best of health, and would do so, were they only to regulate their diet, improve their style of cookery, and occasionally open their windows; and as for the carbonates, they are consumed in the provinces by the ton. The labouring classes escape because their diet is remarkably simple. Porridge disagrees with no one, and sowens are certainly salutary. But sour bread, tough mutton, dough dumplings, and tea like a decoction of senna, carry woe and pain to the interior of many a tradesman who piques himself on his gentility for maintaining a drudge to do the whole domestic work, cooking included, for a stipend of thirty shillings by the year.

But enough of this. We have written ourselves out of what we confess to have been rather a sulky humour; and now approach, calm and appeased, to the more cheerful consideration of the cure.

Far from us be the audacity of impugning the soundness of the system pursued by any section of the medical faculty. We delight in doctors, who are the best friends of frail humanity, and the least quarrelsome fellows you can meet with anywhere, except when they wrangle among themselves. No

other class of men enjoy life with so keen a zest and relish, or are so indefatigable in their efforts to promote the happiness and welfare of mankind. They are, too, we say it in all seriousness, the most disinterested of mortals; for although disease is their harvest, we find them always true and faithful monitors, warning us against the evil habits that tend to the destruction of health; and if we were wise enough to profit by their maxims, to live rationally, and to avoid all manner of excess, few would be the fees accruing to the successors of Machaon and Podalirius. But doctors differ. No doubt they do ; but what is implied by that insinuation? Is not society made up of differences? Theologians, judges, lawyers, political economists, philosophers of every imaginable kind, and

VOL. XC.-NO. DLII.

practical men of every degree, down to the very tillers of the soil, agree in one thing only-which is, to differ.

Difference is the soul of the universe, the source of all improvement-even Quakers would give up the ghost from plethoric obesity if they did not occasionally refresh themselves by promoting a row in the conventicle. Who so pugnacious as a parson? And if those to whom the cure of souls is committed cannot always abstain from belabouring their cassocked brethren, why should we expect more temperance from the men who have the cure of bodies? For ourselves, we acknowledge freely that few things give us greater delight than a regular medical set-to. The combatants are never yokels-they are always well matched in the ring, in splendid training, and full of pluck and science. There is no foul hitting, but each champion directs his fist right at the knowledge-box of his antagonist, and frequently it is dif ficult to decide which of them is entitled to the honour of having drawn the first claret. The worst of it is that neither of the combatants will give in. They are such gluttons that no amount of punishment suffices to extinguish their wind; and when darkness has settled upon the earth, and the rushlights in the lanterns have burned out, the umpire has no option save to declare that the battle has been fairly drawn.

This kind of pugilism-or, to vary the metaphor, contentionmay appear to some aged persons highly indecorous; but there can be no doubt whatever that the public have been gainers thereby. Unappreciably fractional was the number of the victims whom the amiable Madame Laffarge sent to the grave compared with those who were scientifically poisoned, not more than thirty years ago, by practitioners who administered mercury. use of the lancet, once employed on every trifling occasion, is now almost universally condemned-an anathema which, we venture to

2 E

The

think, has been pushed to the extreme, since, in some cases of acute attack, blood-letting operates as a sure relief when other medical means are unattainable. Monstrous drastic doses are no longer in fashion; and it is tacitly admitted that a deluge of apothecary's stuff does not tend to promote longevity. Without presuming to express any opinion on the merits of homoeopathy, we cannot ignore the fact that we are largely indebted to the followers of Hahnemann for having earnestly and consistently protested against the copious administration of drugs. Whether their infinitesimal globules are really efficacious or not, is a question for men of science to decide. We, who are not scientific, distinctly refuse to commit our selves one way or the other, just as we abstain from avowing a disbelief in the reality of apparitions, though personally we were never favoured with any supernatural communica

tion.

But doctors, however skilful, cannot work absolute miracles. Quacks, no doubt as witness their advertisements-pretend to absolute infallibility, and recommend their nostrums as immediate and effectual remedies for all the ills that flesh is heir to. But they are, almost without exception, rank and impudent impostors, for whose sake we are tempted to regret the abolition of the punishment of the pillory. The true practitioner, on the contrary, is as modest as he is wise, and never undertakes to perform what he knows to be practically impossible. Few are the maladies that will not yield to proper treatment if they are taken in time; but it is astonishing how prone we are to neglect the earlier symptoms, and to delay having recourse to medical advice until the disease has fairly established itself within the system. That is peculiarly the case with regard to stomachic affections, which men are apt to consider casual and trifling, until some fine day or other they awake to the conviction that their digestive organs are seriously dis

ordered; and then, indeed, they rush to the doctor, confessing their sins, and demanding an immediate remedy. That is, to all intents and purposes, the same thing as asking him to perform a miracle. He knows very well that extreme functional derangement is not curable by any speedy process, and that the pharmacopoeia does not contain the Medean recipe, by means of which old son was restored. He knows that the curative process, of whatever kind it may be, must bear some proportion to the extent and endurance of the ailment; and that a radical change in the habits of the patient is more likely to prove efficacious than the administration of tincture or of potion. Dyspeptic people oftentimes take serious offence at what they consider to be the apathy of their medical attendants in not plying them with frequent prescriptions, whereas they ought to feel profoundly thankful that they have for their advisers men of sense and probity, who adhere to the maxim, that all kinds of medicine, unnecessarily taken, are hurtful to the human frame.

