fiot sufficiently animalized, and too mucilagenous, they must be used with moderation. The woodcock, partrige, pheasant, wild duck, and wild goose, are infinitely better than the birds of the poultry yard.

Both sea and river fish furnish wholesome food very easy of digestion, and they are properly given to patients, provided they are not too often used.

DRINKS.
Water.

Health can as little be supported without pure water as without pure air. When either of those fluids deterio rated by admixture with foreign matter, dsease will be a common, if not a constant resident. The ancients were well aware of this fact, when they went to such expense in procuring good water from great distances.

Common water, says the celebrated Hufeland, possesses powers which we but little know to appreciate.

It appears to be the character of man to love and cherish any thing artificial, and to undervalue and disregard simple means, because they are simple. Pure water is certainly a great remedy for a number of maladies. Tournefort mentions a Venetian Consul who resided at Smyrna, that lived to the age ef 118 years. This gentleman never drank any thing but water. The latter is said also to have been the universal and only drink of the New Zealanders,

who enjoyed the most perfect and uninterrupted health. Not a single individual was seen by Capt. Cook, that had any bodily complaint, nor one upon whose skin any eruption was visible, or the least sore which indicated that any had formerly existed. It may also here be noticed, as an inducement to drink water, that two of the most athletic individuals of antiquity as well as a modern hero, whose intrepidity was long the admiration of all Europe, were among the practical advocates of this wholesome beverage.

That water is not an incentive to vice like spirituous or even vinous drinks, and that its votaries are invariably exempt from the danger of ebriety, has been observed by Shakspearo. "Honest water," says the bard of nature, "is too weak to be a sinner; it never left man in the mire," whereas, "wine," Solomon assures us, "is a mocker; strong drink is raging; and whoever is deceived thereby is not wise." Who hath sorrow? They," says the wise king, "that tarry long at the wine."

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Since the first dawn of the healing art, the efficacy of this simple remedy, in a number of diseases, acute as well as chronic, has been extolled by ancient as well as modern physicians. When all other remedies failed to cure the disease, water alone would often do wonders.

I have myself made ample use of this excellent remedy in the cholera, in Rotterdam, in 1833, 34 and '35, and the successful result, in many cases apparently hopeless, was beyond my expectation.

Perhaps it may not be considered superfluous by medi

cal men, if I were to give a few extracts of ancient authors on the application of cold water in diseases, in order to show what good may be done with simple means.

Fridrich Hoffmann says, si medicamentum, in universa rerum natura datur (invenitur) quod universale meretur, (mereatur,) certe illud non aliud, nostro quidem judicio, est quam aqua communis. Huius tam communis tamque necessarius est usus, ut sine ea nec vivum, nec integrum corpus nostrum manere possit: quin et omnis generis morbus arcet, corpus sanum tuetur, illudque ab omni corruptione quae vitae inimicissima est defendit. Præterea usus aquae omnibus in curando indicationibus satisfacit, adeo ut sine hac nulla passio sive acuta sive chronica felice industria posset profligari.

Discite quam parvo liceat procedere vitam
Et quantum natura petat, non erigit aegros
Nobilis ignato Liffasus consule Bacchus;
Non auro murrhaque bibunt, sed gurgite puro
Vita redit; satis est populis fluviusque ceresque.

Luc. Phars. IV., 377, 381.

Sequitur horror et concussus totius corporis a frigidissime aqua applicata. Postea oritur calor, rubor pulsus fortior et celerior sique lectum petat homo, post imersionem in aquam frigidam, solet plerumque sequi magnus sudor. Haec de Paralysi. Swieten III., § 1069.

Inter simplicissima quae morbis incredibilem ferre

solent opem, remedia praestantissimum est aqua simplex naturali frigiditate largius hausta: qua sola atrocissimas convulsiones profligatas vidi. Ea namque levitate ac fluiditate sua mima corporis nostri vascula penetrat cruorem sanguinem magis fluxilem reddit partes roborat, humores atque vapores acres involvit (?) ac leniorem excitando sudorom secum e corpore duxit.

Hoffmann Med. Rat. syst. tom. IV., Pars. III., p. 69. Si ardens febris extorret, nulla medicamenti danda potio est, sed in ipsis accessionibus aqua refrigerendus est (aeger.) Etiam amplo conclavi tenendus est, quo multum et purum aerem trahere possit, neque multis vestimentis strangulendus sed admodum levibus tantum velandus est. Possunt etiam super stomachum imponi folia vitis in aqua frigida tincta. Quum vero in summo incremento morbo est, frigida aqua copiose praestanda est, ut bibat etiam ultra satietatem, et quum jam venter et praecordia ultra modum repleta satisque refrigerata sunt, vomere debot. Quidam ne vomitum quidem exigunt (!) sed ipse aqua frigida tantum ad satietatem pro medicamento utuntur. Fereque post longam sitim et vigiliam, post multum satietatem, post infractum calorem plenus somnus venit, per quem ingens sudor effunditur: idque praestantissimun auxilium est. Febris ardens,

Celsus III., 7, p. 134-35. De his, quibus caput infirmum est, caput aqua frigida perfundendum. Cels. I., 4, p. 34, 35. De his quibus lippitudine gravedine, destillatione, tonsil

lisque laborant, non caput tantum aqua frigida quotidie perfudendum, sed os quoque multa aqua frigida fovendum. Celsus I., 5., pag. 36.

Quae agenda sint stomacho laborantibus? qui tarde conconquunt, duos tres ve cyathos aquae frigidae bibant omnes potiones aqua frigida includant. Cui alvus constiterit, frigida potione potissimum utatur.

Cels. 1., 8., pag. 38, 39.

Quid observandum sit dolore nervorum laborantibus? Aqua frigida, praeterquam capiti etiam stomacho prodest,

idem articulis.

Cels. 1., 9., p. 39.

Curatio lentarum febrium: sæpe ex aqua frigida corpus pertractandum est. Aqua frigida potui danda et ingerenda. Cels. III., 7, pag. 136, 138. Prodest aqua frigida super ca

De insaniae curatione.

put infusa demissumque corpus in aquam.

Cels. III., 18,

pag. 155. De lethargia. Excitat validissime aqua frigida repente superinfusa-Tribus aut qnatuor amphoris per totum caput

perfundendum est.

Cels. III., 20, pag. 158, 159.

De stomachi morbis. Potui gelida aqua praestanda. Prodest profundi frigida atque in eadem natare, canalibus ejusdem subjicere stomachum, consistere in frigidis fonti

bus.

Cels. IV., 4, p. 205, 209.