Even fish die in such waters, and the clearest rivulets have become noxious by pitch-works raised near them, even for persons washing in them. Waters in which yarn is bleached with what is called the fix-bleaching, become likewise unfit for bathing in the vicinity below. TEMPERATURE OF THE WATER. This is influenced •by the season, weather, climate and the height of its origin. It cannot be determined according to degrees, and every one's feeling will give the best measure. Water, as it is found in many mountain springs, which shows in winter 3°, in summer 5° Reaumur, might prove the best for dietetic use. We cannot enter upon the dispute about hot springs, or of tepid and cold mineral waters, but have here to do only with the fresh simple well from the bosom of nature, tested as the most efficacious, and everywhere to be had! EFFECTS OF COLD WATER AS A BEVERAGE. Already in the cavity of the mouth, which it refreshes and purifies, it shows its beneficial influence by strength- WATER AS A BEVERAGE. 27 ening the gums, and keeping them from becoming loose, by washing from off the teeth remains of food and other impurities, and preserving them white, firm, healthy and sharp. Running down along the sides of the jaws and the oesophagus it strengthens these parts, and lessens the disposition to inflammation and mucous coatings, &c. Arrived in the stomach, it first unfolds its purifying, thinning, dissolving and strengthening qualities. As it dissolves the food and prepares from it a good alimentary juice, so it also dissolves every thing useless and noxious contained in salty, earthy and sulphureous substances, and . expels them in vapor, sweat and urine. Whilst its plea- santly cooling property renders it the most appropriate drink against thirst, it is at the same time the most excel- lent means for promoting digestion, and preventing ob- tructions and constipations. It furthermore refreshes, animates, strengthens and purifies the bowels, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, &c. It procures for the blood and all the juices an equal and free passage through all the vessels, even to the smallest tubes, in the ways of secretion. It forwards and effects ■usually the excretion of every thing useless and injurious. By an unobstructed digestion and a regular circula- tion of blood, of course also the muscles and nerves are in- vigorated, in short all vital and bodily functions obtain by means of cold water a free and regular course, and thus health, the harmony of all the functions of life, is improved in the whole system. Various means from all the realms of nature, simples 28 ON WATER CURES. and compounds, have at all times been recommended as preventives against diseases; but there are no specific preventives upon which you can unconditionally rely. It is temperance and drinking of water, which, united with bodily exercise in open air, produce that serenity of mind and impart that vigor of body, which are the best safe- guards against those hostile powers, called diseases, and which but too often are nothing but mediate or immediate consequences of the neglect of the laws of nature, point- ing out a simple mode of living and drinking of water: Water has this preference before other remedies: that it benefits every age and sex. Next to the milk of the mother, water is the best nou- rishment for the suckling, for the mother herself the best beverage. When the mother can give no suck, water with some fresh goat's milk is preferable to all tea-decoc- tions. Drinking of water and frequent bathing, united with the use of open air, most surely prevent rickets, scrofulas, and the declining of children. Parents that con- stantly have the tea-kettle over the fire, and hope to quiet the crying child by means of warm tea, will experience just the contrary result. For boys and girls, drinking of water and cold bathing is the purest source of vigorous life and beauty. Growing young men ought to flee intoxicating liquors, and especially brandy, like poison; it makes them misera- ble, weak and stupid; and warm, heating drinks, make them voluptuous and sensual, or relax and spoil the beau- ties of the skin. Water gives strength and good spirits. WATER AS A BEVERAGE. 29 Mature age is more inclined to inflammations, old age in both sexes to obstructions; and against these very evils an appropriate use of cold water, with a regular diet, proves preventive and salutary. One of the most important periods of female life, so influential upon the welfare of the human race, is that of pregnancy and child-birth. Here the germ for health or sickliness of whole generations is laid, and with great truth our worthy Hahn says the following words in the full conviction of his heart: " Wives, who in good hope look forward to your de- livery ; and you, in particular, who for the first time ex- pect the happiness of becoming mothers; for you, if otherwise your mode of life is active and appropriate, nothing can be more beneficial than cold water, by the regular use of which all troubles in respect of digestion, head-aches and difficulties in breathing, will be diminish- ed, as it so salutarily thins the humors and promotes every secretion, often so torpid in pregnancy. Ye par- turient, and newly delivered, ye will do well to avoid the manifold teas which are offered to you so officiously, and in particular the injurious tea of chamomile, and to stick to cold water, which best meets thirst, heat and excite- ment of the blood. With regard to the different temperaments, cold water promotes the circulation of blood in. the viscous and mucou phlegmatic. It dissolves and dispels the stuffs and ob- structions which render the life of the thick-blooded, melan- choly one, a torment. The choleric, suffering with a vicious s'ecretion of bile, has his great heat moderated by it, is 30 ON WATER CURES. assisted in his secretions, and has his irascible and effer- vescent temper quieted; and to the sanguine it imparts that equaminity which best guards against excess and rashness. Thus it operates also upon general morality; and the happiest and most innocent nations of antiquity were water-drinkers, amiable in peace, and strong in the de- fence of their country. Without entering here upon the domestic and economical advantages, it may safely be advanced, that morality and temperance, fundamental virtues in the life of families as well as nations, and con- ditions for the development of all mental and bodily powers, will be equally promoted by the increasing use of cold water. The house-well or neighboring spring will impart health and welfare, and become even the source of wealth, whilst the rivulet or river will refresh youth and old age, and brace them by the healthiest of exercises. We cannot conclude this chapter without casting a particular look upon manufacturing districts, and all con- ditions of life that imply a sedentary occupation. In the enjoyment of water, the industrious and poor working man or factory-girl, the designer or painter, &c, closely confined for long hours, find refreshment and strength. The cup of fresh water secures to the seamstress or em- broidress, employed in lace and muslin, equally exerting her eyes and chest, strength, beauty and hilarity. Good coffee indeed is a stimulantand animating drink, butby fre- quent use, weakening the more. Let every working per- son, in particular the sedentary, drink water frequently^ EFFECTS OF BATHING AND WASHING. 31 and apply daily ablutions, and they will prevent manifold sufferings. EFFECTS OF COLD-WATER-BATHING AND WASHING. We do not fear to anticipate the particulars, later ad- duced on occasion of the method peculiar to Priessnitz, in advancing the following remarks: Bathing operates chiefly upon the functions of the skin and raises their activity. The most salutary baths for healthy persons are those taken in the fresh water of rivers. Ancient physicians, especially the learnedAgathinus, speak aloud in their favor: " Those who want to be and to remain in very good health must frequently use cold baths, for I can hardly express in words what great advantages they afford." Hufeland, also, confirms this, and finds in them a pro- minent preventive against disease. Bathing is a constituent part of national education, and ought, particularly in populous places, to be culti- vated among the gymnastic exercises of youth. Its effect manifests itself especially upon the skin. The skin is the natural dress of man; the cover in which he walked, innocent and harmless, in Paradise. It not only serves him for a cover, and protects against influen- ces from without, but it is at the same time the seat of the sense of touch and feeling, the most comprehensive of all senses; as the ends of the nerves—organs of sensitive- 32 ON WATER CURES. ness—as well as the yielding and absorbing mouths of arteries and veins, terminate in the numberless little vessels of the skin. By the millions of little openings (pores) with which it is thickly sown in every part, the finest fluids, use- less for the nutrition of the body, are removed. If these fluids should remain in the body, various diseases would be the unavoidable consequence. The better the evapo- ration proceeds, the more open the pores of the skin, the less we have to fear from rheumatisms, catarrhs and other evils; nay, it may be explained how the most dan- gerous diseases can be obviated in a short time by a strong and copious perspiration. " But in what other way can these evaporating pores be kept so free and open, and this cutaneous life be pre- served so beneficially, as by a regular purification with fresh water in washing and bathing ?" Bathing in cold water, although in the beginning per- haps disagreeable, by chill and even oppression of the chest, soon produces a beneficial warmth and a feeling of internal strength and comfort. " It purifies," to use Hufeland's words, "not merely the skin, but freshens and exhilarates soul and body; it strengthens and preserves against the changing influ- ences of air and weather, keeps the solid parts supple and the joints pliable; it preserves the vigor of youth, and keeps off the debility of old age. It is a precious means for pre- serving health, when used with the necessary precau- tions." EFFECTS OF BATHING AND WASHING. 33 Sioimming, particularly up stream, is a healthy and useful exercise. The stay in a bath of cold water may last from five to fifteen minutes. For the female sex baths are not less useful. Cold baths and washings are the best cosmetics; they give strength to the skin, redness and freshness to the cheeks and lips, invigorate the growth of hair, and impart to the muscles that fullness and roundness, the fundamental condition of health. Therefore the establishment of pub- lic ladies' baths would be of signal importance. Russia gives here a fine example, and the pure tact of the people ensures decorum. Both sexes use at differ- ent hours the same bathing place, and the holy feeling of decency watches the bath of the women. Mothers in particular ought never to neglect bathing their children. It is the surest means of preventing crip- pling, rickets, scrofulas, itch, and vermin. Every tub will afford the opportunity, and the watering pot, moist- ening and refreshing the plants, will show the same effect upon children. In some degree the bath may be suppli- ed by washings with cold water, whilst the cases where warm baths are preferable will be indicated by the phy- sician. 3 34 ON WATER CURES. HISTORY OF HYDRIATICS PREVIOUS TO PRIESSNITZ. The use of water as a dietetic means, is as old as the human race; it was the most natural, and, no doubt, only beverage, before art and luxury supplied us with others. We find it first mentioned in the Bible on a variety of oc- casions ; we find it as means of nutrition by the side of bread; i t is handed to the guest as a refreshment, and used for bathing for the sick, as well as the healthy; nay, by the law of Moses it is ordained for sprinklings and arrosions. In the Indies, ancient Ganges, visited by bathers, received divine worship ; and to the Egyptians, the Nile was a god, fertilizing women and countries. The Egyptian god of water, was victorious over the Chaldean god of fire, for the first was a god confirming health, and heal- ing diseases. According to Herodotus, the ancient Per- sians, also, drank only water, till they became acquainted with the use of wine. But with the Greeks, uniting beau- ty of the body with strength, water, especially as bath, en-«. joyed high esteem. Old Homer sings of the bathing Nausicaa, of bathing Agenor, of the healing of wounded Hector in the river Xanthos, and Theocritus speaks of a river-bath of 240 young girls. Hercules afterwards, the divine protector of the therms, is seen in ancient medals exposing himself to a jet of water from the mouth of a lion, and at his worship water was poured over his statue. HISTORY OF HYDRIATICS. 35 Nearer to our times we find, among the Spartans, chil- dren, old men and virgins plunging into cold baths conse- crated by the laws. " Every evil is washed off by the sea," says a Greek proverb, and Pindar sings, " The best thing on earth is water." The Macedonians were so much op- posed to warm baths, that even their wives after their deli- very must bathe in cold water. One of the first laws of the Scythians was, to use the cold bath. The old Italians im- mersed their new-born infants in the river, and from the old vigorous Romans, the veneration for cold baths de- scended to the times, when, with other luxuries, warm and tepid baths were already introduced. The Emperor Augustus himself, on the eve of consumption, and afraid of every draught of air, left his fur-lined apartments at the advice of Antonius Musa, and was restored to full health by using cold water as a drink, and by having it fre- quently poured over him; and by the same Musa also, Horace was cured by means of cold shower-baths. The- mison, disciple of Asclepiades (50 a.chr.), used to explain, and heal every thing by means of contraction and relax- ation ; he was guided by these very principles respecting the good effects of cold water, and his follower Eudemus recommended cold clysters against gastralgia. But Cel- sus above all (23 p. chr.), in his profound and keen in- vestigations, praised water as a dietetic and therapeutic means. He recommends it against eructations, weakness of the head, lachrymation of the eyes, catarrhs and colds, swollen tonsils, weakness of the stomach, gastralgia and pains in the joints, the plague, ardent fever, slow fever, m ness, lethargy, epilepsy, jaundice, headache, lame- 36 ON WATER CURES. ness of the tongue, spitting of blood, diseased lungs, chol- era, dysentery, lientery, tenesmus, diarrhoea, hysteria, pollutions, gout; for stopping blood, healing of wounds, against the bite of rabid dogs, and hydrophobia—he also knew its use as a beverage, washing, bath, affusion and sprinkling. Charmis (54-68 p. chr.) permitted cold baths, even in winter, and Seneca, the philosopher, used them with enthusiasm, calling himself a yvxQoXoinriq. Agathinus (80 p. chr.), the founder of the eclectic school, ascribes weakness and irritability to warm baths, and praises cold ones, assisted by rubbings and douche, even for children. Arataeus (60 p. chr.), the greatest physician between Hippocrates and Galenus, applied cold water against inflammation of the brain, and recommends swim- ming and cold washings against headache and dizziness. Soranus (100) recommends the cold bath in asthma, in coughs of long duration, bodily weakness, and the gout. Herodotus (117) laments the neglect of cold baths in Rome, and recommends swimming in the sea. Yet would the increasing luxury, and the abuses of medical practice soon have discarded cold water, if Galen (131- 200), the authority for so many centuries, and founder of Allopathy, had not employed cold as well as warm water, according to fixed indications. He made use of warm affusions, taught the cautious application of the warm douche, prescribed cold baths and sudden immersion af- ter warm baths, and recommended even diving-baths in consumption. In the period from Galen to the Arabic physicians little progress was made in the scientific application of HISTORY OF HYDRIATICS. 37 cold water, although Antyllus used sea water against cu- taneous eruptions, Saelius Aurelianus (210), Aetius (543), Alexander of Tralles (570)J and Paulus of JEgina (670) applied cold water in all the cases adduced by their hydriatic predecessors. From 900—1650 till Floyer, little could be expected for the extension of the knowledge of cold water and its medical use, as among the Arabic physicians, rather pre- servers of the Greek medical writers than impartial exam- iners, the tendency of enriching chemistry and pharma- cology with new means was exclusively prevailing. Yet Rhazes (f923) commends cold water as drink, washings, and assisted by vapor baths, in disorders of digestion, cuta- neous diseases, and fevers, and snow in caries. Avicenna (t 1036), called by the Arabs the prince of physicians, limits the use of cold baths, and advises to individualize according to circumstances. He uses injections and the seave, clysters, and douche-baths. Ishak ben Soleiman (f 940) confirms the assertion of Hippocrates concerning the modified nature of spring-water according to clime and locality. In the middle ages, when science yielded to superstition, not the medical school in Salerno, nor the example of Charlemagne, who practised swim- ming with predilection, could prevent the entire neglect of this simplest of simples. The leprosy, spreading through the crusades, led indeed to the use of warm baths, but everywhere cold was shunned, and warmth and pers- piration were held to be the chief remedy even by^pch men as the learned Genlilis da Foligno (f 1348), yet he recom- mends cold arrosions against torpor and weakness. The 38 ON WATER CURES. popularity of mineral-springs dates however from this period, and in Italy, artificial douches (doccia) were in- vented and observed in their important effects by Pietro Tussignano (1336), Giovanni de Dondis (1395), and Savonarola (f 1462). The latter recommends the limit- ed use of cold water in mortifications, cold baths in hem- orrhages of the uterus, and cured the Margrave Nico- las d' Este of his gout, by overpourings with cold water. Mengo Bianchelle (1441), and Barzizi (1480), recom- mend cold baths for children, and in arthritis, the latter after tepid baths, and the rising douche in uterine diseas- es. Cardanus (1501-16), in his memorable theory on baths in general, praises cold affusions against the gout, if the joints are not yet swollen. Fernelius (| 1558) in speaking of the cooling and the warming effects of cold baths, recommends them against consumptions. Bu1 first with the invention of printing, the propagation of Greek learning, and the discovery of America, a new light was thrown upon medical science, and freer views could take root. Paracelsus (1517), scorning the dull blind faith in Greek and Arabic authorities, founded his bold system in theory upon his physiological observations, and in practice upon the healing power of nature, and notwithstanding his participation in the astrological and mystical pursuits of his age, broke path for the revival and reformation of medicine and natural sciences. He wrote, indeed, little in praise of cold water, yet was he no singer to its use, and contributed to the increas- ed use of mineral baths. Gualtherus Ryff, of Strassburo- soon after him (1544), and Bartolomeo Botlo a Clirolo HISTORY OF HYDRIATICS. 39 (1550) praised dropping-baths in particular. Ugulino de Monte Cattino (1553) praises shower-baths against weakness of the head. Amatus Lusitanus (1562) recom- mended it in ardent bilious fevers, in cholera, inflamma- tion of the bowels, sore breasts, swellings and ulcers. In this time appeared also the book De Balneis. Andreas Baccius (1588) is in favor of overpourings with cold water. Gunther von Andernach (1478-1574) in his es- say on baths, likewise praises affusions of the skin with common water, for assisting secretions, producing sleep, and assuaging dryness, and complains of the neglect of baths, yet he warns against douche. Heinrich Ranzau (1587) praises cold baths, and lotions of the head. Johann Zechius (1597) advises the washing of the head with common water, before the use of the warm douche. The physicians following next in time, however, are rather averse to cold water, with the exception of Johann Lamzweede (1608) and Henricus ab Heers, who performed a remarkable cure of leprosy by means of cold water. Prosper Albinus (fl617), the learned observer and writer on Semiotic, praises its dietetic and cooling effects, and describes the Nile-baths. Luigi Seplala (T1638) recom- mends cold douche and dropping-baths in cases of sun-stroke, in headache, particularly from excitement drinking of cold water in diarrhoea, and cold fomentations in colic. He recommends cold as a styptic means, ex- cept in blood-cough. Fabricius Hildanus (1560-1634) praises cold water for frozen limbs. The greatest praises from personal experience, are given to cold water by Herrmann von der Heyden (1643), who prefers it above 40 ON WATER CURES. all medicaments, and calls it a blessing of God, equally in the reach of the rich and the poor. He praises its use against frozen limbs, megrim, madness, paralysis, hoarse- ness, pains in the shoulders, constipation, dysentery, and cured once in an epidemic 360 sick with dysentery by means of cold water. Severinus (1530-1656) praises simple water for dropping-baths. Diemerbrock (1665) reports a case of dysentery, as remarkable as that of the Emperor Maximilian I., who, already given up by his physicians, cured himself by drinking cold water. Moe- bius (1611-1664) and Guernerus Rolfinccius (1598-1673) recommend dropping-baths and washings ; but many of their contemporaries fear its dangers. The Dutch of this period, rather recommend the newly introduced tea. Vittie (1678) reports the virtues of a cold spring in York ; and Bartholin (1680), a Dane, recommends snow against the plague, ardent fever, pulmonary disease, cramp in the stomach, colic, constipation, gout, burns, and frozen limbs. Van Helmont (fl644 ), unique in the history of medicine, considered water as the primitive sub- stance of all things, and recommends the pouring of it on the head as a dietetic means, and plungings in cold water for mental diseases; nor does his son, Fr. van Helmont (fl699), speak less favorably of it, who continued, to his seventieth year, to have cold water pumped upon his head. With the freer development of thought and science, the prejudice against cold water gradually had to yield. Guidot (1691) introduced pumps into the baths ; Robert- son recommended cold baths and plunging ; Locke (|1704) HISTORY OF HYDRIATICS. 