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    FOWLERS  AND  WELLS'



vNy            (Embracing          \f

     ALL  THE MOST POPULAR WORKS   H^J
            ON THE SUBJECT:
INCLUDING
INTRODUCTION TO THE WATER-CURE ;
HYDROPATHY, OR THE WATER-CURE ;
EXPERIENCE IN THE WATER-CURE ;
THE CHOLERA, AND BOWEL DISEASES ;
WATER AND VEGETABLE DIET ;
THE PARENTS' GUIDE J
TOBACCO : ITS NATURE AND EFFECTS ;
CURIOSITIES OF COMMON WATER ;
WATER-CURE MANUAL ;
WATER-CURE IN EVERY DISEASE ;
WATER-CURE IN PREGNANCY ;
HYDROPATHY FOR THE PEOPLE;
ERRORS IN THE WATER-CURE ;
WATER-CURE IN CONSUMPTION.
IN  SEVEN  VOLUMES
               VOL. I.
HYDROPATHY, OR THE  WATER-CURE.
pit/,
*r.

             N EW"YOR K:
FOWLERS  AND WELLS,  PUBLISHERS,
      CLINTON  HALL, 129 AND 131 NASSAU STREET.
                    1850. 
 
HYDROPATHY,
OR
THE   WATER-CURE:
PRINCIPLES, PROCESSES, AND MODES OF TREATMENT.
COMPILED IN PART PROM
THE MOST EMINENT AUTHORS, ANCIENT AND MODERN, ON THE SUBJECT'.
           TOGETHER WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE
   LATEST METHODS ADOPTED BY PRIESSNITZ.


ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS OASES OE OURE.





    FOURTH EDITION, IMPROVED AND ENLARGED.
             NEW  YORK:
FOWLERS  AND  WELLS,  PUBLISHERS,
     CLINTON HALL,  129 AND 131 NASSAU STREET.
                    1850. 
W3  F
S554-h&
 1250
        Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849,

                BY JOHN WILEY,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
 BANER & PALMER, STEBEOTYPEES,
201 William st. corner Frankfort, N. Y. 
PREFACE
TO THE  FIRST  EDITION.
  It will at once be observed, that in the following pages there is no
claim to  originality.  The compiler has  for a time had  his attention
directed to the water-cure, and has with interest witnessed its progress.
Having been perfectly convinced of its value, and of its superiority as a
system for the treatment of disease, he  has been engaged in writing
with a view to publicity ; but a_s different works upon the subject have
from time to time appeared in Europe—works of merit—some of which
are of very recent date, he has thought best to adopt the maxim that
" amidst  counsellors there is safety," to  substitute in a great measure
portions  of those works in such a way as it is hoped will render the
present work one of value.  The writings  of the several authors will
show for themselves.  Let  it be understood, however, that the com-
piler does not intend that it shall be inferred that  he agrees with all
that is said.
  Various  have been the objections urged against hydropathy.   By
high authority, we have it  classed among the various delusions that
are, and  that have been, and of which it is said, they
                " In turns appear, to make the vulgar stare,
                 Till the swoll'n bubble bursts, and all is air."
  So  it has been ranked in this country; but nearer the retired spot
of the "  primitive  philosopher," Priessnitz, it  is different.  There, in
abundance, are to be found the uhard telling facts."  The actual cures
have been performed.  There has been raised the cry of  danger! dan-
ger !  instead of delusion.  As  to the  dangers in the practice  of the
water-cure, what  are  they ?   Precisely not  greater than are to be
found  elsewhere—not greater than to open a vein or an artery, and to
draw out that fluid upon which life so much depends ; or to introduce
into the  stomach, or the  circulation, the most virulent and  deadly
poisons in nature—things of every-day practice.   The administration
of pure clean water cannot certainly be attended with more danger. 
IV
PREFACE.
    That, by thousands, astounding cures have  been performed in th<;
 treatment, no one can question.  And  so was  it in tract oration.  But
 there the mistake was  as to the how.   The objector who would class
 the water-cure with  that delusion,  has  not examined  the subject—
 does not even know what the water-cure is.  In the  case of tractora-
 tion, in which the cures were performed, the subject  exercised un-
 bounded  faith in  the  mysterious agency of the tractors.   It is true,
 too, that Priessnitz inspires his patients with confidence and courage,
 and so must any and every practitioner of the healing art, to obtain
 success.  But more : let the objector, professional or non-professional,
 get a little way  into the secrets of the water-cure  (for to  him  as yet
 they are  secrets).  If he be an invalid, let him awhile leave, of every
 kind, his vile narcotics  and stimulants—in  every respect, his hours
 keep regularly.   Let him "daily wash  and be clean," and be through-
 out regular and  temperate in his meals, and in all his habits.   Let him
 diminish, if need be, the amount of fluids in the body,  by most profuse
 perspiration ;  or,  by the  wet sheet,  reduce the  temperature of the
 body, and the velocity of the circulation and heart's action, to any re-
 quired extent.   Let him purify the blood, not by any of the thousand-
 and-one of the nostrums  of the quack, or of the multitudinous forms
 of drugs innumerable, but by the cleansing effect of Nature's own best
 pure fluid.  Let him, if he can command courage, go to the bath, to the
 douche ; climb among the hills, and breathe freely the pure mountain
 air of heaven, and all in proportion to  his increasing strength ; let him
 be cheerful always; and at evening, according to his inclinations, let him
join in some of  the social exercises—the  music and the dance ;  and
 when in time he finds  his body has become amazingly strengthened,
 and his mind active, cheerful, vigorous, and  blithesome, and that his
old ailments inveterate are cast off, it will be a thing not easy to con-
vince  him that all is delusion—a work of the  imagination.   By this
time he finds that  though he  will, as if to bring  spirits from the "vasty
deep," against the effects of the water-cure, it would be willing in
vain.  There is at  least something of  physical truth in it.  A greater
mistake cannot be than  to class  this with Tractoration, Sir Kenelm
Digby's sympathetic powder, or Hahneman's deciUionth grain doses of
charcoal, flint, silica, or cuttle-fish juice,  made too potent by ten shakes
instead of two.  A wider difference cannot be.
  The unprofessional manner in which the water-cure is introduced
has been a matter of objection by some.   According  to Dr. Rush a
medical man should be  a student his  life long.  He should gather
information from any and every source—should even  lay under con-
tribution the experience of the old woman, whom  he might meet in a
stage coach or elsewhere, to add to his stock of facts in the healing art
" Life is short, art  is  long," said Hippocrates, " the old man  of Cos " 
PREFACE.
V
Should an old woman, or any one, discover a drug of which it  should
be said, on good authority, that it was capable, in one dose, of producing
the most powerful sweating;  and in another, of reducing the tempera-
ture of the body most efficiently, and of retarding the velocity of the
circulation to any required extent, and which consequently could be
made to fulfill every intermediate indication, the student-like physician
would most certainly set to work and test fairly and fully the power of
the old woman's drug.  Yet who is there at all willing to do it ?
  The great physiologist and physician, Magendie, makes the strong
assertions, that " the science of medicine is almost the only one charac-
terized by uncertainty and chance"—that " the existing system of medi-
cal study confers trifling good on society"—that  " there is scarcely  a
sound idea on physiology abroad"—that " the plan hitherto pursued in
the study of medicine, has been too narrow ever to lead to those happy
results that dignify an age by improving the condition of humanity"—
and that " the  prevalent mode of treating disease, harmonizes admi-
rably with, and  is quite as senseless as, the  method of reasoning in
pathology.   The practitioner  mixes, combines, and  jumbles together
vegetable, mineral, and animal substances; administers them right or
wrong, without for a moment considering the cause of the disease, and
without a single clear idea on the why and wherefore of his conduct."
Another says, " all things considered, it were better for mankind if not
a particle of medicine existed  on the face of the  earth;" and  the
learned  Hoffman of the seventeenth centuiy said,  " avoid medicine
and physicians, if you value your health !"
   However  strong and  sweeping these assertions may at first appear,
if we carefully examine, we shall find that there is vastly too much of
truth in  them.   The study of the  mere  relation between symptoms
and remedies, without  sufficient reference  to  the removing of the
causes of disease, has been too much the  case in medicine.  Hippo-
crates used but little medicine, and his remedies were few and simple.
His principal business was to discover and remove the causes of disease.
   Medicine has likewise been followed  too much as a mere business—
a means of livelihood, or a source of emolument.  And then again,  if
we  may hazard the  opinion, it is too true that the existing system of
medicine is often found going in direct opposition  to its fundamental
principles.   This it is claimed cannot in truth be said of hydropathy.
The practice in the water-cure is consistent, rational, and explainable.
   Let us not be  misunderstood in this matter.  Far be it from us to
depreciate, in any way, the value of the profession.  It is error, and
not men, or  any class of men, that we have to contend with.  The
noble profession of our choice we esteem—a profession, than which
there is none of more importance to si; u Ty and the race.   But we
pould sooner doubt our very existence, than that the healing art cornea 
VI
PREFACE.
far short of doing its best work—of conferring its best good upon society.
That the profession is a body of worthy and intelligent men, and that
of this body are those who are ranked among the highest benefactors
of the human family, society fully acknowledges.  It is therefore  the
height of folly for any one to act against the profession.  The water-
cure, and improvements of whatever kind, wherever they may origin-
ate, must be introduced to the public generally through this profession.
  As if perfection were to be found, and as if all medical men, unlike
those of other professions, were to be perfect moral beings, we hear in
glowing colors, by some, not a little said about the persecutions in medi-
cine.   We hear the grave questions, "Who denounced Harvey,  the
glorious discoverer of the circulation of the blood ?"  " Who ridiculed
vaccination, and persecuted its discoverer, Jenner?"  And then, again,
when Lady Mary Montague  inoculated her child with  the  matter of
small-pox to mitigate the severity of the  disorder, it is said that on  the
part of some there was manifested such an unwillingness to have  the
experiment succeed, " that she  never cared to leave the child alone
with them one second, lest in some secret way it should suffer from
their interference."
  Admit this  all true, and  more, and we have  that which will  but
poorly compare  with  the witch  manias, and the violent persecutions
elsewhere.   And be it  remembered, too,  that  among the ignorant
traducers of the profession, are to be found those who  are ever most
ready to lend their names and influence to quackery of every form,  but
when any thing serious comes upon them, they  are equally ready to
avail themselves of the gratuitous services of the insulted profession.
  The water-cure presupposes that all  due attention be given to the
removal of the causes of disease—to the prevention as well as the
cure.   The  great ignorance  that exists  as to the causes of disease,
the means of prevention, and the best methods of curing, is an ever
fruitful source of quackery of every kind. Teach people to understand
the laws of life, health, and  disease, and then they  are incapable of
the imposition of the mercenary and villanous quack.   And  then, and
not till then, will the profession attain its true dignity.  And then will
the labors of  the true physician be rightly valued.  Then will the
physician's pay be more than now, like  that of Boerhaave, when  he
practiced among his best patients, as he called them—the poor.
  The writer  has high hopes in reference to what will yet result in
this country from the introduction  of the water-cure.   If he is mis-
taken in his  enthusiasm, in  this  new  world, in the healing art (for
Captain Claridge says, Priessnitz, like  Columbus, discovered a new
world), so it is : he will trust  to the intelligence of his country and the
profession—to time  and  mature  experience—to convince him of  his
error.  He is young, and can improve.   When a better way  is shown, 
PREFACE.                          VII
he will follow it.   But from what he has heard, seen, and knows, as
yet he must be in his humble way an  advocate of the water-cure;
and, in  doing this, he has  incomparably more regard for the good
which it is destined to bring about in society, than for fame, reputa-
tion, or emolument.
  As a matter of  course, that always convenient word, " quackery,"
will, by  some, be applied to the water-cure treatment.  But let it be
remembered that it is not Priessnitz, or any one, that such are to con-
tend with, but the thing itself.   A method of treatment of itself in
perfect accordance with the laws  of nature.   A natural remedy, only
intensified by art.  Real quackery will have but little to do  with hydro-
pathy.  There is  in its very nature too much of  primitiveness and
simplicity—not enough  of mysticism—of the wonderful and marvel-
ous.  Besides, the practice is too laborious, often severely so, both for
patient and  practitioner.   Let the water-cure be generally understood
and practiced, and the veiy considerable  firm of " Messrs. Humbug,"
professional and non-professional,  will turn bankrupt forthwith.
  If the water-cure treatment is  quackery, we have quackery unique.
With his vile  preparations, and specifics infallible,  the  quack may
delude the ignorant, and, villain-like, drug mankind to death—employ-
ing in every direction his compeers to practice upon  his thousands of
patients, whom he never sees or cares  for if he  can  but  cheat  them
out of their substance; but to stand by the sufferer in disease, to  guide
the remaining energies of life in accordance with its own laws, in such
a manner as to relieve pain, " remove obstructions, relieve oppression,
subdue  diseased  action," and strengthen and invigorate the system,
thus " placing  the body under the most favorable  circumstances  for
resisting disease," remains for another besides  the  quack to perform.
And this we contend can best be  done, when in competent hands, by
the primitive natural treatment, the water-cure.  Than this to quack-
ery, nothing can be more perfectly, more specifically antipodal.
  The simplicity or oneness of the remedy will be with some a matter
of objection.  It should be understood, that nothing is easier than by
the water-cure to produce, to any given extent, directly  opposite  re-
sults ; therefore its simplicity is greatly in its favor.   Why have  drugs
been multiplied without number?   Precisely because not one of them
is to be depended upon;  Not so  in hydropathy.  It is contended that
the remedy here can be  relied  upon,  and  is always, in competent
hands, not only safe, but will always do some good—which is not true
of drugs.
  To the non-professional inquirer, let  it be said,  no remedy can be
powerful for good that may not  be made powerful for evil.  It may
appear a simple thing to " wash  and be  clean," but even this must be
done rightly.   Although the " sleeping in wet sheets is by no means 
Till
PREFACE.
   the disagreeable thing that it is usually conceived to be," yet it must be
   done in the right way, or  most disastrous may be the consequences.
   The Russians find their snow bath exceedingly delightful after their
   sweating, but they know that it can be continued but a few minutes.
   The Englishman, finding it at once pleasant, remained  too long,  and
   thus sacrificed his life to  his ignorance.
     The water-cure implies temperance in detail.   Those who wish to
   adopt  the  better plan, prevention rather than cure, may be  assured,
   that in changing habits,  mere feelings  must not  be taken as a guide.
   If they do, a blind leader of the blind it will prove.  The invalid men-
   dicant, while asking alms,  declared that as long as God should let him
   live, be would drink every day a dram, because it gave him strength.
   The minister of the Gospel (not a physiologist) said he would enjoy his
/   tea and coffee and his pipe, even  if they did cut  short his life, rather
   than be deprived of the good things which God gives us.  But when-
   ever  the drunkard reforms, however uncomfortable at  first  he may
   feel, we soon find nature is true to herself.  He feels  like death,  but
   yet he does not die.  Soon like  life from the  dead he is a new  and
   renovated  man.                                             J. S. 
PREFACE
TO THE SECOND EDITION.
  The compiler will here state, that since the first edition of Hydro*
pathy, or the Water-Cure, was published, he has had numerous oppor-
tunities of testing the efficacy of the  new system; and that his former
confidence in it is not in the least diminished.  That confidence is, if
possible, growing more and more strong.   The system, consisting, as it
does, of an endless variety of applications of water, internal and exter-
nal, warm, hot, or cold, as the case  may require, together  with the
agencies of air, exercise, diet, clothing, etc., etc., is, if the writer is not
altogether mistaken, incomparably more  effectual than any other, for
speedily  relieving  pain, subduing inflammations  and fevers  of  every
kind, strengthening the body to the greatest possible extent, thus ena-
bling it in the most effectual manner  to resist disease.  The new sys-
tem is entirely without parallel—a significant fact, to be pondered by
the " scientific" objectors  who deciy Priessnitz as being an " illiterate
hind of the  Silesian mountains."  Let those improve upon his work
who can.
  The writer  commenced his  experiments and  investigations in the
new system, as indeed he did his  first medical studies, with an inflexi-
ble  determination to ascertain truth.   Long before he had ever heard
of the new  system, and both before  and after he  had commenced the
study of  the healing art, he was  at  a loss to know how " setting one
poison to catch  another" was  to be reconciled  with  reason;—how
bleeding a person already nervous  and debilitated—a thing often done—
was any more rational than the letting down of the strings of a musical
instrument whose tones already failed for want of  sufficient tension ;—
how it was reasonable to excite  the liver by mercury, causing a certain
weakness and derangement of the organ already weakened and de-
ranged—a thing of every-day occurrence in common practice—or how
it was possible for a patient  in a sinking state to be kept alive, as was
so often  believed, by alcoholic  (poisonous) stimulants.   In short, the
writer fortunately early learned to distrust the existing symptoms of
medicine, and was on the constant look out for something better.  He
has not been disappointed.
  If the  old allopathic or common practice of medicine were at this
              1* 
X
PREFACE.
day wholly set aside, there would immediately be a diminution of dis-
ease,  suffering, and premature death ; and  far better still even than
now would it be if all drag medicines were at once wholly abandoned,
and people were compelled, with pure  clean water, right food, fresh
air, and invigorating exercise, to help themselves as they best could.
There would at once be less of sickness and  unnatural  death.   But it
is said quackery is the cause of the mischief.  Is there not quackery
" scientific," as well as unscientific ?   Do not the  different sects, even
in the established practice, at  least hint that the  other sects kill their
patients ?   " Who shall decide when doctors disagree ?"
  In the present edition of this work it was thought best  to vaiy to
some  extent the arrangement  and matter from  the  former  edition.
Contrary to the ordinary mode, a collection  of well-ascertained facts,
in the form of cases treated mostly at Graefenberg, are placed first  in
the volume.  First let us have facts—afterward theories. The volume,
it is hoped, will not prove uninteresting.                      J. S.
                       PREFACE

                  TO THE  THIRD EDITION.

  Thk following  work having passed through two large editions, and
the publisher desiring still to continue its sale, the author has deemed
best to make numerous  alterations and additions in the present issue.
This edition will be found to contain about one third more matter than
the last, while, at the same time, the price remains the same.
  There is  one feature of the present edition which, it is believed,
will render it a much more acceptable one than either of the former.
While on a second visit at Graefenberg, in the winter of 1847-8, the
author was careful to obtain of Priessnitz his methods of treating the
principal diseases  to which the human system is subject.  These were
not trusted to memory, but were written down on the  spot.  These
methods, simple  as  they may  appear,  are the results of this great
man's  experience, gained  through many  years of  persevering  toil.
His opinions must necessarily have great weight with  all  who  have
confidence in the  new system of water.
  It will doubtless appear evident, from a perusal  of  the following
pages, that the writer has had as an object the production of a work
of usefulness, rather  than one of brilliant authorship.          J.  S.
  New York, 1849. 
CONTENTS.
                                CHAPTER  I.

                  THE  MORE  ANCIENT  USES  OF WATER.
 Authority of Hippocrates.— Galen.— Celsus__Boerhaave.—Hoffman.— Hufeland.— Zim-
   merman.—Hahn.—Father Bernardo.—Hahn the Elder.—Sir John Floyer.—Dr. Elliotson.
   —Dr.  Baynard.—Dr. Dover.—William Penn.—Indian methods.—Dr.  Currie.—Rev.
   John Wesley..............Page  17-47

                               CHAPTER  II.

              HYDROPATHY,  OR THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.
 Hydropathy.—Definition of the Term.—Water as a remedial Agent has been used  in all
   Ages.—Priessnitz's Discoveries the result of Accident.—Curious Anecdotes.—His  num-
   ber of  Patients.—Testimony of Dr. Edward  Johnson.—Sir Charles Scudamore.—Rev.
   John Wesley.—R. Beamish, Esq.—Priessnitz's  phrenological Developments.—The sim-
   plicity  of his Theories.—A Remarkable Case of Cure.—A. J. Colvin, Esq.—His excellent
   Account of Priessnitz's Discoveries.—The Umschlag, or Wet  Bandage.—Leintuch, or
   Wet Sheet.—The  Douche.—Sweating Process.—The Plunging Bath.—Abreibung, or
   Rubbing Wet-Sheet,............48-64

                              CHAPTER  III.

     HYDROPATHY, OR  THE MODERN  WATER-CURE---(CONTINUED.)
 Why the Profession look Unfavorably on the New Mode.—The true Medical Philosopher
   receives Truth from any and every Source, however humble.—Cold Water merits at
   least a fair trial in  Legitimate Practice.—Distinct Hydropathic Establishments best for
   giving full effect to the Treatment, but many parts of it may be applied at Patients' own
   Homes.—What a Water Establishment should be.—Water  an old Remedy.—Lanzani's
   Method.—Sir John Floyer and Dr. Baynard's.—Extracts concerning Life.—Dr. Currie's
   Practice.—Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine.—The ancient Romans.—The modern Rus-
   sians.—Remarkable Revivifying effect of the Cold Plunge Bath after Sweating.—Priess-
   nitz's Mode not only embraces  those of previous Authors,  but also New  and Powerful
   Processes.—Description of Priessnitz.—The Water Process, although simple,  may be
   much varied.—Priessnitz's Mode of commencing with a Patient.—Water drinking.—Ex-
   ercise,  general Routine, Packing,  etc.—The various Baths.—Compresses.—Mode  of
   Sweating.—Flannel not to be worn next to the Skin.—Drugs never to be taken at Graef-
  enberg.—True Mode* of arriving at  the Results of Hydropathy.—Civilized Life, in many
  respects, productive of Disease.—Advantages of the Hydropathic Diet.—Value of Means
   applied to the Surface.—Evil effects of too oft-repeated Internal Remedies.—The Hy-
   dropathic Treatment as a Counter-irritant.—The Crisis.—Effects of cooling the Body
  often.—Sympathy of the Surface with Internal Parts.—Stimulating effect  of the Hydro-
  pathic Treatment.—Sedative effect of Cold Water.—Water as a Febrifuge.—Rules of Dr.
  Currie and Dr. Haen.—Safety of Cold Water in Fevers.—Cold Bathing a Tonic Means;—
  Erroneous notions of Medical Men.—Boldness of Uydropathists.—Douche and Shower
  Baths.—Remarks on the  Sweating Process.—Its Safety and Efficiency.—Water as a Purg-
  ative and Diuretic.—Tranquilizing Influence of  the  Hydropathic Treatment.—Remarks
  on Medical Habit3,  in reference to Chronic Disease.—111  Effects of  Over-drugging.—
  Conclusion...............65-107

                              CHAPTER  IV.

   THEORY  OF HYDROPATHY--DR.  BILLING^ THEORY OF DISEASE.
Dr. Billing's First Principles of Medicine.—Liebig and Billing.—All Diseases caused by Im-
  pressions made on  the Nervous System.—Congestion and Inflammation.—Tonicity.—
  The living Body composed of Capillary Vessels.—Functions and Offices  of these  Ves-
  sels.—Action of the Arteries.—Momentum of Blood  in Inflamed Parts.—Difference be-
  tween Congestion and Inflammation.—How Morbid Growths are formed.—Irritation.—
  Nervous Disorders__There is properly but one Disease and one Cure.—Worms in the
  Bowels.—The Inefficiency of Drugs has multiplied their Number.—The active Bleeding 
Xll                              CONTENTS.
  and various Medicines.—Weakneas or exhausted Nervous Energy the cause of all Dis.
  ea8e.—Illustration of the Hydropathic Treatment.—Operation of Cold Water and Cold
  Air.—The Cold or Tonic Treatment in Consumption.—The true  Principle ot treating
  this Disease.—Various medical Hobbies point to the same End.—Not a single Drug in the
  whole range of the Pharmacopoeia that can be relied on.—Cold Water as a means ot
  unloading and constringing the Capillaries.—Value of cold Applications to the Head.—
  The general applicability of the Hydropathic Treatment.—Testimony ot Analogy and
  Experience.—Mischief of Drugs.—A fatal  Case from Mercury.—Strychnine  and its
  Effects.—A  Case of Paralysis.—Hydropathy may be made to do Harm.—Opium and
  Mercury.—Their Effects.—The Cold Bath and Sweating.—The sudden checking ot  Per-
  spiration a chimerical Danger.—Facts in Proof of this Statement,     .   Page  107-125

                               CHAPTER V.

PROPOSITIONS ON THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF THE WATER-CURE.
The Applications of the Water-Cure are in strict Accordance with the Facts and Phenom-
  ena of the living Organism.—A Knowledge of these of the greatest Importance to the
  Physician.—What constitutes Disease.—All  Disease Originally Acute.—Acute Disease a
  normal Effort of Nature.—In this Effort the Body may  die  from Exhaustion.—What
  constitutes a Chronic Disease.—Of Accidental Injuries and Skin Diseases.—How Organic
  Disease occurs.—When a Disease is Curable and when Incurable.—There is necessarily
  an unnatural quantity of Blood  in Diseased Organs.—Preventing or removing this Con-
  dition necessary to be kept in view by the Physician.—The Nervous System controls the
  Circulation of the Blood.—Curative  Treatment to be  made  through this System.—It
  must not be too Violent.—How this Treatment is to be Applied.—Air, Diet, and Water.—
  These are the Agents used in the Cure of Disease.—Alcoholic and Medicinal Stimulants.—
  Their evil Effects.—The true Principle of the Water-Cure,  ....     126-130

                               CHAPTER  VI.

           THE WATER-DRESSING FOR WOUNDS  AND ULCERS.
Definition of "Water-Dressing."—Mode of Application.—Water-Dressings  used  by some
  in  place of Poultices.—111 Effects that are  sometimes caused by the Latter.—Water-
  Dressing a better Application.—Water as a Remedy for Wounds  and Inflammation of
  ancient Date.—Doctrines of Hippocrates.—This simple Practice was set aside by Celsus
  and the Arabian Physicians.—Ambrose Pare.—Religious Superstitions concerning the
  Effects of Water.—Gabriel Fallopius.—Pallazzo.—Laurent Joubert, Martel, and Denis.—
  Van Helmont.—Lamorier.—Caldani and Dauter.—A Miller of Alsace.—Baron  Percy.—
  Baron Larrey.—Professor Kern.—Water not a Specific or Medicinal Remedy.—Neces-
  sity of paying Attention to the Temperature of the Water-Dressing.—Its Use in Lacera-
  tions, Punctured Wounds, Contusions, and Strains of Joints.—Gun-Shot Wounds.—The
  Division  of Varicose  Veins.—Boils.—Piles.—Gonorrhoea.—Chronic  Affections  of the
  Skin.—Corns and Callosities.—Water as^a Preventive  of Lock-Jaw.—Great Power of
  Water in preventing Pain.—Cases,  .        .......130-140

                              CHAPTER  VII.

                       PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.
Water Drinking.—Quantity recommended by Priessnitz.—Enormous Quantities some-
  times Drank.—Advantages  of  Water in Fevers.—Erroneous Notions concerning the
  Treatment of Fevers.—Rule to  be Observed.—Water Drinking in Poisoning.—A Case.—
  Advantages  of pure  Water in New York.—Effect  of Water taken at  Meals.—Water
  Drinking for Indigestion.—Vomiting by Water.—Advantages of  Drinking at Meals.—
  Living without Drink.—Water to prevent Vomiting and Hickup.—Some Laborers drink
  freely at Meals.—Water probably undergoes no chemical Change in the System.—Qual-
  ity of Water.—That which is Pure and Soft the best.—Effects of Croton Water in New
  York.—How to obtain pure soft Water every  where.—Injections or Clysters.—Their
  good Effects in various Diseases.—How they  shall be  Applied.—The  Rubbing Wet
  Sheet.—Its Application and Uses.—The Leintuch or Wet Sheet.—Mode of Application.—
  Its Uses.—Compresses and Wet Bandages.—Their Object and Uses.—Warming or Stim-
  ulating Bandages.—Sweating Process.—How Sweating  is Accomplished.—Rules for the
  Process.—It is little used by Priessnitz at the present day,  ....    141-152

                             CHAPTER  VIII.

               PROCESSES  OF WATER-CURE---(CONTINUED.)
 Modes in which the Bath should be taken.—The Cold Bath  not to be resorted to when the
  Body is Chilly.—Necessity of keeping in Motion while in the Bath.—Those who have
  weak Chests must be careful in  their use of the Cold Bath.—Exercise beneficial  after
  Bathing.—Full Baths should sometimes be discontinued for a period.—The Half Bath.—
  Its Uses and Effects.—Long-continued Hip or Sitz Baths.—Priessnitz's Mode.—The Bath
  is sometimes taken after the Packing Sheet.—Means of reducing Feverishness.—Foot 
CONTENTS.
Xlll
  Bath.—Used to counteract Pains in the upper Part of the Body.—Headache and Tooth'
  ache.—The Feet  should  be Warm  before they are put into Cold Water.—Exercise
  to be taken immediately after the Foot Bath.—This is much better than going to the
  Fire.—This Bath good in Fatigue.—To be used cautiously by the Gouty.—Head Bath.—
  Its use in Headache, Inflammations of the Eye, Deafness, and loss of Smell and Taste.—
  Rush of Blood to the Head.—Mode of taking the Head Bath.—Finger Bath.—Mode  of
  Treating Whitlow or Felon.—Eye  Bath.—How and for  what Used.—Leg Bath.—Its
  Uses.—Sitz Bath.—Mode of Administering it.—Its Importance.—Douche Bath.—Its  Ef-
  fects.—Douches at Graefenberg.—Mode of taking the Douche.—It should  be used with
  great Caution.—Length of Time for taking this Bath.....Page 153-161

                              CHAPTER IX.

               PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE---(CONTINUED.)
Shower Bath, an excellent Mode of  taking it.—Its great Value in a variety of Diseases.—
  A Bath for every One.—How often should we Bathe.—Daily Bathing advocated.—The
  Vapor Bath.—Alleged Objections  to its  Use answered.—The Vapor Bath in some cases
  a better Mode than the Wet Sheet.—The Thompsonians are often Successful.—Great dis-
  regard of the importance of making remedial Applications to the Skin.—A Case.—Prac-
  tice of the ancient Romans, the  Russians, and the American Indians.—Tepid,  warm,
  and hot Applications of Water.—Many suppose, erroneously, that nothing but cold Water
  is used in the  new System.—Cases in which warm  or hot Water is useful.—A Case.—A
  Mode  of Curing the Colic.—Caution in  the  Use of warm Water.—Temperature of
  Baths.—Curious Facts regarding the Sensations caused by Water.—Cautions in the Use
  of Water.—Important Rules.—Air and Exercise.—These are important Adjuncts in Wa-
  ter-Cure.—Clothing.—Diet.—Principles of Digestion......162-172

                               CHAPTER X.

                       THE CRISIS  OF  WATER-CURE.
The Crisis a remarkable Feature of the Water Treatment.—This is sought much at Graef-
  enberg.—Symptoms preceding the  Crisis.—Meaning of the Term.—In some Cases of
  pure there i3 no perceptible Crisis of any kind.—Priessnitz's Doctrines  concerning Cri-
  sis.—It often happens on the part originally Diseased.—Sir Charles Scudamore's expla-
  nation of the  Crisis.—Boils do not occur in healthy Subjects.—Crisis, Boils, and Rashes,
  act as Counter-irritants, as well as by Purifying the Blood.—A Water Patient must often
  be Worse before he can be Better.—Too active Treatment should not be Practiced with
  a view  of causing  a  Crisis.—A case of Injury by too severe Treatment.—Priessnitz's
  Skill and Prudence should not be  lightly called into Question.—Does Water cause Drop-
  sy 1—The real Cause of this Affection,.....       .        173-179

                              CHAPTER XL

DISEASES TO WHICH THE WATER-CURE  IS  MORE  ESPECIALLY ADAPTED.
Water a Remedy applicable in all Diseases.—The true Nature of this Means.—The great
  benefit of Water in Acute Diseases.—Neuralgic, or Painful Disorders.—Indigestion.—Its
  Nature,  and the proper Principle  of treating it.—Leucorrhcea, or Fluor Albus.—Nature
  of this Affection.— Gout and Rheumatism.—These are often Cured at Graefenberg.—Ep-
  ileptic  Fits.—Spinal  Irritation.—Difficult  Menstruation.—Influenza.—Concluding  Re-
  marks................    179-185
                             CHAPTER  XII.

                 GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF  WATER-CURE.
Acute Rheumatic Fever.—Inflammation and Swelling of the Breasts, with general Fever.—
  Paralysis.—Sciatica.—Constipation.—Dyspepsia.—Dyspepsia and  Rheumatism.—Gout
  and Rheumatism, complicated with Venereal taint.—Gout in the Hands and Knees.'—
  Rheumatism,  with Psoriasis.—Case  of Psoriasis communicated by George  Anthony,
  Ksq., an English Surgeon, now at Graefenberg.—Skin Disease.—Psoriasis.—Skin Disease
  following Gonorrhoea.—Fistula in Ano.—Urinary Fistula.—Gonorrhoea.—Consumption.—
  Cough, Weakness of the Chest,  and Injury of the Back.—Deafness.—Hip Disease.—
  Scarlet Fever.—Symptomatic Fever (related by the Mother).—^Catarrh, or Cold.—Bald-
  ness.—Headache, with Giddiness.—Secondary Syphilitic Symptoms.—Another Case of
  Secondary Syphilis.—Third Case of Secondary Syphilis.—Fourth Case of Secondary
  Syphilis.—Impuissance, complicated with Gout.—Contracted Joints.—Hernia.—Hasma-
  turia, or Voiding of Blood  from  the Urinary Organs.—Cerebro-Spinal Disease.—Sup-
  pressed Measles.—Deafness.—Epilepsy.—Hypochondriasis, Psoriasis, Sciatica,   185-221

                             CHAPTER  XIII.

          GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE---(CONTINUED.)
Nervous  Headache, Deafness, and Constipation.—Indigestion,  severe Headache, etc.—In-
  digestion,  Nervous Debility, and  Hypochondriasis.—Nervous Debility  from  excessive 
XIV
CONTENTS.
  Study.—Indigestion and Pain in the Side.—Great  Suffering from Nervous Weakness.—
  General Fever.—Indigestion and Sore Throat—Inflammation of the Stomach and Bow-
  els.—Nervous Debility, with frequent Cramps.—Nervous  Debility and  Sleeplessness.—
  Indigestion, Distress, and Depression of Spirits.—Gout and  Rheumatism.—Syphilitic
  Eruption, Hernia,  Sciatica, Biliousness, Indigestion, etc.—Indigestion, Rheumatism, and
  Spitting of Blood.—Gout.—Gout and Rheumatism.—Hereditary Gout.—Cutaneous Erup-
  tions and Universal  Pains.—Great Nervousness.—Urinary Fistula, or Opening.—Hemi-
  plegia, or Paralysis  of one Side.—Catalepsy, or  Trance, general Debility, and Indiges-
  tion.—Seminal Weakness, with great Nervous  Debility.—Debility, Nervousness, and
  Baldness, following the use of Mercury.—Does Water bring Mercury from the System?—
  Defective Hearing and Smelling, with general Debility.—High Fever, with Delirium.—
  Dyspepsia, Sleeplessness, and Nervousness.—Rheumatic Neuralgia.—Gout.—Munorrho-
  gia, or excessive and debilitating Menstruation.—Great Debility and Depression of Spirits,
  following Nervous Fever.—Insensibility following an Improper Bath.—Insensibility fol-
  lowing  Over-drinking.—Secondary Syphilis.—(A  Horrible Case).—Inflammation of tho
  Brain, with Delirium.—Dyspepsia, Headache, and Fullness at the Head.—Debility, Sleep-
  lessness, Depression of Spirits, etc., from excessive  Mental Application.—Scrofulous
  Disease of the Knee Joint.—Scrofulous Enlargement of the Knee Joint.—Skin Diseases.—
  Leprosy, Tetanus, and Hydrophobia,.......Page 22;!-2(i2

                             CHAPTER XIV.

             THE  GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.
General Remarks  on Fevers.—Boerhaave's  Theory.—111  effects of the Heating, and good
  effects of the Cooling modes.—A great Change has been wrought within a few Years.—
  Animals instinctively go to Water in Feverishness from whatever Cause.—Curious cases
  of Fever, from  Dr. Baynard, one hundred and fifty years ago—Water the best of all
  Remedies in Fevers and  Inflammations of whatever kind.—Water  the Invigorator of
  Nature—Remarkable Facts from Howard the Philanthropist.—A singular case of Re-
  suscitation of a Child  supposed to be Dead.—Priessnitz's Modes.—Typhus, Jail, and
  Ship Fever.—Priessnitz  is never known to fail in curing Fevers of whatever kind, if he
  commence at first.—Detail of the Treatment of Ship or Typhus Fever.—Advantages of
  pure fresh Air.—The great general Principle of treating all Fevers.—Ague and Fever.—
  Prevention  always better than Cure.—Detail of Treatment in  this  Disease.—The Cold
  Stage.—The Hot Stage.—The Sweating Stage.—Object of the Treatment in each Vapor
  Bath recommended in the Cold Stage.—Cold Water at the beginning of the Cold Stage.
  —Treatment on the " Well Day."—Diet.—Fasting and Water Drinking.—Their probable
  Effects...............263-272

                              CHAPTER  XV.

      THE  GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.
Priessnitz's Views of Small-Pox.—Vaccination.—This often fails of its Object.—It is often
  very Injurious to the Constitution —Priessnitz's mode of treating the Small-Pox.—Fresh
  Air and  Diet.—Malignant SmallPox.—A Case at Graefenbenr.—Thirty-six Cases at Sea
  cured by Captain Johnston.—Testimony  of Dr. Hahn in 1738.—John Hancock,  D. D.,
  1700.—Dr. Baynard, 1706.—Dr. Currie, 1797.—Scarlatina, or Scarlet Fever.—Remark-
  able  success of  Dr. Corson, of Pennsylvania.—General  Remarks on the Treatment of
  this Disease.—Dr. Elliotson  quoted.—Dr. Burns.—Dr. Dewees.—Dr. Currie.—Measles.
  —Remarkable success of the Water Treatment.—Priessnitz's  Mode.—A Case.—Cases
  from the Water-Cure Journul.—Skin Diseases generally,   ....    273-!i9ri

                             CHAPTER  XVI.

                 TREATMENT OF  DISEASES CONTINUED.
Erysipelas.—General erroneous Notions concerning this Disease.—The great principle of
  Treatment to be observed in this Disease.—Great success of the Treatment.—Case of Mrs.
  Goss.—Case of Mr. Wetmore.—A second Case—The great benefit of Fasting in this Dis-
  ease.—Scalds and Burns.—Different classes of Scalds and Burns.—Principles of Treat-
  ment to be followed in Scalds and Burns.—Blisters cannot rise under Cold Water.__
  Danger from Burns.—Treatment of extensive Burns.—Treatment in sinking, or collapse
  from Burns.—The soothing effect of Warmth and Moisture.—Advantages of Water, even
  in fatal Cases.—Injurious  effects of Opium in Burns.—Deformities  caused  by Burns.__
  Common remedies for  Scalds  and Burns.—Convulsions.—Frictions with  Cold Water
  Priessnitz's main reliance in this Affection.—Hippocrates and the earlier Physicians.—
  Dr. Currie's Mode.—Cases.—Dr. Elliotson.—Hysteria, or Hysterics.—Cold Water a" fa-
  mous Remedy for this Disease,.....•       .    ,            299-310

                             CHAPTER  XVII.

                  TREATMENT OF  DISEASES CONTINUED.
Apoplexy.—Value of Cold applied to the Head, and Frictions with Cold  Water over the
  Surface generally in this  Disease.—Cold Injections in the Bowels.—Many are  killed, 
CONTENTS.
XV
  doubtless, in the old Practice in this Disease.—Best means of applying C old to the Head
  —Inflammation of the Brain.—This is to  be  treated on the same great Principle of all
  Inflammations.—Cold to the Head.—General  Treatment, etc.—Quinsy, and other acute
  Inflammations of the Throat.—Croup a  very  dangerous  Disease.—Prevention better
  than Cure.—How  to prevent  the Disease.—How to  treat it.—Inflammations in  the
  Chest, Lung Fever, and Pleurisy.—How to be treated.—Case of Priessnitz's Daughter.
  —Sore Throat, Weakness of the Chest, Lungs, etc.—Priessnitz's Advice.—Remarks  on
  Consumption.............page  3U_318

                            CHAPTER  XVIII.

                  TREATMENT OF  DISEASES CONTINUED.
Inflammations  of the Abdomen generally.—These are all to be treated on the same general
  Principles.—Enteritis, or Inflammation, with  obstinate Stoppage of the Bowels.—How
  to be treated according to Priessnitz.—This  very dangerous Disease sometimes needs
  much and powerful Treatment.—Colic.—Priessnitz's Mode of Cure.—Dysentery, Diar-
  rhoea, and Cholera Morbus.—How  to  be Treated.—Erroneous Notions as to the Effect
  of Water.—Causes' of these Diseases.—A  Case  of Dysentery, with Remarks.—Chronic
  Diarrhoea, Dysentery, etc.—How to be Cured.—Nausea, Vomiting, and Pains of the Sto-
  mach.—Curious Remarks of John Smith.—How to allay Vomiting,    .   .    319-327

                            CHAPTER XIX.

                  TREATMENT OF  DISEASES CONTINUED.
Meaning of "Choiera," "Contagion," and "Infection."—Ts  Cholera contagious ?—Causes of
  Cholera.—Manner of an attack of Cholera.—Symptoms of Cholera.—First Stage.—Sec-
  ond Stage.—Stage of Collapse.—Nature of Cholera.—Orthodox Practice unsuccessful.—
  Water Treatment of Cholera.—Ice and Water Drinking.—Vomiting by means of Water.
  —Rubbing Wet Sheet in Spasm.—Priessnitz's mode.—Rationale of the Processes.—The
  Persian Treatment of Cholera,..........327-340

                             CHAPTER  XX.

                  TREATMENT OF  DISEASES CONCLUDED.
Haemorrhages.—General Principles of Treatment.—Bleeding from the Lungs.—How  to
  be Treated.—Bleeding from the Bowels.—Mode of Treatment.—Haemorrhage  from
  the Womb.—This  is to be Treated  on  the same general Principles as  all Haemor-
  rhages.—Nose Bleed.—Modes of Curing it.—Paronychia, Whitlow, and Felon.—Causes
  of the Disease, and Treatment.—Earache.—How to  be Treated.—Toothache,  and  ita
  Cure,...........            .        340-344

                                APPENDIX.

Chronic Rheumatism.—Case  of Col.  Rolph.—Hygienic Habits and Opinions  of Howard
  the Philanthropist.—Hydropathic Laconics,.......345-358 
 
THE   WATER-CURE,
                       CHAPTER  I.

            THE MORE ANCIENT USES OF WATER.

Authority of Hippocrates.—Galen.—Celsus.—Boerhaave.— Hoffman. — Hufeland. — Zin>
 merman.—Hahn.—Father Bernardo.—Hahn the Elder.—Sir John Floyer.—Dr. Ellison
 —Dr. Baynard.—Dr. Dover.—William Penn.—Indian  methods.—Dr.  Currie. — Rev
 John Wesley.

  Hippocrates, the great father of medicine, " the old man of
Cos," who lived to about ninety years of age, we are told was ac-
customed to use water in his treatment of  many of the most seri-
ous diseases.  He observed, that it was the  general nature of warm
water to  produce a chill, while cold water produced warmth.  His
method  of  effecting a sweat was exceedingly simple,  and  at the
same time most effectual; far more so even  than  those modes of
stimulating and  rasping the  internal organs by means of  drugs.
His  plan, as we have  seen elsewhere, was  to pour water over the
body, and then to  place sufficient warm clothes upon the patient,
so that  the  desired effect was produced.   In a  work which he
wrote on Air, Water, and Situation, when about to speak of water,
he says, " Let us see which are good and which bad; it is a point
on which health mainly  depends."   He considered water the best
drink.  He laid down as an important law, that a bath enfeebles,
every time that its  heat  exceeds that of the body immersed in it.
The  truth of this Hippocratic precept has often been verified.  He
said  that the affusion of  water cures cramp, convulsions,  and teta-
nus ; that the gout was to be  cured  by a large  affusion of  cold
water; for it was certain, holding the foot  a long time in it, abates
the swelling, redness, and pain.
  Galen, who lived in the second century, and who, next to Hip-
pocrates, was called prince of the Greek physicians, said that he 
18            MORE ANCIENT  USES OF WATER.
   had  cured many cases of burning continued fever, by giving hm
   patients nothing but cold water to drink, and that not one of his
   patients died who  had recourse to this simple remedy sufficiently
*   early.  He had seen many cured  of a severe pain in the stomach
   in a single  day, by drinking cold water.   He also recommended
   cold  bathing in fevers, and to persons in health, for fleshy ones,
   and those that use due exercise.   According to his directions, the
   body was to be prepared  by exercise in the gymnasium, by friction
   with coarse cloths,  and sometimes by the  prior use of the Avarm
   bath.   The baths were to be taken before eating.  After the bath,
   much friction and rubbing  the surface was  to be  used until the
   skin was well warmed.  He said that the duration of  baths is too
   long, when after coming out of the bath, the body is very pale,
   and is not soon heated again by friction, and does not recover its
   natural heat and color thereby.  Galen, like  Hippocrates, lived to
   a very great age.
     Celsus,  a physician and  philosopher, styled the Cicero of doc-
   tors, employed water for complaints of the head and stomach. He
   said that nothing is of so much service to the head as cold water.
   He recommended such as were weak in the head to plunge it into
   cold  running water;  and also  in  cases of weakness  of sight, ac-
   companied with a  prevalent discharge from  the eyes, and  in en-
   largements of the  glands.  He said that slight cuts or wounds
   may  be  healed by applying sponges squeezed out of  cold water;
   but that in whatever  way the sponges may be applied, it is only
   of  benefit  as long as  it retains the moisture.
     The illustrious Boerhaave recommended  the  use of water to
   render the body firm and strong.  Cold water, when limpid, light,
   and without  smell or taste, and  obtained from a clear running
   stream, he declared to be the best drink.
     Hoffman, a cotemporary of Boerhaave, and professor of physic
   at Halle, and physician to the  king  of Prussia, wrote on the sub-
   ject  of water.  He recommended it as the  best  preventive and
   cure of a  large number of diseases.  He said those who drink
   water, are observed to have much whiter and  sounder teeth.  They
   are brisker and more  alert in all the actions both of mind  and
   body, than such as use malt liquors.  In reference to the use of
   mineral waters in  chronic diseases, he said  it was not owing to
   the light, sparkling air, or to the saline, or other mineral substan-
   ces combined with  the water, so much as to the medicinal proper- 
MORE  ANCIENT USES OF  WATER.
19
 ties of common water with which  they are mixed, and which is
 drank in great quantities.   " Water proves agreeable to persons of
 all ages," and " The drinking of water is serviceable in every com-
 plexion," are sayings of Hoffman. But his confidence in the power
 of water is best shown in the following quotation: "If there exists
 any thing  in the world  that can be called a panacea (a universal
 remedy) it  is pure water; first, because it will disagree with  no-
 body ; secondly, because it is the best preservative against disease;
 thirdly, because it will cure agues and chronic  complaints; fourth-
 ly, because it responds to all  indications."  By objectors  to  the
 exclusive, or  nearly exclusive  use  of water, it is often said that
 water is most excellent in its place, and that it is good for a great
 variety of  cases, and has  been greatly neglected in the treatment
 of diseases; but that it will not respond to or answer all indica-
 tions ; that is, it cannot be made to answer all  the good purposes
 of medicines.  Hoffman, all will agree, is good authority; but  the
 best proof of all, is actual experiment.  Priessnitz, during the last
 twenty years, has cured diseases with greater success than any  be-
 fore him.  His only medicine from  the beginning of  his accidental
 career, has been pure clean water.
   Hufeland, who was also a distinguished professor, and editor of
 a medical journal,  mentions the case of a Mr. Theden, veteran sur-
 geon general, who  ascribed his  long life (more than eighty years)
 chiefly to the  daily use of a  large quantity of water, which  he
 drank for upward of forty years.   Between his thirtieth and for-
 tieth year, he was a most miserable  hypochondriac, oppressed with
 the deepest melancholy, tormented with a palpitation of the heart,
 indigestion,  etc., and fancied that he could not  live six months;
 but from the time he began this regimen all these symptoms dis-
 appeared, and in  the latter half of his  life,  he enjoyed  better
 health than before, and was perfectly free from his hypochondriac
 affection.   He said, " The  element  of water  is the  greatest pro-
moter  of digestion; an excellent  reviver of  the stomach, and
strengthener of the nerves, and  assists all  the secretions of the
body, and that  it purifies, not  merely the  skin, but  freshens and
exhilarates both the soul and the body; it strengthens  and preserves
against the changing influences of air and weather, keeps the solid
parts supple and the joints pliable;  it preserves the vigor of  youth
and keeps up the vigor of old  age.  It is a  powerful preventive
of bile and putrefaction." 
20
MORE ANCIENT  USES OF WATER.
  Zimmerman, the author of  a well-known work on Solitude, and
physician to Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, strongly recom-
mended water.   "Water," he said, "does  not chill the ardor of
genius," and then mentioned  the instance of Demosthenes, whose
sole  drink was water.
  Hahn, a German physician of note, wrote a work on the effects
of water in 1738.   "Water," he says, "does not, as  some sup-
pose, weaken the stomach, but on the contrary increases the appe-
tite,  as may be seen by the larger quantity of food taken at meals.
Those who make this assertion contradict themselves; for a debili-
tated stomach requires a less, and not a larger quantity of food.
Others imagine  that by  drinking water they lose their color and
flesh.  Even if such were the case, and they did become a little
paler and thinner, such a  loss  is not to be compared to the general
improvement of health which is obtained thereby.    It yet re-
mains to be shown,  whether a protuberant stomach, with swol-
len, flabby, puffed-out cheeks, is to be preferred to a more  slender
shape, and  thinner face; or  whether the  rude  country glow of
health, with rosy cheeks, is not to be  preferred  to that pale and
sickly hue, so much admired by people of fashion.   But  water-
drinkers generally retain their flesh and  healthy color.   A few,
however, who had swollen, flabby, or spongy flesh, and therefore
unhealthy, have in appearance become thinner, and lost their puffi-
ness, having  exchanged it for a firm and compact flesh, therefore
healthy.   Those who, from the use of ardent spirits  and thick,
glutinous beverages,  as beer or brandy, have got reddened, violet,
copper-colored  faces, have not, by drinking water, become pale,
but have exchanged  their violet or purple  redness for a more nat-
ural  color.  Every man ought, I  think, to be satisfied with such
a change."   This  writer says that perspiration, caused by cold
water, is more salutary than that by any other known means; and
although warm water will produce perspiration,  yet it chills the
body much more afterward than cold.   He mentions that  a phy-
sician relieved the viceroy of Sicily, Johannes de la Vega, by the
use of water, and received from him as a  reward, the golden cup
out  of which water  had been drank.   He  said, that  cold water
was  better to remove impurities from the skin than warm, because
warm water dries up the skin, and injures  its fine vessels ; while
cold strengthens it, and renders the  body hard and  insensible to
cold, like  that Scythian who went naked about the market-place 
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF WATER.
21
of Athens, to the  great wonder of the  people.  On being ques-
tioned  by one of the  philosophers how he could go about naked   ,
in the cold, asked  in reply, why the other did not cover his face
up in winter.  Upon the Athenian  answering that it was  accus-
tomed  to the cold, the Scythian  rejoined,  "Then consider my   jj
whole body as being all face."                                ---"/)
  Hahn  recommended  a woman who had the itch, to get into a
tub of water, and remain  in  it several days, to eat, drink, and
sleep therein.  This being  attended with too much inconvenience,
she washed  herself several times during the day, and wrapped
herself up in wet sheets during the night, and then became cured
in a very short time.  There was, he says, mixed with this treat-
ment, a  little superstition,  as  it was thought the  disorder could
only be  cured by bathing  on Good Friday.  Some persons  who
suffered  severely with this disorder, went on a Good Friday, and
bathed in their under-clothes, then returned without changing  or
drying, went to  bed, and  were entirely cured.  A gentleman  of
his  acquaintance had  an ulcer on his foot, which he cured by fre-
quently bathing in a pond ; and whenever it threatened to reopen,
speedily  re-established the  cure  by the same means.  A fisherman
had a large ulcerated abscess in his thigh, which had continued in
spite of  every remedy, for  the space of  two years.  The fear that
water would aggravate the evil, had caused him to abandon his
pursuits, but the  prospect of starvation  compelled him again to
fish.  On coming out of the water after two hours, he was agree-
ably surprised to  find the  sore much less painful.   This induced
him to go daily into  the  river, and in a short time he  became
perfectly cured.    He had  ordered  his  patients to let their sores
soak in water, as tanners do their skins, to remove their putridity,
for several days and  nights.  Running streams were more effica-
cious than washing in tubs,  and the more so when the patient wades
against the stream, as the water thus enters and cleanses the part
more effectually.   He had witnessed the good effects of water in
St.  Anthony's fire, which  was  removed  in the course of a few
days, without the slightest injury  to  the skin; whereas,  on the
other hand, the application of rose pink and white lead in powder,
or of fat and oily  pomades and  plasters, impede the perspiration,
increase  the pain,,  and frequently cause ulcers.  Spirituous lotions,
in some measure, burn the  skin, so that it peels off in large  pieces;
in like manner, other applications only  aggravate the disease, and 
22
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF  WATER.
render it more difficult to cure.   In speaking  of  cancerous ulcers,
he says they bear the application of cold water very well.  It re-
freshes and cleanses them, corrects  the corrosion and mitigates the
pain.  He had met with cases where the most bland, innocent, and
advisable remedies having proved  irritating  and painful, the  pa-
tients had not only obtained great relief, but eventually were cured
by cold water.  He says, in the acute diseases the  fire burns with
the greatest  violence in  the  interior of  the body,  but as may be
seen by the thermometer, the skin  is also affected  in a  great  de-
gree.  Where the fire is, there we must also quench.  Cold water,
though taken in large quantities, does not relieve the burning skin;
but washing  the  body with  cold water,  the  patient  feels imme-
diately refreshed, and  scarcely  are the sponges  applied before
instant relief  is obtained.  So luxurious is the  sensation, that many
are unwilling that this washing  should be discontinued, but like
the rustics Latona changed into frogs, would prefer to  remain in
cold water.   Infants who have eruptions on different parts of the
body, like to be  rubbed with cold  water, and are  by this simple
remedy speedily cured.   In exanthematous diseases, as small-pox,
measles, scarlet fever, and other rashes, we may  freely wash with
cold water from the first to the  last, during  the whole  course of
the disease, in order to  prevent the fever from becoming too vio-
lent.  The skin is thus rendered  more soft,  so that the acrid mat-
ter can more easily pass  through it.   In small-pox,  the corrosive
quality of this acrid matter is rendered milder, so that it does not
eat into the skin,  leaving scars behind, and very few patients who
have been treated in this way, have been marked  by the disease.
The Africans, he  says, wash all their small-pox patients.  A cap-
tain, having  a cargo of slaves, among whom this disease made
its appearance, treated them according to the European  mode of
putting the patients between two mattresses,  and otherwise heap-
ing clothes upon them, in order to bring out the disease.  In great
distress they  cried and begged  to be allowed to treat themselves
according to  their own mode.  Being  permitted, the  other slaves
tied ropes round  the bodies  of those that were  sick, and dipped
them frequently during  the day into  the sea, drying  them after-
ward  in the sun,  and in this manner they were cured, and scarce-
ly one died.   As  in small-pox, it is equally beneficial in measles
and other rashes,  and of a variety  of cases  he gave, scarcely any
one died of measles, and in small-pox not one fourth of  the num- 
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF WATER.
23
 ber die that usually perish under the hot regimen.   Out of 15G
 small-pox patients, which a neighboring  physician had treated in
 this way, only eight died, although the disease raged in a virulent
 manner.  In 1737, during the prevalence of a malignant epidemic,
 accompanied with petechia (small flea-bite spots occurring spon-
 taneously, and  under such circumstances, that is, in severe fevers,
 denoting great prostration  of strength), very few died who were
 submitted to this treatment, although they were  washed until they
 became  very cool, even  during the  continued and  debilitating
 sweats.
    Speaking of certain late raging epidemics, he had  frequently
 observed that ice, tied up in a cloth, and applied to the head, in
 case of inflammation of the brain, produced a most visible salutary
 effect,  and  in the course of a few hours permanently restored the
 intellects.  He had never known a patient to die in consequence of
 such treatment.
   Again: " Those who are obliged to walk or run a great distance,
 by which violent or long-continued action the veins of the legs be-
 come swollen, and accompanied with  great fatigue, will find their
 pains  relieved,  and themselves refreshed, by taking a cold foot
 bath.   This is made mention of in the Old Testament, and it was
 considered an indispensable mark of attention, to  present the newly
 arrived guest with cold water to wash his feet."
   Father Bernardo, a  Sicilian Capuchin monk, he says, performed
 many surprising  cures in the island of Malta, in the years 1724
 and 1725.   His  practice was to order his patients to drink iced
 water, and  sometimes  to take the same as a lavement.  He kept
 them almost fasting for  one or two  months; and pursued this
 treatment in winter as  well as summer. He cured the Grand Prior
 Ferretti, aged 92, when  at the very point of  death, giving him
 iced water to drink.  It is stated that none of his patients perished,
 either  from  starvation or otherwise.  Thus, by means of ice and
 cold water, he performed a  great  number of wonderful cures,  in
 cases which  had been given up by physicians, so that he was called
 "the water doctorT
  In  cases  of cramp, contraction, and paralysis, in addition to
washing the parts with cold water, it is advisable to wash the head,
and  particularly the back  of the  neck; also to use the douche
bath to the  head, covered with a sponge cap, and the parts dis-
eased, either exposed or covered with a cloth.  The action of the 
24
MORE ANCIENT  USES  OF WATER.
water is found to produce a warmth in the skin, and penetrating
deeper than the cold bath (i. e., producing  a more powerful re-
action), operates more quickly and  effectually.   A woman  who
had for a long time suffered pain in the back, neck, shoulders, and
arms, obtaining no relief from the remedies employed, at last ap-
plied  to me for advice.  I ordered  a  stream of cold water to be
poured over the body, in a cool room.   I had her wrapped up in
sheets dipped  in cold water,  and which, from time to time, were
renewed.  She fell into a moderate perspiration, and in a few days
was perfectly cured.
  The father of Hahn, in his Psychrolusia, laid down the follow-
ing excellent rules for morning ablutions : "On getting out  of  the
bed  in the morning, the face and  whole body should  be washed
with cold water, first with the naked hand, and afterward with a
sponge, pressing the water out of the  sponge  into  the eyes and
ears;  then rubbing the body dry, rinsing out the mouth, and draw-
ing the water through the nostrils, and finishing by taking a hip
bath.   The trouble thus taken will be amply repaid by the  agree-
able sensation  of warmth and freshness.  Sick patients cannot do
this;  but  the  attendant  should  wash  them over with a sponge
dipped in cold water, and applying bandages, also dipped  in  cold
water, especially to the diseased  parts, suffering from  heat, pain,
swelling, eruptions, etc., not merely once a day, but oftener,  as the
greater or less intensity of the disease may require."
  "A man of  seventy-five years of age was seized with a violent
fever, and treated in the usual way, according to the hot regimen.
A rash made its appearance,  while his strength  became gradually
more and more exhausted.  Lying constantly on his back, the  skin
at the lower  part of the spine  became inflamed  and ulcerated.
The  patient remained in this  state  for six weeks, when a hardness
and swelling was observed about the knees.  The lower extremi-
ties had become stiff and immovable, and the  muscles shriveled
up.   The stimulating treatment was  now abandoned, and  cooling
emulsions, and water  mixed with the juice  of  lemons and rasp-
berries, ordered  to be drank. Linen rags, dipped in  cold water,
were frequently applied to the inflamed and ulcerated parts of the
back.  The same were also applied to the thighs, notwithstanding
the rash on the thighs and other parts of the body, and continu-
ally renewed, night and day. After a few days, cold foot baths
were  used, and moist napkins were applied to the feet.  This cool- 
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF  WATER.
25
 ing treatment  gave immediate relief.   The feverish heat left him,
 and the rash disappeared.  He recovered the use of his limbs, and
 in three weeks  was perfectly restored to health, and declared, that
 after this water treatment, he enjoyed better health than he had
 done for the last thirty years."
    Hahn cured  many cases of insanity, by causing  the patients to   '
 drink largely of cold water.  Such as would not drink he chained
 up, and gave salt herrings to eat.   By thus exciting thirst, they   j
 were caused largely to drink the water before them.   One of them,
 who ate, for several days in succession, from eight to twelve her-
 rings, and drank eight quarts of water, was cured in three weeks.
    Of the  earlier English writers upon water, we  may notice Sir
 John Floyer, a  practitioner of eminence in his day.   His  directions
 for bathing are  as follows : " Not to bathe when hot and sweating
 (meaning, no doubt, the heat and sweating brought on by exer-
 cise ;) not to stay in the bath over two or three minutes,  or as long
 as the patient can easily bear it, and to go in and out immediately,
 on the first  bathing, after an immersion of the whole body.  To
 use the  cold both, before dinner, fasting, or else in the afternoon,
 toward 4 or 5 o'clock : it is dangerous to go in after great eating
 or drinking.   To use  sweating with cold bathing, in palsies and
 rickets, and several  diseases of the nerves with obstructions."  He
 mentions how cold-water  sweating was used to diminish the weight
 of a horse-jockey: " Dip  the rider's  shirt into cold water, and after
 it  is put on very wet,  lap  the  person in very warm blankets  to
 sweat him  very  violently, and he will lose a considerable weight."
 This observation of  Sir John Floyer  reminds the  author of a caso
 he lately had, a clergyman, to whom he is permitted to refer as  to
 the effects of water treatment.  By great excess in  mental  labor,
 and at the same time, like the  generality of mankind, taking too
 much food, and of improper kinds,  he had brought on a compli-
 cation of difficulties, particularly in the head and  nervous system
generally.  He had  also  become too fat.  During the first week
of  the treatment, copious  sweating, with various other means, be-
ing resorted to,  he  said on weighing that he lost seven pounds.
He was at the same time  gaining rapidly in strength and improv-
ing in every respect.
   Washing the feet,  this writer says, cures corns, and the hip bath
cures  haemorrhoids.   His advice upon regimen  was very much
like that of Priessnitz: " To abstain from excess in animal food, to
              2 
26
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF WATER.
use much of fruits, and to drink only water : not to use hot things,
high sauces, brandy,  spirits, fermented liquors,  salt meat, spices,
tea, coffee,  and chocolate ; not to wear too warm clothing ; flannel
renders the person very tender, and  subject to the  changes of
weather, and too  much perspiration;  not  to sit much  by  the fire,
but to  take exercise  in the  open air, riding or walking, and that
down beds are very injurious."
  This writer mentions the following case :  " Mrs. Watts, of Lei-
cester,  went to the cold bath at London about Michaelmas  in 1699.
She was troubled with continual vomiting and wandering pains in
her limbs and head, convulsive motions or twitchings of the mus-
cles, violent hysterical fits, colic, flatulency, sweatings, loss of ap-
petite,  an emaciated state of the body, extreme  tenderness, sensi-
bility to slight changes in the weather, chilliness, vapors, and pains,
especially in the teeth.   Tonics, as bark and iron, emetics and opi-
ates, were  tried in vain.   Under the  advice of  Dr. Baynard, she
had recourse to the cold bath, and used two-and-twenty baths in
the space of a month, dipping herself under water six or  seven
times every morning, without staying in the water any longer than
the time of immersion, and went warm from her bed to the water.
By this bathing, the skin became healthy, and she was not subject
to colds as before.  She  recovered her strength and appetite, and
became more plump.   Her weakening sweats, pains, flatulency, and
convulsions, ceased."
   Sir John quotes another writer, Dr. Ellison, of Newcastle, show-
ing the  results  of people  going  to  St.  Bede's, Hanwick,  or St.
Mungo's wells, which were  extremely cold springs.   " People of
all  ages resorted to  these two wells,  for various  complaints.
Adults remained in  a quarter, or near half  an  hour, the back or
other diseased parts being well rubbed all the  time.   They used
no preparative physic.   The sick went to bed immediately after-
ward,  and sweat  for two hours or more.   The healthy went in
for pleasure, and immediately on coming out experienced a warmth
all over, and were more  nimble, and their joints  more pliant.
   " These springs were  very celebrated for the cure of rickets in
children.   They were dipped in  the water  quickly, left only long
enough for the clothes to become thoroughly wet.   The children
were then quickly wrapped up in warm blankets, which  caused
powerful perspiration.   After being left a suitable time, the sweat-
ing clothes were taken  off  gradually, so  that they cooled  by de- 
MORE ANCIENT  USES  OF WATER.
27
  grees, and then dry clothes substituted.   The children were not
  debarred their usual play;  care was  taken that their  necks were
  kept warm, to secure them from catching cold."
    Dr. Baynard was also a writer upon the effects of water.  He
  is quoted as  having said, in view of  remarkable  cures done by
  water, which had fallen under his observation,  " I always (I  thank
  God) looked upon  it as most impious, and one of the worst of
  wickednesses, in  serious things to impose upon  the  living, but
  much more to banter, and hand  down a falsehood to posterity—
  a  fault (I doubt not)  too many of our physic observators have
  been guilty of."
    Among  other cases of his are  the  following: " A young man
  was seized  with the rheumatism in every joint, which had become
  enormously swollen, and had continued for at least  six weeks. He
  was wrapped up in flannel, and unable to move without assistance.
  He was therefore put in a chair,  and thus let down into a  bath,
  and brought up before three minutes were over.  He was  able
 immediately to walk up stairs, and in an hour's time walked back
 to his lodgings.  In less  than a fortnight his joints were reduced
 to their natural size.  He fully recovered his health, and  continued
 to follow his occupation."
   A man with chronic catarrh, by accident fell to the neck  into
 water frozen over.   He went home, got warm clothes, slept sound-
 ly, and the  next day was nearly free from his cough.  Sir Henry
 Covingsby,  he said, when a young man, suffered severely from the
 gout.   He  is now  in his  88th  year.   He  drinks spring water.
 Formerly his fingers and toes were full of chalk-stones, which had
 now become entirely dissolved and dissipated, and the joints  were
 reduced to  their natural size by the use of the cold bath, which
 the  old knight was positive would cure the gout in every person.
 He had been under the care of celebrated physicians for a numb-
 ness of the lower limbs when 30 years of age.   All sense of  heat
 and feeling  were lost,  so  that nettles  would  not  sting him, or
 clothes  make  him warm.   After some years, he was still worse.
 Tired in mind, body, and purse, he at last resolved  upon another
 mode of cure.   He used all  the cold means, and was bled once a
 month.   He went into a cold spring water bath, at all  times of
the year, but commenced inHhe summer.  The first  bath  blotched
him  (that is, brought out  an eruption), and so more  and more
every day, by pimples rising and  then  dying away.  The pores 
28
MORE ANCIENT  USES  OF WATER.
were opened and the natural heat restored.  He ever afterward
for forty years continued his own doctor.
  A learned doctor of laws informed Dr. Baynard, that being light-
headed of a fever, and most intensely hot  and thirsty, he got from
his nurse and rushed into a horse-pond, and stayed  for more than
half an hour.  It brought him presently to his senses, and allayed
both his heat  and thirst.   He went to bed, fell into a profound
sleep, and when he  awoke (in  a  great sweat), he  found he was
quite well, but had afterward some headache, which he thought
proceeded from not wetting the head.
  Dr. Dover, of Bristol, related a case of a waiter at Oxford, during
the small-pox, who went into a great tub of water, and  sat there
at least two hours, yet  recovered and did well.  The servant of
Sir Thomas Yarborough,  during  the delirium  of  small-pox, got
from his bed and plunged into a piece of  water, but was presently
got out.   The small-pox seemed to be  struck in, but upon  his go-
ing to bed the disease came  out  very kindly, and he safely re-
covered.  A countryman,  of Harrow-on-the-Hill,   suffering from
severe rheumatic and spasmodic pains for nearly six months, lost
the use of his lower extremities,  so that he was unable  to stand.
He tried  various remedies in vain,  and  had been salivated with
mercury.   He was entirely cured by cold bathing.
   Dr. Baynard said  no men live so long and  so  healthy as the
dabblers in cold water.  An old fisherman said that little sleep, a
cool diet, and thin clothes, were the only means to live healthy and
long, and  that the water air made him eat  heartily.   He had known
many old  watermen  and fishermen, full  or near a  hundred; and
those who worked at Witney, in Oxfordshire, at the blanket mills,
carrying wet blankets in their arms, next their breasts, winter and
summer, not only never catch cold, but live to an extreme old age.
Dr. Baynard also related an anecdote of  a countryman, who, dur-
ing a discussion  as to the best means of getting an appetite, said
he had tried the ways proposed, but nothing was like going a-fish-
ing,  up to the chin in water for  an hour or two;   "that will get
you  a stomach, I'll warrant you ;  nor am I dry."
   Dr. Baynard received a letter  from William Penn, as follows:
" As I find the Indians upon the continent more incident to fevers
than any other distempers, so they rarely fail to cure  themselves
by great sweating, and immediately plunging themselves into cold
water, which they say is the only way not to catch a cold.  I once 
MORE ANCIENT  USES  OF WATER.
29
 saw an instance of it with divers more in company.   Being upon a
 discovery of the back part of the country, I called upon an Indian
 of note, whose name was Tennoughan, the  captain-general of the
 clans of Indians of those parts.  I found  him ill of a fever, his
 head and Umbs much affected with pam, and at the  same time his
 wife  preparing a bagnio for him.   The bagnio resembled a large
 oven, into which he crept by a door on the one side, while she put
 several red hot stones in at a small door on the other side thereof,
 and then fastened  the doors as closely from the air  as she could.
 Now while  he was sweating in this bagnio, his wife (for they dis-
 dain no service) was with an axe  cutting her husband a passage
 into the river (being the winter of 1683, the great frost,  and the
 ice very thick), in order to the immersing himself after he should
 come out of the bath.   In less than half  an hour, he was in so
 great a sweat, that  when he came  out he was as wet as if he had
 come out of a river, and the reek or  steam of  his body so thick,
 that it was hard to discern  any body's face that  stood near him.
 In this  condition, stark naked (a body cloth  only excepted), he ran
 to the river, which  was about  twenty paces, and ducked  himself
 twice or thrice therein, and so  returned (passing only through his
 bagnio, to mitigate the immediate stroke of the cold) -to his  own
 house, perhaps twenty paces farther,  and, wrapping himself in his
 woolen mantle, laying  down at his length, near a long but gentle
 fire, in the middle of his wigwam or house, turning himself several
 times till  dry, and then he rose and fell to getting us our dinner,
 seeming to be as easy and as well in health as at any other time.
  " I am well  assured  that the Indians wash their infants in cold
 water as soon as born, in all seasons of the year."             **•-
  An Indian cure for rheumatism is mentioned by a recent writer,
 in a quotation from Cox's Columbia  River.   The writer had suf-
 fered much  annoyance from acute rheumatic attacks in the shoul-
 ders and knees; an  old Indian proposed to relieve him if he would
follow the mode of  cure practiced by him in similar cases among
the young wamors of his tribe.   On inquiring into the method, the
Indian replied it merely consisted in getting up early every morn-
ing for some weeks  and plunging into  the river,  and leave the rest
to him.  This was  a most chilling proposition, for the river was
most firmly frozen, and an opening was to be made in the  ice pre-
paratory to each immersion.  The Indian was asked if it would not
do equally well to have the water taken to the bed-room.  But he 
30
MORE ANCIENT  USES  OF WATER.
shook his head and replied that he was surprised that a  young
white chief, who ought to be wise, would ask so foolish a question.
On reflecting, however, that the rheumatism was a stranger  among
the Indians, and that such numbers of whites were subject to it,
and above all that he was  3000 miles from any professional assist-
ance, he determined  to adopt  the disagreeable expedient the fol-
lowing morning.  The Indian  first made a hole in the ice, large
enough to admit both, upon which he made a signal that all was
ready.   Enveloped  in  a large buffalo robe, he proceeded  to the
spot, threw off the  robe, and both j'umped into the frigid orifice
together.  The Indian at  once set to rubbing the shoulder, back,
and loins, while, meantime, the hair became ornamented with ici-
cles ; and while the lower joints were being rubbed, the face, neck,
and shoulders became incased with  a thin  covering  of ice.  On
getting released, a blanket was rolled about the body, and the pa-
tient went quickly back to the room, in which  a fire had been or-
dered.  In a few minutes, there was a warm glow over the whole
body.  These ablutions were found so  beneficial,  they were  con-
tinued twenty-five days, at the expiration of which, the old Indian
was pleased  to say that no more was necessary,  and that he had
done his duty like a wise man.   He was never after troubled with
a rheumatic pain.
   An old Canadian,  according to the same writer, who had been
laboring  many years under  a  chronic rheumatism, asked the old
Indian if he could cure him in the same way.   The Indian said it
was impossible, but  that  he would try  another process.  He ac-
cordingly constructed the  skeleton of a hut, about four and a half
feet  high, and three broad, in shape like a  bee-hive, which he
covered with deer skins.   He  then heated some  stones in an ad-
 joining fire, and having placed the patient inside,  in a state of nu-
dity, the hot stones were  thrown in,  and water poured over them.
The entrance was then quickly closed,  and the man kept in for
some time, until  he begged to  be released, alleging that he was
nearly suffocating.   On coming out he was in a  state of profuse
perspiration.  The old Indian ordered him to be immediately en-
veloped  in blankets and conveyed to bed.  The operation was re-
peated several times, and although it did not effect a radical cure,
the violence of the pains  was  so far abated, that the patient could
follow his ordinary business, and enjoy his sleep in comparative ease.
   These, and  like  applications  in rheumatism, which have been 
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF WATER.
31
 mentioned, will naturally enough seem to many as extremely haz-
 ardous.   In the second case of the old Indian,  he knew very well
 that the old Canadian did not need the  same treatment as in the
 other  case, nor •could he bear it.  The old man could have been
 safely and far more benefited by having had washings and  rub-
•bings  after his sweatings, and sweating bandages  applied  to  the
 diseased parts.  The writer lately cured a very severe case of rheu-
 matism, so much  so, that the man could scarcely move, and was
 wholly confined to  his bed, unless lifted out.  He had been well
 treated, according to the common practice, for nearly three months.
 The ninth day, he was out walking, with his common-sized boots
 (his feet having been much swollen), and has  been  well ever since.
   Prof. Elliotson, of the University College,  London, in speaking
 of this disease, says, " With  respect to the parts  themselves, we
 shall find it of great use  to apply cold water, or cold lofc'ons (cold
 water is  the  best),  as  long as the temperature is higher  than it
 ought to be, and they are comfortable to the  patient.  There is no
 danger  of applying cold, with these limitations.  If the  patient
 should be timid, and yet long for cold evaporating lotions (wate^j;
 is the best  lotion), they may be applied  tepid, as in the case of
 gout; but I  never  saw any injury arise from cold in rheumatism,
 where the parts were  hotter than they should  be, and the  patient
 felt hot."

                      DR. CURRIE's REPORTS.
   One of the very  best works  ever  written  on water, is  that of
 James Currie, M.D., F.R.S., of  Liverpool, published 1797.   His
 experiments had  been more extended,  and  made with far more
 scientific precision, than  any other before him.  They were made
 with great perseverance, notwithstanding the prejudice and oppo-
 sition in  the use of water,  and with a candor that does him great
 honor.
   His work was  not intended merely for the  profession;  for he
 says, in an introductory  communication to the Rt. Hon. Sir Jos.
 Banks, " He had guarded against the unnecessary use of technical
 as well  as general  expressions ;  that it were  better that medicine,
 like other branches of natural knowledge, were brought from its
 hiding-place, and  exhibited in the simplicity of science, and the
 nakedness of truth.   He had every where endeavored to make his
 steps so plain that they could be distinctly traced.  He hoped that 
32
MORE ANCIENT  USES OF WATER.
his work would be read by men of general science, and that it
would on certain occasions prove useful where medical advice was
not at hand."
   "Ablution with cold water in fever had been  so long employed
at the Hospital in Liverpool, and in private practice by his friends
and colleagues, Dr. Brandreth and Dr.  Gerhard,  as well as by
himself, that it had become general in Liverpool  and the county of
Lancaster.   He had frequently exhibited  the mode of practice by
water to those from a distance; but a method  so  bold  and con-
trary to the common  prejudices, made but  slow progress.   The
mode of  operation  had  been  misapprehended, and the proper
period  for using it had not been understood; and on some occa-
sions, it having been resorted to improperly, the consequences had
brought it into disrepute."
   Dr. Currie commences  by giving  an  account  of  some cases by
his friend, Dr. Wright, known as a medical writer:
   "On the  1st of August, 1777 (says Dr.  Wright), I embarked
in a ship bound to Liverpool, and  sailed  the same evening from
Montego Bay.  The master told me he had hired several sailors on
the same day we  took our departure; one of whom had been at
sick quarters on shore, and was now but in a convalescent state.
On the 23d  of August we were in the latitude of Bermudas, and
had had a very heavy gale of wind for three days, when the above-
mentioned man relapsed, and  had a fever, with symptoms of the
greatest malignity.  I attended this person  often, but  could not
prevail with  him to be removed from a dark and  confined situation
to a more airy and convenient part of the ship;  and as he refused
medicines, and  even  food, he died on the  eighth day of  his ill-
ness.
   " By my attention to the sick man I  caught the  contagion, and
began to  be indisposed on the 5th of September, and the follow-
ing is a narrative  of my case, extracted from notes daily marked
doAvn.   I had  been  many years in Jamaica, but, except being
somewhat relaxed by  the climate, and fatigue of business,  I ailed
nothing Avhen I embarked.   This  circumstance, however, might
perhaps dispose me more readily to receive the infection.
   " Sept. 5th, 6th, 7th.—Small rigors now  and then__a preter-
natural heat of the skin—a dull pain in  the forehead—the pulse
small and quick—a loss of  appetite, but no sickness at stomach—
the tongue Avhite and  slimy—little or no thirst—the belly regular 
MORE ANCIENT  USES  OF WATER.
33
—the urine pale, and  rather  scanty—in the night restless, with
starting and delirium.
   "Sept. 8th.—Every symptom aggravated, vdth pains in the loins
and lower limbs, and stiffness in the thighs and hams.
   " I took a gentle vomit in  the  second day of this illness, and
next morning a decoction of tamarinds; at bed-time, an opiate,
joined with antimonial wine;  but  this did not  procure sleep,  or
open the pores of the skin.   No inflammatory symptoms being
present,  a  drachm of Peruvian bark was taken every hour for six
hours  successively, and now and then a  glass  of port wine, but
with no  apparent benefit.   When upon deck,  my  pains  were
greatly mitigated, and  the colder the air the better.   This  circum-
stance, and the failure  of every means I had tried, encouraged me
to  put in  practice, on myself, what I had  often wished to try on
others, in fevers similar to my own.
   " Sept. 9th.—Having given the necessary directions, about three
o'clock in  the  afternoon,  I stripped off all my clothes, and threw
a sea cloak loosely about  me till I got upon the deck,  Avhen the
cloak also was  laid aside.  Three  buckets full of salt water were
then thrown at once on me: the  shock was great, but I  felt im-
mediate  relief.   The headache and other pains instantly  abated,
and a fine glow and  diaphoresis  succeeded.   Toward evening,
hoAvever, the febrile symptoms threatened a return, and I had
again recourse to the same method as before, with the same good
effect.  I now took food with an appetite, and  for  the first time
had a sound night's rest.
   "Sept. 10th.—No fever, but a little uneasiness in the  hams and
thighs—used the cold  bath twice.
   "Sept. 11th.—Every symptom vanished, but  to prevent a re-
lapse:, I used the cold bath twice.
   " Mr. Thomas Kirk, a young gentleman, passenger in the same
ship, fell  sick of a  fever  on  the 9th of August.  His symptoms
were nearly similar to mine,  and  having taken some medicines
without experiencing relief,  he Avas  desirous of trying the cold
bath, which, with my approbation, he did on the 11th and 12th of
September, and by this method was happily restored to  health."
   The doctor proceeds:
   "On the 9th  of Dec, 1787, a contagious fever made its appear-
ance in the Liverpool Infirmary.   For some time previously the
weather had been extremely cold, and the discipline of the house,
              2* 
34
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF WATER.
OAving to causes which it is unnecessary to mention, had been much
relaxed.  The intensity of the  cold  prevented the necessary de-
gree of ventilation, and the regulations for the  preservation of
cleanliness  had been in some measure neglected.   These circum-
stances operated particularly on one  of the Avards of  the eastern
wing, employed as a lock-hospital for females, where the contagion
first appeared.  The fever spread rapidly, and before its progress
could be arrested,  sixteen  persons  Avere affected, of  Avhich  two
died.   Of these sixteen, eight were  under my care.   On this oc-
casion I used, for the  first time, the affusion of cold water,  in the
manner described by  Dr. Wright.   It was first tried in tAvo cases
only, the one in the second,  the other in the fourth day of  fever.
The effects corresponded exactly with those  mentioned to have
occurred by him in his own  case; and thus encouraged, the reme-
dy  was employed in five other cases.  It was repeated daily, and
of these seven patients, the  whole recovered.  In the eighth case,
the aspersion of cold  water  seemed too hazardous a practice, and
it Avas not  employed.   The  strength of the patient Avas much im-
paired  by  lues, and at  the time of catching  the contagion, she
labored under  ptyalism.  I was  not then aware that this  last
circumstance formed no objection against the cold  affusion, and, in
a situation  so critical, it was thought imprudent  to use it.   The
usual remedies were  directed  for  this patient,  particularly bark,
Avine, and opium, but  unsuccessfully; she died on the sixteenth
day of her disease.
  " From this time forth, I have constantly wished to  employ the
affusion of  cold water, in every case of the low contagious  fever,
in Avhich the strength was  not already much exhausted;  and I
have preserved  a register of  153 cases in winch the cure  was
chiefly trusted to this remedy."
  Before proceeding to  explain particularly the manner in  which
Dr. Currie  used water in fevers, he  describes  a fever Avhich broke
out in the  30th regiment, and the treatment adopted.  It com-
menced about June 1st, 1792.
  " Such men as were  sent to the  guard for misbehaAaor, were
confined in a dark, narrow, and unventilated cell.  Several  men
were put there  for drunkenness, and suffered to  remain  twenty-
four hours.   The typhus fever made its appearance among these
men, and spread rapidly among the rest.  The Liverpool Infirmary
being full,  a temporary hospital was fitted up at the fort.  In two 
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF WATER.
35
 low rooms, each about fifteen feet  square, were fourteen patients
 laboring under the fever.  One was in the  fourteenth day of the
 disease, two  in the  tAvelfth, and the rest  from the ninth to the
 fourth day.   In every case there was cough and mucous expectora-
 tion.   Those Avho  sustained the disease eight  days, had petechia
 on the skin  (spots  resembling  flea-bites, denoting great prostra-
 tion).  The debility was considerable from the first, and, as Dr. C.
 says,  had been increased in several cases by bleeding, before the
 nature of the disease was understood.   The pulse varied from 130
 to 100 degrees.   The  heat rose from  101 to 105  degrees  Fah.
 There was great pain in the head, and in several instances low de-
 lirium.
   " Our first care was  to clean and  A^entilate  the  rooms, which
 were  in a high degree foul and pestilential.  Our second Avas to
 wash and clean the patients themselves.  This was done by pour-
 ing sea-water over the naked bodies of those who were not already
 greatly reduced : the whole heat was steadily above the tempera-
 ture of health.   In those more advanced, whose debility was great,
 we sponged the whole surface with vinegar, a practice that, in
 every stage of fever, is most salutary and refreshing.
   " Our next care was to stop the progress of the infection.  With
 this view, the guard-house was first attempted  to be purified by
 Avashing and ventilating,  the greatest part of the furniture having
 been  burnt or thrown into the sea.  All our precautions and exer-
 tions  of  this kind,  however, were  ineffectual.  The weather was
 Avet and extremely cold for the season.  The men  on the guard
 could not be prevailed upon to remain in the open air;  and  from
 passing the night  in the infected guard-room, several of the pri-
 vates  took the infection.  In  several of these  the  fever ran its
 course, and in others it was immediately arrested  by the affusion
 of sea-water.  No means having proved effectual for  the purifica-
 tion of the  guard-room,  it was shut up, and  a temporary  shed
erected in its stead.  Still the contagion proceeded.  On the morn-
ing of the 13 th, the whole regiment was drawn up at my request,
and the men  examined in the ranks.  Seventeen were found  with
the fever upon them.  It was not difficult to distinguish them as
they stood by their  fellows.  The  countenance was languid—the
whole appearance dejected, and the eyes had a dull-red suffusion.
These men were carefully separated from the rest, and subjected
to the cold affusion, always repeated once and sometimes tAvice a 
36
MORE ANCIEXT USES  OF WATER.
day.  In fifteen of the  number, seventeen, the contagion was ex-
tinguished :  the two Avent through the regular disease.
  " On the same day, the commanding officer, at my request, issued
an  order for the whole  of the remaining part of the regiment to
bathe in the sea ; and for some time they were regularly mustered
and marched doAvn at high Avater, to  plunge into the tide.   These
means were successful in arresting the epidemic.   After the 13th
of June no  one was attacked.   In all, fifty-eight had  the disease,
of which twenty-two went through the regular course of the fever,
and in twenty-six,  the disease  seemed to be cut short  by the cold
affusion.   Of the thirty-two, two  died.   Both of these were men
whose constitutions were weakened by the climate of the West In-
dies ;  both of them had been bled in the early stages of the fever;
and the one of them being in the twelfth, and the other in the four-
teenth day of the disease, when I first visited them—neither was
subjected to the cold affusion."
  This fever is generally termed, in popular language, the nervous
fever, and Avhen particular symptoms appear, the putrid fever.   It
is usually caused  in situations where there is want of cleanliness,
and more  especially  of ventilation;  and when  once cured, it is
propagated by contagion.   This is described by Dr. Currie as the
common fever of England.  It had usually one exacerbation (aug-
mentation), and one remission or abatement in the  twenty-four
hours.  The exacerbation was usually in the afternoon, and the
remission toward  morning.  According  to Dr. C, the safest and
most  advantageous time for the affusion  of cold water, is when the
exacerbation is at its height,  or immediately  after  the declination
is begun; and this had almost always led him to adopt it from six
to nine in  the  evening;  but it is  perfectly safe to use it at any
time of the day, according to Dr. C, " when there is no sense  of
chilliness present; when  the heat of the surface is steadily above
what is natural, and when there is no general or profuse perspira-
tion."*
   These rules are  really so plain, that it is difficult to see how any
one could be at a  loss in  knowing how to proceed, at least safely,
in the affusion of  cold  water  in  typhus fever; and yet Dr. C.'s
method has  been  considered as being one Avhich required a great
amount of skill to determine when it  should be used.
  * This  rule relating to  perspiration, as we  have  seen elsewhere, relates
only to that caused by too much exertion. 
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF WATER.
37
   Dr. C. afterward says in reference to this fever, when epidemic,
" that a great number of cases occurred in which the disease Avas
suddenly cut short by the use of the cold affusion, on the first and
second day of the disease.  The good  results were  so  uniformly,
so precisely similar to what had been related, that a detail of cases
would be unnecessary."   He says, also, " that when an epidemic
is  spreading, and the danger is known, patients will take the alarm
on the first attack, and the power as well as the utility of such a
remedy as the cold  affusion, in such situations of general danger,
will  be easily imagined.  It cannot be employed too soon after the
first attack,  provided the original chill is over, and the hot stage is
firmly established."
   In cases in which  the affusion was not employed till the  third
day  of the fever, he had seen several instances of the same  com-
plete solution of the disease.   He had  even seen this  take place
when the remedy had been  deferred till the fourth  day.   Some
cases are given to show the  effect, on the third  and  fourth days.
" Jan. 17th, 1790, A. B., aged 19, a pupil of the Infirmary, caught
the  infection in attending the fever ward.   When I saw him,  in
seventy-eight hours, the fourth day of  the disease, he had all the
usual symptoms, headache, thirst, furred tongue,  pain in the back
and  loins, with great debility.  Heat  101 degrees,  pulse  112 in
the minute.   A bucketfull of salt water was poured  over him, as
usual, at noon.  His heat sunk to 99 degrees, and his pulse to 98.
A profuse perspiration followed, with the  cessation of all his fever-
ish symptoms.   This intermission continued for several hours, dur-
ing which he enjoyed some comfortable  sleep, but at  five in the
afternoon, was  again seized with feverish rigors, followed by heat,
thirst, and headache, as before.  An hour afterward, the hot stage
was  established.   Heat 100 degrees, pulse also 100 degrees.   The
same quantity of cold water was again thrown over him, with sim-
ilar effects.   His pulse fell immediately to 80 the minute, and be-
came more full.  The heat became natural.   The following night
he took twenty drops of  laudanum, and slept well.   On the 18th,
the second day of treatment, at noon the pulse was 96 and soft,
skin  moist, but a little above the natural heat.   The tongue a little
furred, and the head ached.   He also  complained of thirst.    The
same remedy was again applied.  He was greatly refreshed by it.
The  pulse fell to 90, the skin became cool, the thirst went off, and
all the feverish symptoms vanished.   On  the 19th, the  third  day 
38
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF WATER.
of treatment, his  pulse was 88, his heat  natural,  the thirst and
headache  gone, and appetite improving.   The  ablution was re-
peated for the last time  at six in the evening.  On the  20th, he
Avas farther improved.   On the 21st, had  some  debility.   On the
22d, was free from complaint.   This patient, during his fever, took
no medicine but an effervescing mixture, the dose of laudanum ex-
cepted.   The affusion was used four times."
  Another case we cite : " Feb. 2d, 1792, S. C, a  healthy man,
44 years of age, about 72 hours after the attack,  came under treat-
ment.  Pulse 100 degrees ; heat 104 degrees; other symptoms as
usual, but the pain in the head and back particularly severe.   Two
minutes after the affusion, pulse 90 degrees, heat  100  degrees.
The patient felt great refreshment, and was entirely relieved of the
pain in the head and back.  In the evening, however, the exacer-
bation  of  the  fever was  severe, and the headache returned  with
violence.  He  passed a restless night.  At four in the  morning
the affusion was  repeated by his request.   At nine,  a gentle  per-
spiration covered  the surface of the body, the pulse 84, the tongue
moist, the skin cool, and the  pains of the head  and back entirely
gone.   In the  afternoon  the fever  returned, though in a less de-
gree.   The affusion was  repeated the fourth time, with the same
happy effects ; after which there was no return of  the disease.
   " Thus  it appeared," says Dr. C, " that the cold affusion,  used
on the third and  fourth  days of fever, does not immediately pro-
duce a solution of the disease, but  that it instantly abates it, and
by a few  repetitions brings it to a happy termination in two  or
three days."
  The cold affusion Dr. C. also used in  intermittent fevers, and
with signal  success, as  he had found  by many  repeated trials.
The cold  affusion was used in the hot stage of  the paroxysms of
intermittents, and almost always with  the immediate solution of
the fit.   In general, however, Dr. C.  depended also upon other
remedies  in the intermission between the paroxysms; but in some
instances the succeeding  paroxysm was wholly prevented by using
the cold affusion, about one hour previously to  the  period of the
expected  return,  and the disease wholly removed  by the continu-
ance of the practice.
   According to the modern practice by  water, nothing is  more
easy than to break up  these  intermittents, without the aid of any
medicine  other than water, together with sAveating.  Under the 
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF WATER.
39
  restrictions mentioned, Dr. C. always found that in any case, how-
  ever advanced the stage, that cold affusion moderated the violence
  of the symptoms and shortened the duration of fever.
    Patients are often startled at the thought or proposal of dashing
  cold water over the  naked body.   There has been a vast deal of
  prejudice respecting the  use of water in fevers.  It has been ex-
  ceedingly common to deny fever patients the use of water, and this
  when they most needed it.  It should have been understood by all
  practitioners, that pure cold water is the very best, incomparably
  the best febrifuge in nature.   How often persons given up to die,
  have been cured by getting at water, when it was supposed that it
  was the very thing to kill.  It is  a singular fact, that in the affusion
  of water, hoAvever much  patients may have dreaded it,  the effects
  are so  grateful and refreshing to the sensations, that they strongly
  desire to have it repeated.
   In these experiments of Dr. Currie, he at first used fresh water,
  afterward fresh water mixed with vinegar, and at last salt and
  water, and sometimes the water of the river Mersey, which is salt
  containing about 33 per cent, of the mineral.   It is now generally
  well known that a person  can endure the effect of salt water much
  longer than that of fresh, at the  same temperature.   The reason is   ■
 plain.  The salt produces something of an inflammation of the skin,  /
 and where there is such inflammation there is always increased heat.  !
 The body is therefore preserved in some degree from the effects of   )
 the  cold.   Some barbers  act according to the  same  principle.   \
 They wash the head with stimulating washes and  forcibly brush
 the  head, so that a  partial inflammation is caused, and the part is
 thus protected from the action of cold, and the individual  is safe;
 whereas,  without such precaution, the taking of a cold would be a
 sure consequence.
   Among other cases, Dr. C.  gives an account of the  following
 curious incident: "It occurred," he says, "about three years ago,
 to Capt. S. of this port, in the Irish Channel.   He sprung out of
 his cabin window in the height of delirium, and was upward of
 twenty minutes in the water.   He was taken up  perfectly calm and
 speedily recovered."
   To illustrate  the power of the cold affusion in fever, where the
ordinary means  had failed, we  cite another case from Dr.  Currie.
It was of a boy, 8 years of age, in whom the doctor says he was
much interested.   " On the 3d day, the pulse rose to 130 and 140 
40
MORE ANCIENT  USES  OF WATER.
beats in  the  minute, and  his heat to 106 and 107 degrees Fall.
His thirst was very great,  and delirium commenced  on the 2d day
and  continued Avithout intermission.   Various methods  had been
employed to  abate the  fever, and particularly to excite perspira-
tion, but  unsuccessfully.   His heat was not lessened by repeatedly
sponging the  surface of the body Avith cold water and vinegar ; and
after a copious bleeding, all the  symptoms were as alarming as be-
fore.   It seemed  hazardous to repeat this operation.  The patient
had taken antimonials without any apparent effect, and after watch-
ing the state of the thermometer in the arm-pit for more than an
hour, though- the mercury had  sunk  a single degree in that inter-
val, it stood at the end of  the time, at 106 degrees.   In this state
of things, we resolved on trying the cold affusion, and every thing
being prepared, he was stripped naked, and lifted out of bed.   As
we were  about to throw the water upon him, it was observed that
a perspiration had broken out  all over him, but the heat being so
great, we persisted in our purpose, and four gallons  of fresh water,
at the temperature of 60  degrees, were thrown upon him.   The
effects were altogether surprising.   On  replacing him in bed,  the
thermometer  (the bulb  in the  arm-pit  as  before) rose  to 98  de-
grees, and  the burning heat of  the extremities Avas  converted into
a coolness that was rather alarming.   The  pulse had  sunk to  90,
but Avas full and steady.   Gentle frictions were applied  to the ex-
tremities, but not long continued,  as the general warmth speedily
returned.   The heat in the trunk of the body, in about an hour,
rose to 100,  and the pulse 100.   His delirium went entirely off;
the fur on his tongue speedily disappeared, and twenty-four hours
afterward, he was found free  of every complaint but debility."
  This case affords something  of an exception to the common di-
rections laid  down by Dr. C,  in reference to performing affusion
while there is perspiration.  Still the heat was great, and it Avas
for this reason that the application was safe and salutary.
   It may be asked, " Did  not  Dr. Currie  find cases of  fever that
he could not  cure by means of  Avater ?"   There were cases where
water, as well as  every thing else, failed.   At the  same time it is
important to note, he cured  many persons by water, where other
means wholly failed, while he did  not cure any with druo-s, when
water had failed.
— In all the  experiments  yet noticed, Dr. C. had  not  attempted
any thing by  way of the internal use of water in fevers.  The use 
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF  WATER.
41
of cold water internally in burning fevers, was recommended and
used by Hippocrates, Galen, Celsus, and most, if not all of the an-
cient  authors, of whom we have any  knowledge.  But in  more
modern times, as physicians began to be more speculative, and less
practical, it was argued that  cold drinks were  dangerous.   The
very learned and celebrated Boerhaave promulgated the doctrine
that a lentor, a siziness or glutinous principle in the blood, was the
cause of fever.  This led him to insist upon warm drinks in fever,
as this would be more effectual in diluting this sizy principle in the
blood than cold, notwithstanding  the  precepts  of  Hippocrates,
Hoffman, etc., to the contrary.   The prejudice against cold drink
in fever, had become very general in the time of Dr. Currie.
   The wonderful effects of cold water externally applied very nat-
urally led the discriminating mind of Dr. C. to  the  consideration
of its effects internally.   It seemed to be a principle with Dr. C,
that he would be satisfied with nothing but actual facts of experi-
ment.  Notwithstanding he came to the conclusion, that the same
general rules were  to be  observed, in  order to determine when it
was safe to use cold water internally, that were  to be observed in
its use externally;  he did not do this by reasoning from  analogy
alone, but from actual experiment.
   Dr. C. says, in reference to  cold drink in fevers, " that while the
different modes of  applying  cold water to the  surface are em-
ployed, it ought also to be poured into the stomach, in large quan-
tities, when the patient's heat will permit it; and the presence of
nausea and vomiting is no objection to this practice, if a chilliness
of the stomach is not produced."
   "The salutary effects of the cold bath,  and  of cold drink in
fever, strongly recommend the  adoption of these remedies in the
plague.   Morendi,  a  physician at Venice, observes,  that  some
sailors  at  Constantinople, in  the  phrensy of  the  plague, have
thrown themselves  into the sea;  and it is said that, on being taken
out, they have recovered.
   " Savary, in his  letters on Egypt, observes, that  if heat were
the  source  of their disorders, the Said would be uninhabitable.
The  burning  fever  (the Causus of the Greeks) is the  only  one it
gives rise to, and to which the inhabitants are subject.  They soon
get rid of it by regimen, drinking a great deal of  water, and bath-
ing themselves in the river. A captain of a ship (a man of credit)
having some sailors on board affected  by the plague,  caught the 
 42            MORE ANCIENT  USES  OF WATER.

 infection.  'I felt,'  says  the captain, 'an excessiA^e  heat,  Avhich
 made my blood boil; my  head Avas very soon attacked, and I per-
 ceived I had but  a few moments to live.  I employed  the little
 judgment I had left to make an experiment.   I stripped  myself
 quite naked,  and laid myself, for  the  remainder of the  night, on
 the deck ; the  copious dew that fell pierced me to the very bones ;
 in a few hours  it rendered my respiration free, and my head more
 composed.   The  agitation of my blood was  calmed,  and after
 bathing  myself in sea water, I recovered.' "
   Dr. Currie also found the use  of cold water strikingly successful
 in small-pox.   He says :
   "The singular degree  of  success that on  the Avhole  attended
 the  affusion  of cold  water in typhus, encouraged  a trial  of this
 remedy  in some other  febrile diseases.   Of these the small-pox
 seemed  more particularly to invite its use.  The great advantage
 that is  experienced in this disease by the  admission of cool air,
 seemed  to point out the external  use of cold  water, which, being
 a more  powerful application, might be more particularly adapted
 to the more malignant forms of  small-pox.   The result  corre-
 sponded entirely with my expectation.   Of a number of cases in
 which I  witnessed the happy effects of the affusion of cold water
 in small-pox, I shall give the following only:
   "In the autumn of 1794,  J. J., an American gentleman, in the
 24th year of his age, and  immediately  on his landing in Liverpool,
 was inoculated under my care—the prevalence of the small-pox
 rendering it imprudent to  wait till  the usual preparations could  be
 gone through,  or indeed  till the fatigues of the voyage could  be
 recovered.  He sickened  on the  seventh day, and the eruptive
 fever was very considerable.   He had  a rapid and feeble pulse, a
 foetid breath, with the pain in the head, back,  and loins.  His heat
 rose in a few hours to 107 degrees, and  his pulse beat 119 times
 in the minute.  I encouraged him to drink largely of cold water
 and  lemonade,  and threw  three  gallons of cold  brine over  him.
 He was  in a high degree refreshed by it.  The eruptive fever
 abated in every respect—an incipient delirium  subsided, the pulse
 became slower, the heat was reduced, and tranquil sleep followed.
 In the  course  of  twenty-four hours,  the affusion was  repeated
three or four  different times, at his  own desire; a general  direction
having been  given  him to  call for it as often as  the symptoms  of
fever returned.  The eruptions,  though  more numerous than are 
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF WATER.
43
 usual from inoculation, were of a favorable kind.  There was little
 or no secondary fever, and he recovered rapidly."
    In tetanus, or lock-jaw, and  other convulsive disorders, Dr. C.
 found  cold water highly useful.  The case of Charles Gardner is
 thus given:
    " The head was pulled  toward the left shoulder, the left corner
 of the mouth was thrown upward, the eyes were  hollow,  the
 countenance  pale and  ghastly, the face and neck bedewed with a
 cold sweat; but his most  distressing symptom was a violent pain
 under  the ensiform cartilage, with a sudden interruption of his
 breathing every fourth or fifth inspiration by a convulsive hickup,
 accompanied  by a violent  contraction of the muscles of the abdo-
 men and lower extremities. He felt, on this occasion, as if he had
 received an unexpected blow on the scrobiculus cordis (pit of  the
 stomach).   Before I saw him, he had  been bled, and vomited re-
 peatedly, and  had used the warm bath, not  only without allevi-
 ation, but  with aggravation of  his complaints.
   "Opium, mercury, and  the cold bath  were used in succession.
 At first, a grain of opium every other hour,  afterward,  a  grain
 every hour, and at last, two grains every hour; but he grew worse
 and worse during the two  days this course was continued.   Being
 no  longer able  to swallow the  pills,  on'the night  of the 2 2d
 February,  general  convulsions came on  once or twice in every
 hour.   The tincture of opium was now directed to be given, and
 an ounce  of the quicksilver ointment to be  rubbed  in on each
 thigh.  In twenty-four hours  he took  two ounces and a half of
 the tincture, without sleep or alleviation of the pain.  The dose be-
 ing increased, in the next twenty-six hours he swallowed five ounces
 and a half of the laudanum.   He lay now in a  state of  torpor.
 The rigidity of the spasms was  indeed much lessened, and the
 general convulsions nearly  gone; but the  debility was  extreme; a
 complete hemiplegia had supervened; the eyes were fixed, and the
 speech faltering and unintelligible.  Intermitting the opium, which
 had relieved  the  pain,  but brought on  general  paralysis, .small
 doses of camphor were given in a liquid  form, and gruel with a
 small quantity of wine to support the strength.   For the next  six
days he seemed to revive;  but on the night of the first of March,
he was  seized, during  sleep, with a convulsion  as  severe as eA^er:
the jaws were more completely locked than before, deglution was
become impossible, and the  pain under the ensiform cartilage was 
44
MORE ANCIENT  USES  OF AVATER.
so extreme, as to force from  the patient the most  piercing cries.
At this time the effects of the quicksilver ointment Avere apparent
in the foetor of the breath, and in a considerable salivation.
   " All  other remedies  being in vain, it was now resolved to try
the cold bath.  Gardner was, therefore, carried to the public salt
water bath, then of the temperature of 36 degrees Fah., and throAvn
headlong  into it.  The good effects were  instantaneous.   As he
rose from the first plunge, and lay struggling on the surface of
the water, supported by  tAVO of his  fellow-soldiers, Ave observed
that he stretched out his left leg, which had been for some time
retracted  to the ham: but his head did not immediately recover
the same freedom of motion,  and therefore he Avas  plunged doAvn
and  raised to the surface successively for upward  of a minute
longer, the muscles  of  the neck  relaxing more and more  after
every plunge.  When taken  out we  felt some alarm; a  general
tremor was the only  indication  of life;  the pulse and the respira-
tion being nearly, if not entirely,  suspended.  Warm blankets
had, hoAvever, been prepared, and  a general friction was diligently
employed.  The respiration  and the  pulse  became  regular, the
vital heat returned, the  muscles continued free of constriction, and
the  patient fell  into  a quiet and profound  sleep.  In this he con-
tinued upward of two  hours, and when he awaked, to the aston-
ishment of every one, he got  up and walked across the  room,
complaining of nothing  but hunger and debility.  The convulsive
hickup, indeed, returned, but in a  slight degree, and  gave way to
the use of the cold  bath, which  he continued daily a  fortnight
lonp-er; and in less than a month, we had the satisfaction of seeing
our patient under arms, able  for the  service of his country."
   The doctor continues: " Soon after this I was sent for  by  a
poor woman, who, in consequence of difficult  labor, and, as she
imagined, of local injury in some  part of  the  uterus, was  seized
with locked-jaw and other symptoms of tetanus.   She was imme-
diately taken  to the  cold bath, and thrown into  it in  the same
manner of the former patient, and with similar good effects.  The
spasms  disappeared,  and  though  they afterward returned to a
slight degree, they gave way entirely to a second immersion."
   "In the convulsions  of children,"  says Dr. C, "I have  found
the cold bath a useful remedy, whether the disorder originated  in
worms or other causes.  I have seldom known it to fail stopping
the  paroxysms, at least for some  time, and thereby giving an op- 
               MORE  ANCIENT USES OF  WATER.            45

portunity of employing the means fitted to remove the particular
irritation."
  The following curious narrative is taken from the work of Dr.
Currie, and was given on the authority of  Dr. Robertson, a sur-
geon-general of the naval hospital in Barbadoes, and can be  relied
on as being true.   On returning a second time to  Barbadoes, Dr.
Robertson, according to the request of Dr. Currie, investigated the
particulars of the case, which were given in his own words:    _..—
  "A gentleman of this island, whose name was Weeks,  a  great
votary of Bacchus, was in the practice  from  fifteen to twenty
years, of plunging into cold water when he rose from his bottle,
and actually going to sleep  in a  trough of water, Avith his head
supported on  a kind  of wooden  pillow,  made for  the purpose,
above the surface.  When  he dined abroad, and had not the con-
venience of his  OAvn trough, he used to strip off his coat, waistcoat,
and shirt, and  sit exposed in the open air, and in that situation go
to sleep, whether it rained or not.  And sometimes he went and
bathed in the  nearest adjoining  pond,  to which he generally re-
quired assistance to be conveyed.  The  effect of this practice was,
that  instead of experiencing  debility, lassitude,  headache, and
nausea, he found himself on awaking, cheerful and refreshed, and
free from all the effects of  intoxication.   In the year 1789, dining
one day abroad, he got alternately drunk and sober three several
times before midnight, each time recovering his  sobriety by im-
mersing himself, and sleeping in cold water;  and on awaking re-
turning to the company.  The last time, after supper, he was so
immoderately intoxicated, that  he insisted on his  companions un-
dressing him, and carrying him themselves to the pond.  They
carried him accordingly in  the chair, and set him up to the chin in
water, where he continued upward of an hour, a  person support-
ing him.  I had this last circumstance  from a  gentleman, one of
the party, whose veracity may  be entirely depended on.
   " At home,  however, he used, as I have already mentioned, a
trough made for the purpose, with a bench in it as a pillow, hav-
ing been nearly drowned  when  sleeping in his pond, from the
negro, who  was -appointed to  watch him, having himself  fallen
asleep.  In this watery bed he would sleep, one, two, three, or
even more hours, experiencing always the greatest refreshment.
His wife and family, when they Avished him to change his quarters,
used to draAv  out the  plug, and let the  water run off, Avhen lie 
46
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF WATER.
awoke, and humorously complained of the loss of his bed-clothes.
At  length this expedient began to lose its effect in rousing him,
and one time he continued to sleep in his empty trough.  In con-
sequence of this, he Avas seized with extreme rigors and chills, fol-
lowed by a fever and attack of rheumatism, which affected him a
long time, and made him desist from the practice  in future.   But
to the end of his life he was in the habit of sitting, Avhen intoxi-
cated, with his clothes open, and sometimes quite  naked, exposed
to the Avind  and rain.   This  extraordinary character died of apo-
plexy, about  three weeks ago, aged sixty-three."

