WATER ATER has always been valuable in treating and preventing diseases, with various spas still operating in Europe today. Historical records from the third century BC, attributed to Hippocrates, the father of medicine, along with Galen, Asclepiades, and others, remind us that cold water and various baths have been essential in curing ailments since ancient times.
However, despite the earlier acknowledgment of water's importance for well-being, a contrary belief emerged during the Dark Ages. In stark contrast to the luxurious bathing facilities of the Romans, both the clergy and the general public developed the superstition that cleanliness was against holiness, believing that dirt and squalor were signs of piety. Life was seen merely as preparation for the afterlife; the body was viewed as mortal and unworthy, while the soul was considered immortal and deserving of care. Why bother washing this wretched body that keeps the soul from heaven? As a result, bathing became rare. Homes and communities fell into filth and illness, with one plague following another. The wisdom of ancient times was mixed with ridiculous misconceptions, and little effort was made to verify anything. The idea that diseases had natural causes that could be identified and eliminated was rejected. People believed that whatever happened was simply God's will.
This mindset changed, however, after the devastation caused by various plagues. Since then, it has become increasingly common to regard the body with respect, recognizing it as the remarkable instrument and organism that it is, and understanding that it is truly the temple of the living God within us.
In the Middle Ages, many doctors like Aetius, Paulus, Aegineta, and Paracelsus started to promote the healing benefits of water again. However, it wasn't until the 17th century that all the knowledge about water cures was gathered and published. In 1673, a physician from Naples named Nicola Lanzani released an important book on how water can be used for health. Around the start of the 18th century in England, Sir John Floyer and Dr. Baynard extensively used water in their practices. Their teamwork led to the creation of a book titled The History of Cold Bathing, Both Ancient and Modern. This book is filled with practical wisdom, clever insights, and interesting knowledge. Floyer, who worked as a physician in Litchfield, was inspired by the way local peasants used certain springs for healing. This inspiration drove him to explore the history of cold bathing and write this book around 1702. It quickly went through several editions, and Dr. J. S. Hahn from Silesia used it as a major reference in his 1738 work, The Healing Virtues of Cold Water, Inwardly and Outwardly Applied, as Proved by Experience.
Hahn had laid the foundation of this in a scientific treatise, and practiced it himself. His system, however, which was known as the "enforced water cure," did not really advance the adoption of the system, but his writings created much enthusiasm among This countrymen. Societies were formed every-where to promote the use of water for the prevention and cure of disease
Hahn established the groundwork for this in a scientific paper and also practiced it himself. However, his method, known as the "enforced water cure," didn't really help in spreading the system, but his writings sparked a lot of excitement among his fellow countrymen. Groups were formed everywhere to encourage the use of water for preventing and treating illnesses. The awareness of water's effectiveness was further increased by the experiences of an English Army Surgeon, Dr. William Wright. He was on a ship transporting soldiers to India and Africa. The unsanitary conditions and overcrowding on the ship led to many outbreaks of typhus fever that severely affected the soldiers during almost every journey. He had previously tried to combat these epidemics with quinine and other known treatments without success, and was actively doing the same during this particular voyage when something unusual occurred.
The deck was filled with crew members and soldiers who had to lie sick and exposed to the harsh tropical sun because there was no space for them below deck. Their pain was intense. Some of them pleaded for relief and requested that the cool ocean water be poured over them. Seeing no harm in fulfilling this request if it would help them feel better, he ordered bucket after bucket to be brought up and poured over them. Their suffering was immediately eased, and they fell into a restful sleep, waking up later feeling much better. Dr. Wright was taken aback. The process was repeated, and those on deck recovered in larger numbers and more quickly than those in the quarters who received the standard treatment. This voyage resulted in fewer deaths and less suffering, but it seemed that the doctor did not fully grasp its importance.
