Part 3

For water I have found, by long experience, to be of excellent use in burns and scalds; for in all burns and scalds, that are slight, if the part is plunged immediately into cold water, the colder the better, the pain will instantly be taken off; and it will fetch out the fire, if continued so long as will be required to do it by any other remedy. And if the burn be so considerable, that other remedies must be applied, none of which will take off the smart of themselves in less than two or three hours; yet if you apply cold water presently, after other applications are made to the part, the pain will immediately cease, till the remedy becomes effectual: So that the ease water will give in such cases, makes it of good use. Which remedy, as it hath not been discovered till now, appears to transcend all other remedies in this case; because, in a moment, the greatest smart will eased, if the water is cold, and will be felt no more, if the part afflicted be kept immersed in it till the fire is extinguished, either by the water, or the medicine applied. Besides, it is a remedy every-where ready at hand, which cannot be said of any other; which generally requires so much time to get it ready, that much pain will be endured, if blisters do not arise, which do much increase the trouble. If the part burnt, or scalded, cannot be dipped in water, you may apply water to it, with double linen cloths dipped therein, and new dipped as they grow warm; by which means I have cured burns and scalds in the face without blistering, when applied immediately before blisters did arise.

I once knew a large ulcer in the foot, made by the running of melted brass into the shoe, that was kept in hand by a surgeon nine weeks, without any probability of healing, because of the great inflammation that attended it; but the party, being a lover of angling, was persuaded to go with some others to Hackney-river: Some of them went bare-legged into the water, to come at a certain hole where much fish was sometimes found. The sport was so good, that the lame man having pulled off his stockings and plaisters, went in also, where he staid above two hours, and coming out again, the ulcer, which appeared very red and angry when he went in, looked pale; he put on his dressings, and came home, and in less than a fortnight his ulcers healed up; which doubtless was occasioned by the abating of the inflammation by the coldness of the water. And I have had an account also from an acquaintance, that was a surgeon to a merchant ship, that their gunner, at a time when the captain treated some friends on board, going to charge a gun that just before had been fired off, the cartridge he was ramming down took fire, whereby he was blown into the water, and had some of his fingers torn off, and it was about an hour before a boat could be got to take him up: But they found that the coldness of the water had almost stopt the bleeding, and the cure was effected so speedily, that other surgeons wondered at it; which he imputed to the water, which kept back the humours, by its coldness, from flowing to the part at the first: So that there was no impediment, from inflammation, to hinder healing; for the chief impediment to healing, is inflammation in wounds or ulcers. Moreover, to bathe with cold water, is affirmed by Dr. Lower to be a sovereign remedy for any hot swelling, if continued a due time at the first beginning; and it is affirmed also to be a good cure for the cramp.

And as for strains and sprains in the joints, cold water affords the best and most speedy remedy, as Van Heydon affirms; who saith, that, by bathing in cold water, all harm so received may by this remedy be cured more safely and more speedily than by any other, without loss of time, cost or trouble; for no more is to be done, as I have often found, than, as soon as can be, to put the part into a vessel of cold water for about two hours, which will prevent all swelling and pain, by repelling or keeping back the humours that otherwise would flow to the part. And if it should be the shoulder, or any other part, which is so hurt, that cannot well be immersed in water after this manner; water may be applied, by dipping towels folded up into it, and laying them to the part, as is done, in effect, to the wrenched joints of horses, about which, if you wind oftentimes a thick rope made of hay, and then cast upon it divers times a pail of cold water, the wrench will be cured; which experiment is now commonly practised by those concerned about horses.

Bathing in cold water hath also been found to be a good remedy to strengthen weakness in the joints, as Sir John Floyer, in his treatise of Cold Bathing, hath shewed; and which by experience I found to be true on a certain woman, who complained of great weakness and pain in her ancles: I advised her to dip the part in cold water every morning for a quarter of an hour, and do the same at night; and in about twenty days she became as strong in that part as she was in the other. And Sir John tells us of a boy who could not stand, his limbs were so weak, that, by bathing in cold water, perfectly recovered his strength in a little time.

