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        f
VINZENZ PRIESSNITZ ■.
OR, THE
WONDERFUL POWER OF	WAT	EJ
	// F/	1
IN	<&Lf	
HEALING THE DISEASES		
OF THE		
HUMAN BODY.		
BY '		
Dr. CHR. CHARLES SCHIEFERDECKER.
      AFJIEflt RAUSIJ. ->
      A  —    "v;



     PHILA<B££PHIA •
BUHGESS  AND ZIEBER.
18 4 3. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1843,
       By Chr. Charles Schieferdecker,  '
In the clerk's office of the District Court for the Eastern
            District of Pennsylvania.
\
   WBF


pJ^jtf^OS/,i-c-ti 
  So haben wir mit hoellischen Latwergen
In diesen Thalern, diescn Bergen
Weit schlimmer als die Pest getobt.
Ich habe selbst das Gift an Tausende gegeben,
Sie welkten hin ;—ich muss erleben,
Dass man die frechen Moerder lobt.
                                     Dr. Fattst.

  Thus did we rage with hellish drugs and pills
All o'er these happy valleys—o'er these hills,
Till we Death's standard had sublimely raised.
To hundreds I dispensed the deadly poison's doses,
I saw them wither like decaying roses, \
And live to see the murd'rous leeches praised.
                                  Goethe'a Faust. 
i 
PREFACE.
Permit me to  offer  something new to the citi-
zens of the country I have  chosen as my " fa-
therland."   I owe them such  an offering—they
received me kindly, and that kindness I can on-
ly repay by labouring for  their  benefit.   May
this  small gift of gratitude prove to them a last-
ing blessing, by leading them to the useful investi-
gation of a subject of the highest importance—
the preservation of health, and  the most  simple
and  natural means of restoring it, by that ele-
ment which a hnnnfifnl Providence has so wide-
ly diffused, pure and  cold water.
  The author is unaccustomed to the use of the
English language, and his desire  of  disseminat-
ing  the knowledge of this important discovery
could alone overcome the diffidence  with which
he has made the  attempt.  But  if truth be ad-
vanced, knowledge diffused, and  the sufferings
of any portion   of the human  family alleviated 
PREFACE.
 by it, he trusts that an apology will found for the
 improprieties of hia language and the roughness
 of his sentences.
   Instead of lavishing encomiums or deprecating
 censure upon his little book, or on the practice
 of which it gives an account, he leaves it to speak
 for itself, but will here subjoin a few facts con-
 nected with the progress of the science in Eng-
 land.  The first is an extract  from the " London
 Sunday News" of March 1840, slightly abridged.
   " Lord Monclist, aged about 58, suffered under
 an incurable  disease, the  universal gout.  He-
 was given up  by  the most celebrated physicians,
 and went from England  to the  therapeutic In-
 stitute at Grasfenberg, in Germany, into which, on
 his arrival, he had to bu curried uii leather belts,
 being alike unable  to stand or walk.   After a
 stay of sixteen months and five days, he left Grae-
 fenberg perfectly  restored, and now lives in Lon-
 don healthful and happy.  Actuated by gratitude,
 he built an  institute for  healing by cold water
near his villa, about three miles  from London,
to which twenty-four  sick  persons are gratui-
 tously admitted. In the meadow before the bath- 
PREFACE.                 Vll
ing-house,  there is  a beautiful temple, resting
on eight columns, surrounded by the attributes of
the water-god, Neptune.  A naiad, placed on  a
rock-like pedestal, pours  fresh water  out  of an
urn into a large basin.  Next to her stands Priess-
nitz, the great master, in Germany, of the art
of healing by water, in his everyday dress, point-
ing with his right hand to the naiad. Thousands
from London visit this temple and the surround-
ing country out of curiosity, but as soon as the
temple  is full, the water  begins to fall out of a
projecting outlet in the form of a cataract, upon
the iron railing that encircles it, cutting off all
egress.   A  voice emanating  from the pedestal
then announces, that the  spectators will only be
permitted to leave  the temple with a dry skin
when they have  given a small contribution to the
poor of the Institute.  Most of them do it will-
ingly  and even  cheerfully.   Such  as  would re-
fuse are either induced to  give by the example of
the liberal, or forced to spring through a  three-
fold wall of water, amid the laughter of the spec-
tators within and without.  They however gain 
VIII               PREFACE.
gratuitously a  fundamental notion  of the  main
process of the healing art by water."
  The  next  extract  is  from an article in  the
"Boston Transcript," the writer of  which, while
he says that  he cannot refrain  from presenting
his  readers with an abstract of an  address deli-
vered by Capt. Claridge, at Dover,  England,  yet
enters his caveat lest any one should suppose him
" a believer in the chilly system."  This is only
what may be anticipated, for the scenes witness-
ed and  described by Capt.  Claridge  are so  un-
like anything which the gentleman can have wit-
nessed,  that it is difficult to believe.
  " The Captain imagines," he says, " that in this
new system he  has discovered the true elixir of
life ; for he says that he can eoo no good reason
why man should  not  live to two hundred years
of age ; he brings forward what he terms evi-
dence in favour of longevity,  through the cold
water medium; and he declares that it is impos-
sible for any man to die of any acute  disease,
while the patient  has sufficient strength left to
allow  of water producing  its reaction  in him.
  " Captain Claridge himself states that he was 
PREFACE.
IX
suffering severely from rheumatism, headache,
and weakness of the eyes, for which he had con-
sulted  many physicians, and tried various reme-
dies, without effect;  when he was advised to try
the effect of this  method.   For  this purpose he
proceeded, with his  family, to  Grocfenberg,  the
residence of Mr. Priessnitz.
   " The course prescribed by Mr. Priessnitz, for
Captain Claridge, was the following:—At about
four o'clock in the morning, his servant brought
a  large, coarse blanket, in which he was enve-
loped, and which was tightly fastened round his
neck, and at his feet; then, as many blankets as
he  could conveniently  bear were heaped  upon
him, and on these  a bed, so  as  effectually to  ex-
clude the external  air; in this state he remained
till six o'clock.   In  about an hour, perspiration
took  place, when  the doors  and  windows  were
opened, and he was  instructed  to drink about a
pint of cold water, by means of a pipe.  At six
o'clock the coverings were removed, and he had
his face,  chest,  and  shins  washed with  cold
water, to  prevent his taking cold.  He  then
descended to the bath, in a  pair  of straw shoes. 
PREFACE.
In the bath he remained three minutes dressed,
with all the windows open,  and walked, drinking
cold water at various  places, (to  the  amount  of
about eight  glasses,)  until he  arrived at the
establishment to  breakfast,  which  was  com-
posed of  milk, butter,  and brown bread, with
wild strawberries, for five months in the year.
Then he  descended  the  mountain by another
path, and on his  way  took a douche bath,  in
which the stream flowing from the mountain  is
collected in a pipe.   This is suffered to flow first
on one  part  of the body, then on another, and
lastly on the  part  affected.   From this he pro-
ceeded home, took a sitz bath—a tub with about
six or nine inches of water, in which  he sat for
fifteen  minutes; he then took a foot-bath for
the same length of time, the servant rubbing his
feet while they were in the water.   For the
weakness of his  sight, he lay on  the  floor, upon
his back, and placed the back of his   head in a
basin of water,  for five minutes.  He dined  at
one o'clock;  at three repeated the same process,
and walked until nine.  For supper, he ate the
same as at breakfast. 
PREFACE.                 XI
   " His daughter, who was supposed to be con-
 sumptive, but who Mr. Priessnitz pronounced had
 merely outgrown her strength—being, as he ex-
 pressed it, too tall for her breadth, underwent a
 similar process, except that to produce perspira-
 tion, she was enveloped  in a  wet sheet, instead
 of a blanket, and  at night she wore a wet cloth
 upon  her chest, and another  around  her  body.
 In less than three months she was perfectly re-
 covered.
  " According  to  the statement  of Captain Cla-
 ridge, people ' never  say die,'  at Grsefenberg;
 or they never decease, as he expresses it, ' from
 any acute disorder.'  Cold water, and a  spare
 diet, is the prescription for longevity;  and, from
 all  accounts, the  sovereign panacea '  for all the
 ills which flesh is  heir to.'
  " Plain people become  beauties by  the obser-
 vance  of this rule ; and the lame are enabled by
it to   ' rise and walk.'  ' One young  lady,' says
 the  captain, ' who went to  Grsefenberg  with
 scrofula in her face  and neck,  so bad as to ren-
 der her quite an object;  in nine months she was 
Xll                FREFACE.
 so  completely recovered as to be  considered tho
 beauty of the room."
  "Another case was that of an officer, who, in
 consequence of a wound, had his leg so wither-
 ed that  it was not  thicker than  his wrist.  He
 shortly had the limb perfectly restored.
  "The establishment of Mr. Priessnitz is a ve-
 ry irregular structure, having been built at  dif-
 ferent periods; but  it has one noble room, which
 is used for meals and assemblies.   At the public
 table where they sat down, about  three  hundred
 persons, the captain took occasion to remark the
 extraordinary  flow  of spirits which seemed  to
 pervade the company ; so different, he says, from
 what any one would expect in invalids.
  " There are said to be a hundred establishments
on  the  same  plan  now in  Germany;  and  the
number of patients who have consulted Mr. Priess-
nitz, from the commencement of his institution
 in 1829, to 1841, is upwards of seven thousandi" 
CONTENTS.
               CHAPTER 1.
           OF  VINCENT PRIESSNITZ.
 His parentage      .    .    .     .     .17
 His discovery     .    .     .     .    .18
 His success  ......   19

              CHAPTER II.
              OF  ALLOPATHY.
 The allopathists' own opinion of their system   21
 The author's opinion    ....   26

              CHAPTER III.
             OF HOMOEOPATHY.
The fundamental principle of Homoeopathy   35
Homoeopathic practice   ....    36
An important discovery  ....    38
The defects of the system    .    ,    .    ib. 
XIV
contents.
               CHAPTER IV.
             SKETCHES OF  CURES.
 1. Chronic disease of the liver,  in conse-
     quence of medical treatment of He-
     patitis   ......   41
 2. Dorsal-complaints and gout, in conse-
     quence of a treatment by mercury   .   43
 3. The Austrian economist    ...   47
 4. Cephalalgia chronica       ...   48


               CHAPTER V.
   OF TnE HYDRIATRIC METHOD  OF CURING.
§ 1.  The process in healing by water    .    52
§ 2.  Which diseases are curable by water ?    57
 § 3.  Description of the  mode of healing
     in some acute diseases    ...    62
       a. Nervous fevers      ...    66
       b. Inflammatory diseases   .     .    61 
                  CONTENTS.               XV
§ 4. Of the healing  process in most chro-
    nic diseases   .....   69
§ 5. Of the methods used in epidemics and
    infectious ulcerous diseases    .     .   76
§ 6. Explication of the  healing process in
     the treatment described in § 4.     .   82
§ 7. The  crisis produced  by  the  water-
     cure and its treatment    .     .     .89
§ 8. Advices for persons who wish to make
     use of the  water-cure     ...   94
§ 9. Of the spreading of hydriatric practice,
     and its prospects    ....   96


               CHAPTER VI.

   THE BEST DIET-r-DIET IN DISORDERS OF THE
      STOMACH--DRESS--PASSIONS--BATHS.

The best diet.....108
Diet in disorders of the stomach   .    .   121 
XVI
CONTENTS.
Dress.......127
Passions......128
Baths.......129

              CHAPTER VII.

              RECAPITULATION,

For such readers as read only the first and
    last pages of a new book, yet with
    the view  of giving their judgment
    upon it......134 
     VINZENZ  PRIESSNITZ:

                    OR,

THE WONDERFUL POWER OF  WATER.



               CHAPTER I.

           OF VINCENT  PRIESSNITZ.

Vincent or Vinzenz Priessnitz, though justly
numbered among the most distinguished  men
this century has  produced, is the son of a  poor
peasant who lived among the Sudites or Giant.-?*
mountains,  in Austrian  Silesia.   Though  ex-
cluded from the advantages of a good education,
he enjoyed  the gift  of a rich talent, engrafted
into  his mind by the Creator, which led him
involuntarily  to   the  observation  of  Nature.
Whilst he was engaged  in attending the cattle
of his father, according to the prevailing custom,
(for  the  method of  protecting  the  fields by-
separate  fences  is not common in Germany), he
         2 
18
chapter r.
made u.f of the manv opportunities which hiA
situation offered, to  observe the instincts of his
flock, and the wild animals that  came near him.
He was  particularly  attracted by  the circum-
stance of a beautiful stag coming every morning
to a spring near  his  pasture-ground, and, after
quenching its thirst  by long  draughts  from  the
limpid fountain, bathing its supple limbs in the
cool water that surrounded the spring.   Once,
after  having  waited  for his  shy friend  several
days, he saw the  animal limping, and  evidently
in a state of suffering, approach the spring and
drink more  plentifully  and  remain longer  in
the water than ever he had observed it  formerly.
This  the stag  repeated for  several successive
days, until the  marks  of illness   had  entirely
disappeared,  and it   had  regained its  former
suppleness  and  vigour.
  This  circumstance excited reflexion  in  the
mind  of the  youthful philosopher,  and induced
him to  try, by way of experiment in  some of
his own complaints,  whether this method which
had  succeeded  so well  in the  case just  men-
tioned,  was applicable  to  the  cure of human 
INTRODUCTORY NOTICE.
19
disease.  And once,  even when  he was afflicted
with  a violent pleurisy, connected with a dan-
gerous fracture of some of his ribs, he rejected
all medical  stuffs, applied  only water  in  this
way, and in  short time got well.
   Priessnitz felt it  now to  be his duty to offer
this discovery to those  of his  poor neighbours
who were suffering under inveterate disease, and
his benevolent  efforts were  crowned with  won-
derful  success.  His name  was  soon  hailed,
notwithstanding the  opposition  of the learned
world,  and especially of the  graduated physi-
cians, as that of  a benefactor of mankind,  all
over  Germany; and in  France, Russia,  and
England,  his  system found  many  advocates.
He turned his farm into  a formal  Hydratic In-
stitute ; and  it is  now  constantly beleaguered
by thousands of suffering applicants, anxiously
longing for  the  dismission  of a  patient,  that
they  might immediately fill his place; and the
clear  income  of the institute amounts to upwards
of fifty thousand dollars annually.
   Chronologically, Priessnitz is not the first that
has cured by water;  but assuredly he holds this 
20
Cn.VPTER I.
rank by the power of his  talents, the immensity
of his success,  and the  reputation and  wealth
derived from his practice.  He was born in Ger-
many in  the right  time.   The skeptical spirit,
in relation  to  the  rotten  dogmas of  the  old
medical systems, had risen from a long slumber,
and the conviction  was gaining ground that  by
returning to the laws  of Nature alone our ills
could be remedied.   Not unlike our Luther,—
who by  clearing  our  holy  religion  from  the
abuses by which a  selfish clergy had vitiated it,
restored its means of nourishing and healing our
souls—stands Vincent Priessnitz, invincibly vin-
dicating the rights of Nature,  and offering to
his  fellow-men the  invaluable  treasure of a
strong and healthful  body.   Fifty  years earlier
the  genius  of  Priessnitz  would have meet.with
persecution and condemnation; for he would,like
Luther's oiefursor, John Huss, have been mis-
 understood,  and as deeply depreciated as  he is
now highly value!.  '• \ < <nius  misunderstood,
 in the midst of sneering '^.ckiieuds. is the highest
 irony of human fate,  and the  darkest picture
 of human misery." 
21
                CHAPTER  II.

                OF ALLOPATHY.
       "Stick to my trade," said dying butcher John,—
       As doctor acts, so acts the doctor's son.

