After the Bath had been in operation for some time at St. Anne's, and its remedial virtues had been demonstrated by experience, injudicious friends counselled Dr. Barter to "keep the goose that laid the golden eggs to himself," and not excite the opposition of the medical fraternity, by attempting to effect a general revolution in the treatment of disease, such as would necessarily follow, should the public become convinced of its marvellous curative and alleviative properties. But such selfish counsel was wisely rejected, and, in the true spirit of his honourable profession, Dr. Barter resolved to make the virtues of the Bath known, that all might profit by them. With this view he freely expended both time and money. The results of his experience were detailed in public lectures, delivered in various parts of Ireland and England, while he disinterestedly invited his medical brethren to investigate and test those results -freely offering them all the facilities at his command for so doing. But this generous conduct did not disarm hostility, neither did a similar honourable course in the case of Jenner, and of many others. The Bath, no matter what its merits might be, no matter how great the boon it offered to mankind, was necessarily revolutionary in practice. It pandered to no medical delusions, and was wholly antagonistic to all drug deceptions; therefore, reason and experience should be set aside, and every discouragement offered to its beneficent progress.

But the Bath was the consummation of Hydropathic truth, and was not to be suppressed by the machinations of ignorant and prejudiced detractors. It commended itself to the common sense of enlightened laymen who had learned to distrust the pretentious empiricism of physic, while the unseemly manifestations of medical enmity only served to provoke discussion, and make its sterling merits better known. Many members of the profession, who were gifted with minds superior to its petty jealousies and trading propensities, inquired for themselves, and ended by adopting the Bath as a great therapeutic power.

The first Bath erected outside his own establishment was built by Dr. Barter's assistance for the poor in the city of Cork;

and now there are no less than fourteen Public Baths in the county and city in full operation, while in the mansions of nearly all the nobility and gentry private Baths have been constructed. Baths have also been established, principally by his personal exertions and pecuniary assistance, in several towns in Ireland, viz., Dublin, Bray, Waterford, Limerick, Killarney, Sligo, Belfast; besides, others have been opened by public companies and private individuals.

In England, also, very gratifying progress has been made, though the advance has not been creditable in comparison with the wealth, liberality, and reasoning intelligence of its people. In 1858, Dr. Barter visited England, and delivered some lectures, which excited considerable attention. The first public Bath was established at Bradford, and several enlightened professional gentlemen, among whom may be mentioned Dr. Brereton, Sir John Fife, M.D., Dr. Wollaston, and Dr. Haughton, came forward and avowed their belief in its great remedial properties, which led to other establishments being opened in various places.

On visiting London, and inspecting some of the Baths erected there, Dr. Barter was so struck with their imperfections in many respects, that he forthwith got up a Company, and constructed a magnificent model Bath in Great Victoria Street, at the cost of £28,000, but it has been recently purchased by a railway company, under the authority of Parliament. A very excellent Bath, but on a far smaller scale, was subsequently established by Mr. Urquhart, in Jerymn Street, who adopted the improvement of pure Hot Air, introduced by Dr. Barter, as distinguished from visible vapour, and now there are numerous public and private Baths in every quarter of London-all constructed more or less faithfully after the same improved principle.

Indeed, it may be observed, that all properly-constructed Baths are now so regulated as to command atmospheric purity as a prime necessity-the possession of which is still further facilitated by abandoning the ancient Greek hypocaust, or heating by flues beneath the floor, and substituting an improved and

more economic mode of heating from the sides, with provision for ensuring a supply of direct or radiated heat. An excellent new public Bath has been recently constructed in Cork on this plan, by Dr. Barter, and it has been found to answer so admirably, that he contemplates introducing the change into all his Baths.

On the Continent the introduction of the Bath was received with decided popularity and success. In parts of Germany it is announced as the "Irish Bath." But more especially in the United States of America has its progress been signally rapid and prosperous. This may be accounted for by the fact, that new.communities are generally inspired by a keener practical intelligence than pervades the population of older, states. Customs and prejudices "grow with the growth, and strengthen with the strength," of national institutions, and even when de trimental to national well-being are exceedingly difficult to change or uproot, whereas utility alone is the prevailing rule of thought and action in new countries.

Hence it is that the Hydropathic system, of which the Bath is the crowning perfection, has not found in Great Britain the universal acceptance that might have been expected from its approved utility and rationality. The inveteracy of ancient. habits and prejudices on the subject of Drugging cannot be easily or suddenly overcome. A generation educated in tradi tional Physic superstitions, cannot rapidly be made to unlearn even exploded fallacies, and imbibe healthful truths. Thus it is that the pernicious habit of Drugging has become something like a confirmed, custom among the population of the kingdom. Rich and poor, high and low, are alike the victims of this fatal folly. No other country yields such abundant and luxuri ous harvests to the quacks and knaves of medicine. The fashionable physician trades as empirically, only in a more accomplished and less offensive manner, as his humble rival, who extols the infallable merits of his elixirs, catholicons, hygienic pills, and patent quackeries... The difference between them is only in degree. There is the same absence of conscientiousness

in both. They both appeal to the same weaknesses of human nature, both pander to the infirmities, credulities and morbid appetites of their dupes, and both appear alike reckless of human life, while Death impartially crowns with a funereal wreath the practice of both. But

"Time's glory is

"To unmask falsehood, and bring Truth to light."

To time, therefore, must be left the testing of false systems of Physic, as of everything else, and the diffusion of those great Hygienic truths which are destined to make the profession of Scientific Medicine a substantial blessing to mankind. Nor is there any reason for despondency, for when it is considered that twelve years have scarcely elapsed since the first Bath was established at St. Anne's, and how unscrupulous and persistent the opposition has been, the progress already made has certainly been both rapid and cheering.

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The Physiology of Life—Its Departments, the Mechanical, Intellectual, and Nutritive-Primary Importance of Healthy Nutrition.

BEFORE the reader is in a position to appreciate aright the invaluable properties of the Hot-Air Bath, it is necessary to possess a general idea of the constitution of the human body, inasmuch as the action of the Bath in preserving health, preventing disease, and, as a curative agent, is based on the unerring laws of our physiological being. At first sight to acquire this knowledge might appear a matter of tedious study, but practically it is not so. Human physiology, to be sure, presents an almost boundless field for scientific inquiry-a vast extent of which has not yet been successfully explored or cultivated. Yet, for all practical purposes of individual health, there is no mystery about the well-ascertained outlines-the great established principles and guides, which, divested of technical phraseology, can be sufficiently understood by the general public, while that they should be thoroughly understood and implicitly followed is of vital importance to the well-being of mankind.

Physiologically speaking, man is composed of certain substances known as solids and fluids-the latter largely predominating. The Solids are the bones, tissues, &c., which make up the mere mechanical organism-the human machine or framework. The Fluids are what afford a constant supply of nutriment to keep that mechanism in motion-to nourish its growth and development. The fluids act through organs which present a complicated combination of parts, each having functions