Great pain in the head hath been also cured by this means; for we are told by Van Heydon, that Sir Toby Matthews had for twenty years been troubled with great pain in one side of his head, and a great defluxion of rheum from his nose: but he at last was cured, by applying cold water to the part every day for about a quarter of an hour: Upon reading of which, I tried the experiment upon myself, who for a long time had been troubled with the running of much clear water from my nose, with great spitting of thin rheum; for I let a water-cock run upon the mould of my head every morning, by which, in about six weeks time, I was eased of my trouble. And since that, I had a credible information of a certain servant maid, who was afflicted greatly with a rheumatism, and an intolerable pain in the head, who being put into St. Thomas’s Hospital, her nurse was ordered by the doctor to apply to her head towels four times double, dipt in cold water, changing them as they became warm, which she was to continue doing four or five hours; in which time she was freed from that pain in the head, and was afterwards cured of the rheumatism by other means.

The want of sleep in fevers, may be cured likewise by the application of cold water: For to a near relation in a fever, who could not sleep for three days and three nights, I ordered a towel to be several times folded up, then to be dipped in water, and a little wrung out, and so laid upon her forehead, and to be new dipped as it grew hot; which in about two hours time so cooled her head, that she fell into a sleep, and continued in it five hours: And I ordered the same to be done the next night, with the same success. Dr. Cockburn, in his treatise of Sea-diseases, orders, for the want of sleep in fevers, to dip a towel four times doubled in oxycrat, which is six parts water and one part vinegar, to be bound about the head and temples; which, he saith, will cause sleep with wonderful success. But cold water only will have the same effect, as I often have proved.

And that the use of cold water, in swooning, is of great effect, common experience teacheth: For, if a dish or cup of cold water is thrown strongly upon the face, the person in an instant will recover, tho’ for a time he seemeth dead, and perhaps might not have recovered in some cases, if cold water had not been so applied; such faintings being sometimes deadly, which proceed from poisonous vapours ascending up to the brain from a foul stomach: For such effects there are, as I have found by experience, who in my young days did swoon away twice; at both which times I was sensible of a collection of wind in my stomach, from whence I plainly felt a fume or vapour ascend to the head, that in an instant deprived me of all sense: But being both times in the company of a person who had seen the thing tried, he dashed some cold water against my face, which I remember made me start, as if I had been suddenly awaked. And I am apt to think, that some die in such a fit, when none are near to help them; and especially when so taken in their sleep, which I believe none need fear, who live temperately, or that eat no suppers; none who have refrained from suppers; having been ever found to die in their sleep.

Dangerous bleedings at the nose have also been cured with cold water largely drank, syringing cold water up their nostrils, and applying towels round their necks dipt in cold water, changing them as they grow warm; for it is said by a good writer, that this will so cool the heat of the blood, and by the coldness of the water syringed, up the nose, so contract the mouths of the veins which bleed, that it will put a stop to the bleeding. Such bleedings have also been stopt by dashing cold water often in the face, as a French writer hath affirmed, whose name was Flammand; and the same also is asserted by Cook, in his Marrow of Surgery.

Cold water is an absolute cure for all small cuts, in the fingers, or other parts; for if you close the cut up with the thumb of your other hand, keeping it so closed for a quarter or half an hour, this will infallibly stop the bleeding: After which, if you double up a linen-rag five or six times, dip it in cold water, and apply it to the part, binding it on; this, by preventing inflammation and a flux of humours, will give nature time soon to heal it without any other application, as is seen in the common practice of surgeons when they let a man blood; for all the application they make to the vein so cut, is a pledget of linen dipped in cold water, and bound on with a fillet: For all wounds, without loss of substance, will heal of themselves, if inflammation be prevented, and the lips of the wound are kept close together.

