he accustomed himself to bathe and wash himself in cold water every morning. Notwithstanding all these precautions, his labours affected his lungs, and for three years he took great care of himself, by using flannel next the skin, fur or wool mufflers round the neck, besides otherwise averting the effects of cold. All would not do; medical advisers said his lungs were ulcerated; he had a dry and painful cough; and, in short, he was in a very bad way. Thus knocked up in health, he bethinks himself of proceeding to Graefenberg, in Silesia, there to put himself under the care of Priessnitz, the originator and head of the water-cure system. " Priessnitz having examined him, and given directions to his badediener, or attendant, how he should be treated, the process of cure commences. It was on the 12th of January, when the thermometer was nearly at zero, that the first movement was made. All my flannels were laid aside; my silk, cotton, worsted, and fur mufflers were thrown off. I was ordered two leintuchs He arrived at Graefenberg on the 9th of January (wet sheets) daily, one at five in the morning, the other 1844, along with two companions, and, as the main at five in the evening, with a cold bath after each. At building was full, he got an apartment, in a neighbour-first, for about a week, I took the abgeshrecktebad (tepid ing house. We were,' says he, to pay three and a shallow bath) instead of the cold bath, after the leintuch. half florins, or seven shillings British, per week, for the At eleven A. M. I had a sitzbath (sitting bath) for fifteen use of the room, and for firewood, until the 1st of minutes. I wore the umschlag (a damp bandage covered March; at which season the increased demand for by a dry one) round my body, and changed it four lodgings, occasioned by the greater influx of guests, times a day. Every morning before breakfast, be the generally raises the rent of the lodgings. Our room weather ever so inclement, I walked fur, six, or somewas furnished with a tile stove, which was of course a times eight miles, and drank six or eight tumblers of fixture; three deal bedsteads, which were simply ob- cold water. I also took a walk after the sitzbath and long boxes on legs, without hangings above or below; evening leintuch, to excite reaction. This treatment a sofa covered with leather; a small mirror; a clumsy lasted for three months. I afterwards took the douche washing apparatus of coarse earthenware; with tables, or waterfall bath once a day, and instead of the evening chairs, and chests of drawers made of unpainted deal. leintuch and cold bath, two abreibungs (wet-sheet baths) The furniture in all the lodging-houses is of the very at intervals of an hour.' simplest construction. We engaged a badediener, or bath-man, to take care of our room, make our fire, and attend us in our baths, for one florin or two shillings each per week. We then hired our beds and bedding by the week, purchased blankets, sheets, and bandages, and bespoke our board in the saloon, or great dininghall in Priessnitz's establishment, for which we were each to pay nine shillings per week. • • This perpetual wrapping in wet sheets, rubbing, plunging into ice-cold baths, and exposure in all weathers, was trying, and sometimes painful-the very thoughts of the cold-plunge bath, when lying in bed in the morning, being horror; but the effects were not of the deadly kind which might have been anticipated. From the first,' continues our author, I found the cure exceedingly stimulating. The various external and internal applications of cold water, the out-door exercise and pure air, which in my walks I allowed to circulate about my neck, throat, and chest as much as possible, had, during the first three months, a most invigorating effect. A rash appeared upon my neck, chest, and shoulders, and around my body under the umschlag, and was rather annoying, from the burning and itching which it occasioned. My cough ceased; I had a voracious appetite; I found that my breathing grew deeper, stronger, and easier, and that I could climb the mountains more rapidly, and with less panting. As I shall have frequent occasion to speak of the saloon, which is the great centre of reunion, gossip, and social intercourse for the cure-guests, I may as well describe it here. The saloon is a large and lofty room, about one hundred and twenty feet long, forty feet wide, and twenty-five feet high. It is plainly ceiled, and the walls are whitewashed. In the centre of the west end is the entrance-door, over which is the orchestra for the musical performers at the dinners on Sunday, and at the entertainments occasionally given by the guests. The east end opposite to the entrance is furnished with a portrait of the emperor, and is lighted by four windows in two rows, one above the other. There are also two rows of eight windows each on the south, and two rows of four windows each on the north side. The end of the saloon next the door is occupied with rows of plain deal tables, extending about half way down the length of the room, at which the guests take their meals. These can be laid out to