LIV.—Fistula.
Where parties are otherwise in tolerable health, this complaint is always curable in about eight or nine months. When health is established, contractility takes place. In cases where patients have been long under medical treatment, the cure of fistula requires great patience and perseverance.
Morning, packing-sheet and bath; noon, rubbing-sheet, douche; afternoon, four o’clock, douche; five o’clock, packing-sheet and bath.
Bandage to waist and part affected. The latter made of old linen.
Cold food is better for this complaint than hot. No sitz-baths.
LV.—Hæmorrhage, Irregular Menstruation, Pains in the Womb, &c.
All these diseases are successfully combated by hydropathy.
Away from Priessnitz, excessive menstruation requires cautious treatment. Persons so afflicted may, however, adopt the following means of relief.
At the period, wear a large bandage round the waist, wash the body with cold water on rising in the morning.
Drink plentifully of cold water.
When discharge has ceased, use a sitz-bath for fifteen minutes, once or twice a day.
If patient is very ill she must remain in bed lightly covered, wearing a very broad bandage, which must be changed every five minutes, or at most, every ten minutes, until better.
In cases of flooding, equally broad bandage, very wet, and changed often; also bandage the calves of the legs, and change it every five or ten minutes.
In case of great weakness, a tepid bath of 64° for eight or ten minutes, with much friction, must be resorted to, fresh water being constantly added, and fresh air admitted into the room.
At the period when menstruation is coming on, if in great pain, let the abdomen, feet, and legs, be well rubbed for a long time by hands dipped often in cold water.
Too frequent Menstruation.—This frequently arises from weakness; in that case, the general treatment to fortify the system is requisite.
Three rubbing-sheets a day, drink plentifully of cold water, eat everything cold.
On rising in the morning, wash internal parts well with a sponge. If this is not sufficient, add packing-sheet and cold bath in the morning, and during the week, take two tepid sitz-baths fifteen minutes, 62°, rubbing the abdomen all the time. Change waist bandage often.
Irregular Menstruation.—A lady, apparently in good health, came to Gräfenberg in 1840. She suffered greatly from head-aches, occasioned by irregular menstruation; when she arrived, though catamenia was strong, she was ordered a sitz-bath, when it ceased and returned in fourteen days. During the patient’s stay, it returned three times, notwithstanding which the treatment was continued.
Sweating morning and evening two hours, followed by first tepid and then cold bath.
During the day two tepid sitz-baths, followed immediately by tepid foot-baths, fifteen minutes each.
Douche three minutes. Head-bath, five minutes each side, making fifteen minutes.
Ten to twelve glasses of water, used waist bandages, and took much exercise. Cured in six weeks.
Suppressed Menstruation.—When catamenia comes on, except in extraordinary cases, all the operations of the Water-cure are suspended, but when patients are in a crisis or fever, they are continued. When menstruation, from any cause, is suppressed, the following treatment is prescribed.
Three or four times a day, three or four rubbing-sheets, not much wrung out, with great friction. These are each time to be followed by tepid foot-baths of fifteen minutes each.
A lady at Gräfenberg, for this complaint, took packing-sheet and tepid bath in the morning, four rubbing-sheets at noon, four in the afternoon, and four at night; between each rubbing-sheet, she walked or ran naked about the room, with the windows open, though in the depth of a Silesian winter. This treatment brought on catemenia the third day. No bandage was used. If blood had gone to the head, then foot-baths were to have been applied, and the feet and legs rubbed with hands dipped in water the whole time. If these means had failed, then the sitz-bath and douche were to have been added to the treatment. After every operation, patient must go out of doors and take much exercise, and drink not less than twelve glasses of water a day. In some cases, cold foot-baths are more active than tepid ones; and in obstinate complaints of this kind, the sweating process is useful.
Pains in the Womb.—Tepid sitz-bath from forty minutes to an hour, rubbing the abdomen well whilst in the bath with wet hands. Sweating in cold weather beneficial; in hot weather the contrary. To effect a cure, the general health must be established.
Hæmorrhage, Irregular Menstruation, &c.—A patient aged 42, was cured of hæmorrhage in six minutes.
Packing-sheet followed by rubbing-sheet, were first resorted to. After three weeks it became necessary to increase the packing-sheets to fifty a day. They were applied from the arm-pits down to the hips. Patient kept in a perfect state of repose.
In five days this treatment stopped the hæmorrhage; then packing-sheets and cold baths twice a day, were had recourse to, until patient was cured. No sitz-baths. Large bandage, often renewed, was always worn round the waist.
An English lady of title, nearly exhausted from violent hæmorrhage, arrived at Gräfenberg in October. She was ordered not to put her foot to the ground for two months, to sleep with her window open, and to be covered with one sheet only. After the packing-sheets, she was carried to the cold bath and back to bed. She felt as in an ice-house. In two months, great improvement: then, though winter, and the ground was covered with snow, she was ordered to go out without bonnet or umbrella, and as lightly clad as possible; and to douche twice a day for ten minutes. Everything being done to cause contraction. In May she was declared perfectly cured. The husband, on coming to her, was in ecstasies at her healthy appearance, and was at a loss to find words to express his gratitude to Priessnitz.
Head-ache, Pain in the Limbs, and great uneasiness.—A child taken in the night with the above symptoms accompanied with fever, was ordered immediately—
Rubbing-sheet, sitz-bath, and head-bath; at noon, rubbing-sheet and sitz-bath; afternoon, packing-sheet twenty minutes, and tepid-bath.
If the packing-sheet heated soon, then to be changed for twenty minutes.
If symptoms continued, renew the rubbing-sheets, sitz, and head-baths, in the night.
Patient well in the afternoon.
Pain in the Breast.—A lady, two days after her confinement, had her breast hardened by milk, so that she could not endure the infant’s attempt to draw it. She applied the bandage, covered with a dry one; it was immediately soothing, and in less than an hour, the milk began to flow.
The Whites.—These find a certain cure in hydropathy. Very often sitz-bath, beginning with tepid water and afterwards using cold and injections, effect the object. When they do not, rubbing sheet and the douche are resorted to.
A case within my knowledge was cured by the following treatment:
Three tepid sitz-baths 60° daily; morning, two packing sheets; one fifteen minutes, the other twenty-five minutes, followed by cold bath, with cold water thrown over the body; afternoon, the sheets were repeated, and either a rubbing sheet or cold bath. When patient did not feel well the tepid bath was used. Body bandage worn always.