berg doctor; in 1832, not fewer than 118; and in 1836, 469; and, in 1840, upwards of 1,500.

"In the present day," says our author, “Graefenberg has become the hospital of the incurables of all Europe. I there saw patients from Petersburg, from Moscow and Paris, from London and Philadelphia, from Astracan and Constantinople, and, as a matter of course, from Vienna, Berlin, and several cities of Italy.

"During the present year, the Prince of Nassau, Prince Lichtenstein, the sister of the King of Prussia, the_Princess Sapieha, Princess Gortshakoff, the son of the Duke of Sussex, from England, many of the magnates of Hungary, besides a host of countesses and baronesses de tout age et de tout pays' have been there.

"What makes all this the more wonderful is, that there is surely nothing in the mode of treatment pursued there that is at all likely to attract the fashionable idler, as is the case at most of the German watering-places. Every thing is conducted in a serious, nay ascetic, manner; the life led is most simple; and the amusements are very few indeed. It was certainly an amusing sight to see so many distinguished personages, accustomed themselves to command, obey with the most religious scrupulousness the prescriptions of a peasant, who can scarcely write his own name. But, although illiterate, Priessnitz has received from heaven (!) a rare sagacity, united with great firmness of purpose, and no common strength of judgment. Had he not been so indued, he never could have acquired so widespread a celebrity, or been able to carry through his projects with such astonishing success, as he has done. He says little, and never gives any reason for his prescriptions. He takes no note of his cases; but his memory must be excellent, as we have been told that, if five hundred patients are assembled together, he quite recollects everything he has ordered to each individual. He has already amassed a large fortune, and has purchased a beautiful estate in the neighbourhood of the scene of his exploits."

It has been unjustly said that Priessnitz applies the same method of treatment to all his patients alike. This is a mistake. The use indeed of water, in some form or another, is the basis of his treatment on all occasions; but the mode of using the remedy, and the extent to which it is carried, are varied according to the circumstances of each case. The object seems to be to wash away every impurity from the great surfaces of the body, the skin and alimentary passage, and to cause these parts, so to speak, to wash themselves by copious transpiration.

All sorts of baths are used, from the simple foot to the general douche or plunge bath; the temperature of the water varying from 40° to 70° or even 80°, in some cases, when the constitution of the patient is weak and easily affected. Then the fair element is not only drunk profusely, but is also administered more or less frequently in the form of lavements. By-the-bye, this French word very happily expresses the meaning of the system. We should not be surprised if, after this, our neighbours claim the discovery of Hydropathy.

It is not necessary to describe particulars-swathing the body in two or three blankets; the drinking several tumblerfuls of cold water when the skin begins to perspire; the plunging into the cold bath when every pore is sweating profusely; the subsequent drying, rubbing, and dressing; the walk for an hour, during which six or eight tumblerfuls more of water are drunk; the simple breakfast, at eight o'clock, of milk and plain bread; the second walk for another hour; the undressing and the investiture with the wet sheet at eleven, and the subsequent currying both before and behind; the dressing again and the third walk; the dinner at one o'clock; the fourth walk; the douche bath between three and four o'clock; the fifth walk, &c. &c.

M. Scoutetten seems to have been quite pleased with the animating sight of the dinner table, at which not fewer than five hundred persons can be accom

modated. There is no dainty put down; nothing but plain joints of meat, vegetables, fruit, and water in abundance: viola tout le diner.' And yet it would astonish the pampered inhabitants of most towns to see with what vigorous appetites the invalids set to their repast, and what quantities of vivers most of them

consume.

By-the-bye, Priessnitz seems to treat his patients better than mine host in this country usually does mail-coach travellers; they are not obliged to bolt their food and be off; plenty of time is granted; the dinner being served up 'avec une lenteur Germanique desesperante,' and occupying usually a full hour and a half.

At seven o'clock-the patients having previously had their post-prandial douchebath, their rubbing down, and their walk a grands pas'-the supper evening repast of cold milk and plain household bread is served up.

Each day the patient goes through the same routine of wrapping, sweating, bathing, rubbing, walking, eating, and sleeping.

"On cold-served repetitions he subsists,

No maiden relishes, no unbroached delights!"

The circle of continually-returning occupations however, Dr. S. says, so completely fills up every hour of the day, that the patients rarely experience any ennui. Really if the "whole duty of man "consisted in purging away the impurities of his sinful body by ablutions, no system could be altogether more admirable than that of hydropathy; and Priessnitz should be forthwith canonized. At all events, we must all surely admit that his plan is a thousand times better than that of the saints of old, who used to wear their sackcloth shirts unchanged for six months, until they were actually quick with vermin.

No medical man will be likely to dispute the advantages of such a regime as that described above in a variety of chronic ailments, provided there be no co-existent internal diseases of consequence. But what will our readers say when we tell them that Dr. Scoutetten, first professor at the military hospital in Strasbourg, actually tells us that the hydropathic mode of treatment is very successful even in the most grave acute diseases, especially in typhus fever and in obstinate dysenteries. Priessnitz himself and his German disciples are much more prudent; for they receive none but chronic cases-crafty rogues!

