Hydrotherapy 



HENRY A. MATTILL 



ROCHESTER, N. Y. 



The external use of water as a therapeutic measure was first advocated 

 in England by Sir John Floyer in 1697. A hundred years later Dr. 

 James Currie of Liverpool, inspired by Dr. William Wright, published 

 his reports on the effect of cold and warm water as a remedy in fever and 

 other diseases. The works of these men bore their first fruit in Germany 

 and Austria, where some of the claims put forth by the advocates of hydro- 

 therapy were put to experimental test. Among the investigators Winter- 

 nitz occupies the foremost place as his many monographs and his larger 

 works testify. . His efforts and those of similarly minded men that followed 

 him have done much to illuminate the really valuable contributions of 

 hydrotherapy shrouded as they often are under a cloud of pseudo-scientific 

 effusions. Recent books in this country are by Baruch, Hinsdale and 

 Kellogg. Among the recent English authors may be mentioned Fox and 

 among the German, Matthes whose valuable chapters on baths and bathing 

 in v. Noorden's Metabolism and Practical Medicine cites the older litera- 

 ture, and Schutz. 



The skin is the organ through which baths produce their effects on the 

 body. The foundation of hydrotherapy must therefore rest on the func- 

 tions and activity of the skin as they may be modified by external treat- 

 ment, and may in turn thereby modify the functions of the internal organs. 

 Probably the most important function of the skin is that of regulating 

 the body temperature, the mechanism of which is described elsewhere. 

 By virtue of its activity in temperature regulation the skin is both a 

 vascular organ and an organ of excretion. To the cutaneous sensations 

 of heat and cold involved in temperature regulation must be added those 

 of touch, pressure and pain, and the skin is thus a sense organ of first 

 importance. The influences of hydrotherapeutic measures may therefore 

 be sought in the effect of temperature changes and other cutaneous sensa- 

 tions on the processes of metabolism, including the activity of organs 

 'other than those of digestion and absorption merely, and in the effect of 

 these stimuli on the excretory functions of the skin. 



It may be recalled that the temperature of the warm-blooded animals is 

 regulated by physical and chemical means, both mechanisms being under 



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