             TESTIMONY OF THE REV. JOHN  WESLEY.
  The Rev. John Wesley, well known as  a shrewd observer, and
an eminently good man, published a work  in 1747, on water, which
Avent through thirty-four editions, called " Primitive Physic, or an
Easy and Natural Method of curing most Diseases."
  After exposing and  condemning  the  prevalent system of drug-
ging and quackery, and  the  mysteries  with which the science of
medicine is surrounded, and the interested conduct of medical men,
Mr. Wesley  gave a long list of diseases (follovdng),  for  which
he recommended the  use of water,  as  the  only true and  safe
remedy.
  Mr. Wesley recommended the use of water in the folloAving com-
plaints of children:  convulsions ; coughs ; gravel; inflammations of
the ears, navel, and  mouth ; rickets ; cutaneous inflammations; pim-
ples and scabs ; suppression of urine ; vomiting ; want of sleep.
  "Water," says Mr. Wesley, "frequently cures every nervous and
every paralytic disorder; particularly  asthma; agues of every sort;
atrophy; blindness; cancer;  chin  cough;  coagulated blood of
bruises ;  complicated disease; consumption ;  convulsions; convul-
sive pains ; coughs ; deafness; dropsy ; epilepsy; violent fever; gout
(running); hectic fever; hysteric pains ;  incubus ; inflammations ;
involuntary  stools;  lameness;  leprosy  (old);  lethargy;  loss of
speech, taste, appetite, smell; nephritic pains ; palpitation of heart;
pain in the back, joints, and stomach ; rheumatism ;  rickets ; rup-
ture ; suffocations;  surfeits at the beginning;  sciatica; scorbutic
pains; swelling in the joints; stone in the kidneys;  torpor of the
limbs, even when the use of them is lost; tetanus; tympany ; ver-
tigo ; St. Vitus's dance; vigilia ; varicose ulcers; the whites.
  " Water prevents the growth of hereditary apoplexies ; asthma; 
MORE ANCIENT USES  OF  WATER.
47
 blindness;  consumption ;  deafness ;  king's evil; melancholy; pal-
 sies ; rheumatism; stone.
   " Water-drinking generally prevents apoplexies ; asthma; convul-
 sions ;  gout; hysteric fits ; madness ; palsies ; stone ;  trembling.
 To this, children should be used from their cradles."
   Mr.  Wesley gives the folloAving prescriptions :
   " For Asthma.—Hake a pint of cold water every morning, wash-
 ing  the head in cold water immediately after,  and  using the  cold
 bath.
   " Rickets in Children.—Dip them in cold water every morning.
   " To prevent Apoplexy.—13se the cold bath, and drink only cold
 water.
   " Ague.—Go into a cold bath just before the chill.
   " Cancer in the Breast.—Use the cold bath.  This cured Mrs.
 Bates, of Leicestershire, of a cancer in the breast, a sciatica, and
 rheumatism, which she had nearly twenty years.   N. B.__Gener-
 ally, where cold bathing is necessary to cure  any disease, water-
 drinking is  so, to prevent a relapse.
   "Hysteric  Colic—Mrs. Watts, by using the  cold bath two-and-
 twenty times in a  month, was  entirely cured of a hysteric colic,
 fits,  and convulsive motions, continual sweatings  and  vomitings,
 wandering pains in her limbs and head, and total loss of appetite'
   " To prevent the ill effects of Cold.—The moment a person gets
 into  a house, with his  hands and feet  quite chilled, let him  put
 them into a vessel of water, as cold  as can be got,  and hold them
 there until  they begin to glow:  this they  will  do in a  minute or
 two.  This  method likewise effectually prevents chilblains.
   " Consumption.—Cold bathing has cured many deep  consump-
 tions.
   " Convulsions.—Use the cold bath."
   " Mr. Wesley,  in this little work, prescribes for almost  every
complaint;  and the reader of it will be struck Avith the  great sim-
ilarity of his treatment Avith that which is  recommended in Hy-
dropathy ;  for in the majority of cases he recommends the use of
that  element  which we are  so strongly contending  for, namely,
cold water." 
48       HYDROPATHY,  OR  THE  MODERN WATER-CURE.
                          CHAPTER  II.

           HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.

  Hydropathy.—Definition of the Term.—Water as a remedial Agent, has been used in all
    Ages.—Priessnitz's Discoveries the result of Accident.—Curious Anecdotes.—His num-
    ber of Patients.—Testimony of Dr. Edward Johnson.—Sir Charles Scudamore.—Rev.
    John Wesley.—R. Beamish, Esq.—Priessnitz's phrenological Developments.—The sim-
    plicity of his Theories.—A Remarkable Case of Cure.—A. J. Colvin, Esq.—His excellent
    Account of Priessnitz's Discoveries.—The Umschlag, or Wet Bandage.—Leintuch, or
    AVet Sheet.—The Douche.—Sweating Process.—The  Plunging Bath.—Abreibung, or
    Rubbing Wet-Sheet.

     The word Hydropathy,  as used to denote the  Water-Cure, has
  been objected to, as not being etymologically correct  in significa-
  tion.  It  is derived  from two  Greek words,  together meaning,
  water-disease.   It is, however, a term well understood.   Hydro-
  therapeutics—which means, healing with water—has been  substi-
  tuted, and is  decidedly a better term, as far as etymological cor-
  rectness is concerned.   Hydriatics  has also  been used.  The best
  term is the plain English one, the water-cure.  But whichever tenn
  is used, it is  not less correct than many others in common use
  among the best speakers and writers.
     That parts of  the Avater-cure have, to some extent, been prac-
  ticed in the healing art, no  one will pretend to deny.   As a gen-
  eral thing, water was used to a greater extent as a remedy, in the
  earlier periods of the history of medicine, than in  later times.
v-~-   Hippocrates, the father of medicine, determined that, in certain
  kinds of baths, warm water would produce a chill, while cold water
  would produce a contrary effect.   We are  also told, that to pro-
   duce diaphoresis,  or sweating, he did  not resort to the  use of in-
  ternal remedies, but merely poured Avarm water over the head and
   body, and then heaped clothes upon the patient, which would pro-
   duce the desired effect, without the irritation of the internal organs
   consequent upon the administration of powerful diaphoretics.   This,
   as will be seen hereafter,  somewhat resembled the  sweating pro-
   cess of  the water-cure.  He also recommended  the use of water 
          HYDROPATHY,  OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.      49

 m A'arious ways,  and in the most  serious diseases.  Celsus and
 Galen  also recommended the use of water, both in sickness and
 health ; and many similar examples might be quoted.
   The  honor of making certain various discoveries in the applica-
 tion of water  to the human body as a remedial agent, is due Vin-
 cent Priessnitz, a peasant and native of a small  colony called Graef-
 enberg, situated two miles from the town of Freiwaldau, and about
 half way up one of the mountains of the  Sudates in Austrian Sile-
 sia, Germany.   This has always been his place of  residence, and
 was also  that of his father before him.
   His discoveries  were at first the result  of accident.  He was, in
 the common acceptance  of the term,  " unlearned," having at most
 only a very limited education, but possessed naturally a strong and
 observing mind.
   He tells us it was in the year 1816, when he crushed  one  of his
 fingers, and, as it were,  by instinct plunged  the injured part into
 water until it ceased bleeding.  He felt  the coolness agreeable to
 the benumbed  part, and found  that  by repeatedly holding it in
 water, without the least  inflammation or suppuration, after secret-
 ing only a little white mucous matter, it healed in a very short time.
 Then he  was told, as he says, by some old men of the  neighbor-
 hood, that they could relate many instances where cold water had
 been used in similar cases, and had always proved  salutary above
 every other remedy.   In the year 1819, he met with the misfor-
 tune to break  the  ribs upon  one side, by a  loaded wagon.  The
 physician, called from the nearest town, declared the injury  incur-
 able thus far:  that there would be  lumps formed,  which, on the
 least exertion, would cause pain, and thus continue through life.
 He prescribed  some  herbs, a decoction of which,  in wine, was to
 be laid  upon the injured parts.   These fomentations gave him  so
 much pain that he  was obliged to tear them off.  Recollecting his
 cured finger, he commenced using swathings  of cold water, and
 thus obtained  immediate relief.  Then,  to press  out his ribs  to
 their natural position, he  stretched himself, with the abdomen over
 the edge of a chair, thus leaving the upper part of the body  free;
 and then, by repeatedly holding in the breath, he was able to ex-
 tend the ribs toward the natural position.  He persevered  in this
 way, and  with  the  wet sheets, and in a few days, without having
 any wound fever, he was able to walk, and finally effected a per-
fect cure.
              3 
    MO      HVDROPATHY,  OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.

      Having thus  gained a little experience, he afterward, from time
    to time, found opportunity for performing cures among his neigh-
    bors and kinsfolk, until he had finally adopted all the various forms
    of applying water to the human body, and Avhich has  enabled  him
    to practice the healing art with greater success than any other in-
{   dividual that has ever lived in any age.
 v ■— Gaining thus at first a kind of celebrity  among  his  immediate
    neighbors, it  gradually  spread until his house  began  to be  fre-
    quented by considerable numbers of sick persons from adjoining
    parts.  And although his cures were often of the most astonishing
    kind, and generally performed gratuitously, there were not wanting
    those who were anxious to put  an end to  the " mischief," as it
    was called.  The laws of the country are particularly severe upon
    quackery of every form; and no one is allowed to  sell medicines
    of any kind except those who are  regularly certificated  for that
    purpose.
      One physician alleged that the sponges used by  Priessnitz con-
    tained some remedial property, which, if true, would  have placed
    him under the jurisdiction of the law.  His sponges were accord-
    ingly dissected and examined, and of course nothing found.
      Another prosecuted him for quackery, pretending  that he,  and
    not  Priessnitz, had cured  a  certain miller of the gout.   Accord-
    ingly both the physician and Priessnitz, together with  the miller,
    were summoned before the court.   The miller, in  answer to the
    question, who had relieved him, answered,  " Both—the doctor of
    my  money and Priessnitz of my gout."   And thus  Priessnitz  was
    acquitted  from this  charge.   His  government  afterward sent a
S   commission of medical  inquiry to Graefenberg,  and  finding that
 ;   there was no quackery about the establishment, that the only agent
    used was  pure  water, with attention to air,  exercise, and diet, and
    that his practice was not  only entirely safe, but  highly beneficial,
    he was, on their favorable report, allowed  to continue  his opera-
    tions.
      He has thus  continued  to  go on, using only the simple agent,
    pure water, for the  treatment of all  curable diseases, and the  re-
    lief of those that are incurable.  Persons of all ranks, grades, and
    professions, have placed themselves under his charge; a large pro-
    portion being such as had failed by every attempt  to get relief in
    any other way.  At present, says Captain  Claridge (1841), there
    are under his treatment an archduchess, ten  princes  and princesses, 
          HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.      51

 at least one hundred counts and barons, military men of all grades,
 several  medical men, professors, advocates, etc.—in all about five
 hundred.
    At first his numbers were comparatively small.   In 1829 the
 number was only 45.   In 1840, it Avas  1576.  BetAveen 1832 and
 1842, he  had  treated  in all  7500  patients, and  of  this  number
 Captain Claridge informs us he lost but 36.  This will appear re-
 markable, when it is remembered how large a proportion of the
 whole number  go there only as a last resort, and whose  diseases
 had withstood every other kind of treatment, and, in many instan-
 ces, for  a  great length of  time.   Since 1840 his numbers  have
 been a little lessened, by the numerous similar establishments that
 have been formed in different parts.  Austria and Prussia  have
 afforded him the largest number.
   The water-cure  has  now stood the test of more  than  twenty
 years' experience.  Some  ten years ago the establishment of
 Priessnitz  was the only one of the kind in existence.   Since that
 time they  have increased in all to about one hundred.  They are
 scattered  all  over Germany, Austria, Prussia,  Russia, and  Bel-
 gium—all have their water-cure establishments.  The  government
 of France, like that of Austria, sent an efficient  medical officer
 to the  Graefenberg establishment to inquire into its  merits, and
 accordingly  they  are  rapidly multiplying there;  and,  latter-
 ly, England  is  following the example of her continental  neigh-
 bors.
   Of the  correctness of the reports  respecting the  cures at the
 Graefenberg establishment, and of the great power of water, there
 can be no  sort of  question whatever.
   Dr. Edward Johnson, for years  a pupil of Sir Astley Cooper, a
 practitioner of more than twenty years, in which time  he has had
 occasion  to write, at different times, as many as twenty thousand
 prescriptions in a single  year, a man well known as an author as
 well as a practitioner, after remaining at Graefenberg during a whole
 winter, trying the various processes upon  his own person, and  after
 having abundant  opportunity of witnessing  the cures performed
 there, says, " Priessnitz  in his practice has met with an amount of
 success  perfectly unparalleled  in  the  history of disease and its
treatment." And  he further says,  " I am perfectly convinced that
I can cure  a greater number of diseases,  and in a shorter time, by
the hydropathic treatment, than I  can by the exhibition of  drugs 
   52      HYDROPATHY, OR THE  MODERN WATER-CUKB.

   find that there are many diseases which I can thus cure Avhich are
|   wholly incurable by any other knoAvn means."
 -  Again:  Dr. Johnson says,  " There is no Avell-educated  man  in
   England who dare, for  his reputation's sake, refuse to admit that
j  a remedy which can produce (at will) the most profuse  perspira-
(  tion, and which can also (at will) loAver the  temperature, and the
',   velocity of the heart's action,  to any given degree, even to  the ex-
j  tinction of life—I say  there is no well-educated man in England
'   who dare deny that such a remedy must possess an immense power
.   over diseases of every kind."
     Sir Charles Scudamore, in  his valuable work on Hydropathy,
I   says, " The principles  of the water-cure treatment are founded  in
|   truth and nature, and rest, therefore, on an immutable basis.  The
   practice maybe occasionally abused, and then evil, instead of good,
\  will result.   If I could think that  such a consequence was neces-
   sary, I would not for one moment be its advocate. But conAinced,
   as I am, that we have  in our power a  new and most efficacious
   agent for the alleviation of disease  in various forms, and in prop-
   er  hands safe and  effectual,  I should  be no friend to humanity,
   nor to medical science, if I did not give my testimony in its recom-
   mendation."
     The Rev. John Wesley, A. M.,  published a work in 1747, which
   went through thirty-four editions, called " Primitive Physic, or An
   Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases." After depre-
   cating the manner in which drugs  were employed in  the  healing
   art, he  proceeds to speak of  the  healing  virtues of  water; and  it
   would seem, by the list of diseases given by him  as curable by
   the  use of water, that  his observations were  strikingly correct as
   to its powers as a remedy.
     Of medicines, he says, " The common method of compounding
   and decompounding medicines, can never  be reconciled to common
   sense.  Experience shows that one  thing will  cure most disorders,
   as well as twenty put together.   Then why do you add the other
   nineteen ?  How often, by thus compounding medicines of oppo-
   site qualities, is the virtue of both  utterly destroyed ?   Nay, how
   often do  those joined  together destroy life, which, singly, might
   have preserved it ?"
     This occasioned that caution of  the great Boerhaave against mix-
   ing things, without evident necessity, and without full proof of the
   effect they will produce when joined together, as well as  of that 
HYDROPATHY, OR THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.      53
  they produce when asunder; seeing that several things which, sep-
  arately taken, are  safe and powerful medicines, when compound-
  ed, not only lose their former powers, but become a strong and
  deadly poison.
    As to the merits of the discoveries of Priessnitz, there seems to
  be some difference of opinion, even among those who  admit his
  great and unexampled success in the treatment of disease.   Some
  would  appear to inculcate that he is only wisely, ingeniously, and
  energetically carrying out principles and practices which have been
  understood and practiced from the time of Hippocrates down.
    On this  point, Sir Charles Scudamore  holds the following lan-
  guage: "I think that some writers on hydropathy have  not ex-
  pressed sufficient praise and acknowledgment to Priessnitz, as the
  inventor of a  treatment constituting a complete, systematic plan.
  To follow in a path, is always comparatively easy.  It is quite true,
  that parts of the whole plan, and the principles, have been known
  and  practiced since the time  of Hippocrates, and by none more
  ably and scientifically than the  late Dr. Currie, of Liverpool.   But
  all that can be quoted from history bears  no comparison with the
  regular and systematic whole which Priessnitz has so happily con-
  structed, and  by which he has raised himself  an imperishable
  fame."
    Of the abilities of Priessnitz,  all are agreed that, for good judg-
 ment, clearness,  and decision of character, he is peculiar.   To the
 phrenologist, a few admeasurements of his  head will be interest-
 ing.   As given by R. Beamish,  Esq., they are as follows:
   Circumference  across brows.....................22  inches
   Circumference  across Causality..................21s   "
   Lateral arch from root of nose to occiput..........13|  «
   Transverse arch,  from ear  to ear................14    «
   Anterior arch, from ear to ear....................12    "
   Posterior..........___.________.............Iji   «
   Anterior lobe............................        <y     a
   Height from root of nose to Comparison............3     «
   No line divides the perceptions from the reflecting powers, mark-
ing rapidity in  forming a judgment on what the perceptions take
cognizance of.  The middle line is well developed, viz.: Individu-
ality, Eventuality, and Comparison.   The  perceptions are large;
so, also,  Constructiveness and Acquisitiveness;  reflecting  organs
full.  Of the sentiments, Firmness,  Benevolence,  and Hope, are 
54      HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.

large;  Conscientiousness  is full, but Veneration  only  moderate.
Self-esteem and Approbation are large, Concentration full, the do-
mestic groupe moderate, Secretiveness very large,  Destructiveness
large, Combativeness and  Caution moderate.   The eyes are small,
and are in constant motion; the lips are frequently compressed.
The temperament is highly nervous.
  Priessnitz,  notwithstanding his accumulation of  wealth (upward
of £50,000), his astonishing success, and the manner in which he
is courted and respected by the first nobles of Germany, is said to
retain the humility of his former station of life, that of a peasant.
  " Some complain that he says too little," says Captain Claridge ;
" and some who go there merely to learn the treatment, complain
that he never explains any thing to them."   " It must be evident,"
he continues, " that a man who has the whole year round from 500
to 600 patients, besides  the peasantry of the neighborhood  that
may require  his aid, cannot have  much breath  to throw aAvay.
Let any person speak to him  of his own, or of his family's case,
and they  will find his reply that of a man of profound sense—a
reply which he never wishes to retract, and  for which he will give
his reasons in the most unaffected manner possible.   But in respect
to the second complaint, it must be avowed that he has no  very
great regard for  medical men, because  no one  has suffered more
from their vindictive  feelings than himself; besides, he has  ever
found it a work of supererogation to endeavor to dispossess them
of their prejudices; nor has he time or inclination  to enter into dis-
putes upon a mode of treatment which he knows,  as directly ema-
nating from nature, to be always true to herself."
   As to theories  respecting  the action of water upon the system,
it cannot  be expected that Priessnitz would be able to give them
in a very  scientific form or mode of expression.  He deals more in
facts than in theories.
   His  assertions  are short, comprehensive,  and full of meaning.
He says  that the application of  cold  water cures diseases by
strengthening the general health and fortifying  the system; and
this is precisely in accordance with Liebig,  when  he says that the
abstraction of heat cures  diseases  by exalting and accelerating the
transformation of tissues.   And again, when Priessnitz  declares, as
he does, that cold water has a tendency to bring  " bad stuff" out
of the system, it is in exact accordance with Liebig's declaration,
that it promotes the union of certain matters with oxygen, by which 
HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN WATER-CURE.      55
they are carried out of the system, and which matters, if not so car-
ried out, become causes of disease.   And the same kind of reason-
ing on the nature of things has taught Priessnitz, as it  has Liebig,
and all other medical philosophers,  that all diseases must be cure°d
by  the inherent energies of the living system itself.  According to
Dr. Gregory, " all remedies  are merely to  be- employed with the  j
view of placing the  body under the most favorable circumstances  /
for resisting diseases."
  According to Scudamore, he has "one single theory of  disease,
which serves for all persons and all disorders; that,  viz., of the
humoral pathology, upon a general principle, not attempting any
division of the  humors, according  to the ancient physicians, but   )
contented to believe that in every disease the blood is more or less
charged with morbid matter; and Avhich nature is always ready to
throw out of the system, if  properly assisted  in  her efforts.   He   ?
considers that the use of medicine  of every kind  is a  false inter-   [
ference  with nature, and tends to  interfere with  her efforts; and
that,  on the other hand, if fortified and assisted by the agency of
water,  internally and externally, in conjunction  with good air,
abundant exercise, and the  avoidance  of hurtful  stimulants, she  '
will acknowledge the  help  given, and will,  in  a  longer or shorter
time, throw off disease; usually rendering a proof of such salutary
operation, by the production of some kind of crisis."
  Respecting this doctrine, the Humoral Pathology, by which  all
diseases are attributed to a diseased state of the fluids of the body,
it may be said physicians are beginning to admit that there is more
of truth in it than has  generally been admitted.
  The simplicity of the remedy in the water-cure is a matter of ob-
jection  by many, and  may be the  means of leading those into  its
practice who are in  every way unqualified.  The agent being one
of great power for good or  evil, it  will in such hands be liable to
the most disastrous consequences.   Priessnitz never  treats  two
patients precisely alike.  This shows the necessity, not only of un-
derstanding all the various applications of water,  but also  of pos-
sessing a thorough knowledge of the human system, both in health
and disease.
  Priessnitz, by his doings, has proved  to  the world two things:
first, that the water-cure is the most natural and best system  of
treatment; and second, that he is a  man possessing a genius most
remarkable.  As an example of the power of the remedy, of  his 
56       HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN AVATER-CURE.

skill, and of the necessity of understanding Avell the treatment, take
the following case from Captain Claridge:
  A person who had  recently lost his wife and tAVO 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 Avith  diffi-
culty that he  could be kept in the bath.  In ordinary cases, this
disease  succumbs to the  treatment in two or three hours; but the
patient in this case became speechless at the end of this time.
  Priessnitz, with that coolness which is so leading a feature in his
character, said, " Keep on until he either talks much  or goes to
sleep."   The latter the man at last did, but  not until he had  been
in the bath for nine hours and a half, when he fell asleep from ex-
haustion at half  past ten at night.  He was then put to bed, and
the next day  the fever had left him, and, though weak, he was
able to  walk about.   If, in  this case, Priessnitz had become
alarmed, after the first two or three hours,  and had discontinued
the mode of  treatment, to try some other experiment, the conse-
quence might  have  proved fatal.
  After  the above account had been published in the former edi-
tions of this work, our friend, A. J. Colvin,  Esq., of Albany, who
was himself under treatment at Graefenberg nearly a year, fur-
nished the author the following account of Priessnitz's discoveries,
which is the most full and perfect that has ever been given.

                                   "Albany, Feb. 1st, 1847.
   " Dr.  Shew : Dear  Sir—You apprise  me  of your  safe re-
turn from Graefenberg, and your intention to publish another work
on  the water-cure.  Anxious to accompany it with a history of the
discoveries of Priessnitz, you  ask me to furnish mine, which you
are pleased to say is probably more accurate than any, or all else.
I had intended to prepare my notes for publication, but the length
of  time which has now elapsed since they were made, will prevent,
unless in the shape of detached articles.  I with  pleasure,  there-
fore, extract what you desire,  to print or burn, as you  may prefer.
   " I was at Graefenberg, you are aware, upward of nine months.
I arrived there in the autumn of  1844, in a state of health which
might be considered desperate.  The water-cure was my last hope
for restoration;  if that failed  me, I had but to look forward to  a
brief life of misery and the grave. 
         HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.      51

  "I shall never forget my drive up the mountain, from the little
village of Freiwaldau to Graefenberg.   It was on the  morning of
the 25th of September, through  a driving  shower  of rain.   Al-
though the day was so cold and windy that the teeth chattered in
my head, I met  on  the road numerous persons dressed in light
summer clothing, Avithout  cravats, the shirt open, and thrown wide
over the coat, and the only covering for the head an umbrella.  I
supposed them the insane of Priessnitz's establishment, but soon
ascertained  my  mistake;  for it  was the  common  habit  of the
patients, while taking  exercise, preparatory to the baths.
   " I was ushered into the presence of Priessnitz by his secretary,
as forlorn and sad a looking object, perhaps, as ever  solicited his
skill.   Priessnitz's dress was  of the plainest kind; his  coat, a gray
frock, loosely and badly cut, pantaloons of  the same material, vest
double breasted, and  buttoned  up to the throat; his complexion
was fair, and  slightly pitted (I afterward heard  him  say that he
had the small-pox before  he had a knowledge of the water-cure,
or  he would  not have been marked), hair light, and  shortly cut,
the forehead  expansive and well formed, expressing high percep-
tive and intellectual power—moral sentiments well developed—eye
restless, brilliant, and strikingly  penetrating—nose  prominent—
mouth large and square:—lips firmly and handsomely set together
—the figure  erect  and manly—all together, his appearance was
impressive.  I felt that I was in the presence of  no ordinary man.
A member of the Aulic Council, who spoke English indifferently,
was present, together with several other persons.
   "A letter  from  ex-President Van Buren, which I was careful
to have translated into the German, was the means of a ready and
favorable introduction.  Priessnitz rapidly inquired the history of
my malady, passed his hands quickly over mine, said I was cura-
ble, and that on  the following day he would accompany me to the
bath  to determine the treatment.  *       *      *       *
   *        *        ******
        *        *        *****
   *        *        ******
   " Having experienced in my own person  the efficacy of the prac-
tice,  and witnessed its extraordinary success in the persons of
others, I naturally felt a  lively interest to  obtain from Priessnitz,
not only a connected account of  his discoveries, and the mental
process by which he arrived at them, but also a  sketch of  himself
              3* 
58      HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN AVATER-CURE

and  family.  I accordingly, a few days before my departure, ap-
prised him of my wishes.  So many unfounded and contradictory
versions of his discoveries had made their Avay into books, pamph-
lets,  and newspapers, that he was the more willing to oblige me.
  " Vincent Priessnitz, then, was the youngest of six children, and
was born on the fourth day of October, 1799, at Graefenberg, the
family residence, which has since become so celebrated by his dis-
coveries.  Although often stigmatized  as an unlettered peasant,
and of ignoble  parentage, yet his father Avas  a respectable  landed
proprietor.  In virtue of the laws, Avhereby the real property de-
scends to the youngest son, Priessnitz, on the death of his father in
1838, became possessed  of the family estates and residence.  He
received the rudiments of  education at the Catholic school, in the
neighboring village of Freiwaldau,  and was as well instructed as
the majority of farmers' sons in our  own country.  His  mother
lost her life in the year 1821,  on the same field where himself, not
many years before, had received an injury, the cure of which had
contributed very greatly to extend his reputation, and lay the foun-
dation of his future system. His only brother, and the eldest born,
is a distinguished Catholic  priest, and  is now at the head of the
principal cathedral in one of the neighboring provinces.
  "At the age of thirteen, Priessnitz sprained his Avrist, which
caused much pain and inflammation; he instinctively applied it to
the pump.  Finding that the  water cooled the part, and assuaged
the pain, but unable to keep it constantly there,  it occurred to him
to apply  an umschlag, or wet bandage.   He applied  one ac-
cordingly, which he re-wet as fast as it dried.  He found that this
was  entirely successful in removing the inflammation, and relieving
the pain, but that it induced a rash; and as this was a phenomenon
neAv to his youthful  mind, as unaccountable,  it led to much reflec-
tion.   Was it favorable, or the reverse, that such a consequence
should floAV from such a cause ?   Could it be that his  blood Avas
impure ?  He persevered in the application, and the wrist speedily
regained  its strength.   Shortly after,  being in the woods, he
crushed his thumb.  He  again resorted to the umschlag, and with
like success : but again the rash made its appearance. He thought
his blood  must be bad; yet he could not decide without further
evidence.
   " The success which had attended  the application of the  um-
schlag in  his own person, filled  his  mind Avith delight.  He Avas 
         HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.      59

impatient to see it tried upon others.  Whenever, therefore, he
heard of a neighbor who had  received an injury, or had enlarged
or swollen joints or parts, or was  afflicted with pain, he urged,
and  generally prevailed  upon  him, to use  the umschlag: but he
remarked that the rash did  not uniformly appear; and in such
cases the process of healing was rapid, while in those wherein it
did appear, the cure was more obstinate.
   This convinced him that in one the blood was healthy, while in
another it was mixed Avith peccant matter, and  that water possessed
the property of extracting that matter.  In cases of chronic  ulcers,
and  where there was no inflammation, it occurred to him to cover
the wet umschlag with a dry one, for the purpose of creating heat,
or a return of inflammatory action, Avithout which, he  discovered,
a cure could not be effected.
   " In the sixteenth year of his age, the accident  occurred to which
I have alluded, nearly depriving him of life, and the world  of the
embryo system.  Priessnitz was engaged in driving a young horse,
with a  load of hay, down the mountain.   It became necessary to
cog  the wheels, to prevent the too rapid descent of the cart.  He
was standing before  the horse, holding him by the  head, while
others were performing  the  work  of chaining;  the horse  got
frightened, and  rushed down the hill.  Unwilling to allow him to
destroy himself, Priessnitz held on, and was dragged down between
his feet.   While in this position, three of his teeth, two of them
upper front teeth, were broken, and his arms and body severely
bruised by the horse's hoofs.  He could hold out no  longer; the
cart passed over  his  body, crushing  three of his  ribs.  He was
taken up senseless, and while  in this  state, the surgeon of Frei-
waldau  being  summoned, probed  his wounds, and  pronounced
them incurable.  With a  return of consciousness, Priessnitz be-
thought himself  of  his  never-failing resource.  He tore off the
bandages of the surgeon, and applied the umschlag.   How grate-
ful, and how soothing the application!  The inflammation was sub-
dued, the pain alleviated, and he felt persuaded that he should get
well.  He  replaced  the broken ribs by  pressing  his abdomen
against the Avindow-sill Avith all his strength, and  inflating the lungs
so as to swell out the chest.  He then reapplied  the umschlag,
and  finally recovered, although to this day he bears in his  side a
deep impress of the wheel by which he received the injury.
   " The accident, as  is usual in country places, created quite an 
60      HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN  AVATER-CURE.

excitement, but the cure far greater.  The simplicity of the means,
and that a mere stripling had evinced such boldness and fortitude,
were matters of astonishment.   The reputation of the  umschlag
was not only increased, it was established.
  "From this period, the mind of Priessnitz was directed toward
the curative power of cold water.  He felt that he had  entered
upon a mighty field of discovery, and he was resolved to know the
extent of it.  He now began to use the sponge, in connection Avith
the umschlag, and with such marvelous success, that the peasants
believed him a wizard; to test which, he frequently found, in the
morning, a broom-stick placed across his door-sill.  This credulity,
natural, perhaps, to the ignorant,  who are  prone to attribute to
supernatural power every occurrence which passes their compre-
hension, encouraged him in his experiments.
   "What  was he to do  where disease  was  general, not local?
The umschlag and sponge were found insufficient.  Why not en-
velop the Avhole body ?   He was  transported with the idea;  and
the leintuch, or wet-sheet packing, sprung into existence.
   " Of  all his discoveries,  this  may be  esteemed the most im-
portant, considered with  reference to the  extent and  variety of
diseases in which it is employed, and would alone  have  embalmed
his memory in the recollections  of a grateful posterity.   The old
and the young, the feeble and the strong, are alike submitted to its
soothing and revivifying influence.  Priessnitz was elated !   And
well he might be, for  he had made a discovery which entitled him
to the homage of the  world.
   " But he did not sjop here.  Finding some local chronic af-
fections resisting as well the  leintuch as  the umschlag, he con-
ceived the idea of partial baths,  for a long time continued, to pro-
duce perturbation and reaction deep beneath the surface.  Hence
the foundation of  head, eye, arm, sitz, leg, and  foot baths.
Still, there was a  class of these cases  so obstinate as to resist this
united treatment.   What was to be done ?  Was there no way in
which the water could be here made effective ?  He had experi-
enced the potency of falling water.  Why might it not be the agent
which he  desired?  He erected at once, in one of the beautiful
dells of the mountain, a douche, and the object was attained!
   "The switzen, or  packing  in  the  woolen  blanket,  was
suggested by observing that perspiration frequently relieved  pain,
and. was efficacious in many diseases, and as, unlike the vapor and 
         hydropathy, or the modern water-cure.      61

hot baths, it did not accelerate the circulation  and debilitate  the
system;  and as sweating in it, after a proper time, would volun-
tarily terminate, he did not hesitate to give  it the preference over
all other known modes of promoting perspiration, and adopt it in
practice.  The patients who were  obliged, occasionally, to remain
in it some time, on complaining of  a sensation of faintness, he  re-
lieved, by opening the windows and washing the face.  The relief
thus afforded,  induced him  to sponge the body, and no ill conse-
quences following, he directed the whole person to be immersed.
Hence he was led to the wannen bad, or plunge bath.
  " There was still a class of cases, such as apoplexy, paralysis,
tetanus, lock-jaw, hydrophobia, insanity, poisoning, etc., and some
cases of determined colds, inflammations, and fevers, to which none
of the treatment yet devised, except in some stages, perhaps,  the
leintuch, was adapted.  Here was  a trial  for  the new system.
Could it be overcome, the triumph was complete.  In all the cases
mentioned, a speedy cure was hoped for, in the judgment of Priess-
nitz, if a  marked change could be produced.  His genius did  not
desert him  in this extremity.   He  designed abgeschrectes, or
tepid shallow bath, to meet the emergency.   Containing but a
few inches of water, of a temperature of from 60  degrees to 70  de-
grees Fah., the patient could be kept in it, exposed to active fric-
tion, until the  object sought for was effected (and he has been
knoAvn to keep a  patient in for nine  hours). And here we have
the chef d'ceuvre of Priessnitz's discoveries.  It  is his favorite  re-
source in these and in all cases of extremity;  and it is not  too
much to say, that Avithout it, many of his most splendid achieve-
ments must have been unrecorded.
  " The abreibung, or dripping wet sheet, was a much later  ad-
dition  to  his  practice, and was suggested  by  washing with  the
hands and a towel.   It is used, generally, as preparatory to other
and stronger treatment, although it is, in some instances, continued
to the termination of the cure.
  "After his  reputation became somewhat extended, Priessnitz
visited patients at their houses; but he remarked that such were
not cured as rapidly as those who took the trouble to come to him.
Hence he was led to conclude, that to make  mankind appreciate a
benefit, they must  pay for  it, either in belief,  in trouble,  or in
pocket; and  as he charged nothing  for his services, the system
Avould have died a natural death, had he discouraged the idea that 
62      hydropathy, or  the modern water-cure.

there was not something supernatural in it, and permitted it to
rest on its  simple merits.   He also remarked, that as soon as he
adopted the plan of calling  on the patients, instead of their coming
to him, they fell off from hundreds to tens in the year.  He there-
fore declined to go out at all, and refused to prescribe, unless  per-
sonally solicited at his own  residence.   And this was the germ of
the present establishment, the farrte  of which has spread throughout
the world.
  " The Medical Faculty were not slow to  perceive the tendency
of these discoveries to  the  overthrow of their unprogressive  sys-
tem, which had for centuries, like a pall, covered the earth.  As
early as 1821, the three practicing  physicians of Freiwaldau,  Die-
trich, the brother-in-law of  the Burgomaster, and two brothers by
the name of Gunter, formed the nucleus of a plot to destroy  him.
Every person to Avhom he had administered was secretly inquired
of, whether the umschlag, the sponges,  or the baths, were not medi-
cated, or whether Priessnitz did not make use of some other agent
than water, or some herb,  or drug, in connection Avith  the water.
Could such a fact have been established, the overthrow of Priessnitz
had been certain,  for in no country are the laws against empiricism
more stringent than in  Austria.   He was thus constantly upon his
guard,  and  his utmost ingenuity and invention were required to
make water alone supply the place of every other  remedy.  Be-
tAveen the years 1821 and 1828, these physicians had him brought
several times before the Syndic, or Chief  Justice of the town, to
answer for unlawful practice; but he was  always acquitted.   In
the year 1828, however, the most determined  effort was made to
crush him.   The  country was scoured for witnesses, and  a large
number were examined, to  prove he had done them injury.  Not
one,  however, but acknowledged he had received benefit.   One, a
miller by occupation, who  had been cured of  gout, as one of the
Gunters declared, by him, on being asked, ' Who had helped him ?'
replied, ' Both :  Gunter helped me out of money, Priessnitz out of
my disease.'  On being again asked  ' What he paid Priessnitz ?'
he replied,  ' Nothing :  I still  owe him thanks, which I now return
him for the first time.'  But what  availed testimony ?   The  Syn-
dic was in  the interests of his persecutors, and  Priessnitz was im-
potent against their wealth  and influence.  He was declared to be
illegally tampering with the public health, and ordered to be ar-
rested.  From a sentence so manifestly partial and unjust, Priess- 
         hydropathy,  or  the  modern  water-cure.      63

nitz appealed to the tribunal of Brunn.  This judicature reversed
the judgment of the Syndic,  and decided, that as it  appeared
Priessnitz made use of nothing in his practice except water, he was
at liberty to pursue it.  His persecutions did not terminate here ; the
faculty still followed him; their ancient and cherished  system was
in danger; and the arrogant innovator must be silenced.  He was
complained of before the  tribunal of Wiedenau,  a neighboring
province.   His accusers, however, unable to bring any proof other
than such as they, had before produced, the complaint Avas dis-
missed ;  but he was forbidden to treat any patients out of his own
district.   Priessnitz replied, with spirit, that water was free to all,
and he would not inquire whence the patients came.  But the ma-
levolence of  his  enemies was sleepless.  They  resolved that  the
matter should be brought  to  the  notice of the court at Vienna.
For  this  purpose, the  medical  faculty there were appealed to.
They interfered, and succeeded in bringing  the subject before the
Emperor Francis.   Baron Turckheim, of  the Aulic Council, to-
gether with a commission of district and  staff surgeons, was  ap-
pointed to proceed to Graefenberg to make investigations, and re-
port  the result.   They went  strongly  prejudiced, both  against
Priessnitz and his system.
   " At this time, Priessnitz had at his establishment quite a num-
ber of  patients, or cure-guests, as  they  are universally termed at
Graefenberg; and his success in curing disease, which had baffled
the arts of the most eminent of the faculty, was decisive.
   " The commission examined  his baths, his leintuchs, his switzens,
analyzed the water, and interrogated the badedieners, or  bath-
servants  and patients.   But nothing  was  elicited  to  convict  the
audacious peasant.   The bath-tubs were made of wood, the  lein-
tuchs of  linen, the switzens of wool, the water was pure and  un-
adulterated, gushing from the  thousand springs of the mountain ;
and to the interrogatories, the badedieners and patients  replied,
that no agent except water was  employed in the  treatment.  So
favorable were the reports made by the commission, that he was
permitted not only to continue his practice, but he was authorized
to give certificates of inability  for  service to military officers, who
might place themselves under his care, with the like effect as staff
surgeons; a result of the efforts of his accusers as unexpected as it
Avas galling  to them.  Instead  of his condemnation, which  they
had confidently anticipated, behold! he  was exalted to an equality 
64      hydropathy,  or the modern water-cure.

with themselves.  This was too much  for endurance.  He  must
be deprived at least of the countenance of the government.  In
1834, therefore, after the death of the Emperor Francis, the head
of the  Department of Brunn was  prevailed upon to withdraAV it.
Priessnitz was advised strongly to make an appeal 10 Vienna, but,
disgusted with this exhibition of petty  envy, he refused.   It Avas
not long before the military, numbers of Avhom from all parts of
Europe were now his patients, assailed the invidious interference
of the  authorities of Brunn.  The  ambassadors from the different
courts  at Vienna were induced to interpose, and Priessnitz was re-
stored  to the favor of which  he had  been so unjustly deprived.
But it  is a significant  sign of the apprehensions entertained of the
ultimate triumph of the water-cure, that, to this day, all publica-
tions in favor of it, and the establishment at Graefenberg,  are ex-
pressly forbidden in the Austrian dominions, through the influence
of the  medical fraternity.
  " Thus terminated in disaster, after thirteen years of opposition,
the attempts to destroy the new system.  Henceforth, its disciples
have only to  be true to it, to witness its final consummation.
  " Priessnitz was married  in the year 1828, to Miss Sophia Priess-
nitz, a  distant relation, the daughter  of the chief  justice of the
adjacent village  of Bochmishdorf.   By her he has had eight chil-
dren, the  eldest of which only was a son.   This son, Avhile an  in-
fant, died from a spasm induced by the  administration of a dose of
medicine; the mother and  friends insisting that water was not cal-
culated for the  case.  Priessnitz with  reluctance yielded to their
prejudices.   Not anticipating  so rapid a termination, he  thought
he might  interpose in time to save,  but the fatal dose had sped its
errand, and the little sufferer was beyond even the power of water.
From that day to this, no medical practitioner has  darkened  his
threshold, except to study his system, or become his patient.
  " But I have spun this letter, I fear, to an unreasonable length.
In the sincere hope that  the  blessings of the water-cure may be
disseminated, and that it may  eventually, as I feel firmly persuad-
ed it should, take the place of all other methods of curing disease,
             " I am, with sincere esteem, very truly yours,
                                      " Andrew J. Colvin." 
hydropathy,  or  the  modern  water-cure.       65
                          CHAPTER  III.

  HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE—(Continued).*

Why the Profession look unfavorably on the new Mode.—The true medical Philosopher
  receives Truth  from any and every source, however humble.—Cold  Water merits at
  least a fair trial in legitimate Practice.—Distinct Hydropathic Establishments best for giv-
  ing full effect to the Treatment, but many parts of it may be applied at Patients' own
  Houses.—What a Water Establishment should be.—Water an old Remedy.—Lanzani's
  Method.—Sir John Floyer and Dr. Baynard's.—Extracts concerning Life.—Dr. Currie's
  Practice—Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine.—The ancient Romans.—The modern Rus-
  sians.—Remarkable revivifying effect of the Cold Plunge Bath after Sweating.—Priess-
  nitz's Mode not only embraces those of previous Authors, but also new and powerful Pro-
  cesses.—Description of Priessnitz.—The Water Process, although simple, may be much
  varied.—Priessnitz's Mode of commencing with a Patient.—Water drinking.—Exercise,
  general Routine, Packing, etc.—The various Baths.—Compresses.—Mode of Sweating.—
  Flannel not to be worn next to the Skin.—Drugs never to be taken at Graefenberg.—True
  Mode of arriving at the Results of Hydropathy.—Civilized Life, in many respects, pro-
  ductive of Disease.—Advantages of the Hydropathic  Diet.—Value of Means applied to
  the Surface.—Evil Effects  of too oft-repeated  internal Remedies.—The Hydropathic
  Treatment as a Counter-irritant.—The Crisis.—Effects of cooling the Body often.—Sym-
  pathy of the Surface with internal Parts.—Stimulating effect of the Hydropathic Treat-
  ment.—Sedative effect of Cold Water.—Water as a Febrifuge.—Rules of Dr. Currie and
  Dr. Haen.—Safety of Cold Water in Fevers.—Cold Bathing a Tonic Means.—Erroneous
  Notions of Medical Men.—Boldness of Hydropathists.—Douche and Shower Baths.—Re-
  marks on the Sweating Process.—Its Safety and Efficiency.—Water as a Purgative and
  Diuretic.—Tranquillizing Influence of the Hydropathic Treatment.—Remarks on Medical
  Habits, in reference to Chronic Disease. Ill effects of over-drugging.—Conclusion.


   In  consequence of the  modern water-cure having been originat-
ed by a non-medical and  uneducated  man, and having been subse-
quently, for the most part, adopted and professed by lay practition-
ers, or  by medical men of  someAvhat equivocal  reputation—and
yet more,  from the system  being held out as a panacea  or cure for
all diseases, with an exclusive scorn of medicinal aid—the medical
profession, as a body, have naturally enough, and not inexcusably,
treated it with much  contempt,  not to  say aversion, and  have

   * This very ably written article  is  quoted  from the British  and Foreign
Medical Review, by John  Forbes,  M. D., F. R. S., F. G. S.   It is proper here
to  remark, that Priessnitz has  quite discontinued the  practice of sweating,
not resorting to  that practice scarce in  one case of a hundred.   He regards
the tonic plan  as being more permanent, and better in its effects. 
66       HYDROPATHY, OR THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.

shown a pretty general determination not to admit it into the cata-
logue of therapeutic means.  Exercising a  natural influence on the
public, medical men  have succeeded in communicating to a large
portion of the intelligent classes the feelings entertained by them-
selves.   Thus hydropathy has become  a  tabooed subject, being
either entirely excluded from medical journals and books, or  only
admitted into them for the  purpose of being ridiculed or utter-
ly denounced.   Indeed,  it is regarded almost  as a violation of
professional etiquette  to  mention this  subject in the language of
toleration, much more to  speak of it with  approbation.  Accord-
ingly, we think it  not unlikely  that some of our  brethren, and
those even of the most estimable, may regard our present article
as a departure from what is medically proper, and will pronounce us
almost worthy to have the  severe sentence of " water doctor" passed
agamst us.  We have, however, been too long accustomed to speak
our opinions openly and boldly, when we believed them to be just,
whether they were in accordance with the current notions or not,
to be deterred, on the present occasion, by any apprehended risk
of  offending mere professional  conventionalism.  Whatever we
conscientiously believe to be true  in  medical science, especially if,
at the same time, calculated to promote the great end and aim of
all  professors of the  healing art—the increase  of the means of
lessening the sufferings of mankind—that we shall freely and fear-
lessly promulgate, careless of personal  consequences.
   Our  purpose, in this article, being carefully and calmly to in-
vestigate the real  merits  of the system now so Avidely  established
under the name of hydropathy, we hold ourselves absolved from
mixing up this  investigation Avith  any considerations whatever re-
specting the merits or demerits, the  objects  or  motives, of those
who practice it.   We regret to think that there is, and has been
from  the beginning, not a little quackery and mystification mixed
up  with really effective  practice, in hydropathic establishments,
and that not a few of the  conductors of the water establishments
have  been,  and are, very ill qualified to indicate, much less to di-
rect and conduct, any therapeutic processes capable of modifying,
in an important degree, the vital conditions  and  functions of the
human body.  If it shall appear, however, as we believe  it will,
on further examination, that the external application of cold water
is capable of being beneficially applied, in the cure of  diseases, in
modes of greater efficacy, and to a much  greater extent, than has 
         HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.      67

been hitherto  practiced by medical men, there remains only one
course for the  members of  the  profession to pursue, viz., to adopt
the improvements—if such  they be—regardless of their origin, or
their past or present relations.  When the religious reformer pro-
posed to adapt  profane airs to church psalmody, saying that he
Baw no good reason why the devil should have all the good tunes
to himself, he  is generally supposed to have acted as  Avisely as he
thought shrewdly and  spoke quaintly.   In like manner, Ave see no
good reason why the doctors of the orthodox or legitimate school
should refuse to accept good things, even at the hands of the hy-
dropathists.   They have done like things before now,  as the phar-
macopoeia, in more pages than one, can testify ; and we have not
heard  that  there  has  been any great  reason for that they did so.
For our own  parts, we avow ourselves of such a catholic  spirit,
and so lowly-minded withal, as to  be ready to  grasp any proffered
good in the  way of healing, whosoever may  be the  offerers, and
Avheresoever they  may have found it.  Not  merely  hydropathy,
but even mesmerism — yea, stark-naked and  rampant  quackery
itself, may,  in this sense,  be  a welcome knocker at the gate of
physic.  It  is  not  the demerits of  the donor, or the birth-place of
the gift, that,  in such a case, we are bound to  look to  ; but simply
whether it is qualified to aid us in our  glorious and divine mission
of soothing  the pains of our fellow-men.  If it is so qualified, the
baseness of  its source  "will be lost in the glory of its  use;  and, if
aught of its original impurity still attaches to its application in our
hands, the fault will be in us, not in it.  A  saint may sing the
devil's tunes without contamination; a hero  may wield the weapon
he has wrested  from a robber  or a murderer;  the medicament or
the formula  of the most arrant quack may be hallowed in the pre-
scription of  the true physician.
   It is in this spirit we enter upon an investigation of the  claims
of hydropathy,  as propounded and practiced by Priessnitz and his
disciples.  And we invite  our  readers  to follow us in a like tem-
per, convinced that they will  be  benefited  by an examination of
the subject, Avhether they adopt our views  or not.   Some of our
views  we are sure they must  adopt,  particularly this:  that  cold
water, applied in the manner of  the hydropathists, is a powerful
modifier of  the  condition of the human body, both in health and
disease, and, when weighed in the therapeutic balance with other
remedies, merits, at least,  a fair trial in  legitimate  practice. 
68      HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.

   It will be an after consideration in what manner, or under what
circumstances, this trial can best be made ;  and, supposing the re-
sult of the trial to be satisfactory, it will be a yet further consider-
ation, and one of great importance, how the remedy shall best be
applied  in the ordinary practice of medicine.   We ourselves be-
lieve  that distinct bathing establishments Avill  still be found  best
for giving  full effect to the hydropathic system, although we be-
lieve, also, that many parts of it may be adopted in ordinary prac
tice, at the patients' own homes; and the whole of it certainly bt
conducted  at the water  establishments  under  the authority and
general  direction of the  ordinary medical attendants.   If hydro-
pathy is, as we believe, a therapeutic agent  of great  poAver  and
value, it  would be worse than absurd to exclude it from legitimate
medicine ; but, if it is to  be adopted by the profession, it can only
be adopted in a strictly professional manner.  If distinct establish-
ments are  found  to  be  requisite  for its complete and  successful
exhibition, the members of the medical  profession can,  of course,
sanction  and  patronize those only which are conducted  by legally
qualified and  competent  practitioners.   And they cannot  be ex-
pected to show any  countenance, even to those which, although
under the  superintendence of legally qualified  persons, are con-
ducted on  empirical  or absurdly exclusive principles.   A hydro-
pathic establishment  should be  simply  a great bathing establish-
ment, or water hospital, and should contain the means for using
water in  all-its medicinal forms—hot as Avell as cold, in the form, of
vapor as well as  liquid,  medicated as  well as pure.   In such a
hospital,  although drugs would, doubtless, be but  in slight requi-
sition, it  would be  contrary to all  rational proceedings to exclude
their use entirely.   The very fact of a case being sent to such a
hospital  presupposes  the  previous failure  of drugs, or, at least,
presumes their unsuitableness in that particular instance; and they
would, for the most part, be dispensed with at  the commencement
of the treatment, at least: but no unprejudiced or competent ob-
server can assert that drugs should be entirely  banished from the
treatment of  any  case at all times.  The same  scientific  judg-
ment  and the  same practical skill that prescribed the water treat-
ment  as best  calculated to fulfill the indications present at any  one
time, could alone determine whether, at any one  time, medicaments
might be proper, either as auxiliaries or substitutes.  Nothing  but
the blindest dogmatism or the wildest empiricism  could maintain 
HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.      69
  that, because the water treatment is found  useful, all other means
  must be useless; or, reversely, that, because drugs are often found
  beneficial, that therefore all other kinds of  treatment, hydropathy
  included, must be injurious.   The absolute exclusionist,  be he
  water doctor or drug doctor, is equally unreasonable and equally
  unjustifiable.
    In the composition of  the following  article, we have derived our
  materials mainly from the published writings of hydropathists, but
  also partly from personal observation of the  practice of hydropathy
  itself, and from the reports of patients  who  had been the subjects
  of it.  We have been careful to select as our authorities the  best
 informed and  most impartial of the writers on the subject of the
 water-cure, and we have used our best  endeavors  to appropriate
 what alone seemed trustworthy.  It is so extremely difficult for a
 writer, on any one side of a subject that has become a matter of
 active controversy, to avoid partiality in relating  events and draw-
 ing inferences, that we make no apology to our authors for having
 on many occasions refused their evidence and rejected their con-
 clusions.  Many things,  however, we  have  admitted on the  au-
 thority of the Avriters alone, when they did not seem  to be contra-
 dicted by other facts,  and were in accordance  with the general
 principles of physiology  and  therapeutics.   We  have so far  ad-
 mitted the validity of the maxim—cuilibet in sua arte credendum ■
 and, so qualified, we think the propriety of  the admission will not
 be gainsayed.   But we have gone further than this.   We have ac-
 cepted at the hands of our hydropathic authors more than one al-
 leged fact and explanation, even though their validity seems to us
 questionable.   And we have done this because the statements are
 of a kind justly to challenge attention, and to demand thorough in-
 vestigation.
 _  On the whole, then, we Avish the reader to be  prepared to find
 in the following  article, not simply an  exposition of the doctrines
 of  hydropathy, as they appear to us well established,  but such
 also as are laid down by the best authorities of the water school •
 one of our objects in writing  it being, not merely to endeavor to
 ascertain what we consider as truth, for the benefit of our readers
 but likewise to incite them to make inquiry and  examination  for
 themselves,  m order  that agencies of such obvious potency on the
human frame  may no longer be permitted free scope if evil, or no
longer be debarred from ordinary medical practice if good. 
70      HYDROPATHY,  OR  THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.

  The internal and external use of water, in the treatment of dis-
ease, has been frequently discussed by physicians in all ages, from
Hippocrates dowmvard.  Their opinions will be found cited in de-
tail by the systematic writers on the subject of baths, and, among
others, by Sir John Floyer and Lanzani.   To them Ave refer such
as are  sufficiently curious to wish for an exact acquaintance with
the subject, in its historical relations.  For our present  purpose,
and to render the history of the medical use of water clear to the
less  minute student, we  will group it under a  few convenient
heads.
   1. According to Lanzani,* the true method of using cold water
consists almost  entirely in its internal administration, in very large
doses,  in certain stages of certain  fevers.  His work is most elab-
orate  in  every  sense ;  learned,  methodical,  and  comprehensive.
It is divided into two books : the first  devoted to  an explanation
of the causes, symptoms, complications, and nature of fever;  the
second, showing that copious imbibition of cold water is the best
means of  combating  the symptoms, on scientific grounds,  and con-
sequently the best remedy for fever.  This is  obviously an argu-
ment somewhat  theoretical, but it is supported  by a chapter of
cases, and backed by the opinions of a host of learned doctors, the
author's predecessors.  The actual value of the work is  consider-
ably diminished  by its scientific  character, because many  of  the
doctrines  held in its  day have now become obsolete, and tend to
encumber and obscure, rather than strengthen and enlighten, the
practical facts by which they are accompanied.  But the same re-
mark applies to  the  early advocates of other  remedies.  Lanzani
appears to have had no  knowledge of  the external use of water,
nor of its application to the treatment of chronic diseases.   He
used it in combination with drugs.
   Lanzani may be regarded as the representative of a considerable
number of writers and practitioners, both in Italy and elsewhere,
among whom water  has been employed (internally)  as  the most
effectual febrifuge.
   2.  About the year 1700, Sir John Floyer and Dr. Baynard em-
ployed water very freely as an external  application, in the ordinary
manner of cold bathing, preceding  it by a course of physic,  and

  * Vero Metodo di servirse dell' Acqua Fredda nelle Febri ed in altri Mali,
si interni come esterni.   Di Nicolo Lanzani, Medico  Napoletano.  2nda edi-
zione.  In Napoli, 1723. 
         HYDROPATHY, OR  THE MODERN WATER-CURE.      71

accompanying  it generally by copious water drinking.*   Their
practice appears  to have  been chiefly in  chronic diseases, such as
rheumatism, gout, paralysis, indigestion,  general debility, and va
rious nervous affections, in the whole of Avhich a large amount ol
success is said to have been attained.  The baths at which  their
cases were  treated, were frequently designated by some saint's
name.   Probably a remnant of superstitious reverence for the saint
not  only assisted to attract patients to the well, but infused into
them a faith in the remedy, which materially promoted their re-
covery.  The practice pursued Avas simply cold plunging, guarded
by certain rules and cautions to prevent accidents.
   Sir John  Floyer supports his Aiews by the citation of numberless
learned authorities,  from the  Bible  to Dr. Mead.   He seems to
have attached rather an excessive importance to grave precedents,
causing his  portion of the conjoint Avork  to savor more of the li-
brary than  the bedside.  At  any rate, he mingles together prac-
tical facts  and the  opinions of writers in such intricate relations,
that it is not always easy to discover on which he relies most con-
fidently for  the maintenance of his  tenets.   Dr. Baynard, on the
other hand, deals more in cases, of which he presents an abundant
collection.   His mode of  reasoning is particularly pointed and sa-
gacious.   No one can leave  the  perusal of his work without a
strong conviction of his being an honest, shrewd, enterprising, and
diligent contributor to medical literature.
   These writers mention the occasional practice of persons bathing
in their shirts, and wearing them throughout  the remainder of the
day  Avithout drying; they also give an instance or  two of cases
cured or relieved by the  application of a wet towel.   The former
practice is alluded to as an instance of rashness on the part of pa-
tients,  and the latter is  so rarely mentioned, that in neither can
they fairly be said to have anticipated Priessnitz in the systematic
employment of the wet  sheet or  wet compress—although  both
were actually employed by them.   They also speak in very favor-
able  terms of a course of  cold  preceded by a month's warm bath-
ing, but not in the modern hydropathic method of the cold follow-
ing immediately upon the warm, or upon sweating, which is a prac-
tice they carefully deprecate.   They seem to have had but a slight
  * Psuchrolousia; or, the History of Cold Bathing, both ancient and  mod-
ern.  By Sir John Floyer, of Litchfield,  Knt., and Dr. Edward Baynard, FeU
low of the College of Physicians, London.  2d edition. London, 1706. 
72      HYDROPATHY,  OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.

acquaintance Avith  the use of cold bathing in  fever, or acute dis-
eases, though instances of such practice are given.
  The following passage from Dr. Baynard, though not strictly a
part of our present subject, is a curiosity,  and  affords a good sam-
ple of his peculiar  manner.  When the period  of its publication is
considered, it must be regarded, in some of its parts, as a  remark-
able case of the forestalling of exact experiment by speculative rea-
soning.  Baynard  adduces the remarks it contains in support of
his  hydropathic Aiews;  but we need  not stay to examine  them in
that respect.   We transcribe portions of the passage :
  " I conceive life to be an actual flame; as  much flame as any
culinary flame is, but fed with its peculiar and  proper pabulum,
made out of the blood  and spirits for that purpose; and  my rea-
sons are these, viz.: 1. Life is as extinguishable as any  flame is,
by excluding the air,  etc.  For hold your handkerchief close to the
mouth and nose of any  animal that has lungs, and life is  put out,
the creature is dead in a moment; there is no skin broke, nor bone
broke; no  wound,  nor  bruise; there is your whole  man, but dead
he  is.   2d. No flame  will  burn without aerial nitre, or a quid
aerium, whatever it be; some will have it  a mixed gas of nitre and
sulphur, but whatever  it  be, 'tis  a causa sine  qua non, something
without which no flame  will burn; and that the lungs serve to this
use, and are air-strainers,  is very clear to me, by that experiment
of the candle and two puppy dogs, put into a great oven, and
stopped close up with a glass door to see  through;  and in a little
time, when they had sucked in some, and the candle wasted the
rest of the  nitre, the  dogs  died, and the candle Avent out with them
at the same instant.
  "All ustion, as the quid infammabile,wastes, leaves by  incinera-
tion alkalious and caustical salts,  either fixed or volatile, which,
from their  figure  or imbibed fire,  become of a pungent, corrosive
nature, and fix  upon the  membranes, being nervous and most ex-
quisite of sense and perception, which, by irritation, cause a light
inflammation, which  inflammation  is called thirst;  which  salts are
melted and washed off by drinking—the grosser by stool  vrith the
solid excrements, but those of most solid and subtle particles creep
with the chyle into  the blood, and  have no way out but by the
urine.  Hence Avater is  the best menstruum to dissolve salts; and
that which is most  simple  and elementary is the  best water, as
least impregnated; such waters wash off  and dissolve their points 
'HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.      73
 and angles, by which they prick, sheath, and envelop them in their
 oavu pores, and with themselves run off by urine; but if so forced
 by heat and motion as  to disturb them in their passage, the cur-
 rent of urine is checked, and the salts leave their hold of the water,
 shoot their vortex, and from the channels get into the habit of the
 body, which,  if not dissolved, melted,  and thrown  off by  sweat
 they inflame and cause fevers, etc.; nor will they cease their action
 and inquietude  until totally dissolved,  or forced back into their
 common  passages, and the  salts precipitated and  run down by
 urine.   For I look upon  the pores and sweat-vents as so many
 back doors and  sally-ports, by which nature drives out the enemy
 crept into her garrison.  The truth is  demonstrated in all fevers
 Avhere the caustical salts are not washed off, but remain behind on
 the glands and membranes, forsaken of their dissolving menstruum
 the water, etc.,  which  that ingenious chemist, Mr. George Moult
 by chemical analysis, made appear in six  quarts of febrile  urine
 which I sent him, and he found but the thirtieth part of those salt's
 usually found in  a sound man's urine, so that of necessity they
 must remain behind and be left (like so  many French dragoons) to
 quarter on the  blood  and spirits at discretion.  The history  of
which is printed in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for some years
since.
    "W, that Avhich we call an insensible perspiration, is nothing
 else  but the smoke  made from the vital flame, and the pores are
 the  spiramenta  through which it passes,  and when  these  are
 stopped  this smoke  is  returned and the flame becomes  reverbera-
 tory, which  is sometimes necessary to force an obstruction, for the
 body has its registers  and vent-holes, as  well as  other furnaces
 But to proceed:  these salts sometimes crystallize, so that the com-
 mon  menstrua will not touch them, no more than a  file will steel or
 hardened iron, and then it is a  true diabetes (and here the physi-
 cian  is  at his wit's end, and that no far journey);  then hey ■  for
 lime-water, quince wine, and other restringents, which, if  it  were
 possible, would rather make a coalescence, and tie the knot harder
 No;  the  cure lies in solution by melting  down the salts, which
 must be  done by open, raw, and unimpregnated menstrua, such as
 the Bristol waters  are, as most simple, having least contents in
 them.   (pp. 47 et seq.)
  3.  At about the beginning of the present century, Dr. Currie's
practice  m fever is well known to have consisted principally of
4 
   74      HYDROPATHY,  OR THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.

   cold affusion, or immersion, in the early stages of the disease, and
   in certain acute affections of the nervous system.   His  Avork is so
   well known that it is unnecessary to enter into any detail as to con-
   tents.*  He seems to have known but little of the application of
   cold water to the treatment of chronic diseases, as represented by
   Floyer and Baynard, or not to have employed the copious libations
   described by Lanzani.   He cannot be said to have forestalled Priess-
   nitz in any other respect, than in the prompt and energetic use of
   cold water  in  the  suppression of acute febrile and nervous affec-
   tions.   He  brings a large amount of scientific argument and prac-
   tical  experience to bear out his views.   He has also placed in a
   clear light some points of practice on which important errors pre-
   viously prevailed, such as the safety of cold applications when the
   body is heated beyond the natural degree, and the relative value
   and safety of cold or  tepid water, of immersion, affusion, and ab-
   lution.  On these points his work is of great practical value.   We
   may have occasion to revert to some of them hereafter.
     4. The prevalent opinions of medical men in this country, on the
   general subject of the external use of water, previously to the
   Priessnitzian era, may be considered to be represented in the article
   Bathing,  in  the " Cyclopaedia  of Practical  Medicine," published
   within the last twenty years.  The article  in question places bath-
   ing in a very subordinate position among means available for the
   actual cure of disease.  In its cold form, it is recommended as a
   valuable tonic, used with many restrictions, in nervous debility and
   other analogous states; and, in its warm form, its use is almost
   limited  to the  allaying of irritation in certain disorders, the more
   formidable symptoms  of which are to be encountered  by other
   remedies.   Other  articles  in  the same work have done justice to
   Dr. Currie's views.  Beyond this, the medical  profession  have
   hitherto done  little or nothing with bathing as an instrument of
'<,  cure.   We shall hereafter find reason for believing that a vast su-
   perfluity of caution has existed in the employment  of this remedy,
i  and  that  some of the supposed cautions have really increased,
)  instead of diminishing the danger, as well as destroyed  the  effi-
\  ciency of its application.
      The author of the article in the Cyclopaedia describes cold bath-

     * Medical Reports of the effects of Water, cold and warm, as a Remedy in
   Fever and other Diseases.  By James Currie, M. D., F.R.S., Fellow of the
   Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.  2 vols., 2d edition. London, 1805 
HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.       75
 ing as partially or absolutely contraindicated in the following con-
 ditions : partially, in infancy and old age; pregnancy; indurations,
 obstructions, or chronic inflammations of internal parts; acute in
 flammations of the same;  chronic inflammations of mucous mem-
 brane :  absolutely,  during  menstruation;  in  great  plethora,  or
 tendency to active  hemorrhage, or  congestions  in important vis-
 cera; affections of the heart; loaded state  of the bowels;  great
 general debility—though  then  often  advantageous  after warm
 water or vapor bath.
   5. The ancient Romans were  accustomed to produce perspira-  [
 tion  by surrounding the person  with heated aqueous vapor, and,  <
 while freely perspiring, to plunge into cold water.  Interesting re-  I
 mams of baths for this purpose,  evidently of Roman architecture,
 and containing fine specimens of  mosaic pavement, may be seen in
 several parts  of England; as, for example, on the margin of the
 Cranham woods, in the village of Whitcombe, about six miles from
 Cheltenham;  at Bignor, in Sussex,  etc. /it is also well known  to'
 have been  a frequent  practice of the Roman youth to plunge into
 the Tiber, when heated J™ exercise in the Campus Martius.   y
   The modern RussianC^'as  is well known, excite perspiration
 in a  similar manner, and then roll themselves  in snow.  A some-
 what  similar practice  has  prevailed among the North American
 Indians.*
   The  extraordinary revivifying  effect of the cold plunge  bath,
 after  the system had been  excited by artificial heat, is testified by
 various evidence of the most unquestionable kind.    Numerous
 travelers have spoken of this very enthusiastically; among others,
 Stephens, the  American (in his "Incidents of Travel"), who took a
 Russian bath,  after a most fatiguing journey, and came out of it,
 he says, quite a new man.   We have had similar information from
 more  than  one private source.  This practice, however, similar as
 it is to that of Priessnitz, has never, until his time, been extensively,
if at all, employed in Europe as a means of curing disease.
  6. In the foregoing synopsis are contained the principal forms in
which cold bathing and water drinking have been used in the treat-
ment of disease, before  these means were  so vigorously adopted by
Priessnitz.   It will bo obvious, that from  none of  the writers men- v
tioned could he have learned his  bold and comprehensive practice, j
In his method are combined those of Lanzani, Floyer, and Currie,
          Related by William Penn, and described elsewhere. 
76      HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.

accompanied by  novel  and  powerful processes, to  which  those
writers  were entire  strangers.  The douche, the wet sheet, the
sweating blanket, the cold plunging after sweating, the Avet com-
press, the sitting  bath (sitz bath), must be allowed to be, in a great
measure, peculiar to the Graefenberg  peasant and  his disciples.
From the same source have proceeded some important precepts on
the subject of diet  and  regimen.  Priessnitz,  moreover, is distin-
guished from all  the authorities quoted, by his  entire  abandonment
of drugs.
  Vincent Priessnitz was originally a small farmer, residing at
Graefenberg, near the toAvn of Friewaldau, in Silesia.   He  is about
fifty years of age.   The following  is a description of him by Sir
Charles Scudamore:
   " Of Priessnitz himself I shall say a few words, and describe my
impressions on first  seeing him.   His countenance  is full of self-
possession ; rather agreeable; mild, but firm in expression; with an
eye of sense, and a pleasing smile.   The small-pox, and the loss of
some front teeth from  an accident, impair his  good looks.  His
manners are sufficiently well-bred.  On closer acquaintance, you
discover he is quick in perception; is reflective; prompt, however,
in decision; simple and clear.   He inspires his patients with the
most entire confidence, and  he  exacts implicit obedience."—A
Medical Visit to Graefenberg, pp. 2, 3.
   Other travelers  give  a similar description of Priessnitz.   They
all agree in stating that  he is a most arbitrary and tyrannical des-
pot, issuing laws as  irrevocable as those of the Medes and Persians,
commanding  obedience  with a haughtiness that might well excite
admiration and envy even in an autocrat, and exciting as much fear
in his patients as is found in the subjects of the Grand Turk  him-
 self.   He is also represented as remarkably cool and collected in
 emergencies,  ever  ready with his  remedy  on  occasions of danger,
 and possessed of an imperturbable self-reliance.  These traits suf-
 fice to  prove  that he is  a man of  original  and powerful mind, ex-
 actly adapted to carry out a novel and startling practice.  While
 his firm and decided manner is calculated to secure  the confidence
 of his  patients,  his coolness and self-reliance enable him easily to
 bear the responsibility by which such confidence is attended.
    His  practice  originated in a succession of  trifling accidents, by
 which  he was led to employ bathing in a neighboring spring, for
 the relief of  disease,   It is  not necessary to give them in detail 
HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN WATER-CURE.      77
  Success in these first attempts procured him a local renoAvn, and
  he became the village doctor.   From villagers his fame soon spread
  to patients of a higher rank, and Graefenberg gradually became the
  resort of the hipped and the halt from all the surrounding  district.
  By these  his praises were sung louder  and louder, until  all the
  world  began to furnish him  patients by the hundred.   He now
  possesses  an enormous establishment, capable of containing several
  hundreds  of  patients,  which  is almost constantly crowded  with
  ladies and gentlemen  of  every degree,  and from every  nation;
  while his  disciples and followers,  as is well known, have  spread
  themselves throughout  the world, and maintain, in every country,
  numerous  and flourishing establishments formed  on  the  orioinai
  model of Graefenberg.                                      °
    His treatment, although apparently constructed of such simple
  elements, is capable of being varied almost ad infinitum, according
  to the peculiarities of the  case or the fancy of the prescriber, and
  of being rendered  so powerful, as often  to excite  in the patients
  and spectators apprehensions of danger—and sometimes, no doubt
  to produce it in reality.   It is scarcely too much to say that he has
  modified the application of water, and some very few other  means
  ma  manner so ingenious  as to render them no imperfect nominal
  substitute,  at  least, for  most of the drugs.in the pharmacopoeia
  He has his stimulant, his  sedative, his tonic, his reducing  agent
  his purgative,  his astringent, his diuretic, his styptic, his febrifuge'
 his  diaphoretic,  his  alterative, his  counter-irritant.   Combined
 with these  are peculiar regulations as to diet, dress, and regimen
 Ihe following is his general mode of proceeding.
  _ In  his first interview with the patient, after hearing sufficient to
 give him a  rude insight bto the locality and general features of the
 malady, Priessnitz proceeds to investigate its suitableness  to his
 method of  cure.  He  does this by sprinkling the surface  of  the
 body Avith cold water, or witnessing the taking of a cold bath,  and
 then watching the development of reaction.   If this appears in a
 certain amount of activity, he pronounces  the case appropriate to
 his treatment;  if not, he advises the abandonment of all hydropa-
 thic intentions.   This is  a mode of  ascertaining the power of  the ;
 constitution  quite original, and it cannot be said to be unscientific.   I
 Ihe power of resisting the external  application of cold is a  most   j
 essential conservative property of the animal system, and the  de-
gree to which it exists must be regarded as, in some respects, a 
   78      HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.

