Part 8 (1/2)

123. WANT OF WATER.

One of the obstacles is the _want of a sufficient quant.i.ty of water_ in some houses, and the difficulty of procuring it.

This obstacle is easily removed.

If you cannot procure water enough for a half-bath--for there cannot be a difficulty in procuring a pailful for wetting the sheet--give your patient a _dripping sheet_ instead, which, in most cases, will do as well; or, should there be a want of a wash-tub to give it in, a _rubbing sheet_ may supply the bath.

124. DRIPPING SHEET, SUBSt.i.tUTE FOR THE HALF-BATH.

To apply the _dripping sheet_, a tin bathing hat or a large wash-tub is placed near the patient's bed, and a pail of water on the brim of the hat, or close by the tub. Dip a linen sheet into it, and leave it there till you wish to take the patient out of his pack, but dispose it so that you can easily find the two corresponding corners. As soon as the patient steps into the hat or tub, seize the sheet by these corners and throw it over his head and body from behind, and rub him all over, head and all, whilst somebody else is supporting him, or whilst he is supporting himself by taking hold of one of the bed-posts. When the sheet becomes warm, empty part of your pail over the patient's head, by which means the water in the sheet is renewed, and rub again. Then repeat the same operation, and when all your water is gone, before the body of the patient is sufficiently cool, take water from the hat or tub and use it for the same purpose, till he is quite cooled down. Then dry him with another sheet, or a towel, and put him to bed again, if necessary.

125. RUBBING SHEET, SUBSt.i.tUTE FOR THE HALF-BATH.

It cannot be difficult to procure a wash-tub. Should you be so situated, however, as not to be able to procure even this, you will be compelled to make s.h.i.+ft with a _rubbing sheet_. For that purpose, a sheet and a pail of water are all you need. The sheet is wetted in the pail and slightly wrung out. The patient steps on a piece of oil-cloth or carpet, and you throw your wet-sheet over him and rub, as before indicated. When the sheet is warm, you dip it in the pail again, and repeat the process, and thus you go on, till the patient is sufficiently cooled.

If you can have two pails of water, it will be better than one, as the water becomes warm after having changed the sheet a couple of times.

126. WHERE THERE IS A WILL, THERE IS A WAY!

I have been frequently compelled to resort to these milder applications, when there were no bathing utensils in families or boarding-houses, or no servants to carry the water for a bath; and they have always answered very well. In cases where a sitz-bath or a half-bath is indispensable, to save the life of a patient, you will find the means of procuring bathing utensils and the necessary quant.i.ty of water.

_Where there is a will, there is a way!_--I am sure that when once your mind is made up to use the treatment, it will not be difficult for you to find the means for it. There is always water, and there are always hands enough, where there is _resolution_. And who would mind a little trouble, when he can save a fellow creature's, perhaps a darling child's life and health? As for the rest, the few days' trouble, which the hydriatic mode of treatment gives, is largely recompensed by the much shorter duration of the disease, and by the immediate relief the patient derives from almost every application of water.

I have generally found that those parents who had confidence in the treatment, had also the courage to resort to it. _Confidence and courage_ create _resolution_, and when once you have begun to treat your patient, you will be sure to persevere. _Il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute_, as the French say: only the first step is difficult.

127. PREJUDICE OF PHYSICIANS AGAINST THE WATER-CURE.

The greatest, and the most serious, difficulty lies in the prejudice of physicians against the Water-Cure. This prejudice, although in the treatment of the diseases before us, it is founded on no other reasons but ignorance, lack of courage and the habit of travelling the old trodden path--the same _regular path_ which thousands and millions have travelled not to return--neither you, dear reader, nor I, shall be able to conquer by words. But we may succeed by actions. Take the matter in your own hands, before it is too late. Do not plead your want of knowledge and experience: a whip in the hand of a child is less dangerous than a double-edged sword in the hand of a fencing-master. I have known many a mother to treat her child for scarlet-fever, measles, small-pox, croup, &c., after my books, or after prescriptions received in Graefenberg and other hydriatic establishments, and I scarcely remember a case of accident, whilst those treated in the usual mode by the best physicians would die in numbers. I repeat it: there is no danger in the _wet-sheet pack_, and should a patient die under the treatment prescribed by me, you may be sure, he would not have lived under any other mode of treatment.

128. REBELLION!

_This is preaching rebellion!_

I know it is, and it is with great reluctance that I preach it, as I am by no means in favor of taking medical matters out of the hands where they belong, to place them into the hands of such as have had no medical education. I despise quackery, and I wish physicians could be prevailed upon to take the matter in their own hands. But, the following anecdote will enable you to judge what we may expect in that quarter, and whether I am justified in preaching rebellion against the old routine--for I deny going against science and the profession--and for a new practice which has proved to be safer than any hitherto adopted.

129. FACTS.

In 1845-46 there was an epidemic in Dresden, a city of 100,000 inhabitants, where I then resided. Its ravages in the city and the densely peopled country around it, were dreadful. We had excellent physicians of different schools, who exerted themselves day and night to stop the progress of extermination, but all was in vain. Dying children and weeping mothers were found in some house of every street, and whenever you entered a dry-goods store, you were sure to find people buying mourning. At last, as poverty will frequently produce dispute and quarrel in families, there arose, from similar reasons, a dispute between the different sects of physicians in the papers, which became more and more animated and venomous, without having any beneficial influence upon the dying patients. Sad with the result of the efforts, and disgusted with the quarrel of the profession, I gathered facts of my own and other hydriatic physicians' practice, by which it was shown that I alone, in upwards of one hundred cases of scarlatina, I had treated, had not lost a patient, and that, in general, not a case of death of scarlet-fever treated hydriatically was on record. These facts, with some observations about the merits of the respective modes of treatment, I published in the same papers, offering to give the list of the patients, I had treated, and to teach my treatment, gratis, to any physician who would give himself the trouble of calling.--What do you think was the result of my communication and offer?