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In the early nineteenth century, physicians designed the first manufactured showers for the purpose of curing the insane. Sustained falls of cold water were prescribed to cool hot, inflamed brains, and to instil fear to tame impetuous wills. By the middle of the century showers had appeared in both asylums and prisons, but shower-related deaths led to their decline. Rather than being abandoned, however, the shower was transformed by the use of warm water to economically wash the skins of prison and asylum populations. In stark contrast to an involuntary, deliberately unpleasant treatment, by the end of the century the shower was a desirable product for the improvement of personal hygiene and population health.

New Findings: What is the topic of this review? This is the first review to look across the broad field of 'cold water immersion' and to determine the threats and benefits associated with it as both a hazard and a treatment. What advances does it highlight? The level of evidence supporting each of the areas reviewed is assessed. Like other environmental constituents, such as pressure, heat and oxygen, cold water can be either good or bad, threat or treatment, depending on circumstance. Given the current increase in the popularly of open cold water swimming, it is timely to review the various human responses to cold water immersion (CWI) and consider the strength of the claims made for the effects of CWI. As a consequence, in this review we look at the history of CWI and examine CWI as a precursor to drowning, cardiac arrest and hypothermia. We also assess its role in prolonged survival underwater, extending exercise time in the heat and treating hyperthermic casualties. More recent uses, such as in the prevention of inflammation and treatment of inflammation-related conditions, are also considered. It is concluded that the evidence base for the different claims made for CWI are varied, and although in most instances there seems to be a credible rationale for the benefits or otherwise of CWI, in some instances the supporting data remain at the level of anecdotal speculation. Clear directions and requirements for future research are indicated by this review., (© 2017 The Authors. Experimental Physiology © 2017 The Physiological Society.)

Between 1886 and 1893, the doctor and hygienist Ricardo Jorge was linked to a commercial and medical project on the waters of Gerês. Known for many centuries and used for therapeutic purposes, they were administered on an empirical basis. When new chemical analyses were first published, the empirical properties of these waters took on a new role in hydrotherapy based on their now proven mineral and medicinal qualities. The article discusses in detail Ricardo Jorge's business venture, framing it in the context of the economic collection and treatment potential of mineral waters and the revival of the phenomenon of hydrotherapy, legitimized by new developments in the chemical analysis of waters. The commercial failure to exploit the water resources highlights the difficulties of this project and the complexity of the professional practice of hydrological medicine, although it resulted in a strengthening of Ricardo's authority and prestige in the field of hydrotherapy.

This study discusses the historical significance of the Natural Cure Movement of Germany, centering on the Kneipp Cure, a form of hydrotherapy practiced by Father Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1897). The Kneipp Cure rested on five main tenets: hydrotherapy, exercise, nutrition, herbalism, and the balance of mind and body. This study illuminates the reception of the Kneipp Cure in the context of the trilateral relationship among the Kneipp Cure, the Natural Cure Movement in general, and modern medicine. The Natural Cure Movement was ideologically based on naturalism, criticizing industrialization and urbanization. There existed various theories and methods in it, yet they shared holism and vitalism as common factors. The Natural Cure Movement of Germany began in the early 19th century. During the late 19th century and the early 20th century, it became merged in the Lebensreformbewegung (life reform movement) which campaigned for temperance, anti-tobacco, and anti-vaccination. The core of the Natural Cure Movement was to advocate the world view that nature should be respected and to recognize the natural healing powers of sunlight, air, water, etc. Among varied natural therapies, hydrotherapy spread out through the activities of some medical doctors and amateur healers such as Johann Siegmund Hahn and Vincenz Prie βnitz. Later, the supporters of hydrotherapy gathered together under the German Society of Naturopathy. Sebastian Kneipp, one of the forefathers of hydrotherapy, is distinguished from other proponents of natural therapies in two aspects. First, he did not refuse to employ vaccination and medication. Second, he sought to be recognized by the medical world through cooperating with medical doctors who supported his treatment. As a result, the Kneipp cure was able to be gradually accepted into the medical world despite the "quackery" controversy between modern medicine and the Natural Cure Movement. Nowadays, the name of Sebastian Kneipp remains deeply engraved on the memories of German people through various Kneipp spa products, as well as his books such as My water Cure and Thus Shalt Thou Live! Wörishofen, where Kneipp had served as catholic priest as well as hydrotherapist for 42 years from 1855, changed its name to "Bad Wörishofen" ("Wörishofen Spa" in German). The Kneipp Cure and the Natural Cure Movement became a source of ecologica l thought which is currently gaining more and more sympathy from German people. It is regarded as a lieu de mémoire (site of memory) reflecting the collective identity of German people.

