My Water-Cure (1886)
By Sebastian Kneipp - 30 Q&As - Unbekoming Book Summary
Dr. Marizelle | Undiagnosed put me onto this book, and I owe her thanks. What appeared at first glance to be a quaint nineteenth-century curiosity turned out to be something more substantial: a complete philosophy of health developed through thirty years of experimentation, a practical pharmacy of common herbs, and a systematic approach to water treatment that drew thousands of patients from across Europe to a small Bavarian village called Wörishofen. The author was not a physician but a parish priest, and his system emerged not from medical training but from his own desperate illness and unlikely recovery.
Sebastian Kneipp was a seminary student dying of consumption when he discovered a small book on cold-water cure. Conventional medicine had failed him entirely. He began bathing in the Danube during winter, hurrying to the river and more rapidly home to the warm room, and gradually his strength returned. Ordained against all expectation, he spent three decades refining his methods—always moving from harsh treatments toward gentler ones, always testing each application on his own body before recommending it to others. The system that emerged rests on a simple premise: most disease traces to impure blood or defective circulation, and water can address both. Cold applications strengthen the constitution. Warm herbal baths dissolve corrupted matter. Wraps and compresses draw that matter out through the skin. The entire approach was designed for the poor, using only what grows freely in fields and gardens, rejecting expensive medicines and professional mystification in favour of remedies anyone could prepare and apply.
The book divides into three parts: water applications ranging from barefoot walks in wet grass to full immersion baths; a household pharmacy of seventy-odd medicinal plants with instructions for preparing teas, tinctures, powders, and oils; and detailed case studies of diseases from consumption to cholera, each with specific treatment protocols. Kneipp acknowledges the limits of his system—advanced cancer, for instance, lies beyond what water can cure—but the range of conditions he claims to have treated successfully is vast. Whether his methods would satisfy modern clinical standards is another question. What cannot be disputed is that something was happening at Wörishofen compelling enough to draw patients from across the continent, and that this book represents the fullest account of what that something was.
With thanks to Sebastian Kneipp.
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Analogy
Imagine a great cathedral organ whose hundreds of pipes produce glorious music when everything works in harmony. The organist presses the keys, the bellows pump air, and sound flows through every pipe according to its proper measure. Now imagine that dust has accumulated in some of the pipes, blocking the passage of air. Other pipes have become corroded and produce only a wheezing sound. Still others have too much pressure forced through them while their neighbors receive too little. The result is cacophony where there should be symphony.
The human body is this organ, and the blood is the air that courses through every pipe. When the passages are clear and the pressure equal throughout, health prevails—the beautiful music of life. But when poisonous matter accumulates in the blood like dust in the pipes, when circulation becomes irregular so that some organs receive too much while others starve, then disease sets in—the discordant notes of illness. The water-cure is the work of the organ restorer. Water dissolves the accumulated dust, flushes out the corroded matter, and restores equal pressure throughout the system. Cold applications tune and strengthen the pipes so they may resist future deterioration; warm applications loosen what has become hardened and stuck. The herbs of the pharmacy are like the fine oils that keep the mechanism supple. And just as the organ requires regular maintenance to prevent the accumulation of dust and the wearing of parts, so the human body requires regular hardening and simple care to prevent the accumulation of disease. The wise person does not wait until the organ falls silent to summon the restorer; daily attention to the instrument ensures that the music never ceases.
The One-Minute Elevator Explanation
For thirty years I have tested every application upon my own person, and I can tell you plainly: all disease has its root in the blood. Either the blood carries poisonous matter within it, or it does not circulate as it ought—too much rushing to the head, too little reaching the feet. Water addresses both problems. Cold water hardens the constitution and restores proper circulation, driving the blood equally throughout the body. Warm water with healing herbs dissolves the unhealthy matter that has accumulated, and the body expels it through sweat, urine, and the natural channels.
The applications are simple: compresses draw out inflammation, affusions strengthen the nerves and vessels, baths dissolve what is hardened, and walking barefoot in wet grass trains the body to resist every change of weather. Combined with these, the herbs that God causes to grow—juniper for the stomach, shave-grass for the bladder, wormwood for the liver—assist water in its threefold work of dissolving, removing, and strengthening. The present generation has grown weak through effeminacy, swaddling infants in too much warmth, avoiding all contact with cold air and water. Return to simplicity: simple food, simple dress, regular hardening of the constitution. Let the children go barefoot; let the adults take a cold lavation from bed each morning. The body is the Creator’s masterpiece, and He has provided water and herbs for its restoration. Use them wisely, gently, and consistently, and health shall be your companion to old age.
[Elevator dings]
For further exploration: investigate the specific applications for hardening the constitution (barefoot walking, knee affusions, cold lavations), the organization of a household pharmacy with medicinal herbs, and the principle of treating the whole system rather than isolated symptoms.
12-Point Summary
1. The Blood as the Source of All Disease. Every illness, regardless of its outward manifestation, originates in the blood—either through the presence of poisonous and unwholesome matter within it, or through irregular and imperfect circulation that deprives some organs of nourishment while overwhelming others. The network of veins traversing the human frame functions as an irrigation system conducting the sap of life throughout the body, and when this system falls out of proper measure and pace, the harmony we call health gives way to the dissension we call disease. Understanding this fundamental truth liberates the practitioner from chasing symptoms and directs attention to the root cause, for treating a headache by applying remedies to the head alone is as foolish as blaming the trembling leaf when the blow was struck at the trunk of the tree.
2. The Threefold Action of Water. Water accomplishes the cure through three principal actions: dissolving the poisonous germs contained in the blood, withdrawing the diseased matter from the system, and strengthening and bracing the weakened constitution so that it may resist future attacks. Warm applications and herb-infused baths achieve the first result by loosening what has become hardened and accumulated. Various wrappers, compresses, and affusions accomplish the second by forcing the unhealthy matter to exit through the skin, urine, and other natural channels. Cold baths, affusions, lavations, and hardening exercises complete the third by restoring vigour and resilience to the entire organism. These three actions work together as surely as plowing, sowing, and watering bring forth the harvest.
3. The Dangers of Modern Effeminacy. The present generation has grown extraordinarily susceptible to disease because of insufficient hardening and bracing of the system. Weakened and bloodless individuals, sufferers from the heart and digestion, nervous exhaustion and chronic catarrhs, have become the rule rather than the exception. The transition from one season to another cannot be accomplished without illness; the mere passage from open air to a warm room brings on a cold. This state of affairs proceeds directly from the coddling of children—swaddling them in excessive warmth, covering their feet from earliest infancy, protecting them from every breath of fresh air. Fifty years ago people were far hardier, and unless this effeminacy is arrested by a return to simpler, more natural living, the degeneration will only accelerate.
4. Individualized Treatment Over Stereotyped Approaches. Patients are too often treated in a stereotyped general fashion, with far too little stress laid on the peculiarities of each separate case. To discriminate which applications are adapted to the disease in question, and furthermore to determine how these are to be varied according to the constitution of the patient, is the touchstone of the true physician. A thin gaunt peasant requires different duration and intensity than a stout burgomaster; a child or elderly person needs gentler applications than a robust adult; a nervous temperament demands different handling than a phlegmatic one. The practitioner who applies the same treatment to every patient without discrimination commits the same error as a tailor who cuts every garment to identical measurements regardless of who will wear it.
