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FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
                OR



       WATER-CURE;


A COLLECTION OF CASES, WITH DETAILS OF TREATMENT,

             SHOWING THE

 SAFEST AND MOST EFFECTUAL KNOWN MEANS TO BE
   USED IN GOUT, RHEUMATISM, INDIGESTION, HY-
     POCHONDMASIS, FEVERS, CONSUMPTION,
              &c. <kc. &c.;


     FROM VARIOUS AUTHORITIES.
BY JOELJUJ&W* M..D.,
  PRACTITIONEBOF WATER CURE.
     NEW-YORK:
BURGESS, STRINGER & CO.
1844 
<J
                   WBF

                   S554f








   Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by
                 JOEL SHEW, M. D.
In the Clerk'g Office of the District Court for the Southern District
                    of New-York.
J. P. Wright, Printer,

  122 Fulton sLN.Y. 
'facts in hydropathy.
  Remarks on Crisis, by Sir Charles Scudamore.

   The very important matter of crisis is always
sought for with much solicitude both by Priess-
nitz and the patient.  He believes that it  could
not be produced in a healthy man ; and that its
occurrence is a sure proof that nature is success-
fully exerting herself to throw  off the disease, by
the exit of bad humor from  the  mass of blood.
It is  a sort  of wholesale theory, and  equally
serves for all persons, and for every known  disor-
der ; and assuredly is the most convenient for one
ignorant  of medical science.   I  conceive that
Priessnitz must have been gradually  led to this
idea of morbid blood by the observations  which
his experience enabled him to make ;  for, as be-
fore explained, he entered into the  water-cure
practice by  accident, and not from tuition.   His 
4           FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
principles have arisen out of practice  as an  em-
piric art, and were not as a precursor first im-
planted in his mind.   He has, in innumerable in-
stances, so that the contrary forms the  exception
to the  rule, witnessed  the  formation of crisis
in the progress of  the water-cure, amongst which
boils take the lead in pre-eminence and importance
of character.  But the  term  also applies to  any
very marked disturbance of the system,  or  cuta-
neous change, as  the crisis fever ;  odorous  per-
spiration : odorous urine ;  vomitings ; diarrhoea ;
hemorrhoidal  discharge of blood ;  and  various
kinds of eruption on the skin.  It was  a fact  of
ordinary occurrence, presenting itself to the mind
of Priessnitz, that  the great crisis of boils, in pro-
portion  to  their  free suppuration, proved  in  the
highest degree remedial, removing  chronic pains
and internal sufferings of h ng standing ; and that
no marked amendment did take place until  the
event of some crisis.   Also  the additional  fact
must be mentioned, that very  frequently  indeed
the boil crisis would  appear in  the immediate vi-
cinity of the disease, sometimes on  the very spot.
It is no longer surprising, therefore, that the idea
of humor in the  blood should be strongly confirm-
ed in the mind of Priessnitz, and have grown with
him into a rule of  practice.  The patient very na-
turally  cares not for the absence of scientific ex-
planations, but renders  his faith  to fact,  and to
the  long  list  of very extraordinary  cures which
have been performed, after the failure of regular
medical art.   But it will not be uninteresting to 
OR  WATER-CURE.
5
examine more closely  this  doctrine  of the bad
blood, with reference to crisis and treatment.
   In the case of morbid poisons, as, for example,
small pox, measles, and scarlatina, nature evident-
ly makes a vigorous effort to free the blood from
the virus, by producing in the skin  a  characteris-
tic eruption,  attended  by  a symptomatic fever.
After a certain period,  health returns, and no re-
miniscence of the poison  occurs.  I adopt this il-
lustration to  shew that the blood can in  this man-
ner, by the medium of the skin, clear  itself of the
offending cause, however difficult the  explanation
may be.  In the very familiar examples of cuta-
neous disease, as erysipelas, the shingles, nettle-
rash, &c, we commonly refer to the blood as  the
source of disorder, although we can  only general-
ize our  notions; or, by  other theory, we may  re-
gard these disorders as the  offspring of  some  in-
ternal vitiated secretion, as acrid acid  in the sto-
mach,*  or bad bile, affecting the skin by supposed
sympathy ;—which is equally figurative  language,
if we are driven to close and searching analysis.
   Boils and  carbuncles do  not  occur in healthy
subjects ; and, when  they happen  naturally, are
always  looked upon as indicating a  bad habit of
body.   The  surgeon may  choose  other descrip-
tion, and call it weak  and unhealthy inflamma-
tion, affecting the  outward  texture of  the body

  * A breaking out, as it is  called, on the lips and chin,
would probably beproduced in any one,  by eating for a
continuance rich sauces, especially if made with bad but-
ter.
              1* 
6           FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
differently from  phlegmon or true inflammation.
I will not therefore, for the sake of language, at-
tempt to dispute  the  plain  notion, so  familiarly
adopted, of the nature of crisis  in  the  water-cure
treatment; but I do think it of great importance
that it should  have its  sober limits, and not  be
made an ignis fatuus to the practitioner or  the
patient.  The benefit arising from crisis must not
be referred merely to the depuratory or cleansing
process for the blood.   Boils and  rashes act as
counter-irritants, in the ordinary and most accept-
ed view, and in this way  also prove  useful ;  on
the same principle that we see  advantage derived
from blisters, and artificial eruptions produced by
external applications,  tartar emetic,  croton oil,
&c. ; and even the use of setons and issues is con-
nected  with  this principle  of counter-irritation
equally with the idea of discharging the offending
humor from the blood.  It is very evidently the
formation of an artificial disease,  with the  hope
that it may be a substitute for  the real  one,  and
cause its removal.
   It certainly happens in this way that much  in-
convenience must often be sustained by the pati-
ent in the progress of his cure ; and he must sub-
mit to be worse, before he can  be  better.
   The occurrence of boils is not, however, inva-
riably necessary to the cure.   Nature determines
this, and may  give  another kind of crisis ; and
even none that is notable  may be  the pleasing
fate of some,  who still  receive every benefit and
 recover. 
OR WATER-CURE.
7
  From all that I have seen, and my  opportunity
has been extensive, I am deeply impressed with
the conviction that  the employment  of a very
large amount of treatment, at one and the  same
time, in order to urge the circulation  to produce
crisis, demands most prudent consideration, and
especially in  irritable constitutions.   I am free to
admit that, in chronic cases of long standing,  su-
perficial measures would be of little or no  avail,
and that there must be efficient treatment.   If
too active measures be pursued in these excep-
tionable instances to which I allude, a sudden and
too severe crisis might be produced, creating high
suffering and possible danger.   Instead of the fa-
vorably suppurating boils, such as are of untoward
character might arise.   I am sure that these un-
favorable  consequences may always  be avoided
by ordinary care, and do not belong to the water-
cure treatment, as of right,  more than  any acci-
dental  untoward  result  belongs to  the  regular
practice of physic.
  Whenever a threatening appears of too strong
a crisis, the treatment  is to be  immediately  re-
duced ; and, being nicely adapted also to the par-
ticular circumstances of the case, all anxious em-
barrassment will be removed.
  In conclusion of this subject, I advert with  re-
gret  to reflections which I have  seen in print on
the skill of Priessnitz, on account of a particular
case which occurred at  Graefenberg,  unfavorable
in respect to  the constitution of  the patient, and
having a fatal termination.  In  its  treatment at 
8           FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
the latter period, there had been,  on  the  part  of
the individual,  much improper deviation from the
directions laid down, owing to an impatient de-
sire of urging crisis for the sake of a more speedy
cure.  From this cause,  fever crisis  set  in sud-
denly and with destructive violence.   Continued
high irritation and fatal exhaustion ensued.
   A lamented  event of this kind, happily most
rare, should serve as occasion for such reflections
as I have already suggested.  No remedy  that  is
powerful for good, can be so weak an instrument
as not to be also  capable of evil.   Neither the
skill nor  the prudence   of Priessnitz should  be
lightly called in question  by any one.   I am con-
vinced that,  with regular  superintendence of a
case, he  would  never provoke a crisis  beyond his
power  of convenient control.   The  very  large
number of patients on his list, varying from two
to five hundred, could not allow of watch being
kept over every case, and he must be sought for
rather than seek.  He is most attentive on every
important occasion; and  it must be the fault  of
the patient if he do not report progress ; and more
especially if he do  not  seek  prompt aid in the
event of the least unfavorable occurrence.
   Another and  very important consideration pre-
sents itself on the subject of crisis ;—for how long
a time is its occurrence to be viewed as an indi-
cation for the continuance of  treatment  ?  Evi-
dently it requires judgment to know what  may be
referred to the  influence  of the constitution not
yet delivered from its errors ; and what to simple 
OR WATER-CURE.
*
morbid action of the vessels of the  skin, existing
as a secondary and a local disease.   I  know an
instance of the occasional formation of boils on
the legs,  causing much inconvenience, although
the general health is quite restored ;  the full  wa-
ter cure treatment, which was carried on  nearly
two years, having been laid aside  for one; with
the exception that the patient applies water dress-
ings to the skin when it inflames, or to a  boil ; and
uses a cold bath daily.
   I have now to treat of the practical results of
the water cure treatment, in the narrative of some
cases ; selecting from the large number  which,
through  the  kindness  and  courtesy of  many
friends, I have had the opportunity either  of  see-
ing or becoming acquainted with,  those which I
hope may prove of sufficient interest and instruc-
tion.
   And that I may present to the reader a familiar
picture of the nature of the different processes, I
will give  some  account of my own treatment;
adopting the  maxim of Seneca,

" Longum iter per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla."

   I have for  many years  experienced inconveni-
ence from rheumatic and nervous headache, with
noises and deafness in the left ear; always depen-
dant on medicine for  the function of  the bowels,
yet very seldom requiring active treatment.
   I waited a few days, to recover from  the fa-
tigue of travelling, before I began  the treatment.
At 6 a. m. Tuesday, April 18, I was visited by 
10         FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
Priessnitz and the Badediener, (both attended,)
who rubbed me down with the wet sheet for two or
three minutes ; following it with  an equally diligent
application of the dry one.  The cold application
being accompanied with  such immediate friction,
no severe shock was experienced.  It was merely
disagreeable, and that only in the first impression.
The reaction was quickly established, and a safer
mode of bathing  cannot,  I  think, be imagined.
The best results must follow from this  effective
cleansing process for the skin, tending to maintain
it in health and to remove its diseased conditions.
By the recommendation of Priessnitz, I  put my
flannel waistcoat over my linen.
  The wet bandage was applied round my body,
the dry part  being closely rolled  over it.  The
cold sensation  was unpleasant at first, but quickly
removed by exercise.  I next used hand-rubbing
for  my head most freely  with cold water in a ba-
sin, and was careful, by Priessnitz's desire, to chill
the nape of the neck.   I next took a long walk,
and drank three half-pints of water at suitable in-
tervals.
  At 11 a.m. sheet process repeated, and, in ad-
dition, a sitz-bath, with water at  65° Fah., to reach
to the navel.   I continually rubbed the abdomen
and loins with the water, and remained a quarter
of an hour.  The unpleasant first impression does
not last more than a minute, and it is not disagree-
able to remain for any length of time, unless the
water should be changed.   At 5 p. m. this treat-
ment was repeated.  I came in from a walk, much 
OR WATER-CURE.
11
heated by exercise in the sun, waited a few min-
utes till the pulse became quiet, and then had the
wet sheet applied with a most refreshing and sa-
tisfactory effect.
  19th. Placed in the wet sheet;  the first lying
down on it and investment  with it were very dis-
agreeable ;  but, immediately after the packing up
with the blanket, &c.  sufficiently  comfortable ;
and, in a few minutes more, so much so that the
effect was  quite  soothing and tending to  sleep.
At the end of three  quarters of an hour,  warmth
came which would  have produced  perspiration,
and, this not being desired, I  was taken out, and
immediately entered the shallow bath, at 62°, and
was  well rubbed with the water for about two
minutes.  The immersion being so slight, the im-
pression of the cold water was very  bearable, and
the warmth of surface was afterwards quickly re-
stored.   Rubbing wet sheet at 11 a. m., and at 5
p. m., this and the sitz-bath at 62°.  Each time
rubbed the head.
  20th.  Same  treatment.  Examined my animal
heat before being rubbed with the wet sheet; it
was 97*5, and the sheet  50° ; no alteration pro-
duced—shewing the mildness of  this refrigerant
process.
  After the lein-tuch this morning,  went first in-
to the shallow bath at  62°,  and then  into the
plunging bath, which was 44°, and cutting cold ;
returned quickly  to the shallow bath, which now
seemed pleasantly tepid. I found the animal heat
reduced one degree by the plunging bath, although 
12          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
the sensible reaction was excellent ; and, after the
dry  rubbing  and  dressing,  I  was comfortabiy
warm.
  23rd.  Same treatment.   In using the sitz-bath,
found the temperature of the water raised  by the
warmth of the body 2 degrees in 5 minutes,  4 in 10,
and 6 in 15.   Hence the necessity of a change of
the water, if a continued cold  sitting be desired.
  Being, in the  common language,  bilious from
the change of diet, and  such  a  free  use of milk
mornings and evenings,  the bilious secretion sus-
pended  with  los3 of appetite, took  blue  pill and
colocynth at night, and  next morning the improv-
ed Cheltenham salts.  It was my object  to save
time; and I was confident  that I  should have this
error more quickly corrected  than by  leaving  it
to the sole influence of the water cure treatment.
  25th. I used the lying sheet and  shallow tepid
bath yesterday, but no  other treatment.   Every
success and benefit from the  medicine.
  26th. To-day resumed the plunging bath, and
went on with the same  treatment to the  end of
the month, but changed  the  mid-day process for
the use of the regular head bath  and foot bath;
having  recourse to  the latter also,  from being
much subject to coldness of feet.   I received the
head bath for a quarter of an hour,  allotting five
minutes to the back, and the  same to each side of
the head.*  I lay on the floor, and had a good proof

  * I find a shallow wooden vessel, with a rounded groove
to receive the neck, answer the purpose for this process verv
well.                                          ' 
OR WATER-CURE.
13
of the superior conducting power of air over wa-
ter for sound, in the strong perception of any con-
tiguous accidental noises.  From this application
of cold water I always  felt sensible invigoration
of the nerves of the head.
   The foot bath was also sensibly useful, tending
to comfortable warmth of the feet; and the fur-
ther  rubbing of the ankles and muscles of the leg
much relieved the consequences of fatigue.
   May 1st.—In using the lein-tuch this morning,
applied  a long towel, wetted,  from the arm-pit
down the side, and found  its effects agreeable;
the sensations, from the complete contact  of wet
linen, more pleasant on  that side than the'other.
Indeed, the effect of this process is very soothing ;
and  it becomes  a punishment  to be unpacked.
Every one would willingly go to sleep in the wet
sheet.   If, in any particular case, the fet^ail to
become warm with the rest of the body, socks may
be worn.
   May 5th.—-To-day used the douche, the tem-
perature of which was 44°, for  two minutes ;  it
immediately reduced the animal heat one degree;
bit I had a comfortable reaction.  I felt very sen-
sibly how much the most active this is of all the
processes, when the douche is strong and the wa-
ter cold.  I used it afterwards occasionally during
my stay, but not regularly, as  I did not  require
full treatment.
   I  proceeded regularly till the 16th, when I tried
the experiment of lying  on  three wet sheets in-
stead of one.  The first impression on lying down
              2 
14          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
was that of greater coldness ; but,  when packed
up, this subsided into a sense of pleasant coolness
that was refreshing.  This  remained,  so that  at
the end of an hour and a quarter I was not warm-
er than I had been in ten minutes  with the one
sheet.   It was particularly agreeable that the back
remained cool so long.   In  an hour and a  half, I
had the same general warmth as with half an hour
of the one sheet.   In another quarter of an hour,
I was becoming so warm that the animal heat had
risen half a  degree.  Had  I  remained  longer, I
should, doubtless, have perspired freely.  I was
much satisfied with the experiment, as shewing
the long-continued refrigerant power of the three
sheets,  in comparison with  the one.
   Two days after, I made the experiment of using
the sweating blanket.  On awaking at 5 a. m., I
had some head-ache : pulse rather full, at 56° ;
animal heat 98°.  In the course of ten minutes
after  being packed up,  1 was comfortably  warm;
least so in the feet, where I desired more weight.
At the end of an hour and ten minutes, when the
warmth of the whole body  was much increased
without sensible perspiration,  the  pulse  was in-
creased to 66°, full and soft; the animal heat 99°.
At the end of two hours, the perspiration was uni-
versal,  but not copious, p. 68, animal  heat 100°.
In another  half  hour, perspiration in a greater
degree, but not streaming, p. 68, animal heat 101°.
At the end of two  hours  and three  quarters, I
quitted the  bed,  for the  full bath, into which I
plunged instantly, while hot and perspiring, made 
OR WATER-CURE.
15
two  immersions,  and came out  exceedingly re-
freshed.*   On being dressed, the pulse was as in
the beginning, and the animal heat 97'5.
   On  the  following day,  returning from a  long
mountain walk, the sun shining, my pulse was ex-
cited and my animal heat 101°.
   I waited a few minutes only for a quiet circu-
lation ; I wiped off the flowing perspiration, and
then,  while  yet hot and perspiring,  was freely
rubbed down with the  wet sheet, holding more
water  than usual.   I was highly  refreshed and
agreeably cooled :  my pulse became natural, and
the animal heat, examined during dressing, was
98°.   Hence another proof of  the perfect safety
of applying sudden cold to the heated bodyf with
perspiring surface, when the animal heat is raised
beyond the natural standard.
   I  proceeded with regular treatment to the 20th,
and then desisted.  After this period,  in conse-
quence of a severe cold  from remaining  in wet
clothes, when I had no  opportunity of changing
them,  I was attacked with slight general fever,
rheumatic pains, and severe throbbing head-ache.

