are told by Van Heydon, that Sir Toby Matthews had for twenty years
been troubled with great pain in one side of his head, and a great
defluxion of rheum from his nose: but he at last was cured, by applying
cold water to the part every day for about a quarter of an hour: Upon
reading of which, I tried the experiment upon myself, who for a long
time had been troubled with the running of much clear water from my
nose, with great spitting of thin rheum; for I let a water-cock run
upon the mould of my head every morning, by which, in about six weeks
time, I was eased of my trouble. And since that, I had a credible
information of a certain servant maid, who was afflicted greatly with
a rheumatism, and an intolerable pain in the head, who being put into
St. Thomas’s Hospital, her nurse was ordered by the doctor to apply
to her head towels four times double, dipt in cold water, changing
them as they became warm, which she was to continue doing four or five
hours; in which time she was freed from that pain in the head, and was
afterwards cured of the rheumatism by other means.
[Sidenote: _Want of sleep in fevers._]
The want of sleep in fevers, may be cured likewise by the application
of cold water: For to a near relation in a fever, who could not sleep
for three days and three nights, I ordered a towel to be several times
folded up, then to be dipped in water, and a little wrung out, and so
laid upon her forehead, and to be new dipped as it grew hot; which in
about two hours time so cooled her head, that she fell into a sleep,
and continued in it five hours: And I ordered the same to be done the
next night, with the same success. Dr. Cockburn, in his treatise of
_Sea-diseases_, orders, for the want of sleep in fevers, to dip a towel
four times doubled in oxycrat, which is six parts water and one part
vinegar, to be bound about the head and temples; which, he saith, will
cause sleep with wonderful success. But cold water only will have the
same effect, as I often have proved.
[Sidenote: _Swoonings._]
And that the use of cold water, in swooning, is of great effect, common
experience teacheth: For, if a dish or cup of cold water is thrown
strongly upon the face, the person in an instant will recover, tho’
for a time he seemeth dead, and perhaps might not have recovered in
some cases, if cold water had not been so applied; such faintings being
sometimes deadly, which proceed from poisonous vapours ascending up to
the brain from a foul stomach: For such effects there are, as I have
found by experience, who in my young days did swoon away twice; at
both which times I was sensible of a collection of wind in my stomach,
from whence I plainly felt a fume or vapour ascend to the head, that
in an instant deprived me of all sense: But being both times in the
company of a person who had seen the thing tried, he dashed some cold
water against my face, which I remember made me start, as if I had been
suddenly awaked. And I am apt to think, that some die in such a fit,
when none are near to help them; and especially when so taken in their
sleep, which I believe none need fear, who live temperately, or that
eat no suppers; none who have refrained from suppers; having been ever
found to die in their sleep.
[Sidenote: _Bleedings at the nose._]
Dangerous bleedings at the nose have also been cured with cold water
largely drank, syringing cold water up their nostrils, and applying
towels round their necks dipt in cold water, changing them as they grow
warm; for it is said by a good writer, that this will so cool the
heat of the blood, and by the coldness of the water syringed, up the
nose, so contract the mouths of the veins which bleed, that it will
put a stop to the bleeding. Such bleedings have also been stopt by
dashing cold water often in the face, as a French writer hath affirmed,
whose name was Flammand; and the same also is asserted by Cook, in his
_Marrow of Surgery_.
[Sidenote: _Small cuts._]
Cold water is an absolute cure for all small cuts, in the fingers, or
other parts; for if you close the cut up with the thumb of your other
hand, keeping it so closed for a quarter or half an hour, this will
infallibly stop the bleeding: After which, if you double up a linen-rag
five or six times, dip it in cold water, and apply it to the part,
binding it on; this, by preventing inflammation and a flux of humours,
will give nature time soon to heal it without any other application, as
is seen in the common practice of surgeons when they let a man blood;
for all the application they make to the vein so cut, is a pledget of
linen dipped in cold water, and bound on with a fillet: For all wounds,
without loss of substance, will heal of themselves, if inflammation be
prevented, and the lips of the wound are kept close together.
