hydropathy
(haɪˈdrɒpəθɪ)
[mod. (= G. hydropathie), f. hydro-, on analogy of allopathy, homœopathy, the second element of these words having been vaguely apprehended as = ‘treatment’ or ‘cure’ of disease.]
A kind of medical treatment, originated in 1825 by Vincenz Preissnitz at Gräfenberg in Germany, consisting in the external and internal application of water; the water-cure.
| 1843 Sir C. Scudamore Med. Visit Gräfenberg 1 On hydropathy, or the water-cure treatment. 1858 Darwin in Life & Lett. (1887) II. 112 On Tuesday I go for a fortnight's hydropathy. 1869 R. T. Claridge Cold Water Cure Pref. 3 Hydropathy was practised at Gräfenberg..twenty years before it was known in England. |