himself at first to that which is passive. He should commence with friction, using the hand, or a coarse cloth, or the strigil or flesh-brush. It may be used at any time for ten or fifteen minutes, and twice a day. Sir. J. Sinclair says he commenced the use of it in the night when he woke and was restless. It produced a calm repose. He afterwards continued it daily at regular periods, and his health, which was imperfect, became after a year's use of the brush, more improved than it had been for thirty years before. He brushed away both rheumatism and a cutaneous affection of long standing. He says, "I do not know to what to attribute my good health, under God, unless to the flesh-brush, as no other variation in my habits of living took place." Desault relates the case of a man who was one hundred years of age, and afflicted with gout, who, for thirty years before his death, preserved himself from it by constant friction. And Sir William Temple, who had been subject to the same disease and was cured, observes in reference to this point, "that no man need have the gout who can keep a slave." Numerous other cases of similar good effects arising from friction, are recorded.

When the strength will bear it, the dyspeptic should sail, swing or ride in an open carriage, regularly every day in good weather, for several hours at a time; or if he can, let him mount a horse in preference to every other mode of passive exercise. This is said by Galen to have been recommended to invalids by Esculapius himself, and it was worthy of the God of medicine. Striking cures have been effected by this means alone in other diseases as well as in dyspepsia. Suetonius relates of Germanicus, that he was thus cured of a disorder which had made his legs waste away, (gracilitas crurum.) Fuller, in his Medidicina Gymnastica, relates the following extraordinary cure of consumption by horse exercise, prescribed by the son of Dr. Sydenham, who was also a physician.

"The cure I am going to mention, was of a gentleman who is related to the Doctor, and is now living in Dorsetshire, who was brought so low by a consumption, that there seemed to be no possibility of a recovery, either by medicine or exercise; but it being too late for the first to do any good, all that was to be done, was to be expected from the latter, though the Doctor did not think that even riding would then do. However, the poor gentleman seeing there were no other hopes left, was resolved to attempt to ride into the country; but was so extremely far gone, that at his setting out of town, he was forced to be held up on his horse by two porters, and when he got to Brentford on Hounslow, the people of the inn into which he put, were unwilling to receive him, as thinking he would die there, and they should have the trouble of a funeral. Notwithstanding, he persisted in his riding by small journies

to Exeter; and got so much strength by the way, that though one day his horse, as he was drinking, laid down with him in the water, and he was forced to ride part of the day's journey in that wet condition, yet he sustained no harm by it, but came to the above-mentioned place considerably recovered; when thinking he had then gained his point, he neglected to ride any more for some time. But afterwards finding himself relapsing, he remembered the caution which Dr. Sydenham had given him at his setting out, that if he should be so happy as to begin to recover, he should not leave off riding too soon; for he would infallibly relapse and die, if he did not carry on that measure long enough; so he betook himself to his horse again, and rode till he obtained a perfect recovery."

Sydenham himself, in his Treatise on the Gout, says, "riding on horseback is far preferable to all other exercises for this purpose (to prevent an attack); in truth, I have frequently considered that if any person were acquainted with a medicine which he chose to keep secret, of equal efficacy in this and in the greater number of chronic diseases, with a constant and persevering exercise on horseback, he would speedily accumulate the most ample wealth." This union of authorities, we presume, is sufficient to establish the superior advantage of this practice; and its rationale as given by Dr. Hexham, De Morb. Coli. is, that it strengthens the viscera and intestines more than any other kind of exercise, for by the very different and frequent agitations of the body which it occasions, it gently shakes the abdomen, and by this means drives out all viscidities contained in the bowels and blood vessels, and eminently promotes the circulation of the blood through the mesenteric vessels and the ramification of the great vein of the liver, where it circulates slowest; it also promotes perspiration, and expels noxious humours by the pores.

After the system has acquired a considerable degree of strength by passive exercise, the active should be resorted to, alternately with the other. Walking is, perhaps, the best of this kind, and should be pursued regularly day after day, and not intermitted. Like riding, it must be habitual to be beneficial, for either, if taken irregularly, after long intervals of quiet, will produce fatigue and injury. It is a maxim of health established by experience, that "riding is the best exercise for regaining health, and walking for retaining it." But whichever be pursued, let it never be forgotten by the dyspeptic that he should, as Dr. Cheyne says, "make exercise a part of his religion.'

We must make one extract from the writer of the "Sure Methods," which, we think, contains some excellent remarks confirmatory of what we have been dwelling on.

