condition of the skin, invite the action of the Hot-air Bath, onreasonable grounds, with abundant promise of success."

Alluding to the power of the Bath to remove the noxious secretion of the skin, he says-"The Bath is calculated to remove this unpleasant complication. This peculiar fœtor would seem to be owing, according to Dr. Thudichum, to a crystalline deposit round the mouth of the sweat glands, which becomes decomposed, producing carbonate of ammonia, in combination with volatile acid; and he says that healthy fresh sweat from a clean skin has a most agreeable odour, or none at all,"-Bathing, &c., p. 26.

We need not give any further evidence on this subject, for it is one concerning which no medical man has yet ventured to "hint a fault and hesitate dislike." Few of them, indeed, know anything about mental disease, and even some, who profess to have made its study and treatment a speciality, exhibit the most humiliating psychological and physiological ignorance when tempted to appear in a court of justice and enter the witness-box.

It is not to be expected, however, that those who are professionally entrusted with the custody of the insane will, as a rule, follow the laudable example of Drs. Power, Fitzgerald, Robertson, Sheppard, and the very few others who have, most honourably for themselves, and with a true Christian philanthropy, conscientiously endeavoured to afford the unfortunate patients confided to their care all the advantages that such an agency as the Bath is calculated to confer. Experience testifies that the great majority are quite content to jog on in old ways of routine treatment, without giving themselves any trouble about whether the Bath is an invaluable Therapeutic or not.

It is now seven years since the Bath was first made available as a remedial agency in the Cork Asylum, and no one acquainted with the treatment of the mentally afflicted can, without selfcondemnation, plead ignorance of the beneficial effects that have followed its use. Dr. Power has always been most anxious to afford his professional brethren any information concerning its

remedial influences; and the reports, more particularly of Drs. Robertson and Sheppard, now some years before the profession, ought surely to have inspired every superintendent of an Asylum with a desire to follow their laudable and humane example. Is it creditable that such has not been the case? Is it creditable to their profession, and to their humanity, that an appeal should be necessary to other influences to spur them to the discharge of the most solemn obligations they have voluntarily contracted by their professional position?

That appeal now lies to the Governors of Asylums in Ireland, to the Visiting Justices in England, and the Commissioners of Lunacy in Scotland. They cannot excuse indifference in this matter by pleading "the doctor's opinion." It is their paramount duty to investigate and judge for themselves, and there is no way of evading their responsibility. The salutary effects of the Bath is not a matter to be judged by any doctor's opinion; it is a matter of simple evidence, concerning which the intelligence that rules in a (C common jury" is just as competent to judge as all the colleges of physicians in the United Kingdom combined, and, indeed, with a vast deal more probability of an unbigotted and impartial verdict being returned.

Public officials and public boards are, no doubt, difficult and slow to move; but there is no excuse-there can be none for an apathy that amounts to inhumanity. An agent at once safe and powerful, agreeable and economical, is offered, fully tested by experience, and certified as incomparable in relieving various phases of the most terrible disease humanity can be afflicted with, and is it creditable to the civilization and intelligence of our age, that an active philanthropy should be wanting to make. it available?

Tubercular diseases, their variety and malignancy-Conflicting Physic remedies all abortive-The testimony of Sir John Forbes-Sources of Tubercular disease-The curative properties of the Bath and Hydropathy-A change of climate delusive and unnecessary-What sound Physiology dictates to be done.

CONSUMPTION has been incidentally alluded to as one of those forms of disease over which the Bath exercises a powerfully remedial influence. "Among the whole range of human infirmities," observes Sir James Clarke, "tuberculous diseases are the most deserving the study of the physician, whether we regard their immense frequency or appalling mortality. Confined to no country, age, sex, or condition of life, they destroy a larger proportion of mankind than all other chronic diseases taken together. If we add to consumption, tuberculous disease of the glandular system, of the brain, of the large joints, of the spinal column, &c., we shall probably be within the truth in stating that one-third part of the mortality of this country arises from tuberculous diseases; and if to this frightful destruction of mankind we add the numerous crippled and disfigured sufferers whom we daily meet with, the blind, the deaf, and the maniacal-for mania is not an infrequent form of this disease-and, above all, the painful reflection that the predisposition to this destructive class of maladies is transmitted from the parent to the offspring-we shall surely have no need to press upon medical practitioners the claim which tuberculous disease has, above all others, upon their earnest consideration. - Cyclopædia Pract. Med., Art. Tubercular Phthisis.

