have had a tendency to improve the general health, they were not such as can be conceived sufficiently powerful to produce so great a change in the state of the constitution. In the SECOND case, I should conceive that, although much of the benefit obtained may be ascribed to the abstraction of the alcohol, yet we can scarcely imagine that the prodigious influx of water into the stomach can have been without its influence on the system. Mechanical and unscientific as the idea may appear, I confess I am disposed to attribute a considerable effect to the complete removal of all the offensive matter which had polluted the vessels, thus thoroughly rinsing them out, and leaving them in a clear state to receive a supply of more healthy fluids. Nor are we to regard the adjuncts, or some of them at least, without their influence; although, I must think that many of them were carried to an empirical, and I will say, a ludicrous extent. The annals of medicine, from the earliest periods, contain accounts of the temples of health, which were under the direction of the Æsclepiade; the sacred fountains of Greece and Italy, to which Hippocrates and Celsus sent their patients; the miraculous springs dedicated to various saints, male and female, in the middle ages; and the acknowledged cures performed in modern times by waters of which the chief peculiarity consists in their purity,—all of which may be placed in the same category, and which may serve to explain a part at least of the benefits deriv dfr om hydropathy."

WATER CURE HOSPITALS.

I shall detain the reader with but a few brief observations, although an essay might be written on this important matter.

No reflecting person who understands and has experienced the effects of the Water Cure, can contemplate the institution of Water Cure Hospitals without clearly seeing the great benefits that must necessarily result to the poor in this country. Hundreds of willing and strong men who at an early age are disabled by chronic diseases, would be saved.

It is well known that nine-tenths of the diseases and abject poverty of the labouring classes, have their origin in the habit of taking gin and other intoxicating drinks. In the majority of these instances I am persuaded that the wretched sufferer is as much to be

pitied as blamed. There exists a long established delusion that strong drinks are necessary, that they give additional strength when the individual is well, and help to cure him when ill. Once the stomach and natural sensations have become depraved,

and the craving for alcohol established, it requires the greatest efforts, under ordinary circumstances, to give it up. It is, in fact, the state of the opium-eater, he is in the net of the destroyer.

To prove that strong drinks of all kinds are highly injurious, and in no way required in any state of disease, even when attended by extreme debility, it is only necessary for a commission of intelligent governors of hospitals, to visit a Water Cure establishment, and question the patients. They will be surprised to hear it said, that stimulating drinks have been given up without an effort, and that all craving for them has disappeared in a few days, and moreover that the strength has increased since they were abandoned. This important fact has now been proved on a large scale, and by thousands of instances.

Water Cure Hospitals would of course be placed in the country, and it requires but little thought to conclude, that an individual who had become diseased in a cellar, garret, or workshop, situated in a dense population, would be more likely to recover, when breathing pure air and surrounded by gardens and green fields, than by being transferred into the close and crowded wards of a hospital, in the same atmosphere as that in which he had become diseased.

The enormous saving of charitable funds, both immediate and remote, that would result from the establishment of these institutions, may in some degree be estimated by glancing the eye over the following statements extracted from the Times of March 11th, 1844, and the Rev. E. Abdy's excellent work on the Water Cure. They are full of matter for serious consideration, and should be read and weighed by every subscriber to every hospitals.

At a meeting of the Marylebone Vestry, "Mr. Michie said, he held in his hand an account of the stimuli used in the Infirmary for the year 1843. During the year the total number of

Admissions were 2,717
And the deaths

371, or 12 per cent.*

these poor creatures." The amount paid for this "poison," as well as for drug stimulants, forms, as is well-known, the great item of expenditure in all hospitals.

EXTRACT FROM THE

REV. E. ABDY'S WORK ON THE

WATER CURE.

"The trappings' of a hospital' would set up an ordinary' Cold Water establish. ment. By trappings, I mean medicine, wine, &c. It would be worth while to ascertain how much is spent in these items at the great Institutions of the kind in London. The amount of expenditure on these heads at the Infirmary of Bristol was, a year or two ago, about one-seventh of the whole. The corporation of the poor in that city expended in the course of nine years

£

S. d.

48,105 18 9 9,398 13 3

3,881 0 3

"The wine and other 'strong' drinks are probably reckoned among the sundries. Thus we see that the doctor's stuff cost half as much as fuel, and considerably more than washing and cleaning. This is pretty well, whatever might be the proportion of sick. What an enormous saving of money might be made by this distressed country, if but one-tenth of the population were to enlist under the banners of Priessnitz and Father Matthew, and be converted to the true Catholic faith in matters of health! How many would escape that purgatory on earth into which the habitual use of drams and drugs plunges their unhappy victims !

