To the covering with wet sheets corresponds the lying on wet sheets, which, in case both applications are used alternately, must be applied first. The following remarks are to be made regarding it.
As this application is also to be made in bed, a piece of linen, and over it a woolen blanket, are laid upon the mattress, to prevent it from getting wet. Then the same piece of coarse linen, as used for the preceding application (doubled 3 or 4 times), dipped in water and wrung out, is placed lengthwise upon the woolen blanket, so that it reaches from the end of the neck to the end of the back-bone, i.e. the whole length of the back. The patient lies down on his back, wraps himself up in the extended blanket from both sides, in order to prevent the air from coming in, and then covers himself with a blanket and feather-quilt. This lying on wet sheets is also to be applied for three quarters of an hour; if longer, the wetting of sheets with cold water must be repeated, because its effect, like that of the covering with wet sheets, is produced only by cold. The same rules as given above are to be followed.
This application is especially effective for strengthening the back-bone and the spinal-marrow, for pain in the bark and for lumbago. I know many cases in which lumbago was entirely removed by two applications of wet sheets made on the same day.
Also against congestions, in the heat of fever, this lying on wet sheets is of very good effect. In which individual cases it is to be used, and how often it is to be repeated, is said in the part of this book where the diseases are spoken of.
3. Covering with, and lying on wet sheets used in one application.
The two applications can be taken one after the other or both together.
The sheet for lying on is prepared as given in No. 2; that for covering, likewise prepared, is laid near the bedside. The patient lies down undressed on the one wet sheet and covers himself with the other. The final covering with blanket and feather-bed is easily done. If there is another person attending, it is well to tuck in both blanket and feather-bed on both sides, to prevent the entering of the cold air. It is important that the blanket, lying under the wet sheets broadwise, be large enough to wrap up both the wet sheets like a bandage.
The duration of this application ought not to be less than three quarters of an hour, and not more than an hour.
Against great heat, gases, congestion, hypochondriasis, and other sufferings it is of very great service.
4. Compress on the abdomen.
The patient lies in bed. A piece of linen, folded 4 to 6 times, dipped in water, and thoroughly wrung out, is laid upon the abdomen (from the stomach downwards) and covered with the shirt and finally carefully with blanket and feather-bed.
The application may be made for three quarters of an hour to 2 hours; in the latter ease, it must be renewed after an hour. i.e. wetted anew.
This application is of good service against indigestion, cramps, also where the blood is to be led away from the chest and heart.
For wetting the linen vinegar is very often used instead of water, also decoctions id' hay blossoms, shave-grass, oat-straw, etc.
In order to save the vinegar, a twofold piece of linen may be dipped in a mixture of vinegar and water and laid on the body, and over it another piece of linen, doubled 2 or 4 times, which is dipped only in water. The covering is done as stated before.
I have been asked many times what principles 1 follow with regard to coverings with ice, bleeding, etc. These I will briefly state.
Whoever wishes to reconcile himself with an enemy, and for this purpose oilers him his hand with knitted brows, will find greater difficulty in succeeding than if he met him with a bright face and a joyful heart. It is something similar to this with ice and water. I have always considered the application of ice, especially on the nobler parts of the body, (head, eyes, ears, etc. I to be among the most rugged and violent remedies ever used. They do not help or encourage nature to recommence its work; they force it with violence to do so, and that must revenge itself. Ice-cloths and ice-bags, or whatever the names of those things may be. are entirely excluded from my department. Only imagine these enormous counter-actions inside the body a burning heat, outside a mountain of ice, and between them a suffering member, the organ of tender flesh and blood, worked on by both. I have always wailed with great anxiety for the result of such work, and in most cases my anxiety was justified.
I know a gentleman who was ordered to have ice laid upon one of his feet day and night, for a whole year long, without any interruption. It would surely take nothing less than a miracle to prevent this mountain of ice from taking away not only all heat, but also the indispensable natural warmth! Nothing was to be seen of the healing of the foot.
But, someone will reply, in many cases it has really done good. Yes, for it may be that the disease could not withstand the means of compulsion. However, what were the consequences? Innumerable persons have come to me who had partly lost their eye-sight, become more or less deaf, others with rheumatics of every kind, especially in the head, or with great sensibility of the head, etc. What was the cause of all this? "Yes, there, and then," I was answered, "the tiresome ice-bag did it; I have been burdened with this complaint for so and so many years." Certainly, and most of them will be burdened with it to their last breath.
I repeat again that I oppose absolutely any application of ice, and I assert, on the contrary, that water, applied in the right way, is able to soften and to extinguish any heat, even the most violent, in whatever part or organ of the body it may be raging. If a Are can no longer be put out by water, ice will do just as little for it; that is easily understood by everyone.
I said just now that a regular application of water will bring help. But I do not mean that for instance with an inflammation in the head, it would be advisable to use as many wet packages as there were ice-bags formerly used; 100 ice-bags and packages will not stop the blood rushing to the inflamed spot and thereby increasing the heat. I must try to lead the blood away, to distribute it to the different other parts, i.e. I must make applications on the whole body, besides those on the suffering part. I shall e. g. attack the enemy in the head, first of all at the patient's feet, and then gradually proceed up the whole body.
Nevertheless, the ice is of good service to my water-cure by indirect use. In summer it cools the water, when it is getting hike-warm.
What is my opinion with regard to bleeding, leeches. and all the different kinds of blood-extractions? Well, I will state it plainly. Fifty, forty, thirty years ago there was seldom a woman who was not bled 2, 3 or 4 times a year; the half-holidays and, of course, the most favorable days were faithfully chosen for this purpose in the beginning of the year and marked in the calendar with red or blue strokes. The country-physicians, the surgeons and barbers, themselves, called their own work in this way, a real butchery. Institutions and convents, too, had their appointed time for bleeding and the strictly regulated diet above all. Congratulations were made to one another after having endured the bloody toils, which may have been no small ones sometimes. A priest of that time assured me that he had undergone this bleeding for 32 years, the process being repeated 4 times every year, and each time he lost 8 oz. of blood, making in all 8 x 4 x 32 = 1024 oz.
Besides this bleeding, leeches were used, and scarifying and oilier processes practiced. Young and old, high and low, men and women, were all well provided for.
How times are changing! For a long time these doings were looked upon as the only and absolutely necessary means of being and remaining healthy! And what is thought of them nowadays? We smile at and ridicule this false opinion of the old, this false natural-science, to imagine that any man should have too much blood! About two years ago a foreign physician, who was also an active literary man. and who was following a new school, told me that he had never in his life seen leeches.
Many physicians attribute the poverty of blood in the present days, to the former misuse of bleeding. They may be right; however, this is not the only cause of it.
But