The principles and practice of hydrotherapy : a guide to the application of water in disease, for students and practitioners of medicine / by Simon Baruch.

  • Baruch, Simon, 1840-1921.
Date:
1903
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The principles and practice of hydrotherapy : a guide to the application of water in disease, for students and practitioners of medicine / by Simon Baruch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    of.,.. thP Di-essure of the douche, which from the height of a few feet ra^hU ^^^ -Hie f-n. a height of fifty or sixty feet « Ind arouses the vasomotor nerves to an intense and pleasant activity, tL d ation of the treatment, which, if left to the patient often bears unhappy consequences; he would not have failed to reach the proper method I ani glad to say that this teacher has recently published a valuable work, in which the directions for hydrotherapy are quite precise and well considered, and which testifies that the propaganda for scientific (i.e., exact) hydrotherapy is bearing rich fruit. Another eminent teacher advises neurasthenics to plunge into a tub of warm, water (temperature not being stated), then allow cold water to run into the tub until the water surrounding the patient is cool; this temperature again being left to the judgment or caprice of the patient. Here the very common error is committed to obviate shock, ihis is the baseless dread of inexperienced prescribers of cold water, who dis- regard the fact that the reaction following the shock is the aim ot hydrotherapy when applied as a tonic or as a nerve stimulus, and that the reaction is exactly in proportion to the preceding shock. It is unhappily a very prevalent error to regard the most agreeable bath as the most salutary. We do not so reason in the application of medicinal agents, of electricity, or of diet. And yet the application of water may be made agreeable by gradually accustoming the patient to lower temperatures, slowly reducing them every day or two, making the application brief at first and increasing or decreasing the duration and pressure day by day. The prime essential, however, should always be borne in mind that reaction is our aim, that this cannot be evoked without some shock, that the more intensely the latter can be borne the more effective the reaction; but the more brief it is, the less unpleasant. If the physician bears in mind that his object in treating a case is an increase of the quantity of blood circulating in the cutaneous ves- sels, an enhancement of the nutrition, a stimulus to the entire nervous system, he will endeavor so to order the technique, provided he has mastered its details, as to evoke this salutary reaction without ex- cessive shock. Por the attainment of satisfactory and definite results in hydro- therapy, a correct prescription is therefore paramount. This cannot be too often and too earnestly impressed upon the profession. Acute diseases, like typhoid fever and pneumonia, are under constant observa- tion of the physician, who may at once note the result of an improper hydriatric technique and modify it, or, as is unfortunately more often done, relinquish it altogether. In chronic cases much damage may be done before the physician discovers it, if the treatment be not in the hands of trained and intelligent atte?idants luho are tinder medical