animal bath
{{Short description|Therapeutic envelopment}}
An animal bath or balneum animale is a medical treatment in which the skin or carcass of a freshly slaughtered animal is wrapped around the patient. The treatment's goal is transference of the animal's vitality to the patient, with the warmth of the treatment perhaps having a therapeutic effect. The treatment has been used since antiquity and was thought to be effective for lameness.{{citation|title=Chambers's Encyclopædia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmYMAAAAYAAJ&dq=Chambers's%20Encyclopaedia%20%22Volume%201%22%201868&pg=PA746|year=1868|volume=1|page=746|publisher=W. & R. Chambers}} The young Kaiser Wilhelm II had a left arm palsied from birth and was given this treatment.
History
Animal baths were used since antiquity as medical treatments. The skin or carcass of a freshly slaughtered animal is wrapped around the patient or a limb was inserted into blood or stomach of a living animal. The treatment was intended to transfer the animal's vitality to the patient, with the warmth of the treatment perhaps having a therapeutic effect.
Indication and effectiveness
Animal baths were thought to be effective for lameness.
Recipients
The young Kaiser Wilhelm II—whose left arm was palsied from birth—was given this treatment; his arm was placed in the body of a freshly slaughtered hare for 30 minutes twice a week to encourage it to grow normally.{{citation |page=[https://archive.org/details/youngwilhelmkais00rohl/page/45 45] |title=Young Wilhelm: The Kaiser's Early Life, 1859–1888 |author=John C. G. Röhl |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-521-49752-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/youngwilhelmkais00rohl/page/45 }}