We are also informed by Van Heydon, that in his time some were of an opinion, that a person bit by a mad dog might be preserved from that symptom, called, the fear of water, which generally follows, and proves so mortal, by applying cold water to the place bitten: And this, he says, they conceive to be no unlikely thing, if there is any credit to be given to what Cornelius Celsus writes, who saith, that the only remedy in this case is, to throw the party who hath the fear of water upon him, into a pond or river, and, when plunged over head and ears, to keep him in the water till filled with it, whether he will or no; and by this means both his thirst and dread of water will be cured. For, if this immersion be of use when the person is so far gone, why should it not be of greater force in preserving from it, if speedily applied, and repeated? Now, tho’ this is mentioned by him as a probable opinion, yet experience in our days shews, that the plunging the patient into the salt water, either of the river of Thames about Gravesend, or in the salt springs in Cheshire, is the best means to prevent any evil succeeding the bite of a mad dog; they must indeed be dipped so often, as to be almost drowned before the danger is over: But it is a question whether the saltness of the water contributes any thing to this cure, since Boerhaave, the present professor at Leyden, affirms, that when men bitten by a mad dog are arrived to the fear of water, called an hydrophobia, they may be cured by blinding the patient’s eyes, and throwing of him into a pond of water often, till he seems not to be afraid of it, or but very little, and then force him to drink large quantities.

And we are told by Dr. Edward Browne, that a person troubled with the falling-sickness, by happening to fall into a cold spring, (I suppose it was in the time of his fit) was freed from his distemper all his life after: And he saith, there is no need of preparing the body for it in this, as in some other cases. But the patient, when plunged into a cold bath, ought to continue in the bath each time about three or four minutes; for, in plunging over head and ears at his first entrance into a cold bath, the brain will be so sensibly affected, as to be relieved from the distemper, which is a kind of convulsion proceeding from an inflammation, or some other cause; but we want more experiments to confirm this notion: which notion may be worth noticing, that the thing may be tried in others, to see if it will succeed as it did in this person. For it is said by the ingenious Dr. Pitcairn, a Scotsman, sometime professor at Leyden, that there is no such thing as the art of curing, but only the practice; remedies were found out by chance, p. 264, of his works. For when remedies thus happen to be discovered, and prove often to be effectual, the remembering that remedy, to apply it in a like case of practice, brings reputation to the prescriber; but, if it fails, some other experiment must be tried, which, were physic an art, need not be done, because the rules of art are certain, and men depend upon them as such.

It is also said by the same Dr. Browne, that madness and melancholy, with all their retinue, may find better effects from the use of bathing in cold water, than from other violent methods, with which people so afflicted are now treated; for, says he, that which will make a drunken man sober in a minute, will certainly go a great way towards the cure of a madman in a month. Now it is most certain, to my own knowledge, that, if a drunken man be plunged over head and ears in cold water, he will come out of it perfectly sober: And some I have known, that in such cases have been recovered by barely washing their heads in cold water. Which fore-mentioned opinion of Dr. Browne is confirmed by the practice of Dr. Blair, who, in a letter to Dr. Baynard, declares, that he cured a man raving mad, who being bound in a cart, stript off his clothes, and blindfolded, that the surprise might be the greater; he on a sudden had a great fall of water let down upon him from the height of twenty foot, under which he continued so long as his strength would permit: And, after his return home, he fell into a sleep, and slept twenty-nine hours, and awaked in as quiet a state of mind as ever, and so had continued to the time of writing that letter, which was twelve months. Distraction also in fevers, of which there are divers instances in the history of Cold Baths, has been cured by being plunged in cold water. See p. 226.

Which relation seems to make that a more probable truth, which was related in a letter from Sir John Floyer, to Dr. Browne, and printed by that doctor; that in Normandy they immerse fools, or dip them in cold water to cure them: A hot brain being the cause, perhaps, of several disorders in the understanding, and is in great part found to be true in the ridiculous behaviour of some drunken men, which, when their heads are become cool, abhor what they before did or said. Now, if such dipping would cure fools among us, great numbers might be made more happy than they are by being so dipped, before they have beggared themselves by imprudence.