The old  medical  art, which had  descended  to
us by inheritance, has lost much of  its authority
since one doctor began to call another a " mur-
derer ;"  much since,  during the period of the
Cholera   Asiatica,  this  designation  came   in
vogue;  and  still  more  from  the  epoch   of
Hahnemann's rising  as the  founder  of  his ho-
moeopathic  system.   Hahnemann and his fol-
lowers stigmatized the  allopathists as " homi-
cides,"  whilst the  latter   recriminated  upon
them as  " impostors  and  dealers  in poison."
Each of  the  parties awarded to the other the
prize of  charlatanry.  Which of them may be
in the  right let others decide.—I, for my part,
possessing the blessed gift of belief, cannot help
believing that both of them are alike in the
right. 
22
CHAPTER II.
   Some criticisms of  the most __ distinguished
 allopathists of Europe and America, upon their
 own science,  may here find  a  place;  among
 them there is not one  from  any  practitioner
 of the homoeopathic school:
 Dr. Helmont,   (in Thomas.  Dissert, de  jur.
  circ.  Pharmacop. civit.  C.  III.  §6):   "A
  murderous devil  has  taken possession of the
  professional  chair  of the  medical  sciences,
  for who but a  devil  is capable  of recom-
  mending venesection to  the  physician  as an
  unavoidable mean of curing."
Dr. Boerhave: "If the benefits,  which by  half
  a  dozen true physicians  have been conferred
  on the  inhabitants of the  earth,  since  the
  existence of the science, are compared  with
  the ills  caused  by  the immense  host  of
  doctors  amongst  the family  of man:   the
  thought will undoubtedly arise, that it would
  have  proved  infinitely more beneficial if  the
  world had remained without physicians."
Dr. Girtanner, (Ausfuehrl. Darstell. des Brown.
  schen Systems der prakt. Heilkunde, vol.  ii.
  page  600):  In the dense Egyptian  darkness 
ALLOPATHY.
23
  wherein the physicians go groping along, not
  even the least ray  of light  affords to  them,
  any  assistance  in guiding their steps.—Two
  physicians  meeting  at  the  bed of a patient
  are not seldom in the situation of two Roman
  augurs, they finding  it difficult, when looking
  in each other's face, to stiffle  their laughter."
Dr.  A. F. Ilecker,  (Theorien,  Systeme  und
  Heilmethoden der Aerzte,  4to edition,  1819.
  page 5):—"Yea, there is no lack of instances,
  where physicians denounced methods of healing
  and  single  medicines  as  ' murderous,'  the
  salubriousness of which  they some  years
  before were unable  to praise sufficiently."
Dr. von Wedekind, (In Henke's Zeitschrift fuer
  die  Staats - Arzneikunde,  Jahrg. 7. Heft i.,
  pag. 5) :  " Is not the  best physician he, who
  least prescribes, and  not  the  indefatigable
  loafer and lozenge-monger?"
Dr. Benjamin Rush, (Medical Inquiries, in the
  Sammlung   auserlesener  medicinischer  Ab-
  handlungen, vol.  iv. p. 2.  page 297):  " We
  have not  only  augmented   the  number of 
24
CHAPTER II.
  disease's, but  have also rendered them  more
  fatal."
Dr. Pfeufcr,  (Medicin. Conversationsblatt. 1831.
  No.  4~>):  " We  are still hovering  in  deep
  darkness as  to what way Nature  tends  in
  chronical diseases, by opening and performing
  the process of healing."
Dr.  Choulant,   (Neue Zeitschr.  fuer  Natur-
  und Heilkunde vol. i. H. 2, pag.  313): "The
  theory  of  practical   physic  may indeed   be
  considered  as  the  true image of the Babylo-
  nian confusion of languages.—We have built
  on  the  sand of opinions,  and  the  structure
  reels like the  reed, agitated by the  wind .  . .
  We  form diagnoses of diseases as they could
  be, not as they are."
Heidelberger klinische Annulcn, vol.  v.  H.  3:
  " There arc  indeed  far  more  patients  killed
  by physicians than saved."
Dr. Kieser, (System der Mcdizin, vol. i. Preface,
  page x) :  " Each patient ought to be warned
  against doctors as against the most dangerous
  poison."
Dr. Scherf:  "The apothecaries' shops are, in 
ALLOPATHY.
25
  respect to the careless  and unwary,  but state
  hypocritical  stores of death, and  corruptors
  of health; in lieu  of conservatories of life and
  means for protecting  it."
Dr. Nolle : "I know very well,  that  perhaps
  seven-tenths  of the human  family have  pe-
  rished, not by  diseases but  by untimely and
  too copious medicine."
Dr.  Hertz,  (Rust's  Magazin fuer die gesammte
  Ileilkunde, vol. xxxii. H.  2. page 313):  "A
  truly piratical   profession is carried  on, and
  all the doing,  writing, and speculating, has
  for  its object  nothing but  the  emptying  of
  those purses of which hold can be taken."
 Dr.  Most,  (Encyklopadie der gesammt. med.
  und chirurg. Praxis,  vol.  ii. page 740): " It
  is,  alas, but too  true,  that  many physicians
  verify the saying:   The medicine  is tcorse
  than the disease."
Ibidem:  " Of the nature and proximate cause of
  fevers  we  know   but  little;    the  opinions
  respecting them are astonishingly various and
  ambiguous.   The  less they xcere  understood
  they more  they were  criticized.   Many de- 
26               CHAPTER II.
  linitions,  originating  with  otherwise  cele-
  brated  physicians, are  nothing  but   empty
  words, by which the subject is by no  means
  elucidated."
Mvdico-chirurgical Review, No. 6, Octob. 1H25,
  page 3^~< : "Tetanus is  among flic very many
  diseases of which we  are nearly  ignorant,
  both as regards the pathology and treatment."
   Views  congenial  to  those expressed  by  the
above named  honourable  men  are entertained
by  many more  respectable physicians;   but
most  of them  feel  too great an aversion  to
the horror of starvation, to which  uprightness
might expose  them, to pay to  truth its  due
honour.   Each of  my  readers may, however,
from  these   proofs,  form  his own  judgment,
and act accordingly.
  My own opinion of Allopathy is the following
  The allopathic  school has little  or  no efficacy
in chronic diseases, such as rheumatisms, gout,
a. s. f.  This school promises only alleviation.
What the nature of this alleviation  is,  I shall
endeavour to show  in  the sequel.   The  main
efficiency of  the allopathists is restricted  to 
ALLOPATHY.
27
the  acute,  and  principally  the  inflammatory
diseases, and also to cases of infectious ulcers.
In the former cases, their cure consists  in sub-
stituting in  lieu  of the  disease,  a  state  of
chronical debility  or enervation of the  whole
organism.   This effect is produced by them,
partly by medicines, and partly by detraction
of blood in various modes.
   The process  may  be thus explained:—In each
attack of the acute  kind,  the still  vigorous or-
ganism is labouring, by a  law of nature, to free
it-self from some destructive  agent  that  has in-
truded into  it.   Having become  sensible of  its
inability to defend   itself  against   detrimental
aggression,  in the  natural  way, it heightens,
or graduates by a fever or an inflammation,  its
power and  activity  to  an  uncommon degree.
This  graduation  is  not "a disease," as  we are
accustomed to call it, but "a tendency to health,"
which, however, may  cause  death instead  of
restoration,  if,  instead  of Water, — to  which
I he instinct of such  a patient  commonly inclines
in the most decided manner,—a diet contrary
to  nature  is  imposed  upon  the  sufferer, and 
28
CHAPTER II.
medicines  or  blood-letting is resorted to, for
which nature did not call.
  As soon as the excitement  of the system, by
medicines  or blood-letting, is counteracted, the
risible fury of the disease abates:  the symptoms,
—which arc indeed but the true signs of nature
operating wholesomely,—disappear, and either
death  ensues,  in consequence  of debility, or,
from the same cause, the organism  desists  from
operating  for  its  own  recovery.  Thus  the
system  is reduced to  the miserable  condition
of harbouring  the  sickening  agents  in its  in-
terior, which  by fever  and inflammation it was
about  ejecting.   The  chronical  languor  and
enervation [reduction of the  power]  of  the
organism is now completed.  Not  onh are the
original  sickening  agents now  firmly  stationed
in the  interior,  causing latent,  symptomless
debility, that  is, the secret decline of vitalitv
without external  signs;  but this state  has been
still  more aggravated by the additional  poisoning
influence of the  medicines administered to the
patient.
  This is  called " healing" by the allopathists, 
ALLOPATHY.               29
but  it  is  indeed  " destroying,''''  it  is  " sloxcly
murdering."
  The great error of this  school  may be traced
to their false notions of the nature and  cause of
diseases;  and in supposing  fever  and inflamma-
tion to be diseases, instead of what  they really
are—symptoms or means essentially necessary
in  every  real  cure.    The  Hydratic school
believes them to be the agents by which foetid
sweats, critical evacuations, cutaneous eruptions,
and ulcers are  produced, and  which will  remove
the injurious materials from the system.  There
is no  cure possible  without those sensibly  per-
ceptible removals of the sickening  cause;  and
when performed by water-physicians will always
be observed  in  every disease. This, in addition
to the evidence it affords of the reality of the
cure, furnishes at the same  time a proof that the
cause  of  all maladies are  really material  sub-
stances, of which afterwards.   If  such secretions
at the close  of an acute disease are missed, it
proves that the body is not cured, but delivered
to chronical languor.
   Such is the nature  of  the allopathic method 
30               CHAPTER rr.
of healing acute diseases;  for  to  heal, according
to the old system,  was '• to cure by producing
such symptoms as are opposed  to those of the
existing  disease."  This  is the  mighty error!
But another  inconsistency  is added  to this pri-
mary  one, viz.:   Allopathy uses long ago  ho-
moeopathic means, such,  for  instance, as  are
recommended in alternating fevers, in  venerous
maladies, &c.  Indeed all  the remedies which
Allopathy uses to call  "specific ones," and  of
whose  efficacy she prides  herself most, are  of
a purely  homoeopathic character,  that is : " they
produce  symptoms  similar   to  those  of  the
treated disease."
  Yet, alas!  even these remedies  were pernicious
in the hands of  allopathists, since  they  made
too frae and  copious a use  of them.   This  has
probably led  Hahnemann to its opposite extreme,
which  is  ridiculous  rather   than   dangerous.
Against  venereal  complaints, psora (itch), Allo-
pathy has  her specific means;  but  what  does
she effect by  them?—the old mother of sorrows?
Either she forces back into the body  the  cause
of sickness,  in quite a  quacklike  manner,  by 
                  ALLOPATHY.               31

external  plaistering,  or she produces  the  same
effect more learnedly, by ordering the swallowing
of large  doses of medicinal poison to keep the
poison of the disease  fettered to the  interior  of
the system.  Thus rendering the body incapable
of producing the external symptom, by depriving
it of its power of throwing out  through the skin
the noxious matter by which  the  disease  was
caused.  This  effect  will  indeed never be  per-
fectly obtained in diseases of this kind, so  as  to
arrive at the full recovery by its own exertions;
but as long  as  it exerts itself to that end, it  is
susceptible of being healed, but when  the ex-
ternal symptoms have  entirely  disappeared, the
cure  has become  impossible,  and  it  requires
often a great deal of time  and labour, to succeed
so far, with a system  abused in such  a manner,
as to  enable it to produce the symptom again.
  Physicians of  wreak  intellectual powers  take
it for a sure sign of a  cure of  ulcers, when the
symptom, in consequence of mere doses internally
taken, disappears.   This  is an illusion:  if the
doses are internally applied in  too large  quan-
tities and too  frequently, they will operate in a 
32               CHAPTER II.
paralysing and  destructive  manner, depriving
the body  of its power even  of sustaining the
symptom, far less  of curing itself.   Then the
internal, yellowish sulphuric, or grayish mercurial
reduction  of the vital power is forever established
in the miserable body, like a standard of Death
in a decayed fortress.   Neither Allopathy nor
Homoeopathy will afford a cure; only Hydriatic
practice will, can,  effect the astonishing  reco-
very.
   Not  alwa)rs  will  the  allopathic  treatment
exhibit such horrible consequences  as these now
delineated;  not  indeed  where the  abused  orga-
nism  possesses the  self-healing power in an un-
common degree; neither where the  physician, im-
bued with a correct knowledge of  his dangerous
art,  renders his doses  harmless,  leaving  the
healing process mostly to the operation of nature.
I  have known  a   doctor  of that  kind, whose
services were much called for and well rewarded,
and  who  yet resorted  to medicines,  but  only
when he  was convinced  of their  harmlcssness.
This may be objected to, but it is certainly better
than to receive payment for positively  assisting 
ALLOPATHY.
33
Death in  his  work  of destruction.  The man
wanted  to live  and  to let live.  Another class
of doctors are  poisoning  in  their  innocence.
A third  exist,—consisting  of  a few only,—who
know what they are  doing;  when  they, accord-
ing  to  the  rules  of their profession, treat  a
patient  labouring under an acute  disease, they
turn  their wages  into  life-rents; they  work
knowingly, to the end that the patient  should
hold  his  life as  a fief,  until his  death.  But,
happily, this  class is small in number,  and  its
members are met with as rarely as other things
of the truly horrible.
   One  word more  must   be  added  about the
efficacy of Allopathy in chronic diseases.
   As soon as chronic complaints,  mostly in the
fall  and spring,  assume  the acute and   alarm-
ing character, the allopathic  physicians a^ain
enter into  the field,  viz.  in their  usual  manner
of alleviating pains, that  is, by striving  to lull
into sleep  the renewed endeavours of nature  to
produce recovery, or by fettering the limbs  of
the rebel.   These pains originate  in the  stirring
of nature  out of a state  of torpid, lamentable,
          3 
34               CHAPTER ir.
resignation into  a state  of insurrection against
the tyrannising malady.   Such acute  attacks in
chronic diseases would, without the  interference
of physicians, if they had not cured, at  least
have  been beneficial, by having ejected some-
thing of the sickening matter from  the system.
This  alleviating process  of the doctors renders,
therefore, the malady more tenacious. 
35
             CHAPTER   III.
               OF HOMOEOPATHY.
Father Hahnemann,—for as the father of the
alone  true  science  of  healing  he  proclaims
himself loudly enough—and  his  delicate  little
child,  Homoeopathy,  promise  (quite  antitheti-
cally to Allopathy) their best help in chronic
diseases, whilst they, in healing of acute attacks,
are  yet  borrowing  several articles out of the
laboratory of their  bitterest  enemy, Allopathy.
   The  fundamental principle of  Homoeopathy:
" Similia similibus curare," that is,  " to cure the
like by the like /' does  indeed much  honour to
its  discoverer, and  existed centuries  ago: but
that the decillionth atoms of Hahnemann could
have any efficacy, is alike incredible as laughable.
Only a  really blind and  superstitious belief can
place confidence in a decillionth part of a  drop,
since even the ocean  contains not a decillion of
drops.
   It would be too tedious to explain  here' the 
36
CHAPTER III.
whole of this paradoxical doctrine.   This Ho-
moeopathy despises  all anatomical,  etiological,
physiological knowledge;  she exacts nothing but
an  anxious  inquiry after symptoms, in order  to
find by their guidance those  substances which
are producing upon the healthful  the like symp-
toms.  The " Vis natura conservatrix et mcdi-
catrix"  is  declared to   do  nothing  at all  in
diseases, the ridiculously small doses, on the con-
trary, to do all  in  all.   Hahnemann pretended
to be a  physician,  without possessing physiolo-
gical knowledge, and  overlooked, therefore, by
taking the shell  for the kernel,  the empty for-
mula for the  spirit,  without  even  knowing  it,
that the same organic phenomena, respecting the
form, can have a diametrically opposite funda-
mental character ; and that, on the reverse, organic
phenomena of apparently quite  different  forms
can originate from the same cause.   Examples
are needless, a  glance upon the  cases  of  oph-
thalmia angina, diarrhoeas, &c. will suffice.  Ho-
moeopathy is merely a symptomatic method of
healing, and hers is,  therefore,  the fate  of  all
such,  it  may  perhaps  remove   this  and that 
nOMffiOPATHY.
37
symptom, the disease itself remains unbroken.
A  most sad, yea, indeed,  a dreadful character
can be exhibited by this one-sightedness, caused
by  the lamentable limitation of  homoeopathic
views, when life itself is at stake.  That which
in  lingering diseases,  which are  not threatening
a fatal turn, may be allowable treatment, will
then turn into a crime !
  Yet Homosopathy does not kill directly, though
nobody can  reasonably  expect  efficacy from a
decillionth atom.—The harmlessness of such lilli-
putian doses  somewhat palliates  the  impropriety
of raising barbers, ignorant even of the art of
reading and writing, in  the space of about four
weeks, to doctors of Homoeopathy; an  indiscre-
tion of which  proofs are at hand.   Whoever
may yet desire to be  cured dynamically, may at
least  certainly save his gold.  He will find his
full satisfaction by applying to  any old woman
imbued with the  noble scienee of soothsaying
and blowing at the  painful parts and praying
over  them.   This can be obtained for a  few
cei?ts, and  will have  fully as great an  effect as
anv soothing exorcism, procured  from Hahne- 
38
CHAPTER III.
mann's decillionth atoms, and  somewhat over-
weight by the dynamic gold.
  A wit of our acquaintance  lately heard of an
improvement of Hahnemann's,  of immense  im-
portance.   It consists in a collection of fleas, to
be resorted to in cases  of the  utmost emergency.
as in the  glowing sirocco  of  burning  fevers,
when, all other means  failing, the homceopathist
will apply one of these little  animals out of the
phial in which it  is kept,  after having  shaken
the whole assembly and rendered  them furious,
or elevated to the becoming dignity.  The effect
is said to be astonishing.
   We ought indeed to be thankful for  the kind-
ness of Homoeopathy in furnishing us from time
to time with something laughable.
  Though we  are now  agreed,  that  Homreo-
pathy, on  account of its childlike  harmlessness,
is preferable  to  Allopathy in many  points of
view; we  must yet place it  far  below the  hy-
driatric practice in consequence of the  following
reasons:
   Firstly, Homoeopathy, — in  common  with
Allopathy,—has this very important defect,  that 
HOMCE0PATHV.
39
its efficacy is at one and the same  time limited
upon single functions,  organs, and  parts of the
whole organism, which causes, in both methods
of cures, the frequency of relapses.  Whilst the
suffering function was about being cured, the
whole or some single parts of it remained  in its
former  invalid  state, and therefrom  originated
a disproportion in the  harmony, the restoration
of which, attempted by nature, causes  a sinking
of that same function below zero, which had
been raised unnaturally by art, and thus a relapse
is prepared.
   Secondly,  It  is  all-important with the ho-
moeopathic mode of curing,  that the right re-
medy for each symptom should  be chosen, for
which, of course, a skilful and thoroughly sen-
sible man is requisite,  and  even such a one will
and must often mistake and do harm,  for if the
homoeopathic can do good, it can also do harm,
because it is medicine? The hydriatrie practi-
tioner can indeed also err in  the application, but
very rarely,  hardly ever, and then  his  mistake
can scarcely in any case do harm.
   Thirdly,  Homoeopathy  indeed  excites  the 
40
CHAPTER III.
organism to heal, in consequence of its correct
fundamental principle, provided  the means are
judiciously chosen, (and  that  they possess any
efficacy at all); but it fails to support the system
during the process  of healing, and  this is  done
by the hydriatric practice alone.
  Foxirthly, Homoeopathy has no  power at  ali
over the cutaneous system,  whilst  the skin is.
indeed, by far the most important organ in ever)
cure, over which organ the  hydriatric practice
exercises the utmost control.
   In the following chapters, what has been said
here will be corroborated. 
41
               CHAPTER IV.

