Recently some of the most efficacious methods
employed in Water Cure Establishments have received the sanction and approval of the highest medical practitioners in Europe.
For in the Medical Record, the leading periodical of N. York physicians, I find a paper read before the New York Academy of Medicine, in October, 1868, by Dr. Neftel, in which he states that the most distinguished writers and practitioners in Europe now employ cold water for reducing fevers, just as for twenty years or more has been practiced in Water Cures.
In this paper he says: "My first acquaintance with the use of water in diseases, was during the Crimean war, when a murderous epidemic of typhus fever prevailed, resisting every known method of treatment. Following the instincts of patients and watching the effects of cold water, I commenced treating with cold sponging and effusions and the result surpassed my hopes, and was far better than that obtained by any other method. I myself was attacked by the disease and was saved from death only by my own mode of treatment. But still my treatment was purely empyrical and symptomatic.
Soon after, this method was confirmed in the large hospitals of Russia, with excellent results."
"The principal rule observed is never to allow the temperature (ascertained by a thermometer placed under the shoulder) to rise higher than 103 Fahrenheit. The mildest degree of cooling is attained by sponging the whole body with cold water or by keeping the patient continually in a wet sheet. A wet cloth is laid on the head, and if not asleep, every quarter of an hour the patient is offered a little cold water to drink, and every three hours nourishing fluid food. The room is to be kept well ventilated and stimulants avoided."
Dr. Neftel adds, "the effect of this treatment is so wonderful that those familiar with typhoid patients will not recognize them. By keeping the temperature below 103.1 Fahrenheit the exacerbations are avoided and the fever kept in a continuous remission. The patients are never unconscious, never delirious, the tongue always remains moist and clean, the bronchial catarrh is very slight, and so is the diarrhœa, if any at all. There is no tympanites, no hemorrhage, no complication, and we
have reason to believe the intestinal ulcerations do not occur at all. Under this treatment the course of typhoid fever is very mild and short, the convalescence very rapid, and the mortality none whatever. A great number of patients treated by myself on this method, have recovered without exception. In this city I had a patient whose morning temperature once reached 106.34° Fahrenheit—a case absolutely fatal under every other treatment—and she is now recovering."
"The thermometer indicates with the greatest exactness, the condition of the animal heat, the presence of fever, its degree, intensity and danger. It also traces the laws of the course of different types of disease, indicates transitions from one stage to another, the ameliorations and aggravations, and the return of the normal condition. It enables us to form a correct diagnosis and prognosis, and gives us positive therapeutical indications." In conversation I enquired if all kinds of fevers should be subdued by this method, and was assured that this was the safest and surest mode for all.
A scientific and very successful practitioner who