In recent years, more attention has been given to Charles Lucas's medical career, in its own way just as interesting and important as his better-known political campaigns. Lucas's first concentrated period of medical activity was in the 1730s, when he had qualified as an apothecary, the second in the 1750s, following his flight from Ireland and achievement of qualifications in medicine. Having been prominently involved in the campaign which led to the 1735 drugs regulation act, in 1741 Lucas published a pamphlet, Pharmacomastix, which detailed abuses common in the apothecary's trade and pressed for more radical controls. His most substantial medical work, An Essay on Waters, was published in London in 1756, being devoted to analysis of European spas and the promotion of hydrotherapy. Lucas was able to return to Ireland in 1761 and was elected MP for Dublin city. While politics occupied most of his time until his death in 1771, Lucas maintained his interest in matters medical, securing the passage of another drugs regulation act in 1761, which remarkably is still on the Irish statute book.

Therapy with water has been known for thousands of years. Hot water bath was always pleasant for people. During the 19th century it was applied for the treatment of several diseases and modern medicine should not miss it. Today balneotherapy may help gymnastic procedures and it is commonly used in combination with other types of physiotherapy, too.

There are frequent and doom-laden messages concerning impending water shortages but the consequential negative effects on the availability of waters for healing and the factors underlying the decline in the use of water therapies in some parts of the world are ignored. This article reviews the evidence for the medicinal uses of water, past and present, showing how ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Celtic and Hebrew societies all used water for medicinal purposes, sometimes in conjunction with herbal medicine. Water treatments consisted of hydrotherapy (techniques of therapeutic bathing and use of water), balneotherapy (therapeutic bathing in medicinal and thermal springs) and thalassotherapy (the therapeutic use of ocean bathing and marine products) and these treatments continue to be used to the present day although their use in the Anglo-Saxon world is diminised. Factors in this decline are the lack of research funding and the availability of allopathic medicine. In ancient society, the factors underlying the efficacious healing properties of water may have been ignored and its benefits instead attributed to divine sources. Latterday science, however, from the 19th century to the present, has isolated those factors in water that have health-giving properties.

The relationship between orthodox (mainstream) medicine and heterodox (fringe) medicine during the nineteenth century continues to puzzle historians of medicine. Though many have qualified the sharp antagonism between the two as a (biased) historical construct, it remains difficult to lay bare the common problems that structured mainstream and fringe. In this contribution on the reception of hydrotherapy in the Belgian fin de siècle, I attempt to rethink the oppositional character of nineteenth-century fringe medicine at an empirical level. In many ways, I argue, Belgian hydropaths were prototypical proponents of medical heterodoxy, as they defended neohumoralist medical conceptions and shared an integrated Catholic "cosmology". Their moderate critique of bacteriological science, however, also echoed the unease felt by many established physicians. In their pretheoretical beliefs about the healer's intuition, they voiced traditional conceptions that stemmed not from the fringe but from everyday bedside medicine. The popularity of hydrotherapy, I argue, reflected one of many attempts to save a common "cultural doxy" shared by established physicians and heterodox healers alike, in the wake of bacteriology's analysis and standardization.

Summary: This article explores domestic practices of hydropathy in Britain, suggesting that these formed a major contribution to the popularity of the system in the mid-nineteenth century. Domestic hydropathy was encouraged by hydropathic practitioners in their manuals and in the training they provided at their establishments. We argue that hydropathy can be seen as belonging to two interacting spheres, the hydro and the home, and was associated with a mission to encourage self-healing practices as well as commercial interests. Home treatments were advocated as a follow-up to attendance at hydros and encouraged as a low-cost option for those unable to afford such visits. Domestic hydropathy emphasized the high profile of the patient and was depicted as being especially appropriate for women, though in many households it appears to have been a common concern between husbands and wives.