 ;  criterion of the amount of vis medico trix possessed by the patient,
   We see no very decisive reason for pronouncing it a more fallacious
   guide than the orthodox custom of feeling the pulse.   The only
 ; objection to it that occurs to us is, that it may not be always free
   from hazard.
     This point being satisfactorily determined, the patient is straight-
   way admitted into the mysteries of the cure.   In the first place, he
   finds himself  restricted to a peculiar diet.  Every stimulant  is ab-
   solutely prohibited, from brandy and  claret to mustard and pep-
   per ; so, also, are most of the luxuries  imported from foreign ports,
   such as tea, coffee, and every kind of  spice.   The meals  consist of
   three—breakfast  at  eight, dinner at  one, and  supper at seven or
!}  eight o'clock.   For breakfast, cold milk is the  beverage, and  bread
   and butter its only substantial companions.  At dinner there is no
   other restriction than those above named.  Supper is a  repetition
   of breakfast,  with the  occasional addition of preserved fruit or
   potatoes.   Throughout  the day, no warm beverages whatever are
   permitted, and much of  the food is brought to table considerably
   cooled.  As some compensation for  these manifold  deprivations,
   the patient is allowed to  gratify his appetite with every reasonable
   variety, and a free abundance of substantial  and nutritious food.
   He finds it a maxim that generous diet will promote his recovery,
   the treatment being responsible for  preventing surfeit.  He no
   longer  finds an embargo laid  on  fruit and vegetables, and  is not
   expected to dine seven days in the week off dry bread and mutton
   chops.   So that,  on the whole, there  is perhaps  about an  equal
   amount of indulgence and restriction,  as respects diet, to a patient
   coming to  the Graefenberg' rules from those of  some fashionable
   physician in London.
     In the next place, the majority of patients are directed to enter
   upon a course of water drinking, the quantity of water varying
   from five  or  six to thirty or  forty tumblers  in the tAventy-four
   hours.   A large portion of this is taken before breakfast, the rest
   at suitable periods after meals, so as not to interfere with diges-
   tion, with frequently a glass or two the last thing at night.   Ex-
   ercise is generally advised at  the time of water drinking, except
   when this accompanies some other process of treatment incompati-
   ble with it.
 f    A third rule insisted on is, that every patient shall take  a large
   amount of exercise during the  day.   This is, to some degree, in- 
         HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.       79

dispensable after  the cold baths, as a means of  procuring the
necessary reaction.  Walking in the open air is the mode generally
selected, when  possible.   In case of bad weather, or lameness,
other plans are contrived; sueh as gymnastics, sawing or chopping
wood, etc.  As a general rule, every patient is required to take a
long walk before breakfast.  It is a vexata qucestio, we  believe,
among hydropathists,  as among doctors, whether the  patients
should rest or walk immediately after a meal; but the water doc-
tors generally incline to advise very gentle exercise  at such times;
and, we believe, properly.  The well-known experiments on grey-
hounds,  and such other convincing facts,  are counterbalanced, to
say the least, by the habits of the working-man, who proceeds to
his labor as soon as he has swallowed his dinner, and rarely suf-
fers from so doing.
   After  these preliminaries, and the case  being pronounced suita-
ble for the treatment, the next  morning Avitnesses the patient's
initiation into more active  proceedings.  At an early hour of the
morning, varying according to the time required for the operation
about  to be undergone, a bath attendant enters with  the formidable
machinery for the administration of a rubbing Avith  a wet  sheet, a
packing  in the dry blanket, or a packing  in the wet sheet.  The
first of these  processes consists in throwing a wet  sheet over the
whole person, and applying upon it active friction of a few minutes'
duration.  A glow  is  thus excited.  The patient  then  dresses,
takes  his water,  and  sets  forth upon his morning's Avalk/ The
second of the above three operations requires the  patient  to  be
enveloped  in several blankets, with perhaps the superincumbence
of a large feather pillow, until free  perspiration is excited, Avhich
generally requires a period  of about three hours.  When the per-
spiration has continued the prescribed time (from fifteen  minutes
to an hour, or more), the patient is  subjected to some kind  of
cold bath, either  by the wet sheet, as just described, by  pouring
water over the person from the pails or watering-pots, or by tak-
ing a  plunge bath .J This  being followed by friction and water
drinking, the  morning's proceedings  are  concluded by exercise.
Packing  in the wet sheet is similar to the foregoing, with the addi-
tion, next the skin, of  a sheet wrung out of cold water.  It is
generally of short duration, as  forty-five minutes or an hour, the
object being to excite a glow, instead of  perspiration.  It is fol-
loAved  by cold bathing,  as just described.  During the packing, in 
 80      HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN AVATER-CURE.

 both instances, some glasses of cold Avater are imbibed through a
 tube.
   At other parts of the day,  other portions of  the  treatment are
 applied, such as the sitz bath,  the douche, the shower bath, head
 bath, foot bath, etc.
   The sitz bath is a  tub  of  cold Avater, in which the patient sits
 for a period varying from a feAV minutes to an hour, or even longer,
 using constant  friction to the abdominal  region.   The other baths
 mentioned in this paragraph, need no description.  These, as  Avell
 as  the former processes, are  sometimes  repeated during the  day.
 In  certain  cases, the  day's  proceedings  commence  with  some of
 them, in place of those previously  mentioned.   A rubbing  Avith
 the wet  sheet  is frequently employed before getting into bed at
 night.
   In  fever, from whatever source, the patient  is enveloped  in a
 succession of wet sheets, reneAved as often as they become Avarm,
 for a period varying  with the  intensity of the case—say,  from
 thirty minutes  to five  or six hours.   In other  similar cases,  cold
 immersion or affusion is employed with the same vieAV—viz., to re-
 duce the morbid heat of the system.
   The umschlag, or compress, is an essential and seldom-omitted
 part of the treatment.   It is a cloth well wetted Avith  cold water,
 applied to the surface  nearest to the supposed seat of  the disease,
 securely covered with  a dry cloth, and changed as  often as it be-
 comes dry during the day.  It is sometimes covered Avith a layer
 of oiled silk, which, by impeding evaporation, prevents the incon-
 venience  of frequent  change.   This compress  speedily  becomes
 warm, and remains  so until dry.   It is termed a heating  or stimu-
 lating bandage.  In cases of superficial inflammation, it is more
 frequently changed, so  as to keep cold,  whereby its effect is  just
 the reverse, being then a local antiphlogistic.
   In some establishments, the sweating has been effected  by other
means than the simple  envelopments  of  Priessnitz, as by a vapor
bath, or a chamber  highly heated by a stove.   We have heard of
a temperature  of 180  degrees,  and even  that  of  198  degrees,
 Fahrenheit, being employed for this purpose.  The  blankets used
by Priessnitz are very  bad  conductors of caloric, therefore they
 cause the  heat given off hyv the body to be accumulated around
its  surface,  by the lengthened  influence of which  the  sudorific
action is effected.  This process differs in no other manner than in 
         HYDROPATHY, OR THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.      81

degree and rapidity of effect, from exposing the  same surface to
htat of any other origin.   The animal  heat, when once  evolved,
becomes a quality of the surrounding atmosphere.   Being kept in
contact with  the body by blankets, it  constitutes  an artificial ele-
vation of temperature, and  nothing more.   Therefore,  in  cases
where active sweating  is required, we can suppose no disadvantage
to result from using other kinds of artificial heat, and can easily
imagine advantages  in  a higher  temperature than that attainable
from  animal  heat alone.  But we would limit this remark to dry
heat.   Aqueous vapor, by a well-known law, impedes evaporation,
and would therefore restrict  the full completion of the sudorific
process.  For this reason it is used to prevent plants from parting
Avith their moisture in hot-houses.  For the same reason it should
not be used when  the intention is to promote  the removal  of
moisture, or to promote perspiration.
   A point uniformly insisted  on by Priessnitz is, that his patients
should abstain from wearing  flannel next the skin.  When we con-
sider  how generally the use of this article of clothing  has been
advised  by physicians, and adopted by invalids, especially in this
country, we can easily conceive that strong prejudices will exist in
the minds of patients  against relinquishing it.  Yet it appears to
be almost universally  discarded by hydropathists, and, as far as
we have learnt, without any mischievous consequence.
   Another maxim  of  Priessnitz  is, that his patients are never to
take  any kind  of drug.  It  should be remarked, that, not  being
licensed to practice medicine, it would be illegal  for him to  ad-
minister drugs. ;' So that  it  does not follow, from his disuse of
them, that he himself would be  opposed  to their use in all cases,
much less that their use is in any way inconsistent "with his  prac-
tice.  ■■ His medical  disciples, not being similarly restricted, so far
as we can learn, usually employ  drugs occasionally, though spar-
ingly.
   How are we now to proceed, in order to arrive at  a just appre-
ciation of the value of  the means thus briefly enumerated ?   The
more usual  course would be, to enter upon an examination of the
practical results, as published by hydropathic writers.  But, in the
present  inquiry, this plan would  scarcely answer;  for the means
employed are so strange, so much at variance with  those by which
disease is commonly treated,  and not a few of the reporters are so
little  entitled to claim credit for even a capacity to report medical
               4* 
82       HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN  WATER-CITRE.

results truly, that the greater part of our readers Avould disbelieve
the alleged  facts, rather  than admit the  principles they Avould
carry with  them.   It will be more proper, therefore, to  omit
matters of evidence for the present, and to see if we can find in
hydropathic  practice  any conformity Avith the principles on which
we should estimate the merits of any other new remedy.
  If a  new vegetable were imported,  or a  previously unknown
chemical  substance discovered, and we Avere called upon to use it
as a medicine, we should first inquire whether it possessed any of
those qualities Avhich are regarded as constituting medicinal virtues.
We might assume that we are sufficiently acquainted with the cha-
racters of most diseases, to pronounce what  description of influ-
ence would  have a  counteracting effect  upon them.  It would
then remain to inquire, whether  the qualities possessed by the
article in  question Avere of a kind to lead us to expect  any descrip-
tion of such  influence from their operation.   If they were not, Ave
should  be indisposed to try the remedy until well  assured, from
abundant and  unquestionable  practical evidence,  of its curative
powers.   If  they were, we should be inclined to give it a trial,
even if the  proofs of its remedial properties were not unexcep-
tionable.  For instance, if the  article under  consideration merely
possessed a nauseous taste, a specific color, or a poAverful odor, it
would  offer  little inducement  for an  experiment of its medical
powers, because those  qualities are not  known to possess any in-
trinsic  influence  over any diseased  condition.  But, if  it were a
purgative or a sedative, no one could hesitate to recognize it as a
priori  entitled to a  trial  by physicians; because  experience has
taught us that, by the means of purging or  tranquilizing, certain
diseases  or morbid  symptoms  may be  cured or  relieved.   And,
since it is the case with many  of our  present remedies, that with
the property we wish to  employ is  combined  another Ave would
gladly avoid (purgatives being debilitating, sedatives narcotic, etc.),
and Avith  their amount  of usefulness is  thus associated a certain
tendency to mischief—if the neAV remedy presented to  us appeared
to possess the essential quality,  and to want the mischievous power
of that otherwise used for the same purpose, we should be still
more desirous of availing ourselves of it in practice.
  If we  apply  these remarks  to  Hydropathy, as practiced by
Priessnitz, the first inquiry ought to be, Does it furnish the phy-
sician with instruments which he, as a skillful workman, can under- 
HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN WATER-CURE.      83
 take to employ ?  Does it contain, among  its various machinery,
 any really therapeutic means, any powers capable of carrying out
 the indications which  we regard  as palpable in many diseases ?  f
 Can it evacuate,  can  it brace, can it  tranquilize ?   We cannot
 entertain the idea that the professors of  hydropathy have hit upon   ,
 any grand  secret concerning the  origin or nature of diseases, or
 the philosophy of their removal.  Such a  supposition, were it a
 necessary article of faith in  the hydropathic creed, would render
 us the most obstinate of skeptics.  But if the  practitioners of this
 new school profess merely to have  introduced more efficient, or
 less dangerous, means of fulfilling  the purposes which all physi-
 cians have in view in treating disease, we are Avilling to  give  them
 a  patient and  impartial hearing.  Or, if they profess nothing of
 the kind, and reject such an idea with contempt—if, nevertheless,
 their system appear to us of the nature  we are indicating, we can
 still entertain it with the hope of discovering something of good in it.
   Let us now inquire, then, on  physiological and  pathological
 grounds,  supported by some  personal experience, what appear to
 be the effects, or among  the effects, of a course of water treat-
 ment according to the Priessnitzian system.                        .
   1. In the first  place, we  remark  the careful withdrawal of all
 stimulants from internal parts.  In this hydropathy is at once dis-
 tinguished from ordinary  practice.   The refinement of  civilized
 life, and  the complicated  affairs of  society, prevent the  human
 frame from being treated entirely as a machine. The  body is  com-  '
 pelled to undergo a usage  not always  suitable to its welfare, in
 consequence of its  having to minister to the mind.   The exhaustion  \
 of the latter, from exertion and excitement, is restored by artificial  \
 stimuli  applied  to the  former.   These  are  generally directed to  !
 parts ill adapted  for their reception.  Thus,  the stomach,  con-
 structed to digest simple food, and  to admit fluid at the impulse   \
of thirst,  becomes the vehicle of conveying  to  the nervous system   I
alcohol  in its various forms, and other  similar fluids.   These are'  !
unnatural to the  stomach itself, though grateful to the nerves.   ■
Consequently, the  mucous lining of the alimentary canal may suf-
fer in the attainment of an object required only by the nervous   j
system.  This is, possibly, the very origin of  a  proportion of those
manifold chronic ailments known under the terms dyspepsia, hypo-
chondriasis, bilious affections, etc., and is  unquestionably  an aggra-
vating cause in many.   To the treatment of these affections, the 
  84      HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN AVATER-tTRE.

  physician brings his purgatives, his carminatives, his anodynes, his
  stomachics.  But it is to the surface of the same unfortunate mem-
  brane  that they are all applied; and  it  frequently results that,
  when  they relieve  temporary suffering, they often leave the gene-
  ral health worse than they found it.  From this predicament hy-
  dropathy professes to be entirely exempt,  by abstaining from  arti-
  ficial interference with internal mucous membranes.
    2. In the  next place, the hydropathists adopt a system of  diet,
  such as other practitioners seldom venture to prescribe.  If a  per-
  son, suffering from constipation, or any of its long train of attend-
  ant  ills, applies  to an  ordinary physician, he is probably  told
  scrupulously to avoid fruit, pastry, and all vegetables, except,  per-
  haps,  a favorite one, or  it may be two.   He  is  also cautioned
  against the  use  of veal,  pork, beef, and new bread.  We have
  known such  a patient ordered to live for months—we might say
  years—constantly on  mutton, and bread never less than five  days
  old.   This case  is  neither singular nor  infrequent.  What is the
  consequence of this ?  The patient is compelled to take aperient pills
  and draughts every day, or every other day ; to stimulate the diges-
  tive organs (rendered torpid by the use of so monotonous a regimen)
  by occasional  glasses of sherry or porter; and to compensate the
  deficient nutrition obtained from so barren a source, by indulgence
  in strong tea and coffee.  Such a patient goes  to a hydropathic es-
  tablishment, and is straightway ushered  into  a salle-d-manger, in
  which he  finds all  the variety of food customary at a foreign table-
  d'hdte dinner,  and is told to obey the dictates  of his appetite.   He
  does so timidly at  first, and apprehensive of direful consequences,
  but he finds, to his astonishment, that he can take the forbidden
  luxuries of broccoli, turnips,  veal, game, puddings, and fruit,  with
  as much  impunity as the never-varied mutton and dry bread, to
  which he  was previously  restricted.  This is an occurrence so fre-
  quently experienced, and  so universally attested  by hydropathists
  ^md their  patients, that we cannot refuse to  admit it as a  point at-
  tained by their system—therein being comprehended the water and
  all its accessories and concomitants.
    3.  A third  important principle of hydropathic treatment is, that
  almost all its measures are applied  to the surface.   It  is one of the
',  most  formidable difficulties with which the ordinary physician has
•/  to contend,  that nearly all his remedies reach the point  to which
l  they are directed,  through one channel.   If the brain  requires to 
         HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN WATER-CURE.      85

be placed under the influence of  a sedative or a stimulant, if the
muscular system demands invigorating  by tonics, if the functions
of organic  life need correction by alteratives, the ph}rsician has no A
means of attaining his object, except by inundating the stomach |
and  bowels with foreign, and frequently to them pernicious, sub-
stances.  In being thus made the medical doorway to all parts of
the system, and so  compelled to  admit every description of thera-
peutical applicant, the organ of digestion is  contorted to a purpose }
for which it was never intended.   The consequence  is, that it has
to be consulted  before we enter upon the treatment of any  case,
and it often forbids our availing ourselves of remedies, or plans of
action, which are plainly, perhaps urgently, indicated by the con-
dition of other organs, or  of the system at large.  Thus, to take
the three cases above mentioned: how often  do we find that one
stomach will neither bear ether nor opium;  another is injured by
steel; and others are intolerant of mercury.   The tAvo latter  rem- (•
edies are peculiarly illustrative of these remarks.  Iron is employ-
ed to raise the tone of the general system, but it  occasions consti-
pation by its action on the alimentary canal;  therefore, in order to
counteract this portion of its effect, it can only be used in conjunc-
tion with aloes, or  some other purgative, the tendency of  which,
as respects the system at large, may be  exactly the  reverse of that
of the steel.  With mercury the case is just the opposite.   We
Avish to introduce it into the system,  but it  is purgative as well as
alterative and antiphlogistic, and the former  quality often renders
very  difficult our  attaining the  benefit of the two  latter.  The
physician, then, is frequently placed  in  the dilemma, either to in-
jure the stomach in an attempt  to relieve other parts, or to  leave
the latter to their  fate, because  they can only be rescued  at the
peril of the former.   His only mode  of  escape from this predica-
ment is, to employ a legion of adjuvantia, dirigentia, and corrigen-
tia, in the multiplicity and  confusion of  which it is by no means
easy to make  out so clear a balance of power as  shall enable him
clearly  to foresee  which kind of action,  in the melee, will get \
the  uppermost; and, unless  he  be  well skilled in chemistry, he
may unconsciously  prescribe a dose so scrupulously guarded  as to
be neutralized and  altogether impotent.
   Of course we do not conclude  that hydropathy has discovered a  ,
remedy for this difficulty; but its own  plan of proceeding  is not  {
similarly embarrassed, because it  deals with outward instead  of in-  j 
   86      HYDROPATHY, OR THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.

   ward parts.   Whether it can  produce an efficient substitute for
   steel, mercury, opium, and other remedies, to which we are allud-
   ing, is altogether another question, and one which its  professors
   must bestir  themselves to solve, by the careful record and honest
   publication of their successful and unsuccessful cases.
      4.  Fourthly, hydropathy  employs a system  of most  energetic
   general and local  counter-irritation.  It has been held by some
   medical philosophers,  that two kinds  of morbid action cannot co-
   exist  in the  same individual.  According to this theory, if  we can
   set up an artificial, but harmless, disease by treatment, its develop-
i   ment will be attended  by the departure of any other disorder that
{   previously existed.   Thus is supposed to  be explained the opera-
   tion  of mercury in curing various diseases, the disorder arising from
   its oAvn action being easily  disposed of afterward.  We attach no
   value to this dogma as a dogma, but it serves to embody a large
   number of well-known facts, and may  be as properly appropriated
   by hydropathists as by other  practitioners.  By the  diligent em-
   ployment of hydropathic machinery,  due  regard being had to the
   constitutional vigor, a condition is often excited, termed by  hydro-
',   pathists the crisis.  This sometimes consists in the appearance of
   various cutaneous eruptions;  sometimes it is  characterized by  a
   series of boils, more or less severe ; in other cases its leading fea-
   ture is disturbance of the function of some internal organ, creating
   diarrhoea, abnormal urinary discharges, vomiting,  etc.   In general
   this  effect is trifling, and seldom proceeds to  such a degree as to
   excite alarm, or to give cause for special interference; so that the
   measures which have  led to its appearance are in most cases con-
   tinued, and in some even increased, until  it  has run through its
   course and subsided.   This  is not always the case.   Sometimes  it
   proceeds to  a more serious length, and requires careful management
   to prevent mischief; the boils,  in particular, are often very trouble-
   some ; even death has, in a  certain proportion of instances, ensued,
   either as an immediate or remote consequence of the so-called crisis.
      Whatever the crisis may be—or whether what is so called be a
   crisis in reality—there is no  disputing that  it  results  from the
   operation of a powerful system of counter-irritation—or of irrita-
   tion at least.   It is to this  that  we now wish  to direct  attention,
   because we suspect that in it is  contained the true explanation of
   the good effects of the water-cure in many chronic cases.
      5.  A fifth physiological feature of the water-cure is the number 
         HYDROPATHY,  OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.       87

of coolings to which the body is subjected during the day.  The
generation of caloric in the animal  system has been  traced to  its
real source.  It results from the burning  up  of  waste matter,
which, by  accumulation, would  become injurious.  The oxygen of
the atmosphere, admitted  into  the lungs  by inspiration, traverses
the various blood-vessels of  the body, and, in the minute capilla-
ries, unites with carbonized  substances.   The union  produces the
carbonic acid emitted from the lungs in expiration, and is attended
Avith the deA'elopment of Avhat is called animal heat.   It is obvious
that loAvering the  temperature of the body, Avithin certain limits,
by awakening an uncomfortable sensation  in the  nerves,  would  in-
duce increased activity in  this calorific process, in order to  main-
tain or restore the average degree of warmth.  This increased ac-
tivity could only be supported  by an  additional consumption  of
carbonized matter.  If the carbonized matter Avere  already there,
and if its existence constituted the disease, or an  important part  of
it, as is probably sometimes the case, a perfect cure would result
from its removal.  But supposing there is  no such matter present,
what then would be the consequence of stimulating this  decarbon-
izing  operation ?  The consequence  Avould  certainly  be, that the
constituents of the tissues themselves Avould be consumed, in order
to supply  the pabulum required  by the oxygen.  This would  as
certainly, excite  an effort at restoration, by which the digestive or-
gans Avould aim to renew to the tissues the amount abstracted by
the oxygen.   In other words, the appetite would be increased.
   Hence it is that more food  is required in  cold climates than  in
warm—in Avinter than in summer.  The greater consumption ne-
cessary to  maintain  equal  temperature in cold weather, can  only
be met by  increased supply.   What,  in a vague and general man-
ner, arises from the ordinary progress of the  seasons,  may be  ren-
dered methodical and profitable  by the careful interference of art.
  It has been urged that the effect here considered would equally
result from exposure to cold  air, as to cold water.  In the  words
of Mr. Herbert Mayo,  " This is not only entertaining, but satisfac-
tory as far as it goes; and  admits very well of being popularly
and loosely brought  forward in favor  of cold bathing;  but unluck-
ily it is as much or more in favor of our living in  Nova Zembla,  as
of our resorting to Graefenberg."
   The same  intelligent writer proceeds to notice other modes of
exposure to cold, which are found to  produce evil instead of good, 
88      HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.

which are, indeed, familiar as the frequent causes of serious disease,
and against  which we are of old cautioned:
           " Nudus ara, sere nudus—habebis frigora, febrim."
It is  singular enough that this very argument, now employed tc
discountenance the use of cold bathing, is the very strongest theo-
retical argument in its favor, as was long ago  pointed out by that
very sarcastic  writer, Dr.  Baynard, in the following anecdote:
   " Here a demi-brained doctor, of more note than nous, asked, in
the amazed agony of his half-understanding, Iioav 'twas possible
that an  external application should affect the boAvels, and cure the
pain within.   'Why, doctor,' quoth an old woman standing by,
'by the same  reason that being wet-shod, or  catching  cold from
without, should give you  the gripes and pain Avithin.' "—p. 119.
   If a rude  exposure of the surface  to  cold and Avet is capable of
producing internal disease, there is no doubt that a close relation
exists between those agents and the morbid conditions of internal
parts.   Therefore, if they could, by skillful management, be so ap-
plied as to excite the opposite effect from that to which their bad
consequences  are due, they would  then become equally powerful
means of removing disease.  This is the very thing that Priessnitz
and his  disciples profess to have done—and to  do.
   Let us  consider a little  further the consequence of repeated ap-
plications of cold, supposing, for the sake of argument, it is  used
Avith due reference to the  constitutional powers, so as to create an
increased activity of the vital functions.  It appears to us that this
is  exactly the  thing needed in the treatment of a great many cases
of chronic ailments.   It is easy enough  to construct  methodical
catalogues of  organic lesions and their symptoms, and  to  assign,
on paper, a  "local habitation and a name" for every malady that
is  to  require  our treatment.   But  the truth  is, that,  practically
speaking, there are a vast number of cases in which the symptoms
may be said to constitute  the only disease  that can be detected,
and in which they point rather to a general torpidity or derange-
ment  of  all,  or  almost  all, the vital functions,  than  to  special ,
change  or  disturbance  in any particular  organ.  Many  cases
knoAvn as indigestion, gout, rheumatism, liver  complaints, or ner-
vous  affections, come under  this description.   In a large portion
of such cases, and their  like, we  could conceive the  practice of
Priessnitz to  be  peculiarly beneficial,  if it  consisted  in nothing 
         HYDROPATHY,  OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.       89

 more than the frequent application, and skillful adaptation, of cold
 Avater.   It was mainly by this means that the cures described  by
 Floyer and  Baynard were  effected, simple  cold  bathing having
 been almost  their only instrument.
   6. Another physiological feature of hydropathic treatment con-
 sists in its creating a large amount of stimulation  in  the system.
 This stimulation is of a peculiar kind, and very different from that
 produced by alcoholic fluids or pharmaceutical stimulants.  The
 difference is  in its not awakening abnormal activity, to be succeed-
 ed by abnormal depression, in the nerves and organs of circulation,
 as is done by the stimulants just mentioned.   The fall of  a  heavy
 douche, the  sudden  plunging into  a  cold  bath with speedy exit,
 active friction in a shallow bath, are means of stimulating the sys-
 tem in the manner here  intended.   The effect, we are told, is man-
 ifested in the altered look of  the patient after  taking the bath, in
 his freshened cheek,  his brightened eye, his elastic step, his  cheer-
 ful tone. (But it is not manifested in a quickened pulse, or a heat-
 ed imagination, nor folloAved by exhausted energy or lowered spir-
 its.  )This is the description given by hydropathists (whose practice
 we are not teaching  but describing)—and Avhich we have ourselves
 heard given by patients.  It is also  said that drinking,  in  rapid
 succession, several glasses of perfectly cold water, has a decidedly
 stimulating influence on the  system.  If these descriptions be cor-
 rect of hydropathic stimulants, that they are powerful as well  as
 innocuous, exciting and  not  exhausting,, they constitute a  valuable
 instrument in the  treatment of disease, and deserve the more care-
 ful attention of physicians.
   We happen to have been acquainted with a case of a lady Avho
 was at a hydropathic institution for the treatment of very aggra-
 vated  chronic rheumatism.   Her  general powers were much sha-
 ken, and she had  been unable to walk at all for a period of about
 four  years, before undergoing  this system of treatment.  After
"several weeks of  sweating and cold  plunging, locomotion  began
 gradually to return.  The first indication of  this was,  that she
 could walk  a few steps  immediately after  leaving the cold bath.
 For a  considerable time  this  continued  to be the only occasion  of
 her being able to walk during the day, though she afterward made
 considerably further  progress.  We mention  this case because  we
 can  guarantee  its truth, and it always appeared to us a striking
 and instructive instance of the stimulating property of a cold bath. 
    90      HYDROPATHY,  OR THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.

      7. A still more  important and less questionable quality of  the
 i   water-cure, is its power of lowering the system to any extent, with-
 \   out any of the debilitating means otherwise used for that purpose.
 ^   In a general  inflammatory or  febrile  condition of  the body, a
    lengthened immersion in cold Avater,  or  an envelopment  in  a suc-
    cession of wet sheets, would reduce  the temperature  and force of
    circulation to the most extreme degree.  These means are,  to  the
    functions of life, what an extinguisher is to a flame.   Their  reduc-
    ing power can be gradually applied  up to the  point of  actual  ex-
    tinction.  Any where short of that, withdraw  the means, and  the
    flame, whether of oil or  of  life, gradually resumes  its  previous
    brilliancy.
      In the treatment of febrile diseases an important indication is to
    reduce the  morbidly increased activity of some of the organic func-
    tions, most  distinctly manifested in the circulation and  the tempera-
    ture.   For this  purpose the great instrument heretofore most in
    use is  blood-letting, as being our  only certain  and expeditious
    method of  reducing  the frequency, force, or fullness  of the pulse.
    So that, in order to suppress febrile action, we hazarded occasion-
    ing a more or less lingering debility.  The post hoc, whether prop-
    ter hoc or not, is too  frequently a protracted convalescence,  during
    which the patient is in constant danger of relapse.  The mortality
    that occurs during convalescence after fever, from recurrence of
    the original disease, from  some of its numerous sequelae, or from
    the accidental inroad of some  other  disorder, is so considerable as
    to render this a period of great anxiety to the patient  and the phy-
    sician. (It is a question  deserving of cautious and dispassionate in-
    vestigation, whether any portion of the liability  to these mishaps is
^   attributable to the bleeding, purging, salivating, and low diet, em-
    ployed in removing the  fever. J
      In some  of the cases of fever described by Currie, we cannot  fail
    to be struck by the rapidity and  completeness of the cures effected
    by cold affusion or immersion, when used sufficiently early.  The
    disease appears to have been  suddenly checked or destroyed.  In
    the course of a few hours, or a  day or two, a patient threatened
    with, or laboring under  a  dangerous fever, was restored to perfect
    health. (No  period  of  debility ensued, no organs  were  found to
    have been seriously or permanently injured. ) The  result  of  his
    well-known treatment, by cold  bathing, of  the  fever which  ap-
    peared in the 30th regiment, is thus described:
fe 
         HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.      91

  " These  means Avere  successful in arresting the epidemic;  after
the 13th of June, no person was attacked by it.   It extended to
fifty-eight  persons in all, of which thirty-two Avent through the
regular course of the fever, and in twenty-six the disease seemed to
be cut short by the cold  affusion.   Of the thirty-two already men-
tioned, tAvo died.  Both of these were  men whose constitutions
were weakened  by the climate of the West  Indies; both of them
had  been  bled in  the early stages of the fever;  and one of  them
being in the tAvelfth, the other in the fourteenth day of the disease,
when I first visited them, neither  of them was subjected to the cold
affusion."—Vol. i., p. 13.
  Again:
   " In cases in which the  affusion was not employed till the third
day of the  fever, I have seen  several instances of the same com-
plete solution of the disease.  I have even seen this take  place
when the remedy had been deferred till the fourth day; but this is
not common."—Ibid., p. 23.
   In contemplating these facts, we are driven seriously to ask, not
only is not the  debility consecutive to fever partly occasioned by
the  remedies employed in its treatment, but are  not its attendant
local and organic lesions in a great measure produced by the febrile
paroxysm itself ?   And could  they not  be avoided by boldly ap-
plying a remedy by which this  febrile  condition would be more
speedily subdued ?  The real nature of fever is, unfortunately, be-
yond the reach of our present knowledge.  We only recognize the
disease in its causes, its symptoms, its complications.   In them we
perceive much to lead us  to answer the above questions in the af-
firmative.   It is peculiarly a general disease.  Its local characters
usually appear subsequently to its general development, and Avear
much  more the  aspect of consequences than of  causes.   Almost
any of the local complications of synochus, or typhus,  may appear
in exanthematous fevers where they cannot be causes.
   It appears to us  to be a most important subject of inquiry,
whether a very serious fallacy does not pervade the medical pro-
fession at present, as to the best manner of  employing cold water
in fever.   Dr. Currie says:
   " When the affusion  of water,  cold  or tepid, is not employed in
fever,  benefit may  be derived,  as has  already  been  mentioned,
though  in  an inferior  degree, by sponging  or wetting the body
with cold  or warm vinegar or water.  This application is, how- 
92      HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN WATER-CURE.

ever, to  be regulated, like  the others, by the actual state of  the
patient's heat and of his sensations.  According to my experience,
it is not only less effectual, but in many cases less safe ; for the sys-
tem will often bear a sudden, a general, and  a stimulating applica-
tion of cold, when it shrinks from its slow and  successive applica-
tion."— Vol. i.,  p. 73.
'   "It is evident De  Haen was not"'regulated, in  his  use of  ex-
ternal ablution  Avith cold Avater, by rules similar to  those Avhich
I  have  ventured to  lay down from several  years' experience.
Instead  of pouring water  over  the  naked  body,  he  applied
sponges soaked  in  cold water  to every part  of  the surface in suc-
cession, for some time  together,  in my  judgment the least effica-
cious, as well as the most hazardous manner of using the remedy."
—Ibid., p. 84,  note.
   This is a remark which we suspect to be of very great import-
ance, and to contain the real secret of much of the difference, as to
the  treatment  of fever,  between  hydropathists and the  regular
faculty.   Modern physicians  have professed to  regard  Dr. Currie
as a A^ery  high  authority on this point, and his  work is constantly
quoted as the most enlightened guide for the use of water in fever;
but  the above opinion and precept have been, of  late years, entirely
disregarded, and the converse has been made the rule of  practice.
In the article  on Bathing in the Cyclopaedia formerly referred to,
the author says:
   " The only cases in which refrigeration is required as a  remedy
are  those  in which the animal temperature is elevated above  the
natural standard;  and this happens  only in febrile diseases.   To
insure refrigeration, the water should be applied at first  only  a
little below the temperature of the skin,  its heat being insensibly
and  gradually reduced, but never below  that of tepid,  or at most
cool.   The gentlest mode of applying it is the best, as with a soft
sponge;  and the  process  should be persevered in, Avithout inter-
ruption,  until the desired effect is produced."—Art. Bathing, Cy-
clopedia of Practical Medicine.
   We believe  this mode  of  applying water  in the treatment of
febrile diseases  to be that Avhich has for many years generally pre-
vailed, not from ignorance of the precepts and practice of Dr. Cur-
rie, but from a general belief  that fever once formed, could not be
extinguished by the cold affusion as recommended by  him.  The
hydropathists have renewed his system in its full boldness.  It is, 
HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN WATER-CURE.
  therefore, a  question of the first interest, on which side does rea-
  son preponderate ?
    On carefully examining the cases of fever reported at length  by
  Currie and  Lanzani, it will be seen that  their cures  were  effected
  by what may be termed  a process of  reaction.   The immediate
  consequence, m most cases, of the  copious libation, "ultra satieta-
  tem,  of the one, and  the affusion or immersion of  the other, were
  perspiration  and sleep.   These constituted the reaction.   When
  exacerbation of  the fever ensued, and required a repetition of the
  remedy, it occurred several hours after the cold application, when
  the period of reaction had long passed over; and evidently pro-
  ceeded not from the consequences of the cold treatment, but from
  the non-removal of the diseased action. ^The cold appears to have
  acted m a most decidedly medical manner, with a palpable  and im-
  mediate succession  of consequences altogether different  from what
  the gradual  coolness  of the  sponge and tepid water can  be ex-
  pected to produce. J If these cases are correctly stated, as they ap-
  pear  to be, it is  preposterous  to confound  the febrile paroxysm
  with  reaction from a  cold  bath, or to expect any portion of the
  beneficial effect  of  cold immersion in fever, from tepid  or  cool
  sponging.  The two kinds of treatment are in no measure  similar.
    But it may be supposed there  is a danger in the sudden  and  ^
 active employment of  the cold bath in  fever.  We_suspect  that  ^
 fe.H ^ntirely imaginary.   Dr.  Currie was certainly  verfbold  in
 its administration, and  had extensive experience of  its effects.   In
 the second edition of his work he says :
   " I  have  thus related all the  instances  which have occurred  to.
 me  since the  last edition of this volume (a period of  five years of
 extensive and attentive observation), in which the affusion of water
 on the surface of  the body, cold or  tepid,  proved either less bene-
 ficial in its effects in fever than I had formerly represented it, or
 entirely unsuccessful.   I would add, if any such had occurred, the
 instances in which this  remedy had appeared to be  injurious.  But
 experience has suggested to me no instance  of the kind, and  ex-
 tensive as my employment of the affusion has been, / have never
heard that it has suggested, even to the fears or prejudices of others,
a single occasion of imputing injury to the remedy."—Vol. ii., p.  25.
   This statement, which does  not appear to have  been assailed,
goes far toAvard proving the irmocence^as his  numerous cases  do
the curative powers  of reaction in  the treatment of  fever.  We 
94      HYDROPATHY,  OR THE MODERN  WATER-CURE.

certainly cannot quarrel with hydropathists for seeking to revive,
in its real character, a method supported by so high  an authority.
  8. It is scarcely necessary to remark that a judicious system of
cold bathing is a valuable tonic.  This  has been always  known;
but it has not been so widely recognized in practice as in doctrine.
It has been thought necessary that cases  for cold bathing should
be  carefully selected; that they should consist only of •such pa-
tients as have unimpaired constitutions;  that certain  diseases were
absolute contra-indications against the use of  this remedy; that it
is a treatment requiring  unquestionable vigor in  the patient, and
skill in  the  physician to employ it Avithout injury.   It is  scarcely
too much to say it has been regarded as a  treatment rather for the
strong than the weak, and as tending rather  to reduce  than aug-
ment the  powers of the system, and yet it is called a tonic.  This
is an illogical paradox not quite solitary in  medical literature.   The
cold bath seems  to be  professionally employed to strengthen the
body, as temptation is to strengthen virtue, by furnishing an enemy
to struggle against.   Thus it is  considered more as a test than as
a source of strength.
  The hydropathists have discarded this excessive precaution, and
boldly used their remedy as a tonic, Avherever a tonic  is required.
They have administered it to the young and the old, the weak, the
bilious,  the gouty, the scrofulous, the dyspeptic, and  the paralytic.
Neither mucous membranes nor mesenteric glands, infantile weak-
ness, nor  senile decrepitude, have stood in their way.   To almost
all  cases,  all ages, and all constitutions, their method has been ap-
plied.   Unless it can be shown that this all but universal  adminis-
tration of the system has produced  serious evils, we are  actually
driven to admit that it is in the same proportion safe.   And we
are bound to admit, though we have known some instances where
the practice has been seriously injurious, and have heard of others
of a similar kind, that the  proportion of bad consequences has not
appeared to us greater  than in the ordinary modes of treating sim-
ilar diseases.  The practice of the hydropathists is  so open, and
their disciples so numerous, that the innocence of their proceed-
ings may be said to be established by the absence of  evidence to
the contrary.   We cannot enter any circle of society Avithout en-
countering some follower of  this method, ready to narrate a series
of psuchrolousian miracles, prepared to defend, and zealous to ap-
plaud  the Priessnitzian practice; but few or none come forward 
         HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.      95

with satisfactory evidence of any thing like general mischief hav-
ing resulted from its general practice.  Judgment must, therefore,
be entered by default against its opponents, and hydropathy is en-
titled to the verdict of harmlessness,  since cause  has never been
shoAvn to the contrary.                                      —"*
   But not  only  have hydropathists despised the discrimination
usually employed in the selection of cases for cold bathing, they
have manifested an equal apparent boldness in the manner of using
it.  In place of the spongings and the dribblings to which ordinary
practitioners commonly deem it prudent to  limit  the use of this
remedy, they employ active plunging and powerful douches.  Per-
haps it is to this that they  owe some portion of the impunity with
which they appear to have applied it so generally.  They assert
that the more violent practice is really the more safe,  and that the
danger to  be  apprehended is in proportion to the supposed  mild-
ness of the process, sponging being less safe  than total immersion,
and a shower bath more dangerous than a douche.   And assuredly
theory, in  this respect, goes with them to some  extent.  In the
plunge there is a sudden  shock,  which awakens  nervous energy,
and leads to speedy and effectual reaction;  whereas in  sponging,
the whole surface is exposed  to a gradual and powerful  cooling,
without the protection of stimulus.   In the former, the whole frame
is at once  covered with water, and shielded  from the reducing
evaporation Avhich would attend the latter.   Moreover, the plunge
can be more speedily gone through, and followed  up more imme-
diately by exercise.   The same distinction may be made between
the hydropathic douche and the orthodox shower bath.   The force
of the latter falls almost exclusively  on the head and  shoulders, as
it merely trickles down the rest of the frame.  How different  is
this from the powerful impulse of  the douche upon all the mus-
cular parts!
   9.  Another conspicuous item in  the  catalogue of hydropathic
machinery is the sweating  process.   On this  subject hydropathists
are, in some measure,  divided.   It is said that Priessnitz has con-
siderably modified his views respecting its efficacy and  its safety.
In the earlier period of his practice  he seems to have employed it
in nearly all cases.  More  recently he is said to have discarded it,
as a general remedy, in favor of packing in the wet sheet, though
still largely applying it in cases  to  which his  matured experience
has taught him to regard it as  especially beneficial.   We wish here 
96      HYDROPATHY,  OR  THE  MODERN WATER-CURE.
        to direct attention  to it merely in a physiological and pathological
        point of A'iew, and  need not, therefore, enter  into the question as
        to the relative value of the past and present practice of Priessnitz.
          The skin is a part through which nature has arranged  that a
        large amount of  matter should be removed from the body during
        health, and a still larger amount, of different character, in the pro-
        cess of recovery from many diseases.   It is Avell known that a de-
        ficient  cutaneous excretion is  incompatible Avith perfect health.
        Perhaps there is scarcely  any disease in Avhich the  function of the
        skin is not, to some extent, deranged.  To what extent, physicians
        have not bestoAved sufficient pains to learn;  nor have they been
        accustomed to give much attention to this part, in the practical in-
        vestigation of diseases.   Still less has it acquired an  important po-
        sition in the list of parts to Avhich  medical treatment is directed.
        Therefore  we possess little information, in medical writers, as  to
        the amount or frequency of cutaneous disturbance in general dis-
        ease, as to the effect of therapeutic means in  correcting such dis-
        turbance, or as to  the value of the correction in the cure of dis-
        ease.
        ""According to Priessnitzian writers, in almost all cases of indiges-
        tion, gout, rheumatism,  nervous affections, indeed of chronic dis-
        orders in general, the action of the skin is either deficient or de-
        praved, the part  itself  being found  dry, hard, rough, thick, pale,
        relaxed,  or in some other manner unnatural.   They  further tell us
        that a course of perspiration, or of the wet sheet, followed by  cold
        bathing, corrects  these  signs of disorder, and  reduces the part  to
        its normal condition; and that the  beneficial influence of the rem-
        edy is speedily manifested  in the improvement of the case in other
        respects.   But it might  be expected that  such a course Avould,  at
        least, reduce the  general strength, and require more vigor of con-
        stitution than many such  patients possess. ("And yet, if we may
        believe the hydropathists, or even their patients, a course of active
91   \   hydropathic sweating is found to strengthen, instead of weakening
        the system.  There is a gain, instead of a loss of weight under its
        operation.^ Whether this  be attributable  to the subsequent  cold
   A   bathing, to the water drinking, or to the peculiar regimen, may be
    j   a matter of question ; but the fact would seem to be too notorious
        to be contradicted.   We are  told that it is no unfrequent  occur-
        rence at hydropathic establishments for the liquid perspiration to
        be streaming on the floor, having penetrated through the materia] 
        HYDROPATHY,  OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.      97

on which  the patient is reclining, as well as the blanket in which
he is wrapped !   The blanket also, when removed from the person,
is  dripping with  liquid in all directions, as if itself just removed
from the bath !   On these occasions several pounds of matter must
be removed from the body.  The patient, dripping and steaming,
next hastens into the plunge bath, stays there his appointed time,
andergoes the prescribed friction, drinks his water, and finds him-
self actually  invigorated  by the strange process he  has under-
gone.
   Nay, more; it is placed beyond  doubt  by experience, that  this
proceeding may be repeated daily, or even  tAvice a day, for many
months, without producing any deleterious effect  upon the general
health!   Many cases haATe occurred in which  it has been ascer-
tained that it has been attended with an increase  of weight, and
that of no slight amount.  We  know the particulars of one case,
in which a gouty gentleman gained seven pounds in a fortnight of
such treatment;  and of another, in which there was a gain of eight
pounds in ten days.  We are also acquainted with the case of a
lady, who was unable to walk at any other period of the day, ex-
cept immediately after  the sweating process—a sure proof that it
did not occasion debility.
   The safety of the immediate succession  of  cold bathing  upon
copious sweating has been called in question; but the practice of
so many hydropathists  as there are  around us amply establishes
this point.  On  scientific grounds, the question was completely set
at rest by Dr. Currie.
   An  effective and  innocuous  means of  increasing the excretion
from the  skin being  thus found, which appears to combine with
its own peculiar action  the indirect effect of a tonic, have we not
reason to  regard it as a promising instrument of cure, in many dis-
ordered states of the system ?  We fully  believe that we have.
We know the utility of augmenting  the secretion  of the mucous
membranes, the  liver, the kidneys ; we recognize this in our con-
stant practice.   It is by this means  that  we combat a large pro-
portion of chronic as well  as  acute maladies. { Why should the
skin alone be neglected ? ) Physiology teaches us that it is the ve-
hicle  for  conveying  out of the system a large amount of matter,
solid as well  as  liquid;  and practical experience  exhibits it as the
channel through which  the materies morbi in  many instances, and
the burden of plethora generally, find their exit.  These facts in-
              5 
98      HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.

dicate  it as a legitimate locality for the same artificial  measures
which are found serviceable on other secreting organs.
  It may be objected to what we are now urging,  that profuse
perspiration itself characterizes  many  diseases, of which it  is one
of the most formidable symptoms.  How can sweating cure acute
rheumatism, it may be asked,  of which it is  almost a constant fea
ture ?   But the same remark applies to other medical phenomen .
Excessive purging  and increased action of the kidneys are dan-
gerous, frequently mortal symptoms.   But  does that prevent our
employing them as remedies ?   Do we not, in spite of our frequent
experience of their injurious effects, apply them almost constantly
to the  cure of disease ?   Are  there ten cases out of ten thousand
in which some kind of purgatives are  not administered ?  Nay, is
not dysentery itself treated by purgative calomel ?  Let us extend
the same tolerance  to sweating.  It is contrary to all the instruc-
tion of experience to confound the consequences of a phenomenon
violently excited by morbid causes, with those it induces when
seasonably created and carefully managed by skillful treatment.
  In many of these cases, the benefit does not appear to  result
so much fr©m stimulating the function of any particular organ, as
from removing a certain portion of matter from the system at large.
There  is no reason to suppose  that exciting the  liver, the  colon,
the duodenum, or the kidneys, for instance, has any special influ-
ence over a morbid condition of the  brain.  We find that  drugs
which  act  upon any of  these  organs, frequently relieve such con-
ditions, and they may often be selected indiscriminately, the one
answering much the same purpose as the others.   A common anti-
bilious pill, retailed for a penny by a druggist, or a patented nos-
trum of Cockle or Morrison, will generally do as well as the most
elaborate prescription.   The particular adaptation seems to depend
more on constitutional idiosyncrasy than on any fixed relation of
the part diseased with the part treated.  The whole of those reme-
dies appear to act in such cases either  by  a general principle of
counter-irritation, or by removing a quantum of fluid or of  excre-
tory matter from the circulation, either of which objects might be
attained as  speedily, as certainly, as extensively, and as safely, by
the skin as by any other part.
  But the poAver of the water-cure over excretions is not limited
to the skin.  It professes to be both a  purgative and  a diuretic.
That  it is diuretic, in a certain  sense, needs no  proof.   It is no 
         HYDROPATHY, OR THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.      99

new discovery, that in proportion to the quantity of fluid imbibed
by the mouth will be the quantity emitted by the kidneys.   This,
though verbally, is not medically a diuretic action.   It may con-
sist simply in the mechanical discharge of the fluid imbibed, Avith
no augmentation of the proper functions of the kidneys, as respects
the previous condition of the blood-vessels.  But it is not perhaps
unphilosophical to give hydropathists the benefit of supposing that
water  drinking may do indirectly what it does  not  appear to do
directly: by its diluting power may it not destroy the influence of
any mischievous constituent of the blood, the excess of  dilution
being  immediately repaired by the  removal of the water through
the kidneys, in company with the deleterious matter dissolved in
it ?  This view might be admitted, if it could  be  shoAvn practically
that drinking  water has  the same  effect on  disease as taking
diuretics.
   The purgative  action of hydropathy is  less equivocal.   It  fre-
quently happens, in cases of constipation, that after a few days' or
weeks' use of its appliances, the patient is attacked with diarrhoea.
This is sometimes troublesome, but Ave believe seldom dangerous.
On its subsiding, the bowels are said to have  generally acquired  a
regular and healthy action, which is thenceforAvard maintained by
persevering in the drinking, bathing, etc.  In other cases, a regu-
lar action of the bowels comes on in a gradual manner, without the
occurrence  of  diarrhoea, the treatment appearing to influence the
bowels through its action on the system at large.   In others, and
every  one  has seen examples of this, the mere  drinking of a few
glasses of water before breakfast is represented as a purgative that
may be  relied on.  In these the daily dose is regulated according
to circumstances, being increased when signs of torpidity  are ob-
served.  We are ourselves acquainted vrith some persons who reg-
ulate  this  function as  accurately by water drinking,  as they for-
merly did  by medicinal  aperients.  There  are cases, again, in
which the  sitz bath, or other external applications of cold water,
produce a purgative  effect.
   It may be asked, Is not this effect too uniform for the purpose
 of the practical physician?  Does it not often result from the mere
 percolation of water through the  mucous lining of the intestinal
 canal ?  Is it not, therefore, a mere pouring out of what has been
swallowed ?   Is it not clearly inadequate to  excite the particular
action of the liver, the pancreas, the lower or upper portion of the 
100     HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.

intestinal tube ?   Is it not necessary that we should be able to act
on these parts separately, for the effectual cure of disease ?  These
questions, important  as  they appear, may  with equal justice be
asked as to the practical proceedings of our profession in general.
It is true that, in theory, many nice distinctions are laid down re-
specting the  peculiar operation, as to locality or otherwise, of dif-
ferent cathartics.   But are these distinctions generally observed in
practice ?   Did not  Abernethy's page  72 contain  the curative
maxim for all cases ?  and were not his prescriptions almost always
identical ?  Has not every respectable family doctor his " my pills,"
carefully prepared from the same ingredients for every difficulty in
the bowels ?   Is not the black draught as universal a purgative as
Priessnitz would make cold water ?   Are not all  our moneyed dys-
peptics  and  hypochondriac nabobs sent  in a body to mineral
springs, because they are  purgative, without any  preliminary in-
vestigation as to  their  action on the duodenum or the colon, the
liver or the pancreas, or as to the expediency  of such action in the
individual case in question?
   11. We observe, also, in the history of hydropathic practice, the
development  of a  peculiar sedative  or tranquilizing influence.   It
is well illustrated  in the following  passage from Mr. Mayo's pref-
ace :
   " Through repeated attacks of a sort of rheumatism, my consti-
tution appeared completely broken down.  Already crippled in my
limbs,  preserving  what  power of  exertion I still retained  only
through the use of opium, and  my  indisposition still increasing, I
looked forward to  being, before long, worn  out  with  suffering—as
to death as  a release.  I  could not bear the fatigue of a land
journey, or I should  have gone at once to Graefenberg; but Cob-
lentz and Boppard might be reached from London  by water—so I
went  to Marienburg in June,  1842.   On arriving  there, I was
placed on a  routine  system of  sweating  and bathing.   The imme-
diate effect on my health was strikingly beneficial, and in a week I
was able to relinquish the use of opium.  The rheumatism did not,
however, give way  proportionably  to my  general improvement.
The pains of the joints were, indeed, heightened."—(p. 1.)
   This was a painfully severe case,  one in which every conceivable
remedy had  been previously tried, not excepting repeated change
of air, the Bath waters, etc.; yet nothing had succeeded in reliev-
ing the system from the necessity of constantly using opium.  A 
         HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.     101

"routine system of sweating and bathing" was applied, and  in a
week the patient was  able  to  relinquish his doses of opium,  not-
withstanding that the rheumatism did  not give way;  indeed, the
pains in the joints increased.  How is this to be explained ?   Only
by supposing that, independent of any curative influence over the
actual disease, the water-cure exercised  some sort of sedative ac-
tion  on the system at large.   Similar  instances are said to be
familiar at hydropathic establishments.   If these accounts may be
depended on, hydropathy would appear to contain, in  its arma-
mentarium,  even an  anodyne, and one of  great power.   Every
practitioner knows the difficulty presented  in  the treatment of
chronic cases, by morbid irritability, and painful  nervous  sensa-
tions, which are  not  only intolerable to the patient himself, but
most prejudicial  to his recovery; and which can only be relieved,
from time to time, by repeated and gradually augmented doses of  (
a drug, whose  own effects  are almost  as  pernicious as the symp-  j
toms it is used to palliate.   This is one instance of a predicament   <
in which the physician is not infrequently  placed, when  he has   *
most gravely to consider whether there is most mischief in the dis-   f
ease  to  be  combated, or in the only remedy by which it can be  l
encountered.  If " a  routine system of sweating and bathing" af-
fords a means of extrication from the present instance of this  diffi-   i
culty, this  is a  strong reason  why it should not  continue to be
obstinately excluded from the well-fenced pale of the medical pro-  !
fession.                                                    ■--x-^-
   12. In addition  to the effects already considered, and Avhich   i
have occupied  as much as can be spared of our space, the water-
cure pretends to the possession of other important powers.   Thus,   '
it is said to be a stomachic, since it almost invariably increases the
appetite.  It is a local  calefacient, in the application of the wet
cloth covered by the dry one.   It is a derivative—cold friction at
one part, by exciting increased action there, producing correspond-
ing diminution elsewhere.   It is a local as well as general counter-   )
irritant, the compress frequently  acting,  if not like a  blister, at   s
least like a mustard poultice.   It is essentially alterative in the con-   ;
tinued removal of old matter by sweating, and its renewal as shoAvn   '
in the maintenance of  the same weight.
   13. Lastly, our  subject  brings  us  to make a few remarks on
medical  habits  in reference to  chronic cases.   In such cases, we
have only  commenced the treatment, when we have removed the 
    102     HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.

   immediate symptoms;  the real difficulty consists in  preventing
   their recurrence.
      Accordingly, the patient quits his physician with ample instruc-
   tions for his future guidance, and with most impressive warnings
   as to perseverance in their observance.   What are these instruc-
   tions, and to what habits  do  they lead ?  Let us take a case of
   " biliousness," or chronic dyspepsia, and briefly trace the history of
   its "legitimate " treatment, according to the heroic school of London.
      In addition to constipation, the  patient,  we shall suppose, is
   affected with acidity, deficient or  depraved  appetite, foul tongue,
   oppression after  meals, susceptibility to  cold, debility, headache,
   despondency, irritability of temper, inconstancy of purpose, hope-
   lessness  of relief, with divers  local grievances.  A few brisk ca-
   thartic doses,  combined Avith mutton diet and a gentle stimulant,
   empty the bowels, and carry off most of the attendant ills.   By
   continuing this plan for a short time, the patient is what is medi-
   cally termed cured;  but,  for  future  protection,  he is furnished
   with a prescription — say of  aloes, colocynth, and  calomel, or
   some such compound, to take  pro re nata ;  another of senna and
   salts to take less frequently, as more urgent symptoms require; a
   third of calumba,  gentian, or cinchona, to  take  at noon Avith a
   glass of  sherry.   He is told to live on boiled mutton, rice, and dry
   bread, avoiding fruit and vegetables.
      What future, as respects health, has such  a person before him ?
   As long as he lives he will be a martyr to the disease, probably in
   an  increasing  degree; he must abandon all  hope of the action of
   the bowels ever resuming its normal state ; his general strength will
   gradually diminish; his  nervous  system will  become more and
   more irritable; his whole comfort and enjoyment will be sacrificed
   in order  to empty the alimentary canal;  he will become one of the
   most pitiable of all sufferers, a " person living by rule;" his health
i   will  be  supported, as one  of our witty doctors  remarks,  like a
;   shuttlecock  between two battledoors, by the alternate impulse of
•   senna and sherry, of calomel and coffee, of jalap and gentian.  As
   long as these instruments are so directed, that  their respective in-
   fluences  succeed each other in  compensating proportion, all  seems,
   for the time, smooth; but  let either overdo  or underdo the mark,
   and every thing  breaks  down.  The game must then  be com-
   menced  anew, to be continued as long as feather and cork resist
   the tendency which it has to knock them to  pieces. 
        HYDROPATHY,  OR THE  MODERN  WATER-CURE.     103

  This is scarcely a caricatured picture of  the  discipline to which
dyspeptic  patients are often  forced to submit.   Every body's ex-
perience  must furnish abundant  proof that the illustration is too
close to nature.  It is in the latter stages of these affections, Avhen
the patients  have long been under  the influence of therapeutic
means, that Priessnitz pronounces them " drug diseases."   If, by
this term, he means that drugs constitute the whole  disease, then
he is no doubt wrong; yet, in one point of vieAv, he is right.  The
original complaint for which the  drugs were administered might,
very probably, have been one requiring  some artificial  remedy,
and Avhich would have induced more serious consequences, had not
some such remedy been employed.  But it is quite possible that a
persevering use of such remedies  may create a  train of symptoms,
in addition to those which existed before, and induce such a host
of wants as may constitute a prominent feature of the case, by the
time it is submitted to the curative process of  such a practitioner
as Priessnitz; therefore his term, drug disease, may  not  be alto-
gether inapplicable.
   But what  is often the result  of placing the cases now under
consideration in a hydropathic establishment ?  Precisely such as
might be expected from the abandonment of a pernicious custom,
and the adoption, at the same time, of  a more natural mode of life,
with healthier and hardier habits ; and with the additional mental
stimulus of cheerfulness, of faith and hope in the  new system, and
of unbounded confidence in the new doctor.   It is accordingly the
general report that,  in a  large  proportion of such cases, the pa-
tients are enabled immediately to discontinue the  use of purgative
medicines; they can  bear a mixed animal and vegetable diet, in
the ordinary proportion; a regular action  of the bowels is shortly
acquired, and no further stimulant or pharmaceutical tonic is neces-
sary.  When they  quit the  establishment, formal  and  complex
means being no longer required, we are assured that they are able,
for a time, at least, to maintain the ground gained, simply by com-
mon-sense diet, drinking a  few glasses of  water  in the morning,
taking a daily cold bath, and persevering in their habitual exercise.
The country rings with such accounts as these; if  they are correct,
undoubtedly the patients are in a fair way of recovering their lost
health and strength, and are  pursuing, subsequently to systematic
treatment, a much more rational and scientific course of medical hab-
its, than that enjoined to the dyspeptic disciple of medical orthodoxy. 
    104    HYDROPATHY,  OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.

      The questions Avith which we  set  out, may now be  hypotheti-
    cally ansAvered: they were, " Does hydropathy furnish the phy-
    sician with instruments which he, as a skillful workman, can under-
    take to employ ?  Does it contain, among  its various  machinery,
    any really therapeutic means, any  properties  capable of carrying
    out the indications which we regard as palpable in many diseases ?"
    These questions, Ave think, may be  alloAved to have been ansAvered
    in the affirmative, if we may depend on the  results of our  OAvn
    limited experience;  they must be alloAved to  be so answered, and
    unequivocally, if we may admit as perfectly trustworthy the accounts
    published by the hydropathists themselves, and by those who have
    subjected themselves to the treatment.   On  another occasion we
    may, perhaps,  endeavor to sift this evidence in a more  rigid man-
    ner, in order to  ascertain  with  certainty what in  it is true, what
    false, what  doubtful, and what inapplicable.   But in  any inquiry
    we  may institute, we  must  continue to  examine  the  water-cure
    relatively to other modes  of practice; this  is  the only method of
    arriving at an estimate  of  its actual  value to  the  practical phy-
    sician.  The imperfections which it shares  in  common with ordi-
    nary treatment, and which are inseparable from all human perform-
    ances, may be  left entirely out of sight; to dwell on them would
    be uselessly to  encumber  the question,  like inserting a crowd of
    corresponding items upon both sides of  an equation. The philoso-
    pher's duty is to remove such superfluities,  in  order that the real
    problem may appear in a just and intelligible  form.
     In conclusion, we will venture to place on record the following,
    as among the more important impressions which have remained on
    our mind after a careful  examination of  the  whole subject.
     1.  We should be  glad to see Dr. Currie's practice revived (for
    the sake of experiment, at  least), in all  its boldness,  for the sup-
    pression of the general  febrile paroxysm.  On  carefully looking
    over the evidence published by Dr.  Currie and his contemporaries,
C   it is impossible  to deny that they  attained a  larger amount of suc-
\   cess in treating fever  by  water, than  other   practitioners have
|   done by other  means.   We  have already pointed  out how their
    practice has been  misunderstood by modern writers.   But, while
    we  regard this  practice as  well adapted  for treating general fever,
    we  find no proof that it is competent to meet  the dangerous local
    complications with which fever is so  often  accompanied.   These
    aomplications may reasonably be expected  less frequently, wher 
         HYDROPATHY, OR  THE  MODERN WATER-CURE.     105

the early treatment of fever  is rendered more efficacious.  But
when they do  occur, we find  nothing in hydropathic writers  to
show that lancets, leeches, etc., can be dispensed with.
  2. In a large proportion of cases of gout and rheumatism, the
water-cure seems to be extremely efficacious.   After the evidence
in its favor, accessible to  every body, we think medical  men can
hardly be justified in omitting—in a certain proportion of cases, at
least—a full  trial  of it.  No evidence exists  of any special risk
from the water practice in such cases.
  3. In that very large class of cases of  complex disease, usually
known under the name of chronic dyspepsia, in which other modes
of treatment have failed, or been only  partially successful, the prac-
tice of Priessnitz is well deserving of  trial.
  4. In many chronic nervous affections and  general debility, we
should anticipate great benefits from  this  system.
  5. In  chronic diarrhoea,  dysentery, and hemorrhoids, the sitz
bath appears to be frequently an effectual remedy.
(  6. We find nothing to forbid a cautious use of drugs in  combi-
nation with hydropathic measures.   On the contrary, we are con- J^"^
vinced that a judicious combination of the two is  the best means-- /
of obtaining the full benefit of each.   The water-cure contains  no  %
substitute for the  lancet, active purging, and many other means  »*■
necessary for the relief of sudden  and dangerous  local maladies.
The banishment  of drugs from  his  practice  was necessary, and  X
perhaps natural, on the part of Priessnitz; the like proceeding  on  . ,.
the part  of qualified medical  men  superintending water establish-  -:'
ments in this country, evinces ignorance or charlatanry—or both.)  ~~,
   7. With careful and  discreet management, in  the hands  of a
properly  qualified medical practitioner,  the water-cure  is  very  'r~
rarely attended with danger.
   8. Many of the principal advantages of hydropathy may be ob-
tained in a private residence, with the assistance of ordinary mov-
able baths.   Therefore, it can easily  be brought under the direc-
tion of the regular medical practitioner.
   9. In  many cases, however, it is evident  that  what may  be
termed the  mere accessories of the Avater-cure, are  of extreme im-
portance in bringing about a  favorable result; and these accesso-
ries are  frequently not available—or  available in a very inferior
degree—in ordinary  practice.  Among  the more  important  of
these accessories we may mention the following as having relation
               5* 
 106      HYDROPATHY, OR THE MODERN WATER-CURE.

to most of the chronic cases treated in hydropathic establishments:
1. Relief  from mental labors of exhausting or irritating kind, from
the anxieties and responsibilities of business, from' domestic irrita-
tions  of various  kinds, from mental  inaction or ennui, etc.;  2.
Change of locality, air, scene, society, diet, etc.; 3. The fresh men-
tal stimulus involved in the almost constant occupation of the pa-
tient's time in the performance of the numerous and various dab-
blings, paddlings,  sweatings, washings, drinkings, rubbings, etc.,
imposed by the water treatment; 4. The frequent and regular bod-
ily exercise taken in the open air, or within doors; 5. The  power-
ful mental stimulus supplied  by the confidence  generally reposed
by the  patients  in the means employed, and by the consequent
hope, alacrity, cheerfulness, etc.; 6. The  total abandonment  of
vinous and other stimulants, and drugs, all  of  which  have, in a
large  proportion of  cases, been  tried and found not  only useless,
but probably productive of disadvantage.
   10. A certain and not inconsiderable portion of the benefits de-
rived  from hydropathic  establishments are,  however, attainable
without them, by other means, as  by traveling, etc., etc.  For ex-
ample, we suspect that many of the most striking results witnessed
in such  establishments, as in the case of Sir Edward Bulwer Lyt-
ton, or  Mr. Lane, would  have probably been obtained, if the pa-
tients had chosen to hire themselves, and  had worked as agricul-
tural laborers, in a dry, healthy  district, and had  lived on agricul-
tural  fare, sufficiently nutritious in quantity and kind, for a suffi-
cient length of time.
  11. Notwithstanding the success of  the founder of hydropathy,
its practice by non-professional persons can neither be fully advan-
tageous nor safe.  At the same  time, it is true that very little ex-
perience is necessary to enable an educated medical man to acquire
sufficient  insight into it for  purposes of  practice.  Many of the
best  hydropathic physicians have, in  the first  instance,  devoted
very few weeks to studying the subject in Germany.
  12. Many advantages would result from  the subject being ta-
ken up by the  medical  profession.   The  evils and  dangers  of
quackery  would at  once  be  removed from  it.  Its  real merits
would soon be known.   The tonic portion of its measures might
then  be employed  in conjunction with special remedies of more
activity, which,  no  doubt, would  often prove exceedingly bene-
ficial. 
THEORY  OF  HYDROPATHY.
107
   13.  The benefits ascribed to hydropathy, but  arising  indirectly
from the abandonment of drugs,  vinous and other stimulants, etc.,
may certainly be obtained without sending patients to Graefenberg.
   14. Finally, it must always be  remembered that  the distinction
between quacks and respectable  practitioners is one, not  so much
of remedies used, as of skill and  honesty in using  them.   There-
fore, let our  orthodox brethren  be especially anxious to establish
and to widen, as far as possible, this distinction between themselves
and all spurious  pretenders.   " Artem medicam denique videmus,
si a naturali philosophia destituatur, empiricorum praxi haudmul-
tum prcestare.   Medicina in philosophia non fundata, res infirma
est"
                         CHAPTER  IV.

     THEORY OF  HYDROPATHY—DR.  BILLING'S  THEORY  OF
                              DISEASE.*

 Dr. Billing's First Principles of Medicine.-Liebig  and Billing.-All Diseases caused bv
  impressions made on the Nervous System.-Congestion and Inflammation.-Tonicity _
  The lmng Body composed of Capillary Vessels.-Functions and Offices of thes" Ves-
  sels.—Action of the Arteries.—Momentum of Blood in inflamed Parts.-Difference be-
  tween Congestion and Inflammation.-How morbid Growths are Formed—Irritation _
  Nervous Disorders.-There is properly but one Disease and one Cure.-Worms in the
  Bowels—The inefficiency of Drugs has multiplied their Number.-The active  Bleedine
  and various Medicines—Weakness or exhausted  Nervous Energy the cause of all Dis-
  ease— Illustration of the Hydropathic Treatment—Operation of Cold Water  and Cold
  Air—The  Cold or Tonic Treatment in Consumption—The true Principle of treating
  this Disease—Various medical Hobbies point to the same End—Not a single Drug in the
  whole range of the Pharmacopoeia that can be relied on—Cold Water as a means of
  unloading  and constringing the Capillaries—Value of cold Applications to the Head-
  The general applicability of the Hydropathic Treatment-Testimony of Analogy and
  EffecTrT     r'p °f,DrUg8-A Fatal Ca9e  fr0m Me-ury-Strychnine a^d its
  Effects-A case of Paralysis-Hydropathy may be made to do Harm-Opium and
  Mercury-Their Effects-The Cold Bath and Sweating-The sudden checking of Per
  spiration a chimerical Danger-Facts in Proof of  this Statement.

   The "First Principles of Medicine,"  by Dr. Billing, is a work
too well  known,  and  too universally esteemed, to need any enco-
mium from me.  For years no medical work  has issued  from the
press, which was received  by medical critics and the  medical pro-
fession at  large with such universal approbation as this  of  Dr. Bil-
ling.   In every medical library  it took its  place at  once, as a
              * From  Dr. Edward Johnson's " Hydropathy." 
108
THEORY OF  HYDROPATHY.
   standard  work, and  remains  so to the present  hour.   Though
   essentially theoretical, yet its theories are every where so completely
   supported by multiplied practical facts and illustrations—which its
   author's position as a senior physician to the London Hospital ena-
   bled him to accumulate—and the amount of clinical information
   with which  it abounds is so great, the simplicity of its style so
   felicitous, while the common sense plainness  with which the ques-
   tions are argued is so strong and  convincing, that its hypotheses
   have almost the force of facts.
      It Avill be observed  how  beautifully Liebig's  theory of life (as
   far as it regards morbid actions),  and Billing's theory of disease,
   reciprocally  support each other, and  both  the  principles  of the
   water-cure.
(^~   Dr.  Billing's theory is, that  " all"  diseases  are caused by im-
(   pressions  made on the nervous  centres or their nerves,  by which
f   the nervous influence  (whatever it  be)  is exhausted  or morbidly
|   diminished.   That the capillary blood-vessels, which (in  health)
)   are ahvays  held in a state of semi-contraction (tone)  by virtue of
\   this nervous influence  shed  upon them by the nerves,  become
   relaxed and weakened—(Liebig's diminution  of vital resistance)—
   having  their diameters  enlarged, whenever the exhausted  nerves
'   fail in  supplying them Avith  the  quantity  of  nervous influence
   necessary to preserve their tone, or state of  semi-contraction  upon
   their  contents.   That  the weakened,  relaxed, and enlarged capil-
   laries now admit a larger current of blood, whose motion through
   them becomes slower.   That they are, in fact, in  a state of conges-
   tion.   And that altered function or functional disease is the result
   of this altered condition of  the capillaries,  and  altered size and
   altered velocity of the stream of blood which  they  carry.  When
   this congestion takes place in the veins, it constitutes simple con-
   gestion—when in the  arteries,  it is accompanied by degeneration
   of the arterial coats—and  now takes the name of  inflammation.
   This degeneration of the coats of  the inflamed arteries is Liebig's
   excessive  action of the  destructive force of oxygen—the enlarged
   arteries  now containing an excessive quantity  of oxydized blood,
   while the resistance opposed  to its influence is  (as we  have just
   seen) diminished.  This degeneration  does not take place in the
   veins, observes Dr. Billing.   No—because the veins do not contain
   oxydized  blood.
      Man is almost entirely composed of capillary  vessels.  His  body 
THEORY  OF  HYDROPATHY.
109
may be compared to a sack stuffed with hair, every hair  being a
tube of a determinate diameter (which particular diameter is neces-
sary to the condition of health),  and carrying a stream of fluid.
which  stream must also  be of  a determinate size.   And this bun-
dle of capillary or  hair-like tubes is every where  permeated  by
nervous filaments or threads, which shed upon them their electroid
influence, whose office it is to preserve their tone or necessary diame-
ter—upon the preservation of which their healty functions depend.
When  any cause deprives them of a due supply of the electroid or
nervous  influence,  by exhausting the nervous system or any part  i
of it, the healthy diameter is lost, becoming larger,  and they now  (
admit  too large a current of fluid, and the velocity of its fluxion is  I
retarded,  producing congestion.                               -*_—'
   When any cause, as the exhibition of stimulants, elicits from the
nerves too  great  a quantity of nervous influence,  then also the
healthy diameter is  lost, but in a contrary  direction.  The diame-
ter now  becomes too small—the vessels  contract too much—and
the size of the current of fluid is now too much diminished.  This
illustration will, I trust,  enable the unprofessional reader clearly to
understand Dr. Billing's beautiful theory of disease.              ^
   Inflammation, then, consists of  weakened, relaxed, enlarged ar-  j
terial capillaries, admitting a too large current of blood, whose pro-  j
gress through  them is also retarded, giving rise to congestion or  (
engorgement, degeneration of their  coats,  and consequent altera-  \
tion of their secretions.
   "All the business," says Dr. Billing, "of constant support, and
renewal of parts, and supply of secretions, as the growth or repair
of bone, muscle, membrane, and other structures, the formation of
bile, saliva, mucus, and other secretions, is carried on  by the extreme
minute branches of the blood-vessels;  and while these preserve
their proper size and tone, all goes on well; when  their action is
deranged, disease  commences, often prefaced  by  pain, or other
disorders of the nerves."   " Some capillaries are too  small to admit
many  of  the red particles (oxydized blood-globules), unless when
they are enlarged  by inflammation, as in the eye,  which, when  in-
flamed,  changes from  white to red; besides that, even the red
capillaries are so minute, that they are not visible  individually to
the naked eye, till  enlarged by  inflammation."   "During health
the capillary arteries go on with their work of nutrition  and secre-
tion, the muscles are fed,  the mucous surfaces are lubricated just 
110
THEORY  OF HYDROPATHY.
enough to  prevent any sensation from the substances which pass
along them, the serous surfaces are made sufficiently moist to slide
upon each other without sensation, and the skin is kept soft by an
insensible vapor.   All this time there is another process going on
also, which is the removal of superfluous matter by the absorbents :
if it were not for these, there would  be inconvenient accumulation
of what is deposited  by the arteries."
  "The deposit or precipitation of solid matter by the arteries is
not difficult to be understood;  and we can, by reference to chemical
action, account for the removal also of  solids; for solids become
fluid or  gaseous,  by what is called spontaneous  decomposition"
(Liebig calls it transformation of tissues by the chemical action of
oxygen), "and thus removable by  absorbents."
  "The action of  arteries also is acknowledged to  be contraction,
whether considered muscular  or not;  but there is some difference
of opinion as to the degree of action of the arteries in inflamed parts.
It is very common to say, that in inflammation there is an increase
of arterial action;  but a consideration of the phenomena  and  of
the nature  of arterial action will show that in inflamed parts the
capillary arteries are weaker in  their  action; that there is
diminished  arterial action, for the action  of arteries  is contrac-
tion.   Now the arteries in inflamed parts are evidently larger than
before—less contracted—that is, acting less."
  " It is the opinion of some persons, even at the  present day, that
the motion  of the  blood is accelerated in inflamed parts;  though
the experiments of Parry and others prove  the contrary to be the
case, as follows from the capillary arteries  being enlarged ; inas-
much  as where  fluid passes through a given space, the  current
beyond that will  be slower in proportion to the wideness  of the
channel, as in a  wide part  of  a river, where the  current becomes
sloAver;  and the same may be observed by passing water, mixed
Avith  grains of  amber, through a glass tube with a bulbous en-
largement in the middle ; the  current will slacken in the bulb, and
resume its  velocity beyond it."
  " The difference between congestion and inflammation is, that in
congestion  there is merely distension of the vessels;  in inflamma-
tion there is, in addition, alteration of tissue—actual deterioration,
more or less, of  the  structure of the capillaries. *  * *  *  The
fault commences in  the tissue.  As  soon as a want of that har-
mony  between the nerves and the capillaries, which  is necessary 
THEORY OF  HYDROPATHY.
Ill
to organization, takes place, their fine  tissue begins to compose"
(the action of oxygen becomes, according to Liebig,  greater than
the resistance of the vital force—the same sense expressed in dif-
ferent language), " the particles Avhich  were held together by this
inscrutable agency  begin to be precipitated from one another, etc.,
etc."
   "When accidental mechanical injury, or other cause, changes
the action of the capillaries, either by a direct impression on them-
selves, or by primarily injuring  their  nerves, the  derangement of
their  action  is the commencement of  disease—secretions become
altered, checked, or profuse nutrition is either diminished so as to
produce emaciation,  or  there is  an  excessive deposition—vapory
exhalations are diminished  to dryness,  or increased to fluid—bony
matter is deposited in wrong places—or albuminous, fatty, or other
particles, so  as to  constitute tumors—the nerves of parts become
morbidly sensible,  so as to derange the functions of those parts—
portions, on  losing their vitality, undergo spontaneous decomposi-
tion (destructive action of oxygen,  either owing to an  unwonted
quantity of oxydized blood being carried to the part, or from the
 diminished resistance of the vital force), and  are  removed  by the
 absorbents."
   " Irritation,  continued excitation of the nerves of a healthy part,
 as just shown, at  last  produces  inflammation, by exhausting that
 nervous influence which gives the capillaries power; they thus be-
 come weakened, allow of  over-distension,  and the part  is in the
 state of inflammation or congestion."   "Thus, in a part inflamed,
 there is diminution of organic action (contraction), in consequence
 of which the  blood is admitted  in excess.  As long  as  the capil-
 laries are supplied with nervous influence, as long as they possess
 perfect  organic action (contraction), they preserve a due size ; when
 they lose it, either from the influence  not being supplied from the
 nervous system, or are robbed  of it by heat, electricity, canthari-
 des, or  any  other cause, they give way, and admit more blood  than
 before."
    Having  given  this  explanation of  the  nature of  inflammation
  (which is also maintained by many other very able writers,  as  Pro-
  fessor Macartney, I think, and several others, and  proved by the
  microscopic observations  of German experimentalists), he proceeds
  to show that  fever, and that class of diseases called neuroses, or
  nervous disorders, as chorea, hysteria, tetanus, epilepsy, etc.—all 
112
THEORY OF  HYDROPATHY.
    those diseases which are characterized by irritation or morbid sensi-
    bility—consist in  inflammation, that  is,  a relaxed,  enlarged, and
    congested condition of the capillary  arteries  of  the  nerves—in a
    Avord, inflammation of the nerves.   Indeed, if Dr. Billing be right
    in his assertion (and I see not how it can possibly be refuted), that
    all diseases have exhausted nervous influence for their cause, then it
    follows that all diseases whatever must consist essentially in weak-
    ened, enlarged, and congested capillaries,  since  the relaxation  of
    the capillaries must be the first effect which is  produced  by ex-
    hausting that influence which alone preserves to them their normal
    size or diameter.
 \      Such  being the one proximate cause or essential nature of all
 )   disease, the principal of cure is one also.  Thus there is (properly)
 |   but one disease, and one cure.
 y      The proximate cause is relaxation and  enlargement of the capil-
    laries—the  indication  of cure, therefore, is to constringe the capil-
    laries, to cause them  to contract and  resume their healthy dimen-
    sions.
       Dr. Billing having  established this position by a  multitude of
    illustrations and practical  facts well  known to medical men, toge-
    ther Avith illustrative  cases of particular diseases, as rheumatism,
    palsy, dropsy, consumption, skin diseases, hysteria, nervous affec-
r   tions, locked-jaw,  gout, etc., etc.,  then  proceeds to show that all
|    medicines, numerous as they are, together with bleeding, produce
\   their  good  effects on  disease by the  power, and in proportion to
\   the power,  which they possess,  directly or indirectly, of causing
    Lthe relaxed  capillaries to contract and resume their healthy dimen-
    sions.
       CHe reduces all medicines whatever to no more than four—sed-
    atives, tonics, narcotics, stimulants.
       Sedatives, direct and  indirect, among  which are included pur-
    gatives, emetics, and bleeding, are such as  " diminish the action of
    the heart and other organs,  by repressing the nervous  influence,"
    thus lessening the velocity with  which the capillaries are supplied
    with blood  by the injecting  force of the  heart; and such as,  by
    emptying the capillaries, facilitate their contraction by removing or
    lessening the resistance  offered  to their contracting  sides by the
    contained blood.
       Tonics are such as, being circulated  in the blood  through  the
    cap'illaries, have the direct effect of constringing  them, or causing 
THEORY  OF HYDROPATHY.
113
them to contract upon their contents, and  thus to force or squeeze
the fluid onAvard.
  Stimulants are such as elicit from the nerves a temporary, forced,
and  more than  ordinary quantity of nervous influence, causing a
corresponding degree of capillary contraction.   But the effect of
these last remedies  is but temporary, since all  forced excitement
of the  nervous centres must ever be followed by a corresponding
degree of exhaustion.
  Narcotics are  such as, by dulling the  sensibility of the nervous
system, procure  sleep, and thus afford  an opportunity to the in-
herent curative  power, or vis medicatrix  naturae, to restore the
tone, or normal degree of contraction, of the capillaries.            t
  Thus, then, however  numerous be the  forms or symptoms of  j
disease, there is, de facto, but one disease.   And, however nume-
rous may be the means and appliances of the healing art, there is
in fact but one intention to be fulfilled—the restoration of the cap-
illaries to their normal dimensions by constringing their coats.       i
  I was once asked  by a physician, for  whose talents I entertain
the highest  respect, how I reconciled with  this theory that disease
called worms in  the bowels.  But to this I replied, that a worm in
the boAvels, until it  has produced irritation, is no more a dis-
ease than a  fly on the hand, or a flea on  the back—and when that
irritation has been produced, then it is that irritation which con-
stitutes the disease, of which the worm was the  remote cause, as
a musquito is the remote cause of the inflammation which  its bite
produces; and we have already seen that  irritation (Avhich Dr.
Billing with much more propriety calls morbid sensibility) con-
sists in inflammation of  the capillaries of the nerves.   But no one
would think of calling a musquito a disease !
  It is the inefficiency of drugs which has multiplied their number.
Two, or two thousand, are required, because there is not one which
can be depended on.  If one could be discovered which would al-  |
ways effectually produce the necessary degree of capillary con-  I
traction, then that one would be  sufficient.                     ——-'
  " In some cases of disease," says Dr. Billing,  " when the secre-
tions of  the skin  and kidneys  are  deficient, we renew them  by
bleeding,  digitalis, antimony,  etc., which lower the force of the
pulse, thereby diminishing the distension of the capillaries, in con-
formity with the above statement."
  " Medicines, such as mercury, iodine, etc., have an effect on the 
114               THEORY OF HYDROPATHY.
arteries themselves, directly or through  the nerves, so as to  make
the inflamed capillaries contract independently of the considera-
tion of the vis & tergo (state of the heart's action), or quantity of
circulating fluid."
   " Inflammation is always the same debility of capillaries."
   " We see that solutions of metallic salts, such as nitrate of silver,
tartar emetic, acetate  of lead, bichloride of mercury, etc., and some
acrid vegetables, such as mezereon, etc., act on the capillaries as
astringents."
   " We know that substances applied to the primse  viae, or skin,
are absorbed and carried into the circulation, and we judge that in
this way these metallic salts,  oxydes,  etc.,  are  carried to the ca-
pillaries of diseased parts, and strengthen and  cure."
   " All  organic  action  is contraction."  All  organic  or animal
strength, therefore, depends upon the  power of the different parts
of the body to contract.  And, for the same reason, all animal
weakness depends upon a loss, more or less, of the power of con-
traction.  And  again, for the  same  reason,  all remedies  which
strengthen can only  do so by increasing  the power of contrac-
tion.*
   " Mercury and iodine remove morbid growths by starving them,
which they effect by  contracting the capillaries."
   " I therefore consider mercury neither stimulant nor sedative, but
tonic ; that is, by its  specific action on the capillaries,  whether di-
rectly  on their  tissue, or through  the medium of their  nerves, it
causes them to contract."
   " When introduced  into the system, it  (mercury)  circulates
through the  capillaries, and gives  them tone to contract.  Liquor
arsenicalis (solution of arsenic), nitrate of silver, the sulphates of
copper and iron, mezereon, dulcamara, calchicum, etc., have a sim-
ilar action.  This is also the rationale  of  the mode of operation of
the so-called  alteratives, and of what  is  called stimulating the se-
cretions of the internal organs.   When their capillaries are weak,
they have their tone  restored by mercury, and the secretions  are
thus renewed; but it should  not be forgotten that mercury, like
some other tonics, in  excess becomes poisonous, and may cause in-
flammation in other parts, as it does in the gums, on the principle
adduced before, that one degree of contraction of the capillaries is
   * See this same argument enforced under the head of contracting, in my
work on " Life, Health, and Disease." 
THEORY OF  HYDROPATHY.
115
necessary to reduce inflammation, while a still further degree Avili
stop nutrition  and bring on wasting and disease."
   " And to this influence  (constringing the capillaries) I attribute
the universal  efficacy of antimony as an antiphlogistic remedy, it
being doubly  valuable in  acute cases, from its sedative effects on
the heart and pulse, combined with its locally tonic or astringent
effects on the capillaries of inflamed or congested parts, as well as
on those of all the secreting structures.
   " I think from  the various statements already made, it  may be
deduced, that  the diseases  of morbid sensibility, were it proved
that they  depend upon inflammation" (and Dr. Billing has  en-
deavored to sIioav that they do), " are not curable  by common de-
pletion :  the medullary tissue is too fine to be affected by the force
of the circulation, or  relieved by taking  off the vis k tergo, by
bleeding,  digitalis, etc. ;  hence  neuralgia,  tetanus, hydrophobia,
chorea, hysteria, etc.,  must be reached through the circulation, by
what have been  called tonics, iron, bark, arsenic, etc."—and wo
have seen that these operate only by constringing the capillaries.
   " Inflammation is that which destroys the life of the part, where-
upon the separation of the dead portion takes place :"  this is noth-
ing more than Liebig's  theory of the destructive force of oxygen,
told in other and more general terms.
   But it is not necessary further to multiply quotations from Dr.
Billing's  first  principles.   The whole  scope and  tendency of  that
work is to  prove the position that there is but one immediate cause
of disease, viz., weakness, or exhausted nervous energy—but  one
disease, viz., a  relaxed  and congested  condition of the  vital capil-
laries—and but one remedy, viz., the  restoration of the capillaries
to their normal or natural  dimensions.
   It is true Dr. Billing admits of four different kinds of remedies,
but we have already seen  that these are but four different instru-
ments for enabling us to produce one  grand effect, and this is, in
every case, the restoration of the capillaries  to their  healthy size.
Even narcotics, given to procure sleep, would be of but little ser-
vice if they did not more than this; for the  pain or other disease
would return on waking.  But they do, indirectly, more than this ;
for, by procuring  sleep, they give time and opportunity to the in-
herent powers of the  system to restore the capillaries  to their
healthy standard  degree of  semi-contraction—in  one word, to re-
cover their tone. 
116
THEORY  OF  HYDROPATHY.
   Now how does all this bear upon the hydropathic treatment of
disease ?   In Avhat manner does Dr. Billing's theory of disease sup-
port, and justify, and recommend that treatment ?  It bears upon
it immediately, and in the strongest and most conclusive  manner.
According to Dr. Billing's theory, the great object is, in all cases,
to unload the engorged capillaries,  and to constringe  their coats.
What  are  the two main features of the hydropathic  treatment ?
Profuse sweating, and the application (partial  or general, as  cir-
cumstances may require) of cold—that is, profuse sweating  to un-
load the capillaries, and the application of cold to constringe tlieir
coats ; for I suppose it will not be denied  by any one for a mo-
ment, that  cold possesses this poAver of constringing the living fibre
in a most remarkable degree.   Both surgery and medicine are per-
petually compelled to resort to  cold  Avater and even  ice for this
express  purpose, as,  for instance, in haemorrhages, the reduction
of strangulated  hernia, etc.  The efficacy of cold Avet cloths,  ap-
plied either in the inside of  the thighs, or to the back, in bleeding
from  the nose,  is sufficiently well  known,  and  even  proverbial.
That  feeling of creeping, chilliness, and even shivering, which  is
produced by the application of cold,  is a very common and avell-
marked proof of  the very powerful  influence of cold in constring-
ing the capillary vessels.
   The mode of operation  of the hydropathic  treatment  may  be
illustrated  by what is done  in  the dropsy  of the  belly.   The sur-
geon first taps the belly, and draws off the water.   Then he ap-
plies around it a bandage, in order to  support its loose and flaccid
sides, and  assist it in recovering its natural dimensions.  This  is
precisely what the hydropathic treatment does in ordinary diseases
—inflammations, fevers, the neuroses,  etc., etc.,—it taps the capil-
laries (by SAveating), and then supports and constringes their sides,
by the cold bath.
  Dr. Billing himself seems fully aware of the value of cold water
and cold air, as a remedy.   At page 23, after describing inflamma-
tion  to consist of weakened, relaxed, and congested capillaries,  he
says : " The way to diminish the inflammation is by increasing the
action (contraction) of the arteries, as by cold or astringents, which
make the arteries contract, that is, increase their action."
  " When the congestion or inflammation subsides without solution
of continuity, it is called resolution; and it is very intelligible how
cold and astringents  promote this desirable termination."   Again: 
THEORY  OF  HYDROPATHY.
117
 " A still farther proof that they (the capillaries) are in  a state of
 morbid congestion, is the effect of cold  to the loins, in renewing the
 secretions; and the constringing effect of cold water, or cool
 air, in promoting the secretion of insensible perspiration, and there-
 by softening the congested skin,  in scarlatina."
   " By studying the operations  of nature,* we are led to imitate
 by analogy.   Independently of the regulation of temperature, the
 usual benefit derived from a poultice is that of  preventing prema-
 ture scabbing, by the soft moisture assisting the pus to protect the
 granulations.   The  German water-dressing has  much the advan-
 tage over the poultice."   And again : " Cold will cause the vessels
 to shrink."   The effect of cold water in  constringing the  capilla-
 ries, that is, in causing  them to shrink, may at any time  be wit-
 nessed  by plunging the hand, when hot, into cold water.   When
 a person has been heated by exercise, the veins  on the back of the
 hand will be observed, in most persons, to be very enlarged: and
 in delicate, thin, and weakly  persons, they are almost  always  so
 toward evening.   Whenever  these veins are in this  condition, if
 the  hand be plunged into cold water, and held  there for a short
 time, they will be found greatly diminished in size when the hand
 is withdrawn.
   " But often," says Dr. Billing, " the  case is more obstinate, and
 a torpid, congested,  or perhaps we should say subacutely inflamed
 state of the fiver, requires not merely repeated doses of calomel or
 other materials, but leeches and poultices, or cold wet cloths, to
 the  epigastrium" (region of stomach).   And here, in a note, he
 observes, " the application of cold is, I  think, not sufficiently often
 used in inflammation of the viscera of the chest and abdomen when
 the surface becomes decidedly hot."
   Speaking of consumption, he says: " Some years ago, a gentle-
 man of the name of Stewart adopted a  rational mode of treatment,
 with which he had considerable success ; but, because he could not
 work miracles, his plan was  unjustly  depreciated.  His  method
 was entirely tonic, and especially the cautious use of cold and tepid
 ablutions of the skin—a modification of cold bathing—a  remedy
 that is found so universally beneficial in promoting  the  resolution
 of strumous (scrofulous) tumors.
  * It is this "studying the operations of nature" to which the late Sir A,
 Cooper was so largely indebted for his extraordinary success in surgica,
practice. 
118
THEORY  OF HYDROPATHY.
f~   " One thing of which I am convinced is, that the true principle
{   of treating consumption is to support the patient's strength to the
)   utmost"—and it  must be remembered that the grand aim and
/   principal effect  of the water-cure is  to strengthen the system,
\   thereby giving the inherent curative poAver the fairest opportunity
[   of doing its own work.
 —   Again: " SchAvann  (Muller's Handbuch der  Physiologie, Cob-
   lenz, 1833), by experiment on the mesenteric arteries of small living
   animals, has demonstrated that I was  right as to the modus ope-
   randi of cold as  a remedial agent in inflammation"—viz., that it acts
   by constringing  the capillaries.
      With regard  to the oneness of the effect to be produced, in
   treating diseases, notwithstanding the  hosts of different drugs and
   chemicals  with  which our national  pharmacopoeia groans, Dr.
   Billing has the following observations: "I  have  explained how
   some  medicines become useful in such a variety of diseases as
   almost to realize the dreams of the ancients and alchemists respect-
   ing a panakeia, or an elixir vitae ; and thus why one empirical re-
   medy,  antimony,  held the reins of the 'currus  triumphalis' until
    superceded by  the more modern blue  pill.   I have shown  that
    tonics are not stimulants; and why they may be combined  advan-
    tageously  with  sedatives, with stimulants, or with narcotics  (the
    ultimate effect of all being the same); how stimulants are tonic;
    how sedatives are tonic; how narcotics are tonic.  I  have shoAvn
    how every medical man has  his hobby to carry him to the same
    point, which, though  he thinks  it very different from his  neigh-
    bor's, is as like it as one four-legged  jade is to another; how one
    man thinks he has made a discovery that he  can cure cholera with
    sugar of lead, and that there is  nothing equal  to it;  while tartar
    emetic, calomel, Epsom or Glauber's salts,  or common  salt, or
    mustard, or  lemonade,  or vinegar  and water,  etc., etc.,  will do
    the same  thing;  though none of  them more quickly carry off
    the vomiting and  purging than two  of these  hobbies in  double
    harness—tartar  emetic  with  some  neutral salt,  I  care little
    which."
       Thus, then, it Avill be perceived  that the  reason why we have
    such a multiplicity of effects  to  be produced,  is because there is
    inot one out  of all our drugs which can be relied  on, at all times,
    for producing  the one effect desired.   That one effect is the con-
    stringing of  the capillaries to their normal diameters, when they 
THEORY OF  HYDROPATHY.               119
have become weakened, enlarged, and congested—and in producing
this effect cold water never failsv
  These last  observations of Dr. Billing (and indeed his whole
theory) are a complete ansAver to those who object to the water-  (
cure on account of its  apparent oneness and simplicity, since  he  jjv
shows that there is but one  proximate cause of all  diseases, and  ;
that but one remedy is necessary ; and that the great multitude of  \
drugs has only arisen from the inefficiency of any one of them, at  j
all times, to produce the desired effect.   According to Dr. Billing,  (
there is scarcely any one drug which would not alone be sufficient  \
to cure almost any disease, provided that one  could always be  re-
lied on  to  empty and constringe  the capillaries.  And he  clearly
states that different drugs are only so many different  means  by
which different practitioners produce the same effects.
   Now, then, if it be true that the one great effect to be brought
about in the treatment of  all diseases be to unload and  constringe
the capillaries, how can this  be better achieved  than by profuse
perspiration and the  cold  bath ?   The hydropathic  treatment,
which unloads the capillaries by sweating, and constringes them by
cold, is clearly an efficient substitute for bleeding, purging, vomit-
ing, uva ursi, digitalis, antimony, mercury, arsenic, nitrate of silver,
sulphate of copper, iodine, iron, and multitudes of other remedies,
enumerated by  Dr. Billing  as  being  beneficial  merely by  their
powers of unloading and constringing the capillaries.
   "In fact,"  says Dr.  Billing, "experience proves that cold to the
 head, with moderate saline and other sedative  medicine, will cure
typhus, or prevent the typhous state from occurring in  synocha ;
 whereas when wine, Avith or without opiates, is employed, the dis-
 ease frequently proves fatal.   I had  one very useful opportunity
 of seeing the  contrast of the different modes of practice during the
 fever which prevailed in Italy, 1817, the  proportionate mortality
 being very much greater  in a hospital where the stimulant  prac-
 tice  prevailed, than in that under the direction of Dr. Aglietti, in
 Venice, who  (I  suppose out of  compliment) called his manner of
 practice  the  English,  consisting  of  contra-stimulants (sedative
 evacuants), antimony, salts,  purgatives, etc., internally, with  the
 external application of cold water and free ventilation."
    Such are the opinions of Dr. Billing with regard to the nature
 of disease, and Avith regard also to the modus operandi of all medi-
 cines whatever, in curing it, viz., by emptying, constringing,  and 
120
THEORY  OF  HYDROPATHY.
   strengthening the weakened, relaxed, and gorged capillary arteries.
i   And if these opinions be  true, the hydropathic treatment  is ob-
   viously and  even glaringly a remedy of  almost universal  applica-
!   tion—if not to cure, at  least  to relieve—since its  tAvo grand fea-
   tures are those of sweating,  and then of constringing, strengthen-
:   ing, and giving tone to the whole  capillary system.  And  yet,
   opposed*as this  treatment.is,  without consideration, by the great
(   body of medical men, if I were to repeat all the laudations be-
   stowed on Dr.  Billing's  book, both by the medical press and  pri-
   vate individual practitioners, they would fill a volume.
     But it requires very close attention, habits of reflection, and a per-
   fect freedom from all prejudice, in order to discover how complete-
   ly principles sometimes agree even where the practice is exceedingly
   different.  And indeed to  illustrate the truth is one of the objects
   of Dr. Billing's Avork—to shoAV how the different hobbies of differ-
   ent  medical men are  all  carrying their unconscious masters to one
   and the same point—capillary contraction. And Avhen Ave recollect
   that all the functions of  life  are performed in and by fehese same
   capillaries, we  ought not to  be at all surprised to find that it  is
   upon these that all causes of disease produce  their  first impres-
   sions ;  these are the organs Avhose actions first become deranged;
   and that it is upon these that all remedial agents must be made to
   operate, in the treatment and cure of all  disorders.
     Such are the views and opinions of Dr. Billing.  And it  must
   be remembered that Dr.  Billing is  no  obscure  physician—all theory
   and no practice—but that he has been for years, and is still, senior
   physician to one of the largest hospitals in England, viz., the Lon-
   don—enjoying  a field  for  practical observation  and experiment
   which  can fall to the lot of bufr few.
     I Avill make only one  more quotation—its  object is still farther
   to show that the simplicity and apparent oneness  of the hydropa-
   thic treatment is no argument against it, disease itself being more
   simple and more unique  than is  generally supposed.  Thus Dr.
,   Billing cures ague, blue  cholera, and influenza, on  the same princi-
\   pies, and with the same remedies—Epsom  salts, antimony, and
   sometimes  bleeding.  Yet  there can scarcely be three diseases
\   more  apparently dissimilar—and  certainly no  three  diseases can
\   differ more as  to severity  and  the degree of  danger.  "There is,"
   says Dr. Billing,  "but one simple fever,  and  which is exanthema-
   tous (eruptive), petechial, though the rash may never be sensibly 
THEORY  OF HYDROPATHY.               121
 developed, as in scarlatina maligna; and it is continued, synochous
 (synocha,  <rweXo>), whether with high or low pulse, high  or  low
 temperature; and  that, when the sensorium is oppressed in addi-
 tion, it is  typhous."  This whole  passage is printed, in Dr.  Bil-
 ling's book, in italics.   It is surprising to me how Dr. James John-
 son could  speak in such high terms of praise concerning Dr.  Bil-
 ling's views of disease, and of the modus operandi of all remedial
 treatment, and yet that  he should  write disparagingly  concerning
 hydropathy, since the whole of Dr. Billing's work is, de facto,  one
 long argument in its favor.
   Thus  I  have shown  that the principles  of  hydropathy are in
 strict harmony with the  opinions held, and the doctrines publicly  }
 taught, by two of the most celebrated and scientific men (each in
 his own  department), with regard to the nature of life, health,  and  ,
 disease, and the true end and object of all  remedial treatment, viz.,  )
 Liebig and Billing—the  two Atridae of medical science—the Aga-  {
 memnon and Menelaus—the dvco xoo^toqe Xu(bi>—of the medical  i
 profession.
   I will now quit the more particular arguments of science,  and
 endeavor to. show that all general reasoning—all analogy—all  the
 deductions of experience—also unite to add their testimony to that
 already given.
   With regard to any danger to be apprehended  from the hydro-
 pathic treatment, it  only differs from  ordinary practice  just thus
 much.  In ordinary practice, even in the most skillful hands, there
 is always more  or  less danger  in  the administration of the most
 common and useful drugs£for  all  these are  poisons of the most
 virulent kindjas mercury, arsenic, prussic acid, opium, oil of vitriol,
 aqua fortis, lunar caustic, iodyne, strychnine (nux vomica), copper-
 as, etc., etc., all medicines daily and hourly administered internally,
 whereas in the practice of hydropathy there is  never  any dano-er
 at all—provided ahvays it be practiced by  competent persons.
   It is evident to the most ordinary understanding' tnat^uchviru-
 lent poisons as those mentioned above, and which are in hourly
 use, cannot be introduced into the human stomach, even in minute
 doses, without always doing a certain amount of mischief—and  in-
 deed  this  is admitted on all hands—and that even minute doses
 may, and  often  do, in  delicate habits, or  from  some  peculiar
 diathesis,  produce very powerful and  dangerous effects.  A case
in point  occurred,  some time since, in one of our hospitals.  A
              6 
122
THEORY  OF HYDROPATHY.
   woman had been taking mercury—and  one day, while sitting up
,   in bed, eating some broth,  her head fell  suddenly foiAvard, and
   she died  instantly.  A  post-mortem examination  explained the
[   mystery.  The atlas—a pivot  which supports  the head, and on
!   which it turns—had been eaten away by the mercury until it be-
>  came  too weak to  support the  weight of the head.   It  snapped
i   while  bending over her broth, the neck  became bent double, and
   instant death ensued, the inevitable consequence of compression of
   the spinal cord by the doubling of the neck.
      Strychnine, according to Andral, produces softness of the brain.
   A young lady,  having  paralysis  of the lower extremities, after
   trying many remedies, was recommended by her physician to rub
   in strychnine.  After  a time she went  to a watering place, and
   there died.  Dr. Pereira, of the London Hospital, commenting on
   this case in  his lectures, declared that he had  no  doubt that this
   young lady's death was  hastened by the strychnine.
      In a case of paralysis at  the Dreadnought Hospital, strychnine
   was exhibited, at first in doses of one sixteenth of  a grain three
   times a day, then  one eighth, then one fourth, then  one half, all
   without any apparent effect.  But one night the surgeon was sud-
   denly called to the man, who was said to be in a  fit.  It  was a
   first attack of tetanus,  or cramp.  This first  attack was  almost
   succeeded by a second, Avhich killed him. f There can be no doubt
   that it was the strychnine which destroyed  him.)
r~~ '  That hydropathy can  kill—and that it may kill, in the hands of
   the ignorant  practitioner—is  perfectly  true.   It  would not be
   worth two  straws if it could  not. f For that which, when abused,
   can do no harm, cannot  be capable of much good  when properly
   used.   Such a remedy is mere "chip in porridge.") But where
   hydropathy has destroyed a single victim, the practice of medicine
^ has slain its tens of millions—ajposition  so notoriously true that I
   scarcely think any medical man of character will be found to ques-
   tion it.  And the  danger to  be dreaded from  the use of  deadly
   drugs is  greatly  augmented by  the great  diversity of opinions
   which are entertained as to the effects which they produce on the
   body, frequently causing one drug to be  given with the view of
   producing two opposite effects.
  —   In a very learned and laborious work published  by Dr. Pereira,
   one of the physicians to the London  Hospital, and  chemical pro-
   fessor at that institution, entitled, " Elements of Materia Medica,' 
THEORY  OF HYDROPATHY.
123
occur the folloAving passages on the subjects of opium and  mer-
cury, tAvo drugs  more universally in use than any other two in  <-=■
the whole list.  "Several  physicians," says Dr. Pereira, "as Dr.~"""^?
John Murray, and Dr. Anthony Todd Thomson,  consider opium
to be primarily stimulant; some, as Drs. Cullen and Barbier, regard
it as sedative" (that is, just the contrary to stimulant); "one, viz.,   £
Dr. Mayer, as both—that is, a stimulant to the nerves and circula-  , ,.
tory system,  but a sedative  to the muscles and digestive organs;  »
another, viz., Orfila,  regards it as neither;  while others, as Mul-   'fi-
ler call it  alterative."   Now here  are  five different men   hold-
ing  no fewer than  five different  opinions  with regard  to the   *"
effects  produced on  the   body  by  this  deadly drug,  opium.
When these five physicians give opium, it is clear that they give it
with the view of producing  five different and contradictory effects !
   But Dr. Pereira proceeds thus with regard to mercury: "Again,
mercury is, by several writers, as Drs. Cullen, Young, Chapman, and
Eberle, placed in the class  of sialogogues ; by many, as Drs.  A. T.
Thomson, Edwards, Yavasseur, Trouseau, and Pidoux, among ex-
citants ;  by some, as  Conradi, Bertele, and Horn, it is considered
to be sedative; by one, Dr. Wilson Philip, to be stimulant in  small
doses, and sedative in large ones; by some, as Dr. John Murray,
it is placed among tonics  ; by another, viz., Yogt, among the re-
solventia alterantia; by  one, Adz., Sundelin, among  the liquefa-
cients ; by the followers  of Broussais, as Begin, among revulsives ;
by the Italians, as Giaccomini, among  contra-stimulants,  or hypos-
thenics ; by others, as Barbier, among the  incertae sedis, or  those
drugs whose modus operandi is not understood.
   After reading  such a  statement as  this, one can hardly be sur-  t,_...*'
prised that the word physician should have been defined to signify, \ ■
" a man who puts drugs, of which he knows nothing, into a  stom- j r
ach of which he knows less." J
   With regard to any danger likely to result from going into the
cold bath when covered with perspiration, such danger is perfectly
chimerical, and a mere popular fallacy—contrary to all the deduc-
tions of science—contrary  to all daily  and  hourly experience ever
since the  creation of the  world,  and  for which  no  shadow of a
physiological reason can be  given;  while all physiological reason-
ing goes directly to  prove that it is safer to go  into cold  water
when the temperature of  the skin  has been  raised,  than when it
has not been raised;  and that if there be danger at all, it is  going 
124
THEORY  OF  HVDROPATHY.
into  cold water without first  raising the temperature—and in this
there certainly is some danger.  And  of course it is with the ele-
vated temperature that Ave have to deal in this argument, and not
with  the mere presence  of  perspiration on the external surface.
For it certainly can be a matter  of no importance whether the skin
be covered Avith a certain quantity of that peculiar grease called
perspiration, or Avhether it be covered Avith  an  equal amount of
hog's lard or white paint.  And it is quite evident, and all modern
writers agree that it is so, that reaction (the great object to be at-
tained) will be most certainly produced, and internal visceral con-
gestion (the great evil  to be avoided) will be most certainly pre-
vented, by  going  into the water when  the  surface of the body is
warm.  And I need  hardly observe, that the body is  not made
hotter in  proportion to the  profuseness of  the perspiration, but
that, on the  contrary, it  is cooler than  before that effect is  pro-
duced, for perspiration is a cooling process.  So that it will not do
to say, " that although it may be  good to go into water when the
body is  moderately warm, it is nevertheless bad to do so when it
is extremely hot."   For when perspiration  is present, it is never
extremely hot.
  As to the sudden checking of perspiration,  this too is  a chimeri-
cal  danger.  For the oozing of perspiration  always subsides of
itself, almost at the moment that the means which produced it are
withdraAvn.  And the perspiration which is still visible on the body,
is merely that which has been already produced, and left upon the
skin,  by an action of the vessels  which  has  now already ceased.
The  perspiration which is now seen upon  the body has no more
connection with the system than so  much oil or  other greasy matters.
  I say, too, that supposition of danger is contrary to all daily and
hourly experience.    For are not our  out-of-door  laborers,  our
wagoners, our sailors, our hay-makers, and all our  farm servants,
constantly exposed, while bathed  in perspiration, to the effects of
a natural cold shower bath, in the shape of rain, and that too with
perfect impunity ?   Is it not the constant practice of boys to bathe
in rivers, without thinking for a moment, or caring  a straw, whe-
ther they be in a perspiration or not ?   Does  the North American
Indian, when traversing his hunting grounds, and when  he finds
his  path obstructed  by a river,  ever  pause for an instant to con-
sider whether he be in a perspiration or not,  before he plunges into
the flood ?   But the Indian is used to it.  To be sure he is, and it 
THEORY  OF HYDROPATHY.
125
is to that very use and want to which he owes his  great strength,
activity, and unimpregnable health.   And why should  not En-
glishmen use and accustom themselves to the same thing ?  What
is to prevent it ?  Why should it not be ?  I cannot even conceive
a reason.
   If there were peculiar danger in being caught in  a shower while
perspiring, every showery day would  crowd our hospitals with its
victims, and April would  be the most  deadly month  in all the
year.   Nature has not adapted the inhabitants of the earth to the
circumstances of the  earth's surface so bunglingly.  On the con-
trary, the nature of  every living  thing has been beneficially fitted
to the nature of those circumstances  among which  it was destined
to dwell; and had a shower of rain possessed such  deadly proper-
ties, our heads would have been furnished with a natural umbrella
to defend it from the rain, as our eyes are accommodated Avith nat-
ural curtains to defend them from the dust.
   In an exceedingly clever pamphlet lately published by Mr. Jack-
son, entitled, " The  Spleen a Permanent Placenta,  the Placenta a
Temporary  Spleen," it has been reasoned out with  the most beau-
tiful precision and great  force, that the spleno-hepatic vein (one of
the large veins within the abdomen) is the propelling organ which
drives the blood through the portal system of veins, and circulates
it through the liver; and that it is congestion  in this vein which is
frequently the cause  of  a great number of  diseases (epilepsy
among  others).   If these views be correct,  they will account
most satisfactorily for the good  effects  of cold water, externally
applied, in relieving  that large class of diseases depending on  con-
gestion of blood  in  the  liver—or what is  called a sluggish liver.
The application of cold to the bowels would necessarily cause the
spleno-hepatic vein to contract  upon its contents, and so  empty
itself, and propel  the blood  onward  through the liver, and thus *
remove all congestion there—just as cold applied  to the back of
the hand causes  the veins there to contract upon  their contents,
thus emptying themselves, and  shrinking to  their proper size.
Whatever causes vessels  to contract, augments the velocity of the
blood's circulation through them.  And congestion of one sort or
other, as we have just seen, is the proximate cause of all diseases
whatever—and there is nothing which can so quickly and certainly
produce this contraction of vessels, and removal of  congestion, as
the application of cold.                                      -- - 
126   PRINCIPLES  AND PRACTICE  OF  THE  WATER-CURE.
                         CHAPTER V.

 PROPOSITIONS ON THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF THE
                          WATER-CURE.*
The Applications of the Water-Cure are in strict Accordance with the Facts and Phenom-
  ena of the living Organism.—A Knowledge of these of the greatest Importance to the
  Physician.—What constitutes Disease.—All Disease originally Acute.—Acute Disease a
  normal Effort of Nature.—In this  Effort the Body may die from Exhaustion.—What
  constitutes a Chronic Disease.—Of accidental Injuries and skin Diseases.—How organic
  Disease occurs.—When a Disease is Curable and when Incurable.—There is necessarily
  an unnatural quantity of Blood in diseased Organs.—Preventing or removing this Con-
  dition necessary to be kept in view by the Physician.—The nervous System controls
  the Circulation of the Blood.—Curative Treatment to be made through this System.—
  It must not be too Violent.—How this Treatment is to be Applied.—Air, Diet, and Wa-
  ter.—These are th& Agents used in the Cure of Disease.—Alcoholic and Medicinal Stimu-
  lants.—Their evil Effects.—The true Principle of the Water-Cure.

