years of personal suffering. It is for the spirit of levity and resentment alone that I apologize.

The misconception has been fostered that by pointing out the mischievous consequences arising from the use of many drugs, I must necessarily have a dislike, and be an enemy to, my professional brethren. I need only refer to many passages in my own publications, to show that this is far from being just or true. As an example, I am happy in being able to quote the following from my work on the Water Cure: "In my acquaintance there are numbers of medical men for whom I feel the greatest esteem, and there are others who have not long been dead that I almost venerate." These sentiments I hold to be quite compatible with my conviction that mercury and all its preparations are pernicious drugs, and that for any little benefit, on the one hand, that may have been effected by their use, they have, on the other, ruined the constitution, made the lives miserable, and shortened the days of thousands upon thousands of human beings. Nor should it be considered a want of duty or consideration for my professional brethren, to assert my conviction that the practice of the Water Cure will, in due time, make it as evident to the majority of them, as it now is to myself, that these and many other drugs possessing the same injurious properties, are superfluous, and something worse than useless.*

I believe there is no event in the records of medicine, that has startled the profession so much from its propriety as the sudden introduction and rapid progress of the Water Cure. The general impression wished to be conveyed has been that of its being a "dangerous and useless innovation," and that every effort should be made to put it down. Few, however, have condescended to give it the least investigation, or to consider it in any way worthy of attention, further than as a subject for derision or the most virulent abuse. This shutting of the eyes and ears is much to be regretted, but although it may retard, it will happily no more arrest its

*With very little trouble a volume might be filled with examples like the following one, which I have taken from the "Personal Recollections" of that well known and esteemed authoress, Charlotte Elizabeth: she says: "The doctors, into whose hands I had fallen, were of the school now happily very much exploded; they had one panacea for almost every ill, and that was the perilous drug mercury. With it they rather fed than physicked me; and its deleterious effects on the nervous system were doubly injurious to me, as increasing ten-fold the excitability that required every curb. Among all the miracles of my life, the greatest is that of my having grown up, for certainly I was long kept hovering on the verge of the grave, by the barbarous excess to which medical experiments were carried, and I can entertain no doubt that the total loss of my hearing, from ten years old, was owing to a paralysis induced by such severe treatment."-P. 25.

"

progress, than the ostrich in its "delusion and fancied security, stays that of its pursuers, by putting its head under its wing, and closing its eyes in darkness.

In the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal for January, 1844, there is an illustration of this remark in the review of a recent work on Gout and Rheumatism by a learned and talented physician, Dr. Todd. The reviewer concludes by observing:

"It is rather singular, that, in speaking of the treatment required for chronic rheumatism, and especially that for synovial, Dr. Todd says not one word, good or bad, of the influence of the appli Ication of cold water. There seems, nevertheless, strong reason to believe, that, whatever be the merits or demerits of the hydro-therapeutic method, it is remarkably well adapted to this form of disease. This we say from having heard and read a good deal of the efficacy of this mode of treatment, and we think that here it deserves a fair trial. Between the internal use of cold water, indeed, which excludes all pernicious potations, and the external methodical application of cold water, which restores the action of the skin, it seems most rational to think that, if this form of disease be at all curable, it is thus most likely to be cured. The internal employment of cold water, on the one hand, is calculated to alter most effectually all the fluids of the body, and thus remove all morbid elements: a result which we are surprised to find has escaped the notice of this indefatigable advocate of the humoral pathology. The external application of the same element is calculated, by cleansing the surface of the skin, and exciting its action, to restore its energy, and re-establish its functions; and thus remove those diseases which have mainly been produced by its impaired and perverted action."

The learned reviewer mentions the beneficial effects of the Water Cure on Mr. Mayo, Senior Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital. (See his opinion, page 37.)

I have introduced this short notice, as it is not without its importance, being a favourable omen, and a highly gratifying symptom of progression, as occurring in the first medical journal of this or any other country.