5. The Principle of Mildness. Most emphatically must all be warned against too violent or too frequent application of cold water, which can only transform this healing element into an agent of destruction and change the patient’s confidence into terror and disgust. During thirty years of testing every application upon my own person, it became necessary at three repeated intervals to remodel the entire system, relaxing the treatment from severity to mildness, and thence to greater mildness still. Whenever a result can be obtained with slight means, it is folly to employ stronger ones. The ultra-violent douches used in some establishments deserve condemnation, for healthy persons do not require them and still less do the sick. Nothing brings cold water into such discredit as a sanitary and healing power as the indiscreet, exaggerated, and senseless manipulation of overzealous practitioners.
6. The Variety of Water Applications. The cold-water applications may be catalogued under seven principal heads: compresses, baths, vapour baths or steamings, affusions, lavations, swathings, and water-drinking. Within each category exist numerous variations adapted to different conditions. Compresses may be upper, lower, or abdominal; baths may be foot-baths, sitz-baths, semi-baths, or full baths, each with cold and warm variants and various herbal infusions; affusions range from the simple knee affusion to the complete affusion covering the entire body; swathings include the throat-swathing, the shawl, the short swathing, the wet shirt, and the Spanish mantle. This rich arsenal of applications allows the practitioner to match the remedy precisely to the disease, the constitution, and the circumstances of each individual patient.
7. The Practices for Hardening the Constitution. The simplest and most natural practice for bracing the system is walking barefoot, which can be varied in manifold ways: walking in wet grass moistened by dew or rain, walking on wet stones or moistened brick floors, walking in new-fallen snow, and walking in water reaching up to the calves. Each practice has its particular effects and appropriate duration. The knee affusion, when not used in conjunction with other applications, should never be continued for more than three to four consecutive days at a time; those who employ it longer mostly alternate it with the upper affusion or with arm-baths. These practices cost nothing, require no special equipment, and yet accomplish more for the prevention of disease than all the medicines of the apothecary. Children should go barefoot from infancy, and adults who have neglected this practice should begin gradually until the constitution has been sufficiently trained.
8. The Household Pharmacy and Medicinal Herbs. The Creator in His paternal love makes countless little herbs spring up from the earth to bring solace and consolation to suffering mankind. The household pharmacy should contain tinctures or extracts, tea-infusions, powders, and oils—each category properly organized and labeled. Juniper strengthens the stomach and disinfects against contagion; wormwood improves digestion and benefits the liver; shave-grass serves the bladder and kidneys; hay-flowers, oat-straw, and pine-needles enhance the warm baths; fennel and aniseed expel unwholesome gases; eyebright consoles suffering eyes; and dozens of other herbs offer their particular gifts. These remedies are not substitutes for water but companions to it, assisting and accelerating the cure while making the treatment more tolerable for those who shrink from cold applications alone.
9. The Treatment of Specific Disease Categories. Diseases of the digestive system respond to applications directed at the abdomen—compresses, swathings, and sitz-baths—combined with herbs that strengthen the stomach saps. Respiratory complaints require applications to the upper body—upper affusions, compresses on the chest, vapour head-baths—along with herbs that dissolve conglutination in the lungs and windpipe. Nervous complaints demand careful attention to drawing blood away from the head toward the extremities, through walking barefoot, knee affusions, and applications that calm the overstimulated system. Skin diseases require bringing the unhealthy matter to the surface through wet shirts dipped in salt water. Rheumatism and gout call for warm herb baths to dissolve the accumulated matter, followed by cold applications to expel it and prevent its return. In every case, the principle remains constant: treat the whole system rather than the isolated symptom.
10. The Role of Diet, Dress, and Ventilation. What is principally advocated regarding food is a dry, simple, nourishing diet, free from all spices and condiments, with pure water as the primary beverage. Ripe fruit is more advantageous than wine or beer for those in health, though convalescents may benefit from moderate use of stimulating beverages. The body should eat when hungry and drink when thirsty, neither forcing nourishment nor denying it. Regarding dress, the old adage holds: home made and home spun is best for every one. The unequal mode of dress that prevails—five or six layers on the upper body while the legs receive far less protection—contributes to poor circulation and susceptibility to catarrhs. Thorough and consistent ventilation of all dwelling and sleeping apartments, with special attention to airing the beds, completes the triad of simple measures that preserve health without cost or difficulty.
11. The Spiritual Dimension of Healing. The marvellous harmony in the construction of the human frame must be admitted by all; even the most unbelieving physician cannot refuse his admiration to the Creator’s masterpiece. Man external and internal sings but one song of glorification. How good is God towards us! He has created everything in perfect measure and harmony, causing not only our daily bread to grow but also countless healing herbs to bring solace to suffering mankind. Diseases are crosses, and sooner or later each one of us will be called upon to carry such a cross, sometimes unto the grave. But a merciful Providence permits us to seek to lighten our burden, as already the prophet Elias, speaking to Naaman the Syrian leper prince, has said: “Go and wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover health, and thou shalt be clean.” The faithful dispenser of the household pharmacy may joyfully remember the words of our blessed Saviour regarding service to the least of His brethren.
12. The Prevention of Disease Through Regular Practice. If healthy people would but make use of simple applications once a week or even once a fortnight, how many illnesses might not thereby be averted! The short swathing acts favourably on liver and kidneys and brings relief in heart and stomach complaints. The cold sitz-bath taken at night directly from bed wards off catarrhs and renders the system impervious to catching cold. The complete cold lavation taken upon rising in the morning braces and invigorates the whole constitution. The knee affusion is the feet’s best friend, luring the reluctant blood down into the imperfectly filled veins. These applications require no physician, no apothecary, no expense whatsoever—only a basin of water, a linen cloth, and the wisdom to use them regularly. Prevention surpasses cure as surely as the watchman who guards the city through the night surpasses the soldier who must recapture it after it has fallen.
The Golden Nugget
The most profound insight in this work, one that the fewest people would know, is that drying the body after water applications actually defeats their purpose—and must never be done.
This runs contrary to every instinct. After emerging from cold water, the natural impulse is to towel off vigorously and restore warmth through friction. Yet Kneipp discovered through thirty years of experimentation that this practice negates the healing effect entirely. The wet body, covered immediately with dry clothing and set to walking or other active exercise, accomplishes something that the dried body cannot: the continuous gentle friction of coarse linen against damp skin keeps the pores active and the circulation stimulated long after the application has ended.
The water remaining on the skin does not chill the body—quite the opposite. As the person exercises, the body generates its own heat, which gradually warms and evaporates the moisture. This extended process maintains the therapeutic action for a quarter of an hour or longer, whereas toweling off ends it in seconds. The coarse linen shirt worn against wet skin performs the work of a thousand rubbings without the exhaustion or violence that manual friction produces.
This single principle—replacing the wet clothes upon the wet body without drying, then exercising until warmth returns naturally—distinguishes Kneipp’s system from all other water-cures of his era and explains why his treatments succeeded where violent douches and rubbing regimens failed. It transforms what might be a brief shock into a sustained therapeutic action, and it requires nothing more than the self-discipline to resist the towel. Most people who attempt water-cure at home abandon it because they dry themselves afterward and therefore never experience its true effects. Those who trust this strange instruction discover that the body knows better than our fears how to restore its own warmth.
