he Hydro-mania; but I apprehend is mistaken, for I never knew patient more attached to water hen abroad, than when at home. here certainly, however, are mptoms, which indicate a mania f some kind or other; but sa imerfect is our knowledge of maniacal ases, that I can derive no infor. ation from books. Arnold does ot mention it in his last edition, Ithough probably he may in the ext, for which I am told he is preparing materials. Besides, I confess, that I am not very partial to increasing our catalogue of manias. So many things might be brought under this title, that a general history of madness would, I am afraid, be as comprehensive as the Annual Register, or any other work which professed to record the actions of man; but this is a digression.

It is peculiar to the disorder I am now speaking of, that the symp. toms of it never appear, when the patients are by themselves: the presence, however, of a stranger, or a party of strangers, never fails to bring on the cough, dispnoea, and other concomitants. But above all other occasions, they are most exasperated in the presence of the head of the family, whether a father, an uncle, or a guardian. Now, as this is as much a disease of the mind as of the body, it strikes me, that the passion of envy or jealousy, is strongly excit. ed by the sight of persons who are not afflicted with the disorder, which is generally the case with fathers, uncles, and guardians, and that the patient, from a desire of communicating the disease, is impelled to throw out those miasmata, contagious particies, which will affect all present.

That this is often done without producing the effect, I well know, but I must say, that, in general, where the disorder is of long continuance (a month or six weeks, for example) it seldom fails to im. part such a degree of its virulence, as to affect the father, and then, I observe, the cure is as good as performed.

From the few remarks I have thrown out, you will perceive, sir, that although we cannot refer this disorder to any class hitherto men. tioned by nosologists, yet we may rank it among endemics, or those disorders which affect the inhabi tants of a certain district. This is most prevalent in the city of Lon don, and extends

a little way into the suburbs. I have met with a fsw cases of the kind in the Bo rough of Southwark; but the small villages near town are, I think, generally pretty free from it. As to the Borough, it is rather singular, that some of the patients, after returning from Margate or Brighton apparently perfectly cured, take lodgings nevertheless in a large. building in St. George's fields ; whether this confirms the cure, I know not, but I apprehend it may prevent a relapse, and I am doubtful whether any thing will so effectually answer this purpose, The tendency of the disorder to re. turn, is one of the worst circum. stances belonging to it, and suffi ciently convinces me, that there is a radical error in the mode of treatment. I am not ashamed to confess, that I have often failed. If we physicians are not as free in acknowledging our errors, as proud in announcing our cures, the medical art, as to practical usefulness, must stand still.

With respect to the causes of the
Domi.

habit a good house in town for ur months of the year, and to eside amongst my tenants and eighbours for the remaining eight vich credit and hospitality. I am ndeed myself so fond of the counry, and so averse in my nature to very thing of hurry and bustle, hat, if I consulted only my own taste, I should never feel a wish to eave the shelter of my own oaks in the dreariest season of the year; but I looked upon our annual visit to London as a proper compliance with the gayer disposition of my wife, and the natural curiosity of the younger part of the family; besides, to say the truth, it had its advantages in avoiding a round of dinners and card parties, which we must otherwise have engaged in for the winter season, or have been branded with the appellation of unsociable. Our journey gave me an opportunity of furnishing my study with some new books and prints; and my wife of gratifying her neighbours with some ornamental trifes, before their value was sunk by becoming common, er of producing at her table, or in her furniture, some new invented refinement of fashionable elegance. Our hall was the first that was light. ed by the lamp d'Argand; and I still remember how we were gratified by the astonishment of our guests, when my wife with an audible voice called to the footman for the tongs to help to the asparagus with. We found it pleasant too to be enabled to talk of capital artists and favourite actors; and I made the better figure in my political debates, from having heard the most popular speakers in the house.

Once too, to recruit my wife's

spirits, after a tedious confinement from a lying-in, we passed a season at Bath. In this manner · therefore things went on on very well in the main, till of late my family have discovered that we lead a very dull kind of life; and' that it is impossible to exist with comfort, or indeed to enjoy a tolerable share of health, without spending a good part of every summer at a watering-place. I held out as

long as I could. One may be af lowed to resist the plans of dissipation, but the plea of health cannot decently be withstood.

It was soon discovered that my eldest daughter wanted bracing, and my wife had a bilious com plait, against which our family physician declared, that sea bathing would be particularly serviceable. Therefore, though it was my own private opinion that my daughter's nerves might have been as well braced by morning rides upon the Northamptonshire hills, as by evening dances in the public rooms, and that my wife's bile, would have been greatly lessened by compliance with her husband, I acquiesced; and preparations were made for our journey. These indeed were but slight, for the chief gratification proposed in this scheme was, an entire freedom from care and form. We should find every thing requisite in our lodgings; it was of no consequence whether the rooms we should occupy for a few months in the summer, were elegant or not; the simplicity of a country life would be the more enjoyed by the little shifts we should be put to; and all necessaries would be provided in our lodgings. It was not therefore till after we had taken them,

that

that we discovered how far ready furnished lodgings were from affording every article in the catalogue of necessaries. We did not indeed give them a very scrupulous examination, for the place was so full, that when we arrived late at night, and tired with our journey, all the beds at the inn were taken up, and an easy chair and a carpet were all the accommodations we could obtain for our repose. The next morning, therefore, we eagerly engaged the first lodgings we found vacant, and have ever since been disputing about the terms, which from the hurry were not sufficiently ascertained; and it is not even yet settled whether the little blue garret which serves us as a powdering room, is ours of right or by favour. The want of all sorts of convenience is a constant excuse for the want of all order and neatness, which is so visible in our apartment; and we are continually lamenting that we are obliged to buy things of which we have such plenty at home.

