River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-08-25
Home Health |
i Club
By DAVID b. READER. Phi. D.. MD.
La Porte, Ind.

! During the many years that the Home
/ Health club lectures have been pub
! lished in the newspapers, | have from
time to time described the best method
! for the application of water in the treat
ment of many forms of illness. Many
| letters have come to me from all parts
of the world expressing the gratitude OF
the writer's for the benefits received,
and in many cases asking for more de-
tailed information. Hydrotherapy is
wonderful and an interesting study, and
in compliance with the requests of a great
many | shall give series of lectures
or papers upon the subject; the aim
being, as in all of the Home Health
club papers, to teach in an interesting
and simple manner the practical home
use of this most powerful of therapeutic
agents.
In beginning the study of subject Of
such Importance, it is not uninterest-
ing to learn something of the accredited
value of the agent as established by
the records of wise and experienced
practitioners, extending over period
of many hundreds of years. Water in
the treatment of human as well as ami
NAL suffering, is undoubtedly the most
ancient of all therapeutic agents. The
earliest medical literature eXtant refers
to it's use. The old Assyrian and Egyp-
tian records which tell us of the habits
and customs of those ancient peoples
also establish the fact that it was
by them considered most valuable;
while the recent discoveries in Amer
lea, giving undoubted evidence of high
state of civilization which existed here
many thousand years ago, prove that
the value of baths was even then known
and used.
Perhaps one of the reasons for the
great value attached to water is that it
is always to be had. Wherever living
man is found there is and must be, wa
ter, and it can with safety and a
reasonable assurance of satisfactory
results be applied to every conceiv-
able pathological condition. 1t thus
more nearly approaches and deserves
the name of universal panacea of any
known agent
The Chinese physician prescribed cold
illusions several hundred centuries be-
fore the time of Christ, while the great
writer, Pliny, is authority for the knowl-
edge that water was almost the exciu-
sive method of treatment used by the
Romans for about 500 years. One of
the ancient physicians, CELSIUS, calls it
one of the three essentials in perfect
| system of therapeutics, exercise and
friction being the other two.
The great John Wesley, founder of
the Methodist church, wrote a book
called primitive Physick," which was
published in 1747, in which he gives d.
rection for the treatment of diseases by
the use of water, in a manner which
cannot, in many instances, be excelled
by even our present scientific knowl-
edge of its use.
1t would be not only interesting, but
instructive, to take you with me through
the entire history that is available, re-
garding the cure of diseases by means
of water. 1t is curious fact how
ever, which all physicians are forced to
to do so, that the practical and scien-
tific use of water in the successful
treatment of diseases both in England
and America, has been forced upon us
like many other valuable agents, by
members of the laity. First. peasant
named Priessnitz, then a priest named
Kniepp. The former was a man Of
r1- b1o ohiIitu fonf IF ic rn-
lated of him that when but II years of
age he met with a severe accident in
which he received many bruises and
other injuries, including two broken
ribs. The family physician and those
called in council gave him no hope of
recovery, but as he had been in the habit
of employing water freely in the treat
mcnt and care of domestic animals, he
decided to apply the method to himself.
which he did, with perfect success. He
covered the wounded parts with what
ue would call F.cold congresses" and
these he kept cold by the addition of
cold water as fast as they became
heated.
The successful outcome of his plan
leu MIN 10 OUStIV0 On6CLS upOu
other persons whom he could in a
neighborly way, relieve of their suf-
fering, until his success in the treat
ment of the sick and afflicted became SO
well known that even the most eminent
physicians were not slow to go to him
for knowledge and help.
One of the most important expert
ments which he performed, and the re-
suits of which should be known to every
human being, was made upon two pigs.
One was constantly fed upon cold and
the other upon hot food. When killed
the one which had been fed upon cold
food was found to be in almost perfect
health, and the intestines were well con-
tracted, pale, and of firm, resisting
structure, while those of the animal
fed upon hot food were infamed, red,
and relaxed to such an extent that they
were easily torn and could not be used
for sausage cases. Each reader of this
paper who has logical reasoning pow
ers will readily absorb a most valuable
lesson from this, and avoid as far as
possible hot food and drinks I know