30 Q&As
Question 1: What is the fundamental origin of all disease, and how does the condition of the blood determine health or illness?
All diseases, whatever be their name, have their origin, their root, in the blood, or rather in the derangement of the blood, whether this be owing to irregular and imperfect circulation, or else to the presence of poisonous and vicious elements therein. The network of veins traversing the human frame can be compared to a well-organised system of irrigation. They conduct the sap of life throughout the body, and nourish each part, each organ, in the manner most suitable to its functions. Perfect order, however, can only be maintained when this vital fluid moves in the right measure and pace. Whatever is too much or too little in the process of circulation disturbs the equilibrium, the harmony of the whole, causes dissension in the parts, and puts sickness in the place of health.
The marvellous harmony in the construction of the human frame must be admitted by all. Even the most unbelieving physician, whose lancet and dissecting-knife have failed to detect the seat of the soul, cannot refuse his admiration to the Creator’s masterpiece. Man external and internal sings but one song of glorification: “Let everything on me and in me praise the name of the Lord!” This beautiful harmony and order, which we call health, may be upset and disturbed by various interruptions, which we designate by the name of illness. Illnesses, external and internal, belong to man’s daily bread, of which he must partake, whether he will or no. Yet a merciful Providence permits us to seek to lighten our burden, and in water He has provided an agent capable of restoring the blood to its proper state.
Question 2: What are the three principal actions by which water effects a cure, and how do these actions work upon the diseased body?
You can quickly remove an ink-stain from your hand, or cleanse a bleeding wound, by the application of water. How refreshing it is in summer, at the close of a hard day’s labour, to wash the sweat from your brow! You feel revived and strengthened. If a mother perceives an incrustation of scurf on her infant’s head, she takes warm water and washes it off. To dissolve, remove, and strengthen: there, then, are the three principal attributes of water. We maintain water to be capable of curing every curable disease, as its various applications, properly applied, directly attack the root of the evil.
The first result—that of dissolving the poisonous germs contained in the blood—is best achieved by means of fomentations and warm baths infused with herbs. For the second condition, that of withdrawing all unhealthy matter from the system, it will be necessary chiefly to employ various wrappers, assisted according to expediency by compresses and affusions. The third condition of hardening and bracing the system will best be accomplished by means of cold baths, affusions, lavations, and other applications. These three actions work together as surely as the sun ripens the grain: first dissolving what is unwholesome, then carrying it forth from the body through the natural channels, and finally restoring vigour to the weakened constitution so that it may resist future attacks.
Question 3: Why has the present generation become so susceptible to disease, and what role does the lack of constitutional hardening play in this weakness?
Many persons will deem this question superfluous, yet it seems to me one of the greatest importance, and I do not hesitate to affirm that these evils mostly proceed from insufficient hardening and bracing of the system. The effeminacy and degeneration of men have reached a very high pitch. Weakened and weaklings, bloodless and nervous individuals, sufferers from the heart or the digestion, are now almost the rule: the strong and vigorous have become the exception. We are keenly susceptible to every change of weather; the transition from one season to another cannot be accomplished without the accompaniment of colds and catarrhs. In many cases the mere rapid passage from the open air into a warm room cannot be braved with impunity.
The state of things was very different forty or fifty years ago; and what is to be the end of all this, if, as we hear daily repeated on all sides, decay begins to set in before the full zenith of strength has been reached? It is surely high time to look these facts in the face. Quite little children, who are still dependent on the help of others and mostly confined to the room or swaddling-clothes, should never wear any foot-covering of whatever kind. If only I could sufficiently impress this important rule on the minds of all parents! Instinct usually comes to the help of those children who are able to stand or move about—gleefully they tear off their heavy uncomfortable feet-coverings, happy to disport themselves unshackled and free. The children of the poor are rarely interfered with in this self-assertion of nature, but the offspring of wealthy parents are less fortunate.
Question 4: How should a practitioner approach the diagnosis of illness, and why is it essential to treat the whole system rather than isolated symptoms?
By the tracks left in the snow the practised hunter recognises the nature of the game he follows. These tracks he pursues would he hunt the stag, chamois, or fox. The experienced practitioner quickly perceives where the illness lies, its origin and extension. The disease is recognised by its symptoms, and points out to him the course of remedies to be selected. A simple enough process, many will say. This is sometimes so, but not always. If a person comes to me with frost-bitten ears, without difficulty I recognise this to have been caused by cold; and if a man sitting by a millstone suddenly cries out in pain because of his bruised finger, I shall not require to ask him what is the matter. A far less easy question it is, however, to deal with an ordinary headache or with any ailments of the heart, stomach, or nerves.
If I strike the stem of a young oak-tree with an axe, or only with my foot, it will vibrate throughout; each branch will tremble and each leaf be stirred. How false would be my conclusion were I to deduce that because the leaf trembles it must be attacked! No; the leaf but trembles as a natural consequence of the blow the stem has received. Our nerves may be likened to the branches of a tree. How often we hear the expression, “He is suffering from a nervous complaint—his nerves are affected!” What does this mean? Nothing in reality: it is the whole constitution which, having received a shock, has caused the nerves to vibrate in sympathy. Thus to find and replace the one little thread disturbing the harmony—here lies the secret of the healer’s art. The practitioner who wishes to cure seldom attacks the local evil directly, but seeks to work upon strengthening the whole system.
Question 5: What distinguishes a rational water-cure practitioner from those who bring hydropathy into discredit through excessive or violent applications?
Most emphatically I warn all against too violent, or too frequent, application of cold water, which can only have the result of transforming this healing element into an agent of destruction, and changing the patient’s confidence into terror and disgust. I do not approve of all the modes of cold-water application at present in use in hydropathic establishments—many of them, in fact, I decidedly condemn—partly on account of their violence, partly because of their one-sidedness. Patients are too often treated in a stereotyped general fashion, and far too little stress is laid on the peculiarities of each separate case. To discriminate, therefore, which applications are adapted to the disease in question, and furthermore to determine how these are to be varied according to the constitution of the patient, is the touchstone of the true physician.
The true and rational water-lover—such as I understand him to be—will never fall into the error of seeking for personal satisfaction in the choice of his remedies. Neither will he make a boast of having undergone a certain number of fomentations, affusions, and compresses, nor obstinately cling to any particular application which happens to be congenial. Whenever a result can be obtained with slight means, it were folly to employ stronger ones. During thirty years I have studied and tested every single application upon my own person, and I frankly acknowledge that at three repeated intervals I was obliged to remodel my system and relax the treatment from severity to mildness, and thence to greater mildness still. Nothing brings cold water into such discredit as a sanitary and healing power as the indiscreet, exaggerated, and senseless manipulation of some people.
Question 6: What are the various methods of walking barefoot, and what specific benefits does each method confer upon the constitution?
The simplest and most natural practice for bracing the system is walking barefoot, which can be practised and varied in manifold ways to meet the requirements of age, sex, and condition. Particularly effective is the barefooted walking in wet grass, whether the moisture be produced by dew, rain, or artificial means. The wetter the grass, and the more this exercise be prolonged and repeated, the greater will be its results. As a rule, the grass-walking may extend from one to three quarters of an hour. Where grass is not available, walking barefooted on wet stones may serve the same purpose—a stone-flagged corridor or brick-laid kitchen-floor moistened by means of a watering-can will suffice. Whoever is subject to cold feet, throat affections, catarrhs, headaches, and congestions should often employ this remedy. A little vinegar mixed with the water will render it still more efficacious.