             SKETCHES OF CURES.

1.  Chronic disease of the liver,  in  consequence
       of medical treatment of Hepatitis.
An unmarried lady,  of a tender frame, and  of
about 50 years of age, applied to the hydriatric
method of  curing for an  old  and  heavy  liver-
complaint.   The disorder  had its commencement
in an inflammation of the liver, treated by an
allopathist  mostly  with  mercury.   Priessnitz
ordered her into the cold water sweating-baths
and below  the fall- or douche-  (Sturz-)  bath.
After a long space of time, this crisis appeared
with ulcers, by means of which the mercury
was evidently ejected, for as soon as the ulcers
were healed, the old  suppressed  hepatitis  made
its appearance again,  and  this  relapse was soon
removed by hydriatric treatment, as the affixed
remark will show,  so  that  the lady  left her
restorer, Priessnitz, thankfully, and with renewed
vital powers. 
42               CHAPTER IV.
   Remark.—The  process in  this case  may  be
explained thus:  A detrimental substance, lurking
in the body of the lady, had  projected  itself,
perhaps in consequence of a cold, upon the liver,
which, in consequence of an energetic endeavour
to cast  it off, had become inflamed.  The doc-
tor now  entered upon  the field with antiphlo-
gistic mercury,  and  paralysed the struggle,  the
instilled poison having deprived the body  of  its
power—thus inducing,  from  that moment,  the
chronic  complaint.  As soon as,  through  the
water-cure,  the  medical poison  was  driven  out
of the body  by means of the ulcers, the organism
strengthened itself again to a renewed struggle
against the  old  inimical matter, which was still
fettered to the liver.  The former  inflammation
returned,  and immediately after it, under  the
beneficial care of the water-physician, Priessnitz,
the most complete restoration.   Such is  the effi-
cacy of all the antiphlogistic substances,  be they
called medicine, leeches, venesection, &c.—they
remove  the  acute  malady  by  debilitating  the
organism, and  will  either kill  in  this  way  or
introduce  chronic  languor.    From  thence ori- 
SKETCHES OF CURES.
43
ginatc the heavy sufferings,  which follow at the
heels of the allopathic treatment  of inflamma-
tions.  The doctors will  try, no doubt, to per-
suade  themselves  and their patients that this
was an  inseparable consequence  of the  disease.
Let every fever, every inflammation, be treated
with cold water, and  every trace  of  them will
disappear in a few days.

2. Dorsal-complaints and Gout, in consequence
          of a treatment by mercury.
  An officer of the Austrian army, about fifty
years old, but of a strong  constitution, and still
vigorous cutaneous system, was driven, by gout
and  desperate pains in the  back,  to Priessnitz,
after  having in vain consulted many celebrated
physicians.
  " Well," said  the shrewd  but  unsophisticated
physician, " you have  got a good  deal of mer-
cury into your body ?"—" Yes," was  the answer
—" but this was  thirty  years  ago,  and  my
sufferings, which are  increasing  every year, did
not begin till  long after that treatment.   With
the mercury you can of course  have nothing to 
44
THAPTER IV.
do."'—A sarcastic smile, peculiar to Priessnitz's
face spread itself over  his  features, whilst he
answered: " You will live to judge otherwise, you
will see the venereal ulcer  reappear, and this
exactly  at the same place  from which  it had
been driven inwardly by  your doctor."
  It lasted five months  before  the crisis  took
place, which had however been preceded  by a
considerable relief from pains and  invigoration
of  the  organism.   In  the sixth month,  there
appeared the bathing-rash; and  after its healing,
in the seventh month, furuncles  and little ulcers
amounting to  a hundred and sixty in number.
This was one of the  most horrible and dangerous
crises which  had ever  been witnessed in  the
Grsefenberg.   When it was over, the patient felt
very well, was possessed  of an excellent appetite,
bec.ime fleshy, and believed himself to  be  radi-
cally cured.
  " Well, we  will wait  anyhow for what may
follow!" said father  Priessnitz, and ordered him
again under the " Sturzbad" (fall-bath).  Three
weeks  afterwards the alarm-drum was  beaten
again in the body of the  patient—a new crisis— 
             SKETCHES OF CURES.           45

again from sixty to  seventy  ulcers.   Then fol-
lowed  a rest of some weeks,  and  then  some
twenty ulcers more, and, for the last  time, about
a dozen  made their appearance.  The mercury
having been thus expelled, the venereal ulcer did
indeed come  forth, but in the lapse of two weeks
the remainder of the poison was driven away by
sweat  and  bathing—without mercury  or any
other medicine whatever.
   "Now, sir,"  asserted Priessnitz,  "you  may
consider yourself cured!''
   I  need not add,  that  the  pains in the  back
and the gout  were removed forever, and that the
officer went down from the Grsefenberg merrily,
and like a new born being to his home, where
his friends could  scarcely  recognise  him  on
account of the total  change which his exterior
had undergone, from that of  a pale invalid into
a blooming and vigorous man.
  This is a specimen of the wonders of Priess-
nitz, but only one among a thousand of his cures
from  the effects of mercury  and  suppressed
venereal diseases.
  The experience at the Groefenberg has incon- 
46
CHAPTER  IV.
trovertibly established the fact, that a  mercurial
poisoning can only be cured by water.
  Remark.—It  is  indeed  very  probable,  that
syphilis never has been really cured by medical
treatment,  though  both physician and patient
believe it, and even should  all syphilitic symp-
toms forever disappear.  This poison is by mer-
cury  only  surrounded,  and  together  with  the
vehicle kept bound in the body.   Nearly all  for-
mer syphilitic persons, who had  at the Grafen-
berg  gone  successfully through  another cure,
have, to their surprise, finally regained the long-
forgotten  syphilitic  symptom.   Whoever,  in
any period of his former  life,  has used mer-
cury, (as  nearly  every one  has  done, who  has
been  treated by an allopathist) he may  with
certainty reckon, in case of any subsequent disease,
that mercury will  play a principal part in it, or
even the only,  though a latent one.   Frequent
instances  prove this fact,  as  for example  the
following:

  3. An Austrian  economist,  aged about forty
years, of a very powerful constitution, came with 
              SKETCHES OF CURES.            47

a leg stiff at the knee, and crippling along to the
institute at Grcefenberg.  He attributed the cause
solely to a fall with his horse,  which had  hap-
pened nine  years before, having  forgotten that
nine years previous to the fall, and consequently
eighteen years before he  came  to Priessnitz,
he had  undergone a  very easy, and, as he  be-
lieved, successful cure by mercury.  In the third
week of the water-cure a small eruption on the
stiff knee became visible, then large furuncles
—look  there,  the mercury.   In the fifth week
he could inflect the leg at the knee, and in the
seventh he went to his home, (indeed too early,
but  called away by business), to finish there  the
water-cure as well as he could.
  Remark.—Priessnitz has found, from  the  ex-
perience of many individuals, that mercury can
lie  for  many  years  inactive  in the  organism,
apparently in a state  of  sleep.  But it  is then
only lurking  like a  snake;  and as soon  as a
disease  overcomes the body, it will assuredly
creep out of  its ambush, in  order  to  exert  its
malignant influence in  the work of  destruction.
In no disease  is the crisis more violent and pain- 
48              CHAPTER  IV.
ful by ulcers than in mercurial complaints, there-
fore in no case is the  special attention of a  skil-
ful water-physician  more  required  than in  such
instances.  For persons who cannot  obtain  such
assistance, the notice may be beneficial, that the
cure consists in a cold  fall-bath ("Sturzbad"), cold
sweating and  sitting  baths.  They  may further
be admonished  not to be frightened when  they
see, after being freed of the mercury, the ori-
ginal poison, which they considered as removed,
reawakened in the external symptom.  They
may employ local warming, cataplasms of cold
water, and  may continue sweating  and bathing,
until the loathsome enemy take his leave forever.

4. Cephalalgia chronica,  arthritide complicata.

  A middle-aged merchant from Bohemia visited
Priessnitz, expecting to be relieved  by him  from
a mo3t painful cephalalgia  of  long standing.
Whilst the cure was going on, relief was indeed
soon imparted  to  the patient, but  suddenly the
disorder returned with increased fury—a fever
joined the pains, and one evening it was reported 
SKETCHES OF CURES.
49
to Priessnitz  that  his  cephalalgic  patient was
raging in the most horrible manner, that he was
destroying  the windows of his room, and threat-
ening to murder his wife.
  " Very  good,  indeed,"  remarked Priessnitz,
" now his cure is certain !"
  A  doctor, who  was  present,  thought  that
Priessnitz  himself  had suddenly fallen into  a
state of delirium, and asked, with astonishment,
how this could be taken for a sign of approach-
ing recovery ?
  " Because,"  replied Priessnitz, " an ulcer is
forming  in the  patient's head, which will dis-
charge itself,  and  all the  mischievous matter,
through the ears."
  The doctor's mouth expanded still  more,  not
for the purpose of uttering something wise, but
on account of his utter loss to comprehend how
this could be possible.
  What  Priessnitz had  predicted  was literally
fulfilled.   He  has repeatedly observed, that in
aggravated rheumatic headache  and  affections
of the  eyes, ulcers are forming in the  interior of
the head, which will flow out through  the ears.
         4 
50
CHAPTER IV.
The patient  had  once laboured  under  cepha-
litis, which had  been treated according to allo-
pathic principles, that is  turned  into chronic
misery. 
51
               CHAPTER  V.
   OF Tlir, HYDRIATRIC METHOD OF  CURING.
Retirnixc from a  digression in which I have
laid  before my  readers  some  few sketches of
cures, out of those thousands which have excited
the surprise and the astonishment  of the world,
I shall now pursue the plan I have laid down for
my little book, and, having given  an outline of
my opinions about Allopathy and Homoeopathy,
will  now give  a  short account of the hydriatric
method of healing.
   The Hydriatric is that mode of curing, which,
by the  application of  the  coldest  water  alone,
(without the help of  ice or any artificial means),
entirely ejects all material causes of disorders,
under  whatever form they  may  appear,  from
every part of the human organism.
   Wherever,  in the sequel of this book, the
word " water" is used, the freshest and  purest
is alwavs understood. 
52
CHAPTER V.
                     § 1-
        The process in healing by tvater.
   It is an incorrect designation  to  call  water,
as many have clone, a universal medicine.   Wa-
ter is no medicine at all.   Pure cold water has
not the least medicinal particle  in it.  But  truly
may pure  water be  called  a genuine panacea
for  all  diseases, in every   degree, that  are
curable.
   Now the question arises:   By what virtue of
the water is this astonishing effect produced, not
bcii.g itself a medicine ?  Our answer is, by  its
solving,  cleansing and  destroying power.   The
healing power of water emanates from its strong
tendency to dissolve, which exercises a constant
 )j)eratio:i  in  destroying   all  organic  life,  by
resolving it into its elementary parts.
  The process may be  thus described.  Water
has the power of extracting and  separating he-
tu-ogeneous ingredients out of their combinations.
Ti.i power  it exercises  upon  animals, plants,
and  thci*  civets.  The  human body receives
ddik, hourly, foreign matter, which  must  leave
r a^-tm, an^ this mostly by escaping out  of the 
    TrtK RtDRIATRtC  METHOD OF CURING.   53

millions of openings and little doors of the skin,
called  the pores  (pori).  If this  necessary pro-
cess is either interrupted for some time, or going
on imperfectly, disease must follow.  Water, by
its apparently inimical process of dissolving, pro-
motes  this operation:  viz. when  it surrounds the
skin, it operates on it by sucking, and displays a
tendency  to resolve   the  w;iole  body  into  its
elementary ingredients.    Th?  body  resists—
reacts against  it, and  permits  iNeif only to be
deprived  of that which  is foreign  to  it,  and
makes it sick.   If the body  is  kept  too long
under  the  water,  it  must  give  up  even that
which belongs to it;  and is weakened by  this
privation.   It may be seen from  this, that with-
out the superintendence of a water-physician, a
too abundant use of water can become injurious
to health.  Consequently,  the  water  does not
operate at  all  as a  medicine, but only by  its
power  of destroying every substance inimical to
life, in which operation it  is successful—and hero
the process  ought to stop.
  But  whence originates  that instinctive feeling
of human nature  against a  very  cold bath? Na- 
54
CHAPTER  V.
ture teaches us  peculiarly,  by the  observation
of the untamed  animals, that  we  may place
much reliance upon instinct: and, forsooth, may
the advice be  given  to  every one to follow the
instinct  of  the  palate?  It  appears,  therefore,
necessary to explain the  existing error of the
instinct against the ice cold bath.
   Man has, indeed, neither  in the state of per-
fect health nor in a  case of acute disease, an in-
stinctive  aversion against a cold bath. The sick,
in  the acute  heat  of  fever and inflammation,
longs for it with vehemence, and  it is only when
he  is poisoned and  degraded by  medical treat-
ment to  a state of chronical languor  that he
shudders at the  touch  of cold water.   Every
enervated individual participates  in  the feeling
for the very same reason; because  the neglect
of strengthening the body produces  enervation,
ruins the health, and spoils the instinct.
   Thus the main cause of the healing power  of
water is explained.  Another restoring quality
possessed by water is its coldness, for which reason
the water-physician can use  no other than very
 cold water.  By entering into the cold bath, the 
    THE HYDRIATRIC METHOD OF CURING.   55

fluid lying immediately under the skin is indeed,
in eensequence of the resolving power and cold-
ness of the water, secerned and removed from  the
body;  but the more deeply situated masses of
sap and blood  are affected, only in consequence
of the mechanical pressure  and  coldness, not by
the power  of the water, and are  consequently
rushing into the interior parts of the body.   But
when the succeeding increase of temperature takes
place, caused by a lively motion or rubbing of the
whole  body,  the repressed mass of blood  and
fluid  returns  with doubled force  back  to  the
skin,  carrying  with  it   from   the   interior
qew diseased  materials.   During the  reaction,
the skin steams and labours, partly in  order to
reject the matter thus brought to it; partly, by
the struggle,  to  regain the  disturbed normal
state.   In entering into the next eold bath, there
will consequently be below the skin a new mass
of matter  to  be secerned  from the organism,
and sucked  off by the water.   The struggles of
reaction begin anew ; new impurities are driven
out  of the interior to the skin:  and thus the
process of purification daily goes forward. 
56              CHAPTER V.

   Many  other  of the  restoring powers  of cold
water, which are  generally  known, are  here
omitted,  for  instance  its consisting  of the two
life-supporting  elements (viz.  oxygen and hy-
drogen); further  its quality of opening the  pores
of the skin, its detergent properties,  &c.
   From the description here given, the following
two points result:
   1. That  this  process, for the cause of health,
must be observed, and, if observed,
   2. That health is  advancing, though slowly
yet surely.
   Remark.—Priessnitz has, indeed,  by his bril-
liant and penetrating  sagacity, discovered, from
time to time, many means by which the  cures
by water  are  rendered  more rapid and less
dangerous.
   The result of this whole section  is  therefore
the following:
   "Water  cures the organism of no disease, but
it forces the organism to  cure itself."
   Thousands of  years  ago  the human family
were looking out for the  true method of  healing
from  the  shop  of  the  apothecary, yet  never 
     THE  HYDRIATRIC METHOD  OF CURING.   57

 turned their eyes towards the place where it was
 really deposited.  The  race  may be compared
 to a  distracted man seeking for  his hat, which
 was already on his head. Man carries the whole
 materia medica  under his  skin, and the key to
 it is—water.