41 drinking of water, washing, bathing and swimming; thus preparing from different sides, what Floyer (1649-1714) completed and boldly introduced to the public in his Psy- chrolusia, which appeared in London, and in quick sue-. cession had six editions (1702-1732). In an earlier essay he praises with enthusiasm cold produced by water, and cold baths, particularly their effects upon the solid parts, upon the nerves, humors, circulation and secretions. He recommends baths at home, yet not of too long dura- tion, and names the diseases in which cold affusions have the preference before mineral douches, viz., head- ache, loss of memory, melancholy, lethargy, stupor, deaf- ness, blindness, spasms, lameness. But still better armed, he went to meet his antagonists in the above mentioned Psychrolusia, in which he unites the opinions of antiquity and of the most highly esteemed moderns with his own ex- perience, and invites all to conquer the old prejudice and fear. He recommends here cold water in addition to the above cases, against tooth-ache, inflammation of the brain and of the throat, distempers of the functions, haemorrhoids, fever, gout, rheumatism, tumor, inflamma- tion, chlorosis, leucorrhea, sterility, abortus, &c ; in par- ticular, also, for preventing in children rachitis, and be- sides, for diseases of animals. Accordingly, in a pretty extensive range of diseases, his endeavors were success- ful, and many physicians followed his example. Thus Bayonard, Pitcairne, Browne, Blaire, and IVainwright, with good results; Blaire used douche baths against mad- ness and lameness ; Bayonard cured rachitis in children with cold water. Fuller praises it in his Gymnastics ; 42 ON WATER CURES. so does Smith (1724) in his publication on the healing powers of cold water. John Hancock, in an essay pub- lished seven times in one year, recommends it against fe- vers, and the plague. George Cheyne (1671-1748) com- plains of the neglect of baths, which "he thinks ought to be fitted up in every house. " Diligent plunging and over- pouring is useful, and as a beverage water is better than wine, for all artificial drinks are not for daily use." Richard Mead (1673-1754) rejects warm baths in cases of lameness, and advises cold immersions in madness, lameness, St. Vitus's dance and hydrophobia. Hunham (1768), that distinguished disciple of the great Boerhaave, calls the invigorating effect of cold water miraculous, and recommends it particularly against rachitis. Thomas Short (1750) praises cold baths against some kinds of dropsy, and against the bite of mad dogs. Lucas (1750) calls it a universal medicine, useful to every one under certain circumstances, and which, if properly applied, will answer the test in all acute and chronic diseases. He mentions also, first, the wrapping in a sheet wet with cold water, used by an octogenarian. William Buchan (1729-1805) urgently recommends to parents cold bath- ing of their children, and endeavors to overcome the pre- judices of the nurses against it. Dutch physicians.—A very spirited view of the effect of cold baths was developed by the great physician in Hol- land, Herrmann Boerhaave (1660-1738), who compares theireffects with those of a Febris intermittens. Yet how- ever near this man of genius came to the truth found out in our century, of an artificial but salutary fever produced by HISTORY OF HYDRIATICS. 43 the use of cold water, his application of it extended mere- ly to lameness and some kindred cases. He speaks of itching, pains, production of warmth, sweats, topical fe- ver ; he knows the exciting effect of sprinkling with little water and immersion, but limits its use to desperate ca- ses. In himself he tested the use of cold water in inflam- mations of the eyes, and recommends immersions as a palliative and radical cure of hydrophobia. Italians.—Father Bernardo, of Sicily, adisciple of So- veda, excited surprise in the whole of Europe by his miraculous cures, performed about the year 1742 in the island of Malta. He employed in particular, ice water, either as drink of 12-16 quarts per day, or as clys- ters, or as a fomentation, and rubbing with pieces of ice. Yet he attended more to the quantity than to the kind of its application, and aimed chiefly at crises by the skin, urine and bowels. His boldness called forth great opposition. Nicolo Crescenzo (1727) recommends a more simple treatment. He and Dalli (1727) in Malta, apply cold wa- ter only internally, very seldom baths, arrosions and fo- mentations. Lancisius (1654-1720) calls cold baths a pre- ventive against spasms. About the same time Fodano (Medicus per cequam) and Sangez {per Glaciem) came forth with merciless cruelty and boldness. The first does not content himself with cold water; it must be mixed with snow and ice ; and the patient is to drink five pounds of it every three hours ; if the sick shake with cold they must not be covered, the cold being as essential to the cure as hunger; three or four yolks of fresh eggs are the whole allowance per day. Only when the patient is 44 ON WATER CURES. wholly unable to endure the cold, wet-cold fomentations are to be laid upon the liver and the loins. Swoons, lethargy, and other dangerous symptoms are of no con- sequence ; drinking only has then to be omitted; ice wa- ter is to be sprinkled in the face; the hands and feet are to be covered with snow; the head or other painful parts with wet-cold fomentations; or in the highest degree of sopor, ice is to be placed upon the stomach-pit. From this the parturient are as little to be excepted as children. The first have snow and ice put upon their loins to ease the birth ; the newborn receive four ounces of cold water per day for the sake of opening. After this simple method no small-pox, &c, will show themselves. A consump- tive person will be recovered after eleven days of fasting, and forty days of water-drinking. His faithful compan- ion in these excesses was Sangez, of Reffina, who cured every thing curable by means of snow and ice; and in extreme danger had placed the patient entirely naked upon a double sheet, hung up by its four corners, covered him with snow all over to his mouth, and had him then swung until he got into a perspiration. Meanwhile he ordered him to take frequent potations of ice water. Here we see at once the application of cold and water, after so long a contempt, on a giant-scale; partaking in extent and excess of the severity of the times. Its char- latanry and presumption awakened the hatred of rational men, and prevented the interest and examination of med- ical ones. In later times Michelotli (1740) applied the douche-bath with circumspection ; Cirillo and Sarcone (1764), on occasion of a malignant epidemic in Naples HISTORY OF HYDRIATICS. 45 successfully introduced the drinking of snow and ice-wa- ter, which they applied also in fomentations and baths ; and it has been continued since then in Naples. Already before them, Antonio Cocchi (1695-1758) had drawn at- tention to the cold baths, as used in England, preferring them to mineral douches, but recommends also cold show- er baths in chronic blenorrhoea after lues. French.—An impostor,Z?ar&ereaw, sold under the name of the eternal fountain, common water at high prices. He was detected, and the use of water became thereby known and confirmed, e. g. by Ilecquet (1707), who de- clares water to be the healthiest beverage. When in 1721 Geoffroy, as president of the medical college in Pa- ris, agitated the question, whether water was a preventive against the plague, it was answered in the affirmative. Geoffroy maintains that it was more than a mere preser- vative, usefid in all diseases and for every single one specifically. Its only faidt was, that it was too com- mon, too much known, and therefore too little esteemed. Boguez (1725) shares the opinions of Garlorius, whose iatromathematical medicine he introduced into France. and praises in particular the reaction of cold baths against rheumatism, pleuritis, pneumonia, obstructions in the ca- pillary vessels, giving origin to obstruction, gout, epilepsy, &c. Water forwards the eruption of the small-pox, brings forth madness, heals lunacy; nay, it nourishes. Even the adherents of the chemiatric schqol praised the water, and Father Chirac (1735) produced great excite- ment by his water-cures. Barrtre (+1755) had learned in Guiana the infallibility of cold sprinklings against the 46 ON WATER CURES. lock-jaw of children. Le Dran (1731) cured agues by means of douches of common water. J. Astruc (+1766) describes the manner of arrosions in French baths. Raymond (1755) gained the prize from the academy in Dijon with his essay on the effect of simple water-baths. But by far the greatest impression was produced by Tissot'T-Ains aupeuple sur sa sante, 1761, in which with powerful eloquence the use of cold baths is recommended, founded upon a rational and natural view of invigorating the skin. He advises that even the most delicate children be washed with cold water, and immersed; and that the same be done in cases of weakness of the nerves and of de- ficient perspiration. It became henceforth the fashion in Paris to wash and bathe, and to swim in cold water. Yet whilst Tissot recommends cold baths only as preven- tives against nervous debility, for the cure itself the luke- warm; Pomme (1760), after the example of Whytt in Eng- land, urges the use of cold water in actual diseases of the nerves, whether as bath, foot-bath or clyster, and thus be- came the founder of a better cooling treatment for chronic nervous distempers. About this time the first bathing insti- tutions in boats were established on the Seine in Paris, byPoitevin (1760), in connection with douche and show- er-baths. Marteau, in his essay on the effect of baths (1767), explains the action of the douche from physical laws, and distinguishes them from dropping-baths; ex- amines the influence of their temperature, praises the douche in cirsocele, in idiopathic epilepsy, hysterics, sleeplessness, weakness of memory, lameness, against apoplexy, chronic rheuma, but dissuades from its use in HISTORY OF HYDRIATICS. 47 podagra. He recommends cold baths in mania, dropsy, spitting of blood, hemorrhagia, erysipelas, &c. Also he advises cold baths for children a few days after their birth. Scandinavians.— Unsenias observed the cure of Dan- ish soldiers and sailors, who, driven by instinct, threw themselves, in the most violent delirium, into the Baltic (1688). Pechlin, (1646—1706) made observations on the effect of cold water upon the body. Karl, physician to the king of Denmark (+ 1757), a disciple of Stahl's, relates, that to him also, the miracles of this medicina universalis of water had been at first incomprehensible, before his observations had shown to him its use, for the healthy as well as for the sick body. In Copenhagen, Clemens Tode (1736—1808) introduced dropping-baths for dietetic use, deeming them safer and more energetic- ally strengthening than common baths. Bergius, in Sweden (1763), in his able book on the use of cold baths, recommends them against the most various evils. Germans.—In Germany also, though in this period it had a great many good physicians, the use of water spread but by degrees, first as beverage, than as cold bath, lastly as douche-bath. J. Goffr. de Berger (1658—1736) first led the attention to the cold baths used in England. Wolfers speaks of cold douche upon the eyes and drop- baths for the ears ; Burgharts, of dropping baths. Vitus Riedlin (+ 1724), of Ulm, deserves much merit for his impartial essay on the use and disadvantages of cold water. Wolfgang Wedel, in Jena (+ 1721), distinguishes washing with or without immersion and affusion (embro- 48 ON WATER CURES. catio and irrigatio), and orderly distinguishes the different species of baths. Crause (+ 1718) praises cold water as a drink, and Fick (+1730) reports some successful cures of rachitis. More distinguished than all the former, was Friederich Hoffmann (1660—1742), as a successful prac- titioner, as well as a famous author. Uniting with the mechanico-dynamic system of Leibnitz and Newton, the principles of Hippocrates, he was led to the use of cold water by the study of the ancients and by his own obser- vations. His numerous examinations of mineral waters had convinced him, that their efficacy was owing in great part to mere water, and thus he became a eulogist of water. According to Galen's principle, he considers it homoge- neous to the healthy body, and according to the same principle, "contraria contrariis," salutary for the sick. Expounding in several writings the uses of cold and warm baths, he calls the first a " tonica and elastica vis motrix partium solidarum," in particular of the external parts, but also of the stomach and the bowels. He praises cold baths particularly against diseases from too violent circulation of the blood ; drinking against ardent fevers, cholera, dysentery, colic, cramp of the stomach, hy- pochondria, hysterics, gout, convulsions, hemorrhagia, &c. In cases of atonia, he thinks it might be hurtful. In nerv- ous diseases and hydrophobia he prefers tepid baths. Douche-baths he opposes with a great display of readinc. The neglect of cold water is owing, according to him to the prejudices of medical men, who overlooked the to- nus of the solid parts, regarding exclusively the humors and the blood. His disciples continued his work. Schidze HISTORY OF HYDRIATICS. 49 Professor in> Halle, a real polyhistor, calls cold water a medicina universalis,yet inclines more to warm medi- cated water. Schwertner published a collection of Ger- man, English, and French writings on cold water, 1733- 1743. About the same time Sommer (1749) translated Floyer's Psychrolusia into German. In consequence of all these endeavors, the application of cold water rapidly increased, and was appreciated by the first medical men. Van Swieten (1669-1772), a disciple of Boerhaave, praises cold immersions and shower-baths against paralysis. Beer (1748) calls water " the most natural, most perfect, and sure medicament, that can be found;" yet does he praise it mostly as drink. Kruger (+ 1795), of Halle, in his dietetics, defends it as a " universal means ;" so does Borner (+ 1770 Medicus sui ipsius); Daniel (1771) re- commends cold baths and fomentations, in ardent fever; in madness, weakness of the joints, rheumatism, gonor- rhoea. Danter (1784) enumerates its twenty-fold use, and uses it surgically. Triller (1782) praises it in his poetical rules of life. Leathner (1740), after the example of Pomme, cured many chronical diseases of the nerves, especially hypochondria and hysterics, by means of cold baths, irrigations, fomentations, and clysters. Pietsch (1773) recommends immersions of the hands and feet in podagra, and chiragra; calls it a universal means, not to be feared even in pregnancy. Unzer (1727-1799) prais- es cold baths urgently against sun-stroke, cold foot-baths and irrigations of the thighs with ice-water against ob- stinate constipations and ileus. The most important author, however, for our subject, is John Sigmund Hahn 4 50 ON WATER CURES. (1696-1793), who created a kind of Hydriatria, recom- mending water against all diseases for all. Already his father, Dr. Sigm. Hahn, in Schweidnitz (+1742), drinking cold water and bathing in such to his death, saved once his elder son, J. Gottfried Hahn, from a dangerous epi- demic.—His younger son, our fenberg, will have sufficiently removed the possible preju- dice against our motives, as if some old forgotten story was to be imposed upon the publie under new colors as something novel. Water had been used for cures and diet in almost all single forms and combinations; but the systematical totality of its application as only remedy did not appear before the establishment of Priessnitz ; and, as the simple statement of its unpresuming founder will best show, was independent of any study from books. Nor does it owe its existence to any bold speculation after some universal medicine. Prompted by simple love to his fellow-beings, Priessnitz imparted to them his salutary experiences as he received them by a kind Providence, without wish for reward or honor, and thus became a fit medium for receiving more, and becoming the author of a system, which in few hands would have remained so un- contaminated from the pride of human speculations and traditions, and so little defiled by selfish motives. It will be necessary however to expose more fully the characteristic features which isolate this method from other branches of medical science, before we introduce SKETCH OF PRIESSNITZ. 59 from his own relations, and the testimony of eye-witnesses, the short history of Priessnitz's calling, and the happy results of his institution. We first extract Hirschel's views on the position which the water-cure and Priessnitz occupy in these re- gards. " The doctrine of Oertel, partly by the truth contained in it, partly on account of the facility offered in its appli- cation and through other circumstances, as mentioned above, soon became universally known. With its motto : ' Drink water in abundance ; the more the better, for water relieves all from every thing.''—The method of treatment with cold water came forth as a real system of hydriatics, water itself as a universal nostrum, what indeed had been expressed before, but never with the intention of having it understood and applied to such an extent. A remedy universal never misses its effect, and from all sides water cures were praised and made. Yet in spite of many for- tunate results, the disadvantage of an immoderate treat- ment with water, modified by no determined rules, would soon have exposed Oertel as a false prophet, if there- by the still activity of Priessnitz in Grsefenberg had not become known." Here was a simple, unpresuming countryman, in Austrian Silesia, who by a simple and ra- tional application of cold water has performed the most happy cures, and has rendered lasting its use both for life and science. * * * Testing first the efficacy of the re- medy on himself, on occasion of a fracture of his ribs, and then in a more extended sphere, he has made an obscure village the rendezvous for the sick from all Europe. His 60 ON WATER CURES. knowledge of the diseases is merely empirical, but the application of his means perfectly rational. Without ana- tomical or other medical erudition, he has formed for him- self an original idea of the construction of the human bo- dy, and another, just as peculiar, of the diseases, which re- minds us of the first times of humoral pathology; but which by the single phenomenon appearing in the development of diseases by his method, has been justified. But he cares neither for theories nor explanations. He only wants to cure ; and for this purpose he uses cold water, whose effects he directs not according to a system, but only modifies. To the manifold effects of this means he gives still greater variety, by applying all itsforms, viz., washing, baths, seat-baths, douche, affusion, swathing, wet and dry fo- mentation, beverage, &c, by application to the most dif- ferentparts,by diversity of succession, repetition, duration, temperature, and many other things. Thus he has ob- tained by these modifications, suited to the diseases, a cooling and a heating, a toneus changing and exciting, a resolving and deducting, method. But the effect-total of his cure consists in exciting the natural curative power to the secretion of sickly productions. Nature and the individual organism are stirred up, that self-proper power which forms the basis of all cures; hence no weakening by purgatives, by exciting passions, but strengthening of digestion by healthy food, of the lungs by fresh mountain-air (on that account during sweating the windows are opened), of the skin by energetic perspira- tion, not brought on by an internal excitement of the vas- cular and nervous systems producing a final secretion, but SKETCH OF PRIESSNITZ. 61 by a raised activity of the skin itself. Against the weak- ness ensuing is guarded, and right degree of the warmth produced is regulated by a succeeding cool bath. This method of sweating and thereby invigorating the skin ia a novel fact, rendered by Priessnitz equally important for psychology, physiology, and pathology.—Thus through all forms he leads the patient at length to the fever, the healing power of which has been acknowledged by the best physicians of all times. This fever, with all its crises through skin, urine, blood-vessels, ulcers, &c, is a proof of the activity of the power of nature. But the most diffi- cult task is yet remaining, that of directing, moderating this power, or of strengthening it according to circum- stances, and this at the same time is the true forte of Priessnitz, by which he clearly proves his observation and art, and by which he victoriously conducts disease to its close.—Now, if it is evident, that by this method many acute and chronic diseaes can be cured, as they actually have been, it appears on the other side that not merely suppuration of interior organs and hectical fevers are to be excepted, but that, according to Priessnitz's own opinion, there may be yet other diseases in which the healing power of nature might be no longer active, of others in which such a cure might lead rather towards dissolution and destruction, others in which it might prove injurious in some way else. Hence the necessity of scientific obser- vation for this in itself scientific and rational method." This extract from Dr. Hirschel's views will not fail to give to our readers at once, and better than we could hope to do, a full and clear view of the position which 62 O.N WATER CURES. Priessnitz's method occupies with regard to previous at- tempts as well as to other medical sciences. It is a com- plete and isolated system in itself, not fragmentary, partial and combined with other means, as the first experiments and applications of water were before its appearance. It is independent of the principles of allopathic medicine as well as of homoeopathy, in origin and as to mediums, scorning every auxiliary means from without save water, and acknowledging in its sphere the healing power in- dwelling in nature for its sole sovereign. But renouncing every claim to an universal remedy, it takes a limiting, ra- ther than an absolutely hostile position to the former, be- ing the simplest and deepest remedy of all, and it must in its turn be acknowledged by them, to say the least, one of the most important branches of the tree of medical sci- ence. The views which Priessnitz himself takes of his me- thod may elucidate this still more clearly. We take them from Munde's first edition, who being an intimate friend of the founder of the institute, and no physican himself, seems to have added but little of his own, the language perhaps excepted. First, however, we insert from Brand's " Water-cures of Vincent Priessnitz," the au- thentic relation of the latter, containing the circumstances under which he made his inventions. " It was in the year 1816, when I crushed my finger, and, as it were by instinct, plunged this injured member into water till it ceased bleeding. I felt the coolness agreeable to my burning and benumbed finger, and found that by holding it repeatedly in water, the finger, without SKETCH OF PRIESSNITZ. 63 the least inflammation or suppuration, after secreting only a little white mucous matter, healed in a short time. I became convinced thereby of the healing power of cold spring-water; and when I mentioned this praisingly to others, I learned by some experienced old men that this was certainly the case; and that they could relate to me a number of cases, in which cold water had proved salu- tary, above any other remedy. Soon I was to realize, in my own body, what a precious gift of the Creator for mankind lies hidden in cold water. " In the year 1819 I met with themisfortune to break the ribs on my left side by a loaded wagon, and to have some teeth kicked out. 