Before I have here given, in a general way, my views of the treatment of typhus fever by the water system, and in a former letter I mentioned to you the amount of success which followed my adopting this plan. I may state here, that besides the many successful results which I have witnessed myself, I have received a large number of letters from almost all parts of England, and many parts of Scotland, mentioning the great success which has resulted from following the treatment of the recent epidemic (influenza), which I published in a letter several months back, and thanking me warmly for having done so. leaving this part of my subject, I hesitate not to say, that the treatment here recommended, is at once innocent and efficacious, and that from the little body of water needed in the different processes, a too great or a too sudden removal of animal heat cannot take place, and therefore the reaction in the frame cannot be lowered beyond a moderate degree. To this point I am desirous to draw your attention, as it is here that the safety of the water cure, in the treatment of typhus fever, resides. I may also add, that it is in this, as well as in the modes of using water as discovered by Priessnitz, that the treatment here recommended surpasses so very much in safety and efficacy the method em ployed by Dr Currie. I have no doubt that the reason why Dr Currie's treatment of fever by water fell into abeyance, was because he was unable to give forth any laws by which the employment of a large body of water in fever could be so regulated, that the reactive energy could in no case be in any danger of being overcome. This is too wide a subject, however, to enter upon here, but I promise to do so in an early number of the Water Cure Journal. You will have observed that I have eschewed all theory and hypothesis in this letter, my great aim being to give facts and statements. They are open to the test of experience, and by no other ordeal can they be disproved. I assert from experience that they are true, and he who asserts that they are not so, must also bring experience as his witness against me; for no man can know intuitively what is the true or the untrue in natural science. No man's mere dictim dare be taken for truth or untruth in the world of experience. In the calmness of an unprejudiced mind, and in the sincerity of an honest believer, I again repeat, that no danger can follow from a judicious employment of the treatment here recommended; and, therefore, this can be made no excuse by any physician, as a reason why he should not make trial of it. HYDROPATHY AND DRUGS. MANY invalids who have been long accustomed to the use of drugs, and feel dependent upon their use for much of the measure of health and comfort which they enjoy, are deterred from making trial of the hydropathic system, by the idea that it would be indispensably necessary for them to lay aside the use of drugs, in order that the water cure might be tried with safety. Others, who have all but abandoned the use of drugs, because they have found them productive of little or no permanent benefit, are afraid to make trial of the water cure, because they have in time past taken so many drugs. Such fears are, however, groundless. Hydropathic treatment and drug treatment may be safely and advantageously combined. We cannot recommend the combination as a general practice. Water treatment alone is in most cases better. Drugs are not needed. Still, the combination may be safely made; and the knowledge of this fact may be important to not a few, as the means of removing groundless fears, which deter them from adopting parts of the hydropathic treatment that are calculated to be of much benefit. The following extract from Dr Johnson's "Results of Hydro pathy," we would commend to the notice of our readers. The writer of it is a party well entitled to be heard on such a topic : guage, that if there be any drug which possesses a curative influence over any disease, the curative influence of that drug over that disease will be increased a hundred-fold if its use be conjoined with this treatment. All my experience proves this-but my experience is not necessary to prove it, at least to medical men; for, as we have seen, the treatment allays fever and nervous irritability, improves digestion, and keeps all the secretions in a healthy state of activity: and so important is this, that, in order to effect these objects, medical men are constantly obliged to give their patients several other drugs -as calomel, potash, and various aperient medicines, in addition to the "I have used this method of cure in certain cases absolutely requiring the use of mercury. It is an absurd prejudice to suppose that the employment of mercury is incompatible with the use of cold water. Medical men, time out of mind, have been in the habit of cautioning their patients, when taking mercury, against exposing themselves to the influence of cold air, lest it should make their mouths sore. But when the great object is, to make the mouth sore,' the more they are exposed to the influence of cold the better-particular drug which is to cure the