10/10/2025
Nurses administering a sprinkling bath to a patient with typhoid fever. Typhoid fever is an infection caused by a strain of the salmonella bacteria, usually transmitted through contaminated food or water. It can cause a high fever of up to 104° F (40° C), which lasts for 1-2 weeks. In the early 20th century, before antibiotics were available, the main treatment for typhoid was hydrotherapy, also known as the "water cure." Sprinkling was one such method. The patient would be placed on a raised bed that is covered with rubber and linen sheets. Then, "the water, at a temperature ten or twelve degrees cooler than would ordinarily be used in the bath, is applied from a sprinkling pot or from an irrigating apparatus," while a nurse applies friction to the patient. Image from A Handbook of Practical Treatment, ed. John H. Musser, M.D., L.L.D., and A.O.J. Kelly, A.M., M.D., (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company), vol. 1, 1913.
