The principles and practice of hydrotherapy : a guide to the application of water in disease for students and practitioners of medicine / by Simon Baruch ... ; with numerous illustrations.

  • Baruch, Simon, 1840-1921.
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles and practice of hydrotherapy : a guide to the application of water in disease for students and practitioners of medicine / by Simon Baruch ... ; with numerous illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF HYDROTHERAPY. INTEODUOTIOK HYDROTHERAPY. Definition.—Hydrotherapy, as its derivation from oSwp, water, and 8spa-KEou>, to heal, indicates, may be defined as the method of applying water in disease. Some physicians have endeavored to restrict the term to the remedial use of cold water alone, and this is not an un- common error. An excellent medical dictionary, now in considerable use, defines hydrotherapeutics to be the application of cold water to disease. If those who are familiar with the derivation of the term commit so serious an error, it is not surprising that erroneous views of the application of water in disease are general among the profession and lay people. The idea probably originated with the hydropaths, who claim Priessnitz, the apostle of cold water, as their leader. This empiric has doubtless given a strong impetus to the popularization of cold water in disease. Indeed, his life and labors form a remarkable chapter in the history of this subject, and will be referred to more fully in another part of this work. It will surely inure to the progress and development of hydro- therapy, i.e., the scientific application of water in disease, if this false conception of its being a cold-water treatment be removed from the minds of the profession and the people. There seems to exist in the human mind a strong feeling of repulsion against cold baths, wet packs, and other hydriatric procedures. The former conjure up in the mind of the timid practitioner vague apprehensions of shock and heart failure; the latter remind him of damp sheets bearing rheumatism and colds in their train. The reader who shall follow these pages will find in them ample illustrations of the untenability and the absurdity of such views. Hydrotherapy includes the application of water in any form from the solid and fluid to vapor ; from ice to steam, internally and exter- nally. The recently discovered styptic action of steam, the well-known