whether it be cold air, or cold water, or both-for the sooner the mouth is sore, the less quantity of mercury will be required to make it sore. That cold increases the influence of mercury is also proved by the wellknown fact, that ten times more mercury is necessary to affect the system in hot climates than in cold ones. In all those diseases, therefore, in which mercury (as mercury) is necessary, a very much smaller quantity will suffice, if the patient be submitted to the hydropathic treatment, while taking it. And, let me add, that its injurious effects upon the system, will be very much diminished, not merely by the diminished quantity of the drug, but by virtue of the invigorating influence of the treatment, which enables the inherent powers of the body so much more readily to repair the mischief inflicted. By these means, that shattered and enfeebled condition of the health so frequently (nay, almost always) consequent upon a course of mercury, may be almost wholly avoided. The treatment is, as I have before said, a tonic-a natural tonic. It is also an alterative, seeing that it promotes and restores all the secretions and excretions, especially those of the skin, liver, uterus, and bowels, and thus cleanses the system. It allays nervous and painful irritation and morbid sensibility, and lessens excitement, and is, therefore, an anodyne. It is perfectly compatible with any kind of medicine which any particular case may demand. It is much more than this, for I say-and I say it hardily, and in the most unqualified lan particular disease for which it is administered. Thus, if a patient apply to his physician for psoriasis, that physician will probably give him arsenic for that disease; but, in addition to the arsenic, he will also be sure to order him sundry doses of blue pill, extract of colycinth, &c. &c., to be taken occasionally, or every other night, in order to keep his secretions going, especially those of the liver and bowels-for the secretion from the skin is generally quite overlooked. Let any man look over his file of prescriptions, and he will scarcely find one that is not double-which does not contain, in addition to the principal medicine, a little prescription (generally at the bottom of the paper) for some aperient pill or draught, or both, for the purpose of acting on the secretions of the liver and bowels. Now these additionals and collaterals (which, though necessary under the old treatment, do infinite mischief in the long-run,) are never required under the hydropathic method, which keeps the nervous system calm, the digestion active, and the secretions in the most healthy condition-thus giving to any particular drug which may be thought necessary for any particular disease, the fairest possible chance of exhibiting whatever remedial efficacy it may possess. I have repeatedly-over and over againcured diseases by the very same drugs which had before been given in vain, by submitting the patient to the hydropathic treatment while taking them. The influence of steel and balsam of copaiba, for instance, is thus (in the diseases for which they are given) wonderfully increased, whilst their ill effects upon the constitution are very greatly lessened. Whenever, therefore, any particular drug is absolutely necessary, the hydropathic treatment is not only quite compatible with its exhibition, but, in a very eminent degree, adds to its remedial power. In the majority of cases to which this treatment is applicable, however, all drugs are unnecessary, especially aperient and mercurial drugs. But yet there are some in which medicines may be given with advantage, especially quinine—and those who could never bear quinine before will generally be found to bear it very well while under the influence of this treatment, for reasons already explained. Seeing, then, that the hydropathic treatment is, in its nature tonic, alterative, and anodyne-and that it is all these my experience has amply satisfied me to what particular class of disorders are we warranted in believing it applicable in addition to those particular instances of disease, its power of curing which, my own practice has already demonstrated? My opinion, founded not upon any speculative views, but solely on what I have observed of its effects, and upon a multitude of corroborative little facts which are every now and then disclosing themselves,-my opinion is, I say, that it is capable of curing all that class of diseased conditions, (and it is a very large one) in which the one thing needful is to re store the secretions and give power to the system-all that class of diseases depending on nervous debility and irritability arising from an over-excited or over-tasked brain-all disorders depending upon an impure condition of the blood-all diseases depending upon congestion of blood-all functional diseases not depending upon disorganisation or mechanical local irritation-all local diseases which are kept up by a want of sufficient power in the general system to heal the lesion or restore the healthy functions of the part. In constipation, in digestion, chronic rheumatism, many skin