Hydropathy; or, The Cold Water Cure, as practised by Vincent Priessnitz, at Graefenberg, Silesia, Austria
period treatise · 1842
LINK
SUMMARY
Contemporary English-language treatise promoting the Gräfenberg cold-water cure, by R. T. Claridge (one of the principal English popularizers of Priessnitz's hydropathy). Used as the period source for the 'crisis' doctrine and the morbid-matter mechanism, the elite clientele, and the fee structure. The treatise describes the crisis as the point when the disease 'comes to a head' and morbid material makes 'their exit by some means or other; by diarrhoea, by urine, by boils or ulcers, or fever,' an episode 'hailed with the greatest joy as the harbinger of health'; it frames the action of the cure as attacking and driving out 'peccant' and 'morbid humours.' It records that in 1841 the patients under treatment at Graefenberg and Freiwaldau included 'an archduchess, ten princes and princesses, at least 100 counts and barons, military men of all grades, several medical men, professors, advocates, &c., in all about 500,' and gives a year-by-year admission list. On cost, it states that board, an apartment, and a bath-servant came to about 16 shillings a week (a residence and medical attendance running about one pound sterling per week) and that the minimum fee 'usually paid to Mr. P.' for his attendance was 2 florins (4 shillings) a week, with many paying double and others making 'handsome presents.'
NOTES
R. T. Claridge’s 1842 treatise is a contemporary promotional account of the Gräfenberg system and one of the works that carried Priessnitz’s hydropathy to an English audience. This case uses it as a period source for three things. First, the disease theory: Claridge describes the “crisis” as the stage at which the disease “comes to a head” and is expelled “by diarrhoea, by urine, by boils or ulcers, or fever,” an event “hailed with the greatest joy as the harbinger of health,” and frames the cure as the attack on “peccant” and “morbid humours.” Second, the clientele: he reports that in 1841 about 500 patients were under treatment at Graefenberg and Freiwaldau, among them an archduchess, ten princes and princesses, and at least 100 counts and barons, along with military men, professors, and advocates. Third, the economics: board, lodging, and a bath-servant came to roughly 16 shillings a week, and the minimum attendance fee paid to Priessnitz himself was 2 florins (4 shillings) a week, “many increase it to double that sum, and others make handsome presents.” As a promotional source its claims of cure are treated as the period sales register, not as evidence of efficacy.