HYDRIATIC TREATMENT

OF

SCARLET FEVER

IN ITS DIFFERENT FORMS.

OR

HOW TO SAVE,

THROUGH A SYSTEMATIC APPLICATION OF THE WATER-CURE,

MANY THOUSANDS OF LIVES AND HEALTHS,

WHICH NOW ANNUALLY PERISH.

Being the Result of

TWENTY-ONE YEARS' EXPERIENCE, AND OF THE TREATMENT

AND CURE OF SEVERAL HUNDRED CASES OF ERUPTIVE FEVERS.

BY

CHARLES MUNDE, M.D., Ph.D.

New-York:
WILLIAM RADDE, 300 BROADWAY.
1857.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by
William Radde,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States,
for the Southern District of New-York.

PREFACE.

In offering this pamphlet to the Public in general, and to Parents and Physicians in particular, I have no other object than that of contributing my share to the barrier which the medical profession has attempted, for more than two hundred years, to raise against the progress of the terrible disease which carries off upon an average, half a million of human beings annually. All the efforts of medical men to stop the ravages of Scarlet-Fever have hitherto proved unavailing; every remedy which was considered, for a while, a specific proved subsequently inefficient; and, notwithstanding the assertion to the contrary of a few, the Dr. Jenner who shall discover a reliable prophylactic against scarlatina, is probably not yet born. The patients die in the same proportion as they did two hundred and fifty years ago, and the physicians who have any success at all in the treatment of the terrible scourge, are those who treat for symptoms and leave the disease to Nature.

Under these circumstances, a mode of treatment which promises a decrease in the number of victims, from the experience of a quarter of a century, and a score of epidemics of different characters, cannot but be received with pleasure by the public. I have treated scarlet-fever hydriatically for twenty-one years, and out of several hundred cases never lost a patient, except one who died of typhus during an epidemy of scarlatina; and my observations, during twenty-five years, of the practice of other physicians of the same school, present a result about as favorable as my own.

My present position is such, that no self-interest, if I could have any in a question of such importance for the human race; would induce me to publish this article, as a rush of scarlet-fever patients would only tend to destroy the practice at my establishment, instead of increasing my income. My purpose, therefore, must be honest; and the zeal which I have manifested for many years in the promulgation of the Water-Cure is no longer the effect of enthusiasm, but of the observations and practice of Priessnitz's method during the best part of a man's life, and the conviction of its merits gained from facts.

I consider Hydro-therapeutics as one of the healthiest branches of the Tree of Medical Science, but not, like some others do, as the whole Tree. I do not pretend to be able to cure every thing with water; but in yielding to other medical systems what belongs to them, I earnestly claim for the Water-Cure, what belongs to it, frankly accusing for the little progress the hydriatic system has made in this country, the spirit of charlatanism and speculation on one side, and ignorance, self-conceit, self-interest and laziness on the other. According to my experience, and the result obtained by other hydriatic practitioners, eruptive fevers decidedly belong to Hydro-therapeutics, or the Water-Cure. If the result obtained by men like Currie, Bateman, Gregory, Reuss, Frœlichsthal, &c., long before Priessnitz, were highly satisfactory, the important additions and the more systematic arrangement of the treatment of the inventor of the Water-Cure and myself, have made the method almost infallible in eruptive fevers, and my innermost conviction is, that all the other modes of treatment of these fevers put together will not do the tenth part of the service which may with certainty be expected from the systematic use of water as I give it in this treatise.

Owing to the reluctance of the profession to allow Hydro-therapeutics an honorable place among medical systems, I address myself more to parents than to physicians. Had I intended to write for the latter, exclusively, the important subject which I am treating, would have received another coat. However, nothing of value to the physician has been omitted, whilst much has been said, which though he does not need it, seemed to me indispensably necessary for people not initiated in the medical art.

In regard to the style and language in general, I solicit the reader's indulgence. I may appear pretentious in publishing the present pamphlet, written in a tongue which is not my own, without submitting it, previously, to the correction of an English or American pen; but this publication has been called forth by the tears of mothers mourning over the bodies of their darlings during the present winter, and too much time has been lost already in preparing it, for those whose life might have been saved, by an earlier publication, whilst I am fully aware of the imperfections of a work, which has been done during the few, often interrupted, leisure-hours left to me by the position I occupy. But whatever may be its defects, I feel convinced, that it cannot fail doing some little good; and should but one mother's tears remain unshed, I would never regret having published it. The good it will do, must depend on the favor with which it is received.

CHARLES MUNDE.

Florence Water-Cure,}
  Northampton, Mass. }
March, 1857.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PART I.

DESCRIPTION OF SCARLET-FEVER.

1. SCARLET-FEVER, OR SCARLATINA,[1]

is an eruptive fever, produced by a peculiar contagious poison, and distinguished by extreme heat, a rapid pulse, a severe affection of the mucous membranes, especially those of the mouth and throat, and by a burning scarlet eruption on the skin.

