Dietetical and Medical Hydrology. A Treatise on Baths; including
Cold, Sea, Warm, Hot, Vapor, Gas, and Mud Baths; also, on the
Watery Regimen, Hydropathy, and Pulmonary Inhalation: with
a description of Bathing in Ancient and Modern Times. By
John Bell, M. D., Member of the American Medical Associa-
tion, &c. &c. Philadelphia: Barrington & Haswell. 1850.
12mo. pp. 658, including a very copious index.
The name of the author of this admirable volume has been too
long and too honorably associated with the subject of which it
treats, to need any special introduction to notice at our hands. It
would be natural, without such a previous reputation, to look for
something that would do honor to the American Medical Press,
from an editor, lecturer and writer of his veteran experience and
standing ; nor will the reader be disappointed in his expectations.
In the particular department of “ Hydrology,” Dr. Bell has
long been without a rival. In the midst of crowds of self-
sufficient hydropathists, and a few worthier but less importu-
nate competitors, his original essay has maintained its place above
them all, as the only classical authority. The hygienic and
therapeutic precepts of his “ Baths and Mineral Waters ” had
become established laws amongst us, many years before the
blundering charlatanisms of Preissnitz, and his imitators, had
emerged from their appropriate obscurity. In short, no one who
knows any thing of the leading American medical books, can fail
to recognize, in the title page above, many topics that must plea-
santly remind him of a well-tried and valued monitor, under
whose guidance even the unprofessional and uninitiated reader
would have little to learn, and less to fear, from the new-fangled
empiricisms of the Graefenberg pretenders.
The new treatise, however, is neither in scope, objects or extent,
a mere reprint of the old. A very cursory examination of its
pages will demonstrate, what the author tells us in his preface,
that he has “ enlarged on all the topics of his former work,” and
“ has added new ones—so far as relates to baths and bathing,”
while mineral waters are left out to “ form the subject of a sepa-
rate volume.” His endeavor was “ to exhibit a systematic view
of the operation and effects of the different kinds of baths on the
animal economy, as well in its healthy as its diseased states.”
The book is intended for all classes of readers, although the
general student is studiously warned that he will find much that
he can not and ought not, as an unprofessional man, to be inter-
ested in; while there is abundance left that must be regarded as
property common to all. We cannot help viewing such a com-
bination as too strongly savoring of the hybrid in its character
and influence, to increase the scientific value of the work. The
attempt to serve two very different parties, in this manner, under
the same cover, with dishes that may be unpalatable to the one
and unwholesome to the other, must be at all times an experiment,
to say the least of it, of doubtful policy. We would be glad,
therefore, for many reasons which need not be dwelt upon at length,
io see the popular portions of the book entirely separated from the
strictly medical, and given to the public unencumbered with what
can prove harmless as well as interesting and useful to the pro-
fessional reader only. Still, for the sake of the great benefit the
intelligible precepts and peculiar information will confer upon all
who may be induced to read them, we are extremely thankful to
our author for his book precisely as it is. We would hail it
gladly in its present shape, and cheer it onwards in its course,
were it only for the desire its author manifests to contribute to-
wards the “ increase of the public health and of individual comfort
and pleasure.” These philanthropic interests, he thinks, would
be powerfully promoted by bringing into greater vogue the prac-
tice of bathing, to the study of which, in all its aspects, his pages
are devoted. He has our most cordial wishes in behalf of so
laudable an ambition; and we shall be most happy if any sym-
pathy of ours can aid him in pressing on a consummation which
is notoriously and most lamentably needed in the land.
It would be impossible, within the space to which the present
sketch is necessarily confined, to do justice to the merits of the
work in an extended appreciation of its principles and facts, or to
attempt to discuss the particular tenets of the author. We must
restrict ourselves, therefore, to a brief enumeration of the leading
topics of the different chapters, as they appear in regular order
of succession.
After some preliminary remarks in regard to the neglect of
bathing in England and the United States, and upon the structure
and functions of the skin, together with the proper care of
this latter in its relations to clothing, exercise and cleanliness, he
enters in extenso on the history of bathing in ancient and modern
times, and among different people. Then comes the individual
consideration of Baths, in their varieties, nature, materials and
hygienic management. These topics occupy the first fourteen
chapters. With Chapter 15th begins the study of the “ Watery
Regimen,” which is continued in a very instructive and enter-
taining manner throughout the nine succeeding chapters. In
Chapters 25th, 26th, 27th and 28th, we are favored with a full
account of Hydropathy, which will be read with great interest and
advantage by the skeptical as well as the believers in that would-
be system of the healing art.
The five chapters next in order are devoted to the Cold Bath in*
each of its numerous and important relations ; among which its the-
rapeutic uses in febrile, exanthematous, hemorrhagic, neuralgic
and other diseases of different types and tissues, are fully shown.
Then, in the course of Chapters 30th, 34th, 35th, 36th and 37th,
we have Sea Bathing under all its aspects. Upon this subject, it
may be as well to remark, that Dr. Bell has freely availed himself
of the tract of M. Gaudet, who as medical inspector of the baths at
Dieppe for a period of eleven years, had acquired a great deal of
valuable experience, the results of which are not to be found
elsewhere.
The Warm Bath comes next in order of succession, and is pre-
sented to us, under a great variety of heads, in five very interesting
chapters. The Hot Bath succeeds the warm bath in two equally
instructive chapters, and is followed in five more, including the
50th, by the account of the Vapour, Hot Air and Fumigation
Baths, and their varieties, uses and effects. In chapters 51st,
52d and 53d, we have the subject of “ Pulmonary Atmiatry,”
or Inhalation in all its forms, including that of ether and chlo-
roform. The three concluding chapters are occupied with the
consideration of the different kinds of Medicated Baths; under
which are included natural and artificial mineral waters, mud
baths, gas baths, iodine, mineral acid, compressed air and
common air baths. A copious and unusually complete index
very appropriately concludes the volume. We take leave of
the whole work with regret; not merely on account of the
pleasure experienced in its perusal, but because its intrinsic ex-
cellence inclines us to pay it more respect than can be shown
in the present meagre notice. If the man who makes two
blades of grass grow where only one grew before, be a benefac-
tor to his race, surely he deserves well of his countrymen who
bestows upon them a genuine new book. How’ much heavier the
obligation, then, if that book brings agreeably and forcibly before
the general mind a matter which comes home to the physical and
moral interests of every member of society.
These are our sentiments, and they lead us once more to thank
Dr. Bell for his unique production. We receive it not only as a
boon and an honor to the American Profession, and to our coun-
trymen in general, but as a tribute to humanity at large. And we
qj?e happy to know that it comes as the forerunner of another gift
from one whose public and private life have long since stamped
him as a true lover of his fellow-men, and an able as well as
earnest advocate of all that is likely to improve their physical and
mental being.