“Thirdly, that wide and grisly family of affliction classed under
the common name of dyspepsia. All derangements of the digestive
organs, imperfect powers of nutrition—the malaise of an injured
stomach, appear precisely the complaints on which the system takes
firmest hold, and in which it effects those cures that convert
existence from a burden into a blessing.
“Hence it follows that many nameless and countless complaints,
proceeding from derangement of the digestive organs, cease as that
great machine is restored to order. I have seen disorders of the
heart which have been pronounced organic by no inferior authorities
of the profession, disappear in an incredibly short time; cases of
incipient consumption, in which the seat is in the nutritious
powers; hæmorrhages, and various congestions, shortness of breath,
habitual fainting fits, many of what are called improperly nervous
complaints, but which in reality are radiations from the main
ganglionic spring: the disorders produced by the abuse of powerful
medicines, especially mercury and iodine; the loss of appetite, the
dulled sense and the shaking hand of intemperance, skin complaints,
and the dire scourge of scrofula;—all these seem to obtain from
Hydropathy relief,—nay, absolute and unqualified cure, beyond not
only the means of the most skilful practitioner, but the hopes of
the most sanguine patient.”
Nor will the above results form at all a subject for wonder, when it
is remembered that every natural disease arises either from impurity
in the blood or maldistribution of it, and that all the processes
of the water cure, from the Turkish bath down to the wet sheet,
act powerfully as depurators of the blood and controllers of its
circulation,—attracting it here, and repelling it there, at will.
We know not whether the public will prefer the impartial testimony of
an intelligent observer like Sir Bulwer Lytton, to that of the
Allopathic physician, naturally wedded to his own system and anxious to
sustain it against all intruders; but we may observe, that we never yet
met a physician opposed to Hydropathy, who did not, on catechising him,
exhibit the most absurd ignorance respecting it. Their chronic idea is
that of a person being left to shiver in wet sheets; and, as a
consequence, their chronic note of warning, accompanied by an ominous
shake of the head, consists in, “Don’t attempt the water cure, or it
will kill you.” [17] If medical men would but see, before they assert,
then much value might be attached to their opinion; but what value can
be attached to their opinion about a system which they will not take
the trouble of examining into? How many orthodox physicians have ever
visited Blarney, or any similar Hydropathic establishment?—The
proportion of such visitors (and no one can form a fair idea of the
system without seeing it at work), to the whole profession would be
more than represented by an infinitesimal fraction.
We wonder how long the public will continue to poison [18] their
systems with mercury, colchicum, iodine, and prussic acid, because a
physician chooses to tell them that a mode of treatment which he has
never investigated “will kill them.”
It may not be uninteresting to observe, that under Hydropathic
treatment, chronic disease frequently becomes acute; for, as the body
improves in strength, the more acutely will any existing disease
develop itself, and for the following reason: pain is caused by an
effort of nature to relieve the system of some morbid influence
residing in it, and the stronger the constitution, the greater efforts
will it make to remove that morbid influence, and therefore the greater
will be the pain; but on the other hand, when the body is enfeebled,
its efforts to relieve itself, though continual, are weak and
inefficient, and the disease remaining in the system, assumes the
chronic and less painful form. Now with these facts before them, we
have been amused at hearing physicians observe, in their efforts to
decry the “Water System,” “Oh it is good for the general health, but
nothing more,” a result albeit, which unfortunately the Allopathic
system cannot lay claim to. When speaking thus they do not however
reflect that they are affording the strongest possible testimony in
support of the system which they seek to decry, inasmuch as every
physiologist, from Cape Clear to the Giant’s Causeway, admits the
principle, that the cure of disease is to be sought for in the powers
of the living organism alone; and it must be evident that the more you
strengthen that organism, the more you increase its powers to cure
itself, and diminish its liability to future disease.
Having trespassed thus far on the attention of our readers, we would
conclude by inviting them and the medical profession, generally, to a
calm and dispassionate investigation, as far as the opportunities of
each allow, of the relative merits of the Allopathic and Hydropathic
systems, approaching the investigation, as far as possible, with a mind
devoid of prejudice and bigotry. Their duty to themselves and to
society demands this inquiry at their hands—two antagonistic (we use
the term advisedly) systems are presented for their acceptance—which
will they lay hold of? To assist them in determining this point we
would recommend for their quiet perusal either or all of the works
alluded to in this article, [19] the study of which will be found
interesting and profitable. If they conclude that drugs are wholesome,
let them by all means be swallowed; but if they are proved to be
injurious, deleterious and unnecessary, then away with them;—if opiates
are innocuous let them be retained, but if they congest the liver,
sicken the stomach, and paralyze the actions of the vital organs, the
sooner they are erased for ever from the Hygienic Pharmacopeia the
better—let them gracefully retire before the improved system of hot
stupes, fomentations, and the abdominal compress.
The very simplicity of the processes of the “water-cure,” which people
cannot believe capable of producing the effects ascribed to them,
combined with a belief, ingrained by long habit, in the absolute
necessity for drugs in curing disease, have chiefly militated against a
more extended reception of Hydropathy by the lay public; but when they
reflect that ALL the powers of the medical art range themselves under
two great categories, stimulants and sedatives—blistering, bleeding,
drugs, and leeching—acknowledging no other objects, they cannot but
admit the possibility of Hydropathy possessing the powers attributed to
it, since its bracing and soothing properties cannot be questioned.
Were, however, the position of affairs reversed, and Hydropathy become
as old a system as the Allopathic this belief, in the efficacy of the
old school might be securely entertained; for no one would think for a
moment of exchanging a system, fixed, intelligible, and certain in its
action, as based on scientific principles, and consonant with the laws
of physiology, for the uncertain, groping, empirical, and injurious
practice of drug medication.
We would ask the medical profession of Ireland to reflect on the fact,
that Dr. Barter’s establishment at Blarney, contains at this moment
upwards of 120 patients, with many more frequently seeking for
admission within its walls, most of whom leave the establishment ardent
converts to Hydropathy, determined for the rest of their lives to
“throw physic to the dogs,” fleeing from it as from some poisonous
thing. It will not do for them to “pooh-pooh” the system, and tell
their patients, as many of them do, that it will kill them; [20] such
language only betrays ignorance on their part, and will not put down a
system which daily gives the lie to their predictions by affording
ocular demonstration of its efficacy, in the restored health and
blooming cheek of many a once emaciated friend. Men are too sensible
now-a-days to pin their faith on the dictum of a medical man, who runs
down a system without fairly investigating it, and examining the
principles on which it acts, to say nothing of the prejudice he must
feel in favour of his own particular system; but if a mode of treatment
be rational, producing cures where every other system of treatment has
failed, and recommend itself to the common sense and reason of mankind,
we believe that such a principle will make its way despite of the
opposition of all the physicians that ever lived; and this very
progress the water cure is now making.
We would in conclusion apostrophize Hydropathy, in the words of the
American traveller, who gave vent to his feelings on first beholding
the falls of Niagara, by exclaiming, “Well done, Water!!”