   The folloAving propositions will show that the applications of the
water-cure are in strict accordance  with the facts and phenomena
of the living organism;  and that without an intimate acquaintance
with these last, it is utterly impossible  to make the  applications
with safety to the patient, or with  credit to  the practice  or  the
practitioner.   Let the critical medical reader appeal, if he pleases,
from our propositions  to the doctrines of  the schools  as embodied
in the works of the most  celebrated modern writers on health and
disease, and say whether we have  not  accepted those doctrines.
In truth, the premises of health  and disease, established by exper-
iment and observation, stand  untouched, as  far  as they go;  far
be it from us to contravene  them.   It is only  in the conclusions of
practice that we differ from the great body of our  medical breth-
ren.  We assert the  perfect right to do this so long as we  can
give  scientific  reasons  for it.   Such reasons are contained in these
propositions.   Time and  experience  are also daily accumulating
facts of cure  which come to the support of the justness of these
reasons.

  *  From " Dangers of the Water-Cure Considered," by Drs. James Wilson
and James M. Gully, England. 
       PRINCIPLES  AND PRACTICE OF THE WATER-CURE.   127

   1.  A series of unnatural symptoms constitutes a disease.
   2.  This disease is referable to a morbid condition of some of the
textures of the body.
   3.  All disease is originally acute, that is to say, the symptoms
are more or less rapid and pressing in their character, and more or
less characterized by fever.
   4.  Acute disease is  the effort of the morbid organ or organs to
throw off their disorder upon some less important organ or organs.
Thus, acute inflammation of  the liver, stomach, or lungs,  causes
fever; that is, an effort to  throw the mischief on  the  skin, the
bowels, or the kidneys.
   5.  If, from the great extent  of  the mischief to be thrown off,
and the feeble constitution, acquired or natural, of the individual,
this effort is not successful, the body dies from exhaustion.
   6.  If this effort be only partially successful, more or less  of the
internal mischief remains, but gives  rise to  symptoms of  a less
rapid and pressing  and more permanent character.   These  symp-
toms  then constitute a chronic disease.
   7.  Except in the case of accidents to the limbs,  we know of no
disease which is not essentially internal.  Skin diseases are invaria-
bly connected with disease of some internal organs, especially the
stomach and bowels, and are regulated in  their character and in-
tensity thereby.  This  is so  true, that where there is a  skin dis-
ease,  the crises effected by the water-cure invariably take  place on
the spot where it exists.
   8.  Acute disease, then, is the violent effort of internal  and vital
organs to cast their mischief on external and less important organs.
   9.  Chronic disease is the enfeebled effort of the  same organs
to the same end.
   10. But as  from the diminished power of the constitution  this is
always ineffectual,  the morbid state of the organs tends constantly
toward disorganization, or what is called organic disease.   This is
more certainly the  case, if the original causes of the malady are
at work.
   11. Disease therefore is curable  when  the power of  the  sys-
tem is sufficiently strong to throw the morbid action from a more
to a less important organ.
   12. Disease is incurable when the power in question  is insuf-
ficient for the last-named purpose; and when it has become or-
ganic, that is,  when a change of structure has taken place. 
128  PRINCIPLES and practice  of the  water-cure.

   13. From  these premises  it follows  that  the aim of scientific
treatment should be to aid the development of the power of the
system and its efforts to rid its vital parts of  mischief.
   14. That  mischief invariably consists in the retention of an un-
natural quantity of blood  in them, to the detriment of other parts
of the organism—a retention  commonly known by the terms  acute
inflammation, chronic inflammation, and congestion.
   15. In  endeavoring  to  develop the powers of the  system, the
dissipation of this inflammation  or congestion must be constantly
kept in view, as the end of which the constitutional efforts are the
means.
   16. But as the circulation of the blood every where is under the
influence of the organic system of nerves, the power and efforts of
these last are essentially  to  be strengthened in order to dissipate
the inflammation or congestion referred to.
   17. Curative  treatment is therefore made through  the instru-
mentality of the nervous system.
   18. Yiolent and sudden stimulation of the  nervous system of the
internal organs, is invariably followed by exhaustion and increased
inflammation and congestion.  Hence the impropriety  of alcoholic
and medicinal stimulants.
   19. But the gradual and judiciously regulated stimulation of the
nervous system  according to the organic powers, conduces to the
development and maintenance of its strength.
   20. This stimulation is  the more steady and certain in its results
the more universally it is  applied to the entire nervous system.
   21. To the external skin, therefore, and to the  internal  skin (as
represented by all the  lining membranes of the lungs and digestive
organs), this stimulation should  be applied, those parts containing
the largest portion of the  nervous system spread through them.
   22. Pure air applied to the lungs, proper diet,  and water ap-
plied to the digestive organs, and Avater  applied to  the external
skin, fulfill this intention of stimulation and strengthening most ef-
fectually.
   23. Further, as that portion of the  nervous system (the brain
and spinal cord) in Avhich the will resides,  requires the  develop-
ment of its  powers, exercise of  the limbs is  requisite,  the stimula-
tion of the air, diet, and water aiding thereto.
   24.  Pure  water, pure  air, proper  diet, and regulated exercise,
are the great agents in effecting the cure of  disease, by aiding the 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE  OF THE WATER-CURE.   129
 natural efforts of the body,  through the instrumentality  of  the
 nervous system.
    25.  In the due apportionment of these agents, according to the
 powers of the constitution and the phases of disease, as ascertained
 by minute medical examination, consists the scientific and the safe
 practice of the water-cure.
    26.  As strengthening of the system by the regulated stimula-
 tion  of the nervous system, is  the  means,  so the throwing off dis-
 ease by more important or less important organs by that acquired
 strength, is the end of that practice.
  ^  27.  During the efforts of the system thus aroused  for so benefi-
 cial  an end,  if agents are employed which divert those efforts and
 tend to centre stimulus on the more important organs, augmented
 mischief  is the  certain result.   Such agents are to be found  in
 alcoholic and medicinal stimulants, applied to the internal skin and
 nerves; in hot and impure air applied  to the external  skin and
 nerves; and  in exciting and factitious pleasures and anxious cares,
 applied to the great centre of the nerves, the brain.
    28. These  and the mal-apportionment of the stimulation included
 in  water, air,  diet, and exercise, give rise to the only  " Dangers of
 the Water-Cure."
    29. The proper apportionment of the stimulation in  question
 originates  and maintains a steady effort of the system to save its
 Aatal  parts  at the expense of parts which implicate  life  less im-
 mediately.
   30. The  result of this effort is shown  in  one of the following
 ways: 1.  The re-establishment of obstructed and suppressed se-
 cretions;  2. In the elimination of  diseased matters  through the
 bowels, kidneys,  or skin;  3.  In the formation of a critical action
 of some sort on the skin.
   81. Such result constitutes the Crisis of the Water-Cure.
   32. The crisis, being the  result of the extrinsic efforts of the
 vital organs, is to be viewed as the signal of their relief, not as the
 instrument of their relief.
  33. Still as, during  the crisis, the tendency from the internal to
 the external organs is most strong,  it is more than ever necessary
 to avoid the causes which act in diverting this tendency and in re-
 concentrating  the mischief on the internal parts.
  34.  At the  same time, the tendency in point being then strongly
established, it  is  not necessary to stimulate the system further in 
   130   THE  AVATER-DRESSING FOR WOUNDS  AND ULCERS.

   that direction, and all treatment  except that which allays irritation
   accordingly ceases.
      35. A crisis being  the evidence of  cure of the internal disease,
   no recurrence of the latter is to be apprehended, unless the morbid
i   causes are reapplied.
                         CHAPTER VI.

      THE WATER-DRESSING FOR WOUNDS AND ULCERS.*

Definition of "Water-Dressing."—Mode of Application.—Water-Dressings used hy some
  in place of Poultices.—111 Effects that are sometimes caused by the Latter.—Water-
  Dressing a better Application.—Water as a Remedy for Wounds and Inflammation of
  ancient Date.—Doctrines of Hippocrates.—This  simple Practice was set aside by Celsus
  and  the Arabian Physicians.—Ambrose Pare.—Religious Superstitions concerning the
  Effects of Water.  Gabriel Fallopius.—Pallazzo.—Laurent Joubert, Martel, and Denis. ■
  Van  Helmont.—Lamorier.—Caldani and Danter.—A  Miller of Alsace.—Baron Percy.
  Baron Larrey.—Professo^Cern.—Water  not a Specific or Medicinal Remedy.—Neces-
  sity of paying Attention to the Temperature of the Water-Dressing.—Its Use in Lacera-
  tions, Punctured Wounds, Contusions, and Strains of Joints.—Gun-Shot Wounds.—The
  Division of  Varicose Veins.—Boils.—Piles.—Gonorrhoea.—Chronic Affections  of the
  Skin.—Corns and Callosities.—AVater as a Preventive of Lock-Jaw.—Great Power of
  Water in preventing Pain.  Cases.

   The application  of water in a liquid form can be used at all tem-
peratures, from the heat of the  living body down to the  freezing
point.   This great range extends its efficacy to a variety of wounds
and inflammation;  but, except where cold is absolutely necessary,
the remedy is usually employed at the heat of the body, or rather
at that degree to which the application cools the part.  The water
is retained  in some light and porous substances, charged or wetted
throughout, and  covered with some thin and impervious substance,
to  prevent  evaporation.  When water is applied in  this  manner,
the impression it makes is  permanent and  equal; and as it  bears
some resemblance  to other dressing  for wounds  and ulcers, in  the
form  of its  application, I have given it the name of water-dressing.
   The substance that I have generally made the immediate object
of application, is the finest and softest lint; and for the covering

   * From a treatise on Inflammation.  By James Macartney, M. D., F. R. S.
etc., etc 
      THE WATER-DRESSING  FOR  WOUNDS  AND ULCERS.   131

material, either oiled silk, or a thin plate of Indian rubber.   Simple
as this mode of dressing may appear, it requires to  be managed
with care, and  attention to  many circumstances, Avhich would ap-
pear trivial to persons unacquainted with the nature of the remedy.
Two, three, or four layers of the lint should be first folded together,
according to the size of the part to be covered, taking care also
that the soft side of the lint is the outer one.   In wetting the lint
the first time, it is necessary to either float it in the  water before
folding it, or if it be first folded, it should be pressed between the
fingers, to urge the fluid into  the interstices of  the lint, which re-
ceive fluid with difficulty, until all the air they contain be  expelled.
The lint, when applied, should just  contain as much water as not
to drop.  The oiled silk, or Indian rubber, should project so much
beyond the margin of  the  lint as may prevent evaporation, which
will vary according  to the shape of the  part on which the dressing
is laid, and the thickness of the folded lint.*
   It is of great importance to use the wet lint without any band-
age that can  give  to  the part affected the least  feeling of con-
straint.   The figure of the  parts sometimes renders this difficult to
effect, without stitching  the silk into a particular shape, which is
much better than using any strict bandage.
   The periods for changing the lint must vary according to the na-
ture of the case ;  but as a general rule, three times during the day,
and twice during the  night (if convenient), will be sufficient.  In
cases where the  inflammation  is moderate, and the skin unbroken,
the dressing will  only  require to be changed every  twelve hours.
At each time that  the dressing is renewed, the lint  and oiled silk
should be carefully washed, and when it is applied to ulcers, fresh
lint should replace  that taken off, the utmost cleanliness being of
 the first importance.
   French oiled silk is  very much superior to the English; it does
 not adhere to the skin, and therefore does not fret it.   Some other
 substance besides linseed oil,  I am  informed, enters  into its com-
 position.
   The water-dressing  becomes immediately  the same  degree  of
 heat as that of the surface of the skin on which it is placed ; but
 when it is desirable to combine it with cold, a bladder holding iced
   * It should be remarked here, that Priessnitz objects to oil cloth and India
 rubber coverings over wet bandages, on the ground that they retain matter
 which should be allowed  to pass off.  Simple dry cloth is all he uses.—S. 
132  THE WATER-DRESSING FOR WOUNDS  AND  ULCERS.

water may be laid over the oiled silk;  or where the comfort of
warmth may be required, the dressing may be covered with flannel.
  Some surgeons now profess to use water-dressing as a substitute
for poultice, by which they show their ignorance of the nature and
operation of the remedy.  A poultice is made of materials, which,
in a term far short of its  reneAval, become sour, and  thereby ren-
der the  poultice, after the first few hours, an irritating application.
The greasy substances which are  added  to  prevent  the poultice
adhering to the skin, do not always answer the end, and soon be-
come rancid.  A poultice favors the  formation of pus, and causes
a throbbing  or pulsating  pain, and a feeling of tenderness in the
part, which are the natural  attendants on the process of suppura-
tion.  It imbibes the  pus  it  serves to create,  and thereby becomes
more irritating.   A poultice, before it is many hours on, is a mix-
ture of  sour farinaceous substance, rancid oil, and pus, oppressing
the part by its weight, and beginning to  adhere round its edges to
the skin, creating the sense of constriction.
  In order to judge of the effects of poultices, it is only necessary
to visit a hospital, where they are  much  employed, before the
surgeon comes round, when the sufferings of the patients will  be
sufficiently obvious; and to contrast this state of feeling with that
which arises after the poultices are taken off, and the wounds and
ulcers bathed for some time with tepid water; the soothing and
comforting effect  of which is better known by the patients than the
surgeon, and therefore they prolong it as much as they can.
  Water-dressing has not  only better,  but very different effects
from poultices;  it either  prevents or  diminishes the  secretion  of
pus: a wound may at first yield  a little purulent fluid, but in a
short time this Avill be furnished in so small a quantity, as hardly
to stain the  lint.   The pus,  even from an ulcer, rapidly diminishes
under water-dressing.  I remember a case of a very extensive  ul-
cer of  the leg, to which  I  applied it; the patient  pulled off the
dressing in  the  night, because, as he said, " it was  stopping the
discharge,"  he conceiving, like many surgeons, that  no  open sur-
face could heal  without  suppurating.   Granulations also,  which
are  rendered exuberant  by poultice, are either  never formed, or
exist in a very slight degree under water-dressing.
   Instead of the throbbing  pain produced by a poultice, being ex-
cited, all pain is removed by the use of this remedy.   A man in a
fight with another, had the nail of his thumb bitten  through near 
       THE WATER-DRESSING  FOR  WOUNDS  AND  ULCERS.   133

 the root.  The water-dressing was applied.   A day or two after I
 met him with  a poultice on his thumb.   On inquiring why he re-
 moved the first dressing, he said " there was  no use in keeping it
 on  any longer, as  it took away all his anguish,"  he supposing  a
 poultice the  proper application for the cure.   In a word, the ten-
 dency of water-dressing (if it be properly conducted) is to  induce
 the cure of wounds and ulcers, not requiring excitement,  by the
 approximating or modeling process already described.
   The employment of water, as a remedy for wounds and inflam-
 mation, is  no  doubt of very ancient  date.   Hippocrates is said to
 have discovered, by the inscriptions in the  temple  of ^Esculapius,
 that the priests had used  water  mixed with secret ingredients, in
 order probably to give the remedy more importance in the eyes of
 the people.
   Hippocrates  himself seemed to  have understood  more of the
 modes of application of water, and of  its adaptation to particular
 circumstances, than we discover in the practice of many who have
 lived in later days.   He used  warm  water in gangrene; sea water
 for chronic cutaneous diseases; cold water in fractures, erysipelas,
 and ulcers.  His method of application was to  bathe the parts with
 a  sponge,  afterward  leave it  on  charged with the  fluid, and wet
 the  sponge as often as it became  dry.
   This  simple  practice was set aside  by the Arabian  physicians
 and Celsus having introduced a variety of absurd and complicated
 medicmes mto fashion, which held their ground until the fourteenth
 century, when the surgeons of that period fell  as foolishly into the
 opposite extreme, as that of composing their medicines of a mul-
 titude of ingredients.   They now endeavored to discover some  one
 which would be universally applicable.  This gave rise to the sys-
 tem of secret dressing, as it was called, each practitioner assuming
 that he possessed the panacea.  Some of these  secret remedies,
 when discovered, were found to be ridiculous; as for  example, oil
 and  cabbage, and an oil made  of  kittens, were  much  in use.  At
 this^ period and for long after, water was  employed, but  accom-
 panied with some absurd form of incantation, to which all its good
 effects were ascribed.
   Ambrose Pare, who was a man of the greatest talent and expe-
 rience of the age in  which he lived, refused for  some time to apply
 water to wounds, as the effects seemed to him to  be so extraordi-
nary, that they could only be  produced by supernatural agency, 
i34  THE WATER-DRESSINU  FOR WOUNDS  AND  ULCERS.

which, from religious scruples, he did not consider  it justifiable to
employ.   During the siege of Metz, in 1553, an ignorant quack,
called Maitre Doublet, as  Brantome relates, " performed strange
cures Avith simple white linen, and clean water from the fountains
or wells.   But he was assisted by sorcery and charmed words, and
every one went to him, as if he were Maitre Ambrose Pare him-
self, a man so celebrated and  considered the first of his day."
  Ambrose Pare, who equally detested fraud and folly, in writing
his  report of the proceedings of the medical department of the
army, speaks thus:  " I do not deny that water is a good remedy
in wounds and  recent injuries,  having  employed  it myself with
much advantage, but I object to the mysterious words, and the
Lvain and  unchristian ceremonies,  that accompany this new and sin-
gular practice, which is so simple that it requires no aid."
% The book on  surgery by Gabriel  Fallopius, published in 1560,
strongly recommends the use of natural water as a " fruitful source
of success."
  Pallazzo published in 15 70  a book on the true method of curing
wounds by simple water, hemp, and flax.   He recommends varying
the temperature according to  circumstances.
  Laurent Joubert, in his work on popular errors, published in
 1578, exposed the folly of using charmed water, and  described
common  water as being most efficacious in procuring " a favorable
termination and  a good cicatrix."
   Some  time  after this there was a  sharp controversy between
Martel, surgeon to Henry the Third, and one Denis, a surgeon of
Vendome, and Danguaron, also  surgeon to Henry the Third; the
two latter contending for the use of charms.  This dispute was
 terminated by the Chancellor of the University of Montpelier de-
 ciding in favor of simple water.
   Soon after Van Helmont introduced his mode of curing by mag-
 netic sympathy,  and the water Avas  only employed  mixed  with
 other ingredients, such as the powder of the Chevalier Digby.
   In 1732, Lamorier published " on the Use of Common Water in
 Surgery."  He asserted that there were  few wounds which  could
 not be healed  by this treatment, more promptly and satisfactorily
 than by any other means.
   Professor Caldani, of Padua,  also recommended cold water  as
 the best application in recent wounds.   Danter published a learned
 essay at  Gottingen, in which  he  recommended the use of water. 
      THE WATER-DRESSING FOR WOUNDS AND ULCERS.  135

   In 1785, a number of men were severely wounded in proving
 the cannon at Strasbourg;  a miller of Alsace undertook their cure,
 by the leave  of the Intendant of the province, with blessed water :
 these wounds were all cicatrized in six weeks.  A second proving
 of the cannon wounded thirty-four men.   They were dressed with
 common water by Lombard, the surgeon-in-chief, by which means
 they were all cured.  The progress of the wounds was witnessed
 by Baron Percy, then a surgeon-major of  cavalry.   The  success
 on this occasion produced a pamphlet from Lombard, in 1786, " on
 the Properties of simple Water as  a topical application in the cure
 of Surgical Diseases."
   Baron Percy always  afterward  employed Avarm  or  cold water,
 according to  the season.  He says they often had from six to eight
 thousand wounded in their hospitals.   His  experience, therefore,
 cannot be questioned, and so strong was his conviction of the utility
 of this treatment, that he said,  " he would relinquish military sur-
 gery if he were prohibited  from using water."
   Baron Larrey is  said to have treated,  with great  success, the
 most terrible wounds, with the water of the Nile, during the cam-
 paign in Egypt;  probably  from the want of other remedies being
 in his possession, as his predilection for complicated  applications
 Avould have prevented him choosing so simple a one as water.   In
 his writings  he  speaks  of  salt water being a proper remedy for
 wounds.
   Professor Kern, of Vienna, was long known as the strenuous ad-
 vocate of the employment of water in wounds  and ulcers, and in
 the after  treatment of  surgical operations.  He  varied the  tem-
 perature of the fluid, and consulted the feehngs of the patient, by
 avoiding all useless bandages and medicated dressings for wounds,
 and his  practice was, I have heard, proportionably successful.  He
 claimed the  credit of having invented  water-dressing, an assump-
 tion  that could only be  made by a person ignorant of the  history
 of continental surgery.  Kern, I believe, however, carried out the
 principle of the treatment farther than those who preceded him.
  The practice of  most  of  the surgeons whose works I have men-
 tioned, was to bathe the injured  part with water in the first in-
 stance, and repeat the bathing  frequently during the day.  Only
 a few of  those writers prevented  evaporation by any impervious
 covering.   Frequent ablution, either with  warm  or  cold water, is,
according to  the nature of the case, an  admirable  remedy.  It is a 
13G  THE WATER-DRESSING  FOR  WOUNDS AND ULCEUS.

species of irrigation, but wants  the  comrenience, and the unremit-
ting operation of the Avet  lint  and oiled silk.   Within these  few
years, the practice of irrigation has been  revived  in  France by
Breschet, Berard, and Josse, with great improvements on the an-
cient  system of temporary bathing ;  but, with  these  exceptions,
the simple  mode of treating wounds and inflammation cannot be
said to exist in any of the civil hospitals of France or Italy.  The
dressing Avith dry charpie in the first instance, and after the wound
is compelled  to suppurate, with medicated  ointments, and the use
of complicated bandages, are as common throughout the South of
Europe at the  present day, as they were in the most barbarous
ages of surgery.
  It is quite manifest, from the history I have given of the employ-
ment of water in  its liquid state, for  the cure of wounds  and in-
flammation, from the earliest periods to  the present time, that I do
not claim the  discovery of the remedy; but that I have  been the
means of introducing it to the attention  of the profession in these
countries, is a matter of too much notoriety to admit  of dispute.
I have also connected the use of it with general views of the na-
ture of inflammation, which (whether right or wrong) are pecu-
liarly and distinctly my own; and I have  demonstrated the possi-
bility of open wounds healing without inflammation,  and without
the medium of either coagulable lymph, or granulations; a fact
which, as far as my information extends, has not even been hinted
at by any writer on surgery, either ancient or modern.
   In all cases where it is not desirable to reduce the temperature
of inflamed  parts below the standard heat  of the human body, I
consider water, in the state of vapor, as  superior to it in the liquid
form;  but in consequence of the application of steam being at-
tended with some trouble  and sacrifice of time, the water has been
generally preferred, except in  great and dangerous wounds, pain-
ful abscesses, and those internal inflammations, wherein common
fomentation  has hitherto  been  adopted.   I do  not  attribute to
water, under any form, a specific or medicinal power of controlling
inflammatory actions; nor is such power necessary—for if  the or-
ganic sense of injury and the feeling of pain be removed, by sub-
stituting an  agreeable state of sensation, the motives to  inflame
cease to exist, and the natural actions of reparation proceed with-
out impediment or delay.  We have  a  very beautiful  example of
inflammation being not only excited, but maintained,  by a slight 
     THE WATER-DRESSING  FOR  WOUNDS  AND  ULCERS.    137

irritation,  and declining without any remedy, except the removal
of the object which created the pain, in the common accident of a
grain of sand or dust being lodged on the surface of the conjunc-
tiva of the eye.   I can conceive that water, either as vapor or fluid,
might be  capable of preventing, and perhaps of -removing the im-
pression of exposure,  which most wounds more or less produce;
and I am  persuaded as much as I can be of any fact, not proved
by experience, that if a  serous  cavity were to be opened in an at-
mosphere of steam of  the proper heat} and detained in it, the cavity
would not inflame, because it would not be sensible of any impres-
sion different from what it was accustomed to from its own vapor;
for, as I have already mentioned, it is not the wound of the pari-
etes of a close cavity,  which spreads inflammation over it.  When
amputation is performed beloAV the knee, inflammation of the joint
does not occur ; but" if the  head of the fibula be taken out at the
time, and  in  doing this  the slight  capsule which  divides its joint
from that of the knee, be  cut, inflammation is  liable to come on
the latter.
   In the employment of water, those who have not been instruct-
ed respecting the nature of the application, do not pay sufficient
attention  to the influence of  temperature.  Some persons believe
that they  use in all cases cold water, which is  impossible, beyond
the moment of  its application, if the dressing be  covered with the
oiled silk.   It is only  by perpetually adding the fluid, as in irriga-
tion, or by covering the water-dressing with a bladder holding iced
water, that a low temperature can  be obtained.   It is evident that
warmth and  confinement of the wound would be improper, when
hemorrhage had either taken place, or was expected.   In other
circumstances, the temperature to be chosen is always that which
is most easy and comforting to  the patient.                    —>
  Water-dressing may be employed in the common manner, after
the pain of  the  injury is subdued  by steam  or fomentation, in all
great lacerations, punctured  wounds, contusions,  and strains of
joints.   I  have, in seAreral instances of such injuries, prevented all
suffering and inflammation by these means.  Whereas in the com-
mon mode of treating these accidents, they would  have been fol-
lowed by extensive suppurations, much misery, protracted confine-
ment, and in the end,  perhaps, the patient left with a useless limb.
  Water has been used with great success by many military sur-
geons in  gunshot wounds, and in shattered limbs from explosions 
138  THE WATER-DRESSING  FOR  WOUNDS  AND ULCERS.

of gunpowder.   I have seen a case in which this mode of  treat-
ment was carefully followed, and in which the  patient never suf-
fered any pain nor constitutional  disturbance, except a little during
one night, just before the piece of cloth was expelled.  The  edges
of the Avound did not slough, and the discharge was hardly enough
to soil  the lint.   The gentleman walked  out  well  the eighth day
after he fought the duel; the ball remained imbedded in the ilium.
   Mr.  Bird, of Banag*her, a very active and intelligent practitioner,
has communicated to me some  frightful injuries by gunshot wounds
treated by water-dressing, with complete success; and one partic-
ularly  severe case, in which amputation would have been formerly
thought  unavoidable.  In consequence of a gun bursting in a man's
hand, the carpus was torn open, the end of the radius broken, the
metacarpal bone of the thumb was separated from the carpus, and
the thumb thrown back on the hand.   This man recovered the use
of his hand, having only a stiff wrist-joint.  Mr. Bird informs me,
that since he commenced practice, he has treated twenty-two cases
of gunshot wounds  solely with water, and always with the  same
fortunate result.
   I have seen under the care  of the late Dr. M'Dowel, who prac-
ticed water-dressing  extensively in  the Richmond Hospital, cases
of division of varicose veins, proceeding without  the  slightest ap-
pearance of inflammation.
   Boils  are completely under our  control by this mode of treat-
ment.   If resorted to in the beginning, the  boils will seldom ex-
ceed the size of peas, and produce no pain.
   I have repeatedly  cured inflamed and protruded piles by a wet
sponge,  covered with a plate of Indian rubber, which dressing con-
forms  better to the shape of the parts than the lint and oiled silk.
 In these cases the complaint never  returned.
   I have never used water-dressing myself in  gonorrhoea, not an-
 ticipating that it would succeed; but numerous accounts have been
 transmitted to me, of the disease being cured by the external ap-
 plication of water to the  private  part.   The symptoms are de-
 scribed  as being rendered  very mild, and usually disappearing  in
 from one to two weeks.
    Water-dressing is particularly convenient and efficacious in many
 chronic  affections of the skin,  especially those that are dry and
 scaly.   I have  sometimes used the oiled silk, or the Indian  rubber
  llone in psoriasis, which keDt the parts moist by collecting and 
     THE WATER-DRESSING  FOR  WOUNDS AND ULCERS.   139

confining the insensible perspiration.  On one occasion, where the
disease had spread  over the whole body, causing the greatest irri-
tation, and a total want of sleep, I had  the patient entirely envel-
oped in a dress of oiled silk Avith the best effects.
  Water-dressing never fails to eradicate  corns or any other cal-
losities of the skin, provided it be  persevered in for a considerable
time.
  If the effusions called ganglia, which  form in the sheaths of ten-
dons, be carefully dressed with water,  or what  is still  better, the
lead lotion, and be kept in a state of rest, the inflammation of the
cyst will  be removed, and the fluid which distended it  absorbed.
I have  also reduced the  size of the cartilaginous bodies found  in
similar  situations by the  same treatment, and  I  am disposed  to
think that it is possible to procure the  entire absorption of the
loose cartilages in the joints by these means.
  I have never seen an instance of tetanus (lock-jaw) coming on,
when wounds, however severe, and from their nature likely to pro-
duce  the disease, where healed under water-dressing ; and I know
of but two cases  in which it is said to have occurred, and possibly
in these instances the remedy might not have been accurately em-
ployed.   For I cannot conceive that tetanus could ensue, provided
all  pain and sense  of injury were  early  removed, and  that the
wound healed by the approximating process without inflammation,
or the medium of any new organized substance.   In a letter from
Dr. Bonyen, a very intelligent pupil of  mine, now settled in Dem-
erara, received  the  23d of June, 1837, he states, that a medical
man in extensive  practice  there, uses water-dressing after amputa-
tion and other  operations; and that these wounds healed as well
as the best-treated cases in cold climates, and that in fourteen am-
putations he  had performed, he had not lost a single patient  by
tetanus.
  The immersion of a wounded or inflamed part either in warm  or
cold water, according to circumstances,  has perhaps more influence
on the  sensations than any other  mode of applying the fluid.   I
have  witnessed the  greatest effect from  it, when used either warm
in place of fomentation to soothe pain, or cold to abate vascular
action.   It would be a most valuable remedy, if any means could
be devised for its application, without the  inconvenience of the in-
flamed part being placed in a depending position.  A very striking
case of the benefit of immersion was communicated to  me by Dr. 
 140   THE  AVATER-DRESSING FOR WOUNDS AND ULCEUS.

 Cardiff, then a military surgeon  stationed at Kilkenny.  A soldier
 received a thrust of a bayonet,  which passed through his thumb,
 and between the metacarpal bones of his hand.   After the bleed-
 ing had ceased, the hand Avas laid in tepid water, which  speedily
 removed the pain.   The immersion was continued for tAvelve hours,
 after which  the hand Avas taken  out and dressed in the usual man-
 ner (I presume  with  adhesive plaster),  after which  the  pain  re-
 turned with great severity and  throbbing, so that it became ne-
 cessary to remove the dressing and return the hand to the Avater.
 The immersion again removed all pain, and Avas  now continued for
 twenty hours, and when removed, the common water-dressing was
 employed, no more pain was felt, and the cure of this  frightful
 wound was accomplished without SAvelling,  heat, suppuration, or
 any of the results of inflammation, and the cicatrix that remained
 was soft.   The man went to duty on the eighth day after receiving
 the wound.
-  Baron Percy very truly says,  " that if it were possible on the
 receipt of a gunshot, or other serious wound of the  elbow, knee,
 foot, etc., to keep the part for the first ten or fifteen hours plunged
 in water, we should have fewer amputations  to perform, and we
 should save the lives of a greater number of wounded."
   A lady fractured her tibia close to the ankle joint; great swell-
 ing, tension, and pain immediately followed.  At her  OAvn sugges-
 tion, the limb was  placed in a  bucket of warm water, which  had
 the effect of removing the pain, and almost all the  tumefaction,
 before I visited her for the purpose of adjusting the fracture. 
PROCESSES OF WATER-OURE.               14]
                        CHAPTER  VII.

                   PROCESSES  OF  WATER-CURE.
 Water-Drinking.—Quantity recommended by Priessnitz.—Enormous Quantities some-
  times drank.—Advantage of Water in Fevers.—Erroneous Notions concerning the
  Treatment of Fevers.—Rule to be Observed.—Water Drinking in Poisoning.—A Case—
  Advantages of pure Water  in New York.—Effect of Water taken  at Meals.—Water
  Drinking for Indigestion.—Vomiting by Water.—Advantages of Drinking at Meals—
  Living without Drink.—Water to prevent Vomiting and Hickup.—Some Laborers drink
  freely at Meals.—Water  probably undergoes no chemical  Change in the System —
  Quality of Water—That which is Pure and Soft the best—Effects of Croton Water in
  New York.—How to obtain  pure soft  Water every where.—Injections or Clysters—
  Their good Effects in various Diseases.—How they  shall be Applied.—The Rubbing
  Wet Sheet.—Its Application and Uses.—The Leintuch or Wet Sheet.—Mode of Applica-
  tion.-Its Uses.—Compresses and Wet Bandages.—Their Object and Uses.—Warming
  or Stimulating Bandages—Sweating  Process—How Sweating is Accomplished-
  Rules for the Process.—It is little used by Priessnitz at the present da?.

                         DRINKING  WATER.
   The quantity usually directed by Priessnitz is from ten to twelve
tumblers  daily.   His  general advice is,  "Do not oppress your
stomach, although I  wish you to drink as much as you can  con-
veniently."   Some have  gone to  great  excess in drinking.   At
Graefenberg, enormous quantities  are often taken without any ap-
parent inconvenience.  One gentleman, we are told, took by way of
experiment thirteen and a half  quarts in a day, little by little, taking
a good share of exercise at the same time, and  experienced only a
slight headache in consequence.
   Every one knows  of cases in which a  high  burning  fever  has
been broken up merely by drinking great quantities of cold water.
How often have there been cases in which it  was believed,  both by
friends and the  physician, that the  patient with burning fever could
not  live the night through, and the  physician declaring that cold
water, if taken, would be the  sure death of the patient,  and  yet
the friends, not always  over particular to  follow the directions laid
down, have given water  to the  patient, or perhaps the  patient in
his delirium has broken through all restraint and satisfied  himself
to the full extent of thirst; and soon how changed !   Sleep, which 
    142              PROCESSES  OF WATER-CURE.

    before could not  be  at  all obtained,  or if  it could  be, Avas only
    dreamy and  disturbed, is  now  deep and  refreshing; and in the
    place of a dry, parched, and burning skin, there is now most pro-
,    fuse perspiration.   The friends now behold that the fever is " bro-
1    ken up :" the physician comes in the morning, and exclaims, " As-
    tonishing ! what  the  medicine  has done!"   But the medicine has
    been  cast to  the dogs.
*——<•  If,  in the whole range of human  science, there is any error Avhich
<   sIioavs pre-eminently how loosely  mankind  may  reason, and into
)    Avhat great follies the human mind may  be led, it is in the sup-
!   posed effect of cold water  in fevers.  It seems, because it was well
    known to be dangerous for persons in  great  heat and perspiration
    arising from over-exertion—an artificial and most unnatural state—
    to drink  largely of cold  water, by  parity of reasoning, it must al-
    ways be dangerous when there is great  thirst.  But the cases are
 \   totally different.   In the case of over-exertion, if the body is allowed
(   to remain quiet, even in a  warmer  place, the flowing of perspira-
    tion—a cooling process—will soon cause the body to become cool;
    and indeed a. cold will often be taken, unless great care is exercised
j    to guard the body.   Even in such  cases, too, drinking  very small
    quantities of water is  safe and beneficial, especially if moderate ex-
 \   ercise be kept up.
      Drinking, then, in high fever, is highly salutary, and always per-
    fectly safe, and should be reckoned as one of the most powerful
    means of reducin
    cannot be  found.
    gratified.
      In  other cases  than fever, we have seen most astonishing effects
    produced by drinking water.  In a certain  case, a woman of this
    city, as she believed,  and it was no doubt true, had been poisoned
    by her husband:  violent  spasmodic action of the muscles of the
    extremities having come on, and a severe burning in the  mouth,
    throat, and stomach, being present, and the woman nearly  insensi-
    ble, large draughts of iced Croton water were immediately given.
    The patient afterward said, that so parched and heated were the
    mouth, throat, and stomach, that the cold water produced  no sen-
    sation whatever; but no sooner  was the water taken, than most
    powerful vomiting ensued,  and much to the woman's relief.   Still
    the burning sensations to a considerable extent would soon  return,
    and then copious drinking would again quickly cause the same good
g iever. » »jases wnere it  nas proved, injurious,
J To  the  utmost,  the patient's thirst  should be 
PROCESSES OF WATER-CURE.              143
result. After a while, the water was taken tepid, and thus the patient
drank and vomited many quarts. Other means were used, but drink-
ing was the principal treatment. The next day, she was quite well.
Cats and dogs that have been accidentally poisoned by arsenic set
for rats, will take water  greedily, and have thus apparently been
kept from being destroyed.
   It is said  by those concerned, .that in the hospitals of  this city
(New York) there have been no cases of gravel since the introduc-   j)
tion of the pure soft Croton water, and that many cases have been   \
cured  spontaneously.   The drinking this  pure soft water, and its
culinary use, are  doubtless the  causes of those favorable results.
   There has been a great deal of  prejudice concerning  drinking
water at meals.  The common opinion is, that it dilutes the "gastric
juice."  But this opinion is founded  in a Avrong notion of diges-
tion.  The aqueous portion of  the food  taken is mostly absorbed
before digestion proceeds to any considerable extent.  This objec-
tion certainly is not made  to  the  eating of fruits, and these are
composed very much  of  water—by far the  largest part; and so
also the natural food of the infant—the mother's milk: the whey
or watery part is absorbed, and the curd afterward digested.   It
is  not true, therefore, that digestion is necessarily impaired by tak-
ing fluid  into  the  stomach at the time of meals.   Nor  is it true
that the gastric fluid is present in the stomach, as is by many sup-
posed, before food  is taken into the stomach, and that its action
upon the coats of the stomach causes  the  sensation of hunger.
The gastric secretion does not  take  place until the stomach is ex-
cited by the presence of food.
   But whatever  may be said concerning theories in this matter of
drinking at meals, the real  facts of experience furnish altogether
the best guide.  From very careful  observation and  experiment,
we are certain that, in many cases, at least, of persons who suffer
from indigestion, the complaint Avill be very sensibly mitigated, and
in  frequent instances be wholly removed, by free drinking  pure soft
water at the meals; and then again,  if indigestion is really present,
whether there  has been  drinking with  the  previous meal or not,
full drinking of water  is the  best  means that can be used to re-
move the distressing  symptoms. There will generally, or at least
often, be no thirst  in these cases, so that the water is to  be taken
like medicine, "against the stomach."   If there have been a de-
bauch, sometimes vomiting -will  take place, but  the vomiting  that 
144
PROCESSES OF AVATER-CURE.
    comes on from water  drinking is comparatively easy, and  causes
    great relief.  At other times diarrhcea takes place, and still oftener
    neither vomiting  nor diarrhoea, but a quick and certain subsidence
    of the symptoms.   Here it may  be  said, that no violence should
    ever be done in drinking in the Avay  of  over-chilling the body.  If
    we Avish to cause vomiting,  and  in some other instances, Avater,
    warm or tepid, will be the most beneficial.  Cold water can  gene-
    rally be  borne, by a Aveak stomach, better with food than at othei
    times ; and why ?—because the stomach is elevated in temperature
    soon after the taking of food.  It is then better able to act against
    the coldness of the water.
      What effect does cold water  then have upon the stomach at
    meals?   Do we not know that every person, day by day, through
    stimulants in the food taken, is literally being " drugged," and that
    the coats of the stomach are thus more or less inflamed and weak-
    ened ?   Suppose the face or hands are partially inflamed or fever-
    ish, does not  every one knoAv how strengthening and salutary to
    those parts is the  application of cold water?  Precisely in the
    same way does cold water, in suitable quantities, act  upon the
    stomach, as every one  can prove by trial.
      There is another advantage in drinking with  meals; it is this:
    less food is required to satisfy the appetite.   It has been said, in
    objection to drinking at meals, that it over-distends the stomach.
    It is true that the stomach is almost always overtasked; but this
    distension will be  much sooner  removed, if a  good share of it be
    from simple water.   This is incomparably more easily removed by
   the action of  the  organ, than is too great a quantity of food.
      Food is often taken  that is of itself  too dry, more so than is
    natural.  Certain kinds, as dyspepsia  or Graham  crackers, dry
    bread, etc., are apt to swell in the stomach as  a dried apple would
    do.  If food is taken at all in this  state, the  greatest  care should
    be exercised in mastication, but even then, drinking will be  found
   salutary.
      Some have lived weeks and months without drinking any liquid
    whatever.  But in all  such cases  fluid must have been taken from
    some source.   These have generally been vegetable  and fruit eat-
    ers, and who have eaten largely of fruit;  and these contain a  large
\   proportion of Avater. Dr. Alcott,  a man well known for his physi-
(   ological, hygienic, and  other writings, lived without drink for  more
/   than one year, at the same  time partaking freely of  apples as a 
PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.
145
 part of the regular  meal.   The moisture^ in the breath, perspira-
 tion, and other excretions of the body, which are constantly pass-
 ing off, must  be supplied from some source or other.   Ordinary
 food,  even, contains a much  greater portion of moisture than would
 be at  first supposed :  baker's bread is said to contain about 35 per
 cent.   The adult human body by weight is composed of about 80
 per cent, water—the blood  about  90 per cent., and  the  brain of
 nearly the same quantity.  This supply of fluid must be kept up.
   There is another good effect to be brought about by water drink-
 ing—to prevent vomiting.   We have succeeded  in arresting very
 obstinate vomiting, when the  most effectual means of ordinary
 practice had failed, by giving water in small quantity  frequently
 repeated.   Hickup,  according to  our experience, can be more
 readily managed by water drinking, than by any other means.
   Laborers who are much exposed to heat and fatigue, tell us they
 can get along with less drink, if they are careful to drink freely at
 their meals.
   It has been  supposed by some, that water undergoes a chemical
 change in the system;  but there is not the least evidence that it is
 ever in any way appropriated to the formation of the animal solids
 of the body.   It is true, however, that life can be sustained con-
 siderably longer in cases of starvation, if water is taken, than with-
 out  it; but still the water undergoes no chemical change.

     QUALITY OF WATER FOR DRINKING AND CULINARY USES.
   It is agreed on all hands  that for all the purposes of  life, whe-
 ther for culinary preparations, or for drink, pure soft water is the
 best.  It was" believed that  the pure water of Graefenberg could
 not be the cause of the truly wonderful cures that were there per-
 formed.  It was believed that Priessnitz had some remedial agent
 in the sponges used, and  he was prosecuted accordingly:  it was
 only as he from the first had stated—pure soft water, with atten-
 tion  to air, exercise, diet, and clothing.   The water has been fully
 tested, and is found to be only pure and soft.
   Since the Croton water has  been introduced into the city  of
New York, there has been a manifest improvement in the health
of the citizens.   Still there are many who prefer the abominably
filthy and hard  water of the wells.   Yet there is much of the Cro-
ton used, some preferring it,  and others taking it more from con-
venience.  During the  past summer (of 1844), a season not par- 
146
PROCESSES OF WATER-CURE.
ticularly healthy, and very hot, it was stated in the public papers
that the bills of  mortality during some of the weeks of the hottest
weather, were less than they had  been for many years previously
in the season corresponding—a significant fact to those who un-
derstand  the effects of water,  but a fact, the reasons for which
were not at all commented upon in the public papers.
  As in every thing  in the present state of physiological know-
ledge, so in the matter of drinking water:  people in  general are
guided by mere feeling.  Any one who has  been a time in the
habit of drinking hard water, if he act merely according to taste,
will prefer the hard water to which he is accustomed, to any soft
water, however  pure  it may be. ( Horses will leave  hard water,
that is clear,  for soft water that is  even  muddy, j
  Families can  easily obtain soft  water by depending upon the
cistern and  the  clouds.   Very cheap  filters can  be at any time
constructed, so that cistern-water can  be  had very pure: for in-
stance, a large common funnel, a  keg with a hole in the bottom,
or something of  the kind,  can be used, a sponge or fine rags being
pressed closely in the opening, and thus the water can be made
very clear : and if there is any fear of decayed animal matter being
in the rain-water, a layer of clean sand and fine charcoal over the
sponge or other substance, will serve  to remove this.  It is the
charcoal that acts  as a disinfectant, removing the animal matter.
There is no way  of filtering out  the hardness of hard water.   Some
families in and about New York and Boston have double cisterns,
so that rain-water, by pressure,  passes from one  to the other
through a large  filter box, and thus the water is made as pure and
limpid as  can be imagined:  and yet, when such water is at hand,
for drink,  many  prefer the hard water of the well.

                   INJECTIONS, OR CLYSTERS.
  These constitute an important part of the treatment.  They are
highly valuable  in  various  complaints.   The  bowels  can  at any
time be easily kept free, and the evils and unpleasantness of con-
stipation  thus be at  once removed.   This application is  also of
great service in all bowel complaints.   Severe diarrhoea, dysentery,
cholera morbus,  and colic, can  often be speedily arrested  by this
application alone.   In inflammation of the bowels it is of most sig-
nal benefit.   The author has, in different  instances, given imme-
diate relief in this disease, when the bowels had been for days ob- 
PROCESSES OF WATER-CURE.
147
stinately closed, resisting the action of the most powerful medi-
cines.
  This  application  should be made with an instrument by which
no air will be introduced into the parts.  Air may cause pain.   It
should  always be carefully expelled by forcing water through the
instrument a few times before it is inserted.
  The quantity of water  to be  used will vary.   As much  as can
be retained, be it more or less, can be taken.  The temperature is
to be made according to the feelings of comfort, never too warm
or too cold.  Many take cold water.
  Some have  a prejudice against this application, thinking  that it
will  weaken the bowels like cathartic medicine or cathartic clys-
ters, but this is not  true.  Pure water rightly used in this way
strengthens.
              ABREIBUNG, OR RUBBING WET SHEET.
  A linen sheet of  coarse quality, suitable for holding considerable
water, and at the same time serving well for friction, is here used.
It is better to press and not wring the sheet out of the water, and
it may  be  allowed  even dripping.   The patient standing ready, it
is to be thrown over the head or about the neck, so as to create a
slight shock;  active friction  is made (over, not with the sheet) by
the assistant behind, and  the patient before, if able, or by another
assistant.   This should be continued from one to five minutes, when
the skin will have become reddened  and warm.   This must  be im-
mediately followed briskly by  a coarse dry sheet or  dry  cloths,
until  the  surface is perfectly dry and in a complete  glow.  The
patient  is then immediately dressed for exercise, or for bed, as the
case may be.   The temperature of  the water used should corre-
spond with the strength of the patient.  Those who are so feeble
as to render  it necessary for them to remain in  bed, can be often
much  benefited by a judicious  rubbing while in bed.   This is a
highly useful and convenient application, and, if judiciously made,
will  produce nearly, if not quite all, the good effects of a bath, and
will  often be found much more  convenient of application.

                   WET SHEET, OR  LEINTUCH.
  The  first reclining upon this sheet will be disagreeable.   If it is
to be  used to reduce the  temperature of the body, as in high
fevers,  it is well to have it of coarse quality, in order to hold more
water.  To apply it,  the  mattress of the bed or couch should bo 
   148              PROCESSES  OF WATER-CURE.

   made bare, one or more large thick woolen blankets next, and  the
   sheet last, upon which the patient is to lie.  He is to be quickly
   and snugly enveloped, from the neck to the feet, first Avith  the
   wet sheet, and then with the blanket.  These adjusted with care,
   the packing is finished by covering over the whole a light feather
   bed, and a quilt, or a sufficiency of other bedding without  the
   feather bed.   After remaming twenty or thirty minutes, or long
   enough to become tolerably warm,  some form of ablution suited to
   the patient's condition is administered.
     In cases of acute rheumatism, or gout, where it would be troub-
   lesome  for the patient to be moved, or in any case where it might
   be better for the patient to remain quiet for a longer time, two or
   three sheets can be used instead of one, to act as a refrigerant for
   a  longer  time.  A long tOAvel from  the armpit down, upon each
   side, has  been recommended, so that the Avhole body be exposed
   to the wet linen.
     In cases of acute fever, the sheets must  be changed according
   to the degree of heat, every quarter or half hour, until the  dry
   hot skin becomes softer, and more prone to perspiration.  This is
   usually the first process of the day, and is repeated or not, accord-
   ing to circumstances.
     The wet sheet  process  is of great advantage in a variety  of
   chronic as well as acute cases; such as are attended with an irrita-
   ble and inactive skin, and in a multitude of skin diseases.   A  fre-
   quent change of the sheets in such cases would be unnecessary as
   a rule.   Determination of  blood to the head is to  be removed or
   prevented by cold applications to it.  Should the feet remain cold
   in the wet cloths, they should be  extricated and wrapped in  dry
   cloths only.   At the close of the  process  the  patient should be
   briskly rubbed until the surface is dry.
     r"The Avet sheet produces two diametrically opposite effects, ac-
   cordingly as it is used.   If it be changed frequently, as fast as the
   patient becomes warm, as, for instance, in cases of fever, almost
   any amount of heat may be abstracted slowly and gradually from
   the body.   But if the patient remain for half an hour, the most
   delicious sensation of Avarmth, and a  gentle breathing perspiration
   are produced, while all pains and uneasiness are removed.   It pro-
   duces all the soothing influence upon the entire  system which is
i   produced by a warm poultice on an inflamed surface."*
\                       * Dr. Edward Johnson. 
PROCESSES OF WATER-CURE.
149
  For very delicate patients it has been suggested that the sheet
be pressed out of tepid water, as introductory to the cold.
  Respecting the application of cold water over the whole body:
" Let us now suppose that heat is abstracted from the whole surface
of the body; in this case the whole action of the oxygen will be di-
rected to the skin, and in a short time the change of matter must
increase throughout  the body.  Fat, and all such matters as are
capable of combining with  oxygen,  which is brought to them in
larger  quantity than usual, will be expelled from the body in the
form of oxydized compounds."*                                 i'r
  " If therefore the  body contain any morbific  matters, these will <
be expelled  in the form of such compounds."!
  According to Liebig,  the same results may sometimes be accom-
plished by a very scanty diet.

                 COMPRESSES AND WET BANDAGES.
  Locally, water may be applied  in various ways.  Bandages are
made to produce the same effect upon any part  of  the body, as
the leintuch upon the whole body.  As cooling or refrigerant ap-
plications, they should be applied of a size suited to the part in-
flamed, folded from three or four to eight  times, dipped in very
cold water,  and are to be renewed from every three or four to ten
minutes, according to the necessities of the case.
  As to the effect of the various partial applications of cold water
to the system,  " they act by determining the force of oxygen from
one part to  another. Q They produce  all the effects of both bleeding
and blistering, except the pain." )
   "If,"  says Liebig,  "we surround  a part of the body with ice or
snow, while the other parts are left in a natural state, there occurs
more or less quickly, in consequence of the loss of heat, an accel-
erated change of matter in the cooled part.
   " The resistance of the living tissues to the action of oxygen, is
weaker at the cooled part than in the other parts; and this, in its
effects, is equivalent to  an increase of resistance in these  other
parts—the  whole action of the inspired oxygen is exerted on the
cooled part.
   " In the  cooled part of the body, the living tissues  offer  a less
resistance to the chemical action of the inspired oxygen;  the powj
* Liebig.            t Dr. E. Johnson. 
150
PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.
er of the oxygen to unite with the elements of the tissues is, at this
part, exalted.
   " In the  cooled part the change of matter, and with it the  disen-
pagement of heat, increases ;  Avhile, in the other parts, the change
'•f matter and liberation of heat decrease."
   "And thus," says  Dr.  Johnson,  "by the judicious use of cold
 (vater alone, all the good effects of blistering and bleeding  are most
 •eadily and certainly produced, Avithout any of the bad effects.  The
 »)ad effects of repeated bleeding in certain diseases are  Avell known
to medical men.   We knoAV  perfectly Avell, that it often  happens
that a patient is saved by bleeding, from dying of an inflammation,
only that he may die  of a dropsy; that a patient is often saved by
bleeding from dying of haemorrhage from  the lungs, only that he
may die the sooner of a consumption.

             WARMING, OR STIMULATING BANDAGES.
   These are applied by folding linen two or three times,  and  dip-
ping them in cold water, or they may be made slightly tepid  ; they
should be well pressed or wrung out, and are not to be  changed
until they begin to dry.   They must be  well adapted to  the part,
and also well secured from  the action of the  air by a dry band-
age, which' is better to  be  a non-conductor of heat, so that the
 part may be raised in temperature.   The combined action of heat
 and moisture  thus produced is highly  beneficial in a great va-
 riety  of indurations,  swellings, tumors,  etc.   In the  water-cure,
 they are also much used  in derangements of the digestive organs,
 affections of the abdomen, diseases  of the liver, etc.
   For the  abdomen, a convenient form is made  by folding  and sew-
 ing together two or  three thicknesses of linen, of sufficient  length
 to pass round the body two  or more times, the width varying ac-
 cording to the size of the person;  one end is wet and wrung out
 enough in  length to cover the abdomen,  or to pass round  the body
 if desirable, and then applied as tightly as  comfortable—and the
 dry folds over in the  same manner; the  whole  secured by pins, or
 better  by  tapes attached for the purpose.   There should  always
 be enough of dry cloths of some kind to  prevent a permanent chill.

                           SWEATING.
   In this process, the patient, being naked, is closely enveloped in
 a large thick blanket, with the legs extended and the arms close to 
PROCESSES OF WATER-CURE.             151
the body.  The blanket must be tightly drawn and well tucked un-
der, so that every part of the body, from the head down, is in im-
mediate contact with it.  Then over all there must be a sufficiency
of clothing of some  sort (cotton comfortables are good), all well
tucked under, so as to retain all the  animal heat.   " Thus hermeti-
cally enveloped, the patient exactly resembles a mummy."   This
constrained position and the irritation of the blanket are at first disa-
greeable,  particularly  until perspiration  commences, which takes
place in from one half hour to two hours' time.  Those that perspire
with difficulty, should move the legs and rub the body with their
hands  all that the position will allow.  It is however more desira-
ble to obtain the end without the exertion, if  it can be done.  Some-
times the head, all but the face, is also covered.   When sweating
commences, the windows should be thrown open, so as to admit fresh
air, and the patient be allowed to take small draughts of water, a
wine-glass or more every ten or fifteen minutes.  This will not only
be  refreshing, but will also promote the sweating.   If there be
headache, or a determination of blood to the  head,  cooling band-
ages should be  applied, and changed as often as necessary.  If,
from the length of time of  the  envelopment, it be necessary, a uri-
nal should be placed at the patient before the wrapping up.   To
allay the  pain of swellings,  tumors, etc.,  warming applications
should be applied before the envelopment; otherwise the pain would
be  liable to  an increase, before perspiration commences.   Those
who are very  restless, should be confined by additional cloths and
girths; otherwise the time would be  too much prolonged.   With
the best that can be  done, some will require  four or five hours' en-
casement.
   The best  time  for  sweating  in  chronic  cases, is early in the
morning.   As a rule, only once a day.  The  repetition would be
the exception.  In  acute  cases, the time of sweating will depend
upon the fever, exacerbations, etc., and should be resorted to  when
necessary, without reference to the time of day.
   When the process has continued long enough, the  coverings (all
but the thick blanket) are to be removed.  The blanket must be loos-
ened—about the legs in particular.  An attendant should wet with
a cloth  the parts to be exposed to the air.   The patient, if able,
goes immediately to the  bath, washes the  head, face, neck, and
chest very briskly, and then enters the bath immediately, and re-
mains from one to six or eight minutes, keeping up constant motion 
152
PROCESSES  OF AVATEK-CURE.
   and friction; and then immediately, on leaving the bath, the \Aliole
   surface must be made thoroughly dry by rubbing with cloths, etc.
      Those who are able should then take exercise in the open air, or
   in a well-aired room.  Those not able should be well rubbed by at-
)  tendants.  No danger is to be dreaded from the sudden  transition
\  from heat to cold, in this kind of sweating, if every thing is proper-
<r  ly done, as abundant experience proves.
 """"* This highly valuable part of the water-cure can very easily be
\   made the means of much evil.   It is an engine of great poAver, and
I   therefore should be practiced with the utmost caution.   In cold,
   phlegmatic  habits, where  the skin is inactive, the sensibility dull,
   and the circulation sluggish, it is productive of great benefit.  But
j   in the sanguine temperament, wiiere the  circulation is active and
   Ithe sensibility acute, or if in any case it is carried too far, it is pro-
   ductive of great mischief.  The relationship, or equilibrium, between
   the two great vital functions, circulation and respiration, would be
   destroyed.  The velocity  of the circulation would  be increased,
1  Avithout a corresponding increase of respiration, thus destroying an
   equilibrium absolutely necessary to health, and Avhich destruction,
   if maintained for a considerable time, must inevitably terminate with
/  the most serious results.
      "Profuse  perspiration operates  upon the  body, first  like the
;  surgeon's lancet, in reducing the volume  of the  contained fluids.
 \  Secondly, it operates like the physician's blister, by determining
 j  from the centre to  the circumference.  It  thus relieves congestion
 ■  of the vital organs, and lightens the whole  system.   But  it does
   vastly more than can be achieved either by bleeding or blistering;
   for it extricates from the body an increased amount of carbon and
 j  hydrogen, thus producing a deficiency of these elements  within it.
j  This  deficiency of carbon and hydrogen is equivalent to a call for
(  more food,  in order to  supply the place of the lost  carbon and
 ;  hydrogen.  And thus it promotes appetite, which is mdre than can
 \  be said for either lancet or blister, by their warmest admirers."*
 )    Priessnitz does  not resort to sweating as much as he  once did.
 . We are told that where he formerly sweated fifty patients, he does
 I not now sweat half a dozen.
* Dr. Edward Johnson. 
PROCESSES  OF  WATER-CURE.
153
                         CHAPTER VIII.

            PROCESSES OF WATER-CURE—(Continued)

 Modes in which the Bath should be taken.—The Cold Bath not to be resorted to when the
  Body is Chilly.—Necessity of keeping in Motion while in the Bath.—Those who have
  weak Chests must be careful in  their use of the Cold Bath.—Exercise beneficial after
  Bathing.—Full Baths should sometimes be discontinued for a period.—The Half Bath.—
  Its Uses and Effects.—Long-continued Hip or Sitz Baths.—Priessnitz's mode.—The Bath
  is sometimes taken after the Packing Sheet.—Means of reducing Feverishness.—Foot
  Bath.—Used to counteract Pains in the upper Part of the Body.—Headache and Tooth-
  ache.—The Feet should be Warm before they are put into cold Water.—Exercise to be
  taken immediately after the Foot Bath.—This is much better than going to the Fire.—
  This Bath good in Fatigue.—To be used cautiously by the Gouty.—Head Bath.—Its use
  in Headache, Inflammations of the Eye, Deafness, and loss of Smell and Taste.—Rush of
  Blood to the Head.—Mode of taking the Head Bath.—Finger Bath.—Mode of treating
  Whitlow or Felon.—Eye Bath.—How and  for what Used.—Leg Bath.—Its uses.—Sitz
  Bath.—Mode of administering it.—Its importance.—Douche Bath.—Its effects.—Douches
  at Graefenberg.—Mode of taking the Douche.—It should be used with great Caution.—
  Length of Time for taking this Bath.

            DESCRIPTION OF THE  GRAEFENBERG BATHS.
   The entire or public bath  at Graefenberg is about thirty feet in
circumference, and sufficiently deep  for  a man  of  che  ordinary
height to plunge into up to his neck.   The water is  constantly re-
newed by springs in the mountains, the Avaters of which are con-
veyed through pipes into the bath, and escape by an opening for
that  purpose, so  that no  impurities  may remain; besides which,
the bath is emptied and cleaned twice a day: but this remark ap-
plies to  Graefenberg only,  as at  Freiwaldau, with but few excep-
tions, the houses are supplied Avith portable baths.
   The immersion of the body coArered with sweat,  into cold water,
is exempt from  danger? provided the organs of perspiration are in
a state of repose.^  The risk which is  incurred of  catching cold, if,
on arriving at a river to bathe, we  remain  until  the body is cold
and  dry, cannot possibly exist in this case : as we thereby abstract
from the body the heat which it requires to produce reaction, and
thus lose the good  effect of bathing.   Then if  Ave walk fast, or a
long distance to the bath, it is requisite to repose a little, in order
to tranquilize the lungs, after which we must undress quickly, and
                   * From Captain Claridge's Hydropathy.
              7* 
154
PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.
plunare head foremost into the water, haAing first wetted the head
and chest, to prevent the blood mounting to those regions,   mis
precaution is strongly enforced at Graefenberg.  During the bath,
the head ought  to  be immersed several  times into the  Avater.
Great  care  is  requisite in  not exposing  the body, betAveen
throwing aside the  blanket  after sweating and entering into the
bath.
  It is highly advantageous to keep in movement in the bath, and
to rub with the hands  any parts afflicted.   The skin is thus  stimu-
lated and the sensation of cold abated.   People whose  chests are
affected,  must exercise moderation in the use of the bath, entering
it only by degrees, and not staying in it too long.  In general, the
time for remaining  in  the  bath is  governed by the coldness of
the water, and the vital heat of the bather; but no  general rule
can be adopted with respect to this.   At Graefenberg,  where the
temperature of  the water is  from 43 to 50 degrees, no  one stays
longer in the bath than from six to eight minutes, many only two
or three.  Priessnitz advises his  patients to  avoid the second sen-
sation of cold, which is a sort of fever,  by leaving the bath  before
it is felt: by this means the  patient will avoid a too powerful re-
action, provoked by  a great subtraction of heat.   This  precaution
is indispensable at the  epoch of the treatment, marked by  fevers
and eruptions.   Then a reaction, produced by an immoderate use
of the bath or  douche, would compel  the invalid to keep his bed
for some days, without at all accelerating the cure.
   On leaving the bath, which is found more refreshing than any
one can imagine who has not experienced its effects, you are  cover-
ed with a sheet, over that  a cloak is thrown, and thus you go to
your  room,  where the whole body is dried and rubbed; and then
you  must dress  quickly, and walk to keep up the warmth.  To
effect this by the heat of stoves  or beds, would be acting in direct
opposition to the treatment.  A glass  or two  of water immedi-
ately after the bath is agreeable, and  should  not be omitted Avhile
walking.
  When irritation is highly excited during the cure, baths should
be suspended, as they would augment  it.  A general washing of
the body, and sitz baths, are then resorted to.  Sweating  is also
replaced by the envelopment of the body in a damp sheet, the re-
peating of which operation, together with the sitz bath, will cause
the irritation to cease. 
PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.
155
                        THE HALF  BATH.
   The half bath is about  the size  of those generally used in our
 houses, and is  only employed  in cases in which the whole bath
 would be  too much for the strength of the invalid, who may re-
 quire to be bathed for a longer time, in order to excite the morbid
 humors.  It is, in effect, less active than the entire bath, and being
 attended with less  danger, is frequently administered to new-com-
 ers for about  a  week, preparatory to the large  bath;  the tempera-
 ture  of the small,  or half bath, is never lower than sixty degrees.
   The water  in these  half  baths is only about three to six inches
 deep.  When it is necessary that the invalid should have the ad-
 vantage of an entire bath, water is  poured upon him, or the at-
 tendant constantly wets the body  and head  with the  water  of
 the bath.
   When these small baths  are  used, in  order to be less exciting,
 the upper  part  of  the body is  sometimes  covered, and the  bath
 hermetically closed, so that the  head only appears.
   This is in cases where it is necessary that the invalid should re-
 main in them for  an hour  or  two. We have  known Priessnitz
 order this for  five or six hours at a time, and repeat it several days
 successively, in order to provoke irritation, and produce fever.
 Last  year,  a doctor afflicted with  an atonic gout was subjected to
 this treatment, and was  completely  cured.  It is, indeed, a com-
 mon thing  at Graefenberg to see invalids remain for hours thus en-
 closed in the small bath, and  continue doing  the same for days,
 until fever  is produced; this brings the morbid matter to the skini
 in the form of abscesses, which sometimes discharge themselves in
 sufficient quantity for the matter to fill several glasses.   When this
 crisis  takes place, the baths are suspended during the discharge of
 these  humors,  by which the system is much benefited.
   The half bath is frequently taken by the patient immediately af-
 ter he has been  confined in the wet sheet.  It is accompanied by a
 general sprinkling of the body with cold water and rubbing. While
 still sweating,  the patient should hasten to the bath, throw off the
 covering, previously wetting the head and chest, and the attendant
 should pour a  pailful of water upon  the head, when the face and
 body  must  be  well  rubbed.   This last part of the process is often
 continued for ten or fifteen minutes together, sometimes much lon-
ger.   When the patient quits the bath he dries himself, dresses, and
proceeds to take exercise in the open air immediately;  but persona 
156
PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.
who have not the means of consulting a  doctor acquainted with
Priessnitz's mode of treatment, are not advised to attempt this.
  In almost all cases of fever  the patient is first Avrapped up her-
metically in a wet sheet, which is changed as soon as it becomes
warm, and repeated until the fever has subsided.  As each of these
sheets will become hot from having extracted a certain quantity of
the caloric from  the body, it  necessarily  follows that a  chill Avill
succeed the subsiding of the fever;  the patient is then placed in
the bath and rubbed all over by two persons, Avith the bare hand,
until all the symptoms are abated.  The  patient then joins in the
promenade, or at the public tables.   If at  night feverish symptoms
return, the same  operation is performed, and  repeated until a per-
fect cure is effected.

                          FOOT BATH.
   The foot bath is employed almost  exclusively as a counteracting
agent against the pains of the  upper part of the body.  Priessnitz
prescribes these baths for precisely the same purposes that the fac-
ulty order warm ones, yet every one knows that the feet, after a
warm bath, become cold, and then  the reaction is upward, while,
on the contrary,  after a cold bath the feet become warm and the
reaction is  downward.   Headache and .toothache,  Avhatever may
be their causes, particularly those that are of a violent nature, in-
flammation of the eyes, and effluxes of blood to the head, are almost
always relieved by means of the foot bath.  To this should be ad-
ded the application of wet bandages, without dry ones over them.
The tub, or basin, in which these foot baths are taken, ought only.
to contain warm water from two to three inches deep, or just enough
to cover the toes; for the toothache, one  inch is sufficient; and
the bath may be applied for some fifteen  minutes to half an hour.
 In cases of sprains, the feet must be  put in water up to the ankles.
 The water, when it becomes lukewarm, should be changed.   The
 feet, during the whole time, should be well rubbed by the hand, or
 against  each other, in order  to promote a strong reaction.   Care
 must be taken that the feet are warm before they are put into wa-
 ter, and exercise should be taken immediately afterward, to  bring
 back the  heat to  them.   Rubbing  them with a dry hand  assists
 this very much.  Cold foot  baths  are sure means of  preventing
 tendency to cold  in the feet; the  application of  hot Avater  only
 weakens the skin, and renders the  feet more susceptible to cold 
PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.             151
When they are extremely cold, instead of exposing them to the fire
to warm, it is much better to  produce the  effect  required by ex-
ercise.  If we want any proof of the reaction caused by the foot
bath, and its powers of preservation from catching cold, we have
but  to  feel our feet an hour or two hours  after the bath, and
we shall then find them  extremely hot.   If  we cannot avoid being
exposed for a long time to a piercing cold, it is well to take a cold
foot bath two hours previous to going out.  After great fatigue, a
foot bath of this description, before going to bed, is most refresh-
ing.  Gouty subjects  should  not use these  baths  Avithout  advice;
but to people in general, Priessnitz recommends their  frequent use.
He contends, that in the feet many of the most serious complaints  (
commence.                                                 «-—*•>
   Homer, when  he stated Achilles to  be invulnerable except in
the  heel, no doubt knew that the feet were  the most important
parts of the human frame.  The poorer people, who  wear  neither
shoes nor stockings, or whose feet are constantly exposed to a sort
of foot bath, are seldom subject to those complaints which attack
the upper region of the body.
*  ' An Irish gentleman, thinking to do his shepherd a service, who
had lived in a low, marshy  situation for  many  years, sent him
to another estate, which was  high and dry, and  asking him how  ,
he liked  it, he replied,  "Not at all; he had never been well a  J
day since he had been there, for there was not a drop of water to  (
wet his feet."                                               ——'

                          HEAD BATH.
   Head baths  are used for rheumatic pains in the head, common
headaches, rheumatic inflammations of the eye, deafness,  loss of
smell and taste.   They tend to disturb the morbid humors, which
nature generally evacuates in the form of  abscesses in the ears.
Theyjare also used to prevent the flow of blood to the head, but
 in this case only for a few minutes, in order to avoid too  great a
 reaction.  These  should be followed by exercise  in the open air,
 in the! shade.  This bath  is used  as follows: a wash-hand  basin
 should be placed at the end of a rug  upon  the floor.   On this
 rug the patient should extend himself, so that his head may  reach
 the basin, at the bottom of which may be  placed a  towel for the
 head to rest upon.  Then the back of the head must be placed in
 the water; then one  side; and lastly, the other side of the  head. 
158
PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.
All this is terminated by again placing  the back part of the head
in the water.
  The duration of this bath depends upon the nature and extent
of the disease.   In chronic inflammation of the eye, each part of
the head should remain in water for fifteen minutes; and as long
for deafness, loss of smell and taste.  All this will  occupy an hour,
during which time the water should be renewed twice.
  If these baths and foot baths are continued with perseverance,
success is certain.  This success is generally announced by violent
headaches, until the  formation  of an  abscess  takes  place, which
finishes by breaking.
  For the common  headache,  the back of  the head may be ex-
posed  to  the water  from  ten  to fifteen minutes, and each side
from five to ten minutes; if it is obstinate, a foot bath and a sitz
bath,  both slightly chilled, should be used for half an hour each.

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

                          EYE  BATH.
  Water is held to the eye, which for a minute is  kept closed, and
then opened for five minutes in a small glass, made for the pur-
pose,  in  circumference  about the size of the eye.  The head bath
is generally used with this bath, but the latter  is repeated oftener,
and in most cases Avhere there is inflammation, a fomentation is ap-
plied to the back of the head on going to bed, and another at the
back during the day.  For weak eyes the forehead is  bandaged
on going to bed.   Sitz and foot baths form part of this treatment.

                          LEG BATH.
  The thighs  and legs, when  afflicted with ulcers, ring-worms,
wounds,  or fixed rheumatic pains, ought to be put into a  bath  so
as to cover the parts  afflicted.   The object of these baths is for
them to act as stimulants.   They may be taken  for an  hour, and
sometimes longer: they  always determine  abscesses, and where
they  already exist, they cause  an abundant suppuration.   They 
PROCESSES OF WATER-CURE.
159
are also applicable to any other members  afflicted  in  a like
manner.
                       THE SITZ BATH.
  For want of a better term, we adhere to that of the Germans,
and instead of a sitting we call it a sitz bath.
  This is a  small flat tub, of about  seventeen inches in diameter,
with water seldom  more than three or four inches deep;  in this
people sit as in a hip bath,  Avith their feet resting on the ground,
for different periods—a quarter  of an hour, half an hour, an hour,
or more, as may be deemed sufficient.   This, in some cases, is re-
peated two or three times a day.  The sitting bath is considered
by Priessnitz to be of so  much importance in his treatment, that
those patients are  considered quite  as exceptions for whom it is
not prescribed.  It has the effect of strengthening the nerves, of
drawing the humors from the head, chest, and abdomen, and re-
lieving  flatulency, and is of the utmost value to  those who have
led a sedentary life.
   The object of using so little  water  in this bath, the half bath,
and foot bath, is, that  a reaction may the sooner be^ effected.  If
a greater body of  water were used, it would remain cold during
the whole  time of  its application, and cause congestions  to the
upper regions; whereas, in this case, it almost immediately attains
the heat of the blood, and admits of an immediate reaction.
   To prevent the former, the patient should apply a wet bandage
to the  head: and  to succeed more effectually  in the  object  for
which the sitz bath is prescribed, he  should rub the abdomen as
much as possible with a wet hand.

                          DROP BATH.
   "This term is applied to single  drops of water falling from a
height of several fathoms.   For this form of bath a vessel is used
filled Avith very cold Avater,  and  furnished with  a very small aper-
ture,  through which water passes in the form of drops.  The small
aperture should be  partially closed by a plug, to prevent the drops
from following each  other  in rapid succession.   By these means
their operation is considerably increased, and it becomes yet more
potent if we allow  the drops to  fall upon  a particular part at cer-
tain periods, and rub the part during the intervals.  The reaction
about to commence will indeed  be thus interrupted, but will after-
ward make its appearance in a more powerful, energetic form. 
160
PROCESSES OF AVATER-CURE.
  " The violent excitement and irritation of the nervous system pro-
duced  by these baths, render it necessary to restrict the  use of
them to half an hour; nor are they, indeed, adapted for vital parts,
or such as are abundantly supplied Avith nerves.
  " They are often used with more effect in obstinate and chronic
cases of  paralysis, than the douche or affusion, Avith which they
may alternate.   PoAverful and continued friction with a horse-hair
glove is neAer in this case to be neglected after the baths."*

                      THE  DOUCHE BATH.
  The  douche, of all the means employed, is the most powerful in
moving the bad  humors,  and disturbing them from the position
which they may have occupied for  years : they are also used in the
greater number of  chronic diseases.  The  douche  corrects  the
weakness which the skin  may have contracted in the process of
sweating, and also fortifies it.  It  hardens  the  body, and renders
it capable of  supporting all variations  in the atmosphere.   It ex-
ercises a powerful action upon the  muscles  and nervous system, by
the reaction which it provokes.   What is understood by a douche,
at Graefenberg, is a spring of water running out of the mountain,
conveyed by  pipes into small huts, where it falls from the top in a
stream about the thickness of one's wrist, which fall constitutes
the difference  between the douche and a  shower bath;  outside
this hut is another for dressing, constructed like the first, in the
rudest way imaginable.
  There are  six douches in the forest of  Graefenberg: the  fall of
the first  is fifteen feet; the second, ten feet; the third, twenty feet;
the fourth, eighteen feet.   The douches set apart for women have
a fall of twelve feet each: the diameter of  the fall is the same as
in those  of the men.
  At the colony there is a douche  which is available all the winter:
this^is  not the case  with the others.  About half a  mile out of the
town of  Friewaldau, there are four more douches, resorted to by
both sexes.   Nearly all the douches are at some distance from the
places  of residence of the patients,  which  occasions a walk to arrive
at them, so that the body is in a glow, and better calculated to be
benefited by the effect of the water, when submitted to the process.
  Parts  afflicted should, for the greater part  of the time, be ex-
posed  to the  action of the douche, though it must be received oc-
                * Weiss's Hand-Book of Hydropathy. 
PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.
161
casionally upon  all parts of  the  body, except on the head and
face, unless this is especially ordered by Priessnitz.   Weak chests
should also avoid it  on that part and the abdomen, otherwise the
fall of the water on the lower part of the stomach or belly is not
injurious.  The atony of this region will not, however, always re-
sist these means.   The relief afforded by the douche, sometimes in
a few minutes, in  arthritic cases and rheumatism, is almost mirac-
ulous.
   The-douche being intended to put the morbid humors in move-
ment, ought  to  be discontinued when it produces feverish excite-
ment, and be commenced again when that has ceased.
   The time recommended for the douche by different authors, is
from one half minute to fifteen minutes.  This, as all other strong
impressions on the body,  as a rule, should never be  made with a
full stonlach, and generally not more than once or twice daily.
   " The  most intense expression which can be made by the appli-
cation of cold water is by the douche-Pand there must  be  in the
system a very  considerable amount of vital force  to enable the
patient to bear this  mode of application .j  A misapplication may
so far lower the  vital  resistance  as to make the reaction exceed-
ingly difficult, or even impossible.   It may knock the patient so vio-
lently down as to make it difficult for him to  get up again—thus
giving rise to dropsical swellings of the legs and feet, venous con-
gestion,  piles, varicose veins, and other symptoms of  deficient vital
actions.  It sometimes produces the most extraordinary effects, as
weeping, laughing, trembling, etc.   In its proper place, however,
it exercises a most powerful influence over  disease, and  seems to
exert an  especial impression upon the absorbents.  I have seen tu-
mors of long standing most rapidly absorbed, and disappear, under
the use of the douche."*
                      * Dr. Edward Johnson 
162
PROCESSES OF WATER-CURE.
                        CHAPTER IX.

           PROCESSES  OF WATER-CURE—(Continued.)
Shower Bath, an excellent Mode of taking it—Its great Value in a variety of Diseases.—
  A Bath for every One.—How often should we Bathe.—Daily Bathing advocated.—The
  Vapor Bath.—Alleged Objections to its Use answered.—The Vapor Bath in some cases
  a better Mode than the Wet Sheet.—The Tompsonians are often Successful.—Great dis-
  regard of the importance of making remedial Applications to the Skin.—A Case.—Prac-
  tice of the ancient  Romans,  the Russians, and the American Indians.—Tepid, warm,
  and hot Applications of Water.—Many suppose, erroneously, that nothing but cold Water
  is used in the new System.—Cases in which warm or hot Water is useful.—A Case.—A
  Mode of Curing the Colic.—Caution in the Use of warm Water.—Temperature of
  Baths.—Curious Facts regarding the Sensations caused by Water.—Cautions in the Use
  of AVater.—Important Rules.—Air and Exercise.—These are important Adjuncts in Wa-
  ter-Cure.—Clothing.—Diet.—Principles of Digestion.

                          SHOWER BATH.
   The shower is probably the best form of bath for daily use, pro-
vided an abundance of water can be had.   There are many of these
used in New York since the introduction  of the Croton, and more
particularly since the subject of water is of late receiving a greater
share of attention.   One advantage of the bath of this kind is, that
it can be  taken  so  quickly; and then also the  constant shower of
water is very cleansing and invigorating.
   In this, as in  every kind of bath, the head should be  the part
first to commence upon.   If  the hair is long it can be  guarded by
a close oil-cloth or India rubber cap, but always the face, temples,
and neck, should first be wet.  This prevents the blood from rush-
ing to the head—an objection  that has been  made to the shoAver
bath.  If one is highly sensitive  to  the impression  of cold,  the
shower will be more bearable,  provided loud and continued excla-
mation be practiced while under the bath.   The exertion seems to
keep the blood outward.   Brisk  motion, as dancing and jumping,
with friction, should be at the same time resorted to,  and then the
body should  be quickly rubbed dry, and exercise be taken, or  a
weak person  can go to a warm bed.  The body should be made
thoroughly comfortable. 
PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.
163
  We have known  weak  invalids  who had scarcely ever taken a
cold bath, to  commence in midwinter Avith the shower, beginning
in the  morning immediately on coming from a warm bed, and in
the course of a few  Aveeks, such persons have gained an amount of
health  and strength which, for years, they had not known.   Rheu-
matism, incipient gout, giddiness, indigestion, with its long train of
symptoms, and the  like, have often in a remarkably short time been
removed; and individuals of a pale, sickly, and sallow look, have
acquired the  ruddiness and bloom of youth.
   In a few instances,  those who were weak and sensitive  to cold,
have been taken with a sudden neuralgise or rheumatic "twinge,"
but this is oftener than otherwise caused by the  bath being con-
tinued too long, or  the person not keeping up sufficient exercise
and friction.  This generally passes off at once, and has never, in
our experience, been alarming.  Still it should be  avoided.

                   A BATH FOR  EVERY ONE.
   An intelligent correspondent writes us of an ingenious contrivance
for bathing, as follows: " I purchased three yards of twilled cotton,
cut it in two pieces, had them sewed together; then  I got enough
old rope (about the size of my finger) to go round it, and had my
square piece  of cotton cloth bordered all about its four sides with
the rope.  I then took it to the painter, and had  it  oiled over on
one side with two coats, and dried.  This made me a perfect bathing
mat.   I place a pail of water upon it, and with a sponge  I wash
all  over.   After I have done, I take it up by the four corners and
pour out the water.  It is wiped and folded up.  When I travel,
this always goes with me, upon my trunk."  This individual knows
well the power of water, for after having suffered for many years
from a rheumatic complaint which had resisted the best of medical
treatment, he was cured in a few months by water.

            HOW OFTEN SHOULD A BATH  BE TAKEN ?         ^
  We know of no exception to the rule that a bath should be taken
daily.  Every sick person, in whatever condition, or however weak
they may be, should have the whole  body rubbed over with wet
cloths, sponges, or the like, at least once every day.   In some cases
great caution Arill be needed that it may be done safely.  Let those
who have lain for days upon a sick bed without any ablution, as is
generally the case in  the common practice of medicine, try, when 
164
PROCESSES OF WATER-CURE.
the body is warm, the rubbing it all o\-er, little by little, folloAving
briskly Avith dry cloths, and then  covering the parts Avarmly, ac-
cording to the  feelings of comfort, and they -will find it a most
poAverful tonic,  and an application productive  of great  comfort.
Physicians have yet many simple lessons of this kind to learn.
  We repeat, every individual, old and young, male and female,
sick or well, should have a daily bath.  And in case of  indisposi-
tion, instead of less attention to bathing, bathing the more should
be  given.  There is  no condition in  Avhich Nature Avould say
"stop;" but rather she asks at our hand assistance.

                        VAPOR  BATHS.
  Among those who advocate and practice Avater-cure, there seems
to be a general  opinion that vapor baths are injurious.   The ob-
jection  most commonly made is, that the vapor too much excites
the circulation, causes a rushing of blood to the head, and by this
undue excitation or stimulation the body becomes Aveakened.   It
is an  easy matter to cause injury by vapor baths.   If it is made
too powerful,  or is  too long continued, severe headache, and even
fainting, may be caused.  But this is the abuse.  If a patient is
wrapped in a dry blanket or a wet sheet to perspire, precisely the
same  injurious effects can easily be caused.  With a good appara-
tus, there is no difficulty in  regulating  the  vapor bath so that it
will be as mild as one pleases—as mild in temperature, even, as the
wet sheet in the way ordinarily used to cause  mild perspiration.
  It  has  been objected, that in vapor baths  the  heat is  from a
foreign  substance, and that therefore it must be debilitating  and
weakening.  But the same objection may be made respecting the
sweating blanket, or the wet sheet causing perspiration.  The nat-
ural heat of the body being  98 degrees Fah., there is constantly
passing off in every direction a considerable amount of heat, unless
it is some way obstructed;  but if this heat is obstructed, as by the
non-conducting blankets, as used in the wet sheet or sweating en-
velopment, and is retained at the surface, of the body, or is thrown
back  upon the  surface, the  effect is not  different  from what it
would be if the same amount of heat from any other source were
applied in a similar way.
  In  many cases, we  are confident, from  experience, that a vapor
bath  suitably arranged, with a cool or  cold bath after it,  is better
than  to lay for hours  in an envelopment.   The time thus gained 
PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.
165
by the vapor bath is very valuable for exercise in the open  air,
and is often better than for the patient to be laying in a room per-
haps not over well ventilated, as is generally the case.
  To prevent too much blood at the head, a cold  wet cloth, or a
frequent washing the head and temples in cold water, is very use-
ful.  A  headache or  faintness  are  the first  symptoms  denoting
that the bath is too powerful.  The vapor bath should never  be
used in  such a way as to cause  headache  or faintness.  Such
effects are never needed, and are always more or less pernicious.
  The Thomsonians, or  "steam doctors,"  as  they are sometimes
called, have been unmercifully and ignorantly vilified by many whose
ignorance in certain cases  superseded that of the ignorant ones
among  the " steamers," in  proportion  as it was more " scientific."
Who does not know that the Thomsonian has often relieved patients
in a most  remarkable  manner, when the " scientific" practitioner
was compelled to "give up."  A good vapor bath,  and a thorough
cleansing of the skin, will often cause  such speedy relief, that  it is
reckoned an accident rather than otherwise that relief is obtained.
The remedy appears too simple to cause any marked result.     **"
   Physicians generally seem to think  it  a thing  of little conse-
quence to pay any regard to the skin.   Day after  day, week after
week, and month after month, patients are alloAved to lay suffering
for want of a cleansing of the skin; and in cases,  too, where such
a cleansing of the skin would cause more sudden  relief than  any
thing else that can be done.  We knew a physician of very exten-
sive practice, who had under treatment a  person with  obstinate
fever.   After having done his utmost without any  good success,
he thought he would try vapor to "get up an action,"  as it  was
called ; and  to  do this, some  common barrel hoops were cut in
two, and the half hoops were placed  over the patient in  bed to
elevate the clothes; and then by hot stones or bricks  wound in  wet
cloths, placed under the bedding thus elevated, a  genial,  pleasant
vapor  was caused all about  the body, and  thus  by  this simple
means the patient was at once  greatly benefited.   It was  just the
thing needed.  The patient rapidly recovered.
   We lately had a patient who had  been  treated many months,
and who, on leaving home,  was given  by his physician written di-
rections, and to "wind up," it was  recommended  that, by  all
means, he should take vapor baths, should he be where they could
be obtained—as if a vapor bath could not be had  any where.  He 
166
PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.
   had been treated  all this  time without  any.   It is easy to give a
   bath of  this kind in the  following way:  A number of bricks or
   stones are heated red hot.  The patient is to sit upon a cane bot-
   tom  or open-work chair  (the clothing being  removed), with  a
   couple of woolen or other  blankets  pinned  about  the neck.   A
   vessel of water—a common tin pan is as good as  any thing—is
   placed under the chair, and into this water the hot bricks or stones
   are to be dipped,  little  by little, so that the vapor rises from the
   surface of the water.   The body can  thus be easily brought into
   perspiration.
     The ancient Romans  frequently used the vapor bath, and  the
   cold  one immediately  following.  The  Russians  go from vapor
   baths even  at 150 degrees Fahrenheit, and  plunge in  very cold
   water, or roll in the snow.  William Penn saw the vapor bath and
   the cold immersion used with remarkable success among the Indi-
   ans of our  own country;  and at the  present day, among the  red
   men  of the forest, the vapor is an important agent in the treatment
   of a  variety of diseases.

           TEPID, WARM, AND HOT APPLICATIONS OF WATER.
     One great objection to the new system,  is the supposed chilling
   effect of the treatment, (.ft is supposed  by many  that the new
   mode consists wholly of horrible applications of cold water.) Phy-
j   sicians themselves are not  always over-particular in avoiding exag-
   geration on this point.  It  is found  to be quite a good " bug-bear,"
   Iwith which to frighten  people, by basely stating that weak infants,
   children, and old persons,  are all to be subjected to the one horri-
 j  ble thing—cold water.
   " In many cases, no cold water  at all is used,  unless it be a little
   Iin the Avay of  drink.  It may be laid  down as  a rule, that when-
   ever warm or hot applications are  more agreeable to the feelings
   of the patient in subduing severe  pain,  as in severe  colics, certain
   inflammations  of  the bowels, cramps in the stomach and bowels,
(   pain in  the back, pleurisy, or pain within the  ribs  or chest, etc.,
 \  etc.,  the best  rule we know of, is  to consult_the feelings of the
   patient.  If there is high, burning inflammation, cold applications
 ,  wflTbe  the  most agreeable, and the best; but when there is pain
 )  without high, burning  inflammation, the warm or hot applications
 '•  are to be used.  Let the following case  illustrate :
      An individual had eaten too heartily  at  dinner, and of food, in 
                 PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.              167

his case, indigestible.  Very improperly, a full  supper was taken
upon this indigestible dinner, which  soon caused, in the stomach
and bowels, an  excruciating colicky pain.  In  similar  cases, the
man had removed the difficulty by clysters and vomiting, caused
by lukewarm water.  At this  time, however, these means failed,
giving only partial relief.   The  author  being called, he directed
that the patient have warm bricks  to his feet, and at once  large
toAvels folded over, to be  slightly wrung  out of water as hot as
could be borne, and applied all  over the  abdomen and a part of
the chest.  These were changed unremittingly, as hot and as often
as the patient desired, and very soon brought relief—sooner than
could have been done by any drug opiate whatever.   The bowels
were also  again freely purged, and the  acid and indigestible sub-
stances removed from the  stomach by much  drinking  of  tepid
water.  After all pain was removed, and the  stomach and bowels
were well cleansed Avith pure clean water, it would have been well
to have  applied the  tepid wet  sheet to sleep in.   This not being
convenient, and not being very essential, it was  omitted.   A good
night's rest was  obtained.  The individual lived nearly fasting the
next day, drinking,  however, a large quantity of water, mostly
with the chill off, and then returned gradually and cautiously to  a
more full diet, and thus avoided all pain.  In inflammation of the
stomach and bowels, in  almost every case where those  frightful
relapses take place, impropriety in food is the cause. In this case,
had not relief been soon given, there would inevitably have resulted
a very violent inflammation—in the stomach and bowels,  always  a
most formidable disease.
   A medical friend whom we highly esteem—a man who is never
afraid to break away from old usages, provided  he can see a better
wav—lately informed the writer, that in a case of most excrucia-
ting colic which fell under his treatment, when ordinary means had
 failed to bring relief, he caused the man quickly to be wrapped in
 a blanket wet in hot water, and this simple application caused im-
 mediate relief.  It is astonishing to witness what can be often done
 by so simple a  means  to  relieve  pain.   The same  principle was
 used by the ancients to  some  extent, and has  been more or less
 through all periods of time.   The relief caused by applying the
 warm skin of an animal just slain, or by putting  the patient into
 the warm  carcass of an  animal, an ancient mode, is upon the
 principle of warmth and moisture to soothe. 
168
PROCESSES OF  WATER-CURE.
  To propose a warm or tepid sheet, would perhaps  only excite
the ridicule of some who advocate Avater-cure.  But it is certain that
these are sometimes the best.  We sometimes prescribe Avarm wet
sheets, for  there  are  cases in which it Avould not be safe to apply
the cold one.  It is not productive of any sort of good for a Aveak
person to lay shivering in a cold wet sheet an hour or more, hoping
aftenvard to get warm.   Injury has been done by such means.  It
may be laid down as a rule, that when the body is cold, it should
not be made colder, but instead it should be made warmer; and if
this cannot be done by natural means, as by exercise, then artificial
means should be used.  Still the direct  effort of  heat is always
weakening.   The question, then, in warm or hot applications, is,
whether they are not on the whole of evils the least.
  Warm and hot foot baths  are often very useful.   But in  such
uses of Avater,  a  cold  application  following should  be used  to
counteract the weakening and relaxing effect of heat.

                   TEMPERATURE OF BATHS.
  Sensations from water alter very considerably, according to the
temperature  of  the  atmosphere, state  of health, etc., etc.   Hot
baths are  from  98 degrees Fah., the temperature of the blood,
upward.  Warm baths are generally reckoned from 92 degrees to
98 degrees; tepid, below 92 degrees.  A tepid bath to one, may
appear cold  to another.  As  a rule, the colder the bath, if well
borne, the better.  The  direct effect  of  warm baths is to weaken.
Whenever they are taken, the time should be very short, and they
should be  immediately folloAved by a cold plunge, dash, shower,
or at  least rubbing with a cold wet  cloth.  It is well known by
some housekeepers, that " washing day " can be borne with much
less fatigue, if most of the water used be cool or cold.
  As to different sensations, here is  a curious fact.  Atmosphere
55 degrees F.; body comfortable.  Took  three  basins of water at
60 degrees, 70 degrees, and 80 degrees.   Placed one hand  in the
water  at 60 degrees, the other in the water at 80 degrees.  Let
them remain thirty seconds, and then placed  both hands in the
water at 70 degrees; to one it was cold, to the other warm.
  It is said that in a road over the Andes, at about half-way be-
tween the  foot and summit,  there is a  cottage, in  which the as-
cending and descending travelers meet;  the former, who have just
quitted the sultry valleys at the base, are  sq relaxed that the sud- 
PROCESSES  OF WATER-CURE.              169
 den  diminution of temperature  produces in them a feeling of in-
 tense cold; while the latter, who  left the frozen summits of the
 mountain, are overcome by distressing sensations of extreme heat.

                CAUTIONS IN THE USE OF  WATER.
   Every one knows water may be made the means of great mis-
 chief.  According to the celebrated Dr. Currie, of Liverpool, Avater
 may be safely used at any time Avhen there is no sense  of chilliness
 present, when the heat  of the  surface  is steadily above what  is
 natural, and when there  is no general  or  profuse perspiration.
 For a full bath, genera] affusion, and drinking, these rules were by
 Dr. C. deemed  fully sufficient for  safety; and yet we  are  often
 told, that  such men as Dr. C. and Priessnitz  can  manage water
 safely, and with it do wonders, but that practitioners in general
 would not be able to make those nice distinctions, and would con-
 sequently do much mischief.  Better  by far  had it been if  drugs
 were no more dangerous  than water.
   To the above  may be  added, as a rule, no strong impression
 should be made with water, externally or internally, within  about
 three hours after a meal.  A bath upon  a full stomach may be
 very injurious.  But if there is indigestion, colic, or inflammation,
 water should be used at once, in a way suited to the case.
   Perspiration  caused by the envelopment, or  by vapor baths,
 does not come within Dr. Currie's rules.   It  is well known that a
 cool or cold  bath  rightly taken is not  dangerous immediately after
 sweating, if this is not caused by over-exertion.

                       AIR AND  EXERCISE.
   It will be  observed that these important adjuncts to  any kind
 of treatment, share largely in  the  water-cure.  Priessnitz insists
 that all who are able shall take an abundance of out-door exercise
 regularly.   The value of such exercise is inestimable.   Every one
 who observes at all respecting it, knows  the  invigorating  effect it
 has upon the system.   The cases given by different authors in this
 work,  will furnish sufficient directions in reference to these ad-
 juncts :
   " Priessnitz's first endeavor is to  alleviate pain, so that the pa-
 tients may avail themselves of air and  exercise.   How far this ob-
ject is attained may be judged of, from the circumstances that out
 of five hundred or six hundred, the usual average number of pa-
                 8 
170             PROCESSES  OF  WATER-CURE.

tients under his charge, there  are  seldom a dozen of persons in
bed at one time.  If their complaint be fever, he is so completely
master of the case, that no one  ever keeps his bed, and seldom his
room, for more than two or three days, excepting in cases of ty-
phus, a malady AAhich  generally takes twelve or fourteen days to
eradicate, but  hardly ever  longer.  The same  remark will  apply
to rheumatism.  If the  sufferer  can only reach Graefenberg, he
may be sure of immediate relief, such as elsewhere  would be called
a cure, and which is repeated  many times a year;  but the cure
can only be regarded then as just commenced, it being Priessnitz's
object to eradicate the cause of malady from the  system. f What
is understood  by a cure  at Graefenberg, is a perfect  cleansing of
the body of all impurities, a radical cure of that which has  been
the source of disease. J Cases of no very long standing succumb to
the treatment, sometimes in two or three months;  others resist for
one or two years.  Supposing, for  example, a  young man to be
attacked by gout, let him apply to Priessnitz, and he will be cured
immediately;  but another, who has inherited it from his  family,
and who has been a bon-vivant  himself for a number  of years, can-
not expect to be made  a new  man, but with the  exercise of pa-
tience ;  yet he will have this satisfaction, that during the cure he
will find himself, in other respects, in perfect health,  never be con-
fined to his room, and be able to take plenty of exercise."*

                          CLOTHING.
  Priessnitz requires of his patients that they lay aside their flan-
nel and  cotton.   He holds "that they weaken the  skin,  render
people  delicate, and less  able to contend against  atmospheric
changes."  When objections are made, he says, " Wear it, then,
over your shirt; but when you are accustomed  to  cold water, you
will not miss it.   After the bath which you have  now taken, run
or walk until you provoke perspiration.  You need  then have no
fear of catching cold."
                            DIET.
  Some who advocate the water-cure, as practiced by Priessnitz,
have made objections to the diet.  It is not pretended but that it
is improvable.   When it is said of his patients that " they eat too
much," it is only saying what is  true of civilized  man the world
over.   When Professor Mott, of this  city (New York), in one of
                       * Captain Claridge. 
PROCESSES OF WATER-CURE.
171
his lectures, said there was as much need of temperate eating so-
cieties as there was of temperate drinking societies, he by no means
meant to  be understood  as placing a low estimate  upon  popular
temperance societies; he was fully aAvare of the undeniable  fact,
that excessive alimentation is a most fruitful source  of disease.
Admitting that the diet at Graefenberg is not in all respects Avhat
it should be, as it is not, to obtain the best results in treating dis-
ease, it  only goes the more strongly to prove the power and value
of the water-cure.   In some important particulars, Priessnitz has
shown his good sense  and judgment, all must admit, who  are well
informed  on the subject  of diet.   "He deprecates  all  exciting
things, such as tea, coffee, wines, and spirits, and recommends cold
aliments rather than hot.  A rule for dieting (in disease, second
in importance to no other), is that which relates  to quantity.   In
the process of starvation, it is a well-known principle, that  the sub-
stances  or parts  of the body least essential to life are the first to
be wasted, and on  this same  principle, in cases of shipwreck and
other accidents,  tumors have been known to  disappear  rapidly,
and old ulcers to heal  in a very short time, with those who  have
been  thus subjected.   This rule, of course, will not  apply in all
cases of disease.
   " I know a gentleman," says Dr. Johnson, " who was  entirely
cured of an obstinate permanent stricture, by adopting  a  very se-
vere course of abstinence, as it regards  both food and drink, for
two or three weeks.  I am also  acquainted with several other very
severe cases of disease, entirely cured  by  the rigorous adoption of
a severe diet—but always in connection with  a very mild course of
the water  treatment."