'The physician, called from the nearest town, declared the injury incurable thus far; that in every fracture of the ribs there would be formed lumps, which on the least exertion would cause me pain, and this for all my lifetime. He prescribed for me some herbs, a decoction of which in wine I was to lay upon the parts. These fomentations gave me the greatest pain, so that I could not endure it any longer, and tore off'the warm fo- mentations. Recollecting my cured finger, I now used swathings of cold water, by which the raging pains were assuaged, and I fell into sleep, for the first time since the accident. I had ascertained that another man, who had fractured his ribs, pressed them out himself, and restored them to their former position, by laying himself with his belly upon the edge of a chair, so as to leave the upper part of the body free, and by the retention of his breath extending his ribs. Under the most violent pains I now tried this experiment myself repeatedly, and to my utmost 64 ON WATER CURES. joy felt my ribs stretching outwards. By repeated swath- ings with linen sheets dipped in cold water, in a few days, without having had any wound fever, I was restored so far that 1 could walk, and finally effected a total removal of the evil; so that after about a year I felt not any pain whatsoever; could undertake any bodily exercise with fa- cility, and no evil consequences remained. I found many later occasions for healing with cold water at home, among my own folks, such as crushings, dislocations, bruises,&c. Several of my neighbors having been inform- ed of my cures, consulted me in similar cases successfully, and thus I acquired in the vicinity a kind of fame. The concourse of sick persons, and the happy cures which I effected in this simple way, determined me by degrees to try the treatment with cold water to an always greater extent. I thought it at first the best to bathe the suffering parts of the patients in cold water; yet I frequently ob- served, that by means of inflammations arising, as well as by the various eruptions that threw themsel\tes upon these parts, the patient suffered the greatest of pains, and I meditated upon means to lead off the inflammation. To this I was soon led, by the experiment of cold-bathing other parts of the body, and exempting from it the in- jured part, yet applying to this cold fomentations. In this way I found out the use of seat-baths, foot-baths, head and eye-baths. " I was frequently visited by sick people who had suf- fered for a long time from cold shivering, or a continual chill in the feet and hands. I knew of no better means to recommend to them than perspiration in bed. This they PRIESSNITZ'S DISCOVERIES. 65 did, but asserted that they lost their chill only during the perspiration, and that afterwards they had had it stronger than before. I advised them, after sweating gently, to wash their whole body with a sponge, and saw the best effect coming from this expedient. The activity of the skin was increased by passing over it the wet sponge; the patient felt strengthened, and the warmth, restrained in the beginning by the succeeding healthy circulation, was spread over the whole body. This circumstance taught me that a real cold bath after perspiration could do no harm; and thus I introduced the beneficial sweating be- fore the bath. The patients, however, grew often very weak during perspiration; and as a relief I tried the open- ing of the windows, in order to strengthen the body by the inhalation of pure air; and the salutary effect of this means was confirmed in all cases; so that I never have seen yet, notwithstanding its frequent application, any bad accident arising from it. The burning heat and op- pression of the patients induced me to let them drink 8ome tumblers of cold water; and I made the observation that drinking of water brought the patients only into a more copious sweat, and that accordingly, it gives by no means a cold, but rather, by its quickening power, strengthens and beneficially warms the patient. Later ob- servations, on occasion of washing and bathing the body, confirmed my supposition, as the evaporation was dis- tinctly visible, and in mere washings a tangible burning of the skin could be perceived. The circulation of blood accordingly became much more animated, not merely heated for the moment, as by warm baths, producing 5 66 ON WATER CURES. subsequent obstructions, and when grown cold relaxing the nerves and leaving a torpidly circulating blood. The application of sweating in different cases appeared be- sides most salutary for those patients in whom I could sup- pose a corruption of the humors and concealed impurities. The desired eruption was thereby accelerated, and the tormenting pains of the patient were assuaged. Often, however, I met with persons whose cutaneous activity could be excited by no means whatsoever, and in whom the physicians had for years been trying fruitlessly to pro- duce it, and to bring the body into perspiration, whilst the whole disease was founded in the deficient functions of the skin. Here I made the above mentioned cold fomenta- tions upon the suffering parts my chief object of attention; and the conviction was pressed upon me, that by them was effected a greater perspiration, than on the other parts of the body not acted upon by such fomentations. I therefore wrapped the patient closely in a linen sheet, dipped into water and well wrung out. How great was my astonishment and joy at the success! For- many years the patient had been deprived of a regular refresh- ing sleep, and now this came in a quarter of an hour, last- ed exceedingly long, perspiration commenced, and at last the patient was bathed in sweat. From this time the pa- tient always enjoyed good sleep, and the activity of his skin vv as developed without any forced means. I had thereby found a sure means for awakening the suppressed acti- vity of the skin. By degrees, as stated above, I learned the different application of cold water upon the body, and soon found out the great difference between seat-baths, head- PRIESSNITZ'S DISCOVERIES. 67 baths, foot-baths and eye-baths, of the douche, of rubbing the skin in the water and out of it, of entire baths, of mere washings, of cold baths of short continuance, and those of an hour's duration ; of injections, rinsing with cold water, &c.; and of how great importance it is, whether the one or the other of these means be applied, as by their incorrect use the most contrary results have shown themselves. Priessnitz, according to the experience thus gained, healed all that came to him who were curable ; and he had gained already a considerable practice, having treat- ed in one year nearly 1500 patients in his own house and in the vicinity; when at last, notwithstanding his curing in almost all cases gratuitously, and not earning over- much gratitude, the physicians found it at least advisable to put an end to the " mischief." He was impeached ; and as they could not forbid him to recommend to people cold water, for drinking and washing, the district-physi- cian, N----, dissected the sponge used by Priessnitz in washing, in order, if possible, to discover therein some- thing, that might explain the miracles wrought, and of course found nothing A physician of Frey waldau accus- ed him at the same time of quackery, pretending that he, the physician, had cured a certain miller suffering from gout, and not Priessnitz, as was asserted. Priessnitz, to- gether with the miller and the physicians, was summon- ed before the court, and the miller, on being questioned which of both had relieved him, answered: " Each of them has relieved me ; Dr. N----from my money, and Priess- nitz from my gout." After many intrigues, and after it had been proved, that Priessnitz employed only water, 68 ON WATER CURES. air and exercise for his cures, he received at last, on the part of his enlightened government, permission for estab- lishing an institution for water cures, and for receiving therein whomsoever would intrust himself to his care, and whom he should believe himself able to cure. Having thus been made independent of the persecuting physi- cians, he founded his establishment under the protection of his government, and soon enjoyed the satisfaction of beholding it prosperous and increasing, in spite of all envy. Assisted by his excellent housewife, the undertaking of Priessnitz daily advanced. Poor and rich poured to him in masses ; physicians visited him in order to learn of him, and to be cured ; his name was mentioned with es- teem among high and low, and even members of the fa- mily of his sovereign visited his house. In order to obtain an adequate idea of the increase of the institute, we insert here the number of guests, from 1829. In the year 1829 their number was 49 u a 1830 54 it u 1831 64 (< (( 1832 118 a « 1833 206 >c it 1S34 255 (t (( 1835 342 « d 1836 470 IC (( 1837 586 !< u 1888 828 k (( 1839 1544 4516 • To this number are to be added 763 male and female servants; be- sides 204 guests of Weiss in Freywaldau, and 92 of Schrott in Lindewiese ; so that, adding 083 transient patients, you have for the year 1839 2603 per- PRIESSNITZ'S DISCOVERIES. 69 If you add to these the host of poor people, whom Priessnitz treated at the same time, and who were not en- tered upon the bathing-list, the great number of sufferers, whose cure he directed by letter, the enormous number of such as he had healed before the erection of his estab- lishment, and the multitudes of those who, in imitation and at the recommendation of Priessnitz's patients, used the cure for themselves, you will still have no adequate idea of what Priessnitz has already done, and of what in- creasing use his healthy and cheerful activity promises to be. In the year 1839 alone, Priessnitz answered 1632 letters; the answers he has all copied and filed. He never receives an honorary for his written advices, but pays annually nearly one hundred florins postage. " May his useful activity long continue among us, and ever be accompanied by the pure consciousness that in all his endeavors he has more in view the general good than his own profit, and that he strives to gain a higher merit and more lasting treasure than perishable gold and vanishing praise." sons profiting by the bathing cures in Graefenberg and the adjacent Frey- waldau. In order to give an idea of the composition of the society in Greefenberi:, we communicate here an extract of the bathing list of 1839. 1 Royal Highness, 1 Duke, 1 Duchess, 22 Princes and Princesses, 149 Counts and Countesses, 88 Barons and Baronesses, 14 Generals, 53 Officers of the Staff, 196 Captains and other subaltern officers, 104 high and low Civil Officers, 65 Divines, 46 Artists, 37 Physicians, Apothecaries, &c. 70 ON WATER CURES. THE WATER CURE, ACCORDING TO PRIESS- NITZ. Priessnitz admits, that all diseases, such only except- ed as are produced by external lesions from foreign bodies, originatejn bad humors, from which result either a gen- eral distemper, or maladies of single parts. Hence his whole method has for its aim to remove the bad humors (matters of disease, stuffs as he commonly calls them) out of the body, and to replace them by good ones. The means which he employs for this purpose are. Water, Air, Exercise and Diet. Whether he be in the right in ascrib- ing all diseases, or at least their causes, to the humors, I do not presume to decide; the results, however, of a consis- tent use of his cure speak in favor of his opinion ; for, gen- erally speaking, he cures, with the four means just men- tioned, all the diseases which the physicians declare cura- ble by medicines. He agrees, however, herein with the most distinguished physicians of the last century. In Villanene's " De I'Homme," almost the entire method of Priessnitz is recommended to persons afflicted by rheuma- tism : cold baths, cold food, exercise in open air, abstinence from spirituous liquors and spices. It is said there also, in warning against the frequent use of medicines, that if it was a fault never to consult a physician, the fault on the other side, to run in every indisposition instantly for the physician and apothecary was far greater, since nature, in DIET FOR WATER CURES. 71 most cases, without forcible operation from without, will herself bring relief, if, by repose and abstinence, she is left to do so. Bad humors are produced in the body by divers causes; chiefly, however, by taking unhealthy or too much food, by suppressed secretion of the skin, by want of exercise, and by violent mental excitments affecting the system, such as anger, vexation, sorrow and grief. Among the hurtful aliments, Priessnitz counts in particular all sharp, heating and exciting beverages and spices; such as brandy, wine, beer, coffee, tea, spiced chocolate, vinous acids, pepper, cloves, mustard, salt fish and meat, spiced meat, all of which are strictly forbidden during the cure. He is less anxious, even in the cure, with re- gard to victuals hard of digestion, such as animal fats, flour-dishes, pork, geese and ducks, and dissuades only persons suffering with disorders of digestion from their enjoyment. The partaking of too much food produces, even with good digestive powers, too many and too thick humors, and has many evils for its consequence. When, how- ever, it is not entirely digested, there remains in the sto- mach a sediment which becomes vitiated, and introduces putrid and acid substances into the body. Hence it is that indigestions often become fatal. It is admitted, in general, that a grown person eva- porates every day three pounds of superfluous matter. Now, it may easily be imagined what a disturbance it must cause to the body if this evaporation be interrupted, and those substances, or at least part of them, remain in the 72 ON WATER CURES. body. In how many cases of disease the mere promotion of evaporation, sweating one or twice, is sufficient to re- lieve it. The skin is a far more important part of the sys- tem than is generally believed ; and yet, even persons who know its functions, and of how great importance it is for the welfare of the whole system to strengthen it, neglect its culture unpardonably. Why do not the physicians themselves attend more to it? Perhaps because most of them are themselves too indolent to apply cold water for their own health;—how then should they impose the task upon their patients? The frequent washing of the whole body is considered indeed as something beyond our reach; but yet, without ceremony, whole families are purged and vomited, without great advantage to the body. This evaporation, so essential for health, is promoted, besides the external use of cold water, by the drinking of it, and by exercise in the open air. By this means, at the same time, many obstructions are removed, and the hu- mors are made to circulate more freely; to which is to be added the great advantage of inhaling the free air. It is of supreme importance to put our bodies as often as possible in contact with the free air, as it is this which above all includes the principle of life. It is by the oxy- gen contained in it that our spark of life is kept glowing. and the more destitute of that we are, the feebler burns the flame, until, when entirely deprived of it, it is ex- tinguished wholly, like a candle in an exhausted re- ceiver. It is unnecessary to speak much of the pernicious in- DIET FOR WATER CURES. 73 fluence of excitements and passions of the mind upon the health of the body. They certainly can be avoided in great measure, if not always. We can become masters of our anger, we can avoid the occasions for it; by means of reason we can gain a less gloomy view of our suffer- ings; by simplifying and limiting our wants we may di- minish our cares. There are certainly few situations of life that might not be improved thus. The neglect of necessary drinking water is also a source of many evils: thick glutinous humors and acrid blood fixing themselves the more firmly the less they are dilut- ed by water. The hope of replacing water by tea, coffee, beer, &c, is a gross and hurtful error. There is no better dissolving means than water, through which at the same time new life is introduced into the system by the oxy- gen it contains. Let none excuse himself by the ab- sence of thirst. By beginning to drink it in small quantities, particularly before breakfast, he will soon be accustomed to it and feel its good consequences, even if, on account of the dissolving mucus in the stomach, nau- sea should be caused. From what has just been said, it follows, that if not all, yet by far the majority of diseases belong to the pro- vince of the water cure, and that sufferers of every des- cription may expect from this method perfect restora- tion, or at least an amelioration of their health. This suc- cess, however, not only depends on a consistent and ra- tional use of the cure, but principally also on the degree to which the evil has attained, and on the vital power re- maining for its removal. Where there is left but little of 74 ON WATER CURES. the latter, where the evil is inveterate, and has outgrown in strength that life-power, a perfect cure will not be obtain- ed by this method any more than by other medical treat- ment. In this case nature would be seen in combat with a superior enemy; nay, in many cases, by stirring up the slumbering, diseased matters which nature was inade- quate to remove, the evil might become worse upon using the cure; as, for instance, it might be in cases of inveterate gout and the disorganization from the use of mercury, cases against which any medicines would prove equally ineffectual. No supernatural effects are therefore to be expected of the water cure; but far greater results than most men would believe. In particular you must not think that water could in a few days expel an enemy that has for years fortified himself in the body. The cure is effective by invigorating the system, by promoting evaporation, and by preparing better humors. Only slowly, but with the greater surety, it will attack and conquer the evil. There exists a great error, in general prevailing, that medicine can instantly expel a disease as we eject a ten- ant that has not paid his rent, and to this error it is owing that many people cannot at all comprehend, how mere water, without any medicine, could perform such great things. The physician can do nothing but lead off the ex- tant power of life from some parts and guide it towards other parts, and with it the humors and noxious stuffs. He cannot create vital power, and if there be a possibility of increasing it, it certainly will not be done by means of drugs, but by means not bought with money; air, water exercise and diet. DIET FOR WATER CURES. 75 Now if it is the task of any method of cure to dissolve the sharp, thick and viscous juices, and to draw them off from the nobler parts towards the less noble, and finally to remove them; water possesses this faculty in the high- est degree, as it not only internally operates in a dissolv- ing way, but also, by the excitement of the skin, attracts to it the noxious substances and through it ejects them. By this the disease is withdrawn from the nobler parts, and especially from the organs of digestion, which thereby become enabled to produce better juices. At the same time the cure improves the appetite, and does not by too great abstinence from invigorating food weaken the body, which is so much in need of strength for the secretion of the diseased matter. It is a principle with Priessnitz to keep the body always as vigorous as possible ; hence he never prohibits satisfying the appetite, leaving it to na- ture to indicate, by increased or diminished desire, whe- ther one ought to eat more or less. This instinct will never be mistaken unless habitual incontinence confound gluttony with hunger. In fact, he leaves the whole course of healing to nature, without disturbing it in its sure effi- cacy, and determines only the more or less in the use of the cure for the purpose of keeping always the quantity of the excited or exciting diseased matter in a just propor- tion with the strength of the patient, and this requires a practical eye, as experienced as his, in connexion with the knowledge of the effect of the means used. It is nature which herself decides on the way and manner of the cure, and she never errs, whilst the best physicians are mistaken at times; and as it is the substance of the cure to draw 76 ON WATER CURES. the diseased matter towards the skin, and to lead it off from the nobler although weakened and most suffering parts, it happens in most cases that nature avails herself of the extremities for depositing and discharging those matters, and not seldom covers them in the course of the cure with from fifty to a hundred and fifty furuncles and abscesses. Inconvenient as this may be, it is connected with no danger, and may be borne the more cheerfully, as this very appearance of numerous abscesses indicates a fortunate cure. With such patients as suffer from a weakened stom- ach, or nervous weakness, or in general from some malady in which the juices are not corrupted, and where it requires merely to give energy to the relaxed fibres and activity to the skin, those ulcers and eruptions do not appear at all, or only in small quantity. Neither do they appear in those subjects whose disease is founded in vitiated humors, but whose vital power is not sufficient to expel the mat- ter to the skin; they may reckon upon a long duration of their cure, if not to despair of success. A gentle perspi- ration, moderate bathing or mere washing, drinking of nothing but cold water, and abstaining from all sharp, fat and sour victuals, are the best means for assuaging at least their sufferings. That by sweating a vast amount of hurtful matters are removed, needs hardly to be told; but together with them many good juices are also withdrawn from the body, that must be restored. Hence the immense appetite of most of the bathing guests in Grafenberg, heightened by the drinking of cold water, and cold eating, as well as by the exercise in free air and the continual contact with water. DIET FOR WATER CURES. 77 This frequent exchange of juices cannot but essentially contribute towards the removal of the malady, and the advance of that total regeneration of the body which the patients perceive in themselves after the termination of cure. Perspiration also essentially promotes the healthy ac- tion of the skin, and is particularly serviceable for exciting the same before bath, whereby the impression of the bath is increased. Since however the body has not been forced into perspiration by violent exercise, nor by any internally exciting means, it feels neither irritated nor weakened, nei- ther is there any disavantage to be feared from the quick transition into cold from warmth; which is proved by the example of hundreds of patients, and among them of many weakly women and children, even of persons suffer- ing in their lungs and very old people. Among the persons who have but little to hope from the treatment, "and whom Priessnitz never receives, are to be numbered those epileptics, in whom the evil has pro- ceeded to such a degree as to make them lose their con- sciousness, the consumptive in the last degree, and such as have been paralytic for years from apoplexy. In almost every other chronic disease the entire cure, or at least a mitigation, is to be expected, and in no case is any dan- ger to be apprehended. With regard to the application of the cure itself, we have to consider severally: Diet, sweating, and the exter- nal and internal application of cold water. 