   * It is to be considered that with the elevation of the ani-
mal  heat, the  nervous energy also is simultaneously in-
creased or more diffused.
   t In  a paper on heat, which I had the honor of reading at
the evening meeting of the College of Physicians, March
5th, 1838,1 quoted the experiment of Sir Joseph Banks, Dr.
Fordyce, and others, shewing the impunity of passing  im-
mediately from an apartment heated to 260° Fan., into a
very cold atmosphere; the effect indeed being agreeable, re-
freshing, and useful. 
16          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,

I immediately had recourse to a lein-tuch, follow-
ed by the shallow tepid  bath, and two  affusions
with cold water.  The relief was  immediate: the
animal heat, which had been increased to 100°, was
immediately reduced to 97-5.   One repetition of
this treatment was so successful, that  in  twenty-
four hours I found myself quite well.
  The final  result of the whole  proceedings has
been  a most  satisfactory  improvement  of my
health, in all the failings which I mentioned ; and
I have not found the least occasion for  medicine
during the  last two  months.  On my  journey
homewards,  which was most extremely fatiguing,
I took every opportunity in my power to use, on first
rising, the rubbing wet sheet,  hip  bath, head and
foot bath, and  .always with the greatest comfort
and advantage : a plan which, together with early
rising, drinking cold  water freely, and an active
walk, I follow  up with the highest advantage and
sensible comfort and benefit.
               Indigestion, Sfc.
  A. B., set. 44, for the last seven years during a
residence in India, liable to severe head-aches ;
complaining frequently of heat on the top of the
head, and a weight at the  back.   After a time,
these head-aches became much worse periodically, 
                OR WATER-CURE.             17

accompanied with sickness approaching  to  faint-
ness, and a momentary loss of recollection.  These
periodical returns at length becoming so  frequent
as every twenty-five days, and the  illness  much
more severe, accompanied with pain in the  lower
part of the spine, he was advised to try change of
air from the sultry climate of India, to the  Neil-
gherry  hills, where,  during  a residence of two
years,  he became much better,  the periodical re-
turns being  forty-five and forty-six days apart.
As his general tone of health improved, the illness
al«o became slighter.  His health  not being how.
ever established, he was directed to  return to his
native climate, and proceeded to  Europe by  the
overland route, via Malta, where  he changed his
route,  and proceeded to Graefenberg,  via Na-
ples, Leghorn, Florence, Trieste, Vienna.  During
this journey, his complaint returned every  twen-
ty-sixth, thirtieth, or thirty-sixth day, and the ill-
nesses were not so slight as they had been during
the latter period of his residence on  the Neilgher-
ries.   He  complained a good  deal  of cold feet
and frequent head-aches.   The latter  might per-
haps be attributed to improper diet at the hotels,
and the fatigue  and irregularity incident to tra-
veiling.  It was the opinion of his medical friends
in India, that there was no  organic disease, and
that his complaint was to be attributed to indiges-
tion and the exposure to the climate of India.  He
had a return of illness on  the 29th of March,  in
the carriage between Olmutz and  Graefenberg.
Priessnitz saw him on the 30th, and co'mmenced
              2* 
18          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
treatment on the 31st, with abreibung  and head-
bath, the back  and sides  being immersed for a
quarter of an hour.  On the first of April, he had
lein-tuch at 5 a. m. followed by a tepid bath. Lein-
tuch again at 12, followed by an  abreibung  and
head-bath;  at  5  p. m.  an abreibung ; this treat-
ment continued until the 20th  of April, when he
had a return of illness in the night.  Priessnitz
being sent for, he directed his  head to be wetted
before using the lein-tuch, and an abreibung after
it, instead of the tepid bath; the abreibung to be
repeated at 9 a. m., 12 noon, 3 p. m., 6 p.  m., and
9 p. m. ; in  addition to which he was  to have an
abreibung every fifteen minutes  for one hour af-
ter the  faintness.   This treatment of six abrei-
bungs a day and lein-tuch at 4  in  the morning,
head-bath at 9 a.  m. and 12 noon, continued se-
veral days ;  was then reduced  to five  abreibungs
in a day, then to four ; and, lastly, he  went back
to the former treatment, which continued until the
first of May, when  he had another return of ill-
Dess.  Priessnitz was then of opinion that the
present treatment proved too severe for him, and
must be modified  ; that the tepid baths were to be
left off, but  that he must  continue the lein-tuch
once in the  day, head-bath once, four or five abrei-
bungs in the course of the day, and  a foot-bath
twice in the day ; and that as soon as  the present
illness had passed off, the head-bath was to be dis-
continued, and  the head to be  simply rubbed  with
water.   He directed  an abreibung every  fifteen
minutes, to  be  repeated four times after any faint- 
OR WATER-CURE.
19
ness ; also one  foot-bath  after a paroxysm.  On
being told that the patient was fatigued with the
exertion of dressing and  undressing every fifteen
minutes whilst ill, he directed that he should go in-
to bed between each abreibung, be kept quiet, and
that if he fell asleep, he was not to be disturbed.
   During the first three  weeks of the time that
this gentleman was under treatment, he was  re-
markably well:  had  no head-ache  whatever, and
never complained of indigestion since the 20th of
April (it is now 12th of May) ;  he has occasion-
ally complained of head-ache, but is neverthe-
less better than he was before he arrived ; his ge-
neral tone of health  is improved; the pain in his
back quite gone, so that  he can run down a  hill
without  uneasiness, whereas even walking fast
down a hill formerly used to shake and jar his sys-
tem.   His feet are  always warm; he no longer
starts in his sleep as he used to do, and can sleep
on his back as  well as on his side, which he could
never  do before, since he  resided  in India; and
he no longer complains  of indigestion after din-
ner.   Before adopting the treatment,  he was al-
ways dependant on  the  aid of  medicine for the
bowels; since, he has  not had the least  occasion
for any.   It  must  also  be mentioned,  that, al-
though the two last attacks of illness occurred
within very short intervals of time, the head-aches
were slight and the illness only  a mild one.   His
chest  appears to me to have become wider.  I saw
this gentleman almost daily, and left him in a fair
 way of recovery. 
20          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
   Nervous Indigestion with suicidal propensity.
   The subject  of this distressing malady was a
gentleman of 46 years of age, who, after eighteen
years of active and incessant attention to commer-
cial affairs, retired with a moderate fortune  from
them in consequence of the growing distress both
in the stomach  and brain, which unfitted  him  for
further action, and, as he said, " rendered the sight
of the ledger intolerable."  It avails not to repeat
all the means he had tried previous to his trial of
the Water Cure ; suffice it that they comprised
all the circle of drug  medication  and, what  is for
the most part  as bad, drug dietetics, by which is
meant the system of keeping up a certain amount
of stimulation from food and wine on the condition
of maintaining  a proportionate amount of stimula-
tion  from medicines.   He came here complaining
that  he only got one  hour or one hour and a half
sleep in twenty-four hours, that he  had the  most
horrible mental sensations, the predominating one
being that he was doomed to be his own destroyer :
indeed for the last two years he had never been
left without some one to watch  him.  His bowels
always costive, and his belly protuberant, no pain
was present when they were pressed ; but eating
always brought on a more  intense degree of the
mental pain.  His volition was quite gone, and his
moral courage extinguished.   The contents of the
chest were perfectly sound.
   We commenced the treatment of this case with
hot fomentations to the stomach and bowels at 
OR WATER-CURE.
21
bedtime, the wet sheet bath in the morning and
evening, a sitz bath in the middle of the day, and
he also commenced lying in the wet sheet; the
result of which was  that on the fourth nigth he
had five hours' sleep.  From  the  bowels, too, he
had on the morning following this a good natural
evacuation.   The mind, however, still held by its
painful sensations.   He now began to lay every
morning from one  hour to one hour and a half in
the wet  sheet, followed by a bath ; the sitz bath at
noon  and the wet sheet bath being continued.
During  this time he went  every morning to St.
Ann's Well, and, walking on the hill, drank from
three  to six tumblers of water as he felt inclined.
In the course of the  day he drank  from eight to
twelve tumblers, taking exercise, which varied from
five to ten  miles a day.   At the end of eleven
weeks he left Malvern perfectly recovered, having,
during  the latter  half of  that  period,  used the
douche  daily, and broken upon the wet sheet by
occasional sweatings in the blankets.  His capa-
bility  of taking water increased with his  progress
towards  health, and  he sometimes took  fifteen or
twenty  tumblers a day.   The changes in the ex-
pression of his face indicative  of that in his feel-
ings,  was striking to all the  patients in the estab-
lishment, and from being the most  lugubrious he
became the most laughter-loving of them all.  He
slept  invariably from the time he went to bed—ten
o'clock—until the servant awoke him in the morn-
ing ;  and his sleep was dreamless.
   The only evident crisis in this case was an in- 
22          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
creased action of the bowels for a fortnight, carried
to the degree of diarrhoea for two or three days,
but without any pain,  griping, or debility.  The
wet  sheet, however, in which he  laid, for a long
time rendered  the  water in which  it was daily
washed dark and turbid, with a copious flocculent
sediment.—Drs. Wilson and Gully.

Indigestion, Nervous Debility and Hypochondriasis.
   A gentleman, aged 25, had brought himself in-
to a  state of great nervous debility from excess of
study.   He was at  length incapable  of any men-
tal application, had  great nervous depression,  and
was  hypochondriacal.   The sight so much weak-
ened that he  could neither read nor write,  and
even blindness was apprehended.  Often had  se-
vere head-ache.   Greatly  lost  both  flesh  and
strength ; the digestive functions torpid.   He  re-
lated to me that he  first came  to  Graefenberg
three years ago, in the state of indisposition above
described.  His treatment then as  follows : The
plunging-bath  in the morning on first quitting the
bed.   After breakfast,  the douche from five to ten
minutes even in the coldest weather.  In  the  af-
ternoon, a sitz-bath  for half an hour  : drank  wa-
ter in the usual quantity.  For five months there
was no change in the treatment.   He  observes,
" I had no crisis, not  even  the  water-rash ;  my
health  improved gradually.   After this, I returned
home, where I used  a  cold bath every  morning,
and avoided all sorts of spices and fermented li-
quors.   My health improved more and more;  my 
OR WATER-CURE.             23
eyes grew stronger again, I could read and write ;
and,  of  my former  complaint, there remained
merely a pressure  on  the  chest;  inability  for
strong mental exertion,  accompanied  with some
dislike for society.  Three months ago I returned
to Graefenberg, when Priessnitz ordered me to be
packed up in a wet sheet morning and  afternoon,
followed  by  the plunging-bath ; to douche for two
minutes ; to take two  head-baths ; and a sitz-bath
for a quarter of an hour.  He recommended  me
to make a practice of  walking in the air with  my
head uncovered, however cold the  weather."   I
saw  much of this very interesting person, who
quitted Graefenberg dnring my stay.  He was
quite  well.   The digestive  functions became  re-
gular very soon after  the commencement of  the
treatment.   This is an example of no  sensible
crisis occurring, although the treatment was very
active.—Sir Charles Scudamore.

  Indigestion with threatening inflammation of the
                     brain.
   The patient, a  gentleman of 40 years of age,
had undergone  excessive mental excitement, ac-
companied with constant and distressing sinking
about the stomach and bowels, tendency to faint-
ing and cold sweats, all  which he had endeavored
to fight against by frequent taking of stimulants.
With all this he had been unable to procure even
a small  amount of sleep.   In our first interview
with  him, his speech  was almost incoherent,  his
gestures  violent, and his whole appearance that of 
24          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
a person on the verge of insanity or inflammation
of the brain.  His tongue was fiery red, his bowels
constipated, and  his skin  dry  and harsh,  except
when the cold sweat suddenly appeared on it, to-
gether with the  symptoms of  fainting.   All  this
plainly indicated the use of the  wet sheet, in which
he was made to lay for an hour twice  a day, with
sitz baths in the  intervals.   In twenty.four hours
this patient became calm,  and  slept almost all the
time he was in the wet sheets, of which he spoke
as the most soothing and delightful remedy he had
ever experienced.  On the first night after com-
mencement of the treatment he slept five or six
hours consecutively.  His  bowels also  opened, and
his tongue  became paler ;  of course no stimulants
whatever were allowed, although up to  the moment
of his treatment he had taken them largely, and he
expressed surprise at not feeling the want of them.
At the end of a week he pronounced  his feelings
to be better in all respects than they had been for
more than a  year.  Nevertheless  we thought  it
advisable he should continue the general treatment
for a fortnight longer, which he accordingly did ;
and at the end of three weeks returned to London,
speaking of himself as "a miracle," and extolling
the water-cure in enthusiastic terms.
   Remarks.—Nothing could be  more  striking
than  the immediately sedative effects of the wet
sheet upon the highly excited  nervous system of
this patient.   It is  impossible  to conceive of  any
medicinal opiate acting so  quickly and so efficient-
ly; neither had  the sleep any  of the disagreeable 
OH WATER-CURE.
25
characters of that obtained by opiate, for he awoke
soothed, refreshed, and with a moist tongue.  This
effect,  too, continued throughout the case; the
patient never retrograded for a single day.  Al-
though when he  came  his limbs would scarcely
carry him half a mile, within a week  he was able
to mount to the top of the highest of these hills.
The harassing condition of mind disappeared, and
he frequently expressed his surprise at the totally
altered view he took of the circumstances which
had previously so painfully excited him.   We con-
fess  our  ignorance of  any medicinal  treatment
which could  remove  the  symptoms enumerated,
and  restore the general  health so rapidly and com-
pletely as the much-abused means employed in this
case.—Drs.  Wilson and Gully.

                Nervous Debility.
   A gentleman,  aged  25, tall  and slight, had
brought on debility by excess of  study,  attended
with circumstances distressing his mind.  For two
years,  suffered  from great and almost  continued
pain in the head, chiefly in the  back part ;  with
pains of  the teeth and down the cheek ;  constant
noises  in the ears.  Was also generally weak, and
in  a very nervous state.  Circulation irregular,
with ice-cold feet.  Bowels torpid.   Had been at
Graefenberg six months.   The treatment:—lein-
tuch in the first of the morning for half  an hour,
followed by the abreibung.   Both repeated in the
afternoon.   Used also daily  head-bath, and  foot-
bath, the feet being well rubbed for half an  hour.
              3 
26          FACTS IN HYDR0PATF1Y,
Was desired, in addition to the regular head-bath,
to rub the head very freely with cold water, when-
ever it was painful.  Drank water as usual.   In
the first week, the functions of the bowels became
quite regular, and  he was released from his former
necessity of taking one or other kind of medicine.
This benefit arising from the water-cure treatment
is one of the highest magnitude,  and  happens, as
far as my inquiry went, almost  without  excep-
tion.  This gentleman assured me that he  found
himself well at  the end of three months, and only
remained at Graefenberg longer in order to  con-
firm the establishment  of his strength.   It  was
pleasing to hear him describe the altered state of
his nerves for the better, the loss  of all pains of the
head and face ; and the  improvement of his circu-
lation.  He was no longer troubled with coldness
of the feet.—Sir Charles Scudamore.

       Hypochondriasis  with hallucination.
   A gentleman aged 28 consulted us, presenting the
following symptoms :—Face shrunk and pinched,
with an expression of anxiety and anguish ; com-
plexion dingy yellow; tongue silvery and split;
bowels not acting except by medicine ; general
emaciation.  To these physical ailments was added
a state of  mind which  he characterized as  most
humiliating.  At one time he conceived the most
unconquerable disgust at his wife's nose, because
it was not perfectly straight.   At another  he was
haunted by  a small  mole on  her neck, and the
complexion of the  rhroat.   These and other phan- 
OR WATER-CURE.
2
tasies tormented him night and day, and he nev(
was  free from  some crotchet or other.  Daily <
about six in the evening a fit of profound melar
choly invaded him, and all appeared cheerless t
him for two or three hours, though on the score <
wife, and fortune, and station, few men had moi
right to be  contented.  The causes of this  compl
cation of bodily and  mental ailments  were to t
found  in early excesses, acting on an original!
weakly frame and not a strong  mind.   It shod
be mentioned that he attributed  the major part <
his ills to medicine, of which he had taken  largely
   The treatment in this case consisted in the sy;
tematic employment, morning and evening, of tl
wet sheet, sitz-baths, and shallow baths. By the;
means, conjoined with ten or twelve tumblers <
water daily, regular exercise on foot and on horsi
back, simple but nutritious diet, and early hour
he was put into a state to bear the daily use of tl
douche.  Some time, however, previous to the us
of this last, his bowels had got into perfect orde
his skin had taken a healthier hue, and he  allow*
that his nervous sensations and mental phantasii
had  undergone material amelioration.   And be
remarked, that when a hypochondriac  allows thi
he is better at all, it may always be concluded thi
he is considerably so ; for croaking is his princip
attribute.   But although the patient was convince
that a little more time would have certainly  effect*
his cure, circumstances intervened to prevent h
further stay at Malvern ; yet he left behind him
host of physical and moral troubles. 
28          FACTS IN IIVDROPATHY,
  Remarks.—Very few of our non-professional
readers are aware of the extreme difficulty in pro-
ducing any impression whatever on the miserable
condition of the  nervous system of a confirmed
hypochondriac such as this  was.  That condition
is essentially one  of deeply-rooted irritation of the
whole of the nerves which  regulate  the functions
of the stomach, bowels, and  liver;  an irritation
which, by sympathy, is  propagated  to the  brain,
thereby producing low  spirits, harassing and hor-
rible fancies, and sometimes an almost total loss of
the voluntary power. In such shades of mind, the
patient becomes one of the  most disagreeable that
can  be met with; he  torments  himself and all
around him ; and but few medical men are other-
wise than glad to get rid of such a patient.  The
effects,  therefore, of the  water-cure in   similar
cases are the more to be admired, as they  are pro-
duced in  persons who  are  most  unwilling to ac-
knowledge that they are benefitted  by any treat-
ment whatever ; and as it  is universally acknow-
ledged by medical men that they  are, in fact, sel-
dom or  never benefitted by any medicinal treat-
ment in ordinary usage.  This case bears some
analogy with the first one mentioned, inasmuch as
at times the suicidal propensity was  present; and
like  the case in point, would  have prospered to a
perfect  cure had  time  been given.   We  know,
however, that the treatment, as far  as it can be
managed, will  be  persevered in, and the  patient,
as well as ourselves, is assured of the ultimate re-
sult.—Drs. Wilson and Gully. 
OR WATER-CURE.
29
 Intense Hypochondriasis and Mercurial Disease.
  A gentleman, of large fortune, was the subject
of this intolerable disease, of which he had all the
prominent  symptoms in their worst degree.  It
owned both physical and moral causes.  The for-
mer consisted in the frightful and long-continued
application of mercury, which  had been  given
when the disease was yet slight; and the latter in
a severe  and  permanent domestic disappointment.
All the secretions, both of the skin and of the in-
ternal membranes of the body, were depraved.  He
remained at Malvern several weeks, but only slight
amelioration of the symptoms was obtained.  All
parties concerned became impatient; and he gave
up  the  water-cure, having previously tried  all
manner of treatment.
  Remarks.—We mention this case  only as an
instance  of those who leave the water-cure  dis-
appointed, and in  ill humor with themselves and
the  treatment.  How far the treatment was to
blame for  the want of success,  may be gathered
from the fact, that we discovered in the course of
it that the patient persisted secretly in an old habit
of drinking brandy, when, with  any chance  that
the candor and perseverance of  the patient could
have given us, it would  have taken at least ten or
twelve months of steady treatment to bring about
his recovery.   As it is, the case is a forlorn  one,
both as regards  the  causes and  any future treat-
ment  that may be adopted.—Drs. Wilson and
Gully.
              3* 
30          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
        Indigestion and Pain in the Side.
  A gentleman, aged 40, arrived at Graefenberg,
in a weak state, with bad  digestion and  constant
pain in the right side.  He went at once from his
lein-tuch into the cold bath.   He abstained from
the douche when the weather was severely cold,
and never took it  more than two minutes.   He
was several months before he got a crisis ; but was
cured of his indigestion before that  time.  When
the crisis came, it was on the opposite side,  a large
boil, very painful, accompanied by much irritative
fever for near a week; but it has  cured  the pain
in his side, for which he could get no remedy be-
fore.—Sir Charles Scudamore.

