On leaving, Priessnitz advised her to spend the winter in Italy, to eat nothing but bread and grapes, and to use cold ablutions.
CI.—Insanity.
This disease, Priessnitz says is curable, when it proceeds from bodily suffering or disease; but when caused by mental suffering or misfortune, is generally incurable. I witnessed the treatment of a case of aberration of mind at Gräfenberg; the patient was put into a tepid-bath, held there, and rubbed for nine hours and a half; he was then put to bed, and next morning awoke perfectly composed.
Hydrophobia.—Dr. Short in 1656, published a work, in which he stated, that with cold water, he had cured the bite of mad dogs and dropsy. Priessnitz says he never treated the human subject for this complaint, but that he had cured a dog, by tying him up and throwing a large number of pails of water over him. At first it caused him to shiver a great deal, proving the absence of fever to any extent. When dry the aspersion was repeated; the shivering diminished at each successive aspersion, until it was entirely allayed. If, on throwing a dog, thus treated, bread, and he will eat it, it is a sign he is cured. Dr. Sully, of Wivelscombe, in a work published some years ago, states, that he dropped water constantly on the wounded part, and that it invariably acted as a preventive. My impression is, that hydropathy is adapted to the cure of this complaint.
CII.—Cholera.
Spasmodic or pestilential cholera first appeared in England in 1831, and in France in 1832; great difference of opinion exists as to its cause, and hardly two practitioners agree as to the best way to effect a cure. Some persons think, as many would get well without medical aid as with it; and this conjecture is supported by what took place on its visitation in Dublin. The numbers attacked were so great, that for the humble class, large tents were erected outside the city, and the medical men were so harassed by their own connexions within it, that the poor were left very much to fate. On comparing notes of the mortality that took place, it was found, that the number of deaths of those who received medical aid, and those who were deprived of it, were about equal. Pages might be employed in enumerating instances related, in which the cholera was cured by cold water, though administered without reference to any hydropathic rules. In 1832, Cholera made great ravages in Silesia, when numbers at Freywaldau and the neighbourhood, fell victims. Priessnitz’s patients did not escape, though they avoided its fatal consequences. A friend of mine, who was at Gräfenberg at the time, assures me that in cholera, Priessnitz never lost a case, though seventeen of his patients, and many persons in the neighbourhood, were treated by him. My landlord at Freywaldau, confirmed the last of these statements, and said that his daughter fell a victim, who, he felt persuaded, would have recovered, had she been treated with water instead of drugs.
To ward off this disease, and place the system, if attacked, in the best condition to resist it, we ask the dispassionate reader, are not hydropathic rules in accordance with reason and common sense?
There are three different stages in cholera; the first is that of a common diarrhœa, accompanied with oppression of the chest, anxiety, and collapse of the face; if neglected, it assumes a more serious form, the pulse becomes weak, and there is a difficulty of respiration.
The second stage is ushered in by giddiness, great depression of pulse and of the vital energies, with spasms, accompanied by purging and vomitings.