Hydropathy
The water cure system – called hydropathy by its adherents – believed that the key to good health was to be surrounded by water. If water was the source of all life, then it could be a panacea and cure all ills.
Thus, practitioners surrounded themselves with water -- they internally took water and promoted drinking only water and shunning other beverages such as tea and coffee; externally, they took baths and showers, wrapped themselves in wet towels, or sat in saunas.
These sorts of treatments were meant to replace drug prescriptions, which practitioners believed were poisoning the body; instead, the body would thus be purified with the panacea of water and result in good health.
