perceived, that hydropathy could not cure the patient. It is well known that, at best, it can only relieve; it can never effect a perfect cure in such cases.

In alluding to these circumstances, I by no means wish it to be inferred, that hydropathy is the only system in which we are doomed to suffer disappointment and failure. My endeavour is to show that we ought to select only that which is good and useful in any system; and condemn that which experience has taught us to be either dangerous or inefficient. I have witnessed very many instances of cure under the hydropathic treatment; instances too, which have resisted the most persevering application of all other means. I refer more especially to rheumatic and stomach affections.

If, as I have stated, only due care and discrimination are employed in the selection of subjects to be treated by it, we cannot, I think, value hydropathy too highly as a curative agent in disease.

Success in the treatment of nervous diseases must, in a great measure, depend upon our searching out, and, if possible, removing the cause. Thus, impure air vitiates the blood. If, therefore, the patient is confined in a close apartment, it becomes absolutely necessary, for speedy recovery, that he should breathe a pure atmosphere, and inhabit a large apartment with a free circulation of air. Again, when the skin is inactive, those emanations which should be removed through its influence, are retained; and good health will never be established while such a state of things is permitted to exist. Attention to the lungs and stomach, as well as to the skin, has been productive of the greatest benefit in the treatment of nervous disorders.

Nor are the lungs, stomach, and skin the only depurating organs, the functions of which exert a powerful in

fluence not only in aggravating, but in actually bringing on nervous affections of the most serious description. The kidneys are the outlets through which a great proportion of the effete and noxious principles, resulting from the decomposition of the tissues, is ejected from the system. If the functions of these organs be suppressed or suspended, even for a short time, the patient will perish. An imperfect or impaired action will give rise to serious disease; the blood will become poisoned, and the brain and nervous system will be immediately, and seriously, involved. Suppression of urine soon produces stupor and apoplexy, and if it is sufficiently long continued, will prove fatal.

I am frequently consulted by patients, principally of the lymphatic temperament, complaining of a clamminess of the mouth; the tongue at the same time being thickly encrusted with a whitish fur; the appetite good, and not unfrequently voracious. These patients often suffer from severe nervous trepidation. They generally lose flesh very rapidly, feel much lassitude, and have a great disinclination to any kind of exercise. They also suffer severe pains along the spine and in the limbs; the skin is generally dry and harsh; the bowels often, indeed almost always, are constipated.

The prescriptions which have been brought to me by these patients, show that the plan of treatment which has been adopted in their cases, has consisted in the administration of tonic, and of every kind of strengthening medicine. Their diet, too, has been of the same character: jellies, prepared meats, strong soups, and food of the most concentrated kind; but instead of benefiting them, to use their own expression, "all they took seemed to be thrown away upon them, and appeared to make them even worse." The little good derived from such treatment will perhaps account for the fickleness and wandering about of

such patients; for we find them going from surgeon to physician, and from physician to surgeon in rapid succession, in the hope of being relieved. As many of the symptoms of consumption are present in these cases, decline is often apprehended; others attribute the ill health to a faulty action of the digestive organs; while others denounce that sweeping cause of disorder, a weakly constitution. A gentleman whose son I lately attended, assured me that he had taken him within three weeks to four different medical men of eminence, who all gave different opinions, and differently designated the disease. This may appear strange, but when disease is determined by symptoms alone, without their correlatives, it is by no means so easy correctly to discriminate and determine its nature. Very few patients, labouring even under the same disease, suffer exactly alike; and many of the leading symptoms are often modified, and frequently absent.

As a means of facilitating diagnosis or discrimination of disease, I wish most strongly to inculcate the necessity of urinary analysis. I feel satisfied, from very extensive experience, that if this were more generally attended to, the diversity of opinion, which now so unhappily prevails, would no longer exist; nor should we be so frequently taunted by our patients with the reproach" When doctors differ, who is to decide."

As I have already observed, the clammy tongue, dry skin, pain in the back, and failure of the strength, may exist in so many different diseases, that we are unable, relying on symptoms alone, to decide, with any degree of certainty, the real nature of a disease. But an examination of the urine will often lead us to the true interpretation; and, under all circumstances, it will facilitate our inquiries into the causes of morbid phenomena. To instance a single property from which much can be

Fig. 10.

determined, I need only mention, that the specific gravity of the urine in health may be averaged at about 1020; but if the urinometer should indicate a density of 1050, the urinary pathologist would immediately infer the presence of a large quantity of sugar, and the existence of diabetes in an aggravated degree. He would still further confirm his notions upon this point, by setting a portion aside under the proper circumstances, and inducing those fungoid vegetations— "torulæ diabetica"-the appearance of which under the microscope is shown in the subjoined diagram, Fig.10. Thus, he would be enabled,

by one examination, to decide the nature of the disease, without the possibility of mistake.

For the purpose of speedily taking the specific gravity, there is a little instrument, contrived by the late, and much to be lamented, Dr. Prout, called the "urinometer." It consists of a hollow globe of glass or thin metal, from the upper part of which projects a scale graduated from 0 to 60; in the opposite direction, there is a weight to keep the stem upright. Put into the urine, it sinks, and indicates the gravity by the figure on the stem, which is on a level with the surface of the urine. Reference to Fig. 11 will explain the nature and use of this instrument better than any description.

The value of the instrument in detecting disease, will at once be apparent, by mentioning the following case:Some time ago, a gentleman, a perfect stranger, called upon me for my advice. I requested him to furnish me with a specimen of the urine, the specific gravity of which I immediately ascertained to be 1038. A small quantity boiled in a test tube with a solution of potass over the

spirit lamp, speedily changed to a dark brown colour. This led me to make the following inquiries. If the thirst was not most urgent; if the appetite was not unusually good; if there was not a disagreeable clammy, viscid taste in the mouth; if the skin was hard and

dry; if the quantity of urine passed in twenty-four hours did not greatly exceed what was natural; and if there was not loss of flesh. The patient had as yet hardly given me any account of himself; he, therefore, appeared much surprised at my inquiries, and looked very steadfastly