 Liver and Stomach Complaint with Emaciation.
   Mr.----, a Liverpool merchant, in consequence
of long-continued exertion in the climates of South
America,  irregular  living, and considerable labor
of brain, had at length fallen into a state of  disease
indicated by the following symptoms.  Complexion
pale yellow,  without a sign of circulating  blood;
face thin and haggard ; body generally emaciated ;
pain in the  right side of many years standing,
bowels  confined, appetite  gone ;  great lassitude
and  indisposition to exertion.  For these ailments
he had gone  through various courses of medicines,
mercurials,  purgatives, tonics, &c.; he  had also
tried different mineral waters, and had finished the
list with a course of Morison's pills : all  to no pur-
pose, for  he  came to us with enlarged  liver, and 
OH WATER-CTTCtE.
31
all  trie symptoms of confirmed stomach disease.
It should not be omitted that he suffered from fre-
quent  tic and  cramps in the  leg.   His age was
forty-six years.
  Alternate wet sheets and swet.thgs,  with fre-
quent  sitz-baths, compress constantly kept to the
abdomen, and latterly the douche, produced, in the
course of a few weeks, a most decided  change in
his appearance.   His appetite  became enormous,
his digestion undisturbed, and the evacuations from
the  bowels, twice a day, very copious: he slept
well, and his spirits wore of the highest order.  At
the  end of a month a crisis of boils commenced,
principally over the  region  of  the liver and right
eide of the body, whieh, however, were rather a
subject of jest than of alarm to him, since, notwith-
standing there were as many as twenty or thirty
at one time upon him, he  was never once  absent
from the breakfast, dinner,  and supper  table, and
took his walks as he had always done.   The only
difference in treatment required for these boils was
an extra v/et sheet in the middle of the day, which,
with the refreshing of the linen eompresses, he
found  removed all inconvenience and disagreeable
sensation, which might have arisen from the ex-
istence of the boils. Under the action of these boils,
 the enlargement of the liver rapidly gave way, and
 the diminution of its disease was palpably exhibited
in his face, which became round and red from being
 pale and thin.
   Remarks.—In every way this case is satisfac-
 tory, and the result was obtained in much shorter 
32          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,

time than  we expected, being a little above six
weeks.   It is further satisfactory, as it  gives the
opportunity of demonstrating the perfect safety of
the crisis of boils, when  these are produced  with
discretion,  and treated with judgment.    Being
vithdrawn from business, and free from all artificial
stimulants,  both mental and  bodily, we  perceive
how small  an  affair this crisis  is.   But had this
patient left us a fortnight before he did, with  the
boils upon him, and entered upon the cares of his
business at Liverpool, or had he put himself under
a course  of drug medication at that time, we ven-
ture to say that the result would have been  very
different.  As it is, we hear at this time (now five
months)  that he is on the point of embarking for
Canada, and says, " that he ha3 got  a new lease
of life from the  water-cure."—Drs.  Wilson and
Gully.

                 Brain Fever.
  A person who had recently lost his wife and two
children, was attacked with  brain fever. Priessnitz
ordered him a tepid bath, in which he sat and was
rubbed by two men, who were occasionally changed.
The man became so deranged, that it was  with
difficulty he could be  kept in the bath.   In ordi-
nary cases, this disease succumbs to the treatment
in two or three hours; but  the patient in this case
became speechless at the end of this time.
  Priessnitz, with that coolness which is so leading
a feature in his character, said, " Keep on until he
either  talks much or goes  to sleep."  The latter 
OR WATER-CURE.
33
the man at last did, but not until he had been in
the bath for  nine hours and a half, when  he fell
asleep from exhaustion at  half past ten at night.
He was then  put to bed, and the next day the fever
had left him, and,  though weak, he was able to
walk about.   If, in this case, Priessnitz had be-
come alarmed, after the first two or three  hours,
and had discontinued the mode of treatment, to try
some other  experiment, the  consequence  might
have proved fatal. —Claridge.

Inflammation of the Stomach and Bowels, treated
                 by Priessnitz.
   A child, three years old, was subject to inflam-
mation  of the stomaeh and bowels.   A second at-
tack, with aggravated symptoms, which  he had
while at Graefenberg, was treated as  follows :—
The well-wet bandage, covered only with a thick
dry sheet, was applied every five  minutes, from
the neck to the knees, for upwards of an hour,
when, the heat being reduced, the  last was per-
mitted  to remain ten minutes ; the head and chest
being also implicated in the inflammatory action,
thicker umschlags  were  applied to those  parts ;
 the feet and legs being cold, they were well rub-
 bed with  the hands, and  covered with a blanket.
 After the application of the last umschlag he wa3
 placed  in a  tepid bath at  70° Fah., where he was
 retained for an hour ; his body being rubbed gently
 during the whole time ; additional cold water was
 occasionally added  to retain the  bath at a uniform
.temperature, and a tumbler of cold water was also 
34          FACTS IN nYDROPATHY,
poured on his head, at intervals of about a minute.
Four  times during the day was  this process re-
peated ; the periods being reduced as the fever be-
came  less, and at night the bandage was changed
every half hour.  On the second day the little suf-
ferer refused to go into the bath, but begged  him-
self from time to time for fresh bandages.  Priess-
nitz at  once adopted the child's suggestion, and
directed that his feelings should be attended to.
In the course of the day the child desired the bath,
in which he was accordingly placed, and where he
remained till the heat in his armpits, and back of
his neck, was reduced to that of the  rest  of his
body ;■—this being Priessnitz's index of the proper
duration of a bath under such circumstances.  In
four  days the child was quite restored.  Subse-
quently a pustule appeared on  one  foot,  which
discharged freely, and his  cure was perfected.—
Beamish.

Ulcer, with  Caries  of the Bone, from a Gun- shot
                    Wound.
   The cadet Prince Lichtenstein, of middle size
and of a full and corpulent habit of body, had re-
ceived, whilst on service in Italy, a gun-shot wound
in the leg, which injured the  tibia.   The wound
remained open for two years, degenerating into a
foul and fistulous ulcer, and discharging a  fetid
sanies, accompanied with caries of the bone.  The
surgeons of Vienna advised amputation ; and, as
a last resource, the  prince went to Graefenberg.
   Treatment.—Wet bandages to the ulcer, sweat- 
OR WATER-CURE.
35
ing every morning in a blanket, followed by fric-
tion in the half-bath, or plunging into the cold bath,
and drinking copiously of cold water.   This was
continued without intermission for two years. The
habit  of body and general health became improved,
and there was no loss of flesh, notwithstanding  the
continual sweating.  The diseased or carious bone
was gradually exfoliated in a great many pieces.
The ulcer, soon  after the commencement  of  the
treatment, assumed a healthy action and appear-
ance,  and was nearly healed at the period  of  the
prince's departure.   He fully recovered the use of
his leg.—Dr. R. H.  Graham.

Indigestion,  and Liver Disease,  with  asthmatic
    breathing and internal accumulation of fat.
   A lady, about fifty years old, of  strong  consti-
tution, had been for  many years in the habit of
indulging a pretty large appetite to  its full extent,
and entering into all unhealthy ways of fashion-
able life.  The consequences were, in time, shown
in constant pain of the right side  over the liver,
and in the  back, which  was  soon followed  by
asthmatic breathing, laborious action of the heart,
and, therefore, the greatest difficulty in ascending
stairs.  At the  same time she became inconve-
niently fat on the surface, and gave likewise every
indication of a  similar accumulation within, and
more  particularly of that which is  so apt to take
place  about the heart, the kidneys, and coverings
of  the bowels.  The other common symptoms of
a deranged state of the digestive apparatus, espe- 
36          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
cially costiveness, were all present.   With these
ailments she came to Malvern.
  It is tedious to recapitulate frequently the treat-
ment of indigestion and its accompaniments; suf-
fice  it to say, that in ten days this lady was able
to walk up  the  hills with  but  little difficulty of
breathing, an undertaking she would not previous-
ly have  dared to attempt; the pain in the side, for
which she  had been frequently cupped  by other
practitioners, was gone ; the functions of the stom-
ach and bowels were regularly performed ; and her
spirits rose to the highest state of exuberance.  She
continued the treatment  for six weeks, at the end
of which time a crisis appeared  in one of the legs
in the shape of boils ; which, however, did not con-
fine her to the house. It is now about eight months
since she left this  place, and  a  week or two back
we had  the gratification to hear, through the me-
dium of a lady resident at Malvern, that  she con-
tinues in perfect health, and speaks of herself as
" belter  than she ever remembers herself to have
been."
  Remarks.—In the ordinary mode of treatment
by i!r;:gs, &c, this  lady would  have occasionally
had  temporary relief by doses  of  mercurials,  sa-
lines, and purgatives;  she would  have been  (as
indeed  she frequently  had  been) cupped over the
side, and sometimes at  the back of the  neck ;  and
many would probably have bled her from the arm
also.   A sound pathologist, looking to the case as
it was presented here, would have no difficulty in
predicting to what such  treatment would eventu- 
OR WATER-CURE.
37
ally  lead.   Most  unquestionably  dropsy of the
chest or belly would have been the result, if, in the
mean time, some acute inflammation had not in-
tervened^to carry her off.  On the other hand, the
water treatment, by setting up and maintaining a
vivid action of the skin, by inducing a healthy de-
gree of waste through it, and a healthy state of all
the secretions, by the transfer of irritation from the
internal parts to the point at which the crisis ap-
peared ; and by enabling the patient to take a great
amount of active  exercise, brought about a state
which annihilated the local congestion of the stom-
ach and liver, and put a stop to the enormous ac-
cumulation of fat about the heart, which they who
are in the habit of seeing these kind of cases readi-
ly detect.—Drs. Wilson and Gully.

                Scarlet Fever.
   In the month of May, 1842, Mrs. Klauke, (aged
about 25,) was seized with pains in the head and
back and calves of the legs. Her face, neck, arms,
and legs, and  subsequently the whole body, became
brightly scarlet,  and she complained of a  soreness
in the throat.   The pulse  was rapid, and skin dry.
She was packed in the lein-tuch for half an hour;
then rubbed  all over in a tepid bath for twenty
minutes with the wet hand. She was now ordered
to wear an umschlag round her stomach night and
day.   When she felt cold, she was rubbed down
with the wet sheet—when hot, packed in  the lein-
tuch ;  and so on all through.
   The tepid bath was suspended until by the ap-
             4 
38          FACTS IN HTDROPATI1Y,

plication of a succession of sheets the fever was
reduced.  Then  the tepid  bath was repeated.
Every morning she was packed up in a  blanket,
in which she was allowed to perspire for an hour;
then she was put into the tepid bath.   This treat-
ment was continued for a fortnight.   At the close
of the sixth day all fever was extinguished, and at
the  close of the whole treatment her strength was
undiminished.
  In addition  to  the above a  lavement of cold
water was administered every night.   During the
whole time she ate  and drank as usual,  and  one
evening went to a ball, (in the saloon of Priess-
nitz's establishment,) and danced  for hours, whilst
her whole body was crimson with scarlatina.  On
returning  home from the dance, she was rubbed
down with a wet  sheet, went  to bed, and slept
soundly—Dr.  Ed. Johnson.

               Hereditary Gout.
  A gentleman, aged 50, of  middling bulk and
stature, had  hereditary  gout  first  20 years ago,
brought  on by violent  efforts in swimming, to
save himself from drowning, on  a winter's day *
was for years subject to fits of great severity,  and
of six or eight weeks' duration  ; has chalkstones in
various parts, particularly in the hands and feet j
disappointed by allopathic medicine, of which col-
chicum and mercury formed part, he tried homoeo-
pathic,  with no other result than the longer stay.
ing  away of the gout; and this benefit  he  at-
tributed to  the care in diet.   The fits  were of 
GR WATER-CURE.
39
equal severity when they did  return.  For some
time he adhered to  a diet of fish and vegetables,
and for several years has  wholly abstained  from
wine.   Five years ago, went to Toplitz and Carls-
bad, without benefit, and afterwards to  Wiesba-
den, going  through a full course  of treatment
there, still without apparent advantage.   He next
proceeded to Franzens-bad, in Bohemia, and tried
the mud baths for a month, sitting in the mud, up
to his neck, at  97° Fahrenheit, for  half an hour,
each other day,  with  no other good result  than
curing his lumbago, which has  never  returned.
He came to Graefenberg  three  years and  nine
months ago, in a state of such lameness and con-
tinued suffering, that he felt himself  fast approach-
ing to a  bed-ridden state.  For the  space of two
years, with  the interruption only of two months,
he made daily use of the sweating  blanket,  with
this  frequency  more by  his own desire  than the
wish of Priessnitz, wishing to  force  crisis ; but he
is convinced that it was an error, and that he was
weakened.  In six weeks, he  had boils on the in-
steps,  which  remarkably  relieved the chronic
pains ; and, some time after, the urine deposited
much substance, which appeared to him like wet
chalk.   In  the beginning of the treatment, Priess-
nitz examined him, first  at  the half-bath, then
after the plunging, and told  him  his complaint
would be cured in time, and even encouraged him
to expect the  recovery  of  the  hands; but  I am
persuaded there was too much disorganization of
iparts to admit of it.  In some of the joints of the 
40          FACTS IN HVDROPATHY,
fingers there was  anchylosis,  and here and there
absorption of cartilage.   However, much of the
chalkstone deposit  had  been removed  by  the
treatment, and I doubt not he will  obtain further
improvement.   After  five  months,  he  had an
acute attack,  which at first  he  left to itself, but
afterwards  used  rubbings  in  the  shallow  tepid
bath,  with tepid  affusions  and  umschlags;  all
with much advantage.   He remained  the whole
winter, but considers that the " winter cure" did
not suit him, the cold being often severe, from 4°
to 10° Faht. for a continuance ;  but he says that
the atmosphere was so clear and  still, with often
a full sun, that the cold  was  agreeable  to  those
who could take very active exercise.   When re-
stored from the  fit, he resumed  treatment.  His
skin was with  difficulty excited  to perspiration ;
and Priessnitz  had desired him to use two donches
a-day, and even advised  three occasionally ; but
he continued with two, sometimes using a plung-
ing bath also, and always, twice a week, after the
sweating in the blanket.  He quitted Graefenberg
for a time, and returned.  He has used umschlags
always,  and drunk 10  or 12 half-pints of water
daily.   He related to me that the  gout now very
rarely and very slightly affects him, and that he can
walk ten miles with more ease than one formerly.
He looked  well.  He had  not touched medicine
since he had been under the water-cure treatment,
which he extols in the highest terms.—Sir  Chas..
Scudamore. 
OR WATER-CU'ilE.
4!
Stomach and Liver Disease, with Tic Douloureux—
       Cure arrested by falling in Love, 6rc.
   A gentleman, about thirty-seven years of age,
was advised to try the water-cure by a learned
physician at Cheltenham.  He had  been  many
years in India, where the climate, joined with the
usual mode of  living there, had produced the dis-
eased states above mentioned.  He had a complete-
ly withered look, the skin being deeply wrinkled,
sallow, and without any appearance of blood; the
liver was enlarged, with all the ordinary symptoms
of long-standing indigestion; added  to  these, he
suffered from  severe tic   After going through a
carefully graduated system of treatment  for a few
weeks, he  was able  to bear water at the  coldest
temperature.   In six  weeks  his face was much
fuller, with the tinge of health appearing upon it,
as well as on the whole surface of the body.  All
the functions  of the digestive organs were regu-
larly  performed, and his  tic was gone.   At  this
time he unfortunately fell  in love.; but, like all true
love, its course did not run smooth.  The lady was
insensible,  and would not listen to the last serious
question.   His  nights now became  restless, his
appetite vanished, and the tic returned  with  vio-
lence.  We advised him  to leave Malvern, which
he did, much dissatisfied that water could not wash
out a settled trouble from the brain, and,  in secret,
a little vexed with himself.
   Remarks.—This is a very interesting and in-
structive case.  There could not be a better illus-
              4* 
42          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
tration of what has  been so much insisted upon,
viz., that any absorbing or  long-continued mental
irritation is not compatible  with a regular applica-
tion of the water-cure for a chronic disease.  This
includes the cares and anxieties  of  business,  the
pleasures  and mode of living in  towns, and  the
effects of spirituous or medicinal matters ;  in fact,
to continue  it under such  circumstances it is  not
without danger.  In this case the same processes
which ten days before produced an agreeable effect,
were now  insupportable.   Similar cases will often
occur; when they do, the ill success is invariably
laid on the treatment and the doctor, rather than on
the patient's own folly.—Drs. Wilson and Gully.