78 ON WATER CURES. DIET. We have already pointed out the kind of food, bever- age and spices which Priessnitz excludes from the diet of his patients on account of their stimulant properties. The food allowed to the patients is served in great part cold. Convinced that hot dishes weaken the or- gans of digestion, he even forbids soup to persons with a poor stomach. Cold water is the only drink at table. There is no reason for the prohibition of all drinking during dinner whilst every one feels well by its use, and nature itself shows the desire for it. If you would convince yourselves that cold water and cold food are not injurious, you need only visit Grrefenberg, and see there all the guests and the children quench their thirst with quite fresh water without the least inconvenience resulting from it. You will see there a table-society merrier than anywhere else, and the sick digesting wonderfully, and without ever feeling in- clination to sleep after dinner. This practice of drinking plenty of cold water at meals proves particularly useful to persons subject to congestions of blood towards the head. Shall we sleep or walk after dinner? This it yet one of the disputed questions. Priessnitz advises a little walk in the shade when it is hot, and the easy feeling of those who follow his advice, speaks in his favor. The spices imported from the far South, such as pep. per, cloves, cinnamon, and others of the same nature, DIET. 79 cannot but injure the strongest health, on account of their stimulating qualities: hence they are prohibited during the treatment. They are a gift of nature to the East Indians and their neighbors, whose bodies, enervated by the burning clime, feel the want of stimulant substan- ces. In our climes, where the air is more compressed and rich in oxygen, predisposing to inflammatory diseas- es, such stimulants can only increase this predisposition. Let us make use, says Priessnitz, of the seasonings which nature has presented to us. and leave the foreigners those exotics. Our vegetables, subject to the same influences as we ourselves, ought on that account alone to be more suit- able for us: he also permits the moderated use of cummin, &c. You find on his table horse-radish with the beef; he even allows mustard to persons who are not suffering from tetters, gout or similar evils. Although there are also served pickled cucumbers and salad, few only touch them, particularly none with acrid humors. If such sub- stances are not injurious in Grafenberg, it is to be attribut- ed to abundant sweating, to the frequent baths, to the freedom from labor and cares, and to the great quantity of water that is drunk. The dishes which are most commonly found on Priess- nitz's table are soup, boiled beef with horse-radish, or with some kind of sauce, veal, mutton, pork, venison, ducks and chickens, with which are served prunes and potatoes; then come divers pottages, flour dishes of every description, and vegetables, but always in less abun- dance than meat; fish and wild fowl are seldom met with. Breakfast and dinner consist of rye-bread, butter 80 ON WATER CURES. and milk, both the latter of the first quality. Hypochon- driac persons sometimes, according to their turns of appe- tite, abuse the abundance before them; 6uch patients would do well to drink abundance of water during dinner, which will not leave room in the stomach for an exces- sive quantity of food. Salt meat and fish, as well as cheese, are among the things forbidden. In general a simple but strengthening diet will benefit the body in all states better; exquisite dishes and dainties inviting always to eat too much. Exercise in the open air cannot but promote the suc- cess of the cure ; it ought to be a rule to take a walk at least twice a day, and each time for an hour. In bad weather walking may be supplied by some other exercise, as sawing or cutting of wood. Exercise replaces, by the warmth it produces, the caloric lost by the drinking of so much cold water. Never try to supply this warmth by sitting down to the fire; this would be in direct op- position with the spirit of the treatment. We should equally avoid passing abruptly from cold to warmth ; in particular after a bath or douche. Nor ought the clothing be too warm ; for then it would be as injurious as warm stoves, preventing the movement and circula- tion of the humors : woollen underdress upon the skin is objectionable; after having used the cure for only one week, persons ever so accustomed to it may quit it with safety. A linen shirt will be found sufficient for any person who washes his body every day with cold water, and will neither irritate nor weaken the skin. The same is the case with beds; a hair mattress and a quilt suffice. f SWEATING. 81 Neither ought it to be forgotten to admit every day fresh air into the room by opening the windows. Persons sub- ject to congestions towards the head cannot sleep in a room too cold. SWEATING, Is a proceeding rather disagreeable in the beginning of the cure, which by habit is soon rendered easy. The constrained attitude which is required, together with the irritation by which it is preceded, make it appear intoler- able. As soon as the perspiration has once found its way you feel easier, and the alleviation is increased by the opening of the windows and drinking of water. The chief advantage of the proceeding invented by Priessnitz consists" herein, that it does not violently and interiorly stimulate the vascular system like other sudo- rific means, and is accordingly not so weakening. It leaves the organs of respiration in perfect tranquillity, which by vapor baths are so much excited ; the slight irritation which might arise is calmed by the fresh air, whilst the system of the blood is refreshed by cold water drunk from time to time. Thus every congestion of blood towards the lungs and the head is prevented. So many advantages united give to this sudorific method such an efficacy and safety, that it can be ap- plied daily for the space of months and evep years, with- out ever producing weakness, and affords the possibil- ity of removing, by its continued influence, the most in- veterate diseased matters. It ought in wet clothes is the best remedy. TETANUS. 127 TETANUS, LOCK-JAW. ■ After some attacks of cholera a young theologian in Graefenberg was taken with the above. Priessnitz, unacquainted with the treatment of this malady, sent for one of the physicians of Freywaldau, who applied blisters of mustard to several parts of his body, which remained without impression upon the skin. ' The patient's state became every moment worse; breathing stopped almost entirely, his jaws were so firmly locked up with cramp that nothing at all could be introduced. The physician de- clared him lost, and offered all his property for a bet, against that of Priessnitz, who expressed yet some hope. Priessnitz answered nobly: "I bet not upon human life;" he renewed however his attempts, the physician beincr unable to advise any thing more. He had the patient rubbed for two hours in the seat-bath with cold water, had him brought to bed for as long time, rubbed him there too with cold water, and continued so by turns through the whole night until the sick man began breathing a little ; then he allowed him some longer re- pose. The following day the patient opened his eyes, and was even able to stand upright for a few moments in the cold tub where he had been brought, yet were his perceptions still so absent, that he recognized nobody. During his stay in the tub he was held upright, was douched by means of a little fire-engine, and carried back to his bed, where after some hours he recovered his consciousness. After three days he was able to walk, and on the fourth might be considered 128 ON WrATER CURES. as recovered, just as his mother, whom the above doctor had found means to inform of his decease, arrived to take care of his relics. Light spasms in single parts, in the head, in the feet, are quickly removed by sound rubbings of the extremi- ties with cold water, as I had several times the opportu- nity to witness in Gra'fenberg. Once an acquaintance of mine having remained too long in the cool tub, exposing his head all the while-to the descending jet of the douche for the expulsion of his congestions, was suddenly seized with cramp in the occiput and a stiffness of the whole body, which bereaved him of all motion. Priessnitz was sent for, who very quietly ordered him to be rubbed a little, and half an hour later he was able to go to his dinner. CONGESTIONS OF BLOOD, In particular towards the head, appear frequently and mostly after dinner, after the enjoyment of warm and heating beverage, mental excitements,.&c. Persons disposed to them, will do well to abstain from all heating and exciting victuals and beverages, to eat only moderately, toidrink much water at dinner, to take some exercise before and after it, unless the weather be too hot. Besides this they ought to take care not to give themselves up to for a long time to mental exertion, to avoid all excitement of the mind or body ; in particu- lar after dinner the mind ought to rest. Cold water ought to be applied in the form of clysters, overpour- ings and sitting-baths of at least an hour's duration HEAD-ACHE. TIC DOULOUREUX. 129 with contemporary fomentations on the head, and to sweat slightly for thinning the blood. The local application of cold water should be strong, but transient, and rather often repeated in order to contract the widened and relax- ed blood-vessels, and to strengthen the weakened parts. A single foot-bath is often sufficient to relieve the head, perhaps connected with a fomentation. Too much sweating might increase the pressure of blood towards the head. HEAD-ACHE, When nervous or rheumatic, yields generally af- ter a foot-bath, using at the same time fomentations around the head, and exercising afterwards in a cold room A frequent return of the pain might require su- dation and cold ablutions. Sweating by means of wet sheets assuages the pain far more than that in mere covers. -, I have seen in Graefenberg and other places furious head-aches, having lasted for a whole day, removed by a single foot-bath within one hour. It is to be recom- mended to drink at the same time a great deal of water. TIC DOULOUREUX, One of the maladies which brings those subjected to it to despair, is ascribed by many physicians to an ex- cessive discord and irritability of the nerves, by others to an acidity in the humors, which throwing itself upon 9 130 ON WATER CURES. the nerves produces those fearful pains. I am of opinion that the first always takes place in the beginning, and that by it the nerves are rendered so sensitive, that they cannot bear the least impression, as change of tempera- ture, &c. As long as the evil is more to be sought for in the humors in general the water-cure offers a certain hope of entire restoration; but when it has once be- come purely nervous, water might prove as inefficient as any other means for an entire cure, although it might afford alleviation. Having suffered myself, for nearly three years, under this dreadful pain, and having had, during the eight months when I used the water cure, but one attack; and having had occasion to observe the same in others, I feel competent to judge of the usefulness of medical aid in this case. I advise every unfortunate sufferer of this kind to stick exclusively to the water, cure, and shall, in the following chapter on the gout and rheumatism, explain, according to my best experience, the manner in which tic douloureux is to be treated. GOUT AND RHEUMATISM. It bears different names, according as it has its seat more in the joints, in the head, in the hands, in the knees, or in the feet. It is called arthritis, tic douloureux, chira- gra, gonagra, podagra. It consists in a subtle fugitive acidity—some say phosphorate of kali, acid of urine— which acid is conducted by the blood into all parts of the body, and produces immense pains by affecting the GOUT. RHEUMATISM. 131 nerves. In course of time it enters the solid parts of the juices, and is deposited in the joints or muscles; where, when excited, it manifests its destructive effects. The body seems then to have received a general disposition for producing the arthritic matter, and to prepare all the juices in a spoiled condition. The concrements of those depositions are calcareous, as appears from the sedi- ments of the urine, as well as from the lime, &c, de- posited in the lines of the hand after strong sudations, and from the secretions of the abscesses which follow the cure, and by which nature endeavors to throw out the arthritic matter. Gout arises from immoderate exertion of the mental or bodily faculties, from colds taken, anger, sorrow and grief, from the previous use of mercury, from living on bad victuals, from immoderate eating and drinking, and most frequently from habitual drinking of strong beer and wines. The latter in particular is generally acknow- ledged, as gouty persons are usually hard drinkers, and remain such to their end. Yet there are physicians enough that injudiciously advise to take daily a glass for keeping the gout out of the stomach. Of the absurdity of taking medicines in the gout I have had no doubt, since I have been acquainted with the water cure. They help nothing, even when produ- cing a little passing alleviation, and rather are injurious, since, consisting for the greater part in emetics and purga- tives, they weaken the organs of digestion, and thereby become a new cause towards producing bad juices. The only means for its cure is profuse sweating and cold wa^ 132 ON WATER CURES. ter. But sweating produced by warm baths, vapor baths, and by interior means, weakens too much, and few constitutions endure it for a long time. The warm water cure,—by Cadet de Veaux,—in which the whole body, by frequent bathings and drinking of cold water, becomes as if dissolved, and all its fluids are washed out, ruins likewise, by its powerful agency, the best constitu- tions, and often leaves consequences behind far worse than the gout itself. On the other hand, the method of Priessnitz unites all the advantages of a thorough cure, purifying the juices, with the invigoration and harden- ing of the whole system, and operates with the greater security, as it removes at the same time the causes of the disease, the medicines yet remaining in the body, bad digestion, &c. The more inveterate indeed the evil is, the longer and more energetically, with the greater con- sistency and perseverance this cure will have to be ap- plied. Persons that never have used medicine will soon be free from their gout, however grievously it shows it- self. Such cases were radically cured by Priessnitz in the short space of eight to ten weeks; probably owing to the unweakened power of digestion, or to the absence of all noxious medical stuffs and their bad effects. Cer- tainly the preservation and delicate treatment of the powers of digestion is of much greater importance in this disease—and probably in all states of disease and health—than is generally believed ; and the physicians would not be so liberal with their vomitives and lax- atives, with their mercury, and even with their bitter waters, and mineral waters of any description, if they GOUT. RHEUMATISM. 133 could see all the mischief they do by them. But par- tiality for their system and blind obedience to author- ities, prevent them from earnest and unprejudiced con- siderations and the examination of new methods, unless proceeding from a doctor's mouth. In spite of signs and wonders, the ear is shut to truth, the water cure is called a fashionable humbug, and the beaten track is pursued, regardless whether the patients follow on their crutches, with every expression of pain, or fall on the way. The system wants it, and pays better than rational help, by which patients, without absolution from the apothe- cary, can live in peace and happiness, and die at last without gout or rheumatism. Go to Graefenberg and convince yourselves. For curing the gout it is necessary to apply the water cure to its whole extent, and to act first upon the whole body, before the suffering parts are attended to particularly. In the first place the great irritability of the skin, which occasions so easily attacks of pain, is to be removed by sweating and bathing, assisted by exercise in the open air. The thick woollen underdress, which arthritic per- sons usually wear, is by degrees laid off, and to their amazement, without any disadvantage, in summer as early as the fourth or fifth day from the beginning of the cure, in winter a little later ; there may be worn a light woollen jacket over the shirt, but never upon the bare skin. Unless the patient be too weak, he now proceeds to the use of the douche, the first time douching the whole body equally only for a few minutes ; when not too much affected by it, he increases the duration of the 134 ON WATER CURES. process, directing the jet upon the painful places, in order to stir up the stuff settled there. Strong sudations are of signal importance for the gouty, particularly when they have medicinal substances in their bodies. During sweating they wear swathings round the diseased parts, as well as during the night, and even in the daytime if practicable. These fomentations are to warm and excite the system. After four or five weeks of continued treat- ment a crisis takes place with most patients, consisting in eruptions and abscesses, which obliges to greater caution. The douches now applied are shorter and weaker; when there is no strength for enduring a stronger crisis, the stay in the bathing tub is shortened, as likewise the su- dations, when there are at the same time congestions towards the head. And on the other hand, seat-baths and foot-baths are used for the purpose of leading off; and in case of great excitement wet sheets are re- sorted to, and the tub-bath may be supplied by mere washings. Nevertheless the treatment is to be continued regularly, remitting only in danger of too great excite- ment. In very bad cases, wet sheets, changed at times, and applied during the greater part of the night and of the day, assisted by seat-baths, will soon bring matters right. Frequent drinking is of chief importance for the gouty, as it attenuates the humors and assists evap- oration. Exercise is equally desirable. If, however, the patient cannot walk, nor can go to the expense of riding in a carriage or on horseback, the latter of which would be by far preferable, this ought not to de- GOUT. RHEUMATISM. 135 ter him from the copious drinking of cold water. I have above adduced a case, wh^re an inveterate arthritis of the head was cured by mere frequent potations of water and by ablutions, whilst the patient could enjoy but little exercise. The cases in which the gout is exclusively confined to single parts, without manifesting itself in the whole body, are comparatively seldom. When it is seated principally in the superior parts, as the head, the spine, the hips, (coxalgia.) you should endeavor to lead it downwards by frequent foot-baths, whilst at the same time continued fomentations at the suffering parts are to dissolve the arthritic matter. The foot-baths of at least an hour's duration must be taken every day. When the gout has attacked the feet, cold foot-baths are often of a very quick and decisive effect. The sister of one of my friends in the vicinity of Teplitz had suffered for a long time with dreadful arthritic pains in the joints of her feet. Frequent baths in Teplitz, the use of medi- cines, as well as any othe'r remedy resorted to. proved equally useless. The evil increased to such a degree as to deprive her of the use of her limbs. A very violent attack brought her to the idea of trying cold water; and the very first foot-bath, taken till above the ankles, re- stored to her the power of walking. Encouraged by the success of this first attempt, she repeated it, and was in a short time perfectly liberated from her arthritic pains, which had not returned when I saw her two years after- wards, nor had left the least trace behind them. When the gout has settled in the hips, seat-baths 136 ON WATER CURES. seem to increase the evil, as if they attracted still more arthritic matter towards the suffering parts. No doubt a continued use of them Avould prove of final success, since it is probably the decomposition of the noxious mat- ter by means of the bath, that increases the pains. Af- ter foot-baths the pains in the hips are surprisingly di- minished. Besides the exciting fomentations to be constantly worn round the diseased parts, it is of great importance to apply energetic douches to them, and in bathing to rub them well with cold water, also during the sudations under covers to do this with dry hands or rags. Only when the head is the seat of the arthritic disease care is to be taken not to let the head be struck by the jet of the douche, since by exciting too much matter at once, the immense pains caused thereby should operate de- structively upon the whole system. Let the douche play upon the other parts of the body, and cold fomentations be applied during night-time, often also during the day round the head, particularly round the temples, as the parts suffering most; try to lead off by daily foot-baths and seat-baths, and let not the sudations be too long con- tinued. In a real attack of the head-gout, or tic douloureux, the pouring of abundance of water over the head, or the application of the drizzling bath for a quarter of an hour, has often proved sufficient. In violent attacks that will not yield to this means, it is necessary to take a long seat-bath of one to two hours, to drink plenty of water, and to take a subsequent foot-bath, and it will generally GOUT. RHEUMATISM. 