HYDROPATHY

(Gr. llv^ and tocBo?, disease.) This term is applied to a treatment of disease generally called the cold water cure; it was suggested in 1828, by Vincent Prie nitz of Graefenberg in Silesia, and consists in the internal and external administration of cold water, accompanied by air and exercise, early hours, and strict attention to diet; there are, therefore, many cases in which such a plan rationally pursued must be obviously useful, more especially to overphy sicked individuals, residing in populous towns, eating and drinking too much, and keeping bad hours. At the same time, some parts of the treatment " are of so outrageous a character, as frequently to aggravate the disease which they are intended to cure, and occasionally to endanger or even destroy the life of the patient." (The term hydropathy is considered to be a corruption from hydro-therapeutics.) HYf)R0TH10' [s. 1392]