   Cutaneous  Eruptions and Universal Pains.
   A gentleman, aged 49,  robust and rather cor-
pulent, after syphilis five years ago,  had a  fever
in Italy, for  which he was bled so freely that  his
strength was exceedingly reduced.   He kept  his
bed three months;  was  bled from  the arm  15
times, and had leeches,  also, very freely applied
to  different  parts.   On  recovering  sufficient
strength, he  went  to Graefenberg,  then having
universal  pains of  a  doubtful character,  with
much cutaneous eruption  ;  sweated in the blanket
every morning  for four  months ; and, instead of
being weakened,  gained  strength  regularly ;  al-
ways  the  plunging bath after it.  At  that time
the lein-tuch was seldom used, except in fevers.
He douched-also occasionally, and drank from 12
to 15  glasses of water daily.   He  recovered per- 
OR WATER-CURE.
43
fectly and remained well three years.   By many
acts of imprudence he lost his health again ; had
an inflammatory attack on the chest, for which he
was freely bled, and with relief at  the  moment ;
but  other evils followed—lumbago and sciatica,
of the  most painful description.   Leeches and
blisters were applied to the  hip repeatedly, with-
out relief.   He consulted the most eminent phy-
sicians  in Germany; and,  by their advice,  used
leeches, blisters, and mercurial frictions; in op-
position to   which  the  sciatica  increased.   He
went to a water establishment in his neighbour-
hood, his convenience not permitting him to travel
to Graefenberg.  He used, first, a plunging bath,
then the  vapour bath for one hour, and next the
plunging  bath again; but  this treatment  much
disagreed, causing particularly oppression  of the
chest.  The sciatic  pain still increased,  and at
length became so  intolerable, that the actual cau-
tery was  extensively applied to the hip, of which
I saw  the  evidence.  He  took mercurial purga-
tives frequently.
  By these  means the violence of the disorder was
broken  ; but he got cold and had  inflammation of
the  larynx.   After much  interval,  it  was with
great difficulty he  could accomplish the journey
to Graefenberg, where his anxious thoughts were
directed.  At length, he again presented himself
to Priessnitz ; then having severe sciatica : pain
also of  the  femoral nerve;  indigestion  ; haemor-
rhoidal suffering ;  hypochondriasm,  and general
debility.  At first, the  treatment consisted of 
44
FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
lein-tuch, shallow tepid baths, sitz-baths ;  and wet
bandages, covered by  dry, to the affected parts.
Afterwards, he sweated in the blanket, and used
the plunging bath, not  finding any disagreement,
as he had done with  the vapor  bath, &c.  After
three or  four  months,  had general crisis, but no
boils  in  the affected limb till eight months had
elapsed, when  also the thigh was covered with a
scaly  rash.  The pains  were  entirely  relieved
when  the last boils had  suppurated freely.   He
next used the  douche very regularly ; and, when
I saw him, did so for eight minutes every day.
The limb had  recovered  its size and power :  he
could walk  almost  any distance without incon-
venience.  He remarked that, till within  the  last
few  weeks, the bad limb had never perspired when
the other parts o.  the body freely yielded to  the
influence of the blanket process.
  This was a  very important  case, and one that
did infinite credit to Priessnitz and the water-cure
means.  It shows also the necessity of their being
used with judgment; for, till he came to Graefen-
berg, he had been injured rather than assisted.—
Sir  C. Scudamore.

            Black or Brown Leprosy.
   A young gentleman, fourteen years of age, be-
came a patient here  in December last.   Over the
greater  part of both legs there existed a scaly
eruption, the individual scales being dark in color,
easily detached, about  the size of a human nail,
and when detached, leaving the surface underneath 
OR WATER-CURE.
45
raw and  tender, the latter discharging a bloody
serous fluid, until the scales became again formed.
This had been going on for a long time, gradually
increasing  in extent, without  the least ameliora-
tion.   He  remained in the establishment nearly
thirteen weeks, and  left it to return to his father
at Cheltenham, with his skin  clean and healthy,
and all the external appearance and internal signs
of a robust state  of health.  He sweated every
other day, and lay in the wet sheet every day, and
on alternate days, twice.   On coming out of the
blankets or wet sheet, his attendant, as well  as
ourselves, witnessed a very strong and peculiar
odor  emanating  from  them,  and  continued  for
several weeks of the treatment.  The regular em-
ployment of sitz-baths and  of the douche also
formed a part of the treatment.  Compresses were
kept  constantly upon  the  diseased parts, and  he
took from twelve to fifteen glasses of water  daily.
   Remarks.—Here is a case in which the simple
operations of the water-cure not only eradicated a
local disease, which all medical men know and ac-
knowledge to be one of the most difficult, but also
brought the patient into robust and general health.
Compare with this the following list of medicines
usually given in this  disease, and which medical
writers tell us are  all more  or less uncertain:—
muriatic acid, corrosive sublimate, preparations of
arsenic, caustic potash, white  hellebore, &c, all of
which, if uncertain to cure  the skin, are  pretty
certain to  injure the general  health, by establish-
ing disease in the internal organs.—Drs. Wilson
and Gully. 
46          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
              Great Nervousness.
  A military man, aged 32, had used mercury for
a long  time, which  created  great nervousness
eventually ; and, in  a state  of much  debility,
with wandering pains, he went to Graefenberg.
He  began  with two  lein-tuchs,  a  shallow  tepid
bath, and sitz-bath.  Soon after, a plunging bath
was added every other day.  But his zeal led him
into error;  he would go far beyond his instruc-
tions  in  every thing.   One morning,  he drank
eight large glasses of water, instead of the  four
prescribed, before  breakfast;  and, omitting  the
necessary walking exercise,  went into the billiard-
room.   The  kidneys had not actively secreted.
His feet  became cold, and he  was altogether un-
easy.  He went out for a walk,  accompanied by
a friend.  He soon fell into incoherent conversa-
tion, and was got home with some difficulty.   He
did not quite lose consciousness, but was speech-
less;  made signs for pen and  ink,  but could not
write.    He  had a violent head-ache.   Priessnitz
directed  a  tepid (62°) foot-bath,  with free  rub-
bing ;  sprinkled water on  the face  and  head:
and shortly after were applied  three abreibungs in
the course of half an hour;  and  wet bandages to
the head:  he  was put to bed.  Intense pain of
the head ensued, with some  general fever and ex-
treme feebleness of the limbs.  Priessnitz, at his
next visit, a  few hours after,  ordered two abrei-
bungs, with  an interval  of ten minutes ;  then a
foot-bath for an hour, the water being changed two 
OR WATER-CURE.
47
or three times ; next, a lein-tuch for 20 minutes,
followed by the shallow tepid bath, in which he
was rubbed for half an hour by two attendants,
with occasional affusions of cold water over the
head.  He now vomited freely,  and thus gave re-
lief.   The  whole treatment  was so  successful,
that,  in  another  hour,  he recovered  sense  and
speech, and lost the pain of the head.  In a few
days, general treatment was resumed, and con-
tinued with great regularity.  He was now always
careful to take free exercise before and after every
process.   Numerous  boils  formed chiefly in the
upper part of the back, but also  in the  thigh, and
they suppurated favorably.   He  was called away
suddenly by military duty,  but pursued treatment
at home to a certain extent;  and a letter from
him to Priessnitz, a short time ago, announced his
complete recovery.—Sir C. Scudamore.

         Acne and Sycosis, with Crisis.
   A military officer, twenty-four years old, com-
menced treatment here, in  December last, for the
above very* common and disfiguring disease.  His
face was covered  with red pimples, many of them
with white  heads, one crop of  them  succeeding
another.   He had been for several years troubled
with severe headaches and a confirmed stomach
complaint, showing itself in flushings after dinner,
depression of spirits,  and obstinately constipated
bowels.  His  appetite was entirely gone, and he
had consequently fallen into the  habit of taking a
Btrong dose of spirits and bitters  immediately be- 
 *8          FACTS IN HYDROrATUY,

fore dinner, without which he was unable to eat
any.  He had had his gums " touched" more than
once with mercury, and had no relief of bowels
except from purgatives, from which period he dated
the commencement of his complaints, both  local
and general.
  As  there was much internal irritation to subdue,
the treatment was commenced by laying twice a
day in the wet sheet, followed by a general bath ;
a hip  bath being taken at mid-day, and six or eight
tumblers of water  taken daily, the major portion
before breakfast, while using exercise on  the hills.
The feverish symptoms reduced, and  the  bowels
relieved naturally, which took place in the second
week, he commenced  sweating, the  douche and
the hip bath, with an occasional application of the
wet sheet.  In  consequence of this treatment, a
crisis  of boils appeared in the third week, showing
itself  on the  abdomen and  extremities.   In the
meanwhile, as  early as  the second week, the ap-
petite had become good—indeed, almost too good,
and  continued undiminished during  the whole
treatment.  What frequently occurs  in  skin dis-
ease took place in this case, namely, an increase
of the original  eruptions at the outset of the treat-
ment.   But as the critical boils appeared on other
parts  of  the body, those on the face disappeared,
and ceased to  be renewed.  Indeed  a striking
change took place in the whole of the skin, which,
from leing harsh and inactive, became pliant and
healthy in appearance.  The total cure was effected
in five weeks. 
OR WATER-CURE.
49
  Remarks.—It is only necessary to  observe  in
this case, that the eruption depended on the dis-
eased condition of the stomach, liver, and bowels,
and that this appealed to have been  much aggra-
vated by the medicines he had taken, the first course
of mercury being, most probably, the starting point.
Add to this the  hurtful habit  he had acquired of
taking bitter stimulants before  dinner to force a
fictitious appetite, and stimulants after dinner to
mask the pains of indigestion.   This patient  de-
clared that  for years he had not been in such spirits
as he was  during the time the crisis of boils was
present, all  of which time he  never walked less
than  from six to ten miles daily.—Drs. Wilson
and Gully.

              Mercurial Disease.
  Mr. R----, a young Scotch gentleman, had con-
tracted  syphilis at Messina, two years previously
to his visit to Graefenberg.  Was treated by the
Sicilian, and afterwards the Neapolitan physicians,
with  mercurial inunction, blue pills,  and corrosive
sublimate.   This last preparation had been  taken
in such large quantities, by mistake, that it  en-
dangered  his life, causing violent vomitings and
colliquative diarrhoea.   He became so extremely
sensitive to the  electrical changes of the atmo-
sphere,  that he  assured me,  he could not only
predict  rain, but  could anticipate the approach of
a cloud, and tell when  it was passing  over him,
though  blindfolded.  His friends frequently made
this experiment upon him.   He  had suffered from
              5 
50          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
a mercurial eruption, and pains in the head, joints,
and spine;  ulcerated sore throat, loss of appetite,
and extreme emaciation.   The English medical
practitioner at Naples afterwards cured  him of the
secondary symptoms with the hydriodate of potass,
and the compound decoction of sarsaparilla.   But
the pains in his head and joints, loss of appetite,
debility, and emaciation, continued, combined with
an hysterical affection, that caused him frequently
to shed involuntary tears.  He was persuaded  to
consult Priessnitz,  and went  through  the entire
curriculum of the "cure."  The " douche" pro-
duced  much feverish excitement, followed  by a
mercurial eruption, accompanied with several boils,
not venereal  ulcers.   Sweating in a blanket pro-
moted  the discharge of  the mercury accumulated
in his system.  In four months he was perfectly
restored  to health, regained his strength, flesh, and
appetite, which last was by no means inconsider-
able.   He frequently walked twenty  or thirty
miles a day,  and  was free from every pain.  This
was the best and most complete cure  that fell
under  my observation.—Dr. R. II. Graham.

Congestion of the  Head, with threatening Apoplexy.
   A gentleman, aged forty.five years, well known
in the county of Worcester, had for years  been
suffering under the triple excitements of compli-
cated  affairs, field sports of all kinds, and  high
living, and in the vain endeavor to stave off the
evil results by constant and violent purgation, had
increased them.   The last three  or four years  ho 
OR WATER-CURE.
51
had been on his estate, free from business, but still
exposed to the other causes of his disease.  When
he came to us he presented the following symp-
toms.  Face remarkably full and  livid ; tongue
moist and foul ;  bowels  constipated ;  urine not
reaching a pint a day.  He had been for a time
affected with giddiness of head, with tendency  to
fall on one side or other ; dimness of sight;  at in-
tervals he was seized with extreme  depression  of
spirits, excessive irritability, and strong inclination
to be violent to those around  him ;  his thoughts
were frequently so  confused  as to deprive  him  of
all moral courage, and of the power of attending
to any thing.  His nights were frightful, moaning,
groaning, and tossing about.   With such symptoms
(which had existed for several years) it will scarce-
ly be credited that he had been advised to take at
least a pint of wine daily, and, as  his spirits not-
withstanding became worse, to augment the quan-
tity to a  bottle!   Equally incredible is  it that,
whilst this treatment was going on, he had been
repeatedly bled, both from the arm and the nape
of the neck.   It is  to be remarked that this gen-
tleman, hearing of the water-cure, and feeling that
he was getting rapidly worse, and threatened daily
with apoplexy, took the  resolution to abandon  all
advice, medicine, and wine, and to  take to water
drinking.  This  last relieved  him so much, that
he further resolved to put himself under our care.
   It  is impossible  in our space to detail all the
management that was required in this very peril-
ous  case.  Suffice  it to mention, that the greatest 
52          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
care was taken in graduating the different pro-
cesses of the water-cure, so as to induce a better
distribution of the blood, and the diminution of its
quantity in  the  head.  All  stimulants whatever
were withdrawn at once, and since last September
he has not required any liquid but water and milk,
and has not  taken a grain of medicine of any kind
for now more than six months.   The first effect
of the treatment was the restoration of the secre-
tions of the bowels and the kidneys, purgatives and
diuretics having previously  utterly failed.   The
next effect was the restoration to comparatively
quiet sleep, and to quietude of mind when awake ;
for strange to say,  the water has given him good
spirits, which the wine  had rather depressed than
otherwise. The third effect was the disappearance
of an immense quantity of superfluous fat, the chief
accumulation of which  was about the bowels, giv-
ing him an enormous paunch ; for which, however,
a quantity of hard,  muscular  flesh has been substi-
tuted on the limbs.  His figure is now what it was
when he was a young man.   It need scarcely be
added, that all fear and every symptom of apoplexy
has vanished.—Drs.  Wilson and Gully.

Priessnitz^  General  Rules for the  Treatment of
          Gout during the Paroxysm.
  Lying in two or three wet sheets consecutively,
ten or fifteen minutes  in  each, according to the
degree of fever or of animal heat,  so that the sheets
be changed  when  they become warm.  On quit-
ting the wet sheets, a demi-bath is to be taken, at 
OR  WATER-CURE.
53
about 60° or 65° Fahrenheit, from half an hour "to
an hour, dependent on the heat of the body.  This
is to be done just  previous to going to bed.  In
the morning, sweating in a blanket and the demi-
bath afterwards.   Should there be much debility,
the blanket  is to be used only on alternate days;
the wet sheet every evening.  Where the patient
is strong and robust,  the blanket may be had re-
course to twice a day, and the half-bath an hour
after each sweating.  If there be much heat, or
much fever, the friction in the demi-bath may be
repeated at twelve o'clock.   The  foot-bath and
hip-bath are not used during the paroxysm.   The
parts affected  are enveloped in wet bandages,
which are to be changed as often as they become
hot and dry;  or,  they may, from time  to time, be
moistened  or wetted on  the outside  with  cold
water.   Gout is  not to be treated as  a local dis-
ease, but as affecting the whole system.   A rigid
diet is to be observed  during the paroxysm, animal
food entirely abstained from, and generally but a
moderate quantity of any taken.—Dr.  R. H.
Graham.

Threatening Apoplexy, with extensive disease of the
         liver and other digestive organs.
   Our patient  in  this case was a gentleman fifty-
three years of age, of large landed property and
great political eminence, who, after  many years of
an active and useful parliamentary  career, retired
into the country.  Whether from the cessation of
his  previous exertion, or from the  excess of that
            5* 
54          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
exertion, his health soon began to give way ; symp-
toms of  indigestion, with  low spirits, and strong
tendency of blood to the head, began to show them-
selves.    These becoming more alarming, after un-
dergoing sundry plans of medication under several
country practitioners of eminence, he went to Lon-
don, and took  the advice of the most  fashionable
physician of the day, who  put him  through a long
course of mercurial and purgative medication ; but
after some  months' trial, h'i  found  himself  some-
what worse  than better.   Returning  on  another
occasion to the physician in question, he was can-
didly told that nothing further could be done for
him, and that  he must expect  to  suffer  more or
less for the rest of his life, an encouragement which
brought  him, as it has many  others, to the water-
cure.   The  appearances left no doubt  of the true
condition of this patient.  His eyes were yellow
and suffused ;  his complexion and lips were waxy ;
his tongue enlarged, spongy, and thickly coated ;
the breath acid ; the bowels  strictly constipated ;
the urine depositing copiously  of  lithic acid, and
scanty in quantity; accumulation of fat  in the
belly.   There was frequent  depression of spirits,
and irritability of temper ; giddiness of head, and
confusion  of  thought, sometimes amounting to
actual  suspension of the  mental faculties; sleep
heavy, but much disturbed.   All the other symp.
toms were equally strongly indicative of  the mis-
chief going on  in  the digestive organs  and the
head.
  The almost  immediate effect  of  the  water-cure 
OR WATER-CURE.
55
was to bring on a bilious crisis  in the shape  of
copious evacuations of thin acrid bile by the bowels,
by which a powerful derivation was made from the
brain, and that important organ thus rescued from
danger.  This past, he was placed under the dif-
ferent  processes of the water-cure, as the symp-
toms required ; into the lengthened details of which
the space which we have in this work will not al-
low us to enter.   Suffice it to say, that after four
months of assiduous treatment, this gentleman has
been enabled to re-enter upon the activities of life,
and very recently  presided most  ably at a public
dinner in London, and is now amusing himself by
travelling on the continent; and we  heard a few
days ago from his  sister, that his greatly altered
appearance was the subject of constant congratu-
lation from all his old London friends. It may be
mentioned, that in the course of the  treatment a
tendency to  gout  was developed, which no doubt
existed previously in the internal organs, and had
been  fixed there ;  but this was relieved  by  the
same means  which were improving his entire sys-
tem.—Drs.  Wilson and Gully.

