extravagantly novel. It was not long ere numerous institutions were formed for carrying out the practice of the peasant-waterdoctor of Graefenberg, and that the method which he pursued came to be dignified with the title of a system, and a grand discovery in medical science. It even received the learned Greek term Hydropathy, and grew to be the theme of a host of publications; those writers who assailed, not less than those who advocated its principles and made boastings of its wondrous practical results, assisting to elevate the system to an unwonted eminence. Now, since it has been found possible to induce several hundreds of persons annually to submit to a diet homely and often coarse, to drink some quarts of cold water, and to be pumped upon and dipped more than once daily for weeks together, or to undergo processes which cause most profuse perspiration, and make the skin break out in boils, it is surely worth while to inquire, what may be the amount of truth or falsehood in a method so little in accordance with ordinary therapeutic proceedings. Von H. Claessen in a work having for its title "The Truth and Falsehood of the so-called Cold Water Cure," may be taken as a competent guide on the subject.

Dr. Claessen had two objects in view when composing his work; first, to check the unbounded exaggeration of the advocates of Hydropathy, second, to obtain a scientific ground from which to enter upon a practical investigation of this new method of treating disease. But this latter branch is not easily disposed of; for the Doctor declares that the entire literature of the subject does not contain one trustworthy and closely reported case; so that he has been obliged to content himself with describing the proceedings of the Cold Water professors, and explaining the alleged effects in accordance with commonly received principles of science.

In one of the hydropathic institutions, the following are said to be different modes of employing cold water:-External employment of cold water, embracing under the head, General irritation of the skin,-1st. Simple irritation by washing, plunging, affusion, cold baths, and cold baths after previous sweating; 2d. Irritation by cold water, accompanied with mechanical action on the skin, viz., cold washing, with brushing the skin, shower baths, and douches. We next come to Partial irritation of the skin, under which head is embraced, application of wet compresses, hip and foot baths, water falling in drops upon a part, water propelled in a slender stream against a part, and douches. Lastly, we have the internal employment of cold water, by drinking, clysters, and injections into the different cavities of the body.

Sundry of these methods of applying cold water need no explanation. With regard to cold baths after previous sweating there is not even much novelty, unless in its modification of that kind of bath. The Russians and other northern nations practise a similar

mode. But as done by the hydropathists, this is the method, according to Lee, in his little work on the "Baths of Central and Southern Germany :"-" Each patient is awakened about five o'clock in the morning by an attendant, by whom the process of emaillottage, or wrapping up, is performed. A blanket or woollen covering is first bound firmly round, so as to envelope the whole body, the face only being left exposed; over this are placed one or two feather-beds, or eyderdown coverings, and over these again a second blanket is bound round the body, which, thus enveloped, appears to be about twice its natural size. After a time copious perspiration is induced, the window of the room is then thrown open to admit fresh air, and cold water is given to the patient at short intervals to promote the perspiration, and prevent his being weakened by its quantity, which in some instances is so profuse as to soak through all the coverings, and the mattress of the bed. When the perspiration has continued for the period that is deemed advisable (sometimes as much as two hours) the coverings are all removed except the first blanket; a cloak being thrown over the patient, and slippers placed upon his feet, he descends quickly to the bath; and first dipping his hands and face for a second or two, throws off the blanket and plunges into the water at a temperature varying from nine to twelve degrees of Reaumur, while the perspiration is still streaming from the surface of his body; the duration of the bath is only a few seconds in some instances, in others it extends to five minutes, or even a longer period, brisk motion and friction of the surface being enjoined."

This is the great feature of the hydropathic method, the internal employment of cold water, at other periods, being merely subsidiary. Six quarts are regarded as a quantity which any one may boldly drink every day, wine and all highly seasoned food being absolutely interdicted. All food, it is also enjoined, should be taken cold; and for this reason, according to one of the water-doctors: "The intestines of pigs who have been fed upon hot mashes are found to be extremely readily torn, and so rotten as to be unfit for making sausages. It is therefore evident that hot food is improper since it tends to relax and soften the intestines, and that persons should partake of no food but such as is cold, or at least only lukewarm."

It can hardly be doubted when we are told that the perspiration under the grand remedy of the hydropathists is not only enormous, but since the sweating process is often persevered in for months, that the effects produced are palpable. For instance, the perspiration has frequently a peculiar odour, which is regarded by the water-doctors as an infallible sign of the elimination of the morbific virus. But above all is a patient to consider himself fortunate if he becomes covered with stinking boils. Now, "this unusual commotion of the different fluids," says Dr. Claessen, "does not

take place without a deep impression being made on the organism. Congestion of various organs occurs, severe pain is experienced in different parts, more especially in such as are diseased, the activity of one or more organs of the senses is stimulated to a morbid and even to a painful degree, with all of which occurrences hydropathists are familiar under the name of excitement. In the further course of the treatment, and during the methodical increase of its activity, a regular fever is induced, which, according to the statements of the water-doctors, is usually followed by the cure of the disease, and to which they have given the name of crisis. It is, they assert, only in exceptional cases that the first appearance of the fever does not prove critical, but even in those instances its more energetic return, and the consequent cure of the disease, may be confidently anticipated." "It is not unusual," he continues, " for the crisis to be ushered in by stormy and even dangerous symptoms, for the relief of which hydropathy, in accordance with its exclusive tendencies, employs no other remedy than water. After the fortunate termination of the crisis, the patient is looked upon as cured, but it is considered desirable that the derivation of the fluids towards the surface should be gradually diminished, which is done by the employment of the so-called after-cure."

The hydropathic illustration of its theory is in part couched in the following words: "The curative power of water consists in its decomposing purifying action. The healing effects of water result from the animosity to all organic life, with which it attempts to destroy it by reducing it to its original atoms."