                     §  2.
     Which diseases are curable by water ?
   To  ennumerate  them singly, and  by their
 names,  would  be a tedious and  useless under-
 taking, serving only to extend the limits of  this
 little book farther  than necessary ; therefore
 I shall prefer naming  those diseases which can-
 not  be  cured  by the use  of cold  water,  this
 requiring only  a  few words.
   Incurable, for  the  water-physician,  are  all
chronic diseases  of  the lunge, that have already
made too destructive a?i  inroad on this organ.
Incurable are further all organic faults and all
diseases of such  persons as are  deprived either
qf a cutaneous  system susceptible of operating in
behalf of the cure, or of a  sufficient degree of
vital power.   Yet Priessnitz  has already per. 
58               CHAPTER  V.
fectly  restored  many  patients who  had been
declared by the most  celebrated  doctors to be
absolutely incurable on  account of their deficient
vital power.—That malady, which  could perti-
naciously resist  a continued  water-treatment,
must be rooted indeed very deeply in an entirely
bankrupt organism.
  The healing of all acute diseases to Priessnitz
is but  play.   He  has,  for  instance,  treated
nervous fevers and  inflammatory  attacks  in  all
their degrees and " stadia;" and of such patients
he has not lost one among a thousand by death.
On the contrary, the  most radical cure  has al-
ways  been performed  in a few  days, and  this
without subsequent sufferings.  How lamentably
reverse is the fate of  such unfortunate people as
have  been  treated  (or  rather  ill-treated)  by
medicine-physicians! — It is,  for instance,  ge-
nerally  said, that nervous fever  always leaves
behind it  suffering, lasting  often  for life;—but
nervous fever, if left to  itself will  not do this,
and it is only nervous fever when  suppressed by
medical  noieon, often  these poisons  alone  that 
    THE HYDRIATRIC  METHOD OF  CURING.   59

does it.  The same can be  said  of most of the
acute diseases.
   Water has further the most decided and rapid
efficacy in  open wounds, and all disorders,  the
seat of which is on  the  surface  of the  body.
Water supplants all  the  horrid  art  of cutting,
burning,  extirpating and  skinning  on  the flesh
and  bones  of man—the butchering  art  of  the
surgical operator.
   Amongst the  chronic  diseases  curable   by
water, mercurial languor, in its infinitely varie-
gated forms, stands at  their head. It  is admitted
that half of the patients at Grcefenberg came to
reject  this  metal.  The Grsefenberg is truly a
mine  of quicksilver,  renting to its proprietor
more than  many a  gold mine, though the mer-
cury is here ejected in infinitely small invisible
particles out of the bodies of the patients.  This
is the only  thing which might render the prac-
tice of the  water-physician  disgusting,  that  he
has eternally to drive out  the demon of mercury
from the bodies of those poisoned by  it.
   All gout and rheumatism, with certainty, mav
be cured by water.  The piles and disorders of 
60
CHAPTER V.
the belly,  of  all kinds;  scrofulous complaints,
rhachitis,  white swelling,  itch  and  venereal
maladies;  and besides the above named, a host
of other sufferings, originating  from stagnant,
sharp and putrid fluids of the body, together with
the disorders emanating from medical poisonings,
which can admit as many forms  as  there are
learned names of diseases.
  Special  mention  may be  made  here  of the
general corruption and disturbance of the nerves.
But he, in whose dorsal  medulla the bankrupt
has already established itself,  is not to be cured;
nor will any one derive that benefit  from  it,
who, in consequence of  mercurial  poisoning, is
long  ago  perfectly  paralysed;  neither  can it
afford help in cases of deformity, crooked  legs,
or stupidity.  Such unhappy  beings have  indeed
sometimes  repaired  to Graefenberg as a sanctuary
of graces  and wonders, but they have  had  im-
mediately to  retrace their steps, with  the  sen-
tence  of incurability.   Priessnitz likewise dis-
misses every individual labouring under a  total
privation of the vital power of the organism, lost 
     THE HYDRIATRIC METHOD OF CURING.  61

 in  too protracted  a struggle with the  chronic
 demon.
   The neighbouring doctors have frequently sent
 such bankrupt  patients  to Priessnitz, with  the
 secret intention of  putting their death  to  his
 account,  but  such insidious  fellows found their
 master in Priessnitz, who surpassed in cunning
 the most crafty of them.   He sent these unfor-
 tunate beings without delay back to them who
 had intended to trouble him with them.  In some
 instances, Priessnitz even received such patients,
 when he saw any possibility of their restoration,
 and dismissed them sound and whole, which was
 still more mortifying to those who had employed
 them to annoy him.
   Such malicious doctors were  unconscientious
 enough, in order to have a pretext for pretending
 that Priessnitz had sacrificed a man to his water-
 system, to disturb the quiet  of the  last days of
a dying  fellow-being, to cause heavy  expenses
to the family of the candidate for death, and to
deceive the  sufferer, by exciting  in  him a  hope
of restoration, only with a view of hurting Priess-
nitz by their venom. 
62               CHAPTER  V.
   This remarkable man, in judging of the state
 of a  patient and  the probability  of the  cure,
 looks only at his dress—(this he uses to call the
 skin of the supplicant for help)—and at his eyes.
 By the former, he learns whether the skin  is
 still possessed  of  the energy requisite  to the
 healing  process;  by the  latter,  whether the
 patient is  in general  still  enjoying some  vital
 power.  The condition of  the patient's  pulse,
 tongue, &c.  is  of  no  moment to him.   To the
 physician operating by medicines,  an abnormal
 state of the pulse can cause considerable anxiety,
 but how  could the water-physician  be troubled
 by it,  since he  possesses  an  infallible  means of
 directly removing  the most violent fever, pro-
 vided the skin be  not untractable, but still  in  a
 state of vigour and  activity.

                      § 3.
 Description of the mode of  healing adopted by
       Priessnitz in some acute diseases.
  It is not the intention  of the author of this
 book to give  formal  instruction respecting the
treatment of  single diseases by water,  his  aim 
     THE  HYDRIATRIC METHOD  OF CURING.   63

 being much more to convince the  reader of the
 excellency of the water-practice  in general, in
 order to  procure for it  in America what it has
 already obtained in  Europe, adherents for the
 promotion of the welfare of the suffering part of
 the human race, who will then feel inclined to
 acquire a special knowledge of the particulars
 respecting such cures by viewing  the processes
 themselves.  But the treatment of some  diseases
 will be briefly  laid before the reader, in order
 to render, by those examples, the nature of the
 Avhole method conspicuous.
   Priessnitz, the founder of this  great  healing
 system, has formed, for  himself, his own views
 about the  causes of  diseases,  which, in a  few
 words, will be  prefixed to a  description of his
healing method, for the better  understanding of
the same.
  These  views coincide with  those of many
former physicians.    They  are truly material,
entirely,  grossly material, but  in this material
 world  they are  permitted* and may be so  by
 right, provided the healing power, considered as
 something superior to matter, is not denied. 
64               CHAPTER V.
   Priessnitz asserts, " that the cause of every
disease is a  material substance, xohich must be
thrown out from  the body."  Homoeopathy, on
the  contrary,  introduces  into  her  nosology  a
kind  of spirituality, which,  in  matters of such
a palpable nature, appears not to be in its right
place;  whilst  Allopathy decides  nothing about
this  question.   Homoeopathy speaks of dishar-
monies in the  nerves  themselves,   or  single
functions—of dynamical  rather  than  mechanical
and chemical causes of diseases, and  that school
has evidently  been led by the theoretical error
of this spirituality,  or  semblance  to  immate-
riality, into the practical  nonsense of the ridi-
culous decillionth  parts.    How arrogant  and
contradictory to daily experience is the exclusion
and  the  disrespect shown  to  the  " autonomia
and  autokratia" of nature,  or  her independent
healing power! And this is the foundation of
all healing operations.  It supports them, guides
them, modifies them, yea produces them, often
quite alone.  This healing power of nature,  this
self-restoration, which is so  gloriously displayed
in water-cures;  that mighty process,  which is 
    THE HYDRIATRIC METHOD OF CURING.   65

understood by  the  word  Crisis,  and for which
even  the  most  selfish  allopathists entertain the
most  profound respect,  is  entirely  awanting in
Homoeopathy,  and this  is  a defect alike incon-
ceivable and pernicious.  Hahnemann  is undoubt-
edly  a  master in the science of Pharmacy,  and
has gained imperishable laurels by his treatise on
poisoning by arsenic, (though immediately  after
him this  doctrine  has  become considerably im-
proved).  His name will also last by the produc-
tion of his  so-called  "soluble quicksilver;" but
he ruins his well-earned  reputation by his quack-
like  wandering  from  his   limits into  regions
wherein he  is an utter stranger.
  That the  views  of Priessnitz are  correct can
be  demonstrated in every institute that  heals by
water, for  the furuncles will be plainly visible;
but not only the sight and touch,  but  also the
sense of smelling, even that of tasting, if found
desirable, would make the skeptical sure that  all
the causes  of diseases  are material  causes, not
belonging to the body but  inimical  to  it;  and
that they cast themselves upon the skin  in order
to be  ejected from  it.   It could  also be demon-
         5 
66               CHAPTER  V.
strated, that by a long and radical water-cure a
complete renovation of the whole  mass  of  sap,
blood, and flesh of the body is undergone.
  Here I remark once for all,  that  the water-
curer " never will employ any other  means  bid
pure cold water, not even in cases xchere vomiting
and purging  are desirable, both of  which  are
effected by draughts and clysters of cold water "
   In acute diseases, the tendency of the cure is
directly  to remove  the causes  of  the  disease,
either by purging and vomiting (in  gastric com-
plaints), or commonly by  bathing and sweating.
In chronic diseases, on the contrary, the aim is
to turn  them  into acute attacks,—for these  are
the crises of the water-cure,—by which the heal-
ing is easily  and successfully obtained.
   a. Nervous fevers.
   For a nervous fever, such an organism only is
susceptible, as is not yet  labouring under a de-
cayed  nervous system.   Real  impotency of  that
system has been, by  water, so far  removed  that
it could afford  the susceptibility  for  a nervous
fever, which  was then very  easily cured.   The
 healing method is the following: 
     THE  HYDRIATRIC METHOD OF CURING.  67
  The patient labouring under this fever  is put,
(as has already been successfully done, by Gianini,
in Padua,) whilst in the state of the  utmost heat
and the most raging paroxysm,  into a bath  as
cold  as  possible, and left  therein  until  he  is
cooled to the very chattering of the teeth.   Then
the patient is taken out  of the bath, and power-
fully  rubbed  all over with woollen cloths, after
which he is swaddled into warm coverings and
overlaid  with  beds.   If the  heat  returns during
the following increase of warmth of the body,
the  process  is  repeated, until  by bathing and
rubbing  a  great  activity of the skin—a  real
cutaneous fever—has  been excited, which  takes
the fury of the fever away from the nerves upon
itself.  Then sweating is necessary,  in order  to
eject  the  noxious  matter, which  has now been
brought  below  the  skin.  To  excite  sweating
would be often  very difficult, if  Priessnitz  had
not discovered an expedient, which is  at the same
time the most efficacious and harmless of  all su-
doriferous  means.  A linen  cloth,  after having
been laid in cold water, is wrung out very care-
fully, and  is then laid closely round the  naked 
t)J5
iiiutkh v.
body.   Over  this  cloth, beds  are placed  in
sufficient quantity over the  patient to  warm him
thoroughly.  After the space of half an hour the
patient is taken  out, and  put  under the former
process of sweating by means of beds.
  Here as  ever, without  exception, the patient
drinks nothing but cold water, and as much of it
as he desires, provided that he, when well, was
not entirely alienated from  its  use.   In  what
manner  the healing  results  in consequence  of
that treatment, is clear in  itself, but it must still
be remarked, for the benefit  of those averse  to
cold bathing, that such baths are not detrimental
to the most  heated bodies, provided  their high
temperature is not caused by spontaneous motions
operating on the  respiration,—of which  more
below.
  b. Inflammatory diseases.
  Quite  dmi'ar  to the foregoing is the treatment
in inflammations,  only that,  according to the
circumstances, cooling local  cataplasms of cold
water may  become  necessary.   The aim of the
"are is the  came, viz.  to  take out the heat by
;:<:ans of the cold \  a?h?, to  <$•*  by  the sub- 
     THE  HVDRIATRIC METHOD  OF CURING.   69

 sequent rubbing a great activity of the skin and
 reaction, and finally by sweating to cast out the
 sickening matter.
   The learned mother of quacks, Allopathy, in
 this takes butchers for patterns, and orders blood-
 letting—a  detestable expedient,  which can in-
 deed save from a hot death (but never so surely
 as cold water), but which paralyses the organism
 to such a degree that it resigns, from weakness,
 the  effort  to heal.  And  this Allopathy  calls
 healing.  The letting of blood might  find excuse
 where cold water could not be  had;  but  cold
 water takes  the life-endangering heat  out of
 the  inflammed  body much more rapidly than
 venesection,—and rapidly this must be done, since
 here death steps in rapidly.
  How Homoeopathy can expect any  result from
decillionth parts in such a terrible  heat of in-
flammation—is inconceivable.

                     §4.
Of the healing process in most chronic diseases.
  Debility  is  not  a  malady,  but  something
worse, therefore  the effect of water  is slower 
70               CHAPTER  V.

than in other cases.  Its  application for it  is-
very simple:  baths of short  duration in  large
bathing vessels;  long-lasting  local baths,  when,
feet, arms, &e. are  exposed to the water; und
water-cataplasms.   The method of cure in most
chronical diseases is the following:
  The patient, who is not yet used to cold baths,
must by ablutions and half-baths in  lukewarm
water—the temperature of which must yet  never
rise  above 14 degrees of Reaumur (64  Fahren-
heit)—be  prepared  for the cold bath,—the tem-
perature of  which  must  never amount  to more
than 10 degrees—the  colder the better.   After
the lapse  of this  time  of preparation,  every
morning at four o'clock a menial of the institute
will appear, and enclose the naked patient care-
fully, like  a  precious jewel, in the woollen sweat-
ing-cloths, over which beds  are laid thickly and
firmly.  It is advisable  to  drink  previously a
glass of cold water, since the refreshing draught
cannot be  enjoyed  till the coming forth  of the
sweat.—One or two hours afterwards, when heat
and restlesness announce the approaching sweat,
the limb? are to  bn  put in  motion  below  the 
    THE HYDRIATRIC  METHOD OF CURING.  71

covering, by rubbing the  legs together, and the
arms  against  the body.   When  the sweat  is
breaking out, cold water is to be drunk: a glass
after each quarter of an hour, and care is to be
taken  for  the admission  of fresh  air  by  the
opening of the windows.—The body, having thus
bedewed itself richly, is now qualified  for the
cold bath.   Nobody is permitted to  sweat  for a
longer time than two hours:  and in going to
the bath every one is warned against cooling his
body;  whilst, on  the  contrary, the naked  limbs
may, in returning from  the bath,  be exposed
leisurely to snow and rain.—In  the bath, the
patient must  not remain above  five minutes,
several of them not one minute, and it is advisable
to romp and toss about while in it.   The patient
having dressed himself at the open window, takes
a walk, and does not appear at  the breakfast
table till half an hour after the bath.
  The  sound sweat may be easily distinguished
 from that which results from fever and debility;
 the latter being discernable from the former by
causing the skin to become  immediately  dry as
soon  as it  is exposed to the cold  air.   These 
72
CHAPTER V.
unwholesome sweats must first be  removed, be-
fore the patient begins the afore-described cure.
The most efficacious means against these debili-
tant morbid sweats are cold baths, to be taken in
the very eruption  of them,  though even  in  the
midst  of  the  night. — "Ice-cold  baths! in
sweat!!—how senseless! .'.'"—this  may  be  the
prevailing thought of many  readers of this book,
whilst shuddering  involuntarily.    But  several
thousands of experiments,  many  of them fur-
nished by very weak  patients, have  placed it
beyond all doubt that  the cold bath  is most  sa-
lubrious  when taken whilst  the skin was  steam-
ing;  only provided, that the  perspiration was
not produced by  motion exciting the whole orga-
nism, but in a state of rest under warm coverings.
—To an individual sweating by violent exercise
a cold bath can cause instant death.
  The reason, why in all diseases the cold bath
is to be taken whilst the skin is sweating,  is self-
evident from  the  preceding   remarks. — The
healthy may bathe even whilst the skin is  not
inclined towards sweating, but they should never
whilst  shuddering  with cold.   How  rotten  are 
     THE HYDRIATRIC  METHOD OF CURING.  73

