Outlines of a new theory of disease : applied to hydropathy, showing that water is the only true remedy : with observations on the errors committed in the practice of hydropathy, notes on the cure of cholera by cold water, and a critique on Priessnitz's mode of treatment : intended for popular use / by the late H. Francke ; translated from the German by Robert Baikie.

  • Rausse, J. H., 1805-1848.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of a new theory of disease : applied to hydropathy, showing that water is the only true remedy : with observations on the errors committed in the practice of hydropathy, notes on the cure of cholera by cold water, and a critique on Priessnitz's mode of treatment : intended for popular use / by the late H. Francke ; translated from the German by Robert Baikie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR. The opinions held by an unknown individual can have no interest for the public; but, in the present instance, it may not be irrelevant to state the circumstances which have led to the publication of this little work, and how it comes that a member of the medical profession should be found assisting in the promulgation of doctrines so directly opposed to those held by his professional brethren in general. In the course of a long service in the East, as a Military Surgeon in the East India Company's service, the translator, in addition to the ordi- nary routine of tropical practice, had more than the usual opportunities of observing chronic disease, particularly while holding the situation of Head of the Medical Staff on the Neilgherries, a Convalescent Mountain Station in the South of India. The conclusion which gradually forced itself on his mind, was, that these chronic complaints were, in a vast majority of instances, more the result of the nature and dose of the remedies employed to cure the acute affections which had preceded them, than, as usually supposed, of these diseases themselves. Experience, also, soon taught him that little was to be done in such cases, except to leave them to the gradual effects of climate, aided by careful attention to diet and regimen ; above all, that any attempt to persevere in the use of drugs only produced further mischief. This impression was still more strongly confirmed by dire experience in his own case—an aggravated form of dyspepsia—which resisted every mode of treatment, and repeated change of climate. The latter circum- stance, also, showed that something more than mere climate was required for his cure; and, on his return to Europe, in 1844, he thought he had found this something, on perusing Dr. E. Johnson's able work on Hydropathy. He accordingly placed himself under that gentleman's care; and, from his able treatment, derived great benefit, although the complaint was not eradicated. A slight subsequent relapse induced him to go to Graefenberg, where he resided eight months with very doubtful advantage. Fortunately for him, a German friend attracted his attention to the works of a former pupil of Priessnitz, M. Francke, (published under the assumed name of Rausse,) as enjoying a high reputation over all Germany, and being considered as embodying, in words, the crude and undigested ideas lying concealed in the mind of his master, Priess- nitz. On perusal, they fully justified that reputation, or even more, con- veying, to the translator at least, the first clear and definite idea of the theory of Hydropathy, to which he could not refuse his assent, however opposed to the whole current of his early prejudices, professional and acquired. They also gave him a distinct notion of the nature of his own complaint, and showed him that he had no chance of a cure in Priessnitz's hands.