THE HOME.

White Ribbon, Volume 8, Issue 89, 1 October 1902, Page 10

THE HOME.

The Curative Powers of Common WaterV J. H. Kellogg, M.D. Without question, ordinary water, simple, pure, cold water, just as it distills from the clouds, and before it has been contaminated by contact with earth, is by far the most powerful and useful of all known healing agencies. Watei heals, not by any occult or magic power, but by co-operating with the natural forces of the body, aiding those physiological processes by means of which the body sustains itself in health and resists the encroachments of disease.

The simplicity of this curative agent and its cheapness are chiefly responsible for its neglect. We prize most those things which cost most, irrespective of their intrinsic value. A man will exchange a fortune for painted landscape when he can see a finer one any day by looking out of his sittingroom window. When the Austrian peasant boy, Priessnitz, first began the use of water in his mountain village a century ago, the neighbours believed the wonderful cures wrought to be due to certain charms or incantations by which he was supposed to commuicate to the water its healing power. Water is only a simple, rather inert, physical body, chiefly useful as a diluent with which to dissolve our food, to distribute it through the body, and to remove wastes from the inside and dirt from the outside. It is also a means by which heat may be communicated to, or removed from, the body. Yet these simple uses are of such importance to the system that by their exercise water is a more potent and a more universally helpful agent in dealing with disease than any other means, and perhaps than all other means combined, excepting such hygienic measures as are necessary for the maintenance of health and life. To be sure, water has no curative power in itself. The sealing power by which the sick i ; -» is restored to health resides not in ary (hug or remedy of any sort, it is to be sought only in himself There is in every living man, every living thing, a marvellous intelligence by means of which its life is maintained and cared for and its vital processes directed. This power is commonly called nature. The scientist terms it “ The First Great Cause,” “The Unknowable Intelligence.” The enlightened Christian calls this intelligent power God. The same force or being that created man presides at all his functions, from birth to death : puts him to sleep at night, awakens him in the morning ; tells him by hunger when he should eat, and by thirst admonishes him to drink, that his thickened blood may be thinned. This same being restores the weary man, repairs the injured man, heals the sick man. God is the healer as well as t tie creator. By the use of a natural agent like water, we may co-operate with the great healing power which dwells in man, which is abroad in the universe, creating, feeding, blessing, healing.

Let us now look a little into the wonderful ways in which water heals, or rather develops, calls into action, and assists the divine healing process man. When one is weary and exhausted on a hot summer day, instinct—that is, the voice of the divine indwelling intelligence—leads us to seek recuperation and refreshment in bathing the face with cold water. When one is drowsy or dull, he applies to his face the same cooling bath, and in both cases finds himself aroused, awakened, his wits enlivened, his mental faculties quickened. The pale, weary face looks fresh and alert; the dull, sunken eye beams with intelligence; the depressed mien has disappeared. This is certainly a magical change, yet it is so common that the reader, we dare say, has never thought to inquire the reason for so wonderful a tranformation. The Reason Why. The rationale is easy to one who knows the power of cold water; at least a superficial explanation may be readily given. It is to be found in the simple fact that cold water, when applied to the skin, stimulates all kinds of vital work, and arouses the internal organs, each and all, to vigorous action. When applied to the face, cold water stirs up the flagging energies of the brain. Applied over the heart, this organ is made to beat with greater steadiness and vigour. A dash of cold water upon the chest produces a deep, quick gasp and a succession of deep, full inspirations, through stimulation of the breathing organs. So, likewise, a cold compress or douch over the liver causes increased liver activity; over the stomach, cold causes increased

production of pepsin and acid, or gastric juice; over the bowels, it stimulates intestinal activity ; over the loins or the sternum, it increases the action of the kidneys. Thus every organ in the interior of the body may be aroused to increased activity by the simple application of cold upon the skin overlying the organ. But it is necessary that the application should be brief (three or four seconds to as many minutes). This is a wonderful fact, but one which has been as thoroughly established as that the earth is round and turns upon its axis. Here is one plain and simple fact, and a fact of immense importance in dealing with diseased conditions, —that by short cold applications to the skin, we may increase at will the activity of any sluggish part, or any part whose function we wish to increase as a means 'of aiding the body in its battle against the causes of disease. Let us now pause a moment to look at a few examples. We know that the dull, drowsy brain can be awakened to increased and more effective action by even a cold bath to the face and head. By means of a cold bath to the entire surface the whole nervous system may be aroused and stimulated to unwonted activity. Dr Joseph Parker decla es that if he can get a cold bath just before he steps upon the platform, he is master of any audience that can be gathered before him, and he keeps a bath tub in ( a little room behind his pulpit for the ! purpose. A slow stomach may be waked up and set to doing effective work in the I same way by a local or general cold ! bath daily administered. A cold bag . over the stomach for half an hour just before mealtime is a wonderful appetite

awakener, equalled only by the general col J bath, and the ‘"brow sweat,” which is nature’s exaction as the price of a normal desire for food. A Prescription for Cold Feet. The best of all prescriptions for cold feet is to stand in very cold water onehalf inch deep, and rub one foot with the other in alternation for five minutes. It is a good plan to maintain the water at as low a temperature as possible by a running stream. A good way is to stand in the bathtub with the cold-water tap open and the .plug out. At the close of the bath the feet will be red, and will fairly burn with the p.fflux of fresh warm blood. Heat, on the other hand, tends to lessen vital work. So we use heat when we wish to diminish activity. Pain is an evidence of excessive activity. Heat is nature’s great remedy for internal pain. Heat cuts off the influence of cold, and at the same time diverts the blood to the surface in a way which we may explain at some other time Cold, on the other hand, usually increases pain when the seat is some internal organ. When pain and slowed action are botli present, we may obtain relief by employing both agents, first the heat, a fomentation, then a cold compress. We may apply both at the same time, as when we apply for toothache a fomentation to the cheek and an icebag to the neck, under the jaw. We have only enumerated briefly some of the wonderful things that water will do.