Of more powerful effect than the two aforenamed practices is the walking barefooted in new-fallen snow, which is soft and powdery, or else in snow which, beginning to thaw, is in a soft slushy state. Old congealed snow, which has lain for several days and become stiff and hard, is, however, unfit for this purpose. A little self-control will be required to take the first few steps, but a pleasant reaction will quickly follow. Walking in water is most efficacious, and of direct influence in many diseases which have their seat in the bowels, bladder, and kidneys. It relieves the lungs, expels noxious gas from the stomach, and removes headache. This can be practised in any sort of bath or tub, which should at first contain only sufficient water to reach to the ankle, the quantity to be increased by degrees until after a time the whole calf up to the knee is covered.
Question 7: How do cold-water applications differ from warm-water applications in their effects, and under what circumstances should each be employed?
Most cold-water applications are accomplished by means of cold water, and unless it be directly specified to the contrary, the expression “water” throughout this system is to be taken to signify “cold water.” The colder the better is the motto which experience has taught me to cling to; and for healthy persons, an admixture of snow in the water employed for their affusions in winter is highly to be recommended. Cold applications serve principally to harden and brace the constitution, to restore proper circulation, and to withdraw unhealthy matter through the skin. The action of cold water upon the epidermis is like a shock that awakens the dormant vital forces and sets the blood coursing vigorously through the vessels.
To beginners in the water-cure, more especially the aged and the very young, weak and nervous persons who shrink from the cold, as well as those who from nature possess but little latent heat, I frequently permit the use of water which has been warmed to sixty-four to sixty-six degrees Fahrenheit, until they can be gradually accustomed to a lower temperature. Warm applications—baths infused with hay-flowers, oat-straw, or pine-needles—are pre-eminently employed to dissolve and secrete unhealthy matter, which is removed by sweating. I never use warm water alone, but always the aforementioned admixtures. Oat-straw vapour is employed for diseases of the kidneys and for stone; for rheumatism and cramps in the abdomen, I make use of hay-flowers; and in the first stages of dropsy, hay-flowers likewise render good service.
Question 8: What general rules must be observed before, during, and after cold-water applications to ensure their proper effect?
No one who feels chilly should attempt to make use of a cold-water application, unless this be directly specified. The application must be performed as rapidly as possible—though without anxiety or slovenly haste—and no unnecessary time should be lost in dressing and undressing. Practical persons will understand so to arrange their costume as to dispense as much as possible with buttons, strings, and the like. A cold plunge-bath, for instance, may be accomplished—inclusive of undressing and dressing—in the space of five minutes. A very little practice will enable any one to do this. Whenever an application is directed to be used for the space of one minute, this indicates the shortest term. When, however, it is marked from two to three minutes, the latter space should never be exceeded. To country people, who either possess no pocket-watch or else are upon distant terms with their timepieces, I usually prescribe the simpler method of counting each minute by means of reciting two Paternosters.
In no case, the head and hands alone excepted, is it permissible to dry the body after an application. The dry clothes are to be replaced on the wet body as quickly as possible, after which the patient is to walk or take other active exercise until the body be completely dry and has regained its normal temperature. The movement should at first be faster, then slackened gradually. Overheating should, however, be avoided, and those persons whose nature inclines to profuse perspiration should walk slower and for a longer period than less plethoric ones. As a general rule, it may be assumed that a quarter of an hour’s exercise after each application is the minimum, which should never be curtailed. Neither friction nor rubbing has any place in my system; their first object—that of restoring warmth to the body—being far better and more equally achieved by the simpler plan of not drying.
Question 9: What are the different types of compresses, and what specific conditions does each address?
The upper compress consists of a large piece of coarse linen—sackcloth is best for the purpose—which, when laid together from three to ten fold, should be long and broad enough to cover the entire body from the throat to below the abdomen. This is steeped in cold water, well wrung out, and applied to the reclining patient. Over this is drawn a second three or four fold piece of dry linen, or else a woollen blanket, which has the object of excluding the outer air. The compress, which is to be applied from forty-five minutes to an hour, must in many cases be renewed from time to time. The upper compress has specially the effect of expelling unwholesome gases from the stomach and bowels.
The lower compress is often used alternately with the upper one, and, like it, is to be taken in bed. A thick woollen rug or blanket should first be spread to avoid wetting the mattress, and above this the three or four fold wet linen sheet, long enough to cover the whole back from the nape of the neck to the end of the spine. Its functions are to strengthen the spine and spine marrow, to cure pains in the back and acute rheumatic affections. Also in cases of fever it is highly efficacious. The compress on the abdomen—a four to six fold linen cloth dipped in water and applied to the lower part of the patient’s body—will render good service in cases of indigestion, stomach cramp, and whenever it is desirable to draw away the blood from heart or chest. According to expediency, the water may be mixed with vinegar or various herb decoctions.
Question 10: What is the Spanish mantle, how is it applied, and for what ailments does it render particular service?
The Spanish mantle, likewise called the large swathing, is a sort of long cloak with sleeves made of coarse linen, cut very wide and long, and open up the front. Perhaps it would be more correct to designate it as a coarse linen dressing-gown. This cloak, dipped in water—which can be warm or cold according to the particular case—is put on by the patient, who wraps it tightly about him and goes to bed, well covered with blankets and quilts. The duration of this application is from one to two hours, and must be regulated by the patient’s strength—more particularly, however, by his size and weight. For a thin gaunt peasant one hour will suffice; a burgomaster or an alderman may unhesitatingly indulge in two hours.
Whoever wishes to ascertain how potent are the effects of the Spanish mantle need only examine the water in which the cloak has been rinsed out after the application. The water will be found to be dull and discoloured; and I have known cases where the linen cloak itself was dyed throughout of a yellow hue, which could only be removed by bleaching. I specially make use of the Spanish mantle in cases of general catarrh where it extends over the whole system, for slime-fever, gout, smallpox, typhus, and as a preventive against apoplexy. Dipped in an infusion of hay-flowers, oat-straw, or pine-needles, it is of excellent effect in various diseases such as gravel and stone, according to the individual effects of each of these plants.
Question 11: How does the wet shirt application work, and in what diseases has it proven especially valuable?
A common linen shirt is dipped in water, well wrung out, and put on by the patient, who goes to bed, having wrapped himself in a thick woollen blanket and sufficiently covered himself with rugs or quilts. The wet shirt may be kept on from one to two hours. It acts like a very mild form of blister, and has the effect of opening the pores, relieving cramps and congestion, and soothing the nervous system. The simplicity of this application belies its power, for it works gently yet thoroughly upon the entire surface of the body, drawing forth what is unwholesome while calming what is agitated.
I have employed the wet shirt with great effect in mental diseases, and on children attacked with St. Vitus’s dance. In many skin-diseases it is eminently valuable; and in cases of scarlet fever, measles, and the like, when it is an object to promote the eruption and bring it to the surface, I make use of a shirt dipped in salt water or an admixture of vinegar. The salt water has a particular gift of calling forth whatever lurks beneath the skin, compelling the poison to declare itself openly rather than work its mischief in hidden places. Many a patient whose skin bore no visible sign of disease has, after this application, displayed eruptions which proved that the unhealthy matter had at last found its proper exit.
