“The principles of the water-cure treatment are founded in nature
and truth. We have in our power a new and most efficacious agent
for the alleviation and cure of disease in various forms, and in
proper hands as safe as it is effectual. I should be no friend to
humanity nor to medical science if I did not give my testimony in
its recommendation.”
Dr. James Johnson, Editor of the Medical Quarterly, thus writes of
hydropathy:—
“Its paramount virtue is that of preserving many a constitution
from pulmonary consumption.”
These are no small recommendations for any system to possess. Let us,
therefore, with the readers’ permission, proceed at once to examine the
principles and mode of action of this novel system, and see how far it
can prove the title it lays claim to, of being a true rational and
natural mode of curing disease.
The most eminent physiologists of the present day agree in regarding
disease in general, as an effort of nature to relieve the system of
matter injurious to its well-being. This being the case, the natural
and common sense mode of curing disease, would obviously consist in
assisting nature in its efforts to expel the morbid substance from the
system, and thus relieve it from the danger which threatened it. Now,
this is exactly the principle on which Hydropathy proceeds; it aids,
encourages, and strengthens the efforts of nature to heal herself,
instead of irritating, thwarting, and weakening those efforts, by the
pernicious administration of drugs.
To render the foregoing position intelligible to our readers, it is
necessary to premise, that the action of all active medicines depends
upon the principle (admitted by all physiologists), that nature ever
makes a continued effort to cure herself, never ceasing in her attempts
to relieve the body from whatever injurious matter may be present in
it. It is this effort of nature to expel the irritant matter from the
system, which makes the drug produce its effect. Thus when a
preparation of sulphur is administered as a medicine, nature, in her
effort to get rid of the sulphur, opens her pores to expel it. This is
proved by the resulting perspiration, and by the circumstance that
everything in contact with the patient is found, on analysis, to be
largely impregnated with the constituents of the medicine;—the
well-known fact of all articles of silver about the person, being
tarnished, being an illustration of this effect;—in addition to this
the stomach is weakened and irritated by the medicine which has been
poured into it; and further, if the dose is repeated, nature, getting
gradually accustomed to the intruder, ceases from her inhospitable
exertion to expel it, and, as a consequence, the medicine fails in
producing its intended effect. We have here referred to the successful
administration of a drug, but in many instances it entirely fails to
produce the desired result, acting injuriously upon other organs of the
system, quite contrary to the effect intended. We will now compare this
treatment with the hydropathic mode of producing the effects aimed at
by sudorifics. Instead of injuring the stomach by pouring deleterious
drugs into it, the Hydropathist applies himself; at once, to the great
organ he seeks to act on, viz., the skin; his usual appliances
consisting of the lamp and Turkish baths, and the result is this, that
by his method a most powerful effect is produced on the skin in the
course of about half an hour, after which the patient feels lightened,
strengthened, and invigorated, no deleterious substances are passed
into the stomach to irritate its membranes, producing nausea and other
disagreeable results, and the process may be repeated as often as may
be necessary with undiminished effect. Who ever saw a patient
recovering from the perspiratory process under the orthodox allopathic
mode of treatment, that was not weakened and dejected by it, whilst
buoyancy of spirits and invigoration of the system, are the usual
accompaniments of the hydropathic process. Take another example from
the process of wet-sheet packing, and examine its effects in subduing
inflammatory and febrile affections. By this simple process the pulse
is often reduced from 120 pulsations per minute to sixty-five, in the
short period of three-quarters of an hour, the circulation equalized
throughout the body, and a soothing effect produced on the patient,
which language fails to describe—a result which no drug or combination
of drugs, in the whole of the pharmacopeia, is capable of producing—in
this case, again, little lowering of strength is produced, and the
stomach is again saved from the injurious and irritating effects of
Tartar emetic and other drugs; instead of the fever raging for a period
of three weeks, it is generally subdued in as many days, when the
patient goes forth, but little reduced in strength, instead of weak,
miserable, and emaciated with the prospect of some six weeks elapsing
before he is restored to his wonted strength. Sir Bulwer Lytton thus
describes, from personal experience, the process of wet-sheet packing:—
“The sheet, after being well saturated, is well wrung out—the
patient quickly wrapped in it—several blankets bandaged round, a
down coverlet tucked over all; thus, especially where there is the
least fever, the first momentary chill is promptly succeeded by a
gradual and vivifying warmth perfectly free from the irritation of
dry heat—a delicious sense of ease is usually followed by a sleep
more agreeable than anodyne ever produced. It seems a positive
cruelty to be taken out of this magic girdle in which pain is
lulled and fever cooled, and watchfulness lapped in slumber.”
