Water versus hydropathy, or, An essay on water, and its true relations to medicine / by Henry Hartshorne.

  • Hartshorne, Henry, 1823-1897.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Water versus hydropathy, or, An essay on water, and its true relations to medicine / by Henry Hartshorne. 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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    such a rationale, Dr. Holland believes that a freer employment of diluents than is commonly adopted might be beneficial in exanthematous diseases. In measles, among the most interesting were the experiments of Dr. Thaer with cold affusion, in the neighbourhood of Berlin, in 1825. Whether any thing beyond cold or tepid ablution, in this and simi- lar affections, can ever be universally adopted, is very doubtful. The catarrhal symptoms in measles, for instance, form an item for consideration and hesi- tation. In small-pox, Boerhaave recommends dilu- ters, to repulse the spiculum of stimulation, as in other inflaming distempers. Baron Dimsdale ad- vised his patients to drink cold water after inocula- tion with the vaccine virus, till the eruption is com- pleted. Although, in this disease (variola), some, as Currie, are in favour of free affusion (he, however, also giving cases of its failure), and others, as Reid, of its cautious use, yet perhaps the majority avoid it, at any low degree of temperature. In their account of the epidemic in Philadelphia, in 1823 and 1824, Drs. Mitchell and Bell report that on trial, in no case had they reason to be satisfied with it. The state of of reasoning we are very apt to err, by forgetting the close sympathy which exists between the inner and outer surface. It must depend upon circumstances whether coaction or metastasis takes place be- tween them. To bring back repelled eruption is, by the way, one of the most valuable applications of the warm bath.