                     DIET AND DIGESTION.
  The following  rules are drawn from Dr. Beaumont's well-known
Observations and Experiments, perseveringly made upon a healthy
young man, whose stomach Avas exposed by a wound which healed,
lea\ing 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 nu-
trient 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 nourish^
ment 
172
PROCESSES  OF AVATER-CURE.
   2. The more plain and simple the preparation of food, and the
less of seasonings of any kind, the better for the health.   Stimu-
lating condiments (salt, pepper, vinegar, mustard, etc.), instead of
being used AA'ith 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 like alcohol, or other
stimulants.  The present relief afforded is at the expense of future
suffering.
   3. Thorough mastication and slow swallowing are of great im-
portance.
   4. A due quantity of food is of the utmost importance.  There
is no subject of dietetic economy, says Dr.  B., about Avhich people
are so much in error, as that which relates to quantity.   Dyspep-
sia is oftener the effect of over-eating and over-drinking, than any
other cause.
   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 con-
diments, as mustard, pepper, spice,  etc., 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 artificial  drinks are all more or
less injurious.   " Tea and coffee," says Dr. B., " the common bev-
erage of all classes of people,  have a tendency to debilitate 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 injurious
tendency;  and this is only an addition to the strength of the nar-
cotic 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, etc., particularly with a full  stomach, tend to impair
digestion, 
THE  CRISIS OF  WATER-CURE.              173
                         CHAPTER  X.

                   THE CRISIS OF WATER-CURE.

The Crisis a remarkable Feature of the Water Treatment.—This is sought much at Graef
  enberg.—Symptoms preceding the Crisis.—Meaning of the Term.—In some Cases of
  Cure there is no perceptible Crisis of any kind.—Priessnitz's Doctrines concerning Cri-
  sis.—It often happens on the part originally Diseased.—Sir Charles Scudamore's expla-
  nation of the Crisis.—Boils do not occur in healthy Subjects.—Crisis, Boils, and Rashes
  act as Counter-irritants, as well as by purifying the Blood.—A Water Patient must often
  be Worse before he can be Better.—Too active Treatment should not be Practiced with
  a view of causing a  Crisis.—A case  of Injury by too severe Treatment.—Priessnitz's
  Skill and Prudence should not be lightly called into Question.—Does Water cause Drop-
  sy ?—The real Cause of this Affection.                                   «>«►. -

  One most remarkable feature in the water-cure is the Crisis,  as
it is termed.   It is said that at Graefenberg it is really amusing to
observe with what anxiety  it  is  looked for by the patients.   In
most cases it proves the certain harbinger of a  good cure.   " The
patients themselves are constant witnesses of this fact, and it is no
wonder, therefore,  that  they  should look forward  with pleasure
and  hope to  its  advent  in  their OAvn  persons.  A patient  is no
sooner missed from the table, than the question goes round, ' Has
so-and-so got a crisis ?'  And if the reply be in  the affirmative, the
report spreads like the news of a  fresh victory,  and  his friends as-
semble around him—not with long faces to condole him—but with
merry smiles, and laughing jests, to congratulate him on  his happy
fortune."   "The  following allegorical lines from Southey," says
Capt. Claridge, " might with great justice be literally applied, by
the  individual who has passed through the  crisis,  and been re-
stored to health:"

           " Most blessed water!  Neither tongue can tell
             The blessedness thereof, nor heart can think,
             Save only those to whom it hath been given
             To taste of that divinest gift of heaven.
             I stopped and drank of that divinest well,
             Fresh from the rock of ages where it ran  ; 
174
THE CRISIS OF WATER-CURE.
            It had a heavenly quality to quell
            All pain. I rose a renovated man ;
            And would not now, when that relief was known,
            For worlds the needful Buttering have foregone."

   " The crisis is generally ushered in by a sense of uneasiness, a
 loss of sleep and appetite, an alternate change from heat and cold;
 and lastly by all the symptoms of fever, which is sometimes violent,
 but always of short duration, if properly attended to.   At its ter-
 mination, the alvine and other evacuations are more plentiful, and
 accompanied by a  more copious separation of extraneous matter
 than ordinarily; sometimes by several of the excretory passages at
 the same time.   This increased secretion is generally accompanied
 by a  variety of eruptions of  the skin, by  boils,  abscesses, ul-
 cers, etc."
   " The term crisis applies to any very marked disturbance of the
 system, or cutaneous change; as the crisis fever, odorous perspira-
 tion, odorous urine, vomitings,  diarrhoea, hsemorrhoidal discharge
 of  blood, and various kinds of eruption on the skin."
   In very many cases of cure, there is said to be  no perceptible
 crisis of any kind.   There  appears to be no very general rule re-
 specting it.  In  some  old and obstinate cases of gout, mercurial-
 lsm, etc., it may take place as many as from three to five times,
 before the cessation of the disease, and the re-establishment of per-
 fect health.
   " The very important matter of  crisis is  always sought for Avith
 much  solicitude both  by Priessnitz and  the patient, f He believes
 that it could not be produced in  a healthy man j) and that its oc-
 currence is a sure proof that nature is successfully exerting herself
 to throw off the disease, by the exit of bad humor from the mass
 of blood.   It is a sort of wholesale theory, and equally serves for
 all  persons, and for every  known disorder;  and assuredly is the
 most  convenient  for one ignorant of medical  science.   I conceive
 that Priessnitz must have been gradually led to this idea of mordid
blood  by the observations which his experience enabled  him to
make ; for, as  before  explained,  he entered  into the  water-cure
practice* by accident,  and not from  tuition.   His principles have
arisen out of practice as an empiric art, and were not as a precursor
first implanted in his mind.   He has, in innumerable instances, so
  * I  employ  this term in its  just signification, meaning  experience, not
charlatanism, from which I believe Priessnitz to be entirely free. 
THE CRISIS OF WATER-CURE.
175
that the contrary forms the exception to the rule, witnessed the
formation of crisis in the progress of the  water-cure, among which
boils take the lead in pre-eminence and  importance of character.
But the term also applies to any very marked disturbance of the
system, or cutaneous change;  as the  crisis fever, odorous  perspi-
ration,  odorous  urine, vomitings, diarrhoea,  hemorrhoidal  dis-
charge of blood and various kinds of eruptions on  the  skin.  It
was a  fact of  ordinary occurrence, presenting itself to the mind of
Priessnitz, that the great crisis of boils, in proportion to their free
suppuration,  proved  in  the  highest degree  remedial,  removing
chronic pains and internal sufferings of long standing;  and  that no
marked amendment did take place until the event of  some crisis.
Also the additional fact must be mentioned, that very frequently
indeed the boil crisis would appear in the immediate vicinity of the
disease, sometimes on the very  spot.  It is no  longer surprising
therefore that the idea of humor in the  blood should be strongly
confirmed in the mind of Priessnitz, and have grown with him into
a rule of practice.   The patient very naturally  cares  not  for the
absence of scientific explanations, but renders his faith to fact, and
to the long list of very extraordinary cures which have been per-
formed, after the failure of regular medical art.   But it will not
be uninteresting to examine more closely this doctrine of the bad
blood, with reference to crisis and treatment.
   " In the case of  morbid poisons, as, for example, small-pox,
measles, and scarlatina, nature evidently makes a vigorous effort to
free the blood from the virus, by producing in the skin  a character-
istic eruption, attended by a  symptomatic fever.  After a certain
period, health returns, and no reminiscence of the poison  occurs.
I adopt this illustration to show  that the blood can in this manner,
by the medium of the skin, clear itself of the offending cause, how-
ever difficult the explanation may be.   In the very  familiar ex-
amples  of  cutaneous disease, as  erysipelas, the shingles, nettle-
rash, etc., we  commonly refer to  the blood as  the source of dis-
order, although we can only generalize  our notions;  or, by other
theory, we may regard these disorders  as the  offspring of some
internal vitiated secretion, as acrid acid in the stomach,  or bad
bile, affecting  the skin by supposed sympathy—which is  equally
figurative language, if we are driven to close and searching anal-
ysis.*
   * A breaking out, as it is called, on the lips and chin, would probably be 
176
THE CRISIS OF  WATER-CURE.
      " Boils and carbuncles  do not occur in healthy subjects;  and,
   when they happen naturally, are ahvays looked upon as indicating
\   a bad habit of body.   The surgeon  may choose other description,
   and call it weak and unhealthy inflammation, affecting the outAvard
   texture of the body differently from phlegmon or true inflammation.
   I will not, therefore, for the sake of language, attempt 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 or-
   dinary and  most accepted view, and in this Avay  also prove  useful;
   on the same principle that Ave  see advantage  derived from blis-
   ters, and artificial  eruptions produced by external applications, tar-
   tar emetic,  croton oil,  etc.;  and  even the  use of setons and issues
   is connected with this  principle of counter-irritation equally with
   the idea of  discharging the offending humor from the blood.  It is
   Lvery evidently the formation of  an artificial disease, with the hope
   that it may be a substitute for the real one, and cause its removal.
   k  " It certainly happens in this way that much inconvenience must
   often be sustained by the patient in the progress of his cure; and
   he must submit to be worse, before he  can be better.
      " The occurrence of boils is not, however, invariably 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.
,;      " From  all that I have seen, and my opportunity has been ex-
1  tensive, I am deeply impressed  with  the conviction that the em-
   ployment 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,  superfi-
   cial measures would be of little or no avail, and  that there must be
   efficient treatment.  If too active measures be pursued in these  ex-
 \  ceptionable instances to  which I allude, a sudden and too severe
   crisis might be produced, creating high suffering and possible dan-
fi  ger.   Instead of the favorably suppurating boils, such as are of un-
   produced in any one, by eating for a continuance rich sauces, especially if
    made with bad butter. 
THE CRISIS OF  WATER-CURE.
177
toward character might arise.  I am sure that these  unfavorable
consequences may always be avoided by ordinary care, and do not
belong to the water-cure  treatment, as of right, more than any
accidental untoward  result  belongs to the  regular  practice of
physic.
   " Whenever a threatening appears of too strong a crisis, the treat-
ment is to be immediately reduced ; and, being nicely adapted also
to the particular circumstances of the case, all anxious embarrass-
ment will be removed.
   "In conclusion of this subject, I advert with regret 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 termi-
nation.   In its  treatment at the latter period, there  had been on
the part of the individual much improper deviation from the direc-
tions laid down, owing to an impatient desire of urging  crisis for
the sake of a more speedy cure.  From this cause, fever  crisis set
in suddenly and with destructive violence.  Continued high irrita-
tion 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. f^JSTo
remedy that is  powerful for good, can be so weak  an instrument
as not to be  also  capable  of  evihj  Neither  the skill nor the pru-
dence of Priessnitz should be lightly called in question by any one.
I am convinced that, with  regular superintendence of a  case, he
would never provoke a crisis beyond his power of convenient con-
trol.  The very large number of patients in 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 espe-
cially if he do not seek prompt aid  in the event of the least unfa-
vorable occurrence.
   " Another and very important consideration presents itself on the
subject of crisis : for how long a time is its occurrence to be view-
ed as an indication for the  continuance of treatment ?  Evidently
it requires judgment to know what may be  referred to the influence
of the constitution not yet delivered from its  errors; and Avhat to
simple morbid action of the vessels of the skin, existing as a secon-
dary and a local disease.   I know an instance of the occasional for-
              8* 
178             THE CRISIS  OF WATER-CURE.
mation of boils on the legs, causing much inconvenience, although
the general health is quite restored :  the full Avater-cure treatment,
which  was  carried on  nearly two  years, having been  laid asides
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."*
                 DOES WATER CAUSE DROPSY?
   " Many object to the drinking of cold water, on the ground that
animals only drink to quench thirst.   This is true, but they do not
live in our artificial state, nor are they subject to the influence of
the  mind.  It cannot be  denied that  the  nearer people approx-
imate to  nature, the less they need adhere to any prescribed rules;
but man resorts to water to establish his health, therefore the quan-
tity must be  increased, not  only for the  purpose  of allaying his
thirst, but to dilute, purify, and restore, in  quantities which must
depend upon the inconvenience or pain experienced.  By this sim-
ple  means,  serious  indispositions are often prevented.  Another
argument made use of against drinking cold water is, that it pro-
duces  dropsy.  In the first place, it is evident, that if this were
true, such a complaint ought not to exist among us, for whoever
heard of an Englishman drinking too much water ?   But we affirm,
on the contrary, that this disease is  caused  by the injudicious ad-
ministration of drugs ;  the use of too large a quantity of them; by
omitting  to  drink cold  water, and by neglecting to  wash or bathe
the body daily in that element.
   "If the skin is so much relaxed  that it  no  longer  throws out
those matters  which daily reach it from the interior of the body,
fluids are collected underneath the skin which ought to be evapora-
ted, and  which cause inflation, paleness, and cold.   This is  what is
called dropsy.
   " The  more the human body is  injured  by drugs, the more it
is in need of strong perspiration, because it endeavors, by  the aid
of this  physical agent, to  relieve  itself of  all diseased  matter.
From this it may be inferred, that no persons are more in need of
the  cold water-cure than those who have taken too much  physic.
Further, strong poisons, of whatsoever nature they may be, wheth-
er mercury, blue pill, calomel, bark, or spirituous liquors to excess,
frequently cause death by dropsy; sometimes this disease is caused
* Sir Charles Scudamore's Medical Visit to Graefenberg. 
     DISEASES TO WHICH THE WATER-CURE  IS  ADAPTED.  179

by catching cold, but only those are liable to it who have produced
a disposition to the complaint by relaxing the skin.   The only rem-
edy formerly known was to draw off the water by tapping, which
operation, often repeated, gives a respite to life for  a short time.
This illness, in its  infancy, may always be  speedily cured by hy-
dropathy, and, in its most advanced stages, if there be any strength
left in the  constitution, this disease will be eradicated by the wa-
ter-cure; it being .the property of this treatment to revive the ac-
tivity of the  skin, and enable  the  latter to indulge freely in the
necessary ejection of perspiration.
   "From the returns of the year 1841, within the city of London,
and bills of mortality, among a people altogether opposed to the
use of water, we find that from dropsy alone the deaths amounted
to no less a number than 584.   Any one who never takes  physic
nor  intoxicating liquors,  and keeps to  a water diet, may be per-
fectly sure of never being attacked  with dropsy."*             _*.
                       CHAPTER  XI.

DISEASES TO WHICH THE WATER-CURE IS MORE ESPECIALLY
                           ADAPTED.t

Water a Remedy applicable in all Diseases.—The true Nature of this Means.—The great
  benefit of Water in acute Diseases.—Neuralgic, or painful Disorders.—Indigestion.—Its
  Nature, and the proper Principle of treating it.—Leucorrhoaa, or Fluor Albus.—Nature
  of this Affection.—Gout and Rheumatism.—These are often Cured at Graefenberg.—Ep-
  ileptic Fits.—Spinal Irritation.—Difficult  Menstruation.—Influenza.—Concluding Re-
  marks.

   I shall now proceed to enumerate a few of those diseased condi-
tions of the body to which the water-cure is most especially adapt-
ed.  But I would here premise that this mode of treatment,  when
properly modified, and carefully adapted to the peculiarities of in-
dividual  constitutions, and to  the nature of the disorder, can sel-
dom fail  of conferring more or less benefit, let the diseased condi-
tion  be what it may.  This is true  from the very  nature of the
  * Captain Claridge.
  t From  Dr. Edward Johnson's " Hydropathy, or the Water-Cure." 
180  DISEASES TO  WHICH THE WATER-CURE IS ADAPTED.
remedy, the  effect  of  which is to strengthen  the general system.
And undoubtedly a certain amount of strength may, by it, be ac-
cumulated in the body, although the actual disease  itself may not
be eradicated.   In  cases where it is  impossible that the disease
should be cured, the general health and strength may be so much
improved as to render it far more easily endured.
  I must  also premise, that besides  those  diseases Avhich I am
about to mention, as well as many others conaerning which Avant
of room must necessarily keep me silent, there are a multitude of
anomalous and undenominated  disorders, so  entirely  varied in
form, character, and symptoms,  that  any attempt  to enumerate
them here is  perfectly  out of question—and yet many of these are
unquestionably such as can be entirely removed by hydrotherapeu-
tic treatment, upon the principles  herein laid down as the founda-
tion of that mode of cure.

                        ACUTE DISEASES.
  The  diseases OA^er which the water-cure is  said  to possess the
most  rapid and striking influence, are acute  diseases.   Fevers, fe-
brile diseases,  inflammations, etc., etc.—such  of them, of course,
as are curable by any means—are said to be removed with  a cer-
tainty  and rapidity which  is  little less than  magical.   A fever
which, under ordinary  treatment, would confine the patient  to his
bed for six weeks or two months, is frequently  overcome in two or
three days, and the  patient is thus restored to health before there
has been time for the approach of that extreme weakness and ema-
ciation so  constantly the result of a long illness, even after the  dis-
ease itself has been vanquished.
  In  all curable acute diseases, therefore,  the water-cure is  pe-
culiarly and especially available.

               NEURALGIC,  OR PAINFUL DISEASES.
  In  all painful  disorders also—disorders the chief character of
which is severe and  acute pain—this treatment possesses the most
extraordinary, and  even unaccountable  poAvers of relief.  Severe
pain is a sensation almost entirely unknown at Graefenberg.

                         INDIGESTION.
  There is a most extensive class of symptoms, manifesting them-
selyes  in  various groups, in different persons, attacking almost 
      filSEASES TO WHICH  THE  WATER-CURE IS ADAPTED.  181

 every individual more or less severely, and more or less frequently,
 throughout the whole range  of the  upper and  middle classes;
 sparing neither age, sex, nor condition;  undoubtedly the cause of
 more human suffering than  any other disorder, and which class of
 symptoms has received the  general appellation.   These distressing-
 sensations are exceedingly  various, and indeed only agree among
 themselves in being universally accompanied by evidences of a
 disordered stomach.  The term indigestion is  an exceedingly ab-
 surd one—inasmuch as it  implies  that the faulty  action of the
 stomach  is always  the cause—whereas the  faulty action of the
 stomach  is much more frequently the  effect of disorder in some
 other organ.  Ignorance of this fact (well known to medical men,
 however) has led persons to do  themselves infinite mischief, and
 actually to bring on disorder in a previously healthy stomach,  by
 a misapplication  of  remedies.  For instance, a man gets a head-
 ache and  a  disordered condition of the stomach, at one and the
 same time.   He never  hesitates  a moment as to what he should
 do, but forthwith sets about physickinghis unfortunate and most
 innocent  stomach—taking it for granted that it is the disordered
 stomach  which  has produced the disordered  brain;  whereas  it
 much more  frequently happens  that it is the  disordered brain
 which has produced the  disordered stomach.   He  addresses his
 remedies to the wrong  organ, thus doing no good to the one, and
 infinite mischief to the other.
   I believe that indigestion hardly ever (now-a-days) commences
 in the stomach.   But the  healthy functions of the  stomach are
 continually disturbed by a  distressed, irritated, fagged,  worn-out
 condition  of  the  brain and nervous  system—from which system
 alone the stomach, like every other organ, must derive all its vigor.
 But how can the  stomach derive vigor from the brain and nervous
 system, if the brain and nervous system  have no vigor themselves ?
 Indigestion is almost peculiar to the upper and middle classes, and
 among these is nearly  a  universal disease.   There  must, there-
 fore, be a universal cause for it, which cause must be peculiar  to
 these classes.  But excess, either in eating or drinking, is not now,
by any means, a  universal fault  in, nor is it  peculiar  to,  these
 classes.
   But there  is a  morbid cause,  which is  almost peculiar to the
upper and middle  classes,  and which is, also, almost  universal
among these classes. 
   182 DISEASES TO WHICH THE WATER-CURE IS ADAPTED.

     This cause is a  morbid,  undue, and excessive  excitement of the
   brain and nervous system.  And  the morbid sensibility which neces-
I   sarily results from this  constant excess  of  nervous excitement, I
   take to be  by far  the most frequent source  of indigestion.  For it
   must be remembered that the stomach derives its digestive powers
   from the eighth pair of nerves, along which nerves the nervous in-
   fluence is transmitted to the stomach like electricity along the con-
   ducting wire, or steam through a tube.   If  this nerve be divided
I   in a healthy dog, while digesting his meal, digestion instantly stops
A  and becomes impossible.
^t»—> Among the upper and wealthy classes, this excessive excitement
   is derived from artificial, and unnaturally refined sources of pleas-
   ure.  The theatre, the ball-room, music, dancing, gaming,  political
   ambition daily disappointed, fashionable  emulation perpetually on
   the strain—petty contentions  of all sorts—late hours  and luxuri-
   ous habits—these, in the upper ranks, are the causes  of excessive
   excitement—morbid sensibility—anxiety—indigestion.
     In the middle classes, the same morbid results are obtained, by
   the same means, from  sources somewhat different.   And the cares
   of business, the anxieties of speculation, solicitude for the  welfare
   of a numerous family, pride hourly contending with poverty, debts,
   doubts, dangers, and difficulties—these do  for men of the middle
   rank, what the causes  above  enumerated  do  for those  of the
   upper.
     Some  of the  more  prominent  features  of this many-headed
   monster I will here enumerate.   They are  nausea,  pain about the
   region of the stomach and sides, headache, heart-burn, a  sense of
   fullness, distension, or  weight in the stomach, a feeling as  if a ball
   Avere lodged in the throat, acid or offensive eructations, flatulence,
   vomiting, especially of a clear liquor (like pure water), sometimes
   of an acid  quality, and often in  large quantity, a sensation of sink-
   ing or fluttering at the  pit of the  stomach, and loss  of appetite;
   costiveness or  irregularity of the bowels, with a morbid  appear-
   ance of the evacuations;  pain  of  the back, and turbid urine; a
   disagreeable  taste in the  mouth, especially on waking; a feeling
   of  stinging, or heat, as  of cayenne pepper,  in the  mouth; tooth-
   ache, palpitation,  pulsation in the  region of the stomach, irregu-
   larity  of  pulse;  short,  dry  cough, and occasional  difficulty of
   breathing ; giddiness, languor, lassitude, depression of spirits, with
   fear of death, or of impending  evil. 
     DISEASES  TO  WHICH THE WATER-CURE  IS  ADAPTED.  183

  Whenever this  long train  of distressing  symptoms has arisen
from  excessive irritation  of  the nervous  system — from  morbid
sensibility, Avithout organic lesion—as it does in nineteen cases out
of twenty—it can  be cured, beyond question,  by the hydropathic
treatment—by exalting and accelerating the change of matter.

                 LEUCORRHCEA, OR FLUOR  ALBUS.
   This most distressing, enfeebling, and exceedingly common dis-
ease—a disease which resists almost every other mode of treat-
ment—depending,  as  it does, upon chronic inflammation  of the
uterus, is well calculated  to be effectually removed by the invigor-
ating method adopted at Graefenberg, and  other hydropathic es-
tablishments.
   Attempts have lately been made to show that leucorrhoea de-
pends upon an ulcerated condition of the os uteri.   It is extremely
probable  that the os uteri may be frequently found in an ulcerated
condition  in females laboring under leucorrhoea, but the more prob-
able inference is, that the ulceration is the effect, and not the cause,
of the morbid discharge—whose  acrimonious  nature is often fully
sufficient  to account for  the ulcerated condition of the os uteri.
Besides, supposing the ulcerated condition to  be the cause of the
discharge, that condition  could not have come  on without previous
inflammation.  But, whichever of these  two conditions, inflamma-
tion or ulceration, be the true cause,  the cold water remedy is
equally well adapted to remove  it—seeing that both causes are
themselves caused by a weakened condition of the organs concerned.

                     GOUT AND RHEUMATISM.
   The cases of rheumatism and gout which have been cured  at
Graefenberg, are  almost  without  number.   And when it is  con-
sidered that these diseases depend  upon inflammation of particular
structures of the body, and  that  this  inflammation again, in its
turn, depends upon a weakened condition of the nervous system, it
is sufficiently easy to  account for the fact.

                         EPILEPTIC FITS.
   Whenever this disease depends, as it very frequently does, upon
a clot of blood pressing on the brain, it is curable by the hydropa-
thic treatment, united to  that of a severe diet.   Besides the cases
given in  the list of cases in this work, I have  been witness to an- 
184 DISEASES TO WHICH THE  AVATER-CURE  IS  ADAPTED.

other very remarkable one.   The patient Avas the  subject of epi-
lepsy for four years, and the fits recurred regularly every ten days.
He has not now had a fit for three months, and is  about to return
home perfectly cured.

                       SPINAL  IRRITATION.
   Spinal  irritation, resulting from  subacute or  chronic inflamma-
tion of the vertebral theca, and giving rise to a long train of the
most  distressing symptoms, is perfectly curable  by cold  water
treatment.
                   DIFFICULT  MENSTRUATION.
   Painful, excessive, suppressed, or insufficient menstruation, is an-
other distressing affection over Avhich the hydropathic remedy pos-
sesses the most absolute control.

                          INFLUENZA.
   Of late years a vast number of persons have  suffered greatly
from protracted influenza; and  occasionally this  disease is so obsti-
nate as to resist all ordinary  remedies.  It yields most  readily,
however,  to the Graefenberg method of cure.
   Constipation, hysteria, rheumatic gout, catarrh,  rheumatism of
the head or of the heart, bilious headache, sciatica, lumbago, mer-
curial diseases, secondary symptoms, inflammation  of the kidneys,
impotence, neuralgic or painful affections of the nerves—all these
are completely under the control of the cold water treatment.
   But my limits will  not allow me to  devote more  space to the
particular mention of individual diseases.   More will be found in
the list of cases.
   Besides these, however, there is a whole host  of  anomalous, un-
denominated  diseases, which cannot be  referred to any particular
class,  which come within the scope of the cold  water-cure.   And
there  is probably  no disease  which  cannot  be  benefited, more or
less, by the exaltation of the living energies, and the improvement
of the general health and strength.
   In fine,  all those diseases depending upon functional weakness—
all those depending upon nervous debility, and morbid sensibility—
all those depending upon inflammation, acute, subacute, or chronic,
uncomplicated with permanent organic  lesion—all those depending
upon  morbid matters in the blood or other humors—these consti-
tute that long list of diseases which are peculiarly calculated, from 
GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE.         185
their nature  and  causes, to be  removed by the hydrotherapeutic
remedy.
   It is  not, however, to  be inferred that this remedy is unable to
cure any cases of organic  lesion.   On the contrary, whenever these
cases are, from their nature, capable of cure at all, without the aid
of surgical operations, the cold water treatment undoubtedly offers
a  better and more rational chance of  success than any other—as
some of the cases herein related prove—as, for instance, the cases
of fistula, epilepsy, and paralysis.
                        CHAPTER  XII.

            GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER CURE.*

Acute Rheumatic Fever.—Inflammation and Swelling of the Breasts, with general Fever.—
  Paralysis.—Sciatica.—Constipation.—Dyspepsia.—Dyspepsia and  Rheumatism.—Gout
  and Rheumatism, complicated with Venereal taint—Gout in the Hands and Knees.—
  Rheumatism, with Psoriasis.—Case of Psoriasis communicated by George Anthony,
  Esq., an English  surgeon, now at Graefenberg.—Skin Disease.—Psoriasis.—Skin Dis-
  ease following Gonorrhoea.—Fistula in Ano.—Urinary Fistula.—Gonorrhoea.—Consump-
  tion.—Cough, Weakness  of the Chest,  and Injury of the Back.—Deafness.—Hip Dis-
  ease.—Scarlet  Fever.—Symptomatic  Fever (related by the Mother).—Cartarrh, or
  Cold.—Baldness.—Headache, with Giddiness.—Secondary Syphilitic Symptoms.—Anoth-
  er Case of Secondary Syphilis.—Third Case of Secondary Syphilis.—Fourth Case of Sec-
  ondary Syphilis.—Impuissance, complicated with Gout.—Contracted Joints.—Hernia.—
  Haematuria, or Voiding of Blood from the Urinary Organs.—Cerebro-Spinal Disease.—
  Suppressed Measles.—Deafness.—Epilepsy.—Hypochondriasis, Psoriasis, Sciatica.

   Most of the following cases fell under my own immediate notice,
and were  examined  by me personally, and their  previous  history
and progress narrated to me by the patients themselves.   There are
two or  three, however, for the history of  which I am indebted to
George Anthony, Esq., an English surgeon who had been residing
at Priessnitz's establishment for a considerable time, and Avho took

notes of such cases as fell under  his notice.  This  gentleman  had
quitted  his profession for a very lucrative appointment in the East,

to  which  he  proceeds in the latter part of the  summer (1843)—
that he went to Graefenberg merely as a matter of curiosity,  and
to fill up his  time previously to his  quitting  Europe, and  that the

    * From Dr.  Edward Johnson's "  Hydropathy, or the Water-Cure." 
186        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.
cases  noted by him cannot,  therefore, be  supposed to be colored
favorably by  any interested  bias  toward  hydropathy;  against
which, indeed, he evidently entertained at  first a very natural and
professional prejudice.
  For two other cases I am indebted to Col. Bowen, late of the
Coldstream Guards; but the greatest bulk of them fell under my
OAvn immediate notice and personal examination.
  Before I proceed to the detail of cases  treated at Graefenberg,
I will  mention two remarkable ones Avhich I treated myself by cold
water alone, more than twenty years ago—that is, before its effica-
cy as  a remedial agent was  known even to Priessnitz himself.  I
mention these merely to show how early in life I had been led, by
observation and general  reasoning, to form a high opinion of cold,
in the treatment of disease.

                   ACUTE RHEUMATIC FEVER.
  Somewhat more than  twenty years ago I became the subject of
a very uncommonly severe attack of acute rheumatic fever. I was
attended by Dr.  Birkbeck and Dr. Thomas Davies, who afterward
became physician to the London Hospital.   I was also daily visited
by some other medical gentlemen living in my neighborhood.  They
were  exceedingly kind and attentive to me, for which I shall never
cease  to feel most grateful—and I am quite  certain that my case
was treated in the  most  scientific manner,  that is, according to the
accepted medical science of that day.
  I was three times bled in the arm, and took frequently repeated
doses of calchicum, which produced excessive and continued vomit-
ing.  These powerful means, however,  failed to remove the pain,
but reduced me to so slow a degree of  exhaustion, that the fever
began to assume the typhoid or nervous character.  My Avife was
now told not to  calculate upon my recovery, and ordered to give
me brandy, repeatedly, and at short intervals, during the course of
the night.  At this time my skin was excessively hot and the bed-
clothes oppressive.   I begged and prayed for cold water to drink,
and to have myself  washed all over in  cold  water.   Every thing
that was delicious and desirable in the universe seemed to be repre-
sented by these two  words—cold water.  My wife at last yielded
to  my entreaties—and the  more so, inasmuch  as she had often
heard me enlarge  upon the efficacy of  cold ablution in fevers and
many other diseases, and lament that popular prejudice would not 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.         187
suffer me to employ it so frequently as I desired.  She had, more-
over, herself, on one occasion, been plucked from agony and sudden
danger by the use of snow.
   The  cold ablution, and large  draughts of cold water, were im-
mediately  exhibited,  and  industriously  and  frequently repeated
night and day.
   In a Aveek, with the exception of the debility consequent on the  \
loss of so much blood, / was quite well.                         J

INFLAMMATION  AND  SWELLING  OF THE  BREASTS, WITH GENERAL
                            FEVER.
   The second case occurred in the person of my wife about a year
previously to that which I have just mentioned.   On the  evening
of the third  day after her first accouchement, I came home from
Guy's  Hospital, 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  vehe-
mently rubbing with brandy and oil.   The  skin  was excessively
hot and dry, and the pulse was leaping along at the rate  of 120.
It was in the month of January—so I Avalked into the street with
a pail,  which I filled Avith snow, and bringing it into the sick room,
I piled a heap of it  over  both breasts,  continually adding  fresh
snow  as it melted.   In a very few minutes the milk  span out in
streams, to the distance of more than  a foot, and the tears of tor-
ture were at once changed for those of pleasure, accompanied by
that hysterical sobbing, Avhich is the common result of  a  sudden
transition from intense suffering to perfect  ease.   The mere  absence
of pain in these cases takes all the characters of the most delicious
and positive pleasurable sensations.  In half an hour the inflamma-
tion had subsided, the breasts  had become comparatively flaccid,
the fever had entirely subsided, and not only all danger,  but all
inconvenience, had utterly vanished.   But for this timely  succor,
suppuration  must have supervened in  both breasts, and large ab-
scesses would have been the inevitable  consequence.

                          PARALYSIS.
   Herr Von  Wulffen, an officer in the Prussian army, was seized
in 1842 with a paralytic  stroke.  Of this he recovered.   But the
disease continued to recur at short intervals, until he  had  almost
entirely lost the  use of one side of the  body—so that he could on- 
188        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  WATER-CURE.
ly walk very imperfectly and with great difficulty.   In addition to
this, he was extremely rheumatic, and the glands of the neck Avere
swollen.   After resorting to an infinite variety of curative means,
which left him exactly Avhere they found him, he came to Graefen-
berg.
   After his arrival at Graefenberg and commencement of the treat-
ment,  this gentleman did  not  experience a single attack for two
months, although before his arrival he would frequently be attack-
ed tAvo or three times in a month.   The swelling of the glands of
the neck subsided,  his rheumatism Avas entirely removed, and his
health completely re-established.
   At the expiration of tAvo months, however, he one  day took an
extremely long walk  among the mountains, and came home very
much  fatigued, cold, and with wet  feet.   And now, instead of
going  to bed, he went  into the hot and  crowded  billiard room,
where he continued to play for some time.   After this he sudden-
ly lost the  power of distinct utterance, could with  difficulty ar-
ticulate his words,  and  began  to talk, all at once, quite incoher-
ently.   Priessnitz was  sent for, who threw cold water over his
face and chest, and then  ordered him a foot bath, with three men
to rub his  feet for half  an hour.  This recovered him.  He was
then told to walk, but after having walked for ten  minutes, he be-
came so weak that he was obliged to go to bed.  His friends now
left him, in order  to go to dinner.   When they returned, they
found him quite in his senses, but perfectly speechless, and unable
to write.   In fact, his tongue, and right hand, and foot were pal-
sied.  Priessnitz now ordered him  a wet sheet (merely damp) for
ten minutes—then another, a little wetter, for ten minutes more—
and then a third, very wet indeed, for ten minutes more again.
 Feverish symptoms now followed, with violent headache, and great
 prostration of  strength.  For these symptoms he was put into the
 tepid  bath for half  an hour, and well  rubbed by three men the
 whole time. Vomiting now took place, and in the evening he was
 up  in the saloon at  supper, as well and as sensible as any one
 there,  and laughingly  assuring his friends that he  was now not
 only in full possession of his tongue, but of his teeth too.   Since
 this time, which is now some  months  ago, he has had no return,
 has the  perfect use of  all his  limbs, and is  othenvise in good
 health.
    Herr Regenhard, of Vienna, had suffered for many years from 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        189
nervous disease  and severe dyspepsia.  Three years since he had
a paralytic seizure of the right half  of the  body—not severe—
and from which  he  recovered.  Six  months afterward he had a
second attack—more severe—from which, however, he partially
recovered.   Four months later  he had a third attack, and after-
ward a fourth and  fifth, the intervals between the fits becoming
shorter and shorter,  until they returned every fortnight. His right
leg and arm now became nearly useless.   He Avas advised to try
the  baths  at Toeplitz, which he did, but without any good result.
He returned to Vienna; he  took the  best advice which that capi-
tal could afford, but entirely without benefit.   One of his phy-
sicians at last, with a candor and  honesty Avhich done him honor,
confessed that he believed his case to be beyond the reach of  any
ordinary medical treatment,  and recommended him  to  try  the
water-cure.  He came to Graefenberg in company with my friend
Mr. Niemann, who was also going to Graefenberg on his OAvn ac-
count. .  He arrived there in May, and  was then in  his  sixtieth
year.   He was  immediately put under a  very  mild treatment
 (merely  an abreibung, rubbing  the head with  a wet cloth, and a
 coph  bath).  In six weeks he  had crises, but  (which is  very re-
 markable) only on the side affected.   Not a  single pimple appear-
 ed  on the sound side.   When  the crises appeared, he took lein-
 tuchs with abgeschrecktes bath.  No cold bath, no douche, no
sitz bath.   He continued to have crises till October (five months).
 He  then left perfectly recovered, never having had a single attack
after he commenced the treatment.   His friends at Graefenberg
have since received  two letters from him, perfectly well written by
that same right hand which was  paralyzed  and useless when he
 first came  to Graefenberg, and which had  been  to  him  nearly a
 profitless member for the three previous years.
   In gratitude for his recovery, he has made several ornamental
 presents to the  grounds about Graefenberg, which still  remain,
 and will remain  there, monuments of the curative power  of  cold
 water.  Indeed, Graefenberg abounds with such monuments, both
 in iron and stone, erected by Gratitude in commemoration of re-
 covered health, and of a size and durability which  gives them a
 fair chance of endurance for hundreds of years.
   Captain Wardle,  of the  Fiquelmont dragoons, the  nephew of
 Colonel  Wardle, celebrated for certain charges which he preferred
 against  the Duke of York, became suddenly deprived of the use 
190        GRAEFENBERG  CASES OF WATER-CURE.

of one entire side.  He was blind of one eye, deaf of one ear, and
the leg and one arm of one side were paralyzed.  He was twenty-
two  years  of  age.  Under the water-cure he entirely recovered.
The  sight of the eye was perfectly restored, his  hearing entirely
regained, and the full use of his limbs returned.  After his recov-
ery,  Colonel Bo wen saw him on guard at the theatre of Prague,
the picture of  youthful health and manly  strength.  He is still on
military duty at Prague.

                           SCIATICA.
  Mr. Wrangler,  merchant, had  been affected with  sciatica for
eighteen months.  He  was living at Milan, and the  physicians
there recommended  him to have the actual cautery* applied to
the part.  This, however, he refused.  He then went to a  water
establishment  in the Tyrol, superintended by a physician, but one
who was 'grossly ignorant of the  principles  on which the Avater-
cure proceeds.  This gentleman  succeeded  at last in persuading
him  to submit to the actual  cautery, for his sufferings were so
great that he would  have submitted to  almost any thing,  in the
hope of relief.  He showed me the deep scar left by the hot iron,
and  which was as large  as  my extended  hand.   From the actual
cautery, however, he  received  no  benefit, and, in  consequence of
injudicious treatment,  he became exceedingly ill, and  then pro-
ceeded to Vienna, where he placed himself under the most cele-
brated medical  practitioners,  and underwent  every  conceivable
mode  of treatment.   While submitting to treatment at Vienna,
his bowels suddenly became constipated, and would never relieve
themselves without the aid  of medicine;  and his thigh dwindled
away until it was  but little larger than  his Avrist, and  he  could
not walk a single step.
  He was now brought to Graefenberg, where he has resided for
the last nine months.   He  gave  me  the  history of  his case him-
self,  and was good enough to  let  me examine  the affected parts.
He is now perfectly^well, entirely free from pain,  full of  flesh and
animal spirits, and the withered thigh has entirely  recovered  its
original very fleshy dimensions.  He is not in the  slightest degree
lame, and can climb  the mountains with the best of  them, and in
any weather.  He is  covered with the usual critical eruption, as
soon as which subsides, he will return to his family at Milan.   He
                 * The actual cautery is a hot iron. 
             GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE.        191

 is forty-eight years of  age.   His treatment consisted of the lein-
 tuch, succeeded by the tepid  bath, the sitz bath, and douche.

                    SCIATICA WITH LUMBAGO.
   Monsieur Varnod was  afflicted with sciatica  for three years  so
 severely that it was with great difficulty he could walk even Avith
 the aid of a stick.  Every ordinary means of cure had been resort-
 ed to without effect.  He was at last prevailed  upon to  visit a wa-
 ter 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  excruciating
 pain—I quite agree with him, that it required great courage  in
 one so situated to allow himself to  be tumbled  heels  over  head
 into the water.   With fear and trembling, however, he submitted,
 and to  his utter  astonishment  found that while  in the Avater  he
 could move his limb without  the slightest  pain or inconvenience.
 The pain had entirely vanished, and from  that  moment to this it
 has never returned, nor does he exhibit the slightest indication  of
 lameness or weakness in either of his legs.   He  is now at Graefen-
 berg for another disease—a disease of the skin.

                         CONSTIPATION.
   Herr Fricks, the father of the young man whose case I am about
 to relate, put himself under treatment also, for an obstinate consti-
 pation which had annoyed him, and interfered greatly with his
 health,  for 17 years.   So obstinate and torpid had the bowels be-
 come, that it  would frequently require four or  five lavements be-
 fore their contents could be emptied.
   This  gentleman  was treated by leintuchs and sitz baths—four
 of  the former daily (two in the morning, and two in the evening,
 each couple of leintuch's being  succeeded by the tepid bath), and
 two of the latter also daily.
   In a fortnight this gentleman's bowels  began to empty them-
 selves without assistance, daily and plenteously, and have  continued
 to do so up to the time when  I left Graefenberg.
   Mr. Niemann, a  gentleman  about 35 years of  age, was affected
by obstinate constipation.   During  five entire years he never once
was able to pass a motion, without the aid of either medicine or an
injection.   He is now at Graefenberg, and for the last four months 
 192        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  WATER-CURE.

 has had a regular and healthy evacuation every day, without the
 use either of injection, or of a single grain of medicine of any kind
 whatever.   Had not  this  gentleman's constipated  condition  of
 bowels  been thus fortunately removed,  I feel quite sure that every
 unprejudiced medical man will allow that, sooner  or later, severe
 disease, in some shape or other, must have been perfectly inevita-
 ble.   This gentleman had no crisis.

                           DYSPEPSIA.
   Mr.-----, 48 years of age, had  been accustomed for many years
 to indulge in a very  free mode of living.  His daily regular allow-
 ance of wine was one full bottle, in  addition to sundry glasses  of
 ale, and a couple of glasses of brandy and water in the evening.
 This was  his regular daily quantity.  Under this excitement his
 health soon began to  suffer, and  it grew gradually worse, until,
 about twelve months since, he was in so shattered a condition, that
 he found it necessary to adopt some rigorous and continued means
 to repair the mischief his constitution had sustained.   The symp-
 toms  of which  he complained  were,  excessive languor, physical
 weakness, drowsiness, and depression of spirits, foul tongue, relax-
 ed throat (to such  an  extent that he was obliged to  have his
uvula removed by the surgeon's knife),  capricious appetite, and all
that long train of the most distressing symptoms which character-
ize a  severe case of dyspepsia, accompanied by hypochondriasis.
He had been affected, too,  for many years, with  large  furunculi,
or boils, of  such severe and irritable character, that when one ap-
peared  on the  chin, it would cause the whole  of one side of the
face to swell so violently as  to  entirely close the eye on that  side.
For these  furunculi he consulted a London physician,  who ordered
him to take a pill every day before dinner, consisting of aloes, rhu-
barb, and an extract of chamomile.   These pills stopped the appear-
 ance of the furunculi, and from that moment all his  distressing
 symptoms became aggravated.
  After very many fruitless attempts to  regain his health, he re-
 paired to Graefenberg.   At this  time he  was so weak that he
 could not  walk the length of a single street.  At Dresden, which
 is  a  small city, in attempting to walk from one exhibition  to an-
 other, he found himself unable to  do so, and obliged to  dispatch
 his servant for a coach while he waited for its arrival.   His breath,
 moreover, was  so  short that he could not maintain a conversation 
            GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.         193

for more than five minutes together.   In six weeks after his arri-
val at Graefenberg  he could sing;  and his strength is now so
great, that he Avalks up and doAvn the snoAV-clad mountains, often
as early as six o'clock in the morning, without any difficulty, in all
kinds of weather, and he declared  to me that he believed himself
able to run  continuously, at a  moderate pace, for a  distance of
three or four miles Avithout stopping.  Every day I see him  climb-
ing the hill-side  in  large jack-boots, breasting the acclivity Avith
the firm and vigorous step  of  perfect health and strength.  This
gentleman bathes, and douches, -and takes one or tAvo Avet  sheets
every  day, Avears umschlags round the body, and  drinks nothing
but pure cold Avater.  Yet this  gentleman had been all his life ac-
customed to luxurious living, and the daily use of wine and spirits.
He declares  that when he came to Graefenberg he did not know
even  the  taste of  water—for when he  cleaned his teeth  in the
morning, he always took great care to expel every drop of water
with the tip of his tongue, fancying that if he suffered it to enter
the cavity  of his mouth, it could not fail of producing some deadly
mischief;  and he would as soon have thought of swalloAving  poison
as of drinking a cup of cold water.  And  this gentleman did not
leave off the use  of stimulants gradually—he left them off entirely
at once—and so far  from experiencing  any evil consequences, he
immediately  became sensible of  relief.
   I will just mention that this  gentleman had for a  great many
years (perhaps 20) a  large  fatty tumor  on his  back—so large as
to be  quite visible through  all his clothes, and giving  to him an
appearance of deformity.  When  I examined this tumor  a few
days ago it had almost entirely disappeared.

                  DYSPEPSIA AND RHEUMATISM.
   Herr Baumann, a builder, from Saxe Weimar, 45 years of  age,
suffering under rheumatism, dyspepsia, nervous debility, and with
a constitution, to all  appearance,  quite  broken.  The first crisis
made its appearance in the form of the usual eruptipn, and he felt
himself relieved.   Some time after this, however, he had another
crisis,  consisting  of what are called furunculi, or boils.   He  now
began to  mend rapidly.  His  dyspeptic symptoms left him, his
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 Graefen-
               9 
194         GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  AVATER-CURE.

berg in June  last.   I had the history of the case from his own
mouth.   His case was one of confirmed and obstinate dyspepsia of
four years' standing.   Being a man of property he took the advice
of the most eminent physician, who, having failed in relieving him,
finally recommended him to travel in a warmer climate.  In obe-
dience to his adAice 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 traveling on the continent, he accidentally made the ac-
quaintance of a Captain Fuminelli, of Venice, to whom he related
his case, and the object of his travel—a search after health.   The
captain, now the strongest man in Venice,  and who had himself
been raised from a sickly condition to one of  high health, by the
sole use of cold water, at once  strongly recommended him  to re-
pair 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 fatigue
and exhaustion.   He was the subject of constant heart-burn—his
tongue exceedingly foul—his appetite capricious—and his stools in-
variably presented the appearance of little, hard, stony balls.  He
was  perpetually annoyed by sighing and  gaping, which-he  could
not resist even  when  engaged in conversation—proofs of great
vital debility.  In addition to all this he had a constant and  severe
pain in his left side.
  This was his  condition for four years.  These were the  symp-
toms which had obstinately resisted  the most  judicious medical
treatment under the ablest medical advice in England.  The first
sensible  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 round the body, covering the whole
abdomen and stomach.   In two days his motions assumed  a  per-
fectly natural and healthy appearance.  He now made rapid  pro-
gress.   His tongue  became cleaner, the  pain in the side greatly
relieved, the heart-burn left him, his appetite became steady and
good, his strength greatly increased, and he felt  so well that he
made up his mind to discontinue the 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 re-
sembling  those  of one  who suddenly loses some  long-continued
cause of excitement.  He felt  low, depressed, and was obliged to 
            GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        195

 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 climbing the moun-
 tains 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
 dicontinued the treatment,  with the exception of an ordinary cold
 bath every morning.   He  only remains at Graefenberg on his
 wife's account, who has also been undergoing the treatment, and
 whose case he has likewise  kindly permitted me to publish.
   Mr. J. B. S----'s  crisis  occurred  about  the eighth week after
 he commenced the treatment, in the form of  a thick rash, which en-
 tirely covered his legs, thighs, and arms.   Immediately after the
 appearance of this eruption,  the pain in the side began to decrease,
 and with it the eruption also disappeared.  He declares to me that
 he cannot remember the time when  he felt himself  in such good
 health and strength as he is at this moment.

   GOUT  AND RHEUMATISM, COMPLICATED WITH VENEREAL  TAINT.
   For thirteen years, Captain Vogt had been  the subject of se-
 vere pains in his wrists, ankles, knees, and  the long  bones of his
 legs and thighs.   While suffering thus, he contracted the  venereal
 disease, of which he was not„properly cured.  From  this time his
 rheumatic pains were aggravated tenfold, so much so  that he was
 at intervals confined to his bed for several weeks  at a time.
   In this forlorn  condition he arrived at Graefenberg, and was im-
 mediately put under treatment.   The first crisis which manifested
 itself was a  return of the  chancre, which  he had contracted six
 years before.  This, however,  got perfectly well in  a fortnight.
 He has been here eight months, and when I examined him a few
 weeks since he was completely recovered, free from all pain, active
 A\ith his limbs, and able to take any reasonable amount of exercise
 on foot or on horseback.  He is covered with a critical eruption all
 over his limbs and body, and he only waits for the subsidence of
 this  to return home.   He Avas on  full treatment  the  whole  time,
with the exception of the  sweating blanket.   He  wore umschlags
night and day, which, during the day, were renewed five times.

               GOUT IN THE  HANDS  AND KNEES.
  Mr.----, 45 years  of age, had gout in his hands and  feet for 
196        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF AVATER-CURE.

twelve years.   He began the treatment in July, 1842.   At six in
the morning, leintuch for half  an hour—tepid bath for five minutes.
At eleven and at five the same treatment repeated.   He wore um-
schlags.   On  the second  day he sweated for two hours—took  a
tepid bath  for  tAvo minutes—after which  a cold  bath for one
minute—then  another  tepid  for two minutes.   At  eleven o'clock
he took a foot bath for twenty minutes.  At five o'clock he took a
leintuch, for half an hour, with tepid, etc., etc., as in the morning.
This treatment was pursued  for ten days.  After the  tenth day,
immediately after the sweating, a cold bath for a minute.  In the
third week  he douched in addition to the other treatment, and
wore Avet bandages on  the knees.  He got well rapidly.

                 RHEUMATISM WITH  PSORIASIS.
   Mr. G----, an officer in the army, aged 59 years, about twenty
years since  began to be affected in the muscular part of the legs
and thighs  with very severe  pains.   At last they became so ex-
ceedingly sensible of cold and damp that, in frosty weather, while
sitting within doors, he was always compelled  to  have  the lower
half of his body enveloped in a cloak, and no barometer could in-
dicate a coming change in the weather with greater exactitude than
this gentleman's legs.  This state of things lasted, with little varia-
tion, for twenty years,  not confining ^iim  to the house, but imbit-
tering his life, interfering with his prospects, and poisoning all the
springs of enjoyment.  During these  twenty years  he was  three
times sent home under a medical board  as unfit  for  duty—once
from the West Indies, once from the Mauritius,  and  once from
New South Wales.   His legs, I  forgot to mention, had also be-
come, very early in the disorder, covered  with that obstinate itch-
ing disease,  called psoriasis;  and for several years any attempt to
lean forward in the act of writing gave him acute pain in the region
of the stomach.  After having taken the  advice of a multitude of
physicians to  no purpose, he was recommended  to traArel.  He
visited Wild Bad, in the  Black Forest, Wild Bad  Gastein, on the
Norrishe  Alys,  Buxton,  Bath,  Ramsgate, and  spent  one whole
winter in Italy; but all  in vain.  At last he heard  of  the water-
cure and determined to visit Graefenberg, where he still remains,
the very merriest man  of the whole two hundred, who are now, in
the very depth of Avinter,  and with the snow a foot thick, daily un-
dergoing the water treatment at that place. 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES OF WATER-CURE.        197
   He has  had crises, both in the form of rash and of furunculi.
He has also had diarrhoea, which confined him to his bed for three
days.  During these three days he wore umschlags night and day,
changed every hour—with sitz baths.  When the feet became very
cold he had them rubbed with cloths dipped in  cold water, and
wrung out.  In the evening he became feverish, for which he was
put into a  shallow bath for five minutes.  This  immediately re-
moved  the fever.  When he was first attacked Avith diarrhoea his
appetite went,  and he could only take a little rusk in  cold water.
It  soon, however, returned and became better than ever.   He is
now in excellent health, his pains and the eruption rapidly leaving
him, and he is looking  forward with- the  utmost confidence  to a
perfect  cure.

CASE OF PSORIASIS.   COMMUNICATED  BY GEORGE  ANTHONY, ESQ.,
         AN ENGLISH SURGEON, NOW AT  GRAEFENBERG.
   Mr. Burch, a farmer from Somersetshire, aged 50 years, a stout,
strong man, came to Graefenberg in the middle of October last
(1842).  He was examined, and the  progress of his case watched,
with  great interest by Mr. Anthony, and many others, resident at
Graefenberg.
   His whole body and limbs  were literally covered with that most
obstinate, and, generally speaking, hitherto incurable disease, called
psoriasis.   Deep fissures had formed in many parts, and an enor-
mous quantity of scurf and scales were swept out of his bed every
morning, while the itching Avith which he was annoyed  was  almost
intolerable.   It was  that  form of psoriasis which is  sometimes
called, though  I  think erroneously, lepra figurata.  He had been
afflicted with this abominable scourge for many years; and had
consulted many physicians of acknowledged eminence without the
slightest benefit.  Every mode of treatment which he had adopted
had utterly failed of making the slightest impression on the disease.
   When he consulted Priessnitz, he was told that he  would cer-
tainly get well, but  that it was by far the worst case he had ever
seen, although  he had seen great numbers, and that it  might take
tAvo or  three years to effect a perfect cure.   On hearing this he
became disheartened, since circumstances would not allow him to
sacrifice so  much time.   He was determined, however, not to re-
turn without making a  trial.   He went down  the hill on  which
Graefenberg stands, into the  town of Friewaldau, in which many 
198        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE.

of Priessnitz's patients, who cannot find room in Graefenberg, take
lodgings.   He here commenced the treatment, drinking large quan-
tities of cold water, and confining his diet to bread alone.   He con-
tinued this plan for about six weeks, when, to his joyful astonish-
ment,  as Avell as that of Priessnitz himself, the eruption almost
entirely disappeared.   In this case, the crisis showed itself in the
shape  of diarrhoea.
   In   order  to  produce perspiration  he slept under a  German
feather bed, close to a  German stove, Avhich gaAre him a profuse
perspiration  every  night—an effect which his  medical man had
often  labored to produce in vain, and which he had never ex-
perienced for many years.
   Having noAV remained as long  as circumstances Avould  possibly
permit, he  left Friewaldau to all appearance perfectly well, with
the exception of a  few isolated  spots.  On his way home he was
accompanied as far as  Prague by Mr. Ellis, a gentleman Avho is
still at Graefenberg undergoing the water-cure.   Here he all at
once returned to a very free diet.  From  a very scanty diet, and
one consisting solely of bread, milk, and water, he leaped at once
to the full diet of the fashionable  continental hotels, with wine, etc.
The consequence of this  was a fit of the gout and a relapse.  But
from  the very marked and powerful impression which was made
by the treatment upon the disease in the short space of six weeks,
no rational doubt can exist, and no doubt  Avas entertained by any
of the  gentlemen who saw the progress of the case, some of Avhom
were  medical men, that the  disease would have been entirely re-
moved could the patient have submitted a little longer to the treat-
ment, and confined  himself for a  longer period to a more  rigorous
diet.   It should be remembered that this gentleman was 50 years
of age—that his disease  had existed not merely for many  months,
but for many years—and that the various modes  of treatment
Avhich  he had adopted  under the ablest advice had not only been
unable  to  cure  it,  but even  to  make the slightest  impression
upon it.
                   SKIN DISEASE--PSORIASIS.
   Mr.  Spangenberg, a  gentleman  of Hamburg, a young  man  of
very high attainments, and the son of  the  late very eminent Dr.
Spangenberg, (about 24 years  of age), had been afflicted with a
scaly eruption over  his face, and entire body and limbs, for twelve
years.   The disease first made its appearance in  the form of red, 
GRAEFENBERG CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        199
itching patches.  These became covered with small scurfy laminae,
or scales, which were easily rubbed of, leaving the patches red and
shining as before.   In a very short time, however, the scales were
reproduced, and fell off as before.   The itching was excessive, and
this distressing condition continued for twelve years, in spite of the
most varied and  persevering efforts, under the most able medical
advice, to remove it.
   In this  pitiable state he came to Graefenberg, covered from head
to foot, face and all, with  a disease at once loathsome, and, in an
uncommon  degree, distressing.  His complexion Avas  exceedingly
fair, his eyes blue, and his hair flaxen—his temperament irritable.
And it required a good deal of tact to accommodate the intensity
of the treatment to the excessive sensibility of his skin, which made
it frequently necessary to change it; for whenever it was urged too
far, the disease was aggravated.   By constantly varying the treat-
ment, however, his  skin  became gradually accustomed to the im-
pressions  of the various baths, and when I arrived at Graefenberg,
his treatment consisted of two leintuchs eATery morning, one imme-
diately after the other (the former for half an hour, the latter for
three quarters),  immediately succeeded by the cold bath.   At
tAvelve o'clock he took a wet sheet and sitz bath.  At  five he took
another leintuch, for an hour  and  a half,  succeeded by another
cold bath.   All  night he wore Avet linen  pantaloons,  from  his
ancles up to his arm-pits.  He also  wore wet bandages  round his
arms.  All day he Avore wet bandages round the entire body and
arms, which  were  renewed five  times daily.   In the summer
months he took the blanket and douched;  but these it was found
necessary to discontinue.
   This  gentleman's crisis  assumed  the  form of diarrhoea, imme-
diately after the occurrence of which, his disease began to disap-
pear.  I saw him almost every day,  and  examined him repeatedly.
When I left Graefenberg, he was so  nearly well that a few isolated,
dark-colored spots, indicating the parts where the disease had been
most virulent, were  all that were left.

             SKIN DISEASE FOLLOAYING  GONORRHOEA.
   The following ease I detail  for  an especial purpose—for the
purpose of showing in what manner the most obstinate diseases,
especially of the skin,  and painful  rheumatic affections (so called),
are constantly produced. 
200        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.
  Herr Von Nehemet, a Hungarian gentleman,  three years ago
contracted  gonorrhoea.   After having  vainly endeavored to rid
himself of his  malady for nine months, it suddenly disappeared on
taking a large  dose of cubebs.
  Soon after this sudden disappearance, an eruption showed itself
on his face and  nose, for which he  took  Pulnau water, which
seemed to  remove it.  He was noAV, to all appearance, well; but
the suddenness Avith which both the original disorder and the erup-
tion had  ceased, made him distrust the soundness and permanence
of the apparent cure.   Distressed with this  feeling of insecurity,
and his family being at Graefenberg, he determined to go thither
too, and  submit himself to the Graefenberg treatment.   He was
soon satisfied that his fears Avere but too well founded.   For, short-
ly after he began to adopt the remedy, a crop of small ulcers made
their appearance  round the fundament.   Similar ones soon showed
themselves on his legs, and presently his hands and fingers became
covered with pustules.
   By  slow degrees, however, the whole of these symptoms van-
ished, and his health Avas perfectly restored.  He left  Graefenberg
while  I was still there.
   Now,  I think it cannot  be doubted  that when  this  gentleman's
 original disease so suddenly disappeared, his system  still retained
 the poison Avith Avhich he had been first inoculated.  Nor  can it be
 doubted, that if that poison had not been thrown to the surface by
 the treatment adopted,  he must have become, at some future time,
 the subject of severe disease, of some kind or other.
   I am persuaded  that multitudes of  anomalous  disorders, Avhose
 causes seemed buried in  obscurity, are occasioned by suppressed
 poison—and often by a poison of the kind here alluded to.

                        FISTULA IN ANO.
   The young Count Thun, a youth sixteen  years of age, became
 sensible  of uneasiness in  the  neighborhood of  the rectum  while
 passing his motions.  This uneasiness  gradually increased until it
 became so seArere as to prevent  him from  riding on horseback.
 The parts were noAV examined by a surgeon, and found to be thick-
 ened,  enlarged, and hardened.   In a short  time the pain became
 excessively severe, and other advice Avas taken, both at Vienna and
 Prague.   It was determined to puncture the  part.  This Avas done,
 and a discharge of matter  mixed Avith  blood ensued.   The disease 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        201
was now pronounced to be fistula.   Attempts were made to effect
a cure, by means of injections throAvn into the sinuses through the
puncture ; and that the case was one of perfect or complete fistula
is proved by the fact that a portion of the injected matter always
escaped  through the sphincter, proving beyond question that the
sinus opened into the bowel.   A great variety of injections having
been used with  no benefit whatever, the case was  pronounced to
be  incurable without an operation.   To this measure the young
count  could not be persuaded to  submit.   He had  now been un-
der medical and surgical treatment for twelve months.   He had
five fistulous openings around the anus, and his system had been
so much reduced that  it Avas with the utmost  difficulty he could
walk, even when assisted by  the arm of his  father.
   When I saw him he had  been at Graefenberg eight  months.
For the first  three months  he took daily three wet sheets of an
hour each—each being immediately folloAved  by the cold  bath.
He Avore umschlags round the  body and under the crotch  night
and day.  At the expiration of three months, he began to douche
every day ;  and he has only  now just begun to undergo the sweat-
ing process.  He takes all his food, both meat and drink, perfectly
cold.   He has never taken a sitz bath ; nor has he had any crisis.
   After hearing  the  detail  of  the case from  the father,  whose
memory was assisted by the  son himself, I requested that I might
 be allowed  to examine the parts.   This request Avas immediately
complied with.   The scars left by the healing  of the sinuses were
distinctly visible.   But the thickening has  disappeared, as Avell as
the pain, which I ascertained by making  firm pressure entirely
round the anus, and especially upon the  scarred parts.  Four out
 of the five  openings were  perfectly and soundly healed, but there
 yet remained one, formerly as large as the tip of  the little  finger,
 but now not larger than a pin's head, to be healed.
   Prepared as I already Avas by & priori reasoning from the  nature
 of animal life up to the nature of animal disease, and from the na-
 ture of  disease up to the true nature of remedies, to award  great
 efficacy to the cold water-cure, yet I must confess  that if I had not
 Avitnessed this case, and also the one which follows, with my OAvn
 eyes, I should have had great difficulty in believing the truth of
 the statement.
                        URINARY  FISTULA.
   Baron Lauengen, of Lauengen, captain of cavalry, struck him-
               9* 
202        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE.

self a severe blow against the pommel of his saddle.  Infiamma
tion and much  tumefaction ensued.  After a time the swelling of
the part was enormous,  and fluctuation was distinctly felt.   An
opening was made into it, very low down, from which there imme-
diately escaped a very  large quantity of urine.   This  puncture
never healed, but the urine continued constantly to flow through
it.  He suffered from this state of things for two years, which two
years were  spent  in fruitless endeavors, under  the  advice of the
very best continental surgeons, to heal this fistulous sore.   He
then came to Graefenberg, where he has been, if I remember right,
only eight months.  He  was kind enough to  suffer  me to examine
the part, which I found to be perfectly healed and sound, the scar
where the opening had been still remaining  distinctly visible near
the raphe.
                         GONORRHOEA.
   A  gentleman  of  Transylvania,  a healthy man,  twenty-eight
years of age,  contracted gonorrhoea.   In spite of all the means
which could be devised  by his medical advisers, the disease con-
tinued for fifteen  months.   Four months after he had got well he
contracted the  disease a second time.   The treatment he  had  gone
through  on the former  occasion had been so painful as well as
unsuccessful, that he could not make up his mind to submit to it
again, but resolved to go to Graefenberg.  He was three weeks on
the journey, and he had had the disease  three weeks  before he
started.   The  disorder Avas of  a virulent kind.  The  treatment
which was adopted in this case was as follows: At half past six in
the morning he took a wet sheet.  After the wet sheet  he took a
tepid shallow bath,  at twelve  degrees of  Reaumur.  After  this
(immediately) the cold bath, and directly after this the shallow
bath again.   At ten o'clock he took a tepid  sitz bath,  at twelve
degrees,  for half an hour.  At five o'clock the wet sheet and all
the treatment  of  the  morning  over again.   He drank thirteen
glasses of cold water daily, and wore umschlags round the abdo-
men day and night.  This treatment continued for a week, but on
the fourth day the  disease had  entirely  disappeared.   It   was
thought  desirable, however, to  continue  the treatment a  little
longer.   In  the second week he took the two wet sheets  as at the
beginning, but  went immediately after each  into the cold bath,
without the  intervention of the tepid shallow bath.   At ten o'clock
in the morning  he douched for five minutes, but not on the seat of 
GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  WATER-CURE.       203
the  disease,  nor on the  stomach, nor on the head.   At twelve
o'clock  he took a sitz bath  cold for one hour and a quarter.   At
the end of the  second week he left perfectly  cured.

                         CONSUMPTION.
Extracts (translated from the Italian) from a letter received by J. B. S---,
  Esq.,  at Graefenberg, from  Captain A. F----, of the Marine Artillery,
  Venice.
                               Venice, 10th February, 1843.
   *  *  *  *  «Mr. and Mrs.  H.  are much  obliged  by your
kindness, and have heard with great pleasure the good effects of
the  cure, on which they sincerely congratulate you, and  return
their kind compliments  to  you and your lady.  The reading of
your letter has determined  H----to visit Graefenberg next sum-
mer.  He will  profit by your advice, with respect to the method
Avhich you recommend him to adopt while there.   Colonel S----
is very well;  he says that he feels  himself  ten years  younger
(since  his visit to Graefenberg, 1842), and sends his  compliments
to you both.
   " With regard to my own case, it is given in few words.  From
my tAventy-fifth to my thirty-first year, I was  subject to frequent
affections of  the chest, for which my physicians ordered me to lose
blood, and gave me palliatives, which treatment left me constantly
liable to relapses.  They said I was  of  a plethoric habit, and  that
1 must  have the mass of my blood  diminished.  These diseases
Avere produced by weakness brought on by a too sedentary life,
too much application to  study, and  too  free indulgence in wine
and  spirit.   My constitution was extremely delicate, and the least
draught of air caused inflammation of the lungs.
  " These affections of the  chest returned three or four times a
year, until the  last time, 1827, the lungs  were so much weakened
that I could  scarcely breathe.  At this same period (I was then
thirty-one  years of age)  I Avas  at Zara,  in  Dalmatia, and  had a
severe attack, Avhich lasted several months, and of which I could
not recover.  I was confined entirely to my room.   The physician
said that it would be death to me if  I exposed myself to the open
air.  I had a consultation of physicians, at which Dr. Pinelli, the
principal physician in Dalmatia, attended, and I was declared con-
sumptive.  I was studying at that  time the German language, and
while reading the ' Conversations  Lexicon^ I was  struck with the 
204        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.
article ' Huffeland.'  In this article great praise was given to his
(Huffeland's) work on Macrobiotics (or the art of prolonging life).
I obtained this work, and it seemed to me  that I recognized my
own case in it.  As I was already quite given up by tl ie faculty, I
thought that in my position as an officer it would be best for me to
attempt an heroic cure, and to put an end to my disorders, either
by death  or  recovery.  I bade adieu to all my physicians,  in a
half-dying state, and began to wash myself in my room with fresh
water, by means  of a  sponge—repeating this operation several
times a day—and limiting my diet to vegetables, fruit, and water.
  " I  began to feel  benefit in a few days, and  soon  acquired
courage to go out.  In the course of the forty days I was strong
enough to begin sea-bathing.  It was the month of August, 1*27.
  " The  sea-bathing, which I took every morning, in all weath-
ers, joined with exercise  immediately after  the bath, continually
strengthened me more  and more, and in the space of five months
I found myself the strongest and the healthiest of any of my com-
panions.   From that time to the present day I  have had no illness
of any kind.   I drink  no wine, because  I do not like  it.  But I
could drink it without any evil result.
  " I prefer vegetable diet; but,  for several years  that  I was at
sea, I took animal food, without the least inconvenience.   I expose
myself to all weathers—and go without a cloak, even in winter, in
order to put my health  to the proof.  I go from a hot atmosphere
into a  cold one, et vice versa, without any precaution.   I  wear no
flannel, and lead a very irregular life.
  "In 1835, when I was on  board ship, I  was attacked, in the
Port of the Piroeus, with an epidemic fever,  which  raged there on
account of the  marshes, and which attacked three fourths of our
crew.  On the  second and third attack of fever, I took,  each time,
a bath in  the sea, and recovered, while my companions were ill for
several months.
  " The only precaution which I  observe is to  bathe every day in
the sea, in all weathers,  and in all  seasons, Avhen I have  the oppor-
tunity ; and to take a douche bath* for one minute, and wash my-
self all over with cold water, as soon as I get out of bed.  I drink
a great deal of cold water—from twenty to twenty-five beakers
every day—chiefly  in the morning before breakfast.  But when-
* Three buckets of water poured over him. 
GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  WATER-CURE.        205
ever I have been so situated that I could do none of these things, I
have still felt myself perfectly well.
   " In short, at the age of forty-seven, I feel myself stronger than
I was at twenty-five, before I was attacked by disease in my chest.
This is the method which I followed before I had any knowledge
of the method of Priessnitz, with which I only became acquainted
five years  ago when  I  returned  from the Levant, and which has
determined me to continue it, and to recommend it to all my
friends.
   " If Dr. Johnson wishes to make use of this information, I have
no objection  whatever.  I only request him  to put  merely the
initials of  my name.
   "I request  you to write to  me before you leave Graefenberg,
and to believe that I  am,  and  shall always be, with the most per-
fect esteem, etc., etc.,                              A.  F.,
                                       " Captain of the Marine Artillery "

   COUGH, WEAKNESS  OF THE  CHEST, AND INJURY  OF THE BACK.
   Mrs. J. B. S----'s case related in her own words.
   " From a child, I never recollect to have had strong health.   I
was constantly suffering  from the illness incident to children, be-
sides much cough, with  tendency to weakness of the chest, for
which at an  early period I was ordered to wear a flannel dress
next the skin.  When  at school, and while playing, I fell back-
ward over  a garden roller, to which I paid no  attention, although
finding it  difficult either  to walk  fast or  to run for a few  days.
From this  circumstance I think may be dated the weakness in my
back,  which was  first  evinced in a  difficulty  to rise from the
ground, if  I had been  stooping or  kneeling while at work in my
garden ; the feeling being a total prostration of strength, from the
lower  region  of my  back (precisely the part hurt) to the knees.
Still I struggled  against  the weakness,  until I  found  myself in-
capable of walking up a slight hill with ease.  Application was
then made  to the physician,  by whom I was ordered to rub the
part well Avith a liniment principally composed  of  essential oils,
and which  produced a discharge  equal to that of a perpetual
blister, and for a time restored strength  to my back; but the dis-
ease invariably returned.
   "This state of debility  continued until 1841, when I think it in-
creased ; if I walked  up  a long staircase,  my strength was ex- 
206        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.

hausted; the same indeed after  any slight exertion.   In 1842 I
came to Graefenberg.   I was ordered  to  leave off flannel, a lein-
tuch for one hour, to be succeeded by the abgeschrecktes bath, in
which I was well rubbed for a few minutes; an abreibung  and  sitz
bath at  eleven  o'clock, and the same at four o'clock in the after-
noon.   In  a fortnight I was ordered to plunge  once  in the cold
bath, returning  thence  to the abgeschrecktes  to assist the circu-
lation of the blood.  At the expiration of five weeks from  my
first arrival at Graefenberg, I was suddenly seized with an utter
prostration of strength; so much so, that my legs dragged, and I
feared paralysis.  This was succeeded  by ague, shiverings, and
burnings, pains  from head to foot, but principally across the loins.
A profuse  natural  perspiration  relieved  me of much uneasiness;
and, when Herr Priessnitz came, he  ordered  an immediate abrei-
bung with umschlags  around the waist, to be repeated frequently
so long as the  pain continued violent in the loins.  If I were bet-
ter in the morning, the bathing was to be continued as usual. This
was done.   When  I  attempted to  walk after being  dressed, I
found  myself incapable of the  exertion, being  weak almost as an
infant.   During two days I ate only  a little bread, and  drank
water, the food that my appetite asked  for.   In four days  my
strength had considerably returned, and in a week I was as well
as usual.   After this  fever, I was ordered to  douche, which in a
very short period produced considerable swelling in my left foot;
then I was ordered a  foot bath, Priessnitz saying, 'it was  prob-
able a  crisis was approaching;'  which took place in a few days,
and which discharged as an issue for seven weeks.   Another suc-
ceeded,  which  lasted for five, and another  afterward for three
weeks,  more violent than the preceding, with a multitude  of little
ones; and after each  one I felt stronger and stronger, and now
have to rejoice that all pain in the back, with that prostration of
strength, and  every other symptom of debility,  headache, etc.,
etc., have apparently bid me farewell."

                           DEAFNESS.
   While I was  staying at  Graefenberg,  during the  first  Aveek in
January of the present year (1843), Herr Fricks, a young Prus-
sian, aged twenty-seven years, arrived from Stettin.
   He had been totally deaf for ten years, his deafness having been
produced by a severe attack of typhus fever.    During  the course, 
            GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        207

 however, of the whole ten years his hearing returned three times,
 but only remained a day or two, when he became again as  deaf as
 ever.  Having undergone treatment for twelve days, a large quan-
 tity of matter issued from his nose.   He immediately regained his
 perfect hearing, and remained quite well up  to the time  Avhen I
 left Graefenberg—a period of about six weeks.
   I will here relate an accident Avhich befel  this young man, in \
 order to show that  the water  treatment is an edged tool Avhich I
 cannot with  impunity be  trifled with—and that,  like every other i
 remedy which is not mere chip in porridge, it is only safe in the
 hands of those Avho know Iioav to adapt its use to the peculiarities
 and  powers of indiAidual constitutions.
   He had been packed in the blanket; but, after having lain there
 for three hours, did not perspire.  He was ordered therefore to
 be taken out and put into the tepid bath.   The bath-servant, how-
 ever, either to save trouble, or from misunderstanding, put him in
 the  cold bath.  The  moment he came out he fell  down, and re-
 mained perfectly senseless for more than  an hour.   Constant fric-
 tion, however, with the wet hands, at length restored him.
   General Baron Esch, commanding the cavalry at  Prague, a gen-
 tleman well known in the military world, and who  made his first
 campaign with the  Duke of York, at Dunkirk, in  1799, was af-
 flicted Avith  a  confirmed  deafness of  several  years' standing, for
 which the most celebrated physicians in Austria  had all been re-
 peatedly consulted without relief.   At last he Avas  induced to go
 to Graefenberg and  consult Priessnitz, who told  him he thought
 he could cure him, but would not say what length of time it might
 require.  He was  immediately put under treatment, and  at  the
 expiration of  six weeks  he had perfectly recovered his hearino-.
 This case was related  to me  by Colonel Bowen, late of the Cold-
 stream Guards, who is now undergoing the treatment for chronic
 inflammation of the  eyes, and who was a personal friend of Gen-
 eral Esch, and  had the statement from his own lips.  The general
 also  related  to Colonel BoAven the  case of a young dragoon of-
 ficer under his  command.

                         HIP DISEASE.
   One of the first cases which attracted my attention, after  my ar-
rival at Graefenberg, was-a case of hip disease, in Elizabeth St----,
a child eight years of age, and the daughter of highly respectable 
208        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF AVATER-CURE.

parents at Hamburg.  On  inquiry of the  child's governess, she
stated that the  hips had  become enlarged  rather more than two
years  ago—that the tumefaction  gradually  increased—that the
child constantly complained of pain in the knee—that the leg and
thigh became gradually wasted—that the knee-joint became firmly
contracted, and  bent nearly at right angles,  so that she could only
walk Avith tAvo crutches, the other limb being Aveak, and the general
habit of the child delicate, and, in fact, scrofulous.  Every medical
man, if any such be present, Avill immediately recognize in this ac-
count, a very common form of scrofulous disease of  the  hip joint.
When I saAv the child, hoAvever, all these  symptoms had  disap-
peared, excepting  some remaining  enlargement of the hip, and a
little limping in the gait, arising from a trifling shortening  of the
limb.  But the  account thus  given of the child's condition when
she  first went to be  submitted to the  treatment, was fully con-
firmed by the testimony of more than a dozen persons, Avho saw
the  child  when she Avas first brought  to Graefenberg, and Avho
had  watched her progress with great interest.  But besides this,
the  shortening of  the limb, the appearances of the hip, with the
general constitutional aspect  of  the  little patient, Avere precisely
such as would have led any surgeon to  foretell, without informa-
tion, that  the patient had suffered, or Avas about to suffer, the pe-
culiar train of symptoms which the governess  mentioned.
  When I left  Graefenberg,  I saw this  child  galloping about in
the snoAV,  by the side of her  governess,  without any thing to dis-
tinguish her  from a perfectly healthy child,  excepting a little limp
in her gait.
                       SCARLET FEVER.
  In the month of May, 1842, Mrs. Klauke (aged about 25), was
seized  with pains in the head, and back, and  calves of  the legs.
Her  face, neck, arms,  and legs, and subsequently the Avhole 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 leintuch  for half an hour; then rubbed  all  over  in a  tepid
bath for twenty minutes with the  Avet  hand.  She was now or-
dered  to wear an  umschlag  round her  stomach night  and day.
When she felt cold, she was rubbed down  Avith  the wet sheet—
Avhen hot, packed in the leintuch, and so on all through.
  The tepid  bath was suspended,  until- by the  application of  a
succession of sheets the fever Avas reduced.   Then the tepid bath 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES OF WATER-CURE.        209
was repeated.  Every morning she was packed up in a blanket,
in which she was allowed to perspire for an hour; then she Avas
put into the tepid bath.   This treatment was continued for a fort-
night.   At the close of  the  sixth day all fever was extinguished,
and at the close of the whole treatment her  strength was undi-
minished.
  In addition to the above, a lavement of cold water was admin-
istered every night.  During the whole time she ate and drank as
usual, and one evening went to a ball (in the saloon of Priessnitz's
establishment), and danced  for hours, while her whole body Avas
crimsoned with scarlatina.   On returning home from the dance,
she was rubbed down with  a wet sheet, went to  bed, and  slept
soundly.

       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 at-
tack of inflammation of the stomach, accompanied Avith strong fe-
ver, 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  temperature
arose by the heat from  the  child.   During  this time, cold water
was poured  from a tumbler  glass on the head, repeated  at inter-
vals  of a minute, and, as is usual,  his whole body was rubbed
cautiously by the maid.   He was  then taken out of the bath  and
placed on the sofa, covered over with a sheet and blanket, with
the back part of his head in cold water,  for ten minutes.  By this
time reaction had taken place, when wet compresses were applied
to the  head and back part of the neck, and  the body, from the
arm-pits to  the hips, wrapped in a similar Avay.  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 similar way, but
with symptoms much more severe.   The fever running high, and
accompanied by  delirium.    The treatment Avas  commenced by
placing him successively in nine wet sheets, from which the water
was but slightly Avrung out.   In each of these he remained about 
210        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE.

five minutes.   Toward the last, the heat being diminished,  he
was allowed to remain ten minutes.   To  the head  and breast, a
thick wet compress Avas applied in addition, these being the parts
where the heat Avas greatest.   The feet Avere cold, and as long as
they remained  so, the Avet sheet Avas only applied  down to  the
knees ; in the meantime, the feet and legs Avere 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 Avith the  blanket.  After the last Avet
sheet, he Avas placed  at once in a tepid bath, where  he remained
an hour, the same process of rubbing and  pouring water over the
head being practiced.  The first  day the  same process was re-
peated four times, the duration of the last being not  so long, when
the fever was not so high.   During  the night  the wet cloth was
changed every half hour.   On  the morning of the second day the
child refused to go into the water, calling  out himself at 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 arm-pits and on the back of the
neck Avas the same as on the rest of the body ;  this being the gen-
eral guide for the duration of a bath.
   The same treatment slightly varied was continued  four days,
Avhen the child was well, and  was sent out to play with the other
children.   In eight days after this a pustule appeared on the foot,
which discharged matter freely.

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

                           BALDNESS.
   Assessor Willert came under the hydrotherapeutic treatment for
a very old  rheumatic  affection.  When he arrived at Graefenberg
his entire head was perfectly bald and smooth.   I had an oppor- 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        211
tunity of examining his head soon after I myself reached Graefen-
berg ; which I did with the more care, having  heard that it was
expected, during his treatment, that his  hair would probably re-
turn.   Shortly before I  left  Graefenberg I was requested to go
and examine Assessor Willert's head once more.   I did so, and
found it every where covered Avith a fine new hair, nearly half an
inch in  length.  There can be no doubt whatever that this gentle-
man's head will shortly be covered with hair as  luxuriant as at any
former  period  of his life.  His age, judging from his appearance
(for I did not inquire), is about seven or eight and thirty.

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

                SECONDARY SYPHILITIC SYMPTOMS.
   Count Pyatcshavich, a Polish  count, contracted  syphilis.   Un-
der a course of  mercury all his sores healed except a large one in
the groin, which resisted all medical treatment.   His health at last
began to flag.   He lost both his flesh and his strength, and be-
came reduced in substance  even to emaciation.  This state of
things continued for one  entire year,  when, hopeless of relief by
ordinary means, he yielded to entreaty,  and,  in spite  of strong
prejudice against the treatment, came to Graefenberg.  In six
weeks he was perfectly well, and I  myself saAv him depart, the
picture of health and strength—a fine  young man standing six feet
without his shoes, and as  strong as a giant.

            ANOTHER CASE OF SECONDARY SYPHILIS.
   -----Robertson, Esq., a Scottish gentleman, contracted chancre
in Sicily, 1838, which was healed by external  mercurial applica-
tions.  He took mercury  internally also, but it failed in producing
ptyalism.  The  chancre returned in a short time, and continued to 
            GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        213

heal and return at intervals, during the space of six months.   Dur-
ing these six months he took four pounds by weight of Lafecteurs
rob (a concentrated preparation of sarza and other drugs), and six-
teen pounds by weight of Dupuytren's rob. He was then ordered
to rub in mercury for  Avhat were  called  secondary  ulcers ;  and
these ulcers never healed until all these medicines and all mercu-
rial applications were discontinued.  But under the use of simple
purgatives,  Avashing the sores with  nothing  but goulard water,
they healed in  eight days.  But  by this time his system  had
become so broken up that pressing  fears were entertained for  his
life.  He had become quite emaciated—the slightest exertion, or a
sudden noise, would cause him to faint—his spirits were depressed
even to  frequent  weeping—the  inside of  his mouth, his tongue,
cheeks, and throat, were covered with excoriations and sores—the
skin of his face and forehead were covered with blotches—and his
stomach and boAvels in so irritable a condition that when he took a
plate of hot soup he was obliged  to sit upon a commode while eat-
ing it.  For this excessive irritability he was obliged  to take large
quantities of opium, which he did  under the advice of his physi-
cian.
   At this  time  the  joint of his knee was larger than the thickest
part of his  thigh.   He was now removed to  Naples, and placed
under  the care of another physician, who  gave him iodide of po-
tassium.  From this he derived great benefit, the sores healing and
the blotches disappearing.   He was desired to travel, but never to
return to a hot climate.  His health noAV became  considerably bet-
ter, but the disease was still in him, for it was not long before the
blotches returned, and  he was obliged to have recourse again to
the iodide of potassium.  And indeed he soon found that, in order
to keep the disease under, it was necessary to take the iodide of
potassium constantly.   He now  took warm sea bathing at Peter-
head, Avhich brought out several ulcers in the part first affected.
After this he took sulphur baths, and also some iodine administered
by Mr. Callaway, one of the  surgeons to Guy's Hospital in  the
Borough.
   He now came to Graefenberg, and  submitted himself to a full
course of the water-cure.  When he came there, the skin of  his
face was so excessively irritable that  he could never  go out with-
out an umbrella to protect his face from the wind.
   He had not been under the treatment long before the disease, 
214        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE.

which had been hitherto only suppressed, Avas driven by the water
to the surface  of  the  body.   He became covered Avith  venereal
eruptions, and no fewer than twenty-one ulcers reappeared on the •
part originally infected.  As  soon as these appeared, his general
health began to mend, and in a few months he was perfectly well,
and offered  for a wager of any amount to Avalk eighty miles in tAvo
days—forty miles  each  day.  He has just left Graefenberg for
Vienna, and related his case to me only a feAv days before he Avent.
This gentleman was so popular  at Graefenberg, and  (having the
command of several languages) so kind in interpreting for foreign-
ers when they first arrived, that a dinner Avas given to him at Frie-
Avaldau, at which I had the honor to be present.
   This gentleman  also mentioned to me a case of gleet which came
immediately under his own notice.  It had existed for seven years,
and obstinately withstood every mode of treatment which could be
devised.   Under the influence of the water treatment  he  got per-
fectly well in a few weeks.

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

             FOURTH CASE OF SECONDARY  SYPHILIS.
   About seven years ago Herr Von  Goltzsch contracted chancre,
which was cured by mercury.  From that time his general health 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES OF WATER-CURE.        215
 began to decline.   Every noAV and  then he had  sore throat, and
 was scarcely ever free from what he at that time believed to be
 rheumatic  pains.  For six years this state of things  continued,
 during the whole of which time he was so weak that  a  strong
 child running against him was sufficient to push him down.  At
 last his shin bones became attacked  Avith the most excruciating
 pains the moment he became warm  in bed, which made it impossi-
 ble for him to sleep.  Shortly after this, nodosities made their ap-
 pearance along the whole  course  of the bones.   He  was now
 strongly urged to come  to Graefenberg, where I had the pleasure
 of  seeing him, and of examining his legs.   He has been  under
 treatment for eight months, during which time his throat has not
 once been sore.  He has  entirely lost all his pains, and, on ques-
 tioning him as to  the state of his physical strength, his emphatic
 reply was, " When I came here I was as  weak as a child; but now
 I would not turn my back upon ten  devils."

              IMPUISSANCE, COMPLICATED  WITH GOUT.
   The uncle  of  the reigning Duke  of Nassau, between  sixty and
 seventy years of age, had been afflicted with gout so severely, that
 when he arrived at Graefenberg, he Avas almost bent double.   In
 addition to  this he had become impuissant.
   He remained at Graefenberg for two years, married while there,
 and in due time became the father of two children; and was, more-
 over, perfectly cured of the gout.
   There  are  probably no  two affections over which the hydropa-
 thic remedy exercises a more marked and beneficial influence than
 it does over the two just mentioned.

                      CONTRACTED JOINTS.
   A Hungarian girl was brought here with the knee joint so much
 contracted,  that  she was  obliged constantly to walk  with two
 crutches.  In six weeks she left Graefenberg, walking exceedingly
 well without any crutch at all.

                           HERNIA.
   A young  man affected with inguinal hernia, consulted a surgeon
at Milan, who undertook to cure him.
   The surgeon applied a plug of wood to the rupture, supported
by a strong band of iron, which produced  ulceration to a great and 
216        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF AVATER-CURE.

painful extent.   At the end of six  months the hernia Avas no bet-
ter, and he suffered severely from the ulcerations.
   He then repaired to Graefenberg, Avhere he has been prosecuting
the hydropathic  treatment  for six months.   The  ulcerations are
quite healed, and his rupture so much better that he has already
left off his truss, and Priessnitz assures him that there is no doubt
of his perfect recovery.

HEMATURIA, OR VOIDING OF BLOOD FROM  THE URINARY ORGANS.
   Herr ZeloAvski  had bleeding  from the urinary organs almost
daily for  six months before his  arrival  at Graefenberg.   On one
occasion  he voided a  large tumbler full of  pure blood.   He was
also the  subject  of  piles.   After ten weeks of treatment, he was
entirely free from both disorders.  He gave  me the history of his
case himself, on the evening before he left  Graefenberg.

                    CEREBRO-SPINAL  DISEASE.
   Monsieur de Gallette, an  officer  in the Imperial  Guard of  Rus-
sia, aged thirty-five years, was affected about two years since with
severe giddiness in  the head.   He  could not look vertically up-
ward without falling either on his knees or on his side.  Any sud-
den motion of  the head deprived  him in a moment of  the use of
his lower  extremities, which immediately yielded to the Aveight of
his body,  and let him down.
   He lost also the  perfect command  of  his  tongue, so  that he
could not articulate the words which he  desired  to  utter.   His
memory too quite failed  him, and all  his faculties were so dis-
ordered, that he became quite foolish and unfit  for society.   One
day, in  a room full of company, he took  up a decanter of water
and emptied it  completely upon his own head, not knowing what
he was  about,  and wondering where  the water came from which
was running down his clothes.  This  gentleman  has  been  four
months under the Avater-cure.   His giddiness has left him, he can
articulate  every word  with  the greatest facility, he has quite re-
covered his memory, and all his  mental faculties are as perfect as
ever they  were. He complains noAv of nothing but  physical weak-
ness, from which, however, he  is  daily recovering.   But the most
remarkable part of this case still rema'ms to be  told.  This gentle-
man has been  quite bald for fifteen years  over the entire  roof of
his head, and down on either side to within an inch  of the  tips of 
            GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        217

his ears, for which he has always worn a wig.   When he had re-
lated his case, he requested  me and some other gentlemen to raise
the candle  and examine the bald  part of his head.  We did so,
and then perceived that a fine downy hair is beginning to grow all
over the  bald part, which promises in a month or two entirely to
cover it, and supersede the necessity of a wig. The hair is already
a full quarter of an inch in length, but exceedingly fine.   A hun-
dred persons can vouch for the truth  of this  statement, among
others Colonel Bowen, Mr. Hoppner, and Mr. Anthony, an English
surgeon, who examined the  case with me.

                     SUPPRESSED MEASLES.
  In June, 1812, Major Heise, in the Hanoverian service, while on
active  duty, had measles, during Avhich disease he received orders
to march to Valladolid, in  Spain, and  perform the route  from
Madrid to Valladolid  on horseback.  On  the march he was ex-
posed  day and night to the  open air.  The measles suddenly dis-
appeared.   Six  months after this his body and limbs  became cov-
ered over with a dry scaly eruption, exhibiting  a yellowish brown
patchy appearance, Avhen the scales  fell off, accompanied by in-
tolerable itching.  Every expedient was tried in order  to  get rid
of this eruption.   He visited the baths of Germany,  Svritzerland,
and Italy.   He  took Russian vapor baths for twenty years.  But
all perfectly in vain.  Six years  ago he was attacked with  diar-
rhoea  and  prolapsus  ani, occasioning from tenXo twelve motions
daily, with constant desire  to return to the water-closet.   With
these symptoms he came to Graefenberg.  Added to this, he had
nervous  twitchings of two  years' standing.  Two weeks  after he
had been under treatment  he had fever, with delirium, Avith loss
of sleep and appetite, for which he took leintuchs and tepid  bath.
This lasted a week, and was succeeded  by good appetite and re-
turning strength.   Crises,  consisting of  furuncles,  now  set in,
which lasted nine weeks.   At the end  of three  months, he was
ordered  to  go to  Vienna and to adopt the following more moder-
ate treatment, viz., three abreibungs daily.  Five  days after his
arrival, diarrhoea and frequent desire for stool left him.  At first
his  treatment consisted of leintuchs, cold baths, sitz baths.  On
returning from Vienna, he took six leintuchs of  half an hour  each,
and  each being  immediately succeeded by  a  cold bath daily—
douche for five minutes daily.   Umschlags  were worn night and
              10 
218        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  W ATER-CURE.

day on his body, legs, and head.  He was here six months, at the
end of which time he Avent away entirely free from pain, in fresh
and strong health, and in all respects perfectly well.  Just before
I left Graefenberg, Priessnitz received  a letter from Major Heise,
in which he expressed his great gratitude for his recovered health.

                            AGUE.
  A general officer in the British army, well known at the Horse
Guards, still staying at Bcemischdorf, and whose 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 all the time by
two men.  After this  he walked about the apartment for half an
hour, and then went  to bed.   The  ague left  him, and never re-
turned.
                           DEAFNESS.
   Colonel Bowen, late of the  Guards,  has been residing at Graef-
enberg seven months, without the slightest benefit in his own case.
He cannot, therefore, be reasonably supposed to be blinded by any
violent  prejudices in favor of hydropathy.   But he related to me
the following circumstances concerning an intimate friend of his
own—and  it was afterward confirmed by many others who were
themselves  under treatment at  the same time Avith the colonel's
friend.   General Baron Esch, lately dead, but  at that time com-
manding the cavalry at Prague, a gentleman  extensively known in
the military world, and who  made his first  campaign with  the
Duke of York, at Dunkirk, in 1799, was  afflicted  with deafness,
of several  years' standing, and which had  resisted  the most judi-
cious treatment.  He was at last  prevailed on to submit himself to
the water remedy—and in  six weeks  he had  perfectly recovered
his hearing, in the fullest sense of the word.  Witnessing, with his
own senses, the singular effect which  had thus been Avrought on
his friend's ears, it was this which  determined Colonel Bowen  to
try the same remedy on his own eyes—but hitherto  without effect.

                          EPILEPSY.
  The  next ease which  I shall mention, is one of  epilepsy.   On 
            GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        219

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 fqur months, and was kept on a very
scanty diet the Avhole 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 returning home.
   I suppose this case to be one of epilepsy, depending on irrita-
tion, set up in the brain, by the  presence of some foreign body,
probably a clot of blood; and that  this clot, under the  depriva-
tion of food, had entered into  combination  with oxygen, in  order
that it might assist in protecting the vital organs from  the destruc-
tive action of that element, and had quitted  the system in  the form
of oxydized products.  The cases of palsy  probably depended  on
similar causes, which are removed by similar means.
   This gentleman has  made copious notes, both of his  case and
his treatment, which he intends to publish  as soon as he returns
to Pesth.

           HYPOCHONDRIASIS,  PSORIASIS, AND SCIATICA.
   The gentleman (an  Englishman), about  60 years  of age, who
was the subject of these three  severe afflictions, belonged formerly
to the civil service in India.  I made his acquaintance at  Graefen-
berg  immediately on my arrival, and am indebted to him for intro-
ductions  to several valuable cases besides  his own.  He had  la-
bored 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  farineuse),  his
mind  became excessively excited by some family occurrences, with
the particulars of which  he did not, of course, think it necessary
to  acquaint me.  In a short time, what with this excitement, the
torture arising from his sciatica (inflammation of the sheath of the
great sciatic nerve where  it passes  through the structure of the
hip), and the intolerable itching produced by the skin disease, the
equilibrium of his mind became so much disturbed that he was not
considered in a fit condition to be left by himself.   Always in a
state of high excitement, there were times Avhen  1 >e was  perfectly
insane. 
220        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  WATER-CURE.

  For eight years the sufferings of this poor gentleman, bodily and
mental, Avere indeed awful.  When I asked him to give me a de-
tailed account of his  sufferings,  he sat thoughtful for a moment,
and then, going'-to a table, he took) up a small pocket-book, and
opening it at a particular page, and placing his fore-finger betAveen
the leaves, he reseated himself.   " Some time ago," he said, " 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 attention.  They were so  exactly characteristic of my
sufferings, that I almost fancied  myself the  particular object of
the divine wrath, and  that I Avas 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  laboring both in body and  mind.
Read them," continued he, " and judge whether I have not great
reason to  be thankful that I am now  such as you see me."  He
handed me the book, and I read as follows : " The Lord will smite
thee with the botch of Egypt  and with the emerods, and with the
scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.  The
Lord shall smite  thee with madness, and blindness,  and astonish-
ment 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 be-
fore thee ; and thou shalt fear day and night, and  shalt have none
assurance  of thy life.   In the morning thou  shalt say,  ' Would
God  it were even;' and at even thou shalt say,  ' Would God  it
were morning !' "
   " At the time," continued he, when I had done reading,  " that
I was perusing these  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 un-
derstanding, and astonishment  of heart, were also  mine.   I had
indeed  ' no assurance of my life,' for  I Avas  often sorely tempted
to  destroy it;  and every morning I wished it were night, and  at
night I longed for the  morning—and every effort I had made to
get ' healed' had been utterly in vain."
   This gentleman had th'm been under the water-cure about three 
            GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE        221

months.   His  sciatica had entirely left  him—the  eruption was
nearly gone—the itching had wholly ceased—while the  state of
his  mind was calm, cheerful, rational, and full of thankfulness.
  So fully satisfied was  he  tWk he should  get entirely well, that
he left Graefenberg about a week before myself,  in order to bring
the Avhole of his family back with him—partly that he might have
the comfort of their society for the rest of  the time that  it would
be necessary for him to remain under the cure, and partly in order
to submit his daughter,  who  had  ill health, to the  same remedy
which had proved so signal a blessing to himself. 
222         GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.
                         CHAPTER XIII.

     GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE—(Continued.)*

Nervous Headache.—Deafness and Constipation.—Indigestion, severe Headache, etc.—In-
  digestion, Nervous Debility, and Hypochondriasis.—Nervous Debility from excessive
  Study.—Indigestion  and Pain in the Side.—Great suffering from Nervous Weakness.—
  General Fever.—Indigestion and sore Throat.—Inflammation of the Stomach and Bow-
  els.—Nervous Debility, with frequent Cramps.—Nervous Debility and Sleeplessness.—
  Indigestion, Distress, and Depression of Spirits.—Gout  and Rheumatism.—Syphilitic
  Eruption, Hernia,  Sciatica, Biliousness, Indigestion, etc.—Indigestion, Rheumatism, and
  spitting of Blood —Gout.—Gout and Rheumatism.—Hereditary Gout—Cutaneous Erup-
  tions  and universal Pains.—Great Nervousness.—Urinary Fistula, or Opening.—Hemi-
  plegia, or Paralysis of one Side.—Catalepsy, or Trance, general Debility,  and Indiges-
  tion.—Seminal Weakness, with  great  Nervous Debility.—Debility, Nervousness, and
  Baldness, following the use of Mercury.—Does Water bring Mercury from the System 1
  —Defective  Hearing  and Smelling, with general Debility.—High Fever, with De-
  lirium.—Dyspepsia, Sleeplessness, and Nervousness.—Rheumatic Neuralgia.—Gout.—
  Menorrhogia, or excessive and debilitating Menstruation.—Great Debility and depres-
  sion of Spirits, following Nervous Fever.—Insensibility following an improper Bath.—
  Insensibility following Over-drinking.—Secondary Syphilis.—(A Horrible Case).—Inflam-
  mation of the Brain, with Delirium.—Dyspepsia, Headache, and Fullness at the Head.
  —Debility, Sleeplessness, Depression of Spirits, etc., from excessive mental Application.
  —Scrofulous Disease of the  Knee Joint—Scrofulous enlargement of the Knee Joint.—
  Skin Diseases.—Leprosy, Tetanus, and Hydrophobia.

         NERVOUS HEADACHE, DEAFNESS, AND CONSTIPATION.

   That I  may present to the reader a familiar picture of the na-
ture of the  different processes of water-cure, I  will give some ac-
count of my OAvn treatment,  adopting the  maxim  of  Seneca:

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

   I have for many years experienced inconvenience from rheumatic
and nervous headache, with  noises  and  deafness in  the left ear;
always dependent on medicine for the function of the bowels, yet
very seldom requiring active treatment.

   I waited  a few days, to recover from  the fatigue of  traveling,
before  I began the  treatment.  At  6  a.  m., Tuesday, April  18,  I
was visited  by Priessnitz and  the  bath  attender, who rubbed me

down with  the wet  sheet  for  two or  three  minutes; following  it

       * From Sir Charles Scudamore's Medical Visit to  Graofenborg. 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF  WATER-CURE.        223
with an equally diligent application of the dry one.   The cold ap-
plication being accompanied with such immediate friction, no se-
vere 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 flan-
nel waistcoat over my linen.
   The wet  bandage  Avas 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 hard-rubbing
for my head most freely with cold water in a basin, and was' care-
ful, by Priessnitz's  desire, to  chill  the  nape of the neck.  I next
took a  long walk, and drank three half-pints of water  at suitable
intervals.
   At 11 a. m. sheet process repeated, and, in addition, a sitz bath,
with water  at 65 degrees Fah., to reach  to the navel.   I contin-
ually rubbed the abdomen and loins with the Avater, and remained
a  quarter of an hour.  The unpleasant first impression does not
last more than a minute, and it is not disagreeable to remain for
any length  of time, unless  the water should be changed.   At  5
p. m. this treatment was repeated.  I came in from  a walk, much
heated by exercise in the sun, waited a few minutes till the pulse
became quiet, and then had the wet sheet applied Avith a most re-
freshing and satisfactory effect.
   19th.—Placed in the wet sheet; the first lying doAvn on it and
investment  with  it were veiy disagreeable;  but, immediately  after
the packing up with the blanket, etc., sufficiently comfortable; and
in a few minutes more, so much so that the effect was quite sooth-
ing  and tending to sleep.   At the end  of three quarters of an
hour, warmth came which Avould have produced perspiration, and,
this not being desired, I was  taken out,  and immediately entered
the  shallow bath, at 62 degrees, and was Avell rubbed with the
water for about two  minutes.  The immersion being so slight, the
impression  of the  cold water was very bearable, and the Avarmth
of surface  Avas afterward quickly restored.  Rubbing wet sheet at
11 a. m. and at 5 p. m., this  and the sitz bath at 62 degrees.   Each
time rubbed the  head.
   20th.—Same  treatment.   Examined my  animal heat  before 
224        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF AVATER-CURE.

being rubbed  Avith the wet sheet; it was 9*7-5, and the sheet 50
degrees; no alteration  produced—showing  the mildness  of this
refrigerant  process.
  After  the leintuch this morning,  Avent first into the shallow
bath at 62  degrees, and then into the  plunging bath, which was 44
degrees, and cutting cold ; returned quickly  to  the shallow bath,
Avhich now seemed pleasantly tepid.  I found the animal  heat re-
duced one  degree  by the plunging bath, although the sensible re-
action  was  excellent; and, after the  dry rubbing and  dressing, I
Avas comfortably Avarm.
  23d.—Same treatment.   In using the sitz bath found the tem-
perature 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 Avater, 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 se-
cretion  suspended with loss of appetite, took blue pill and colo-
cynth  at night, and next morning the improved 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 medi-
cine.
  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 bead  bath and foot bath ;
having recourse to the latter also,  from  being much subject to
coldness of feet.   I received the head  bath for a quarter of an
hour, allotting five minutes to the back,  and  the same to each side
of the head.*  I lay on the floor, and had a good proof of the
superior conducting power of air  over water  for  sound,  in the
strong perception  of any contiguous  accidental  noises.  From this
application of cold water I always felt sensible invigoration of the
nerves of the head.
  The foot bath  was  also sensibly useful, tending to comfortable
warmth of the feet; and the further rubbing  of the  ankles  and
muscles of the leg much relieved the consequences of fatigue.
  * I find a shallow wooden vessel, with a rounded groove to receive the
neck, answer the purpose for this process very well. 
           GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  WATER-CURE.         225

  May 1st.—In using the leintuch 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 Avet
sheet.   If,  in any particular case, the feet fail to  become warm
Avith the rest of the body, socks may be worn.
  May 5th.—To-day  used the douche, the temperature of which
was 44  degrees, for two  minutes:  it immediately reduced the ani-
mal heat one degree  ; but I had a comfortable reaction.  I  felt
very sensibly how much the most active this is of all the processes,
when the douche is  strong and the water cold.   I used it after-
ward  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 instead of one.   The first impression
on lying down was that of greater coldness; but, when packed up,
this subsided into a sense of pleasant coolness that was refreshing.
This remained,  so that at the end of an hour and a quarter I Avas
not warmer than I had been in ten minutes with the one sheet.  It
Avas  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 de-
gree.   Had I remained longer, I should, doubtless, have perspired
freely.  I was much satisfied Avith the experiment, as showing 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 headache :  pulse
rather full, at 56 degrees; animal heat 98 degrees.  In the course
of ten minutes  after  being  packed up, I  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 Avhole body Avas
much increased without sensible perspiration,  the  pulse was in-
creased to 66 degrees, full and soft; the animal heat 99 degrees.
At the end of two hours, the perspiration Avas universal, but  not
copious, pulse 68, animal heat 100 degrees.  In another half hour,
perspiration in a greater degree, but not streaming, pulse 68, animal
              10* 
226        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF  WATER-CURE.

heat 101 degrees.   At the end of two hours and three quarters, I
quitted  the  bed, for the  full bath,  into which I plunged instantly,
Avhile hot and perspiring, made two immersions, and came out ex-
ceedingly refreshed.*  On being dressed, the pulse was as in the
beginning, and the animal heat 9'7*5.
  On the following day,  returning from a long mountain walk, the
sun shining, my pulse was excited and my animal heat 101 degrees.
  I waited a few minutes only for a quiet circulation; I wiped off
the flowing  perspiration, and then, while yet hot and perspiring,
was freely  rubbed down with the wet sheet, holding more water
than  usual.   I was highly refreshed  and agreeably cooled: my
pulse became natural, and the animal heat, examined during dress-
ing, was 98 degrees.f  Hence another  proof of the perfect  safety
of applying sudden cold  to  the  heated  body with perspiring
surface, when the  animal heat is raised beyond the natural stand-
ard.
  I proceeded with regular treatment to  the  20th, and  then de-
sisted.  After this period,  in consequence of a severe cold from
remaining in wet clothes, when I had no  opportunity of changing
them, I was attacked with  slight general fever, rheumatic  pains,
and severe throbbing headache.  I immediately had recourse to a
leintuch,  followed  by the shallow tepid  bath, and  two affusions
with  cold water.   The  relief  was  immediate :  the animal heat,
which had  been increased to 100 degrees, was  immediately re-
duced to 9*7'5.   One repetition of this treatment was so success-
ful, that in  twenty-four hours I found myself quite well.
  The final result of the whole proceedings has been a most satis-
factory improvement of my health,  in all the failings which I men-
tioned ; and I have not found the least occasion  for medicine dur-
ing the last  two months.   On my journey homeward, 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,
  *  It is to be considered that with  the elevation of the animal heat, the
nervous energy also is simultaneously increased, or more diffused.
  t  In a paper on heat, which  I had the honor of reading at the  evening
meeting  of the College of Physicians,  March 5th, 1838, I quoted the experi-
ment of  Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Fordyce,  and others, showing the impunity of
passing immediately from an apartment heated to 260 degrees Fah. into a very
cold atmosphere ; the effect indeed being agreeable, refreshing, and useful. 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        227
and an active walk, I follow up with the highest advantage and
sensible comfort and benefit.
  In relating the following cases, I avoid all mention of names;
knowing that the violation of this proper  delicacy has given great
offence at Graefenberg, and disturbed the feelings of many persons.

             INDIGESTION, SEVERE HEADACHE, ETC.
  A.  B., aged 44, for the last seven years during a residence in
India, hable to severe headaches;  complaining frequently of heat
on the top of the head, and a weight at the back.  After a time,
these headaches became  much worse  periodically, accompanied
Avith  sickness approaching to faintness, and a  momentary loss of
recollection.  These periodical returns at length becoming so fre-
quent as  every  twenty-five days, and  the illness  mush  more se-
vere,  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 Neilgherry  hills, where, during  a  residence of two  years, he
became much better, the periodical returns being forty-five and
forty-six days apart.  As his general tone of health improved, the
illness also became slighter.   His health not being  however es-
tablished, he was directed to return to his native climate, and pro-
ceeded to Europe  by the overland route,  via Malta, Avhere he
changed his route and proceeded to Graefenberg, via Naples, Leg-
horn, Florence,  Trieste, Vienna.   During  this journey,  his com-
plaint returned  every twenty-sixth, thirtieth, or thirty-sixth day,
and the illnesses were not  so slight  as they had  been during the
latter period of his  residence on the Neilgherries.   He complained
a good deal of cold feet and frequent headaches.  The latter might
perhaps  be attributed to improper diet at the hotels, and the fa-
tigue and irregularity incident to  traveling.   It  was the opinion
of his medical friends in  India, that  there was no  organic disease,
and that his complaint was to be attributed to indigestion and the
exposure  to the climate of India.   He had a return of illness on
the 29th of March, in the carriage between Olmutz  and Graefen-
berg.  Priessnitz saw him on the 30th, and commenced treatment
on the 31st, with  abreibung  and  head bath, the  back  and  sides
being  immersed for a quarter of an hour.  On the 1st of  April,
he had leintuch at 5 a. m., followed by a tepid  bath.   Leintuch
again at  12, followed by an abreibung and head bath; at 5 p. m.
an abreibung.   This  treatment continued until the 20th of April, 
228        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CUBE.

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 o'clock p. m. ; in addition to which he was to have an abreibung
every fifteen minutes for one hour after the faintness.  This treat-
ment of six abreibungs  a day, and leintuch at 4 in  the morning,
head bath  at  9 a. m. and  12 noon,  continued  several days;  Avas
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 illness.  Priessnitz
was then of opinion that the present treatment pnwed too severe
for him, and must  be modified ;  that  the  tepid baths Avere to be
left off; but that he must continue the leintuch once in the day,
head bath once, four or five abreibungs  in the course of the day,
and a foot bath twice in the day ;  and that as soon as the  present
illness  had passed off, the head bath was  to be discontinued, and
the head to be simply rubbed with water.   He directed an abrei-
bung every fifteen  minutes, to be repeated four times after  any
faintness; also one foot bath after a paroxysm.  On being  told
that the patient was fatigued Avith the  exertion of dressing  and un-
dressing every  fifteen minutes while ill, he  directed that he should
go into 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 remarkably well; had no headache
whatever, and never complained of indigestion  since the  20th of
April (it is now 12th of May) ; he has occasionally complained of
headache, but is nevertheless better than he was before he arrived;
his general tone of health is improved ; the pain in  his back quite
gone, so that he can run down a hill without uneasiness, whereas
even walking fast down a hill formerly used to shake and jar his
system.  His  feet are always warm;  he  no longer starts in his
sleep as he used to do, and can  sleep  on  his back  as well as on
his side, which  he could never do before, since he resided in India;
and he no longer complains of indigestion after  dinner.   Before
adopting the treatment, he Avas always dependent  on the aid of
medicine for the bowels ;  since, he has not had the  least occasion
for any.   It must also be mentioned, that although the  two last
attacks of illness occurred Avithin very short intervals of time, the 
            graefenberg cases of  water-cure.        229

headaches were slight, and the illness only a mild one.  His chest
appears to me to have  become Avider.   I saw this gentleman  al-
most daily, and left him in a fair way of recovery.

    INDIGESTION, NERVOUS DEBILITY, AND HYPOCHONDRIASIS.
  A gentleman,  aged 25, had brought himself into a state of great
nervous debility  from excess of study.   He was at length incapa-
ble of  any mental  application, had great nervous depression, and
was hypochondrical.  The sight so much weakened that he could
neither read nor write, and even blindness Avas apprehended. Often
had severe headache.   Greatly lost both flesh and strength ;  the
digestive  functions torpid.  He related to me that he first came
to Graefenberg three years ago,  in the  state of indisposition above
described.   His  treatment then as follows : The plunging bath in
the morning on first quitting the  bed.   After breakfast, the douche
from five to ten minutes, even in the coldest weather.  In the af-
ternoon, a sitz bath for half an hour; drank water  in the usual
quantity.   For five months there was no change  in the treatment.
He observes,  " I had no crisis, not even the water-rash ; my health
improved gradually.  After this, I returned home, where I used
a cold bath every morning, and avoided all sorts  of spices and fer-
mented liquors.   My health improved  more  and more ;  my eyes
grew stronger again ; I could read and write; and, of my former
complaint, there  remained merely a pressure on the chest;  inability
for strong mental exertion, accompanied with some dislike for so-
ciety.   Three  months ago I returned to Graefenberg, when Priess-
nitz ordered me  to be packed up in a  wet sheet morning  and af-
ternoon, followed by the  plunging bath ; to douche for tAvo min-
utes ; 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 Avith my head  uncovered, however  cold the weather."  I saw
much  of  this very interesting  person,  who  quitted  Graefenberg
during my stay.   He was quite well.   The digestive functions  be-
came regular very soon  after the commencement  of the treatment.
This is an example  of  no sensible crisis occurring, although  the
treatment was very active.

          ASTHMA AND  HERNIA, FOLLOWING BRONCHITIS.
  A female  servant, aged  35,  has suffered from  difficulty of
breathing during the last five or six years, in consequence of an 
230        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  WATER-CURE.

acute attack of bronchitis, which she undenvent in India; was un-
able to ascend a hill or to make any extraordinary continued exer-
tion without much distress.   Has also, during the last few yeais,
while residing in India, suffered from severe affections of the bow-
els.   One of these, the last,  occurred  in August, 1842, and Avas
very severe, and attended with ^mptoms  of much  inflammation,
for which  she was leeched  and blistered.   She recovered but
slowly from this attack, and it was  shortly followed  by psoas ab-
scess, which pointed below Poupart's ligament (in  the groin), and
was opened.  Toward 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 No-
vember, while 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
children, 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 deli-
cate health till her arrival in  Malta, where  she sought medical ad-
vice for the first time  since the occurrence of the hernia in the end
of  February.   She left her service early in March,  being  unable
to  carry the  children, and went to 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 leintuch every morning, to be succeeded by an abreibung,
and this followed by a sitz bath ; the abreibung and sitz bath to be
repeated at 12 o'clock, and the leintuch, abreibung,  and sitz bath,
at  4 o'clock p. m. every day; to wear a wet bandage, night and
day, round her loins, and to wear a truss upon the situation of the
hernia, which was not to be removed night or day.
   After having been a month under the fore-mentioned treatment,
she complained of very severe pain in the region of the bowels;
upon being informed of which, Mr. Priessnitz  directed  that she
should have  an abreibung every ten minutes until she should ob-
tain relief, and to walk up and  down  the room Avrapped 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, appre- 
            GRAEFENBERG CASES  OF  WATER-CURE.         231

hension 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 in-
terruption.  The effect was, complete  relief  from  the distressing
pains habitually attending the  performance  of  this  function, the
quantity of the discharge was  much increased, but  did not con-
tinue 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 excessive, the interval
Avas nearer to the natural period than usual, and the discharge did
not continue.   She  now enjoys  good general health  and strength
(May 24th), and no longer suffers from asthma.  Her hernia also
she  considers decidedly better.   The truss is still worn;  but she
has  not noticed, as  formerly, any tendency to the  descent of the
bowel.
           NERVOUS DEBILITY FROM EXCESSIVE  STUDY.
   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 gen-
erally weak, and in  a very nervous  state.  Circulation irregular,
with ice-cold feet.   Bowels torpid.  Had been at Graefenberg six
months.   The  treatment: Leintuch  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 be-
ing well rubbed for half an hour.   "Was desired,  in addition to the
regular head  bath, to rub the  head very freely with  cold water,
Avhenever  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
Avent, almost without exception.   This gentleman assured me that
he found  himself Avell at the end  of three months, and only re-
mained at Graefenberg longer in  order to confirm the establish-
ment of his strength.   It was pleasing to hear him describe the
altered state of his nerves for the better, the loss of  all pains of the
head  and face, and  the  improvement of his circulation.  He was
no longer  troubled with coldness of the  feet. 
232        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.
              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 the leintuch 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 pain-
ful, accompanied by much irritative fever for near a week; but it
has cured the  pain  in his side, for which he could get no  remedy
before.
          GREAT SUFFERING FROM  NERVOUS  WEAKNESS.
  The wife of this  gentleman was  an invalid in  many respects—
had  pains in  the  loins  and  in one  leg;  had for  years  been a
great sufferer from  general nervous weakness.   She is now quite
well.
  Until the  crisis,  which appeared in  the form of several large
boils on one leg, her treatment was—leintuch one hour, then cold
bath; at eleven, abreibung and sitz  bath;  at half-past four, lein-
tuch one hour;  then, either the cold bath or abreibung, whichever
she pleased.
   When the  boils were painful and discharging, she had  tepid
bath after leintuch,  instead of cold bath.   From being very  de-
bilitated, she has become strong enough for any exertion.  This
lady has returned to Graefenberg, out  of gratitude to the  place
where  she and  her husband  received  the blessing of health.  I
saw him on the day of my departure.   They will now use only
slight treatment, to confirm the general  strength.

                        GENERAL  FEVER.
  A gentleman, aged 44, of  full  habit, thus describes  his  case:
" I was troubled and annoyed, four days or more, with pain of the
left side opposite  the heart.   I met Priessnitz and informed him
of it.  He  called the next morning  at 9 o'clock;  the pain still
continuing, he ordered  me, at  11,  to take an abreibung  for five
minutes, that is  to  say, I was to be rubbed, and rub myself, that
time in a wet sheet, standing upright.   I Avas  then to wait  ten
minutes, walking about  the room; then  take another abreibung
for  five minutes; then  to Avalk half an hour and take a sitz bath 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES OF WATER-CURE.
233
for twenty minutes.  All this I did.  At half-past 3,1 was ordered
to do precisely the same things over again.   However, after the
morning operations, I found that I had taken a severe cold, or that
the operations had  made  me ill.   I had pains all over me; my
limbs, my back, and my head were in pain; and  I became very
hot and feverish.   The pains and feverish symptoms increased ; at
four o'clock I took an  abreibung five minutes, then walked about
half an hour;  then I had  a leintuch for  one hour, then a  tepid
bath five  minutes, at 68 degrees.  All the pains soon left me.  I
walked out for half an hour, had supper, and went to bed.  At five
in the morning, my attendant  came; and, as I had been feverish
in the night, was so then, and had some pain in the head after the
leintuch, which I took for an hour; I used a  tepid bath at 64 de-
grees for  four minutes, receiving also one cold affusion over the
head.  Without further treatment, I found myself next day quite
recovered.

  INDIGESTION AND SORE THROAT.   (BY THE PATIENT, AGED  BE-
                   TWEEN  FORTY AND FIFTY).
   "I arrived  at Graefenberg 15th  July, 1842; 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:  Avithin the last eight years it has troubled me
more, and given either real or fancied cause of uneasiness.
   "For years previous to 1835,1 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 aperient pill;  I took one
generally daily till 1842, up to the time of my coming here.  Soon
after I began to take this pill the boils ceased, and my throat grad-
ually grew worse : though  I felt more comfortable in my diges-
tion, my throat grew worse—more and more troublesome.
   " For nearly twenty years I had constantly taken wine and spir-
its freely.  When  I came here I was much more corpulent than I
am now, and my whole system seemed deranged.   I was nervous,
and like a barometer.  I could not  venture, after  exercise, into a
church, or into any large  cold building, for fear  of  taking  cold,
which I almost invariably did, and  this always affected my throat
—sometimes laid me up for a week  in  my bed-room.   I attribute
this sensitiveness to having taken, seven  years ago, a quantity of 
234        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE.

mercury, which has come out here, making  my mouth sore, and
affecting my breath strongly occasionally.    This, I  believe, has
now ceased.  I am less sensible now to changes of temperature.
For years I have been unable to take walking exercise in a week,
equal to that which I can now take in a day.   Previously to com-
ing here, I always rode every where.  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,
leintuch, at five in the morning, one hour; then abgeschreckte
(tepid)  bath, 13  degrees Reaumur,  three  minutes;  an umschlag
round the body; then walk an  hour; then  breakfast; at eleven,
abreibung; then wait a quarter of an hour, then sitz  bath a quar-
ter of an  hour;  then walk, then dine.   The same  at four p. m. ;
got better  daily.
   " For six weeks, all the operations, as above, were continued;
and the douche at nine a. m.  for two minutes, which was gradu-
ally  increased to seven minutes, I took regularly  for six  months,
and  during the winter.
   " The ninth week, in addition to  the  sitz  bath, I took  the cold
bath  every morning; then—leintuch 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 consequence of having
crises.   When I was first enveloped 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 difficulty washed out
of the blankets.  I had never experienced this odor before.  Priess-
nitz told me that it must all come out, for I could never get better
till it was entirely removed.  This smell has  not  been perceptible
the last three days.
   " I have daily, by order, taken 10 or 12 glasses of  water, 5 be-
fore 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 yelloAV.   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 satis-
fied, and consider my coming here providential; for, in England, I 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES OF WATER-CURE.        235
could find no certain remedy for one thing that did not cause in-
convenience 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 better ;  besides, your nervous  system is all wrong ; but I have
hopes I can make a different man of you; you must get thinner,
and then your digestion and throat will both get better.' "
   He had pursued active treatment for  ten months; a duration
that may appear surprising.  The throat has been his greatest
trouble.   The mucous membrane had long been diseased ; and  at
one time the UAuda had  become so elongated, that  a portion of it
was excised.  He might probably have desisted from such a regu-
lar proceeding 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 es-
timate 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  experienced occasional gout.  He  told
me that, on his first  arriATal, 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.

         INFLAMMATION OF THE  STOMACH AND BOWELS.
   A fine, lively boy, aged three years, is generally well, yet sub-
ject to inflammation of the stomach and bowels.
   He had an attack of inflammation  of the stomach, accompanied
by sickness, with strong fever and determination to the head.   In
the evening, the child was  placed in  a bath at 70 degrees Fahren-
heit, in which he remained 20 minutes ; cold water was added as
the temperature rose.  During  this  time, cold water was poured
from a  tumbler on his  head, repeated at intervals of  a minute;
and, as usual, his whole body was carefully rubbed.   He was then
taken out  and  placed on the sofa, and covered with a sheet and
blanket, with the back  of his head  in cold water for 10 minutes.
By this time, reaction had taken place, and then wet compresses
were applied to the  head and  back of the neck; and the body,
from under the arms to  the hips, was wrapped in  a similar way.
He slept  quietly  till three in  the  morning, when  the previous
symptoms  having partially returned, the  first treatment was re-
peated ; after which the child was again placed in  bed, where he 
236         GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE.
slept  till  morning,  and was then  quite well, and  went  out as
usual.
   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
Avas but slightly wrung  out.  In each of these he  remained about
5  minutes ;  toward the last, the  heat  being diminished,  he  Avas
allowed to remain 10 minutes.  The feet were cold ; and, as long
as they remained so, the wet sheet was  only applied down to the
knees; meantime, the feet and legs were rubbed strongly with the
hands.
   While the extreme heat continued, the wet sheet was covered
z)y 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
degrees, where he remained nearly an hour ; the same process of
rubbing and pouring water over the head  being practiced.  The
first day,  the same process was repeated  four times ; the duration
of the bath  being not  so long when the  fever was not so high.
During the night, the wet sheet was changed almost every hour.
On the morning of the second day,  the child refused to go into the
bath,  calling out himself, at intervals, for additional wet sheets.
Orders were given that his inclination should be  complied with.
In the course of  the morning,  the  child himself desired that he
might  be put into the bath, where he remained till the heat under
the arms and on the back of  the neck Avas the same as the rest of
the body; this equality of temperature being the general guide for
the duration of a bath.  It is worthy of remark, that the more the
fever was reduced, the  more quiet the little  patient became, till at
last he remained in the bath perfectly tranquil.  The same treat-
ment, slightly A'aried, was  continued four  days, when the child was
well, and  was sent out to play Avith the other children.   In eight
days after this, a pustule appeared on the foot, containing matter,
Avhich  discharged freely.
   Observation.—This case might probably have passed  into con-
tinued 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 symptoms, it is a good modi-
fication of the use of the leintuch to cover it with a dry sheet, in-
stead of the blanket, and packing up in the usual manner. 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES OF WATER-CURE.        237
          NERVOUS DEBILITY, AVITH FREQUENT CRAMPS.
  A gentleman, aged 45, tall and  stout, received two injuries of
the head by a fall, one of which Avas in hunting, about seven years
ago.  The nervous system was  much deranged, especially since
the second  accident, five years ago, when the spine received a
strong contusion and shock.   For a long time he had been very
nervous, and  unable  to compose  himself  during any  sedentary
occupation; having also heavy and stupid feelings of the head ;
musca  volitantes;  constant singing in the ears ; prickings and
numbness of the limbs, with frequent cramps; unrefreshing nights,
often sleepless, and in the morning more tired than when he went
to bed.   He neglected  himself after the first accident; but after
the second, having the use of the limbs so  much impaired that it
was with great difficulty he could Avalk half a mile, he went to
Bareges : first used the baths at St. Sauveur, for two weeks ; lay
in them for an hour and a half to 2 hours: then,  at Bareges,
douched every day for 10 minutes ; after which, was put into bed,
where he had most  copious sweating; and then, covered with a
blanket, was carried to his lodgings.   At the end of four  months,
his amendment was very satisfactory, and he quitted early in Au-
gust.   Relapsed at the end of the year, and passed a bad winter.
Next year, he used hot sulphurous baths in Switzerland, with ad-
vantage, but remained a great invalid.  He had several symptoms
indicating a disposition to gout.   He did not use any further treat-
ment till coming to Graefenberg, nine months ago.   He has had
all  the  processes, and been on full treatment, without having re-
ceived any decided benefit to his nerves.   Yet his muscles have
become stronger, and his  digestion is improved.   He found it
necessary to douche very cautiously;  for,  if he  received it Avith
great force and much continuance, he found his  head exceedingly
disordered by  it.   It Avas  his intention to give up the treatment
and quit Graefenberg, if he did not improve in two months more.
   It seems probable that more than functional error in  the mem-
branes of the  brain and spinal marrow exists in this case, so per-
sistent have all the distressing symptoms been.  I do not expect
that he will be benefited by the water-cure treatment,  and  think
that he might receive advantage from undergoing a regular course
of alterative and purgative medicine, to be followed by the use of
the baths and douche  at Buxton.  It is probable that he may have 
238        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  WATER-CURE.

recourse  to such measures, should he be  finally disappointed at
Graefenberg.

            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 con-
tusion of the head, with a wound by the falling of a beam..  For a
long while, she experienced  intense sufferings,  from which she
never recovered ;  and she came to Graefenberg with the following
symptoms :  Frequent severe  pains of the head, with a strong sen-
sation of burning heat of the scalp j hearing and sight affected ;
altogether  in a highly nervous  state,  and seldom  sleeping more
than an hour in the night; all the functions irregular;  the feet al-
most constantly affected with icy coldness ; with frequent pains
and oppression in the hypogastric region.   She had always re-
ceived  more benefit from cold water applications than any other
means, and  especially from using the  mer de glace (a  stream de-
rived  from  the melting of ice and  snow from the  mountains), in
Switzerland, 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, leintuch, tepid bath (Reaumur  14  degrees), and
plunging bath in immediate succession.  Abreibung and sitz bath
in the  middle of the day ; a regular head bath  once in the day;
and whenever painful and heated,  to  apply cold water freely by
the hand, and leave wet compresses on  any heated part.  The foot
bath once  or twice a day ; rubbing  the legs also with  the water,
for they were  affected with Aveakness and swelling.   An eruption
of irritable  pimples appeared, which was  treated  with wet ban-
dages covered by dry.  Priessnitz was glad to see this early crisis.
The body-bandage was used.  She drank a medium quantity of
Avater,  and was much in the air ;  but she could not take great ex-
ercise.   At a particular  period, the nervous system was greatly
disturbed ;  and there was some hysteria, with much affection of
the head.  In these circumstances, Priessnitz directed  four abrei-
bungs  in the morning and four in the  afternoon, Avith intervals of
half an hour, during which she went into bed, to gain  composure
and warmth.  She did not complain of this troublesome treatment, 
            GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        239

 and acknowledged the very sensible  relief which it  afforded her.
 On my quitting, I compared her state with Avhat it was on her ar-
 rival, 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 proceed-
 ing to a favorable issue.

       INDIGESTION, DISTRESS,  AND  DEPRESSION OF SPIRITS.
   A clergyman and schoolmaster? aged 35, had too intensely ex-
 ercised 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 indigestion,  with opposite
 states of  the  bowels,  but most commonly  inert; headache, with
 confusion, noises of the ears, and dimness of sight;  as in the last
 case, heat of the scalp and extreme coldness of the feet; depres-
 sion of spirits, with distress that he was incapable of any mental
 exertion, being an ardent student.  He was much affected by every
 change of weather.  His treatment consisted of leintuch 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  usually uncomfortable.   After
 about a fortnight, the use of the douche was added  to  the treat-
 ment.
  He described, in glowing  terms, the happy improvement which
he received after  ten days' treatment, and especially in his diges-
tion and the state of  his head; but when  he had employed the
douche for a week, he was  apprehensive that  it did not suit his
nerves, for his head became painful and confused after using it.
  In all these cases of morbid sensibility of the nerves of the head,
it appears to me that the application of the volume douche, if ever
used, should be much delayed; and that the jet shower bath, ap-
plied Avith only moderate force, continued from one to three min-
utes, is a more appropriate remedy.
  It is very obvious that, in the  management of all delicate and
difficult cases,  a good  medical judgment is required  to  adapt the
treatment  to the many changing circumstances which must occur.

                   GOUT AND RHEUMATISM.
  A gentleman, aged 44, of slight frame and delicate appearance, 
240        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  WATER-CURE.
had received great trials to his constitution, from living  in various
chmates  under circumstances of immense exertion of  mind and
body;  so that he incurred a severe liver disease, followed by both
gout and rheumatism.  His father had been a sufferer  from gout
and from tic-douloureux.  He, therefore, had the  hereditary pre-
disposition.  By treatment, his health was improved up to Novem-
ber, 1839, when, from exposure 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 frequent use of leeches ; of iodine, externally and
internally;  of calomel,  sarsaparilla, and other medicines, formed
the chief treatment.  The disease increased severely.  He describes
that  " the leg wasted away;  that the hip had the appearance of
being dislocated ; * and that  some inflammation became visible  at
the lower part of the spine, with frequent  aching pain.  The knee
was so bent, from contraction, that the limb  was drawn up almost
to doubling, and quite  useless;  in  addition to which, he was re-
duced to a skeleton, having lost  all appetite  and sleep."   The ac-
tual cautery to the spine was proposed; but not  having  profited
by any of the various means employed, he  fell  into  despair, and
was urged to try the water-cure  at home.   He here says,  " I was
so weak  that  I could only allow gentle measures.  My diet was
strictly regulated.   I drank plenty  of pure water;  morning and
evening  had an  abreibung  and  shallow tepid bath  (66  degrees
Fah.); in the middle  of the day, free ablutions of  the whole limb,
and wet  bandage  covered by dry.  From  the  commencement  I
began to feel 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, nu-
merous boils appeared on the legs, which afforded great relief to
the deep-seated pains."  Had sitz baths.   In one month he was
so much improved, that he  could use crutches  for half an  hour;
and at the  end of three months, he had gained sufficient strength
to undertake the journey to  Graefenberg.   But still having a very
large number of boils in  a state of  suppuration, his  nerves were
greatly disturbed, and he was rendered  very ill by traveling five
hundred 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
afterward increased, with a cautious use of the douche.  He  drank 
            GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  WATER-CURE.         241

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 body.  In November, the weather being unfavorable, he
took cold severely from accidental exposure, and  new symptoms
arose.  An abscess gradually formed between the bladder and the
rectum, and at length broke, the matter being  discharged  partly
by the rectum, and partly by the urethra.  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 Avithout 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 degrees), were freely employed.   When the ab-
scess found free vent, the symptoms so much abated, that a little
sleep and the capability  of taking  some nourishment returned.  He
gradually improved, so  that by the middle  of  January, 1841, he
could again walk with  two sticks about the house.   Now more
active treatment was resumed ; and even the sweating in the blan-
ket twice a week, and the cautious use of the  douche.  The pro-
gress of cure became very  favorable.   Before the end of summer,
he was able to take exercise and enjoy the mountain air; and ap-
petite and sleep returned favorably.
   In April, 1842, he was sufficiently recovered to leave Graefen-
berg, with  the use of the limb quite restored, all contraction being
removed,  and the  general flesh, strength,  and spirits quite re-
gained.   He was  the wonder of Graefenberg !   I saw this gentle-
man about 10 weeks ago.  He was in good health and spirits, but
felt the necessity  of avoiding great fatigue; as in such case he was
reminded, by achings, that his limb, although so happily restored,
could not possess the vigor of one that had never been diseased.
In a review of all the circumstances of this important case, infinite
praise was due to Priessnitz for  its management.  He had been
indefatigable in his attentions.

  SYPHILITIC ERUPTION,  HERNIA, SCIATICA, BILIOUSNESS, INDIGES-
                          TION, ETC.
   A gentleman, aged 27, tall and stout, very muscular, came to
Graefenberg nine months  ago, having a  cutaneous eruption of a
syphilitic character, a hernia humoralis, enlarged  tonsils, sciatica,
              11 
242        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  AVATER-CURE.
and great disposition to general rheumatism, with a bilious coun-
tenance, much  indigestion, and  great nervousness and depression
of spirits.  Priessnitz  at  once told him, that  his case Avould re-
quire  a long period for the cure.  The treatment Avas at first mild;
but, Avithout  unnecessary delay, was  made active; he sAveated in
the blanket each  other  day; and, after four months' douching
every day, had  tAvo  sitz  baths every day, lasting an  hour, the
water being changed tAvice or thrice; with also abreibung, lein-
tuch,  head baths, and foot baths; for this patient was very liable
to pain  and congestion of the head, with great coldness of the
feet.  He was exceeded by none in his zeal in  drinking water.  His
usual quantity was 16 pints daily; and  one day he Avas ambitious
to take four pints more; from which he had all the feeling of hav-
ing drunk too  much wine, attended with  a  vertigo; and being
alarmed  by these  symptoms, he returned to and continued  his
former  quantity without  inconvenience.   He  had  passed the last
winter at Graefenberg, and was in  the habit of taking  his  first
morning walk before the rising of the sun, and in an atmosphere
of from  6 degrees  to 10 degrees  Fah.,  much enjoying the sight
of the glorious orb first appearing in the horizon.   After break-
fast, he used with great satisfaction the icy douche! for 8  minutes;
but when I found him at Graefenberg,  the duration was  10, and
twice a day.   He had been there nine  months.  He was  the pic-
ture  of  health; and described himself as being strong  and free
from all  inconvenience.   His  muscles  were  large and  firm, and
many remarked that his chest had considerably expanded.  In the
general history which he gave  me, he  stated that, in the first in-
stance, he had been freely treated by mercury and iodine, some-
times Avith the effect of  removing the immediate symptoms; but
they recurred;  and  at length, feeling  much incommoded by the
medicines, and having some addition  of complaint, after an interval
he had recourse to the water-cure  treatment.   Under it, he had
repeated severe crises of boils, from which he was persuaded that
he had received most material benefit.   In this case, the copious
 draughts  of water  certainly  appeared highly useful, and particu-
 larly to  the bladder, the mucous  membrane of Avhich had been so
 much affected, that  in the beginning the urine was passed with
 great difficulty, and highly charged with mucus; but it  must  be
 observed that, when using these great  libations, he took immense
 exercise, often walking 6 or 8 miles before breakfast. 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        243
        INDIGESTION, RHEUMATISM, AND SPITTING OF BLOOD.
    A gentleman, aged 40, tall and slight, appearing free from com-
 plaint, gave me the folloAving account.  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 un-
 fortunate and absurd practice he acquired the subsequent necessi-
 ty, and that  an increased one, of resorting to medicine.  He was
 subject to great depression of spirits, inaptitude to exertion, rheu-
 matic pains, shortness of breath on ascending a hill,  and occasion-
 al spitting of blood of a scarlet  hue.   He had  tried  various medi-
 cines, and long persisted Avith a slight mercurial alterative ; but,
 he says,  without improvement.   He was dependent  on lavements
 for any action of the  bowels.  He went to an  establishment near
 his home, where he was sweated in  the blanket  every day, had
 the plunging bath  and other means;  but he did not feel equal to
 the perseverance in such  treatment,  and  went to  Graefenberg,
 where he had been nine  months when I first saw him, remaming,
 however, more  from  choice than necessity.  His treatment had
 been leintuch in the first of the  morning, avoiding the perspiring,
 followed  by the tepid and plunging baths in succession;  an  occa-
 sional abreibung; two sitz baths every day, at first  tepid,  after-
 ward cold;  body-bandage*  He drank from 10 to 12 glasses of
 water.   After two  months, he used  a douche daily.   His recovery
 was perfect, and he was an excellent specimen of the good effects
 of the water-cure.   In a few weeks  after using it,  his digestion
 became quite regular.
                             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 escaping a winter till the last, and having fits of  from 6 to 9
 weeks' duration. He  had  been  at  Graefenberg 11 months.   On
 his first arrival,  the hmbs 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 Avith the  use of from two to four abreibungs daily;  then
 two  leintuchs, followed  by the  shallow bath;  afterward  by the
  * In future this is to be understood, if not mentioned; the exception to its
use being very rare. 
244        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF  WATER-CURE.

plunging  bath; next, the sweating in the blanket each other day,
until  crises formed  extensively on the legs, Avhen it Avas discon-
tinued ; 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
in the knees  and ankles when the boils appeared.   Afterward,
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 favorable in producing  good  crises;  for  the
chronic pains had returned occasionally, but were invariably reliev-
ed 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  after-
noon more favorable than the morning for the producing of per-
spiration ;  and this, he thought, especially as  he had a quick di-
gestion.   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.

                    GOUT AND RHEUMATISM.
   A gentleman, aged 47, robust and plethoric, subject to regular
gout, hereditary, for 10 years,  the fits severe and  very protracted,
once  had a rheumatic  fever, and now  often suffers from rheuma-
tism,  especially in the  shoulders and the arms.  He related that
he had been regularly treated in his fits with mercurial purgatives
and colchicum, with a  sure control  over the symptoms, but  with-
out lasting benefit; that the  last fit, of  two months' duration, had
been  left  more to itself; and  one  knee  had remained  so  much
swollen, stiff, and painful, that  locomotion was  extremely difficult.
The usual liniments and lotions being ineffectual, although in com-
bination with the internal use  of iodide of  potassium, he had re-
course to a part of the water-cure treatment, using wet bandage,
covered by dry,  constantly  to the  knee; and every mornino-, on
first rising,  a cold bath.   This bold practice was so successful, that
he soon recovered the power  of walking.  He had tried every kind
of regimen as  a preventive—meat without vegetables, and then a
farinaceous diet without meat, total abstinence from wine and  beer; 
            GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE.        245

and yet his prudence was not rewarded by success.   Since he had
drank water freely, he had not  found any necessity, as far as his
feelings dictated, of being at all mindful in his diet, so perfect was
his  digestion,  doubtless rendered better by  the  acquired power,
from the improvement in the limbs, of taking free exercise.  There
were chalk-stone deposits  in the fingers and elbows.
  His  treatment was  as follows: In  the morning, early, sweating
in the blanket, followed by plunging bath; a walk and free drink-
ing of  water; at 11 a. m. a douche for five minutes, having begun
with three; on his return from the long walk to and  from the
douche, an abreibung, which much refreshed him; at 5 p. m. two
abreibungs,  within half an hour of each  other;  umschlags  to all
the affected parts.  I left him making very favorable  progress
toward his cure.   I should observe, that  this patient was not de-
sired to make use of  the body-bandage, as he had so regular and
perfect a state of digestion.

                      HEREDITARY GOUT.
  A gentleman, aged  50, of middling  bulk and stature, had heredi-
tary gout first 20 years ago, brought on by violent efforts in swim-
ming, 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 chalk-stones in various parts, particularly in the hands
and feet; disappointed by allopathic medicine, of which colchicum
and mercury formed part, he tried homoeopathic, with no other re-
sult than the longer staying away of the gout; and this benefit he
attributed to the care  in diet.   The fits were of equal severity when
they did return.  For some time he adhered to a diet  of fish and
vegetables, and for several years has wholly abstained from wine.
Five years ago, went to Toplitz and Carlsbad, without benefit, and
afterward to Wiesbaden, going through a full course of treatment
there, still without apparent advantage.   He next  proceeded to
Franzens-bad, in Bohemia, and tried the mud baths for a month,
sitting in the mud, up to his neck, at 97 degrees  Fah.,  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
continued suffering, that he felt himself fast approaching to a bed-
ridden state.  For  the  space of two years, with the interruption
only of two months, he made daily use of the  sweating blanket, 
246        GRAEFENBERG  CASES OF WATER-CURE.

with this frequency more by his oaati desire than the wish of Priess-
nitz, wishing to force crisis; but he is convinced that it Avas an er-
ror, and that he was weakened.  In six weeks, he had boils on the
insteps, which remarkably relieved the  chronic  pains;  and, some
time after, the urine deposited much substance, which appeared to
him like wet chalk.  In the beginning of the treatment, Priessnitz
examined him, first at  the half bath, then after the  plunging, and
told him his complaint would be cured in time, and even encour-
aged him to expect the recovery of the hands; but I  am persuaded
there was too much disorganization of parts  to admit of  it.  In
some of the  joints  of  the fingers  there was anchylosis, and here
and  there absorption of  cartilage.  However, much of the chalk-
stone 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 afterward used
rubbings in the shallow tepid bath, with  tepid  affusions and um-
schlags ; 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 degrees to 10  degrees Fah.  for a con-
tinuance ; 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  restored from the fit, he
resumed treatment.  His skin was with difficulty excited to per-
spiration ; and Priessnitz had desired him to use two douches a day,
and  even advised  three  occasionally; but he continued with two,
sometimes using a plunging bath also, and  always, twice  a week,
after  the sweating in the blanket.   He quitted Graefenberg for  a
time, and returned.  He has  used umschlags  always,  and drank
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.

         CUTANEOUS ERUPTIONS AND UNIVERSAL PAINS.
  A gentleman, aged 49, robust and rather  corpulent,  after syph-
ilis 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  fifteen times, and had
leeches, also, very freely  applied to different parts.  On recover- 
            GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        247

ing sufficient strength, he went to  Graefenberg, then having uni-
versal  pains of a doubtful character, with much cutaneous erup-
tion ; sweated in the blanket every morning for four months ; and,
instead of being weakened,  gained strength regularly ; always the
plunging bath after it.  At that time the leintuch was seldom used,
except in fevers.  He douched also occasionally, and drank from
12  to 15 glasses of water daily.  He recovered perfectly, and re-
mained 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 descrip-
tion.   Leeches and  blisters were applied to the  hip  repeatedly,
without relief.  He consulted the most eminent physicians in Ger-
many ; and, by their advice, used leeches, blisters, and  mercurial
frictions ; in  opposition  to which the sciatica increased.  He went
to  a water establishment in his neighborhood, his convenience not
permitting him to travel to Graefenberg.   He used, first, a plung-
ing bath, then the vapor bath for one hour, and next the plunging
bath again; but this treatment much disagreed, causing particularly
oppression of the chest.  The sciatic  pain still increased, and at
length became so intolerable,  that the actual cautery ,was exten-
sively applied to  the hip, of which  I saw the evidence.   He took
mercurial purgatives frequently.
  By these means the violence of the disorder was broken; but
he  got cold, and had inflammation of the larynx.   After much
interval, it was with  great difficulty he could accomplish  the jour-
ney 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 ;
hsemorrhoidal suffering;  hypochondriasm, and general  debility.
At  first,  the  treatment consisted of leintuch, shallow tepid baths,
sitz baths, and wet bandages, covered by dry, to the affected parts.
Afterward, he sweated in the blanket, and used the plunging bath,
not finding any disagreement, as he had done with the vapor bath,
etc.  After three or four months, had general crises, 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 re-
lieved 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; 
248        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.

he could Avalk almost any distance without inconvenience.  He re-
marked that, till within the last feAV weeks, the bad limb had nevei
perspired when the other parts of the body freely yielded to the
influence of the blanket process.
  This Avas a very important case, and one that did  infinite credit
to Priessnitz and the Avater-cure means.   It shows also the neces-
sity of their being used with judgment; for, till he came to Graef-
enberg, he had been injured rather than assisted.

                     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 leintuchs,*a shallow tepid  bath, and  sitz  bath.
Soon after, a plunging bath was added every other day.  But his
zeal led him into error;  he would go far beyond his instructions in
every thing.  One morning, he drank eight large glasses of water,
instead of  the four prescribed, before breakfast; and, omitting the
necessary walking exercise, went into the billiard room.   The kid-
neys had not actively secreted.  His feet became cold, and he was
altogether uneasy.   He went out  for a  walk, accompanied by a
friend.   He soon fell into incoherent conversation,  and was got
home with some difficulty.  He did not  quite lose  consciousness,
but was speechless ; made signs  for  pen and  ink,  but could not
write.   He  had violent  headache.   Priessnitz directed  a  tepid
(62 degrees) foot  bath,  with  free rubbing ; sprinkled water on
the face and head;  and shortly  after were applied three abrei-
bungs 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 extreme feebleness of the limbs.  Priess-
nitz, at his next visit, a few hours after,  ordered  two abreibungs,
with an interval of ten minutes ; then a foot bath for an hour, the
water being changed two or three times ; next, a leintuch for 20
minutes, followed  by the  shallow tepid  bath, in which he was
rubbed for half an hour by tAvo attendants, with occasional affu-
sions of cold water over the head.  He now vomited freely, and
this gave  relief.  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
continued  with great regularity.   He was now always  careful to 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        249
take free exercise before and after every process.  Numerous boils
formed  chiefly in the upper part of the back, but also in  the
thighs, and they suppurated favorably.  He was called away sud-
denly by military duty, but pursued treatment at home to a certain
extent:  and a letter from him to Priessnitz, a short time ago, an-
nounced the complete recovery of  his health.

                 URINARY  FISTULA, OR OPENING.
   A  gentleman,  aged 18, slight  and rather delicate, received a
severe contusion in the perinceum and neighboring parts by a fall
from a horse ; to Avhich was  attributed the formation of a fistula,
and one of a complicated nature,  attended with  much  ulceration.
and very severe pain and inconvenience.   The surgeons wished to
operate, but  his  father determined on taking him to Graefenberg.
Priessnitz directed an abreibung twice a day, and umschlags to the
affected parts.   In the progressive treatment were used leintuchs,
plunging bath, and douche ;  and, at  the  end of a month, he ob-
tained a perfect cure.  The healing was complete.
   This  case cannot fail to interest the surgical reader.  The symp-
toms had been of an urgent  character; the bladder and rectum
being affected with very  painful irritation  ; and, at the commence-
ment of the  water-cure, the ulcerated parts appeared in a very
unhealthy condition.

            HEMIPLEGIA, OR  PARALYSIS OF ONE SIDE.
   A  gentleman, aged 60, had suffered many  years from dyspepsia
and general  debility of the  nervous  system, with often universal
pains, which  were called both rheumatic and  nervous.   He  was
seized with hemiplegia; the right side affected.   He got better for
a  short time, but had a severe relapse : was sent, after a time, to
Toeplitz and  Marienbad,  but  became worse.  The mind and body
Avere equally prostrate; the digestion was  languid ; the bowels
wholly  inactive without medicine or lavement.  In April, 1842, he
went to Graefenberg, in opposition to the  advice of his physicians.
Priessnitz prescribed, at first,  two abreibungs in the day, and  a
head bath for 15 minutes ;  and, as he became stronger, two lein-
tuchs, omitting one abreibung, together with  the  shallow tepid
bath.   At the end of three months, boils  formed in the head, arm,
and  leg, only  on the affected side,  from which evidently great
benefit  resulted.   Neither  plunging bath  nor douche were used in
               11* 
250        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.
this case.  He received  his  health  entirely  at  the  end of seven
months ;  nervous energy was restored ; he had the poAver to climb
the hills, to write his letters, and again enjoy his spirits in society.

  CATALEPSY,  OR TRANCE,  GENERAL  DEBILITY, AND INDIGESTION.
   A Russian nobleman, aged 36, had reduced the vigor of his con-
stitution  by dissipation;  and, on a severely cold day at St. Peters-
burg, 10 degrees below zero, paid a visit of ceremony insufficiently
clothed.   He had scarcely entered the  room Avhen  he was seized
with catalepsy, and appeared like a  statue !  The ladies Avho were
present Avere at first  amused, thinking  that he was  acting! but
soon  they took the alarm.  He could not  speak ;  but,  retaining
his senses, made signs that he wanted water.  He was affused all
over from buckets, soon  drank freely, and in less than an hour re-
covered his poAver of  moving.   But from this day he became an
invalid, suffering especially from pain and nervousness of the head,
with general  debility and  depression of spirits,  also having severe
indigestion.   He Avas under medical treatment  for two years, and
visited Carlsbad,  Toeplitz, and other baths in  Bohemia, without
any marked benefit; then went to a water establishment  near St.
Petersburg.  He  used the vapor bath, as being considered prefer-
able to the blanket, and  after it the  plunging bath for five minutes,
followed  by cold water lavement, all without  taking exercise  to
produce reaction.   The  treatment was repeated, but so  much dis-
agreed that he soon left the establishment.   He consulted an emi-
nent physician, who advised another water-cure establishment, but
that he  should first go  to Kissingen for a few weeks, to improve
the state of the digestive  organs.   He folloAved  this  advice.   He
thought himself rather  injured than benefited by Kissingen.   In
the second trial of the water-cure, the shower bath in a continuous
mass was applied to the head for some minutes, eight days in suc-
cession ; he also used the plunging bath.   His expression was, that
he thought he should  have gone mad; and, in  despair, he quitted
for Graefenberg.   Priessnitz gave him  every encouragement, but
thought mild  treatment  necessary at first :  for two  days, one
abreibung and one  sitz  bath, then two of each;  and  in this man-
ner for ten  days, when he  became stronger.  He proceeded gradu-
ally to the  use of active  treatment, but never to the fullest extent:
the douche, once a day, was the strongest  part of it.   In half a
year, he perfectly recovered, and was again in possession of his 
            GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        251

spirits and the use of his faculties, Avhich had become impaired by
the disorder of his nerves.   He said he OAved his cure to the su-
perior method  of treatment  pursued at Graefenberg, and to the
fine mountain air.

      SEMINAL  WEAKNESS, WITH  GREAT NERVOUS DEBILITY.
   A superintendent of mines, aged  24, had found his nervous sys-
tem much deranged by the unwholesome atmosphere in which he
lived  ; and at length experienced an involuntary discharge of pros-
tatic liquor, and occasionally of seminal secretion from slight exer-
tion, attended with pain in the spine and loins, occasionally severe.
He was  in  a  miserable state of nervous suffering, and went to
Graefenberg.   For a considerable time he  could  bear  only very
mild  treatment; yet, after  four  months, the discharges ceased.
The pain remained, and also  his feebleness.   He douched and re-
ceived the water particularly on the spine  and loins.  Boils and
" dartres" formed near  the seat of pain, and immediately gave the
greatest  relief.   His recovery was complete  in eleven months.  It
is  unquestionable  that  the  crisis in this case was highly advan-
tageous.   The  boils suppurated favorably;  and the pain, which
had been of long duration, gradually passed  away, and has never
returned.

DEBILITY, NERVOUSNESS, AND BALDNESS,  FOLLOWING THE  USE  OF
                           MERCURY.
   A gentleman, aged 33, having used mercury Avith great  free-
dom, and been careless in exposing himself in unfavorable weather,
fell into  a state of great debility and  nervousness, and gradually
became almost bald.   He went to  Graefenberg in  this state, and
was described  to look  more like a corpse than a  liAang person.
His first treatment was  a sitz bath, two leintuchs, followed  by a
shallow tepid  bath and free drinking of water.  Afterward,  he
sweated  in the  blanket, and used the plunging bath every other
day;  douching also on  most days, but omitting  one leintuch,  and
not using any on the day of the blanket.  He drank water freely,
and took as much exercise on the mountains as his strength would
allow. Soon after his arrival, the few hairs on the head which he
brought Avith him  disappeared,  and the baldness was complete.
Boils  formed  particularly at the nates, and  suppurated freely,
when the treatment was reduced to the  use of two  leintuchs and 
252        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  AVATER-CURE.
ft sitz bath.  Soon  after,  an eruption appeared  over the Avhole
body;  first vesicular, and  afterward scaly ; also more boils.  The
linen was  stained with appearances which were supposed to arise
from mercury.   At the end of six months, he gained  some color
of the  cheeks, and became stronger ;  but also neAV shoots  of hair
appeared on the head, and Avhich in two months more so increased,
that when I saw him two months later, he had a fine head of hair !
He was pursuing regular  treatment, and evidently was quite in a
fair way of recovery.

        DOES WATER  BRING MERCURY FROM THE  SYSTEM?
   During my stay  at Graefenberg, I heard frequent mention  of
the stains of mercury and of iodine  appearing in the leintuchs,
either  of blue or reddish color ; but Priessnitz assured my friend,
Dr. Buxton, that he had seen mercurial globules issue  at the ends
of the fingers  after a continued  course  of the water-cure, in pa-
tients  who had made a great employment of mercury, either  in-
ternally or externally, or both, notwithstanding that they had de-
sisted  from all use  of the medicine for  even several years!  This
appears almost incredible.   I  cannot doubt the veracity of Priess-
nitz ;  and Liebig, with whom I discussed the subject, had no doubt
of such a fact, and offered this  explanation: that mercury  com-
bines with animal matter, and may remain so  combined for an in-
definite time ;  and  that the quick change of matter which belongs
to the water-cure treatment Avould tend to the separation of the
mercury, which might appear in a globular, or other form.
   I have witnessed examples of the latent stay of  mercury in the
system, and shall cite the following : I prescribed to a poor woman,
afflicted with rheumatism  of the wrist joint, threatening anchylosis,
a mercurial  ointment, which  she  rubbed in with only occasional
intervals from January to  the end of May.  No mercury was taken
internally ; none used externally after May.  In November follow-
ing, she was seized Avith  the most violent salivation that  can be
imagined.

  DEFECTIVE HEARING AND SMELLING, WITH GENERAL  DEBILITY.
   A  gentleman, aged 24, of healthy appearance, when 12 years
old, had a nervous  fever, which exceedingly weakened his consti-
tution and rendered him very deaf; from that  period, he had been
weak and sickly, and unequal to much exertion.  When he arrived 
             GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE.        253

 at Graefenberg, four months  and a half ago, such was his state,
 with a bad  appetite and almost a loss  of smell.   His hearing al-
 ways very defective.  Began treatment very gently with abreibung,
 leintuch, and sitz bath ;  to drink water very freely and take abun-
 dant exercise.  After a fortnight, his  appetite  and strength were
 improved; and treatment was increased to the use of the sweating
 blanket, followed by plunging bath twice a week.   The douche on
 the  other days ; head bath twice a day ; and to sniff water freely
 several times* in the day.
   There ensued a critical diarrhoea several  times,  after which  the
 hearing improved.   When this diarrhcea occurs, boils seldom hap-
 pen also.  The sniffing  of  water was at first disagreeable ; but
 finding advantage  from it,  he persevered;  and when I  last saw
 him, his hearing and smell were both  recovered.   He was strong,
 active, and in good spirits.

                  HIGH  FEVER, WITH  DELIRIUM.
   A young  man, aged  21, on  his  way to Graefenberg, for the
 treatment  of a rheumatic  complaint, found  himself  unwell at
 Vienna,  but  traveled on, and, when  he reached  his  destination,
 was in a high fever, with delirium.   Until this was reduced, an
 abreibung was  kept applied in the quickest succession, so  imme-
 diately hot did the wet linen  become.   The delirium quickly sub-
 sided.   When  the  fever was  much  abated, he was put  into the
 leintuch, and this was followed by the shallow bath.  Very soon
 a copious small-pox eruption appeared.  Leintuchs were continued,
 according to  the state of the skin.  There was  no  return of fever;
 the  appetite  was natural.   In ten days, he was able to walk out
 of doors.   He  had been vaccinated in his infancy; but,  notwith-
 standing, the pustules were  universal and of full size.  No pitting
 ensued.
   It is unquestionable that the water-cure  treatment, applied at
 the beginning especially,  is admirably adapted to the cure of erup-
 tive  fevers, small-pox, measles, and scarlatina.

         DYSPEPSIA,  SLEEPLESSNESS, AND NERVOUSNESS.
   An Austrian officer, aged 60, had been very stout and  remark-
 able for the goodness of  his appetite;  but by degrees  he became
dyspeptic, very nervous, and,  above  all, lost his sleep  more and
more by degrees, till at  length he was  not able to procure more 
254       GRAEFENBERG CASES  OF WATER-CURE.

than one hour of dozing in the twenty-four, for upward of two
years.   He had no  regular  sleep Avhatever:  opiates would not
succeed, and  he was in a most wretched state Avhen he went to
Graefenberg.   Three months passed  away without any decided
improvement.   It was  in the beginning of spring ; the weather
very cold, and he was  not strong  enough to take much exercise.
Hence a slower improvement.  Treatment : in  the  first of the
morning a leintuch followed by a shallow tepid bath ; an abreibung
twice a day; usually  a  second leintuch, followed either by an
abreibung or  shallow bath.  By degrees  he improved, gained some
appetite, and sleep returned, at first for an hour only ; then  more
and more, till, by the middle  of summer, he could sleep  comforta-
bly for seven hours ; and  he  quitted Graefenberg recovered from
every inconvenience.

                    RHEUMATIC NEURALGIA.
   A gentleman, aged fifty, of the  nervous temperament, yet ap-
pearing to have good muscular power, had lived many years in the
West Indies,  and become enfeebled  in  constitution by  dyspepsia
and complaint  of the  liver.   On  returning to  England he  con-
tracted  rheumatic neuralgia,  which principally affected the thighs
and legs.  They were  morbidly sensitive both  to heat  and  cold,
not being able to bear  the heat of  the fire even at some distance ;
and instant severe pains occurred in going into  the cold  air.   The
skin would not endure  flannel.  He wore wash leather.  His whole
nervous system was so deranged that he could not  bear the least
mental application ; not even to write a letter.   At successive pe-
riods he went to the  two Wildbads in  Germany, last to that in
Gastein, and  from both received benefit.  The strong douche was
used, and which acted so powerfully on him that he  could not
continue it.   On his return home, he caught cold, and had a se-
vere return of  the  pains.  He was advised to go to Bath, and to
use the baths of so high a temperature as 106 degrees !  Instantly
he found his  head congested as if filled with blood; had singing of
the ears, and a general distress.   He left the  bath quickly ; af-
terward bathed at  102 degrees to 100  degrees, a few times, but
thought himself much injured.  On a subsequent occasion, he went
to Buxton, and was  much benefited.  He was highly satisfied both
with the baths and douche.
   The water-cure treatment, however, attracted his notice, and he 
            GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        255

went to Graefenberg about a  year ago.   He  has pursued very
regular treatment, has had several  crises, and is  materially bene-
fited, but still has some returns of neuralgia.  He  bears the douche
and the plunging bath, and  certainly is greatly improved  in ner-
vous energy; and is  by no means  so sensitive to heat and cold.
For example, he bore the Graefenberg winter, and could,  when I
saw him, take exercise in the sun.   Priessnitz expected his cure to
be completed in three or four months.

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

 MENORRHAGIA,  OR EXCESSIVE  AND  DEBILITATING MENSTRUATION.
   A lady, aged forty-three, of full habit, for a long time subject
to menorrhagia  to such an extent as to make her feel enfeebled,
had  much  shortness  of breath on  exertion,  with indigestion  and
disturbance  of the head.  A year ago had paralytic  distortion of
the face : this did not last.  Had been upAvard of four months at
Graefenberg.  Treatment: leintuch in the morning early, folloAved
by the shallow  tepid bath.   A sitz bath,  at first tepid, afterward
cold, twice a day, for twenty minutes, but not  during the catame-
nia.   At that period, the wet  bandage around the body was to be
changed every half hour ;  but at other times, only when it should
become dry.  Such,  Avith moderate drinking  of water, was the
principal treatment.  Crises (boils) formed on the legs ;  and the
discharge from  them was considerable and continued.   She ob-
tained a favorable recovery, and the periods became satisfactorily
regular.   When I quitted  Graefenberg, she  could  ascend hills
without difficulty, and was attentive to take regular exercise. 
256        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE.
 GREAT  DEBILITY  AND DEPRESSION OF  SPIRITS, FOLLOWING NERV-
                          OUS FEVER.
  A young lady, aged  nineteen, having been strong and healthy,
was reduced to a state of great debility by a severe nervous fever,
and became the subject of intense headache, attended with great
depression of spirits.  She went to Graefenberg in October.  First
treatment: a leintuch twice a  day, one sitz bath, and  one head
bath.   Soon after, from exposure to damp evening air, she had a
short  feverish attack, for which eight abreibungs were applied on
the first day, followed by a leintuch.   In less  than thirty hours
the fever was quite removed.  Ere  long, crises  (boils) formed in
different parts, and from that time she scarcely experienced any
headache.  She drank water freely, and had umschlags, but never
had  stronger means used than I have mentioned; and  she per-
fectly regained  her health  and strength.   When  she arrived, she
appeared, as I learnt, pale and very weak.   On quitting, after five
months' sojourn, she had a nice color, and was cheerful, strong,
and active.

         INSENSIBILITY, FOLLOWING AN IMPROPER BATH.
   A  gentleman, aged  twenty-three, not  appearing delicate,  of
middling bulk, was undergoing treatment for deafness. After very
slight preliminary means,  he  used the  sweating blanket in the
morning early.   He was desired to go into the shallow tepid bath
before entering  the cold bath;  but he was disobedient, and at once
plunged into the1 latter, on a severely cold day, when the tempera-
ture of  the water was little more than  40 degrees Fah.   On quit-
ting  the bath, he fell  down insensible.   Priessnitz was  called to
him, who  directed the  most free rubbing of the lower extremities
with cold water, and then the shallow tepid bath, with abundant and
universal friction, together with moderate tepid affusion over the
head.    He was quite restored in about an  hour.   This example
shows how careful the patient should be to obey instructions, and
not attempt to  judge for himself when using the active processes
of the water-cure treatment.

           INSENSIBILITY  FOLLOWING OVER-DRINKING.
  A lady,  aged thirty-two, disposed to corpulency, and having a
short  neck, drank, on first rising, four pints or more of water, in a
* 
GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.        257
short space of time, taking only a slow walk  in the garden.  She
was suddenly seized with an universal feeling of coldness over the
chest and in the extremities, very quickly followed by insensibility.
Her  state appeared very  alarming.   Similar  treatment to that
mentioned in the last case was adopted, and with eventual success;
but  she was not quite restored till the expiration of twenty-four
hours,  and for  a long  time after, she was  reminded of the shock
from which  she had suffered.   This case is sufficient to point out
the infinite importance of  taking active exercise when much water
is drunk.  Here, the kidneys had not acted.  There was a  tempo-
rary plethora of the vessels; and some  effect must  be  attributed
to the influence of the cold water as a sedative  to the nerves of
the stomach and first intestines.

          SECONDARY SYPHILIS.   (a  HORRIBLE  CASE).
  A gentleman, aged 34, was attacked, in  the  year 1828, with
secondary syphilitic symptoms, having had primary disease seven
months before, and which, he  said, was very badly treated.  He
exposed  himself carelessly during the use  of  mercury.  After-
ward measures were used Avith apparent  success, for he got and
remained  pretty well for several years.  At length, no fresh cause
having existed, a swelling  appeared on the forehead, painful, per-
sisting, and  resisting  all treatment.  He went in the summer of
1837 to Aix-la-Chapelle, and used the baths  with only slight ad-
vantage.   An  abscess  formed in  the forehead, and was opened.
No healing process afterward.  He continually grew worse.  Twen-
ty months ago  he went to Graefenberg;  then having three foul ul-
cers, deep, and each the size of a  sixpence,  attended with deep-
seated  pains, and often prickings near the surface.  He had also a
painful node on the  shin of the  left leg.  His constitution was
much weakened, and  I was  told  that his appearance then was
alarming,  from the signs of exhaustion and  distress.  He was with-
out appetite, and procured but little sleep.
  Priessnitz ordered a leintuch, followed by a shallow bath, morn-
ing and afternoon; a  sitz bath  for  half an hour in the middle of
the day;  and wet  cold water compresses, not covered by  dry, to
be applied to the ulcers, and changed ten  times a day.   Waist-
bandage ;  and  to drink water as freely as possible.
  After three  months' treatment, exfoliation of a large portion of
the entire cranium, exposing the dura mater,  took place.  I am in 
258        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF WATER-CURE.

possession of this.  When I saw the patient, smaller portions were
in process of coming away.  Notwithstanding this, he appeared in
a fair way of recovery, for he was improved in strength sufficiently
to walk two miles; appetite  and sleep were  good ; the granula-
tions  Avere  healthy, and  the  whole complexion  of  the  case  was
changed very greatly indeed for the better.  It is one that renders
a valuable  testimony to the efficacy and  simple character of the
water-cure treatment.  So much of  the dura mater  ■will be event-
ually  exposed, that he will require  some  ingenious instrument to
be worn for the protection of  the brain.

         INFLAMMATION  OF THE BRAIN, WITH DELIRIUM.
  A gentleman, between forty and fifty years of age, was sudden-
ly seized with all  the symptoms of inflammation of the brain; pain
of the head, with urgent  feelings of congestion  appearing at the
outset, a hot skin, great  excitement, and very quickly strong de-
lirium.  The attack was  met by active  measures;. the rubbing
down in the shallow tepid bath, and small affusions of cold water
for several hours in succession;  and when the violent  symptoms
were subdued, leintuchs were  used, followed by the further use of
shallow bath and  affusion.  This was the chief treatment, and the
recovery was quite accomplished in two or three days.   By ordi-
nary proceedings, it is not  improbable that  more than as many
weeks might have been required.  Both Captain Claridge and Dr.
Wilson  relate similar  cases to  this, treated in the  same manner,
and with equal success.

       DYSPEPSIA, HEADACHE,  AND FULLNESS AT  THE HEAD.
  A gentleman,  aged 25, was  affected  from  his earliest youth
with dyspepsia,   and  attacks  of  headache from various exciting
causes, attended Avith heat of  the scalp, flushings of  the face, and
a distressing sense of the vessels of the  head being too full of
blood.   He  had  been under treatment several weeks with advant-
age.   One afternoon,  his dinner not digesting well, he took a very
long walk, and, during it,  Avas seized Avith a strong  pain between
the lower  ribs,  affecting  his  breath.  It was  with great  diffi-
culty he could reach  home, so urgent did the spasmodic pain be-
come.   Priessnitz saw him immediately, and directed the shallow
tepid bath (60 degrees), with  abundant rubbing for  two or three
minutes, instantly  followed by the cold plunging  bath  (44  degrees), 
            GRAEFENBERG CASES OF WATER-CURE.        259

in which he remained longer than usual, in order that the cold
might make more impression  on the spasm ;  but, also, this alterna-
tion of tepid and cold process was repeated no less than four times,
till  at length his limbs were  quite benumbed, and to a degree of
much suffering.   The pain of the  side was relieved.   He  was next
exceedingly well rubbed;  put to bed, became Avarm, went into a
sleep;  and, after an hour or two, awoke perfectly recovered.  I
know that this was a muscular pain connected with indigestion and
intestinal  flatulence.  I have several times experienced it, and
found it removable by simple means; as quietude in the recum-
bent posture, warmth, and a  carminative in  warm water.  In this
instance  the treatment was out of proportion to the occasion.  I
suppose that Priessnitz apprehended internal  inflammation.  I take
the liberty of thinking that it was an error in diagnosis, the know-
ledge of which is always so important in the administration of any
kind of treatment.  I saw this gentleman immediately after his re-
covery, and received from him a very minute account.

DEBILITY,  SLEEPLESSNESS,  DEPRESSION OF SPIRITS, ETC., FROM EX-
                 CESSIVE  MENTAL APPLICATION.
  A lady, aged 30, brought on  a state of extreme nervous de-
bility, with impaired  digestion, headache, and confusion,  with loss
of sleep, depression of spirits, and many other nervous symptoms,
by a course of severe literary application.   She  had the highest
medical advice in London;  but,  although  relieved in her most
troublesome symptoms, she continued in a state of such great de-
bility, that she could not walk across the room without assistance.
She tried change of air and scene without success;  and, as a last
resource, went to a water establishment in  England.  An abrei-
bung twice a  day,  and a sitz bath once, Avith body-bandage, and
free drinking of water, constituted her treatment.  In three weeks,
her amendment  was such as to enable her  to walk out of  doors;
and  after a few months, she was strong enough to travel.  She
felt convinced  that her nervous debility required further and most
skillful treatment.   She arrived  at Graefenberg  shortly  before I
quitted; and she was  in good spirits, with the prospect of her per-
fect recovery.

           SCROFULOUS DISEASE OF  THE KNEE  JOINT.
  Miss----, aged five years,  a child of nervous  temperament, first 
260        GRAEFENBERG CASES OF  WATER-CURE.

suffered, four years ago, from a  painful inflammation of one knee,
appearing otherwise  in good  health.  Leeches and  evaporating
lotions were applied  freely; and afterward repeated blisters.  At
a later  period, malt and  hop baths at 88  degrees Fah. for one
hour at a time, two or three times in a week, in alternation with
warm  salt water.  She had been  at  Graefenberg about fifteen
months.   When she first arrived, she  could not put the foot to
the ground, and used crutches with difficulty.  The knee was pain-
ful in stormy weather.   I examined the joint, which was evidently
diseased from  scrofula.   There  was still enlargement; but  I Avas
told by the  nurse it  was very much reduced in  size;  and this in-
deed was manifest from the loose state  of the skin.  It was almost
free from tenderness.   There was some motion in the joint.  She
could walk  very nimbly  without a stick  or any assistance; first
moving on the heel, then on the  toe.  The limb was shortened and
the tendons of the hams were contracted;  but the improvement
was very satisfactory.  She had been delicate and  weak:  she
was become strong and healthy.   The case  is so important that I
shall particularize the treatment.
   At six a. m. the leintuch for an hour, followed by a shallow bath
at 64 degrees  for five minutes;  wet bandages  to  the waist and
around the knee, covered  as usual; to go out before breakfast, and
drink three small glasses of water.  At nine, the knee was rubbed
for five minutes with  the wet  hand,  and  wet  applications were
again put  on.   At 11, repeated, and  a sitz bath for  10 minutes.
At one p. m. the local treatment and waist-bandage.  At half-past
two, same treatment.   At four p. m.  sitz  bath for 10  minutes;
temperature at a later period reduced to  60 degrees;  the knee
again rubbed with cold water, and a bandage reapplied.  At  five
p. m. leintuch  and shallow bath, which also was reduced in tem-
perature by degrees to  60 degrees.  Local  treatment repeated.
Since last June  she had douching at 11, and omitted the sitz bath;
but when  the weather  proved unfavorable, this  treatment was
reversed.

         SCROFULOUS ENLARGEMENT OF THE KNEE JOINT.
   A little boy, aged  five years, of calm disposition, when two
years  old had  a fall, by which  the knee  was injured.  This,  like
the last, was a scrofulous  enlargement  of the knee joint.   He was
just arrived at Graefenberg.  The leg was drawn up two inches 
            GRAEFENBERG CASES  OF  WATER-CURE.        261

from the ground.  Priessnitz observed that the tendons were so
contracted and rigid, that a division of them by the surgeon would
become necessary, but he would treat the enlargement of the joint.
The treatment directed was, a leintuch for half an hour three times
a  day, followed by shallow tepid bath with local application of
water, and the drinking of water, as in the last case.


   Having related, I believe, a sufficient number of cases to display
the  powers of  the water-cure treatment, I shall only add to their
number by alluding, in a cursory manner, to a few other examples,
the details of which would require more  space than I can afford on
the present occasion.
   I  witnessed two cases  of  incipient inflammation of the  lungs,
with much inflammatory affection of the throat, and of the mucous
membrane of the trachea, promptly and  successfully treated by
abreibungs, leintuchs, tepid shallow baths, and umschlags.
   In a case of hcemoptysis, it was evident to me that the free
drinking of the water  had proved injurious; although in other re-
spects the  general treatment had  been very useful.   I am con-
vinced that in this disorder  the patient should be even painfully
restricted in the quantity of drink.  I should prescribe iced water,
in very small quantities at a time, as almost the only beverage;
and  the  same principle of management  I should observe, in any
case of arterial haemorrhage.

                        SKIN DISEASES.
   I witnessed many urgent cases of disease of the skin, various in
their nature.   They were chiefly impetiginous or herpetic.  Dartres
is  the common  name assigned by the foreign patients to most of
the eruptions.
                          LEPROSY.
   One of the worst examples of lepra that I ever saw, presented
itself to me in the case of a  gentleman, 23 years of age.   It was
universal  from  head to foot.   He  had been at Graefenberg one
year ; and for a long time had been on  full treatment, using the
douche every day, and sweating in the blanket three times a week,
with other processes.   He considered himself to be very materially
improved; the patches were much  less scaly than formerly, and
in  various parts the skin had assumed a healthy cicatrized appear- 
262        GRAEFENBERG  CASES  OF AVATER-CURE.

ance.  Priessnitz told him that in these cases the Avater treatment
prospered most during the spring.   He expected to be successful
in the cure.   There is no description of cutaneous malady in Avhich,
according to my experience, it is so difficult to  be effected.   This
patient had  formerly taken various mercurial and other alteratives;
had  been at Carlsbad ; at Gastein, in Tyrol; and at Kreuzenach,
a Celebrated place for diseases of the skin.
  I  believe  that  the water treatment  is more  adapted than any
other to  the relief or cure of  obstinate diseases of the  skin.   The
continued frictions, ablutions, perspiring  processes, douches, etc.
must have a powerful influence  in  exciting an entirely  neAV action
of the vessels of the skin;  but in any case in which,  after a fair
trial, the water means did not seem competent to meet  the evil, 1
should not  hesitate to add the  use of some mild alternative.  I
saw  many cases of scrofula, some of which were  materially  bene-
fited.  In others, it was  doubtful whether any improvement had
been effected.

                  TETANUS AND HYDROPHOBIA.
  In the melancholy diseases of  tetanus and hydrophobia, I should
consider  the employment of the  most active of the Avater-cure pro-
cesses well  deserving a trial.  Priessnitz assured  me that he had
cured a dog of hydrophobia by incessant douching with  the coldest
water.  Many years ago, one of my horses was seized with locked-
jaAv, and the poor  animal appeared to be fast approaching to a
hopeless  condition, the farrier having exerted all his skill in vain.
The  late Professor Coleman by chance  arrived at the time, and
advised repeated affusions of the spine with the  coldest  Avater from
buckets.   After about an hour,  according to my recollection, the
spasms of the jaw, and of the several affected muscles,  became re-
lieved.  A complete recovery ensued.   I have  thought it not un-
becoming to relate these  comparative cases. 
THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES.     263
                           CHAPTER XIV.

            THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF DISEASES.

   General Remarks on Fevers.—Boerhaave's Theory.—111 effects of the Heating, and good
     effects of the Cooling modes.—A great Change has been wrought within a few Years.—
     Animate instinctively go to Water in Feverishness from whatever Cause.—Curious cases
     of Fever, from Dr. Baynard, one hundred and fifty years ago.—Water  the best of all
     Remedies in Fevers and  Inflammations of whatever kind.—Water the Invigorator of
     Nature.—Remarkable Facts from Howard the  Philanthropist.—A singular case of Re-
     suscitation  of a Child supposed to be Dead.—Priessnitz's  Modes.—Typhus,  Jail,  and
     Ship Fever.—Priessnitz is never known to fail in curing Fevers of whatever kind, if he
     commence at first.—Detail of the Treatment of Ship or Typhus Fever.—Advantages of
     pure fresh Air.—The great general Principle of treating all Fevers.—Ague and Fever.—
     Prevention always better than Cure.  Detail of Treatment in this Disease.—The Cold
     Stage.—The Hot Stage.—The Sweating Stage.—Object of the Treatment in each Vapor
     Bath recommended in the Cold Stage.—Cold Water at the beginning of the Cold Stage.
     —Treatment on the " Well Day."—Diet.—Fasting and Water Drinking.—Their probable
     Effects.

                      GENERAL REMARKS ON FEVERS.

      Boerhaave, the most  learned physician of his time, held as a
   theory, that fever was caused by a lentor (something cold) in the
   blood.   This theory—for it was only a theory—caused, for about
   two  centuries,  one of the most  erroneous modes of practice that
   ever crept among the already multiform and barbarous  jargons of
   the  medical  art.   Alas ! what  erroneous theories and practices
   which the  human mind  could  by any possibility invent, have not
   been put  forth to torture human nature with!   Every one of you
   that has arrived at adult age, can well remember how, a feAv years
   since,  no fever  patients—none with inflammatory  disease of what-
;   ever kind—could touch a drop of cold  water,  at the peril of life.
   " It  will be the  very  death of  you," exclaimed the practitioner.
i   The  anathemas against no poison could not be more  imperative than
   this  against pure cold water in fever.   Noav and then, however,
   there were those who, spite  of physicians, nurses,  and attendants,
   broke  over all  bounds in their frenzy,  and betook  themselves to
   this best of all remedies.  And what was the result ?  Were these 
264    THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.
   patients killed by the  dreaded element?   Every  one knoAvs the
   proper ansAver to the  question.  And uoav, thanks  to Priessnitz,
   the temperance  reformation, and the light of advancing science,
   this horrible practice of which I have been speaking, is consigned
   forever, I  trust,  to be  remembered  only  among the things that
   were.
     Whenever a general feverishness, from whatever cause, is brought
   on in animals, they not only instinctively drink water, but immerse
   themselves in it, if it is possible for them to do so.   It is said that
\  in some countries wild pigs become violently compulsed by eating
   henbane, and that  by  going into water and by drinking it, they
   recover.   And when animals become feverish from mutilations or
   mechanical  injury,  they seek lying upon the  damp ground in the
   cool air, and even in mud  and wet, and go not  unfrequently into
   the water.
      Rats, all  housekeepers know, go at once to water, when  they
   have swalloAved  arsenic that had  been set  for them; and hence,
   too, it  is well known that water must be kept out of their reach ;
   otherwise they are very apt to recoA'er from the  acute gastritis
   caused by the poison.   Domestic animals, as cats and dogs, when
   poisoned by arsenic that  had  been  set for rats, take at once to
   lapping down great quantities of water, and are thus sometimes
   apparently saved.  I knew a fine old pointer dog  in  the  city of
   New York,  that,  after he had been nearly beaten to death  by the
   barbarian dog-killers, went for days without food, but lapped often
   large quantities of water, and was thus saved.
      Dr. Edward Baynard, an able and very amusing writer on water
   one  hundred and fifty years ago, gave the following cases :  " A
   Turk (a servant  to a gentleman), falling sick of  a fever,  some one
   of the tribe of treacle conners being  called in, whether apothecary
   or physician, I can't tell, but (according to custom), Avhat between
   blister and  bolus, they soon made him mad.   A countryman of
   his, that came to visit  him, seeing him in the broiling condition,
   said nothing, but in the night-time, by some confederate  help, got
   him down to the Thames' side, and soundly ducked him.  The
   fellow  came home sensible,  and went to bed ; and the next day he
   was perfectly well.  This  story was  attested to by two or three
   gentlemen of undoubted integrity and Avorth ; and I doubt it not,
   but believe it from  the  greater probability; for I'll hold ten to one
   on  the Thames'  side against treacle, snake-root, and all that hot 
        THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT OF DISEASES.     265

regimen which inflames and exalts the blood, breaks its globules,
and destroys the man, and then, forsooth, the doctor sneaks away /
like a dog that has lost his tail, and cries, it was a pestilential, malig-  f
nant fever, that  nobody could cure; and  to show his care of the
remainder, bids them open the windows, air the bed clothes, and
perfume the rooms for  fear of infection ; and if  he be of the right
whining, eanting, prick-eared  stamp, concludes,  as  they do  at Ty-  /*
burn, with a mournful  ditty,  a psalm, or a preservative prayer for '
the rest  of the  family.  So  exit Prig, with  his starched,  formal
chops, ebony cane, fringed gloves, etc."                      -^
   "In the year 1665," says Dr.  Baynard,  "I very well remember
that it was the talk of  the town,  that a breAver's servant at Horse-
leydown, in SoutliAvark, was seized with the plague, and in his de-
lirium ran into a horse-pond, first drank his fill,  and then  fell  fast
asleep with his head upon the pond's brink, where he was found
in the morning.  How long he had been in the pond nobody knew,
for it was in the night he went into the water, and had no nurse
then with him ; but he recovered to a miracle."
   But a more singular  case is given by  this  amusing old  author,
as follows:  " My worthy and learned friend, Dr. Cole, showed me
an account from an apothecary in Worcestershire, whose name (I
think)  was Mr.  Mathews; the substance  of which  was, that  a
young man,  delirious in small-pox, when his nurse was  asleep,
jumped out  of bed, ran down stairs, and went into a pond.  The
noise awaked the nurse, who followed with an outcry, which out-
cry raised the posse of  the family, who surrounded the pond;  but
he parleyed with them, and told them, that  if any body  came in
he would certamly drown them, and that he would come out when
he  saw his own time.  He  accordingly did so, and  walked up
stairs, and sat (in his wet clothes) upon a chest by the bedside ; in
which  posture Mr. Mathews  found him when  he  came into  the
chamber.  Note  here, that the apothecary lived three or four miles
distant from  the  place, and he was in the water and on the chest
during all that time, in his wet  clothes, that the messenger  was
gone for him.  The  apothecary asked him how he did ?  He an-
swered, pretty well.   He asked him  if he  would  have  a clean
shirt, and go into his bed ?  He said, by and  by he would, which
accordingly  he did.   When in bed, he asked the apothecary if he
had nothing good in his pocket, for he was a little  faintish ?  He
paid that he had a cordial, of  which he drank a good draught; so
              18 
266     the graefenbeik;  treatment  OF DISEASES.

went to sleep, Avaked very well, and in a little time fully recovered.
Now, as Dr. Cole observed very well, ' A man,' quoth  he, ' would
not advise his patients in such a case to go  into cold water, though
this man escaped without injury; but it gives good occasion to re-
flect  on the many mischiefs that attend the small-pox in the hot
reoimen, since such  extravagant and intense cold does so little or
no harm.' "
  Water, rightly employed, is as much better than all other sub-
stances for curing fevers and inflammatory  diseases, of  whatever
name or kind, as it  is better than  all other substances  for quench-
ing fire.
  Water is  nature's great invigorator-—the  most genial and yet
most powerful of all tonics.  There is nothing in all the  world be-
side  to compare with it  in giving life and energy to the frame.  It
has been said poetically of that vast  expanse of water, the ocean,
" It  is  the  breath  of God condensed on what were  otherwise a
cold and barren mass of rock—a breath which has communicated
fertility, and beauty, and life."  When struck  down  with severe
disease, the strength all  exhausted,  and the individual  unable to
move, there is not in all nature beside, any substance, or  any com-
bination of substances, that has a tenth part  the vivifying and life-
giving power of water.
   "  I  might mention," says  Howard, the philanthropist, "as an
evidence of  the advantages of baths in prisons, that  I  have known
instances of persons supposed  to be  dead of jail  fever (typhus
gravior, or malignant typhus), and  brought out  for  burial, who,
on being washed with  cold water, have shown signs  of life, and
soon after recovered."  And when at the county jail of  Hertford-
shire, Howard was told of a prisoner who, on being  pumped upon
in the yard  when  in a state of apparent death from jail fever, re-
covered ; and he afterward declared he had knoAvn other instances
of a  similar kind.   When he was in Turkey, a young  man was
shown him in one of the prisons, who had  been  bastinadoed so se-
verely, that his body was swollen from head  to foot  in a most
shocking  manner.   He desired the people to bathe  him in cold
water; and this, with some  other simple  means, such  as a cool-
ing  diet,  effected his  recovery, contrary to the  expectations of
his keepers.
   A few months since, an account was published in the  papers of
a singular case of resuscitation, by means of water, in the state of 
         THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF  DISEASES.    267

 Wisconsin.  The account was as folloAvs :  " Captain Hood, a Avell-
 known citizen of Beetoa, Dame county, had a  little child taken
 sick, \Vhich, after much suffering, and Avith all the usual indications
 of the final struggle Avith death, received its  parents' parting em-
 brace in  the presence of other friends.   The  glazed eyes of the
 little  sufferer were  closed, and  a bandage was applied to support
 the under jaw, as is customary.  After the lapse of some twenty
 or thirty minutes, a woman in attendance, who was aiding in ablu-
 tion and laying  out the corpse,  commenced by sprinkling cold
 water in its face.  Strange to tell, the child opened its  eyes, be-
 gan to recover, and is now in the enjoyment of  full health."

   During a second visit at the fountain-head  of hydropathy, so
 called, in the winter of 1847-8, I was  at the  pains of writing
 down, on  the  spot, the  treatment  as recommended  by Priessnitz
 for  the principal, I may  say all the  worst  forms of disease  to
 vvhich human nature is subject.   I would here express my obliga-
 tions to Mr. Priessnitz for the information he has so willingly com-
 municated to me.  If I am successful in persuading  others to fol-
 low these modes, I shall in some degree have rewarded the great
 founder of the new system, his  great and all-absorbing object be-
 ing  to benefit his fellow-creatures.
   I proceed to speak first of

                 TYPHUS, JAIL, AND SHIP FEVER.
   Those who have  been at Graefenberg a sufficient length of time
 to enable  them to become acquainted with the  facts in regard  to ,
 the  treatment  there  practiced,  know that Priessnitz  never loses a I
 patient in fever of  any kind, provided he is applied to in season,  j
 and  before the ordinary means haATe been resorted to,  which means  I
 are,  for the most part, only destructive in their  tendency, helping
 the patient the more rapidly toward his grave.

                    priessnitz's directions,
   1.  Envelop the patient in one or more heavy wet linen sheets,
according to the heat and  strength,  the sheets not much wrung
out,  and to be frequently renewed, as often, at least, as they begin
to grow dry.   There must not be much covering over the sheets.
In severe cases the patient should be  kept in  the wet sheet the
most of the time until the fever  is broken up.  As much fresh air 
268    THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.

as possible  is to be admitted into the room.  The sheet should
always be doubled, and Avet  toAvels applied to such parts as the
arm-pits, betAveen the limbs,  and Avherever one part comes in con-
tact Avith another.
   2. The cold bath is given three  or four times  in tAventy-four
hours, and even  oftener, should there be much heat.   If  the pa-
tient is very weak,  the water is used tepid, but never higher than
20 degrees  Reaumur (77  degrees Fah.), and  this should be di-
minished from time to time, until it can be borne cold.   The bath
should, if possible, be administered to the patient in a reclining pos-
ture.  At the  same time,  the back of the head and  neck should
be bathed in water of the same temperature as the general bath,
ending always with the water  cold.  The surface of  the body
should be rubbed constantly while the patient is being bathed,
and the  bath continued  until the temperature of the arm-pits is
the same as the rest of the surface.
   3. As the patient becomes able to take nourishment, give cold
milk, fruit, and farinaceous food, in small quantities, always cold,
and at intervals of the usual meals.   Great care is necessary in the
food.   Water at all times to be  drank according to the dictates
of thirst.
   4. Wear the umschlag, or  wet girdle, all the time when the pa-
tient is not in the wet sheet.
   5. Injections, or clysters, of  pure water, are to  be given, if the
bowels do not act naturally without;  the water cold, if the patient
is  not very weak, one pint at  a time.
   The object of the whole  treatment is to supply the  body amply
with  sufficient coolness  and moisture, in order to  counteract
the tendency of the disease  to  dry up and consume  the natural
juices.
   The above are the directions that Priessnitz gave us for publi-
cation in English and American papers, with  the hope that some
good might  thereby be done.   The ship fever, so called, is neither
more  nor less than  severe  typhus fever.   Were he called to  such
cases  as have  been treated  a length of time already by other
modes, his directions would, of course, be somewhat different.   If
a  patient has been  all but killed with drugs (a thing often done),
or if the disease  has been allowed to go on until the strength is
exhausted, and the  patient has  become  delirious, then the treat-
ment  is modified.  But  even in such cases, let  the surface be 
        THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.    269

sponged  over with tepid water, as at 85 or 90 degrees Fah., and
see what relief will follow.   Get permission of your doctor to do
this.  No one will object, only he will want  a  little  vinegar, or
spirits, and the like, put with it; whereas  the pure thing is the
safest and best, for the surface as well as the internal parts.   Put
also the great wet fomentation about the body, to act as a sooth-
ing poultice.   This  no physician will object  to either.  Havt, a
mattress for the patient to lie upon—never a feather bed; and use
the hair or straw pillow instead of the heating, debilitating, and in
every respect injurious feather pillow which is  in universal use.
There is truth in the old maxim, " keep the head cool."  Instead
of worrying and irritating the delicate internal organs with cathar-
tics, administer daily, if need be, clysters of pure tepid water.  I
repeat,  no well-informed physician will  object  to  any of these
things.   Get thus what water  treatment you can, in the absence
of  such  practitioners as  understand the  new mode thoroughly.
Nature and gdbd nursing have cured many;  drugs very few.
   The advantages of fresh air in fevers is  wonderful.   I was told
by the learned Dr. M. Barry, of Edinburgh, that  during  the past
summer, in that city, the hospitals were so  filled, that it became
necessary to erect tents  in the open air, to accommodate patients
having  the ship fever; and  it was found the  mortality was much
less in  these  airy, out-door  places, than in the more  comfortable
hospitals.  Could all fever  patients be, from the first, kept  per-
fectly clean, have constantly  a full supply of cool, fresh air, pure
soft water to drink as the thirst indicates, and be nourished in the
most careful manner, how few would die with fever.   But the sad
truth is, as patients are treated  nine  times  in ten, if not ninety-
nine  in the one hundred, we  might be led to  suppose that men
were putting the old  saying into  practice—"If any man sin, let
him fall into the hands of the physicians."
   " I have just returned  home from a  passage in the London
packet  ship American Eagle, Captain Chadwick.   There  were
nearly two  hundred persons on board.  Although a most excel-
lent ship, Avith a very able and experienced commander, we had  a
very  long passage.  I had the care of all such as needed medical
advice on board.  We had a  considerable number of cases of sick-
ness, some  of which were incipient ship  fever, yet through pru-
dent  care, and depending almost wholly upon the hygienic means,
we had not a single death—a thing very uncommon  in so long  a 
 270    THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.

 passage, and Avith so large a number of persons;  and there Avere
 but Aery few days in Avhich Ave could not have mustered every
 soul on deck, had it been necessary to do so.
   "In the very midst of the past summer, Avhen ships Ave re losing
 patients by the hundred, Capt. Watts, of the ship Emma Watts,
 sailed from London to NeAV York, with a large number of passen-
 gers, and lost only one little child, a day or tAvo from London, and
 Avhich was nearly dead Avhen it Avas  brought on board.  Capt.
 Watts had just been cured of the fever in London, by water,   lie
 therefore took the hint, required every passenger to bathe or be
 bathed regularly, by means of an apparatus which he had prepared
 for  the  purpose;  and  thus, with other Avell-regulated  hygienic
 means, he accomplished Avhat probably no other ship sailing during
 the  past season between England and the United States did—not
 to lose a single case by ship fever."*
 "" The treatment of fevers of any kind, without regard whatever
 to the name, is to be conducted on  general principles.  Keep
 doavn the  fever is the great  law.   Administer Avet sheets, ablu-
 tions, water to drink, injections, etc., etc., as often as there  is need,
 five, ten, or twenty times in the twenty-four hours—as often as
 the  heat rises  above the natural standard.   It is the incessant
 heat that takes away the strength ; therefore this should be always
 prevented.   Persevere  also as many days  and nights  as  may be
 necessary.   In  the old  modes persons  often  lay many weeks in
 fever; in the new mode a  few days at most is all that is required,
 if the case is taken at the first and managed properly.