During another journey, Dr. Wright himself fell ill with the disease and tried to treat himself in the usual way, but it didn’t work. He noticed he was getting worse until he suddenly remembered what had happened on the previous voyage. He had himself taken on deck and soaked in the same way. The relief he felt was so quick that it seemed like a miracle. He said, "The shock was intense, but I felt relief right away. The headache and other pains went away instantly, and I felt a wonderful warmth. As evening approached, the feverish symptoms seemed to come back, so I used the same method again, and it worked just as well as before.
Dr. Wright shared his experiences in the London Medical Journal in September 1777. Many people read them there. D. James Currie was so impressed that he decided to test the remedy on some fever patients at the Liverpool Infirmary. Although his fellow doctors tried to talk him out of it and expressed their disapproval, their opinions quickly changed to praise and admiration when all the patients made a full and quick recovery.
Further experiments were conducted! Amazing results were achieved! In 1797, Dr. Currie published a book called Reports on the Effects of Water, Cold and Warm, as a Remedy in Fevers and Other Diseases.
For some reason, the contributions of Currie, who was one of the most capable early pioneers of a truly scientific approach that was incredibly valuable in treating febrile disorders, were overlooked. It wasn't until the entire civilized world took notice of the fame and success of an uneducated cold-water practitioner that the medical profession started to give this treatment the serious consideration it deserved. The modern popularity of water as a remedy can undoubtedly be attributed to the creativity and resourcefulness of a Silesian peasant named Vincent Priessnitz, who was born in the small village of Graefenburg, Austria, on October 4, 1799.
The "water cure" system that Priessnitz made famous worldwide was particularly impressive because it did not rely on the work of those who came before him or his contemporaries; instead, it stemmed entirely from the observations and experiments of this uneducated peasant boy.
Coming from a family of hardworking farmers, Priessnitz lived the typical life of a country boy. He didn't receive much formal education, but he was known for his thoughtfulness, insight, and exceptional observational skills. Although he was the youngest of six siblings, he had to take on a lot of the farm work at a young age due to his father's blindness and the absence of his brothers.
Close to the farm, there was a forest that contained a spring called the "Priessnitz Spring," named after one of his ancestors who was killed there in 1642 during the Thirty Years' War. Nearby the spring, there was also a good pasture for cattle.
On days when he had no other work, Vincent would usually take a small bag of food for the day and lead the cattle into the woods, not coming back home until evening.
One day, while the cows were grazing and the boy was daydreaming under the shade of a bush near the spring, he noticed a wounded deer, hurt by hunters, approach the spring. The deer waded into the calm backflow of the turbulent mountain brook, cleaned its wound, and drank from the spring. The injured leg was in the water for a while, and then the deer limped away, vanishing into the forest. That night, he thought there must be a reason for a hurt animal to seek water to wash its wounds. Maybe instinct was stronger than logic. He decided to come back the next day. And he did.
Sure enough, the deer returned to the swirling water around the same time. It stood there quietly, not moving, and after a bit, it limped to the bank and disappeared into the thick foliage of the forest again. For two weeks, the boy Vincent Priessnitz came back every day to his lookout and watched.
For two weeks, the injured stag came back and soaked its hurt leg in the stream. Each day, the deer improved and finally, once it was fully healed, it dashed out of the water on the last day, never to return.
Right before his eyes, he witnessed a seriously hurt deer recover with the cool, sparkling water from the brook. Vincent Priessnitz never forgot that moment. This experience left a strong impression on the young observer, who, despite having limited formal education, was a keen student of Nature. He recognized the crucial role that water plays in all natural processes. He had frequently seen how water revitalizes plants, animals, and humans, and now he understood its significance as a healing agent. He later told his friend and biographer, Dr. Selinger, that the idea came to him naturally, and that his entire treatment system gradually evolved from it. Thus, from this small spring at Graefenburg, as has been aptly stated, healing spread out to the world.
Personal Experiences with the Water Cure
Priessnitz soon had the chance to demonstrate the healing power of water himself after an accident crushed one of his fingers. To stop the bleeding and alleviate the pain, he submerged his hand in cold water, and when he needed to work, he kept it wrapped in a wet bandage. In a short time, it was completely healed. Consequently, whenever any animals or people on the farm experienced external injuries, Priessnitz used cold water as a calming and healing treatment. The outcomes were so effective that, despite his youth, he quickly became the medical advisor for his area.