The reluctance with which the medical world have listened to the arguments and proofs advanced in favour of the Water Cure, may be excused, or rather explained, on several grounds. In the first place, it is

There have been now some hundreds of patients with gout and rheumatism cured by the Water Cure treatment. Not merely slight cases, but those in which the sufferer had been crippled for years, and notwithstanding the continued use of all the medicines and applications recommended by Dr. Todd. What will do the greatest, will surely do the least. It would be interesting and useful to give a full account of all the medicines and appli cations taken and used by patients whose diseases had been of long standing, before-as a last resource -they were cured by the Water Cure. Gout and rheumatism are now allowed by a great many physicians to be curable by, and particularly adapted to, the hydro-therapeutic method; and yet, if any one had been asked a short time ago, what diseases they thought least likely to be benefited by this mode of treatment, I am pretty cer tain these would have been the first selected. reviewer does not mention our mode of passive sweating and the wet sheet, both powerful remedial agents-J. W.

The

impossible to avoid the conclusion that, if it is generally received by the public, the material interests of the profession as at present constituted are in imminent peril. Its adoption strikes at the root of a vast legion of diseases which are the result of the highly unwholesome mode of life, which is not interfered with, but on the contrary, in some measure, encouraged by the present mode of medical treatment-diseases which cannot occur under the regimé enjoined by the Water Cure. There are some who have boldly acknowledged that interfering with the settled interests of the profession, or their own private interests, is a sufficient reason for adopting every species of opposition.

In the next place-and I am persuaded this is the ground for opposition with the majority-the merits of the subject are entirely unknown, because wholly uninvestigated, or else investigated with a persevering resolution to read only what is written in condemnation. There is sincere dislike at the bottom of this; but may it not be fair ly doubted whether so great a matter is to be settled by so small a view of it? or settled by those who are unacquainted with its principles and practice?

Again, a good amount of opposition is to be laid to the account of that very prevalent pride of the human heart, which disinclines us to follow in the wake of any one, and still more in the wake of one who, like Priessnitz, attached to no school, had the genius and the energy to make one of his own. It is easily conceivable that men who have expended time, trouble, and money, in acquiring the routine of a certain mode of practice at colleges and universities, should, on the principle of the pride alluded to, feel especially disgusted at finding, that an unlettered, uncertified peasant has struck out another mode of practice which supersedes in its efficacy, in its adaptation to the wants of nature in disease, and its rules for warding off disease, that which has cost them so much time, trouble, and money. That old mode of practice is to them as a vested interest; and we all know the fight that men will make for that. And not less fiercely will he fight against all who tend to "diminish his head," and make his wisdom appear foolishness. However, we must take human nature as we find it; and ere this we have seen it give up its pride and its prejudices before the strong and unconquerable array of facts; and such will be the case as regards the Water Cure.

It is true that the gifted individual, Priessnitz, to whom we owe the present state of perfection of the Water Cure, has not enjoyed the benefits of a learned and medical education; but on that account are the close observation and study of disease on some

thousands of patients for twenty-five years, to go for nothing? The elder Mr. Scott, of Bromley in Kent, was similarly situated, yet it did not prevent his discovery of a means of surgical treatment of diseased joints, which the most celebrated British surgeons of the day, including Sir B. Brodie, invariably copy. Scientific mediocrity is forced sooner or later to acknowledge the claims of genius, though it be out of the pale of the schools. But the case is different when men not only non-professional and unlettered, but devoid of all tact, experience, or genius, undertake that which required the intuitions of a Priessnitz to effect; and the strong party feeling that has sprung up among the members of the medical profession at beholding persons of the above kind attempting to treat disease is intelligible enough. Yet, it may be asked, should men of education, and desirous of arriving at the truth, allow this feeling against persons to render them blind and deaf to everything that can be advanced in the shape of fact and argument in favour of a system? As reasonable would it be to denounce all national law because some rogues of lawyers are to be found!

