OFTH Shelf No. TROM THE ^^htr^nr^ Wnnd m^ -C:S.^ HtUHypg PTLntinq Co. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Open Knowledge Commons and Harvard Medical School http://www.archive.org/details/germannaturecureOOaida « THE GERMAN NATURE-CURE, AND HOW TO PRACTISE IT, By I. AIDALL. r^ -^ With Forty Illustrations by Frances M, E. Currie, ' ^ . , -, ,>'„ ' O J 5 " ' ' d"d ^PUBLISHERS : NICHOLS & CO., 23 Oxford Street, London. COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY THE AUTHOR. Entered at Stationers' Hall, London. ^^v^' r^.AA-A^^*^* PREFACE. This little work lays claim to no originality. It is merely a faithful representation, in a condensed form, of the theories, methods, and practice of the German natural healing art, compiled from the works of some of the leading authors on the subject. In some cases, the very words of the writers have been retained. Where this has been impossible, owing to the large amount of matter before me, and the small space into which it has had to be curtailed, I have endeavoured to give a thoroughly accurate and comprehensive view of their meaning. The writings I have drawn from, have been purposely those of some of the later exponents of the system, rather than of the earlier founders, in order not only to present the accumulated experience of the largest number, but a correct view of the entire Nature-Cure as it is now carried out both in Germany and Austria. The works to which I am chiefly indebted are : Dr. Walser's " Naturheilmethode," Dr. Disque's " Naturgemasse Behandlung der Krankheiten," and " Diatetische Kiiche," Dr. Lahmann's " Diatetische Blutentmischung," Father Kneipp's works, Herr Rikli's " i\tmospharische Cur, etc.," Herr Siegert's " Naturheilkunde," Herr Bilz's " Neue Naturheilverfahren," Herr Platen's " Neueheilmethode," IV. PREFACE. Herr Kuhne's works, Herr Liskow's " Handbuch des Naturheilverfahrens," and Herr Simon's " Athmungs- kunde." I have not, however, confined myself to these, but have culled from many other sources, as they served to elucidate and practically open out the subject. Unusual opportunities for not only testing the effects of the Nature-Cure on my own person, but of thoroughly studying its working as a whole, have led me to this effort. The firm hold which a portion of the system, in the form of Hydropathy, has already established in our own country, the increasing number of Hygienic and Health reform movements of every description, the growing craving for other than the medical treatment of the old school, may perhaps make -a further interpretation of German views and methods not unwelcome. In the earnest hope that this little work may prove of encouragement and help to many, and be one more step- ping-stone in the elucidation of the true nature of disease, and of its prevention and treatment by natural means, I give it forth to the public. I. AIDALL. Septe?nber, i8gj. — CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction -------- vii. Chapter I. —Disease: its Origin, Cure, and Prevention i Chapter II. —Water : the Method and Forms of its Apphcation -------- 22 Chapter III. —Light and Air. —Light-Air Baths. Sun Baths. —Air Huts.—Barefoot-Walking - - 65 Chapter IV.—Diet ------- 82 Chapter V. — Clothing. — Bedding. — Dwelling. — Ventilation 105 Chapter VI.—Exercise. —Rest.—Massage.— Health. Gymnastics and Calisthenics. —Breathing Exercises 119 Chapter VII. — Magnetism. — Electricity. —Hypnotic Suggestion -------- 151 Chapter VIII.—The Treatment of Different Forms of Disease - - - - - - - - 160 Chapter IX.—Treatment of Injuries and Wounds. Treatment of Hair and Teeth.—Herbal Remedies. —Science of Facial Expression . - . - 206 Conclusion - - - - - - - - 230 INTRODUCTION. It is well known that the German-speaking countries have given birth to the present Natural Method of Cure. Although, in 1784, Hahnemann, the founder of Homeo- pathy, and before him Dr. Hahn, wrote on the value of water as a remedial agent, the honour of laying the founda- tions of the Natiive-Cuve must be ascribed to two peasants, Priestnitz and Schroth, the forester Rausse, and the apothe- cary Hahn. To their sharp-sighted observations in the animal and vegetable world, and the clear, logical, and practical deductions they drew therefrom, mankind is in- debted for that new and better way of healing which is beginning, at least in many parts of Europe, to revolutionise the whole system of medicine. Priestnitz and Schroth were contemporaries, born within a year of each other (1799, 1798) in Austrian Silesia. In both cases, injuries received through accidents, which were not only badly treated, but pronounced by the doctors as incurable, were the means of turning their attention to natural remedies, and of proving their efficacy by the cures they achieved on their own persons, and subsequently on others. Priestnitz became a renowned water doctor, with a water- cure establishment on the Grafenberg, in Austrian Silesia. Schroth laid the foundations of the Diet Cure, by the employment of the strict dry diet called after his name. Simultaneously also with Priestnitz, he was the happy dis- coverer of the marvellous effects of cold and tepid water compresses, which he enlarged into whole and partial wet sheet packings. Vlll. INTRODUCTION. Rausse, or Francke, a disciple of Priestnitz, developed into a system what the former had only crudely begun. He corrected the mistakes in his master's methods, and is con- sidered the reformer of the water-healing art.