A much more serious accident occurred when Priessnitz was just seventeen, which greatly expanded his understanding of the healing properties of water, demonstrating its effectiveness for both internal and external injuries. One summer day, while he was driving a large workhorse hitched to one of those heavy farm wagons common in his area, the horse unexpectedly kicked, knocking him down. One of the heavy wheels of the cart rolled over him, crushing his chest and breaking several ribs. Local doctors declared him 'a candidate for death' and offered no hope for recovery, while other physicians who were called in predicted he would be a lifelong cripple. This incident marked a pivotal moment in Priessnitz's life, leading to the practice that would define his career and earn him recognition, and it is best recounted in his own words.
'In 1819, I faced the misfortune of breaking my ribs when a carriage overturned. The doctor who treated me said I wouldn’t recover. This was a dire situation, as my father was blind and unable to help, leaving me in charge of our small homestead. I was prescribed hot compresses made from herbal infusions, but they only intensified my pain, leading me to tear them off in frustration. Remembering how I had once healed a crushed finger with cold water, I decided to apply cold compresses to the injured areas. The pain eased a bit, and I was able to fall into a deep sleep. After a few days, I had improved enough to oversee the farm work. I wore a wet girdle, covered by a dry layer, for a year, and by the end of that time, I was fully healed. From that moment on, I used cold water for myself and others in every instance of common ailments and accidents, achieving the best results. Neighbors would come to me for help, and sick individuals would send for me, which led to my reputation as a healer.
The aristocrats who later flocked to his establishment participated in activities like cutting down trees and sawing wood.
Opposition and Persecution Priessnitz's work was completely free for a long time.
As long as he acted like a good Samaritan, receiving nothing in return, everything went smoothly. However, when some of his higher-class patients started giving him gifts for his services, envy and malice began to surface. His former classmates couldn't understand why he, whom they considered possibly less educated and intelligent than themselves, should gain such fame and success while they struggled to achieve anything better than they had. They thought he had a clever way of getting money from people. Consequently, he faced a lot of petty harassment.
The local doctors were even more upset that this unrefined peasant boy, who had barely learned to read and write, had never attended an academy, and had no formal medical training, was stepping in to treat the sick and taking away their livelihood. All of this was happening through the practice of a simple, entirely unscientific method, just by using regular spring water! This could not be allowed to continue. They tried to put a stop to it. Despite all the opposition, however, Priessnitz's reputation continued to grow, attracting more and more sick people to his door.
Simple Water Treatments
The initial methods of treatment that Priessnitz used included cold water baths, full cold baths, the wet girdle known as umschlag, and drinking plenty of water. His patients, if they were able, spent a lot of time walking and were required to drink from the numerous mountain springs they encountered during their walks. This way, they consumed large amounts of water, sometimes as many as thirty to forty glasses in a single day. He soon incorporated a simple natural diet and ensured they got plenty of fresh air both day and night.
In the early years, Priessnitz primarily treated sprains, contusions, fractures, dislocations, rheumatism, gout, liver and stomach issues, hemorrhoids, chronic constipation, and neurasthenia. Over time, he began to address more serious and diverse ailments, experimenting with a wide range of diseases because the patients who came to him for help often didn’t believe he could do anything for them. He had to think of and create more ways to use water effectively in treating illnesses.
Through experience, Priessnitz figured out which conditions were beyond his capabilities and eventually stopped taking patients he felt wouldn’t benefit from his methods. With his limited knowledge, he likely made mistakes in diagnosing diseases, and his treatments were often experimental. However, it’s remarkable that out of the forty thousand patients he treated at his facility, many of whom came to him as a last resort, only forty-five died.
