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The cold water cure
It is
beyond the scope of this project to deal in any depth with
hydropathy—often called the water cure, or the cold water cure.
Suffice it to indicate that there were three major components of the
cure as systematised by Vincent Priessnitz: drinking considerable
quantities of (usually) mineralized water (as is still the practice in
many health spas), wet sheet packing, and exposing the body to a wide
range of specialised showers or douches. All aspects are admirably, and
entertainingly, treated in E S Turner's Taking the cure,
while useful and practical information on spas today can readily be
found in the Spas Directory.
Wet
sheet packing involved wrapping the patient in wet sheets for varying
periods of time. Initially the patient felt decidedly cold, then merely
cool, and finally increasingly warm until s/he broke out in
perspiration, rather akin to a fever. Dr Richard Barter deduced that it
was actually the feverish perspiration which was responsible for any
improvement in the patient's condition, and realised that the Turkish
bath, as described by David Urquart in The Pillars of Hercules,
was a far more comfortable and enjoyable way of inducing a sweat.
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