The uses of water in modern medicine / By Simon Baruch.

  • Simon Baruch
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The uses of water in modern medicine / By Simon Baruch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    Italy, and thence found their way to France and back again to England, where Floyer had prepared the way. Theden, the surgeon of Frederick the Great, was the first to use water in smallpox, malignant fever, rheumatism, and inflammation of the joints. He improved the shower bath, and warmly advised its use. In 1743 a Silesian physician, Johann Sig- mund Hahn, and his son, established the principles of modern hydrotherapy in Germany, applying it in acute and chronic diseases, especially in smallpox and the other exanthemata. Hence the same country which later produced the first great empiric, Priessnitz, may be credited also with the first great hydrotherapeutist. During the prevalence of the pest in Moscow in 1881, cold water was used very successfully. English-speaking physicians are perhaps better acquainted with the works of Wright and Currie in the treatment of acute fever than with any other his- torical fact in hydrotherapy. Currie's work was translated into several foreign languages, and his practice was introduced into the Vienna hospitals by Joseph Franck. His application of water was not limited to fevers. In gout and convulsions, paralysis, tetanus, and other diseases, he claims to have obtained good results. To mention Hufeland, the enthusias- tic and yet judicious advocate of hydrotherapy, is to give the imprint of true medical wisdom to it, and to indicate its wide adoption among the profession. He
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