Priessnitz

PRIESSNITZ (Vincenz Priessnitz, 1799 - 1851), founder of modern hydrotherapy, a peasant from Gräfenberg (a small town in Austrian Silesia), poorly educated but richly gifted. Having become interested in his early youth in treating animals with cold water, and then having tested it on himself, he fanatically believed in its healing power and soon began to treat others with it. The number of people seeking his help increased so rapidly that by 1826 he was forced to open a special hydrotherapy institution, which was the first of its kind and served as a model for many subsequent ones, and itself soon turned into an original resort with worldwide fame. Here, P., using a richer and more suitable material, and partly with various suggestions from others, continued to successfully develop his treatment methodology and improve the technique of hydroprocedures, introducing his own new, original methods. Considering the accumulation of 'bad humors' in the body as the cause of diseases and convinced that they could be removed only by the body's own forces, specifically through 'crises' which were sometimes quite distressing for patients, and moreover not by medicines but exclusively by the forces of nature, P. based his method of treatment on the energetic application of cold water both internally (drinking 12 to 20 glasses a day) and externally (the most diverse procedures, but especially cold baths, showers - in the form of falling water streams from a height in the open air, dry and wet wraps, compresses) in combination with increased sweating and simultaneous use of diet, air, exercise, and general regimen. With proper selection of patients, appropriate individualization, and firm implementation of treatment for many months, P., with rare exceptions, achieved good, and sometimes even brilliant results. Through his successful activities, P. forced the medical world to pay more serious attention to hydrotherapy (see), and thus greatly contributed to its further, already scientific, development.