Part 5

“As I have been treating of this remedy only in its simplest form, I do not advert to the use of the different mineral waters farther than to state, that they confirm these general views, separating, as far as can be done, their effect as diluents from that of the ingredients they contain. The copious employment of some of them in Continental practice gives room for observation, which is wanting under our more limited use. I have often seen five or six pints taken daily for some weeks together (a great part of it in the morning while fasting), with singular benefit in many cases to the general health, and most obviously to the state of the secretions. * * * These courses, however, were always conjoined with ample exercise and regular habits of life; doubtless influencing much the action of the waters, and aiding their salutary effect.”

With this quotation we take leave of Sir Henry Holland, merely observing, that no Hydropathist could say more on the subject than he has done, and that the Continental practice referred to, of drinking large quantities of water, conjoined with ample exercise and regular habits of life, is precisely that practice which Hydropathy enjoins.

Sir John Forbes, a physician already quoted, says, on water drinking—

“The water cure is a stomachic, since it invariably increases the appetite.”

Dr. Pereira states—

“It is a vital stimulus, and is more essential to our existence than aliment.”

Liebig, the celebrated physiological chemist, bears similar testimony, viz.—“It increases the appetite.”

Are these effects consistent with lowering the tone of the stomach? are they not, on the contrary, the strongest evidence of the TONIC effects of water?

Some objectors say, “water drinking thins the blood.” After demolishing these objections by arguments which we regret we have not space to quote, Dr. Gully concludes his observations as follows;—

“But the whole assertion regarding thin blood proceeds on grounds that betray intense ignorance, both of physiology and of the water cure. It supposes that the whole water imbibed enters into, and remains in the circulating blood, quasi water, that no chemical transformation of it takes place in the body at all: this is ignorance of physiology. And it supposes that ALL who are treated by water are told to drink the same, and that a large quantity, without discrimination of the individual cases of disease presented: this is ignorance of the water cure. So between the horns of this compound ignorance, and of wilful misrepresentation, we leave the declaimers about the ‘thinning of the blood.’”

It is a curious fact that in all the medical works which treat of anaemia, or bloodlessness, “allusion is never once made to water-drinking as a known cause—not even to the possibility of its being a cause of it.”

In so flagrant a case of thin blood, why has this principal cause been omitted? It is further curious that this injurious effect of water was never invented, much less preached, until Hydropathy was found to be making inconvenient strides in public favour.

Is the reader aware that eighty per cent. of water enters into the composition of healthy blood, without making any allowance for the enormous quantity required for the various secretions?

Granting, however, for the sake of argument, that all, and more than these objectors urge, were true, we still have a kind of feeling that water is more congenial to the system than prussic acid, or even iodine. But we may be wrong.

Perhaps there is no disease which would appear, at first sight, so little suited for Hydropathic treatment as cholera; that disease for the successful treatment of which we have been hitherto accustomed to consider stimulants and hot applications of all kinds as indispensably necessary, and yet there is no disease, in the treatment of which Hydropathy has been more successful.

The principles of its treatment, by the water system, are so sensibly and rationally put forward in the pamphlet entitled, “An Address, &c.,” that, as we think, the greatest sceptic must be convinced of the truth of the doctrines it propounds, we strongly recommend its perusal to our readers. Of the many cases treated by the author, ALL, we are told, recovered, whilst not a single instance of secondary fever—the invariable accompaniment of the Allopathic treatment, and only secondary in danger to the disease itself—occurred. The necessary prevalence of this secondary fever in the one case, and its absence in the other, are beautifully explained, on natural principles, at pages 9 and 10. Though the pamphlet in question is anonymous, and the author has taken some pains to explain his reason for concealing his name, yet he has unwittingly betrayed his identity in the following extract from a letter from Lieut.-Colonel Cummins, C.M., who, having tried the system as an amateur, in America, thus writes of it:—

“Tell Barter that his system has lately become the universal practice in the Southern States, for cholera; and since its adoption, although it is, of course, but imperfectly carried out, the mortality is not one-fourth.

“I never saw cholera of so frightful a character; that at Quebec, which you recollect was so near doing for me, was nothing to it; the violence of the spasms was such that blood oozed out through all the pores of the skin, especially with the niggers. It did not give the slightest warning; the men often fell while at work, and before four hours were dead.”

The following statement, extracted from a letter written by Mr. James Morgan of Cork, and which appeared in the Limerick Chronicle, 4th April, 1849, affords a remarkable instance of the beneficial effects of fresh air and cold water, so strongly insisted upon by Dr. Barter, and corroborating the practice which, on theoretical grounds, he recommends:

“In a temporary cholera hospital at Gloucester, there were sixteen patients, one of whom was an interesting young female, between fifteen and sixteen years of age, for whose recovery the attending physician (Dr. Shute) was most anxious. On leaving the hospital in the evening, the girl was in collapse, and quite blue; he called the nursetender, and bade her be attentive to her, and give her whatever she may call for, as all hopes had vanished. In the course of the night the nurse went to increase the fire which was near the girl’s berth in the ward; but she begged the woman not to do so, as she was almost suffocated, and, at the same time, asked for a drink. The nurse brought her a bowl of tea, which was rejected, but she requested water. Remembering the doctor’s directions, the nurse, not without some reluctance and apprehension, brought her a pint mug full of water, which she drank with avidity; and continued to call for water about every five minutes, until she had taken two gallons of it; when she fell into a profound sleep, in which she was found by the doctor in the morning, when her natural complexion reappeared, and she was, to his astonishment, in a state of convalescence. Having with amazement elevated his eyes, exclaiming, ‘this is something like a miracle!’ he called the nursetender, who related what had taken place; and perceiving the window open over the patient’s berth, he asked why it was not shut? and was told by the attendant, that it was left open at the earnest desire of the girl. The doctor immediately ordered all the windows of the ward to be opened, the heavy bed covering on the patients to be removed, and replaced by light rugs; directed that no drink should be given but cold water, and the result was, that the whole sixteen persons were cured of cholera; one, however, died of consecutive fever, produced by eating too much chicken and drinking too much broth whilst convalescent. The case was reported to the Government Board of Health, then sitting in London; and similar treatment was pursued by all the medical men in and about Gloucester with the most complete success. The report, names of the doctors, and all the correspondence are minutely detailed in the columns of the Chronicle in the year 1832.

“Need more be offered upon the subject; and yet with such facts upon record, ‘hot punch’ is now given to the poor patients in the cholera hospitals in Limerick. Those pious and angelic Sisters of Mercy, to whom you have alluded in the Chronicle, never, in all probability, heard or read of the treatment of cholera as above narrated; but ever attentive and observant as they are in the performance of their hallowed vocation, they have not been unmindful of the good effects of cold water. Nature prompts the sufferer to call for it, and it should be always supplied. In cholera, pure water is balsamic.

“As to the operation of cold water on the human system in cholera, or the action of the system on water, I will not presume to pronounce; but I may say that it is commonly supposed that when the serum (one of the important constituents of the blood) is exhausted by discharges, collapse takes place, and the livid hue of the countenance follows; and everybody has heard of the experimental operation of transfusion of warm water, combined with albumen and soda, into the veins, to supply the absence of serum, in order to give the vital current its natural and healthy flow: whether cold water, from the oxygen it contains, and the necessary heat it is therefore calculated to impart, is taken up rapidly by the absorbents to cherish and feed the blood, and fill the channels of circulation, so as to remove collapse in cholera, I shall leave physiologists to determine; but it is indisputable that cholera patients have anxiously asked for, and eagerly swallowed, copious draughts of cold water, till their thirst was allayed, genial warmth restored, agony banished, and the vital functions vivified and invigorated.” * * * * *

The following extract is taken from Braithnorth’s “Retrospect of Medicine,” a standard professional work:—

“I am acquainted with three persons, who, after they had been laid out for dead, on being washed, previous to interment, in the open court-yard, with water, to obtain which the ice had been broken, recovered in consequence, and lived many years. I received from Erycroon, in Turkey, a letter from our excellent Consul, Mr. Brant, who states that Dr. Dixon, of that place, was then curing more patients by friction, with ice or snow, than any other treatment. The same practice is reported to have been the most effectual in Russia.”

We make no comments on the foregoing, leaving the public to draw their own conclusions from the facts stated. In setting the facts before them, we feel we have done our duty; we leave the leaven to work in their minds, and produce its own result on their future conduct.

In condemning the mistaken administration of hot stimulants, such as “hot punch,” &c., Dr. Barter proceeds:—

“I never yet saw a patient that did not cry out for cold water; and the confirmed dram-drinker can, with difficulty, be persuaded to taste his favourite beverage; he objects more to brandy or punch than the temperate do; this I have often remarked. I have seen a patient travel for miles on an open car, through sleet and rain, without any covering, and drinking cold water on the way, and remarked that he did better than when treated with brandy, hot tins, &c. In fact, I often saw such patients beg to be allowed out again, they used to call loudly for cold water. ‘For the love and honour of God, sir, get us a drink of cold water,’ was no unfrequent request amongst them, and that pronounced with an earnestness of manner most truly impressive; but, alas! in 1832, this appeal was always refused, though in 1849 a step has been taken in a right direction, and it is allowed, according to the Sisters of Mercy, ‘in small quantities.’”

The truth will ere long be acknowledged, that it is our mode of life that makes us fit subjects for cholera, and that it is our mode of treating it alone, which makes the disease so dangerous. The wretch who is cast uncared for in a ditch, exposed to all the inclemency of the weather, with water alone to quench his burning thirst, has ten chances to one in favour of his recovery, compared with the well-cared patient who is dosed with brandy and the favourite specifics of the apothecary’s shop. If we look at cholera, and divest our minds of its accustomed mode of treatment, we will find that every symptom of the disease points to the presence of some highly irritant poison in the blood; and in the effort to expel this poison, the serum which contains it, is drained from the system. What, therefore, can be more rational than to supply the system with the materials of restoration, by giving water in large quantities, and to stimulate its chemical combinations by which the caloric of the system shall be restored, by the influence of fresh air, water drinking, and cold bathing.