The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-27
ORIGIN OF WATER CURE.
Farmer Preissnitz Preceded Kneipp-
Tried 1t Dog.

ORIGIN OF WATER CURE.
Farmer Preissnitz Preceded Kneipp-
Tried 1t ON n Dog.
M. Miller NJ. D.. in Washington Post.
Nervous prostration has history at last.
The medical scientist or historian if we
may so term him. has fixed upon dates
that mark the blending of its dark age into
the medieval period and of the latter into
the clear light of modern data of exact
facts.
for while the Teutonic race is the most
phlegmatic and easygoing on earth, it's
temperament is just what has made pos
sible a thorough study into the nerve
troubles of the world.
So we are told that nervous prostration
became an established disease in 1S4S and
its cause is given in four words: The
greed for money.
But SO far no attempt has been made by
for all this mundane trouble. but instead
we are given a fad that is as old as Hip
pocrates, who, by the way, practced some
1000 years ago.
The fad is the water cure.
And in the past year the American, who
is nervous patient, par excellence, has
put his whole heart and soul, not to men
ton his head, hands and feet, into aqua
pura, boiling hot or icy cold, as the fad
In New York Central Parks lawns have
been set aside for the devotees of knelpp.
bath devotee is following out his German
theories. In every part of the country
water theory
has taken hold of nerve-worried Ameri-
cans. and a nation in the very midst of a
political campaign has become hydro
With this knowledge 1. q sane medical
practitioner, have devoted the entire sum-
mer to d tour OF Germany, Austria and
applied in perhaps a thousand different
ways, most of them apparently mucn more
effective than the nerve specialists dared
hope for.
My first visit was naturally enough to
Muehlbach, the source of the fad, and
there l was RECALLED at the very outset
with a history of the water cure by one of
the learned devotees. | was told that We
were simply going back to first principles,
to a theory enunciated by Hippocrates,
who cured rheumatism with cold water
applications. 1 was informed that the
lives of Emperor Augustus, of the poet
Horace and of the philosopher Seneca were
saved by cold water baths.
And the modern father of the water cure
was a man of the people, pefsonase
without a medical diploma, and who had
only a lot of good hard sense to recon-
mend him to the sick
He was Vincent PriessnitZ. a farmer liv
ing near Muehlbach. who had developed in
to a veterinarian by a careful study OF the
diseases of his own animals. These ne
cured with cold water bandages ana baths:
and after applying them to himself, found
them just as effective as in the case OF the
animals.
He began receiving patients q year later.
but as this was ammo dominl 1879 the ner-
vous individual had not yet made his ap-
pearance. In 1880, notwithstanding the OPP
position of the medical world, he obtained
a hospital concession and opened his lnsu-
tuition with forty-five patients. In lS40 ne
cared for $40
Priessnitz died in 1852 and left several
million marks to his heirs. German ply
sicians asserted that his death at the age
of 1ifty-three was due altogether to the
abnormal quantity of cold water ne pour
ed into his stomach daily
But the medical world acknowledges It's
debt to Priessnit it, For while 1t has de
science has delved deeply into the curative
properties of water applications, and so in
all the swater cure institutions OF Europe
hydrotherapeutics may be regarded as
weI-developed branch of medical practice
For this we must thank Pr1essnltz.
but not a disciple. The priest, while adopt
ing many of the Muelbach ideas, and get
ting what may be the appes
them differently. Both men believed in
ice-cold water: At Muehlbach the 1,- plan
ishofen you walk on it and apply 1t to the
body at brief intervals during the day.
Kneipp. as did Priessnitz. claims to cure
all bodily ailments. But Priessnitz knew
little of nervous troubles, and kneipp
Knows much about them, hence his spe-
ciality is the nerve patient
Science has done more with the water
cure, thanks to Priessnitz's initiative, than
the general public has any conception of.
We owe the more modern Turkish and
Russian baths to this half-century's study
of hydrotherapeutics The steam-b box
"sitz baths" the half baths, the Chapman
bag baths. the electric baths, the mud
baths, etc.
one of the most peculiar of these recent
ly-invented water cures is combination
electric .cold-watcr affair. The patient is
wrapped in sheet moistered with ice-cold
water A blanket is then wrapped about
this Through holes in the blanket an cleo
tric current is applied to the head and the
the patient is forced to drink a glass of
cold water. He is then given rundown.
and after sleep of eight hours, f.wakens
VeStIge
Father Kneipps water cure is, of course,
very different. He does not believe in cleo
trio appliances, but explains his method
follows:
My object is to dissolve and extract the
acrid humors in the blood and strengthen
the organism. The first part of my object
| seek to accomplish by the use of steam
baths and by bathing in selected herbs.
Steam is useful in ali forms of infamma-
ton. and medication with certain drugs in
creases its healing powers.
ploy principally cold bandages the douche
and the application of cold water to every
part of the body by various means.
THE strengthening of the organism is
effected by cold water and bodily exer-
cises, such as wading in the brook or over
cure are hard exercise, fresh air and very
plain diet. On these 1 insist with all my
patients. They. must walk off and work
off the lazy feeling which troubles so
many To make them do so it is necessary
to introduce certain novel exercises. [ am
not responsible however, for the absurd
see, many people who take the cure at
Woerishofen have never paid any attention
to their health, and when they begin here
their enthusiasm sometimes carries them
too far.
LAS to the internal use of water. I en-
phasize its importance by prohibiting the
use of alcoholic drinks altogether
Kneipp societies are being formed in all
parts OF the country, and it will not be long
before every park will have its kneIpp
common.
And with all this devotion to water the
devotees of the theory should not forget
that the father of the water cure leaving
HippocrateS out of the argument, was not
Kneipp. but Vincent Priessnitz, farmer
veterinarian. millionaire.
A Particular Shoplifter.
Philadelphia Record.