137 afford relief. If the pains should merely be diminished, without entire relief, the patient will do well to exercise in a cold room, wearing a cold fomentation round his head, as was used already during the seat-bath, and to drink cold water plentifully, by which the pains will be removed in the course of two to three hours. If, in spite of the great exhaustion, sleeplessness should continue, a warm foot-bath of about 35 or 36° Reaumur would com- plete the entire removal of the pain, and restore sleep. Although this is against the precepts of Priessnitz, who never makes use of warm water, I can recommend its usefulness in this case from my own experience, and I do not believe that a single warm foot-bath can produce a lasting disadvantage, when in the following days the feet are strengthened again by cold baths. After the pains have been conquered, it is necessary to keep quiet for some days, passing most of the time in bed, without sudation, only in gentle transpiration, and taking alternately foot-baths and seat-baths, and fre- quently changing the fomentations round the face. Af- ter each bath, exercise ought to be taken in a cold room, with the head uncovered save the fomentation, but the rest of the body warmly dressed. If it seems to be safe, a gentle sudation may be tried, but instead of having it followed by a dangerous bath in the cold tub, mere ablutions will be sufficient, after which immediately a seat-bath, and after this a short foot-bath may be taken. This is the only treatment known to me for a speedy re- moval of that fearful tic douloureux that often has brought me to despair. It certainly requires some firmness of 138 ON WATER CURES. the will to undertake its application when one is so fe- verishly excited; but the pains make one daring, and the quicker you proceed to arrosions and seat-baths, the quicker the attack will pass by, nay, it is often sup- pressed in its beginning. Besides you have the advan- tage that you can already, the next day, or even imme- diately after the cure, expose yourselves to the cold air without fear of any relapse, which certainly is not the case in what is called the warm treatment. In the intervals between the attacks it might be ad- visable to many of the sufferers with head-gout, to use head-baths in order to stir up and remove the stuffsettled in the head, which is effected usually by means of an ab- scess, that will open in the ear. In this case the bathings of the head are not interrupted, but they are to be in- creased in spite of the pain caused by the abscess ; yet there ought to be worn constantly a wet rag in the ear, and a fomentation on the pained side of the head. As soon as the abscess opens, an amelioration of the case will take place. I should not advise, however, the head- baths in the beginning of the cure, but first when by a general operation upon the whole body this has been considerably purified, and a too great excitement in the noblest part is no longer to be feared. The pains occa- sioned by the abscesses from head-baths are of a kind quite different from the usual pains in the face; they visit not so much the teeth and temples, are more stinging than tearing, and press more towards the ear; neither are they so penetrating, although they may prevent sleep during several nights. The cracking that in tic dou- INFLAMMATION OF THE EYES. 139 loureux takes place in the teeth is perceived here quite audibly near the ear, but is not, "as the former, a pre- cursor of renewed torments. It is obvious that all who suffer from arthritis in the head, ought during the cure carefully to avoid mental exertion, anger, &c, and to abstain from wine, coffee, and in short every thing of an exciting nature; the ne- glect of which precaution has often proved very danger- ous for the patients. It may be taken as a rule, that the more one sweats, the less he ought to work, since strong sudations in themselves produce excitement; so that in order to feel sometimes easier during the cure, it suffices to omit sweating for a day. If, after all, a patient of this kind using the cure should find time hang heavily on him, he may console himself with the conviction, that in any other way this would be still more the case, and with the recollection of the generally adopted belief, that gout is incurable. Not less obstinate than gout is rheumatism, appa- rently of the same nature. The treatment is the same : profuse sweating, douche to the affected places, and fo- mentations. INFLAMMATIONS OF THE EYES, Are mostly of a rheumatic nature, and find their cure in Graefenberg like all distempers of the rheumatic kind, as the preceding chapter shows. I never have witnessed any acute, but several chronic cases. The cure is the same as that of all rheumatic suffer- 140 ON WATER CURES. ings in the head, when in particular long head-baths and also eye-baths are taken. Sometimes Priessnitz has the douche applied to the head, and even to the eyes, in which latter case, however, the jet of the douche is re- ceived in the folded hands, and only the water rebound- ing from them hits the eyes. A perfect recovery from this disease has never oc- curred during my abode ; but Priessnitz has assured me that all that were then sick with inflammation of the eyes in Graefenberg would be restored if they continued the cure, as experience had shown to him in a hundred other cases. PAINS IN THE EYES, WEAKNESS OF THE EYES, Are treated both with baths of the hind-head and with wet rags tied upon the eyes, particularly during the night. If necessary, the patient ought also to sweat. The wet rags are also very advantageous in case of heat in the eyes. PAINS IN THE EARS. For this, wet rags are put into the ears and a fo- mentation placed round the head. If the pains are ob- stinate the patient ought to sweat every day once or twice and take baths. TOOTH-ACHE. Take some tempered water in your mouth, dip your fingers into water quite cold, and rub your face there- TOOTH-ACHE. SORE THROAT. 141 with about your jaws, temples and behind the ears, and this without interruption until the rubbed places be- come burning hot. As soon as the fingers begin to be- come dry, they are dipped anew. Also, the gums them- selves may be rubbed until they bleed. If all this should not avail, take a very shallow cold foot-bath, and after this some exercise. In all the cases which I witnessed this treatment never has missed its object. In one case the tooth-ache and the swollen face gave way after two hours rubbing. In most cases half an hour is sufficient. PAINS OF THE THROAT, Are removed by sweating, cold fomentations round the throat and gargling, in which the water is kept for a long time in the mouth. INFLAMMATION OF THE THROAT, Occurred several times during my stay in Graefenberg. It was treated with fomentations of very cold water, gar- gling, foot-baths and strong sudations in wet sheets. One patient, who in a previous inflammation of the throat had been treated with mercury, was salivated anew. The water ought to be very cold, must be often changed, and at the same time the general feverish excitement is to be assuaged by wet sheets. In a very violent and ad- vanced state of the malady, however, a complete recovery is to be expected from the water-cure as little as from other remedies. 142 ON WATER CURES. Was several times successfully treated by Priessnitz, in the same manner as inflammation of the throat. PAINS OF THE CHEST. When they are rheumatic, they are cured in the way indicated for the gout and for rheumatism. INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNG3, Arises from a congestion of blood in the lungs, pro- ducing a stoppage of the mass of blood in these, and by degrees in the whole body. The treatment of such an inflammation of the lungs, as well as of any other inflam- mation, must endeavor to cool the whole mass of blood and to dissolve the obstruction in the suffering part. Now this object would not be attained, if you would let the cold water operate directly upon the parts in question, since the contraction of the vessels produced by cold, would only increase the obstruction, and by the reaction ensu- ing, the inflammation would be increased. An entire bath, on the other hand, would drive the blood still more into the lungs, by the compression of the smaller vessels through cold. Seat-baths, also, here afford the best expedient. They cool the mass of the blood and produce reaction in a less noble part situated more below by which the blood is led off from above. The water for this purpose is not taken entirely cold, but often changed INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. 143 say every half hour, to maintain the temperature, and the patient remains in it until the fever produced by the water, that manifests itself by trembling and chattering of the teeth, is over. The cooling and dissolving of the blood in the chest is assisted by tight fomentations, re- newed from time to time. The remainder of the body is covered, so that the circulation of blood may be more unimpeded. For the same purpose, the extremities are rubbed during the bath with cold water, using the bare hands for it, and dipping them as often into the water, as they begin to get dry. As soon as the hands and feet become warm, you have a sign, that the blood accumulated in the lungs has again begun to circulate, which is the more facili- tated by this treatment, as the mass of blood after having been cooled, occupies a much smaller space and can move the more readily. The patient is then put in a bed to repose. It is best to wrap him also here in a wet sheet, in order to produce a general irritation upon the skin, which will assist the circulation of the blood still more, whilst a particular fomentation is laid upon the chest for the purpose of strengthening the lungs. The wet swathings are to be changed according to circum- stances, and in case of need the seat-baths maybe re- peated. At every change of the sheets, the patient ought to be washed with tempered water, and should take dur- ing the whole cure frequent but small potions of water not entirely cold. The excellency of this treatment is obvious ; nor has Priessnitz ever applied it without the best success, and £, 144 ON WATER CURES. the cure of such cases has always been completed in a very few days. STINGS IN THE SIDE, Require the same treatment as the preceding case. In light cases, foot-baths and fomentations around the ribs are sufficient. INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. Whether it be derived from interior causes, or from external lesions, it is treated entirely like inflammation of the lungs, with this only difference, that the fomenta- tions are applied to the head, and that the wet swathings are changed much more frequently, in many cases every five or six minutes. Also, the seat-baths should more frequently alternate with the fomentations, if the state should get worse. A remarkable instance of the efficacy of this method was exhibited in the case of a potter in Freyvvaldau, whose skull had been fractured by a fall from a rock. In- flammation of the brain was the immediate consequence, and he was already given up by the physicians, when Priessnitz. accompanied by Dr. Harder from St. Peters- burgh, visited the dying man. Whilst, in the borough, the funeral bell was already rung for the poor potter, a^nd the physician made ready his instruments for the post mortem dissection, fixed upon the next morning his two guardian angels combatted against the inflammation ROSE, ERYSIPELAS. 145 with so much success, that the patient already on the next day recovered his senses, and was in a short time restored to entire health by Priessnitz. THE ROSE, ERYSIPELAS, Is either the consequence of an external impression upon the skin, or the manifestation of an internal disease, by which nature endeavors to eject the injurious stuffs through the skin. On that account it is dangerous to at- tempt its speedy removal by a mere local application of cold water, since then the noxious matters would be thrown back upon nobler parts. For this reason any thing cold and wet has been carefully avoided in this disease by all physicians, and it has always been treated by dry applications, without being able thereby to pre- vent in all cases the spreading of the inflammation and the danger of its becoming inveterate. Observing, on the other hand, the proper precautions, water may be applied in the rose without any disadvantage, and proves the safest and quickest remedy. Only the diseased place is never to be treated alone, but the whole body. The best method is to sweat in wet sheets, to which ought to succeed ablutions with lukewarm water. The sick part is to be covered particularly and constantly with a tight fomentation.—This treatment is safer and has not the danger of a repression of the matter upon other and in- terior parts, to which the cold affusions with water are exposed, as advised by many hydropathic physicians. 10 146 ON WATER CURES. SCARLATINA, MEASLES, SMALL-POX, Are treated most efficaciously, and wifhout the least danger, with wet sheets, which may be applied as soon as the fever shows itself, and in which the patient should pass the greatest part of the day and of the night. In proportion to the strength of the fever they are changed more frequently, and the patient is after each sudation washed with tempered water (about 10° Reaumur). This proceeding will not suffer the fever-heat to attain to that high degree, which it will infallibly reach in any other dry treatment. Nor are the dreary conse- quences of these diseases, in particular for adults, to be feared, neither with these nor with children after the ap- plication of wet swathings. Dr. Reuss and several other physicians, well deserv- ing about hydiatry, propose cold arrosions. I think them, however, more hazardous, where there is any danger to be feared, than the wet sheets, from which no cold or de- ficiency of reaction is to be feared, since the latter appears even in the weakest constitutions immediately after being packed in, and produces a strong evaporation or sweat. There is, after all, no means that would so suddenly and vigorously put a stop to the fever, and with so much cer- tainty prevent its destructive effects. I would lay this advice, as a duty never to be neglected, to the heart of all parents whose children are taken with any of these diseases, and charge the conscience of all the physicians so blindly prejudiced against the water cure, with the melancho'y results of their obstinacy, such as we see SCARLATINA. SMALL-POX. 147 them so often in consequence of the small-pox and scar- latina. Since my return from Graefenberg, I have treated, with the happiest success in my own family, one case of the small-pox in a grown person, and two cases of scar- latina in children, My maid-servant, twenty years of age, 'was taken with the small-pox. As I did not know the cause of the evil, and she could not be prevailed upon to take medicine, I proposed to her, in order to combat the fever, to suffer herself to be wrapped in wet sheets, to which she agreed. As she soon began to perspire, instead of changing the swathing, I let her lie wrapped up for seven or eight hours, when I ordered her to be washed with tempered water. Already after this first sudation she was as if sown over with red and raised spots. After my repeating the proceeding the next day the small pus- tules showed themselves almost fully developed. But now I was interrupted by the interference of her parents, who feared the most fatal consequences from the cold swathings, and took her to their home. After about twelve days or a fortnight, she returned to us fully re- covered, having used no other remedy at home but keep- ing herself warm, and drinking cold water. The small- pox had not left any traces. Both cases of scarlatina took place with my own children, boys, the one of eight the other of five years and a half. As soon as I was convinced that it was scar- latina, I had the oldest wrapped up, and had cold water poured over the other children. This was repeated twice 14S ON WATER CURES. every day. The second boy, perhaps already infected, began likewise, three days after the first, to vomit, and to complain of his throat. As he remained cheerful on the whole, I did not put him in swathings, but simply con- tinued to pour him over with wrater. The fever of nei- ther was violent, and their state gave me not the least concern. My wife, however, suffered herself to be talked into fear, so as to omit the swathing of the elder, sicker boy for full twenty-four hours, whereupon the fever rose rapidly, and the pains in his whole body increased to such a degree as to render him perfectly motionless. A vio- lent pain in his head in particular, with a feeling as if there was water, gave the apprehension of an inflamma- tion of the brain. I now made use of seat-baths of tempered water, had the patient wrapped up again into wet sheets after the seat-bath, changed his swathings after half an hour, and then let him lie, after he had fallen asleep, till he awoke after two hours. This sleep was to me a proof of the usefulness of the treatment, and en- couraged me, in spite of his lamentations and pains, to re- peat seat-baths and swathings. As he became more and more quiet, I ventured towards morning to let him lie dry in his bed for some hours, when he fell into a soft sleep. The day following he was sprightly, and out of all danger. Only the pains in his hind-head returned, on which account I repeated-the swathing and seat-baths everyday twice for three or four days in continuance. Aiterwards I omitted the seat-baths. On the tenth day from the beginning of the disease the skin on his whole body peeled off, and except a general slight ITCH. TETTERS. 149 feeling of weakness, I could consider the boy recov- ered. The younger boy complained only for two days of pains in his throat and his head; the rest of the time he was quite sprightly and merry, enjoying the whole time a good appetite, whilst this was entirely lost for several days with the sickly elder one. For several days longer I continued with the elder boy, every day sweating once in wet sheets, and for the sake of precaution I did the same also with the smaller brother. In the third week from the beginning of the disease I ventured to let them both go out at noon in fine but pretty cold weather—the 26th of March—after having them both bathed in cold wa- ter for a few days previous every morning and evening, not to expose their tender new skin too abruptly. This early exposure, however, to the open air, has been with- out any ill consequences, and both enjoy now perfect health. ITCH, TETTERS. These diseases of the skin are cured most effectually by sweating in wet sheets. The first of them easily yields to this treatment; not so the second, which re- quires a long and energetic cure. The douche in par- ticular proves very useful to persons suffering with tet- ters, by stirring up the concealed malignant matter, and carrying it towards the skin. The cure becomes most tedious and difficult with such persons who, by a perverse treatment, had their tetters thrown back upon interior 150 ON WATER CURES. parts, as the stomach, spine, &c. They then rival the gout in tenacity, and it often requires several months, ere, by means of the douche, sweating and bathing, they can be expelled again to the skin. But this treatment, when persevered in, will not fail to complete their cer- tain cure. After the tetters have reappeared on the skin, they are mostly of a very malignant character, and must constantly be covered with fomentations. That persons suffering from tetters should, as much as the gouty, abstain from spices and acids, deserves to be mentioned especially, although these prohibitions are already contained in the general diet for the water-cure. SCROFULA, RICKETS (RACHITIS). Both are to be cured by a very copious use of cold water. If the patient has already passed the infantile years, the consequences of the rickets, curvatures of the bones, &c, cannot indeed be entirely removed; yet a wa- ter cure will always prove useful. The douche is of signal importance in the cure, as well as copious per- spiration. Children ought to be made to sweat every day in wet sheets, and take a-couple of cold baths. At the same time the joints, or the swollen glands ought to be well rubbed and to be covered with exciting fomenta- tions. If the glands in the nose or on the neck are swollen, they ought to snuff in cold water, and garble. Rickety persons will do well often to bathe in a river exposing themselves to the torrent, or to the fall of the i RICKETS. INFLUENZA. 151 water near a mill, in want of a douche. The strictest diet must be observed in this cure. SWOLLEN GLAND9, Are treated in the same way. Hooping-cough and several other diseases of children are to be treated by sweating in wet sheets. Even for quite small infants there is nothing better against fever- ish excitement and restlessness than swathing into wet sheets. You must not expect, however, that hooping- cough will be removed in the first days. It continues often for weeks. The children affected with it will have to drink a great deal of tempered water, and partake only of light food. The water for drinking may be kept in corked bottles in the room for half an hour before it is used. INFLUENZA, CATARRH, SEVERE COLD, Can easily be removed by sweating in wet sheets, washing with tempered water, and by perspiration in the bed or upon the sofa. At the same time a great deal of water is to be drunk, much eating and too cold air are to be avoided. In case of a great heat in the head dur- ing the influenza (or grippe), a seat-bath of tempered water may be taken, and a fomentation be applied to the head. You will escape, in this way, the bad conse- quences of this disease, and will keep up against it. Experience has shown wet swathings round the throat to 152 ON WATER CURES. be disadvantageous; it is better to wear a piece of flan- nel round the neck, treating at the same time the whole body with wet swathings. I might adduce plenty of examples, in which persons obeying the above advice to apply cold water and to abstain from medicines and tea, did well beyond expecta- tion, whilst in not one single case has that treatment proved ineffectual or injurious. INFLAMMATORY FEVER, NERVOUS FEVER, TYPHUS. These, as well as any other kind of acute fevers, whatever name they may have, find their certain remedy in the application of wet sheets and seat-baths, fre- quently changed and numerous in measure as the fever increases. Many physicians dispute the possibility of curing a typhus fever by means of water. We can op- pose to them, if doctors they must have for their author- ity, the names of Currie, Reuss, Mylius, Weight, who have restored to health hundreds of typhus patients by the mere use of water. Instead of any general description of the proceeding, I will report here two cases that occurred during my stay in Graefenberg, together with the method according to which they were treated by'Priessnitz. I was myself taken with a burning fever a few days after my arrival. A foot-bath, followed by a seat-bath of half an hour, proved ineffectual to assuage the heat and pains in my head; on the contrary, the fever rose more and more. A friend of mine finding me stretched FEVER, TYPHUS. 153 on my bed, and being frightened at my glowing face, went immediately for Priessnitz. He came at nine o'clock in the evening, and ordered me to be wrapped immediately in a wet sheet, this was exchanged for another, after half an hour, and I remained so for more than an hour, during which I enjoyed some sleep, ac- cording to Priessnitz's prediction. I was now put on the tub of a seat-bath, washed and swathed anew,— Soon I began to perspire, and felt myself greatly alle- viated. I slept till three o'clock in the morning, when, after a general ablution, I was packed in anew, and went then all asweat into the cold tub, where I staid but for a moment. From thence I dressed immediately and took a walk, and by eight o'clock I could sit down quite recovered and without any trace of fever to the breakfast table. I have applied subsequently this treatment in several cases of sick children, and always with equal success. When, as is often the case, the fever is more obstinate and prolonged, the cure has to be repeated until the cause of it is removed. I must yet observe that I ex- perienced no relapse, although at dinner, when a head- ache hardly permitted me to open my eyes, and a pain- ful pressure in my thighs made me expect a return of the fever, I ate meat and cakes to the full, as if to try how far the power of Priessnitz would reach. My as- tonishment at the impunity of my imprudence was shared by others in a still higher degree, when I reported to them how a few months previously I was attacked by a similar fever produced by the water cure, while at 154 ON WATER CURES. home, and remained sick for more than two months, under the usual medical treatment. Every body knows the duration of a typhus fever, and its pernicious effects; how surprising, then, must it ap- pear, to see its cure by water limited to not many days, without any remaining bad consequences, provided the water be applied instantly, without " giving the enemy time to pass the Rhine," to use Priessnitz's own words. Mr. H., of B., merchant, was attacked on the 8th of September, with a nervous fever with delirium. He felt, soon after supper, a burning sensation in the region of the stomach, which soon became nausea. He took a seat-bath, but without success; the oppression of his head rather increasing, as well as the nausea. He drank on that account, towards eleven o'clock in the night, a few tumblers of water in quick succession, whereupon vomiting ensued, and he felt somewhat easier. After an hour, however, the benumbing pain of his head rose to such a degree as to deprive him of consciousness. He ran at night through the house with a light in his hand, having sometimes lucid intervals, in which he wondered how he could have got to such and such a place, but when about to return to his room, he immediately lost h.s consciousness again. By neglect of the servant, Priessnitz was not informed of the state of the patient before nine o'clock of the next morning, and hastened forthwith to him. He found him in his bed with dull and staring eyes, his mouth open. his tongue ^ hard and brown, and had the cracks peculiar to nervous fever; the patient was entirely deprived of consciousne less. FEVER, TYPHUS. 