Question 12: What is the short swathing, and why is it considered one of the most useful applications for ascertaining the seat of disease?
A coarse linen sheet folded together four to six fold is dipped in water and wound closely round the body from the armpits to the centre of the thighs; above it a piece of flannel or woollen stuff, and the patient is covered up in bed. For the aged and weak, warm water may be employed. An old sack folded together to the requisite width may be made to serve the purpose of poor country people. Being easily applied and of excellent effect, it well deserves to be a general favourite. If healthy people would but make use of this short swathing once a-week, or even once a-fortnight, how many illnesses might not thereby be averted! It acts favourably on liver and kidneys, and brings relief in heart, stomach, and dropsical complaints by dispelling superfluous gases.
Whenever I am in doubt as to the nature of a complaint and wish to ascertain the exact seat of the evil, I always find the short swathing to be my best and truest counsellor. The body reveals its secrets to this simple application as a witness speaks under gentle questioning. Patients who suffer from weakness of the abdomen should rub their body, either before or after the application, with oil of camphor or lard. For cramps I sometimes make use of a cloth dipped in pure vinegar and placed single-fold against the body under the wet wrapper. The duration is generally one and a half hours, and the application may be renewed—that is, the linen redipped in fresh water—at the end of each half-hour if necessary.
Question 13: What are the various forms of foot-baths, and what specific ingredients and temperatures are employed for different conditions?
The cold foot-bath consists in putting the feet up to or above the calves from one to three minutes. Its chief effect is to draw down the blood from head and chest. It is, however, mostly employed in combination with other water applications, as in cases where the patient for some reason or other is unable to stand whole or semi-baths. For healthy people it achieves the result of curing fatigue and producing sound wholesome sleep—it cannot be too strongly recommended to country people, especially in summer after a hard day’s work. The warm foot-bath may be taken in various ways. Put a handful of salt and twice that quantity of wood-ashes into a pail of water, whose temperature should be from eighty-six to ninety-one degrees Fahrenheit. Duration of foot-bath from twelve to fifteen minutes. Warm foot-baths are chiefly to be recommended to weak, nervous, bloodless individuals, to the very young or very old, and to those of the weaker sex.
The hay-flower foot-bath is specially strengthening in its effects. Pour boiling water over a small apronful—three to five handfuls—of hay-flowers, that is, refuse of hay containing leaves, flowers, grass seed, and the like. Cover up the jar or pot and use as foot-bath as soon as it has sunk to a temperature of eighty-eight to ninety-one degrees. These foot-baths are of great and valuable service in many foot-complaints—open wounds, bruises, boils, putrefaction of the toes, and suppuration of the nails—likewise in cases where the feet have suffered from tight shoes. The oat-straw foot-bath is closely related to the foregoing one. The straw is boiled for half an hour and then used as a foot-bath from twenty to thirty minutes. Experience has taught me that these foot-baths are invaluable for corns, scirrhous tumours, and suchlike growths.
Question 14: How is the sitz-bath administered, and what are the distinct effects of the shave-grass, oat-straw, and hay-flower varieties?
The cold sitz-bath is taken as follows: in a bath or common low wooden tub the patient is seated in such manner that the water covers the upper part of the thigh and reaches to the middle of the abdomen, the legs from the thigh downwards remaining free. The duration of the cold sitz-bath is from half a minute to three minutes. This bath, like the semi-bath, is one of the most valuable and useful among the water applications, second to none in its effects upon the digestion and intestines. It serves to regulate the circulation, to expel unhealthy gases, and is particularly efficacious in cases of chlorosis, bloody flux, and many other like complaints. To ward off catarrhs and render the system impervious to catching cold, this bath should be frequently employed by all. It is best taken at night, direct from bed, to which the patient then returns without having dried himself. It is an invaluable cure for sleeplessness.
The warm sitz-bath is never prepared of warm water alone, but according to my system is always mixed with some other ingredient. The shave-grass sitz-bath is of great service in diseases of the bladder and kidneys, in gravel and stone complaints. The oat-straw sitz-bath is excellent for all gouty and rheumatic affections. The hay-flower sitz-bath is more of general effect, and may be used instead of the two foregoing when these are not to be procured. It has always rendered me good service in cases of boils, constipation, piles, and colic. The preparation of these three baths is identical: the herb is infused in boiling water, after which it is allowed to cool down to a temperature of eighty-six to ninety-one degrees, and then, without straining, employed as sitz-bath. Fifteen minutes is the usual duration.
Question 15: What is the proper method for taking warm full baths, and why must these always conclude with cold-water applications?
As far as possible I avoid prescribing warm baths, much preferring all cold-water applications. Warm baths, however, I sometimes employ, chiefly for the purpose of promoting perspiration and the expulsion of unhealthy matter, but never warm water alone; and my bath must invariably conclude with a cold application. Whoever, after taking a warm bath, omits this cold termination, commits a great imprudence, like a careless soldier who, when the battle is over, throws aside his weapons without having first ascertained whether a hidden foe is not lurking somewhere to attack him unawares. After a warm bath the pores are completely open; if the bather, in this condition, be subjected to the influence of cold air, a chill will very likely be taken, involving various possible dangers.
I use the warm full bath mostly for sick people and rarely for the healthy, unless it be to promote the perspiration and removal of unhealthy gases from the system. The herbs I employ for these baths are hay-flowers, oat-straw, and pine-tree decoctions—each having its particular virtue. The temperature should range from ninety-five to one hundred and six degrees according to the case, and the duration from fifteen to thirty minutes. After the warm bath, the patient must either be completely washed over with cold water or else plunge into a cold bath for half a minute to one minute. This transition closes the pores, restores tone to the relaxed skin, and prevents the chill that would otherwise inevitably follow. The threefold transition—warm bath, cold plunge, repeated two or three times—is of particular value in obstinate complaints.
Question 16: How are vapour baths prepared and administered, and for what categories of disease do they render their greatest service?
The head vapour bath is taken as follows: an infusion of hay-flowers, oat-straw, fennel, or other herbs according to the complaint is prepared in a vessel, which must be placed in such a position that the patient, whilst seated, is able to hold his head above it. Head and vessel are then covered so as completely to exclude the outer air. The duration of this steaming is from fifteen to twenty minutes. It is very efficacious in cases of catarrh and cold in the head, nervous headache, pains in the ear, toothache, and disorders of the gums. The vapour foot-bath is prepared in like manner: an infusion of the herbs is placed in a pail or tub, and the feet, bared to above the knees, are covered over along with the vessel by means of a rug or blanket. This bath has a wonderful effect of drawing down the blood from head and chest.
The full vapour bath is so arranged that the whole person is subjected to the steaming. The patient sits in a bath or tub covered by boards, upon which rests a large vessel containing the boiling infusion. The entire apparatus is surrounded and covered over by rugs and blankets in such a manner that no vapour can escape. The duration of this bath is from fifteen to twenty minutes. If it be desirable to prolong the process of perspiration, the patient may then be brought to bed and warmly covered up for a time before the cold ablution be performed. The action of this bath is pre-eminently to dissolve and secrete unhealthy matter, which is thus removed by sweating. Special vapour applications on isolated spots—such as on the eyes, ears, mouth, or fingers—are useful in many cases, including venomous insect stings, blood-poisoning from neglected wounds, and violent cramps at particular spots.
