THE GREAT PRINCIPLE.

41

and for the recovery of health,-it is not unlikely that I may have many applications made to me for information on the subject. I feel, therefore, desirous of meeting these inquiries, by first showing the prinple-the great principle-upon which those means are employed, and I know not that I can do this better, or better state what my own convictions are upon the subject, than by requesting you to insert the following letter, written by me whilst at Malvern, to one of my medical brethren in this place. I will only add, that the means adopted are

1. Drinking cold water.

2. Cold bathing after passive sweating.

3. Cold bathing without sweating.

4. The wet sheet.

5. The wet sheet bath.

6. Partial bathing of particular parts.

7. Douche, or spout bath.

8. Cooling compresses.

9. Animating bandages.

10. Frictions.

These are all modified in their use according to the circumstances of each particular case; and I have no hesitation in saying, require the exercise of as much judgment and discretion as any other mode of medical ministration.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

Cambray Place, Cheltenham, Sept. 17.

C. T. COOKE.

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DR. WILSON SPOKEN FAVOURABLY OF.

Malvern, Sept. 9th, 1842.

MY DEAR DR.,-To you who so well know what a life of suffering mine has been, it will be no matter of surprise to hear that I should have been obliged to leave home for the purpose of rest and quiet, nor will you wonder that I should have come to this place with a view to give a fair trial to the extraordinary use of a simple remedy, having, as you also know, tried every ordinary remedy in vain. I am also anxious to ascertain, by personal observation and experience, for the benefit of others as well as myself, what are the real pretensions of what is called "the water-cure" to the estimation which it so loudly claims from the profession and the public. To you and to myself it will be no marvel if it should substantiate those claims. You have always, in your own case as well as in your practice, given to the skin its fair share of attention, and in my little book on the management of health and life, published as long ago as 1826, are to be found the two passages, I have quoted and enclosed for you. It was a pleasure to me to hear, before I left home, that you had spoken favourably of Dr. Wilson's mode of ministering to disorder and disease; and I am still further gratified by finding patients of yours under his care who bear testimony to your liberality of feeling on the subject. As yet, I cannot speak of myself as being better, but you know the nature of my ailment, and will not expect too much any more than I do, from even this

GOOD COMMON SENSE.

43

mode of relief, combined, though it be, with what I so much need, comparative repose from labour.

If I am spared to return, it will be a gratification to me to tell you all I have witnessed, and all I have experienced, of the effects of Dr. Wilson's varied application of his one remedy. I have already beheld much that would have surprised me, if I had not long since learnt that the simplest means were the best in the hands of a Minister Naturæ, or the Minister of God, and had not, from a very early period of my life, defined the practice of medicine (in its unsophisticated sense) to be " good common sense directed to a particular object," and, I might add, that object a blessed and blessing one.

If you should feel inclined to take a drive over any day whilst I am here, I should be glad to see you, and to have the pleasure of introducing you to the author of "A Practical Treatise on the Cure of Diseases by Water," &c. &c.

I am, my dear Dr. faithfully yours,

C. T. COOKE.

"Indeed, when we contemplate the importance of the function of the skin in its effects on the general activity of the vascular system, and in the delegated action which takes place between it, the stomach and intestines, and the kidneys and lungs, we shall be convinced of the wisdom, if not of the necessity, of paying attention to its habitual state. Engaged as the skin and the lungs are in the performance of the same function (the throwing forth carbonic acid gas) we should

44

ONE GREAT WHOLE.

be very particularly attentive to the condition of the former where there is any disposition to disease in the latter organ, since any impression of cold on the surface -any check to perspiration, throws upon the lungs more than their ordinary duty, and thus induces irritation in them, and perhaps consequent disease. Again, when we see how much the state of the skin is influenced by disorder and derangement of the viscera, we should be led not only to mark the symptoms of internal disease upon it, but to adopt the best means of exciting the one as a remedy for the affections of the other. In like manner the condition of the brain and the secretion of the kidneys are influenced by the state of the skin and perspiration. All this tends to show, that the nervous and vascular system are to be considered as one great whole, of which, indeed, each part has its different allotment, but can never, in a natural state, or in morbid conditions, in general, be absolutely independent of, or disconnected from, the other parts of that mysterious portion of our frame; and that the health of all the functions of our bodies is influenced, to the full extent of what has been before said on the subject of sympathy, and of the importance of an equal distribution of nervous and vascular excitement, by the proper or improper action of the skin. The subject is deserving of scientific examination and reflection, both in pathology and in practice; for health is enjoyed only when the various functions, which together form the animal economy, are perfect, and one function cannot be in health unless the whole be also."

I will only add on the subject of this mode of

DISRUPTED FRIENDSHIP.

45

or the liver, or the

influencing the health and strength of the circulation, and of course the health of all the functions of the body, my entire concurrence with the opinion of my first and highly esteemed preceptor, Sir Charles Bell, that if instead of taking the stomach, bowels, and continually harping upon them to the exclusion of the other parts of our frame, any one should take the skin as his object of care, that his practice would have equal success, and his cases and facts become soon as numerous; whilst his connexion with general science would be more intimate, and his claims to public favour more valid than any who have yet flourished in it by promulgating doctrines in regard to the functions and diseases of individual parts."

For this he has suffered the penalty of private abuse and disrupted friendship-the best compliment that could be paid to him: for had he left my house and published a libel upon it and me, he would have been in better odour with some of his confrères; but, if I know him aright, in worse odour with himself. It is idle to talk

about his interested motives-where are they? it is false to hint at his want of veracity-where is physician or surgeon of Cheltenham who can impeach his truthfulness?

I will give you another piece of news, which I have just received from a friend in London.