accommodate three hundred guests; but the greatest number who sat down together during my stay did not exceed two hundred. Priessnitz presides at the first of these tables, and it is here that he is generally consulted by such of his patients as board in the saloon. The lower end of the room below the tables is surrounded by sofas, and furnished with several large mirrors, and with a piano. The vacant space between the sofas and the ends of the tables, as well as the space between and around the tables, is used as a lounge and promenade. The saloon is hung round with the flags of fifteen different nations, which have sent patients to Graefenberg. Nowhere will you find a greater variety of character within a small space, than in the saloon at Graefenberg. Attracted thither in search of health from all parts of Christendom, upwards of one hundred individuals sit down to table daily, and the diversity of language, costume, complexion, and manners, may be imagined. Materials for romance, and subjects of absorbing interest to the observer of human nature, lie thickly around you in this little republic-this pure democracy in the midst of a pure despotism. The patients looked so healthy, and ate so heartily, that our first impression was, that there must be some mistake, and that these persons could not be on the sick list. We supped amongst them on the evening of our arrival, and made our arrange ments to have an interview with Priessnitz on the following day.' But a painful change was at hand. About the first of April all my joints, and especially my knees, began to grow stiff, sore, and weak; walking became painful; and after sitting a few moments, I found it difficult to straighten my knees. I became gloomy and disheartened, but was assured by those about me that these were favourable symptoms, being evidences that the cure was taking effect. The whole surface of my body, even my hands and face, became very sensitive to the touch of cold water. It seemed as if my nerves were laid bare. I had a perfect horror of cold water-a kind of hydrophobia. As the spring advanced, and the weather grew milder, but damper, the cure became more intolerable. I found the damp weather of April and May far worse than the cold of January and February, I became afflicted with acute and throbbing pain in my teeth, jaws, and face, for which I was directed to rub the back of my head, and my neck and face, with my hands, wet in cold water. I was also ordered to rub my knees frequently in the same way. This was the crisis; and for some weeks I was as miserable as the most enthusiastic admirer of the water-cure could desire. Indeed I was often congratulated on my misery, which was regarded as the prelude to a speedy cure. At the close of April I had boils on my arms, hands, fingers, and chin, and nearly all over my body. They suppurated and discharged; and during the month of May they all healed; and none have since appeared.' And so the cure was completed. While it was going on, nothing surprised me more than the perfect safety with which cast away my comfortable warm flannels and mufflers. A terrible cold upon my lungs, and an increase of cough, were the least that I expected; but I was agreeably disappointed. In my walks, for three months, I had no hat or cap on my head, no handkerchief around my neck, not even my shirt collar buttoned. My clothes have often been completely drenched with snow and rain, and my hair filled with snow; but I have not had the slightest cold upon my lungs, nor any which a leintuch or one night's rest has not cured. My only remedy has been to take an abreibung, and put on dry clothes, on returning to my room to take off my wet clothes. This simple process has not only saved me from taking cold, but also from the effects of over-exertion. .. I went to Graefenberg resolved to submit implicitly to Priessnitz's directions. I did so, and was restored to health. I am certain that my long abstinence from all alcoholic and warm drinks, and my disuse of tobacco in all its modes, and of medical drugs, have been powerful aids to my recovery. If any one will make cold water his only beverage, and abstain entirely from the use of medicine, he will find the watercure sufficient to cure any disease that may assail him; if it be not absolutely incurable, and if he be determined to persevere in whatever process may be requisite for his recovery. But whoever expects to find health by the water-cure while wrapped up in flannels, and lounging in easy chairs and on sofas, in a warm, air-tight room, without personal exertion and activity, will certainly be disappointed; for persevering exercise in the pure fresh air is an essential element of the cure.' to be a studied absence of comfort. Much of the time of the patients is occupied in walking among the hills, drinking water at every spring they pass, and also in hard out-door labour. Sawing wood appears to be one of the occupations most generally admired and followed; many work in the fields; and others, ladies as well as gentlemen, may be seen carrying grass on their backs to the cows. In the evenings, after