Richard Barter (physician)

Richard Barter (1802 to 3 October 1870) was an Irish physician and proponent of hydropathy, born in Cooldaniel, County Cork. He trained at the College of Physicians in London, became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1828 and returned to Ireland as a dispensary doctor at Inniscarra. After seeing hydropathy used during the cholera epidemic of 1832, he opened St Ann's Hydropathic Establishment at Blarney, County Cork, in 1844. He worked with David Urquhart on the first Victorian Turkish bath in Great Britain and Ireland, begun at Blarney in 1856, and later adapted the design into a hot air system based on Roman baths. He built baths across Ireland, including in Dublin, and lectured widely on his patented bath system, which he claimed prevented and cured disease. He died at Blarney. Nothing here is medical advice.