must we cast away the old-fashioned dicta and the wise saws of the old women of medicine, who prate eternally in the stereotype utterances of a bygone age.

"The profession has worn the old garments of the departed heads of the profession long enough. The sun of modern science lights up the threadbare, well worn spots. Our medical edifice must be built anew, for no tinkering of theories can hide the chaotic confusion of our Text-Books and our Monographs."-Medical Mirror, Dec., 1867.

And the same authority, in noticing "a system of medicine," which Dr. Reynold's, Professor at University College, London, is bringing out in conjunction with no less than thirty-seven medical teachers, says, 61 one cannot read the mode in which disease is recommended to be treated, without seeing that all, with scarce a doubtful exception, have lost confidence in the traditional principles on which remedies have been selected, and are beating about for a new guiding star."—Ibid, May, 1868. In other words, there is the want felt for a renewed "tinkering of theories, to hide the chaotic confusion" in which the principles and practice of medicine are so hopelessly and so glaringly involved.

Now, Hydropathic practice differs essentially from all this. It has its guiding Star in Nature, and wants no other. There is no "Chaotic confusion" in its text-books or monographs-no "tinkering" required to patch up the chinks and flaws in its theories. By simply following the teachings and promptings of Nature we see what the imperfect application of Hydropathy accomplished under very adverse circumstances—we see the marvellous results that Priessnitz produced, and now, when scientifically developed and applied by able and conscientious Physicians, its practice is commending itself more and more to the reasoning intelligence of the age.

It has passed into a maxim that "the knowledge of a disease is half its cure," in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the other half consists in proper and prompt action. It is in this respect that Hydropathy excels transcendently. Promptitude in the employment of its natural means is the great source of its successil practice; and in the Bath it possesses a prompt and potent

agent incomparably superior to any other means that have heretofore existed. Comparing the body in disease to a sponge, Erasmus Wilson, with an expressive sententiousness, affirms, that by means of the Bath-"we squeeze the sponge as we will; we replenish it as we will!"

Contrast, for example, the difference between Physic practice and Hydropathic in the case of the disordered bodily condition called fever. The signs or symptoms of the disturbance in the system are manifested more or less vividly by the pulse, the skin, the stomach, the head, and a general discomfort. The Physic Doctor in such a case wastes not hours, but often valuable days waiting for the decided development of such symptoms as will enable him to give, what he calls the disease, a particular name. He has been taught to distinguish fevers by a variety of symptoms and formidable names as typhoid; typhus, intermittent and its varieties; remittent and its varieties; variola; rubeola; scarlatina, &c., &c., and further that "there is no disease in which the premonitory symptoms are so diversified as those of fever, owing to the general resemblance discernable in the commencement of every febrile disturbance, whether idiopathic or symptomatic, and it is not until the symptoms have continued for some time that the practitioner can discriminate the precise nature of the disease."-Cyclopædia Pract. Med., vol. ii., p. 165.

Thus instructed, the doctor waits patiently till the symptoms become so marked that he can give them a name, for then he has been taught a specific form of treatment for every name !— for curing all the evils that each name represents! Thus the disease is allowed full opportunity to establish itself in the sys→ tem, for that is really the meaning of symptoms developing themselves. This procrastination, however, gives rise to increased irritation in the system-the blood is becoming more impure every hour that is wasted-the circulation and all that is dependent thereon becomes more vitiated-functional complications are increased; and, finally, by the time the doctor has made up his mind by what name to call the symptoms, whether

typhus, small-pox, scarlatina, or anything else, the vitality of the patient may have become so engaged that a fatal termination is more or less probable. But probability is always increased, and too often converted into a certainty, according to the nature of the "remedies" employed; for in every case Physic practice only adds fuel to the flames. In this way human life is destroyed, for no person possessed of recuperative vitality should ever die naturally of any Fever. Fever deaths, in all such cases, are the result of mal-practice.

In such cases Hydropathic practice is easy, simple, and instantaneously remedial, by assisting Nature in her efforts to dislodge and eject from the system the morbific cause of the disturbed action that has been commenced. There is no childish folly committed, wasting valuable time in watching the fleeting shadows of the symptomatic phenomena—no paltering with an evil when immediate means are demanded to abate it. The Hydropathic physician knows, and acts skilfully on the knowledge, that the blood is the medium by which vitality is nourished in every portion of the system, and the whole body freed from its effete impurities. He operates, therefore, instantly on the whole vital organism through the blood. The wet sheet packing is an admirable means; it brings the blood to the surface, acts on the skin, induces a copious expulsion of excrementitious matter, and thus, by strengthening vitality, assists Nature to work her own cure. It is a certain means by which to aid Nature in the cure of all fevers, and it can be commanded when the Bath cannot.

But in all cases, when The Bath is available, its action is more agreeable, more prompt, and more effectual than any other means that can be employed, and, under proper administration, it is suitable for every one. Remember what was explained (page 197) about every drop of blood in the body being sent through the whole circulatory system at least once every three minutes; and consider how the blood, in its minutest ramification through every tissue and part, absorbs the effete waste, brings it to the surface, and deposits it there to be discharged

by the seven millions of pores stimulated into the active performance of their functions under the genial influence of heat; then consider how the blood thus freed from poisonous impurities can be rapidly fed with nutriment by copious draughts of water, returning again on its circulatory course to perform its two-fold office of conveying food to the vitality of every part, and gathering up a load of fresh impurities from every part for elimination from the system-a consideration of these facts will give some idea of how potent the Bath is in eliminating disease from the system, more especially in all diseases in which the purity of the blood is primarily involved, and in fevers bloodpoison is always present in the earliest stages, if, indeed, not directly the exciting cause of them. The action of the Bath is instantaneous and effectual, and, thus considering its command over the sources of vitality, we can realise, in some degree, the force of Erasmus Wilson's terse truth-" We can squeeze the sponge as we will; we can replenish it as we will.”

The difference between Physic and Hydropathic practice is equally great in the treatment of every other disease, and may be briefly summed up by saying-that the effect of Physic practice, in all cases, necessarily is to weaken vitality, and thwart Nature's remedial efforts; while Hydropathic practice strengthens and invigorates vitality, and assists Nature to work out and complete her own cures.

CHAPTER XIV.

Opposition to new truths a characteristic of the medical profession -Illustration supplied by the cases of Harvey, Sydenham, Paré, Jenner, Hunter, Sir Charles Bell, and the history of anasthetic agents-The opposition to the Bath of the same character.

Ir we reflect on the proverbial inertia of the professional mind, and the indisposition that too generally exists to admit anything which does not accord with preconceived opinion, or commend itself to the accredited dogmas and prejudices of established systems, we cannot be much surprised-notwithstanding the superior enlightenment of our age-that the Hot-Air Bath should have had to encounter, on its revival and establishment, the silent indifference or open hostility of the great bulk of the medical profession-more especially so, indeed, of its so-called heads and leaders. The well-attested therapeutic properties which it presented for investigation were received, shameful to relate, with an ignorant irrational scepticism by presumptuous guides of medical opinion, who judged by false theories, and obstinately refused to perform the duty of practical inquiry. Yet these very men would eagerly welcome any absurdity if presented in the shape of a novelty in drugging—they would accredit any speculative nonsense in the form of a theory that proposed to whitewash the manifest imperfections in their own empirical art-they would hail with delight any marvellous fiction about drug cures, no matter how self-evident the imposture, provided only that it chimed in with the sanctified routine. of thought and practice.

And so has it ever been in all ages of the world; while those