In the effects of wet-sheet packing in cases of congestion of the liver
and other internal viscera, we fear an unfavourable comparison must
again be drawn between the effects of the allopathic and hydropathic
modes of treatment. In these cases the object to be effected is to
relieve the oppressed and congested organs from the superabundance of
blood with which they are gorged; and it appears to us that this effect
is produced more certainly, more quickly, and more permanently, without
subsequent injurious effects, by the wet-sheet packing and other
hydropathic appliances, sitz baths amongst the rest, than could
possibly be effected by all the drugs in the Apothecary’s Hall. In
fact, hydropathy appears to possess greater power in controlling the
circulation and regulating the currents of the blood than any other
system of therapeutics yet revealed to us; it can stimulate the
circulation when low, reduce it when excited and disordered, determine
it from the head in cases of apoplexy and cold feet, and drive it to
the surface of the body in cases of visceral congestion. An engine
capable of producing these effects without weakening the constitution,
and possessing, in addition, the power of bracing and stimulating the
nervous system when weakened, and of soothing and allaying irritation
wherever it may exist, more effectually than any opiate; such a system
we say, must ever occupy a high, if not the foremost place amongst all
existing systems of Hygiene. The physiological effects of wet-sheet
packing are thus described by Dr. Wilson:—
“It fulfils many indications according to the various phases of
disease; if you revert to what I have said of the specific actions
and effects of the packing process, you will see sufficient ground
for our using the invaluable aid of the wet sheet in chronic
disease. We often want heat to be abstracted in these diseases, we
want the nerves soothed, the circulation equalized, muscles rested,
fatigue removed, a movement of the fluids to be determined to the
surface, interior congestions to be disgorged, the equilibrium of
the fluids established, secretions and exhalations to be promoted,
ill-conditioned solids to be broken up and eliminated, the tissues
of the skin to be soaked, its capillaries to be emptied and
cleansed, its sentient extremities to be soothed, and through them
the brain to be quieted on the one hand, and the ganglionic [3]
system to be roused on the other.”
How many lives have been sacrificed by the practice of bleeding in
feverish and inflammatory cases, from the non-adoption of wet-sheet
packing, which causes no loss of strength, and leaves behind none of
the debility and consequent long convalesence, which bleeding and
strong medicines necessarily occasion. It is to us, indeed,
inexplicable how so insane a process as bleeding can still be resorted
to in this enlightened 19th century, a process which deprives nature of
her vital fluid, and lets flow the stream on which our very existence
depends. [4] How can this tapping of the springs of life be defended
when an expedient for lowering inflammation without reducing the
strength, presents itself for adoption by the physician, one which by
its action purifies the blood, reducing fever by the abstraction of
heat, and by the removal of the serum or watery constituent of the
blood, which contains all its impurities. Will the public, then, place
confidence in the physician who, when invited to cure them, would
weaken them by bleeding, and assist the operations of nature by
depriving her of that vital fluid, on the existence of which her powers
of self-restoration depend? Will they prefer a system which ensures a
long convalesence to the patient, to that in which he recovers from his
disease without any sensible diminution of his strength, or injury to
his constitution? In short, the operation of wet-sheet packing is so
extraordinary and satisfactory in its results, that he who refuses to
make use of it must lag behind, whilst success will attend the efforts
of him who judiciously applies it in the cases to which it is suited.
The compress and hot stupe, next demand our attention; both are usually
applied to the stomach; the latter consisting of a vulcanized
India-rubber bag filled with hot water, which is laid over a towel, the
under folds of which are moistened and placed next the body, a most
efficient and convenient form of fomentation; these remedies are
applied in the treatment of nearly all chronic diseases, where there is
morbid action of the stomach, liver, or kidneys; this form of stupe,
Dr. Wilson calls the
“Ne plus ultra of poulticing, soothing and derivation being by it
most perfectly obtained, and in the greatest degree. Each operation
has on deep seated chronic irritation, as one of its qualities, the
advantageous effect of a mild blister or mustard plaister, without
any of its drawbacks, and in acute inflammations, in all nervous or
neuralgic pains, in the sufferings of colic, biliousness, or
sickness of the stomach, or other digestive derangements from
dietetic errors, and in the malaise ushering in fevers and
inflammations, in sore throat, &c., or affections of the lungs and
air tubes, it is then found to be the most agreeable and potent
anodyne and equalizer of the circulation.”
It, in effect, accomplishes the most salutary operations of opiates,
without any risk of congesting the liver, or producing that sickness
and atony of the stomach, and all but paralysis of the lower bowels
which result from the use of narcotic drugs.
“No nervous irritations,” says Dr. Wilson, “no visceral
congestions, especially if of recent formation, but are soon
relieved by this powerful revulsive rubefacient and anodyne. With
the dissipation of those interior congestions comes the solution of
pains and spasms, or flatulence which may have risen to a severe
state of suffering, the release of bilious and nervous headaches,
neuralgic pains, asthmatic fits, &c. These have all their origin
near or remote in visceral obstructions, congestions, &c. In most
cases where for a longer or a shorter time any organic action has
been embarrassed, sleep banished or disquieted, and the patient
irritated and exhausted to the last degree; by aid of the
fomentations, in a brief time organic calm takes the place of
organic tumult, ease succeeds to agitation, and the whole apparatus
feels to work normally and with renewed alacrity. What I have just
described, you may frequently hear repeated and descanted upon in
the same strain by my patients.”
The effect of the hot-stupe in the removal of irritation from the
viscera, the immediate cause of dysentery, &c., is very remarkable, and
from our knowledge of its effects, we have often regretted that so
simple and rational an expedient was not resorted to, in the treatment
of those diseases by which our noble army was more than decimated in
the late Crimean Campaign. On this subject Dr. Wilson remarks—
“So strong was my conviction, that I wrote to my good friend Lord
Rokeby, requesting him to offer my service through Mr. Sidney
Herbert. I offered to go and remain there (at Scutari) entirely at
my own expense, not as a ‘water doctor,’ but as an ordinary medical
practitioner, willing to lend a hand, and make himself generally
useful. I stated that I had almost lived in hospitals for seven
years, had afterwards witnessed the practice of nearly every great
hospital in Europe, and could undertake simple operations, and any
amputations with little preparation: had been twenty-five years in
practice. After some weeks I received a polite letter thanking me,
but fearing it could not be done, not being quite the custom. About
this time there was an outcry for medical men, those at the
hospitals were too few for the work, they were worn out with
fatigue.”