Some reader may here very naturally ask, how long is the washing and scrubbing system to be continued in the average number of cases? Dr. S. replies, from one, to six, twelve, or twenty months. He saw, indeed, some patients at Graefenberg who had been there for two and three years: the Prince Lichtenstein has not left it for four years. (Query. Has this worthy potentate anything to do? or is it that his purse is not very heavily laden ?) The following bit of information as to what classes of diseases are most benefited by the water-cure, we must give in the doctor's own words ::

'I should say that success is almost certain in gout, rheumatism, all abdominal affections, (!) scrofula, and inveterate syphilis; that it is less uniform in cutaneous diseases, in recent syphilis, in paralysis, and other affections of the nervous system; and lastly, that the treatment generally fails in chronic affections of the chest!!"

After this scientific general announcement, the Doctor gives reports of several cases of wonderful cures which he saw at Graefenberg; they all occurred, it would seem, among the big folks of the earth.

An old French General, 70 years of age-who had a liver that extended_over half his belly, and who, after consulting all the doctors of any repute in Paris, Vienna, and Italy, had actually, on one occasion, gone off to the Caucasus to drink hot water there was, at length, induced to put himself under Priessnitz's regime, when every other means had failed. His liver, we are told, is now

reduced to a 'juste-milieu' dimensions, and he has quite recovered his health and strength!

The case of Dr Bulard is still more extraordinary. His liver had actually become so enormously large, as to make his abdomen as big as that of a woman nine months gone with child. He had been four months at Graefenberg, when seen by Dr. Scoutetten, who "feels confident, that by persevering in the treatment, he will be perfectly cured!"*

The son of Prince S

12 years of age, had for several years been subject

to frequent returns of unappeasable vomiting, which usually lasted for one or two weeks at a time, and which had resisted every remedy that had been tried. He was speedily cured!

The Countess P

65 years old, had for many years suffered (poor soul,) with excessive great pain and stiffness in her hands and feet. When she came to Graefenberg, the joints seemed to be almost anchylosed. Under the hydriatic regime she has again become plump and active, can walk famously, eats like a trooper, and writes with ease; nay, she even "touchait le piano devant moi,” says the doctor!!

Priessnitz is a lucky fellow; he not only gets lots of cash from his patients, but has monuments raised by them in his honour. A full-sized metal statue of a lion—by-the-bye, our own Hygeist, Morrison, used to sport one on the top of his house in the New Road here-faces the village of Frey waldau, with commemorative inscriptions on its pedestal; and on the road to Graefenberg, stands a monumental fountain, surmounted with the figure of a star, emblematic of the 'avenir' of hydrotherapeia.

Dr. Scoutetten, after lauding in the highest terms the success of Priessnitz's practice, acknowledges that he (the latter) commits some egregious mistakes in diagnosis; he cannot distinguish between nervous and aneurismatic affections of the heart, or between simple gonorrhoea and the urethral discharges connected with the presence of stricture. But we much doubt whether the peasant of Silesia has ever been guilty of such disgraceful malpraxis as the professor of Strasbourg.

What are we to think of a regularly-educated medical man trying his experiments of hydropathic treatment on a man in the last stage of typhus fever, "dont l'existence ne se revelait que par un bruissement à la region du cœur ?" Had he told us nothing else of his practice but this, we should have had quite enough to know what amount of faith we should give to his opinion on any medical subject.

We cannot dismiss the account of this professor's hydropathic trip without expressing our astonishment at the many proofs which it exhibits of his ignorant credulity. Is it that he has fallen into his dotage, and cannot distinguish between the random successes of a clever empiricism and the well-calculated results of legitimate practice? or is he influenced by some mercenary motives, and supposes that he may make a good thing,' like several of our own countrymen, of the new system?

To do M. Scoutetten, however, no injustice, we may here mention that the water-cure has recently been tried in one of the hospitals of Paris, and that a full report of the practice has been duly sent to the Council of Health. M. Devergier, one of the physicians of the Hôpital St. Louis, entrusted several cases of cutaneous disease-psoriasis and lepra-and two of chronic rheumatism, to the care of M. Wertheim, to be treated on hydropathic principles. The results on the whole were any thing but very satisfactory; three only of the first set being cured: both rheumatic patients were much benefited.

* Most unfortunately for the Doctor's skill in prognosis, his poor confrere has recently died at Dresden.

This, however, is certainly not giving a fair trial to the system; for one part only of the regime required can be duly carried out in a metropolitan hospital; the bracing air, the mountain walk, &c. &c. are awanting. That not a few cases of chronic disease, if unattended with internal mischief, must be benefited by the hydropathic treatment pursued as Priessnitz does it, among the mountains of Silesia, no reasonable medical man will doubt: for, after all, what does this treatment come to ?-to very nearly what jockeys and pugilists in this country would call capital training. Instead of putting on half a dozen of great-coats, and walking briskly for an hour or two, until the skin is streaming with perspiration, the Hydropathist is wrapped up in blankets like a mummy and left to stew for some time in his own liquor, to be then sluiced with cold water and well curried down. The professors of both arts follow nearly the same regulations about diet and exercise. As to the application of the hydropathic treatment to the treatment of inveterate skin diseases, we can see no advantage likely to accrue from it, that might not be much more easily and quite as effectually obtained by a regular system of vapourbaths, in conjunction with the use of such means as must improve the general health, such as wholesome diet, exercise in the open air, &c.