This research describes nurses' experiences in administering "the water cure," hot or cold wet sheet packs, and continuous tub baths in state mental hospitals during the early twentieth century. Student and graduate nurses were required to demonstrate competence in hydrotherapy treatments used to calm agitated or manic patients in the era before neuroleptics. The nurses interviewed for this study indicated that, although labor intensive, hydrotherapy worked, at least temporarily. Although no longer used in state hospitals, hydrotherapy is regaining popularity with the general public and may serve as an adjunct to pharmacological treatments to calm hospitalized patients in the future.

Vinzenz Priessnitz (1799-1851) did not only carry out water treatments within the scope of his cure, but also movement therapy, aerial and solar baths, natural lifestyle and, above all, diet therapy. According to the literature Priessnitz only seldom allowed starvation within his cure because this would break his preferred principle of restoration. Nevertheless, the widely unknown 'Vinzenz Priessnitz family water book' which he dictated to his daughter Sophie in 1847, includes 13 orders of starvation for a series of indications (breast inflammations, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, cholera, intestines inflammation, tapeworm) and symptoms (diarrhoea and vomiting, heart cramp, head woe, faint, stone pains, feeling of sickness). Furthermore, it comprises diet recommendations on cold water drinking, milk and cold confection of pastry, compote and buttermilk, vegetables, fruit and strawberries, fruit and frozen food, no meat, little meat and cold food. In the view of the literature, these diet principles and means as well as their applications then and now are discussed. As for those days the Priessnitz diet was quite modern, manifold, logic and 'natural'.

James Currie was born and educated in Scotland but spent most of his professional life in Liverpool, where, as physician to the Liverpool Infirmary, he campaigned against the unsanitary living conditions in the rapidly growing port. He was an early advocate of water cures for fever and other maladies, on which subject he carried out experiments and published a seminal work. He was a pioneer in the use of the clinical thermometer. He was also an early advocate of the abolition of slavery and a man with literary and scientific interests, which brought him into contact with many of his most distinguished contemporaries. These included Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), William Wilberforce (1759-1833), Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) and Robert Burns (1759-96), of whose poetry Currie was the first editor. He died in August 1805 at Sidmouth in Devon, whose parish church carries his memorial.

The reports of Władysław Jasiński (1827-1903), Józef Surzycki (1855-1937) and Józef P. Drzewiecki (1860-1907), XIX century Polish physicians from the hydrotherapeutic infirmary in Worishofen are described with full particulars. The Kneipp's hydrotherapeutic methods are presented in more details. The Worishofen's physicians at that time are outlined. The critical view of therapeutic methods in Worishofen by Polish physicians is depicted. The importance of hydrotherapeutic methods for contemporary and present medicine is thoroughly described.

Vincenz Priestnitz (1799-1851) and Wilhelm Winternitz (1835-1905) were creators of world hydrotherapy. Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1893), the priest at Worishofen, the owner of the hydro-therapeutic infirmary where are found precursors of many hydro-therapeutic methods. He was the author of several popular books based on his experience. The book "My water treatment" is best known. He was also a builder of the curative houses, such as: Sebastianeum, Kneip pianeum, Kinder-Asyl. About 25 thousand people from far-away lands yearly were Kneipp's patients. Pourning, wrapings, compresses, rinsing off, total-baths and partial-baths were used often. The aim of this paper is to present Kneipp's silhouette and his sometimes uncritical hydro-therapeutic methods.

This article explores attempts by French colonial doctors in Guadeloupe to treat tropical pathologies with water and altitude cures, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. Assuming that high morbidity rates in the Caribbean were caused by the area's inherent 'toxicity', Europeans turned to mineral water and high-altitude spas, both for the reinvigoration of settlers and to 'season' new arrivals. Guadeloupean spas, though utilized by indigenous, black, creole, and white Guadeloupeans alike, soon emerged as replicas of France in the tropics, and served the socio-medical function of immersing the colonial body in familiar waters. The French obsession with 'healthful space' led to the creation of an 'administrative' quarter precisely in the region of Guadeloupe's spas around Basse- Terre (actually the highest part of the island). The arrival of germ theory in the nineteenth century did not fundamentally alter the rationale for water and altitude cures in Guadeloupe. Tracing the history of these 'folk-cures'--often admonished by colonial doctors as 'common sense', but in reality an integral part of the tropical medical canon--sheds light on some of the underlying dynamics, tensions, and continuities of French imperial medicine.