 the fruits which  the learning  of men produces !
 All the  great and little doctors,  charlatans and
 quacks, have not been  able to find out this first
 rule of bathing, far less to establish  the whole
 glorious system for which  we are now indebted
 to a farmer!
   To the inhabitant  of the  northern regions,
 cold  sweating-baths are, as a  mean  of healing,
 most beneficial.   This is  seen in the examples
 of  the Russians,  the  northern Indians, and the
 Esquimaux,  who  proverbially owe  their  health
 to sweating-baths.   Yet their  process must not
 be compared with that of Priessnitz, since they
 force the body by external heat to  the utmost
 stretch of transpiration, which  requires at least a
 Russian  constitution,  whilst Priessnitz  restores
 even the weakest by a careful  calculation of the
degree in which  the  power of  water  is  to  be
applied.
  Let us now return to the proper subject of this
section.
  After having thus bathed  for eight or fourteen
days, the  falling- (Sturz)   baths  are  combined
with the  former.   This kind of falling-baths are, 
74               CHAPTER V.
at  Groefenberg, of a  very coarse  description.
The Sophia, this is the name of the most power-
ful of them, is twenty feet high, and her ray of
water  is four inches in diameter.  Nearly all
the visiters of the institute are desirous of parti-
cipating in its benefits, and the awaiting of their
turns is truly tedious.   The water is very cold.
In using it, precaution is peculiarly needful  that
neither head  nor stomach are exposed  to  the
falling  ray (quite  in  conformity  with  some
celebrated  Italian baths, where  the  exposure of
the head has often resulted in immediate death).
These baths last only from five  to  twenty mi-
nutes, and  they  are  generally  taken  before
dinner.  Two or three  hours  after it, according
to circumstances, either another sweating takes
place, or a sitting or foot-bath.   In the evening,
before retiring to rest, either  a foot  or general
bath is to be taken, the latter without a previous
sweating process.
   From the enumeration of  the daily  bath,  it
 may be concluded that the whole day  is con-
 sumed in   operations  belonging  to  the  cure.
 There is  no time  to  be  spared for  pleasure- 
     THE HYDRIATRIC  METHOD OF  CURING.  75

parties,  nor  for  indulging  in hypochondriac
thoughts;  but the cure  must be  carried on in
such a forcible way only under  the  superinten-
dence of a fully  competent water-physician, and
by patients enjoying powerful constitutions. Who-
ever would wish to try it at home,  ought first
to consult a  water-physician, and  to bathe  sel-
domer.
   In general, the water-cure is not to be per-
formed hurriedly.   Its  progress varies consi-
derably as to  time, but  it always lasts longer
than  many people  are here  inclined to expect,
that is in chronic diseases of considerable stand-
ing, of which alone we now speak.  Middle-aged
persons may easily spend half a  year in the
perfect  restoration  from old,  deeply rooted di-
sease;  and with older and  weaker  individuals
even a year may sometimes elapse before the end
is attained.  Yea,  some  cases  have happened,
where patients of an entirely disordered consti-
tution have had  to devote more than one  year
to  their restoration.   But still more  time is
required for  the  cure, when a patient wishes to
cure  himself, whilst  engaged  in following  the 
76               CHAPTER  V.
 duties  of  his  vocation, than  under  the  super-
 intendance of a skilful water-physician.

                      § 5.
 Of the method used in Epidemics and infectious
                ulcerous diseases.
   a.  Epidemics.
   It  is an  easy thing  to ascertain the cause of
 those epidemics  which occur  after  a sudden
 change in  the temperature (colds and their con-
 sequences) ;  or after  too  severe  labours in hot
 seasons (gastric diseases after  harvest); or after
 the retreat of the water in swampy places (putrid
 fevers); but whence are derived the new horrors,
 cholera and influenza 1—Where have they been
 generated ?—Different  opinions have  been  pro-
 mulgated, which we will  pass over  in silence.
 The most probable supposition is  that of  their
 having  been produced by innumerable and in-
 visible animalculae filling the air.  For if a chro-
 nical  corruption of the  air  itself were the cause,
either the  lungs would suffer,  or  the  epidemics
would take upon them the character of putrid
fever, or  would at  least  alwnvs be  connected 
     THE HYDRIATRIC  METHOD OF  CURING.  77

 with fever.  In cholera, the stomach is the seat
 of the  evil, probably  because the innumerable
 animalcules, being invisible  to  the naked  eye,
 can  enter therein together  with  the  nourish-
 ment,  in large numbers.   By respiration they
 cannot  get admittance to the lungs, the wind-
 pipe allowing no  passage  to any  thing living,
 but only to real air, yet certainly also to corrupt
 air.   But if chronical corruption of the air can-
 not be the cause,  then  must  it be  attributed to
 animalcules.  Since cholera expands  itself over
 a space of thousands  of miles without infection,
 and yet  not so  far as gases and animals (every
 other thing oorporeal precipitating  itself before
 having gone through such a space), the conclusion
 that it arises from animalcules becomes probable.
  In the influenza, the probability is still greater
 in favour  of animalcules.  In this disease the
 throat,  the eyes, and the  nose are suffering,—
obviously the  openings offering the most  easy
 entry to animalcules.  Here the conjecture might
 be admissible, that the influenza-animalcule pre-
 ponderates in size over that of the cholera, the
 former  sticking more  to  the entrances of the 
78               chapter  v.
body, whilst the latter enters  the  more  interior
parts.  Further, it  might be hazarded that  the
animalcules of  the cholera and  those of  the
influenza are different forms of the same animal
(as for instance caterpillar  and butterfly), both
diseases commonly  following each other in rapid
succession in the same country.
   Whatever may be  the  reasons,  so much is
true, that the water-cure has vindicated  itself as
the surest remedy for these  evils;  and still more
sure and beneficial is the process by which these
dangers  are prevented.   Its  efficacy  in this
instance would be easily explained, if caused by
animalcules filling  the air, for each  animal of
the air dies in water.
   The treatment of the influenza consists chiefly
in general  baths and  sweating;  also in local
applications of water, snuffing the  water into the
nostrils,  when  the interior  membrane of  the
nose is suffering;  bathing the eyes, when this
organ is  affected;  but  principally  in drinking
much water.
   The cholera in the beginning is overcome by
long-lasting and frequent sitting-baths, joined to 
THE  t .' ) t-' \     TRIC: METHOD OF CURING.  79

excessive water drinking; by the help of vomiting
and purging, by  which the healing is effected.
But when spasms and  cold limbs  have already
taken  place, the  sitting-bath.3 will be  without
benefit;  in this  case  cold  bathing, and  princi-
pally rubbing, till the blood  circulates  freely,
will be required.  When the cutaneous activity
is restored, sweating  must follow, and  sitting-
baths  conclude  the  treatment.   Priessnitz  has
cured  patients suffering  by cholera,  who  were
given  up  by the physicians  as incurable.  " Give
me," says Dr.  Rause, a  water-physician, " a
thousand  of such patients, provided  they  have
taken  no medicine,  and  are  still  capable  of
vomiting and purging,—and  if  a single one  of
them dies under my hands, I will  be answerable
for it."   The  medicine takes, according to the
common nonsense, the symptoms for the  disease
itself, and attacks  them;  thus  in the  time  of
cholera far more patients have been killed by  it,
than by the epidemic.
   b. Infectious ulcerous diseases.
   It is a  good deal  more probable in ulcerous
 diseases  than in epidemics  that the sufferings 
80
CHAPTER V.
are  caused  by  animalcules.   But they  differ
from those that produce epidemics peculiarly in
the faculty of propagating their species in the
human body, and further by their inability to fly.
The former  quality of the  ulcer-producing ani-
mals  renders  the sufferings caused by  them  a
chronical  one;  the second,  an infecting  one,
without the  power of extending  itself epidemi-
cally.   The  diseases here understood are  the
itch,  the venereal maladies, and leprosy.   The
animalcules  that produce itch,  and those exist-
ing in venereal ulcers  have  already  been  ob-
served.   Very  little of  this  poison  introduced
into the system  soon pervades the whole body;
whilst, for instance, the poison of snakes, though
it indeed likewise permeates the whole body, yet
it  becomes  the weaker  the more it  is  diffused
and extended.
  The cure of these diseases consists in sweating
and bathing, and in extracting local cataplasms;
that is, linen is  placed closely upon the ulcers,
wrunc out of cold water, and then  covered  with
warm  cloths.   These cataplasms are as  often
repeated as they get dry, and  are  in all chronic 
     THK  HYDRIATRIC METHOD  OF CURING.   81

diseases an excellent local means of strengthening
the body and extracting from it its impurities.
   By sweating, the cause of the  ulcers is brought
to the skin, and by the cold water it is destroyed.
It is clear that  each single animalcule cannot be
individually  killed  by applying water  to  the
orifice of each of them.  This is done by whole-
sale,  as in  the  case of mercury;  only that in
that case the whole body would be exposed to
poisoning, whilst  in this  the  water is healing
the organism.
   There  is another class of ulcerous  diseases,
not chronical, to which the small pox, measles,
rash, &c,  belong,  propagating themselves not
only by contact, but  also  by the atmosphere of
the sick-chamber.  On this  account the suppo-
sition of winged animalcules might  find place,
propagating themselves  indeed  in the body,  but
becoming, after some time, extinct,  as is  the
case with some zoophytes.   The cure is nearly
like that of  chronic ulcerous diseases ; only that,
as in acute cases, it is very rapid and  certain.
When measles or rash have entered  the  interior
of the body by colds, no surer means for sending
          6 
82
CHAPTER V
them back  to the skin can  be  found, than a
bath, followed by rubbing  and warm covering,
or the above-mentioned surrounding of the  body
with a wet linen cloth.  With the reaction,  the
rash will return to the skin; from whence it may
be driven by sweating and bathing.
  Sections 8, 4 and  5 are by no means written
with the intention  that any individual, by  their
instruction,  should treat any  of these  diseases.
For  this purpose  they  are useless, since  the
general principles  require, in practice, to be mo-
dified according to the various degrees of the di-
seases and  the different  constitutions  of  the
patient. The development of the laws, according
to which these differences are  to  be regulated,
belongs to a larger work, not  to the aim of this
little book.

                     §  6.
Explication of the healing process, in the  treat-
          ment described in section 4.
  As an exposition of the mode  of healing  by
cold  sweating-baths ma\  exemplify the  whole 
     THE  HYDRIATRIC METHOD  OF CURING.   83

 process, the following remarks  are put together
 in the most concise manner:
 a. Bad humours, deposits, &c. are forced to follow
   the  other  impurities in their march to the
   skin, from  whence they are expelled.
 b. Into the sick  and inactive  organs,  a fresh
   current of  new and daily improved fluids are
   introduced  and  rapidly led  through them; to
   the sick parts  the  process of their heathful
   alimentation is  re-iterated by way of a bene-
   ficially enforced exercise, continued till  they
   are  again   sufficiently  accustomed  to their
   functions in order to re-assume the process of
   self-alimentation, that is the  assimilation and
   change of the imported nourishment into their
   own substance.
c. All bodily  functions in their totality are in-
   volved  in the same process into the same man-
   ner of operating,  the  cure acting not indi-
   vidually upon  single parts of  the body,  but
   upon the whole organism.
  The baths themselves, without previous sweat-
ing  for  hours (when  the skin  is  rubbed  or
warmed  by the covering  of  beds),  forces  the 
84
CHAPTER V.
organism, by  the  reaction  following, to  bring
every thing removable to the exterior teguments,
and in consequence of it the  before-mentioned
three  wholesome effects take place.  Undoubtedly
the previous sweating accelerates  the cure,  but
it must be omitted with very weak persons,  and
is  in  general  only required when  noxious ma-
terials are to be removed from the body.
  When the sitting-bath is taken for the  purpose
of strengthening the power  of digestion and of
the nerves only, or with the intention of removing
congestion from the breast and head, its duration
must  not be extended over ten  minutes; but if,
at the same time,  the materials  of a disease are
to be taken out  of the body by  it, it must be
prolonged to twenty or even to forty minutes.
  The  sitting-bath  has the  decided effect of
turning the activity from the cerebral system to
that of the " ganglia;" it is of incalculable value
to such  persons as are  labouring  under strong
mental  exertions,  and  are in  need of such  a
leading  off, principally  men  who study deeply
and poets.—Those parts of the body which  are
peculiarly exposed to cold baths gain very  per- 
THE HYDRIATRIC METHOD OF CURING.   85
ceptibly  in  external  strength.  And  since  the
artificial padding-out  of some parts of the body
is so mueh in vogue with the fair sex, the sitting-
bath may now be recommended to all ladies who
would look elegantly.  They can, without expense,
by  means of perseveringly used  sitting-baths,
supplant all artificial  additions, and  avoid  much
expense and ridicule,  by substituting real flesh.
  The first effect of the sitting-bath is the  op-
posite  of the second, which has a  very lasting
efficacy;  viz. first, the  blood  is forced into  the
head. Persons to whom this happens in a higher
than common degree may lay water cataplasms
upon the head, yet only in cases of emergency,
because the  intended delivery of the head will
be more completely performed if the head remains
dry. The efficacy of the sitting-bath is height-
ened much  by rubbing and kneading the belly
with wetted hands during the time of the bath.
  The  effect of foot-baths  is  quite similar.
They lead blood, heat, and the  materials of di-
seases from the upper  parts to the feet.  Cold
foot-baths are the only absolute remedy for  the
suffering of cold feet, particularly if the bath is 
86               CHAPTER V.
succeeded by a long walk. — The duration of
foot-baths for the  purpose of warming the feet
is about ten  minutes;  but if the aim  be  to  stir
up and cast out deleterious matter, they may last
forty minutes.  Such foot-baths are to be recom-
mended principally to  those  poisoned by mer-
cury, since tlnXpoison is mostly deposited in the
external parts of the body, ready to produce in
its time podagra, paralytic symptoms, or to  lay
the foundation of dropsy.
  But for the purpose of stirring  up the ma-
terials that cause  disease—whether they result
from the errors of physieians or of the patients
themselves — no  bath  exists that  operates  so
rapidly and   decidedly  as the fall-bath.  The
effect is sometimes nearly an immediate one;  on
the  place where for years the pains had slum-
bered, the  water-ray will re-awaken them,  so
that they will smart sufficiently, even before  the
patient will have arrived at  his lodgings from
the first bath.  This stirring up  and putting to
flight of the  slumbering cause of disease is  " a
main requisite" of the cure.  It  is  effected in a
low degree by every cold bath, more so by thb 
     IHB  HYDRIATRIC METHOD OF  CURING.  87

«©ld sweating-bath, but  most by the COLD
FALL - BATH.  For this  reason the  abuse
of  the fall-bath  can become  dangerous—and
even fatal; but  it is abuse when  this bath is
resorted  to before the activity of  the  skin has
been awakened by cold sweating-baths, and all
its little doors have  been  opened, in order that
the stirred-up materials of diseases may escape
through them.
  If the  efficaoy of all  those various  baths is
considered together, it  will  be found  natural,
that whilst the cure  is progressing  many pains
will arise; the provoked demons  of the  diseases
will not be put to flight without a hard  struggle,
and this very struggle with the  healing  energy
of nature  is the cause of the pains. Pains already
slumbering and  forgotten for twenty and more
years are  >re-awakened, if their causing materials
are still in the body, when the  cure begins to
operate.
  Two different signs prognosticate  the desired
cure:  a very reddened skin after the bath,  and
the awakening of old pains.  Cicatrices of old
badly cured wounds  frequently reopen. 
98
CHAPTER V.
   From  these  remarks  the conclusion may be
drawn, that the common process  of healing by
water in chronic diseases is the following:  That
the poor  bent  down body  is  aroused,  by the
water, out of  its lethargic  slumber  to  revolt
against  its   tyrannical  oppressor  and that  it
assists the organism faithfully in the casting out
of this most dangerous of all tyrants, or in  other
words:—The xoater-cure changes  the  chronical
suffering into an acute struggle,  called crisis,
and  this  being introduced  it heals  the  body
surely and radically.
  Before  the body begins  this  struggle, the
power of its enemy has  already become  much
weakened.  By sweating and  other evacuations
much matter  detrimental  to  health  has  been
removed.   The body opens not the battle  with-
out having first weighed its own powers against
those  of its enemy, and  having  ascertained  a
preponderance on its side.  In this calculation
the organism is  guided by so sure an instinct,
that it may  be  said without hesitation:  " An
acute  malady will never display  itself,  where
the body  has not a surplus of power over its 
    THE HYDRIATRIC METHOD  OF CUEING.   89

