head, the spine and
all over his body, so that no one dared to touch him. The fact of the
packs having been discontinued during twenty-four hours being concealed
from me, and the boy being subject to herpes and inclined to scrofula, I
began to fear that the treatment would not be applicable in such cases,
and became really alarmed about my child. I was then almost a novice in
Priessnitz's practice, at least in the treatment of acute diseases,
which seldom occurred at Graefenberg, and, had I had more confidence in
blood-letting and drugs, I would probably have resorted to them. For a
while I was doubtful about the course I should pursue, when Dr. B., my
medical friend, made his appearance and I learned what had happened
during my absence. Instead, however, of giving way to his earnest
solicitations to rely on the old practice, I at once became encouraged
by his confession, and declared I would persevere in my own practice,
which was quite new to him, and in which no physician of the place as
yet believed. He assured me, from the symptoms, that the boy could not
live twenty-four hours, unless he be bled, and that even then he would
not answer for his life. Having lost six children before under
allopathic treatment, and having never had much confidence in drugs
during the time I had been connected myself with the practice, I firmly
refused to allow either bleeding or drugging, and expressed my
resolution to see what water could do, resigning myself to the
possibility of a bad issue of the case. I need scarcely assure my
readers, that my feelings were far from agreeable, and that my
resolution required all the reminiscence of the bad success of
allopathic treatment of former cases in my family, and the confidence I
had in Priessnitz and his system, to support it. I tried the pack again,
which did little or no good. Judging from the effects of the sitz-bath
in cases of affection of the brain during continued fevers, that it
might be of service also in the present case (Priessnitz's directions
did not go so far, nor had I treated a similar case since my return from
Graefenberg), I put my boy with great care into a sitz-bath of 70 deg. F. and
left him there for a little over half an hour, when he felt greatly
relieved. He was taken to his bed and allowed to become warm, when he
began to complain again. I then packed him, seemingly without much
effect; therefore the sitz-bath was repeated and proved quite
successful. I then pac