Dr. Browne, in his discourse of Cold Baths, affirms, that to bathe in cold water hath been found to be the quickest, safest, and pleasantest cure for the king-evil; and he tells us, in p. 85, of a Yorkshire gentleman, who was grievously afflicted with this distemper, having great ulcers in the glands of his neck, which were so much inflamed, as to bring him very low; but, being advised by Dr. Baynard to bathe in the cold bath, he in a month’s time was perfectly cured, his ulcers being healed up, contrary to the opinion of the most learned physicians.

We also find mention, in the description of the Scottish Islands, of an odd remedy commonly made use of there for the cure of the Jaundice; which is this: They strip the party naked, lay him upon the ground on his belly, and pour unawares upon his back a pail of cold water. And also pains in the joints, as Dr. Curtis tells us, will be cured, by holding the part under the stream of a pump or cock; and fomenting with cold water, is commended as good to assuage hot swellings. And I know a person who had often been subject to blood-shot or inflamed eyes, who afterwards, upon the beginning of the same distemper, took, by advice, a ball of linen rags, dipped them in cold water, and applied them to the part, cooling them by new-dipping as oft as they grew hot: Which application was continued three hours, in which time the humour was so repelled, as to be troublesome no more; for the party, to my knowledge, hath had no sign of that distemper since, tho’ the same had been very troublesome many times before: And the same others have tried with the like success.

It is also advised by Dr. Gideon Harvey to wash the eyes well twice a day in cold water, as the best remedy to prevent defluxions on them, and preserve the eye-sight, which it greatly comforts. And this I have found true for many years, my eyes being often apt to be dim and stiff, so that I could scarce open my eye-lids; which, upon washing for a minute with fair water, hath been felt no more for a good while after. Besides which benefit to the eyes, authors say, it is also good to preserve the memory, if the whole forehead be washed twice a day; and it is also a certain cure for itching in the eyes. And indeed, washing with water will free mankind from a troublesome itching in any other part of the body, let it be never so private; as Cook, in his Observations on English bodies, doth expresly declare from experience. And Wedelius affirms, that violent itching in a man’s cod was so cured by him; and, if the other sex would make use of it, a single life would be less uneasy than it seems to be to some.

Some people are troubled with a callosity, or hardness of the bottom of their feet, which is so troublesome, as to be a hindrance to their easy walking; for which a cure is prescribed by Dr. Cook, that is, to soak them well in warm water, till the hardness is softened, and then scrape it off with the edge of a knife: And if the feet burn with any unnatural heat, and are tender, it was advised by Mr. Rumsey, in his Organon Salutis, to bathe them daily in cold water. Others affirm, that to bathe tender feet often in hot water will cool them, by giving vent to that which is offensive; and it is useful in a cough.

The plentiful drinking of water is commended in the scurvy, whether hot or cold, by Dr. Pitcairn, to dissolve the scorbutic salts, and carry them out by urine; but this is a distemper that Dr. Cheyne affirms is difficult to cure, that nothing but a total abstinence from flesh, fish, and strong liquor, will overcome the scurvy, p. 127, whether they are acids or alkalies. But tho’ weakness and faintness commonly attends on this distemper, yet myself, who have been formerly extremely troubled with the scurvy, which often made me faint and weak, and my pulse so low as scarcely to be felt, found at last that the pulse would infallibly rise upon drinking a pint or more of cold water, and in a little time I should again become brisk and strong: for I have often observed, that, upon a disorder of the stomach, the strength of the bodily members soon would fail, and as easily be recovered when the disorder of the stomach was removed; which requires temperance and cooling diet, when distempered, especially in drink.

To what hath been already said, I will add an account, taken from a credible person, of a man in the parish of Shoreditch, who was desperately ill of an asthma, or shortness of breath, and deep consumption, for which he had tried many remedies to no purpose. At length he was advised by a physician, being poor, to drink no drink but water, and eat no other food but water-gruel, without salt or sugar; which course of diet he continued for three months, finding himself at first to be somewhat better, and at the three months end he was perfectly cured; but, for security’s sake, he continued in that diet a month longer, and grew fat and strong upon it. But his diet he had no mind to till he was thoroughly hungry, and then he did eat it with pleasure; in which perhaps consisted the best part of his cure, it being an advantage to health never to eat till hunger calls for food.

