Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1846-05-02
From the Water.Cure Journal
LETTER FROM CAPT. CLARIDGE
To the New-York Tribune.


fact, that to Capt. C2aridge, of London, belongs
the credit of having first introduced the system
Of Water.Cure, as practsed by Priessntz, into
England. 1t must be apparent TO oil that it
required no small amount Of courage and per-
severance TO bring into public notoriety so
quickly system so opposed to the notions Of
mankind at large. 1t is only between three
and four years since Capt. Caridge first com.
menced his labors in England. There are now
| numerous institutions for water treatment in
that country, and some ofthe most talented ply.
sicians have become converts to the cause with
| in that time, and are practising hydropathicay.
| Capt. Claridge, it should be remembered is a
gentleman of fortune, and is in no sense prac-
ttioner for pecuniary gain. l1imselfwas cured
| of an old complaint, and afterwards other mem
bers of his family received like benefit at the
| establishment of Pressnz. Knowing well, as
he did, the great, the incalculabe worth Of hy
dropathy, he resolved that the system should be-
come understood in his own country, and for
the purpose of becoming an efficient promugn-
tor OF it. he set to work, studcn,.ke at the es.
iablishment of Priessntz, TO understand the
| cure. His treatise on the subject is one OF the
best ever written.-[ED. IouR.i
GrRfenberg, Sesia, July lS45.
To The Editor of the ". Y Tribune:
Sir,-Ot all ancient or modern discoveries in
! science and all must admit they have been
very great-none can bear any comparison in
point of merit or physical utility with the
science Of Hydropathy. What is 10 be compar
ed to Health when we look around us and
see to what an alarming extent disease prevails,
the inadequate means that are resor;ed TO i'm.
pedc the forced and positive marches Of the
grim tyran, Death, and more especially, when
we sec his approaches FASTENED by medical as
sstanCe, we must, on reflection, become con-
verts 10 the opinion that "there must be some
be fairly asked, How can poisons cure diseases !!
and as fairly answered, They do not, Their
Office is what is erroneousIy called a cure
whereas their effect has only been to repel the
effort that nature made to throw from the system
that which impeded her operations. 1t is con.
tended that all drugs, however harmless in
their nature, are foreign 10 the human body, and
as such they force, and thereby lower the sys.
TEN. Those who are in the habit of swallow
lng so largely o. those noyous substances, are
they healthier or happier than the rest On
tho contrary when ono seps n NOR chaI
object, worn down by suffering. on being inter-
rogated as TO his condition, and as TO what has
been done for his reliet, is not the usual answer;
oh, but have taken great deal OF medicine
in my time 2 And what is the history of this
Wanted mode of healing mans infrmities No
poisonous herb has been lett nntried no de.
lcterous mineral has escaped the pharmacopr a;
hundreds of thousands of men have spent their
lives in their application millions of money
have been spent to acquire these drugs; and
myrads Of human beings hurried 10 prema-
,ure grave by experiments made to ascertain
their utility The natural suppositlon would b.,
that their administration now was saie-thelr
effects true to a demonstration but no. does
not every days experience prove that the fol-
lowing lines by Horace Smith are right!
"Physic freak of times and modes,
Which yearly old mistakes explodes
For new ones still absurder-
All slay-their victims disappear,
And only leave this doctrine clear,
That killing is no murder"
But, thank Providence, the time has arrived
when the fallaces Of the faculty are TO be
made evident. Here, on one of the mountains
of Silesian Austria, at hamlet called Grwfen.
berg, stands the laurel,crowned hero, at whose
fiat the long cherished, the extensively practic.
ed science Of poisoning is to be scattered to
the winds. AS early as twelve years ofage,
Vincent pressnitz cured his own finger OF a
cut, his wrist of sprain, and, four years later
cured himself Of broken ribs and wounds conse-
quent on being run over by wagon, all by the
agency OF simple spring water. His fame ex.
tended to the surrounding neighborhood,
throughout all Germany, aud finally, to every
part of the hab,abe globe. Seeing the enor
nous moral and physical advantages that might
result to society by first curing their ailments,
and by teaching them the benefit that must re-
suit from ablutlon, temperance, and exposing
themselves to atmospheric changes, this extra,
ordinary youth, although he saw breakers a
head, determined on pushing of his boat on the
troubled sea. Prosecutions from the faculty
in his neighborhood were seconded by the au-
thorites of the country, and finally by the
Priesthood, who denounced him in the church
at Friewadau, where he was in the habit of at