 enemy ; if it yet succumbs, the fault will always
 be  either in  a wrong diet or in  the  perverse
 treatment of the physician."
   Boastingly as Homoeopathy  extols her  doc-
 trine,  " Similia similibus curare,"  they cannot
 yet explain, even  to  their own satisfaction,  the
 operating  process  of their principle,  and  are
 only astonished, not enlightened, by their system.
 But it performs this, by exciting the body through
 " similia"  to an acute struggle  in chronical suf-
 ferings, or by gradation of the acute struggle in
 already acute  diseases.   From this solution it
 follows, that Homoeopathy  in acute diseases can
 be of no importance; yet  possibly, if the  doses
 were  not so  ridiculously  small,  it  might have
 some  in chronical  diseases.   Yet the taking of
 medicines, of  whatsoever nature, will  be dan-
 gerous and reprehensible so long as cold water
 is to  be had, by  which to  perform cures with
 safety.
                     § 7-
 The crisis, produced by the water-cure and its
                   treatment.
  The crisis plays a main part in all water cures ;
for if it is obtained, the healing is certain. 
90               CHAPTF*  V.
   Crisis is therefore the raising of the organism
against the chronical enemy; it  is a violent  en-
deavour for delivery,—a fiery revolution against
the tyranny of the  disease.  On this  account
these crises carry all those signs of hot diseases,
fevers indeed often,  but weak ones,  when  the
organism and its enemy  are not valiant  com-
batants, or when the preponderance of the  orga-
nism over its enemy is very great.
   The effect of the crisis is, however, the casting
out of the materials causing illness, by means of
urine, excrements, sweating, or ulcers:  and in the
treatment of the crisis the leading principle of
the water-physician is—that the enemy must  not
be excited, xchen  he  observes  him to  be still  too
powerful and able to kill; in this case all  ex-
citing  applications  of the water  must  be laid
aside.   This general principle admits,  according
to the  special cases of sickness,  the following
forms:
  In case the organism has called forth a violent
fever to assist it in producing ulcers,  the patient
is repeatedly closely wrapped  in linen cloths.  By
this  measure  the eruption, seated beneath  th« 
    THE HYDRIATRIC METHOD OF CURINO.  91

skin,  is  partially  driven  out, and the fever is
partly alleviated.   But when  the  critical symp-
toms appear in too great a number and  in  too
violent a degree, and  too many and  too  large
ulcers are coming forth: then cold water must
not be resorted to at all, because the crisis would
be  heightened, and  nothing  must be done, ex-
cepting  ablutions  with  water deprived  of its
freshness—in order to keep the  skin open—and
besides this,  sometimes a mild sweat.
   From this  the now established principle  fol-
lows : that in critical symptoms  of  importance,
first,  the fall-bath—as the most exciting  mean
—has to cease.  But if the eruption amounts to
nothing  more than  an easy  bathing rash,  the
falling  bath   is to be continued  zealously,  and
warming, extracting,  cold  cataplasms of  water
are to be.applied.  These cataplasms  are  to be
renewed  as often  as they begin  to get dry, in
contradistinction  to those  cooling  cataplasms,
which are to be renewed as often as they begin
to get warm.   Of these cooling  cataplasms, use
is only made in very painful and inflammatory
exanthems;  no fear is to be  entertained  that 
92               CHAPTER V.
they might drive back the  exanthem into  the
body by their coldness; this is indeed done  by
cold air, but never by cold water—The use of
the warming cataplasms besides, in the crisis, is
a very extensive  one in water-cures.  For  in-
stance they are laid upon the stomach and belly
in order to strengthen them, also upon the breast,
and upon  the  region of the vesica, to remove
spasms.   To dwell here  more circumstantially
upon their further application  would be foreign
to the purpose of this book, suffice it to say that
they are used as well to strengthen the  parts as
to extract injurious materials.
   The principle  can be applied to practice  by
every thinking reader in  all cases  without our
enumerating individual  instances.  From this
principle also the conclusion will follow, that these
cataplasms  will  demand   often  a  considerable
time, perhaps even a  year, in order fully to pro-
duce the desired effect.
   The best of all rules respecting the crisis may
be expressed as follows:
   Be not afraid of its coming, of the beginning
of the desired and called-for moment, the critical 
     THE HYDRIATRIC METHOD  OF CUEING.   93

time, with its pains, its anxieties and threatenings.
If you feel, after some trial of the cure, yourself
in such a degree  relieved that  you might enter-
tain the opinion that all had been done, and the
cure was finished;  then be prepared and ready
for  the decisive struggle.  This struggle  never
comes before  the  organism has recovered consi-
derable strength,  and gained such a degree of
power as to be able successfully to enter  into the
combat with  the enemy.—If at the entering of
the  crisis  you cowardly  give  up the cure  and
yourself, you are  like the hunter, who has allured
a tiger to relinquish his den, and then  runs
 away frightened at  the  sight of the   monster.
 The hunter will be torn in pieces, and your fate
 will be no better, if you  crown your folly  and
 cowardice by seeking  help from  a medicine-
physician. The same medicine, which at another
time would have caused to you  only a  moderate
and usual poisoning, will now kill you in the
 water-cure/—When all nerves are  performing
 a crying  and dissonant music,  like a  band of
 artists preparing their instruments for an ex-
 hibition,  then rejoice,—thy  body is tuning the 
CHAPTER V.
 instruments in order  to play to thy delight  the
 enchanting hymn  of perfectly  restored health!
 When the painful strokes of the crisis are most
 hurtful to thy feelings, then you ought to triumph!
 These strokes  arc announcing,  like  sounds of
 trumpets, the return of health !

                     §8.
 Advices for persons who xvish to make use of  the
                  water-cure.
  Whoever intends resorting to the water-cure
 only for the strengthening of a weak  organism
 or a single weak organ will find remarks adapted
 to his circumstances  in the following chapter.
 But  he, who is really  troubled  with  disease,
 whether caused  by allopathic medical  stuffs,  or
arthritic,   hsemorrhoidal,  sharp  and  corrupt
fluids,  &c, will act most  wisely by applying to
the springs of  an already established institute
for healing  by water,  for a  physician  who has
acquired his knowledge by the personal instruc-
tion of Priessnitz alone can  be depended upon
against the dangers of the crises.  But must the
patient indeed devote  as much time  to his cure, 
    THE HYDRIATRIC METHOD OF CURING.   95

as may be  found necessary ?—whoever must or
will  achieve his cure in the space of a certain
fixed  term, may as well stay at home.   Those
who are not possessed of the means required for
a cure  in  such an institute, or whose want of
time will not permit this, had best look out for
one who knows  this practice by his  own  ex-
perience, from  whom he  may carefully  learn
every thing necessary to know, principally about
the mechanical apparatus and its adhibition, pe-
culiarly informing himself, by correct and minute
instruction, of all that relates to the time of the
crisis.—But a water-physician and critical judge
of the  \Mhole process  is not  one  who knows
merely that cold bathing and drinking is whole-
some ;  but one who has studied with Priessnitz
himself, for Priessnitz alone is the  true  pro-
tecting angel  of men;   he  alone  has looked
through the whole system of his  discovery;
and he  alone is able to give  a competent instruc-
tion about all the constituent parts of his great,
wholesome invention, by which the whole human
family is benefitted.
   The most favourable seasons  for calling forth 
96                CHAPTER V.
the crises are the spring and  the  fall.   During
these seasons nature herself drives to the crisis.
They are the true periods for healing, turned by
physicians into periods of destruction.   In these
epochs, every constitution possessing vital power
exerts itself  for the purpose of casting out all in-
ward-dwelling materials  inimical to  health.  If
diet and  treatment  are perverse, these efforts
may indeed easily be  made to lead to death, or
to chronical  deteriorations of the whole system;
but under the hands of hydriatric  practice they
guide the more rapidly to recovery.
  The majority of men are accustomed to call
these periods the unhealthy ones, because they
are accustomed to illusions arising from a super-
ficial view of things—their minds not possess-
ing a sufficient penetration into the  interior of
things.
                     §9.
Of the  spreading  of hydriatric practice, and
                 its prospects.
  Eastward  from this country, throughout most
parts of Europe, this new  doctrine  has spread
with rapidity; even in slowly-judging, hesitating 
    THE nYDRIATRIC  METHOD OF  CURING.  97

Germany one new institute for healing by water
rises suddenly after another, and the public shows
the warmest interest in the beneficial discoveries
of the great Priessnitz.  In America, this  ac-
knowledgment cannot  yet  be expected.   The
author of this treatise is the first  who  steps forth
to announce to the inhabitants of happy and free
America  the  blessings which  are  concealed in
that elementary gift, which contains  so  many
other blessings, and which is so indispensable to
our existence  and well-being.   May this commu-
nication excite a nation so willing to investigate
and adopt what is good, to a thorough examina-
tion of a subject of such  importance! The au-
thor has himself been at  Groefenberg, and his
conviction of  the excellency of this institute has
been acquired by personal  experience; for there
he was cured  of a wound received  in  his breast,
which, after great sufferings for several years,
had been declared by different physicians of great
celebrity to be incurable.  Death approached in
rapid  strides, but Priessnitz arrested  his steps,
and to him and his water-cure the author owe?,
          7 
98               CHAPTER  V.
under the Almighty power, the preservation  of
his life.
   The opposition, which is everywhere raised
to water-cures, and will darken the prospects of
that  system also in America, originates not only
with  allopathic  and  homoeopathic  physicians,
who  are afraid of losing their daily  bread  by a
method so calculated  to annihilate their future
practice entirely, but arises  also and  principally
from  the  circumstance,  that the  water-cure  of
chronic diseases is so  troublesome and  tedious
that only a few men possess the power of a  firm
resolution to such a degree as to go perfectly
through with it.   But whoever stops in the midst
of the cure, has rather deteriorated the state  of
his health than mended it.  Besides, for  most
men, a water-cure in chronic diseases is  impos-
sible, for even such as are possessed of the strong-
est power of will are  often impeded by external
circumstances.  How could the poor day-labourer
and mechanic  find every day six or seven hours'
time for the performance of this cure? And this
is not all,  for in the remaining hours  the  patient
cannot work with his  wonted  power, the  cure 
     THE  HYDRIATRIC METHOD  OF CURING.  99

weakening  the  body much,  principally  in  the
beginning.  These obstacles might yet be over-
come, if the cure could always be performed in
a fortnight or four weeks, but it may as pro-
bably last for  six  months, or a year, and even
longer.
  This  is the difficulty in chronic diseases.   In
acute maladies another obstacle  makes  its  ap-
pearance, the  water-cures assuming, in  instances
of this  kind,  such  a forbidding exterior  that it
deters people  from them in our present state  of
alienation  from nature.   To seek  refuge  in a
cold bath  during  the glow of a  burning fever,
having  reached  its extremest  heat, when life
appears to be  in utmost danger.  How senseless,
how horrible  this  sounds!  Rather will the suf-
ferer stick  to chamomile-tea and  Brandreth's
pills, according to the advice of this or that old
woman.
  This is one  obstacle;  the second is, that water
is such a very common, every-day, vulgar mean,
to be found in every brook,  and thrown away,
after its use, into the street.   The great mass of
men are too stupid to conceive that  exactly that 
100
CHAPTER V.
which  is  xnost plentifully everywhere, and at
every time at hand for the use of man, should be
at the same tune the most salubrious.  The wholo
earth is surrounded  by air, preserving the life :
and two-thirds of  our  terrestrial globe are co-
vered with water, administering to health. Every
thing of rare occurrence is either pernicious or
of no use.   Among plants, the rarest  are those
possessing  poisonous  qualities;  among metals,
gold; among stones, the diamond.  But for these
things  the human race long most.  They wage
war among themselves for gold and  diamonds;
search and run distractedly after poisonous herbs;
brew dark coloured  nauseous  beverages from
them;  and  spend their very  last cent to  be
poisoned by quacks, happy and delighted at the
sight of the charlatan, particularly if he knows
how to twist his features  into mysterious  forms
and to  utter incomprehensible words and sounds.
   Homoeopathy  has still  other means to pro-
cure customers.  How little inconvenience attend
her  cures!  How pleasing, even instead of an-
noying, to  the  tender  invalid,  whom  the  least
exertion of his delicate body throws into trembling 
     TnE HYDRIATRIC METHOD OF CURING.  101

anxiety.  Homoeopathy exhibits also something
mysterious, by offering remedies in  doses which
require a devout implicit belief in thrir power,
since reason  is  at  a loss to comprehend their
efficacy.
   Still  greater allurements and peculiar charms
are exhibited  by Allopathy, which  may perhaps
be destined to stand the test of time and last as
long as sin, though her effects are worse  than
all diseases taken together.
  Permit me here to notice  an analogy between
horrible things, — Allopathy  and the  original
fountain of all misery,  which will  only be ex-
 hausted when the last man shall have  ceased to
exist, viz.  vice.—Allopathy and vice have alike
their support in the weakness and disproportion
of the powers of the human will to  the human
senses  and  affections,  in  the  majority of  our
fellow beings.   Allopathy and vice produce both
pleasing sensations  as  their first  effects,—but
the more certainly will  they be followed by the
same consequences, viz. by chronic languor or by
despair!
   The  bad effects of Allopathy commonly make 
102
CHAPTER V.
 their appearance so  tardily that  the physician
 gains time to persuade his patients and himself,
 that those sufferings, which  have so long  de-
 layed their appearance, are quite  new disorders,
 not having the least connexion with  the  medi-
 cines given.  When such doctors have suppressed
 an acute struggle, and the old cause of disease
 re-appears in a  new form,  accompanied with
 fatal  consequences,  they say that the original
 disorder has been healed, and has been succeeded
 by a new one.  But it is not a new one, it is
 only the  old  one in a new form, and on  that
 account  for  this  time victorious.—It is  fatal,
 because, by the use of the former  medical stuffs,
 the healing power  of nature or of the organism
 has been suppressed.
  That real physicians, that is, respectable pro-
 fessional  men, — not  those  who   have  merely
 gained a  smattering  of scientific  knowledge by
 a short stay at some university, for of such I do
 not speak—will but  rarely assist  in promoting
 the knowledge and  practice  of the hydriatric
system, is natural  enough.   For   it is  a hard
demand, that a man who  has employed for many 
    THE  HYDRIATRIC METHOD  OF CURING.   103

vears all the powers of his intellect and mind in
cultivating  the  medical  sciences should subse-
quently come to the conviction that he has spent
the best years of his life in cracking empty nuts.
And should he even arrive at this conclusion, he
will find it  still more hard to  confess  it,  thus
sacrificing himself and family at the  altar  of
truth,  and exposing  himself and them on  this
account  to  starvation.  To  do this, requires a
magnanimity of sentiment not common in our
race.  These are the  views of Priessnitz  him-
self, and he  consequently wishes to prevent the
visits of physicians to his institute, by declining
them very politely.—But at the same  time  he is
still more opposed to Homoeopathy than to Allo-
pathy, believing the latter to be hastening to her
end;  her sins being so palpable, he sees in her
but a corpse.  His  views of both systems are
derived from the history of  his patients.  Most
of those who come to his institute are  afflicted
with chronic diseases, for which  they are  in-
debted to Allopathy;  they generally afterwards
look  for  help by  homoeopathic means, but  in
vain; and now their loudly  expressed conviction 
104              CHAPTER V.
is:—"That Allopathy  produces misery, and
Homoeopathy no lasting benefit !"
  Further, says Priessnitz, it  is impossible that
Allopathy can ever co-operate with the hydriatric
system; whilst this has  been  already here  and
there impudently asserted and  tried by Homoeo-
pathy.  This excited  the indignation of Priess-
nitz,  who  could  not  remain  indifferent to  the
thought that Homoeopathy  might rob the water
of its honour, and continue the old humbug  and
deception.   Several  followers of  Hahnemann
have  already established, in Germany, institutes
for curing by water, in order to unite  the  hy-
driatric system with the  darling  child Homoeo-
pathy.  This caused  Priessnitz  indignantly to
remark:  " They will pretend  that a decillionth
part  of their  dynamic powders,  smuggled  by
them into the cold water had done the business*
thus arrogating the water-practice to themselves
as  homoeopathists, and  leaving the public in
darkness and ignorance about  the healing cause,
a correct knowledge of which  is so important to
the suffering as well as to  the  thinking part of
the human family." 
    THE  HYDRIATRIC METHOD  OF CURING.  105

  This artifice has made Priessnitz averse to all
doctors,  whilst he willingly gives every expla-
nation respecting  his method of healing to all
other visitors.  He is entirely free from selfish-
ness, and entertains the fervent wish that instil
tulions like  his own may  soon  be spread  as
Widely as possible.
  I will  here mention some such establishments,
founded  previous to, the year 1839 :
  In Austria there are  already several in opera-
tion,  the minuter  circumstances of which have
not fallen under my  notice.  One is established
near  Vienna, and  another at  Neurode,  in the
county of Glatz.   In  Saxony there are two, one
at Dresden, the other  at  Freyberg.  Prussian-
Silesia possesses one,  near Breslau.  In the north
of Germany  there is one  in Elgerburg, one in
Ilmenau, one in  Berlin, one in Hamburg, and
one  on  the  river  Rhine  in  Bopphard,  &c.
Whether this great discovery  has been  fostered
by the public and  the governments in the south.
western  part of  Germany, I am not prepared
to say, but the house  of representatives of Ba-
varia, in their 7th section for 1837 voted the 
106              CHAPTER  V.

annual  sum  of 4000 florins to  be put at the
disposal  of the  minister of the  interior for the
establishment of an institute of this kind.
   The hydriatric method has even found ingress
into the  Russian  empire,  principally by the
exertions of Dr. Harder, who studied with Priess-
nitz himself for nine months.  In acknowledg-
ment of the beneficial effects of his new establish-
ment at St. Petersburg for curing by cold water,
the Emperor of Russia  has  heaped distinctions
and rewards upon Dr. Harder in the most liberal
manner. 
107
               CHAPTER VI.