[Sidenote: _Bitings of a mad dog._]
We are also informed by Van Heydon, that in his time some were of
an opinion, that a person bit by a mad dog might be preserved from
that symptom, called, the fear of water, which generally follows, and
proves so mortal, by applying cold water to the place bitten: And
this, he says, they conceive to be no unlikely thing, if there is any
credit to be given to what Cornelius Celsus writes, who saith, that
the only remedy in this case is, to throw the party who hath the fear
of water upon him, into a pond or river, and, when plunged over head
and ears, to keep him in the water till filled with it, whether he
will or no; and by this means both his thirst and dread of water will
be cured. For, if this immersion be of use when the person is so far
gone, why should it not be of greater force in preserving from it, if
speedily applied, and repeated? Now, tho’ this is mentioned by him as a
probable opinion, yet experience in our days shews, that the plunging
the patient into the salt water, either of the river of Thames about
Gravesend, or in the salt springs in Cheshire, is the best means to
prevent any evil succeeding the bite of a mad dog; they must indeed be
dipped so often, as to be almost drowned before the danger is over:
But it is a question whether the saltness of the water contributes any
thing to this cure, since Boerhaave, the present professor at Leyden,
affirms, that when men bitten by a mad dog are arrived to the fear
of water, called an hydrophobia, they may be cured by blinding the
patient’s eyes, and throwing of him into a pond of water often, till he
seems not to be afraid of it, or but very little, and then force him to
drink large quantities.
[Sidenote: _Falling-sickness._]
And we are told by Dr. Edward Browne, that a person troubled with the
falling-sickness, by happening to fall into a cold spring, (I suppose
it was in the time of his fit) was freed from his distemper all his
life after: And he saith, there is no need of preparing the body for
it in this, as in some other cases. But the patient, when plunged into
a cold bath, ought to continue in the bath each time about three or
four minutes; for, in plunging over head and ears at his first entrance
into a cold bath, the brain will be so sensibly affected, as to be
relieved from the distemper, which is a kind of convulsion proceeding
from an inflammation, or some other cause; but we want more experiments
to confirm this notion: which notion may be worth noticing, that the
thing may be tried in others, to see if it will succeed as it did in
this person. For it is said by the ingenious Dr. Pitcairn, a Scotsman,
sometime professor at Leyden, that there is no such thing as the art of
curing, but only the practice; remedies were found out by chance, p.
264, of his works. For when remedies thus happen to be discovered, and
prove often to be effectual, the remembering that remedy, to apply it
in a like case of practice, brings reputation to the prescriber; but,
if it fails, some other experiment must be tried, which, were physic an
art, need not be done, because the rules of art are certain, and men
depend upon them as such.
[Sidenote: _Madness & melancholy._]
It is also said by the same Dr. Browne, that madness and melancholy,
with all their retinue, may find better effects from the use of bathing
in cold water, than from other violent methods, with which people so
afflicted are now treated; for, says he, that which will make a drunken
man sober in a minute, will certainly go a great way towards the cure
of a madman in a month. Now it is most certain, to my own knowledge,
that, if a drunken man be plunged over head and ears in cold water, he
will come out of it perfectly sober: And some I have known, that in
such cases have been recovered by barely washing their heads in cold
water. Which fore-mentioned opinion of Dr. Browne is confirmed by the
practice of Dr. Blair, who, in a letter to Dr. Baynard, declares, that
he cured a man raving mad, who being bound in a cart, stript off his
clothes, and blindfolded, that the surprise might be the greater; he on
a sudden had a great fall of water let down upon him from the height
of twenty foot, under which he continued so long as his strength would
permit: And, after his return home, he fell into a sleep, and slept
twenty-nine hours, and awaked in as quiet a state of mind as ever, and
so had continued to the time of writing that letter, which was twelve
months. Distraction also in fevers, of which there are divers instances
in the history of _Cold Baths_, has been cured by being plunged in cold
water. _See p. 226._
Which relation seems to make that a more probable truth, which was
related in a letter from Sir John Floyer, to Dr. Browne, and printed
by that doctor; that in Normandy they immerse fools, or dip them in
cold water to cure them: A hot brain being the cause, perhaps, of
several disorders in the understanding, and is in great part found to
be true in the ridiculous behaviour of some drunken men, which, when
their heads are become cool, abhor what they before did or said. Now,
if such dipping would cure fools among us, great numbers might be made
more happy than they are by being so dipped, before they have beggared
themselves by imprudence.
