hospitality and protection of a paternal government, hasten to take
advantage of the propitious occasion offered by the presence of your
Imperial and Royal Highness, to lay our homage at your feet. How could
we fail to evince the sentiments of gratitude which we entertain towards
your illustrious house, for the favour it has deigned to grant for the
development of a system, which has produced such happy results on
ourselves, on that around us, and on the thousands of invalids who have
preceded us. The protection of Government having been extended to the
establishment at Gräfenberg and Freiwaldau, your Royal and Imperial
Highness has judged it not unworthy to see with your own eyes the
marvellous effects of a treatment, which gradually spreading over the
universe, will preserve the human race from the double curse of
intemperance and disease. For this condescension we tender our thanks.
In all times and in all countries the use of cold water as a curative
means has been acknowledged. The great physicians of past ages already
had recourse to it. Travellers relate singular cures effected by its
means amongst even the most savage tribes. In recent times we
occasionally see light feebly penetrating through the darkness of
prejudice and routine, and revealing the neglected virtues of this
simple gift of nature; but these facts remaining isolated, the germs of
such a noble discovery had hitherto always remained undeveloped. It was
reserved to the soil of Austria to give birth to the immortal author of
a system which can already rank among the sciences. Priessnitz, a simple
farmer, in a poor and retired hamlet, obeying only the promptings of his
genius, has triumphed over all obstacles, and, still young, has marched
with a rapid step towards the destiny of great men. Relying solely on
observation and experience, he realised truths which the science of ages
could not reveal. The fame of his marvellous cures resounded at first in
the immediate neighbourhood: but his star always rising and never
vacillating, at last ended by shining throughout the world. Invalids
from the most remote countries hastened in great numbers to submit
themselves implicitly to his directions. Many disciples of medicine even
hesitated not to throw aside their prejudice, and become enlightened by
his discoveries. His cottage became the refuge of suffering humanity,
his hamlet the seat of a new doctrine; still, far from being intoxicated
with so much success and such unexpected good fortune, Priessnitz has in
no way deviated from his original simplicity and primitive manners. His
greatest ambition is the accomplishment of the laborious task he has
imposed on himself; his sweetest recompence the affection and veneration
of all who surround him. We know not which to admire most, the rare
genius of this gifted man, or the firmness and modesty which
characterise him. Guided by gratitude, and the admiration we feel for
the Hydropathic system and its origination, we have ventured to present
this humble address to your Imperial and Royal Highness, trusting that
the visit of such an enlightened Prince will be a good augury for the
further dev[e]lopment and extension of the curative system from which we
have ourselves experienced such happy results."
In the ensuing summer a most flattering testimony was decreed to
Priessnitz by the Emperor of Austria. It was a gold medal (called a
_Verdienst Medaille_ or medal of merit), and was presented to him by the
Governor of Troppau, on the 7th of July, 1846, at the altar, with great
ceremony, in the very church in which he had been formerly denounced.
Shortly after, an incident occurred which had nearly deprived the world
of this great man: this was the marriage of his eldest daughter, then
only seventeen, to an Hungarian nobleman of large fortune. The young
couple started for Hungary; and Priessnitz, on taking leave of them, was
observed to be much affected. Later in the day, whilst visiting his
patients, he found it difficult to lift one hand to his head. He hurried
home, where he hardly arrived when he was suddenly struck with general
paralysis, and was quite insensible. His attendants resorted to his own
remedies, he was placed in a tepid bath and rubbed by four persons for
nearly two hours before he began to regain his senses, when he ordered
the tepid water to be changed for cold; and he has since been heard to
say, the former would not have been attended with sufficient reaction,
and consequently would not have had the desired effect. He now ordered
his own treatment and recovered in a few days; his health was afterwards
re-established by a fortnight's visit to his daughter in Hungary.
A few months since he was rejoiced by the birth of a son. This event
conferred great happiness on him; for, as may be remembered, his
first-born whom he lost was a son, and all his other children until the
last, were daughters.
It is to be hoped, that Providence will spare his valuable life to see
his son grow up, so that he may initiate him experimentally in the
theory of Hydropathy, which can never be perfectly disseminated in any
other way.
Several monuments and fountains erected at Gräfenberg, testify the
admiration and respect in which Priessnitz is held. The English and the
Hamburghers are at present engaged in erecting similar testimonies. The
latter have placed his bust in the Exchange at Hamburg.
