4. Confessions of a Water Patient. By Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, Bart, M.P.
London: H. Baillière.
5. An Address to the Public on the Prevention and Treatment of Cholera
on rational principles. Cork: Geo. Purcell and Co.
6. A few Facts forgotten by the Faculty. By S. B. Birch, M.D. London:
H. Baillière.
[2] Because either they disapprove of whatever is not practiced by
themselves, or they are ashamed to follow new opinions, and to
acknowledge when old, the errors they had imbibed in youth.
[3] The ganglionic nerves are those which cover the stomach, and
regulate the digestive organs: they are also called the “Solar Plexus.”
[4] The late melancholy case of Mr. Stafford O’Brien is an instance of
this injurious practice; that gentleman was copiously bled, doubtless
that he might be the better enabled, in his so enfeebled condition, to
resist the action of a powerful poison (opium) afterwards administered
with deadly effect. We cast no imputation whatever on the attendant
physician in this case, as we believe the treatment pursued by him was
strictly that enjoined by the orthodox school. Yet, if one wished to
destroy life, could they take a surer means of doing it?
[5] “The generality of men are not so much accustomed to pursue this or
that course, in consequence of their previous conviction that it is
right, as to believe that it is right, because they have been
accustomed to pursue it.”—Archbishop Whately.
[6] We do not pretend to assert, that consumption is curable when
ORGANIC disease of the lungs has actually been established, but we
maintain that the disease is perfectly curable in its incipient stages,
though not by drugs nor banishment to a foreign clime. The latter may
somewhat prolong the disease, but will not cure it, unless by accident,
when of a very mild form.
[7] The temperature and vitality of our bodies depend upon the
continued and rapid combination of oxygen with the oxidizable products
of the blood; if the necessary supply of oxygen be interfered with, the
vitality of the system flags, and disease results.
[8] The very name of scrofula points to the origin of the disease, it
being derived from the Latin Scrofa, a pig (quod sues præcipue hoc
morbo vexantur. Cels. 5, 38), in allusion to the condition of the skin
in those persons in whom a scrofulous habit has been engendered. It has
been proved beyond contradiction that the partial closure of the pores,
which every one suffers from in some degree, is the chief source of
scrofula in all its hideous forms.
[9] When blood is overloaded with carbon, and deprived of its necessary
supply of oxygen, the term “veinous” is applied to it.
[10] Where consumption has been relieved by residence abroad, the
benefit derived must be attributed to the action on the skin produced
by the hot climates to which the patient is usually ordered, but
recovery in this way has been confined to very mild forms of the
disease, and cannot be looked upon as a scientific mode of treatment;
the improved action of the skin deserving to be considered rather as
induced accidentally than by design; as otherwise more attention would
have been paid to so important a matter, and there would have been no
necessity for ordering the patient abroad, as similar results could
have been obtained much more easily and effectually by keeping him at
home; the use of the Turkish bath conferring all the benefits of
increased temperature, followed by the tonic effects of cool air and
water, by which the debilitating effects of continual residence in a
warm climate are obviated.
[11] Dr. Hufeland remarks—“The more active and open the skin is the
more secure will the people be against obstructions and diseases of the
lungs, intestines, and lower stomach; and the less tendency will they
have to gastric (bilious) fevers, hypochondriasis, gout, asthma,
catarrh, and varicose veins.”
[12] The wearing of flannel close to the skin has a two-fold injurious
effect:—First, by driving the blood from the surface, whereby the
activity of the skin is seriously impaired; and secondly, by shutting
out the air, and so preventing it from having access to the blood, to
aerate and purify it.
[13] By healthy waste, we mean waste accompanied by corresponding
renewal.
[14] We have seen consumptive patients arrive at Blarney shivering with
cold though swathed in flannels, who before leaving it were able to
wear clothing in winter, under which they previously would have
shivered in the hottest day of summer.
[15] The great mortality which has attended the Allopathic treatment of
cholera, ought to make us have little compunction in trying something
new. There is no fear, in this case, of our “jumping from the
frying-pan into the fire;” we are already in it—let us quench it.
[16] Dr. Russell, a well-known Homœopathic author, appears to give the
palm to Hydropathy in some rheumatic cases. He thus writes: “In regard
to rheumatism, I am inclined to think that there are some varieties of
this complaint which utterly defy all Homœopathic medicines, from the
deeply morbid condition of the blood; and that in these cases a
thorough water course, by effecting a rapid and total renovation of
this fluid, might enable our remedies to act more beneficially.”
Contrast this liberality with that of the Allopathic physician.
[17] We were told by our physician that the water system would kill us,
as we had “not sufficient reaction to stand it.” Had he, however,
understood anything of its working, he could not have made this
observation, as Hydropathy implies cold water only in those cases to
which cold water is suited; and if he had asked Dr. Barter, he would
have told him that the chief thing he had to guard against in practice,
was excessive reaction, instead of the want of it. We ran the gauntlet,
however, and can truly say we never knew what real health was until we
did so, and forswore the use of drugs.
[18] The administering of poison to cure disease, is nothing short of a
contradiction of terms; for the word poison, if it means anything,
means something injurious to bodily health, and therefore incompatible
with its welfare. We might as well try to strengthen a man by bleeding
him.
[19] To those who desire a detailed and scientific account of the water
cure in a popular form, we recommend “The Confessions of a Water
Patient,” by Sir Bulwer Lytton; “The Water Cure,” by Dr. Wilson; and
“Hydropathy,” by Dr. Lane; whilst to those desiring a learned, lucid,
and most able scientific treatise, we would suggest “The Water Cure in
Chronic Disease,” by Dr. Gully; and “Domestic Hydropathy,” by Dr.