  THE BEST DIET--DIET IN DISORDERS OF THE
      STOMACH--DRESS--PASSIONS—BATHS.

Notwithstanding some apparently retrogressive
motions  and  partial  obscurations of  the  light
of truth,  the general tendency of the present
generation is towards mental regeneration.   But
before this end  can  be  reached, the process
of renewing  ought first to  restore our bodily
constitution to that freshness and vigour of which
it is susceptible.  Our external artificial coverings,
so far as they are unwholesome, must be thrown
away, and first  we  should gain a new skin by
the use of cold baths.
  In  the  former chapters  we  have considered
how  diseases may  be cured; we shall now pro-
ceed  to reflexions concerning the prevention of
diseases,  by  which  our future days might be
threatened. 
108
CHAPTER VI.
  In the morning,  when  you awake from sleep,
rise without  delay  from your bed,  and  refresh
your skin, all  over the body, in a bath full of
cold water.   Whoever  is not  furnished with this
most  valuable  household  article should  cause
water to  be  thrown  upon him out  of buckets,
and thus to wash every part.  This service can
easily be rendered  by and to  every one.   After
the bath,  take exercise, until the reaction of
warmth begins to take place.  When this com-
fortable feeling in the state of rest is decreasing,
lay yourself down,  under  warm coverings, until
the fullest reaction is obtained.  After your pro-
menade, a  breakfast consisting  of bread  and
butter, with  unboiled cold milk with  its cream,
and as fresh as  possible, will be the best.
   Here may  be made a  remark about the coolness
of victuals  and drinks: The use of  all  warm
nutriment weakens  the  stomach, what is taken
cold refreshes and strengthens it.  To a stomach
enfeebled by warm  nourishment, the transit from
this  to cold food  is at  first disagreeable  and
troublesome;  but it  soon becomes used to it,
and  gains strength  in an  astonishing  degree. 
THE  BEST DIET.
109
The cause of the cold food's strengthening the
stomach  is  the  same  as  with the skin.   Any
thing warm  coming in contact with the skin,
or  the stomach, has the  effect  of heightening
the  temperature ;   consequently  the  reaction,
striving constantly to produce the opposite effect,
causes the depression of the temperature and a
loss of activity.   The reverse takes place by the
influence of cold substances; their coldness con-
fers, besides the beneficial warmth of the reaction
and the increased activity of the  stomach  and
skin, the benefit of the  contraction of the fibres.
The experiences collected at  Grsefenberg have
completely proved  the benefit  of  cold or  very
much  cooled  food.   Persons who had  suffered
in  a  high degree  by  the  weakness  of their
digestive  organs  were  restored  by  cold  diet
continued for some months.
   A substitute for milk.  The general opinion
is,  that milk  causes slime; but this can be ad-
mitted only as  following the  use of boiled milk.
   Whoever is accustomed  to the use of unboiled
milk, will  testify to its beneficial influence upon
the stomach ;  besides this,  it contains the most 
110              CHAPTER VI.
 adequate of nourishing  substances, and is, as a
 remedy against sharp fluids as well as  earlier
 and later medical poisoning, of a most excellent
 efficacy.  But  any  one  who cannot  overcome
 his aversion to cold milk, may either drink cold
 water only to his bread and butter, or substitute
 for the cold  milk,  cold  roasted meat, or  take
 whatever  he  likes  best,  provided  it  has not
 undergone any fermentation, and comes not from
 a  foreign zone — therefore  no  coffee.    Every
 thing coming  from  another  zone  than that  in
 which we live may  be looked on with suspicion.
   "All products of a zone are only whole-
 some in their native  zone !"   This remark
 I  found true,   by my own  observations, while
 travelling. Priessnitz, without stirring from home,
 by his genius discovered it on his own mountains.
   In  the highest northern zone fat  is produced
abundantly,  but nothing  hot; therefore,  if you
live in Labrador make  a plentiful use of fat,  in
order to overcome the effects of cold.  But beware
of spices,  they will kill you by  inflammation.
In the southern regions the  animal  kingdom  is
deficient in fat, but the vegetable kingdom  brings 
               THE  BEST DIET.            Ill

forth hot spices plentifully.  If, therefore,  when
residing  on the Moluccas,  you  do not live on
meagre diet, and well spiced, you will surely die
the victim of  disease,  the seat of which will be
the belly.  It  is absolutely  impossible to contro-
vert these lessons of experience,  from which the
conclusion follows naturally,  that  the products
of foreign zones are to be avoided  if we wish to
promote our health by our diet.  Give  up, there-
fore,  your coffee  and tea,  till you go to Arabia
and China.  Then you may  sip them  to  your
heart's desire — there they  will do  you good.
   The  noxious  consequences  of fermented and
intoxicating beverages are disputed by nobody.
And yet  the  saying has become proverbial: —
 ' They will, when used moderately,  do no harm."
But this is an error ;  they do harm in a moderate
degree, when used in  a moderate degree.   Let
wine  therefore  not  become  to  you an article
daily  wanted; and if you make use of it at rare
occasions, fail not to drink between  those few
and small potations a good deal of water. Better
leave  wine  entirely alone.—The same may be
said of beer.   The more either may be  suspected 
112              CHAPTER  VI.
of being adulterated, the more they ought to be
avoided. — Even if intoxicating drinks were not
hurtful to health  in themselves, their  daily  use
would  certainly become dangerous,  on account
of their  being frequently mixed with obnoxious
or poisonous ingredients.

  For  dinner  I  recommend  a hearty meal of
domestic fare,  with  the exclusion of all smoked
and salted meat and fishes.   Pickled and salted
articles of food are to be avoided, for more than
one  reason.   They  introduce so  many sharp
particles into  the body, that even  a  healthful
organism  has  enough to do to remove them out
again; — far  less can  any reasonable hope  be
entertained that an organism already harbouring
noxious matter or corrupted fluids  should  over-
come,  mend, or entirely  eject them.  Besides,
oversalted  meals are  hurtful to the body,  and
occupy the same place with the so-called bitter,
roborant, stomachic means, of which more below.
Thirdly,  salt  meat  has but  little  nourishing
substance, as any chemist can plainly show.  The
nutritious parts of the meat  consist in  the juice 
THE BEST DIET.             113
not in the fibre;  and this juice is taken out and
absorbed by the  lye in which the meat was de-
posited.  The public, indeed, in general entertain*
different views from these, respecting salt-meat,
conceiving it to be nourishing on account of its
remaining tenaciously in  the stomach,—not con-
sidering that it possesses this quality only by its
being  very  indigestible.   Finally, this food  is
also of a bad odour and taste.
   Leave then salt-meat to mariners  and sailors.
They have nothing else, and can best manage it,
since their whole way of living—the sea-air, the
daily involuntary sea-baths—the  constant  mo-
tion,—turns them into a kind  of sharks.
   Meat  must be so roasted that  it retain in the
interior the reddish colour of the fleshy juice. In
this state only it is savoury, easily digested, easily
masticated, and very nourishing.  But if, in the
old German  way, the meat  is exposed for hours
to the fire, the reddish juice will  evaporate, and
be consumed by  the air.   If the meat is  first
boiled out into a soup, it i3 fit for dog's stomachs,
not for those of men, is a British proverb and a
true one.
         8 
114              CHAPTER VI.
  The meat of such a  roasted piece  must, of
course, come  from a young animal.   If such a.
one is not to  be  had, vegetables alone, dishes
made of flour, &c. are preferable to roasted meat
of old cattle.—It is always reprehensible, when
meat  destined for being roasted is first boiled out
in soup.
  Priessnitz excludes no kind of animal from the
table  of his patients, he permits even those who
are labouring under difficulty of digestion the
use of the meat of hogs, ducks, and geese, though
the   famous  Rumohr   says, in  his  Spirit  of
Cookery.—" Not wishing to tax a man of culti-
vated taste too heavily, it  may yet be  expected
that he will abstain from eating pork."
  I have seen on the Groefenberg the following
bill of fare:
  1. Bouillon of beef, with small liver-dumplings,
  2. Tried beef, with onions,
  3. Roasted  pork with sour-krout,
  4. Tyrolese apple-dumplings.
  The inmates of the institute, not  even except-
ing those  who were formerly used to the most
exquisite  dainties, enjoy with  a  greedy appetito 
THE  BEST DIET.
115
this homely fare; and stranger still, people who
formerly could scarcely digest  the most delicate
and  refined dishes display  here  the hunger of
wolves, and feel well and strong.
   Priessnitz warns all who have  feeble digestion
against every kind of soup.  These dishes  are
indeed detrimental rather than beneficial.  Soup
makes  too little  impression upon  the relaxed
fibres  of the stomach  to have the power of  ex-
citing  their activity.  But warm soups especially
have a very  debilitating influence  on the sto-
mach.   Besides this effect,  every kind of soup
is unwholesome, because it  occupies the  place
which  ought to be filled by water.  Cold water
is the  first of  all means  for promoting digestion,
because it best aids the stomach in extracting
the  nourishing substances  from  the  aliments;
and  produces,  by the often-mentioned re-action,
the  necessary and  lastingly  heightened warmth
of the  stomach.  But soup, on  the  contrary,
not only does  not decompose  the aliments  but
needs  itself to be dissolved  in  its constituent
ingredients, and this is too great  a demand from
the gastric juice.   But perhaps some  old  ladies 
116
chapter  vr.
may anxiously recommend and praise their little
soups as excellent nourishment for patients of all
kinds,  having, as  they  will  probably  allege,
stood the test of centuries.  To this we respect-
fully object, that for centuries, likewise, witches
have  been persecuted and  burned,  though they
never existed at all.  Nonsense and  abuses will
never cease to  be  such,  though  for  millions of
years  they are believed  to  be the  rules  and
practices of wisdom itself.
  If the instinct of man be taken into considera-
tion:  All those suffering under acute diseases
are longing for cold water! All persons  labour-
ing under weakness of  the  stomach  feel  an
aversion to soup!
  In  place of our  long-lasting  dinners, permit
me to propose the following regulations:
  1. No soup—and only one dish—the stomach
being better enabled to digest a given quantity,
if it is of a simple nature, than if the same is
composed of various ingredients; and because,
for those of a weak  stomach, the temptation to
eat too much  is considerably heightened by the
variety of the dishes. 
THE  BEST DIET.            117
  2. This  single  dish  might  consist of  well
roasted meat, not  too fat, and a young animal,
best of venison, beef, fowls, mutton, calves, dzc.
The roasted meat  may  be  accompanied with
apple-sauce, rice,  potatoes, salad, or something
else not of a bad  smell;  for  instance,  cabbage.
For the truth of the rule  is established—What-
ever smells badly is  not easily digested, and not
wholesome."  Has nature given  the noble sense
of smelling in vain?
  3. After this only dish, nothing but good bread
and butter, and sweet unboiled milk; or in sum-
mer-time, coagulated sour milk with all its cream,
or fresh fruits.

   In the evening,  bread, butter and  milk are
excellent, and if you eat them two or three hours
before going to  bed, you may  add  some cold
roasted meat, or some fish or  pudding.
  By adding to  the  above :—Drink nothing but
milk and water ; get used to much drinking; in-
dulge  in bodily exercise; avoid much sitting;
rather  be on your feet or in a lying position—>
we can conclude the rules of the daily diet. 
118
CHATTER  VI.
  Perhaps some gastronomers will smile at these
doctrines  and  precepts, for  the  simplicity  of
these regulations for the table will not suit their
taste.   But let  them smile; a child can put to
shame their neglected intellectual  faculties; and
bitter repentance will soon enough come  over
them, when their sarcastic sneer  will  turn into
a painful acknowledgment of their error. Return
to nature; she alone is  the true guide  to com-
fort and health, she alone prepares a  sure  road
to a serene old  age and  painless death.
  Whoever wishes to  receive  the master's de-
gree of enjoyment must  first learn and then never
forget:  " That the height  of  enjoyment depends
upon the susceptibility for it, not from the object
to be enjoyed.   The diet I have now described
sharpens the senses to  an extraordinary degree ;
it cements  and strengthens the  body;  but  in
order to  possess the gift  of a truly sensitive,
expanded, and variegated enjoyment, the senses
must be developed to an uncommon degree, and
the organism must  possess its full health and
strength.
  The above-proposed diet gives  to the organs 
THE  BEST DIET.            119
of smell and  taste such  an acuteness,  that the
instinct, which by the common way of living  is
entirely dormant, reawakens,  and can serve as
an  infallible  physician.   Whoever in the nice
distinctiveness of taste has come back to the true
instinct, can confidently follow his  inclination in
every disease.   That  part of instinct, which
tends to the  mere preservation of animal life,
dwells in the smell and taste.   This instinct has
been engrafted into men and animals in  the like
degree of acuteness and  infallibility.  The  nose
of a  human child of nature, not yet spoiled  by
what is called refinement and  custom,  indicates
to him any poisonous herb, still more so the taste.
The  use of  things warm  deadens sufficiently
the instinct of the nose,  but more  so the fumes
of the narcotic foliage  of the tobacco-plant.—In
like  manner  the susceptibility of the  nose  of
the  dog becomes obtused  by hot victuals,  a
thing well known to any  hunter.
  In opposition to this remark, the self-conceited
wisdom of  the  short-sighted will  object:  "To
the brute is given instinct, to man intellect!" But
the brute possesses also some intellectual power; 
120             CHAPTER  VI.
it conceives and concludes;  yea,  the nobler
animal has even the gift of imagination; thus we
know that the dog dreams.
   It  must indeed  surprise us, that, whilst  the
plainest  diet furnishes the highest  sensual  en-
joyment, it  can be possible that  man  could de-
viate  from the  diet  of nature  to  that of refine-
ment.  This, however,  is both  possible and com-
prehensible,  "for the short transit from the na-
tural  to the  non-natural affords  more  plea-
surable excitements than nature offers."  This is
a great truth, well deserving of being noticed.
   The  surplus  of enjoyment  lying only in the
motion of the transit, it forces  the deviated  sub-
ject continually deeper downwards, until his senses
and the susceptibility of enjoyment have become
so dull  and obtuse that nothing  but pepper of
Cayenne and aquafortis  can  excite them  any
more.
   This is exactly the case with virtue and vice.—
As the transit  from nature  to anti-nature   pro-
duces the highest transport  of  sensual  pleasure,
so, on the  contrary,  the return from  the non-
natural to nature produces the  bitterest sufferings 
     DIET  IN DISORDERS  OF THE STOMACH.  121

and privations; therefore a very strong energy
of  the  will  is  required  for  this  return.  But
soon—very soon—the struggle  is over;  and its
reward  is the gaining of true happiness.
   In  the healing institutes by water, existing  in
Germany, gastronomers of the most refined  kind
have  been brought  to the confession,  that their
morning-wines, with the most delicate morsels,
never tasted so well  to their palates as milk and
broad does now.  Lastly, it may be added,  that
the regeneration  of the  pure, nicely, and  cor-
rectly discriminating taste,  takes place much
earlier  than is  commonly believed.—What  can
you say to that,  you who  indulge in those un-
natural  refinements ?  The truly refined taste
finds  in milk more  attractive charms than the
uncultivated palate  in  the finest and  strongest
spirits.

     DIET  IN  DISORDERS  OF THE STOMACH.