Judging from the strides Hydropathy is making, it is fair to conclude
that in the course of time these examples will be followed by every
nation in the world.[1]
[1] _Father Matthew's letter to Mr. Priessnitz._
"Cork, Sept. 25th, 1845.
"My dear Mr. Priessnitz,--Though this is the first time I have had the
honour of writing to you, I look upon you as an old and much esteemed
friend. This feeling has encouraged me to address you as such, and to
solicit a favour. You have proved yourself the benefactor of the human
family, and have much promoted the sacred cause of total abstinence.
As a trifling mark of the high estimation in which I hold you, I
presume to present the enclosed temperance medal. Condescend to accept
it, and to wear it, and you will confer a deep obligation on, With
profound respect, dear Mr. Priessnitz, Your devoted friend,
THEOBALD MATTHEW."
II.--HYDROPATHY.
The term "hydropathy," has been cavilled at; its etymological sense
meaning "water-disease," whilst its conventional sense means
"water-cure." If disposed to dispute about terms, we might say that
"physiology," in its etymological sense, means merely a discourse about
nature; whilst, in a conventional sense, we understand it to treat of
the science of animal life. For want of a better word, that of
"hydropathy" was adopted, to express the manner of curing disease, by
cold and tepid general and local baths, wet sheets (sometimes called
linen baths), dripping-sheets, douche and friction, air, exercise, and
drinking water. To this may be added, simplicity in our habits, and
temperance in our manner of living.
In fact, by the term "hydropathy," were intended all those appliances by
which nature may be put in the best possible way of assisting herself,
since no allopathist, homæopathist[Transcriber's note: should be
homœopathist], or hydropathist, will pretend that anything he can
administer has of itself any healing virtue. It is a common observation,
that riding, climbing, and exercise, give us strength; the horses,
hedges, mountains and ground, do not, however, impart strength, but they
afford the opportunity, the necessary resistance to develop or increase
that strength which is in us. The weak man, do what you will, can only
develop the strength which is in him, and the strong man the same. Let,
therefore, the reader judge which is best calculated to cause that
development--hydropathy or drugs.
III.--WHAT DOES HYDROPATHIC TREATMENT EFFECT?
It promotes the vital energies, quickens the action of the absorbents,
strengthens the nerves, allays irritation, promotes healthy action of
the vital organs.
The extreme vessels deposit healthy particles, which the absorbents
remove.
Dr. Gibbs, in his "Letters from Gräfenberg," states that water, applied
hydropathically, acts in the following ways:--
1st. By the more rapid liberation of caloric.
2nd. By accelerating the change of tissues.
3rd. By constringing the capillaries.
4th. By increasing nervous power.
5th. By restoring tone to the skin.
6th. By derivation.
7th. By forwarding the elimination of morbific matter; or, in other
words, as a sedative, alterative, tonic, stimulant, derivative, and
counter-irritant.
And taken internally, it acts--
1st. As a solvent, and contributes to the greater part of the
transformations.
2nd. Gives tone to the stomach.
3rd. Promotes the secretions and excretions, particularly from the skin,
bowels, and kidneys.
4th. It is a most important and indispensable element in the blood; and
"its partial application," says Dr. Johnson, "acts by determining
the force of oxygen from one part to another; it produces all the
effects of bleeding and blistering--except the pain," and he might
have added, the debility.
The hydropathic treatment causes the elimination of all foreign matters
from the body, and thereby promotes contraction, without which there can
be no health, which Dr. Billing has shewn to demonstration; he states
"that the proximate cause of _all_ disease is relaxation and enlargement
of the capillaries: the indication of a cure, therefore, is to
constringe the capillaries, and cause them to contract, and resume their
healthy state."
"As all organic action is contraction, all organic or animal strength
depends upon the power of the different parts of the body to contract."
If it be true, that the effect to be brought about in the treatment of
_all_ disease is to unload and constringe the capillaries, how can this
be better achieved than by the sweating or wet-sheet process, and the
cold bath; Dr. Johnson says--"The hydropathic treatment, which unloads
the capillaries by sweating, and constringes them by cold, is clearly an
efficient substitute for bleeding, purging, vomiting, uva ursi,
digitalis, antimony, mercury, arsenic, nitrate of silver, sulphate of
copper, iodine, iron, and multitudes of other remedies, enumerated by
Dr. Billing, merely by their power of unloading and constringing the
capillaries."