155 Priessnitz had him put instantly into a seat-bath, where- upon he regained his consciousness-for some moments. His extremities were then rubbed for half an hour with cold water, and he was wrapped in a wet sheet, which was changed every ten minutes. After this a new seat-bath of half an hour was applied, and the patient was again swathed every ten minutes, until his skin re- gained its activity, and he beg-an gently to perspire. The sweat being washed off, a new sheet was applied, and this was continued in succession until the patient, towards eight o'clock in the evening, had fully recovered his consciousness, and found himself easy. Now he re- mained lying in his sheet, and slept quietly through the night. Towards morning the sheets were renewed, he sweat again, was washed with tempered water, and re- mained till towards eleven o'clock out of bed. At eight o'clock he breakfasted on some milk and wheat bread: took for his dinner a little broth with bread, and felt pretty well through the remainder of the day. At eve- ning he was again wrapped in wet sheets, and took early on the next morning a half-bath of tempered wa- ter ; swathing and sudation were repeated after an inter- stice of several hours, and in this way he continued for three days. On the third day he attempted to bathe in the large tub, but felt some stinging pains in the brain, and had on this account to take his baths for a few days more in the little tub. On the 13th of September, that is, on. the fifth day from the beginning of the disease, Mr. H. could be considered as recovered, partook of every thing 156 ON WATER CURES. that was served on the table, and left the institution in a few days. • A similar case of successful treatment of nervous fever had occurred not many days before my arrival, and the older guests of the establishment had witnessed many more. All depends on this, that the evil be not too far advanced; but even in the latter case, cold water, as Currie, Reuss and others teach us, still affords help, al- though with less certainty. COLD OR INTERMITTENT FEVER, Which frequently occurs in the vicinity of Graefen- berg, in the Prussian fortresses Neisse and Cosel, is usually cured quickly by Priessnitz, who is assisted by the healthy mountain air, often alone sufficient for the cure of this fever. ' The patient takes during the par- oxysm seat or half-baths of an hour's duration, rubbing himself at the same time diligently with water, and drinking cold water in abundance until he vomits or gets a diarrhoea, wears a fomentation upon his belly, and sweats as usual. DROPSY. If far advanced it is not to be cured. Sweating in wet sheets and swathing of the swollen parts are °the remedies to be employed. SYPHILIS. 157 SYPHILIS, Can be cured without mercury, and with the greatest certainty, by the water cure of Priessnitz and its strong sudations. I have witnessed in Graefenberg many and various cases of it, which were all cured earlier or later, according as the evil was either old and complicated,— in which case the sins of the physicians were first to be expelled,—or it was recent and more simple. It is wor- thy of remark, that almost all who had been afflicted at an earlier period with a venereal disease, had it return- ing in its former shape by using the cure; no doubt the best proof how little the mercurial treatment of syphilis is to be relied upon. In no other disease perhaps is so much injury done by means of medicine as in this, espe- cially because so many half-physicians and quacks are consulted, who handle their mercury, as if it was quite a harmless substance. This reproach applies, for instance, to physicians and surgeons of the army, who care but little about the life and health of a poor soldier, their fame and salary not being affected by any bad cure, and the poor sufferer must submit without murmuring, even if gorged to death with quicksilver. Let the incredu- lous go to Graefenberg and observe there—not privates who cannot afford the money for such a stay—but num- bers of officers, who have to ascribe the loss of their health more to unconscientious physicians, than to the fault which produced their disease. By how many have I been told, that in cold autumn, lying in bivouac and in their wet clothes, they received every day their good por- 158 ON WATER CURES. tion of mercury, in order to cure a gonorrhoea or chan- cre! And how many have been ruined by mercury without having ever had a syphilitic disease, merely be- cause the learned doctors were mistaken in the case! The more gratifying it must be, on the other hand, to find a military hospital where syphilis is not treated with mercury, and where all persons sick with this disease are cured thoroughly, and without any danger. Such is the case in Freyberg, in Saxony; and it certainly deserves its full acknowledgment, as a successful opposition against that pernicious, almost general prejudice, that syphilis can be conquered by mercury only. If the cure operates more slowly, yet it is without danger, and cer- tain ; expelling, like the cure of Graefenberg, the venom from the body, not merely enveloping it, and without in- troducing another poison instead. To such persons as doubt the possibility of healin* this disease by means of water, a thousand instances of a successful cure may be opposed ; and should they ob- ject, that the patients thus cured had received mercury previously, which still was co-operating, they maybe answered, that the very return of the disease, after sev- eral years, in spite of all previous mercury, is a proof- that the mercury was of no avail-that it served only to retain the poison in the body, and that as soon as the mercury itself was stirred up and freed, the poison too was freed, and began to operate anew, but now was dissolved and expelled by the water cure In whatever form the disease may manifest itself as gonorrhoea, chancre, warts, buboes, the treatment MERCURIAL DISEASES. 159 remains always the same; very strong sweatings, bath- ing, douche and fomentation upon the ulcers. In gon- orrhoea, fomentations around the member, and sometimes injections of cold water are used, in particular when it is of long standing. For stirring up the noxious stuff, daily seat-baths of one hour or an hour and a half are re- quired, and for stronger constitutions also half-baths of half an hour's duration. The most severe diet is to be ob- served : not any fat, no pork, no spices; the victuals ought for the most part to be taken cold. In this treat- ment of the disease, the appearance of large ulcers on the abdomen is very characteristic. As soon as these ulcers are healed, and in spite of the continued cure no new phenomena come forth, the patient may consider himself perfectly cured. There were at the time of my stay numerous instances of a happy cure ; yet, as they all resembled each other, and as I should not like to expose any individual, I ab- stain from adducing any. DISEASES FROM THE ABUSE OF MERCURY. It is hardly necessary to repeat here, after what has been said above, that only by the Graefenberg cure they can be cured thoroughly and with security in whatever way they may manifest themselves. On this point, no physician acquainted with the cure will be found dis- senting. Copious sweating and the douche also here attain the object. In Graefenberg these diseases are of frequent occurrence, mostly connected with syphilis. 160 ON WATER CURES. All persons who previously had made use of mercury, when using the water cure, became again subject to salivation and ulcers, a sure sign that the cure takes effect, and that invigorated nature rids itself of the poison urged upon her. After the removal of the mercury, the evil which it had produced will likewise be removed, whether it be gout or swelling of the bones, or both to- gether. The cure, however, proceeds at a slow rate, and demands patience and endurance before a thorough recovery is attained. Of every description, are treated solely by warming fomentations of cold water. Sweating is the more in- dispensable the more the ulcers are old and malignant. They are then cured only after a total purification of all the humors. In case the ulcers should become worse by fomentations, as the noxious humors are all drawn towards the sickly parts, the swathings will have to be exchanged for dry linen rags, and the limb is to be bathed frequently in tepid water. CANCER AND CARIES, Are cured with greater certainty by means of cold water than by any other remedy. The treatment is the same as that of ulcers. Strong sudations every day for four or six hours are indispensable ; the strictest diet is to be observed. OTHER CASES. 161 There occurred in Graefenberg an instance of caries in the person of Mr. K. He had previously suffered with a chancre, that was cured in the usual way. A year afterwards, however, an ulcer formed on the ball of his left foot, which, in spite of all the means re- sorted to, became continually more malignant, and turned at last into caries. He was treated nine months without any success, and at last the physician proposed to him amputation. He refused, and desired to go to Graefenberg. This the physicians tried to prevent, I know not from what reasons, and only the authority of the commander of his regiment prevailed in procuring for him furlough. He had become emaciated to a skele- ton during the nine months of his treatment in the hospi- tal, and from extreme weakness could hardly walk. Three weeks had hardly elapsed, when he could take his walk in Graefenberg in shirt-sleeves, and felt as vig- orous as ever. The supposition of Priessnitz, that the ulcer was derived from syphilitic stuff that had remained in the body, and that amputation would not have con- tributed any thing towards his health, was fully justi- fied. Mr. de K. had soon a similar ulcer breaking out on his other foot, which besides was so covered with furuncles as to prevent his walking out for six entire weeks. During this time, in spite of his sweating for eight hours every day, he had become so fat, that his uniform was found too tight for him by six inches, when he wanted to put it on for taking his first walk. From that lime his state of health improved marvellously; and al- though he still abides in Graefenberg, I hope with cer- 11 162 ON WATER CURES. tainty that he will leave it within four weeks, entirely recovered. At any rate, are the results of a nine months cure in Graefenberg entirely different from those of his previous medical one of equal duration. FUNGUS. I have witnessed in Graefenberg three cases of this evil: the one in a young man of seventeen years, who was cured ; the second, in a young man of about twenty- five years; and the third in an officer of the army, of about twenty-eight years. All three had. received their injury in consequence of a fall upon the knee. The sec- ond had suffered of it from his infancy, and had, when he left Graefenberg, recovered so far that he could walk without a cane—which never before had been the case. He had made use of the treatment through two summers, and hoped a complete cure from the next season. The third arrived first in October last, and will hardly be fit to leave before nine months, although his complaint is not too old, and he is able to walk without a stick. The treat- ment of a fungous knee consists chiefly in baths of the legs of one and even two hours duration, and in applying the douche every day twice to the diseased leg. If the evil is of very long standing, the cure is limited at first to these leg-baths ; and when a great many ulcers show themselves on the diseased limb in occasional sudations. During the bath, the leg is taken from time to time out of the water, to be thoroughly rubbed until it has got warm. As soon as the inflammation on the joint is re- FROZEN LIMBS. 163 moved, douches supply the place of the baths. The douche is then applied twice every day, for the space of fifteen to thirty minutes. The rest of the body may be protected from the douche by means of an umbrella or a piece of board. STINKING PERSPIRATION OF THE FEET, Can be removed by foot-baths, and fomentations round the feet during the night. The patient may also sweat some. COLD FEET, Just so. Long-continued foot-baths are here of very good service. Also, frequent exercise in walking is not to be neglected. FROZEN LIMBS, CHILBLAINS. Priessnitz recommends to wear exciting fomentations. If the complaint is old, sudations must be added. It is my own opinion, that cupping of the diseased part might be of use. The treatment of recently frozen limbs by means of snow, with which they are covered until the natural warmth has returned, is universally known. After this, fomentations ought to be applied for some time. 164 ON WATER CURES. FOOT OR HAND, Can be cured by foot-baths of half an hour, taken twice every day, in which the water must go above the ancles. The patient ought at the same time to rub his foot or hand well. WEAKNESS OF THE JOINTS, Undergoes the same treatment. FRACTURES OF THE LEGS. Before the arrival of the surgeon, they ought to be covered with cold fomentations, frequently to be changed. After the setting the best fomentations will be of cold water. SLIGHT WOUNDS AND LESIONS. The limb is to be bathed in cold water, and the wound to be washed out. Then a fomentation is to be bound over, tight enough to compress some little artery that might have been hurt, and to stop the bleeding. CASES OF COLD WATER CURES. 165 Some cases of successful cures by means of cold water previous to Priessnitz: 1. Dr. John, practical physician at Litchfield, in England, communicates the following letter: Dear Sir,—1 transmit you herewith a valuable piece of information from Mr. H. C, in the county of W., with regard to cold baths. This gentleman had the gout to such a degree, as to ossify his joints so much that he could only walk with difficulty, and scarcely could bear to see any body enter the room which he occupied. In short he was in such a state as rendered his life a bur- den to him. Nothing but warm things were used for him; the floor of the room was covered with laurel leaves; and he had become so sensitive to the air, that he scarcely was allowed to look out of the windows. Having obtained the conviction that the measures pre- scribed to him were wholly unavailing, he began to accus- tom himself to fresh air and cold water; upon which he soon felt some more ease. After some time he visited a spring in'some solitary place, in which he diligently bathed, and thereby effected his cure. He used to laugh at the people who thought his method too severe and in- tolerable. He did not omit it in frost and snow; and I recollect having seen him in the spring on a cold Christ- mas morning. He assured me that there was nothing so strengthening for body and mind as cold water. Yours, &c. 166 ON WATER CURES. 2. Mrs. Bates, in Leicestershire, at the age of fifty years, was believed to be consumptive, as she coughed very much; she had also suffered by rheumatic pains. She was tormented by coxalgia, and by a stiffness and weakness in her knees. Covered with a load of gar- ments, she sat constantly by the fire, unable to endure the impression of cold air. She complained likewise of pains in her back and chest. At last she repaired to the cold bath at Willowbridge, where she bathed regularly every day, and drank a few tumblers of cold water. This method she continued for a month. At first, when she sat in the water up to the neck, her sick breast pained her very much, but afterwards no more. She was successfully cured of all her complaints, and now continues drinking cold water, and frequently takes cold baths. 3. Mrs. Wats, was suffering with constant vomiting, colica utcrina, moving pains in her limbs and her head, with spasms, violent metrafgia, flatulency in the stomach and bowels, continual perspiration, want of appetite, ex- treme sensitiveness and emaciation. No remedy proved of any avail, until Dr. Braynard advised her the use of the cold bath, in London. Every morning she plunged Bix or seven times under water. By this She lost her sensitiveness to cold air, and her disposition to take cold ; her appetite and strength returned, and all her other sufferings disappeared entirely. 4. Mrs. Smith, of Weston, who was accustomed to sit constantly by the fire, and to dress very warm, suffered continually with perspiration, tooth-ache, and pains in her limbs. She used warm baths without success. Dr. OTHER CASES. 167 Hartog advised cold baths. She began by washing her feet; afterwards she applied water to her whole body; and after having left the bath, she dressed, and walked in the open air, until she felt warm. This method she followed for a month, and became wholly restored. (The washings are more safely applied from the head downwards.) 5. Dr. Floyer sent a woman afflicted with leprosy into the cold bath of Willovvbridge. After having bathed there for some weeks, and having drank a great deal of water, she became cured. Dr. Ellison says : There is nothing found more ef- fective for preventing or curing the rickets, than to send children, of a year old or more, every day into cold baths; to plunge them, head and all, two or three times, in their caps and shirts, and then to wrap them in their wet garments into warm blankets, and put them into bed; whereupon they violently perspire, and thus remain ly- ing through the whole night till morning. Four of my own children have been immersed in this way with great success. And I never have heard of any such child re- maining unhealed, and still less of any one's dying. 7. A girl, in a city of Bavaria, was visited every eight weeks by epileptic fits, but had in the intervals daily momentary convulsions in her limbs; with this ex- ception she was perfectly healthy. Washing her body with cold water, repeated every day twice, and abundant drinking of the same, effected in the very first weeks good results. The-nights had their good perspirations; the jerks in her limbs remitted, and her sleep became 168 ON WATER CURES. more quiet. The epileptic fits did not show themselves any more. Dr. Mylius, in Petersburgh, in his book on the great curative power of immersion in cold water in putrid and nervous fevers, in ardent fevers, &c, communicates among others the following two cases : 8. Upon an estate in the government of Nowgorod, an ardent fever broke out in a village containing fifty male individuals, and not one house remained spared from it. In every house there were several persons attacked, and the morlalily increased. The lord of the village had heard of our mode of curing. He gave orders to immerse every patient twice in a day; and had the joy, after applying this method for eight days, to see cured even the worst cases, and not to have any one left sick with the fever. 9. Nicolas Stafew, a young man of seventeen years, was brought, on the 1st of July, into the hospital, with a nervous fever. He had been taken with it four days previous. Although all means were employed, and the most expensive medicines were not avoided, yet the dis- ease increased, and the typhus, by the 15th of July, had reached the highest degree of malignity. On the four- teenth day he lay already without any consciousness, speechless, in a slumber. His lips, his tongue, were covered with a black-brown coat, and his stools Avent without consciousness. The color of his face was gray- ish-yellow, his eyes dim and dirty. The most energet- ical stimulants remained without effect. His state was hopeless. At 8 o'clock in the morning I made the first OTHER CASES. 169 attempt of immersing him into cold water, in presence of all the medicinal officers. The result was most surpri- sing and striking; for the moment he was immersed, it was as if a new life Avas commencing within him. He shrank shuddering, opened his eyes, and exclaimed: " Oh, how beautiful!" At the second immersion he be- gan moving himself by his own strength, erected him- self, drew water with his hands, and wanted to wash himself. After having been immersed for the third time, he was carried to bed and covered. The cornea in his eye, previously gray and untransparent, had become moist, the burning heat of his skin was gone, his pulse beat more slowly. A beneficial sleep soon succeeded. Towards evening he was somewhat delirious, and con- stantly begged for a repetition of the bath. Early on the 16th the immersion was applied anew. His state of health was evidently good; his delirious speeches had ceased, his tongue was soft and cleaner. He desired to eat something. The bath, according to his wishes, was applied this day three times; his strength was in- creasing. On the 19th and 20th of July he already left his bed, and went to the vat without assistance. Tonic medicines completed the cure ; and on the 21st he was dismissed in good health. 10. A child five years of age, that could neither stand nor walk, was carried to Dr. Floyer by a poor woman. She consulted him for its wretched state. He ordered the child to be immersed every day two or three times into the coldest water. After a short lime he saw the child running by the. side of his mother. 170 ON WATER CURES. 11. A certain James Crook, fifty-six years of age, for- merly coachman, had the dropsy, lameness and rheumatic pains; also inveterate pains in his back. After hav- ing used cold baths assiduously, all these complaints ceased. 12. Captain Fewell, a Dane, was completely cured in London, of an incessant pain in the stomach, melan- choly, and hypochondriac complaints, by immersions into cold water, after having tried in vain a number of other remedies. 13. Mrs. King, who for a long time had been so lame as to be unable to stand, could be persuaded only with difficulty by Dr. Floyer, to the use of cold Avater; after frequent immersions she acquired her strength so completely, that she coul J Avalk about with ease. 14. A Turkish servant, who was taken with fever, was brought almost to madness by a treatment with blisters, &c. A peasant visiting him in this sad state, carried him, with the assistance of some men, to the shore of the river Thames, and there plunged him into the water. The servant came home in his sound senses, went to bed, and was on the following day in good health. The author (" Allerneuester Wasser Doctor") can assure that in tha above mentioned way he has cured himself several times of violent attacks of fever. Priess- nitz, also, in Graefenberg, makes use of cold water ex- clusively in the most violent fever ; and this until the fe- ver has disappeared, which is mostly the case after one or two days. OTHER CASES. 