diseases, indolent ulcers, nervous debility, torpid liver, bilious habit, habitual spasms, many forms of headache, determination of blood to the head, suppression or retention of the monthly secretion, chloroses, many painful affections of the nerves, I believe it to be by far the most certain remedy yet discovered, and that in some of these, as rheumatism, constipation, some forms of indigestion, spasms, torpid liver, &c., it is almost a specific. When it is possible to give up twelve or eighteen months to the prosecution of this treatment, and where there is no distortion of joints, I believe it is quite capable of curing the gout, completely and permanently. In addition to all these, I am firmly and deeply convinced that there are many diseases which cannot be cured by this treatment alone, nor by the drug treatment alone, but which can be cured by the two combined." Medical Intelligence. TYPHUS FEVER IN FLANDERS. Six army physicians have been appointed by the minister of war, at the request of the minister of the interior, to proceed to the communes of Flanders, where the typhus fever is most prevalent. The marvellous efficacy of the cold water system in the treatment of typhoral fever, has been frequently spoken of, and has been tried here with great success. We have been assured that several cases of typhus have been cured in a few days in the environs of Grammont by hydro pathy, under the care of M. De Ark. Among the remarkable ones, are those of the Rev. M. De Neve, and Mr Philips of Renaix. The doctor was not called in till the disease was at its height. Mr Philips was covered with numerous typhoric spots. Both had been given over, and had received extreme unction. After eight days' hydropathic treatment they both recovered. If this method be applied in the commencement of the disease, the cure is more rapid and certain.Courier Belge, Feb. 7. MESMERISM A CURATIVE AGENT. SOME Consider (and with great show of probability) electricity to be analogous to the principle of life-some consider electricity to be the principle of life. We are aware that all nature abounds with electric matter. It is here and everywhere; perchance, under God, it is in it we live and move and have our being. We hear of galvanism and magnetic electricity, or electro-magnetism, and its efficacy, through machines, upon the human body, in relieving paralysis and rheumatism, and different neuralgic disorders. Why might not mesmerism -or animal magnetism, as it would appear to be appropriately called-be electricity under a different character? Its results are often the same, or rather very similar. Why might not the electric fluid of the operator unite itself, under various modifications, with the electric fluid of the patient, and thus act with a curative influence upon the principle of life within us? The decided advance that mesmerism has made in this country within the last two years; the number of cautious and practical men that maintain its reality and utility; the variety of diseases to which it has been successfully applied, all lead the friends of truth to hope that the publie mind has taken a turn on the subject. In spite of the discredit under which it is often compelled to labour through the vanity or ignorance of itinerant lecturers, the good cause is making a steady and certain progress; for it is not by public exhibitions at a theatre that delicate experiments on the human frame can be conducted, in due compliance with the conditions which are essential to their success. - These conditions can only be fully appreciated by men that are accustomed to the niceties which the demonstration of the simplest phenomena in chemistry and electricity requires. The failures, therefore, that arise from the disturbing influences of a crowded audience on the nervous system of the patient; the disgust occasioned by the disputes between the lecturer and the spectators; the suspicion, and perhaps occasionally the detection of imposture, are “constantly checking, in Of course, such experienced and excellent leeturers as Mr Spencer Hall, form exceptions to this observation. different quarters, that tide of public opinion that is gradually rising in favour of this science. it Still, in defiance of these drawbacks, keeps advancing. Men almost universally begin to think that "there is something in it;" and, on farther investigation, they find that that small "something' is a very powerful reality. No one, not even those who make inquiries on the subject, are aware of the great extent to which the practice of mesmerism is carried on, quietly and unobtrusively, in private families. Having corresponded much on the subject, I have been astonished at finding the numbers who apply to it for relief. Men's minds are evidently ripening for its reception. They have clearly reached that state in which an Till that impression can be made. state has, to a certain degree, arrived, it matters not what may be the subject matter, no new truth can be successfully established. Be it in religion or politics or natural philosophy or medicine, all the books and arguments in its favour fall unheeded on the public, till