MY TRIBUTE TO HYDROPATHY.

About the age of 20, I was attacked with an eruption of the skin, principally on the legs and abdomen, in small patches of a dry scaly nature, accompanied with much irritation. Not being aware of the cause, and suffering no particular pain, it was allowed to pass unnoticed for about two months. At this period, an eruption broke out over the entire body, similar to a pock. Advice was sought, and I was treated according to the approved medical system of the day, viz., mercurial salivation, for the space of three months. Every other day I took my pill, which had the effect of loosening every tooth in my head, perverting my taste, and depraving my appetite. At this time I was suddenly seized with most excruciating pains in the bowels: for several hours I could neither sit nor stand quietly, but lay completely doubled up, moaning with agony. The doctor was sent for, hot fomentations were applied to the affected part, and, fortunately for me, druggery abandoned. The hot fomentations, the only rational part of the treatment, gave me relief from pain; but the scaly eruption and irritation of the legs still remained, affording ocular demonstration of the abortive efforts of drug-medication-that system which contends only with effects, seldom with the cause of the evil. I forgot to mention another narrow escape from death which I had at the earlier part of the treatment, proving the injurious operation of that most pernicious drug, mercury, on the fine and delicate tissue of the brain. While at the summit of a flight of stairs I was suddenly bereft of consciousness, fell to the bottom, and remained in a state of stupor for two hours: leeching and bleeding followed, and confinement to my room for a fortnight. After this kind and judicious (?) treatment, I gradually recovered to find myself-what? a healthier man?-no! but literally shattered in that most important organ of the human frame, the brain! I became a nervous, half deaf, irritable hypochondriac; had violent ringing noise in the ears, the pulsation of which was at times so great that I seldom could sleep. Congestion of blood on the brain, which has made me repeatedly reel across the pavement like a drunken man, in a frame of mind often bordering upon insanity; melancholy thoughts of self-destruction, but lacking the courage to put them into execution; and I have frequently retired to rest with a prayer on my lips that I might never see the light of day again. No one save myself knows the mental anguish I have endured, my

sufferings being of that nature which I have found impossible to describe.

For these and similar feelings, I have occasionally sought allopathic aid; my ears have been probed for the deafness, I have been cupped, leeched, blistered, drugged, stimulated with brandy-andwater, &c., with temporary relief, I admit, but no lasting benefit did I ever experience; in fact, at the age of 25, I had made up my mind I should never see 30, and I might have gone on till the present moment (I am now 37), enduring similar misery, had not hydropathy, that polar star of truth, arrested my attention, in the shape of a small pamphlet published by Dr. Schlemmer, about the year 1841. After a careful perusal of its contents, I thought I saw a beautiful truth relative to the mystery of our being, but from the deadened sensibility of my brain, I confess I did not then fully understand its import; and, not having the means or the time to follow out the cure, I resolved, by way of experiment, to commence the dietetic use of water. I did so, but as a substitute for malt liquor only; the result was a gradual improvement in health-so much so, that in the year 1844, I purchased and attentively read Captain Claridge's work on Hydropathy, and was forcibly struck with the rational and common-sense arguments it contains in favour of water as a curative and preventive agent. I then determined upon seeking the advice of Dr. Schlemmer, which I did; and after a fortnight's stay at his establishment at Ewell, I became fully converted, and have ever since practically carried out its truthful principles;-the morning ablution over the entire body immediately upon rising, as much exercise out of doors as the nature of my business will admit of, and total abstinence from all intoxicating and stimulating drinks, water being my only beverage; and although I cannot boast of complete restoration, still I have attained a degree of physical health and mental serenity, combined with a buoyancy of spirits, to which I had long been a stranger, and this in the midst of much domestic misfortune and three distinct unsuccessful business speculations. The eruption and irritation of my legs have almost disappeared, my nights are undisturbed, seldom do I feel pain, I can eat the simplest food with a greater relish than I ever did the most savoury meal; my existence is now a perfect elysium compared with my former mental sufferings; in fact, it has changed a dark, gloomy, and foreboding scene to one of light, hope, and animation. And here let me remark that, with the exception of a few months' homeopathic treatment, which I was

D

induced to submit to in the absence of hydropathic advice, and from which I gained but temporary relief, I have not taken pill or draught, nor been subject to any kind of druggery, these last seven years; drugs, therefore, have not wrought the change. Those banes of society cannot be extolled to the skies. No, no; let us give praise where praise is due. Nature, bountiful Nature, has here been the sole physician, the skilful director of the matter; and with the aid of her simple elements, air and water-that water which I, in common with others, have ignorantly despised, but which I have lived to acknowledge, with a sense of the deepest gratitude, is "earth's noblest boon." And these are but a few of the blessings which a knowledge of hydropathy has bestowed on me; it has led me to investigate those sciences, which bring man to an acquaintance with himself, as a physical, moral, and religious being; it has led me from the vitiated customs of artificial life into the bosom of Nature, there by an observance of her immutable laws to persevere in the attainment of God's brightest blessing, health-it has taught me to seek for pleasure in the intellectual, instead of the sensual world; in fact, it has made me a Progressist in the broadest and most extended sense of the term, to aid and assist in the physical, moral, and religious advancement of suffering humanity.

