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purslain, sorrel, scurvy-grass, and acids of all kinds, is strongly recommended. The mouth should be frequently washed with red wine, in which wild pomegranate flowers have been boiled. The gums, when swollen and livid, should be opened with a pair of scissors, or pricked with a tooth-pick, and the blood expressed from them; and they should then be rubbed with honey of roses, or warm wine. When the gums are ulcerated, the mouth should be frequently washed with a decoction of hyssop, sage, scurvy-grass, rosemary and the like, in water mixed with wine, to which a little spirit of scurvy-grass may afterwards be added. Sulphuric acid diluted in water, or spirit of salt mixed with honey of roses, is also serviceable for rubbing the gums; but it is better that these applications should not come in contact with the teeth. The juice of limes and pomegranates is considered still more efficacious; and the frequent chewing of scurvy-grass, sorrel, and water-cresses, is also recommended.

Against the aching of the teeth in this disorder, some medical men extol the effect of brandy in which myrrh has been for some hours infused, and which is to be applied to the aching tooth. Some prescribe a decoction of myrrh in wine, mixed with a little sweet oil for rubbing the gums and teeth, to fasten the latter and to preserve them from decay.

Many other remedies are employed to counteract putridity of the gums and looseness of the teeth. I will describe some of them. Two drams of gum-lac, one dram of whiting, and ten grains of red rose leaves, are reduced to a fine powder, which is either applied as a salve to the gums, mixed with a little honey of roses, or as a lotion with a decoction of red rose leaves, tormentil root, &c. in red wine.

To prevent putrefaction of the gums and looseness of the teeth, recourse must be had to such applications as I have specified in my last paper for the preservation of sound teeth. In addition to them, the chewing of tobacco is recommended as the surest preservative. It must be used, however, with moderation: four grains of the leaf are sufficient at one time, and this must not be taken oftener than once a day, nor kept in the mouth longer than a quarter of an hour. The betel-nut or wild-pepper, which, as every body knows, is chewed all over the East Indies, possesses the peculiar properties of staining the lips red, cleansing the gums, and contributing to the preservation of the teeth, though indeed it turns them black.

Tooth-ache may proceed from a gouty affection, when the gouty humour either retrocedes from the joints, or is flying about the body, before it has fixed in any part. The symptoms of the irregular or misplaced gout characterize this species of tooth-ache, which is more of a raging pain than the ordinary kind of that complaint. I shall give a brief account of the general mode of treatment for this disorder.

After the patient has been bled, he should next morning take a cathartic. A blister must be applied to the nape of the neck, and kept drawing so long as the importance of the case requires it. At the same time all possible means, internal and external, must be used for driving the humour into the members.

To expel as speedily as possible any gouty humour that has already settled in the teeth, the patient should chew and keep in his mouth scraped horse-radish, which occasions a copious flow of saliva. When

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the excessive pain absolutely requires the extraction of the tooth, the place which it occupied should be washed with water in which honey and salt have been dissolved, and the tooth replaced. The practitioner, however, need not tie himself down to the procedure here described, but may pursue any other that is equally applicable in its stead.

To the Physician.

SIR,-Your papers seem to me to evince a liberality of principle which induces me to propose to you to take some public notice of a communication which I have just received from a friend on the Continent. It relates to a subject of considerable interest-an infallible cure for a painful disorder, which, if verified by experience, would cut off an important branch of the practice and profits of you medical gentlemen, and relieve your unfortunate patients at the expense of nothing more than a sufficient dose of faith and prayer.

There is not, I should presume, a member of your profession in the United Kingdom, but is acquainted with the history of the wonderful cure of a nun belonging to some Catholic institution or other in Essex, through the interposition of a German prince, Alexander von Hohenlohe, as attested by the learned physician to the establishment. Be it farther known then to you, and to all whom it may concern, that the said Prince of Hohenlohe has recently published at Bamberg a religious tract, to which is appended a paper, which serves to let the uninitiated into the secret of his process for the cure of bodily diseases, and incontestably proves that our most notorious nostrum-mongers, our Brodums, our Solomons, our Williamses, and our Whitelaws, are mere fools in comparison with this prince of quacks and miracleworkers.

The paper in question, which bears the title of An Effective Prayer against Gout (or Palsy, for the German word includes both disorders) is as follows:

"In the name of God the Father, &c. &c. &c. Amen.

