Sullivan republican. [volume] (Laporte, Pa.) 1883-1896, 1891-01-02
A REMARKABLE PANACEA.
A BAvAEIAN PRIESTS METHOD
OF CURING HUMANITY'S ILLS.
His Curious System of SelfCure-
Aristocratic Invalids Running
BarefOoted in Frosty Grass.

His Curious System of SeIfCure-
Aristocratic Invalids Running
Barefooted in Frosty Grass.
The latest panacea for the ills of hu-
manity, says Munich letter to the New
York Tribune, is the cure of Father
Kneipp, of Voerishofen, and to seek it
now is the fashionable fad of the day.
For some years the system has been gain
ing favor. But now that Baron Nathan
iel Rothschild has come to Voerishofen
all the grand monde of Vienna will fol-
low in his train, and the obscure hamlet
will rival Carlsbad and Gastein in fame.
The curious part of the whole business
is, that no one is making or will make
any money ont of it. Father Kneipp
makes no charge whatever for treatment.
Wealthy patients, however, pay fee of
twenty-five cents day for the use of the
"Kur Anstalt," and that is all. If they
wish full board, they pay fifty cents. As
for the villagers, they follow their pas
tors example, and only accept from the
guests who lodge in their cabins the
smallest possible sum, just enough to
meet actual expenses.
The head of this remarkable institution,
Sebastian Kneipp, is the village priest.
Half a century ago he was very i'll. The
doctors said he must surely die. Then,
he SAYS, he invented system of self
cure, which speedily restored him to en-
tire health. He devoted the whole of
has life since to developing and perfect.
ing his system. lie began by curing
himself. Now he cures others. The
little village is crowded with people, who
come from near and far to take his ad-
vice, which is given gratis.
Father Kneipp does not believe in wear
ing wool or flannel next the skin; he de-
clares that it renders the skin delicate,
and his great aim is to harden and in
vigorate- be it observed, by violent
means, which he strongly deprecates, but
by natural and gradual ones. He re-
commends that all underclothing be
made of very coarse linen the roughness
of which stimulates the skin without
enervating it, as wool does, and, more
over, possesses the advantage of allowing
the perspiration to pass through it
quickly. Wool, he says, often induces
rheumatism, and is only advisable for
outer clothes. Water plays an important
part in Father Kneipps system; but his
mode of water-cur differs greatly from
that usually known under the name of
hydropathy. He prefers cold to warm
water; but employs it cautiously, and
allows old or nervous persons to use tepid
water. Before everything he enjoins
rapidity in bathing. According to him,
a cold bath, including undressing and
dressing, should only last five minutes.
This seems an impossible period in which
to take a bath. 1t is, however, ex-
planned by the next and one of the most
startling rules in the Kneipp method:
the patient is forbidden to attempt to
dry himself after the bath, but is told to
put his coarse linen underclothes straight
on to his wet body, then his outer clothes,
and then to take at least a quarter of an
hours exercise. Father Kneipp declares
that the drops of water left on the skin
serve as fuel for inner warmth, which
uses them as material to form a rapid and
intense glow of heat all over the body,
assisted by the activity of the skin in
duced by the coarseness of the linen in
contact with it.
Another means of hardening and in
vigorating the body and promoting CIR
culation adopted by Father Kneipp is
the practice OF walking or running bare
footed in wet grass, in cold weather, Sr
in freshly fallen snow. Voerishofen lies
in valley, in the midst of green mead
ows, which seem to have been made
especially for this form of exercise, and
are constantly occupied by the patients
taking their daily runs with naked teet.
The exercise at first lasts only five min
utes, but the period is gradually in
creased to half an hour. At the end of
the prescribed time, the patient is or
dered to put on dry socks (made of
coarse yarn, precisely similar to that of
which the linen for the underclothing is
manufactured without drying his feet,
then his boots, and then take a smart
walk. By this exercise in freshly fallen
snow Father Kneipp entirely cured a
woman of chilblains and girl of tooth
ache. These are only typical cases
among numerous similar cases.
L dsnei hHCiPP 10 Sioao oH thc uicb
question, and Eliminates furiously against
the amount of tea and coffee drunk by
the present generation, to which indul
gence he attributes the enormous prevail
ence of nervousness and nervous diseases.
He also objects to the great quantity of
meat usually consumed, the proportion
of which, in relation to other foods, he
considers far too large. The nourish-
ment he recommends consists chief
ly of bread, fruit, vegetables and
milk. He particularly praises the
many farinaceous dishes, and
dishes composed wholly of vegetables
peculiar to Viennese cookery, and little
known elsewhere. He strongly recon-
mends brown bread, for which he gives
recipe specially adapted for dyspeptic
patients. His two particular "fancies"
in the way of food, those which he con-
siders the healthiest and most nourishing,
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