Caelius Aurelianus provides in his work Tardarum sive chronicarum passionum, based on Soranos' famous, but lost, work about acute and chronical illnesses, a remarkably detailed description of the physio-therapy of paresis, which covers the complete therapeutic spectrum of the groundwork of a combined therapy. His view that rehabilitative treatment should be started from the second day of illness sounds almost revolutionary. Also, modern early rehabilitation makes a specific use of combined therapy in a way that is analogous to that described by Caelius Aurelianus. Even today, the view is taken that fast mobilisation of the patient is the top priority of therapy. The three-stage mobilisation therapy involving exercises in rolling-in-bed as well as practice in trying-to-sit-up is quite similar to what is common practice today.

The large scope of therapies that Priessnitz used for his cure treatments in Gräfenberg completely fell into oblivion. More than 50 different applications of water, partly created by Priessnitz, dietary therapy for every patient, a lot of physical exercise, air as well as sun baths, improvement of fitness, and a regular life style were included in Priessnitz' treatments. He treated a variety of indications, not only chronic but also severe acute ones. The Vinzenz Priessnitz'sche Familien-Wasserbuch is a real treasury of forgotten facts about the genius who was the first to rediscover and remodel hydrotherapy before Kneipp., (Copyright 2002 S. Karger GmbH, Freiburg)

Homeopathy was taken up by a vicar in Northern Iceland around 1850 and was very well received right from the beginning. Soon other lay-men and folk-healers took up homeopathy, either partly or entirely, and their practice expanded quickly. Hydropathy was brought to the country at about the same time as homeopathy, but it was brought by a physician, Jón Hjatalín, who became Director General of Public Health in Iceland in 1855. He introduced the method to other physicians by his teachings and to the public in his writings. By his untiring preachings about the benefits of water he most likely got the public to think and act about hygiene sooner than they would have done otherwise. Regarding homeopathy, Dr. Hjaltalín, tried repeatedly to point out that those who wanted to practice it, had to have some qualifications but both the population and the authorities saw that as unnecessary and the Icelandic parliament (Altinget) sided strongly with the homeopaths, even to the point of taking a stand against the physicians. The parliament tried to legalise homeopathy and in 1911 it passed a law that made it legal for anybody to practice homeopathy. No licence or proof of qualification was demanded. The result was that almost every folk-healer took up homeopathy, to a lesser or greater degree, with or without much knowledge of the method. A comparison of the number of patients who visited a homeopath and a local doctor in the same area show that as soon as a doctor became easily accessible, and medicine became better and safer, patients preferred the doctor to the homeopath. The numbers also show that the homeopath always kept a number of patients, indicating that there may always be a market for some alternative to doctors.

Many different forms of treatment have been used with patients suffering from depression. It can be difficult to examine current treatments and anticipate problems, mistakes, and limitations. However, a historical perspective allows an appreciation of the strengths and limitations of older treatments, and sheds light on current strategies. A variety of effective treatments have been discarded and forgotten. Important lessons can be learned by reviewing the history of treatments for depression. Many treatment strategies were based on accidental discovery, but nonetheless were found effective in reducing the symptoms of depression. Both case examples and group studies have documented the effectiveness of these older treatments. A review of discarded treatments reveals how a biological model can be limited in its ability to produce a lasting cure. Caution and skepticism are encouraged when innovative treatments are proposed.