Priessnitz^ Rules to  arrest an Attack of the Gout
               on its first approach.
   A demi-bath, with  the chill off, for  half or three
quarters of an hour;  the body well rubbed, espe-
cially those parts of it in which the gout is seated ;
but should they be too painful to admit of it, then
friction is  to be applied  to the neighboring parts.
Friction with cold water every evening in a demi- 
56          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
bath, and continued until the sensation of cold  is
succeeded by a warm glow.   Sweating in a blan-
ket for an hour, after which a wash  in the demi-
bath for  a minute or two, and then a walk out, if
practicable.—Dr. R. H. Graham.

     Inflammation and Swelling of Breasts.
  On the evening of the third day after my wife's
first accouchment, I came home from Guy's Hos-
pital, where I  had  been detained  since  morning,
and found her groaning and weeping with intense
pain, the breasts red,  and enormously  enlarged,
which  the  frightened nurse was vehemently rub-
bing with brandy and oil.  The skin was  exces-
sively hot and dry, and the pulse was leaping along
at the rate of 120°.  It  was in the month of Janu-
ary—so 1 walked into the street with a pail, which
I filled with snow, and  bringing it into the sick
room, I piled a heap of  it over both  breasts, con-
tinually adding fresh snow as it melted.  In a very
few minutes the milk span out in  streams, to the
distance  of more than a foot, and  the tears of tor-
ture were at once changed for  those of pleasure,
accompanied by that hysterical sobbing, which  is
the common result of a sudden transition  from in-
tense suffering to perfect ease. The mere absence
of pain in these cases takes all the characters of
the most  delicious and  positive pleasurable sensa-
tions.  In half an hour the inflammation had sub-
sided, the breasts had become comparatively flac
cid, the fever had entirely subsided, and  not only
all danger, but all inconvenience,  had utterly van- 
OR WATER-CURE.
57
ished.   But for this  timely  succor, suppuration
must have supervened  in  both breasts, and large
abscesses would have been the inevitable conse-
quence.—Dr. Ed.  Johnson.

        Deafness following Nervous Fever.
  This case was given by the patient himself.
  In  his twelfth year, after a dangerous nervous
fever, his hearing  was found  to be nearly gone.
Opinions were obtained from the  most eminent
physicians in Germany, all of whom declared, after
having experimented on him,  that he would ever
remain deaf,  and that, as  years advanced, the
deafness would be more confirmed.
  He arrived at Graefenberg in January,  1843.
  The treatment was as follows:—
  Morning, wet-sheet, and plunge-bath, with rub-
bing ; but for the first fortnight the bath was tepid.
  Noon, head-bath, from twelve to fifteen minutes.
After which a walk ;  then wet-sheet, followed by
rubbing with  the  dripping-sheet (abreibung), and
sitz-bath for twenty minutes.          ,
  Afternoon, head-bath ; walk; wet sheet, followed
by plunge-bath, and hand-rubbing.
  Night, head-bath twelve to  fifteen minutes.
  In eight days, on coming out of the plunge-bath,
he perceived a difference  in his power of hearing,
as his nose, which had been long stopped up, had
begin to cleanse itself.   The idea then occurred
to him of sniffing water up his nostrils ; he obtained
Priessnitz's sanction, and thus  conducted his opera-
tions :— 
58          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
  Head-bath, twelve and a half inches  diameter,
four and a half inches  deep;  from two to three
inches of water.
  1st. Face well rubbed with water twenty times.
  2d. One side of his head immersed till cold, then
rubbed till warm.
  3d. Back of head, ditto.
  4th. Ears well rubbed till warm, and again the
side of the head immersed as before.  This three
times.  The other side then followed, in a similar
manner.   Water now  sniffed  three times, and
forced through the  passages to the mouth ; the
head  then being thrown back,  the water was re-
turned by the same  channels to the nostrils.
  The face once more rubbed twenty times : again
the water was sniffed, and again the  head was im-
mersed and  rubbed.  The sniffing was repeated,
and the  operation concluded by rubbing the face
twenty times.
  In four weeks he was enabled  to hear distinctly.
A quantity of white  matter continued, however,  to
exude from his ears. Sweating was  now ordered ;
but it proved  too much for him, causing him  to
swoon after  the  plunge-bath, and he was  unable
to resume it until he had been  four months under
treatment.
  In four months and a half he commenced the
douqhe,  Priessnitz desiring him  to  proceed with
great care, for fear of a relapse.   For some weeks
he only used it for one minute at a time, which he
subsequently increased to  five  minutes.  During
the progress of the cure he had many  attacks  of 
OR WATER-CURE.
59
fever, which  readily yielded to the wet-sheet and
abreibung.
  When he  arrived at Graefenberg  he was in a
state  of great  debility ;  but  when I became  ac-
quainted with him in June, he was one of the most
robust of the patients.   He took his  departure on
the 12th of July, deeply impressed with the value
of hydropathy, and bearing within himself the best
testimony to its power.—Beamish.

               Hip-joint Disease.
  In December of the last year, we were  placed
in communication by letter with the parents of a
young gentleman who resided near to Edinburgh,
on the subject of a disease which, from the descrip-
tion given, appeared to be rather  referrible to  the
spine  than the hip.   Some directions as to consti-
tutional  treatment proved beneficial;  but  acting
on a rule we have established, we declined further
responsibility in the case at  that distance.  The
youth (sixteen years of age) was then placed under
the care of a surgeon in  Edinburgh, who  placed
splints around the left hip, and bound them tightly
down.  Pain then began  to be severely felt; and
as the  advice  of the  first surgical  authority in
Edinburgh only tended  to the adoption of bleed-
ings and blisteriugs over the hip-joint, the parents
preferred to make a journey  to Malvern, and  see
what  could be done by the water-cure.  The boy
arrived here on the 16th of March.   His habit of
body was highly scrofulous, the left buttock was
greatly enlarged, the left leg shorter than the right 
60          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
by three or four inches; there was severe pain on
moving the leg, and also when the joint was pressed
upon either directly, or by pushing  up from the sole
of the foot; there was no flexion of the thigh on
the trunk, and there was  much  sympathetic  pain
in the knee.   Everything showed that the ball of
the thigh  bone was considerably  protruded  from
the socket of the hip, constituting the formidable
malady known as "hip-joint disease."
   We commenced the treatment at once with wet
sheets, in which he lay for an hour night and morn-
ing, and, as it was difficult to  move him, his  body
was rubbed as he la\ with wet towels  when he
came out of the sheets.  A  large compress was
kept constantly over the hip, and down to the knee.
Frictions with the wet hand  were also used.  After
a month of this,  the sheets  were suspended  for a
week or ten days, and warm fomentations of <!,c
belly employed.   The  sheets were  subsequently
and more vigorously  used, with the cold shallow
bath, into which the boy was  lifted without bend-
ing a joint of either  leg.   iie drank from six to
ten tumblers of water  daily  ; and he ate and  -icpt
uniformly well.   Persevering in  the  treatment,
with slight variations according to uprising ci'cum-
stances, the boy  was enabled by the 20th of May
to walk on crutches for half an hour, two or three
times daily ; a power that has been increasing ever
since until now, (6th June);  he c;a\ go up a hill
with his crutches, and walk  for an  hour and a half
at one time.  The size of lh;  buttock has become
natural;  the  left leg  is  now only half an  inch 
OR WATER-CURE.
61
shorter than the sound one; indeed, by a trifling
effort he can put the left foot flat upon the ground.
He can also sit in an ordinary chair, and raise
himself out of it without assistance.   Meanwhile
there are signs of an approaching crisis in the feet;
and we make no doubt that this fine and interest-
ing boy will leave  this not  only  cured of the local
disease, but with  a constitution altered  for  the
better, so as to prevent the possibility of its recur-
rence.
   Remarks.—When the  above  case had  been
under treatment about one  month, we took an emi-
nent  physician, himself under  treatment  of the
water-cure, to see  it.  After minute  inspection, he
shook his head incredulously, and observed to the
mother of  the youth, " If  the water  treatment will
-lire this joint, it  will  cure anything."  And he
ifterwards expressed  to ourselves his total disbelief
in the possibility of such an event.   If has, how-
ever, come to pass,—come to pass, too, in  one  of
the worst constitutions that could  have been se-
lected.   But herein is one of the chief beauties of
our  treatment, that during two entire months, iu
which the  patient was stretched on  a sofa without
air or exercise, the  processes of the water-cure
were not only remedying the joint disease, but im-
proving his general health.  Had he been kept in
the house, as he must have been, his joint leeched,
blistered, and burnt all the time, his  inside worried
with mercurials, iodine, tonics, and other supposed
anti-scrofulous medicines, where would his general
health have been ?  Gone, irrecoverably gone, we
              0 
62          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
have no hesitation in saying.   As  it is, we have
no question  that he will  grow into a strong  and
active man.—Drs. Wilson and Gully.

  Symptomatic Fever.  {[Related by the Mother.)
  Alexander Klauke, aged three  years, was a  fine
lively child, but with a disposition to inflammatory
affections of the stomach and  bowels.   A month
previous to the present disease, he  had  an attack
of inflammation of the stomach, accompanied with
strong  fever, and  determination to the  head.   In
the evening the child was put into a bath not quite
cold, in which he remained about twenty minutes,
additional cold water being added as the tempera-
ture arose by the heat from the child. During this
time cold water was  poured from a tumbler glass
on the head, repeated at intervals  of a minute, and,
as is usual, his whole body was rubbed  cautiously
by the  maid.  He was then taken out of the bath
and  placed on the sofa, covered over with a sheet
and  blanket, with  the  back part of his head in
cold water, for  ten minutes.   By this time reac-
tion had  taken  place, when wet compresses were
applied to the head and back part of the neck, and
the body, from the armpits to the hips, wrapped in
a similar way.  He slept quietly till three o'clock
in the  morning, when the  same process was re-
peated, the previous  symptoms having  returned.
The child was again placed in  bed, where he slept
till morning, and was then found to be  quite well,
and went out as usual.
  A month after this attack he was taken ill  in a 
OR WATER-CURE.
63
similar way, but with symptoms much more  se-
vere.   The fever running high, and accompanied
by delirium.  The treatment was commenced by
placing him successively in nine wet sheets, from
which the water was but slightly wrung out.  In
each  of these he remained  about five minutes.
Towards the last, the heat  being diminished, he
was allowed to remain ten minutes.   To the head
and breast a thick wet compress was  applied in
addition, these being the parts where the heat was
greatest.  The feet were cold, and as long as they
remained so the  wet sheet was only applied down
to the knees; in the mean time the feet and legs
were  rubbed strongly with the hands.   While the
extreme heat continued, the wet sheet was covered
by a thick dry one instead of a blanket, as is usual,
the feet only being  covered  (with the blanket).
After the last wet sheet, he was placed at once in
a tepid bath, where he remained an hour, the same
process of rubbing and pouring water over the head
being practised.   The first day the same process
was repeated four times, the duration of  the  last
being not so long, when the fever was not so high.
During the night the wet cloth was changed every
half hour.  On the morning of the second day the
child  refused to go into the water, calling out him-
self at intervals for additional wet sheets.   Orders
were given that the inclination of the child should
be obeyed. In the course of the morning the child
desired himself that he might be put into the bath,
where he remained until  the heat in the  armpits
and on the back of the neck was  the same as on 
64
FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
the rest of the body ; this being the general guide
for the duration of a bath.
   The same treatment,  slightly varied, was con
tinued four days, when the child was well, and was
sent out to play with the other children.  In eight
days  after this a pustule appeared on the  foot,
which discharged matter freely.—Dr. Ed. Johnson

Intense Nervous Indigestion, with Constipation, <$cc.
   A lady, past sixty, came to Malvern to be undei
the care of Drs. Wilson and Gully.  She had suf-
fered for more than thirty years from indigestion,
had severe illnesses, rheumatic fever, bile, acid, tic,
violent headaches, palpitation of the heart, debili-
ty of limbs, nerves much shattered, thin and pallid,
very little appetite, a gnawing pain in the stomach
after eating, weary pain  in  the back, and at the
back of  the neck:  for twenty years her  bowels
were hardly ever moved  but by medicines.   For a
month after her arrival in Malvern, she lived upon
plain boiled rice, which gave her less pain to digest
than any other food.  The dripping sheet was first
applied three times a day for five  days, then the
damp sheet an hour every morning, with the shal-
low bath after; sitz-bath at twelve,  and  shallow
bath  at night; her bowels  were  assisted  by  an
enema every other day, first of tepid water, and
then  quite cold; she  every  day walked an  hour
before breakfast, and drank  six tumblers  full ol
water, and several more  through the day.   At the
end of a fortnight, the pain after eating subsided,
her strength was much increased, and appetite im- 
OR WATER-CURE.
65
proved.  The sudorific blanket was next applied,
followed  by a cold shallow bath every morning,
sitz-bath  at twelve, and cold shallow bath at night.
In six weeks she felt perfectly well, free from every
pain and  ache, ready for every meal; her food then
was  bread  and  butter, with  at times an  egg for
breakfast, anda small cup of new milk. She dined
at two, on roast  meat and plain rice or potato, and
every second day on eggless rice pudding.  In two
months she could walk ten or eleven miles a day,
which she had not been able to do. for forty years,
and  her bowels became perfectly regular.

                   Epilepsy.
   The next  case which I shall mention is one of
epilepsy.  On being introduced to this  patient, a
young Hungarian of about 27,  he told me that he
had  been the subject of epilepsy for four years,
having a recurrence of  the  fits about every ten
days.  He  had been  under treatment  for  four
months, and  was kept  on a  very scanty diet the
whole of  that time. He is now perfectly recovered,
having had only one fit since he commenced the
treatment, and that occurred shortly after his first
arrival at the establishment.   He was very pale,
and  considerably wasted, but was then  gradually
returning to a full  diet, with a view to his return-
ing home.
   I  suppose  this case  to be one of epilepsy, de-
pending  on  irritation, set up in  the brain, by the
presence  of some foreign body, probably a clot of
blood ; and that this  clot, under the deprivation of
              6* 
66         FACTS IN  HYDROPATHY,

food, had  entered into combination with oxygen,
in order that it might assist in protecting the vital
organs from the destructive action of tiiat element,
and had quitted the system in the form of oxydised
products.   The cases of palsy probably depended
on similar causes, which are removed by similar
means.
  This gentleman has made copious notes, both ol
his case and of his treatment, which he intends to
publish as soon as he returns to Pesth.—Dr. Ed.
Johnson.

                 Bilious Fever.
  A lady, thirty-nine years old, came to Malvern
in the  early part of April, to be treated for a com-
plication of ailments, induced by mercury, which
had been largely and repeatedly given for a bilious
disorder. She was seized with bilious fever two days
after her arrival here, and she had all the  intense
headache, nausea, foul  tongue, thirst, constipated
bowels, hot skin, &c, which characterise that kind
of fever.  As the fever was brief, so was the treat-
ment, which consisted in cold hip-baths of half an
hour, lying in wet sheets, followed by tepid shallow
baths,  and abundant  drinking of cold water.  The
headache disappeared with the  first hip-bath, and
the other  symptoms  after four or  five wet sheets,
copious bilious evacuations terminating the malady
in thirty-six hours from its commencement.  The
patient then had a long sleep, in the course of which
profuse perspiration broke out, and she awoke cool,
and without the smallest thirst. She is now under 
OR WATER-CURE.
67
treatment for the restoration of the organic strength
of which she had previously been deprived.—Drs.
Wilson and Gully.

            Gout and Rheumatism.
  A gentleman, aged 44, of slight frame and deli-
cate appearance, had received great  trials to his
constitution, from living in various climates  un-
der circumstances of immense exertion of mind
and body ;  so that he incurred a severe  liver  dis-
ease, followed by both gout and rheumatism.   His
father had  been a sufferer  from gout and from tic-
douloureux.  He,  therefore,  had the  hereditary
predisposition.  By treatment, his health was im-
proved up to November, 1839, when, from expo-
sure to wet in  shooting, he  experienced  painful
rheumatism or  gout, for each name was given, in
one  knee-joint.  It was so swollen and misshapen,
that some  thought it  was dislocated.   The  fre-
quent use  of leeches; of  iodine, externally  and
internally ; of calomel ;   sarsaparilla  and other
medicines, formed the chief treatment.  The dis-
ease increased  severely.   He describes that " the
leg wasted away  ; that the hip had the  appear-
ance of being dislocated ;  and  that some inflam-
mation became visible at  the lower part of the
spine, with frequent aching pain.  The knee was
so bent, from contraction, that the limb was drawn
up almost to doubling, and quite useless ; in addi-
tion to which, he was reduced to a skeleton, hav-
ing lost all appetite and sleep."  The actual  cau-
tery to the spine  was  proposed ; but not having 
68          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
profited by any of the  various means  employed,
he fell into despair, and was urged to try the wa-
ter cure at home.   He here says, " I was so weak
that  I could only allow gentle measures.  My diet
was  strictly regulated.   I drank  plenty  of pure
water; morning and evening had an  abreibung
and  shallow tepid bath  (66° Fah.) ; in the middle
of the day, free ablutions of the  whole limb,  and
wet  bandage covered  by dry.   From the com-
mencement I began to  feel differently.   Sleep
and  appetite soon  returned ;  and,   my strength
gradually improving, I  was able to bear the use of
the sweating blanket,  followed by the half-bath.
Ere  long, numerous boils  appeared  on the  legs,
which  afforded great  relief  to  the deep-seated
pains."  Had sitz-baths.  In one month he  was
so much improved  that he could  use  crutches for
half  an hour ; and at the end of three months he
had  gained sufficient  strength to undertake the
journey to Graefenberg.   But still having a very
large number of boils  in  a state  of suppuration,
his nerves were greatly disturbed, and he was ren-
dered very ill by travelling 500 miles ;  was much
affected with cramps and  hysteria.   He  arrived.
Priessnitz told him he would recover, but a  long
time would be required.  At first, his  treatment
was  moderate, and  afterwards increased, with  a
cautious use of the douche.   He drank water very
freely.  For a  time, its  early morning use was
slightly emetic  ; but this relieved him of bile and
phlegm.   In October, 1840, he could walk a little
with two sticks.   The boils  increased over  the 
OR WATER-CURE.
69
body.  In November, the weather being unfavor-
able, he took cold severely  from accidental expo-
sure, and new symptoms arose.   An abscess gra-
dually formed between the  bladder and  the rec-
tum, and at length broke,  the matter being dis-
charged partly by the rectum, partly by the ure-
thra.   His cramps and pains of the bladder and
bowels were so severe, that  his life  was in im-
minent danger.  For a fortnight he was without
sleep, could not take any food, and for ten  days
had water only to support him, if support it could
be called.  Cold water lavements, half and quar-
ter baths, fomentations, and wet linen rubbings, all
more  tepid than usual (80°),  were freely employ-
ed. When the abscess found free vent, the symp-
toms so much abated, that  a  little sleep and the
capability of taking some nourishment returned.
He gradually improved, so that by the middle of
January, 1841, he  could  again walk with  two
sticks about the house.  Now more  active treat-
ment  was resumed ; and even the sweating in the
blanket twice a week, and the cautious use of the
douche.  The progress of cure became very favor-
able.   Before the end of summer he was able to
take exercise and enjoy the  mountain air;  and
appetite and sleep returned  favorably.
   In April, 1842, he was sufficiently recovered to
leave  Graefenberg, with the use of the limb quite
restored, all contraction being removed, and the
general flesh, strength, and spirits quite regained.
He was the wonder of Graefenberg!   I  saw this
gentleman about ten weeks ago.   He was in good 
70
FACTS IN HYDROPATHY
health and spirits ;  but felt the necessity of avoid-
ing great fatigue ; as in such case he was remind-
ed, by achings, that his limb,  although so happily
restored, could not  possess the vigor of  one that
had never been diseased.   In  a review  of all  the
circumstances of this  important case,  infinite
praise was due to Priessnitz for its management.
He had  been indefatigable in his attentions.—Sir
Charles Scudamore.