It may be laid down as an incontrovertible position, that no person afflicted by dyspepsia can hope to recover if he obstinately persists in remaining at home and persevering in his former habits. After the complaint has reached a certain stage, even change of diet will not restore him; the stomach rebels against bread and water quite as violently as against beef and claret, and abstinence is of no avail. The great organ, in a healthy state, will digest any kind of food that is not positively deleterious-if seriously distempered it strikes work altogether, and favours arrow-root as little as venison. When the curative process has fairly commenced, attention to diet is doubtless of the utmost importance; but let no man flatter himself that he can starve his stomach into subjection. Recollect it is not now a question of preserving, but of restoring the health. Means much more strin

gent than any dietetic arrangement must be adopted in order to exorcise the demon who has got possession of your body.

It is quite possible that exercise and change of air might have that effect without resorting to any other mode of treatment. But, as we had occasion to observe in our former paper, all sort of exertion is abhorrent to the victim of advanced dyspepsia. You cannot coax him into action. The bare idea of a walk of four miles is enough to make him nervous. He no longer derives delight from the contemplation of beautiful scenery, and he would not stir thirty yards from his hotel to inspect the rarest picture gallery or most celebrated cathedral of the world. He may once have been addicted to sporting, but that taste has departed from him. He can gaze unmoved at the most promising trouting stream without experiencing a desire to wet a fly in the water; and he invariably excuses himself from going out to the moor, either on the plea of occupation at home, or on account of the inclemency of the weather. This is no hypothetical case, nor is it by any means an uncommon one. The athletic Titan has, all of a sudden, been metamorphosed into a tottering pantaloon.

To ask a person in that condition to throw a knapsack over his shoulder and scale a mountain, would be as absurd as to request Mr Bright to perform a saraband on the tight rope. His system requires thorough bracing and renovation, and that must be effected by some process less violent and repulsive than pedestrianism. At this point the differences of the doctors become very apparent. One practitioner is decidedly in favour of sea-bathing. Another pronounces for Malvern and hydropathy. A third confidently recommends a course of mineral waters. Water is the agent relied on by all the three, but they differ as to its application. Possibly they are all of them right, and a radical cure may follow the adoption

of any of the modes; but it does. seem to us that the two first are liable to some little criticism.

Of the bracing effect of salt-water baths there can be no doubt; but men are not Tritons, and cannot dwell for ever in the sea. Two dips per diem is the outside that our climate will permit, and that is not enough to cleanse and purify the blood. Sea - bathing during convalescence is a splendid strengthener; but it will not purge out the radical evil; and therefore we regard it rather as an auxiliary than as a positive means of cure.

Such strong and enthusiastic testimony has been borne to the value of hydropathy by highly educated men, who have chronicled their own sensations, that we must, per force, give credence to the efficacy of that system. Yet ever and anon a shadow of scepticism steals over our mind, for the practice of packing in wet sheets does not tally with our preconceived ideas, or quite reconcile itself to our reason. It was the tradition of our youth and the belief of our manhood that dry clothes were to be preferred to wet ones, and for the last two summers (as they were satirically misnamed) any gentleman who had a fancy for hydropathy might have had enough of it and to spare, by simply putting on his hat and sallying forth without an umbrella. Few were the days on which he could not secure the luxury of a thorough soaking, without the trouble of uncasing himself, and getting a hulking fellow to tie him up in linen, and besprinkle him from a water-pot as though he were a vegetable marrow. It is said that by this process all impurities are brought out through the pores of the skin, and what are called crises superinduced; and we have heard more than one excellent person assert with exultation that, after a tight course of packing and asperging, they have brought forth as fine a crop of boils and blains as could have been exhibited in Egypt during the prevalence of the plague. Some people may regard such a re

sult as eminently satisfactory, but we cannot aver with truth that we feel any anxiety to emulate the leopard in his spots. Notwithstanding all that we have heard, we retain our belief that one cold bath every morning-plunge, or shower, or both combined-is as much ablution as is good for the human frame; and even though we were tempted by the offer of having Undine for our attendant, we should steadfastly refuse to remain for half the day in perpetual dripping.

That seems to us to be the weak, or, at any rate, the debatable point of hydropathy. All the rest of the treatment-early hours, active exercise, plain wholesome food, and unlimited goblets of the pure element are unexceptionable; and we cannot doubt that such establish

ments as those of Malvern and Ben Rhydding are admirably calculated to renovate the system, and to bring back health to the debilitated in valid. But we are by no means certain that it is the best remedy for dyspepsia, however well it may be calculated to counteract other

forms of disease.

