upon as something beyond human endurance; but by those who understand
the nature of it, its arrival is hailed with joy, as the forerunner of a
favourable termination to their sufferings. A Crisis has a two-fold
object, the restoration of the animal functions to the condition of
health, and the cure of a disease. It is not therefore a necessary
consequence of the treatment; since, if there be no disease, the body is
free from vitiated matter, and no eruption can appear; but if noxious
matters exist in the system, whatever temporary relief be obtained by
drugs or ointment, no permanent beneficial effect can be produced until
they are extracted. Otherwise, original health, that is, the same
muscular power and elasticity of body proportionately dealt out to all
animals, will never be obtained during the life of an individual.
Nature, to effect the elimination of non-nutritious matter, may resort
to measures imperceptible to the patient, such as evaporation caused by
ablutions, by relaxation of the bowels, or other evacuatory means.
Although for twelve months, whilst at Gräfenberg, I went through all the
necessary processes, I never had any perceptible crisis, except a slight
water-rash, and the same may be said of many friends of mine, who have
passed through the treatment.
There is a critical period, if the treatment is persevered in: it is
when Nature is about to resume her power over the disease, the latter
having been attacked, and seeking to escape. It may be compared to a
tiger which a man is tempting in his lair: for a time, it lies dormant,
occasionally giving signs of existence, when suddenly the animal rouses,
and a violent struggle ensues. The man however proves the strongest of
the two. In all future attacks too, which are less vigorous, the tiger
is defeated, until he finally quits his lair, and flies from his human
conqueror. Thus at last are old diseases eradicated. In acute cases, the
first rencontre often settles the affair.
Under the Water-cure it frequently happens that every evil and pain is
increased in intensity from the fact of the strength being always
progressing. The weak and debilitated feel little pain; feebleness has
produced insensibility. As the vital force diminishes, in the same
proportion are the symptoms less violent; but when strength and vigour
are daily gaining ground, so do the symptoms become more vigorous and
intense. Nature is in a state of revolution; and, by being reinstated in
her rights, she has declared war with all foreign powers that ventured
to invest her citadel, and trample upon her rights and laws during the
period of her prostration.
An officer in the Prussian army, author of the most concise and
best-written work on the Water-cure, told me that at Gräfenberg six
years ago he was radically cured of a complication of diseases: that he
had the so-called crisis; the first attack was painful and distressing
in the extreme; rheumatism returned to each part where he had previously
felt it; his foot, which some years before had been trodden upon by a
horse, became exceedingly painful; his hands and feet swelled to double
their ordinary size, and there was a discharge of an offensive nature
from them. This lasted for about ten days. In the course of his cure he
had two other attacks, each inferior in intensity to the preceding one.
After the last, he found his hearing, of which he had been deprived two
years, restored; he could walk as well as ever he did, a necessary
pleasure of which rheumatism had deprived him; in fact, he left
Gräfenberg a new man, and has ever since been perfectly well. This
gentleman said that, whilst in a fortress, with his regiment, almost all
the officers, except himself, suffered from influenza, whilst he
escaped, from drinking cold water and taking several ablutions a day.
When a crisis is expected, Priessnitz increases the treatment, as he
also does when it has made its appearance: instead of discouraging the
crisis to proceed, he encourages it by all the means in his power. So
that eruptions, boils, fever, diarrhœa, inflammation, or aught else
brought out by the treatment, may be gradually reduced by it. In this
stage of the Water-cure, no compromise can be made; the fight must be
continued until the enemy quits the field.
A lady of my acquaintance, on the appearance of an eruption, gave up the
treatment until it disappeared; the eruption took an inward direction
and inflammation of the lungs was the consequence: the most vigorous
measures were now resorted to by Priessnitz, or her life would, most
probably, have paid the forfeit. Another lady was treating herself to
great advantage. After some time, when some boils made their appearance,
she became uneasy and low-spirited. Alarmed, she left off the cure; the
boils receded, and a fever succeeded them, which, as she could not
procure advice, ended in a painful illness. When hydropathy was first
introduced into England, the death of a clergyman, who had been treated
by it, caused a great sensation. This gentleman went to an establishment
on the Rhine, where he staid two or three months: on his determining to
leave, the doctor, who saw indications of a Crisis, advised him to stay.