171 15. The following letter was addressed by Dr. Bet- tenson to Dr. Braynard: "One of my servants was plagued for three months with a strong cough, that could not be assuaged by any means. Himself as well as his comrades believed that it would bring on his death. Once, when he was passing in winter over a narrow bridge, he fell into the ice- covered water below, which reached up to his mouth. He was, however, happily got out. Arrived at home, he put on a warm shirt, ate some warm soup, slept well during the night, and felt, on the following morning, that his cough had almost disappeared. In a few days he was wholly free from it." 16. Samuel Greenhill was attacked in May by a rheumatism in all his joints, and suffered at least six weeks with this malady. He had to be wrapped up in flannel, and Avas unable to move Avithout the assistance of several persons. Dr. Floyer ordered for him a cold bath. After having used it only for three minutes he was already able to walk a few steps alone ; after con- tinued daily bathings he was in a fortnight enabled to walk some distance, and soon after was freed from all his swellings. 17, A surgeon told Dr. Floyer, that he had cured a strumous ulcer on his foot by holding it every morning under the fall of a spring-Avell. 18. An English nobleman, Tobias Mattheavs, 60 years of age, had been tormented for a long time by one- sided head-ache (megrim) and a flowing cold in the nose. Finally, he immersed his head every day several 172 ON WATER CURES. times in ice-cold water; he very soon recovered en- tirely, and by continued washings of his head attained to an age of more than seventy years. Dr. Billis relates the following: "A servant girl was raving in an ardent fever: she was for eight days kept tied fast in her bed, crying for cold water. I pre- scribed opium, &c., but to no avail. 1 let her drink cold water in abundance, but it was insufficient. I then had her carried by several women to the water, and kept swim- ming therein, and after a quarter of an hour she was taken out in her right mind, led home, and put to bed; when she fell asleep, perspired freely, and aAvoke in good health. 20. Dr. Harris says, I had suffered of a pain in my hips and shoulders for three months. When these com- plaints were increased by a fever, I drank every day four quarts of water. Although I did not perspire, keeping out of bed, yet I became cured of my malady, and never since then have had it, I have made use of water in painful sensations in other parts with equal success. 21. A man having burnt one of his feet Avith molten copper, had a large ulcer thereon in consequence; the surgeon treated him for nine weeks Avithout any percep- tible success. The patient was a great lover of angling, and Avent for this purpose Avith others to the river, where, in order not to wet his shoes and trowsers, he limped into the water bare-foot, and remained therein about three hours. When he came out he observed that his red in- flamed ulcer had become pale; he bandaged it, went home, applied ice-cold fomentations round his foot several times a day, and after a fortnight his sore was cured. OTHER CASES. 173 ** 22. A young man was very much tormented and emaciated by asthma. A young physician advised him to drink nothing but water, to wash every morning and evening his whole body with cold water, and eat no other food but gruel of oats, without salt or sugar. He con- tinued this diet for three montlys, improved by degrees, and at last recovered completely. 23. A Dutch merchant was troubled with violent pains in his stomach, which he tried to remove by all kinds of elixirs, &c. Be never went to the table with- out having taken something of the kind for digestion. The renowned Dr. Locke, who once visited this merchant, saw his store of medicines, and A\7as informed for what they were used. He advised the merchant not to make any more use of these medicines, and to drink nothing but cold water. The merchant followed Locke's advice, and in a short time was freed from his gastralgic troubles. 24. Dr. Floyer tested also the use of cold Avater in the measles. " One of my daughters," so he relates, " was taken sick with them, and I tried various medicines in vain. Once in the night I observed that the patient was at the point of death, and I perceived that the measles had gone back, and only some brown spots Avere remain- ing. I had no longer any faith in medicines, and as my daughter seemed at any rate to be beyond hope of recov- ery, despair suggested to me the foIloAving means. I went for a quart of cold water, and gave her a glass of it; after two minutes I gave her a second, and soon after a third and fourth glass. After 6he had taken the third glass I looked at her 174 ON WATER CURES. breast, and found that the measles had come forth anew, as red and raised as they use to be in general. Before drinking water she breathed Avith difficulty and was almost gone; but ere yet she had taken all the wa- ter she respired with ease, and alter the fourth glass she fell into a soft sleep, that lasted for about four hours. When she awoke she felt Avell, and was out of danger, and in a short time she recovered entirely. 25. Americus Vespucius describes a method of curing the fever, in use with the Americans. When it has reached its highest degree they plunge into cold water, and afterwards dance around a fire until they per- spire and fall asleep. 26. In the " Dictitmaire des Sciences Medic," Vaidy relates the history of his own cure from a chronic inflam- mation of the lungs. He had suffered for three years with pains in the chest, cough, sometimes with bloody ejec- tions and difficulty in breathing, but got rid of them by wearing flannel jacket and drawers, abstaining from working in the evening, and making water his only bev- erage. A single attempt of drinking wine was punished instantly by intense pains in the chest. His digestion, also, was improved by this diet. 27. Dr. Kolbany enumerates many cases, in which he applied cold water against scarlatina with the best results, &c. Joseph K****, a student, nineteen years of age, was seized on the 24th of December with symptoms of scar- latina. Dr. Kolbany visited him on the 26th. He was washed every two hours Avith cold water. On the 27th OTHER CASES. 175 28th, and 29th the cold Avater was continued according to circumstances, on the 30th his fever had left him. This patient was very sick and took tartar emetic, infusion of saltpetre and sour honey for gargling, and a blister for medicines. On the first of January there showed itself in his hands, breast and sides Nirlus, a pustulous insignificant eruption, that disappeared after four days, after which the patient could frequent his lectures, 28. C. W., a girl of ten years, Avas taken ill on the 26th of December. All the symptoms of scarlatina when about to break out, Avere observable. On the 31st, in the evening, Kolbany was sent for. He had her washed every two hours Avith tepid Avater. After eight times Avashing her pulse was no longer so quick, but regular, the heat was lost, appetite returned. On the 5th of January she Avas again in perfect health, having used not any medicine whatsoever. 29. Sarah, a Jewish girl of 24 years, was received into the hospital on the 3d of January, the seventh day of her disease with a stinging degree of scarlatina. Very bad symptoms shoAved themselves. She was frequently washed Avith lukewarm water, which acted so efficacious- ly that she was on the tenth day without fever. The patient before Avashing had a glandular ulcer in her throat. Only a blister Avas prescribed to her, and some gargling Avater; upon the ulcerous glands fomentations were applied. 30. Marcus B***, a boy of fourteen years, was brought on the 20th of January, the third day of the scar- let fever, into the Jewish hospital. He was washed 176 ON WATER CURES. every two hours with cold Avater. On the 22d, after re- peated washings, he fell much easier, the heat had re- mitted, the lever Avas less. Wine was prescribed to him, and the Avashings Avere continued. By this treatment the patient by the 24th of January was perfectly recov- ered. At his reception into the hospital he took a solution of tartar emetic, and one evening six drops of tincture of opium. 31. Dr. Gomez, physician of the Portuguese fleet, wrote from Lisbon to Dr. Currie, that he had successfully cured a fever prevailing on board the Portuguese vessels, very infectious and malignant, by affusions and lotions with sea-water, according to the precedent of Drs. Weight and Currie. As beneficial consequences of this treatment, he mentions the following: 1, low- ering of the temperature of the skin to the normal degree ; 2, a comfortable sensation pervading the whole body; 3, the frequency of the pulse lessened 8-20 pul- sations per minute; 4, diminished dryness of the mouth as well as diminished bad taste and nausea; 5, repose and refreshing sleep; 6, salutary sweat, confining the fever ; 7, cure of the weakness in the stomach. 32. Dr. Frohlich relates: "A boy of 14 years, in the town of Waitzen in Hungary, with violent head-ache, burning heat, dry skin, escaped on the fifth day of his disease in the delirium of fever, Avent to a marsh in Avhich he waded for several hours. The parents were very anxious about his loss, but soon he Avas brought back, and almost without fever. On the seventh day he was in good health. His disease had the greatest tendency towards a violent typhus." OTHER CASES. 177 33. By the same: In Pressburg I treated the wife of a lackey of the late Archduke Primas in a nervous fe- ver, with almost unremitting heat and a dry skin, in a simi- lar way. I ordered her, as soon as there was the proper indication, to be washed frequently Avith cold water by open windows. She soon recovered, and is still alive. 34. The same : A hostler in Muhlau near Pressburg, attacked with typhus, escaped from his sick bed, and threw himself into a well; he remained there for some hours until he was tracked out by means of dogs ; he soon was wholly freed of his typhus and recovered entirely. 35. Our old water-doctor Hahn relates among others the following cases: A lady of 51 years had lost her menstruation at a pretty early period, and accordingly fell into every kind of arthritic state, and had an open thigh. With this com- plaint she dragged herself about for fourteen years, so that the pain in her limbs often violently increased, and her open thigh secreted a great deal of watery and stink- ing humor. Various internal and external means had been employed against this, without affording any ease to the patient; tired and disgusted she Avould not hear any thing more of medicines, and Avas persuaded to the drinking of water only with difficulty. Finally she took the resolution, began to wash her head and body Avith fresh water, placed her suppura- ting and stinking thigh every day for a couple of hours in cold water, by which not only the pains in her limbs were completely removed, but also her thigh was fully closed within 18 weeks, after a piece of black and putrid bone had been discharged. 12 17S ON WATER CURES. 36. In the case of a plethoric stout man of 61 years, Avho was suffering very much Avith asthma, so that often, even in the slightest exertion on foot he seemed to be threat- ened with suffocation, the physicians had given up all hope of his recovery. After he had been walking as far as three or four houses, he had to stand still, to draw breath with his mouth Avide open, appeared blue in his face, and often lost almost his senses. Repeated bleed- ings, flowing hemorrhoids, and medicines could not free him from it. He was ordered to drink Avater freely and to abstain from beer. After the elapse of half a year, his asthma Avas gone, and he was adequate to the strongest exercise on foot, and from that time has enjoyed life in good health Avithout intermission, praises the water method, and boasts of not having felt for 30 years previ- ous the vivacity he now enjoys. 37. The abundance of coppery eruptions in his face A\Tas highly vexing to a man of 40 years, and he Avished to be rid of it. External repressing means appeared highly suspicious, and justly, to his own understanding. He listened to rational advice, was bled twice liberally, observed a strict diet, drank little wine, washed himself every day more than once with entirely cold Avater, took as much exercise as his business Avould permit, and drank every day about sixteen quarts of cold water, by means of Avhich he not only found himself quite smart and lively, but also his complexion became perfectly clear Avithout the least mark of copper, with which he had beenso much molested for a considerable number of years. He still continues his water-diet and finds himself the bet- ter for it. OTHER CASES. 179 38. In the magazin of Gerson and Julius, vol. 8, you read: A man was suffering with pains in his kidneys and per- fect retention of urine, against which bleeding, leeches, cupping, warm baths, &c, had been employed in vain. Vomiting and hiccupping followed. Some friend advised the patient to rise from his bed, and naked and barefoot to walk about in a room, over the floor of which cold wa- ter had been poured, and to have his loins and sides whipped with cloths saturated with well-water. Half an hour after the first application of this means there came impulse and discharge of urine, after which the patient recovered completely. 39. The female cook of Judge C. in L., grasped for a piece of meat, which, she wished to have, just as the butcher let his axe fall upon it to cut off the bone; he had not observed her motion, and cut her left fore- finger in its second joint almost entirely through, but the first joint of her fore-finger was so much severed that it hung only by a piece of skin. She was carried home in a swoon. The physician joined the parts of the finger together, bandaged the same and the divided one, and instantly applied cold fomentations. Both fingers are healed so finely, that only a weak line indicates the place of the cut. 40. A girl was visited every eight weeks by epileptic fits ; in the intervals her limbs were daily convulsed ; in other respects she enjoyed perfect health; Avashing of her body with cold water, repeated twice every day, and abundant drinking of the same effected the best results in 180 ON WATER CURES. the very first weeks. Strong perspirations took place in the night; the convulsions and her headache remitted and her sleep became more quiet. The epileptic fits dis- appeared. LIST OF THE NOW EXISTING INSTITUTIONS FOR THE WATER CURE. In Austrian Silesia: in Grccfenberg, under the di- rection of Priessnitz. In Freywaldau, at the Biela riv- er, directed by the veterinary Weiss. In Karlsbrunn, betAveen Freywaldau, Jagerndorff and Freudenthal, cold water cures are likewise used: Dr. Malik— Wiedeman at the slope of the Sudelos under Dr. Frohlich. In Austria: Kallenleutgeber, 2 leagues from Vienna under the care of Surgeon Emmel. Laale, 1 league from Kaltenleutgeben, directed by Dr. Granichstaedten, the author of Hydriasiology. In Bohemia: Elisenbad, near Chrudin, under Dr. Weidenhoffer. Dobrowitz, near Jungbunzlau, by Dr. Schmidt. In Leitmeritz, Surgeon Lauda is com- mencing a similar institution. Kuchelbad, near Prague, Dr. Kanzler. In Moravia: Gurnahora, in the district of Olmutz, Sulowitz, district of Brunn, Hounall in that of Preraz' Budischan, district of Iglau. Director: Surgeon Koren^ Gross Ullersdorf, Olmutz. (The physician is at the same time farmer and innkeeper.) (Compare « Gross •» " Cold Water," by a friend of humanity.) COLD-WATER INSTITUTIONS. 181 In Hungary and Transylvania: In Peterwardein and Oedenburg. (Compare Oertel's Quarterly, Nos. 18 and 24 in Hermanstadt. In Tyrol: In Muhlau, near Inspruck. Directed by Regiments Artzt Fritz. In Prussia: Oberrigk near Trebnitz, six leagues from Breslau; Dr. Lehman, Alt-Scheitnig, one league from Breslau, Physician. In Berlin: Director, Major Von RehAve, and medically guided by Mr. Beck ! (not a phy- sician.) This gentleman has also instituted a health society. In Marienbade, Bendler Strasse, No. 8 in Thiergarten. Directors: Bendler and Dr. Mosen. Q,uite recently Von Falkenstein formed an institution in the village of Kothen, eight miles from Berlin. In Gorhrishowo, near Bromberg in Posen. Propri- etor : State-Referendar Adler. Physician: Dr. Barsche- witz, who also conducts the Hydrosiological Society. In Kunzendorf, near Neurode, in the county ofGlatz, Sur- geon Niederfuhr. In Marienberg, near Boppart above Collenz, Dr. Schmitz, (editor of the " Wasser-freund.") In Bavaria, Alexandersbad, near Wunsiedel. Phy- sican, Dr. Flikentscher. In Streitberg, between Erlan- gen and Baireuth, Physician. In Schafslarn, a few leagues from Munich. Physician, Dr. Horner of Munich. In Mu- nich, Nymphenburg str. No. 26. Physician. Proposed, one on the Starlenberg lake, to be directed by Dr. Schnitzlein. In Schallersdorf, 3-4 of a league from Er- langen, under Prof. Fleischmann. In Wurtemberg: In Ulm, 1-2 of a league from the city of Owner, Mr. Bantel; Physician, Dr. Bentzel. 182 ON WATER CURES. In Saxony: In Saxon Switzerland, 3 leagues from Pirna in the Bila-ground. Owner, Mr. Geissler; Physi- cian, Dr. Mullcr. In Kreischa, 2 1-4 leagues from Dres- den. Owner, Mr. Reissbach; Physician, Dr. Steelier. In Muldenthal, 1 league from Freiberg; Directing phy- sician, Munde. Nothing certain has been heard of the institution in Lossnitz near Dresden. In Dresden exists ahodro-dietetic society. In Saxe-Gotha: In Elgersburg, 1 league from Ume- nau; Dr. Piutti, superintended by the Amts-physician, Dr. Jacobi. In Saxe-Weimar: In Ilmenau, under Dr. Sitzler, (described by J. J. Sachs.) In Brunswick: In the bathing institution of Kaul- nitz. Physician not determined. In Hesse-C'assel: In Wolfzanger, near the capital, directed by a committee with Dr. Schnackenberg for its physician. Besides these there exist in many cities yet health, temperance, water societies, and most bathing institu- tions of the larger cities have instituted cold vat-baths, douche-baths, &c. May all these institutions contribute towards the mitigation of human sufferings, and towards the rearing of a healthy, vigorous generation, by intro- ducing a more natural mode of life. That cold water affords the means to perform it, there is little doubt; it only requires susceptible minds, circumspect reason, and a persevering will. RELATION TO THIS COUNTRY. 183 IMPORTANCE OF HYDRIATICS FOR THIS COUNTRY. We have been thinking of performing our task to the best, by collecting from every quarter the most impartial communications regarding the water-cure. Instead of becoming a mere worshipper of Priessnitz or any other successful practitioner of hydrotherapy, we endeavored to present to our readers an impartially complete survey of the AA'hole extent of the water-cure, such as we found satisfactory for our own medical, natural and spiritual views. Thousands are every day carried off, some by an over-excited use of their pulmonary func- tions; some by an inefficient performance of their diges- tive organs; some by nervous affections of their moving muscles and joints. We have diseases in this country to a degree and an extent almost unknown in the coun- tries of our progenitors. Our task will be to examine into those cases of dis- ease which may be called especially endemic with us, and to regard them in their especial pathological devel- opement, and the peculiar relation of the indwelling power of nature to the exterior developement, and in particular with regard to the position they take towards the Avater-cure. We mark out among them the follow- ing : Consumption, Dyspepsia, Rheumatism, Yellow Fever, Lake Fever. i. consumption. In speaking of the old countries and of the young con- tinent, the impression would spontaneously fasten upon us 184 ON WATER cures. that, agreeably to those predicates, the share of the for- mer would be a far greater number of maladies, and these partaking much more of debility and of a chronical tendency, Avhilst the sanitary life of the latter, partaking of the freshness of youth, would be characterized in gen- eral by an inflammatory and acute direction. We find hoAvever the exact reverse.—Inflammations and acute diseases prevailing more in our old mother-countries, whilst the diseases chiefly reigning among the newly Bettled race are, all of them, indicative more of the pre- dominance of the vascular system and of our vegetative life, than of a nervous and tonic irritation. We cannot 6peak here of such diseases as have become perfect cos- mopolites partially modified by locality and tempera- ture, such as syphilis, small-pox, &c.; but of those, the prevalence of which constitutes a pathological character peculiar to this country. When we must mention among these, two which seem to have their chief foundation in climatical and local causes, as the yellow fever and lake fever, Ave shall find three others Avhich appear less de- pendent on local facts, but rather derived from peculiari- ties of social and dietetic habits. From these we single out rheumatic complaints, dyspepsia, and consumption. In whatever the nature of this last named malady may be supposed to consist, which many physicians have named a pure tonic inflammation and treated according- ly, with continually repeated bleedings, (often with sur- prising success.) it has been ascertained in the water- cure that all the cases of advanced consumption that occurred were of that kind in which the effective reaction of the vital power, upon which the whole treatment with RELATION TO THIS COUNTRY. 185 water is so essentially based, was most doubtful. Ac- cordingly Priessnitz in Graefenberg never received any patient in an advanced stage of consumption. And, although a great mitigation of the sufferings of the con- sumptive may be derived even in the last stages, from a judicious application of water, yet the utmost precaution should be observed: the water for bathing being al- ways warmed by the admixture of hot water, and the water for drinking by keeping it for some time, in a corked bottle, in the room. In earlier stages of con- sumption, in particular when derived from bad diges- tion, the diligent drinking of water, perspiration, fomen- tations round the belly, seat-baths, clysters, will exert the most excellent strengthening effect upon the organs of digestion. In particular when obdurations of the intestinal glands are the causes of the hectic fever, they find their best cure in the water-method. If noc- turnal sweats take place in consumption, it is good to sleep lightly covered, upon mattresses, to wash the whole body as soon as perspiration commences, not to drink too much, and if too strict a diet have been ob- served, to eat some meat, or to increase the quantity of food. Sometimes seat-baths shortly before going to bed, are of good use against Ihe weakening night-sweats. In pulmonary consumption, fomentations upon the chest, keeping very quiet, drinking of water, and ablu- tions are indicated; but bathing in the large vat, from the cold and pressure of the water, might be accompanied with danger of the rupture of some small blood-vessel in the diseased lungs, an extravasate and suffocation ; and the 186 ON WATER CURES. douche, by its too great excitement, might produce equal- ly serious consequences. But even if, in curing advanced cases of consump- tion, the water-cure should frequently prove as little effectual as any other medical treatment, or merely pal- liative, it is by preventing this dreadful calamity, by strengthening the system in general, or by leading off and parrying, that the Avater-cure, with the appropriate diet, will take an undisputed precedency of every other treatment. For, Avhatever may have been the predis- posing causes of phthisical complaints, so much seems evident: that their destructive action is based upon a perverted direction of the vital heat and energy, according to Avhich, instead of the salutary irradiation and develope- ment of all our nutritious substances and vital powers from Avithin outwards, the motion of our bodily life is put into a state of suicidal retrogression. Strengthening the cutaneous system by means of washing and bathing; dissolving the noxious matters in the organs of diges- tion by means of abundant potations of cold water, but above all the essential diet of the water-cure, by which every unnatural excitement which might avert the nat- ural developement of our organic powers is avoided, will here do the most Yet we cannot but observe that, among the chief objects to be avoided in the diet, we comprehend, not merely spirituous and fermented liquors or the strongest exotic spices, but in particular such hot beverages as are doubly injurious, first by depriving in our changing clime, by a weakly sensitiveness, our Bkin ol its means of resistance ; and secondly by weak- RELATION TO THIS COUNTRY. 