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Rh thousand years was quite sufficient to enable mankind to become acquainted with the proper use of water as a therapeutic agent; yet if Hydropathy is true, all the wise men and philosophers, of ancient and modern times, groped their way in darkness and ignorance upon this subject until a German peasant, by the name of Priessnitz, made the discovery that water is an universal panacea which is to supersede the use of all other medical means.

In 1831 Priessnitz set up the first hydropathic institution at Grseffenburgh. The lovers of novelty soon gathered around him, not in dozens or scores, but by hundreds and thousands, curious to see and try, for the first time, the sanative power of this universal element. The unexpected patronage which this new lazaretto received, induced individuals to set up others in Germany, Saxony, Bohemia, Bavaria, and other parts of the continent of Europe. Like a mighty deluge, the water mania spread over Great Britain, and soon reached the United States. Rochester, in the State of New York, had the honor of the first hydropathic institution in America; but that