Dr. Abbott was a professor of Clinical Medicine in the College of Medical Evangelists (now known as Loma Linda University Hospital) located in Loma Linda, California. When this book was first printed in 1912, Dr. Abbott wrote, "The urgent need of a nurses' textbook on hydrotherapy has induced the author to attempt to meet this need. The principles and curative effects are discussed in such simplified language as to be readily comprehended by the average nurse." The directions are simple enough for anyone to follow in their own home. "The procedures of hydrotherapy... [are] excellent and may be said to contain the last word as to what may be done with water. What to use and how to use it are carefully set down and the most inexperienced novice could not fail to comprehend the instructions." -M. E. Cameron, R.N. American Journal of Nursing April 1912, Vol XII, #7, page 615

NATUROPATHIC PHYSICAL MEDICINE provides a philosophical naturopathic perspective, as well as practical clinical applications, for manual and physical approaches to health care. A wide range of bodywork and movement approaches and modalities are evaluated in relation to their ability to be appropriately used in naturopathic treatment and rehabilitation settings. The model of care emphasised in this text recognizes that naturopathically oriented therapeutic interventions usually focus on achieving one or all of the following: enhancement of function so that the person, system or part, can better self-regulate in response to adaptive demands; modification or removal of adaptive load factors; and symptomatic relief without creation of significant additional adaptive changes.