On this point, however, it behoves the public to have a care, and to be put on their guard. Tradesmen, who have failed in their callings, ironmongers, tailors, and even bath-servants, are to be found in this country among those who venture to practise this powerful and precise system of treatment; men who know not the difference between measles and scarlet fever, rheumatism and tic, heart disease and chronic inflammation of the stomach. These people might learn from their own callings the absurdity of the attempt they make. Would the tailor trust the bath-servant or the ironmonger to make or mend a coat for him? Yet the apparent simplicity of means is the same in both cases, the Water treatment requiring only water, and the garment-making, needle, thread, and scissars. Nay, for that matter, the means of the ordinary medical practice are simple enough, if no education for their employment be necessary; and the tailor is just as much competent to draw off a pint of blood, apply a dozen leeches, or a blister, or order a dose of calomel, as he can possibly be to judge when and how to apply the various parts of the Water Cure. The whole proceeding is highly improper and disreputable: but whilst medical men are occupied in attacking the Water Cure, which they do not understand, instead of assailing the abuse of it, the flagrancy of which they do understand, the public are open to the worst and most injurious treatment at the hands of incompetent and dangerous persons.

To give an idea of the mischief that may

Water Cure Establishments.

Notwithstanding all the obstacles that have presented themselves, it is highly satisfactory to note the rapidity with which Water Cure establishments are spreading in this country.* It is necessary, however, that some care should be taken in selecting situations fitted for a system of treatment so essentially hygienic. All who understand the Water

* When the following extract from my work on the Water Cure was read by a talented friend on my first settling at Malvern, he called it "a marvellous stretch of the imagination!" The improbability, however, is becoming matter of fact more quickly than could have been expected.

"When establishments for the treatment of diseases by water are formed in every part of England, which I make no doubt will be the case in a very short time, they will ultimately have the effect of mitigating, and it may be hoped removing altogether, a long list of diseases; I will go further, and say, that I have no doubt that consumption, which now carries off its thousands and tens of thousands, with scrofula, gout, and a number of hereditary diseases,-not omitting those produced by drugs, will become comparatively unknown-a tale of former times. The influence of these establishments will sooner or later be felt by the whole community; they will also become summer resorts for recruiting by a course of scientific bathing, and they will be considered agreeable centres of reunion; all persons leaving them will be so many missionaries of temperance, filled with the ardent desire that all should participate in the good they have experienced, and the immunity from pain which they enjoy from their new mode of life. In a country like England, where there is such free inquiry, and such rapid circulation of thought, it will be carried on at railroad pace. Consider, for a moment, what a compound multiplied effect this will have on generation after generation, gaining new strength at every fresh start, the power accumulating by additional numbers, by the intenseness of conviction, by habit, and by example; at every step there will be fewer sins of the parents to be visited upon, and descend to, the children."

Cure, concur in opinion, that for the treat ment of chronic diseases, a rural situation is of the first importance. Many who have seen the system practised under a variety of circumstances, go further than this, and declare that it is dangerous to practise it in towns. During the last eight years Water Cure establishments have been tried in several towns in Germany, but, as might have been anticipated, the results were found to be anything but satisfactory, and they have been abandoned. An elevated position, with bracing air, is one of the most essential adjuncts of the treatment; indeed it requires but little thought and experience to be assured that it makes the greatest difference in the reaction and salutary influence of the different baths,-whether the patient goes out, after them, into a clear, bracing atmosphere, or one that is close or damp. The patient soon discovers, moreover, that the turmoil and mode of living in towns, is not compatible with this system of curing chronic diseases.

Priessnitz attaches the greatest importance to mountain air and pure spring water; when questioned on the subject, he replied, " Man muss Gebirge haben." He very often complained that the patients in the little town of Friwaldau, at the foot of the mountain, did not progress so well or rapidly as those on the side of Graefenberg hill. It is also of consequence that the patient should sleep in a pure atmosphere.

