Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1826

JOEL SHEW (1816-1855) The hydropathic family physician. Fowler and Wells 1854 viii [9]-816, 4, 4 pp., 3 plates (front.), 279 illus. 18.7 cm.

During the 1840s it has been estimated that well over twenty different medical sects flourished in the United States. Hydropathy was one of those sects and it blossomed in the 1840s and 1850s only to decline soon thereafter. Shew was among the earliest to introduce Vincent Priessnitz's (1799-1851) water-cure system to the United States at the beginning of the 1840s. Although he had studied medicine, Shew abandoned it for hydropathy and became one of the most active and progressive hydropathists in the United States. He operated a number of hydropathic establishments in New York and Vermont and edited the popular Water-cure journal and herald of reform for a number of years. Shew wrote this book during the height of the movements popularity and commented in the Preface that "Hydropathy, or the Water-Cure--a system which has for its prophylactics and medicaments water, air, exercise, and diet, is the greatest of all medical improvements known to man." Shew recognized that there were simply not enough hydropathic physicians available and so his purpose was "to make it the most full and explicit, with reference to the nature, causes, symptoms, and treatment of diseases and accidents, of any work extant" (p. [iii]).