The principles and practice of hydrotherapy : a guide to the application of water in disease for students and practitioners of medicine / by Simon Baruch ... ; with numerous illustrations.
- Simon Baruch
- Date:
- 1898
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The principles and practice of hydrotherapy : a guide to the application of water in disease for students and practitioners of medicine / by Simon Baruch ... ; with numerous illustrations. 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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![The number of cases admitted to the garrison hospital was four hundred and twenty-six; the number of deaths thirty-six—8.4 per cent mortality. An epidemic of influenza had preceded the typhoid epidemic and was still prevailing to such an extent that most of the soldiers suffered from a combination of these toxic agencies. As a result there existed a tendency to hemorrhage which, in its extent, was unusual, and an involvement of the central nervous system which was more pronounced than had been observed in any previous epidemic. A toxic affection of the cardiac ganglia which produced great slowing and asthenia of the pulse seemed to be prevalent. All these seemed to diminish the resisting-capacity of the patients in this epidemic, and doubtless account for its fatality despite the adoption of the Brand [?] method, which consisted of the regular administration of baths at 12 K. (59° F.) for fifteen minutes every three hours whenever the pa- tient's temperature reached 102° F. in the rectum, accompanied by a daily bottle of red wine, strong black tea with cognac after each bath, soft-boiled eggs, flour-and-egg soup, one and one-half to two and one- half quarts of milk. Ten thousand baths were administered during this epidemic. Although Dr. Vogl is satisfied with the mortality of 8.4 per cent, because of the serious type of this epidemic, this result compares un- favorably with his previous results, which never exceeded 5.2 per cent in any one year and averaged 2.7 per cent. Vogl finds the expla- nation of this unwonted fatality (which is much less than is usual un- der non-hydriatric management) in the coexistence of influenza, which in the initial stages even produced great irregularity of the pulse, etc., and other manifestations of cardiac incompetency, which render the treatment by bathing ever a serious problem. Nevertheless, the bath treatment furnished evidence of the invigorating effects of the baths, inasmuch as their cessation was always followed by failure of cardiac action and nerve tone, and their resumption by improvement, dur- ing the long existence (five or six weeks) of the infective process. In view of the great ability of Vogl and his valued labors in this field, I would prefer to pass this remarkable report without criticism, but, from my standpoint, the increased mortality of this epidemic may be partly due to a deviation from the Brand method. A bath of 59° F., six degrees below the minimum temperature advised by Brand, probably demanded a greater response on the part of the weakened heart than it was capable of rendering without damage. Be it under- stood that this is no contradiction of the position assumed by Brand, and so often confirmed by the author, that the cold bath is the best heart tonic in typhoid fever. The reader should bear in mind that this tonic effect is prophylactic rather than direct, and that, as has](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21034825_0198.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