Great numbers of the patients under Priessnitz's care, occupy the small cottages on the side of the mountain, reaching up to his house. It was in the small rooms and garrets of these cottages, that I witnessed the most rapid and extraordinary cures that took place during the ten months that I resided at Graefenberg; the whole bathing apparatus of the Cure, being two wooden tubs, the one serving as a shallow, the other as a sitz-bath. Priessnitz, after the experience of twenty-five years, considers the quality of the air and water of more consequence than the shape, colour, and material of the baths, or the size and comfort of the rooms. There is no reason, however, why the patient should not have large airy rooms, and every rational English comfort.

During the last ten years the Water Cure has excited great interest and attention on the continent; there are now nearly a hundred establishments devoted to its practice, many of them under the immediate protection and patronage of the different governments; but no one is now permitted to form an establishment without having received a medical education.

Patients who visit Water Cure establishments should consider that they are on neutral ground, that health is the great object in view, and that all minor considerations should give way before it. All pecu

liarities of habits, notions, or opinions should for a time be laid aside, The Water Cure in many cases necessarily requires a length of time; but it is not without its pleasures and enjoyments. The good appetite and digestion, cheerful feelings, sound sleep, and the consciousness of returning strength and health, should not be forgotten as a set-off to anything that might be considered tiresome by repetition.

I have wished good-bye within the last three years to several hundreds of ladies and gentlemen, who declared that the time they had spent in the Water Cure, had been the most cheerful and happy period they could recollect, the one in which they had experienced the greatest amount of the feelings of well-being, and that they took their departure with regret.

But I hold that the Water Cure is after all the shortest cure, when the nature and extent of the diseased states that are submitted to it, are taken into consideration. If a patient is cured in six months of a complication of ailments, which had resisted every variety of treatment for seven, ten, or, as it often happens, a greater number of years, it cannot be called a long cure. When life is pro

longed for ten, fifteen, or twenty years, by this means, which, according to all human probability, would have terminated in a year or two, no arithmetician would say that six months Water curing had been a long or lost time.

In many cases where the constitution has not been much shattered, the restoration

is effected in a remarkably short time; a few weeks being often found to suffice. It must in truth be said, that in two-thirds of the patients hitherto submitted to the Water Cure, what with the complicated nature of the ailments, the advanced age, and the inadequate period given to the treatment, &c., the only wonder is that so much has been effected.

Much has been said about the dangers of the Water Cure, and the cry has been raised on every frivolous pretext; all reflecting people, however, who have given the subject the least attention, are beginning to discover in what the danger really consists. When a number of patients are collected together, as in Water Cure establishments, one would imagine that all the dangers would very soon be discovered; for invalids going through the Water Cure value their lives, it may be supposed, as much as they did when under medicinal treatment.

The imminent danger in which the Water Cure patients consider themselves will be shown pretty clearly by the following fact:A few weeks past, the Rev. Mr. Brown, of Crosby, near Liverpool, commenced the treatment; on first entering the room where my patients were collected together, he had still great apprehensions, and his first anxious inquiry was about "the dangers ;" he told me that the reply he met with was the most satisfactory that could have been given him ; viz. " a general burst of laughter, which scattered his fears to the winds."

It is a matter of congratulation with all those who know and feel how great the beneficial result will be, that the conviction is daily gaining ground amongst the enquiring and enlightened part of the community, that water is the best beverage for man, and moreover that it is the only one necessary to keep him in the highest state of health and strength.

In "An Essay of HEALTH and LONG LIFE," by that real and most estimable physician, the celebrated Dr. Cheyne, written some hundred and fifty years ago, he says:"Drink is the other part of our food. The

common drink here in England is either water, malt-liquor, or wine, or mixtures of these. Without all peradventure, water was the primitive, original beverage, as it is the only simple fluid, fitted for diluting, moistening, and cooling; the ends of drink appointed by nature. And happy had it been for the race of mankind if other mixed and artificial liquors had never been invented. It has been an agreeable appearance to me to observe with what freshness and vigour, those, who though eating freely of flesh meat, yet drink nothing but this element, have lived in health, tranquillity, and