     Nervous Indigestion, with Skin  Disease.
   We give this case in the words of the patient,
who appends his name to it, and is well known in
this parish.—Drs.  Wilson and Gully.
   " I am now fifty years of age, and have  had a
bad stomach for nearly the last thirty years.  All
that time I have been  tormented by uneasiness
after eating, and the food returning an hour or
two after taking it.  It always came back to my
mouth just as  I had eaten it.  My bowels were
always obstinate ; indeed I never was without un-
easiness from them and from  the stomach.  Now
and then, about once in a fortnight or three weeks,
I had tremendous headache, which lasted general-
ly twenty.four or  thirty-six  hours,  and went off
with a large discharge of clear urine.   So  much
for my stomach disease.  About thirty years ago,
a small  patch of eruption came on the upper  part
of the leg, and itched dreadfully at night.  Every
night, as soon as I was warm in bed, it  awoke me
and obliged me to scratch it  until some moisture
came from it; it then became easier, and I got to 
OR WATER-CURE.              71
sleep again, but awoke again in the course of half
an hour or an hour with the itching.  This was
the case for full thirty years, and I can safely say
that during all that time my rest was constantly
interrupted.  I tried all kinds of prescriptions, and
consulted medical gentlemen without number. Be-
tween  the  disorder of the stomach, and the skin
disease, and want  of sleep,%my health became so
bad as to oblige  me to give up a good business I
had in  Worcester, and come to Malvern to try
what  living there would do.  I have now  been
eight years here, but was no better until about six
months ago.  As everything else had failed, I took
to the water-cure under the  care of Dr. Wilson
and Dr. Gully.   I have  had  the wet sheet, have
sweated in the blankets, and used hip-baths  since
last December.   I have worn a compress over the
bowels, and one  over the skin complaint constant-
ly. By persevering in these, I got to keep my food
down much better. My bowels are now open regu-
larly once a day.  I have gained  flesh, and the
color of my face is quite changed.  The best of all
is, that the skin disease is so much better  that  I
get as much as five and six  hours sleep every  night,
and often without waking  at all.  Circumstances
have  prevented  me from pursuing the water  treat-
ment the last four or five weeks, but I shall  begin
again  in a few days, and continue all the summer.
I fully hope to be quite cured by the end of the
summer, and look forward, as  may be supposed,
 with great pleasure to being quite rid of my com-
plaints, for which I had for so many years  swal- 
72
FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
lowed such quantities of physic, and paid so much
money, without getting the smallest relief.
                                 D. Mayer.
  "Malvern, May 31, 1843."

    Hypochondriasis, Psoriasis, and Sciatica.
  The gentleman, (an Englishman,) about  sixty
years of age, who was the subject of  these  three
severe afflictions, belonged formerly to the civil
service in  India.   I made his  acquaintance at
Graefenberg immediately on my arrival, and  am
indebted  to him for introductions to several  valu-
able cases besides his own.  He had labored under
these affections for eight years.   Shortly after he
had become the subject of sciatica  and psoriasis,
(which latter disease his French medical advisers
denominated dartre farineusr.) his  mind became
excessively excited by some family occurrences,
with the particulars of which he did not, of course,
think it necessary to acquaint  me.   In  a  short
time, what with this excitement, the torture aris-
ing from his sciatica, (inflammation of the sheath
of the great sciatic nerve, where it passes through
the structure of the hip,) and  the intolerable itch-
ing produced  by the skin disease, the equilibrium
of his mind became so much disturbed that he was
not considered in a fit condition to be left by him-
self.  Always in a state of high excitement, there
were times when he was perfectly insane.
   For eight years, the sufferings of this poor gen-
tleman,  bodily and  mental, were indeed  awful.
When I asked him to give me a detailed account 
              OR WATER-CURE.              73

of his sufferings, he sat thoughtful for a moment,
 and then, going to a table, he took up a  small
 pocket book, and  opening it at a particular  page,
 and placing  his  forefinger between the leaves, he
 reseated himself.   " Some time ago," said he, " I
 was perusing the book of Deuteronomy; and in
 the course of my reading, the passages which  I
 have copied  into this pocket-book riveted my at-
 tention.  They were so exactly characteristic  of
 my sufferings,  that I almost fancied myself the
 particular object of the divine wrath, and  that. I
 was even then  realizing the fearful denunciations
 which those passages of scripture contained.  No
 language of mine  can so truthfully  or so forcibly
 convey to you  the horrors under which I was la-
 boring both  in body and mind.  Read them," con-
 tinued he, "and judge whether I have not great
 reason to he thankful that I am now such as you
 see me."  He handed me the book,  and I read as
 follows : " The Lord will smite thee with the botch
 of Egypt and with the emerods, and with the scab,
 and with the itch, whereof thou canst  not be healed.
 The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blind-
' ness,  and astonishment of heart.  The  Lord shall
 smite thee in  the  knees, and  in the legs, with a
 sore botch that  cannot be healed, from the sole of
 thy foot to the  top of thy head: and thy life shall
 hang  in  doubt  before  thee; and thou  shalt fear
 day and  night, and shalt  have none assurance of
 thy life.   In the corning thou shalt say, * Would
 God it were even;' and  at  even thou  shalt say,
 '  Would God it were morning !' " 
 74           FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,

   " At the time," continued he, when I had done-
 reading, "that I was perusing those passages, those
 terrible denunciations were most of them actually
 realized in my person.  I trembled as I  read—for
at that moment I was covered, 'from the sole of
my foot to the top of my head,'  with an intolerable
itching botch.  I was  even then ' smitten in  the
knees and in the legs  with a sore botch,' and was
covered with scabs.   Madness, and blindness  of
the  understanding, and  astonishment  of heart,
 were also mine.  I had indeed ' no  assurance  of
my life,'  for I  was often sorely tempted to destroy
it; and every  morning I wished it were night, and
at night I longed for the morning—and every effort
I had made to get ' heated!' had been  utterly in
vain."
  This gentleman had then been under the water-
cure about three months.  His sciatica had entirely
left him—the eruption was nearly gone—the itch-
ing had wholly ceased—while the state of his mind
was  perfectly  calm, cheerful, rational, and full of
 thankfulness.
   So fully satisfied was he that he should get en-
 tirely well, that he left Graefenberg about a week
 before myself, in order to bring the whole of his
 family back with him—partly  that he might have
 the comfort of their society for the rest of the time
 that  it would be necessary for him to remain under
 the cure, and  partly in order to submit his daugh-
 ter,  who had ill health, to the same remedy which
 had  proved so signal a blessing to himself.—Dr.
 Ed. Johnson. 
OR WATER-CURE.
75
 Indigestion, Rheumatism, and Spitting of Blood.
  A gentleman, aged 40, tall and  slight, appear-
ing free from complaint, gave me the following ac-
count.  When a boy at  school  in Germany, he
was compelled, with the rest of the boys, to take
a purgative every Saturday  morning ;  and  thinks
that from  this unfortunate and absurd practice he
acquired the subsequent necessity,  and that an
increased  one, of resorting to medicine.  He was
subject to great depression of spirits, inaptitude to
exertion, rheumatic pains, shortness of breath on
ascending a hill,  and occasional spitting of  blood
of a scarlet hue.   He had tried various medicines,
and long persisted with a slight mercurial altera-
tive ; but, he says, without improvement. He was
dependent on  lavements for any action  of the
bowels.  He went to an establishment  near his
home, where he was sweated in the blanket every
day, had the plunging-bath, and other means ; but
he  did not feel equal  to the  perseverance in  such
treatment, and went to Graefenberg, where  he
had been nine months when I first saw him, re-
maining, however,  more from choice than  neces-
sity.  His treatment had  been  lein-tuch  in the
first of the morning, avoiding the  perspiring, fol-
lowed by  the tepid and plunging baths in succes-
sion ;  an  occasional abreibung;  two sitz-baths
every day, at first tepid, afterwards cold ;  body
bandage.* He drank from 10 to 12 glasses of water.

  * In future this is to be understood, if not mentioned;  the
exception to its use being very rare. 
76          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY
After two months, he used  a douche  daily.  Wis
recovery was perfect, and he was an  excellent
specimen of the good effects of the water cure.  In
a few weeks after using it, his digestion became
quite regular.—Sir Charles Scudamore.

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

                     Gout.
  An Austrian officer, aged 47, tall and  robust,
had acquired gout in the ankle and  side of the
foot  at 37,  and since in various  parts, never es-
caping a winter till the last, and  having  fits of
from 6  to  9  weeks'  duration.   He had been at
Graefenberg  11 months.  On his first arrival, the
limbs were very infirm, the  ankles swollen,  and
the feet and knees severely affected with chronic
pains, giving him a dread  of attempting walking
exercise.   He  had previously been treated with
various  medicines, and with calomel  very freely.
He began with the use of from 2 to 4 abreibungs
daily ; then two lein-tuchs, followed by  the shal-
low bath ; afterwards by the plunging bath ; next,, 
OR WATER-CURE.
Ti
the sweating in the blanket each other day, until
crisis formed extensively on the legs, when it was
discontinued;  and he had also a strong vesicular
rash on the body, with a line of demarcation exact
with the bandage.
   He experienced immediate  and very complete
relief to the pains of the knees and  ankles when
the boils appeared.  Afterwards,  they formed also
on the  knees, arms, and  shoulders.   When  the
crisis subsided, he douched twice a day for eight
minutes, instead  of using the plunging-bath, as he
thought it suited  him better, and proved more fa-
vorable in producing good crisis; for the  chronic
pains had returned occasionally, but were invaria-
bly relieved by the formation of boils.  When I
saw him he  was almost  perfectly  restored  to
health.  He related that he had  derived great
strength to his ankles from the daily use of a cold
foot-bath, deeper than usual ;  that  when  he  did
use the blankets, he found the afternoon more fa-
vorable than  the morning for  the  producing of
perspiration ; and this, he thought, especially as he
had a quick digestion. For those who might have a
weak and slow digestion, he considered it, from
observations  he  had  made, an unfavorable time.
This gentleman  was so  well  recovered  that  he
was about to leave Graefenberg.—Sir  Charles
Scudamore.

                     Ague.
   A general officer in the British army, well known
at the horse-guards,  still  staying at Bofci'.:?schdorf,
              7* 
78          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
 and whose permission I have to give his name to
 any private applicant, was attacked  with ague.
 After enduring two or three fits, in  the  hope that
 it would leave him, he sent for Priessnitz.  When
 Priessnitz arrived he was in the third or sweating
 stage.  He was immediately placed in  a  bath at
 16 degrees of Reaumur, or 68 of Fahrenheit. Here
 he was kept for twenty minutes, being well rubbed
 alt the time by two men.   After this  he walked
 about the apartment for half an hour, and  then
 went to bed.  The  ague left him, and never re-
 turned.—Dr. Ed. Johnson.

          Ague and Fever of an Infant.
   This infant  having lost its mother at its birth, a
 wet  nurse was procured, such as was considered
 by the physicians to be a healthy one.   The child
 was removed to a plantation, where ague and fever
 was common.  After remaining awhile, the nurse
 was  taken  with the ague,  and subsequently  the
 child.   Both had  the disease severely.   At  the
 commencement  the nurse (a young woman) was-
 healthy and strong.  Her diet and  general regi-
 men were, however, as bad  as could well be ; —
consisting much of  bacon, fine bread, butter, gra-
vies, very strong tea and coffee, wines, fyc, which
things, also,  the  child was taught to take.  The
usual anodyne and purgative medicines were taken
by the nurse, and given to the child.  At first, the
little one was the picture of health and cheerful-
ness.   At seven  months, in an almost dying state,.
it was necessary to  take it  from the nurse.   Its 
OR WATER-CURE.
79
eyes were glassy—its head  languidly dropping
upon  the shoulder, and  its  naturally clear and
white skin had changed to a uniform  yellow, al-
most like that of a mulatto.  Its lips were com-
pressed, and of nearly the same color  as the face.
It was  of course much  emaciated—its  cheeks
hanging  down, and its  whole expression  one  of
continual suffering.  For weeks it had not been
seen to smile.   It was now put under the water-
cure treatment, and at the  same time weaned.
The chill and fever  took place  every other  day.
At  first, on "the well  day," wet sheet, sweating
was produced, accompanied by various bathings.
Never  before had the child been given a drop of
water.   Now it took it greedily, and soon rejected
its  accustomed drinks.   On the " sick day," it
being the second of the cure, very active treatment
prevented the  chill and fever, and it ivas never al-
lowed to return.— Water-Cure for Ladies.

       Nervous Debility and Sleeplessness.
  A lady, aged 27, had typhus fever, from which
she dates her loss of health.   Subsequently, she
had a fall from a horse, causing concussion of the
brain ;  and, on another occasion, a severe  contu-
sion of the head, with a wound by the falling  of
a beam.   For a long while, she experienced in-
tense sufferings, from which she never recovered ;
and she came  to Graefenberg with  the following
symptoms: frequent severe pains of the head, with
a strong  sensation of burning heat of the  scalp ;
hearing and sight affected; altogether in a highly 
80          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
nervous state, and seldom sleeping more than  an
hour in the night; all the functions irregular ; the
feet almost constantly affected with icy coldness ;
with frequent pains  and oppression in the  hypo-
gastric region.   She  had  always  received more
benefit  from cold  water applications than any
other means, and especially from  using the mer
de glace (a stream  derived from the  melting of
ice and snow from  the mountains),  in  Switzer-
land, as a bath.  Very active medical treatment
had been  used at different periods :  leeches and
blisters to the spine  again and again ; and courses
of medicine of various kinds.
   On her arrival she  was put on the following
treatment.  In the  morning early, lein-tuch, tepid
bath (Reaumur 14°), and plunging bath in imme-
diate  succession.   Abreibung and sitz-bath  in
the middle of the day ; a regular  head-bath once
in the day ; and whenever painful and heated, to
apply cold water freely by the hand,  and leave
wet compress on any heated part.  The foot-bath
once or  twice a-day ; rubbing the  legs also  with
the water, for they  were affected  with weakness
and  swelling.   An  eruption  of irritable  pimples
appeared, which was treated  with wet bandage
covered by dry.   Priessnitz was glad  to see  this
early crisis.  The body bandage was  used.  She
drank a medium quantity of water, and was much
in the air; but she could not take great exercise.
At a particular  period, the nervous  system was
greatly disturbed ; and there  was  some hysteria,
with much affection of the head.  In these  cir- 
OR WATER-CURE.
81
cumstances, Priessnitz directed  four  abreibungs
in the morning, and four  in  the  afternoon, with
intervals of half an hour, during which  she went
into bed, to gain composure and warmth.   She
did not  complain  of this  troublesome  treatment,
and acknowledged the very sensible relief which it
afforded her.   On my quitting,  I compared her
state with what it was on her arrival, with great
satisfaction.   Her  health was in every  respect
materially  improved; and the head  so relieved
that she could sleep comfortably.   There  was
every promise of the case proceeding to a favora-
ble issue.—Sir Charles Scudamore.

