There is a famous story about Vincent Priessnitz using wet bandages to heal after a traumatic accident resulting in broken ribs when he was 17. It is often cited as his first foray into hydrotherapy. However, his first encounter with the therapeutic powers of water happened earlier, when he was 13 and had sprained his wrist. Instinctively, Priessnitz placed his wrist under the flow of cold water from the water pump. “Finding that the water cooled the part and assuaged the pain, but unable to keep it constantly there, it occurred to him to apply an umschlag or wet bandage.”1 The wet bandage was his first “aha” moment to devise a steady cold water application. His life as a healer using water was spurred on by this very infinite curiosity about the many possibilities for water in healing.
The effectiveness of the wet compress led to much experimentation by Priessnitz to expand the therapeutic applications of water. His accidental discovery that cold water could relieve pain encouraged him to apply a wet sheet to the whole body for a multitude of conditions. One of Priessnitz’ students, Dr. Joel Shew, wrote: “The wet sheet, this greatest of all remedial applications, is destined, the world over, to become a family word; and in connection with its use, the name of Priessnitz will be known so long as time shall last!”2
Priessnitz’ contributions to hydrotherapy did not end with the wet compress, but rather included an exhaustive list of therapies. When local chronic diseases failed to respond to the wet sheet bandage, Priessnitz conceived of the partial baths which were local applications to head, eye, arm, pelvis, leg and feet. He was also the architect of the full body wet sheet wrap, the douche or shower, the sponge or ablution, the cold plunge bath, and the ‘shallow bath’ that would be the precursor to Adolf Just’s ‘natural bath’. He also invented the sweating blanket pack after “observing that perspiration frequently relieved pain, and was efficacious in many diseases, and unlike the vapor and hot baths, did not accelerate the circulation and debilitate the [patient].”3 The dripping wet sheet was a later invention and used as preparatory to other water applications.
Remarkably, Priessnitz was almost illiterate. His work, though, was eventually and enthusiastically documented by the many doctors who flocked to his centre in Gräefenberg to learn and emulate his medical art of hydrotherapy. His contributions to Hydrotherapy are largely unparalleled and he stands historically as a preeminent pioneer of Hydrotherapy for future generations of healers.
An abundant literature from the mid-19th century has evolved which makes the contemporary Naturopath marvel at the innovative brilliance of Vincent Priessnitz. Indeed, that literature indicates that the scope of hydrotherapy was decisively determined by this one man. The water applications that were popularized by late 19th century hydrotherapists such as Kneipp, Kuhne, Bilz and Just can be traced back to Priessnitz. His methodologies were adopted and adapted to meet the needs of those who followed in his footsteps.
The cures that were conducted in Gräefenberg by Priessnitz gained worldwide attention. His successes were of substantial interest to medical doctors, scores of whom flocked to learn his secrets of cure. The books written by doctors who worked and studied with Priessnitz in the mid-19th century while the great Father of Hydrotherapy was still living, point out that those who had exhausted the efforts of conventional medicine found their way to Graefenberg and discovered the modest epicentre of a world-wide phenomenon: “a small colony of some twenty houses and situated half way up a mountain”. (Shew, 1851, 11) Just as today, Naturopaths are often the last resort by many of our patients who have tried everything under the sun. The patients who came to see Priessnitz were desperate for health and their physical and personal journey was invariably arduous. For the majority of them that could afford the money and time for such long travel, they did not come in vain. An interesting focal point for presenting conditions Priessnitz encountered was the rampant use of mercury in the 19th century. In fact, most of those patients seen by Priessnitz were mercury toxicity cases. His extraordinary success in helping victims of this protocol, among others, is legendary.
References
- 1.Shew J. The Water Cure Manual, Fowlers and Wells, New York, 1851;pp. 280. [Google Scholar]
- 2.Shew J. The Water-Cure Manual, Volume IV, Fowlers and Wells Publishers, New York, 1851. ;pp 282. [Google Scholar]
- 3.Shew J () Hydropathy, or the Water-Cure, Fowlers and Wells Publishers, New York, 1851;pp 360. [Google Scholar]