Priessnitz
Full Name: Vincent Priessnitz
Achievements: Introduced hydrotherapy in the nineteenth century.
Born: October 4, 1799; Graefenberg, near Freiwaldau Austrian Silesia [now Jesenik, Czech Republic]
Died: November 28, 1851; Graefenberg (Aged 52)
Field & Discipline: Medicine; Hydrotherapy
Education: Freiwaldau School, to 1807
Life & Times:
During his childhood Priessnitz began to take an interest in the natural methods of healing used by the rural practitioners around Graefenberg, and by the age of 15 he had taken over his father's farm and become a locally-known healer of both people and animals, often using cold water for the treatment of injuries and illnesses.By 1820, Priessnitz' fame as the "water-doctor" had spread to Bohemia and Moravia, and he was frequently visited by patients. His lack of all medical training and his growing popularity angered many qualified physicians who believed him a dangerous quack, and between 1821 and 1828 he was three times brought before the local magistrates on charges of unlawful practice, but was acquitted each time.While the therapeutic qualities of water had been known for hundreds of years, and spa towns had become fashionable health resorts during the 18th century, what was new about Priessnitz' 'hydropathic' methods was that he used cold water only, usually in the form of cold baths and compresses.
By the late 1820s Priessnitz had developed his own theories regarding medicine and health, in which health was the body's natural condition, and ill health was the result of introducing foreign matter into the body.Acute disease was the body's attempt to expel diseased matter, and Priessnitz believed that the only element able to assist this process was cold water. He rejected regular medicines and therapy entirely, and insisted that cold water treatment was the only way to reverse the disease process, by bringing an acute condition to a crisis, which then expelled the destructive matter from the system.
His techniques included the withdrawal of all drugs, the promotion of sweat followed by swift immersion in a cold bath, with wet bandages and special baths designed for every part of the body. His patients drank twelve glasses of water a day and gave up alcohol and rich food for a diet of coarse brown bread, butter, and milk for breakfast and supper, with meat and vegetables for lunch. Meanwhile, the Alpine mountains provided clear, bracing air and the opportunity for healthful exercise.
In 1829 he was finally prosecuted for unlawful practice and sentenced to imprisonment by the Freiwaldau magistrates. Priessnitz appealed against the sentence, and the verdict was suspended.Then, in 1831, he received official permission to run his hydropathic establishment if only cold water, and no pharmeuceuticals, were used. Complaints were renewed against him during the 1830s, resulting in an official investigation of his activities and procedures at Graefenberg by Baron Turkheim of the Imperial Home Office in Vienna. Turkheim made an extensive and highly favourable report, in which he observed that Priessnitz strictly adhered to the basic laws of health, and used only cold water in various ways as a curative. The Home Office refused to close the Graefenberg spa, and in the same year Priessnitz was issued an official licence to practice medicine.
From this point onwards, Priessnitz' colony at Graefenberg flourished, and he had now become internationally known as a water healer. By the early 1840s he had already treated some 7,000 patients (the majority from the wealthy middle and upper classes), and had built a large house and complex that could house 300-400 clients at any one time.His methods had also become more complex, having replaced his simple wet sponge treatments with a system of baths and douches, including the wet sheet, the sweating blanket, the plunge bath, the sitz bath, and the falling douche (columns of water falling down from 12-19 feet onto the patient), all intended to purge the body of its toxins and to stimulate its "vital force."
In 1841 he was visited by, among others, the English physician [a follower was]James Wilson* who, after a successful treatment for a digestive ailment and serious skin complaint (which involved 500 cold baths, 2,400 sitz baths, 480 hours in wet sheets, and 3,500 glasses of cold water) returned to England and established an 'English Graefenberg' with [a follower was] Gully* at Malvern in 1842.
During the 1840s Graefenberg reached the height of its popularity, and by the time of his death Priessnitz was a rich man. Other hydropathic establishments were created along similar lines in England and elsewhere during the second half of the 19th century.These included the famous sanitarium of the Seventh-day Adventists at Battle Creek, Michigan, set up by Mrs Ellen [a follower was] White* in 1866. However, the practice fell into a decline in Europe, although it was kept alive at Battle Creek and elsewhere in the United States, through in particular the efforts of [a follower was]Kellogg, JH*.
Assessment: Although water therapy is still used to treat certain ailments, its effectiveness is generally accepted to be limited.
Oneliner: Vincent Priessnitz, early promoter of hydrotherapy
Bibliography:
- Metcalfe, Richard, The Life of Vincent Priessnitz, Metcalfe's London Hydro Ltd: Richmond, Surrey, 1898.
- Turner, E.S.,Taking the Cure,London: Michael Joseph, 1967.
Language: German
Father: Unknown
Mother: Unknown
Siblings: Four elder siblings: one brother died 1805
Spouse: Sophie ? (1805-54), married 1828
Children: One son: Vincent Paul;