   Stomach, Liver, and Skin Disease, with Tic*
   After living from six to seven years in hospitals
and anatomical rooms, and not attending very par-
ticularly to eating and drinking, I established  the
first stage of a stomach complaint.    This was
confirmed  by about the  same period  spent in an
extensive private  practice in London, w:/h  the
same want of attention to diet, &c.  When I left
London, my stomach would  scarcely  digest any-
thing.   I had tic douloureux, and a skin disease
on both legs, which, by way of consolation, in the
last consultation I had in London, a physician told
me I might expect to see spread all over the body,
for there was a slight appearance of it already in
the skin under the whiskers.   I  spent about four
years on the continent, passing the winters in Italy,

     * The case of one of the authors, Dr. Wilson. 
82           FACTS IN  HYDROPATHY,
and the summers in Germany—every year becom-
ing worse.   During the winter I wore two pairs of
flannel drawers—ditto waistcoats—and a great-
coat—and was always on the look-out for drafts
and cold.   For eighteen  months before I went to
Graefenberg, I had on  an average rejected my
dinner four times a week ; but without sickness,
and  merely from  its  weight, and  the  malaise it
caused.  I tried  the  most approved  systems of
medicinal treatment—dieting, leeching, small blis-
ters, lotions, and ointments of every description to
the skin disease.   I visited all the capital cities of
Europe, and consulted the leading men in them,
but without any benefit.
   I was altogether fifteen months under treatment
by the water-cure, before the skin disease was com-
pletely removed—nine of these months very  ac-
tively, at Graefenberg.  When I left off the water-
cure, I was  robust, instead of  a skeleton—my tic
and skin disease were gone, and I had the appetite
and digestion of a ploughman.  Whilst in a crisis,
the town of Friwaldau was on fire.  I  was out all
night, wet, &c. ; this brought on a violent fever.
I treated myself with wet sheets, &c, and in a few
days  I was well.   I had afterwards intense jaun-
dice from the passage of gall  stones, and I  again
felt the benign influence of the water-cure.  I have
felt it since in  being able to undergo labor that  I
was never before capable of, and I shall feel it to
my last day as one of the greatest blessings that
modern times has given to ailing man.—Dr. James
 Wilson. 
OR WATER-CURE.
83
 Indigestion, Distress and Depression of Spirits.
  A clergyman and schoolmaster, aged 35, had
too intensely exercised his mind and feelings, and
brought on so distressing a state of nervousness,
that, in preaching, he became painfully confused
in a quarter of an hour.  He had severe indiges-
tion with opposite states of  the bowels, but most
commonly  inert; head-ache with confusion, noises
of the ears, and dimness of sight; heat of the scalp
and  extreme coldness of the  feet; depression  of
spirits, with distress that he was incapable of any
menfal  exertion, being an  ardent  student.   He
was much  affected  by every  change  of weather.
His  treatment consisted of  lein-tuch  and tepid
bath, with  plunging  bath,  sitz-bath,  head-bath
three times a day,  foot-bath twice a day,  the
soles of the feet being diligently rubbed ; the body
bandage.   He drank water  freely ;  and  he had
abreibung  whenever the head was more than usu-
ally uncomfortable.   After about a fortnight, the
use of the  douche was added to the treatment.
  He described, in glowing terms,  the happy im-
provement which he received after ten days' treat-
ment, and  especially  in his digestion and the state
of  his  head;  but  when he  had  employed  the
douche for a week, he  was apprehensive  that it
did not suit his nerves,  for his head became pain-
ful and confused after using it.
   In all these cases of great  morbid sensibility  of
the nerves of the head, it appears to  me that  the
application of the  volume douche, if ever used, 
84          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
should be  much delayed ; and that the jet shower
bath, applied with only moderate force, continued
from one to three minutes, is a  more appropriate
remedy.
  It is very obvious that, in the management of
all  delicate and difficult  cases, a  good medical
judgment  is required to adopt the treatment to the
many changing circumstances which must occur.
—Sir Charles Scudamore.

           Supposed Consumption,  <$fc.
  The Reverend M----, about thirty-six years of
age, supposed himself consumptive, and it was with
the greatest difficulty I could convince  him that
he  had not a decided chest complaint, as he  had
tried all kinds of remedies in vain.   His first con-
sultation with me was more particularly to know
what warm climate I would recommend to him for
the winter, as he found himself unable to continue
his  duties.
  I found him in the following  state.   He had a
short  hacking cough ; he was sensitive to a degree
of changes to temperature,  which induced him to
clothe as thickly as possible with flannel.  Head-
ache  and indigestion were constant symptoms  ;
stomach  and bowels always out of order, and he
was highly nervous.  He could scarcely be induced
by  his friends  and myself to try the water-cure,
entertaining an excessive  fear  of the  contact of
cold water.  I  put him through a gentle course of
treatment, and he progressed rapidly.
  After a few weeks he returned home, and  pur- 
OR WATER-CURE.
85
sued such part of the treatment as was practicable
and compatible with his  arduous duties.   These
duties he now performs with ease and cheerfulness.
My friend, Mr. W. Whitmore, informed me a few
days ago, that this patient is gaining strength every
day, that  he looks forward to the dreaded winter
with  pleasure, and that he is the wonder of the
neighborhood.*
   Cases of this kind are frequently met  with on
the continent, where the  subjects of them go in
search of health.  At Rome 1 saw many such, and
amongst them a number  of clergymen going on
from  bad to worse, the appetite decreasing,  the
strength lapsing, the tone of the skin becoming
less and less.   These cases, often commencing in
mental work and irritation, lead on to derangement
of the stomach and bowels, are accompanied with
stomach cough and extreme readiness to take cold,
and not unfrequently terminate in substantial dis-
ease of the lungs:—a conclusion which is never
prevented by the system of drug remedying they
too often go through, which, on the contrary, leads
to hotter rooms, warmer clothing, more stimulating
drinks, and additional chilliness and debility. It is
really quite melancholy to see many of  them  in
Italy—far from  their friends and their  occupation
—shivering at the  bare thought of the bracing and
healthy winter of their native isle, and feeling ac-

  * This gentleman has ever since, now above eight months,
been able to perform two full church services, and is in ex-
cellent health.
              8 
86          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
tually more cold  than their countrymen on  the
banks of the Thames.—Drs. Wilson and Gully.

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

         Indigestion and Sore Throat.
    (By the Patient, aged between 40 and 50.)
   " I arrived at Graefenberg 15th of July, 1842 ; 
OR WATER-CURE.
87
my complaint,  as described by my physician,
being ' bad digestion and sore throat.'
  " I have always been subject to irritation of the
throat, more or less, from a boy :  within  the last
eight  years, it has troubled me more, and given
either real or fancied cause of uneasiness.
  " For years, previous to 1835, I was subject to
boils,  which gave me much pain and annoyance.
Up to this period, my throat gave  me  little  or
no trouble;  was generally, though relaxed, free
from phlegm.  The end of 1835, I began an aperi-
ent pill; 1 took one, generally, daily till 1812,  up
to the time of my coming here.  Soon after I be-
gan to  take this pill,  the  boils ceased,  and my
throat gradually grew worse : though I felt  more
comfortable  in my digestion, my throat got worse
—more and  more troublesome.
  " For nearly  twenty  years  I had constantly
taken wine and spirits freely.  When I came here
I was much more corpulent than I am now ; and
my whole system seemed deranged.  I was nerv-
ous, and like a barometer.   I  could  not  venture,
after exercise, into a  church,  or into  any  large
cold building, for fear of taking cold, which I  al-
most invariably did, and  this always  affected my
throat;  sometimes laid me up for  a week in my
bed-room.   1 attribute this sensitiveness to having
taken, seven years ago, a quantity of mercury,
which has come out here, making my mouth sore,
and  affecting my breath strongly occasionally.
This, I believe, has now ceased.  I am less sen-
sible now  to changes of temperature.  For years 
88          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
I have  been unable to take walking exercise in
a week, equal to that which  I can now take  in  a
day.  Previously to coming  here I always  rode
everywhere.  I had pains in  the stomach and in
the feet, with redness in the  hands and knuckles,
and in the legs : in all these  there is now no pain,
having had crises in them.   The  arms are  still
painful, but  I have had no boils or crises in them
yet.  My digestion  is better, my throat  is  better,
and progressively improving.  I have  no pain.
  " Treatment,  commenced  July 16, 1842 :  The
first five weeks,  lein-tuch, at 5  in the  morning,
one hour; then,  abgeschreckte  (tepid) bath,  13°
Reaumur, 3 minutes;  an  umschlag round  the
body ;  then  walk an hour ; then breakfast; at 11,
abreibung ;  then wait a quarter of an  hour;  then
sitz-bath a quarter of an hour ; then a walk,  then
dine.   The same at  4 p. m. ;  got better daily.
  " For six  weeks, all  the operations, as  above,
were continued ; and the douche at 9 a. m. for  2
minutes, which was gradually increased to 7 min-
utes, I took  regularly for six months,  and  during
the winter.
   " The 9th week,  in addition to the  sitz-bath, I
took the cold bath every morning ;  then,  lein-
tuch one hour, tepid bath  one minute, cold  bath
two plunges, then tepid again one minute.  I  have
lately omitted the douche and cold bath, in  con-
sequence of having crises.   When I was first en-
veloped in the wet sheet, a strong sour smell, like
mellow apples, proceeded from me, and filled the
room ;  and was of so subtle a quality as to be with 
OR WATER-CURE.
89
difficulty  washed  out of  the  blankets.  I had
never  experienced  this odor before.   Priessnitz
told me that it  must all come  out, for I could
never get better till  it was  entirely  removed.
This smell has not been perceptible the last three
days.
  " I have daily, by order,  taken 10 or 12 glasses
of water, 5 before  breakfast, the rest distributed
at intervals.  Before breakfast, much  mucus  has
been rejected from the stomach, very  sour and
bitter, sometimes  of a green color, sometimes
yellow.  I have still eructations of water before
breakfast, but not  sour ;  and  now and then a
little  froth  and phlegm.   Upon   the  whole,  I
am quite  satisfied,  and   consider my coming
here providential;  for, in  England, I could find
no  certain  remedy for one thing  that did not
cause inconvenience and  disorder  of some other
kind.
   " When I showed Priessnitz my  throat,  he
said,  'This is caused by  your stomach,  which
' must be set right  before your throat will be bet-
' ter ;  besides, your nervous system is all wrong ;
'  but 1 have hopes I can make a different man of
' you ; you must get  thinner, and  then  your  di-
'gestion and throat will both get better.' '
   He  had  pursued active  treatment for   ten
months ;  a duration  that  may appear surprising.
The throat  has  been his  greatest  trouble.  The
mucous membrane had long been  diseased ;  and
at one time the  uvula had become  so  elongated,
that a portion of it was excised.  He might pro-
              8* 
90          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
bably have desisted from such a regular proceed-
ing  as  he was still  pursuing, some  time past;
but his determination was to stay at Graefenberg,
under treatment, as long as a vestige of complaint
remained,  so truly did he enjoy and estimate the
great improvement which he had received.  The
odor of which he speaks was connected, I have no
doubt,  with the gouty diathesis.  He had  experi-
enced occasional gout.   He told me that, on  his
first arrival, he had scarcely the feeling of energy
to cross the road.  I  saw abundant proof of  his
acquired activity ;  and he looked strong and well.
—Sir Charles Scudamore.

                Urinary Fistula.
   A gentleman, aged 18, slight and rather deli-
cate, received a severe contusion in theperinceum
and  neighboring parts by a fall from a horse ; to
which was attributed the formation of a  fistula,
and  one of a complicated nature, attended  with
much ulceration and very severe  pain and incon-
venience.  The surgeons wished to operate,  but
his father determined on taking him to Graefen-
berg.  Priessnitz directed an abreibung twice a
day, and umschlags to the affected parts.  In the
progressive treatment were used lein-tuchs, plung-
ing  bath,  and   douche ;  and,  at  the  end of a
month, he obtained a perfect  cure.  The healing
was  complete.
   This  case  cannot  fail  to interest the surgical
reader.   The  symptoms  had  been of an urgent
character ; the bladder and rectum being affected 
OR  WATER-CURE.
91
with  very painful irritation ;  and, at the com-
mencement of the water-cure, the ulcerated parts
appeared in a very unhealthy  condition.—Sir C.
Scudamore.

          Dyspepsia and  Rheumatism.
   Herr Baumann, a builder, from Saxe Wiemar,
45 years of age, suffering  under rheumatism, dys-
pepsia,  nervous debility, and with a constitution,
to all appearance,  quite broken.   The first crisis
made its appearance in the form of the usual erup-
tion, and he felt himself relieved.   Some time af-
ter this, however, he had another crisis, consisting
of what are called furunculi,  or boils.  He now
began to mend rapidly.  His dyspeptic symptoms
left him, his rheumatic pains ceased,  his nervous
debility gradually vanished, and his health is now
firm,  strong and good.
   Mr. J. B. S-------, a gentleman of Manchester,
came to Graefenberg in June last.   I  had the his-
tory of  the case from his  own  mouth.  His case
was one of confirmed and obstinate dyspepsia  of
four years' standing.   Being a man of property he
took  the advice of the most eminent physicians,
who, having failed in relieving  him, finally recom-
mended him  to travel  in  a warmer climate.  In
obedience to advice he  went to Rome.  Here he
improved a little for a short time, and then became
again as ill as he was when he  sat out.
  While travelling on  the continent he acciden-
tally made the acquaintance of a Captain Fumi-
nelli,  of Venice, to whom he related  his case, and 
92          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
the object  of his travel—a  search  after health.
The captain,  now the strongest man in  Venice,
and who had himself been raised from a sickly
condition to one  of high health, by the sole  use  of
cold water,  at once  strongly  recommended  him
to repair to Graefenberg, and he came accordingly.
When he arrived his symptoms were these—first,
great general physical debility, so that he could
not walk even a small distance without great  fa-
tigue and exhaustion.  He was the subject of con-
stant heartburn—his tongue exceedingly foul—his
appetite capricious—and his stools invariably pre-
sented the appearance of little, hard,  stony balls.
He was perpetually  annoyed by sighing and gap.
ing, which he could not resist  even when  engaged
in conversation—proofs  of great vital  debility.
In addition to all this he had a constant and severe
pain in his left side.
  This was his condition  for  four years.   These
were the symptoms which had obstinately resisted
the  most  judicious medical treatment under  the
ablest medical advice in England.  The  first sen-
sible  effects of the treatment  were  manifested in
the changed appearance of the alvine evacuations.
These became large, hard, dry, and  solid,  and
their expulsion exceedingly painful.   For  this he
was ordered a wet bandage around the body, cov-
ering  the whole abdomen and stomach.   In two
days his motions assumed a perfectly natural and
healthy appearance.   He now made rapid progress.
His tongue became  cleaner, the  pain in  the side
greatly relieved, the heartburn left him, his appe- 
OR WATER-CURE.
93
tite became steady and good, his strength greatly
increased, and he felt so well that he made up his
mind to discontinue the treatment and go home.
He was not, however, yet quite well, for  as  soon
as he left off the treatment his health flagged, and
he describes his feelings as resembling  those of one
who suddenly loses some long-continued cause of
excitement.    He  felt  low, depressed, and was
obliged to resume the treatment.   After having
undergone the treatment for some weeks longer,
however, he entirely recovered both his health and
strength, and could spend a whole  day in climb-
ing the mountains without suffering more fatigue
than would necessarily be felt by  a strong  and
healthy man.   He has now been in perfect health
for four  months, during the whole of  which  time
he  has entirely discontinued the treatment,  with
the exception  of an ordinary cold bath every morn-
ing.   He only remains at Graefenberg on his wife's
account, who  has  also been undergoing the treat-
 ment, and whose case he has likewise kindly per-
 mitted me to  publish.
   Mr. J. B. S-------'s crisis  occurred about the
 eighth week after he commenced  the treatment,
 in the form of a thick rash, which entirely cover-
 ed  his legs,  thighs, and arms.   Immediately after
 the  appearance of this eruption,  the pain in the
 side  began  to decrease, and with it the  eruption
 also disappeared.  He declares to me that he can-
 not remember the time  when he felt himself in
 such good health and strength as he is at this mo-
 ment.—Dr. Edw. Johnson. 
94          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
     Inflammation of the Stomach and Bowels.
   A fine, lively boy,  aged three  years, in general
well, yet subject to inflammation of  the stomach
and  bowels.*
   He had an attack of inflammation  of the sto-
mach, accompanied by sickness,  with strong fever
and  determination  to  the  head.   In the evening,
the child was placed  in  a bath  at  70° Fah., in
which he remained 20 minutes;  cold water  was
added as the temperature rose.   During this time,
cold water was poured from a tumbler on his head,
repeated at intervals of a minute ; and, as  usual,
his  whole body was  carefully rubbed.  He was
then taken out and placed on the sofa, and  cover-
ed with a sheet and blanket, with the back  of his
head in cold  water for ten minutes.  B)r this
time, reaction had taken place,  when wet  com-
presses  were applied to the head and back  of the
neck; and the  body, from  under  the  arms to the
hips, was wrapped  in  a similar  way.  He slept
quietly  till three in the morning, when the  previ-
ous symptoms having partially returned, the first
treatment was repeated ; after which the child was
again placed in bed, where he slept  till morning,
and  was then quite well, and went out as usual.

  * In those dangerous attacks of enteritis,  attended with
obstruction of the bowels and excruciating pain, under
which the stomach absolutely resists the introduction of all
medicine, I should in future have recourse to certain water
cure  processes and treatment, in preference to the ordinary
method of practice. 
OR WATER-CURE.
95
  One month after this attack, he  was taken ill
in a similar  way, but with symptoms much more
severe : the fever running high, accompanied with
delirium.  The  treatment  was  commenced  by
placing him successively in  nine wet  sheets, from
which the water was but slightly wrung out.  In
each of these he remained about five  minutes; to-
wards the last, the heat being diminished, he was
allowed to remain ten minutes.  The feet were
cold ; and, as long as they remained  so, the wet
sheet was only applied down to the knees ; mean-
time, the feet and legs were rubbed strongly with
the hands.
  While the extreme  heat continued,  the wet
sheet was covered by a thick, dry one, instead of
a blanket, as  is  usual. After the application of the
last wet sheet,  he was placed in  a  bath of 70°,
where  he remained nearly an hour; the  same
process of rubbing  and  pouring water over  the
head being practised.  The first day, the  same
process was repeated four times ; the duration of
the bath being not so long when the fever was  not
so high.   During the night, the wet sheet was
changed almost every hour.   On the morning of
the second day,  the child refused to  go  into  the
bath, calling out himself, at intervals,  for addition-
al wet  sheets.   Orders were given  that his incli-
nation should be complied with.  In the course of
the morning, the  child  himself desired that  he
might be put into the bath, where he remained
till the heat under the arms  and on the back of the
neck was the same as the rest  of the body; this 
96          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
equality of temperature  being the  general  guide
for the duration of a  bath.   It is  worthy of re-
mark, that the more  the fever was reduced, the
more quiet the little patient became, till at last he
remained  in  the bath  perfectly tianquil.  The
same  treatment,  slightly  varied, was continued
four days, when the child was well, and was sent
out to play with the other children.   In eight days
after this, a pustule appeared on  the foot, contain-
ing matter, which discharged freely.
  Observation.—This cai-e might  probably have
passed into continued infantile  fever, had  it not
been  in  this manner promptly  and successfully
treated.   When fever runs very high, as shown
by the burning skin,  delirium,  and  other  symp.
toms, it is a good modification of the use of the
lein-tuch  to cover it with a dry  sheet, instead  of
the blanket and packing up in the usual  manner.
—Sir Charles Scudamore.