And I remember a young woman, a burnisher of silver, who had a desperate cough, for which she had taken many things of an apothecary to no purpose; at length the journeyman told her, his master said, he could do no more:

But, said the fellow, I would advise you every morning to wash behind your ears, and upon your temples, and on the mould of your head, with cold water: which she told me she did, and was perfectly cured of her cough by that means. And for a hoarseness that comes upon a cold, the dipping of a handkerchief five times double in very hot water, and holding it to the mouth and nose, new-dipping it as it becomes cold, is commended by Dr. Alexander Read as a good remedy.

There are divers other cases wherein the use of water hath done much good. An ancient practiser in physic told me, that in many difficulties of making water, he had advised the party to put his yard into water as hot as he could endure it, which in a minute did cause him to make water; and that women have had the same benefit by sitting over hot water. And he often had advised them who were costive, and went to stool with great difficulty, to sit over a pot with hot water in it; which soon was attended with an easy dejection of stool, the body drawing up the vapour, which provoked expulsion of the excrements without much straining.

And it hath been observed, that froward children have been made much more quiet, by washing their lower parts every morning with water, to wash off the salts of their urine, which usually stick in the pores of the skin, and are fretful and uneasy; and nothing cures their soreness about those parts like it. Nor is there any thing more effectual to cure men who are gauled by riding, than to wash themselves well when they go to bed with cold water; and washing the bare breast every morning with cold water, will make those hardy who before were apt at every turn to take cold. To which I will add what Sir Theodore Mayhern affirms in his Medicinal Counsels, that in most diseases

of the head, there is nothing better than to bathe it with cold water. Which, in a desperate pain of the ear upon taking cold, I have found to be true; for the pain did vanish upon applying to it about 30 minutes a towel doubled up often, and wet often in cold water; and tho’ it returned again, yet ease was soon obtained the same way, and the cure perfected in four times doing: Which cure of a pain gotten with cold, by a cold application, will not seem so strange, when we consider, that, in the northern countries, mortifications from cold are nowise to be cured but by applying cold snow; as travellers into Denmark and Sweden do affirm.

In short, water, when rightly made use of, appears, from the accounts before-mentioned, very effectual to prevent and cure many diseases; but more especially the inward use thereof: For to use the words of the ingenious Dr. Curtis, in his Essay for the preservation and recovery of Health; the habitual use of water for common drink, preserves the native ferment of the stomach in due order, keeps the blood temperate, and helps to spin out the thread of life to the longest extent of nature; it makes the rest at night more quiet and refreshing, the reason and understanding more clear, the passions less disorderly; and, in case of eating too much, a large draught of cold water vastly exceeds any other cordial to cause digestion: water being not so cold and lifeless, he saith, as many imagine. Besides which commendation of it by this doctor, it is certainly a drink that will not ferment in the stomach, nor turn sour, as wine and strong malt-drinks will, to the hindering of a good digestion, which all acidity in the stomach certainly doth, when it abounds there; and is best corrected by weakening or making it less sour, by drinking good store of water, as the experience of above forty years practice hath assured myself, and many others. For tho’ water is accounted a contemptible drink, yet by beginning to make use of it about thirty years of age, before which I was often out of order, and continuing the use of it ever since, drinking very little wine or strong drink, I have attained to the age of seventy-four years, when thousands in the meantime, who delighted only in drinking strong beer, wine, and brandy, have not lived half so long: which makes good that saying in the Scriptures, that Wine is a mocker, and strong drink is raging, and he who is deceived thereby is not wise, Prov. xx. 1., since it noway contributes to long life; for it is certain, that thousands in the world live as long who drink no strong drink, as any drinkers of it do. Some indeed, from an extraordinary strength of nature, have been hard drinkers, and yet die old; but for one who does this, perhaps an hundred are destroyed by it before they come to half the time of life: and generally we shall find, that very strong and healthy constitutions, at the long-run, are ruined by riot and excess, there being no certain safety in any way of living, but that of temperance and moderation. Nature in some may, a long time, withstand the abuses offered to it, but at last it will yield to its enemies; and those who live the longest in an intemperate course, might, from the strength of their constitution, have lived much longer, had they ate less, and used themselves to drink more water; which drink, as it is most friendly, and longest will preserve the life of a strong constitution, so it is absolutely necessary for those that are weak and sickly, and are naturally subject to the gout, the stone, shortness of breath, wind, ill digestion, and such like.