Question 17: What are the different types of affusions, and how does each act upon the circulation and nervous system?
The knee affusion is performed by means of a small watering-can from which the rose has been removed. The contents of the first watering-can, which must be poured faster and stronger than the succeeding ones, moisten both feet from the toes to above the knee. The following cans, held alternately high and low, must be directed in such manner as to administer gentle gushes to particular spots, especially the knee-pans and the calves. This affusion has a powerful effect in drawing the blood downward to the imperfectly filled veins of the lower extremities, and is most useful for congestions of head and chest. The upper affusion begins at the right hand, conducts the gush upwards along the whole arm to the shoulder, whence—pausing a little at the pit of the stomach—it passes across to the left shoulder, and descends again along the whole arm to the left hand. The second gush performs the same movements in an inverse direction.
The back affusion is applied whenever it is desirable to act directly on the spine. Its influence on the circulation is very favourable, and of stronger effect than the upper affusion. The gush is applied from one shoulder-blade to the other, most particularly, however, on the spine itself, from the cervical vertebrae to the coccyx. With nervous persons great care must be taken not to affuse the spine itself for long or with too great violence, as the contact of water sometimes causes a pain like that of a sharp stab. The complete affusion extends to the whole body from the throat to the point of the toes. It is administered with the contents of about four watering-cans, directed alternately to chest and back. To healthy persons inclined to corpulence this affusion is strongly to be recommended—it braces the system, promotes circulation, and strengthens weak and over-sensitive individuals.
Question 18: How is the upper affusion administered, and why must particular care be taken with the spine during this application?
For the upper affusion the upper portion of the body is to be bared and the patient placed in a kneeling or stooping posture over a bath or tub. The first gush begins at the right hand, conducts the water upwards along the whole arm to the shoulder, whence—pausing a little at the pit of the stomach—it passes across to the left shoulder and descends again along the whole arm to the left hand. This first affusion serves to moisten the whole line of action. The contents of the second and third cans are intended to come in contact with the whole network of nerves which extend to both sides of the spine, and like the first affusion, they must invariably terminate at the left shoulder. The whole line must be affused three or four times, as equally as possible, so that the water pours down over the chest into the basin. Let the head be spared, especially if the patient have long hair; the neck, on the contrary, should be well affused.
With nervous persons great care must be taken not to affuse the spine itself for long or with too great violence, as the contact of water sometimes causes a pain like that of a sharp stab. The more rapidly and equally this affusion is performed, the easier it will be to endure, and the faster will warmth be restored to the system. With corpulent persons and those who are inclined to stoutness, reaction is sometimes slow. In such cases I frequently assist the process by rubbing the back gently with the hand after the first affusion: this accelerates the circulation and restores activity to the epidermis. For the weak, the contents of one watering-can will be sufficient; novices may use one or two, adepts from two to three, and the very strong and healthy from five to six watering-cans. After the affusion let the chest be rapidly washed over and the clothes resumed without drying the body.
Question 19: What is the proper method of complete lavation for healthy persons versus invalids, and what effects does this practice produce?
The complete lavation is a rapid ablution applied to the entire body. The simplest manner of performing it is to dip a coarse linen towel in water and to begin operations on chest and lower body, proceeding to the back, which each one must approach in the manner he finds most convenient. Arms and legs come last on the programme. Care should be taken not to perform this operation in a cold or draughty spot, and the general oft-repeated rule of quickly dressing and taking exercise after the application holds likewise good here. The whole process should not occupy above two minutes. The early morning is the most favourable time for this lavation. It should be undertaken straight away from the warm bed on rising, and if possible be succeeded by a walk in the fresh morning air. Those who have tried it cannot fail to recognise its bracing and invigorating effect. It is not every one who can with impunity indulge in a cold lavation at night, for with many it has the effect of unduly exciting the nervous system. Those, however, who are able to stand it, will probably find bedtime the most convenient for the process. Persons suffering from sleeplessness have frequently been relieved by this means.
The principal point to be observed with regard to the washing of sick people is that no portion of the body, not even the foot-soles, should remain untouched by the water, which must be rapidly and equally applied over the whole surface. The patient sits up in bed, or is supported, while back and shoulders are quickly sponged over. Having resumed a horizontal position, chest and body are next attacked, then the arms, and lastly the legs. From three to four minutes at the outside will suffice for the whole operation, which affords speedy and inexpressible relief. Should, however, this complete lavation be too lengthy and fatiguing for very sick persons, it may be divided into two or even three partial lavations. Thus chest, body, and arms may be washed in the morning, the back and legs in the afternoon.
Question 20: What are the four principal categories of the household pharmacy, and how should this pharmacy be organized and maintained?
Our household pharmacy should contain four principal partitions, and several smaller side partitions. The four principal partitions consist of tinctures or extracts, tea-infusions, powders, and oils. Into the side partitions, properly sorted and arranged, comes everything else which cannot be classified under the foregoing four heads. Also linen rags and cotton wool for dressing wounds should find here a place. The tinctures and oils must be kept in glasses or bottles; teas and powders in close paper bags, or better still, in wooden boxes. If these are ordered new for this purpose, they should be oval-shaped and of different sizes. If they are all made of a uniform pattern, this will give the household pharmacy a business-like, neat appearance, and it will be a pleasure to look at them ranged upon the shelves like a well-disciplined army of soldiers!
Everything is to be kept in a dry, cool, and easily accessible place. The contents of each glass bottle, bag, or box should be distinctly marked on a label affixed to it, and it will save both time and trouble if these are arranged alphabetically. Great order, method, and cleanliness are the principal conditions for organising and keeping up this household pharmacy. It should be presided over by the mother of the family, or else by her most tidy and industrious son or daughter. Well governed and administered, this little pharmacy will be a source of blessing and consolation to the whole household; and its faithful dispenser may joyfully remember the words of our blessed Saviour: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” The plants should every year be renewed—that is to say, a new stock gathered in and the old ones thrown away.
Question 21: How are tinctures and teas properly prepared to extract the full healing virtues of plants?
The healing virtues of a plant, its inward sap, may be extracted in various ways. The best and most potent extraction may be obtained as follows: among the herbs, berries, or flowers from which the medicine is to be made, seek out the most perfect specimens, ripe and undecayed. These are to be well dried in the open air upon a wooden board or tray—placed, however, in the shade, never in the sun. When everything is well dried, cut up or pull asunder those that require to be diminished in size, and place everything in a clean, easily corked glass bottle. Over this pour pure corn-brandy or some other kind of unadulterated spirit. Well close the bottle and place for a time in a moderately warm spot. The longer the extract is kept, the stronger it will be, and I often make use of a tincture after it has stood a year undisturbed. In case of necessity, however, it may be used after a few days. The tinctures are to be administered in drops; sometimes in tea- or even table-spoonfuls when expressly indicated.
Each housewife knows how to prepare tea: for one cupful, she takes of the dried herbs or flowers as much as she can grasp in three fingers, pours over it boiling water, and lets it boil up once or twice. After straining, it will then be ready for use. Made in this fashion, the tea will have the most delicate pleasing taste, but it will not be of the strongest kind. My method of making it is different. I let it boil for long, until every particle of strength is extracted from the plant, in order that none of its healing virtues may be wasted. In dry weather, when you are coming back from the fields, or when going out to view the state of the crops, turn aside occasionally from your path to pluck here and there one of the healing herbs. Give the preference to those that grow on dry soil—best of all, on sunny hillsides—and those flowers and berries which are most perfectly expanded and developed will bring you the best fruits in time of sickness.
