Hydrotherapy | AdventAI

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 6, 1914

“Hydrotherapy”

To the large number of medical workers who have been acquainted with Dr. G. K. Abbott’s “Hydrotherapy,” the announcement of a new and enlarged edition will be a pleasing one. Much new matter has been added in this, making the work as nearly complete as the present increasing adoption of hydrotherapy in the medical profession, and its development, will permit. Among the additions are: “Insanity and Drug Addictions,” contributed by Dr. Jessie H. Simpson, of the Southern California State Hospital for the Insane; a section on “Prescription Writing and Treatment Combinations,” and one on “Hydrotherapeutic Apparatus and Treatment Rooms.” The results are given also of original research conducted by doctors and medical students of the College of Medical Evangelists.

Part I is entitled “Scientific Basis and Physiologic Effects.” The effects, produced locally and by reflex action of short and prolonged applications of heat and cold, and the mechanism by which these effects are brought about, are considered; as also the properties adapting water to its use in this application.

Part II, “Therapeutics,” is introduced by a discussion of the realm and limitations of physiologic therapy. “Specifics,” so earnestly sought by practitioners of medicine, are not to be found, in the same sense, in hydrotherapy; but “specific results are to be sought by proper adaptation of the treatment to the individual case in hand, rather than by rigid adherence to this or that type of application.” The treatment of fevers and inflammations is discussed in both theory and practice; also conditions requiring stimulant, tonic, and sedative measures.

The technique of the latest methods of applying hydrotherapy, with many illustrations, forms Part III.

The classroom experience of Dr. Abbott, before nurses and medical students, has enabled him to bring out in a clear manner a subject that would bid fair to be uninteresting. The book will be welcomed by many. It may be obtained from the Review and Herald Publishing Association.