But the chief use of water, in preserving of health, is by using of it as a vomit, as before was shewn, which is an infallible and the most speedy remedy that was ever found out for any stomach sickness, or pain there; for to vomit with warm water, will effectually remove it in one hour, and be a means to prevent great fits of sickness, and preserve the lives of many thousands to old age, by cleansing the stomach from that tough, slimy, or corrupt matter that offends, and is the cause of all mortal diseases, especially of an apoplexy, which, tho’ counted a disease of the head, yet hath its original from a foul stomach, which nothing doth so effectually cleanse as vomits; according to Dr. Curtis, who saith, that vomiting with warm water, or carduus-tea, is very beneficial to bring up that which fluctuates in the stomach, and that tough, ropy phlegm, which sticks fast to the wrinkles and folds of that bowel, and which purges do often pass over, and cannot remove. Which way of vomiting with warm water, is ten times more easy and pleasant than that which is effected by the use of nauseous tea made of carduus, which physicians sometimes advise; and it is also such as can do no harm by violence, as other vomits made from antimony sometimes do, for want of drinking after each vomit a pint or more of water-gruel, or warm water, when you vomit with water.

And here it may not be amiss to relate what I some years ago discovered, in order to mens freeing themselves from sickness that may happen after eating; for being invited to dine at a certain table, where there were several good dishes of meat, I was over-persuaded to eat more than I should, and in a little time after dinner found myself began to be sick. I went out, and in a private place attempted to vomit, by tickling my throat with my finger, but could not vomit as I designed; only by this means I raised up two or three mouthfuls of thick, tough phlegm, upon which I found myself better, and my sick qualm went off. I took the hint it gave me, and have done the same several times since, and find that the getting up the phlegm, which, like yeast upon beer, works up to the mouth of the stomach, a man may free himself from some kinds of sickness after eating. And I remember it is an advice given by one Vaughan, in a book long since printed, intituled, Directions for Health, for men who feed high, to put their finger in their throat when they rise in the morning, to make themselves puke, or void the phlegm which can be raised, as an excellent way to preserve health; and it is said also to be an absolute preservative from the gout, by a good writer.

I will conclude with this note, that, in such distemper where water-drinking will be available for a cure, the same must not be drank sparingly, but plentifully; as (for instance) to ease the gripings in a looseness or flux: for, if but a pint of water should be drank, ease would hardly succeed; but, drinking in about an hours time a quart or three pints, the sharpness and evil quality of the humour offending, will be so far diluted or weakened, that immediate ease will follow. If the season be too cold to drink cold water, you may warm it a little upon the fire, or put a hot toast of bread into every pint. And the same is true in fevers, or in pains from gravel or the cholic: A small quantity will not be effectual in these cases; for in the cholic a quart is necessary, which ought to be carefully noted; and, in a fever, a little water will rather increase the burning, which large draughts, often drank, will soon take off. Rest, fasting, and drinking much water, after a vomit or two, is a course that never yet hath failed to cure fevers, by clearing the stomach of that sordid filthiness which causeth the distemper: for a happy issue will certainly follow such a course, if the fever is simple, and not complicated with such other distempers which will resist all remedies: For in many cases nothing can prevent mortality, as is evident by the death of the best physicians themselves, and by the death of many who consulted with them for a cure, since many die under the hands of the most able doctors, as well as quacks.