The The Miracle of Water

Hydrotherapy, Body, and Gender in Nineteenth-Century Spain

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of hydrotherapeutic knowledge in nineteenth-century Spain through a critical lens that brings together the history of medicine, cultural studies, and gender studies. By analyzing a diverse range of printed sources—including general and women’s press, specialized publications, medical treatises, advertisements, and literary texts—it explores how hydrotherapy was employed to discipline, shape, and pathologize the female body in both public and domestic spaces. The first section outlines the institutional and theoretical framework in which narratives of regeneration—primarily moral and social—
were embedded, promoted by European hygienist and biological discourses. The second part
analyzes the main types of baths and hydrological therapies, along with their medical applications and social implications. Finally, the article offers a brief overview of literary and journalistic texts that shed light on the socioeconomic dynamics surrounding life in spa resorts.