author
Charles Munde
A 19th-century physician and hydrotherapy advocate, remembered for writing about water-cure methods at a time when scarlet fever was a major threat. His surviving work offers a glimpse into an era when medicine, public health, and alternative treatment ideas were still taking shape.
1 Audiobook
Hydriatic treatment of Scarlet Fever in its Different Forms
by Charles Munde
About the author
Charles Munde was a 19th-century doctor associated with the water-cure movement in the United States. Records from the National Library of Medicine and Wellcome Collection connect him with a water-cure establishment in Florence, Massachusetts, and with published medical writing on hydrotherapy.
He is best known for Hydriatic Treatment of Scarlet Fever in its Different Forms, a work that presents water-based treatment for scarlet fever as the result of many years of experience and the treatment of numerous cases. The book reflects the strong 19th-century interest in hydropathy, when physicians and health reformers often promoted bathing, wraps, and other water treatments as serious medical practice.
Only limited biographical detail is easy to confirm from reliable public sources, so much of his life remains faintly outlined today. Even so, his writing survives as a useful historical document for listeners interested in early medical history, alternative healing traditions, and the changing ideas of disease treatment in the 1800s.