The patient disregarded this advice and proceeded home; when, as
predicted, a number of boils appeared. Mistaking these friends for
enemies, he sent for a medical man, who declared the boils to arise from
poverty of the blood, administered something to cause them to retire,
and advised him to drink wine and beer, and live freely. As might have
been expected, the result was fatal.
Had this gentleman been subjected to the Packing-sheet followed by
Tepid-bathing; and had the boils been constantly bandaged, his health
would, doubtless, have been improved.
I have known patients, whose blood was in an unhealthy state, throw out
boils for months; but who, from constantly applying bandages to them,
suffered but little inconvenience.
At some of the establishments in Germany, when a crisis is indicated, it
is the practice to recommend patients to diminish the treatment or quit
it altogether, thus throwing away the golden opportunity of realising
health. Whilst at others with a limited knowledge of the Hydropathic
treatment, some practitioners resort to Allopathic or Homoæpathic[sic]
means of mitigating nature's effort to escape her bonds. Let not such
men be trusted: they know not what they do. When in Ireland, I treated a
person of advanced age who had been confined to bed for twelve months.
In two days he was able to walk out on crutches. After I left, a large
boil came in his back: not understanding the matter he gave up the
treatment. Instead of the boil being forced to a head, it retired, and
he fell into his old state. Had this boil been encouraged to a large
size, the patient would, after its bursting, have felt much relief.
It is a common practice, under medical treatment, to open a boil, and
thus put an end to it--a quick method, no doubt, of affording relief;
but the morbific matters that could have accumulated there, and been
eliminated by it, remain in the system. Fevers again, under our medical
treatment, are suppressed; whilst in the Water-cure, the morbific heat
is extracted by the pores, and the whole system cooled through the
medium of the mucous membrane or skin.
It is in a crisis, that the mind of the great Water-king is made
manifest. Such is the unbounded confidence of patients in him, that most
of them ardently desire to pass through this ordeal. It must be
observed, that, though it is sometimes a painful period, the assuaging
power of the bandages, the non-necessity of confinement or abstinence
from the usual diet, and the perfect security every one feels as to the
result, renders it endurable. It is at the same time equally true, and
worthy the attention of any one about to undertake the cure, that during
the revivifying process, weakness and lassitude are the pregnant
attendants of the early part of it; and greatly disappointed would be
that new aspirant to health who should fancy that all was _couleur de
rose_. It is an old saying, and perhaps true, that all good things cost
money or trouble; and the attainment of health, by the removal of
long-standing complaints through the water-cure, is no exception to the
rule. It is a delusion to suppose that inveterate diseases are to be
cured by the water treatment, as by miracle, without suffering. Moral
energy and firmness are necessary to go right through the ordeal. In
such circumstances the patient must exert all his fortitude to adhere
strictly to the instructions that are given to him.
XXXI.--DROPSY.
A frequent argument made use of against drinking water is, that it
produces dropsy. Now, if this were true, it must be evident such a
complaint ought not to exist amongst us--for whoever heard of an
Englishman drinking too much water? On the contrary, the English nation
is remarkable for an almost hydrophobic dislike to it.
The more the human body has been saturated with drugs, alcohols, and
other foreign matters, the greater is the necessity for a free action of
the pores and perspiration, because by these agents it seeks to relieve
itself of diseased matter. When the skin is relaxed or incumbered by
that oily exhalation which is constantly exuding from the pores, and too
often suffered to remain on the surface, fluids collect beneath the skin
and cause inflammation--this is called dropsy.
One of the greatest promoters of dropsy, as every medical man knows, is
the lancet, by which the good blood is extracted and a watery fluid
substituted. Strong poisons of whatever nature they may be, either
mercury, blue pill, calomel, bark, iodine, or any other of the ten
thousand drugs from which relief is sought, and for which alcohols or
other stimulants are persevered in, tend to vitiate the juices, and
produce gout, dropsy, and numberless complaints from which the habitual
water-drinker is exempt.
No modern writer on dropsy attributes it to drinking water, nor,
observes Dr. Johnson, is there anything in the physiology of the
capillary system of vessels which can warrant such an opinion; on the
contrary, _drinking largely of diluting liquids is always recommended as
an important part_ of the cure of dropsy. Dr. Gregory, author of the
Theory and Practice of Medicine, states that "no diuretic medicines are
likely to be of service, without very copious dilution;" and adds,
"_there cannot be a greater error_ than to imagine that dropsical
accumulations may be lessened by withholding liquid."