"I, N. N. conjure thee, gout, by the holy five wounds, and by the innocent blood of my Lord Jesus Christ, which flowed out of his holy five wounds for the salvation of us men on earth +++. I conjure thee, gout, by the last judgment and by the severe sentence which God will pronounce on all mankind, and on all sinners, male and female, that thou harm not any of the members of my body-neither my brain, nor my eyes, nor my shoulders, nor my back, nor my heart, nor my loins, nor my arms, nor my thighs, nor my legs, nor my toes, nor any of the members of my whole body +++. I conjure thee, gout, by the three nails which were driven through the blessed hands and feet of Jesus Christ, by the saints who stood on both sides of the cross of our Redeemer Jesus Christ at the time of his crucifixion, namely, the most Blessed Virgin and Mother of God, Mary, St. John, and all the saints who were present at the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this confidence I trust that, through the intercession of St. Barbara, God will, if it be conducive to my salvation, avert the gout from me, and confer on me all good things. Ah! gracious Lord, save me, I pray thee, from this disease, the gout. I pray thee by the cords, bonds, and nails by which our Redeemer was secured, bound and

nailed to the holy cross, that +++ for the sake of his sufferings he would bestow his grace on me and all men +++. I conjure thee, gout, that thou depart, by the divine love in heaven and on earth + ++. May every species of this disease depart from me, whether it be -[here follow some of these species, for which I shall not pretend to give you the technical appellations, but merely a literal translation of the original]-the cold gout, the running gout, the burning gout, the raging gout, the flying gout, the gout in the loins, the gout in the side, the seventy-seven gouts, that they do no harm to my body. So help me the holy divine power, with which Jesus Christ suffered his cruel death on the cross, in his holy grave in which he himself lay, and whence he gloriously rose, and has redeemed the human race. Dearest Lord and Saviour, make me sound in soul and body! Grant this, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost! Amen."

"Whoever hath the gout, let him come and turn to the recollection of the sufferings of Jesus, and to the name Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judœorum. Whoever reads or has read it, whether our friend or foe, brother or sister, and carries this prayer with him, and lives according to its precepts, will be delivered from the gout, and not be attacked by it; for he who suffered the shameful death of the holy cross was our blessed Lord Jesus Christ: this is the Lord of heaven and earth; he condescends to relieve us and to take away the gout from us, so that we may never have it again, or to preserve us from it altogether.

"Let every one say, as long as he lives, every day in honour of the members of Jesus Christ, five Paternosters and five Ave marias, together with the Creed."

Such, observes my friend, is the prayer, and such the direction appended at Bamberg in the year 1822, to a religious tract destined for the use of the lower classes, and which bears on the face of it the name of the Prince of Hohenlohe. Should it be really by this prince, priest, and worker of miracles, gouty believers will at least feel deeply indebted to him for making them acquainted with this remedy, and thus sparing them the trouble and expense of a journey to his reverence-unless, indeed, he may have staggered their faith a little, by directing them in the prayer to hope that the gout will be averted, if it be conducive to their salvation; whereas the subjoined exhortation promises unconditionally to every one, even though a foe (meaning us heretics, I suppose), who shall carry this prayer about him, and live agreeably to its precepts (but where, in the name of wonder, are these precepts for a Christian life to he found in it?) that he shall be relieved from the gout, or exempted from it altogether.

You, Sir, may possibly suspect that this precious composition itself must be afflicted with the gout, since there are parts in which it hobbles most lamentably. I have been more solicitous to present you with a faithful transcript of the original than to cure it of any of its constitutional defects, which I leave to your management, being, Sir, your obedient servant, but No PHYSICIAN.

London, April, 25, 1823.

THE DIVER.

A BALLAD TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN,

"WHERE is the man who will dive for his King,
In the pool as it rushes with turbulent sweep?
A cup from this surf-beaten jetty I fling,
And he who will seek it below in the deep,
And will bring it again to the light of the day,
As the meed of his valour shall bear it away.

