Since the announcement of the alleged discovery of Priessnitz, about
fifty years ago, there has been no scarcity of books upon “Hydropathy,”
“Water Cure,” and kindred topics. With rare exceptions, these works have
been, in reality, little better than advertising mediums for some
individual or institution. As might be expected in works prepared for
such purposes, they have contained numerous and flagrant exaggerations
of the effects of water as a remedial agent, often representing it as a
specific for certain maladies and a sure preventive of others. These
extravagant accounts, together with various absurd teachings relating to
methods of application, have rendered just the popular verdict indicated
by the fact that the dingy shelves of nearly every second-hand book
store in New York and Philadelphia, as well as other large cities, are
laden with these musty old volumes which rest beneath the accumulated
dust of years.