86

EFFECTS OF TEMPERANCE.

ately wrote to contradict so absurd a rumour: though I hope the latter part of it is correct.

But should your bodily health evince the same morbid condition which your mental state exhibits, let me refer you to a remarkable passage which I met in the course of my reading, and which, like many other things in that book which are little heeded, contains more wholesome instruction than appears on the surface. In the book of Daniel, 1st chapter, 16th verse, you will find these remarkable words.-" Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat and water to drink. Then let our countenance be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat; and as thou seest deal with thy servants. So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children that did eat the portion of the king's meat. Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink."

૯૮

Lest you should consider it impiety" to drink water rather than wine, and to follow out the experience and teaching of the prophet, and

lest you should

suppose that all good men spurn the Water-cure and the "Water-doctor," I will give you the following impromptu by a gentleman whom I may call my friend, and one as celebrated for his preaching, as he is eminent for his piety and learning, and beloved for his social virtues.

A JET D'EAU.

Impromptu on hearing DR. WILSON say, that Physic, Food, and Fretting, were the cause of many Diseases.

Physic, Food, and Fretting,

Brandy, Gin, and Betting,

Will kill the strongest man alive:

But Water, Air, and Diet,

Domestic Peace, and Quiet,

Will cause the weakest man to thrive.

For what does Dr. Wilson say?
"Though some may think it only spray,
The Ocean is the means of Health."
Then use the Springs which filter thence,
And Health secure at small expense,

The Poor may even here find Wealth.

Thus far the Body is concern'd,

But Souls* we have as we have learn'd,
From Holy Inspiration.

*Matt. xvi. 26.

88

RESULTS OF THE WATER CURE

That Book speaks much of Water-cure,
The Soul that drinks* may rest full sure
Of Heaven's approbation.

"O Water," cried a learned Greek,
(True wisdom was not his to speak,)

"Thou art the source of all best things."

But we, the Great Redeemer bless,
Who gives the means, and HIM confess,
In whom are all our Fresh Springs.‡

Then let us use the means with

prayer-
Of both these Waters take a share,

For Health and Restoration.
But give the Praise where it is due,§
For good to Soul, and Body too,

Flows from His Great Salvation.

Before I send these long, and to you interesting letters, I must not forget the main object of their being written: which was to lay before you and those who read these pages THE RESULTS OF THE WATER-CURE AT MALVERN. These results may be mentioned under several heads, general and special.

And first I will bring under one general head

* John iv. 10, 14.-Rev. xxii. 17. + Ezek. xlvii. 8, 9, Ps. lxxxvii. 7. Acts xvii. 28. John iii. 16. Romans viii. 32. § Ps. cxv. 1. Heb. ii. 3.

ON THE STOMACH AND BOWELS.

89

the DERANGEMENTS OF THE STOMACH AND BOWELS. In this I found that I had chiefly to contend with the evil consequences of a long-continued purgation, a habit that had become, in the great majority of instances, A DRUG DISEASE, as inveterate and leading to results as melancholy as could ensue on the equally pernicious habits of the veriest drunkard. Above two hundred persons have left this place with their stomachs and bowels in perfect order; many of whom had been from five to thirty years without an evacuation except that forced by purgative enemas or purgatives taken by the mouth and passed through the entire alimentary canal. This is one great feature of the Water-cure, and the effect I am most proud of: for I know it is the private and never-ceasing annoyance of the majority of my countrymen; the grievance which leads them, with pardonable anxiety, to fly to the very means that ensure a continuation and augmentation of it, namely, purgative and stimulating drugs.

The next general result is the change effected in the sensibility and protective powers of the skin, and the increased power of generating animal heat. Arriving here clothed in flannel in the midst of summer, dreading the contact of water,

90

RESULTS ON THE SKIN.

and even of the summer's breeze, always on the look-out for draughts of air, living in dread of colds, and apprehensive of the approach of winter, they have quitted this place, having thrown off the debilitating flannel, no longer afraid of water, wooing the bracing breeze, and looking forward to winter with the sure anticipation of not only bearing, but enjoying it.

It must strike even the most superficial thinker, doctor, that when so vast a weight of unpleasant sensations and irksome care of the person has been withdrawn by this regulation of the bowels, increased appetite, warmth and tone of the skin, the mind also must participate in the pleasurable sensations, and become more capable of ruling its own thoughts. And such has been another general result of my treatment by the Water-cure.

Leaving the general results, I address myself to the individual diseases. And I will first of all

mention

GOUT,

as the first case I treated here was one of that disease. The subject of it was Mr. Probert, formerly an innkeeper in this place and now a carrier to Worcester. You know him very well, learned