From the returns of 1841, within the city of London and bills of
mortality, amongst a people opposed to the use of cold water in any way,
we find that from dropsy alone the deaths amounted to 584.
Is not this fact alone sufficient to carry conviction to our minds, that
dropsy is not the effect of water drinking? It may be safely affirmed
that those who never take physic and who adhere to a water diet, will
never be attacked with dropsy.
This complaint, except when of long standing, or under very
extraordinary circumstances, is generally curable.
XXXII.--SMOKING.
"Though smoking is decidedly prejudicial to health, it is not so bad as
drinking to excess."
"Smoking irritates the nerves and promotes the secretion of saliva,
which is withdrawn from digestion."[5]
[5] Dr. Schmidt, of Berlin, is of opinion, that the saliva, and not
the gastric juice, is the digestive agent; and in this opinion he is
supported by Dr. Beaumont, of America. Dr. Richers stated to me that
he attended a lecturer who, from some defect, could only swallow a
portion of his saliva; that in consequence, during the course of an
hour's lecture, he would throw off nearly a quart of saliva.
"By blunting the nerves, a man, as in drinking, may stand a great deal
of smoking without being visibly affected by it."
"A person who, previously to undergoing the water-cure, could drink a
gallon of fermented liquor, may, after it, be affected by a single
glass--from the fact of his nerves having recovered their sensibility."
"Persons who previously to the treatment were great smokers, are
frequently rendered ill by very little smoking after it."
"The nerves are strong and vigorous in proportion to their sensibility
and freshness.--He who goes through a thorough water-cure treatment,
gains a great moral as well as physical command over himself."
"It is generally the weak and debilitated who are the most sensual and
debauched."
"The sound man has purer tastes, independent of his greater
self-command."
"We find amongst the children of nature, amongst simple peasants who
have had but little contact with civilisation, the purest virtue and
truest feelings of honor."--PRIESSNITZ.
OBSERVATIONS.--Persons who consider themselves in health, will derive
advantage by six weeks' or two months' treatment at Gräfenberg, and will
learn how to apply it to themselves or families.
Parents will there acquire the habit of using cold water, be prepared to
ward off disease from themselves, and learn, by simple means, how to
preserve the health of their children.
Officers in the army, who have an insight into hydropathy, will have
nothing to fear from epidemics; they will find that fevers and
inflammations are diseases which form the easiest part of Mr.
Priessnitz' practice.
The water at Gräfenberg has no advantage over that which we find
everywhere, except that it is peculiarly cold and fresh. In the general
purposes of the cure, water should be soft, that is to say, it must
possess the quality of dissolving, and for this reason it must be cold,
and divested of all mineral properties; for to prove its fitness, linen
cloth washed in it must become white, and vegetables dressed in it
tender. Trout living in water does not prove its softness, but frogs do;
the softest of all waters is the rain. Hard water makes the skin rough,
but soft water, on the contrary, renders it smooth. When water, with the
slightest acidity in it, has been suffered to remain in leaden pipes,
pumps or cisterns for any length of time, it absorbs the dangerous
qualities of the lead; and this has been known to produce serious
consequences. It is necessary, therefore, that water should be drawn off
before any is drunk.
Those who wish to begin ablutions in winter, should do so in a warm
room, and as a beginning, instead of washing, they may wet a towel, and
with it be well rubbed all over twice a day, or use the rubbing-sheet.
The morning immediately on getting out of bed, is the best time for the
first ablution; the other should be undertaken two or three hours after
eating, _never_ on a full stomach, nor immediately after making any
great exertion. The rubbing should be continued from three to five
minutes.
It is conceived that one ablution a-day, and the drinking of cold water,
will enable those who are in health, and in the enjoyment of life, to
continue in that state. After any excess, instead of resorting to drugs,
the rubbing sheet should be resorted to, and an increase in cold water
as a beverage. The same means may be resorted to by persons who have any
reason to suppose that they have caught cold.