Like cholera and other serious diseases, consumption has utterly baffled all the resources of Drug medication. The remedies proposed have been as various and conflicting as the opinions entertained respecting the nature and cause of the disease itself. As Sir John Forbes observes:

"It is a melancholy fact that no plan of treatment hitherto proposed can boast of even the humblest success in permanently arresting the progress of this dreadful malady. It is at once melancholy and humiliating to review the enormous farrago of drugs and agents of different kinds brought forward, within the last few years, as more or less infallible cures for Phthisis; brought forward, too, for the most part, by men within the pale of the profession, and then to reflect on the present position of those remedies in the estimation of all rational and experienced practitioners. Should not this consideration alone teach us that the propounders of such remedies were all on the wrong track?"—British and Foreign Medical Review, vol. xix., p. 140.

The following are only a portion of the "remedies" Sir John alludes to:-Chlorine inhalations; iodine inhalations; mercury; hydrocyanic acid; creosote; iodide of iron; digitalis; sal ammoniac; carbonate of potassa; common salt; chloride of lime; inhalations of the vapour of tar; the production of emphysema by a system of forced respiration; dry cupping or traction; liquor potassa; the application of a seton; daily vomiting under the influence of emetics; iodide of potass and sarsaparilla; cod liver oil; wet linen rags to the chest; mechanical extraction of the tuberculous matter through the walls of the chest; besides which there have been numberless other quackeries recommended and prescribed by physicians more eminent for the practice they have managed to obtain than for the possession of physiological wisdom to guide them. The propounders of all such remedies, so repugnant to Nature, could not possibly be on the right track, for, if Consumption is ever to be arrested or cured, it is by following what Sir John describes as "the physiological, hygienic, or natural system of curing diseases, in contradistinction to the pharmaceutical or empirical drug plan."

That Consumption is curable by such a plan of treatment,

which is essentially the Hydropathic plan, admits of no doubt whatever, but, as a general rule, that treatment is not resorted to in time. In the early stages of the disease, when its cure is most practicable, the baneful practice of drugging is followed, until between the drugs and the disease the constitution of the patient becomes so impaired that cure is hopeless, and all the most skilful Hydropathist can then do is to mitigate suffering and procrastinate the fatal issue.

No thoughtful, experienced, and conscientious practitioner is now to be found professing faith in any plan of Drug treatment as curative of Phthisis. Dr. Hayle Walshe, one of the most recent writers on the subject, admits that medical art may aim at palliation, but cannot legitimately aim at curing. He says:

"Experience shows that the treatment of the phthisical may, with legitimate confidence, aim at either maintaining a status in quo—at producing slight local and general improvement or marked improvement of this kind

at effecting a total removal of subjective symptoms, while the physical signs remain partially active-or at accomplishing total removal of the symptoms, and bringing about a quiescent state of the physical signs, while the general health, weight, and vigor have improved to such an extent that the patient shall believe himself totally free from disease, and that the medical observer might be disposed to share his opinion, did not passive physical changes remain.

"I say medical art may legitimately aim at these ends, because, on the one hand, these ends have been actually obtained; and, on the other, the man has not yet appeared who can point to results more perfect than the best of these, as the positive, direct, and traceable effect of any known system of medication. This latter clause is not in the least at variance with the well-known fact, that Phthisis sometimes spontaneously undergoes permanent suspension of its course."-Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Lungs, third edition, p. 501.

But the system of medication which Dr. Walshe recommends, as likely to bring about any of these partial results is not confined to Drugs, but is largely Hygienic, for Hydropathy has already achieved the signal triumph of having, to a considerable extent, revolutionized physic practice in the treatment of chronic disease, The "heroic practice" of a quarter of a century ago is now almost universally superseded, yet Physic