The time which passes between the reception of the contagious poison into the system and the appearance of the rash, is called the period of incubation; incubation or incubus meaning, properly, the sitting of birds on their nests, and figuratively, the hatching or concoction of the poison within the body, until prepared for its elimination. There is no certainty about the time necessary for that purpose, as the contagion, after the patient has come in contact with it, may be lurking a longer or a shorter time about his person, or in his clothes and furniture.

As in almost all eruptive fevers, so in scarlatina, the patient begins with complaining of shivering, pain in the thighs, lassitude, and rapidly augmenting debility; frequently also of headache, which, when severe, is accompanied with delirium, nausea and vomiting. The fever soon becomes very high, the pulse increasing to upwards of 120 to 130 strokes in a minute, and more; the heat is extreme, raising the natural temperature of the body from 98 to 110-112 degrees Fahrenheit, being intenser internally than on the surface of the body. The patient complains of severe pain in the throat, the organs of deglutition located there becoming inflamed, and swelling to such a degree that swallowing is extremely difficult, and even breathing is impeded. The tongue is covered with a white creamy coat, through which the points of the elongated papillæ project. Gradually the white coat disappears, commencing at the end and the edges of the organ, and leaves the same in a clean, raw, inflamed state, looking much like a huge strawberry. This is called the strawberry tongue of scarlet-fever, and is one of the characteristic symptoms of that disease. There is a peculiar smell about the person of the patient, reminding one of salt fish, old cheese, or the cages of a menagerie.

Commonly, on the second day, towards evening, sometimes on the third, and only in very bad cases later, the rash begins to make its appearance, under an increase of the above symptoms, especially of the fever and delirium, and continues to come out for about twelve hours. Usually the eruption commences in the face, on the throat and chest; thence it spreads over the rest of the trunk, and finally it extends to the extremities. The minute red points, which appear at first, soon spread into large, flat, irregular patches, which again coalesce and cover the greater part, if not the whole, of the surface, being densest on the upper part of the body, particularly in front, in the face, on the neck, the inner side of the arms, the loins, and the bend of the joints. The scarlet color of the rash disappears under the pressure of the finger, but reappears immediately on the latter being removed. Sometimes the eruption takes place with a profuse warm sweat, which prognosticates a mild course and a favorable issue of the disorder. Together with the appearance of the rash, the disease develops itself also more internally: the inflammation of the mouth and throat increases; the tonsils and fauces swell to a high degree; the eyes become suffused and sensitive to the light; the mucous membranes of the nose and bronchia become also affected, the patient sneezes and coughs, and all the symptoms denote the intense struggle, in which the whole organism is engaged, to rid itself of the enemy which has taken possession of it.

During the first day or two of the period of efflorescence, which lasts three or four days, the above symptoms usually continue to increase. Sometimes, however, the patient is alleviated at once on the rash being formed. This alleviation always takes place when the rash comes with perspiration, and also under a proper course of water-treatment. If the rash continues to stand out steadily, the symptoms decrease on the third day; the patient becomes more quiet, the pulse slower (going down to 90 and even to 80 strokes per minute); the rash, then, gradually and steadily fades, and finally disappears altogether.—Sometimes the rash fades or disappears too early, in which cases, usually, the internal symptoms increase, the brain and spine become affected, and the situation of the patient becomes critical.

7. THE PERIOD OF CONVALESCENCE,

under the usual drug-treatment, is, however, usually protracted to twice or thrice the duration of the disease, the patient being compelled to keep the house for five or six weeks, especially from fear of anasarca, or dropsy of the skin, frequently extending to the inner cavities of the body, and proving fatal. This dangerous complaint has been more frequently observed after mild cases of scarlet-fever than after malignant cases, probably from the fact that in mild cases the patient is more apt to expose himself, than when the danger is more obvious and all possible care is taken.—Sometimes also severe rheumatic pain, or rather neuralgia, in the joints, swelling of the glands, and other sequels prolong his sickness. I never observed a case of dropsy, or of neuralgia, after a course of water-treatment.

In the mildest form of the disease, called scarlatina simplex, or simple scarlet-fever, there is no inflammation of the throat, the fever is moderate, and the patient suffers very little. Unfortunately this form is so rare, that many experienced physicians never saw a case. Probably, it was a case belonging to this class, which was mentioned a number of years ago by one of the writers on Priessnitz's practice, when a lady with scarlet-fever joined a dancing party at Græfenberg, a case for reporting which the author[2] has been ridiculed by the opponents of the Water-Cure, but which by no means belongs to impossibilities; for scarlatina simplex having been declared by eminent physicians (not of Priessnitz's school) to be "scarcely a disease,"[3] becoming fatal only through the officiousness of the doctor,[4] and other physicians of note recommending cold rooms and open air through the whole course of the disease,[5] or at least towards the latter part of it;[6] I do not see why a patient under water-treatment should not be safer in producing perspiration by dancing than in sitting in a cold room or in walking in the open street. The fact, of course, is unusual, and I do not exactly recommend its practice, but it is not at all impossible, and ridiculing the reporter of it shows either ignorance of the disease or a bad will towards the new curative system, to which those are most opposed who know the least of it.