The cold-water system: an essay : exhibiting the real merits, and most safe and effectual employment, of this excellent system in indigestion, costiveness, asthma, cough, consumption, rheumatism, gout, &c; with cautionary remarks, addressed to people of extreme opinions, and some new cases / by Thos. J. Graham.

  • Graham, Thomas John, 1795?-1876.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cold-water system: an essay : exhibiting the real merits, and most safe and effectual employment, of this excellent system in indigestion, costiveness, asthma, cough, consumption, rheumatism, gout, &c; with cautionary remarks, addressed to people of extreme opinions, and some new cases / by Thos. J. Graham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    opportunity to hear their remarks, and to witness their looks. It is likewise asserted, that “ the treatment must he changed from day to day, according to the state of the patient, the nature of his disease, &c.” This is not correct. We may excuse a medical man for desiring to gather all the sick around his own dwelling, or to draw them within the sphere of his own attendance; but truth compels us to assure our suffering patients, that the neeessary treatment is neither so harsh, nor so compli- cated. I admit that in some instances, more especially those of an acute character, such change from day to day is absolutely necessary, but these form exceptions to the rule, which is, to endeavour to discover the course most appropriate to the case presented for treatment, and then to persevere in it steadily for two or three weeks, or longer. A vast number of Priessnitz’s patients live in cottages, at a greater or less distance from his dwelling house, and very many of them are never seen by him oftener than once a week. One of the greatest errors committed in Hydropathic practice is, that of pushing the means employed to too great an extent,—urging them beyond the natural, or, at least, the present powers of the patient. From this cause I have known patients much injured, who would have been materially benefited by a milder course. This occurs most frequently in delicate constitutions, or where there exists considerable organic injury. It is very evi- dent that this has been one of Priessnitz’s most frequent errors, and this explains, at least in a measure, the origin of the “ crisis,” as it is termed, which so many of his patients suffer from, after they have been under