Question 22: What are the properties and uses of juniper, and how does the juniper-berry cure strengthen the stomach?
Who does not know the juniper-berry? Employed for fumigating purposes it diffuses a pleasant aromatic scent throughout rooms and corridors, and improves the atmosphere. When it is necessary to disinfect a room where infectious illness prevails, or where a corpse is present, no better means can be found than fumigations of juniper for dispersing and annihilating all floating poisonous germs and particles. Its effects on our internal organism are of the same kind. These berries, so to say, fumigate the mouth and stomach, and arm us against infection. Those who nurse or attend on patients attacked with scarlet fever, smallpox, typhus, cholera, and the like should daily chew from six to ten of these berries. They will produce a pleasant taste in the mouth and render good service to the digestion.
People whose stomach is weak should practise the following small juniper cure, the good effects of which have often been tested: the first day they should begin with four berries, the second day five berries, on the third day six, on the fourth day seven berries, and so on till twelve days and fifteen berries have been reached; after this go on diminishing the dose by one berry every day, till the portion has been reduced to five berries. I know many persons whose weakened and gas-overloaded stomachs have been cleansed and strengthened by this simple berry cure. For stone and gravel, kidney and liver complaints, the juniper-berry has always stood in good repute since olden times; also in cases where it is necessary to secrete indolent gases, watery and slimy matter from the system. Besides the berries, young sprouts of juniper may be employed for tea in the first stages of dropsy, likewise for purifying the blood.
Question 23: What medicinal plants are most valuable for treating disorders of the lungs and respiratory system?
For congestion in lungs, windpipe, and chest, angelica is very serviceable. A cup of tea made of its roots will quickly restore internal warmth, and if infused with a mixture of wine-and-water, it is particularly effective for burning pains in the stomach as well. Coltsfoot, the well-known yellow spring flower, grows on roadsides, along streams, and on barren clay-grounds. With the first tender grass it pushes its way up through the still wintry earth. No household pharmacy should be without dried coltsfoot, the tea of which dissolves conglutination in chest, lungs, and windpipe, and promotes expectoration. A tea of coltsfoot with equal parts of ribwort is most valuable for coughs of long standing. Lime-blossom tea is, after the elder-flower tea, the best infusion for promoting perspiration, and its effect is excellent in old neglected coughs and conglutination of lungs and windpipe.
Comfrey, or wall-wort, is one whose root is particularly effectual for those whose lungs are attacked. Tea infused from this root serves to dissolve the phlegm, cleanses the lungs, chest, stomach, and bowels, effectually purifying all internal organs in a thorough and rapid fashion. Wood-sanicle has a particular gift of cleansing and healing our bellows the lungs. Wounds and blood-vomiting are healed and the bowels purified; even when inflammation of the bowels has set in, its result is infallible. The violet, that sweet-scented spring flower, should also pervade our household pharmacy. For spring coughs in children let the anxious mother take a handful of green or dried violet-leaves, and having boiled it as tea, administer it in doses of two to three spoonfuls at intervals of two to three hours. In consumption, it likewise relieves the cough and assists the process of dissolving slime and conglutination.
Question 24: What herbs and preparations serve best for stomach complaints, flatulency, and disorders of digestion?
Fennel seeds should never be wanting in the household pharmacy, the complaints which they serve to cure being of common occurrence. By this I mean colic, with all its attendant cramps and spasms. Let the mother quickly boil one table-spoonful of fennel in a cup of milk from five to ten minutes, and give the healing beverage to the patient as hot as can conveniently be swallowed. Its action is good and mostly very rapid. Fennel powder, strewed upon or mixed with the food, expels unhealthy gases from the stomach. Aniseed, like fennel, may be warmly recommended—its action upon unwholesome gases and flatulency is even greater than that of fennel. Oftenest these two remedies are employed combined together. Oil of aniseed and of fennel may be bought in every apothecary’s. For the aforenamed complaints four to seven drops on sugar once or twice daily will suffice.
Wormwood is one of the best known stomachics. It secretes wind, improves and strengthens the stomach saps, and produces appetite, whether prepared as tea or in the shape of powder. Those who suffer from the liver may take one to two pinches daily of wormwood powder, mixed in a spoonful of soup or strewed over the food like salt or pepper. Yellow gentian is likewise the best stomachic. Twenty to thirty drops of the extract in six to eight table-spoonfuls of water is the dose, which may be taken daily for a considerable time. A good digestion and an excellent appetite will not fail soon to declare themselves. Centaury, called in German the thousand florin herb, relieves the stomach of superfluous winds and gases, restores the digestive saps, and acts upon liver and kidneys. It is the best remedy for heartburn.
Question 25: What is the regulating purgative, and how does it differ from the violent purgatives employed by conventional medicine?
Forty or fifty years ago people were in the habit of having themselves bled at some particular annual date, usually determined by the moon; and at certain other yearly or half-yearly dates to take a violent purgative. Even nowadays there are many who cling to the delusion that a radical clearing out of the system should be undertaken from time to time. I am diametrically opposed to all such violent measures, being of opinion that the same results may be achieved by mild and harmless means. For long I have searched among the plants, probing the qualities of those which seemed to me most likely to be of beneficial effect on the digestion. At last I have succeeded in discovering two different combinations of herbs which, in their united strength, will produce the desired result.
The first recipe consists of two table-spoonfuls ground fennel, two table-spoonfuls crushed juniper-berries, one table-spoonful powdered aloe, and one table-spoonful fenugreek. Everything is to be well mixed and kept in a dry spot. The medicine, which acts only twelve to thirty hours after it has been taken, is boiled as tea for a quarter of an hour. One tea-spoonful of the mixture will suffice for a small cupful, to be taken hot or cold by the patient at bedtime. Many who take this tea will be disappointed at obtaining no results, although they be conscious of a lively rumbling and working in the interior. The police sometimes search in vain when there are no delinquents to be discovered. The regulating purgative does likewise, and when it finds no unhealthy matter to be removed, it forbears to weaken the system by unnecessary purging. This tea is also of particular effect on the urine, and has often served to remove considerable conglutinations on the chest.
Question 26: How does consumption differ from general decline, and what water applications and precautions are appropriate for those in the early stages of lung disease?
Decline is thereby distinguished from consumption, that whereas in the latter the disease invariably proceeds from some particular organ, as lungs, chest, larynx, and the like, whence it spreads throughout the body, the former more resembles a general dissolution of the system, in which we vainly seek to discover a tangible reason for the complaint. Those attacked by decline are often unconscious of any serious indisposition. They mostly complain of weariness, low spirits, and either excessive or deficient appetite. If assistance be not at hand, these semi-withered plants will rapidly fade away; like a feeble rushlight, they will soon be extinguished. In consumption, the patient at the beginning scarcely notices his condition. A cough, usually attributed to some trifling cold, sets in. If sometimes the cough increases, the patient consoles himself by the reflection that it is only a slight catarrh which will soon be dispelled.
