The uses of water in health and disease

by John Harvey Kellogg

Absurd Claims.—Sensible people have been rightfully disgusted with the claims which have been made by certain pretentious ones for the use of water. One declares that the bath will dissolve out of the body mineral substances which have been taken into it. Another claims to have been able, by the application of fomentations to a rheumatic knee, to extract in regular order the ointments which had previously been successively applied. Numerous other claims equally preposterous might be related, if it were necessary. They have all tended to excite a feeling of contempt for a means of treating disease which is really worthy of the highest estimation.

Neglect of Other Remedies.—As has been previously remarked, many seem to have forgotten that water is not the only remedy for disease, and not only attempt to cure every disease by its application, but use it to the exclusion of all other remedies. In nearly all cases, sunlight, pure air, rest, exercise, proper food, and other hygienic agencies are quite as important as water. Electricity, too, is a remedy which should not be ignored; and skillful surgery is absolutely indispensable in not a small number of cases. Even drugs are sometimes useful auxiliaries, though, doubtless, infinitely more harm has resulted from the employment of drugs in conjunction with water treatment than from their omission.

Rational Hydropathy leaves room for every other remedy of value. It does not regard water as a specific nor as a panacea, but only as one of the most valuable of numerous excellent remedies. It discards the erroneous and harmful practices of empirics and ignorant charlatans, whether they concern water or other agents, and gives to the aqueous element only its due share of importance.

APPLICATIONS OF WATER.

The indications which are to be met in the treatment of disease are chiefly those enumerated below; and how admirably they are met by applications of water may be easily demonstrated by following the directions given.

1. Equalization of Circulation.—Disease cannot exist without some disturbance of the circulation. In perfect health each part receives its due share of blood. One of the first indications in disease, then, is to balance the circulation. If an organ contains too much blood, the application of cold water to the part will occasion contraction of the minute vessels of the part, and thus the amount of blood is lessened, as explained more at length in considering the physiological effects of water.

Or, the part may be relieved by the application of warm water in some form to adjacent or remote parts of the body, by which means the surplus blood will be drawn to other parts, thus relieving the suffering organ. Again, if an organ contains too little blood, the opposite course must be pursued. Warm or hot applications are made to the part, while cold applications may be made to other parts if necessary. Very often the two remedies may be advantageously combined, since one part cannot contain too much blood without some other part or parts being deprived of the due proportion, and vice versa; so that while a cold application is needed at one part, the opposite is required at another.

2. Regulation of Temperature.—As the condition of the bodily temperature is closely associated with that of the circulation, the two are usually controlled by the same remedies applied in the same manner. A part which contains too much blood has usually, also, too high a degree of heat. The cold application relieves both. If the entire surface of the body is involved, the application must be as extensive as necessary to affect the whole. In general fevers, the admirable adaptation of water to this end is well exhibited. When the temperature of the body rises above 100°, or even above 98°, a cooling bath should be resorted to. It may consist of a simple sponging with water, scarcely below the bodily temperature, an affusion with tepid water, a full bath of a tepid, temperate, or cold temperature, or some other form of cooling application according to the degree of cooling effect desired. Any temperature below 98° will be cooling. In general, it is better to employ a bath only a few degrees below the bodily temperature, as its application will not be followed by an increase of heat, called reaction, which follows a brief application of a cool bath. To obtain the proper cooling effects of a cool or cold bath, it must be continued for some time, from ten minutes to half an hour, at least. The same remark applies also to the application of cool baths for the purpose of equalizing the circulation.

3. Removal of Pain.—Pain is usually dependent upon disturbance of the circulation, being caused by the pressure of overfilled vessels upon the nerves in a confined space. Pain may be relieved by either hot or cold applications. The first object should be to remove the surplus blood, by local cold applications, and remote hot ones. If this plan is not successful, relief will be obtained by a hot local application, which operates by relaxing the surrounding tissues, so that the nerve fibers are relieved from pressure, as well as by quickening the local circulation, and so relieving congestion. The latter method is usually most quickly successful; but it is not so radically curative as the former. Pain dependent on passive congestion will be best relieved by the method next described.

4. To Excite Activity.—Many organs often become torpid or inactive, as the skin and liver, especially. Sometimes the blood-vessels of an organ become relaxed and inactive, passive congestion resulting. No remedy will so readily induce a return of activity to the affected parts as alternate hot and cold applications, continued for some minutes, fifteen to thirty or more. This is one of the best applications for the relief of old pains.