[Sidenote: _King’s-evil._]
Dr. Browne, in his discourse of _Cold Baths_, affirms, that to bathe in
cold water hath been found to be the quickest, safest, and pleasantest
cure for the king-evil; and he tells us, in p. 85, of a Yorkshire
gentleman, who was grievously afflicted with this distemper, having
great ulcers in the glands of his neck, which were so much inflamed,
as to bring him very low; but, being advised by Dr. Baynard to bathe
in the cold bath, he in a month’s time was perfectly cured, his ulcers
being healed up, contrary to the opinion of the most learned physicians.
[Sidenote: _Jaundice, swelling, inflamed eyes, and pains in the
joints._]
We also find mention, in the description of the Scottish Islands, of
an odd remedy commonly made use of there for the cure of the Jaundice;
which is this: They strip the party naked, lay him upon the ground on
his belly, and pour unawares upon his back a pail of cold water. And
also pains in the joints, as Dr. Curtis tells us, will be cured, by
holding the part under the stream of a pump or cock; and fomenting with
cold water, is commended as good to assuage hot swellings. And I know a
person who had often been subject to blood-shot or inflamed eyes, who
afterwards, upon the beginning of the same distemper, took, by advice,
a ball of linen rags, dipped them in cold water, and applied them to
the part, cooling them by new-dipping as oft as they grew hot: Which
application was continued three hours, in which time the humour was so
repelled, as to be troublesome no more; for the party, to my knowledge,
hath had no sign of that distemper since, tho’ the same had been very
troublesome many times before: And the same others have tried with the
like success.
[Sidenote: _Defluxions on the eyes._]
It is also advised by Dr. Gideon Harvey to wash the eyes well twice a
day in cold water, as the best remedy to prevent defluxions on them,
and preserve the eye-sight, which it greatly comforts. And this I
have found true for many years, my eyes being often apt to be dim and
stiff, so that I could scarce open my eye-lids; which, upon washing
for a minute with fair water, hath been felt no more for a good while
after. Besides which benefit to the eyes, authors say, it is also good
to preserve the memory, if the whole forehead be washed twice a day;
and it is also a certain cure for itching in the eyes. And indeed,
washing with water will free mankind from a troublesome itching in
any other part of the body, let it be never so private; as Cook, in
his _Observations on English bodies_, doth expresly declare from
experience. And Wedelius affirms, that violent itching in a man’s cod
was so cured by him; and, if the other sex would make use of it, a
single life would be less uneasy than it seems to be to some.
[Sidenote: _Callosity & sore feet._]
Some people are troubled with a callosity, or hardness of the bottom
of their feet, which is so troublesome, as to be a hindrance to their
easy walking; for which a cure is prescribed by Dr. Cook, that is, to
soak them well in warm water, till the hardness is softened, and then
scrape it off with the edge of a knife: And if the feet burn with any
unnatural heat, and are tender, it was advised by Mr. Rumsey, in his
_Organon Salutis_, to bathe them daily in cold water. Others affirm,
that to bathe tender feet often in hot water will cool them, by giving
vent to that which is offensive; and it is useful in a cough.
[Sidenote: _Scurvy._]
The plentiful drinking of water is commended in the scurvy, whether hot
or cold, by Dr. Pitcairn, to dissolve the scorbutic salts, and carry
them out by urine; but this is a distemper that Dr. Cheyne affirms is
difficult to cure, that nothing but a total abstinence from flesh,
fish, and strong liquor, will overcome the scurvy, p. 127, whether
they are acids or alkalies. But tho’ weakness and faintness commonly
attends on this distemper, yet myself, who have been formerly extremely
troubled with the scurvy, which often made me faint and weak, and my
pulse so low as scarcely to be felt, found at last that the pulse would
infallibly rise upon drinking a pint or more of cold water, and in a
little time I should again become brisk and strong: for I have often
observed, that, upon a disorder of the stomach, the strength of the
bodily members soon would fail, and as easily be recovered when the
disorder of the stomach was removed; which requires temperance and
cooling diet, when distempered, especially in drink.
