The cold-water system: an essay : exhibiting the real merits, and most safe and effectual employment, of this excellent system in indigestion, costiveness, asthma, cough, consumption, rheumatism, gout, &c; with cautionary remarks, addressed to people of extreme opinions, and some new cases / by Thos. J. Graham.

  • Graham, Thomas John, 1795?-1876.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The cold-water system: an essay : exhibiting the real merits, and most safe and effectual employment, of this excellent system in indigestion, costiveness, asthma, cough, consumption, rheumatism, gout, &c; with cautionary remarks, addressed to people of extreme opinions, and some new cases / by Thos. J. Graham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    from the body;—the vascular action was now too low, and could not be raised by anything lie did;—a violent haemorrhage from the bowels supervened, and carried off the patient. Here the means were pushed too far in a feeble habit; and when the heat was abstracted from the body, the practitioner had nothing in his list of remedies to restore it. Priessnitz thus committed two errors, both of great magnitude. Probably the last was the greatest; because had he, in the cold, shivering stage, immediately called to his assistance the invaluable aid of some suit- able cordial, such as mulled wine, with a small portion of brandy, the heart might have been set properly to work again,—the heat might have been restored, and the patient recovered. But no. He had but one remedy; and when that failed him, all was lost. Ne quid nimis. I am ready to acknowledge, that some medical men, by bleeding too profusely, or by administering too much physic, and especially large doses of calomel, and other poisonous substances, &c. have, instead of saving life, destroyed it. Priessnitz, therefore, does not stand alone in these disastrous circumstances. He ought, neverthe- less, to be more careful; and his method of proceeding is clearly capable of much improvement. The second case was that of an estimable clergyman, living near London, who was treated at an establishment near Coblentz. He said, that nothing could be more pleasurable and exhilarating than the various kinds of baths employed, and that he seemed to derive much advantage from their use. The internal administration commenced by the patient taking two tumblers of water during the day; the dose was gradually increased, until it amounted to twenty-five tumblers in the same period.