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
This bath is precisely the same as the half-bath, and applied in the
same way; the only difference being the water, which in this bath is
tepid; _i. e._ ordinarily 62 or 63 deg. of Fahrenheit, sometimes as high
as 76 deg. In ordinary cases eight or ten minutes are sufficient, though
in gout I have known it continued for hours. Great friction, except in
eruptive cases, is applied the whole time.
The temperature during the use of this bath must be gradually diminished
by the addition of cold water. After rubbing the body for a short time,
the attendant throws a can of cold water on the head and shoulders and
then renews the friction, a process repeated until inflammation and pain
has subsided. If the patient feels weak or tired under the operation, he
is allowed to come out for a few minutes and then begin again. It is
customary with Priessnitz to put all new-comers into a tepid bath for
one or two minutes, then into the cold plunge bath and back to the
tepid. By these means he judges of their powers of re-action, and
prescribes accordingly.
Tepid baths are always used in eruptive cases. All practitioners would
do well to begin with these baths and proceed by degrees to colder ones.
Every day's experience teaches Priessnitz the value of tepid baths.
Whenever these baths are ordered--for instance for fifteen
minutes--instead of taking the whole at once, the dose is administered
_à trois reprises_. After the first five minutes, the patient gets out
of the bath and walks about the room, covered with a dry sheet, until he
gains a little life and activity in the joints, which will be effected
in two or three minutes. He then returns to the bath, and after the next
five minutes the same process is repeated. After the third process, the
patient is dried and walks about the room in the dry sheet for a short
time, by way of taking an air bath. This is an important modification in
the use of this bath. When patients are feeble and not able to support a
bath so long as is often necessary to remove the attack, of whatever
nature it may be, by dividing it in the way described, nature recovers
herself a little during each rest, and the sufferer is thus enabled to
take the whole; whereas, without any such pauses, the demand made on his
strength might be too great. With children this mode of treatment is
particularly observed.
XXV.--BANDAGES, OR UMSCHLAGS.
Bandages fulfil two objects diametrically opposed to each other, viz.,
to calm and to stimulate. One object is effected by leaving a good deal
of water in the bandage, not covering it with a dry one, and changing it
as soon as hot. The other by wringing the bandage well out, covering it
with a dry one and only changing it when dry.
1st. The more heat there is in the intestines the quicker the body
bandages act.
2nd. Outward cold applications cause a fresh generation of heat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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