[Sidenote: _Asthma & consumption._]
To what hath been already said, I will add an account, taken from
a credible person, of a man in the parish of Shoreditch, who was
desperately ill of an asthma, or shortness of breath, and deep
consumption, for which he had tried many remedies to no purpose. At
length he was advised by a physician, being poor, to drink no drink but
water, and eat no other food but water-gruel, without salt or sugar;
which course of diet he continued for three months, finding himself
at first to be somewhat better, and at the three months end he was
perfectly cured; but, for security’s sake, he continued in that diet
a month longer, and grew fat and strong upon it. But his diet he had
no mind to till he was thoroughly hungry, and then he did eat it with
pleasure; in which perhaps consisted the best part of his cure, it
being an advantage to health never to eat till hunger calls for food.
[Sidenote: _Cough cured._]
And I remember a young woman, a burnisher of silver, who had a
desperate cough, for which she had taken many things of an apothecary
to no purpose; at length the journeyman told her, his master said, he
could do no more:
But, said the fellow, I would advise you every morning to wash behind
your ears, and upon your temples, and on the mould of your head, with
cold water: which she told me she did, and was perfectly cured of her
cough by that means. And for a hoarseness that comes upon a cold, the
dipping of a handkerchief five times double in very hot water, and
holding it to the mouth and nose, new-dipping it as it becomes cold, is
commended by Dr. Alexander Read as a good remedy.
[Sidenote: _Hoarseness._]
[Sidenote: _Difficulty in making water._]
There are divers other cases wherein the use of water hath done much
good. An ancient practiser in physic told me, that in many difficulties
of making water, he had advised the party to put his yard into water
as hot as he could endure it, which in a minute did cause him to make
water; and that women have had the same benefit by sitting over hot
water. And he often had advised them who were costive, and went to
stool with great difficulty, to sit over a pot with hot water in it;
which soon was attended with an easy dejection of stool, the body
drawing up the vapour, which provoked expulsion of the excrements
without much straining.
[Sidenote: _Costiveness._]
[Sidenote: _Children unquiet._]
And it hath been observed, that froward children have been made much
more quiet, by washing their lower parts every morning with water, to
wash off the salts of their urine, which usually stick in the pores of
the skin, and are fretful and uneasy; and nothing cures their soreness
about those parts like it. Nor is there any thing more effectual to
cure men who are gauled by riding, than to wash themselves well when
they go to bed with cold water; and washing the bare breast every
morning with cold water, will make those hardy who before were apt at
every turn to take cold. To which I will add what Sir Theodore Mayhern
affirms in his _Medicinal Counsels_, that in most diseases
[Sidenote: _Head diseases._]
[Sidenote: _Pains in the ear._]
of the head, there is nothing better than to bathe it with cold water.
Which, in a desperate pain of the ear upon taking cold, I have found to
be true; for the pain did vanish upon applying to it about 30 minutes
a towel doubled up often, and wet often in cold water; and tho’ it
returned again, yet ease was soon obtained the same way, and the cure
perfected in four times doing: Which cure of a pain gotten with cold,
by a cold application, will not seem so strange, when we consider,
that, in the northern countries, mortifications from cold are nowise
to be cured but by applying cold snow; as travellers into Denmark and
Sweden do affirm.
