Every Man His Own Doctor: The Cold Water, Tepid Water, and Friction-Cure, as Applicable to Every Disease to Which the Human Frame Is Subject, and Also to the Cure of Disease in Horses and CattleClaridge, R. T. (Richard Tappin)
Science
Every Man His Own Doctor: The Cold Water, Tepid Water, and Friction-Cure, as Applicable to Every Disease to Which the Human Frame Is Subject, and Also to the Cure of Disease in Horses and Cattle
Claridge, R. T. (Richard Tappin)
Hydrotherapy; Veterinary medicine
A child seven years old, subject all his life to severe attacks of
croup, on being seized with one at Gräfenberg, was treated as follows:--
Rubbed between the shoulders, and on the chest, for some minutes with
wet hands; then lifted out of bed, and well rubbed all over, especially
in the legs, in a very wet sheet from five to eight minutes.
A wet handkerchief was then put on as a shawl, and a bandage round the
waist; when the patient was allowed to return to bed for ten minutes;
after which the same treatment was repeated. This induced sleep, and he
awoke free from all signs of croup.
At twelve o'clock there was a relapse, when the rubbing was renewed, and
bandage applied to the waist.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, tepid-bath 64° for some minutes, and
patient slept all night in bandage and wet shawl.
The treatment was renewed second day.
A child three years old, also liable to attacks of croup, on being
attacked one evening about nine o'clock, was instantly rubbed on the
chest, windpipe, and between the shoulders, followed by a general
rubbing in rubbing-sheet for five minutes; then bandages were applied to
throat, chest, and round the waist.
This apparently gave great relief, but in the morning he awoke flushed
and feverish, complaining of his throat. A rubbing-sheet followed by a
tepid-bath for some minutes, was resorted to; and at twelve o'clock
another rubbing-sheet followed. Fever having subsided, he was allowed to
go out.
At five o'clock the rubbing-sheet was repeated. He wore the bandage on
his throat down to his chest day and night, changing it when dry. Had
fever continued, he was to have lain in packing-sheet at five o'clock
until warm, instead of the rubbing-sheet. Since this time both children
have been perfectly well.--_August, 1845._
_Ophthalmia._--Inflammation of the eyes is generally catarrhal or
rheumatic, and requires the same treatment as rheumatism and gout. I
never saw it acute, but always chronic.
To the rheumatic treatment, Priessnitz adds eye-baths, and the douche.
The latter must be received in the joined hands; from which, water
coming from a height will rebound as high as the eyes. Head-baths are
equally indispensable, as well as fomentations, to these organs. Chronic
ophthalmia, even at Gräfenberg, is most obstinate, and requires a long
course of treatment.
A captain thus attacked, felt, after several head-baths which he
continued for three quarters of an hour, a pungent pain in the head,
accompanied by swelling of the ears. An abscess was expected in one of
these organs, when the pain gave way to a virulent deposit, formed in
the thick part of the cheek; after this, the eyes were re-established.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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