The water cure : cases of disease cured by cold water / translated from the German by E.S. Abdy, M.A., with remarks.

  • Kühn, Adolph
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The water cure : cases of disease cured by cold water / translated from the German by E.S. Abdy, M.A., with remarks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ]3 itself; but on the opposite side, there appeared large boils, which gradually increased so as to give the knee the appearance of being crooked. They remained in this condition nearly two weeks, with- out suppurating, while the issue, which I kept up, and contained but two pease, operated in an extraordinary degree, and discharged a great quantity of matter. By this time I could use my sore foot somewhat more; while I could scarcely, when I began, reach the bathing house above, without being quite exhausted by the attempt, and feeling the pain in my knee increased. I was able, in the third week, to reach this point without much difficulty, and experienced none of those pains, which, before I employed this system, invariably followed the slightest exertion of the foot. The marks of the burn- ing became milk white in the long knee-baths, the new skin was completed more and more, so that at last not the slightest scar could be seen; while the soft, white integument was gradually succeeded by a firmer skin—an event to which the douche contributed in no slight degree. With this last I began the 18th July, as the phy- sician told me, that in deeply-rooted diseases, the water treatment was more favourable, and more certain in its results if gradually increased in strength; and that the douche was one of the strongest liydriatic instruments. The fear I had of the douche, augmented as it had been by M unde’s* saying, that the boldest could not divest himself of it on such occasions, very soon vanished in my case. It was but the first moment: washing the forepart of the body and receiving the first stroke of the falling stream, that I disliked; I found it however, much less formidable than I had anticipated. I stayed five minutes under the douche, and felt myself afterwards *Munde must have written this for the lovers of the marvellous. The first night of his arrival at Grafenherg, he was seized with an inflammatory fever, which, as he told me the next day, was subdued by the application of wet sheets, a much more formidable “ preparation” to timid minds than the douche. His boldness had now something else to contend with, and proved too weak for the enemies it had brought upon him. Though totally ignorant of physiology and anatomy, he had been placed over Piutti; and the discontent created by this act of injustice and imprudence soon compelled him to quit Elgersbnrg. He is now Editor of the Water Friend ; a new series of which is to be conducted by the former Editors. I may add, that nature has given him a singular talent for acquiring languages—I wish him too well not to wish she had given him more common sense.