[Sidenote: _Curtis’s opinion of water._]
In short, water, when rightly made use of, appears, from the accounts
before-mentioned, very effectual to prevent and cure many diseases; but
more especially the inward use thereof: For to use the words of the
ingenious Dr. Curtis, in his _Essay for the preservation and recovery
of Health_; the habitual use of water for common drink, preserves the
native ferment of the stomach in due order, keeps the blood temperate,
and helps to spin out the thread of life to the longest extent of
nature; it makes the rest at night more quiet and refreshing, the
reason and understanding more clear, the passions less disorderly;
and, in case of eating too much, a large draught of cold water vastly
exceeds any other cordial to cause digestion: water being not so cold
and lifeless, he saith, as many imagine. Besides which commendation of
it by this doctor, it is certainly a drink that will not ferment in
the stomach, nor turn sour, as wine and strong malt-drinks will, to
the hindering of a good digestion, which all acidity in the stomach
certainly doth, when it abounds there; and is best corrected by
weakening or making it less sour, by drinking good store of water, as
the experience of above forty years practice hath assured myself, and
many others. For tho’ water is accounted a contemptible drink, yet by
beginning to make use of it about thirty years of age, before which
I was often out of order, and continuing the use of it ever since,
drinking very little wine or strong drink, I have attained to the age
of seventy-four years, when thousands in the meantime, who delighted
only in drinking strong beer, wine, and brandy, have not lived half so
long: which makes good that saying in the Scriptures, that _Wine is
a mocker, and strong drink is raging, and he who is deceived thereby
is not wise_, Prov. xx. 1., since it noway contributes to long life;
for it is certain, that thousands in the world live as long who drink
no strong drink, as any drinkers of it do. Some indeed, from an
extraordinary strength of nature, have been hard drinkers, and yet die
old; but for one who does this, perhaps an hundred are destroyed by
it before they come to half the time of life: and generally we shall
find, that very strong and healthy constitutions, at the long-run, are
ruined by riot and excess, there being no certain safety in any way
of living, but that of temperance and moderation. Nature in some may,
a long time, withstand the abuses offered to it, but at last it will
yield to its enemies; and those who live the longest in an intemperate
course, might, from the strength of their constitution, have lived much
longer, had they ate less, and used themselves to drink more water;
which drink, as it is most friendly, and longest will preserve the life
of a strong constitution, so it is absolutely necessary for those that
are weak and sickly, and are naturally subject to the gout, the stone,
shortness of breath, wind, ill digestion, and such like.
[Sidenote: _Useful in Vomiting._]
But the chief use of water, in preserving of health, is by using of it
as a vomit, as before was shewn, which is an infallible and the most
speedy remedy that was ever found out for any stomach sickness, or pain
there; for to vomit with warm water, will effectually remove it in one
hour, and be a means to prevent great fits of sickness, and preserve
the lives of many thousands to old age, by cleansing the stomach from
that tough, slimy, or corrupt matter that offends, and is the cause of
all mortal diseases, especially of an apoplexy, which, tho’ counted a
disease of the head, yet hath its original from a foul stomach, which
nothing doth so effectually cleanse as vomits; according to Dr. Curtis,
who saith, that vomiting with warm water, or carduus-tea, is very
beneficial to bring up that which fluctuates in the stomach, and that
tough, ropy phlegm, which sticks fast to the wrinkles and folds of that
bowel, and which purges do often pass over, and cannot remove. Which
way of vomiting with warm water, is ten times more easy and pleasant
than that which is effected by the use of nauseous tea made of carduus,
which physicians sometimes advise; and it is also such as can do no
harm by violence, as other vomits made from antimony sometimes do, for
want of drinking after each vomit a pint or more of water-gruel, or
warm water, when you vomit with water.
And here it may not be amiss to relate what I some years ago
discovered, in order to mens freeing themselves from sickness that may
happen after eating; for being invited to dine at a certain table,
where there were several good dishes of meat, I was over-persuaded
to eat more than I should, and in a little time after dinner found
myself began to be sick. I went out, and in a private place attempted
to vomit, by tickling my throat with my finger, but could not vomit
as I designed; only by this means I raised up two or three mouthfuls
of thick, tough phlegm, upon which I found myself better, and my
sick qualm went off. I took the hint it gave me, and have done the
same several times since, and find that the getting up the phlegm,
which, like yeast upon beer, works up to the mouth of the stomach, a
man may free himself from some kinds of sickness after eating. And I
remember it is an advice given by one Vaughan, in a book long since
printed, intituled, _Directions for Health_, for men who feed high,
to put their finger in their throat when they rise in the morning, to
make themselves puke, or void the phlegm which can be raised, as an
excellent way to preserve health; and it is said also to be an absolute
preservative from the gout, by a good writer.
[Sidenote: _The quantity of water needful._]