Review of hydropathy, or the water-cure / by John Forbes.

  • Forbes, John, Sir, 1787-1861.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Review of hydropathy, or the water-cure / by John Forbes. 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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    TO THE PUBLIC. The object of publishing the opinions of Dr. Forbes and others, on hydropathy, is to counteract the mischievous influence exerted over the public mind, by physicians, on this subject. Dr. Forbes is acknowledged to be one of the most learned physicians of the age. He has dared to look the profession in the face and boldly declare his opinions. What- ever he believes calculated to benefit mankind and lessen their sufferings he declares he will fearlessly promulgate, careless of personal conse- quences. It will be seen by the title page that he is Editor of the Brit- ish and Foreign Medical Review or Quarterly Journal, and Honorary member of various Philosophical and Medical Societies, both in Europe and America; also Physician to her Majesty's household, Physician Ex- traordinary to His Royal Highness Prince Albert, &c, &,c. Standing thus high, not only with the profession, but called upon to watch over the health of the family of his sovereign, his opinions are justly entitled to have weight, and we hope the article will excite a spirit of inqui- ry in the public mind that will emancipate it from the dominion of drugs, and convince it that the power of nature, in assisting the body to rectify it- self when diseased, is more certain and safe than the spurious art of physic. The medical profession needs a thorough investigation by the people. They must move on this subject as they value health, happiness, and even life. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a doctor, with his life- tapping lancet, his burning moxas, his caustics and blisters, his mercury, iodine and arsenic, and his chemicals so concentrated that the least mis- take in the dose is attended with speedily fatal consequences. The water cure treatment of disease, although it has been in use more than twenty years and has been constantly gaining in public favor ; al- though it has been acknowledged as the true medical art, by the very headland expositor of drug medication in England; although it has been adopted by as scientific physicians as can be found in the profes- sion, especially in Europe; and although thousands have been cured of almost every form of disease by it, after being abandoned by their medi- cal advisers as incurable, and these persons of education and distinction, from almost every nation on the globe ; the cry of huoibug assails it from most of the trade in that as well as in this country. Primitive truth is usually at war with dominant systems. All newly discovered truths meet with opposition because they unsettle previously established views, and men usually cling to opinions which they have lono- regarded in the light of truth. If a thing is true, any other thing