The uses of water in health and disease

by John Harvey Kellogg

AFFUSION.

This consists simply in pouring water over the body of the patient, who may be sitting or standing in a bath-tub. It is a very efficient bath for reducing unnatural heat. This mode of treatment was used by Hippocrates, Galen, and other ancient physicians. In the last century, Currie, Jackson, and many others used it with great success in scarlatina. It is a sovereign remedy for delirium tremens, sun-stroke, hysteria, and sometimes of acute mania, when applied of the proper temperature.