"In the Nottingham Infirmary, for malt, hops, &c., there was expended £ S. d.

In 1836 278 3 3 for 90 patients.

In 1839 121 10 3 for 100 patients. "While at the Lunatic Asylum, according to the annual report, the consumption of malt and hops exceeded that of bread, to the amount of £70. I copy the above from the Bristol Temperance Herald, in which, and in other journals of the same kind, there is ample testimony from medical men as to the inutility of wine as a medicament."

*

A PRACTICAL TREATISE on the CURATIVE EFFECTS of the VAPOUR of WATER APPLIED LOCALLY, and WATER - DRESSING; with Cases.

"We are unwilling to believe that great effects can proceed from simple causes, and so water fell into disuse."-M.S. NOTES OF MACARTNEY'S SURGICAL LECTURES.

J. CHURCHILL, Princes Street, Soho. 1837.

DIE HEILKRAFT der WASSERDAMPFE in ihrer ORTLICHEN ANVENDUNG bei Rheumatismus, Gicht, Weisser Geschwulst und andern Gelenkleiden; bei verschiedeneu Arten von Geschwüren, Mehrern Hautkrankheiten, Hämorrhoiden, u. s. w. Aus dem Englischen des JAMES WILSON, M.D.

Leipzig, bie E. KOLLMAN. 1838.

A PRACTICAL TREATISE on the CURE OF DISEASES by WATER, AIR, EXERCISE, aud DIET. With Cases, the results of observations made on above two thousand patients treated at Graefenberg, and other establishments, and above eight hundred treated at Malvern. Sixth edition.

STOMACH COMPLAINTS and DRUG DISEASES; their CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES, and CURE, by WATER, &c., with Cases. Third edition, 3s. 6d.

CHURCHILL, Princes Street, Soho.

"We confess that we opened these books with a prejudice against the advocates of the water system of therapeutics, and for that reason felt it due to candour to give Dr. Wilson's publications an attentive perusal. This we have done, and from the facts adduced, and circumstances we shall presently mention, we are constrained to acknowledge that our opinions on the subject have undergone a complete change."-HEREFORD JOURNAL.

"It is a talented work written in a piquant style."-TEMPERANCE RECORDER, EDITOR.

"From the number of cases we heard of, as well as those related in this book, the Water Cure in Dr. Wilson's hands seems to have been eminently successful. We recommend it to the attention of invalids, assuring them that they will be interested and instructed in perusing it."-THE SHEFFIELD IRIS.

"The reader will find letters written to Dr. Wilson from patients of the highest respectability

and rank, with many interesting cases. From its clearness and originality it is worthy the perusal, both of those that are well and those that are suffering." "-CHELTENHAM CHRONICLE.

"The boldest production we have seen from the pen of a medical writer. It will be perused with much interest, and we think profit, by every class of readers."-WORCESTER JOURNAL.

"In the present volume, Dr. Wilson, after a minute, yet clear account of the mode in which Physic, food, and fretting,' as he expresses it, produce stomach complaint, gives the public some interesting facts concerning the results of the Water Cure as practised by him at Great Malvern," -BATH JOURNAL.

"Those who have stomach complaints or drug diseases would do well to read the book, and learn how these may be eradicated without drugs. The results are such as leave no doubt of its wondrous effects in restoring the frame, whether suffering from acute or chronic disease. Neither, from the record of numerous cases, does there appear to be the slightest ground for apprehension from its use, when properly applied, in any of the complaints, nor in any of the forms described by Dr. Wilson in his book."-MANCHESTER CHRONICLE.

By DR. WILSON & DR. GULLY.
Price 28., 200 pages.

THE DANGERS of the WATER CURE, and its EFFICACY EXAMINED; with an EXPLANATION of its PRINCIPLES and PRACTICE, and an account of CASES TREATED AT MALVERN.

CUNNINGHAM & MORTIMER, 11, Adelaide Street, Strand.

"A very able defence of the Hydro-therapeutic system, and incidentally of Teetotalism. The work is cleverly written, and betrays a perfect acquaintance, on the part of the authors, with the philosophy of the practice it supports. The cases are striking, and ought to have weight with the blind decriers of the system. The work is remarkably cheap, and we can heartily recommend our readers to purchase it." NATIONAL TEMPERANCE ADVOCATE, Nov. 1843.

"This scientific exposition of the Water Cure is the clearest we have seen."-SFECTATOR.

"A work on a comprehensive scale. It gives a full explanation of the principles and practice of the Water Cure. We strongly recommend it to those who are desirous of thinking and acting for themselves."-BELL'S LIFE.

"There are some striking instances of its efficacy related, and the scientific details are valuable, from their clearness and general application."JOHN BULL, AUG. 12, 1843.