187 ening or over-exciting our powers of digestion to such a degree as to render them unable to succor the enfeebled organic periphery. Bathe, wash and drink. II. dyspepsia. Among the diseases with which our country, in other respects so highly favored, is visited, there is one which, if not so imminently fatal as that just mentioned, is yet sufficient to embitter and destroy all enjoyment of life, baffling, in a higher degree than almost any other, all medical endeavors for relief. We mean Dyspepsia. And as this name is so variously applied, and the definition of the disease and its causes such a vague one, we under- stand by it every sickly affection of the nervous system, originating in the derangement of any of the organs of digestion, and manifesting themselves rather in impres- sions upon our moral and intellectual man, than by bodily pains, or by the secretion of some peculiar morbid pro- duction, as is the case in rheumatism or the gout. It will not be difficult for those who have read in the pre- vious pages the hydro-therapeutic treatment of such dis- eases, to convince themselves that cold water, by its dis- solving qualities, by its life-strengthening freshness, by the restoration of the cutaneous system to its important activity, will be found to afford not merely the best means for correcting the disturbed digestive functions, but also the principles of this system, especially as regards the dietetic part, will point out the most important points for reforming such parts of our social habits as are the chief 188 ON WATER CURES. predisposing allies of all dyspeptic complaints, and by the avoiding of Avhich that far-spread enemy of our own happiness and of the health of our posterity, may be warded off. Not Graham's, not Cornaro's diet will do it alone; not Hahnemann's ingenious countermining, not all the riches of allopathic pharmacopy, will secure last- ing relief. When nature is attacked in her most natural vitality, the most natural means will be the best and only safe ones ; the all-surrounding, all-pervading air, with its oxygen, the purifying, all-diluting refreshing water, with the zest of its carbonic acid; strengthening exercise of our muscles, and the exclusive enjoyment of those ali- ments with which we see the vast majority of our fellow- partakers of animal life exempt from all artificially pro- duced sufferings, these are the simples by Avhich corrupt alimentative organization may be restored and preserved in the performance of its healthy functions. How much experience has justified the water cure in this regard, may be concluded from this circumstance, that of the thousands who have visited Graefenberg and other simi- lar establishments in Germany, two thirds consisted of persons suffering in digestion, and their bowels, not counting all the complaints of the liver and bile, hemor- rhoidaries, and a number of other diseases founded in or at least intimately connected with, a vicious digestion. In all these complaints, the drinking of abundance of water, acts a chief part in the cure; cold clysters are of equal importance. Besides these, cold, partial and often entire fomentations; seat-baths in order to sustain the tone of the muscles of the abdomen, that might become RELATION TO THIS COUNTRY. 189 too exhausted by the effects of drinking and of the clys- ters. The water for baths and washings must in many cases be tempered, at least in the beginning. The treatment of several kinds of diseases in the digestive organs, is specified above in the " special diseases." We shall make here " dyspepsia," properly so called, or "hypochondria," the object of nearer attention. In the dyspeptic (hypochondriac) patient, the diseased affection of the nerves seems to be predominant, and the faults of digestion are less apparent, than for instance in persons suffering from hemorrhoids, in whom the bad juices produced by the irregular functions of digestion make themselves felt in the abdominal vessels, and are discharged at last by an hemorrhagia; Avhilst in gout the vicious humors are carried to the extremities and joints. But in the dyspeptic the disease is less to be sought for in the stuff, and more inherent in the nerves. In the hypochondriac (dyspeptic) you observe the same anxious attention towards himself, the same dispo- sition to complain and to communicate the same irrita- bility, vexed temper, and peculiar selfishness, as in a hysteric Avoman; only he is still more whimsical, more intolerable, more positive, bearing no contradiction, least of all Avith regard to his own preconceived idea of his disease, which he expects every day to see becoming worse. He is unstable, and his lively imagination makes him see things now in the clearest, now in the blackest light, on which account he at times shows too much of good nature, at other times so much temper and harsh- ness as bears not any proportion with the former. He 190 ON WATER CURES. is always attentive to every thing that he eats, finds fault with it, and after all eats more of it than is good for him ; he always imagines that he is eating very mode- rately, but often takes double meals, and continues this voracity for several days, after Avhich he starves himself again for a considerable time. He is shy of men ; his eye has little decision. When he is once in the flow of conversation, he loves to speak continuously, and par- ticularly of himself. To external matters, politics, and even to his family, he is often indifferent, or is, Avith the best will, unable to occupy himself with them for a long time. At the same time he considers himself the most unfortunate of men, expects every day to die, and ven- tures no enterprise, until a sudden turn of his A\'him gives him at once the feeling of health and the spirit of enter- ing almost frivolously upon dangerous and distant un- dertakings. Often thoughts of suicide creep over him, for terminating at once his mi.sery, and only with diffi- culty he can resolve to live on. At the entrance of the rough and damp season, this mental suffering increases, so that about this time, in particular in England, a num- ber of hypochondriacs kill themselves. This is far less the case in Germany, where a better clime and a purer air, as Avell as a simpler manner of life and appropriate occupations, prevent the disease from rising to so high a degree. Most of these circumstances might be adduced for explaining the rare occurrence of suicide from dys- pepsia in the United States. For although the diet may not be as salutary as that of the Germans, yet it is the more temperate; and the faults of it, the use of warm # RELATION TO THIS COUNTRY. 191 beverages, tea, &c, are more simply weakening than exciting. Besides this, the sober and less isolated tone of society, and the religious motive, may co-operate to prevent so rash a termination of the misfortune. As it is, hoAvever, it deprives life of every feeling of happiness and security, and of most of its usefulness, and may be considered as a constant dying Avithout a close. But it is not in this season alone that the patient has attacks which last for several weeks, and which, in par- ticular when combined with rheumatism or gout, bring him to despair. The associates of the unfortunate ought then to avoid every thing that might irritate him still more, and bear with patience his whims. They ought to consider and treat him as an unhappy sick man, not as an intolerable bore. By this alone, and by patient listening to his complaints, his sufferings will be miti- gated, whilst by an opposite conduct they would be heightened. Try to divert the patient, to draw his atten- tion towards things without him, by narrations, by at- tractive reading, &c, to give a better direction to his imagination, to raise his spirit above his unfortunate mood by means of religion, and to console him, and in- duce him to resignation, if it should not be possible to instil into him the hope of an improvement of his bodily health, which but seldom meets Avith reception. In curing dyspepsia, cold water has shown itself to be one of the chief remedies, and especially when used in some institution for water cures, Avhere the change of scenery, the pure mountain air (in which such an estab- lishment never ought to be deficient), friendly nature, • 192 ON AVATER CURES. cheerful company, and the unaccustomed manner of liv- ing in general, so much raise the effects of the cold baths, and place the patient into the most favorable circum- stances. But even Avithout the advantages of such an institution, cold Avater always acts advantageously upon the disturbed nervous system of the hypochondriac, and procures to him ease from his sufferings. Already, as a beverage, good fresh water, drank in sufficient quantity, is frequently efficient for transmuting the gloomy mood of the patient into a brighter. The Avorthy General- Surgeon Theden, who for years had been one of the worst hypochondriacs, tells us, in one of his works, that he had liberated himself from this complaint, and several others connected Avith it, by means of omitting tea and coffee as a beverage, and by drinking, instead of them, every day, eight (Berlin measure) quarts of water. Besides the drinking of water, mild perspiration, full baths, seat baths and douche-baths, even foot-baths are to be recommended to the dyspeptic. They must of course stand in a true proportion with his vital vigor; particu- larly sweating and douche ought not to be carried too far. At the same time the patient ought to take much exercise, courageously ought to climb mountains, difficult as he may find it at first; he ought to observe a strictly regular life, abstain from sexual intercourse (in a full cure entirely), or be very moderate in it, guard against extreme exertions of any kind, but especially of mental ones, and by regular occupations in his calling try to draw his attention from his own self, divert himself by cheerful society, and before everything else he ouo-ht to RELATION TO THIS COUNTRY. 193 endeavor by a regular diet to keep his bowels in or- der. It ought to be an inviolable rule with hypochondriacs never to eat so little as to feel very weak after meals, but still less so much as to feel bodily or mentally oppressed. The bodily state of each one must determine the quan- tity of food. This may be sufficient for the present purpose of pointing out the importance of hydriatics, and the estab- lishment of cold water institutions, with regard to an evil which is but too frequent among us, although the industrious habits and more reserved character of our citizens may make it less apparent. Although by the existing and ever-increasing tem- perance and industry of this country, two of the greatest causes of dyspepsia are obviated, yet there remains much to be done. Not drinking of spirits and teas alone, but also, and much more, too dry, too much and too hasty eating, make men dyspeptic; and so does neglect of the cutaneous function; and there are other excitements be- sides those of dissipation, Avhich predispose to it: the very ardor of speculation and of gain by means of health- forgetting exertions. It is by the water cure in its whole extent, and the establishment of, not fashionable water- ing-places, but of quiet fountain-bath institutions, that we can hope to see this enemy successfully combated. RHEUMATISM. Enough has been said, in previous pages, on the spe- cial method of curing this disease, as well as the kindred 13 i 194 ON WATER CURES. gout, and for the application of the water cure to our country, it will be sufficient to refer to those places, in order to impress also, with regard to the wide-spread rheumatism, the usefulness of hydriatic institutions upon the reader, and the usefulness of the water cure in gene- ral, even in cases where the establishment or use of such institutions is beyond reach. There remains one point to be touched in particular. Does the hydriatic system, in its complete form, present us any thing new, by the introduction of which into our present mode of life, the exposure to that malady could be prevented or at least diminished 1 The utility of baths, of drinking cold water, &c, has been acknowledged in almost all ages. We cannot deny that although bathing and washing are still practised at least for the purpose of cleanliness, to a great extent; although the use of ardent spirits is near its entire ex- tinction; although Graham has taught among us, and occasional good sweating is considered by physicians and non-physicians an excellent remedy; yet there is wanting the completeness and consistency in the appli- cation of these means, the rational calculation of their mutual reaction and co-operation, of their adequate pro- portion to the vital powers, which alone constitutes their effect and security. This hydriatria can teach us, and this has not been known before. The conscious harden- ing of the body for instance against the vicissitudes of temperature by judicious bathing, and by avoiding all irritating and weakening dress; the treatment of the first rheumatic symptoms; but above all, the abstaining RELATION TO THIS COUNTRY. 195 from relaxing warm beverages. There is perhaps noth- ing Avhich more weakens the tone of the stomach, and excites the sensibility of the superficial nerves to the atmosphere, than tea. Expose yourself to a rough air after some cups of nice warm tea, and you will be sure to get at first a cold, and when it is seated, a rheum- atism. YELLOW FEVER. In entering upon a field of so high importance, upon which all the poAvers of allopathic science have been dis- played and tried, mostly ineffectually, we cannot but feel diffident, as hydrotherapy never yet has come into full contact with that dreadful and lurking counterpoise to the felicities and climatic advantages of southern and West Indian life. The description and history of this fa- tal misunderstanding between those otherwise so blessed regions and their inhabitants, and much more their out- landish visitors, as well as its occasional propagation to other parts of the Union and even of the eastern conti- nent, is but too well known and understood. The re- motely originating hydriatic science has nothing to add to it. But to no one Avho does not judge exclusively from already known effects, can it appear ridiculous to hear expressed the hope, that where the usual temporizing (drastic, purging, bleeding) remedies have been found doubtful and unavailing, a means might be discovered which, notwithstanding that the obstinate character of the malady has hitherto baffled all the empirical, routinary 196 ON WATER CURES. and the merely theoretical efforts of medical science, may prove adequate to meet all the different caprices and obstinacies of the malady, arising from local, indi- vidual and other circumstances. For we have deeply impressed upon our minds the principle, that there is no evil of any description in nature, for which the Omnis- cient Creator has not provided, in the faithful activity of our minds, a remedy, sooner or later to be discovered. In the typhus fever, in the scarlatina, in small pox, and even in the black plague, (see the cases adduced,) cold water has been found, by attempts of physicians and by the instinct of the patients, to be the most and only effec- tive means for recovery. Currie's, Wright's reports, and those of many Russian and German physicians, whom you may find adduced above in the extract from Hir- schel's hydriatic history, will confirm it. Why not in the yellow fever also ? In its double quality, being gas- tric and bilious, as well as typhous, it must be doubly ac- cessible to the all-powerful elementary effects of cold water. But there are not wanting, even to our oAvn limited knowledge, a great many cases in Avhich the efficacy of this means has been tested. The worthy old Dr. Seger, now in Northampton, when in South Carolina in his earlier years, has cured several cases of yellow fever by pouring over the patients pails of ice-cold water; and we must be greatly mistaken if the malignant typhus, mentioned in HirscheVs historical sketch of hy- driatics, of which Wright cured himself by cold water, was any other but the " typhus ictoceles." RELATION TO THIS COUNTRY. 197 LAKE FEVER, Is another complaint with which our settlers in the west have to pay for their acquaintance with the transatlantic clime. There are no doubt powers and relations in our nature which depend not merely on the relations of our cutaneous system to the external influence of the atmos- phere, and to its relation to the digestive and other inte- rior powers. But thus much is certain, that if to the appa- rently anomalous influences from without, there is op- posed some judicious, consistent method founded upon our indAvelling will, and calculated to the majority of oc- currences, their power will be diminished to a degree that will fall within the sphere of efficacious common medical treatment. The signal effect of the water cure for the residents, would prove itself in the usefulness of a mode of life in accordance with the principles of the hy- driatic system ; but even for the cases of developed lake fever, the treatment stated for " cold and intermittent fevers," would beyond doubt show its superiority to usual medical treatment. We think the preceding article sufficient for illus- trating the truth, that the practice of the Avater cure will prove of equal if not greater importance for the western continent than it has for Europe. We have selected only a few of the most prominent features of American nosology, in order to show analogically the effect of hy- driatics upon them; but these principles would enter into all branches of diseased life, and apply to all measures for preserving health. The modifications for all particu- 198 ON WATER CURES. lar cases could not possibly be given in advance; but there have been quoted particulars enough to afford advice for analogous cases; and though the fundamental principles of hydrotherapy, as stated in the forepart of this book, are of general validity and application, it will always remain the supreme and ruling one, viz. to propor- tion the strong means presented by the water cure to the circumstances and the individual pOAvers of life, and ever to consult and collect experience. With this precaution we may offer this little volume to our fellow-citizens for their acknoAvledgment and practice, without fear of pre- senting them counsels full of danger and doubt, but in the sure hope that it may bring relief to many a suffer- er, and guard many a healthy individual from incurring disease and sufferings THE END. WILLIAM RADDE, IMPORTER, BOOKSELLER & PUBLISHER, 322 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK, IMPORTATIONS OF English, Oerniau, French, Latin, Oreck, Sanscrit, and other Foreign Books, for Colleges, Public and Private .Libraries, etc. etc. Single Books imported to order. Orders forwarded by every Steamer, and also by the Liverpool Packets, and answered promptly by the return of the first Steamer after the receipt, if desired. W. R. would invite attention to his facilities for procuring Fnglish and Foreign Books for Colleges, Public and Private Libraries, Booksellers, and the Public generally, on at least as food terms and with greater despatch, than they have ever before een imported into this country by any other establishment. Books for incorporated institutions pay no duty. German and French Journals, Monthlies, Quarterlies, and Newspapers, received regularly by the Steamers for subscribeis and the principal periodicals. Wm. Radde takes also this opportunity to inform the Phy- sicians and friends of Hahnemann's system, that he is the sole Agent for the Central Homoeopathic Pharmacy at Leipsic, in the United States, and that he has always on hand a good assort- ment of HOMOEOPATHIC MEDICINES in their different preparations, as Essences (tinctures), Tritura- tions, and Dilutions, put up in Cases containing 415 vials, with tinctures and triturations. Cases containing 176 vials, with tinctures and triturations. Cases containing 144 vials, with low dilutions and medicated pellets. Cases containing from 27 to 400 vials, with pellets medicated with different (low and high) dilutions. Boxes with 60—80 vials containing dilutions. Boxes with 50—80 vials containing medicated pellets. Double and single leather pocket-cases of Medicine for Physicians. Boxes for family use, from three to six dollars. Also, all Isopathic Remedies. Refined Sugar of Milk, pure globules; vials, corks, diet papers, labels, etc. BOOKS. Pamphlets and Standard Work's, original and translations, on the " Water-Cure," viz: Die Grafenberger Wasserheilanslalt und die Priessnitzische Cur- methode von Dr. C. !\Iit*ide. Hydriatica oder Begriindung der Wassirheilkunde von Dr. B. HlRSCHEL. H. Ehrenberg's Ansichten iiber die Greefenberger Wassercuren. F. Rover, Ueber Waschen und Baden, etc. Wasserarzt, der Graefenberger. Dr. A. Weiss, die Wasserkurmethode. Wasserdoctor, der allerneeste. Dr. Schulze, Die heilsamen Wirkungen deskalten Wassers. G. Rausch, Verlheidigung der neuern Wasserheilmethode und mehrere andere Schriften. Manuel d'Hydrosudopathie ou traitement des maladies par l'eau froide, la sueur, l'exercice et le regime, par Dr. Bicel. Jahr's Xrw Manual of Homoeopathic Practice, edited, with anno- tations, by A. Gerald Hull, M. D., second American, from the third or Paris edition, New-York, 1841. 2 vols. Bound, each $3 50, in paper, $'A. S. Hahnemann's Organon of Homoeopathic Medicine, $2. Ruofk's Repertory of Homoeopathic Medicine, logically arranged. Translated from the German, by A. H. Okie, with additions and improvements, by Gid. Humphrey, M. D., 82. Jeane's Homoeopathic Practice of Medicine, $3. Curie's Practice of Homoeopathy, $2 75. Dunspord on Homoeopathic Remedies, $3. Hartmann's Practical Observations on some of the chief Ho- moeopathic Remedies, first series, SI. Broakes' Diseases of the alimentary canal and constipation treated homieopathically, 50 cts. A. Fustaphieve's Homoeopathia Revealed, 37J cts. T. A. McVickau, Homoeopathia, a principle in Medicine, 18$ cts. Croserio on Hoincoopathic Medicine, translated from the French, 25 cts. A. H. Okie's Homoeopathia explained and objections answered. 12i cts. P. F. Curie's Domestic Homoeopathy, $1. C. Hering's Domestic Physician, 92. Beside these, a number of publications in the German and French languages, on Hahnemann's System, as well as all the other branches of the medical profession. Beauvais' Clinique, 9 vols., 924 50. Hahnemann's Maladies Chroniques, 2 vols., $5. " Matiere Medicale, 3 vols., *4. Le Medecin des Femmes, parD'HuE, D. M., bound, 1 vol.. $1. Bouillard, Traite Clinique des Maladies du Cceur, 2 vols , 84 87. Lauvergne, lesforgatsconsiderees,sous le rapport Physiologique, Moral et Intellectuel, observes au Bagnede Toulon, 1 vol., $2 50. :»*rp:^m?; NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE NLfl D3E75Dn M NLM032750194