                       AGUE AND FEVER.
  In ague and  fever, as in all other  diseases, it is by far better,
 when possible, to prevent rather than cure.  It would doubtless be
 saying too much to  affirm that  ague and fever could in all cases
 be prevented, as for instance, where the air is so very impure as in
 some marshy sections of our country.  But I have  known more
 cases than  one,  in which persons have to all  appearance  warded
off the disease, by observing a very plain and frugal diet, water
drinking, and daily bathing.   No doubt in those parts of the coun-
try where intermittents are the most common, many, to  say  the
least, could by  proper  management  keep entirely free  of  the
disease.
                  * The Author's Note-Book, 1848. 
        THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF  DISEASES.    27\

  Priessnitz's  treatment for this, as for all other diseases, is very
simple.   The directions he gave me were  as follows:
  1. In the' first or cold stage, use the rubbing wet sheet perse-
veringly until the paroxysm is quelled; or use the hip or sitz bath,
Avith much  rubbing of the abdomen and the  whole surface Avith
the wet hand; or the half bath, long continued, the water being
someAvhat tepid, may be had recourse to.
  2. In  the hot stage, the packing sheet often changed, so as to
reduce sufficiently the abnormal heat, the cold half bath,  or affu-
sions of water—in short, the general means of reducing feverishness
from Avhatever cause.
  3. In the sweating stage employ the tepid half bath only.  This
may be Avell enough administered in a common wash-tub,  the  pa-
tient sitting  with the feet outside of the vessel.
  The tendency of this treatment in the  first stage, is to promote
circulation toward the  surface,  thus relieving  the internal  organs
of the abdomen, Avhich are always congested, or, in other  words,
have too much blood in this stage.   It also tends to either mitigate
or wholly prevent the second and third stages.
  The treatment in the second stage  reduces the fever, and thus
saves the patient's strength.  It also mitigates or wholly prevents
the third stage.
  In the third stage, the treatment acts to pre\-ent the debilitating
SAveats, thus supporting the strength, and thereby giving the indi-
vidual the best opportunity for speedy recovery.
  The vapor bath, properly managed, would no doubt be  an  ex-
cellent means  at, or probably better a little previous to, the com-
ing on of the chill.  But there is another  method Avhich Avould
seem  to  be  the opposite  of this, and which  has done good, as  I
have proved by actual  experiment, viz., to place the patient in  a
cold hip or shallow bath, just before the  cold  paroxysm is  ex-
pected.  A good deal of friction should be practiced, to  cause  cir-
culation toward the surface.  The chill arising from cold water is
a different thing from the  chill of the disease.   The one strong  im-
pression  takes the  place of the other apparently, and with good
effect.   I spoke  to Priessnitz of this mode which I had adopted;
he thought  favorably of it, and pronounced it good.   But in order
to determine  precisely Avhat mode would prove  generally  best in
ague and fever, a large number of cases should  be subjected to  the 
  272    THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF  DISEASES.

  treatment; more, probably, than any one has yet had either in this
  country or the old.
     Priessnitz  recommends that  on the " Avell  day" of ague and
  fever, the patient should have a  Avet sheet  packing early in the
  morning, and a cold bath;  one or two hip baths during the fore-
  noon, and the wet sheet and plunge  again in the afternoon; the
  wet girdle to be Avorn all of the time.   A wet sheet, three double,
  worn about the trunk of the body during the night would be Avell
  in most cases.  The diet should be of the simplest possible kinds,
  and spare in quantity.
     Vomiting by means of warm water at the beginning of the chill,
  or  indeed at any time during the paroxysm, would I  think be an
  excellent means; certainly it would in all  cases where the stomach
  is foul, and I think it is hardly possible to have any thing  but a
  foul stomach in this disease.
     r.^rfect and entire fasting from all food and drink except pure
  soft AVcuer, for two, three, and  even five or six days, if necessary,
\  with a moderate amount of  bathing, would probably be one of the
, very best modes of treating ague—perhaps the best mode. 
THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES.    273
                       CHAPTER XV.

  THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF DISEASES—(Continued.)

Priessnitz's Views of Small Pox. —Vaccination.—This often fails of its Object.—It is often
  very Injurious to the Constitution.—Priessnitz's mode of treating the Small-Pox.—Fresh
  Air and Diet.—Malignant Small-Pox.—A Case at Graefenberg.—Thirty-six Cases  at Sea
  cured by Captain  Johnston.—Testimony of Dr. Hahn in 1738.—John Hancock,  D. D.,
  1700.—Dr. Baynard, 1706.—Dr. Currie, 1797.—Scarlatina, or Scarlet Fever.—Remark-
  able success of Dr. Corson, of Pennsylvania.—General Remarks on the Treatment of
  this Disease.—Dr.  Elliotson quoted.—Dr. Burns.—Dr. Dewees.—Dr. Currie.—Measles.
  —Remarkable success of the Water Treatment.—Priessnitz's Mode.—A Case.—Cases
  from the Water-Cure Journal.—Skin Diseases generally.

         THE SMALL-POX.   (WRITTEN  AT GRAEFENBERG.)
   Priessnitz himself  had the small-pox, and his face is quite badly
marked, showing the  effects of the disease.   This happened before
he understood the water  treatment.  Could he have been subjected
to the benign influences of the new mode, he says he would not
have been disfigured by  the disease.  Having thus  experienced in
his OAvn  person  the effects of  the  terrible malady, and  carrying its
mark as  he must to the grave, it is to  be presumed that he  has
thought  seriously concerning the modes of its prevention and cure.
What, then, in  the first place, are his views of the advantages and
disadvantages of vaccination ?
   Will it be credited that Priessnitz  objects strongly  to this far-
famed prophylactic means?  "Introducing  poison into the  sys-
tem," says  he,  "is not  good.  Vaccination  sometimes  kills  the
child,  often  does serious harm to the system, and always, even in
the most favorable cases, renders the system much more liable to
take on  diseases of other kinds.   It moreover  fails to  prevent the
disease.   It is better,  even in large cities, to rear children as health-
fully as  may be by a judicious  regulation  of  the diet,  by bathing,
exercise  in  the  open air, and cleanliness, and then run the risk of
their having the disease, than to  vaccinate.   If  children  are  thus
managed, the disease, should it be contracted, will be comparatively
a trifling matter—easy to cure by the  water  treatment, and  that
               12* 
274    THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF  DISEASES.

Avithout leaving any marks.   I object  decidedly  to vaccination."
These  are Priessnitz's views as he gave them  to me, both at this
and my former visit to Graefenberg.   I myself have had some ex-
perience in treating the small-pox, and I may say my success has
been very satisfactory—in truth, wonderful, compared with that of
the ordinary modes.  Those who desire, can refer to a part of my
experience, published in the Water-Cure Manual,  page 183.

          PRIESSNITZ'S TREATMENT  OF THE SMALL-POX.
   This is as follows :  In the early stages of  the disease, treat the
fever according to  the  general principles for  feverishness of any
kind ;  apply the wet sheet one, two, four, six, or more times in the
day, as the symptoms may demand,  Avith plunge baths, half baths,
or the rubbing  sheet, accordingly as  the patient may have strength
to endure them.   A good treatment, I  will  remark, and one  that
Priessnitz would folloAv in ordinary cases during the more feA'erish
stages of the  disease, is, morning, noon, and evening  to give two
wet sheets,  one immediately following the other, with light cover-
ing, so as to communicate a good degree  of coolness to  the  sys-
tem, each sheet to continue only for ten  to fifteen  minutes, and the
bath, according to the patient's strength, following.   The  tepid
half bath at 70 degrees F. Avould be a mild means for a very feeble
person, or an ablution by means of the rubbing wet sheet, the per-
son remaining  in a reclining position if  very weak.   But this sel-
dom  happens in the  earlier stages  of the disease.  If the  fever
should run  very high, many sheets  might, and indeed should be
applied in the  twenty-four hours, the  patient remaining  in them,
as in cases of bad typhus, most of the time.  But in all these cases,
care must be taken that the patient does not become too warm in
the sheet.   Better not apply it at all.  Manage to keep down the
feverishness, and the  acrimony and  severity  of the disease will be
greatly mitigated.  The Avet girdle  is also to  be  used constantly
when the patient is not in  the wet sheet.  Water drinking, of the
purest and  softest  cold water that  can  be obtained, is to be  en-
couraged, and at all times practiced as freely  as the patient desires.
The diet must be  cooling and very spare.  In severe cases, it is
better when the fever is the worst, to  pass two, three, or even
more days, Avithout any nourishment whatever.
   I will remark, also, that there is  no need  at any time of going
to excess in chilling the system.  Do not cause prostration by the 
        THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF DISEASES.     275

cold.   The sheets and ablutions should revive and refresh the body.
This is the  normal effect of cold when judiciously applied.   But
if the  cooling treatment  be carried  too far (which is very rarely
the case), depression and  prostration would be the result.   This
would follow immediately, and the  cause is easily traced.   The
exercise of  a little common sense will guide  us in all this  matter.
I will mention, that patients often dread  the cold, and feel a re-
luctance to  enter the baths, when they find on entering them  they
are  refreshed and invigorated.   It must  be remembered, there-
fore, that the feelings are not always the true guide.
  We should not forget that in this,  as in all febrile diseases, that
a supply of air, as free and fresh as possible, should at all times,
both by night and day, be admitted  into the patient's  apartment.
In the summer time, Priessnitz has had patients in fever taken out
to remain all day in the open air and shade.

       TREATMENT  AFTER THE  PUSTULES HAVE COME OUT.
   After the pustules have come out well, there is  no  need of so
much of the cooling treatment  as before.   But the sheets should
be  yet freely used, so also the baths, to moisten and  soften the
skin, and by the diluting effect of the water (for water is absorbed
by  the skin), to render less acrid the  corrupt matter of the disease.
Thus will the marks be much modified, or wholly prevented.
  In cases of a malignant character, in which the disease is conflu-
ent, the sores running together,  so that the whole surface becomes
as it were one complete sore or  scab, it is a serious  matter to the
patient;  and  the  practitioner, if he  have any conscience, will be
solicitous as to what is  the best mode  of treatment in that stage
of the disease.  The face, neck, and  head, are so swollen that the
nearest friends cannot possibly distinguish the features.  That, of
itself, is a terrible thing.   Then, as the scabs come off, the horrible
smarting that takes place, because of the contact of the air—how
can this be prevented ?   I confess,  I do not know.  Oil,  or  some
unctuous substance, has  been the means used  by some to shield
the  part from the air.  But this Priessnitz objects to, on the ground
that the natural diminution of morbid matter is thus hindered ; the
same being necessarily, in consequence thereof, thrown  inward, or
retained in the system.   I have had cases  in which Ave used wet
cloths much over  parts of the body,  and in which it seemed  as if
it would have been impossible to have used the entire wet sheet, 
276    THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.

so great was the  soreness over the whole  surface of the system.
But Priessnitz says, " Persevere: it is difficult at first, but you will
find the entire wet sheet the best."  I cannot think of such cases
of small-pox as I have witnessed,  without  experiencing a sense of
most painful dread for years after they have happened, and I could
desire most earnestly that no  human  being should ever be attacked
with so dreadful a malady as the malignant, confluent small-pox.

                   CASES OF THE SMALL-POX.
   Priessnitz  has  often treated cases of this disease.   I have not
heard  of  his losing any.  Many of these  cases have been among
the poor and peasants of these mountain parts ; and be it  said, to
his everlasting praise, he always attends such cases as faithfully as
if they were among the most noble and rich, and  that without fee
or charge.   Noble generosity, of a most humane and noble  heart!
   My bathman (at Graefenberg) tells me, that some three years ago
he had the small-pox severely, and that Priessnitz  cured him thus:
" two  wet  sheets,  in succession,  and bath in the morning; the
same at noon; also at night; wearing, and often  wetting, the body-
girdle, with  all the drinking he desired.   Then, the most days, he
took no food of any kind."   In two weeks he was quite over the
disease, and in three weeks  was about his business as usual.   He
had the  disease badly.  Those  people about Graefenberg  avIio
have the means, do not live near as plainly as they should, and
are accustomed to greatly overheated rooms.  Hence their  diseases
are often of  a violent character.
   The  good  effects of  the  water-cure,  as well as the apparent
disregard of danger from acute  disease at Graefenberg,  may be
seen from the following  case, related by Mr. H. C. Wright:
   " While at Graefenberg, we had  a case of malignant small-pox,
and the patient lay in the main building, near the passage, through
which we all passed to and from  our meals  three times a day.
The bathman who attended him attended other guests,  and Ave
visited him  without fear, each knowing that if we should take the
infection, the disease was entirely  under the control of the water-
cure.  The patient was confined to his room fourteen days, covered
with the pustules from head to foot.  I saw him while in this state,
and a more loathsome object I never beheld.  When he recovered
sufficiently to leave his room, he mixed freely with  the other guests,
and, in about three weeks, almost every trace of the disease had 
        THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.    27"/

passed from  his face.   Wet sheets and tepid and cold baths were
the only remedies employed, and a constant supply of pure cold
air was admitted, by day and night, through the open windows of
the chamber.  The woman who washed the wet sheets and band-
ages used by this patient, took the disease, but it was soon con-
quered by the cold water remedies."
  Captain Johnston, the able commander of the steam-ship Wash-
ington, informed the author, that  a few years  since, in a passage
between Havre and New York, thirty-six of his  passengers in the
steerage were attacked with small-pox, all  having  it at the same
time.  Being well aware of  the good  effects of the cooling treat-
ment, he had the sick persons placed  in as cool a part  of the ship
as possible ;  extra wind-sails were arranged to give a free supply
of fresh air; they were allowed to take, as freely as they desired,
of cooling  drinks ;  were  kept as cleanly  as  possible, and very
sparing nourishment  only was  allowed during  the  disease.  No
medicine was used, and in a few days every one of these persons
recovered.   This is a striking example of the beneficial effects  of
the cooling treatment in that terrible  disease, and nothing but the
best and most judicious management,  amid the disadvantages of a
medical treatment in the  steerage of a ship at sea,  could  be  the
means of bringing about such a salutary result.
  Dr. John  Sigmund Hahn, of  Schweidnitz, Silesia, Germany, in
1738, remarked, that "it (Avater) is equally beneficial  in  measles
and other rashes.   Scarcely any one of them died ; and in small-
pox not one fourth  of  the number die that usually  perish  under
the hot regimen.  Of 156 small-pox patients which a neighboring
physician had treated  in  this way, only eight died, although the
disease raged at the time in a virulent manner.  In  1737, during
the prevalence of a malignant epidemic, accompanied with petecchiaz,
very few died who were submitted  to this treatment, although they
were washed until they became very cool,  even during the con-
tinued and debilitating sweats."
  Elsewhere this author observes:  " In exanthematous  diseases, as
small-pox, measles, scarlet fever, and  other rashes, we  may freely
wash with cold Avater  from first to last, during the whole course
of the disease, in order to prevent the  fever from becoming too vio-
lent.  The skin is thus rendered more  soft, so that the acrid matter
can the more easily pass through it.   In small-pox,  the corrosive
quality of this acrid matter, so that it does not eat into the skin, leaves 
278    THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT OF DISEASES.

no  scars behind ; and  very few patients Avho have been  treated
this way have been marked by the disease.  The Africans Avash all
their  small-pox  patients.   A captain  having a cargo  of slaves
among whom this disease made its appearance, treated them after
the European mode,  putting the patients between tAvo mattresses,
and otherwise heaping bed-clothes  upon them, Avith the vieAv of
bringing out the disease.   In  great distress, they cried and  begged
to be  allowed to treat themselves according to their OAvn method ;
upon  which the other slaves tied ropes around the bodies of the
sick, and dipped them frequently during the day into the sea, dry-
ing them afterward in the sun, and in this manner they were cured,
and scarcely one died."
  Dr.  Baynard, in 1706, gave the following cases:  " Dr. Yar-
borough told me that his kinsman,  Sir Thomas Yarborough, sent
him a letter  from Rome, wherein  he gave  him an account of a
footman of his, who,  when delirious  in the small-pox, got from his
bed, and in his shirt ran  into a grotto of a cardinal's, where there
was water, in which  he plunged  himself,  but was  presently got
out.  The small-pox  seemed  to be sunk and  struck in, but upon
his  going to bed, they came  out very kindly, and he  safely re-
covered.
  " But my worthy and  learned friend  Dr. Cole, showed  me  an
account from an apothecary in Worcestershire, whose name,  I
think, was Mr. Mathews, the substance of which was, that a young
man, delirious in the small-pox, when his nurse was absent jumped
out of bed, ran down stairs, and went  into a pond of Avater.  The
noise  awaked the nurse, who followed  with an outcry, which out-
cry raised the posse of the family, who surrounded the pond; but
he parleyed with them, and told them  that if any body came in he
would certainly  droAvn them, and that he would come  out Avhen
he  saAv his  own time; and  accordingly did  so, and walked up
stairs, and  sat (in his wet shirt) upon  a chest by the bed-side, in
Avhich posture Mr. Mathews  found  him when he came into  the
chamber.   Note here, that the apothecary lived three or four miles
from the place,  and that he was in the water  and on the chest all
the Avhile, in his  wet  shirt, that the  messenger was  gone for him.
This apothecary, Mr. Mathews (for so I take his name), asked him
hoAv he did.   He answered,  pretty well.   He  asked him if  he
would have a clean shirt  and  go into bed.  He said by-and-by  he
would,  which he accordingly did.   When in bed, he  asked the 
THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.    279
    apothecary if he had nothing good in his pocket, for he was a little
    faintish.   He said he had a cordial, of which the  patient drank a
    good draught, so went to  sleep, and awaked very well, and in a
    little time recovered.  Now,  as  Dr.  Cole  observed very well—
    ' A man,' quoth he,  ' would not advise his patients in such a case to
    go into cold water,  though this man  escaped without injury; but
    it gives a good occasion to reflect on  the many mischiefs that at-
    tend the small-pox in the hot regimen, since such extravagant and
    intense cold  does so little or no harm.'
       " Dr. Dover, of Bristol, told me of a vintner's drawer in Oxford,
    that, in the small-pox, went into a great tub of water, and there sat
    at least two hours, and yet the felloAV  recovered and did well.
       " A gentleman, delirious in the small-pox, ran in his shirt in the
    snow, and knocked them up in the house Avhen he went, they being
    all in bed; the small-pox sunk, and yet by the benefit of a loose-
    ness, he recoArered.
       " I  remember about two years  since a learned gentleman, a
    divine, told  me that in the country where he was benefited, in a
    small town not far from him, many died of a malignant small-pox.
    A certain boy, a farmer's son, was seized with a pain in his head
    and  back, vomited,  was feverish,  etc., and had  all the symptoms
    of the small-pox.   This youth had promised  some  of his  com-
    rades to go a-swimming with them that day, which, notwithstand-
    ing his illness, he was resolved to go,  and did so, but never heard
    more of his small-pox.   Within three  or four days the father was
    seized .just as the son had been, and he was resolved to take Jack's
    remedy.   His Avife  dissuaded  him  from it, but he Avas resolved
    upon it, and  did immerge in cold water, and was after it very well.
    The  worthy gentleman Avho told  me this story,  promised to give
    me it in writing, with the persons' names and place, but I neglect-
    ing it, he went out of tOAvn in tAvo or three days, so I lost the op-
'   portunity  of  being better informed.*
      * It would not probably be safe to infer that in these cases the eruption
    of the small-pox was actually prevented by the immersion in cold water.
    Yet such might have been the case.  Such  treatment in the very beginning
    of a  disease, sometimes has a most wonderful effect, as was proved  by Dr.
    Currie in his fever cases.  I have known a  number of persons who had all
    been daily exposed to the small-pox, to have, in due time, all the premonito-
    ry symptoms of the disease, and yet pass  free from the eruption.   These
    persons every  one bathed often, and lived nearly fasting while the symptoms
    were upon them.  But in a still larger number of cases where persons have 
280    THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES.

  " Mr. Lambert, brother to my worthy friend, Mr. Edmund Lam-
bert, of Boyton, in the county of Wilts, told me that when he Avas
at school in Dorsetshire, at least thirty or more of the boys,  one
after  another, fell  sick of  the small-pox, and that the nurse gave
them nothing but  milk and  apples in the whole of the course of
the disease, and they all recovered.   There was but one dissenting
boy from that method, who by command went  another  course,  and
he had like to have died ; nay, with very great difficulty they saved
his  life.   And since, another gentleman told me that himself  and
divers others were cured by the milk and apples, and buttered
apples, in the worst sort of small-pox."*

  OF THE USE  OF THE AFFUSION OF  COLD AND TEPID  WATER  IN
                     SMALL-POX, WITH CASES.
  Dr. Currie,  in 1797, gives  the following cases:  "The singular
degree of success  that on the whole attended  the affusion of cold
water in typhus, encouraged a trial of this remedy in  some other
febrile diseases.  Of these, the small-pox seemed more particular-
ly to invite its use.  The  great advantage  that is experienced in
this disease by the admission of cool air, seemed to point out the
external use of cold water, which being a more powerful applica-
tion,  might  be more particularly adapted to the more malignant
forms of small-pox.   The  result corresponded  entirely  with  my
expectation.   Of  a  number of cases  in which  I Avitnessed  the
happy effects of the affusion  of cold water, I shall give the follow-
ing only:
                             CASE  I.
   "In the autumn of  1794,  J. J., an American gentleman, in the
24th year of his age,  and immediately on his landing in Liverpool,
was inoculated under my  care, the  prevalence of the small-pox

practiced the  same prevention, the disease has come out, but usually in  a
very mild form.                                             J.  S.
  * Apples are a very watery, cooling regimen.  The old-fashioned  mode of
giving  scraped apple tarts, as one of the first things of nutriment, I have al-
ways practiced.  Milk, although  composed mostly of water, must be given
cautiously in inflammatory diseases.  As for the  butter mentioned by Dr.
Baynard, it were bettor avoided, although the article used  fresh, as it gener-
ally is in the old country, is a very different thing from that so much impreg
nated with salt, as is generally used in this country.  Salt is very heating and
inflaming in its nature.                                       J.  S. 
        THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF  DISEASES.     281

rendering it imprudent to wait till the usual preparations could be
gone  through, or indeed  till he  should recover from the fatigues
of the voyage.   He sickened on the seventh day, and the eruptive
fever  was very considerable.   He had a rapid  and feeble pulse, a
foetid breath, with  pain  in  the  head, back,  and loins.   His  heat
rose in a few hours to 107 degrees,  and his pulse beat 119 times
in the minute.  I encouraged him to drink  largely of  cold water
and lemonade, and  threw three gallons of  cold  brine  over  him.
He was in a high degree  refreshed by it.   The eruptive fever
abated in every respect—an incipient delirium subsided, the pulse
became slower, the heat was reduced, and tranquil sleep followed.
In the course of twenty-four hours the affusion was repeated three
or four different times at his own desire, a general direction having
been  given him  to call for it as often  as  the symptoms of fever re-
turned.  The eruptions, though more numerous than is usual  from
inoculation, were of a  favorable kind.  There was little or no sec-
ondary fever, and he recovered rapidly.
   " In situations where  the eruptive fever of  small-pox is clearly
distinguishable,  and where it does not abate sufficiently  on the ad-
mission of cold  air, the  affusion of cold water may be resorted to
with  confidence and safety, regulated however in this application,
as in every other, by the actual state of the  patient's heat, and  of
his sensation of heat.  In the confluent small-pox, however,  after
the eruption is completely formed, this remedy cannot perhaps  be
used with advantage.   The following  case will illustrate this po-
sition.
   " H. A., aged 23, an American mariner, fell under my care (Dec. 7)
on the third day of the eruption of the small-pox; that is, on the
sixth day of the disease.  His pulse 114, and feeble, his heat 109
degrees.   His head, back,  and loins, ached  severely—thirst  great
—skin livid—small-pox confluent.
    " He was put on a  milk diet; gentle mercurial purgatives were
 ordered from time to time, and an opiate every night at bed-time.
 Lemonade Avas  given largely at first by itself, and afterward mixed
 with wine, and the affusion of cold water was directed in the  usual
 way.  In ten minutes after  the affusion, the  pulse was  96, the
 heat 98  degrees;  the  livor of  the skin was much diminished, but
 the pains were  not relieved.
    " Dec. 8.—Noon.—Pulse 96, soft and regular—thirst  gone—res-
 piration slow and natural—heat  97 degrees.  The affusion was or- 
282    THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES.

dered to be repeated; ten minutes  after, pulse 84, and feeble—
heat 84 degrees.
  " Dec. 9.—Noon.—Pulse 88, heat  93 degrees—the cold affusion
Avas not repeated in this very reduced state of heat; the decoction
of bark was ordered, and a pint of wine daily in lemonade.
  " Dec. 10.—Noon.—Pulse 116, and full—heat 98 degrees—res-
piration still easy—expectoration considerable, and  viscid—thirst
less—eyes  quite  closed—head swelled—a complete  union of the
pustules  on the face.  Bark and wine continued, Avith  the opiate
at night.
  "Dec. 12.—Pulse 118—heat 96 degrees.  A bucket full of water
of the temperature of 92 degrees was poured over him.  He ap-
peared refreshed at the moment; ten minutes after, pulse 112,
heat 94 degrees.  Complained of being chilly.  Respiration  still
easy—free of pains, and his face less SAvelled.   Complained  of his
throat.   A blister was applied to it all round.
  "Dec. 13.—Noon.—Pulse 118—heat 96 degrees—respiration still
free, but his throat very sore.  Medicines were continued, but the
affusion of tepid water was not repeated.
  "Dec. 14.—Noon.—Pulse 138—heat 100 degrees—respiration
had now become laborious, and the expuition difficult.  The throat
was much swelled.  He was frequently sponged with tepid water,
and the medicines continued.
  "Dec. 15.—Noon.—Unfavorable symptoms increased.
  "Dec. 16.—Noon.—Vomiting came on, which was relieved by
opium.   His senses and his  intellect remained acute  till Avithin an
hour of his death, which happened at eight o'clock in the evening
of this day.
  "If this case be more detailed than seems necessary, let this be
excused, as it  is the first in which the actual heat in confluent
small-pox has  been recorded.  It is here given accurately from the
period when the disease came under my care.
  " In regard  to the effects of the cold affusion, it may be observed,
that this remedy was not used  during the eruptive fever, nor till
three days  after the eruption had appeared, and the character of
the disease was decided.   In the stage in which it was employed,
the fever and the heat were abating, as is usual after the eruption ;
and in all cases in which the heat is sinking, the application of  cold
must  be made with great caution, as has already been mentioned.
After the  second affusion (on the  8th) the  heat sunk  below ita 
THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF DISEASES.     283
natural  standard, and  continued below it for some time;  so that
this remedy became inadmissible.  The disease Avent through  its
usual course.  The tepid affusion on the eighth day of the eruption
(Dec. 12) was used in part  to wash off  variolous matter, and in
part to produce refreshment.  The heat which was before  96 de-
grees sunk two degrees, so  that  it could not with safety be con-
tinued, for experience has proATed, that the tepid affusion is a pow-
erful  means of  diminishing heat.   The heat rose again Avith the
secondary fever, and the patient died of the affection of the throat,
as  I  believe is  general in the confluent small-pox.*  It will be at
once  perceived, on the principles  already laid down, that in a dis-
ease  like this, the  affusion of cold water could only be essentially
useful during the eruptive fever.   It is during the eruptive fever
that the quantity of the assimilation is determined, as well as  its
kind.  This is, I believe, invariably found to bear an exact propor-
tion to the eruptive fever, and whether we consider the eruptive
fever as the cause or  effect of the assimilation, there is every rea-
son to expect from the laws of the living system,  that the diminu-
tion  of this  fever  will diminish the quantity,  and  meliorate the
quality of the variolous eruption.
   In the case  just related, the  heat during  the  eruptive  fever
(judging from trials in similar situations) had risen to 106 degrees
or  107 degrees ;f but it had sunk to 100 degrees before  the cold
affusion  Avas  employed.   It may easily  be conceived that  this
remedy could have been employed to a much greater extent, and
that  its  effects would have been far more salutary, if it had been
used  throughout the  previous  fever.  That it would have essen-
tially altered the character of the  disease, I presume not to assert.
This, however, I can declare, that in all the cases in which I have
used the affusion of cold water during the eruptiA'e fever,  however
seA'ere the symptoms may haATe  been,  these symptoms instantly
abated, and the disease assumed  a benignant form.  The case of
Mr. Johnston (Case I.), already given, will illustrate this  observa-
tion ; and six or seven others I might adduce to the same purpose.
As yet my experience extends no further.
   * See Zoonomia, vol. ii., page 237.
  t 1803. I now believe that the heat does not rise so high in any stage of
confluent small-pox.   See the Additional Reports. 
284    THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.

               SCARLATINA, OR  SCARLET FEVER.*
  The following letter  of  Dr.  Hiram  Corson, of Conshohocton,
Montgomery county,  Pennsylvania,  is  published  by Dr. J.  For-
syth Meigs, of Philadelphia, in " A Practical Treatise on the Dis-
eases of Children," under date 1848.   The facts  given  by Dr.
Corson are presented in a clear and lucid manner, and illustrate
well the remarkable  power  of  water in this formidable disease.
He speaks  as follows:
   " Scarlet fever is a  disease  that has preArailed very much in our
region during  the  last  seventeen years, and has caused me much
thought and anxiety.  It will give me much pleasure to make you
acquainted with the  results of a plan  of treatment, which I owe
mainly to Dr. Samuel Jackson, formerly of Northumberland, noAV
of your city, who first  put me in the way of treating the disease
successfully.   In 1832, I treated the disease, which, hoAvever, was
not malignant, very successfully, with iced drinks,  moderate purg-
es, and slight irritation externally upon the throat, and  thought
the practice peculiar  to myself, but afterward saw, in the May and
August numbers of the American Journal of Medical Sciences, the
communications of Dr. Jackson.   Encouraged by  these, I pre-
pared  to  try the cold  externally; when a most unfortunate trial
by a neighboring  physician,  so  alarmed the people about the ap-
plication of cold, that I could not prevail upon them to suffer the
trial.   From 1838 until within  the  last two years, we have annu-
ally had the scarlet  fever for some months, and my treatment,
with the exception of iced drinks sometimes, and cold to the head
occasionally, was like that in general use, until August, 1844.  At
that time I was called to a child eight  months old,  that had been
sick two days.   There was great swelling of the glands both sides
of  the neck, hot skin, frequent pulse, but no eruption; slight dis-
charge from the nose;  the glands not easily seen  upon the inside,
but the  drinks  came back  through the nose sometimes, and it
could not take  more  than one  draw at the breast  without drop-
ping the nipple, because of the  obstruction of  the nostrils imped-
ing respiration when  the mouth was closed.   I stated candidly to
the mother that I had  never saved a child in that  condition, and
of that age, by the old  treatment, and recommended ice internally
   * Published in the Water-Cure Journal  of March, 1849.  Fowlers &
Wells, New York.  Joel Shew, M. D., editor. 
        THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT OF DISEASES.     285

and externally, cold water to the head, and no medicine.   I could
urge nothing on the score of experience, but she agreed.  Lumps
of ice were  folded in hnen cloths, and held night and day upon
the two sides of  the throat; while a small  thin piece, inclosed in
white gauze, was held  in the  mouth.  In  less than three hours
improvement was manifest in the ability to swallow.  The swelling
of the glands, the heat, and  the frequency  of  the pulse all regu-
larly diminished;  and in two  days the child  could nurse well, and
was out of danger.
   " The next severe case occurred in about two weeks.   It was
one of the  most  intense  scarlet  eruption, Avith tumefaction and
ulceration'of the  tonsils, vomiting, coryza (running at the eyes),
great frequency of the  pulse, excessive restlessness, and swelling
of the external glands.   The heat was  intense: there was heavi-
ness amounting to stupor.  My treatment was a kind of half-and-
half; emetics, purgatives, cold  externally  and internally.   But
half satisfied with myself, my  course was vacillating and inefficient,
and I at length called in a friend, who turned the scale in favor of
irritating gargles, and our patient died.   I was mortified and pro-
voked, and  determined  to act out my convictions at the next op-
portunity.  A few days after  I was called to two boys, of  five and
seven years of age, who had been blistered  upon the throat, legs,
and arms, and had had  hot drinks, calomel  purges, etc., and who
were discharging  copiously from the  nose, and were almost dead.
Their countenances were sunken, the throats  gangrenous,  pulse
above 150 ; their appearance was that of persons in typhus fever.  I
expressed my fears of the blisters, predicting that they would all be
gangrenous in twenty-four hours, and that they would be likely to
destroy the patients.   I had  cloths dipped in iced water wrapped
round  the neck,  ice was  put in  the  mouth, and cold water upon
the heads, which were much  affected.   The  throats were filled
with ropy mucus, which was expelled  through the mouth and nose
during the coughing which attended efforts to vomit.   The palate
was literally destroyed  by gangrene.   A few hours produced  no
amendment.  The blisters mortified extensively, and though both
children recovered from the disease, one died two weeks afterward
from the sloughing of the throat and neck from the blisters.
   " I now treated all  that occurred with cold externally and  in-
ternally, moving  the bowels with cream of tartar and jalap. The
cases were seen  early,  and easily subdued; and it seemed to me 
286    THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES.

as though the  remedy was very efficient, or that my patients had
a mild  disease.  That the latter  was not  the case,  hoAvever,  I
thought probable from the fact, that in my region many cases dif-
ferently treated died;  Avhile in NorristoAvn, only four miles distant,
children from one to twelve  years or more were sAvept off, after
an  illness of only two or three days, the deaths being evidently
produced by disease of the brain.
   "On  the  16th of  July, 1845, I was  called to see a little girl,
four years and  nine months old.  She had been sick a day or tAvo,
The case  began with vomiting.  The  eruption had been out from
morning till  6 p.m.; sickness  the  most intense all over that I had
ever seen:  pulse as rapid as it could be, to be  counted.   The mo-
ther had been  alarmed during  the- last few hours, in consequence
of delirium and jerking, which she feared was the prelude to con-
vulsions. There was tumefaction (hardening) of the  sub-maxillary
ganglions;  tongue furred with projecting  red points, breath hot
and offensive.  When she found some one holding her Avrist, she
started  from her  dozing  state, and being someAvhat afraid of the
' doctor,' went  off immediately into one  of the most  terrific con-
vulsions that I  ever saw.   It lasted, in spite of ice to the head, or
rather iced water constantly poured  upon  it, almost half an  hour.
I stayed with her, had her undressed, and placed two nieces of
mine (her mother being one) by her side.   A large tub of water,
with cakes  of ice, at least a peck, floating in  it, was brought into
the room, and  during the whole night, these tAvo persons bathed
her from head to foot with the water from the tub, applying it by
means of large sponges.   It was to me a most painful case (inde-
pendent of the convulsions), but in order to be certain that I had
a  case fit  for the trial of the ice, I had my brother (a physician
practicing at Norristown, where the disease was very fatal) brought
at 10 p.m. to see  the case, and say whether it was the same as
those that  had for a few Aveeks  been carrying off some of the
finest children of Norristown, and carrying terror into every family.
He assured me that it was one of the most violent character, and
that she would in all probability not  live till morning.   She was
at this time  free from convulsions, but  in a muttering delirium.
As I had perfect control in the  case, I assured him that she should
live, if I could  quench  the fire that was  burning out her Aitals,
by the use  of ice.   Not a moment did the attendants whom I had
nlaced bv her intermit their labors.   Before midnight reason had 
         THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.     287

 returned, and her mother said she was more herself than she had
 been during the whole  day.   I had gone  away, but  returned at
 sunrise, and found her cooled off perfectly.   There was scarcely the
 least appearance of eruption, the skin was cool, the head cool, the
 intellect clear, and the pulse moderate in frequency and force.  She
 had been unable to drink for many hours, and her tongue, which
 had been very much cut during the convulsion, was so swelled and
 sore, that I  could obtain no view of the throat.   I noAV directed
 the mother  to intermit  the sponging,  doing it only once in every
 two  hours until I returned.  My return was delayed until 4 p. m.,
 when I found that the heat of  the skin, frequency of pulse, erup-
 tion  and delirium, had all  returned.   She  was moving her hands
 as if feeling for something, slowly protruding and withdrawing the
 tongue, and muttering.  She did not notice her mother's questions,
 and  was apparently  unconscious of all that was  going on.   We
 threw on the water, ice cold, in the utmost  profusion,  and lapped
 cloths,  dipped in the water, around the neck, changing  them every
 minute or two.  We  poured it upon the head constantly, holding
 a large basin under to catch it.  In one  hour reason returned.  We
 continued it until the eruption almost disappeared, until the child
 shrank  from it, and  until she was ready to shrink from cold.   I
 now gave her  cream of  tartar and jalap,  directed the water to
 be used just as was needed to keep down  the heat, and had no
 farther  trouble with  her.   I forgot to  say, that so soon  as  she
 could swallow, cold drinks and ice were kept in  the mouth.  She
 took  no more  medicine.   The wounds  in the tongue healed up
 kindly.
   "There Avere two younger children in the  family, both of Avhom
 were attacked a few days after, while  apparently in good health,
 with vomiting, and the  same  symptoms as in the first case.  The
 throats  were red, swelled, etc.   Cold cloths  were wrapped around
 the neck; they were  purged Avith jalap and cream of tartar; as
 the  heat of  the skin and eruption appeared, ice Avater was pro-
 fusely applied to  the  Avhole body, so as to  keep down the heat,
 and alloAv but a very moderate eruption  to show itself.  They were
 Avell in  a few days, without a bad  symptom.  It was  noAV mid-
 winter.   The cases folloAved each other rapidly.   I treated them
all in the same way, and all with like happy results.  The disease
had a wide range, extending from the Schuylkill across the high-
lands, between Norristown and Doylestown, and was in  that range 
288    THE  GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT OF DISEASES.

very destructive in many families.  There was much alarm, and I
was called two  miles  back of Norristown to  a girl about eleven
years old.  The eruption had been out about twenty-four hours.
The throat was swelled, and covered with white patches (generally
called ulcers), tongue dry, hot, and red, skin hot as skin could be,
and what to me characterizes the most malignant cases, the erup-
tion, instead of  being a bright scarlet, was of a purple-red, like the
congestion  sometimes seen  in the faces of old drunkards.   There
Avas great  oppression, not difficulty of breathing, but a state like
that which exists when a person is deathly sick, but cannot vomit,
with  extreme restlessness  and jactitation.   The disease had been
so fatal, that the mother thought the case almost beyond remedy;
but when I told her that the cold had proved successful, she Avas
eager to try it.   It was 8 o'clock a. m.   The girl was stripped, and
the ice water applied all over.  Ice Avas  lapped around the neck,
and positive  directions  given to  continue the application without
intermission  until I returned.  It was  about  four  miles  from me,
and I did not return for seven hours.   The  moment my eyes rest-
ed upon her, I knew that we had done too much.   She was white
as  the sheet upon which she lay.   The neighbors had been in and
desired the mother to desist, that ' she  would kill her,' but she had
been true to her trust.   The child was apparently bloodless, cov-
ered with ' goose skin,' and shivering  with  cold.   Her pulse was
small, and much less frequent, but not weak or fluttering, and she
was sensible.   (I forgot to say, that in the morning she was quite
flighty.)  I told the  mother we had used rather more cold than
was necessary, but that if we left it off now, she would probably
do well.  I omitted it for two hours,  and gave nothing.   At the
expiration  of that time, the heat, and with it the eruption, showed
themselves, so  as to cause me to direct the sponging to be used
 just so as  to keep them in check. The ice was kept constantly on
the neck, and  water  poured frequently over the neck.  I had no
more trouble with her, although the skin desquamated  (peeled off)
from head to foot.
    " Six other  children in the same family took the disease.  Five
of them had the ice  and ice water used upon them,  and all did
well.  I gave none of them any medicine, except a little cream of
tartar and jalap, to  move  the  bowels  moderately.   I  gave this
combination, because it  is pleasant to children, and  easily swal-
lowed.  The sixth case was a very mild one, so that the mother 
        THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.    289

merely gave it  a little castor-oil, and it did Avell, and seemed per-
fectly recovered in a feAV days.  Indeed, the attack was so mild,
that it Avould not have  been  detected as  scarlet  fever, if it had
occurred at any other time.'  It was attacked with dropsy and an
affection of the lungs about tAvo weeks after, lingered several weeks,
and finally died of pneumonic  (lung) disease.
   " I suppose I have attended more than a hundred  cases of scar-
let fever, of every grade, since I began the cold treatment.  In no
instance where I had  it  fairly applied did it fail.  Indeed I have
lost but two patients since.
   "In every variety of sore throat and quinsy, in summer and in
winter, my treatment is ice around  the neck;  or when the nurse is
faithful, iced cloths, renewed as soon as they approach  the heat of
the neck.
   " In no  single instance have I seen dropsy follow scarlet fever
that had been treated by cold affusion.  I have never seen it occur
except after the mildest  cases of  the disease, those that had prob-
ably only needed a mild laxative."
   Those avIio understand the water treatment, know that  the laxa-
tives  are better supplied by water injections, bandages, etc.  We
have in the above, certainly, very strong  evidence of the good ef-
fects  of cold water in scarlatina.  The  great effect of the treat-
ment was,  as  it should  be, that of constantly and perseveringly
keeping down the heat.
   Dr. Elliotson, of London, in his Principles and Practice of Medi-
cine, remarks of cold affusion in scarlet fever:
   " The disease has certamly been cut short, by taking  a patient
out of bed, and pouring cold water upon him.  The heat of the
body  is  so great in this disease, that no danger is to be apprehend-
ed from the cold affusion.  It is true, there are cases in which the
patient is more  or less chilly, but  if, in this affection, the general
rules  I laid  doAvn in the  case  of  common fever be folloAved, there
is no danger whatever, but the greatest advantage, in  taking the
patient  out of bed  (however   hot  he  may be) and pouring cold
Avater upon him.  These  rules  are, that the temperature is steadily
above 98 degrees (Fah.); that there are no profuse general sweats;
that there  is  no  chilliness, and  no inflammation of the chest or
abdomen.    I presume this would be done oftener than it is, were
it not for its appearing a violent measure  to take a person in fever
out of bed, put him into a washing-tub,  and souse him well with
              13 
290    THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF DISEASES.

cold water.  It is a great comfort to the individual, and as long as
it is comfortable,  it should  be had  recourse to.  Sponging  the
hands, arms, face,  and trunk, with cold water, is grateful to  the
patient, and is an excellent practice in the disease."
  I remark on these directions of Dr. Elliotson, that as few non-
professional persons can be expected to have a thermometer suita-
ble for measuring  the  animal heat (and even among physicians
hardly one  of  a thousand ever has  any  such thing), some other
rule must in almost every case be adopted as a guide.   The ther-
mometer is not strictly necessary, for it requires no more than
ordinary judgment for a person to decide  as to Avhether the heat is
above the natural  standard merely by the sensations  of the hand.
This rule is sufficient for all practical purposes.
  As to profuse sweating, it is to  be  remarked that this is of itself
a cooling process.   The tepid washing is then very comforting  and
salutary.  But the sweating seldom happens in scarlet fever at all.
  In the beginning of fevers and inflammations there is often chilli-
ness to the  feelings, while at the same time the skin is hotter than
is natural.  The cold bath is then beneficial;  and what may ap-
pear singular, it makes the  patient  feel  warmer.  The half bath
and the rubbing  wet sheet are excellent means in  the stage of
which we  are  speaking.  In the later stages  of fevers and inflam-
mations, if chilliness is  experienced the same rules do not apply;
that is, there cannot be  so much cold water borne.   Indeed, under
any circumstances, whenever the system is  really chilly, do  not
make it more  so  with  cold  water or any thing else.   True,  the
rubbing wet sheet is often serviceable in such cases, but this ex-
cites a better circulation toward the skin, and thus  helps in  the
end, even if used cold, to prevent  the sensation of chilliness.
   I controvert Dr. Elliotson, and various other authorities, by say-
ing  that in inflammations of the  chest or abdomen, or any other
internal organ, attended with general feverishness,  which is gener-
ally the case in the active stages of these diseases, the same general
rules of practice apply as in any other case of fever.   This we have
proved from oft-repeated experiments.  Any  thing which tends to
reduce feverishness in the general system, must also tend to reduce
the fever of any local part; and it is upon this very same principle
that bleeding,  calomel,  and other remedies that act upon the sys-
tem generally,  are administered.
   Dr.  Burns, author of a work on Midwifery, regarded  affusion 
         THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF DISEASES.     291

 with cold water as a remedy of utility in scarlatina.  It is, hoAvever,
 but justice  to him to remark, that he did not advocate the affusion
 in cases where internal inflammation existed in connection with the
 disease in question.  He says of the affusion :
   " It is of consequence to use it early, if it is to be done at all;
 and whenever the skin feels steadily hot, the shivering having gone
 off,  and the skin feels very warm to the hand of another person, it
 is time to put him into an empty tub, and  pour over him  a large
 ewer full of cold water.  By this I have knoAvn the disease arrested
 at once, the eruption  never becoming vivid, and the  strength and
 appetite in a feAv hours returning.   Even where it is not arrested,
 it is pleasant to observe the change which often is produced.  The
 patient, from being dull, languid, and listless, feels brisk and dis-
 posed to talk or  laugh ; the skin becomes for a time colder, and
 refreshing sleep is frequently procured.   The repetition  must de-
 pend on the degree of heat, and the effect  of the application.  If
 that have done no good, it is useless  to try it again.   One applica-
 tion is sometimes  sufficient, but it may be necessary the first day to
 use it twice, and once the next day.  It is  seldom  requisite after-
 ward, for although the disease may continue, it is  mild, and laxa-
 tives complete the cure.  If the fever  be mild, and the heat not
 pungent and great, we do not employ the affusion.   We keep the
 patient cool, or have  the surface  cooled frequently by  a  spono-e
 dipped in cold water, and, indeed, this seems now in most instances
 to have superseded the use of the affusion."
   In reference to  the above principles laid down by Dr. Burns, we
 remark :
   First, that where internal inflammation does exist in connection
 with  scarlatina,  the cold affusion is  not contra-indicated if there
 is general pyrexia or feverishness of such degree as  would warrant
 the use of  the remedy in cases where  the internal inflammation
 does not exist.  The same general  principle in regard  to cold affu-
 sion or cooling means externally of whatever kind, holds good in all
 cases of general feverishness.
   Second,  where  one  application  is not sufficient to arrest  the
 disease, as it seldom would  be, the remedy  should  be  applied and
 reapplied as often as the heat and feverishness demand it, no mat-
 ter if every hour, although  this could seldom happen ; and if in
any case there is doubt as to whether the  patient's strength will
admit of the cold affusion,  the tepid, as with water at 70 degrees 
292    THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF  DISEASES.

or 80 degrees Fah., may be employed.   The tepid bath is cooling
in effect, and Avill in every case of increased heat be certain of do-
ing at least some good and no possible harm.   It Avould be hardly
possible for a patient to die  of scarlet fever, if  he have cold Avater
enough to drink, cool fresh air in abundance,  and the tepid affu-
sions, washings, etc.,  enough  to  keep down the  inordinate heat.
Thus people of  good  common  sense and judgment may proceed
cautiously and  safely, without coming at once to affusion with the
coldest water.
   Third, the use of laxatives, either with or without water, is by
no means so salutary as fasting, and injections two or three times a
day repeated.   These may  be cold or tepid if  the patient is very
weak.   They may also be  repeated two or more times in quick
succession, and are certain of doing much good.
   Dr. Dewees,  in Practice of Medicine,  says of the treatment of
scarlet fever, " In the early or inflammatory condition of scarlatina,
when there  is  considerable arterial action, and vast augmentation
of heat on the surface, cold ablution or sponging  gives great relief
to the symptoms, and  is a most  comfortable  process.  *   *   *
Some,  however, are afraid  of these cold  applications because the
throat is sore;  but this forms no  exception ; for it is not accompa-
nied with cough, or other  pneumonic  symptoms  like measles, and
the sponging or even  affusion  has checked the  sore throat most
evidently."
   Dr.  Currie, a very  able writer on water  fifty years  ago, spoke
of the results of his  practice, after much experience, as follows:
" The plan that I folloAV, if  called in at  this early period (namely,
when the heat is great), is  to  strip the  patient, and dash four or
five  gallons  of  the  coldest  water to be  procured over  his naked
body.   This produces its usual cooling effects ;  but  these are less
permanent than in  typhus.  In  one  or  two hours  afterward the
heat is often found,  on examination, as great as before.   The affu-
sion is therefore repeated again and again, as the obstinacy of the
heat may indicate.  It is necessary to use it ten or twelve times  in
the twenty-four hours.  At the  end of  this time, but commonly
earlier, the force of  the fever is broken,  and a few tepid affusions,
at longer intervals, are sufficient to subdue it entirely.   During this
time cold water and lemonade should be used as drinks, and the
bowels  opened,  if necessary, by calomel.   In a few cases, I have
thought it  advisable  to  assist the affusion by  the  diaphoretio 
        THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.    293

(sweating) power of a solution of tartarized antimony.  If left to
mvself I use no other means."
  I have thus extracted from medical authorities on the treatment
of scarlet fever at greater length than I at first intended.  In some
regions of country where our journal goes, scarlatina of malignant
form is now prevailing.  This we trust will be taken by our read-
ers as some  apology for the great length of our article.

                           MEASLES.
  In all  febrile and inflammatory diseases, whether upon the sur-
face or otherwise, the same great principle,  keep down the fever,
always holds true.
  I have known no cases of measles lost in which the water treat-
ment Avas applied—not  a  single case.  I have known of a great
number of cases treated on the  new plan, many of which were
managed wholly by the parents  or friends of the patients, and
without the  aid of  a physician.   There is no need of people being
at the expense of running  for the doctor in every little emergency.
Better study the  principles of health  and disease,  and thus  be
ready for the  coming on  of physical ills.  With good treatment
and nursing, we do not believe that one case out of five hundred
need be lost of measles.
  I may here repeat what we said years ago in the " Water-Cure
Manual," concerning the treatment of this disease:  " It is to be
treated on the general principle of all inflammatory diseases.  The
Avet sheet,  properly managed (that  is,  so  as  to  keep down  the
general feverishness), has  a most salutary effect in bringing  out
the eruption.   So also  the tepid bath. Keep  down the fever;
give little nourishment; keep the bowels open, and allow an abund-
ance of fresh air.   Keep up the treatment  for some days to  pre-
vent bad consequences of  the disease."
  The following is the treatment that was employed by Priessnitz
in a  case that happened  while I was  last at Graefenberg:  The
case was that of a little lad from  New York, five and a half years
old.   He llad enlarged tonsils, and was  a feeble, delicate little fel-
low.   He had had croup and inflammation of  the lungs repeated-
ly, and  at one time, after  having been calomelized and blistered
according to rule,  was given up by a council of four physicians to
die.
  The treatment Priessnitz put him under for his general condition 
294    THE GRAEFENBERG TREATMENT OF  DISEASES.

of swelled tonsils, debility, great susceptibility to cold,  etc., was the
wet sheet twenty minutes on rising, folloAved by the plunge in cold
water (it Avas in the midst of  A\inter);  rubbing wet sheet before
noon;  packing  and plunge  in the afternoon, as in the  morning;
the wet bandage about the throat constantly night and day, and
also the wet girdle about the abdomen both night and day.
   After three months of this  treatment, Avhich benefited the little
patient materially, he was attacked with  measles.  For this, Priess-
nitz directed the wet sheet packing as before, in the morning, but
to be followed by a tepid half bath (about 70 degrees Fahrenheit),
instead of the cold plunge :  also in the afternoon.  This treatment
was  continued through the rash.   Then  came a diarrhcea.  For
this, in addition to  the  other treatment, cold rubbing sheet, fol-
loAved  by a cold sitz  bath twenty minutes, forenoon and after-
noon, but no packing in the latter.  When the  diarrhoea appeared
worse either night or day, the  cold sitz bath was to be given thirty
minutes at a time.  This had evidently a very salutary effect in
checking the looseness.  The treatment altogether did remarkably
well in the case.
   I published in 1847 the following cases of measles, one of which
was combined with a very dangerous attack of croup :
   "March 12th, 1847.—Went to attend the little son, three years
old, of Mr. Osborne, of 444 Grand street.   He had been exposed
to the measles,  and the parents daily expected the coming on of
this  disease.  For three  or four  days,  the  little boy had  been
coughing, and had the symptoms of a considerable cold.  The day
before, there had been some  sneezing and  slight affection of the
eyes, which symptoms usually precede  an attack of  the measles.
In the evening came  on an attack of  the  croup.   The nursery
room, or one in which the children generally Avere, had  a  close
coal  stove, and was, therefore, as  is a common thing  throughout
the city, most of the  time too warm.   Mr. Osborne's children  seem
also  to have a  predisposition  to colds and the  croup.   Two have
been lost  under the ordinary modes  of treatment the preceding
year—one of croup,  and  the other  of inflammation of  t#le lungs.
   " In this  case  of  the  little  boy Homer, Mr.  Osborne called for
me in  the night, but Avas unable  to  find me.   Consequently,  he
went home, and himself and Avife concluded to do what they might
toAvard arresting  the disease.   They  had some knoAvledge of the
water treatment, but concluded  to give some of Cox's hive syrup, 
THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.     295
an antimonial preparation, for the purpose of producing vomiting.
There  is a great error among many Avith  regard  to the giving
emetics in  croup, and, by a Avrong  explanation,  physicians often
promulgate  it.   In croup, as is well known, there is always  a
strong tendency  to  the formation  of a false  membrane  in  the
throat.  Whether this membrane comes in the larynx that goes to
the lungs, or whether in the  oesophagus, or meat  pipe, that lays
back of the breathing pipe, is  not at all considered.   The emetic,
it  is supposed, causes the throwing up of the phlegm and false
membrane by actual contact with the part affected.   But it should
be  remembered, that  the medicine  passes only in the oesophagus.
Every one knows how much difficulty is experienced, if a  little of
any substance  is swalloAved the ' Avrong Avay.'   It is admitted,
however, that  vomiting  does  cause  some apparent relief  in  the
croup, and also, by that process, there is caused some expectora-
tion from the  throat.  Yet the harm done  the system  by  the
poisonous drug far exceeds the good.  Mr. and Mrs. Osborne had
also made water applications to some extent.   Cloths wet  in  cold
water Avere  kept upon the throat and chest; the body had been
washed, but not in very cold  water.   Water, as much as was de-
sired, had also been given to drink.   All that was done with water
was well, and  had, no doubt, done  considerable good.  He was
alloAved food as usual, and this was an unfortunate thing.
  "At 12 o'clock, noon, I arrived at Mr. O.'s.  It was now sixteen
or eighteen hours since the first appearance of the croupy symp-
toms.   I at once told  the parents that I did not believe the little
child could live.  There was that deep, hollow, stridulous or bark-
ing cough,  which every one fears so much who has had to deal
Avith the croup.  I had seen cases apparently as bad as this, per-
haps  Avorse, that had, under water  treatment, resulted  favorably
But in cases as bad as this appeared  to be, cures would  be the ex-
ception, and  not  the  rule.  It was then understood that I would,
of course, prefer not treating a case of  the kind, especially  as  the
medicine mentioned had been given.  I  said, however,  to the pa-
rents, ' It is for you  to decide.   You  have called  me, and now,
after  giving you my opinion, you are to determine who is  to treat
your child.   If you desire it, I  shall be the last to give up, as long
as any thing can be  done.'  After considering the  matter a few
minutes, they determined to rely exclusively on the water, and trust
for  the result. 
296    THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.

  " First, then, the child was to  have no more  food  for twenty-
four hours at least.  He Avas to  be encouraged  to drink a little
water often, and the boAvels  Avere to be kept  open by injections.
He Avas to haA'e a bath immediately (not in Avater entirely cold, as
the previous applications  had kept the fever down very much);
wet bandages Avere to  be  kept about the neck, and large, wet
towels about the whole body and lower limbs, nearly to the feet;
and these all were to be changed  every hour.   Thus, substantially,
a wet sheet, the whole of the time, was to be used.   If  the
general fever should by any means come on, a thorough ablution
would be practiced, and then again,  immediately, the wet cloths.
The child Avas, of course, wrapped up  sufficiently to induce a com-
fortable degree of warmth.   A general bath or affusion was to be
performed about three or four times in the tAventy-four hours.
  " Returned at  evening.  The feverishness  was much reduced,
and, on the whole,  the symptoms a little better.   Still the croupy
cough was decidedly bad.   We had hoped that the measles would
soon  appear upon  the  surface, and  thus  some relief would be
brought.  One object of the constantly Avet  cloths was, by their
poultice effect, to bring out  the  eruption.  Those who have Avit-
nessed the water treatment  in measles, must have observed  the
truly wonderful effect of the  Avet  sheet in bringing out the  erup-
tion.   Often a single application, Avith a bath, serves  to bring out
a complete rash.  Now, at evening there were some  appearances
of very slight eruption  about the face and neck, but nothing of
any account.  As the tendency to fever was now less, the cloths
about  the neck and body  would be  changed once in two hours.
A bath (the extreme chill removed from  the water) to be  given
late in the evening,  and  if  toward morning the symptoms should
groAV Avorse, still another.
  " In the morning we found the little boy had passed a better
night than the one preceding.  The eruption now began to appear
more distinctly, but was yet  very tardy.  Keep on precisely  the
same treatment.   Allow the little fellow to taste of apple, a small
portion, if he chooses, at the  regular meal time, but nothing else.
The first  day the appetite was most  imperious ; but  this always
takes place in fasting.  The first day is the worst to bear.
  " This same treatment, continuing the Avet cloths over the greater
part of the  surface the  whole of the  time, changing  them  every
two hours, and giving three or four baths, by affusion  in the wash 
THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.     297
tub, small quantities of water frequently to drink, tepid injections
daily, admitting constantly fresh air to the room, and giving a very
small  amount of nourishment, was kept up for three whole days,
reckoning from the noon of the first day in Avhich I saAv the little
boy.  Not more than a half  ounce of  food was given in all this
time,  and the little fellow grew better and  better every hour.  It
Avas not  until this time that  the measles were fully and in perfec-
tion over the whole surface.  I had never seen a case any thing
near so tardy under water treatment  as this.  We would now give
a little more nourishment, but yet only a little at a time, and but
three times in twenty-four hours.   Keep on the Avet envelopment
precisely the same as before, the sooner to poultice away the erup-
tion.  The croupy cough had diminished constantly, as the eruption
came  more and more out.
   " The  fourth twenty-four hours I was away from the city.  On
returning, I  found the wet  cloths had acted  like a charm.  It
seemed  as if in that time  almost every trace of the eruption was
literally bleached away.  Some cough, of course, remains.
   " Noav, for the fifth day, and onward, the wet cloths will be ap-
plied  two hours forenoon and near evening.  Sponging the surface
Avill be performed after these applications,  and  the mild  bath, by
affusion,  in the morning, before breakfast, and on going to rest;
more  nourishment will be given, and yet but a  small quantity at a
time,  and this amount of treatment at least  is to be kept up for one
Aveek.
   " Toward morning of this fifth twenty-four hours, the  little fel-
low became restless and coughed.  The wet cloths were put upon
the chest, and he then  became quiet and went again to sleep.
   " The  lungs and throat, it will be recollected, are very  liable  to
become  more easily affected after the measles.  With this treat-
ment  Mrs. Osborne will practice upon  her little boy.  I am now
confident no ill result will follow, and he will grow more and more
vigorous  and strong.  It  should  be  remarked, the face  and eyes
were  frequently Avashed, and light was admitted  freely  into the
room.  Darkening the room is injurious to the general system, and
causes weakness of the eyes.  Wash the parts, and accustom them
to the light.
   " This case, I confess, has thus far resulted very differently from
the manner in which I  felt almost certain it would.
              13* 
298    THE GRAEFENBERG  TREATMENT  OF DISEASES.


                  " OTHER CASES  OF MEASLES.
  "A few days since, two or three children of Mr. II. P. Osborne,
of an adjoining house  of the above, had the measles.   I was called
but once to one of the children.  Mrs. Osborne has studied the
water treatment considerably.   She gave the wet sheet, and thus
brought out  the  eruption  quickly.  She  repeated it daily,  gave
baths,  kept down the fever, and dieted,  and all went on  well.
These  were good instances  of  domestic  water  treatment.  The
little girl I saAv had passed through the worst  part of the time;
but Mrs. 0., not having seen the measles treated by water, wished
to know from  me whether she was proceeding well.

                       "ANOTHER CASE.
  " Some days since, Mr. Joseph Allen, of McDougal street, called
and wished to know what to do for his little girl.  She seemed to
have a cold, and was coughing.  I told him to  give  her  the wet
sheet and an extra bath per day, to have her diet plain and spare,
and if the cough yet  proved at  all troublesome, to have  the wet
bandages upon the chest.  The  sheet and bath  brought out the
measles.   I directed that the sheet be given twice a day,  an hour
each time,  and a tepid bath as often as the fever rose ; wet band-
ages constantly upon the chest,  and injections to  regulate the
bowels.  Every thing went on favorably.

                       "ANOTHER CASE.
  " My friend, Mr. Perry, 115 Orchard street, tells me he has just
been treating  a child of his with the measles.   Friends, relations,
and the doctor, have  expostulated, but all without effect.   Mr. P.
tells me he is  succeeding well."

                   SKIN  DISEASES GENERALLY.
  In all  skin  diseases, whether acute or chronic, the water treat-
ment  is  a  sovereign  remedy.  In  itch,  ring-worm, salt-rheum,
scurvy, in short, in skin diseases of whatever kind, the water treat-
ment managed according to the demands of the  general health, is
i, most valuable means. 
TREATMENT OF DISEASES  CONTINUED.         299
                       CHAPTER XVI.

             TREATMENT OF DISEASES CONTINUED.
Erysipelas.—General erroneous Notions concerning this Disease.—The great principle of
  Treatment to be observed in this Disease.—Great success of the Treatment.—Case of Mrs.
  Goss.—Case of Mr. Wetmore.—A second Case.—The great benefit of Fasting in this Dis-
  ease.—Scalds and Burns.—Different classes of Scalds and Burns.—Principles of Treat-
  ment to be followed in Scalds and Burns.—Blisters cannot rise under Cold Water—.
  Danger from Burns.—Treatment of extensive Burns.—Treatment in sinking, or collapse
  from Burns.—The soothing effect of Warmth and Moisture.—Advantages of Water, even
  in fatal Cases.—Injurious effects of Opium in Burns.—Deformation caused by Burns.—
  Common  remedies for Scalds and Burns.—Convulsions.—Frictions with Cold Water
  Priessnitz's main  reliance in this  Affection.—Hippocrates and the earlier Physicians.—
  Dr. Currie's Mode.—Cases.—Dr. Elliotson.—Hysteria, or Hysterics.—Cold Water a fa-
  mous Remedy for this Disease.

                            ERYSIPELAS.
   There is a very general  impression that cold water is  a danger-
ous remedy in  erysipelas.   This disease is  attended with  perhaps
greater heat than any other to which the system is subject.   From
this fact, no doubt, the  delusion arose.  So in  high fevers, it was
long  believed  that  no  remedy more  dangerous  than cold water
could be  used; and the greater  the heat, the more danger there
was supposed to be.   The  best authorities in  the healing art  now
all agree that  the treatment of erysipelas, as  well as of all other
inflammatory diseases, should be of the cooling kind; and that  cold
applications,  to arrest  both the general and the local  fever in this
disease,  are always entirely safe, provided they are made in ac-
cordance  with well-ascertained  principles.  The more heat there
is in the  system, or any of  its parts, the more  salutary and grate-
ful are the means.   Common sense, as well as  science, dictates,
that  any means, however good, must  not be carried to extremes.
A medium is always to  be observed.   If there is any where a  sen-
sation of too great  heat, unattended with fatigue,  use the cooling
means sufficiently often and long to remove  that  condition;  not,
hoAvever, to cause much chilliness, which, if protracted, might end
in harm. 
300        TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.
   The author has repeatedly cured cases of erysipelas of  the face
and head by water treatment.  He has failed in no single instance.
In one case, a medical man took upon  himself to affirm, that the
lady's constitution must have been one of a  thousand, or she would
have  been killed.  Some have  not sense enough to refrain from
judging of a matter before hearing it; and we find this truth veri-
fied in  the  opposition so often set up to the water-cure by those
who know not the first lesson concerning it.
   In  1845, I treated the following cases of erysipelas:

                      CASE  OF MRS. GOSS.
   About one year ago we had the honor to prescribe for our friend,
Mrs. Goss, of 26 Vesey street,  then  suffering from a severe attack
of erysipelas of  the face and neck.   The  heat and  swelling had
gone on to a very considerable extent before we commenced.  We
directed that  the face and  neck should, as far as practicable, be
immersed in cold water, and this  as frequently as was agreeable.
By kneeling at the side of a chair, and having upon it a large bowl
of water, the  object could  be  tolerably well effected.  At other
times, wet cold cloths were to be kept upon the parts.   Two gen-
eral baths per day were to be  taken.  Only a little water gruel,
and perhaps  an  apple or two, daily, were to constitute the food.
By these  means, perseveringly carried out, a radical cure was ef-
fected in about three days, so that Mrs. Goss was about as usual.
Awhile after, a  friend of hers had the same disease.  She recom-
mended her to have  water treatment, as she had done.   Her phy-
sician, learning what treatment Mrs.  Goss had had, said, very con-
fidently, that her constitution was one of hundreds, or she could
not have endured it; but  the  fact  is, Mrs. Goss has  naturally a
feeble frame.  The treatment was the  safest possible that could
be adopted.

                   CASE OF MR. L. WETMORE.
   In  the month of September, 1845, Mr.  L. Wetmore, a gentle-
man residing in the boarding-house kept by Mrs. Goss above men-
tioned, was violently attacked with erysipelas of  the head.  The
general fever had already become very high, and the swelling large
and very hot.  By the use of wet sheets, baths, cold applications,
and immersions of the parts affected, together with fasting, Mr. W.
was enabled to walk out each  day, and quite cured in four days 
            TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.         301

He was directed to take a thorough cold bath as often as the fever
came up, even if it  were twenty times in a day.  The night in
which  the disease was the worst he took four long continued  Cro-
ton shower  baths, between  ten at night and  six in the morning.
The fever raged; he took a thorough cooling in the shower, slept
soundly then  awhile, and as the fever again rose, repeated the
bath, and thus obtained  a  tolerably good night's rest, and was
quite himself in the morning.  Such are the modes of treating this
often dangerous affection, erysipelas.   It is a disease attended with
great heat, and always the more there is, the more charm-like the
cold water acts.
   On the 25th of October,  1848, in the  night, Mr. Wetmore was
again attacked, and much more  severely, by this disease.  I saw
him first this time at midday on the 27th instant.  He had been
bathing, using wet  bandages, the wet sheet, etc., but not to  so
great an extent as the case required.   He suffered rigors, or chilli-
ness  at times,  a circumstance common in the beginning of severe
inflammatory attacks.  This circumstance deterred him someAvhat
from persevering with the water,  and led  him to wrap  up too
warmly in bed.   In his case, the chilly sensation was caused by
the skin being too hot.
   At half-past 10 a. m. the next day, the 28th, saw Mr. W. again.
He had used according to direction, the cold wet cloths constantly,
with frequent washings of the face and parts affected; and during
the last sixteen hours had gone to the bath (a liberal shower,  with
little fall, as mechanical force would be  ill  in such a case) seven
times, taking, from  the top of  the  head to the sole of the feet, a
thorough drenching at each time.   He had  used the wet sheet,
three double,  about  the trunk of the body nearly all  the  time, to
keep doAvn general feverishness.  He had  eaten  nothing, or  next
to nothing, since the commencement  of the disease.
   He*was doing so well  on this day, I consented that he might
go out and take the fresh air.  He  went  in  the  afternoon to his
store, there became much excited in business, and was made much
worse.  He became delirious in the night.  I had gone out of the
city, and could not return  before   Monday, Saturday afternoon
being the time of his going out.  With good aid he perseArered in
the treatment,  going to the bath about every hour for some  twenty-
four  hours, taking yet, according to my directions, no nourishment
other than water.  By Sunday night the  fever was quite quelled. 
302        TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES  CONTINUED.
The next morning, on seeing him, I found him doing well, but yet
extremely excitable.  He took a  little nourishment this day, avoid-
ed  company and business for three or four days, folloAving  up a
moderate treatment, and thus recovered very rapidly.
  The poAver of entire fasting was a great help in this  case, the
patient having taken no food  for about five days.   His going to
the  store and becoming  excited in  business, was  an unfortunate
occurrence for the time.   However, in the end  every thing Avent
on  well, and  he recovered admirably, and in a very short time,
from a most dangerous attack.
  In no disease is the good effect of cold water more clearly shown,
than in acute erysipelas.   Keep  down the general fever, as well
as that of the local parts.   Eat no food until it is quite subsided.
Avoid company and all excitement, and thus every thing will go
on well.

                      SCALDS  AND BURNS.
  Scalds and burns differ by being  caused in different ways, the
former being always the effect of heat applied through the medium
of a fluid.  A scald is generally more diffused in extent and more
equable in severity than a burn.
  The most useful  division of  burns, is the very ancient  one, that
of three kinds : 1st, those causing mere redness  or inflammation ;
2d, those causing vesication or blistering;  3d, those  causing actual
death or destruction of the part.
  1. The first class are attended with mere superficial inflamma-
tion, and are not at all dangerous.  They are, however, sometimes
very painful.   Homeopathically—that is, on the principle that like
cures its like—the treatment is to be by hot applications, holding
the part to the fire, etc., etc.   Hydropathically, cold is to be con-
stantly applied  until  the  inflammation subsides.   Allopathically,
they are treated according to the fancy of the practitioner*   The
application of cold water is the best means Ave know of—the most
comfortable, as well as the most effectual.   There is  not the slight-
est  danger of taking  cold, which some fear so much, as long  as
cold is agreeable.  Nor is it true, as has  been  so generally be-
lieved, " that although the application of cold Avas  most pleasur-
able, and continued to be so as long as it was employed  unremit-
tingly, still that if it were discontinued for a moment the pain re-
turned with infinitely greater force." 
            TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES  CONTINUED.        303

  2. From what we have seen, we doubt whether blistering would
ever be caused if  the part could be  suddenly immersed  in very
cold water, and there kept, provided this is done before the blister
is raised.  When blistering has been caused, it is well to draw  off
the fluid collected.   This  is best done by piercing under the blis-
ter through the live  skin a little way  from  the part; smarting is
thus prevented.   The elasticity of the live skin causes the hole to
close, and air, the  cause of smarting, is thus excluded.  If there is
need of any further treatment, wet cloths covered with  dry ones,
continued according to the feelings of comfort, are the local appli-
cations to be used.   Large blisters will of course need treatment.
The Avet bandages should be so arranged and kept constantly wet,
that the air is entirely excluded.
   3. The third class of burns, those in  which the part is destroyed,
are sometimes exceedingly troublesome and  dangerous.  When of
considerable extent, the constitutional symptoms are severe—those
of collapse, or great prostration of strength, coldness of extremities,
quick  and  feeble  pulse, paleness of surface, repeated and violent
shiverings,  and severe sensations of cold.   These symptoms  are
sometimes  soon succeeded  by difficult breathing, coma, or sleep-
like  insensibility, from which  with difficulty only the  sufferer  can
be aroused, and finally with death.  In other  cases,  dissolution is
preceded by a kind of imperfect reaction, or a general feverish  ex-
citement in the system, attended with delirium and distress.
   Burns of apparently small severity, when  extending over a large
surface, should always be considered  dangerous—they are really
so, and more particularly  if the skin has been removed.  Of equal
extent, burns  on  the extremities are always less dangerous than
those upon the body.  Infancy and old age are the  periods most
unfavorable.   When burns are extensive, and there is little or no
apparent suffering, this must  be reckoned as  indicative of most
urgent peril.  Severe pain, comparatively, is a favorable symptom ;
yet this may prove a symptom of danger, since it may so  exhaust
the vital powers, that death will be the  result.  " The early sub-
sidence of complaint, unwillingness to  be  disturbed, apathy  ap-
proaching  to stupor, as if the scale  of sensibility had sunk below
the point of pain, is invariably a fatal symptom.  Constant shiver-
ing is  an ill omen.   The  failure of the pulse, and the consequent
coldness of the extremities, with a hvid hue  of the transparent skin
of the  cheeks and lips from congestion (accumulation of blood) in 
 304        TREATMENT OF DISEASES CONTINUED.

 the  capillaries,  drowsiness, with  occasional muscular  tAvitchings,
 are sure prognostics of death."  The subsidence of swelling is like-
 wise a most unfavorable symptom.
   The treatment of severe burns,  of the second and third classes,
 requires great skill and good judgment on the part of the physician,
 and  patience and perseverance on  the part of patients and nurses.
 Good  nursing has  been said to be the best part of " doctoring."
 If there is collapse, coldness  of  extremities, and shiverings, cer-
 tainly we must husband to the greatest  possible extent what little
 of heat and strength the sufferer yet has, and excite  healthfully
 the vital organs to action.  If we understand the  capabilities  of
 the human system, this  is not best done by diffusible  stimulants,
 as hot brandy and water, ether, ammonia, or hartshorn.  In com-
 mon practice,  these are the first things resorted to.  If the patient
 lives at  all, he lives in  spite of these remedies, if they are  used.
 Warm applications, as  heated  bricks, or bottles of warm water,
 are often made to the arm-pits, between  the thighs, and to the
 feet.   These are good, but the best part at which to apply warmth
 so as to  cause it to be diffused through the body quickly and gen-
 erally, is the " pit of the stomach ;"  and this is the best done by
 bladders of warm water.   The other applications mentioned should
 be used, if no  better can be had.  Next to the pit of the stomach,
 Avarm applications to the feet are probably best;  but, if necessary,
 applications can be made to all of the parts mentioned.   The Avrap-
 ping the whole body also in an abundance of Avarm clothes, should
 by no means be neglected.  Of this we shall speak hereafter.
  To allay vomiting, which  sometimes takes place in great col-
 lapse, it  has  been  common to  give a large  dose of calomel and
 opium, or to give an opiate clyster.  But these  agents, though
 they often arrest  vomiting, do a great amount of  mischief.   Pure
 soft water, taken, if necessary, little by  little, as much as the pa-
 tient can bear, is a far  better  means.  Hickup, which sometimes
 occurs in such cases, and is severe and troublesome, is more effec-
 tually arrested by free drinking of  water than by any other means.
 Both in vomiting and hickup, rubbing briskly the  surface of the
 body Avith a wet  towel, and then  also with a dry one, is good  in
 connection with the drinking.
  In cases of great  collapse,  or  sinking  of the  powers of life,
whether  caused by heat or cold, or other  injuries,  a very ancient
remedy has, from time  to time, been  recommended and resorted 
            TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.         305

to.   It is, in principle and effect, a good one,—we mean the ap-
plication of the Avarm skin  of a recently slain animal, the skin being
taken off immediately after the animal is killed, and then applied.
Persons, too, have been placed in a carcass from which the en-
trails were quickly removed, the carcass  being yet warm.  The
soothing and vivifying effect of the warmth  and moisture  in such
treatment is most astonishing.  All the good effect thus caused,
with little inconvenience, can be readily obtained by means of the
wet sheet, or cloths wrung out of water as warm as can be borne,
and  applied in  the ordinary way, with the warm non-conducting
blankets Avrapped closely outside the wet cloths.  All suitably ar-
ranged, the warmth of the  cloths and the warmth of the body,
which is always generated, and passes off as long as life remains,
will  be  retained  by the woolen  blankets, and thus thrown back
upon the body, which, together with the moisture,  produces a
most soothing effect over the whole body, the same as that of a
warm poultice  upon any part of the body.  The  great surgeon,
Baron Larry, saw the warming remedy by means of the warm
skins, used with great benefit, by certain humane Esquimaux, upon
a  company of  Frenchmen who had been shipwrecked, and who
were suffering greatly with cold, and fatigue, and hunger, and him-
self afterward put the same remedy in practice with good success,
in the case of a distinguished marshal, during  one  of Napoleon's
Spanish campaigns.
   If in  any such  case of sinking, the best remedial means fail, and
death takes place,  still such means should  be  most industriously
used.   Life will be at  least prolonged, pain will be rendered by
far less severe, and death, to which all must submit, will be ren-
dered less violent.  It will thus be more like the gradual dying
away of embers, than like the sudden extinction of a fire.   Indeed,
the writer has so much confidence in the application of warmth and
moisture to soothe the system and relieve  pain, that he believes
that in  all cases, if the means are rightly used, however violent the
disease, death will  take place, comparatively only like the  sinking
into a quiet sleep, almost  without a struggle or  a groan.
   But to return: in these cases of severe scalds and burns there is
sometimes, also, a feverish excitement or general fever throughout
the whole system,  attended with  great restlessness  and pain.  To
reduce the pain, most persons would at once say, " A good dose of
opium,  or some of its preparations, must be given without delay." 
806         TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.
But still among the best medical authorities, there is discrepancy
of opinion concerning the effects of opium.  Larry, of whom Bona-
parte said that  he was the most humane man he ever saw, says,
"Opium is injurious, whether used internally or externally.  Ex-
ternally, it stupefies the parts, instead of exciting them to a salutary
inflammation;  internally, if used in considerable  quantity, it enfee-
bles all the organs, after producing  a momentary stimulation."
Another writer  of considerable  note,  Travers,  says, "In small
doses it is ineffectual, and in large ones injurious."  But how are
we to  proceed?  The pain should  be quickly removed.  Pain
should ever be regarded as the truthful admonition of nature,  that
something must be  done—it should be removed.  To personify,
nature is  attempting to accomplish the object, but asks assistance
at our hand.   In these cases, then, locally, we must use the wet
cloths of temperature to suit the feelings; constitutionally, we must
resort to wet  sheets, clysters, drinking, etc., as in any similar case
of general fever.   As  in all inflammatory cases, the greatest cau-
tion is necessary in diet.   By the  use of clysters the bowels should
be kept freely open.
   The ulcers  resulting from burns are often very slow in healing.
It is also not uncommon for a second inflammation to be set up by
exposure to cold or cold moisture: a cold is taken in the  burn, as
it  is said.  People are in general too  careless  and inconsiderate
when once the pain has ceased.   The ulcer following a burn should
be  guarded, and  the greatest care should be exercised that it be
not exposed.   It should be moist and comfortable, and the part of
equable temperature.  No possible application will cause it to heal
as quickly as water, rightly applied.
   It is  best not .to remove  the dressing very quickly in case of  a
running ulcer.   The part can easily be kept moist and agreeable
by removing   only  the outward  dry  covering,  and  with  a  soft
sponge, the part can be  wet according to  the feelings of com-
fort.
   Most serious deformities are sometimes caused  by scalds  and
burns.  A limb may become obstinately bent; large and unsightly
scars may be formed, and  sometimes the chin may become fixed to
the breast, and the  eyelids become incapable of closing.   These
difficulties have often been augmented by the patient being allowed
too full a diet.  This, it is often  believed, is necessary to support
the strength under the weakening effect of the profuse discharges 
TREATMENT OF  DISEASES  CONTINUED.        307
that often take place.  The diet should be mild and unstimulating,
and what would be termed low.
  If the fingers or toes are badly scalded or burned, and the skin
removed, care must be taken they do not adhere and  grow to-
gether.   Lint, or better, very fine cloths, will suffice to prevent an
accident of this kind.
  Flour frequently sifted upon the  surface of  the running  ulcers,
as also  very finely carded cotton perpetually strewed upon the
part, is  a favorite remedy with some.  The good effect of these
substances is to exclude the air, to form a covering, and to main-
tain the part at an equable temperature.   These applications are
certainly good in many respects,  yet they are apt to become dry,
hard, and irritating, and are sometimes converted into a loathsome
mass of putridity and worms.   A liniment of  linseed oil and lime
water, or the soap liniment,  have frequently  been used.  White
paint is  dangerous.  Properly managed, we like pure clean water
the best.   In no case is skill and good judgment  more needed than
in scalds and burns.

                         CONVULSIONS.
  In cases of ordinary convulsions, Priessnitz's main reliance is ac-
tive frictions upon the surface and extremities,  by means of cold
water applied by the hand.  A number of persons should aid in
the operations, and the frictions must be carried on perseveringly,
and in some cases for a long time.   It is safer to chill the  system
much, than to allow the convulsions to go on.
  The mode of treatment adopted by Priessnitz in convulsions, is
certainly not so  severe as that which .has been sometimes adopted
by others.   At different periods of time, the  regular  cold immer-
sion has been in vogue.  Hippocrates, and other of the earlier phy-
sicians,  used the cold bath in convulsions that were not caused by
wounds or local injuries.   That estimable writer, Dr. Currie, who
used water so  faithfully and  perseveringly in his practice,  says,
that in the convulsions of  children, he found the cold bath  a most
useful remedy, whether the  disorder  originated from worms  or
other causes.  He  seldom knew  it  to fail of arresting the parox-
ysms, at least for some time, thus giving an opportunity to employ
other means for removing the particular irritation.  In patients of
early  infancy he  employed the remedy with caution, generally in
such cases by affusion instead of immersion, tempering the water 
308        TREATMENT OF  DISEASES  CONTINUED.
also, in very cold weather.  These modes are all certainly more
severe than the frictions used by Priessnitz.
  After having employed the cold bath in convulsive diseases for
fourteen years, Dr. Currie gave  the following  as his conclusions:
" That the benefit derived from the cold bath in convulsive diseases,
depends on its being used in the paroxysm of convulsion ; that its
efficacy consists  in  resolving or abating the paroxysm;  and that
when this  effect is produced, the return of the paroxysm is greatly
retarded, if not entirely prevented."

                     TETANUS, OR LOCK-JAW,
Is a form of convulsions, and  often a  terrible disease  to manage.
Others besides  Priessnitz  seem  to have had  better success with
water, than any other known means.  Priessnitz's mode is the wet
frictions energetically applied,  and the  half  bath slightly tepid.
He regards that in severe  spasms, of whatever kind, it is not well
to use very cold water:  the temperature should be a little mode-
rated.  He places great reliance upon the frictions, perseveringly
practiced.
   Others have used  more severe means in  tetanus.   Professor
Elliotson,  of London, in his large and able work on the Practice
of Medicine, gives the following  cases to illustrate the good effects
of the cooling means in this disease:
   " There is a case  mentioned  by Sir James McGregor, in the
sixth volume of the ' Medical  Chirurgical Transactions,' and  also
in his reports of the diseases of the Peninsular war.  It proceeded
from a slight wound in  the finger.   The  patient (a soldier, of
course) was  carried in a bullock-car  after  the battalion to which
he belonged, in a state of severe tetanus, in the  midst of pouring
rain, which completely drenched him in the early part of the day
—the heat being  fifty-two degrees; and  then they ascended the
highest mountain in Gallicia, the snoAv on the summit of which was
knee deep !  And there the temperature was  only thirty degrees.
He was exposed in this condition from six o'clock till ten o'clock
at night, and arrived at his journey's  end half starved from cold,
but  perfectly cured of his tetanus.  Whether  such a mode would
succeed, if  it were put  into practice intentionally, I do not know.
I stumbled on  a similar case, published in 1827 : a horse, which
was in a state "of tetanus, happened to be in a wet park, and was
drenched with rain—precisely as was  the case with this  unfortu- 
TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES CONTINUED.        309
nate man—and the horse also did perfectly well. Whether the de-
pressing  poAver  of cold and wet, regularly kept  up for a certain
number of hours, has a tendency to cure the disease, I do not say;
but I think that, in a disease of violent excitement as this is, the
constant—not sudden, but constant refrigeration (by means  of  a
Ioav temperature, united Avith  moisture), is  likely to be of great
service.  There  are at  least tAvo such  cases  on  record, and it is
surprising to  find a soldier, so  exposed from morning to evening,
recover, and especially in so short a time as one day."
   Some  two years ago I wrote in my note-book as follows: "I
have at  this time (Feb. 22d, 1847), a case like this :  Mr. Perry,
of Orchard street, cut his hand one week ago.  He is a machinist
by occupation, and  thinks  his  health has been injured by gases,
and by verdigris flying off from copper in the form of dust.   He
has taken colds very easily.  He  took  a cold in the wound, and
it swelled prodigiously.  He used poultices of different kinds,  but
it  greAv worse and worse.   Very severe pain was experienced in
the hand, and  up the arm (a nerve was no doubt wounded), and
there was also constant pain in the back.  He was very feverish,
and could get no rest.  Last evening he had himself placed in a
wet sheet, put on a  large wet  girdle, wet bandages all about the
arm, and the hand in water.  This stopped the pain completely in
the hand, and he appeared better in every respect.  He sent for
me, and I directed him  to  use, in  addition to the hand bath and
wet girdle, the half bath quite cold, but not the coldest, to renew
his bandages often upon the arm, take the elbow bath, drink water
very often, eat no food for some days, or at most not until all pain
and fever has  subsided, and to take the half bath as often as the
pain in the back returns.  The hand to be kept in cold water most
of the time, enough to  prevent all  pain in that part.  This morn-
ing, I find Mr. Perry  decidedly better, the pulse  at 80 instead  of
100, as when  I first  saw him last night.  The hand is yet much
swollen, and some days will be required for this to be removed."
   In cases of considerable debility, when  there is danger of lock-
jaAV, or when the disease is already present, we  must  be careful
not to  make too short and sudden an impression by means of cold.
This caution is particularly needed  when powerful medicines have
been given.   Warm baths which  have been  recommended, it  is
now acknowledged  do harm.   The  half  bath is an  invaluable
means, and must be  persevered in.  If we  conclude to dash on 
310        TREATMENT OF  DISEASES  CONTINUED.

the cold water, we must be sure that the patient has considerable
strength, and that the paroxysm is at a high pitch, otherwise we
may do harm."
  Dr. Currie also mentions cases of this disease, in Avhich he ob-
tained strikingly beneficial results from the affusion of water.  In
some cases the  cold bath, in this way, Avas used as the paroxysms
came on, many times in the  twenty-four hours, and for days in
succession.  In  some cases, when other and the  most powerful
means failed, the affusion of water proved successful.
  I will state, that I regard the free use of  injections of water in
this disease good; cold, if the patient is not too weak; tepid, if
there is any doubt as to the propriety of the cold.

                   HYSTERIA, OR HYSTERICS.
  It is  pretty generally understood, that cold Avater is  the thing
for this  disease.  The cold bath and dashing of cold water at once
cuts short the fit in many cases.  The half bath is one of the best
means.   Fear, and the dread of being plunged into cold water, or
of haAing cold water dashed  over the  body, has been  knoAvn to
prevent these unpleasant  attacks.  Persons thus affected, should
do all in their power to  fortify and invigorate the general health ;
for with such attacks such  a thing as good health cannot possibly
be.   I very much pity the person who is thus affected. 
TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES CONTINUED.         311
                      CHAPTER  XVII.

            TREATMENT OF DISEASES CONTINUED.

Apoplexy.—Value of Cold applied to the Head, and Frictions with Cold Water over the
  Surface generally in this Disease.—Cold Injections in the Bowels.—Many are killed,
  doubtless, in the old Practice in this Disease.—Best means of applying Cold to the Head.
  —Inflammation of the Brain.—This is to  be treated on the same great Principle of all
  Inflammations.—Cold to the Head.—General Treatment, etc.—Quinsy, and other acute
  Inflammations of the Throat.—Croup a  very  dangerous Disease.—Prevention better
  than Cure.—How to prevent the  Disease.—How to  treat it.—Inflammations  in the
  Chest, Lung Fever, and Pleurisy.—How to be  treated.—Case of Priessnitz's Daughter.
  —Sore Throat, Weakness of the Chest, Lungs, etc.—Priessnitz's Advice.—Remarks on
  Consumption.

                            APOPLEXY.
   The treatment for this disease is the free  application of cold to
the head, while at the same time  a very brisk rubbing of the surface
of the body generally is practiced with the hands wet in cold water,
over the  rubbing wet sheet, etc.  There is too much blood in the
brain in this state  of the system.   Hence the good effect of cold
water in that part.   Cold, continuously applied, repels  the blood
from the  part.  The  frictions over  the surface aid in driving the
blood thereto, and  thus the brain is also relieved of the too great
quantity of this fluid.
   Cold injections in the bowels have a good effect in rousing the
patient in all states of stupor  and unconsciousness, and conse-
quently in apoplexy.
   Many a person,  doubtless, is  destroyed in this disease, by the
enormous bleedings  that  are sometimes  practiced.   Cold water,
perseveringly applied, is a more effectual, as well as incomparably
safer means.
   Pounded  ice applied  to  the  head  by means of a bladder, has
been recommended by all  authors, as one of the means  to be re-
sorted to in  apoplexy.  Ice, however, cannot always be obtained.
If the head, extending somewhat over the edge of a  bed, is sup-
ported (and it  should be  also somewhat elevated) by an assist- 
312        TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.
ant, cold water may be constantly poured upon  it, letting  it run
down into  a tub; thus the  part may probably be as effectually
cooled as by means of ice.

                 INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN.
  This is to be treated on the same general principle of all severe
inflammations.   Keep  down  the general fever, and at the same
time use cold applications to  the head without stint.  It is hardly
possible  to do too much.  There is  no need  of shaving  off the
hair, if enough  cold water is poured upon the part.   Very cold
and oft-repeated fomentations, wet cloths with  ice between them,
pounded ice in bladders, etc.—these are the local means.

       QUINSY, AND OTHER INFLAMMATIONS OF THE  THROAT.
   These are also treated on the same general  principle of all in-
flammations.  The wet bandages, etc., about the throat, are here
as useful as cold applications to the head in apoplexy and inflam-
mation of  the brain.
                            CROUP.
   This very dangerous disease, which carries off every winter
great  numbers of children,  is doubtless generally manageable, if
taken at the very  beginning  of the attack.  But it is far better to
rear and manage children in  such a manner, as to render them
proof against the  disease.  Children that are not dosed with medi-
cine, and are kept  on food  of the right kinds—that are bathed
regularly each day, and are not subjected to the air of over-heated
rooms, to  feather beds, feather pillows, and the like, and that, on
the  other hand, are not subjected to too great  extremes of cold—
are  not at all  hable  to  croup.  This, then, is the better philoso-
phy--AVOID THE  DISEASE.

                     TREATMENT OF  CROUP.
   As  soon as possible—the sooner  the better—after croup has
commenced, let the patient be at once well washed over with cold
water.   It may be poured over the  body, or the rubbing wet sheet
may be  used,  or  the general washing  in a tub.  Do whatever is
done quickly.  A good thorough cold bath will often cause a child
to breathe with entire freedom at once—in a moment,  as  it were.
Wet bandages should be placed about the throat and chest,  and 
             TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.         313

 be frequently renewed.  So also  repeat  the ablution  as  soon as
 the symptoms return.   Meantime, if it is  in the night, the child
 should be placed Avarmly betAveen two persons in bed.
    For the  treatment  of  a very dangerous case  of  croup  and
 measles, see account of the latter disease.

    INFLAMMATIONS IN THE  CHEST, LUNG FEVER, AND PLEURISY.
   Priessnitz's great dependence now in the treatment of these dis-
 eases,  is the  sedative effect of the  cold  bath.   This, Avith much
 frictions upon the surface generally, cold, or moderated a  little if
 the debility requires,  is the mode.   Keep down  the inflammation
 in the  general system, and in these, as all other inflammations, we
 give nature the best possible chance.  Between the times of bath-
 ing, the wet sheet should be applied about the Avhole  trunk.
   Priessnitz informed us one day at his table, that during the past
 year (1847), his eldest  daughter was attacked severely with  in-
 flammation  of the lungs.   She was at  the time  three  or four
 months advanced in pregnancy.   He treated her by the cold bath
 and frictions.  Twenty-five cold baths  were given in  succession
 within a space of  less than four hours.  Each bath was continued
 about five minutes, the  body was then rubbed dry,  and after rest-
 ing a very few  minutes she was again placed in the bath.  By
 these means thus persevered in, the pains and inflammation were
 completely subdued, and the next day she  was able to go about
 quite as usual.  Her case, it must be remembered, was taken in
 season, and thus it was  nipped in the bud.

       SORE THROAT, WEAKNESS  OF  THE CHEST, LUNGS, ETC.
   On  returning from Graefenberg in the spring of 1848,  I pub-
 lished the following article on these complaints in the Water-Cure
 Journal:
   " The modes of treatment recommended  by Priessnitz, in cases
 of colds, difficulties in the throat and chest, from whatever cause
 or  causes, are exceedingly simple, and at the same time effectual
 for good.  We  have  before us  a work entitled " Six Months at
 Graefenberg," by  Mr. H. C. Wright, of  Philadelphia (published
 in England), a very accurate writer and observer.   This  author
 had himself been  for  years afflicted with serious difficulties of  the
above-mentioned kinds.   He had, likewise,  been in the habit  of
much and long-continued public speaking.   He tells us that for
              14 
314        TREATAIENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.

years before going to Graefenberg, he was, as is the custom, wont
to eschew the fresh air as much as possible.   Flannel shirts and
draAvers, and a closely fitting shirt-collar and  a  neckcloth, Ave re
worn, and, Avhenever the Aveather seemed to require it, a fur muf-
fler, or a large silk or worsted handkerchief, over the chin and
mouth, to exclude all fresh air from the back of the head and neck,
the throat, and lungs.   He was exceedingly sensitive to cold, and
though long accustomed to general ablutions of cold water, the ex-
clusion of cold air, with a view to  the preservation of  health, had
become an object of very particular attention.   Heavy  clothes and
overcoats were worn to protect the body from  the air  and its free
circulation  over the surface.   He continues : 'I now look back with
astonishment at  my folly; and the more so, because the days of
my childhood and youth were chiefly spent in the open air,  in the
backwoods of western New York.   Calm and storm, cold and
heat, rain and sunshine, were all alike to me then; and  many times
since I attained my twentieth year, have I slept with my windows
open, in  the  severe winter nights  of New England.    But for the
last three years, since  my lungs began to be affected, I changed
my habits entirely, and, by the advice of medical friends, took
every precaution against exposure to the air.'
   " Mr. Wright  further tells us, that, when  he went to Graefen-
berg, away went  the flannel  shirts and draAvers, and  silk, worsted,
and fur mufflers, and Priessnitz advised him  to be in the open  air
as  much as possible, like  the other  patients.   We have ourselves
seen at Graefenberg poor, weak bodies, who had for  years been
wedded  to those 'comfortable' things, mercilessly stripped in the
manner described by Mr. Wright.  And what may appear strange
is, that  probably nowhere in the  world can there be found  the
same number of persons  as at Graefenberg, with less of coughs
and symptoms of cold in  the throat or lungs.  The freedom from
coughs  and  colds among Priessnitz's patients is notorious.   Be
it remarked, also, that there is there in the winter season much of
damp, fogs, and winds; so that, according to the popular notions
on this subject, persons would be  much subject to the difficulties
in  question.   But there is among the  profession, as Avell  as  the
people, much error in reference to the effects of wind and  damp.
We find that one of the best possible things for cough and cold is
to go to sea.  Consumptive persons, even, are recommended often
to  go sea voyages, and there appears in cases  generally, whether 
TREATMENT OF  DISEASES  CONTINUED.        315
 curable or  incurable, to be  a manifest improvement in so doing
 We have known  persons, repeatedly, to have a severe cold, at-
 tended with cough, on going to sea, to become very soon cured.
 Now, it  should be  understood that there is, besides the winds at
 sea, a  great deal of  moisture.  The atmosphere is, in consequence
 of evaporation, at  all times completely loaded with humidity ; and
 this is not  saltish, as many suppose, but fresh; for Ave know that
 salt is of great specific gravity, and does not rise.  In the manu-
 facture of salt, by  evaporation in the sun or by boiling, the mineral
 is left  behind, while the pure water passes off.  We see, from the
 above  facts,  that wind  and moisture  are  not necessarily so
 deleterious  as  is generally supposed;  but, on the contrary,  that
 they are, under  certain  circumstances,  extremely favorable to
 health.
  " If a person has an incurable  disease of the lungs, Priessnitz
 would, of course, be very careful in reference to changes of Avhat-
 ever kind.   The cases we have referred to he regarded as curable.
 Such persons can make much greater changes with safety, than is
 generally supposed.  Even in cases of incurable disease of the
 lungs,  people  are perpetually injuring themselves by too much
 clothing, confinement in close, overheated, and illy ventilated rooms,
 sleeping  upon  feather  beds,  down pillows, etc.  Now  in these,
 often great good may be done in the Avay of mitigating the disease.
 But all changes should be made with proper caution, and accord-
 ing to  the dictates  of an enlightened experience.  Inasmuch as the
 water means, diet, etc., are the  best possible for cure, so also,
 properly managed, are they  in mitigating  the sufferings  arising
 from incurable  disease.
  " Before leaving Graefenberg, Mr. Wright prepared, in writing, a
list  of  questions, which were  proposed  to Priessnitz, the  answers
 to Avhich Avere taken down upon paper at the time.   Some of these
 questions were as follows :
  " Wright.—In cases of severe cold on the lungs, attended with
much coughing and expectoration, what should be done ?
  " Priessnitz.—Rub the chest and throat with cold water, holding,
at the  same time, some water in the mouth.   In cold climates, the
wet bandage around the throat would be of service occasionally.
In warm climates,  washing  and rubbing alone are better.
  " Wright.—In cases of inflammation and soreness of the throat,
attended with hoarseness and difficulty in speaking ? 
316        TREAT.AIENT  OF  DISEASES  CONTINUED.
   " Priessnitz.—Friction, washing, and the application of wet ban-
dages.
   " Wright.—In cases of long attendance and speaking at public
meetings, in hot, close, crowded  rooms, and then  going  out inte
the chilly night air ?
   " Priessnitz.—The rubbing sheet, washing and rubbing the head
and throat well, and the use of the foot bath.
   " Wright.—When troubled with shooting pains across the chest,
occasioned by long speaking at a time ?
   " Priessnitz.—Take rubbing sheets, and rub the throat and chest
with water.
   " In regard to friction, Mr. Wright judiciously remarks, ' that it
is worthy of special notice that Priessnitz never orders the rubbing
to be done with brushes, flannels, or even linen towels.  He never
applies flannels and brushes to the skin for any purpose;  linen is
only used for  wiping the surface  dry, and, even in  this  process,
the rubbing should be gentle.   He wishes  to have the skin kept
as smooth and soft  as possible ;  and hence his disuse of flannels
next the skin,  and of brushes and hard substances in rubbing.  He
recommends that the hand only should be used ; and it is not pos-
sible to be long  under his treatment, and to enjoy  the delicious
sensations resulting from a clear, smooth, soft skin, the almost  in-
variable result of the cure, without being convinced of the correct-
ness of his practice in this respect.' "

                         CONSUMPTION.
   The foundation of this most formidable  disease is usually laid
before birth.   It  is admitted on all hands that it is seldom cured.
There are, however, 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 con-
sumption.  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, Avith suit-
able attention  to air,  exercise, clothing, and diet, you  can be much
benefited.  Your life can be prolonged, and rendered more  com-
fortable."
   Dr. Billing,  senior physician  to the London Hospital, a man  of 
TREATMENT OF DISEASES  CONTINUED.        317
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 suc-
cess ;  but because he could not work miracles, his  plan was un-
justly depreciated.   His method was  entirely tonic, and  especially
the cautious use of cold  and tepid ablutions of the skin, a modifica-
tion of cold  bathing—a remedy which is found  so universally bene-
ficial  in  promoting  the  resolution (cure) of strumous  (scrofulous)
tumors."
   " One thing of which I am convinced," says Dr. B., " is, that the
true principle of  treating consumption, is to support the patient's
strength  to  the utmost."  This can best be done by water-cure.
All will agree that the means used in the treatment by  water are
very powerful to promote strength, if the patient can bear such
treatment.  But the treatment, we contend, can be managed with
perfect safety, even to the last hour of life; and will always posi-
tively 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 doubtful,  and sometimes dangerous, and every dose, how-
ever small,  acts only by virtue of its power to produce diseased
action in  the body.   Furthermore, 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 possible 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 Avay
of preventing an  increase  of  its  symptoms.   All the  daily and
hourly circumstances which go to affect the health should be most
scrupulously attended to.  The strictest regularity and correctness
in meals, bathing, exercise  in  pure air, sleep,  etc., etc., if rigidly
observed, will be found to prove highly salutary.  But all this re-
quires knowledge possessed by few.   It is very common for per-
sons in this disease  to  be  greatly injured by the food they take.
Even in  the advanced stage of the disease, persons are 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 disease indulging freely in the  use of rich pastry, 
318        TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES  CONTINUED.
and toast well saturated Avith butter, one of the Avorst dishes that
well persons even can take; and all this is done because the pa-
tient has a good appetite, and because  the stomach does not appear
to suffer.   The disease is concentrated upon, and spends its violence
in, the lungs, so that  the stomach  cannot feel  the injuries it re-
ceives ;  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 pa-
tient take no animal food, other than preparations of milk, or cream,
Avhich is generally better and less feverish than flesh; and these,
even, in  many cases, it is believed,  are  better omitted—for they
are more feverish and exciting than the mild preparations of farina-
ceous food.
   In the more advanced stages of this disease, the early morning
SAveats,  which are so weakening, can be much mitigated, if not en-
tirely prevented, by judicious  sponging,  or wet  cloth-rubbing  the
surface  of the body.   The hectic fever, which wears down the pa-
tient's  strength, can  also be much  relieved.   By  bandaging and
the wet sheets to soothe, great good can also be done to the last 
TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES CONTINUED.         319
                      CHAPTER  XVIII.