In answer to the question, whether there is not some risk of catching
cold whilst washing, we answer, "Not the least." There is no better way
of guarding against colds, or of hardening the skin, to contend with
atmospheric changes. But in cold weather it is as well that all the body
should be wetted simultaneously. Even in cold weather the temperature of
the room to which the body is exposed, is higher or warmer than the
water used, which cannot, in consequence, produce a cold. The contrary
remark may be applied to warm water, as we have all experienced on
getting out of a warm bath even in summer. A Russian lady of the
author's acquaintance took a _warm_ bath immediately after dinner, the
result was, a want of reaction, and a complete paralysation of the whole
of one side of the body.
Before entering cold water, we ought to wash the head and the chest, in
order to prevent the blood ascending to those regions.
People, without knowing whether hot or mineral waters will be beneficial
or otherwise, make use of them because it is the fashion so to do, or
because their application is agreeable. A little reflection would show
them that there will not be a wholesome reaction; that taken inwardly
they must necessarily injure or destroy the coats of the stomach; and
when applied outwardly, weaken the skin, thereby rendering the body
susceptible to every change of weather.
Those who resort to sea-bathing in general pay little or no attention to
diet. To derive advantage from a trip to any of our watering places, the
latter, for the time at least, should be attended to.
The fact that the action of the human heart is repeated at least one
hundred thousand times a-day, with sufficient force to keep in continual
movement a mass of from 50 to 60 lbs. of blood, might lead to the
inquiry what watch, what machinery could be more easily deranged? Can we
wonder at men being ill who are constantly eating too much, who indulge
in acid wines, in thick and adulterated beer, or spirituous liquors, or
hot liquids of whatsoever nature they may be?
Few of us sufficiently appreciate pure cold water. What will not man
submit to rather than adopt such means of cure--adapt himself to such
self-denial? What pain will he not endure; what poisons swallow or rub
into his flesh, rather than consent to seek relief from such a humble
source?
Animals, when thirsty, repair to the brook to quench their thirst; when
wounded, to assuage the pain. Water is nature's medicine and man
despises it.
What organic matter can grow or live without water? We know that animals
or plants excluded from its influence die. Observe the vivifying effects
of water upon vegetation after a shower. Then what shall be said to
vain, short-sighted man, who sets nature's laws at defiance, by avoiding
what they enjoin, and indulging in what they interdict? Why should he
live without water more than all else that has life? It may be answered
"He does not live his time;" for every day's experience proves that more
than half the inhabitants of the civilised world are tormented by one
disease or another, which causes them to die before the natural term of
life is completed. This, evidently, was not the intention of Divine
Providence, since water, found every where, will prevent or cure
disease, enable human beings to attain a good old age, and die without
pain.
Stiffened joints, the dull eye, thickness of breathing, an unnatural
tendency to corpulency, wrinkles, baldness, bad sight, and sallowness of
complexion, are failings which clearly indicate an habitual distaste for
water. It cannot be doubted, that in many of these cases, the mere
drinking plentifully of water, and washing the body once a day, would
afford relief. If they had always been accustomed to this they would not
have been thus affected.
What numbers of weakly, crippled children we see? "Parents, do you wash
their bodies; do you encourage them in the drinking of water? If not,
you are instrumental to their future misery: you deprive them of the
power of being healthy in life, or attaining to longevity." In looking
around on the organic world, we cannot but admire the perfection
everything seems to attain--the noblest work of creation an exception;
we exclaim, with Goldsmith, "Man seems the only growth that dwindles
here."
"Health is the natural state of man.
"The causes of bodily disease, not proceeding from external injury, are
material, and consist of foreign matters introduced into the system.
"These foreign matters are divided into four parts:--
"I. Bodily substances which have not been eliminated in proper time.
"II. Substances not assimilated, and notwithstanding which, remain in
the stomach, the skin, or the interior.
[Transcriber's note: items III and IV not explicitly identified]
"Contagious ulcers.
"Corrupted elements; epidemical diseases.
"Every acute disease is an attempt to dispel diseased matter.
"Fever is not a disease, but the consequence of it; it is an effect of
an exertion greater than the power of the system.
"The radical healing of acute diseases is only possible by releasing the
diseased matter, by means of water, an agent which invariably effects
its object, and that always in a manner perceptible to the senses.
"By means of physic and bleeding, acute diseases become chronic; the
system, medically treated, effects a partial, but never a total ejection
of diseased matter.
