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Let our readers bear in mind the following aphorism of Dr. Hall; "Close bedrooms make the graves of multitudes;" let them recollect that impure blood is the origin of consumption, and that impure air, causes impure blood.

Acting on these principles, in curing consumption, Dr. Barter would use all means to place the system in a favourable condition to receive a full supply of oxygen, first by a direct inhalation of a mixture of oxygen and atmospheric air through the lungs, secondly by enjoining a large amount of active exercise in the open air, when practicable, and sleeping at night with open windows, and thirdly by inducing a healthy action of the skin,* and consequent supply through it, of oxygen to the blood, by the intervention of the Turkish bath; this mode of treatment has, we believe, proved most successful, whilst the old mode of treatment, of which it is the very antipodes, viz., keeping the patient in a heated and impure atmosphere, and applying a respirator to the mouth, has proved most unsuccessful and fatal: how it could ever have entered into the brain of a physician to recommend the use of a respirator as a cure for consumption we are at a loss to imagine, a more ingenious mode of shutting out the pure atmosphere essential to our existence, and exchanging it for one loaded with carbonic acid, (thus aggravating the disease which it seeks to cure,) could not possibly be devised. Man in a state of health requires pure air as a condition of his existence, and can it be supposed that in a state of disease, he will be able more successfully to resist the effects of poison on his system, than when in a state of health. Will he in a state of disease be strengthened and improved by the loss of that, on a due supply of which, when well, the continuance of his health and strength would depend? Does the experience of our readers furnish them improved action of the skin deserving to be considered rather as induced accidentally than by design; as otherwise more attention would have been paid to so important a matter, and there would have been no necessity for ordering the patient abroad, as similar results could have been obtained much more easily and effectually, by keeping him at home; the use of the Turkish Bath conferring all the benefits of increased temperature, followed by the tonic effects of cool air and water, by which the debilitating effects of continual residence in a warm climate are obviated.

Dr. Hufeland remarks" The more active and open the skin is the more secure will the people be against obstructions and diseases of the lungs, intestines, and lower stomach; and the less tendency will they have to gastric (bilious) fevers, hypochondriasis, gout, asthma, catarrh and varicose veins."

with a single case of recovery from consumption caused by the use of a respirator, or does it not, on the contrary, supply them in every case where it has been resorted to with instances of the bad effects attendant upon its use?

In support of the view taken by Dr. Barter, we would observe that narrow and contracted lungs, an impure atmosphere, uncleanly habits, sedentary occupation, indulgence in alcoholic liquors, and over eating, all directly tend to the overloading of the blood with carbon, and they are also the most frequent causes of consumption; but the success attending this treatment is the argument which will have most weight with the public, and tend to its extension and adoption by the profession at large; when this takes place we shall not have consumptive patients sent abroad to seek restoration of their health," to Nice, where more native persons die of consumption than in any English town of equal population,-to Madeira, where no local disease is more prevalent than consumption,to Malta, where one-third of the deaths amongst our troops are caused by consumption,-to Naples, whose hospitals record a mortality from consumption of one in two and one-third of the patients, nor finally to Florence, where pneumonia is said to be marked by a suffocating character, and a rapid progress towards its final stage. Sir James Clarke has assailed with much force the doctrine that change of climate is beneficial in cases of consumption. M. Carriere, a French physician, has written strongly against it. Dr. Burgess, an eminent Scotch physician, also contends that climate has little or nothing to do with the cure of consumption, and that if it had, the curative effects would be produced through the skin and not the lungs, by opening the pores, and promoting a better aeration of the blood."

Before leaving this subject we would entreat our readers seriously to consider the observations here addressed to them, and the facts which have been adduced in support of the mode of treatment which we have advocated. The subject is one of fearful moment, as on this disease being rightly understood, the lives of millions of our countrymen depend if a rational mode of treatment be adopted, its fearful ravages may be successfully encountered and stayed, but if not, the pallid spectre will stalk, as it has hitherto done, unchecked, through the length and breadth of our island, bearing death to millions of her sons.

With regard to water drinking, an important part of the hydropathic process, and against which much prejudice exists,

the following extracts from the pen of the justly celebrated allopathic physician, Sir Henry Holland, will not, we hope, be considered out of place. In his work styled "Medical Notes and Reflections," treating of "Diluents," he thus writes :

"Though there may seem little reason for considering these as a separate class of remedies, yet I doubt whether the principles of treatment implied in the name is sufficiently regarded in modern practice. On the Continent, indeed, the use of diluents is much more extensive than in England; and, under the form of mineral waters especially, makes up in some countries a considerable part of general practice. But putting aside all question as to mineral ingredients in water, the consideration more expressly occurs, to what extent and with what effects this great diluent, the only one which really concerns the animal economy, may be introduced into the system as a remedy? Looking at the definite proportion which in healthy state exists in all parts of the body between the aqueous, saline, and animal ingredients-at the various organs destined directly or indirectly, to regulate the proportion and at the morbid results occurring whenever it is materially altered-we must admit the question as one very important in the animal economy, and having various relation to the causes and treatment of disease. Keeping in mind then this reference to the use of water as an internal remedy, diluents may be viewed under three conditions of probable usefulness;-first, the mere mechanical effect of quantity of liquid in diluting and washing away matters, excrementitious or noxious, from the alimentary canal;-Secondly, their influence in modifying certain morbid conditions of the blood;-and thirdly, their effect upon various functions of secretion and excretion, and especially upon those of the kidneys and skin The first is an