M. CHOMEL ON CLINICAL OBSERVATION.

In his opening lecture at the Faculty of Medicine, this distinguished teacher made some excellent remarks on what he called therapeutic experimentation,' and pointed out the rules which must be observed by medical observers, if they hope to arrive at any thing like certainty in their conclusions. After declaring his opinion very decidedly against most of the recent attempts at innovation, of which therapeutics are incessantly the object, he very ably showed that the primary and essential foundation of all good experimentation is the knowledge of three thingsthe remedy itself, the patient, and the existing disease.

With respect to the remedy to be employed, the medical man should be thoroughly acquainted with its nature and composition, the pharmaceutic preparations of it that are in use, and the adulterations to which these are liable. Without such a knowledge, he will be apt to attribute to one substance the properties that belong to another, and to a compound medicine those of a simple one, &c. For example, it is now well known that the virtues of the syrup of asparagus-so long in favour as a diuretic-are entirely owing to the extract of digitalis introduced into its composition.

It is equally necessary to attend to the age, the temperament, the occupation, &c. of the patient, when any therapeutic experiment is made; and with respect to the disease itself, the physician must consider its nature, duration, its usual course and natural termination. As a general remark, it may be asserted that a series of experiments will be the more valuable and instructive, in proportion as the existing disease is the more fixed in its seat, and the less complex in its character.

Supposing now that the conditions, of which we have been speaking, are all well determined, the question comes to be, how should we proceed to make trial of any therapeutic means? First of all, it should be tried alone, and not combined with other remedies; else how can we determine what results belong to the operation of the one, and what to that of the other? Secondly, we must be sure that it has been properly administered or used: hence the importance of medical men often administering certain medicines themselves, or, at all events, leaving the most exact directions to the attendants. If we have to do with any very energetic medicine, we should try its effects repeatedly on the lower animals, before resorting to its use with our fellow-creatures. And lastly, we should remember that mere change of place, the vicissitudes of the weather, the in

fluence of mental emotion, the intervention of other diseases or of some other accidental circumstances, may all exercise on the progress of any disease such important modifications as will materially alter the results of any therapeutic experiment.

M. Chomel illustrated the truth of these precautions very happily by alluding to what occurred in his own practice very lately. He wished to try the effects of the Humulus lupulus as a remedy in intermittent fevers, and he accordingly determined to give the remedy a fair trial in 22 cases, which were under his care. But it so happened that the trial could not be made for a few days: and, by that time, the fever had spontaneously ceased in no fewer than 19 of the cases: in the remaining three, the powdered hop was given in very large doses, but with no obvious benefit. How erroneous would the conclusion here have been, had the medicine been administered to all the patients as early as it was first intended!— L'Examinateur Medical.

Remarks.-The observations of a calm observing physician like M. Chomel are always valuable, especially when, as in his case, he does not belong to any particular sect or school of medicine. What a contrast between the reflections of the physician of the Hôtel Dieu on any practical subject, and those of the ardent professor of La Charité hospital, M. Bouillaud! The one, like a cautious but bold general, makes himself throughly acquainted with every thing appertaining to his own army and that of the enemy, the nature of the ground, the character of the troops, the spirit of the officers and so forth, before he comes to blows; the other reminds you of a fiery captain of hussars, that plunges into the midst of the fight, without a moment's consideration whether an equal advantage might not be obtained without the sacrifice of a single life. Be assured there is no little analogy between the duties of the military, and those of the medical, profession. The physician is the general; the pharmacopoeia-using this term in a very wide acceptation-is his army; the disease is the enemy opposed to him. He has his skirmishes, as well as his pitched battles, to fight. He has his long campaigns, as well as his sudden encounters, to be prepared for. He has his out-posts to look after, his guards to set, his entrenchments to fortify, his garrisons to subsist. His commissariat, as well as his gunnery and ammunition stores, must be attended to. When apparently most secure, he is liable to sudden surprises and inroads; the work of one hour may upset the exertions of a whole month; the events of one day may ruin the labour of years. And last of all, he must be prepared for many emergencies which no human vigilance can foresee, and no human prudence can prevent. A passing storm may lay prostrate in a moment his wisest preparations; or the undermining influence of fear and despondency may render them all of no avail No set of men surely ought to know better, or feel more deeply, than the soldier and the physician, the full force of the saying that "the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong."-Rev.

M. CHOMEL ON THE DIAGNOSIS OF PNEUMONIA.

In one of his recent clinical lectures at the Hôtel Dieu, M. Chomel made the following remarks on the importance of shivering as a diagnostic sign of thoracic inflammation, in commenting upon a case of pneumonia that was in the wards at the time.

"I took much pains in questioning this patient, to ascertain whether she had experienced any chill, before the commencement of the attack; and her reply was always in the negative. This circumstance appears to me of importance;