an early supper, all enjoy themselves with in-door amusements, among which dancing to a band of music is the principal. Ladies who in the morning were working with bare heads and arms in the fields, are now dressed in white gowns, kid gloves, and satin slippers, and going through the mazes of the dance with counts, barons, and captains. In winter, when field-labour is at a stand, sledging is a common recreation; and when tired with this gleesome and rough sport, there are always billiards and other games. Concerts are occasionally given in the saloon by some of the guests, at which they sing, play on the piano and violin, and sometimes read extracts from English, German, French, and Italian authors.' " Labour, exercise, and amusement, are thus parts of the cure; and one would almost be inclined to think that a considerable degree of petty discomfort was also indispensable. The buildings are homely, and the accommodations to the last degree mean. There are no bedchambers for the servants. The badedieners, both male and female, sleep on the floor in the passages, on straw or in blankets, as the case may be. In going to the baths, both men and women must descend the same public stairs, and thread the same public passages, enveloped in sheets and blankets. One can hardly pass through the establishment at certain times of the day, without meeting guests of all conditions, ages, and sexes, going to or from the baths in this strange attire, The cowhouses and stabling belonging to Priessnitz being under the same roof with the saloon, the offensive exhalations from them are a continual source of annoyance and disgust when the doors of these offices are open, which is frequently the case. Indeed nothing can exceed the discomfort of the whole arrangement, as Englishmen count comfort. Then the work inside is all of the plainest and rudést kind; no painting, no papering, no carpets, no English snuggeries whatever.' We have thus let our enthusiastic admirer of the watercure tell his own story, excluding only the details of the different steps in the process, for which we must refer to the work itself. It appears to us that the success of such remedies is in a great measure traceable to what ordinary medical men too frequently neglect-attention to air, exercise, amusement, and diet; or, more properly, the development of the natural powers and functions of the system, some of which, in the ordinary circumstances of an artificial existence, are dormant, or almost extinguished. Why, in therapeutics, there should be so little insisted on in the way of general re-invigoration, by recalling nature to her post, and so much done by the artificial stimulus of medicines, is more than we can understand, unless it be that the duty of prescribing and charging for drugs is a much more easy one than The presiding genius of this half cow-house half that of studying a man's whole constitution, and giving dwelling-house, seems by no means underpaid for his him rules for keeping it in health. Perhaps, however, services. I should suppose,' continues our author, the medical profession is not alone to blame. In Eng.that his income, from the weekly rent of his rooms in land and the United States there is a fanatical love of that part of those houses in Graefenberg which belong medicines, and men often resort to them as an off-hand to him, amounts to about L.1500 per annum. Then mode of cure, having, or thinking they have, no time for there are at least one hundred guests boarding in the more deliberate, though more natural and effectual saloon the year round, at four florins thirty-eight measures. kreutzers each, or rather more than nine shillings per week. It is said that the thirty-eight kreutzers are expended in keeping the walks and fountains in order, and that Priessnitz receives the remaining four florins, which, for one hundred guests, comes to something more than L.2000 per annum. This, added to the receipts for lodgings, amounts to L.3500. Then we must add four shillings per week as his fee from each guest, which, at an average of 500 guests, amounts to L.200 [in reality L.100] per week, or L. 10,000 [L.5000] per annum, and forms a grand total of L.12,500 L.8500] per annum. So that, allowing for the expenses of the establishment, Priessnitz cannot have less than L.8000 [possibly L.3500] of clear annual income.' Priessnitz, whose proceedings are so much at variance with those of the medical world, is not a physician, neither is he an educated man, and we are informed he is seldom seen with a book in his hand. He writes no prescriptions; all his directions are verbal, and given to the attendants in whose hands he places his patients. Priessnitz, in fact, is nothing more than a German peasant or small farmer; a man with much shrewdness, who studies nature only, and probably never read a book on medicine in his life. Visited by hosts of people, many doubtless with imaginary complaints, and others labouring under the effects of intemperance, late hours, and other excesses of various kinds, he seems to set about restoring the abnormal pith of the constitution Our author