obvious benefit in many cases, and not to be disdained from any notion of its vulgar simplicity. It is certain, there are many states of the alimentary canal, in which the free use of water at stated times produces good, which cannot be attained by other or stronger remedies. I have often known the action of the bowels to be maintained with regularity for a long period, simply by a tumbler of water, warm or cold, on an empty stomach, in cases where medicine had almost lost its effect, or become a source only of distressing irritation. The advantage of such treatment is still more strongly attested, where the secretions taking place into the intestines, or the products formed there during digestion, become vitiated in kind. Here dilution lessens that irritation to the membranes, which we cannot so readily obviate by other means, and aids in removing the cause from the body with less distress than any other remedy. In some cases where often and largely used, its effect goes farther in actually altering the state of the secreting surfaces by direct application to them. I mention these circumstances upon experience, having often obtained much good from resorting to them in practice, when stronger medicines and ordinary methods had proved of little avail. Dilution thus used, for example, so as to act on the contents of the bowels, is beneficial in many dyspeptic cases,

where it is especially an object to avoid needless irritation to the system. Half-a-pint or more of water taken when fasting at the temperature most agreeable to the patient, will often be found to give singular relief to his morbid sensations In reference to the foregoing uses of diluents, it is to be kept in mind, that the lining of the alimentary canal is, to all intents, a surface, as well as the skin, pretty nearly equal in extent; exercising some similar functions, with others more appropriate to itself, and capable in many respects of being acted upon in a similar manner. As respects the subject before us, it is both expedient and correct in many cases to regard diluents as acting on this internal surface analogously to liquids on the skin. And I would apply this remark not only to the mechanical effects of the remedy, but also to their use as the medium for conveying cold to internal parts ;-a point of practice which either the simplicity of the means, or the false alarms besetting it, have hitherto prevented from being duly regarded."

Again he writes :

"Without reference, however, to these extreme cases, it must be repeated, that the use of water, simply as a diluent, scarcely receives attention and discrimination enough in our English practice."

And again :--

"As I have been treating of this remedy only in its simplest form, I do not advert to the use of the different mineral waters farther than to state, that they confirm these general views, separating as far as can be done, their effect as diluents from that of the ingredients they contain. The copious employment of some of them in continental practice gives room for observation, which is wanting under our more limited use. I have often seen five or six pints taken daily for some weeks together, (a great part of it in the morning while fasting,) with singular benefit in many cases to the general health and most obviously to the state of the secretions.

These courses, however, were always conjoined with ample exercise and regular habits of life; doubtless influencing much the action of the waters, and aiding their salutary effect."

With this quotation we take leave of Sir Henry Holland, merely observing, that no hydropathist could say more on the subject than he has done, and that the continental practice referred to, of drinking large quantities of water conjoined with ample exercise and regular habits of life, is precisely that practice which hydropathy enjoins.

It may not be uninteresting to observe, that under Hydropathic treatment, chronic disease frequently becomes acute, for as the body improves in strength the more acutely will any existing disease develope itself, and for the following reason: pain is caused by an effort of nature to relieve the system of some morbid influence residing in it, and the stronger the constitution, the

greater efforts will it make to remove that morbid influence, and therefore the greater will be the pain; but on the other hand, when the body is enfeebled, its efforts to relieve itself, though continual, are weak and inefficient, and the disease remaining in the system, assumes the chronic and less painful form. Now with these facts before them, we have been amused at hearing physicians observe, in their efforts to decry the "Water System," "Oh it is good for the general health, but nothing more." When speaking thus they do not however reflect, that they are affording the strongest possible testimony in support of the system which they seek to decry, inasmuch as every physiologist, from Cape Clear to the Giant's Causeway, admits the principle, that the cure of disease is to be sought for in the powers of the living organism alone, and it must be evident that the more you strengthen that organism, the more you increase its powers to cure itself, and diminish its liability to future disease.

Having trespassed thus far on the attention of our readers, we would conclude by inviting them and the medical profession generally, to a calm and dispassionate investigation, as far as their opportunities allow, of the relative merits of the allopathic and hydropathic modes of treating disease, approaching the investigation with a mind devoid of prejudice and bigotry. Their duty to themselves and to society demands this enquiry from thein-two antagonistic systems (we use the term advisedly) are presented for their acceptance, which will they lay hold of? To assist them in determining this point we would recommend for their quiet perusal, either or all of the works alluded to in this article, the study of which will be found interesting and profitable. If they conclude that drugs are wholesome let them by all means be swallowed, but if they are proved to be injurious, deleterious and unnecessary, then away with them; if opiates are innocuous let them be retained, but if they congest the liver, sicken the stomach, and paralyse the actions of the vital organs, the sooner they are erased for ever from the Hygienic Pharmacopeia the better-let them gracefully retire in favor of the improved system of hot stupes, fomentations, and the abdominal compress.

We would ask the medical profession of Ireland to reflect on the fact, that Dr. Barter's establishment at Blarney contains at this moment upwards of 120 patients, with many more frequently seeking for admission within its walls, most of whom leave the estab

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