"None will accuse me of undervaluing the advantages resulting from attention to diet, in the cure of disease; but it is proper for me to state, that there appears to me one grand point of superiority which exercise in the open air possesses, in this respect, over even diet, which is, that it is capable of exerting a direct and positive curative effect, while the effects of diet, in the same circumstances, are rather negative than positive. In using proper food, when afflicted with any corporeal malady, we cut off a principal source of irritation, take an effectual means of nourishing and strengthening the body, and thereby of assisting nature in its efforts to free the constitution from an unwelcome and oppressive visiter; but beyond this the virtues of suitable food can scarcely be said to extend. On the other hand, exercise has often a direct and powerfully curative effect from its accelerating and equalizing the circulation, when tardy and irregular, from its also strengthening the vessels and nerves, facilitating the excretions, and greatly improving the tone of the digestive organs. From a consideration of these facts, we see the reason why a correct diet should often fail to do little more than preserve the patient from getting worse, and that an efficient regimen is found absolutely necessary to produce much positive amendment, or to perform a sound and lasting cure. To illustrate this subject still further, we may advert to the case of a person suffering under a severe chronic gout, or an aggravated attack of indigestion, and we shall often find, that if such patients attentively observe a suitable diet, they gain much advantage; but if they go little beyond this attention to diet, supposing it is even combined with skilful medical treatment, the gouty man in numerous instances, is still very liable to frequent fits of his tormenting disease, and will not unfrequently find himself getting more feeble, and the fits to gain an increasing power over him; while the dyspeptic experiences weakness of stomach and general debility remaining, with a liability to a renewal of his disorder on the operation of slight causes. But should these patients become convinced of the value of regimen, in the sense now attached to it, (namely, regulations as to air, exercise, sleep, &c.) and enter into its adoption with spirit and perseverance, they very soon discover that they are using means which have a superior and remarkable power in resolving obstructions, and in so facilitating and regulating all the secretions, and imparting an increase of tone to every function of the body, as to afford them a most flattering prospect of being at length enabled entirely to conquer their disease. Under the operation of this regimen, the gouty sufferer finds his crippled limbs to become free and strong, his digestive powers to be augmented, and his spirits surprisingly exhilarated; and the dyspeptic, bilious subject experiences an equally beneficial change in the increased tone of the stomach and bowels, in the more healthy secretion of bile, the keenness of his appetite, and the greater quantity of food he can take, not only with a relish, but without the uneasiness he before felt severely from indulging in a much smaller quantity: effects, which both have found diet and medicine could only partially produce." p. 95.

That the dyspeptic will, in almost all cases, derive essential benefit from travelling, is known to all. Dr. James Johnson

has dwelt fully on this subject, and shewn what surprising changes can be effected in this way in a short time; and we take pleasure in recommending a perusal of his judicious remarks. But even a simple change of place, and consequently of air, is very important. The purest air cannot be constantly inspired without injury, and a temporary change even to worse, is beneficial. This appears to be paradoxical, but is susceptible of rational explanation. The atmosphere has, in all situations, been subjected to analysis, and its component parts and properties seem to be the same: but the difference in the air of a crowded city and that of the country, makes itself perceptible to sense, if not to science. In fact, the air may contain the seeds of death, as malaria, yellow fever, &c. and their presence be undiscovered either by the senses or instruments. No air contiguous to the surface of the earth can be perfectly pure, except that which gently floats over the face of a sandy desert. The soil is every where filled with vegetable, animal and mineral substances, which give out, from time to time, gaseous products unfit for respiration, that mix with and corrupt the atmosphere. Each soil has its peculiar exhalations, and though these may be involved in quantities imperceptible to science, yet they vitiate, in some degree, the purity of the air, and ultimately affect the human body, as the dropping of water will wear away granite. Upon removing to a different situation, the inspiration of the accustomed poison is discontinued, and its effects gradually disappear; the person is subjected to another set of exhalations, no less injurious perhaps, if long enough inhaled. In addition to this kind of poison being contained in the air, it often exists in a greater degree in the water we use, which percolates through the soil; and it is by no means easy to tell whether the change in our health is more owing to the one than the other.

But another, and, perhaps, more powerful reason is to be found in the humidity or dryness of the air. These change with every change of place, and have an immediate effect on the health, independent of all other circumstances. Diseases are often generated in a low damp climate, which disappear upon the removal of the patient to a high and dry atmosphere. Different feelings are excited even in the healthy by the different winds that blow; and general experience proves that the night air which is damp, is injurious to the dyspeptic who is exposed to it.

If this change of place could be accompanied by some object of interest to the mind, its benefits would be more certainly and speedily felt. Sydenham illustrates this by a case of his own. "Having long attended a gentleman of fortune, with little or

no advantage," says Dr. Paris, "he frankly avowed his inability to render him any further service, adding, at the same time, that there was a physician of the name of Robinson, at Inverness, who had distinguished himself by the performance of many remarkable cures of the same complaint as that under which his patient laboured, and expressing a conviction that if he applied to him, he would come back cured. This was too encouraging a proposal to be rejected: the gentleman received from Sydenham a statement of his case, with the necessary letter of introduction, and proceeded without delay to the place in question. On arriving at Inverness, and anxiously inquiring for the residence of Dr. Robinson, he found to his utter dismay and disappointment, that there was no physician of that name in the place, nor ever had been in the memory of any person there. The gentleman returned, vowing eternal hostility against the peace of Sydenham; and, on his arrival at home, instantly expressed his indignation in not very measured terms, at having been sent so many hundred miles for no purpose. 'Well,' replied Sydenham, 'are you better in health?' 'Yes; I am now perfectly well, but no thanks to you.' 'No!' said Sydenham, 'but you may thank Dr. Robinson for curing you. I wished to send you a journey with some object of interest in view; I knew it would be of service to you: in going, you had Dr. Robinson and his wonderful cures in contemplation; and in returning, you were equally engaged in thinking of scolding me.'" There was more wisdom and address in such a scheme than in that which is said to have been practised by Hippocrates, who sent his patients from Athens with no other object than to touch the walls of Megara, and then to return.

If the dyspeptic should be addicted to any injurious habits, they must now be corrected, or no cure can be expected. Tobacco, in all its shapes, must be abandoned: it cannot be used in the smallest quantity by him with impunity. Dr. Cullen states that snuffing very often produces dyspepsia, and he knew a case in which one pinch took away the appetite, though the habit of taking it had been of long standing. If admitted into the nose or mouth, its pernicious juice finds its way to the stomach, and its stimulation to the brain. Thus the nerves of both are irritated, and fire is put to the explosive train of sympathetic ills. It is the intoxication which it produces, that constitutes the charm, and we put it to all men of sense whether intoxication by this means, is less shameful than that produced to the same degree by alcohol? We hope to see the day when it will be regarded as disgraceful to carry a tobacco-box as a brandy-bottle.