Priessnitz's theory:--
1st. That by the hydropathic treatment, the bad juices are brought to,
and discharged by, the skin.
2nd. A new circulation is given to the diseased or inactive organs, and
better juices infused into them.
3rd. All the functions of the body are brought into a normal state, not
by operating upon any particular function, but upon the whole.
If these are the results of hydropathy--and that they are so, has never
been disputed; nay, the truth is even proved by the following great
medical authority unconnected with the water cure: it must be admitted
that the sooner drugs are dispensed with the better.
_British and Foreign Medical Review, and Quarterly Journal, October,
1846.--Extract._
"The water cure is a _stomachic_, since it invariably increases the
appetite.
"It is a _local calefacient_ in the wet sheet covered by a dry one.
"It is a _derivative_; cold friction at one part, by _exciting increased
action there, producing corresponding diminution elsewhere_; _the
compress_ frequently acting, if not like a blister, at least _like a
mustard poultice_.
"_It is a local as well as a general counter-irritant._
"_It is essentially alterative_ in the continual removal of old matter:
its renewal is shewn in the maintenance of the same weight.
"An important hydropathic principle is, that almost all its _measures
are applied to the surface_. One of the most formidable difficulties
with which the ordinary physician has to contend is, that nearly all his
remedies reach the point to which they are directed _through one
channel_.
"The only means of relieving certain diseases is _by inundating the
stomach_ and bowels with foreign and _frequently_ to them _pernicious
substances_.
"Hydropathy employs a system of most extensive energetic general and
local counter irritation.
"A fifth physiological feature of hydropathy is the number of coolings.
The _generation of caloric has been traced to its right source_. It
results from the burning up of waste matter, which by accumulation would
become injurious.
"It is singular enough that almost all arguments used against cold
bathing are the strongest theoretical arguments in its favor. Dr.
Baynard, a most sarcastic writer, gives us the following anecdote:--
"Here a demi-brained doctor of more note than _nous_, asked, in the
amazed agony of his half-understanding, how 'twas possible that an
external application should affect the bowels, and cure 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 within.'
"If a rude exposure of the surface to cold and wet is capable of
producing internal disease, there is no _doubt that a close relation
exists between these agents and the morbid_ conditions of internal
parts."
After devoting upwards of thirty pages to prove the value of Hydropathy,
the reviewer sums up as follows:--
"After what has been said and written in favor of Hydropathy.--_Judgment
must therefore be entered by default against its opponents, and
hydropathy is entitled to the verdict of harmlessness, since cause has
never been shown to the contrary._"
IV.--HOW ARE THE EFFECTS DESCRIBED IN THE LAST CHAPTER PRODUCED?
Are the effects, as described by hydropathists and by the British and
Foreign Medical Review, produced without purging, vomiting, drugging, or
the lancet--or by what other means are such essential results to be
attained? We answer, by hydropathy alone are they to be produced,
through the medium of the external and internal skin or mucous membrane,
the most important organ in the human structure, and the most neglected
by the guardians of the public health; and by the promotion of all the
secretions and excretions.
The Abbé Sanctorius, a Florentine, might be said to have spent twenty
years of his life in a balance determining the amount of matters thrown
off by the pores of the skin. To ascertain this, he first cleaned and
then placed small glasses, some not longer than thimbles, on various
parts of the human frame, when the result proved that every man ought to
pass off from his person, daily, from six to seven pounds. Two and a
half pounds are supposed to be released by the ordinary modes of
evacuation, and the remainder by the pores of the skin. Now, if this
exhalation is impeded, and the necessary amount not eliminated (which
must happen if the skin has lost that energy, which exercise of the body
and cold ablutions can alone support), what becomes of the superfluous
juices thus retained in the system? The answer is easy; they circulate
through the internal organs and become the source of fevers,
inflammations, dropsy, and all sorts of diseases. Medical men see these
effects, but do not suppose them to have resulted from suppressed
perspiration. Instead of attacking the skin, they assault the stomach
and bowels, weaken the digestive organs, and by that means create
disease; whilst water, on the contrary, is a remedy, possessing at once
dissolving and strengthening properties, which would seem to neutralise
each other, but that we have daily evidence to the contrary.
