the nature of animal life up to the nature of animal disease, and from the nature of disease up to the true nature of remedies, to award great efficacy to the cold water-cure, yet I must confess that if I had not witnessed this case, and also the one which follows, with my own eyes, I should have had great difficulty in believing the truth of the statement.

Urinary Fistula.

Baron Lauengen, of Lauengen, captain of cavalry, struck himself a severe blow against the pommel of his saddle. Inflammation and much tumefaction ensued. After a time the swelling of the part was enormous, and fluctuation was distinctly felt. An opening was made into it, very low down, from which there immediately escaped a very large quantity of urine. This puncture never healed, but the urine continued constantly to flow through it. He suffered from this state of things for two years, which two years were spent in fruitless endeavors, under the advice of the very best continental surgeons, to heal this fistulous sore. He then came to Graefenberg, where he has been, if I remember right, only eight months. He was kind enough to suffer me to examine the part, which I found to be perfectly healed and sound, the scar where the opening had been still remaining distinctly visible near the raphe.

Gonorrhea.

A gentleman of Transylvania, a healthy man, twentyeight years of age, contracted gonorrhoea. In spite of

all the means which could be devised by his medical advisers, the disease continued for fifteen months. Four months after he had got well he contracted the disease a second time. The treatment he had gone through on the former occasion had been so painful as well as unsuccess. ful, that he could not make up his mind to submit to it again, but resolved to go to Graefenberg. He was three weeks on the journey, and he had had the disease three weeks before he started. The disorder was of a virulent kind. The treatment which was adopted in this case was as follows: At half-past six in the morning he took a wet sheet. After the wet sheet he took a tepid shallow bath, at twelve degrees of Reaumur. After this (immediately) the cold bath, and directly after this the shallow bath again. At ten o'clock he took a tepid sitz-bath, at twelve degrees, for half an hour. At five o'clock the wet sheet and all the treatment of the morning over again. He drank thirteen glasses of cold water daily, and wore umschlags round the abdomen day and night. This treatment continued for a week, but on the fourth day the disease had entirely disappeared. It was thought desirable, however, to continue the treatment a little longer. the second week he took the two wet sheets as at the beginning, but went immediately after each into the cold bath, without the intervention of the tepid shallow bath. At ten o'clock in the morning be douched for five minutes, but not on the seat of the disease, nor on the stomach, nor on the head. At twelve o'clock he took a sitz-bath cold for five quarters of an hour. At the end of the second week he left perfectly cured.

In

Consumption.

Extracts (translated from the Italian) from a letter received by J. B. S, Esq., at Graefenberg, from Captain A. F, of the Marine Artillery, Venice.

Venice, 10th Feb. 1843.

**** Mr. and Mrs. H. are much obliged by your kindness, and have heard with great pleasure the good effects of the cure, on which they sincerely congratulate you, and return their kind compliments to you and your lady. The reading of your letter has determined H- to visit Graefenberg next summer. He will profit by your advice, with respect to the method which you recommend him to adopt while there. Colonel S- is very well; he says that he feels himself ten years younger, (since his visit to Graefenberg, 1842,) and sends his compliments to you both.

With regard to my own case, it is given in few words. From my twenty-fifth to my thirty-first year, I was subject to frequent affections of the chest, for which my physicians ordered me to lose blood, and gave me palliatives, which treatment left me constantly liable to relapses. They said I was of a plethoric habit, and that I must have the mass of my blood diminished. These diseases were produced by weakness brought on by a too sedentary life, too much application to study, and too free indulgence in wine and spirit. My constitution was extremely delicate, and the least draught of air caused inflammation of the lungs.

These affections of the chest returned three or four times a year, until the last time, 1827, the lungs were so much weakened that I could scarcely breathe. At this same period (I was then thirty-one years of age) I was at Zarra in Dalmatia, and had a severe attack which lasted several

months, and of which I could not recover. I was confined entirely to my room. The physicians said that it would be death to me if I exposed myself to the open air. I had a consultation of physicians, at which Dr. Pinelli, the principal physician in Dalmatia, attended, and I was declared consumptive. I was studying at that time the German language, and whilst reading the "Conversations Lexicon," I was struck with the article "Huffeland." In this article great praise was given to his (Huffeland's) work on Macrobiotics, (or the art of prolonging life). I obtained this work ; and it seemed to me that I recognized my own case in it. As I was already quite given up by the faculty, I thought that in my position as an officer it would be best for me to attempt an heroic cure, and to put an end to my disorders, either by death or recovery. I bade adieu to all my physi cians, in a half-dying state, and began to wash myself in my room with fresh water, by means of a sponge-repeating this operation several times a day-and limiting my diet to vegetables, fruit, and water.

I began to feel benefit in a few days, and soon acquired courage to go out. In the course of the forty days I was strong enough to begin sea-bathing. It was the month of August, 1827.

The sea-bathing which I took every morning, in all weathers, joined with exercise immediately after the bath, continually strengthened me more and more, and in the space of five months I found myself the strongest and the healthiest of any of my companions. From that time to the present day I have had no illness of any kind. I drink no wine, because I do not like it. But I could drink it without any evil result.

I prefer vegetable diet; but, for several years that I was

at sea, I took animal food, without the least inconvenience. I expose myself to all weathers-and go without a cloak, even in winter, in order to put my health to the proof. I go from a hot atmosphere into a cold one, et vice versa, without any precaution. I wear no flannel, and lead a very irregular life.

In 1835, when I was on board ship, I was attacked, in the Port of the Piraeus, with an epidemic fever, which raged there on account of the marshes; and which attacked three-fourths of the crew. On the second and third attack of fever, I took, each time, a bath in the sea, and recovered while my companions were ill for several months.

The only precaution which I observe is to bathe every day in the sea, in all weathers, and in all seasons, when I have the opportunity; and to take a douche bath* for one minute, and wash myself all over with cold water, as soon as I get out of bed. I drink a great deal of cold water— from twenty to twenty-five beakers every day-chiefly in the morning before breakfast. But whenever I have been so situated that I could do none of these things, I have still felt myself perfectly well.

In short, at the age of forty-seven, I feel myself stronger than I was at twenty-five, before I was attacked by disease in my chest. This is the method which I followed before I had any knowledge of the method of Priessnitz, with which I only became acquainted five years ago when I returned from the Levant; and which has determined me to continue it, and to recommend it to all my friends.

If Dr. Johnson wishes to make use of this information

* Three buckets of water poured over him.