Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1895 — Short Work With Patients. [ARTICLE]

Short Work With Patients.

To diagnose patients at the rate of two and a half a minute seems pretty quick work. According to a German contemporary, this is about the average performance of Pastor Kneipp, of cold water fame, at Woerrishofen. When receiving patients on a busy day the pastor sits at a long table in a large plainly furnished room, smoking a hugh cigar. He dictates his “prescriptions” to an assistant in a solemn tone, as if he were presiding at a religious ceremonial. Men, women and children of every station in life file past him. In an hour and a quarter lie gets through 180 without difficulty. There is no examination, and few questions are asked. Indeed, there is little necessity, for cold water baths and bandages and walks on wet grass with bare feet exhaust the worthy pastor’s pharmacopaeia. There is one exception—an ointment composed of honey and medical herbs for those who suffer from diseases of the eye. But then the ointment is a sovereign one for everything, and so Pastor Kneipp manages to break the record as au oculist as well.