Author: CARTOON
Title: Water Cure. Hydrotherapy.
Description: c. 1840. Original sepia ink drawing, 195 x 310 mm. Although know since ancient times, hydrotherapy was revived in England in the early 18th Century and became popular by the early 19th Century. The general idea behind hydropathy [hydrotherapy] during the 1800s was to be able to induce something called a crisis. The thinking was that water invaded any cracks, wounds, or imperfections in the skin, which were filled with impure fluids. Health was considered to be the natural state of the body, and filling these spaces with pure water, would flush the impurities out, which would rise to the surface of the skin, producing pus. The event of this pus emerging was called a crisis, and was achieved through a multitude of methods. These methods included techniques such as sweating, the plunging bath, the half bath, the head bath, the sitting bath, and the douche bath. All of these were ways to gently expose the patient to cold water in different ways. You can see many of these techniques illustrated here plus others including wrapping a patient in damp bandages with frequent changes to encourage the healing of broken ribs, and naked exposure to bracing cold air.

Keywords: Ephemera


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