Once identified, an illness is met or fought against by an appropriate therapy. The diverse use of water holds a significant place among the therapeutic means which had been developed in Western medicine ever since antiquity. The essay deals with one particular form of application, namely, the gush of water. Focus is laid on the period around 1500. As the relevant medical treatises are based directly on Greek or Roman authors (Hippocrate, Galen, Celsus) or are even commentaries of Arabic handbooks in their Latin translations (Avicenna, Rhazes), antique medicine inevitably had also to be taken into account. The pouring of water, alone or in combination with other prescriptions, was applicable in a variety of illnesses as fevers, pains of the joints, psychic diseases, or even headaches. To counteract the causes (or symptoms) of a disease the water quality could be adjusted by changing its temperature, by adding certain substances (oils, herb extracts or decoctions) or by varying the way of application. The gush of water could serve many purposes and was prescribed to soothe, to refrigerate, to stop a swelling, to widen pores, to shock the patient and even, given the underlying humoural conception of men's nature, to draw away humours from one part of the body to another. The water gush, hence, was not restricted to be used in the case of one particular illness only but was considered an almost general therapeutic means.

Following the lead of the Lancet's attacks in the 1840s, historians have considered hydropathy and hydropathists in Britain as part of fringe or heterodox medicine. Yet the distance between varieties of orthodox theory and practice and hydropathy was small, and many of the most prominent hydropathists held orthodox views and qualifications. Examining the educational backgrounds and careers of 40 early British hydropathists, the authors suggest that hydropathy and hydropathic establishments, like specialists hospitals, asylums, and spa practice, provided an alternative niche to general practice in the crowded British medical market and a way to 'fame and fortune' for medical men outside the metropolitan élite.

Since the eighteenth century, the dominance of orthodox or allopathic medicine in the West led to the branding of other forms of medicine as alternative. However, research shows a narrowing in the gap in popularity of the two methods and it is possible to envision a time when alternative medicine and mainstream medicine will work in tandem. As the West completes a year of millennium celebrations and looks back to the events that shaped the founding of the first millennium two thousand years ago, it is appropriate to increase our understanding of the form medicine took at that time. Research on Qumran and other biblical sites shows that the therapies offered there were based on alternative therapies such as herbal medicine and hydrotherapy as well as conventional therapy such as surgery. The article shows that the twin reliance on alternative and orthodox methods emerging today, marks a return to a pattern of provision which prevailed at the time the first millennium was born.

The achievements of Vincenz Priestnitz, Sebastian Kneipp and Wilhelm Winternitz for the development of hydrotherapy are presented at the beginning. The professional and scientific activities of Winternitz are strongly pointed out. Eugeniusz Piasecki (1872-1947), the Polish physician and theorist of physical education impressions from Vieneese Clinic of Winternitz are depicted widely. The role of Winternitz in formation of modern hydrotherapy in Polish territories is presented finally.

Are briefly remembered the healing significances of woods and springs--together and separately--in ancient times. At first there were religions cults of them (health Goods, water and woods deities, temples, etc.). Subsequently there were their medicinal, lay uses especially of water. The Spas and Thermae of ancient Rome are well known. Importance in therapeutics of parks and gardens around Spas begins in XVIII century, in Europe. Greater care of parks close mineral waters springs was taken in XIX century, in North America (U.S.A., Canada). Here their importance in Ecology and Medical Hydrology was stressed. Today the use and diffusion of thermal parks can be proposed in order to environmental Psychology and to environmental Therapeutics.

During the first decade of the twentieth century the prolonged bath treatment was introduced as a therapy for restless patients in Dutch psychiatric institutions. They were kept for hours or days at a stretch in lukewarm water, in order to calm them down. It became a common treatment, which nevertheless was gradually replaced by occupational therapy. The rise of psychopharmacology during the fifties of this century marked the end of the prolonged bath treatment.

Water has long been considered an effective means of therapy for mental disorders. Its use, however, was divided along class lines during the nineteenth century. After presenting a brief background of the general conditions of the insane in Norway around the mid-nineteenth century when modern psychiatry entered the scene, I will present some examples of developments in hydrotherapy--fashionable bath resorts for the rich, and the use of prolonged baths as coercive treatment for asylum paupers.

In this paper we present some elements of the history of 'scientific' psychiatric hydrotherapy and, moreover, of a particular form of the water-purifying ritual--that is, foot washing--among the populations living in Greece and in Orthodox communities in the Balkans. We speculate on the reasons that caused the virtual disappearance of the former, while the latter still flourishes.