   In  the United  States—principally where the
descendants of the  old German settlers are liv-
ing—eating a good deal,  mostly indiscriminately, 
122
CHAPTER VI.
besides the  plentiful use  of the customary be-
verages,  is  considered  the  greatest enjoyment
of human life.  Dyspeptic complaints  arc  con-
sequently of everyday occurrence, and  may
be noticed in this chapter treating of diet.
  The first and most valuable mean for strength-
ening and purifying the  stomach is cold water.
For  the  latter purpose,  when  it  is intended to
solve old slime, and to effect vomiting or purging,
it must be  drunk   perseveringly and  in great
quantities.
  The allopathic roborant means for the stomach,
the bitter and tonic ones, are the sworn enemies
of the stomach.
  This error of  the  doctors  originated thus:
Bitter  and sharp  substances, not  being easily
digested, excite a great activity in the stomach,
in some degree nearly an  acute struggle for the
overcoming and removal of its deadliest  enemy.
This struggle occasions a  more energetic diges-
tion  of its  remaining contents,  or  in case of its
being empty, it shows a strong desire for aliments,
as a means  of protection  and  defence  against
this  enemy.   From this  it  appears, that  such 
     DIET IN  DISORDERS  OF THE  STOMACH.  123

an increased  digestion and appetite cannot be
said  to  originate  from good  health, but rather
from force and necessity.
  Should the  objection be raised here,  that such
activity must  have an antagonist,  in order not to
fall asleep, and that  therefore bitter  tonics  were
salubrious;  the answer will  be:  Firstly,  The
enemy must  be such  a one  as can be overcome,
which in this case  is  impossible, because  these
bitter substances are  absolutely indigestible ;  but
aii antagonist, whose power  is superior to that
of his opponent will destroy the latter.  Secondly,
There is certainly no need for artificially creating
labour  for the  stomach,  since it is sufficiently
engaged by its natural operations.
   If this kind of so-called  roborants  are  used
daily, the stomach  must, from day  to day, sink
more deeply into helpless misery.   From  this
comes a new danger.  In  order to  remove in-
digestible objects, and to  secure itself against
the  pains caused by  them, the stomach  seeks
refuge  injhe slime  by which it  is surrounded.
 Should this process be daily renewed, the powers
 of the stomach would  be incompetent to counter- 
124
CHAPTER VI.
act sufficiently; this organ prepares indeed the
slime, but cannot purify itself from it. The slime
overspreads the alimentary  canal,  and causes
unnatural symptoms and productions.  The patient
feels now  a constant pressure in the disordered
stomach,  and  returning  nausea.   The doctor
orders   means  for purging and vomiting, the
latter remove nothing,  the former only the  same
■limy fluid,  which each purgative medicine will
bring forth anew.   The  doctor then  declares
the stomach to be  cleansed,  but weak and  in
need of being strengthened.  This is accordingly
done in the former manner, and sickening  stuffs
are heaped upon  each other in the   system.
Similar  bad effects are produced from similar
causes, viz.: from foetid, sharp, and acid agents ;
they excite an increased activity, because they
torment the stomach,  but they remain  in them-
selves indigestible.   Even kitchen-salt, too abund-
antly used, belongs to this class. Let  the victuals
be salted,  but quite  moderately,  if you desire
to be free from sharp fluids and a weak  stomach.
   Whoever has made use  of many of the so-
called  roborant stuffs  of the  doctors,  or  other 
    DIET IN DISORDERS OF THE STOMACH. 125

medicines  producing  similar  effects,   may  be
firmly convinced, when the symptoms of pressure
in the stomach and of returning nausea occur,
that his disorder consists not only in weakness
of the stomach,  but  in an  accumulation of the
toughest slime ;  he ought  not to  be deceived,
by the inefficacy of purging medicines, as indica-
tive of  returning health,  an illusion which  has
already been illustrated.
  If patients of this kind  are not yet too old and
feeble, they will, to a certainty, be  restored by a
water-cure, provided they will  persevere  in  it;
and they will be amazed at the immense quantity
of  slime  which  will  be  removed  from  them.
But the quantity of water to be  drunk by them,
for this purpose,  must  likewise be  an excessive
one.  The  stomach will  soon get used  to  it.
With these  copious  draughts of cold water, a
daily cold  bath must necessarily  be  combined,
in order to avoid  a pernicious preponderance of
the internal activity over the external one; daily
clysters of  cold water,  and  sitting-baths, are
absolutely  indispensable.
  The  cure of an already inveterate accumula- 
126              CHAPTER VI.
tion of slime will indeed last a long time. Months
may elapse before the  first solution  of the slime
will make its appearance, and the  period of the
purification, accompanied by  nausea, with violent
convulsive  efforts  of  the stomach  for relief,
vomiting, and purging  may last again for weeks.
Should  a patient  try  to shorten this  epoch  by
medical  laxatives, he  would  destroy the effects
of the cure, and  recall  the old misery.
   In order to ascertain what is needful in the
case of a disordered stomach, the better instruc-
tion may be received, not from extremely learned
doctors,  but from quite unlearned dogs, enjoying
neither  titles  nor  exacting fees.—The dog will
drink plenty of water when his  stomach  is dis-
ordered, until vomiting or purging takes place,
and then he will feel well again.
   Here, in  speaking  of disordered  stomachs,
I must  warn  against  an  error,  which may  be
very pernicious in its consequences.  Some  per-
sons entertain the opinion that, to assist a weak
stomach, the most nutritious  substances ought to
be given in a  more concentrated form, as in the
strongest bouillon, the  yolk of raw  eggs,  &c.— 
DRESS.
127
This is  the  surest road  to ruin!—Depriving an
organ of the activity which nature has  destined
it, is condemning it to the loss of all its energy.

                    DRESS.

   Never wear woollen cloths next  the skin, since
they  conslantly excite the skin to sweating, by
which the  body  is weakened.  Sweat is  only
desirable when a bath is to follow it.   In the
first week, even weak and  old persons on the
Groofenberg  have cast off their woollen under-
dresses.
   It is well  to get used  to a light and commo-
dious dress,  yet without  forcing yourself to it.
If your skin inclines to shudder; if it be deficient
in that comfortable warmth  accompanying  per-
fect  health, you may take  this symptom  as a
proof that you  harbour  in  your  interior hurt-
ful  materials;  and that  your  central functions
possess an energy over-balancing the peripheral
ones.  A cold  water-cure,  with cold  sweating.
baths, is  then needful  to you,  and you will be
cured by exanthems. 
128              CHAPTER VI.
                   PASSIONS.
   During a real cure, avoid  every excitement.
Priessnitz forbids  therefore playing for money,
and  warns  every patient  against  too  lively an
exertion of their imagination, as well  as the
enjoyment of sensual love.  He admonishes them
to guard against anger, peevishness, envy,  and
whatever may be numbered among the lower
passions or excited animal  sensations.
   Even  persons  who are suffering  only local
inconveniences, and otherwise enjoying a bloom-
ing health,  have  to abstain from sensual  love
while the cure is  in  progress.  If this may be
considered as but half an existence, the  necessity
of the restriction will be found in the requisites
of the cure.
   But the  diet of  a healthy  person is very
different.  With such, love, much  love,  but pure
and chaste—pervading the regions of  the soul,
the heart, the imagination,  the senses, the whole
body—is requisite,  for  where nature herself
furnishes the predilection, she  also provides  the
means for its indulgence. 
BATHS.
129
   In the  diet of health and virtue,  the  first of
 all precepts is, therefore:  " Get married as soon
 as nature calls decidedly for the married state."

                     BATHS.

   Long before I had heard of Priessnitz and his
 followers,  I was convinced  of the necessity of
 daily cold  baths  for the preservation of health.
 Observations  made  on  animals, and  reflexions
 upon the  excellent bodily constitution  of such
 uncultivated tribes  as  had  not  ceased to follow
 the  precepts of  nature, had made an  indelible
 impression on my mind.   But how different is
 uncivilized life  from  pure  and  unadulterated
 nature !  Every animal  is daily bathing in dew.
 or rain, or snow, or in river, or sea.' Nature has
 ordered it so.
   Further, cold water  comes  mostly in contact
with  the feet and  lower  parts  of the  body of
those exposed to a natural life;  this leads to the
conclusion  that those parts, feet and legs, should
peculiarly be benefitted by the influence of cold
water!—The power of cold water in  promoting
         9 
130              CHAPTER VI.
circulation, transpiration, and warmth, gloriously
confirms,   principally  by the  experiments  of
Priessnitz,  the truth of the old proverb :—Keep
your feet warm, your head  cold !—This golden
rule is everywhere known; but how to execute it
has been  the subject of dispute  and  misunder-
standing.   Yet in the method of  curing by cold
water this precept has found its clear, plain, and
easy exponent  by bathing  the  head  less  fre-
quently, but the feet oftener  than  any other  part
of the body.
  From what has now  been  said, we may easily
perceive  the  reason  why,  with most people,
sharp substances come  out of the skin in small
vesicles and little  pustules  in the face.   It is
because most men  are  so  slovenly as only  to
bathe or wash the face daily instead of the whole
body.  Ladies who wish to preserve their beauty,
ought to  take daily a  general bath, and besides
this  a foot bath, the  consequence would  infal-
libly be, that those  eruptions on the skin  of the
face would make their appearance on  the lower
parts of the body.
  The best and most  harmless of all cosmetic 
BATHS.
131
means is likewise pure cold water.  It imparts
to the skin the rosy hue of health, purity, and a
certain transparency and brilliancy.   A delicate
transpiration likewise  follows the use of these
baths, imperceptible to those whose sense of smell
is not acute, but possessing  the  sweet odour of
milk, whilst every offensive smell disappears.
  The months of July and August, selected for
a bathing-season, is no  judicious choice,  the
water being then too warm.  The best season is
in the months of March, April, and  May,  if a
water-cure  is intended;  or in  the fall, during
the months of September, October, and Novem-
ber.  But  then each general bath must not last
over five minutes, for most patients not over one
minute.  And always, the  best moment   for
entering into  the  bath is,  when the skin  is
sweating.
  The general bath is to be taken in  the  morn-
ing, when  the skin  is warm or sweating  from
the  bed.   The bath  must  then be prepared
within a  few  steps  from  the  bed.   For  the
evening, when a sitting  or foot-bath may be
taken, I advise an ambulating half-bath, in which 
132              CHAPTER VI.
one stands and walks with half the body in the
water, during  the space  of from five to  ten
minutes.   The upper part of the body must then
be covered, so that neither  chill  nor sweat  can
take place.  Such a bath would serve especially
to remove congestions from the head and breast.
But its first effect would be a contrary one,  and
therefore  it would be  necessary  that  persona
suffering much by them should, on entering the
bath,  moisten  the breast  and head with water.
These baths would, according to  the views pre-
viously submitted, peculiarly increase activity and
warmth, and assist in leading off the bad matter
and critical  ulcers from the interior parts to the
legs.  They would also benefit those whose hips
and legs had suffered by weakness.
   In local baths, the frequently expressed  views
ought to be well considered,  and none  adopted
without joining with' it a  daily  general  bath.
Under this  condition,  to  people  of  sedentary
habits,  suffering  by  obstructions  and  piles,  a
daily cold  clyster  is  of  uncalculable value.
Priessnitz has restored a great number  of such
sufferers to health.  All  those who went  away 
                    BATHS.                 133

cured  from  the  Grafenberg  took  with them
their  syringes,  in  memory of  their  way of
getting healed. It needs scarcely to be repeated,
that here also only cold water was applied, which,
indeed, in  the  first  application produces  little
effect,  but proves more and  truly beneficial as
its use is continued.
  When  the above  described  air and  water
diet are  observed, there  can remain but  two
kinds  of  diseases, to which any  truly healthy
man (and such may any one become  by observ-
ing it) can  be exposed;  firstly,  the  diseases
resulting from climate (produced by corruptions
of the  elements); secondly, the infecting ulcerous
diseases (such as the  small pox, &c.)—All  other
acute  diseases are only possible with the usual
perverse  diet;  and  all   chronical  ones  must
disappear, being only secondary consequences of
perversely treated acute diseases. 
134
              CHAPTER  VII.

            RECAPITULATION,
For such readers as read  only the first and last
  pages  of a neio book,  yet with  the  view  of
  giving their judgment upon it.

The causes  of  the  diseases of our body are
always corporeal substances (never dynamical
disproportions),  from  which the organism  in-
fected by them cannot be freed, unless they are
ejected from it;  not by being  kept  in  it,  even
though  arrested by chemical  means,  or  neu-
tralized.
  For this reason no medicine  can  heal.   It is
impossible  that  the medicine could chemically
destroy the sickening stuffs, because it is im-
possible to make the medicine pervade the whole
organism in such a manner  as  to reach  all the
concealed  particles of the disease;  before this
could be done, the diseased organism would  be 
                RECAPITULATION.           135

 entirely annihilated.   It is also,  for another
 reason, impossible, because the  medicine under-
 goes  decomposition in the  stomach,  in conse-
 quence of which a great deal of it  is deducted
 by the bowels.
  The  healing  method of nature consists, there-
 fore, in the exercise of the power given to  every
 organism, to  eject out of it all materials inimi-
 cal to  it.
   Any artificial method must  therefore follow
 the same system, and consequently perform two
 duties.   Firstly, It must help the  organism,
 when the process of excretion is heightened to an
 extraordinary  struggle  (acute  disease) :  and,
 secondly,  It  must spur  it (in the crisis) to  this
 struggle,  when  it becomes  tired,  and resigned
into languor (chronical disease), and  even then it
must assist it in the renewed struggle, as a pre-
server.
  Homoeopathy  appears  to  feel  this,  without
knowing it.   Its consistently elaborated prin-
ciple, "Similia similibus  curare," appears to en-
 courage an excitement  to  the acute disease, but
offers  no  support to the  organism  when  the 
136
CHAPTER VII.
struggle has begun.   Homceopathy has also at-
tained the knowledge that the doctrine of neutra-
lizing  the  sickening  substances  by  medicine
belongs to the circle of absurdities and senseless
inventions.  And for  this reason, probably, Ho-
mceopathy  gives such ridiculously  small doses,
but which,  being too  small even for excitement,
must  be totally iueflicaeious.   The success of
homoeopathic  cures  must  be attributed  solely
to the healing power of nature, which will only
fully display itself when entirely freed from  all
allopathic abuse.   Allopathy has no consistency
in herself;  now making  use of allopathically
operating medicines,  then  of homoeopathic spe-
cific  means, as mercury  in  syphilis,  Peruvian
bark in alternating fevers,  and again of surgical
measures.   But in most cases  this school acts
according to its name, and then the  effect of its
treatment is to remove the extraordinary struggle
for the recovery of health,  by weakening the
organism ;  and thus to change the acute disease
into chronic debility or chronic languor.
   Allopathy has no  supreme leading principle,
no consistent system. The true method of curing, 
RECAPITULATION.            137
 that of nature, has  a supreme principle, and is
 consistent.  In the hydriatric system, though the
 iron consistency of nature is mollified and repre-
 sented as beautiful  and sublime in the harmony
 of the functions of the organism, and their actions
 and re-actions, yet  nature is its prototype; and
 its rule is to conceal the artificial  character of
 the method,  by which the simplicity of nature and
 her operations are disfigured, and her dignity as
 the supreme model of the art destroyed.
  The  hydriatric method fulfills  every duty of
 the healing art.   It stimulates the organism  to
 work its own recovery—a  process only desired
 by Homoeopathy.   It assists the organism in its
 struggle to  heal,—in which Homceopathy  is en-
 tirely inefficacious.
  In  all internal diseases, the interior activity of
the body prevails  over  the external, therefore it
is the first and most pressing duty of the  healing
art to guide the activity of the organism, in con-
ducting the motion  of the fluids and sickening
materials towards the external teguments of the
body.   This can be  done exclusively by cold wa-
ter, through its coldness and its solving quality. 
L3S              chapter vii.
The strong re-action,  by its  instrumentality,  is
relaxed,—the  thronging of all  particles of the
body towards the skin, and the power of decom-
position, causes a partial expulsion of the noxious
materials,  already  immediately under the  skin,
and an excitement of this tegument to great ac-
tivity.  The water strives to decompose and solve
the whole skin into its constituent elements; this
organ  re-acts in defending  itself, and  is thus
stimulated to an activity by which all the energy
of the organism is solicited  and  the  general
afflux  attracted to it.   In  and  by this process
uew disturbing substances are daily led from the
interior to the skin,  and daily extracted by the
water, and expelled  by the activity of the skin
in sweat and ulcers.
   Thus the hydriatric method effects the cure  of
chronic diseases.
   In  acute maladies, the danger  is easily and
surely removed, and  the heat  extracted  much
more rapidly then by venesection.  By the same
operation the deleterious substances are conducted
to the  skin, and  expelled from  it by sweat and
eruptions. 
RECAPITULATION.
139
   The same process gone through with the skin
is applied to the stomach and  the  bowels, by
copious  draughts  of water  and by injections.
Materials  causing disease lying there or in the
neighbouring regions,  will be  absorbed by  the
water, and [rejected  with  it.   This is the origin
of the frequent diarrhoeas and critical urinating
during the water-cure.
   An  uninterrupted  health  until death  quietly
enters, in the  last moment  of a prolonged life,
is quite impossible without the  use of daily cold
baths,  because the skin must be open and active
daily in  order to eject the  noxious substances
that daily intrude.  The organism  of man, like
that of every viviparous animal, is  intended by
nature for frequent contact with cold water.  If,
in any individual case,  this is  awanting,  there
will be, without exception, a preponderance of the
internal  activities over the  external  ones, as a
necessary consequence.  This, in itself, is an  ab-
normal state leading to disease, the  equilibrium
required  for health being suspended. 
140
               CONCLUSION.

   What  will be  the fate of this  little Book 1
Some will believe it—some will  doubt it—some
will laugh at it.  With Paul, I ask nothing for it,
but—Prove all  things, and hold fast that which
is good.
  Go, then, my darling production, into the world,
teach and convert the  followers of errors  and
pernicious customs, that they may return to vir-
tue and to nature.  Equally conscious of the ex-
cellence of my cause and my inability to do justice
to it, for myself I covet but the commendation—
"He has done what  he could."  May the Su-
preme Power bless and protect this good cause,
and I shall feel happy, though unnoticed and un-
known,  supported  by the consciousness that  I
have not been  altogether useless to my fellow-
men and  my adopted country.

                  THE  END.
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