“ Now courage, my knights, and my warriors bold,
For, one, two, and three, and away it shall go—"
He toss'd, as he said it, the goblet of gold
Deep, deep, in the howling abysses below.-
"Where is the hero who ventures to brave
The whirl of the pool, and the break of the wave?"
The steel-coated lancemen, and nobles around,
Spoke not, but they trembled in silent surprise,
And pale they all stood on the cliff's giddy bound,
And no one would venture to dive for the prize.
"Three times have I spoke, but no hero will spring
And dive for the goblet, and dive for the King."
But still they were silent and pale as before,
Till a brave son of Eirin, in venturous pride,
Dash'd forth from the lancemen's trembling corps,
And canted his helm, and his mantle aside,
While spearman, and noble, and lady and knight,
Gazed on the bold stripling in breathless affright.
Unmoved by the thoughts of his horrible doom,
He mounted the cliff-and he paus'd on his leap,
For the waves which the pool had imbibed in its womb
Were spouted in thunder again from the deep,-
Yes! as they return'd, their report was as loud
As the peal when it bursts from the storm-riven cloud.

It roar'd, and it drizzled, it hiss'd and it whirl'd,
And it bubbled like water when mingled with flame,
And columns of foam to the heaven were hurl'd,
And billow on billow tumultuously came;

It seem'd that the womb of the ocean would bear
Sea over sea to the uppermost air.

It thunder'd again as the wave gather'd slow,
And black from the drizzling foam as it fell
The mouth of the fathomless tunnel below
Was seen like the pass to the regions of hell;
The waters roll round it, and gather and boom,
And then all at once disappear in the gloom.

And now ere the waves had returned from the deep,

The youth wiped the sweat-drops which hung on his brows, And he plunged-and the cataracts over him sweep,

And a shout from his terrified comrades arose ;

And then there succeeded a horrible pause
For the whirlpool had clos'd its mysterious jaws.

And stiller it grew on the watery waste,
In the womb of the ocean it bellow'd alone,
The knights said their Aves in terrified haste,
And crowded each pinnacle, jetty, and stone,

"The high-hearted stripling is whelm'd in the tide, Ah! wail him," was echoed from every side.

"If the monarch had buried his crown in the pool And said: 'He shall wear it who brings it again,' I would not have been so insensate a fool

As to dive when all hope of returning were vain ;
What heaven conceals in the gulfs of the deep,
Lies buried for ever, and there it must sleep."

Full many a burden the whirlpool had borne,
And spouted it forth on the drizzling surge,

But nought but a mast that was splinter'd and torn,
Or the hull of a vessel was seen to emerge,
But wider and wider it opens its jaws,

And louder it gurgles, and louder it draws.

It drizzled, it thunder'd, it hiss'd and it whirl'd,
And it bubbled like water when mingled with flame,
And columns of foam to the heaven were hurl'd,
And flood upon flood from the deep tunnel came,
And then with a noise like the storm from the North,
The hellish eruption was vomited forth.

But, ah! what is that on the wave's foamy brim,
Disgorged with an ocean of wreck and of wood,
'Tis the snow-white arm and the shoulder of him
Who daringly dived for the glittering meed:
'Tis he, 'tis the stripling so hardy and bold,
Who swings in his left hand the goblet of gold.

He draws a long breath as the breaker he leaves,
Then swims through the water with many a strain,
While all his companions exultingly heave
Their voices above the wild din of the main
""Tis he, O! 'tis he, from the horrible hole
The brave one has rescued his body and soul."

He reach'd the tall jetty, and kneeling he laid
The massy gold goblet in triumph and pride
At the foot of the monarch, who instantly made
A sign to his daughter who stood by his side:
She fill'd it with wine, and the youth with a spring
Received it, and quaff'd it, and turn'd to the King.

"Long life to the monarch! how happy are they
Who breathe and exist in the sun's rosy light,
But he who is doom'd in the ocean to stray,
Views nothing around him but horror and night;
Let no one henceforward be tempted like me
To pry in the secrets contain'd in the sea.,

I felt myself seized, with the quickness of thought
The whirlpool entomb'd me in body and limb,
And billow on billow tumultuously brought
Its cataracts o'er me; in vain did I swim,
For like a mere pebble with horrible sound

The force of the double stream twisted me round.

But God in his mercy, for to him alone
In the moment of danger I ever have clung,
Did bear me towards a projection of stone:
I seized it in transport, and round it I hung,
The goblet lay too on a corally ledge,
Which jutted just over the cataract's edge.