It is my misfortune that I can do nothing without all my little conveniences about me; and in order to write a common letter, I must have my study table to lean my elbows on in sedentary luxury; you will judge therefore how little I am able to employ my leisure, when I tell you, that the only toom they have been able to allot for my use is so filled and crowded with my daughter's hat-boxes, bandboxes, wig-boxes, &c. that I can scarcely move about in it, and amn this moment writing upon a spare trunk for want of a table. I am therefore driven to saunter about with the rest of the party; but in

stead of the fine clumps of trees, and waving fields of corn I have been accustomed to have before my eyes, I see nothing but a naked beach, almost without a tree, ex. posed by turns to the cutting eastern blast, and the glare of a July sun, and covered with a sand equally painful to the eyes and to the feet. The ocean is indeed an object of unspeakable grandeur; but when it has been contemplated in a storm and in a calm, when we have seen the sun rise out of its bosom, and the moon silver its extended surface, its variety is exhausted, and the eye begins to require the softer and more interesting scenes of cultivated nature. My family have indeed been per. suaded several times to enjoy the sea still more, by engaging in a little sailing party; but as, unfortunately, Northamptonshire has not afforded them any opportunity of becoming seasoned sailors, these parties of pleasure are always attended with the most dreadful sickness. This likewise I am told is very good for the constitution; it may be so for aught I know, but I confess I am apt to imagine that taking an emeric at home would be equally salutary, and I ara sure it would be more decent. Nor can I help imagining that my youngest daughter's lover has been less assiduous, since he has contemplat. ed her in the indelicate situation of a ship cabin. I have endeavoured to amuse myself with the company, but without much success; it consists of a few very great peo. ple, who make a set by themselves, and think they are entitled, by the freedom of a watering place, to indulge themselves in all manner of polissonneries: and the rest is a

motley

motley group of sharpers, mer. chants' clerks, kept mistresses, idle men, and nervous women. I have been accustomed to be nice in my choice of acquaintance, es. pecially for my family; but the greater part of our connexions here, are such as we should be ashamed to acknowledge any where else, and the few we have seen above ourselves will equally dis. claim us when we meet in town next winter. As to the settled inhabitants of the place, all who do not get by us view us with dislike, because we raise the price of provisions; and those who do, which, in one way or other, comprehends all the lower class, have lost every trace of rural simplicity, and are versed in all the arts of low cunning and chicane. The spirit of greediness and rapacity is no where so conspicuous as in the lodging-houses. At our seat in the country, our domestic concerns went on as by clock-work; a quarter of an hour in a week settled the bills, and few tradesmen wished, and none dared, to practise any imposition where all were known, and the consequence of their different behaviour must have been their being marked, for life, for encouragement or for distrust. But here the continual fluctuation of company takes away all regard to character; the most respectable and ancient families have no influence any farther than as they scatter their ready cash, and neither gratitude nor respect are felt where there is no bound of mu. tual attachment, besides the ne. cessities of the present day. I should be happy if we had only to contend with this spirit during our present excursion, but the effect it VOL. XXXVIII.

has upon servants is most pernicious. Our family used to be remarkable for having its domestics grow grey in its service, but this expedition has already corrupted them; two we have this evening parted with, and the rest have learned so much of the tricks of their station, that we shall be obliged to discharge them as soon as we return home. In the country, I had been accustomed to do good to the poor; there are charities here too; we have joined in a sub scription for a crazy poetress, a raffle for the support of a sharper, who passes under the title of a German Count, and a benefit play for a gentleman on board the hulks. Unfortunately, to balance these various expences, this place, which happens to be a great resort of smugglers, affords daily opportunities of making bargains. We drink spoiled teas, under the idea of their being cheap, and the little. room we have is made less by the reception of cargoes of India taffeties, shawl-muslins, and real chintzes. All my authority here would be exerted in vain; for, I do not know whether you know it or no, the buying of a bargain is a temptation which it is not in the nature of any woman to resist. I am in hopes however, the business may receive some little check from an incident which happened a little time since: an acquaintance of our's returning from Margate, had his carriage seized by the Customhouse officers, on account of a piece of silk, which one of his female cousins, without his knowledge, had stowed in it; and it was only released by its being proved that what she had bought with so much satisfaction as conI i

traband,