“Her treatment had been packing-sheet and cold bath in the morning, rubbing-sheets, douche, and sitz-baths in the after part of the day, all the winter. The latter she took the very morning of her accouchement.
“During labour, the bandages round the waist were quite wet, and changed every ten minutes. She was also ordered to walk and use her arms as much as possible.
“After the birth, she was washed twice a day with tepid water 15°, with wet towels.
“The child, immediately on entering the world, was put into water as it came from the fountain; afterwards warm water was mixed with it until it reached 15°. The child’s baths were afterwards tepid 15°, and gradually reduced to 12°. After two months he had two of these baths a day.
“In case of pain in the bowels bandages were applied; if not attended with immediate relief, a cold clyster. He is now three years old, strong and cheerful; his mother free from all those symptoms hitherto so obstinate, mysterious, and apparently fatal. I leave Gräfenberg with the highest sense of gratitude towards the wonderful man, whose intuitive genius has proved such a blessing to thousands. I regard hydropathy a thousand times more as a science of life than a remedial agent. I have seen enough to convince me that he who lives according to its precepts, must, barring accidents and pestilence, live to a good old age; it will teach all to make their passions harmonise with their organisation, and then it will be, not only a medicine, but a religion.”
If fever of any kind supervenes upon accouchements, wet sheets and tepid-baths are resorted to.
Pregnancy.—A delicate lady, who accompanied her husband to Gräfenberg, became in the family-way; she had long suffered from derangement of the stomach, which now became much worse: she wasted away and became weakly.
Ordered two rubbing-sheets daily, one in the morning, the other in the afternoon. A sitz-bath occasionally.
Bandage round the waist, always drank plentifully of water.