Herein lies the great secret of hydropathy: by its modes of application,
morbid humours are drawn to the surface and eliminated, the body is
cooled, and the skin put into a state to perform its indispensable duty.
In internal inflammations, the morbid heat from the internal skin or
mucous membrane is drawn off by the application of cold and irritation
to the surface, and the disease subdued without charging the stomach
with anything but pure spring water, which in contradistinction to
drugs, produces the most salubrious effects.
The following extract shows that the skin is the great drain through
which matters injurious to the system, and superfluous heat are drawn
off and accounts for hydropathy being so universal a remedy.
_A Practical Treatise on Healthy Skin, by_ ERASMUS WILSON, _1 Vol.
1845_.--_Extract._
"The structure of the skin and the diseases to which it is liable, have
latterly received from many of the medical profession considerable
attention. The skin is that soft and pliant membrane which invests the
whole of the external surface of the body, as also the interior which is
called mucous membrane.
"The construction of these two membranes may easily inform us, without
having recourse to fanciful hypotheses, how disease, affecting any part
of this membrane, either internally or externally, may pass to any other
part and affect the whole; and thus how a faulty digestion in a lady, a
disease of the investing or mucous membrane of the stomach, may show
itself in eruptions on the face. We see at once, too, how it happens
that, calling into more active action the shower bath and flesh brush,
dyspepsia may be avoided or cured. It serves also to explain the
circumstance noticed by Fourcroy and Vauquelin, that the skin, with all
its products, 'is capable of supplying the office of the kidneys,' and
carrying off, as we know it to imbibe nourishment, the indispensable
excretions for which the proper organs may be deficient.
"In explanation of this circumstance, we must remark, that the skin,
internal or external, in which terminate all the arteries and commence
the veins, in which too, the nerves of sensation commence, and the
nerves of volition terminate, not only envelopes the whole body
internally and externally, but is also the secretory organ of every
part, and the immediate means of communication with the external world.
"The skin is the organ of contact with the external world, and the means
of making us acquainted with every part of the universe. The senses of
touch, of hearing, of smell, of taste, are all exercised by the skin.
"By the vessels terminating in the skin, or of which it is formed, all
the phenomena of nutrition, and decay of appetite, and sensation, health
and disease are produced.
"Whatever may be the climate or temperature in which the body is placed,
it is kept at nearly one uniform and vital heat by the varying and
adapting operations of the skin.
"The skin is the organ by which electricity is conducted into and out of
the body.
"Its functions are, in short, proportioned to its vastness; and as it
envelopes every part, so manifold are its purposes.
"The structure of the skin is highly curious; it consists of two layers;
the one horny and insensible, guarding from injury; the other highly
sensitive, the universal organ of feeling, which lies beneath; the
latter feels, but the former dulls the impression.
"The following will show how, by the perspiratory organs, excess of
water is removed from the blood, and the uniform temperature of the body
preserved.
"Taken separately, the little perspiratory tube with its appended gland,
is calculated to awaken in the mind very little idea of the importance
of the system to which it belongs; but when the vast number of similar
organs composing this system are considered, we are led to form some
notion, however imperfect, of their probable influence in the health and
comfort of the individual; the reality surpasses imagination and almost
belief.
"The perspiratory pores on the palm of the hand, are found to be 3,528
in a square inch; now each of these pores being the aperture of a little
tube of about a quarter of an inch long, it follows that in a square
inch of skin on the palm of the hand, there exists a length of tube
equal to 882 inches, or 73-1/2 feet. Such a _drainage_ as 73 feet in
every square inch of skin, assuming this to be the average for the whole
body, is something wonderful; and the thought naturally intrudes itself,
What if this _drainage were obstructed? Could we need a stronger
argument for enforcing the necessity of attention to the skin?_ On the
pulps of the finger, where the ridges of the sensitive layer of the true
skin are somewhat finer than the palm of the hand and on the heel, where
the ridges are coarser, the number of pores on the square inch was
2,268, and the length of tube 567 inches, or 47 feet. To obtain an
estimate of the length of tube of the perspiratory system of the whole
surface of the body, I think," says Dr. Wilson, "that 2,800 might be
taken as a fair average of the number of pores in the square inch, and
700 consequently of the number of inches in length. Now the number of
square inches of surface in a man of ordinary height and bulk is 2,500,
the number of pores therefore, 7,000,000, and the number of inches of
perspiratory tube 1,750,000, that is 145,833 feet, or 48,000 yards, or
nearly 28 miles.
