The cold-water cure, its use and misuse examined / [Herbert Mayo].

  • Herbert Mayo
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cold-water cure, its use and misuse examined / [Herbert Mayo]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and sat down when he could walk no more; then he eat his breakfast, and shortly afterwards walked again. He was required afterwards to walk frequently during the day as well and as long as he could. After a fortnight of this ill-judged discipline, his feet had become so pain- ful that he could scarcely walk at all. Nevertheless he persisted, according to the instructions he daily received, in walking a little daily, his utmost, with the most deter- mined faith and fortitude, in spite of the pain, for two months, his feet gradually swelling more and more, especially towards evening, and latterly his right knee becoming painful and swollen. Then the rheumatic dia- thesis was so thoroughly stirred up in his system that the right eye became again inflamed. This affection he submitted to have treated, so infatuated was he, for ten days, with local cold bathing twice a day, and cold com- presses only. Then at last, the inflammation continuing, and the sight of the eye being nearly extinguished, he left the cold-water establishment, and took calomel, when the inflammation subsided; but the sight of the eye was permanently impaired, and he was hardly able to crawl about a room. It is therefore necessary in the hydropathic treatment of the sick, to recollect that the natural tendency of exer- cise is to heat the blood, exhaust the nervous system, and strain the organs of locomotion; and that although in health and when not overdone, these results all turn in their consequences to increase of strength, yet that in disease they are more likely to take the course of simply aggravating it. The regular time for exercise is after each bath. But exercise is sometimes required preparatory to bathing. A patient must not bathe when cold or chilled. If such is his condition, when the hour for bathing is at hand, he should walk to warm himself, but not so smartly as to accelerate his pulse and breathing. It is dangerous, when violently heated by exercise, to bathe in cold water. It is indeed often done with im- punity, but every now and then it is fatal. What makes the practice so often unattended with ill consequences, is that one is tempted to indulge in it only in the summer, when the air and water are warm. It is, however, perhaps, equally imprudent to wait to
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