Women were especially enthusiastic about hydropathy, often because they rejected the methods regular physicians used for treating female disorders and childbirth. This treatment method for hysterics was recommended in the 1851 Water-Cure Journal. Hysteria was a diagnosis in the ancient world and in 18th and 19th centuries female hysteria was one of the most commonly diagnosed “disorders.”
To learn more about the history of medicine and questionable cures, see Discovering Quacks, Utopias, and Cemeteries