the facts and statements have been, for some time, well shaken together in men's minds, and other and external circumstances predisposed them towards its acceptance. No undue exertions can force this period forward, or bring it prema turely into being. Prejudice, ignorance, bad education, and self-interest, will have their triumph and their day; but when once the signs of vitality have shown themselves, we may accelerate the growth-we may then hasten the progress very materially. It at length reached this critical point is my conviction, that mesmerism has that it has obtained a considerable lodgement among reasoning people. The part of the inquiry that gospel, whose calling so often brings interests myself, as a minister of the him into acquaintance with the numerous ills that flesh is heir to, is the unquestionably vast remedial power of the art. And viewing it in this light only, I cannot but regard mesmeric influence as a rich provision of nature, or, to speak more meetly, as a bounteous gift of the all-merciful Creator for the relief and preservation of suffering man.- Mesmerism and its Opponents, by George Sanby, M.A., Vicar of Fliaton, Suffolk. Gleanings. A HINT TO BRITISH TOWNS. Once on a time, a French doctor came to Damascus to seek his fortune. When he saw the luxurious vegeta tion he said, "This is the place for me-plenty of fever." On seeing the abundance of water, he said, "More fever; no place like Damascus." When be entered the town, he asked the people, "What is this building? A bath." "And what is that build"A bath." ing?" building?" "And that other "A bath." 66 Plague upon these baths, they take the bread out of my mouth," said the doctor," "I must seek fever practice elsewhere." So he turned his back, went out of the gate again, and hied else where.-The Modern Syrians. RECREATION FOR THE PEOPLE. The legislature or public bodies should provide places of healthy, innocent recreation, good for both soul and body, and accessible to the whole population; gratuitous baths, washhouses, libraries, museums, parks, reading rooms, gymnasia, concertrooms,-places, in short, where harmless, inexpensive recreation might successfully enter the lists with debauchery and vice. God knows, they would be better, cheaper, and more efficient than gaols, penitentiaries, panopticons, and patent drops; which, indeed, they would in time replace. Sanitary and moral reforms go together; and, as a healthful, cheerful, well-lighted, well-regulated abode is found cheaper and better, more conducive to health and happiness, than one that reeks with dirt, disease, and immorality; so reading rooms,museums, parks, and picture galleries, would be found civilizers, cheaper and better than the silent cell, the gallows, and the scourge.-Dr M'Cormack. REWARD OF VIRTUE. If the benefactors of mankind, when they rest from their pious labours, shall be permitted to enjoy hereafter, as an appropriate reward of their virtue, the privilege of looking down on the blessings with which their toils and sufferings have clothed the scene of their former existence; do not vainly imagine that, in a state of exalted purity and wisdom, the founders of mighty dynasties, the conquerors of of evil doers, who have sacrificed to new empires, or the mere vulgar crowd their own aggrandisement, the good of their fellow-creatures, will be gratified by contemplating the inonument of their own inglorious fame: theirs will be the delight-theirs the triumph-who can trace the remote effects of their enlightened benevolence, in the improved condition of their species, and exult in the reflection, that the prodigious change they now survey, with eyes that age and sorrow can make dim no more-of virtue knowledge become power sharing in the dominion-superstition trampled under foot-tyranny driven from the world-are the fruits, precious, though costly and late reaped, yet long enduring, of all the hardships, and all the hazards they encountered here below.-Lord Brougham. ORIGIN OF THE STETHOSCOPE. When the lungs are perfectly healthy, and the respiration is performed in a natural manner, if the ear be applied to any part of the chest, a slight the act of inspiration and that of exnoise can be distinguished, both in piration-a soft murmur, somewhat the deep inspirations occasionally resembling the sound produced by made by a person profoundly sleeping. by the naked ear, and though producThis sound, though appreciable even ed many times in a minute, in every healthy human being, from the first moment of the existence of the first man, had never been heard, or at least never attended to, until about twenty years ago, when itwas observed by accident. A physician, Dr Lænnec of Paris, having occasion to examine a young female, labouring under, as he supposed, some disease of the heart, and scrupling to follow his first impulse to apply his ear to the chest, chanced to recollect that solid bodies have the power of transmitting sound better than air. Thereupon he procured a quire of paper, rolled it up tightly, and then applied one extremity to the patient's chest, and the other to his ear. Profiting by the result, which |