If the principles of hydropathy, faithfully carried out, will effect such good as I have here but faintly endeavoured to describe, and which has been effected principally through my own perseverance, what must be its power over disease when scientifically directed? Boundless must be its extent, certain its operation, and grand its result; and it needs but little of the spirit of prophecy to say it will ultimately assert its supremacy as a remedial agent, as one of the mighty instruments in the work of human regeneration, universal in its application for the cure of disease.

We may not be permitted to know why so grand a boon in detail has hitherto been concealed from man, a Higher Power only knows; but if, in our day, it has been fortunately discovered and practically demonstrated to be a fact, an argument as it were of God's, it becomes our duty, not only to embrace, but to propagate its principles. What matters it, then, if the humble cottage of the Silesian peasant alone claims its birth-place? It is in perfect accordance with medical science, it harmonises with Nature, and, consequently, as Dr. E. Johnson says, "does but assert the Supremacy of God." It is the grand desideratum," the true medical creed, and only requires to be studied by the intelligent, the unprejudiced, the

truth-seeking portion of the community, in order to be loved with enthusiasm. It is that which will play an important part in the elevation of society, that position becoming its dignity, and help in realizing its appointed destiny. It is one of the solid links in the chain of human progression and universal brotherhood; to be brief, it is a science which may be faithfully designated the only true road to happiness; for it leads to that knowledge which enables a man to know who and what he is physically, and how his physical nature should be regulated to realize health and longevity, and how it should be subordinated to the higher purposes of his spiritual being.

I am, dear Sir, yours, with sincere respect,

5, Wimbourne Street, New North Road, Islington, Jan. 11, 1849.

JAMES SALISBURY.

A CASE OF CONSUMPTION IN THE FIRST

STAGE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE WATER CURE JOURNAL.

DEAR SIR,-Taking a hint from your address in the Journal of last month, and as a friend and lover of hydropathy, I wish to submit, for the benefit of my fellow-sufferers, my grateful testimony of the good I have received through its means or agency.

One

I believe I can say with truth, and my husband can bear witness, that for more than seven or eight years I knew not the blessing of health for many weeks together, and at various times exhibited strong symptoms of consumption, and during that period was continually trying the skill of various medical men, most of them without any good results-in fact, under some of their kind treatment I grew much worse. physician, whose care I was under for some time, recommended me very high living, or what I considered high, such as eating as much meat as possible. My stomach at the same time loathed the sight of meat. My drink was to be good stout and port wine. In vain I told him I thought it did not agree with me, as I felt the burning in the palms of my hands, and the fever that was constantly consuming me, much worse after

time

partaking of such good things. He told me to persevere, and not heed my feelings, giving me at the same what is commonly called strengthening medicine, and sundry pills, which I omitted taking, for I considered myself too weak to take pills; but with all, my debility and weakness increased.

I was subject to continued faintings, which would come over me sometimes as frequently as eight or ten times in the day. After continuing under the care of this doctor for several months without any improvement, he recom mended the country. Accordingly I abandoned my home, as I was continually doing, in search of that great blessinghealth; but I returned no better. I of course was supplied with a quantity of medicines to take with me, chiefly tonics, with orders to keep up the good things. I believe I took port wine with me, to make sure.

I then rested, on my return home, for some months without advice; but I continued so very unwell that my kind husband would insist on my trying a surgeon, who for some time kindly treated me to three draughts a day, besides large bottles of mixture to be occasionally partaken of; pills, of course, to make it complete. But still I grew worse instead of better, with all my drugging. This was in the winter.

The following summer found me no better. I tried a fresh doctor in the spring; nothing like perseverance. He again, after some time, recommended change of air and nourishing diet, so to Birmingham I went this time, taking with me my little son, as was my custom. I returned at the end of three weeks no better, greatly discouraged, and with a full determination to try neither doctors nor country more, for I believed my case to be hopeless. This was in May.

I remained at home until September, when another medical man, as well as my own immediate friends, considering my case to be consumptive, from the extraordinary debility, fever, and exhausting morning perspirations, attended with shortness of breath, hacking cough, with expectorations, &c., advised a farm-house as the most fitting place for me, and the only chance I had of benefiting; the smell of the cows and sheep,