protests against the assumption that by some simple modes of treatment. How far the Priessnitz is a charlatan-merely operating for the sake application of water, internal or external, has a direct of gain. He describes him as invariably commanding curative effect, we cannot pretend to say; but we en- the respect, and winning the affections, of his patients. tertain no doubt that many would recover at home, The Austrian government, however, views his estabwithout water in any extraordinary style of applica-lishment with great jealousy, and would willingly seize tion, if they would refrain from certain indulgences, on any excuse for putting him down. A register is put away cankering cares, and take plenty of exercise kept by the police of all the patients who are and have in the open air daily. been under Priessnitz's care, recording their names, the places from which they come, and the number of deaths. In the establishment of Graefenberg there appears Age and Reign of Monarchs, • 37 278 408 42 137 195 Bells, Large, the frequent Break- [Birds, their Habits]-Notes on Blackhall's, Father, Services, 284, 298 Boone, Daniel, Adventures of, 170 Borneo, Mr Brooke in, 180, 200 Britain and France, Geological Bull's, John, Housekeeping Ac- Capuchin Convent at Malta, Visit Carlyle's 'Letters of Cromwell,' 8, 23 Criminal Statistics of France, Castillote-an Incident of the Civil Chadwick on Railway Labourers, 220 Chambers's Tracts, . 30, 61, 89, 140, 188, 249 at Graefenberg, 5 Combe, Dr, on the Observation of 300 173 288 Crichton Institution, Visit to the, Page 300 375 94 Eccentric Lady of the Last Century, Drift, the Great Northern, Culture, Effects of, on Vegetation, Debt, How a Tailor Collected a, Desert, Silicified Forest in the, Dickens's, Mr, New Christmas Tale, 44 Dickens's Pictures from Italy, 389 Disease, Treatment of, Dr Combe Emigration, German, • English Army, State of the, 119 246 Exclusivism of Italian States, How a Tailor Collected a Debt, Faraday, Professor, on Light and Father Blackhall's Services, 284, 293 Few Words about Savings' Banks, a, 303 [Fire, Modes of Generating]- 398 89 • Machine-Hydraulic Clock- 'Flemish Life, Sketches from,' Four-and-Twenty Hours at Smyrna,321 France, Criminal Statistics of, 246 68 Frequent Breaking of Large Bells, 233 Glass-Works, St Helens and its, [Gore, Mrs]-Sketches of English Great Truths, Resistance to, 68, 317 Groans from behind the Counter, 173 Habitat, Effects of, on Animals, Highland Minstrelsy, Mrs Ogilvy's, 329 Highlands of Corsica, a Day in the, 372 Holland, Pauper Colonies of, 236 Hume's Life and Correspondence, Last Century, an Eccentric Lady Letter-Writing, Certain attentions Light and Magnetism, Professor Literature of the Middle Ages, London, Artesian Wells in, [Luson, Mrs Jane]-An Eccentric [Magnetism]-Baron Reichen- Kerguelen's Land Cabbage, the, • Keying, the Chinese Commissioner, 126 Kirkland's, Mrs, Western Clear- Language, Animal, Marquesas, the, and the Mar- quesans, Melville's Adventures in the Mar- 157, 253 Malta, Capuchin Convent at, Visit 206 Mann's, Horace, Educational Tour, 327 man Emigration, nce at Associations, &,. -Works, St Helens and ita, doliers, the, of Venice,. oans from behind the Counter Lume's Life and Correspondan Hunt's Stories from the Itin Heas, Manner of Expresin deen, taly, Dickens's Pict Tottings from Hume's Lite Murchison, Sir Roderick, in Russia, 214 Music, Analysis of a Piece of, 377 Narrative of Frederick Douglass, Effects of Habitat on Animals, Recent Revelations of the Mi- The Humble Bee, A Prison Philanthropist, dustry, The Rage for Cromwell, Contrasts to Civilisation, Bells, Manner of Expressing Ideas, State of the English Army, 0, Pauper Colonies of Holland, Ogilvy's, Mrs, Highland Min- strelsy, Pacific, Adventures in the, Pickings from my Note-Book, Page Schools of Industry in Aberdeen, Schools of Industry in Edinburgh, Science, Popular Information on, 309 ST QUALITY CONTROL MARK Silicified Forest in the Desert, Sir Roderick Murchison in Russia, 'Sketches of English Character,' Society, Usages of, Unrestricted Dangers, 303 286 205 Vegetation, Effects of Culture on, Visit to the Crichton Institution, 151 335 Visit to the Crypt of the Capuchin Tams's, Dr, Visit to South-Western Tasso, Stories and Translations Temperance, Gough, the Apostle Trade and Public Business in Scot- Treatment of Disease, Dr Combe 321 222 A Fine Old English Yeoman, 111 A Quiz upon Young Ireland, 111 Pleasures of Railway Travelling, 111 Poet's Vocation and Power, the, 63 382 Popular Mythology of the Middle 344 Popular Names, 55 Prison Philanthropist, &, 281 Romance of Sir Amadace]-Glean- 369 ANECDOTES AND PARAGRAPHS. Enesia, Sir Roderick Murchison in, 214 Russia under Nicholas the First, 152 Rosian Garrison, Scene in a, Abuse, Sliding Scale of, 317 Demonstration, Ingenious Mode of, 192 Economy in Knowledge, 144, 176 Editorial Notice, 352, 416 Educational Course, Chambers's, 80 Elephant-Hunting, the Perils of, 144 64 111 Exclusivism of Italian States, Fidelity of the Dog, Longevity, Influence of Vegetable vii Page 236 Habit, Bad, How to break off a, Inferiors, Conduct towards, 15 |