PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

HEALTH is the indispensable qualification for all enjoyment. Without it none of the bright and beautiful things with which the world abounds can yield gratification to man. When this fails, neither the allurements of pleasure, the pursuits of ambition, the beauties of nature, the discoveries of science, nor the creations of poetry can charm or delight the mind. Like an unstrung instrument of music, the system is but thrown into disorder and discord by the very impressions which should otherwise evoke harmony, and produce agreeable sensations. In the diseased state of the body the faculties of the mind are but sources of gloom, dissatisfaction, and despair. The memory of the past is filled with the images of departed joys, and overclouded with the undue and exaggerated pictures of disappointed hopes and unimproved advantages; the present is shrouded by the depressing feelings of deficient energy; and, amid the shadowy indistinctness of the future, doubt and appre

hension, difficulties and dangers appear to be hovering, clothed with terrors not the less appalling because they are imaginary and unreal.

Health is the mainspring of all the business of the world. Without it exertion flags, and enterprise is at end. It matters not in what walk of life a man may be placed; whether his mental or physical powers are taxed in the pursuit of those objects to which he is devoted; -both are alike prostrated, enfeebled, and impaired, not only by the sufferings attendant upon severe disease, but by the lassitude and discomfort of slight indisposition. So it very frequently happens that the man assailed by either, finds himself involved in schemes and employments planned with the decision of his perfect powers and vigour, and in part executed with the same energy; but which now appear perplexed with doubts, and surrounded with difficulties unfelt before, and serve only, by inducing irritation and anxiety of mind, to increase the debility and disorder of the body. And how often has the medical practitioner to regret that a state of mind such as this referred to, has for a long time rendered nugatory the best and most careful treatment which his skill could employ-keeping up congestion in the head, indigestion in the stomach, and perpetuating symptoms which should otherwise have readily yielded to the means employed for their removal.

I am quite aware that nothing can seem more trite

and common-place than to urge considerations upon the value and importance of health. This is one of those

truths which are the most readily admitted, but the least acted upon; and if its frequent reiteration has any chance of pressing it upon the attention, so as to lead to practical care, I think it may well be justified. Nothing, indeed, can equal the reckless indifference with which men risk and tamper with this blessing, except the miseries they experience from the loss of it, and the anxiety they evince to regain it. Men act as though the material substance of their bodies were harder than steel, and more imperishable than granite. There is no degree of exposure or fatigue to which, in the pursuit of wealth or pleasure, men will not subject themselves -unmindful that the very means they employ to obtain them are very likely to render their acquisition valueless or impracticable; and it is no uncommon thing to see the first half of a man's life spent in the pursuit of riches and enjoyments at the expense of his health; and the latter part in the anxious care of his health, at the expense of enjoyments in which he dares not indulge, and riches which can only be employed in the attempt to regain his health. And, if we extend our consideration beyond the personal to the domestic and moral bearings of the subject-if we dwell upon the dreadful consequences to families and often to communities which result from undefined or erroneous views of the importance or conditions of preserving or restoring

health-we shall hardly be inclined to complain that the subject is too often broached, or too earnestly insisted upon; and still less that various departments of it are from time to time treated of in a manner adapted for popular use. Information of some kind or other upon matters of such vast and universal importance, the pub. lic mind must and will have; and surely it can be no improper or unnecessary undertaking to supply it, as far as the ability or opportunity extends, with information of a correct and intelligible description. This is, perhaps, needed in many other departments of medical science; but in none more than in that which this publication especially regards. The properties of mineral waters, universally acknowledged and resorted to though they are, as powerful means of restoring or establishing health, are but little studied or understood, even by those who use them; and hence the waters themselves are often condemned for the inefficacy or injury resulting from their misapplication, through ignorance or inattention. Such patients are often hurried from one place to another-from one end of the kingdom to the other and after a vast sacrifice of time, trouble, and expense, they fail in obtaining the relief which a judicious selection and well regulated use of one spring would certainly have afforded. The frequenters of the different spas, moreover, require some information as to their nature and uses in particular, as well as generally in reference to the diseases in which they

are employed, for a reason which especially relates to them, more than to others. It is that they are, for the most part, removed from the medical advisers they have been accustomed to consult, and who can rarely furnish them with more than general and imperfect directions respecting the spas they are about to visit ; while those to whom they may apply on the spot are deficient in the advantages which a knowledge of the patients' habits, temperaments, and especially their peculiarities of constitution affords in the treatment generally, and in the application of the waters to their peculiar cases. If these considerations are correct respecting mineral watering-places generally, they are more particularly applicable to Harrogate. Many celebrated and excellent places possess but one spring. It is obvious that however great its efficacy in the removal of disease, it can be but of limited application. The patient soon finds out whether he is or is not benefited by its use; and is induced to remove or remain accordingly. But Harrogate possesses several springs of various and indeed opposite properties; one of which may prove useless and even injurious in any given case, which would be speedily and certainly cured by the use of another; and some of which (it is not perhaps too much to say) would, by proper and careful management, be useful in almost every description of complaint likely to be benefited by the use of any mineral waters. The range of these is sufficiently extensive; for, leaving out

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