In this regard, you are terribly mistaken! The prominent belly of the wealthier people, their red, puffy, and heated faces, which reveal in them a severe state of flushing of blood, all serve as a good indicator of what kind of apparent health this is. In truth, appearances are deceiving, and behind this health and strength, which you envy when you look at well-to-do people, there are two sinister ghosts - "gout" and "blow".

... Thus, a luxurious lifestyle gives the first impetus to the development of the above sufferings. Unfortunately, however, many continue to drink and eat as if they had an indestructible stomach and a second health in reserve... Without exaggeration, it can be said that a good half of people struggle with their stomach. The appearance of most diseases can be attributed to digestive disorders. Gout, rheumatism, diseases of the bladder, liver, and kidneys, hypochondria, satiety with life, and many kinds of nervous sufferings owe their occurrence to the morbid condition of the digestive organs. Thinness, circulatory irregularities, and anemia develop as a result of our immoderation and stomach suffering.8

... The famous banker and millionaire Rothschild once came to Wörishofen, Bavaria, to the no less famous pastor Kneipp, who treated according to the natural method, and asked him to give him advice and help him in his serious illness. Rothschild gave Pastor Kneipp a detailed account of his way of life and how often and what he was accustomed to eating. He spoke at length about the mass of food he ate every day at four or five meals, and finally, after giving a picture of his illness, asked if Kneipp could now tell him what he was sick with, since the doctors made one or another diagnosis. 'Certainly,' said the venerable pastor, 'I can tell you with certainty what you are sick with: you suffer from the absence of a second stomach.'"

-11-

«... Kneipp is a Catholic priest and at the same time a doctor who is a follower of the natural method of healing. He cured a lot of people, and the success of his treatment was sometimes downright miraculous, so that he gained fame both among doctors and among the public...

Pastor Kneipp was born on May 17, 1821... He was the son of a poor weaver, and he was to follow in his father's footsteps. An irresistible desire to become a priest prompted the young Kneipp to flee from the loom at the age of 21."

After many wanderings and deprivations, he lost his health, but in the end he achieved his goal: he received the rank of priest. Chance or Providence, whoever you like, prompted him to hydrotherapy. First of all, he saved himself from death (his physical strength was completely shattered from overwork, and he already began to suffer from chest pain, so that even the professors of medicine could not help him in any way), and then "founded and gradually developed a quite peculiar system of hydrotherapy", by means of which he cured countless other people. He set forth this system in the quickly famous work "My Hydrotherapy; means for curing diseases and preserving health." In a short time, Kneipp cured typhoid and smallpox patients who had lost their voice and even their sight and hearing. In short, he "cured all diseases, with the exception of organic sufferings, diseases inherited or acquired in early childhood, for example, epilepsy (falling)9, and some diseases leading to complete exhaustion, for example, dryness and the like.

As simple as his theory is, so is his method of using water. Cold water is used very carefully and very reasonably: in most cases, the procedure lasts from half a minute to a minute and very rarely longer than three minutes. Rubbing with towels or brushes and drying after applying water did not take place. After each procedure, patients had to warm themselves by walking in the open air, and if they were not able to walk, they were warmed by lying in bed. Not wiping has its undeniable advantages, as a pleasant moist warmth develops, and then an even distribution of blood is obtained. Pastor Kneipp also recommends moving before applying cold water, so that at the beginning of the procedure there is a reserve of normal-12 own heat. "Whoever begins a hydrotherapeutic reception sweating, does best," said the highly respected pastor, making an obligatory exception to this rule only in case of a restless heart. In Wörishofen, all sorts of dousing were used, but the most common use of water consisted in the so-called upper pouring. Two or three full large watering cans of cold water are poured on the patient's back, and each time the stream is given a different direction... After the application of the top dousing Pastor Kneipp sometimes made the patients stand in cold water up to the calves or knees. This procedure should last 1-3 minutes. Sometimes he forced me to walk on the water for 1-5 minutes... For all procedures, the water was taken directly from the source, that is, completely cold. Kneipp was of the opinion that the colder the water, the better, and therefore in winter he added snow to the water.

All of these dual uses of cold water remarkably accelerate and regulate blood circulation. Many of Kneipp's patients had to walk barefoot in the morning during the dew on wet grass, on wet stones or on freshly fallen snow. He even forced many to walk barefoot all day long. In winter, every patient was advised to walk for a few minutes on freshly fallen snow. These procedures are especially good at strengthening the entire body, revitalizing the nervous system, regulating blood circulation and beneficially diverting blood from the head to the extremities."10

Кнейп сам исполнял то, чему учил. «Ежедневно утром он на минуту садился в холодную полуванну и при этом обмывал себе верхнюю часть тела. Как любитель свежего воздуха, он спал ночью даже и в зимнее время при открытом окне11. Он

был убежден, что легкое n равномерное покрытие тела наиболее полезно, и

потому во всякое время года надевал только самую необходимую одежду . Он не терпел, чтобы его пациенты кутались и одевали лишнюю одежду. Кнейп почти не употреблял спиртных напитков и своим пациентам разрешал потребление таковых только в самом незначительном количестве». Но довольно и этих сведений, чтобы получить понятие о методе Кнейпа и о нем самом. Ручательством за правильность его учения служила его европейская, если не всемирная, слава, наличие у него на приеме нескольких сот больных ежедневно и его собст--13-

венное отличное здоровье, которого он добился, будучи первоначально слабым и хилым.