Johnson.
[20] A friend of ours was told by a physician in whom many place
confidence, that if he opted to take the Turkish bath, it would KILL
him. Having, however, read something on the subject, he went to
Blarney, tried the bath, luxuriated in it, and derived the greatest
benefit from its use. We can tell the reader that this physician at the
time he prophesied, had never visited the Blarney bath, nor could he
have known any thing about it, as no description of it had been
published at the time. Under such circumstances an unsophisticated mind
would think it more becoming for him to have said—“I cannot advise you
in this matter, as I have not studied the subject; what you do must be
on your own responsibility.” It is such illiberality of mind as the
above—such a want of pursuing truth for its own sake—which has brought
discredit on the medical profession, and loosened its hold on the
public.
[21] 1. “Turkish Bath; with a View to its Introduction into the British
Dominions.” London: David Bryce, 48, Paternoster-row.
2. “The Turkish Bath; being a lecture delivered at Bradford, by Dr.
Barter.” London: Routledge & Co.
[22] In the vapour-bath, or vapour-chamber, the whole of the body is
surrounded by vapour, whilst in the vapour-box the head of the patient
is exposed to the influence of the external air. In neither case can
the bather endure a higher temperature than 120° Faht., while in the
Turkish bath a temperature of 300° may be endured with perfect safety.
[23] We read in Chambers’ Dictionary, published in Dublin in 1758,
(under the head “turf sweating,”) an account of an air bath much used
by the Indians; and a case is related in America of a gentleman, 74
year of age, who was cured by it of an illness, which for 9 weeks
(during the entire of which he was confined to bed) resisted all the
ordinary modes of treatment: it adds that he enjoyed excellent health
for 11 years after, dying at the age of 85. The operation consisted in
heating sods in an oven, which were then spread on the ground, the
patient being laid on them enveloped in a sheet, under a covering of
hot sods and blankets. Verily there is nothing new under the sun.
[24] The surface of the body in an ordinary sized individual contains
7,000,000 of pores, the bringing of which into action from a state of
inactivity, is equivalent to giving the system the benefit of a second
set of lungs.
[25] When the pores of the skin are clogged and unable to perform their
functions, their duty is thrown upon other organs of the body, which
become diseased from overwork, consequent on the double duty imposed
upon them.
[26] It is a fact of which Ireland may feel justly proud, that the
FIRST Turkish bath which was ever specially designed for curative
purposes, was erected by an Irishman upon Irish ground. The eastern
world had long enjoyed the bath as a social and religious institution;
but the shrewd intelligence of Dr. Barter first saw a great principle
involved in it, and he straight-way set to work to apply it to the cure
of disease. From Blarney, as a centre, this bath is rapidly spreading
itself over the surface of Great Britain, and it is difficult to say
where the movement, once commenced, will end. A Constantinople journal
has lately observed, that the western world had borrowed the
construction of the bath from the east, and in return had taught them
to appreciate its curative power, an element which had not hitherto
received from them the attention it deserved.
[27] The two heated chambers were called respectively by the Romans,
the Tepidarium, and Sudatorium, or Caldarium: the first, or anteroom,
where the concluding portion of the bath was enacted, was termed the
Frigidarium and the plunge bath, when it existed, the Piscinum.
[28] This sensation which can only be compared to a kind of waking
sleep—a dreamy but conscious existence, is so novel in kind, that to be
realized, it must be experienced.
[29] The body becoming accustomed to these extremes of temperature,
treats with the utmost indifference all the intermediate changes of
which this climate is capable—looking on them as the “Idle wind, which
it regards not.”
[30] Cyprus is in point, containing a mixed population of Mahommedans
and Christians: the former take the bath as a religious observance, and
are free from consumption; the latter do not, and are victims to the
disease.
[31] At Blarney, the healthy appearance of the shampooers, at once
strikes the visitor.
[32] The “Oriental Bath,” paper read by Dr. Haughton before the Royal
Dublin Society, April, 1858.
[33] Since the above was written, we have heard that arrangements have
been made for the immediate erection of a Turkish bath in this city on
an extensive scale, and on the most approved principles (in
Lincoln-place, Merrion-square), to which we wish every success. Six
Turkish baths are now in operation in the town of Bradford in
Yorkshire, three at Blarney, two at Cork, in the vicinity of which
latter town a third one is now erecting by Dr. Barter, on a scale of
magnificence hitherto unattempted in the western world.
[34] Of Dropsy, Dr. Osborne asserts, that, “sweating being
accomplished, the disease, if free from complication, never fails to be
removed.”
[35] It is the use of the Turkish bath which enables the Turks to smoke
to the excess they do with impunity—the noxious vapours being burned
out by the excessive temperature. How different must be the effects of
smoking in a damp climate like ours, where the poisonous fumes, unable
to evaporate, remain in the system, a prolific source of disease.
[36] The blacksmith, begrimed with smoke and dirt, who freely perspires
over his daily task, is cleaner in the true sense of the term than the
best washed individual in the land. Surface washing alone will not
suffice; to secure health the blood itself must be purified, its inmost
channels flushed and cleansed.
[37] If we always breathed pure air, took daily exercise to
perspiration, performed daily ablutions, and partook temperately of
plain and wholesome food, disease would be almost unknown amongst us.
Whenever we depart from these conditions of health, we lay the sure
foundation of disease. It has been truly said, that if we took the same
care of our own bodies as we do of our horses’, we should enjoy much
better health than we are wont. Sir Astley Cooper used to say, that
“man did not pay sufficient attention to the grooming of his body.”