638 PRACTICE OF PHYSIC. 



writer, Sir John Floyer, gives instances of cold bathing applied 

 accidentally, as where a person in the delirium of a fever escapes 

 from his keepers, runs out of the room, plunges himself into a 

 river or mill-pond, is brought back to his bed, recovers his senses, 

 falls into a swear, and obtains an entire solution of the fever. 



" I could produce instances, particularly from several of the 

 modern Galenists in the 16th century, where the application of 

 cold to the head, hands, stomach, feet, &c. was allowed, but 

 cautiously. You know that about the middle of the last cen- 

 tury physicians had got universally into the warm regimen, and 

 kept the body covered very carefully, and the application of 

 cold was not then thought of. About forty years ago a physi- 

 cian of this country took his patient's hands from the bed- 

 clothes, in the midst of a sweat, and put them into warm water, 

 whereby the patient was relieved from his anxiety, the sweating 

 was renewed with more vigour, and he soon after fell into a calm 

 sleep ; but this was considered as a bold and random practice, 

 and was not thought of being imitated. 



" The fever of the petechial and malignant kind, which 

 prevailed at Breslaw, is mentioned by Sauvages in his Syn- 

 opsis, under the title of the Tritaeophya. The disease, in nine 

 cases out of ten, proved fatal. Dr. Hahn, by the advice of 

 his father, had his whole body washed over with cold water ; 

 it was probably in consequence of the difficulty of taking the 

 patient out of bed, that only a cold washing was employed ; and 

 we have a strong proof of its being attended with considerable 

 success, from its being employed upon the author himself. 

 Hereafter the family became prejudiced in favour of the re- 

 medy, and a brother of Halm's has published a dissertation 

 upon the power of cold water : it is a small piece in the Ger- 

 man language, which has never reached this country. The 

 practice was received in some other places, as we learn from Dr. 

 Schreiber, in the account of the cure of diseases which he wrote 

 for the use of hospitals, and it has frequently been tried at 

 St. Petersburg with advantage; but the difficulty and hazard 

 attending the practice, is a check upon all regular physicians, 

 and the practice has not yet spread far. Dr. Ludwig, in his 

 Mcclicina Clinica, mentions it as a remedy, but at the same time 

 doubts of its being generally safe. 