A course of mineral waters is the third kind of remedy; and that it is far superior to the others, if the water selected-which is a matter of the utmost consequence-agrees with the constitution of the patient, we do most religiously believe. For these papers do essentially embody and set forth our own personal experiences. He who addresses you, gentle reader, has been for a long time a sufferer from severe dyspepsia, brought on by habits too sedentary, and aggravated, perhaps, by toils and cares, inevitable and beyond control. He has felt, in his own person, many of the sensations which he has described; and that he feels them no longer, but absolutely revels in the luxury of renovated health, is owing to the benefit he has received from a six-weeks' course of mineral waters in Germany. It is proper that he should state so much; but to be more specific would be imprudent, because

that kind of cure should never be resorted to without competent medical advice, and to rush blindly to one spring on the faith of another person's recommendation would be as stupid a blunder as pilfering the prescription which your neighbour has received from his doctor, and applying it for your own relief, without considering the parity of symptoms or the state of the development of the disease.

It seems to be a doubtful question whether the virtues of mineral springs were fully understood by the ancients. Ovid, in his "Fasti," when referring to the springs of the Numicus, has the following couplet :

"Invenies illic, qui Nestoris ebibat annos: Quæ sint per calices facta Sibylla suos.' But, alas, the context seems to favour the notion that the Quirites were tossing off Falernian, or, more probably, the filthy Sabine. The waters of Lethe, if mineral, must have been decidedly apoplectic, and those of Phlegethon were flaming punch. Numa the Wise, we apprehend, did quaff a salutary tumbler or two before breakfast; for so, in despite of Niebuhr and Sir George his matutinal visits to the grotto Cornewall Lewis, we must interpret the ancients- confound themof the nymph Egeria. But then had gizzards as hard as turkeys. They never slew themselves by intellectual work, as many of us are induced to do; but took everything easy, and made even hydropathy a luxury, as is shown by the

distich:

"Balnea, vina, Venus, mortalia corpora solvunt;

Sed vitam faciunt, balnea, vina, Venus."

Charlemagne was probably the first eminent medieval character who brought the springs into fashion, for he regularly took a course of the waters at Aix-la-Chapelle; and it must have been delightful to see Oliver, Orlando, and the other Paladins cooling their coppers of a fine morning with rummers of the sparkling elixir.

England boasts of Cheltenham, Harrowgate, and Leamington, all of them doubtless springs of rare excellence, but decidedly nauseous and unpalatable. Now, although for the sake of health we would not hesitate to drink a daily quart of brine, we desiderate a more agreeable fluid, being of opinion that the mouth is generally the best judge of what is good for the interior, and holding, moreover, that very potent purgatives are not the best for eradicating the complaint. In Scotland we have but few watering-places, and none of remarkable efficacy. Strathpeffer, Moffat, and the Bridge of Allan are nevertheless much resorted to, and in their respective seasons, crowds repair to the wells and guzzle water without stint or measure. No discretion is observed by those daring deglutators of the element. The prevalent notion seems to be that the more tumblers a man can swallow, the speedier will be his cure; and, to judge from the quantity consumed, one would naturally suppose that the patients were afflicted with an unappeasable hereditary thirst. No symptoms of hydrophobia there, but a vigorous contention for the pitcher. Now this is a vast mistake. All kinds of mineral water should be used cautiously and in moderation, and never without medical assurance that they are strictly suitable for the removal of the complaint. Such waters, being for the most part highly medicated in nature's laboratory, may prove really dangerous to persons who take them under the vague idea that the draught cannot prove otherwise than wholesome a notion very common among the peasantry, who regard "the well" as a specific for every sort of disease. But none of the Scottish Spas has more than a local reputation; and for healing waters the invalid must pass beyond the seas that encircle Great Britain.

Germany is the land of fountains specially dedicated to Hygeia, and the number of these is legion. Not uncelebrated have they been even in this country; for who has for

gotten that amusing volume, Bubbles from the Brunnens of Nassau, which all at once made famous the villages of Schwalbach and of Schlangenbad? Beautiful are the Taunus Mountains, not far from the storied Rhine; but less estimable are they for their beauty than for the aquatic. There, in a thousand perennial cisterns, deep down in the bosom of the kindly earth, are stored the blissful waters that can restore strength to the debilitated frame, renew the elasticity of the limbs, refresh the weary spirit, and reanimate the vital energies! There lies the true physic, compounded by the hand of nature, which no art of the apothecary can rival.

But, excellent as is their virtue, they must not be rashly approached. Each spring has its peculiar quality; and a thorough knowledge of this has become of itself an important department of science. Necessarily there are but few physicians who have studied minutely the properties of so many waters; and our best home practitioners, though very frequently recommending their patients to try the efficacy of the baths and springs of Germany, rarely indicate the spot, referring them to some foreign authority, for whose skill and attainments they can vouch, and who, beyond deciding on the proper spring, can give minute directions as to the amount of water to be taken and the diet which must be rigidly observed. Again we say, all honour to our doctors; for, in acting thus, they act nobly and disinterestedly, and maintain by deed as well as by word the brotherhood of science throughout the world! And, as if to make security doubly sure, the physician of the highest repute for his knowledge of the various springs of Germany-we see not why we should abstain from naming so eminent a man as Dr Spiess-resides in Frankfort, away from local influences, and as entirely unswayed by considerations apart from the condition of the consulting patient, as was the ancient oracle of Delphi.