1070 THEORY OF HYDROPATHY. 



Moreover, that cold is a very general predis- 

 posing and exciting cause of scrofula, scurvy, 

 erysipelas, scarlatina, measles, small-pox, and all 

 other eruptive diseases, whether specifically con- 

 tagious or not, would appear from the late Reports 

 of Major Tulloch, on the diseases and mortality 

 of the British troops in various parts of the world ; 

 according to which eruptive disorders are com- 

 paratively rare in tropical and warm climates. So 

 that notwithstanding nosologists have described 



Priessnitz causes his patients to drink cold water until sickness 

 or diarrhoea is produced ; which proves, he observes, that " the 

 stomach contains the remains of diseases which the water has dis- 

 turbed ; consequently, that it is requisite to drink more," as Dr. 

 Sangrado would say. (p. 109, 1st edition.) Verily, this bar- 

 barous system has been appropriately termed Hydropathy, which 

 literally means the water disease, instead of the water cure. That 

 the recoveries at Graefenberg, (which have been shamefully 

 exaggerated,) have been owing chiefly to good air, exercise, 

 friction, sweating, and leaving off the cold water treatment after 

 a few weeks, would appear from the statement of Claridge, that 

 when fever is produced, or extensive suppuration takes place, 

 " the baths are suspended during the discharge of these humours ; 

 by which the system is much benefitted." (p. 118.) And that 

 it would be rapidly destructive of life in old people, very young 

 children, and all individuals of feeble constitution, is still more 

 certain. It was stated the other day, in a report by a teacher in 

 one of the London poor, houses, that during cold weather the 

 children were cut down like skittles, on leaving the windows of the 

 school-room open for the admission of fresh air. The only patients 

 I have seen, who had made a full trial of hydropathy, were an aged 

 gentleman in delicate health, who expatiated on its many virtues till 

 the last day of his life ; and a middle aged gentleman, in whom it 

 produced a permanently sore leg, which he seemed to regard as a 

 decisive proof of its salutary influence in carrying off bad humours. 



