The 19th-century water-cure incorporated various holistic health practices. Exercise such as a long walk or mountain climb was critical to treatment; in this English lithograph from 1860, we see patients experiencing an “air douche” of strong wind. Possible side effects of this treatment included losing one’s hat. Wood engraving by O.T., 1860. Wellcome Collection 12097i.
While the Folger Shakespeare Library is known primarily for its early modern collections, it also contains archives from the 18th and 19th centuries. In my research as a Folger fellow, I have focused on one of the early American archives: the papers of Delia Salter Bacon (1811-1859), a public lecturer in history and one of the first people to develop a Shakespeare authorship conspiracy theory.
Bacon’s letter to her brother Leonard, in which she describes the ‘big douche:’ “If ever there was an invention calculated to rouse the latent vitality of a human system I imagine this is it.” Folger Y.c.2599 (64).
Bacon suffered from migraines, pain, and mental health issues for much of her life, particularly as she aged. She sought treatment for these ailments at hydropathic institutes. Hydropathy, or “the water-cure,” was a health treatment developed in the 19th century that emphasized the consumption and external application of cold, fresh water for treating various health problems. Common hydropathic practices included wrapping patients in wet sheets, prescribing various baths, or douching, which required the patient to sit or stand under a cold waterfall.
This lithograph, c. 1830, shows two hydropathic treatments: a male patient wrapped in wet sheets and a female patient having what is probably a sitz bath. It is unclear what treatment the dog is receiving. [1860?]. Wellcome Collection 20236i.
Water treatments, particularly baths and spas, have been used for thousands of years, but the popular hydropathic treatment of the 1800s was developed by Vincenz Priessnitz (b. 1799), an Austrian farmer. Priessnitz claimed to have healed himself of bruised ribs by drinking lots of water and applying wet bandages to his side. 1 Priessnitz’s treatment methods grew in popularity with European aristocracy, resulting in the establishment of hydropathic institutes across Europe and the United States in the 1830s and 40s. In the US, these institutes were concentrated in the mid-Atlantic and New England and were frequented by folks from the upper and middle classes.
In two letters at the Folger, both dated 1846, Bacon describes her experience at the Brattleboro Hydropathic Institution in Vermont, founded by Dr. Robert Wesselhoeft. Bacon’s detailed (and humorous) first-person account shows what it was like to be a water-cure patient at Brattleboro:
“My time here passes very pleasantly. It is true that the wet sheet and the plunge and the walk over the mountains before breakfast, to say nothing of icy sitz baths and foot baths are rather trying to persons of weak faith some of these frosty mornings, but then the reactions & the glorious feeling of life and health with which you spring up these perpendicular rocks and dash down precipices…seems nothing, and the hydropathic breakfasts and dinners and cold water teas and the glorious hydropathic sleeps, mine comes on just about eight o clock, I can not possibly get through with my last bath awake, and wake up every evening with my head in my lap and my feet in a tub of cold water.”
Bacon’s account reveals that the hydropathic cure entailed a number of healthful practices, not just the use of water: long walks and hikes, good sleep, the limited consumption of ‘stimulants’ such as alcohol, tea, and coffee, and a specific diet (usually plant- and grain-based) were all part of daily life at hydropathic institutions.
Bacon and many other water-cure patients describe the effects of their treatments as deeply invigorating. This increase in energy grows even more pronounced after Wesselhoeft sends Bacon to the douche:
It is a stream of water falling perpendicularly 18 feet directly upon you, but it comes pounding down upon you like a steady current of rocks rather than water and you feel as if every bone would be broken. But there the exhilaration is in proportion. There is no mistaking those who come from the douche… I had first taken a four mile walk when I took mine this afternoon and I feel now as if I should have to walk all night to get over the exhilaration.
Despite the shock of being doused in a cold waterfall, Bacon clarifies that the exhilaration she feels counteracts the unpleasantness of the douche. Exhilaration was an important feeling for hydropathic patients; this feeling indicated that the patient was pushing back against the increasingly urban and capitalistic nature of American life.2 Time at a hydropathic institute was believed to restore balance to people’s lives by providing a tranquil retreat away from busy cities and resetting people’s diets and exercise habits.
Another lithograph showing a cold water shower, or douche.[1860?]. Wellcome Collection 20236i.
Even though Bacon doesn’t explicitly discuss this in her letters, many proponents of the water-cure saw the treatment as an alternative to conventional, allopathic medicine, which they believed was too impersonal and reliant upon pills and other medications. Leaning into, and cultivating, public distrust of medical institutions, hydropathic practitioners called upon members of the public to take personal responsibility for their health and health care. Marie Louise Shew, a hydropathic nurse, positions medical self-reliance against the professional medical establishment explicitly in her 1844 text Water-cure for Ladies: A Popular Work on the Health, Diet, and Regimen of Females and Children:
The writer believes in ‘temperance in all things.’ To understand how to be thus temperate, requires an amount of physiological knowledge possessed by few. It implies neither more nor less than the best taking care of the health of the body. To do this, people must learn to think for themselves. The custom of society is not thus. By far too much, we have been in the habit of trusting our health to keepers whose profession and interest are not always most favorable. (iii)
Following ‘temperate,’ alternative health practices demonstrates that one does not conform to mainstream medical attitudes but rather has adopted the desirable position of being an independent thinker and manager of one’s health.
Shew’s words, and the growth of hydropathic practices, appear eerily similar to contemporary wellness influencers. Scrolling through Instagram and TikTok, I have seen hundreds of accounts railing against vaccines, seed oils, carbs, prescription drugs, cardio, etc. Much like early hydropathists, these accounts seem to possess the underlying intent to sow distrust in institutions like the FDA, CDC, and the medical profession in general. They do so using language that could have been plucked directly from Shew’s writing. Indeed, Shew’s call to think for oneself feels like an earlier iteration of the current wellness influencer call to do your own research.
Overall, accounts of 19th-century hydropathy like Bacon’s provide insight into the long-standing relationship between the health practices we adopt, how these practices spread, and what we hope those practices say about our intelligence and individuality. Although specific practices may become vogue or fall out of fashion, these topics persist in the present day. It is through the use of archives found at institutions like the Folger that we can better understand them.
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