* Theodor Hahn, a pupil of Rausse, was also much renowned as an author on hygiene, as well as in his sphere of nature-cure physician. He combined the methods of the other three, and employed a strictly-regulated diet, together with water treat- ment and the use of other natural factors. Then followed Arnold Rikli, a Swiss, the originator of the priceless light-air and sun-bath system, called in Germany the " Rikh Method." After him came the widely-known Bavarian priest, Sebas- tian Kneipp, the founder of an independent system of water treatment, especially the so-called Kneipp douches, combined with diet, and the use of simple, non-poisonous medicinal herbs. His works on the subject are translated into almost all European languages. Almost as well-known as Rikli and Kneipp is another contemporary of these two—Louis Kuhne, who, like the latter, was compelled (through what were considered incurable bodily sufferings) to seek health and healing in natural means. Like Kneipp also, he has evolved, and long practised, an indepen- dent method of treatment, and his works . are also largely translated. After, and simultaneously with these, have arisen a host of nature-cure practitioners, all assisting, more or less, in spite of numerous mistakes and errors, to break down the gigantic wall of the " healing by drugs " superstition, and to show people the natural way of retaining their health, and, when they have lost it, of regaining it. The Natural Method of Cure, as such, is by no means anything new, for it was not only understood in olden times, but widely employed. " Its curative appliances have existed since the days of Creation, and will endure till the stars fall from heaven. The * His works on the subject are still looked upon as the fountain-head of natural healing science. — INTRODUCTION. IX. well-known ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, as also Galen and other ' immortals,' cured with water. So also did the old Romans; while daily baths and washings have, from the time of Moses, formed a direct part of the religious practices of the Jews." {Philo vom Walde.) Water is not, however, the only remedial agent employed in the German Nature-Cure. All the vital elements of our existence are equally utilised, viz. : warmth, water, light, air, food, movement, and rest, besides magnetism and electricity, and, in later times, hypnotic suggestion. Simple, non-poisonous herbal remedies are also admitted in the practice, and occasion- ally used. The Natural Method of Cure is based on the principle of the healing power, the self-help of Nature, or the vital force, the instinct of self-preservation inherent in each individual. It sees in the thousand and one so-called diseases of medical science, not the disease itself, but merely the appearances or symptoms of disease, the self-striving of Nature to rid the system of what is injuring it. Its aim, therefore, is not to combat or suppress such symptoms, but to give Nature, or the natural vitality, the help and support it needs in its endeavours to regain health. " The school of medicine on the other hand—Allopathy sees in the symptoms the disease itself, and concerns itself mainly with their removal. Such a suppression of the appear- ances of disease is, however, no real healing. Often, after such an apparent cure, a relapse of the complaint occurs, which is often more dangerous than the first sickness. It is self-evident that the chemical substances employed by the medical faculty, must increase the sickness, because the organism is compelled, not only to expel the matter of disease, but also the medicaments as well. If it were only understood that illness is merely a healing process of the body—an effort of the system to gain the mastery over what is injuring it—it would follow that no one would dare to stop its healing activities. Instead, the sick individual is frequently besieged with every possible and impossible remedy, and thereby it often occurs that, in place of the complaint, the patient is removed. X. INTRODUCTION. " The undoubtedly more favourable results of Homeo- pathy consist in the fact that on account of the attenuation of the drugs, they do not injure or suppress the natural healing powers of the body ; but neither, on the other hand, do they influence, in the remotest degree, the course of the complaint. The circumstance that drugs are most helpless when they are most needed—that to-day they are extolled for ail complaints, to-morrow rejected by others for the same sickness as injurious—leads the thinking physician to natural healing factors, and causes him to abandon the system of medicine of the medical school.