Where consumption is far advanced, water should never be applied, nature being no longer sufficiently vigorous to engage in a tussle with the cold element. This were as foolish as if a weak puny youth were to attempt to wrestle with an athlete. An advanced stage of consumption is recognised by the patient’s frequent cough, accompanied by much expectoration, difficult breathing, and impaired appetite. So long as the expectorated matter floats on the water’s surface, there is yet room for hope. If it sinks, then all help is mostly in vain. Beginning consumption may, however, be often arrested by means of cold water. Should the disease have its seat in the upper part of the body, then the upper affusion is an excellent application, combined with the knee affusion for half a minute only. In favourable weather, walking barefoot in wet grass is not to be surpassed in its effects. As to diet, the simplest is the best; nothing heating, spiced, or sour should be taken.
Question 27: What is the approach to treating nervous complaints, including nervous exhaustion, melancholy, and disorders arising from mental overexertion?
A pastor related that he was sometimes a prey to intolerable headache, and that whenever this relaxed, he got such oppression in the throat as hardly to be able to speak for pain and fatigue. Also in the back he suffered from frequent weariness and painful spasms. The doctor’s certificate declared him to be suffering from complete nervous exhaustion, which threatened to attack the brain and spine. Extreme irritation and a sense of anxiety were likewise present. Applications were given: daily a weak upper affusion, morning and afternoon; walking once daily in wet grass and on wet stones for four minutes. So on for five days. After that, daily a stronger upper affusion, a knee affusion, and walking twice in water. Thus also for five days more, with sitz-baths between times. The further applications were daily a back affusion, a semi-bath, an upper affusion, and walking in water. These applications removed all sufferings; happy and healthy the patient returned to the duties of his vocation.
Two students came during the Easter holidays, relating: “We suffer from headache, determination of blood to the head, impaired sleep and appetite, and great weariness.” As it was spring-time, and the ground still moist and tolerably cold, I gave them the advice to spend their holidays walking barefoot in the woods and meadows, with rapid exercise whenever they felt cold; also from time to time to stand or walk about from two to three minutes in a stream or ditch filled with water. In like manner they were told to put their arms completely in water two or three times daily. The young people found these applications very congenial; spirits and courage revived; with renewed zest they returned to their studies. Oil of lavender I have frequently employed with success in mental affections, for I maintain that the cure of such complaints is often effected by the removal of unhealthy gases in the brain region.
Question 28: How should dropsy be understood and treated, and what determines whether a case is curable or beyond remedy?
Dropsy is best understood by comparing it to a field which has become swampy and barren because the irrigation canals have been obstructed or neglected. Each organ, each limb, requires its proper nourishment from the blood. From unhealthy blood, as from a foul stagnant marsh, neither strength nor life can be drawn—hence the flaccid loose flesh, withered vessels, and agglomerations, all foreboding symptoms of dropsy. Even by the appearance of such patients it is easy to detect the complaint. Young people suddenly age, the complexion becomes dull, nerves and muscles hang loosely on the bones like the cords of an unstrung instrument; in various places, especially about the eyes, little water-bags begin to form. There are various kinds of dropsy: dropsy of the skin, dropsy of the belly, dropsy of the head, heart, chest, and so forth. Dropsy is often the consequence of recent severe illness, and is apt to appear particularly after scarlet fever when the poisonous matter has been imperfectly expelled.
When dropsy has spread throughout the body and attained large dimensions, then it is mostly incurable because of the lack of blood. In the early stages, and before decomposition has set in, it is often readily cured, so to say, by pumping out the stagnant water. A peasant-woman whose body had swelled up so that she could hardly walk was advised to express rosemary in wine and daily drink two wine-glassfuls of this rosemary wine. The wine greatly strengthened the patient and expelled much water. Furthermore, she daily took a short swathing of an hour and a half for several days, and during four weeks two semi-baths daily of one minute, combined with lavation of the upper body. The peasant-woman recovered completely and was able to resume all the duties of her state of life. A boy aged twelve who got dropsy after scarlet fever was cured by a shirt dipped in salt water applied three days in succession for one and a half hour.
Question 29: What methods are employed for treating rheumatism and gout, and why must the cure be continued even after the principal pains have ceased?
In manuring a field it is bad to heap the dung too thickly on any particular spot, for instead of promoting fruitfulness this merely gives rise to fetid swamps wherein nothing can thrive. In the same way excessive and superfluous nourishment of the body produces gout, which is mostly to be traced to over-indulgence in eating and drinking. Other causes may be great exertion, wettings, and catching cold. A gentleman of position suffered four weeks from violent foot pains. He was cured the first time by sweating, but a year later the complaint returned and chained him to bed for twelve weeks. I advised him to infuse hay-flowers in hot water for some minutes, then, pressing out the moisture, place the flowers on a linen cloth and wrap them well round both feet. After two hours he was to dip the hay-flowers again in the decoction and replace as before. After the first day the principal pains had ceased; in two or three days he was completely free of suffering.
I must warn here against a common error. As soon as the feet have ceased to hurt, the patient often imagines himself to be completely cured. It were a great mistake to terminate here the cure, which must be followed up by at least some water applications in order to expel the unhealthy matter from the body. It is best to employ the Spanish mantle two or three times weekly during the first three weeks. In the following month some warm baths with hay-flowers or oat-straw decoction, and with threefold transition into cold water. No rheumatism should be neglected, as it may lay the seeds of manifold severe diseases of lungs, ears, eyes, and the like, as also of inflammation, blood-poisoning, and ulcers. Persons of simple habits, and who are not over-weakened by the complaint, I can easily and readily cure; but I seldom have any such illusion with regard to the more distinguished class of gout patients. They are a heavy burden, and mostly incurable by water, for they will not obey orders.
Question 30: What principles of diet, dress, and daily living contribute to the prevention of disease and the maintenance of health?
I will merely here indicate, with regard to food, that what I principally advocate is a dry, simple, nourishing diet, free from all spices and condiments; and as beverage, the pure crystal element which the Creator has so lavishly provided for His creatures. At the same time I am no Puritan, and do not lay my veto upon a glass of wine or beer, but do not attach much importance to their use. From a medicinal point of view, as for instance for convalescents, these stimulating beverages may sometimes be useful; for those in health I consider ripe fruit to be far more advantageous. Drink, therefore, whenever thou art thirsty, and never drink much at a time! The human system, that living clock of exquisitely accurate construction, would ever move and strike with unfailing punctuality were it not for the blindness of mankind, which soils the works and obstructs their rotation by dust and dirt.
With regard to dress I cling to the old adage: “Home made and home spun is the best for every one.” I am particularly opposed to the unequal mode of dress which generally prevails, more especially in winter. While the upper portion of the body is clad in five or six layers, the lower extremities receive no such consideration. Let every one daily see to the thorough and consistent ventilation of all dwelling and sleeping apartments. Of special importance it is that the beds should be thoroughly aired. All these precautions, however, will prove of little avail if the system has not been previously hardened and braced against disease. If healthy people would but make use of simple applications once a week or even once a fortnight, how many illnesses might not thereby be averted! The best means to employ with a view to hardening and bracing the general system are the barefoot practices, the knee affusion, and the cold lavation—simple measures that cost nothing yet preserve health as surely as the watchman guards the city.
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Very useful! Thank you. I shall be experimenting. :)