Water in the Head was also known as Water on the brain and is now more commonly referred to as Hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is usually due to blockage of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) outflow that is in the ventricles of the brain. A normal person would continuously have fluid circulating through the brain. The excessive accumulation of CSF results in an abnormal dilation of the spaces which causes potentially harmful pressure on the tissues of the brain. These can cause very noticeable enlarged heads in newly borns because the sutures that hold the skull bones together in adults are not yet formed and so the skull is quite soft and pliable, allowing it to expand to contain the increase in contents.
Hydrocephalus may be congenital or acquired. The causes are usually genetic but can also be acquired and usually occur within the first few months of life, which include intraventricular matrix hemorrhages in premature infants and infections. However, the causes are still not well known. In infancy, the most obvious indication of hydrocephalus is often the rapid increase in head circumstance or an unusually large head size. Hydrocephalus is most often treated with the surgical placement of a shunt system. This system diverts the flow of CSF from a site within the central nervous system to another area of the body where it can be absorbed as part of the circulatory process. This condition affects one in every 500 births making it the most common birth defect. Studies show that there are an estimated 700,000 children and adults living with hydrocephalus.
Here's what a medical journal in 1841 had to say about the disease.
Water in the head is an acute disease and is truly an inflammation of the membranes or vessels of the brain, mostly a deep seated inflammation. The presence of the water is merely a consequence of the inflammation rather than the disease itself. The whole duration of the disease, in general, is from 12 to 21 days. It is a very dangerous complaint and the prognosis is always unfavourable.
The disease chiefly attacks children under seven years of age. Injuries of the head in the birth, the whooping cough, small-pox, and scarlet fever dispose to it. And continued irritation from teething, or severe disorder in the stomach or bowels, excessive cold applied to the head, violent agitation of the brain from falls or blow are perhaps the most frequent causes which directly excite the disease. Almost any highly irritating cause may induce it in those disposed to it, but by far the most frequent source is a deranged state of the digestive organs. Some physicians suppose five cases out of six to originate from stomachic and intestinal irritations.
The patient should be placed in a roomy airy chamber, screened from strong daylight, with the head and shoulders slightly raised, and every kind of noise be avoided. Blood must be immediately and freely drawn from the temples, nape of the neck, and arm, by the application of leeches and the use of the lancet, the quantity of the blood drawn being in proportion to the age and strength of the patient and the severity of the symptoms. As soon as the leeches have bled freely, the head should be shaven and be kept constantly covered with cloths wet with ice-water, or vinegar and water. The cloths must be repeatedly renewed directly they contract any warmth.
Of late years, physicians have been become more and more convinced of the great value and necessity of active purging in this malady, more especially in the early stages.
A doctor wrote the following in 1856.
Covering the head of infants with warm caps is attended with many evil consequences, particularly while teething; for the vital activity of the brain being at that time very great, any stimulus which still further tends to augment the determination of blood to the part, may be the cause of convulsions or hydrocephalus.
This dread malady seldom appears before the sixth month, and is of most frequent occurrence between the second and eighth year. Children with a strongly developed skull, a projecting forehead, and deeply seated eyes are predisposed to it. Their intellect is frequently precocious, and a premature application to study increases their liability to hydrocephalus by producing a nervous tension or irritability of the brain, which is itself but little removed from the actual disease. Among the most frequent causes are falls and blows on the head; the exposing it to excessive degrees of heat or cold such as sleeping against a hot fire and going uncovered in the sun or bare-headed in the cold weather; teething; and the stopping of habitual discharges from the ear.
Sources
Various websites, including:
NINDS Hydrocephalus Information Page (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/hydrocephalus/hydrocephalus.htm)
Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal, January 9, 1841 (www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=248883)
A Treatise on the Physical Education of Children, George Hartwig, MD., London, 1856. (http://www.archive.org/stream/atreatiseonphys00hartgoog/atreatiseonphys00hartgoog_djvu.txt)