"This is only a specimen of the extraordinary structure.
"Besides the perspiratory vessels, the skin is provided with vessels for
secreting an oily substance, which is of a different nature at different
parts of the body; with vessels to repair abrasion and provide for its
growth, and carry off its decayed parts; with nerves and blood-vessels
that are probably as numerous and extensive as the perspiratory vessels.
"It must at the same time be remembered, that the interior skin or
mucous membrane, is provided with equally numerous and complicated
vessels, to answer some analogous purposes. The whole of them may be
affected by applications to the external skin."
Dr. Wilson has, in his work, introduced some equally curious and
instructive passages, as to the formation and uses of the oil-glands,
the structure and functions of the hair, the influence of diet and
clothing, and the effect of exercise and cleanliness on the health of
this extensive organ.
V.--IS HYDROPATHY A PANACEA? AND WHAT COMPLAINTS ARE CURABLE BY IT?
Dr. Rauss, author of a work on hydropathy which passed through several
editions, says, "It is almost impossible for any one to die of an acute
disease, in whom reaction can be produced, and who from the commencement
is treated Hydropathically.
"Those unacquainted with this treatment will naturally doubt its
wonderful power; and the physician, when he reflects upon the number of
patients who in acute diseases have perished under his hands, will no
doubt treat it with derision; nevertheless," says the Doctor, "as I am
not advancing a doctrine that may be controverted, _I here publicly make
known that I am ready, by deeds as well as words, to prove all that I
have stated_." "_To state_," adds the Doctor, "_what diseases are
curable, would be a tedious occupation; I shall prefer pointing out
those which are not, viz., all diseases of the lungs, all organic
defects, and all diseases in people whose muscles and sinews are past
all power of reaction, and from whom vitality has passed beyond
recovery._" The cure of all acute diseases, of whatever nature or kind,
with these exceptions, is to Priessnitz merely child's play; in no
instance of nervous fevers or inflammations, in any stage, was he ever
known to lose a patient; and what is worthy of remark in acute cases, a
cure is effected in a few days without the subsequent debility which
results from other treatment. Whilst I was at Gräfenberg, all
descriptions of acute attacks came under my immediate notice, and I
assert, without fear of contradiction, that they were all cured, with
but one exception,--and that a highly valued friend of my own, a medical
man, who was attacked with inflammation of the lungs. The doctor, who
was advanced in life, retained his old prejudices, and consequently
refused to submit to the treatment until too late. Confident in the
power of Hydropathy for the last six years, whenever occasions offered
(and they were not few during my sojourn in Ireland), I applied the
treatment with invariable success. A case of inflammation of the mucous
membrane is worthy of notice. One M. D. declared his belief that the
patient would not live two hours; the other, that he could not exist
until the evening. On the application of the wet sheet and tepid bath,
the resuscitation of the man was as by miracle. In a case of diarrhoea,
the rubbing sheet and its bath acted to the astonishment of the family.
A young man had been under medical treatment for diarrhoea for a month,
when he could not sleep more than a quarter of an hour at a time. He
abandoned drugs, and was cured by hydropathy in three days. Dr. Engel of
Vienna, and many other writers on the subject, are quite of the same
opinion as Dr. Rauss as regards acute disease. This mode of treatment is
efficacious in chronic diseases accompanied by atony; in all nervous
affections, spasms, pains of which medicine will not discover the cause;
in cases of obstruction of the bowels, and all the systematic evils
which arise from them, such as indigestion, hypochondria, piles,
jaundice, &c; in gout, rheumatism, scrofula, and most diseases affecting
women; in fact, it is successful in a number of complaints altogether
beyond the reach of medicine. I have had frequent occasions for admiring
the result of the treatment in cases of ague, nervous, typhus, putrid,
and scarlet fevers; but its most signal triumphs are obtained over those
serious derangements of the system produced by the abuse of drugs, or
when consumptions are produced by iodine, arsenic, or the consequences
of mercury, tartar emetic, or other dangerous medicaments, have
manifested themselves."