We must now leave it to our readers to consider how far ignorance, credulity, and imposture have gone to the promulgation of hydropathy. Even although there may be valuable hints lurking in the practice, one can hardly avoid thinking that it must often be extremely perilous; while the idea of its being a universal remedy, an unerring panacea for all diseases and all persons, cannot for a moment be regarded by any sober person otherwise than a proof that the so-called system will ere long be superseded by some novelty equally if not more preposterous. Hitherto, let it also be borne in mind, the water-doctors do not publish records of their loudly trumpeted cases with that precision and care which can enable persons profoundly and extensively read in medical science to pronounce positively concerning their value. Priessnitz might be excused, in his ignorance of established principles, for speaking indefinitely of his cures, especially as he displayed very considerable sagacity and ingenuity. We are even told that he is not to be charged with all the foolish pretensions and extravagant stories of his followers; and that it was not until he found the government only permitted him to use water in the treatment of diseases in any way which he chose, absolutely interdicting the employment of any other remedy, that

he thought of a multitude of modes of applying his one means; but which in the hands of still greater quacks were proclaimed as universal remedies. It appears that a doubt was for a time entertained by these worthies how far the cold water system corresponded with homoeopathy. They, however, at last rested in the doctrine that the one was incompatible with the other; aud therefore they claimed for their own the merit of a discovery, and called it Hydropathy.

ART. XI.-1. The Bishop's Daughter. Dalton.

2. Softness. Saunders and Otley.

3. Morley Ernstein. By G. P. R. JAMES. Saunders and Otley. 4. Tales of the Jury-Room. By GERALD GRIFFIN, ESQ. Maxwell. "THE Bishop's Daughter" is by the author of "The Life-Book of a Labourer," and is a readable, artistically constructed, and frequently informing work; although the plot is improbable, and the moral taught by some of the chief incidents on which the story hinges be questionable. To be sure the Bishop is declared to be a model for prelates, and is also blessed with great riches; yet dies insolvent, leaving his Daughter, Sibyl Chenevix, with little more than her jewels, which she hands over to his creditors. Then commence the encounters with the vicissitudes which a paragon of virtue with rare accomplishments must be exposed to in the world, which novelists are sure to picture. At length, however, according to the same creators of life, she is restored to competency, when she not only pays her father's debts, and does an amazing deal of good by stealth, blushing to find it fame, but actually is in the condition to relieve an old lover, and whom she had loved in return but refused for entertaining wrong ideas of a religious nature; he having been now stricken by misfortune. And thus it is that the author has endeavoured to come up to his motto, that "There is no cosmetic like a holy conscience." We should have stated that Sibyl dies at an early age of a decline; whereas a Minerva press author, we presume, would have wedded her to the lover and the beloved, having taken care to make him a thorough convert, after reflecting upon the converse, the example, and the excellence of her whose cosmetic was a "holy conscience."

How the model Bishop, with such worldly wealth, ran into debt does not very clearly appear. He certainly had no right to expose his daughter to beggary; the Scriptures have pronounced upon the man who neglects his own household. Not only was he opulent, but he was singularly fortunate in having been the tutor of two scions of Royalty; so that could we even reconcile profound learning, exemplary virtue and piety with bankruptcy occasioned by extraordinary charity; yet it is not easy to conceive how the faultless and

paragon offspring of the tutor of royal sprigs could have been utterly neglected, and obliged by pen, pencil, and needle-work to earn a precarious and scanty subsistence.

Still the author tells his story not only well, but has a large stock of anecdotes, many of them put forward as authentic, which he adroitly dovetails into the narrative and the dialogue. From these scraps of information we take our samples.

The Preacher and the Player as described by Sir George Beau

mont :

Of Whitefield he was once heard to say, "Oh, yes; I heard that young gentleman this morning allude to 'roaring Whitefield,' and was amused at his mistake. It is a common one. Whitefield did not roar. I have been his auditor more than once, and was delighted with him. Whitefield's voice could be heard at an immense distance; but that was owing to its fulness, roundness, and clearness. It was a perfectly sound voice. It is an odd description, but I can hit upon no better. There was neither crack nor flaw in it. To describe him as a bellowing, roaring field-preacher, is to describe a mountebank, not Whitefield. He had powers of pathos of the highest order. The tender, soft, persuasive tones of his voice, were melodious in the extreme. And when he desired to win, or persuade, or plead, or soothe, the gush of feeling which his voice conveyed at once surprised and overpowered you."

Again, Garrick-"There was one peculiarity about Garrick's eye, to which, in my opinion, none of his biographers have done justice. Its brightness and brilliancy, the manner in which it would light up during the delivery of some passages and flash defiance in others, its softness and tenderness at one moment, its joyous and exulting sparkle at another,—all this has been dwelt upon over and over again. But one point is untouched, the manner in which he could deaden it. That to me was the height of art. In parts where stolidity almost amounting to idiotcy was required, in Abel Drugger for instance, the address with which he could as it were throw a veil, a film over the eye, was alike inimitable and unapproachable. Garrick's eye in Benedict, and Garrick's eye in Abel Drugger, did not look like the same organ."

"Much the same sort of feeling," resumed the lady, "seems to have over-shadowed another successful duellist. I allude to the well-known Captain Best, the antagonist of Lord Camelford. The duel was forced upon him. An abandoned woman promoted it; and Lord Camelford, before he went to the ground, told his second that he was conscious he himself was in the wrong; that Best was a man of honour; but that he could not bring himself to retract words which he had once used. He fell, at once the aggressor and the sufferer. But Captain Best was never his own man afterwards. He died at the early age of eight-and-forty, at a boarding-house called The Blanquetts,' near Worcester. Sorrow and remorse had done on him the work of years. In his closing hours, he is