              Asthma and Hernia,
  A female servant,  aged 35, had suffered from
difficulty of breathing during the last five  or  six
years, in  consequence of an acute attack of bron-
chitis, which she underwent in India ; was unable
to ascend  a  hill or  to  make any extraordinary
continued exertion without much distress.  Has
also, during the last  few years, whilst residing  in
India, suffered from severe affections of the bow-
els.   One of these, the  last, occurred in August,
1842,  and  was very severe,  and attended with
symptoms of much  inflammation, for which she 
OR WATER-CURE.
97
was  leeched and  blistered.  She recovered but
slowly from this attack, and it was shortly follow-
ed by psoas abscess, which pointed below  Pou-
part's ligament,  (in the groin,)  and was opened.
Towards the end of  September,  she  was  obliged
to travel with her  master and mistress on the way
to Bombay, but  was conveyed in a palanquin.
During her stay in Bombay in  November, whilst
still  very weak,  she was exposed, in a tent, to wet
feet  during an entire day, in the discharge of her
duties, and caught cold, which brought on, as she
states, inflammation  of the bowels ; and being also
at this time much occupied  in the care of chil-
dren, one an infant,  and in the packing and lifting
of trunks,  her hernia (femoral) occurred at this
time, on the same side on which  the abscess had
been shortly before.   She continued in delicate
health till her arrival in Malta, where she sought
medical advice for the first time since the occur-
rence of the hernia in the end of February.   She
left  her service early in  March, being unable  to
carry the children, and went to Graefenberg  to
place herself under  the  treatment of Priessnitz.
She was very asthmatic at this time.
   He commenced her treatment the first week in
April, ordering her a lein-tuch every morning, to be
 succeeded by an abreibung, and  this  followed  by
 a sitz-bath ; the abreibung and  sitz-bath to  be re-
 peated at  12 o'clock, and the lein-tuch, abreibung
and sitz-bath, at 4 p. m. every day ; to wear a wet
 bandage, night  and  day, round  her loins, and  to
              9 
98         FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
wear  a truss upon the situation of the hernia,
which was not to be removed night or day.
  After having been a month under the fore-men-
tioned treatment, she complained of very severe
pain in the region of the bowels ; upon  being  in-
formed of which,  Priessnitz  directed  that  she
should have  an abreibung every ten minutes until
she should obtain relief, and to walk up and down
the room wrapped in a dry blanket between each.
Every abreibung relieved her ; and when she had
taken six, she became quite comfortable.
  In  the  course of the treatment, the catamenia
occurring, apprehension was entertained  at  the
probable injury from continuing the treatment; in
consequence of  which,  the advice  of  Priessnitz
was sought, and  he directed that there should  not
be allowed any interruption.  The effect was com-
plete relief from  the  distressing  pains habitually
attending  the  performance of this  function,  the
quantity of the discharge was much increased, but
did not continue longer than the usual  time,  and
no  weakness was experienced.   Upon the return
of the periodical function,  the  same relief from
pain was experienced, the quantity was not exces-
sive, the interval was  nearer to  the natural  pe-
riod than usual, and the discharge did not con-
tinue.  She now enjoys good general health and
strength (May 24th), and no longer suffers from
asthma.  Her hernia also she considers decidedly
better ; the truss is still worn ;  but  she has  not
noticed, as formerly, any tendency to the descent
of the bowel.—Sir Charles Scudamore. 
OR WATER-CURE.
99
          Rules for Diet and Digestion.
  The following rules are drawn  from Dr. Beau-
mont's well known Observations and Experiments,
perseveringly made upon a healthy  young man,
whose stomach was exposed by  a wound which
healed, leaving an external opening.  The rules
are valuable for all, whether sick  or well.
  1.  "Bulk is  nearly as necessary to the articles
of diet as the nutrient principle.  They should be
so managed that one will be  in proportion to the
other.  Too highly nutritive diet is probably as
fatal to life and health as that which is insufficient
in nourishment."
  2.  The more plain and simple  the preparation
of food, and the less of seasonings of any kind, the
better for health. " Stimulating condiments," (salt,
pepper, vinegar, mustard, &c) " instead of being
used with impunity, are  actually prejudicial to the
healthy stomach.   " Though they may assist the
action of a debilitated  stomach for  a time, their
continued use never fails to produce an  indirect
debility of that organ.   They  affect it as alcohol
or other stimulants do—the present relief afforded
is at the expense of future suffering."
  3.  Thorough mastication and  slow swallowing
are of great importance.
  4.  A due quantity of  food is  of the utmost im-
portance.  " There is no subject  of dietetic econ-
omy," says Dr. B., " about which people are so
much in error as  that which  relates  to quantity."
u Dyspepsia is  oftener the effect of overeating and
overdrinking than any cause." 
100         FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
   5. Solid food,  if properly masticated,  is more
easy of digestion than soups and broths.
   6. Butter, fat meat, and all oily substances, being
always hard of digestion, tending  to derangement
of the  stomach, are better omitted.
   7. Alcoholic liquors of every form, the various
stimulating condiments, as mustard, pepper, spice,
&c, tea, coffee,  and  narcotics of every  kind, all
tend to debility, derangement, and disease  of the
stomach, and, through it,  of the whole system.
   8.  Simple pure water is the only fluid necessary
for drink, or for the wants of the system. The arti-
ficial drinks are all mofe  or less injurious.  " Tea
and coffee," says Dr. b.,  "the common beverages
of all classes of people, have a tendency to debili-
tate the digestive organs.   Let any one who is in
the  habit of drinking either of these articles in a
weak decoction, take two or three cups, made very
strong, and he will soon  be aware of  their injuri-
ous tendency; and this is only an addition to the
strength of the narcotic which he is in the constant
habit of using."
   9. Violent exercise very soon after a full meal
is injurious, but gentle exercise promotes digestion.
Sleep soon after a meal is better avoided.
   10.  Strong mental exercise, and  emotions of
the mind, as  grief,  anger,  fear, &c, particularly
with a full  stomach, tend to impair digestion.

            Remarks on Consumption.
    The foundation of this most formidable disease
 is usually laid before birth.   It is admitted on all 
OR WATER-CURE.          101
hands that it  is seldom cured.  There are, how-
ever, exceptions to this rule.   Just as ulcers heal
in any part of the body, so they sometimes do in
the lungs.  As yet, comparatively but little has
been attempted in the treatment of this disease by
means of water-cure.  Priessnitz has had all that
he could do with more favorable cases than those
in consumption.  To  a person in an advanced
stage of this disease he would say something to
this  effect, " You cannot expect to  be cured by
any  means; but by  the proper use of water, with
suitable  attention to air, exercise, clothing, and
diet, you can  be much benefitted.   Your life can
be prolonged,  and rendered more comfortable."
   Dr. Billing, senior physician to the London Hos-
pital, a man of experience second to few, if any,
in speaking of consumption,  says, "Some years
ago, a gentleman by the name of Stewart adopted
a rational mode of treatment, with which he had
considerable success ;  but because he could not
work  miracles,  his  plan  was  unjustly   depreci-
ated.  His method  was entirely tonic, and espe-
cially the cautious use of cold and tepid ablutions of
the skin, a modification of cold bathing—a remedy
which is found so universally beneficial in promot-
ing the resolution (cure) of strumous (scrofulous)
tumors."
   " One thing of which I am convinced," says Dr.
B., " is, that the true principle of treating  consump-
tion is to support the patient's strength to the ut-
most."  This  can best be done by water-cure.  All
will  agree that the means used in the treatment by
               9* 
102         FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
water are very powerful to promote strength, if the
patient can bear such treatment.   But  the  treat-
ment, we contend, can  be  managed with perfect
safety, even to the last  hour of life; and will ah
ways positively do some good, and no harm, when
rightly used, which is more than any one can claim
for drugs.   The action  of  drugs  is always doubt-
ful, and sometimes dangerous, and  every dose,
however small, acts only by virtue of its power to
produce  diseased action in  the  body.   Further-
more, the  indication of treatment is the same in
all cases of the  disease in question, and for all
others  that are not  unfrequently mistaken  for it ;
that is, to support the strength to the greatest pos-
sible degree.   It is true,  different cases always
have different  symptoms,  so  that  the  treatment
must be varied accordingly; but it  is  the right
way to support the strength by all possible means,
so that the system may be better  able to resist the
disease.
   In the early stages of this disease, much can be
done by way  of preventing  an increase of its
symptoms.   All the daily and  hourly  circum-
stances which go to affect the health  should be
most scrupulously attended to.   The  strictest re-
gularity and correctness in meals, bathing, exer-
cise in pure air,  sleep, &c,  &c, if rigidly  ob-
served,  will be found  to  prove  highly  salutary.
But all this requires  knowledge possessed  by few.
It is very common for persons in this disease to be
greatly injured by the food they take.   Even in
the advanced  stages of the disease, persons are 
OR WATER-CURE.
103
told that die they must, and that it matters little
what kind of food they take.  It is not uncommon
to find persons in the far advanced stages of this dis-
ease indulging freely in the use of rich pastry, and
toast well saturated with butter, one of the worst
dishes  that  well  persons even  can take, and all
this is done because the  patient has a good appe-
tite, and because the stomach does not appear to
suffer.   The disease  is concentrated  upon and
spends its violence in the lungs, so that the stom-
ach cannot  feel the injuries it receives; but the
lungs and whole  body suffer just  as much from
such improprieties, as if the stomach or any other
important part was the seat of disease.  In food,
we must  always make the weak  part the standard
of what the system can  bear.
  In  this disease, as  in  all others, we believe it
better that the patient take  no animal  food, other
than preparations of milk, or cream, which  is gen-
erally better and  less feverish; and these, even, in
many cases, it is believed, are better omitted ; for
they are more feverish and exciting than the mild
preparations of farinaceous food.
  In the more advanced stages of this disease, the
early  morning sweats, which are so weakening,
can be much mitigated, if not entirely prevented,
by judicious sponging, or wet  cloth  rubbing the
surface of  the body.   The hectic fever, which
wears  down the  patient's strength,  can also  be
much relieved.  By bandaging and the wet sheets
to soothe, great good can also be done to the last. 
104          FACTS IN HYDROPATHY,
                 EXPLANATIONS.

  Sweating Blanket.—A mattress or hard bed is  covered
with  a number of woolen blankets, which are drawn  and
packed one by one very close about the body, so as to retain
the warmth.  "Warm clothes are also piled upon the patient
if necessary.  If the head is too hot, cooling  bandages arc
to be  used upon it, particularly on the forehead and temples.
When perspiration begins to  come out,  drinking water is
good  to assist it.  The person  should then have good cool
air to breathe.  The body must be washed or rubbed with
wet cloths always after  a sweat.   Those who are able,
take the plunging bath.   The wet sheet also sweats, if well
applied and continued long enough.  This process is some-
times carried to extremes.
  Lein-Tiuh or  Wet  Shed.—Tf the object is to reduce the
temperature, the wet sheet is changed as  fast  as it becomes
warm until the bcdy  is sufficiently cool.   If it is to soothe,
warm, or stimulate and sweat, it must be continued longer.
If a person is already too cold he must not be  made more so
by  the wet sheet.  He should be made  warm first.   The
sweating blanket is sometimes well used beforehand for this
object.
  The wet sheet  to soothe is to  be applied just as  the
sweating blanket is;  that is, enough warm blankets must be
outside of the sheet to keep in the heat.  Otherwise the effect
might be very injurious,  like a damp bed, only when there
is high fever and a raised temperature; then we do not wrap
around the warm  blankets, because the body  is already too
warm.
  The wet sheet is made to produce directly opposite re-
sults.   " If it is changed repeatedly as  fast as  the patient
becomes  warm,  as in cases of high  fever, almost any
amount of heat may  be  abstracted slowly and gradually
from  the body.  But if the patient remain half an hour, or
an  hour, the most delicious sensation  of warmth  and a
gentle breathing perspiration are produced, while all pain
and uneasiness are removed.  It produces all the soothing
influence upon the entire  system  which is produced by a
common poultice on an inflamed surface?1 
OR WATER-CURE.
105
  It  will astonish, beyond measure, those who have never
seen the action of the wet sheet, to witness its  powerful ef-
fects to reduce fever, and to calm and soothe the body, and
to produce sleep.  Where patients have been for days and
nights deprived of rest,  the  most soothing and  refresh-
ing effect can be easily  produced,  and sleep  be  obtained
when all other known means fail.  It has been well said,
that if a person has had the misfortune to contemplate suicide,
if he have the wet sheet applied, he will be sure to change
his mind in half an hour.
  Bandages or  Umschlags, for a great  variety  of purposes j
are made to produce  precisely the same effects upon any
•part of the body as the wet sheet upon the whole body.
   The Douclie.—This consists of a stream of water of any
required size and height,  and can be made  to produce a
most powerful  influence upon the system.   It should  be
used  with  great caution.  Priessnitz cures dogs of hydro-
phobia by douching during the paroxysm, and then covering
them to sweat.   It is most excellent for the raving maniac
and for those in delirium tremens.
  Injections or  Clysters.—-These, of pure water only,  are
very  useful  in many cases.  Let those  who are obliged to
take cathartic medicine try water, and see which is the best.
   Sitz, or  Sitting Bath.—A. small ordinary washing tub,
16 or 18 inches in diameter, is good enough for a bath of
this kind.   The water is generally 2 or 3 to 5 inches deep.
 During this bath the body should not  be exposed to cold;
only the part to be exposed to the action of the  water should
be uncovered.   For headaches, giddiness, too much blood
and heat in the head, for strengthening the nerves, relieving
flatulency, for piles, haemorrhoids, and for strengthening the
organs of  digestion,  this  kind  of bath is most excellent.
Foot baths are sometimes taken  at the same time.  This
bath is continued from a few minutes to two or three hours,
as the case may be.   It should not be taken generally on a
full stomach.
   Head Bath.—A cheap shallow wooden bowl is as good
as any thing for this bath.  A groove  may be rounded  on 
106         FACTS IN HYDROPATHY.
one side for the neck.   The person can lay upon a rug or
quilt spread upon the floor, or nothing, as he pleases.  This
bath is good  for all kinds of pains in the head, inflamma-
tions in the  eyes, deafness, loss of smell and taste.   It is
good also to prevent or drive away too much blood in the
head.  For this it is only taken a few minutes.  The sides
and back of the head are alternately placed in the water.
It may be taken a full hour for old  chronic complaints.
  Half Bath.—This can be taken in any kind of a vessel
1 arge enough for the purpose.   There is to be used  much
friction while in this bath.  It can be taken by those who
are not able to bear the full bath.
  Plunging Bath.—This is taken any  where if there is
water enough to plunge in.  It is used  more frequently
after sweating.  In general it should be taken very quickly,
so as not to become too much chilled. Many are not able
at first to bear this bath.
   Abreibung, or Rubbing  Wet  Sheet.—A  coarse sheet is
slightly wrung out and thrown about the naked person, and
the body rubbed briskly all over 4 or 5 minutes till there is
a pleasant glow.   Then  with a dry coarse sheet or towels
the body is made dry.  This is a mild and very excellent
bath.
                    Conclusion.
   This little collection of cases has not been made
with  a view of giving anything  like  a complete
view of the system by water.   It is believed, how-
ever, that such a work, in a cheap form, will be
useful.   Those who care to examine  the subject
more at large are referred to a work, entitled  " Hy-
dropathy, or the Water-Cure."  The "Hand-Book
of Hydropathy" contains, also, a  good view  of the
treatment.   "  Water-Cure  for  Ladies" is a work
highly spoken  of. 
INDEX.
                                               PAGE
* sthma........35,96
   -olexy........50,53
          ........77,78
               .......      106

             ^g and Inflammation of               56
            ''■■■. "ihlags.....      105

Com,                   .....      106
Consun.               ""......       84
     Do.                     ....      100
Catarrh, or L                 ....       76
Congestion of tu                  ...       50
Constipation    .                      .    .       64
Clysters    .     .                                105
Depression of Spirits .                  .    .       83
Dyspepsia  ...                             91
Diet and Digestion, rules for    ....       99
Douche    .    .'   .    .        .    .    .      105

Epilepsy........       65

Fistula, Urinary.......       90
Fever,  Scarlet.......       37
  Do.  Brain.......       32
  Do. Nervous.......       57
  Do. Symptomatic......       62
  Do. Bilious.......       66

Gout.....'  .     .   38,52,55,67,76

Hernia........       96
Headache........         9
Hypochondriasis......22, 26, 72
Hip-joint Disease......       59 
y
i
108                  INDEX.

                                              PAGE
Head-Bath........      105
Half-Bath........      106

Indigestion .    .  16, 20, 22, 23, 30, 35, GI, 70, 75, 83, 86
Injections........      105
Inflammation of Stomach.....       33
     Do,     Bowels.....5G, 9-1

Liver Complaint.......30,41,81
Lumbago........       PG
Lein-Tuch, or Wet-Sheet.....      104

Mercurial Disease.....'""  .    49, 66

Nervous Debility.....22, 25, 46, 79
Nervous Indigestion......       70

Priessnitz's Rules for Gout.....52, 55
Plunging-Bath.......      106

Rubbing Wet-Sheet......      106
Rheumatism    .    .     .    .    .    .     67, 75,91
Rules for Diet and Digestion    ....       99

Sciatica........      86
Suicidal Propensity......      20
Sitz, or Sitting-Bath......     105
Stomach Complaint......30,41,81
Skin Disease......42,44,47,81
Sore Throat.......      86
Sycosis........      47
Spitting of Blood......      75
Sweating Blanket......      104
Sleeplessness.......      79

Tic-Douloureux.......41,81

Ulcer, with caries of bone.....      34
Umschlags........     105

 Weet Sheet, or Lein-Tuch.....      104
iii.oi,     i4-- 
 
NLM032750144