Bulwer and Forbes on the water-treatment : a compilation of papers on the subject of hygiene and rational hydropathy; edited with additional matters.

  • Houghton, Roland S.
Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bulwer and Forbes on the water-treatment : a compilation of papers on the subject of hygiene and rational hydropathy; edited with additional matters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    rising, the walk before breakfast, so delicious in the feelings of freshness and vigor which they bestow upon the strong, often become punishments to the valetudina- rian. Headache, languor, a sense of weariness over the eyes, a sinking of the whole system toward noon, which seemed imperiously to demand the dangerous aid of stimulants, was all that I obtained by the morn- ing breeze and the languid stroll by the sea-shore. The suspension from study only afflicted with intolerable ennui, and added to the profound dejection of the spir- its. The brain, so long accustomed to morbid activity, was but withdrawn from its usual occupations to invent horrors and chimeras. Over the pillow, vainly sought two hours before midnight, hovered no golden sleep. The absence of excitement, however unhealthy, only aggravated the symptoms of ill health. It was at this time that I met by chance, in the library at St. Leonard's, with Captain Claridge's work on the Water-Cure, as practised by Priessnitz at Graefenberg. Making allowance for certain exaggera- tions therein, which appeared evident to my common sense, enough still remained not only to captivate the imagination and flatter the hopes of an invalid, but to appeal with favor to his sober judgment. Till then, perfectly ignorant of the subject and the system, except by some such vague stories and good jests as had reached my ears in Germany, I resolved at least to read what more could be said in favor of the apiaVov Wup, and examine dispassionately into its merits as a medicament. I was then under the advice of one of the first physi-