During his lifetime, Priessnitz demonstrated a solid understanding of the nature and treatment of various illnesses. He believed that water not only strengthens, refreshes, invigorates, revitalizes, cools, and soothes, but it also has a purifying effect that helps eliminate unwanted substances and toxins from the body.
Starting with using water on the outside for minor illnesses in his community, he slowly took on a wider variety of cases and increased the methods he used. He brought in and showed the benefits of wet compresses, douche baths, various partial baths, the sweating method, wet sheets, and drinking plenty of clean water.
Besides using water in all these ways, he emphasized the importance of proper exercise and diet, fresh air, and mental relaxation in healing diseases. This approach utilized almost all of Nature's resources and created a new type of medical treatment through a simple yet completely original combination. His independent and reliable system of water therapy was based on natural laws and grounded in his personal observations of how Nature works, along with successful trials he conducted on himself and others who were suffering.
The First Hydropathic Establishment
In 1822, Priessnitz used the money he earned from consultations and gifts from thankful patients to construct a stone addition to the wooden house where he was born. He worked on this building himself, with help from his patients. He needed more space not just for himself, but also for the many sick individuals who came to him without invitation and wouldn’t leave until he had treated them. On the ground floor, he set up a room with a large trough, which was filled with water from the well. This marked the beginning, as noted by Philo von Walde (whose biography provided much of the information for this account), of the first hydropathic establishment in the world. However, Priessnitz did not have official permission to create such an institution, and this irregular and illegal action prompted local physicians to intensify their efforts to halt his work.
The remarkable recoveries that resulted from Priessnitz's natural methods led people to view him as something of a wizard, which was a somewhat dangerous reputation at a time when the last witch had only recently been executed. The local doctors did everything they could “in the service of humanity” to protect the public from his supposed magic. They argued that he was, through his water cure, openly defying the laws of the land and had the nerve to make light of the lives and health of his fellow humans. Nevertheless, the magistrate ruled that Priessnitz could not be prohibited from receiving guests, and that bathing in cool water was not against the law; in fact, it was encouraged by doctors as a healthy practice.
On one occasion, Priessnitz claimed he had cured a man of gout. The doctors who had previously treated the man without success complained about him, and the healed man was honored to testify about the truth. When the magistrate asked him who had really helped him, the doctors or Priessnitz, the man replied, "Both have helped me; the doctors helped me lose my money, and Priessnitz helped me get rid of my disease.
A Flood of Testimonials
Priessnitz was then accused of being a fraud, which forced him to have his healed patients provide him with official certificates (sworn statements) to show. This led to a flood of testimonials from counts, knights, jurists, officers, priests, teachers, peasants, and laborers. These statements made it clear that Priessnitz had a wide and growing reputation; that his cures were free of charge; that many of his patients had been treated by doctors for years without any success; that his method of healing involved applying water to parts or the whole body, inducing sweating, drinking water, and regulating diet; and that he specifically prohibited the publication of testimonials from grateful and enthusiastic patients in newspapers. His treatment did not include any medicine, whether vegetable or mineral, no tonics, stimulants, emetics, purgatives, bleeding, blistering, or leeching.
Not only the physicians but also some members of the clergy condemned this false prophet and his superstition. One of them claimed that the water could not heal unless it was bewitched. However, the main accuser in this group suffered from a liver disease that his doctor could not cure, so he had to turn to Priessnitz for help. After being cured, he added his testimonial to the others and became Priessnitz's friend.
Over a hundred years ago, the Austro-Hungarian government allowed a simple farmer named Priessnitz, who was a layman, to set up a hydrotherapeutic (water cure) institute in Graefenburg. This official approval came from the chief state health official in Troppal, who was also the father of the President of the Association of Medical Doctors in Vienna. He acted on orders from the central government, which is quite an impressive process.
As we have already noted, water was not a new healing method during Priessnitz's era, as it had been used for healing since the beginning of time. However, it raises the question of why a government would honor an uneducated healer in this way. Nevertheless, this honor was justified, as it is a historical fact that out of 7,500 patients who sought advice and treatment at Graefenburg by 1841, or within the time span