"As sooner or later a body must yield to the effects of drugs, it is
quite impossible that any one suffering from chronic disease, unless
healed by Hydropathy, should die a natural death.
"Chronic disease cannot be permanently cured by drugs: Hydropathy alone
will effect this, by changing the chronic evil to acute eruptions, which
are cured in the same way that acute diseases are cured.
"Men, like other organic beings, ought to live according to nature's
law, without pain, and die a natural death, that is to say, without
illness or suffering. But with us almost every body dies prematurely,
from the effects of poisoning in some way or other."--ARBUTHNOT.
It was stated to Priessnitz, that in a case of gout, the bowels of the
patient by the treatment, had become constipated, to which he replied,
"Cold water never produces torpor of the bowels, but on the contrary, it
excites."
"In the cure of disease, that which is most agreeable is not always the
best. That which lowers the system, generally soothes and allays pain;
bleeding, drugs, opium, and warm baths do this, but they may fix the
disease firmer in the system, they diminish the energy so necessary to
eradicate the disease. Thus Gout, Piles, and many other complaints, are
never thoroughly cured by the faculty; they cannot abate the symptoms
without lowering the system."
"To promote a crisis, dress lightly; warm clothing relaxes the skin. The
stronger and harder the skin, the better will a crisis be developed.
Every sore and boil cannot be considered a crisis, some degenerate into
disease, and have an inward tendency. In a proper crisis of boils, they
rise, burst, and heal."
"For itching rash in the arm, do not wear the bandage, unless great pain
ensues, and in that case only at night."
"Chopping or sawing wood is better exercise for the stomach and bowels
than walking."
To a lady who complained of want of sleep, and much pain from an
eruption on her body, Priessnitz said "Take a tepid bath for some days,
eat lean meat without salt, and indulge freely in butter, you will get
well as soon as the rash has expended itself: there can be no repose for
the nerves until the humours that fret them are expelled."
"Nervous temperaments are the strongest, but most irritable when excited
by acid humours."
"Fingers being white after cold bathing denote weak nerves; the fingers
having lost their vitality, the blood ceases to circulate."
"Constipation and relaxation of the bowels proceed from the same causes,
weakness and impurities; hydropathy corrects both."
"It is impossible to warm, for any length of time, by hot viands and
warm water, their constant application only chills the more; by relaxing
and dilating they produce the opposite effects to those which are so
essential to health, namely Contraction. Cold water determines the
Caloric currents outwards from the vital centre, and promotes
decomposition."
"I cannot understand how drugs can reach any destined point; it appears
to me that all drugs are inimical to the human subject."
"Medicine introduced into the system, like the venom of a serpent,
permeates all the tissues."
"Mercury becomes enveloped in phlegm or slime, and remains in the
system, notwithstanding the body is continually subjected to the laws of
renovation and decay."
"Powerful medicines act speedily and detrimentally to the constitution.
The Water-cure is slow but advantageous in its operations."
"The wet sheet, which is in fact, a poultice, extracts pernicious
matters, as a sponge water from a basin, and brings something away each
time it is immersed in it."
XXXIII.--QUESTIONS PUT TO MR. PRIESSNITZ, AND HIS ANSWERS.
1.--Q. What should be done for:--
Severe cold settled on the lungs, attended with cough and expectoration?
A. Rub the chest and throat with cold water, and hold water in the mouth
often. In cold climates, bandage the throat: in warm climates, washing
it often is best.
2.--Q. Inflammation and soreness of throat attended with hoarseness and
difficulty in speaking?
A. As No. 1.
3.--Q. Exposure to change of climate with clothes occasionally wet,
attended with shivering?
A. Rubbing-sheets.
4.--Q. Continual public speaking of damp evenings?
A. Rubbing-sheets. Wash head well. A foot-bath for a long time; and take
exercise afterwards until feet are warm.
5.--Q. Cold accompanied by fever and restlessness at night?
A. As No. 4.
6.--Q. Head-ache occasioned by excitement?
A. As No. 4.
7.--Q. Shooting pain and tightness across the chest?
A. As No. 4, and rub the chest well with wet hand.
8.--Q. How guard against the effects of a damp atmosphere?
A. Keep the throat and chest always bare; if kept close and warm they
will soon become relaxed. Parts most used should be exposed to the air.