            TREATMENT OF DISEASES CONTINUED.

Inflammations of the Abdomen generally.—These are all to be treated on the same genera.
  Principles.—Enteritis, or Inflammation, with obstinate Stoppage of the Bowels.—How
  to be treated according to Priessnitz.—This very dangerous Disease sometimes needs
  much and powerful Treatment.—Colic—Priessnitz's Mode of Cure.—Dysentery, Diar-
  rhoea, and Cholera Morbus.—How  to be Treated.—Erroneous Notions as to the Effect
  of AVater.—Causes of these Diseases.—A Case of Dysentery, with Remarks.—Chronic
  Diarrhoea, Dysentery, etc.—How to be Cured.—Nausea, Vomiting, and Pains of the Sto-
  mach.—Curious Remarks of John Smith.—How to allay Vomiting.

          INFLAMMATIONS OF THE  ABDOMEN  GENERALLY.
   All inflammations within the abdomen are to be treated on the
same general principles.

ENTERITIS, OR INFLAMMATION,  WITH OBSTINATE STOPPAGE  OF THE
                             BOWELS.
   Long-continued shallow bath, with much rubbing of the bowels;
the Avater to be cold,  and changed often, if the patient  is  not  too
weak.   If there is  much debility,  the water  to be used tepid.   In
either  case, the  treatment  must be persevered  in, otherwise  the
disease may pass very speedily to  a fatal termination.   Injections,
full  and oft-repeated—cold or tepid, according to  the  strength—
are  also to be used.  These  form  a very important part of the
treatment.
   Drinking also to  be practiced more or less.  After the pain  dies
away or becomes  subdued, and the bowels are made to act more
or less, the treatment above mentioned  is  to be diminished.   The
wet girdle about the abdomen, or still better, the folded sheet wet,
and placed  about  the whole trunk of  the body, should be  used
while the person rests from the baths.   Once  the pain  and inflam-
mation are subdued, little bathing  more will be  needed.   But the
wet girdle should  be worn for days,  to  tonify or invigorate the
weakened parts AA'hich have been  diseased.
   Persons will be  more likely to fail in the treatment  of  this dis- 
320       TREATMENT OF DISEASES CONTINUED.
ease from not persevering sufficiently.   Many of these  cases are
among the most obstinate and dangerous that a medical man has
to deal Avith.   Patients often die of the disease, in spite of  bleed-
ings, calomel, and  opium : so, if now and then one should be lost
by water (which can at most very  rarely happen if any thing is
well done), it need not be said, " Oh, water killed the patient!"
  If I had  an attack of this  disease, I would rather  remain in a
bath or tub  of Avater for many hours, than  allow the dreadful pain
to go on Avrenching one as it does to the very vitals.  I would pre-
fer to  remain in the water and die there, if  I must, than to quail
under  the racking  tortures often  caused by this disease.   Cold
water, rightly used, is more powerful than any or all other  agents
combined to remove pain.

                             COLIC.
   In this very painful and sometimes  dangerous disease, Priess-
nitz's treatment is  as folloAvs : Prolonged cold sitz bath, rubbing
the  abdomen with the wet hand at the same time, and cold injec-
tions to the bowels.   Persevere in all  these applications, and re-
lief will generally very soon follow.   If there are spasms, or if the
colic is what may be termed spasmodic, apply the rubbing sheet
briskly, repeating it as often as there is need.
   Vomiting by means of water, which  Priessnitz has not been in
the habit of  resorting to, is a very excellent collateral means in many
cases of colic.
   When all ordinary means have failed, dashing some buckets of
cold water upon the abdomen has been found successful.

ACUTE DYSENTERY, DIARRHOEA,  CHOLERA MORBUS,  AND OTHER DIS-
                  CHARGES FROM THE  BOWELS.
   The treatment Priessnitz recommends in all diseases of this kind
is very simple.  Suppose  it a bad case of dysentery in a child.
The great reliance with him is the hip bath, always cold if the pa-
tient is not already very weak.  No time should be lost, and the
treatment should be persevered in until the discharge is arrested.
Cold injections he also uses if the hip bath does not readily arrest
the discharge.   The wet  girdle about  the abdomen is to be kept
on constantly during the intervals  when the other means are  not
used.   As much water as the  patient desires is to be taken, and at
frequent intervals. 
             TREATMENT OF DISEASES CONTINUED.         321

   As to general ablutions, sufficient daily for cleanliness is all that
he recommends in these cases; no half baths, no Avet  sheets, or
means of that kind as a general thing.   The sitz bath,  injections,
wet girdle, and the drinking, with spare and cooling diet—these are
the means which Priessnitz has found in his great experience to be
the best.  If the patient is very weak, the water should be moder-
ated  a little in temperature, as at from 60  degrees to 70  de-
grees Fah.
   In the house where I lodge at Graefenberg this winter (1848),
there is a little boy five or  six years  of age that has been under
the treatment for some weeks.   He has just had the measles.   As
the  disease passed off, a seA'ere diarrhcea came  on.  He was  of
scrofulous tendency, often had the croup, and also chronic tonsil-
itis (inflammation  of  the tonsils).  Priessnitz's directions for  the
diarrhoea were hip baths cold, every three or four hours during
the day, for twenty minutes each time ; and if the discharges come
on in the night, the hip bath was to be given the same as during
the  day.  There was  also practiced in the case a light general
treatment, such as would be suitable  in any case where the mea-
sles were passing off, viz., slight general ablutions once or twice a
day, with water at about 70  degrees Fah.   The sitz bath had evi-
dently a very marked  effect in  arresting the discharges.
   Priessnitz holds that almost every conceivable case of acute dis-
ease of this kind may be readily cured by the simple processes we
have here described, if it is  treated in season and with sufficient
perseverance.  There  must be no  half-way Avork in  the matter,
and  there  is as much need of a doctor who understands his busi-
ness, or of an old woman, or some one who is perfectly competent
to take  charge in the  matter, and see that it is  properly carried
out; and how many foolish, ignorant persons, wise enough in their
own conceit, do we have  to encounter in almost every case  of
water  treatment in acute diseases.   The mode Ave have described
will  seem  a  harsh and dangerous one, no doubt, to many, and
there will be doctors,  wise  men enough, who,  if they take the
trouble to investigate  these things  at all, will declare that such a
mode would be perfectly  hazardous—quite certain to  kill.  Let
these ignorant pretenders (and  they  are plenty enough in our
country), I say let them first  learn the  A, B,  C of the water treat-
ment before  they  assume to pronounce so sagely concerning the
opinions  and well-earned  experience of  the  noble philosopher  of
              14* 
322        TREATMENT  OF-DISEASES CONTINUED.
Graefenberg.  I myself have been annoyed not a little in the city
of New York, by having my patients told by these would-be Avise
men that the water-cure would be  certain to kill them.   "Youl
system  has  not  the power  of  reaction," that convenient word as
little understood as it is common  to  use; " you Avill  surely get
your death by the water."   Such are not unfrequently the  expres-
sions of those miserable specimens of humanity Avho knoAV  not yet
the first principles of the laAvs that govern the human system, or of
the water-cure as practiced by  its founder.
   But to return.  In our cities, our hot, unhealthy American cities,
where, in the summer season, such multitudes of infants and chil-
dren drop off suddenly with these bowel complaints, I fear that in
many cases death will be the result of  such attacks, in spite of all
that the best skill  and  judgment can dictate.  So unhealthy is  a
great city like New York in the  hot season, with its ten thousand
filthy and  pestilential emanations,  from streets, gutters,  privies,
butcheries, and the like; and so unwisely,  too, are  children reared,
starved noAV and then, but generally over-full, crammed, as people
do  with their housed geese and turkies  before  Thanksgiving or
Christmas;  dosed with paregorics and  other poisonous compounds
from the first hour of life onward; swathed and girted  up so that
they could  scarce exist, even if all other  things were right about
them;—I repeat, any practitioner that  has to deal  with such cases,
and under such circumstances, will  have trouble enough,  and if I
am not mistaken will often be tempted to flee forever from a calling
which  is by most people so thanklessly appreciated and yet more
thanklessly  rewarded.
   But in the practice of the water treatment, I  have  often been
astonished at the results obtained in these unfavorable cases, and
sometimes  Avhen the patient  has been given over to die, when
dosing and poisoning had been carried  to the full extent.
   If a child of my own should  be attacked in  a dangerous  manner
with dysentery, or any of the bowel complaints, I presume I should
use a  more poAverful and energetic treatment than I should dare
to  use  elsewhere, so great  is  the prejudice of the people against
water,  and so ignorant are physicians of its use.  Why, suppose a
man loses  a patient  and is  sued  for malpractice.   It might have
been the best treatment that could  possibly be, yet the patient is
lost.  Now come the wise gentry of the profession to testify.   The
child was killed—and then comes the indictment, or, to  say the 
TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.         323
least, a heavy fine; for the value of human life is often measured
by money in this world.  Thus it is ;  if we  of the water  system
lose  a case, no  matter of what  kind, ten  to one if we have not
killed  the patient.  But in the calomel and bleeding practice, it is
another  thing.  A man may kill a score of patients in as many
days, and so  that  each one be  well crammed with poisons, and
sent hence with  the last repeated dose  undigested on the stomach,
all is well;  the  patient died scientifically.  There is a  charm in
that;  but we of the new practice, believing honestly and truly in
what we do, and that  the system is  the greatest of all improve-
ments that  have yet  come  to man—we will  undertake to teach
people to die as  well as to live by  the  water treatment.  Let
future times determine whether we succeed.
   I must mention a fatal case of dysentery I had in the past year,
1847.   A very worthy friend was the father of a second child,  an
only daughter,  which  he worshiped.   It  had been reared  Avith
great difficulty to seven or eight months by hand.   It was not my
patient at first.  Being taken ill of dysentery, medicine was given.
Then I was called upon.  We  practiced the water treatment, and
then again some medicine was given.   At last the  child died ; and
now this friend,  who is theoretically tired enough of the old mode,
can never forgive himself that other means were  not used.  " Why,"
says he, "when one thing  fails,  we should try something else."
This perpetually "trying" something else!  Alas!  how many are
tried upon until  they are sent to the grave.
   The following case was furnished by our  pupil, Seth Rogers,
last summer, 1848:
                             "Oyster Bay, 8th  mo.  7, 1848.
   " At this  season of the year, when thousands are dying with the
diarrhoea and  dysentery, it seems proper to state a simple method
by Avhich these  diseases can, as  a  general fact, be readily cured.
By the proper use of water, immediate relief is almost invariably
afforded.
   " While in  the  city of New York  a few days since, I found a
married  lady of  my acquaintance  suffering  very severely with the
last-named  disease.  The irritation and pain had been increasing
for two days, and during the night before I saw her, the discharges
consisted principally of blood.  Her strength was fast failing, and
it was evident that something must immediately  be done.  She had
too much confidence in the power of water to listen to those kind 
     324        TREATMENT OF JUSEASES  CONTINUED.

     friends who advised her to use other remedies;  yet  she did not
     understand its rightful and  full application.  But  I have  heard
     some one  remark that 'water, even if  not very well  applied, is far
     better than drugs;' so in  this case, the more alarming symptoms
     were soon arrested by a very slight use of it.
        " It was toward evening Avhen I saw the lady.   I  recommended
     her to  have the  lower part of the body and limbs thoroughly
     rubbed in the half  bath ten minutes.  The Avater Avas  nearly 70
     degrees Fah., summer or rain-Avater temperature,  and four or five
     inches  in  depth.  The bath gave considerable relief.   She  then
     used injections  of water at  the same temperature, in quick suc-
     cession, until the  pain entirely ceased.    Gallons Avere used.   That
     night she slept as soundly, and was as much refreshed, as in ordi-
     nary health.  The night previous, she did  not rest at all.  The
     next morning  I advised her to commence  very  moderately  Avith
      diet, but her appetite was excellent, and she partook quite freely
      of plain food and berries during the  day.   She walked consider-
      able in the open air; her  strength  gradually returned, and  she
      found no further difficulty.   On the folloAving day she experienced
      some nausea, occasioned by over-eating, but it Avas remedied by
      omitting a meal.                                 S.  Rogers."

*                           "editor's remarks.
         " It will be seen that the treatment  in the above case was some-
      what different  from that uniformly adopted by Priessnitz in  such
      cases.   The patient was a good deal weakened by  the agony she
      had suffered, and the  loss of blood.   Still  Priessnitz would  have
      used water much colder.   For persons of  little  experience,  such
      as are not thoroughly versed in the heroic modes, the more mode-
      rate course is the better one.  Every  family should have first-ftite
      injection instruments, for  clysters are of great service in all these
      complaints.
         " Fasting has  a  great  power  over diseases of this kind.   We
      have cured many a case of bad dysentery at sea, depending princi-
      pally upon entire abstinence from  all food  and drink other than
      pure water.  A patient may be kept for days, a week or more,
      without any food, and yet run no  risk  of  injury on that score.
      Many a person is killed by a relapse brought on by improper diet
      in such cases.
         " Those  who will, may refer to an account of the  successful 
             TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.         325

 treatment of a very dangerous case of dysentery in a colored  boy,
 reported in the Water-Cure Manual."

               CHRONIC DIARRHOEA, DYSENTERY, ETC.
   Whenever  these  affections of the bowels become chronic,  that
 is, of long standing, the treatment should be such as is best calcu-
 lated to fortify and invigorate the general health.

  NAUSEA, PAINS IN THE STOMACH  AND BOWELS, AND  VOMITING.
   As  regards the treatment of nausea, and pains of the stomach
 and bowels, arising from improper food and drink, I could not do
 better than quote the following remarks of a truly sensible writer,
 John Smith,  whose work, " Curiosities of Common Water,"  was
 published in England,  1723:

                     "VOMITING BY WATER.
   " By means of water all sickness at the stomach may be cured,
 which is done thus:  Take four quarts of water, make it as hot
 over the fire as you  can drink it; of  which water let a quart be
 taken  down at several draughts;  then wrap a rag round a small
 piece of stick, till it is about the bigness of a man's thumb; tie it
 fast with some thread; and with  this, by endeavoring gently to
 put  it a little way doAvn your throat,  provoke yourself to vomit
 up again most of the water; then drink another quart, and vomit
 up that,  and repeat the same the third and fourth time. You may
 also provoke vomiting by tickling your throat with your finger, or
 the  feather-end of a goose-quill; but  the cloth  round  a skewer
 maketh one vomit with most ease, which is done with no trouble
 when the  stomach is  full.   And  by this way of vomiting, which
 will  be  all performed in  an  hour's time, that vicious and ropy
 phlegm in  the stomach, which  causeth the  sickness,  will be cast
 up, so  that  the party in that time will be free from all that inward
 disturbance, if you use the remedy at first;  but if the sickness
 hath continued for a time, it will require the  same course once or
 tAvice more, which  may be  done in three or four hours, one after
 another, without  any other  inconvenience besides that of beino- a
 little sore in the breast the next day, which will soon go off by the
force of nature.  Which remedy,  by  forty years' experience,  I
look upon to be infallible in all sickness at the stomach, from what
cause soever,  and for  all pains in the belly which seem to  be 
326        TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.

above the navel;  for these are all in the stomach, as by long ex-
perience  I have  found:  which  pains  are  generally counted the
colic; but it is not so; for true colics are always below the navel,
in the large  intestine  or colon.   And by this means I have eased
very great pains, caused by eating muscles that were poisonous;
and it is  also a certain cure for all surfeits or  disorders that follow
after much eating; so that the lives of multitudes might be saved
by this means, who, for want of expelling what offends, do often
die  in misery.   For, by thus cleansing the stomach at the first, the
root of diseases  proceeding from surfeiting, or unAvholesome food,
or  any vicious humors from a bad  digestion, are preArented; the
stomach  being the place in which all distempers do at first begin.
No man  was more subject to sickness  than  myself before thirty
years of age; but since  I  found out the way of vomiting with
water, which is now above forty years, I never have been sick for
tAvo days together;  for when I find myself  ill to any  great de-
gree, I betake myself to this way of vomiting, which, in an hour's
time, restores me to ease,  and perfectly removes my illness.  And
the  same benefit all my family find in it, as do others also, whom
I can persuade  to try the  experiment; Avhich is  such,  that no
physician whatever can advise a better to the king himself, should
he  fall sick.   For, in the first place, it is not a nauseous  remedy—
it does not  make the patient sick, as the best of all other vomits
do ; and then it is a vomit which is at our own command, since we
can leave off when we please; and  it infallibly Avorks a cure to all
sick stomachs.
   " Some few, indeed, pretend that they are not able to vomit by
this means.   Now, if they cannot vomit, let  them  take a pint of
water, when they find themselves ill from eating, and do so every
three or  four hours, eating no more  till they are hungry  ; and they
will find the water digest  and carry off what Avas offensive.  The
ingenious Dr. Cheyne, in  his Treatise of the Gout, doth affirm,
that warm water drank freely in a morning,  fasting, and at meals
(and I say cold water is  as good), hath been a sovereign remedy
for  restoring lost appetites, and strengthening weak digestions,
when other  more pompous medicines have failed.   And he advis-
eth gouty persons, after  excess, either in meat or drink, to swill
down as much fair water  as their stomachs will bear, before they
go to bed,  whereby  they will  reap  these  advantages:  either the
contents  of the  stomach will be thrown up,  or both  meat and 
            TREATMENT OF  DISEASES CONTINUED.         327

drink will be  much diluted, and the labor and expense of spirits
in digestion much saved.  And indeed I have  found, by long ex-
perience, that nothing  causeth so good a digestion as fair water;
but this requires time to free us from the uneasiness that an ill di-
gestion causeth, Avhereas vomiting is an  immediate remedy, and
frees  a man from it upon the spot."

    IN EXCESSIVE VOMITING, CAUSED  BY IMPROPER  FOOD, ETC.,
There"should be practiced first a thorough cleansing of  the stom-
ach, as above explained ; after which,  small pieces of ice,  or small
draughts of cold water will be found very useful in arresting the
symptom.   This treatment is  certainly very simple; but all who
have  occasion, may easily test its efficacy.
                      CHAPTER  XIX.

            TREATMENT OF  DISEASES CONTINUED.

Meaning of " Cholera," " Contagion," and "Infection."—Is Cholera contagious ?—Causes of
  Cholera.—Manner of an attack of Cholera.—Symptoms of Cholera.—First Stage.—Sec-
  ond Stage.—Stage of Collapse.—Nature of Cholera.—Orthodox Practice unsuccessful.—
  Water Treatment of Cholera.—Ice and AVater Drinking.—Vomiting by means of Water.
  —Rubbing AVet Sheet in Spasm.—Priessnitz's mode.—Rationale of the Processes.—The
  Persian Treatment of Cholera.
                           choleras-
   Cholera signifies  a flow of bile;  "cholera  morbus," a morbid
flow of  bile.  The term cholera, then, as used in modern times, is
not correct, because, in  the disease proper, there is no  flow or  dis-
charge  of bile  whatever.  The entire absence of bile in matters
vomited and passed  by the bowels, is a characteristic feature of
the  disease.  Cholera, like  many other medical  terms, is used in
a sense directly the  opposite  of its true and original signification.
The term,  hoAvever, is well understood, and that is sufficient for all
practical purposes.

  * For  a  more full exposition of the causes, symptoms, nature, and treat-
ment of Cholera, the reader is referred to " Lectures on Cholera," by Joel
Shew, M. D.  Fowlers & Wells, New York. 
328        TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES  CONTINUED.

  Meaning  of "Contagion" and  "Infection."—The  word "conta-
gion" (from contango, to meet or  touch) signifies, properly, the ap-
plication of some morbid or poisonous matter to the body, through
the medium of  touch.   A contagious disease is taken by a person
coming in contact Avith another diseased, or by his being,  in some
mode or other,  subjected to the  morbid  matter passing from the
diseased body of  the one  affected.
  An infectious disease  is one  the principle  of which exists in
the atmosphere, without any relation or reference to the bodies of
the sick.  An infectious disease, then, is taken as  easily  Avithout
coming in contact with the  sick  as  it may be Avith.   If a disease
is infectious and not contagious, all quarantine regulations are use-
less ;  and, in this case, there is no more danger in attending, nurs-
ing, or  being with  the  sick, than in not  doing so.   This is an im-
portant practical distinction between  contagious  and infectious
diseases.
  Is the Cholera  a contagious Disease ?—This is a difficult ques-
tion to determine, if indeed that be possible at all.  It is a "vexed
question."   Much  proof  may be brought  on  both sides.   It is
very certain, I  think, that cholera is not contagious in the same
degree as small-pox, and  some other diseases.   If  it were strictly
contagious—or, at least, contagious  in the  same degree as small-
pox—it would live perpetually  in  a city like London, Paris, or
NeAv York,  and  not  of itself soon  pass aAvay, as  it always  has
done.   Besides, many persons have been  much among  cholera
patients—physicians, nurses,  and attendants—and  yet have  not
received the disease.   Persons have slept Avith those having the
cholera, dressed blisters for them, and  nursed them in all manner
of Avays, remaining  constantly with them night and day,  and yet
have  not suffered an attack.   We  knoAV, therefore, that  cholera
cannot  be  contagious  in  the same degree as small-pox, measles,
scarlatina, and the like.  Probably all epidemic diseases—diseases
that rage, or come upon great numbers  at the same time—are, to
a greater or less  extent, contagious.  The bodies of persons  suf-
fering with  such  diseases, doubtless throw off matter  that has  a
tendency to produce the  same form  of disease in others, whose
systems are in a Ioav condition of health.
   Causes of Cholera.—Whether cholera is, or is not, a contagious
disease, we know that  certain  classes of persons are far more sub-
ject to it than others ; and investigations of this kind are far more 
TREATMENT of  DISEASES  CONTINUED.         329
useful in a practical view, than those concerning the question of
contagion and non-contagion.
   Judging  from all the facts  of cholera, we  may lay down the
following axiom:  that whatever tends in any way to depress or de-
teriorate the general health of the individual, must necessarily render
the system more liable to an attack; and, growing out of this, ano-
ther axiom, that whatever tends to fortify and establish the  general
health of the individual, is  a natural means of enabling the system
to ward off the disease.
   These are self-evident principles, and cannot be too well remem-
bered or acted upon—not only with reference to cholera, but every
known malady, and especially diseases of epidemic  kind.
   Manner of an attack of Cholera.—If it is impossible to arrive at
the true nature of cholera, we may know and treat it by its effects.
Mark well one thing: in its beginning it is  in general a mild dis-
ease.  People  are  not  struck  down all of a sudden, as we  have
been often told, and without any premonitions of an attack.  There
must be a pre-existing disease.  If a person is in all respects  well,
and practices uniformly  good and regular  habits, no  attack  of
cholera  can come  upon  him.   There are people,  however,  Avho
are thought by themselves and the many to be perfectly well, avIio
are yet  among the subjects  most  liable to  cholera.  Corpulent
men, with red faces, high livers, the very personification of health,
as people  say, are  very liable to diseases of the bowels, and con-
sequently to cholera.  The truth is, such persons are never  well,
and  carry constantly within  them the seeds  of disease.  Facts
abundantly prove  that  no really healthy person can be  attacked
with cholera.
   There is, then, preceding the real attack of  cholera, a  diseased
condition of the stomach and boAvels—a state of things Avhich it is
possible, in almost  every conceivable  case,  to  manage safely, and
thus prevent the final invasion of the terrific disease.
   Symptoms of Cholera—first stage.—The symptoms of cholera,
as authors give them,  are  many and various.   As in all other
severe  diseases, there will be much variation in the manner of the
attack.   The disease has  been by some divided into three  stages.
After the mild diarrhoea, which has been generally  for some  days
present,  there  occur griping  pains in the stomach and  bowels,
nausea, tenesmus (or a  bearing down and desire to evacuate the
bowels, and without any effect); at other times there are watery 
330        TREATMENT OF  DISEASES  CONTINUED.

discharges from the boAvels; sometimes there is a thin, slimy dis-
charge, streaked Avith blood.   But  generally  the discharges are
not  attended Avith pain,  as in  dysentery, but take place with ease,
almost Avithout the consciousness of the patient.  It is said that
"in  the debilitated, and  especially in the intemperate, the evacua-
tions from the  boAvels are, from the first, often extremely copious,
whey-like, and  produce a sense of extreme exhaustion, a faintness,
or even fainting; and that in  such cases, in a very few hours, the
most terrible cramps, vomiting,  and  collapse come on."  Any im-
proper exposure, and especially any imprudence in  eating, drink-
ing,  or the taking of medicine,  will  in such cases accelerate the
coming on of the  second and third stages.  In the  first stage the
appetite  is  diminished or entirely gone, and the desire for  cold
water is proportionably  increased.   There are  also shooting pains
in the extremities,  particularly  the  calves of  the legs.   Patients
describe their symptoms  as of all the blood rushing to the interior
of the abdomen; sometimes feeling as if electric shocks were pass-
ing  through the  bowels, accompanied with very  great and unen-
durable heat.
   Second stage.—In what may be termed the  second stage, there
is almost constant vomiting and purging of what has been denomi-
nated " rice-water fluid."   This turbid,  whitish liquid, " pours again
and  again from the bowels in streams, and is spouted from the
mouth as  if from a pump."  The vomiting itself is generally easy,
and  comparatively without effort, and appearing to give momentary
relief.  Again,  there are  violent pains of the stomach and bowels,
and  of the head and back, with violent spasms  of the muscles, and
more especially of the extremities.
  The pain, we are told  by those who  haAre seen  much of the dis-
ease, often causes the  most courageous  to make noisy outcries, and
to roll themselves about as if frantic.   The agony about the heart
often experienced  in cholera,  is  believed to be  as great as that of
any which mankind are  ever brought to endure.   In consequence
of this agony, there comes on necessarily such  extreme weakness
that  the patient cannot move;  the trunk of the body in particular
becomes powerless.
  The  pulse may be  full, or small and contracted.   The  skin is
bathed in  a clammy  perspiration, and has a  peculiar  feel, like
dough.  Some have compared the skin in this state to a wet hide.
The  countenance  is  expressive  of  great  anxiety and distress. 
TREATMENT  OF DISEASES  CONTINUED.        331
although the mental faculties remain unimpaired.  Already in this
stage the secretion of the kidneys often entirely ceases; the thirst
is inordinate—so great, in some instances, that the patient gets out
of bed, goes to the pump, or Avherever he may obtain water, and
sometimes even drinks the fluid Avhich he has before vomited.  In
no disease is the thirst so great as in cholera.
   Stage of Collapse.—Next comes the stage of collapse, as it is
called.  A remarkable change takes place in the appearance of the
patient.  The  surface becomes cold, and in many instances blue;
the lips are  purple, the tongue cold, and of the color of lead.  The
wrist becomes  pulseless.  The breath is also  cold; the  eyes are
sunk deep in their sockets, and the whole appearance has changed
and  become  ghastly as that of a corpse.   In many instances so
great a change takes place in a few hours, that near  friends cannot
recognize the sufferer.   The peculiar appearance of the  physiog-
nomy in confirmed cholera, is so expressive of extreme anguish, that
the name "triangular face" has  been used to designate it.   "It
bears a striking resemblance to the appearance of age ; and seems
to arise from the paleness, wasting, and shrinking of the features,
and the depressed and disturbed  state of the mind, conveying into
the countenance a strong expression of care, anxiety, and alarm."
— Orton, as quoted by Dr. las. Johnson.
  There is cold,  profuse perspiration, which  seems to exude in
large drops from every pore ;  and, notwithstanding  this coldness,
the patient  complains of the burning heat at the  stomach, and
craves more  than ever cold water, and  the cool fresh air.  The
watery discharges from the boAvels continue ;  " the hands and fin-
gers are shriveled, Avhite, corrugated, and  sodden, like those of a
washerwoman after a long day's Avork.  The voice is  very peculiar,
husky, and faint.   At last the patient is free from pain and vomit-
ing,  and remains  apparently  tranquil;  not willing to make the
least exertion, and as if quietly awaiting the approach of death."
Such are the symptoms  constituting  what is termed a  state of
collapse.  The symptoms will, of course, vary greatly in different
cases ; sometimes  coming on  very suddenly, almost without any
warning ; at other times lingering for days.*

  * Broussais thus describes the " exterior" symptoms of cholera:
  " The muscles are strongly marked under the skin ; the eyes are hollow,
dry, and sunken; after some hours, the consistence of the eyeball seems to
be dissolved;  and one would say the eyes were turned inward by means ol 
332         TREATMENT  OF  DISEASES CONTINUED.
   If reaction or return of warmth  and  circulation appear in col-
lapse,  there is more hope for the patient;  and yet there is danger
from  consecutive  fever and kindred local affections ;   especially
where inordinate dosing  has been practiced,  this  holds true.  It
has been remarked, that Avhen inebriates passed into a state of re-
action folloAving collapse, they  Avere very  apt to  be attacked by
delirium  tremens, and Avere almost  certain  to  die.   I believe that
about  one half of all cholera patients in regular practice have per-
ished Avith the disease.
   Nature of Cholera.—The cholera is emphatically a disease  of
the mucous  or lining membrane of  the  stomach and boAvels.   This
internal skin, as it may be called, is  much larger in extent  than
would at first be  supposed.  Beginning at the mouth and throat,
descending, we have the oesophagus, stomach, duodenum or second
stomach, the jejunum, illeum, the  last three forming the small in-
testines ;  and the coecum, colon, and rectum,  comprising the large
intestine.  This  whole tract, upward  of  thirty feet in length,  is
lined with the mucous membrane, Avhich is  more than two thousand
square inches, or about thirteen square feet in extent.   It  is upon

a thread.   The aspect of the patient is hideous; the  face very soon loses its
fullness, and is contracted in a manner peculiar to these affections :  but what
causes the greatest astonishment, is the livid hue which spreads' itself over
the countenance as the disease advances.  The extremities are cold ; the
tongue is usually pale, chill, broad, and flat; the breath cold, and  the pulse
feeble; the words are rather breathed than pronounced.   The patient re-
mains motionless, on the back ; if you force them to lay upon the side, they
cannot continue so long, but beg to be laid on their back, so that the breast
may be raised.  While the body thus remains  still, they move the feet and
hands, uncover the breast, complain of a fire within, and tear off the poultices
and other warm applications placed  on the stomach;  they turn from one side
to the other, but are not able to rise up.  The  color becomes  darker and
darker, and is soon livid. It varies, however, according to  the natural com-
plexion of the patient.  Dark  complexions become black or bluish; but
those which are more transparent turn yellow, taking  the color of bad gilding.
This is followed by cessation of the  pulse, which I shall call asphyxy.   The
pulse grows weak rapidly, and sometimes disappears in three hours, or even
less.  As  soon as the pulse begins  to grow feeble,  the patient falls into the
heaviness I have referred to: there  are cases, however, in which he still pre-
serves his strength when the pulse is extinct, and is  even able to raise him-
self up, and go from one place to another; but this strength is soon lost, and
the unhappy  person falls powerless.  After the cessation of the pulse, the
black hue manifests itself with various rapiditr, sometimes at the end of two
or three hours, sometimes even in less; this depends upon the promptitude
with which circulation ceases." 
TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.         333
and through this great surface that the food is formed into chyme,
afterward chyle, Avhich last passes into the circulation and becomes
blood.   Effete and Avorn-out matters of the system are also throAvn
off  in  large  quantities through the  lower  part of this surface.
This extensive  membrane is also supplied in all its parts, with
myriads  of nervous filaments, and through* the ganglionic nervous
system is brought into a very intimate connection with every part
of the organism.   Upon and through this membrane, the cholera
manifests itself.   There is congestion (stagnation of blood)  in all
of the abdominal  organs ; but if we are to  regard the cholera a
disease of any one particular  part, it is the mucous membrane of
the alimentary  canal.
  There are  various theories among  pathologists as to  the true
nature of cholera.  Thus there is the nervous theory, so called—a
theory implying that the nervous system, or the nervous fluid—of
which  so much is said and so  little known—is wholly at  fault.
Another theory is that of congestion; and still another, that of
acute inflammation.   Whichever of  these theories  a practitioner
may adopt, or  whether he adopt no theory  at  all, he must treat
the disease according to the  symptoms as he finds them.  All the
most  ingenious theorizing in the world will avail  him nothing,
when he  comes to undertake the serious matter of treating the
sick.   I  repeat,  every judicious  practitioner will  treat cholera
ACCORDING TO  THE SYMPTOMS  AS HE  FINDS  THEM  AT THE  TIME.
Moreover, whether he  be a theorizer or not, he must be,  to a con-
siderable extent, an experimenter, so difficult are many things in
the medical art.
  Orthodox  Practice in Cholera.—Dr. Elliotson, of London,  in
" Principles and Practice of  Medicine," says : "We are not  in the
least more informed as to the proper remedies, than  we were when
the first case  of cholera occurred ; we have not been instructed, in
the least,  by  those who have had the disease  to treat.  Some say
they have cured  the  disease by  bleeding ;  others by  calomel;
others  by opium; and others, again, say that opium does  harm.
No  doubt many  poor creatures have  died  uncomfortably, who
would  have died  tranquilly if nothing had  been done  to  them.
Some were placed in hot  water, or in hot air, and had opium and
calomel, and  c ther stimulants ;  which, altogether, were more than
their systems would bear, and more than would have been  borne
if they had been  so treated even in perfect health."   And  again 
    334        TREATMENT OF DISEASES CONTINUED.

 I   "lam sorry to say that, of the cases I had to treat, the patients
    nearly all died.   I  tried two or three sorts  of treatment.   Some
 j   had opium  and calomel, in large and  full doses ; but they died.
 /   Hot air Avas applied externally ; and I got two to breathe hot air.
 [   I had a tube passed through boiling water, so  that they might
 (   inhale hot air.  It was found vain to attempt to warm people  by
 (   hot ah applied externally.   They were nearly as cold as before;
 \   we could not raise their temperature ;  and therefore I thought of
 \   making them  breathe hot  air;  but both patients  died about the
 I   period that death  usually takes place.  It was said  that  saline
 \   treatment was likely to be  of use ; and I accordingly tried it Avith
 (   some patients.  At" first I exhibited half  a  drachm of sesquicar-
 /   bonate of soda every hour; and  thinking that it might not  be
    quite enough, I exhibited a drachm.  In one patient, at St. Thom-
 [   as's Hospital, I ordered an  injection containing  an ounce  of the
 )   same remedy; but the greater  part of it came away, and the pa-
 j   tient died.  Hot air was used in this case as  well as the others."
7   This quotation, from one of the most able  as well as most candid
/   of  all  medical authorities,  exhibits truthfully the state of the old
 \_ school as regards this dire  disease.
       Treatment of Cholera.—The diarrhoea which  so generally pre-
    cedes the real attack of cholera, should be treated  like any other
    diarrhcea, on general principles.  It would be better for  the indi-
    vidual to practice entire fasting  from all food—the  hunger-cure—■
    as  the Germans call it—until the diarrhoea  ceases.  The human
    body, as I have said, is composed  of  about  nine tenths  water, in
    its  best health ; therefore it is that pure water alone will  sustain it
    so Avonderfully for days and even weeks.   Barn-yard fowls, as be-
    fore remarked, when kept  without food, will not  survive  the ninth
    day if they have no water;  but with  water they will live more
    than twice as long—to the tAventieth day.   If you wish  to cure a
    diarrhoea safely, effectually, and without harm to the constitution,
    practice  fasting, and live on pure soft water until it ceases.   Then
    begin taking food with extreme caution; at the regular meal-times
    only, and an  exceedingly small quantity at  first.   Some will tell
    you that fasting  produces disease, but physiology and pathology
    prove that neither fasting nor starvation causes .any such  result.
 I   The individual who is  starved, having at  the same time water to
    drink, dies of mere inanition,  and not of organic disease.
    — According to the Graefenberg plan, the  cold hio bath,  cold wa- 
            treatment of  DISEASES  CONTINUED.        335

ter drinking, injections, pure fresh air, and the famous wet girdle
of Priessnitz, are the means to be used ;  and these may be em-
ployed in connection with the  fasting recommended.
   The great thirst  in  cholera  is one of  the most  troublesome
symptoms, and,  according to  all experience, it is one of the most
grateful  things imaginable for the patient to be  allowed all the
cold Avater he desires.   There is no disease in which thirst is so
great—none in which so much cold water is drank.   Some thought
that cold water did harm in certain  cases.   So it  might, if the
water was hard and bad, or if  the patient had been kept long from
it, or, especially, if he had  been over-drugged.   In all cases  of
inward feverishness and thirst, it is of the greatest importance that
the water be pure and soft.   If people would take half  the pains
respecting  water that  they  do in obtaining tea and coffee, they
might have at least an  abundance of filtered  rain water, which is
always a luxury, and remarkably favorable to health.
   In 1831 and 1832, the practitioners of Europe and this country
did not agree upon this matter; at  least, not for a time at first.
But at length the large majority came to believe in the free use of
water and ice internally, to gratify the longings for drink.  But
there is a reason why some men might make a mistake  in regard
to their  conclusion,  as  to whether the ad libitum  use  of Avater
internally were  safe in  cholera; it is  this : in certain states and
conditions  of the stomach and  alimentary canal, water appears to
increase vomiting.  Thus I  can conceive that a  cholera  patient
would often be made to vomit worse on taking water, especially if
it had been withheld from him.  But  we are not to infer from this
that the water  is necessarily  bad.  In poisoning, for instance, a
patient may drink and  vomit gallons of water, and yet  when the
offending cause is removed, the vomiting ceases.  Causing a seda-
tive  effect upon  the stomach—and water is one of the most effect-
ual of all  means possible by  which to bring about this indication
—is the best  possible means of, finally arresting vomiting from
whatever cause.   Give the patient, from the first, all the cold wa-
ter he desires, and the stomach will take care of its own  vomiting.
Small pieces of  ice held  constantly in the mouth, and often swal-
lowed, is believed by many the best mode of managing this symp-
tom.  The most judicious rule, I think, would be to consult the pa-
tient's inclination.  I should not fear to let him drink all he desired;
if the vomiting were increased at first, that would be no  harm. 
336        TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.

  The drinking of water and the use of ice internally—any thing,
in short, that produces  a  sedative effect upon the  abdominal or-
gans—Avill tend to, arrest the vomiting and  discharges from the
bowels.  Bathing  also has the same effect, but more particularly
the long-continued cold  hip bath.   This is Priessnitz's great means
of arresting all unnatural discharges from the bowels.  Meantime,
also, cold injections are  to be used.   These cause  a  constringing
effect, and act, also, as a tonic to the general system.  All internal
applications of  cold water act by dilution as well as  coolness,
rendering morbid matters  less acrid, and, by the Avater-purging, it
also carries off these  humors of disease.   The Avet girdle Priess-
nitz uses  between the periods of the hip bath.  This is, at least,
three yards of good heavy linen toweling, one half its whole length
wet, to come next the surface, and all Avell wrapped about the ab-
domen.  It is a great tonic  to the general system, as Avell as as-
tringent to the stomach  and  boAvels, in arresting the discharges.
  Vomiting by Avater may be serviceable in cholera.  Some prac-
titioners  have observed, strange as  it may appear, that emetics
serve to arrest vomiting in  this disease.  Vomiting by means of
water—that is, vomiting caused by drinking quickly a large quan-
tity of blood-warm water—a quart or more—is often very useful
in derangements of the stomach and bowels.   Spasms of the stom-
ach I have known arrested immediately by this simple remedy.   I
am confident that  a thorough cleansing of the stomach with luke-
warm water in  this way, would often be  a most excellent remedy
in the early stages  of  cholera.  Vomiting  thus   practiced, acts
partly by removing offensive matters from the stomach, partly by
promoting a better circulation toward the surface, and partly by
inducing a healthful perspiration upon the skin.   This  is a per-
fectly safe remedy, and is certain of doing some good.   In fits of
dyspepsia  caused  by surfeiting, the vomiting  will be  found  most
excellent.  This advice  may apply especially to those who cannot
control their appetites,  but  would rather feast and gorge  them-
selves, even at the expense of health.
   All the internal applications, when  properly made,  do much
good, by supplying serum for the blood.  The great and copious
discharges from the stomach and bowels rob the blood, with most
fearful rapidity, of its watery part.  Water, by drinking and by
injections, as well as  externally applied, goes directly to  make up
this deficiency;  and hence the great benefit from  the free use of 
            TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.        337

water in this disease.   It  is to be remarked, also, ihat the greater
the thirst, the more rapidly is water absorbed into the circulation
by the mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels.
  Experience proves—those tell  us who have had the disease to
treat—that  heat externally applied, is productive of no benefit.
It does no good  to attempt to warm the patients.   The general ef-
fect  of heat is  to  debilitate; and  the fact that cholera patients
ahvays dread hot air and hot  baths,  is proof enough why these
should not be used; the constant desire in the active stages of the
disease is for coolness, fresh air, and cold water to drink.   I would
not be understood as saying, that heat internally applied, by means
of water, which produces at the  same time various other effects
than  merely those of heat, can  do  no good.  But the  desire for
coolness generally, in the active form of  the disease, is, beyond
doubt, the  normal indication of nature, such  as an animal would
naturally seek to gratify.
  Spasms  in cholera are best relieved by the vigorous application
of the rubbing wet sheet.  Have a linen sheet of good weight (but
cotton will  ansAver), wring it only  slightly out of  cold water, and
put it about the whole body, rubbing at the same time energetically,
over  the sheet and not with it.  This is a famous application for
bringing the blood to  the surface, and of relieving  spasms and
cramps from whatever  cause.   In three or four minutes the  sheet
becomes warm,  upon which it is again re-wet, and applied as be-
fore.   Water by this application becomes a great antispasmodic.
  It was found  in  the hospitals of Paris, that dry friction  alone
was   often  effectual  in quieting   spasms beyond  any ordinary
remedy; but wet friction is much the best.
   The cold perspiration in cholera may be greatly relieved, if not
wholly prevented, by  ablutions.  This is a symptom of debility,
and  the tonic effect of water to the skin is a  sure preventive.  In
the  night sweats of consumption, the same effects are caused by
baths.
   Priessnitz's treatment of Cholera.—In 1831, there was much
cholera about Graefenberg, considering the number of inhabitants
there.  Priessnitz cured, he tells  us, upward of twenty cases,
being all that he had the opportunity of treating.   He commenced
in the first stages of the disease, and treated the patient as follows:
they were subjected to a rubbing with a wet  linen sheet, in which
the  whole  body was Avrapped, and all  the parts of the  surface
              n 
338         TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.
Avere energetically rubbed  with it—that is, over the  sheet.  To
counteract the violent fits of nausea, much Avater Avas drank, so as
to produce vomiting;  after the rubbing, a cold Avater injection  and
a cold hip bath Avere employed, to counteract the diarrhoea;  and
while undergoing constant  rubbing  of the surface, the  patients re-
mained in the water till the  sickness and diarrhcea subsided.   After
the hip  bath  and rubbing, a Avet bandage  or  girdle  was placed
around the body,  upon which the patients Avent to bed; after
sleeping they Avere again put into  a cold bath.  Cold drinks  and
cold food only were taken  during the convalescence; and by these
means the disease was overcome.
   This appears like a very simple treatment; but it may be made
a most energetic  one, as  every  physician acquainted with such
applications can easily see.  The dripping sheet, with the brisk
rubbing  upon its  surface, is, as I have before said,  a  powerful
means of relieving spasms, arising from whatever cause.  The  dry
rubbing, which is not a tenth part as good as the wet, was found
in Paris  sufficient  to render calm and quiet  the  poor  sufferers,
when  the terrible  spasms were upon  them.  The  water drinking
and vomiting in nausea cleanses the  stomach, produces  a tonic
effect upon its internal surface, and thus forestalls the  vomiting in
cholera.   It  helps, moreover, to  cleanse the bowels and  prevent
the diarrhoea.  The deep,  cold hip  bath (for it is such  that Priess-
nitz uses), has a very powerful effect in constringing the opening
capillaries of  the  mucous  membrane of the stomach,  and  alimen-
tary canal generally,  and in arresting the vomiting and discharges
from the bowels.  Each and all  of these applications, if energeti-
cally persevered in, tend most powerfully to keep down  the inor-
dinate burning and thirst.
   Priessnitz  had not  been in  the  habit of practicing  warm water
vomiting.  I conversed much with  him respecting  all his modes
of using water, during a stay of nearly two months at Graefenberg,
last winter.   To seek vomiting as an effect, seemed never to have
been an object with him.   Even by drinking cold water, vomiting
sometimes comes on, but  not  often.  If  we  wish  to cause  that
symptom, as in cramps and distress arising from offending  matters
in the stomach or alimentary canabjjlood-warm water is by far the
most speedy and effectual  in its action.  In reference to this mode,
Priessnitz remarked,  that  he would do no violence to the system.
I told him I had practiced it in many instances, in cases of old and 
TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONTINUED.         339
very feeble persons, and  that  the  result was always  apparently
good.  On reflection, he admitted that the remedy must be a good
one.  I will here remark, that if there is heat and thirst, the Avater
should always be used  cold,  although  the blood-warm will do
much good even then.
   Here let it be understood, I do not  claim a great deal for Priess-
nitz's experience in cholera.  He is a most candid man, and one
that would not, for his right hand, mislead the world in so impor-
tant a matter as treating the sick.   He never fails to  tell us that
his cholera cases were taken in  the very beginning of the disease.
At the same time, however, he  affirms that the water treatment is
incomparably the  best mode that can be adopted in all stages of
the disease.
   The Persian  Treatment.—The Persian  treatment  of cholera,
as given by Dr. Scouttetten, in some respects resembles that of
Priessnitz.   It is thus given :
   " The following account will  give an idea of the mode of treat-
ment at Baku, which contains  12,000 Persians and 800 Russians.
The treatment commenced at  the moment of the attack.  From
the first symptoms the patients  were undressed, even in  the streets,
and then cold affusions were applied.  The extremities, the trunk,
and particularly the chest and the shoulders, were rubbed and
shampooed, and the contracted  limbs  were extended.
   " These manipulations were performed  for two or three  hours by
a dozen persons, on the same individual, while the affusion of cold
water was continued.   Having  come home, he went to  bed, and a
warm tea was given him to produce perspiration;  if this appeared,
the patient was regarded as out of danger.  A strict regimen was
however enjoined for nine days ; only light soups  of rice and of
tender meats were allowed, and  he  was  recommended  to  take
moderate  exercise in the open air daily.  Arrangements  Avere
made by the authorities so well, that vessels of water Avere placed
at the corners of the  streets,  and even on the  roads.  No one
passed the night alone.   When a person was attacked  with the
cholera in the street, all the by-standers  attended to him; every
one ran to him with vessels of water in their hands, and when one
was  tired  of  rubbing another,  took his  place.   If a person was
taken sick at his  house, assistance was asked and  immediately ob-
tained."
  All who are acquainted with the water-cure of Priessnitz, will 
340        TREATMENT  OF DISEASES  CONCLUDED.

see at once that the cold affusions often repeated, in connection
with  the friction and shampooing of the surface, Avould have a
very  powerful effect in bringing the blood toward that part, in
relieAing the  spasms, preventing the internal  heat and distress,
arresting the vomiting and discharges, supporting the strength ; in
short, in warding off every symptom of the  disease.   The nine
days' strict regimen, also, was  most excellent; although soups,
especially of flesh meat, are not the best in  such  cases.  As to
the warm drink, that is a  small matter,  even if not the best.  One
thing is certain, the Persian patients could not have longed much
for cold water and fresh air while being subjected to so vigorous
an out-door treatment with cold water.
   Thus much  I have  considered necessary  to  say  on  cholera.
Those who desire to peruse a much more detailed account of the
disease, are referred to my lectures on the subject.
                      CHAPTER XX.

            TREATMENT OF  DISEASES CONCLUDED.

Hemorrhages.—General Principles of Treatment.—Bleeding from the Lungs.—How to
 be Treated.—Bleeding from the Bowels.—Mode of Treatment.—Haemorrhage from the
 Womb.—This is to be Treated on the same general Principles as all Haemorrhages.—■
 Nose Bleed.—Modes of  Curing it.—Paronychia, Whitlow, and  Felon.—Causes of the
 Disease, and Treatment.—Earache.—How to be Treated.—Toothache, and its Cure.

                         HAEMORRHAGES.
  Haemorrhages, or bleeding coming from the lungs, stomach,
bowels, etc., are  all  to be treated on the same  general principles.
We cannot  always tell from  what part the blood issues;  but we
need not, for that reason, be at a loss how to proceed in the treat-
ment.

                  BLEEDING  FROM THE LUNGS

Is the most common  form of internal haemorrhage.  The treat-
ment may be conducted as follows:  In a  case that is at all  alarm-
ing, the quick  and  thorough chilling of the system, and particu- 
TREATMENT OF  DISEASES  CONCLUDED.         341
larly the chest, should be practiced.  The whole chest should, as
quickly as  possible, be  covered with, thick linen  cloths, dripping
wet in the  very coldest water that can be obtained.  Pounded ice,
or snow, if these can be had, are more effectual.   They should be
placed immediately upon the skin.  Thoroughly chilling the neck
is good, at the same time.   Professor  Elliotson, of London, a man
of very great experience, observes, that it is surprising how pa-
tients  bear cold in this disease.   He  had never known a case to
be injured  in this way.
   The patient must be kept as comfortable as possible, after the
bleeding is arrested.  Food must be very light.   Drinking freely
of the coldest water should be practiced at the first of the attack.
   By physicians of the ordinary or old practice, bleeding is much
relied upon, in cases that will bear it.   But, generally, the symp-
tom occurs in those of frail, weak systems.  Such can poorly with-
stand this  formidable means.   Many are killed by it, and, in not a
few cases,  a severe relapse is caused by the so-called remedy.

               HAEMORRHAGE  FROM THE BOWELS.
   The treatment  here  consists mainly of the same as in haemor-
rhage  from the lungs, except that the local applications are to be
made  over the bowels instead of the  chest.  Prolonged cold hip
baths  will  here be very useful.   The wet girdle  should  also be
worn to invigorate the affected parts.

                HAEMORRHAGE FROM THE WOMB.
   This is to be treated on the  same general principles as haemor-
rhage from the bowels.   In all these cases nothing is to be feared
from the  effects  of cold.  There is always too much heat in the
part from  which the blood escapes.

                          NOSE  BLEED.
   Every one knows the good effects of cold in this trifling, though
sometimes dangerous affection.  Placing a cold key in the neck
will often arrest the haemorrhage.  A piece of ice, or pouring cold
water in the neck, is still better.   Cold  water may be snuffed up
the  nostrils.  Also, wash the face and neck, and the whole body,
if need be, in cold water.  The  foot bath  is very useful in this
complaint. 
342        TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONCLUDED.


              PARONA'CHIA, WHITLOW,  OR FELON.
  The word paronychia is derived  from two Greek Avords, signi-
fying "near" "the nail."   This name was given anciently to  an
inflammation seated near this  part, generally of the fingers, but
sometimes of the toes.  It may be  seated quite near the surface,
but is generally deeper, and often between the periosteum, or en-
veloping membrane of the bone, and the bone itself.  The disease
is generally known by  the name of whitlow, or felon, the latter
being the more common name, especially when it is severe.
   Mechanical injuries appear  sometimes to cause  the disease.  It
comes on oftener, however, apparently Avithout any exciting cause.
As far as the writer's observation extends, the disease attacks only
persons  whose general health is not  good.  Such, at least, ap-
pears to be  the general rule.
   As this is one of the most  painful  affections to which we are
subject,  the  treatment is no unimportant matter.  There is an old
woman's remedy which we will first mention,—one which is said
sometimes to have effected a cure,  especially if it  is taken early.
A vessel of weak  lye is placed upon embers or a hot stove.  The
part affected is immersed in the liquid of a moderate temperature,
which is gradually raised to  as high a heat as can possibly  be
borne, so that the part is quite " par-boiled."  We do not doubt
but that such a mode  will, in some cases, at once  destroy the in-
flammation.  Probably pure water, used without  the  lye, would
be fully as good.
   But, sometimes the inflammation may go on in spite of all ordi-
nary means.  What then is to be done?   The mode, according
to  surgery,  is freely to open the part.   Lay it open for some dis-
tance beyond the tenderest part,  deep down to  the  very bone.
Thorough work  must  be made of it the first time,, for patients
never let us make the  second attempt.   In some instances, at  the
 urgent request of patients, we have resorted to the knife, but we
 confess  we would not allow it to be used upon ourselves;  we
 should prefer keeping the part free from pain, and letting it take
 its course.   We believe keeping it  constantly immersed in ice-cold
 water would form the most effectual means of arresting the inflam-
 mation and preventing its raising to  a head; and that this  mode
 is certain to quell doAvn the pain most effectually, every one who
 has the opportunity may test  for  himself.   This is an  affection in 
TREATMENT OF  DISEASES  CONCLUDED.         343
which Ave have a perfect demonstration of the great power of cold
water to quell pain.  Severe as it may be, we immerse the part
in very cold water, when, all  at once, the  pain  grows  less and
soon  dies aAvay.   Keep it thus immersed, taking care to keep  the
water very cold, and the pain does not return.  We  lately  had a
case in which a physician's skill had been exhausted, and for days
the patient could get no sleep.  But by having a large  bowl of
cold  water at his bed-side,  and keeping his  hand  immediately
therein, he  could sleep as well  as any one, and keeping the bad
finger thus  constantly cool, he soon  got Avell.

                           EARACHE.
   This disease, although considered a small  affair, is not always
free  from  danger, and  is more liable to be attended with serious
results than toothache.   It has the  same causes as inflammations
in general.
   Treatment.—As in all other  aches, arising from inflammation,
the patient should practice perfect and entire abstinence  from all
food (even though  it should require days, although that would
seldom be  necessary), until  all  pain is gone.   Water of course is
to be drank as thirst demands.   The great poultice, the wet  sheet,
is here  good.  Vapor baths  and sweating  are,  in severe  cases,
likewise beneficial.   The moist  compress over the whole side of
the head and neck is useful.   Then  having this covered  by flannel,
 with a warm brick or bottle of  water against it on going to rest,
 seems in many cases to  be one of the  best things  that can  be
 done, and sometimes better than the cold.  Washing  and rubbing
 the side of the face, neck, and back of the ear, violently, will  be
 found serviceable.  A general bath will  often arrest this di-sease.
 While I was  at Graefenberg the  past  Avinter (1847-8), a little
 fellow,  about four  years of age, undergoing  the  treatment, was
 attacked severely with the earache.  For this Priessnitz ordered
- the  head bath, to be taken on  the side affected,  the water to be
 slightly tepid, that is, to have the extreme chill taken off, it being
 very cold.   This was to be taken as long and often as necessary.
 It very soon arrested the pain.  The treatment  was commenced
 near evening.   Patient had no supper.   He had  for the night a
 wet  bandage over the ear and side of  the  head, covered  with a
 dry  one;  also a little wet lint  within the ear.  The  little  fellow
 slept well, and in the morning  the ear broke and the  matter ex- 
344        TREATMENT  OF DISEASES CONCLUDED.

uded.  In the afternoon again, the other ear commenced aching,
and  the  same treatment  was practiced, and Avith like success aa
before.
                         TOOTHACHE.
  Cold water, taken  in the  mouth, every one knows, sometimes
causes the  toothache ; especially Avith  those who are in the habit
of using hot and stimulating food and drinks.  So, likewise,  it is
known that holding very cold water in the mouth for a continu-
ance, changing  it frequently, will  often arrest the  toothache, for
the time at least.
  Priessnitz's usual mode is as follows: Tepid water is held  in
the  mouth  until it begins to grow warm, when it is  changed;
at the same time the face, cheeks,  neck, and parts behind the ears
are rubbed violently with the hands, which are dipped frequently
in very cold water.   It is  well also to rub the gums till they bleed
smartly.  Sometimes it is necessary to add cold shallow foot baths.
Captain  Claridge says, that  while at  Graefenberg he  never  saw
toothache resist this  treatment.   Those who are accustomed  to
cold  water, will find  that a powerful  douche, or any very cold
general bath, will be  very serviceable.   Walking  thinly clad  in
cold air is likewise a good means. 
APPENDIX.
         CHRONIC RHEUMATISM.—CASE OF COL. ROLPH.
              " A single fact is worth a shipload of argument."
  Something  upward  of  two years  ago, Col. J.  R. Rolph, of
Huntington, Long  Island,  wrote  us as follows for  publication in
the Water-Cure Manual:
                           Huntington, February  3d, 1847.
  Having been long afflicted with disease, and feeling  that Hydro-
pathy, with the blessing of God, has been the means of affording
me more relief than any other mode of treatment to which I have
ever resorted, I am induced to add to the multiplied cases of relief
which  the water-cure is effecting, my testimony as to  its results in
my own case.
  For the last fifteen years I have been almost constantly dyspep-
tic, and being a farmer of slender frame but laborious habits, I was
attacked four years since, after a season of uncommon toil  and  ex-
posure, with rheumatism.   This had been manifesting itself slightly
for some months, but not so severely as to cause any alarm until
mid-winter, when it became so severe that for several days I Avas
hardly able to get from one room to another.  This  was from
home.  In about ten days I was able to get home.  As I was
slowly improving, no physician was called in.   I continued to  re-
cover, so that in the spring I was  able to resume my occupation.
I soon found, however, that my rheumatic disease was manifesting
itself in other parts of the system, and it continued to spread until
I was unfit for labor; yet I  did  not yield to  the dictates of pru-
dence, but persevered, not merely  in active exercise, but  in hard
labor,  until by the close  of  the  season, instead of  exhibiting  the
sprightliness of a man of  thirty years, I presented the decrepitude
of approaching old age.  I now  made up my mind to rest from
              15* 
346
APPENDIX.
labor for a while, and try the effects of ease upon my complaint.
For  two years more I remained much as I had been for the year
past, the enemy seeming to have complete possession of my joints,
but sometimes shoAving himself  by affecting only the muscles, and
often my lameness  would be manifested in the most distant and
opposite parts at the same time, and often, as if by sympathy, the
corresponding joints or parts of my limbs would be affected exactly
alike at the same time.  During this time I often conversed with,
and frequently called  in my family physician, a man Avhom I shall
ever love for his  candor and honesty of purpose in treating me.
He haAing been long acquainted with my system and habits, was
frank to admit his  opinion  as  to  the  inefficacy of taking much
medicine.  I therefore confined  myself  principally to the applica-
tion  of domestic  treatment, such as  bathing the parts with warm
lotions, Avearing warm flannel, bandages, plasters, etc. ; and occa-
sionally, when my attacks were  severe, with  his  advice,  I applied
blisters, which usually appeared to produce good  effects.   Upon
the whole, my system appeared to be sinking.    I was constantly
dyspeptic, had an increasing sallowness of countenance, and my
energies seemed to be on  the decline.  I have ever been slow to
fall in  with what so many stand ready to call the delusions of our
day.    I  had heard and read of Priessnitz's new mode of treat-
ment, and it appeared at  first  like a mere chimera; but feeling
that  ordinary medicine was  not to give  me relief,  I gave  the water
treatment a little serious investigation, and after the strong recom-
mendations of friends, and tAvo or three  consultations with yourself
upon the subject, I concluded to make a trial of it, which I com-
menced at home.  I almost immediately began  to feel  the good
effects  of it.   But not believing that in this treatment every man
might  be his OAvn doctor, I  resolved to  put myself under the care
of some practitioner of the water-cure, and the time being in the ex-
treme heat of mid-summer, when a residence in the cities is almost
intolerable to countrymen, I resorted to an establishment in the
country, where I remained  five  weeks under almost  constant im-
provement of my lameness, and correction of my dyspeptic habits,
after which I returned home, and have kept up the treatment Avith
great success, following up  the system  of diet usually practiced at
the establishments, Avhich I consider an important aid to the treat-
ment, and would go far toward  preserving those who  are  already
healthy  from the need of  medical  treatment.  Although I am 

                          APPENDIX.                      347

almost entirely free  from any symptoms of rheumatism, yet I do
not consider  myself  well.  I have some trouble yet from dyspep-
sia, increased perhaps  by over-eating.  My appetite is  uniformly
good, my strength is constantly increasing, and I think it must be
said, to the praise of  water treatment, I have not had the slightest
cold this winter, although I have exposed  myself to the weather
every day without exception, and my clothing being much thinner
than what  I  have ordinarily worn in  winter.  Since my return
home, which is near six months, I have dismissed my cane, which
had  been  my constant companion for months  previous, and am
happy to say that I have not once felt the  need of  its  assistance.
My treatment has consisted of sitz baths, the douche, the rubbing
sheet, the wet sheet, wearing bandages constantly on  the body
and  parts mostly affected, and the  morning wash of  my whole
person never once omitted.   The forms of crisis in my  case have
been various and repeated, and I have even at present  one which
water-cure  patients hail  as  a harbinger of good.   I cannot  find
terms to express the  gratitude I feel  for the confidence in the  wa-
ter treatment which I obtained from consultations  with you,  and
for the strength of purpose which your  advice has given me to
persevere in it.                                     J. R. R.

   We will remark, that Col. Rolph commenced the treatment only
a few months since.  He is not one of those who are in the habit
of exaggeration, but speaks the facts as they are.  Although hav-
ing received so great benefit, Mr. R. has but just entered upon the
threshold of what he will yet experience.
   We published  the foregoing account by permission of our pa-
tient ; and we now refer to the case as  a very strong one for
hydropathy.  It was a very severe and obstinate one—one of the
Avorst cases  of chronic rheumatism  we have  ever known to be
cured.  Many persons with  cases of scarce half  the severity of
Col. Rolph's, however, will fail of cure for  want of perseverance in
the treatment.
   The colonel is  none of your " half-way" men, in whatever he
undertakes;  and  as  to how large a share of credit his  most esti-
mable wife has in the matter, would not perhaps be easy to define.
Getting up at 4 o'clock,  morning after morning, through a whole
tedious winter, and  putting her  crippled husband  in a cold wet
sheet, afterward  giving him a cold  bath,  and then commencing 
348
APPENDIX.
the routine of household duties, all this to be followed by the fore-
noon, and afternoon, and evening treatment, would certainly test
the patience of any devoted wife.  The husband ought to be the
wife's best nurse, and the wife the husband's; so it was in this case.
   Col. Rolph is now well and strong.  He has been so in fact for
nearly the whole time since the above account Avas written.   He
has groAvn, month by month, more hardy, and is, as he  says, as
well, to all appearances, as he ever was in his  life.  He  appears
decidedly younger, and more healthful and enduring, than  ever
before, since we have known him, a period of nearly three years.
   Chronic rheumatism, that has fixed itself  deeply  and firmly
upon the system, be it remembered, is ahvays a most difficult dis-
ease to cure.   It requires  more  patience,  self-denial,  and perse-
verance than most men possess.— Water- Cure Journal, May, 1849.
HYGIENIC HABITS AND OPINIONS OF HOWARD, THE PHILANTHROPIST.
  That Howard, the Philanthropist, was a great and pre-eminently
good  man, the world freely admits.   A knowledge, therefore, of
his hygienic habits and opinions concerning matters of health can
but be interesting to  every reflecting mind.
  Howard lived at a time very different from the present.  No
temperance reformation had gone  forth to shed its blessings upon
millions of the degraded and suffering of humanity; the hygienic
and medicinal virtues of cold water were comparatively unknown,
and almost every notion in the popular mind concerning  health
was an erroneous one.   Even at this day, in Howard's native coun-
try, it is believed by  the many that alcoholic drinks, such as wine,
porter,  etc.,  are not only harmless but positively  necessary,  in
order to enable the  human body to withstand fatigue and expo-
sure  to cold, and  to resist disease; and many pass through life
without scarce ever tasting of  pure cold water, much less to wash
the body in that element;  and  in the construction of dwellings, and
the habits  of dress, the  greatest pains are taken to avoid exposure
to cold  air, so injurious is it supposed to be.   Howard, as we shall
see, had the  sagacity to detect many of these  popular fallacies,
and recommended  his modes by example as well as precept.
  Howard was exposed to the influence of pestilence and disease
in its  most malignant forms, probably more than any other human 
APPENDIX.
349
being who has  ever  lived.   "This  man," says  one biographer,
"Aisited  all Europe, not to  survey the sumptuousness of  palaces,
or the stateliness of temples;  not to make accurate measurements
of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the cu-
riosities of  modern art;  not  to collect medals, or to collate manu-
scripts ; but to dive into the depths of dungeons;  to plunge into
the infection of hospitals ; to survey the mansions of sorrow and of
pain; to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and
contempt;  to remember the forgotten; to attend to the neglected;
to visit the forsaken;  and to compare and collate the  distresses of
all men in all countries."  "He traveled," says another, "between
fifty and sixty thousand miles, for the sole purpose of relieving the
distresses of the most wretched of the human race.   The fatigue,
the dangers, the privations  he underwent or encountered for the
good of  others, were  such as  no  one else was ever exposed to in
such  a  cause, and  such as few could have  endured.  He often
traveled several days  and.nights in succession, without stopping—
over  roads almost impassable, in weather the most inclement, and
with  accommodations the meanest and most wretched.  Summer
and Avinter, heat and cold,  rain and snow, in  all their extremes,.
failed alike to stay him for  a moment in his course: while plague,
and pestilence,  and famine, instead of being evils that he shunned,
were those with which he was  most  familiar;  and to many of
whose horrors, he voluntarily exposed himself, visiting the foulest
dungeons, filled with  mahgnant infection—spending forty days in
a filthy  and infected lazaretto—plunging into military encamp-
ments where the plague was committing its most frightful ravages
—and visiting where  none of his  conductors dared to accompany
him."
   Under such  circumstances, the habits of Howard were very sim-
ple, rigid, and abstemious in the extreme.  In all seasons he made
it a  point of the utmost  importance to practice  daily  bathing.
"Water,"  says Dr. Aiken, "was one of his  principal necessaries,
for he was a very Mussulman in his ablutions; and if  nicety had
place AAnth him in any  respect, it was in the  perfect cleanliness of
his whole person."   " These ablutions," says another (Dr. Brown),
" he  regularly performed in the depth of the coldest winter, by
plunging into  a bath whenever he  had the  opportunity of doing
so—and when he had  not, he would frequently lay himself doAvn
for  some  considerable  time between  two sheets, wet for the ex- 
350
APPENDIX.
press purpose of communicating to his body the desirable degree
of cold."  According to another author, "both on rising and going
to bed, he often SAvathed himself in  coarse  toAvels, Avet with the
coldest water; in that state he remained half an hour, or more,
and  then  threw them off, freshened and invigorated, as he said,
beyond measure."  He never used a great-coat, Ave are told, even
Avhen in the coldest countries.  For many of the last years of his
existence,  he tasted neither flesh, fish, or fowl;  and near the close
of his life, he wrote in  his  diary, "I am firmly persuaded, as to
the health of our bodies, that herbs and fruits will sustain nature,
in every respect, far beyond the best flesh!"  So  prudent Avas he
of time, that he strenuously avoided  dining parties, nor would he
sit when taking his simple meal of tea, milk, and rusks.
  On becoming  acquainted with these singular habits of HoAvard,
one would naturally be led  to suppose that his constitution must,
from the first, have been a  strong one, capable of enduring great
exposures and fatigue.  Such, however, is not the fact.  He was,
when young, as  he himself tells us, of very feeble  health.
  Some of his peculiar habits and opinions appear in a quotation
from Pratt's Gleanings (1796), as follows:
  "Some days  after his  first return from an attempt to mitigate
the plague at Constantinople, he favored me  Avith  a  morning visit
to London.   The weather was so very terrific, that  I  had  forgot
his  inveterate exactness, and had yielded up the hope of expecting
him.   Twelve at noon was the hour, and  exactly  as  the  clock
struck,  he entered my room; the wet—for it rained in  torrents—
dripping  from every part of his dress, like water from  a sheep
just  landed from its washing.  He would  not  have attended to
his  situation, having sat himself down with the utmost composure,
and begun conversation, had I not  made an offer of dry clothes.
'Yes,' said he,  smiling, 'I had  my  fears, as I knocked at your
door, that Ave should go over the old business of apprehension
about a little rain  water, which, though it does  not run off my
back as it does  from that of a duck, does me as little injury, and
after a long drought is scarcely less refreshing.   The coat that  I
have on has been  as often wetted through  as  any duck's in the
world, and indeed gets no  other cleaning.   I assure you, a good
soaking shower  is the best brush for  broadcloth.  You, like the
rest of my friends, throw away your pity upon my supposed hard-
ships with just  as much  reason as you commiserate the common 
APPENDIX,
351
beggars, who, being familiar with storms, necessity, and nakedness,
are a thousand times (so forcible is habit) less to be compassioned
than the sons and daughters of ease and luxury, who, accustomed
to all the  enfeebling refinements of feathers by night and fires by
day, are taught to shiver at a breeze.   All  this  is the work of art,
my good friend; nature is  intrepid, hardy, and adventurous; but
it is  a  practice to spoil her with indulgences from the moment we
come into  the world.  A soft dress and soft cradle begin our edu-
cation  in luxury, and we do not  grow more manly the more we
are gratified; on the contrary, our feet must tread upon carpets,
breathe, as it were, in fire, and fear the least change in the wea-
ther.   You  smile,' said  Mr. Howard, after  a pause, 'but  I am a
living instance of the truths I insist on.  A more puny youngster
than myself was never seen.  If I wet my  feet  I was sure to take
celd.   I could  not put on my shirt without its being aired.  To
be serious, I am convinced that what  emasculates the body debili-
tates the mind, and renders both unfit for those exertions which
are of such use to us as social beings.   I therefore entered upon a
reform of  my constitution,  and have succeeded in such a  degree
that I haAre neither had a  cough, cold, the vapors, nor any more
alarming disorder, since I  surmounted the seasoning.  Formerly,
mulled wines, and spirits, and great fires, were to comfort me, and
to keep out the cold, as it is called; the perils of the day were to
be baffled by something taken  hot on  going to  bed ; and before I
pursued my  journey the next  morning, a  dram was to be swal-
loAved to fortify the stomach!   Believe me,' said Mr. Howard, ' we
are too apt to invert the remedies which we ought to prescribe for
ourselves.   Thus we are for ever giving hot things when we should
administer cold.  We bathe in hot instead of cold water, we use a
dry bandage when we should use a wet one, and we increase our
food and  clothing when we should,  by degrees, diminish both.
If we  should trust more to Nature, and suffer her to  apply her
own remedies  to  cure her own diseases, the formidable catalogue
of maladies  would be reduced to one half, at least, of their present
number.' "
   Concerning the  treatment of  certain diseases, and of the most
fatal kind, Avhich  Howard's mode  of  life  brought  him much in
contact with, his opinions were as singular, and as much opposed
to the prevailing notions of the  times in which he lived,  as were
those concerning the preservation  of  health.   He had,  moreover; 
352
APPENDIX.
as might well be expected from his great energy of character, re-
markable  success in his treatment of those diseases; and he was
often called upon to prescribe in sickness, by those Avho kneAV him.
in preference to regularly bred  physicians; and, indeed, the ma
lignant fever which terminated his existence, was caught Avhile he
was thus  engaged in relieving the  sick.   From the best accounts
we have, it appears his modes of treatment were very simple, and
that he depended mainly upon the  natural means of water, air,
exercise, and diet.  Respecting the best modes of preserving and
invigorating the general health,  amid the infection of hospitals
prisons, etc.,  Howard remarked as follows :
   " I have frequently been asked," says this distinguished philan-
thropist, " Avhat precautions I used to preserve myself  from infec-
tion  in the prisons  and hospitals Avhich I visit.  I here answer
once for all, that next to the free goodness and mercy of the Au-
thor of my being, temperance and cleanliness are my preservatives.
Trusting in Divine Providence, and believing myself in the way of
my duty, I visit the most noxious cells, and while thus employed,
I fear no  evil.  I  never  enter a hospital or a prison before break-
fast, and in an infected room I seldom draw my breath deeply."
   On his arrival at Scio, Howard Aisited a very convenient hospi-
tal for lepers, the  only one  he had ever  seen; and Avith his usual
attention  to health and  cleanliness, persuaded the vice-consul to
recommend the directors to  add a bath for each six persons.
   Before he left England for the last time, Howard promised the
much-lamented  Dr. Currie  that  he would make more  particular
inquiries  in regard to the  empirical use  of  cold water  in the
plague, for in the  raging frenzy  attending this dire disease,  some
sailors at Constantinople had thrown themselves into the sea, and
on being taken out, recovered—a happy temerity, as Dr. Currie
says, not  imitated  by the regular practitioners.
   Such were some of the hygienic habits and opinions of Howard,
the Philanthropist.  We do not contend that all his  practices
were the  best that could be, but  that, on the whole, he Avas far in
advance of the age.   His good sense and energy of character led
him, in  many  respects,  to practice in  direct  opposition to the
opinions of the world.   In  the  treatment  of   some of the  most
loathsome and intractable forms of disease, he  was proverbially
more successful than medical men.   It is much to be  regretted,
however, that he  erred in regard to the use of tea.   He was led, 
APPENDIX.
353
no doubt, to believe, as thousands have done, that the stimulation
caused by the article was actual strength ;  and thus his health was
materially injured, and life shortened;  but, on the whole, we can
but admire much the  good practical sense and habits of this truly
great and good man.
                   HYDROPATHIC LACONICS.
  1. At all times  and seasons hydropathy may be practiced with
the most certain advantage; but Autumn, Winter, and Spring are
the best seasons for carrying out the treatment most effectively.
  2. It is general  disorder which first produces  local disease—and
it is therefore  the restoration of the  general health which must
constitute  the first  step toward the removal of local disease.
  3. In treating chronic  diseases, the  effect  of the hydropathic
method is an exaltation of the general health and strength.
  4 " Many persons of  great experience practice well empirically
(this is Priessnitz's case) Avithout much brains or reasoning;  but
he Avho begins upon principle, and then profits by experience, must
become a much more skilful practitioner."—Billing's First Prin-
ciples of Medicine.
  5. "The cure of all diseases must be effected by the powers of
the living  system.   Remedies are merely to be employed with the
view of placing the body under the most favorable circumstances
for resisting disease."—Dr. G.  Gregory's Theory and Practice of
Medicine.
   6. Pregnancy is no obstacle to the hydropathic treatment; on
the contrary, by improving the  health and strength, a modified
employment of this treatment facilitates parturition, diminishes the
severity and danger of labor, and prevents  any great degree of
subsequent  weakness, and  diseases  consequent upon that weak-
ness.   Mrs. Priessnitz,  a small, delicate woman,  invariably prac-
tices it both immediately before and immediately after confinement,
and occasionally during the whole term of gestation.
   7.  "In how few cases of indigestion is  the stomach itself  first
diseased,  though  dyspepsia is a most convenient word,  and the
poor  stomach  is blamed for faults  not its own!"—Dr. Billing's
* By Dr. Edward Johnson. 
354
APPENDIX.
First Principles of Medicine.  The fault consists in debility of the
nervous system.
  8. In some forms of disease enough of the hydropathic remedy
may be carried out at the patient's OAvn house—but in those cases
Avhich  require  the full treatment, with all  its  various adjuncts, it
can only be carried out safely and successfully in the vicinity of a
hydropathic  establishment, where  the patient  is constantly under
the eye of the practitioner.
  9. There can be no danger in going into  a cold bath while per-
spiring—first, because it has  been practiced by Priessnitz on thou-
sands of patients, for twenty years, and no single instance of mis-
chief has ever been observed  to arise from it.   Secondly,  it has
been the habitual custom of the Russians since time immemorial,
and  no danger  has been  observed to attend it.   Thirdly, the  lower
classes of society are  constantly exposed to be drenched to the
skin, almost daily, during the rainy months, while they are covered
with perspiration, arising from  their several out-of-doors employ-
ment,  and  no evil has been  observed to accrue from it; on the
contrary, they suffer less from disease than the  classes above  them.
  10.  "The physician, carrying his knowledge into the streets and
highways of life, has labored assiduously (the lancet in  one hand
and quinine  in  the other) to arrest decay when hurrying forward
with a too fatal precipitancy."—Dr.  Gregory.
  "The lancet in one  hand," says Dr. Gregory, "and quinine in
the other"—these being  the two great engines of  relief in acute
and chronic diseases—the lancet, to lower the pulse in acute dis-
eases, and quinine, to strengthen the system in chronic.   Both these
effects are'  produced hj the  right application  of the hydropathic
treatment.   The continued application of cold in acute diseases, as
by the cold bath  or wet blanket or  sheet, for several hours, will
lessen and  lower the pulse even to a thread.  While the occasional
use  of the bath, accompanied by exercise, exposure  to the air,
simple  diet, early hours,  and all the other  adjuncts of the  treat-
ment,  will strengthen and harden the system to a degree infinitely
beyond that which can be obtained by any other means whatever.
Thus  it supplies  the  place of the two grand  engines of the old
practice—viz.,  quinine and the lancet.
   11.  Physical man is an impressible mass of matter destined to
perform certain actions (both internal and external) in obedience to
the  impressions made upon him by certain  impressing causes. 
APPENDIX.
355
 When the impressing  causes  are  right, the impressions will be
 right,  and the actions performed in obedience to those impressions
 right also.   This is  health.   When the  impressing causes  are
 wrong, the  impressions will  be wrong,  and the actions  resulting
 from those impressions  wrong also.  This is disease.
   To substitute right impressing causes  for wrong ones, therefore,
 is to substitute right impressions  for Avrong ones, and  this is to
 substitute right actions for wrong  ones—and this is to remove the
 causes of disease.
   When wrong impressing causes have been removed, and right
 ones substituted, there is within the living body a restorative or
 curative  principle, which will remove the wrong impressions made
 by the Avrong  impressing  causes.   To  remove  wrong impressing
 causes, therefore, and to  substitute right ones, is to  cure disease.
 But disease can never be cured while the wrong impressing causes
 which produced it are suffered to continue to operate.
   12.  A satisfactory explanation of the  essential nature  or proxi-
 mate cause of a common cold has never  been given.   Liebig's
 theory of a mutual  and equal resistance between the vital force
 and destructive force of oxygen explains it clearly.  What are the
 symptoms of an  ordinary cold ?   Defluxion from  the nose—sore
 throat—hoarseness—cough—sneezing—and a sense of  soreness
 over the whole surface of the body.  What are the parts affected
 by these symptoms?  The schneiderian  membrane lining the*nose
 —the parts of the throat near  the root of the tongue—the air-pas-
 sages leading to the lungs—and the skin.   Why are these parts,
 in especial, first affected, when  a man has taken cold,  in preference
 to  others ?   Because these are the parts of the body with which
 the oxygen of the  air  must necessarily come in contact before it
 can possibly enter the body so  as to reach the internal organs.   It
 happens  thus: a continued  stream of cold air, or continued  ex-
 posure to wet, while the body  is inactive—or excessive fatigue, or
 any other debilitating cause—first lowers the tone and diminishes
 the  resistance of the vital  force throughout the whole body, thus
 giving a  preponderance to the action of oxygen over the resistance
 offered by the vital force.  And as the oxygen must first come in
 contact with the skin, nostrils, throat, and air-passages leading to
 the  lungs, before it can reach the  internal organs (these being the
 inlets by which alone it can gain admission within the citadel), these
»jfe, therefore, precisely the parts  on which, if Liebig's theory be 
856
APPENDJX,
true, its destructive agency ought first to be exerted;  and these are
the parts on.which  it is first exerted—and inflammation of these
parts ought, to be the first manifestation of an undue intensity in
the action of  oxygen;  and inflammation of these parts is the first
manifestation of that undue intensity.
  If the effect of the debilitating causes in lessening  the resistance
of the vital force have not been very great, then the  vis medicatrix
naturae, or restorative principle, will restore  the  equilibrium be-
tween  the  resisting  energy of the vital force  and the  destructive
influence of oxygen, and thus remedy the mischief in a few days.
But if the Aital force have been greatly depressed, then the de-
structive agency of oxygen will be  further manifested in the more
internal organs, and fever, rheumatism,  or inflammation of some
deep-seated organ, will be the consequence, before the restorative
principle has  had time to  perform its task of restoring the equilib-
rium.  Nothing can more clearly illustrate Liebig's  theory of dis-
ease than the phenomena  of a common cold.
  13.  Nothing can be more self-evidently true than that the arti-
ficial is only another term  for unnatural, since  every thing which is
not artificial  must necessarily be natural, and  every thing which is
not natural must necessarily be artificial.   There is no mean power
betAveen art  and nature.   Whatever does not result from the one
must result from  the  other.  It is allowed on all hands that the
life of every highly cultivated society is highly artificial.   It is
therefore unnatural.  But can that which is unnatural be possibly
proper ?  Can art be considered a better judge  of that Avhich is
fittest  for man's welfare  than nature?   And is not the word na-
ture, when thus  used, obviously only another term  for God him-
Cself ?  All the contrivances of art are the result of human ingenuity:
the contrivances of nature are the result  of divine  wisdom.
  Those several  contrivances which we call comforts, and with
which, in our polished condition, we surround ourselves, are  the
inventions and adaptations of human ingenuity, by  which we  ad-
minister, in an undue degree', to sensual enjoyment.  What wonder
they entail upon us disease and premature death!  The influence
of the weather, and all those various  circumstances  and impres-
sions to which man is exposed in  his primitive condition; are the
institutions and adaptations of divine Avisdom.   What  wonder that
we should find  them necessary to our health  and well-being!
What  wonder that we should find  it impossible to  get rid of  our 
                   fc      APPENDIX.                      357
                  •V
diseases while we obstinately persevere in preferring the ordinances
and contrivances of art to the manifest ordinances and contrivances
of God himself!
   But are we  not to  exercise  and use  the ingenuity wherewith
God has  endowed us ?   Certainly—to use, but not to  abuse  it.
But how do we know that we are abusing God's gift of ingenuity
or reason when we surround ourselves with all those  appliances  of
pleasurable sensation which we call comforts, but which we ought
to call luxurious indulgences ?   I answer: by the punishment  of
diseases and  premature death, of which the evidence of our senses
gives us  daily  proof.  We know that they are wrong by the evil
consequences which  follow them.  Hoav do we know that intem-
perance  is wrong ?  By  the evil consequences which  follow  it.
Hoav do  we know that  poisons are injurious to the health ?   By
the evil  consequences Avhich are observed  to follow them.  Hoav
do we know that it is wrong to indulge in the use of alcohol ?   By
the evil  consequences  which follow  its  use.  How then  do we
know that the  domestic habits of a  highly cultivated people are
injurious ?  As  in the former  instances, by the evil consequences
which  are observed to follow them—by the multitudinous diseases
and  premature deaths which are  every where observed to be in-
separable from  a highly cultivated condition of society, from which
diseases  and from which  premature deaths a primitive condition
of society is  comparatively free.*   Are  there no  other unwhole-
some and unnatural stimulants to the  nervous system besides those
of alcohol, wine, and beer?  Thousands, and tens of thousands.
All kinds of artificial stimulants  do not elicit those  peculiar  phe-
nomena  called  intoxication, but all operate injuriously upon the
health—they all first excite, and finally exhaust, the nervous sys-
tem.   They all entail upon us the retribute plague of number-
less diseases  and  premature death.   It  is the punishment Avhich
God has  awarded  to the  presuming  pride of  art,  or the abuse  of
human reason.   God did not create man for the purpose of getting
money, nor of surrounding himself with all those multiform ap-
pliances of so-called comfort which none but  the rich can purchase;
and to prove that he  did not, he has determined that none shall
purchase  them  without purchasing disease and decrepitude along
with them.                                              ^
  14. Hydropathy does but assert the supremacy of God.
    * One half of civilized mankind die before the age of eight years. 
358
APPENDIX.
     15. Hydropathy, when taken Avith all its adjuncts, is an artifi-
   cial primitive condition to Avhich the sick man temporarily submits
Lhimself  for a temporary purpose, viz., that of giving nature,  as-
   sisted by art, a fair opportunity of healing his diseases.
   '  16. But water, when used  by the hydropathic physician as a
I  remedy  for disease, is a natural influence intensified by art.
 —"*  17. Total abstinence from every species of stimulating beverage
   is absolutely necessary to the success of the treatment.
     18. Drinking large quantities of water, without some specific ob-
   ject (as, for instance, relaxing the bowels), is productive of no in-
   telligible good, and proves injurious by distending  the stomach,
   and over-stimulating the kidneys.
     19. Every person in England  who is cured of his disease by the
   hydropathic treatment, owes  a large debt of  gratitude to Captain
   Claridge, whose indefatigable  exertions and  indomitable courage,
   !in spite of all opposition, have succeeded in planting hydropathy
   in this  country—a soil  in which, protected by humanity,  and
   watered and pruned by science, it cannot fail to thrive, and groAV,
   and flourish—a blessing to the people. 
INDEX,
Abdomen, inflammation of,
Abreibung, ....
Ague and Fever,  .
Ague, case of.   .
Ague, Wesley's cure of,
Air and Exercise,
Apoplexy, how to prevent,
    "     how to treat,
Asthma, case of,
    "   Wesley's mode of cure,
Baldness, case of,  .
         following the use of Mercury,
Bandages, wet,
Bath lor every one,  .
Bathing, rules for, .
Baths at Graefenberg,
   "  temperature of,  .
Baynard, Dr., on Water,  .
Bernardo's cures,  .
Billing's theory of Disease,
Billiousness, a case,
Bleeding from the Bowels,
    "   from the Lungs,
    li   from the Nose,  .
    "   from the Womb,
Boerhaave on Water,
Boils, water dressing for,
Bowels, haemorrhage  from,
    "    inflammation of—a case,
    "    inflammation  of, .
Brain, inflammation of—a case,
   "        »      "  how to
Breasts, swelling of,
Burns and Scalds,
Catarrh, or Cold, case of,
Cancer, Wesley's cure ot; .
Catalepsy,  or Trance,  .
Cautions in the use of water,
Celsus on Water, .
Chest, weakness of,  .
Cholera Morbus,  .
Cholera.....
    "    treatment of,
Clothing,   ....
Clysters, uses of,  .    .
Convulsions, the cold bath in,
Cold, to prevent the ill effects of,
Colic,.....
Compresses, wet, .
Cough, case of, .
Constipation, case of,   .
      "      case ot; .
Convulsions, .
Consumption, case of,
      "       remarks on,
Cramps, case of,
treat,
319
147
270
218
 47
169
 47
311
229
 47
210
251
149
163
163
153
163
 27
 23
107
241
341
340
341
341
 18
138
341
235
319
258
312
187
302
210
 47
250
169
 18
313
320
327
334
170
146
 47
 47
320
149
295
191
222
307
203
316
237
                                     Page.
Croup........312
Crisis of Water-Cure,    .    .         173
Currie, Dr., Reports on Water,           31
Deafness, case of,    ...    .     206
             "                        218
    "        "      ....     222
Debility following the use of Mercury,   251
Delirium with Fever, ....     253
    "    and inflammation of brain,  .  258
Depression of Spirits,    .    .    .     256
Diarrhoea.......320
    "     Chronic,  ....     325
Diseases to which Water is adapted,  .  179
Diet........170
Digestion,......171
Drinking of Water.....141
    "          "  rules for,     .    .  142
Douche Bath......160
Drop Bath.......159
Dropsy, not caused by water,  .    .     178
Dysentery,......320
    "      Chronic,  ....     325
Dyspepsia, case of,    ....  192
    "      with Rheumatism,  .    .     193
Earache.......343
Elliotson, Remarks on Rheumatism,      31
Epilepsy, or fits, a case,     .     .    .  218
Erysipelas.......299
Exercise.......169
Eye Bath.......158
Felon, or Whitlow.....342
Fever, remarks on.....263
   "   case of,.....209
   "      ".....2J2
   "   cases of, by Dr. Currie,   .     .31
   "   rules for treating,  ...      36
   "   with Delirium,  ....  253
Finger Bath......158
Fistula in A no......200
   "   Urinary...... .     249
Flooding, or Bleeding from the Womb,  341
Floyer, Sir John on Water,    .    .      25
Fluor Albus, or Whites,....  183
Foot Bath.......156
Forbes on Water-Cure,  ....   65
Galen on Water.....17
Giddiness, case of,.....211
Gonorrhoea,.....202
Gout, cases,......195
  "   a case,.....243
  «     «......255
Hahn on Water,.....20
Half Bath,......154
Headache, case of,   ...         211
     "     Nervous,    .   .    .     .222
     "     a case,    ....    258 
360
INDEX.
Hearing, diseased......252
Head Bath.......157
Hernia, case of,.....229
            ".....241
Hippocrates on Water, .     .            17
Hip Disease, or Sciatica,   .    .     .    190
            case of,   ...    .  207
Hoffman on Watrr,  ....     18
Howard, the I'liilanthropiit,  opinions of, 348
Hufeland  on Water. .     .    .     .     19
Hydropathy, meaning of,                48
Hypochondriasis, case of,  .    .     .    219
        "            "...  229
Hysteria, or Hysterics,    .    .     .    310
Hydrophobia,......262
Influenza,......184
Infants, bathing of by the Indians,    .   29
Injections, uses of,   ...     .    145
Indigestion,......180
           case of,   .    .    .     .    227
     "         ".....229
     "         "     .    .    .     .    233
     "         ".....241
               "                      212
Insensibility from an improper bath,   .v 256
     "        "   over-drinking water,  256
Knee Joint, disease of, ....  259
Laconics, Hydropathic,    .    .     .    353
Leintuch, or Packing Sheet, .     .    .  147
Leprosy,  case ot|     ....    261
Leg Bath.......158
Leucorrhoea,.....183
Lock-Jaw, water a preventive,   .    .  139
     "     case of,    .    .    .    .    262
     "     treatment of,     ...  308
Lumbago, case of,    .    .    .    .    191
Lungs, bleeding from, ....  340
Lungs, inflammation of,   .    .    .    313
Menstruation, painful, ....  184
       "      excessive,  .    .    .    255
Measles........293
     "   case of,.....217
Mercury, brought out of the system,  .  252
Nausea and Vomiting,    .    .    .    325
Neuralgic Diseases, water in,     .    .  180
Neuralgia and Rheumatism, a case, .    254
Nervous Debility, with Cramps,   .    .  237
     "      "     from excessive study, 231
     "   Weakness.....232
Nervousness,  case of, .    .    .    .   248
     "     following the use of mercury, 251
Nose-bleed.......341
Paralysis, case of,.....187
     "    of one side,    .    .    .   249
Pain in the side,.....232
Paronychia, or Felon,    .    .    .   342
Penn, VVm., on Water.....28
Pleurisy,......313
Poultices, water dressings instead of, .  132
 Priessnitz, discoveries ot; .     .    .     49
     "     phrenological developments of,  53
     "     Colvin's account of, .    .     56
 Propositions and principles of the Water-
     Cure,  ......126
Psoriasis, or Skin Disease,
Quinsy.....
Resuscitation, cases of,
Rickets, AVesley's cure of,  .
Rheumatism and Neuralgia, case
      "     Indian cure of, .
    * "     case of, .
Rheumatic Fever, case of,
Rubbing Wet .Sheet,
Scalds and Burns,
Sciatica, or Hip Complaint,
    "   a case, .
Scrofula of Knee Joint,.
Scarlet Fever, Case of,
Seminal Weakness, a case,
Ship Fever.....
Shower Bath,.
Sitz Bath,  ....
Skin Disease, Psoriasis, .
Sleeplessness, case of,
Small-Pox.....
Smelling, diseased,
Sore Throat, case of, .     .
  "    "    treatment of,
Spinal Disease,  .
Spitting blood,
Stomach, inflammation of,
Sweating,
Syphilis, cases of,

    "   a horrible case,  .
Tetanus, or Lock-Jaw, .
Tepid Water,
Toothache,
Trance, or Catalepsy,
Typhus Fever, modes of treating,
Ulcers and Wounds, water in,
Urinary Fistula,
Vapor Bath,
Vomiting and Nausea,  .
Vomiting by Water,  .
Warm AVater,
Water, ancient uses of,
       quality of,
Water Dressing for Wounds and Ulcers, 130
Wesley, Rev. John, on Water,
Wet Sheet, ....
Whites, or Leucorrhoea,
Whitlow, or Felon,
Womb, bleeding from,
of,
186,
  ■ rn:»
 .   1%
    197
 .   198
    199
 .   312
    266
 47, 245
    254
 .   29
    193-»„
 .  195
    196
 .  V.)7
    345
197, 214
 .  147
    302
    190
    241
259, 260
    208
    251
    267
    162
    159
    196
    197
    198
    199
    246
    2(8
    259
    273
Wounds and Ulcers, water dressing for,  130
Zimmerman on Water, .
    233
    313
    184
    243
    235
    150
    212
    241
    257
    308
    166
    344
    250
    267
    130
201, 249
    164
    325
    325
    106
     17
    145
 46
147
lt3
342
341 
 
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