ON reflection, we believe that we cannot offer advice better adapted to the circumstances under which a large number of our readers will be placed, than that contained in the following extract. It is the concluding portion of a chapter of the second part, or that on Mineral Waters, of a work by Dr. Bell*—the first and larger part being on the various modes of bathing, and their use in health and disease. The advice is equally applicable to all classes of invalids, whether they visit mineral springs for the purpose of drinking the waters, or trust to travelling and change of scene for the restoration of their health. Even the sojourner at home will find hints which he will not be sorry to apply to his own case. "It is not expected of me," says Dr. Bell, "in this place, to repeat the prolix instructions given by most writers on bathing and mineral waters, for the guidance of those who wish to avail of these means for the restoration of their health. Sleep, diet, and exercise, ought to be conformable to the respective habits and temperaments, and a residence at springs ought neither to be taxed with privations, nor made subservient to debauchery. The period of sleep ought not to exceed eight hours in any case, and not unfrequently six will be found all-sufficient. That food, *On Baths and Mineral Waters-in two parts. Part I. a full account of the hygienic and curative powers of cold, tepid, warm, hot, and vapour baths, and of sea bathing. Part II. A history of the chemical composition, and medicinal properties" of the chief mineral springs of the United States and of Europe. Philadelphis, 1831-p. p. 532, 12 mo. VOL. IV. 36. 291 which at home was found to be easy of digestion and nutrimental, may be used at the springs; and the invalid must never so far forget himself as to imagine that the mineral water which he drinks will prove an antidote against the poison of the kitchen or the cellar. The exercise may be on foot, horseback, or carriage, according to circumstances: the two first are preferable. Attention to clothing of suitable stuff and thickness, always important in chronic diseases, is doubly so when the sufferers under them are at mineral springs. Sydenham has said, that the fashion of changing the dress with each season killed more persons than gunpowder. If, then, a selection is to be made, and change forbidden, in northern or temperate latitudes, let the invalid and visiter to mineral springs take with him and use his winter garments. On such occasions he will almost invariably find himself in situations where mountains are in the vicinity of deep valleys, and where of course, the air is humid and cool. In fine, we may sum up in a few words, by repeating, after the great Father of Medicine, that all excesses are dangerous: a maxim every one must have fully tested the correctness of. Eating much in the evening, sitting up late, prolonged and immoderate dancing, remaining too long in the cool air of the evening, are often the causes of many unpleasant complaints, which might have been easily prevented. The passions are to be kept in check, by avoiding every exciting cause, either of the boisterous or melancholy kind: a giddy chase after pleasure and luxurious indulgence, are scarcely more reprehensible than an indolent and secluded life. It must, after all, appear ridiculous, in the midst of woods and rocks, to make those sacrifices to fashion, which are barely supportable in a crowded and wealthy capital. "Without meaning to recommend to all invalids at watering places or mineral springs, an entire abandonment of tea and coffee, I must still be allowed to say, that they would all gain by the measure. To a person of a phlegmatic temperament and sluggish circulation, one not suffering from heat or pain in the stomach nor from much thirst, one or other of these beverages will often not be found objectionable; but if invalids who travel in quest of health and who suffer from palpitation of the heart or dyspepsia, use tea and coffee, or from the diseases of the skin, and use coffee, they must be regarded in the light of persons who consent very solemnly to play the fool with themselves. "Slow and laborious digestion, heart-burn, disordered state of the kidneys, discoloration of the skin, and some affection of the liver, often the effect of excessive eating and drinking alone, are not to be readily cured by visiting mineral springs, and keeping up the same kind of living. If they, and the remark applies to all invalids, be sincerely desirous of gaining health, they will most successfully do so by simplifying their regimen, and abstain ing from all those appliances to force appetite and tickle the taste, which they had formerly used in the shape of ardent spirit, wines, and malt liquors; fried meats and pastry, green and unripe fruits. “Milk, where it can be taken either pure or diluted with hot water and sweetened, is to be prefered to tea and coffee. Bread a day old, dry toast, or plain water cracker with a little cold butter, is preferable in all cases to hot buttered toast and cakes, fresh bread, rolls, or muffins. Butter, in its natural state highly nutritious, and with many easy of digestion, undergoes, when heated in the different culinary processes, changes which render it frequently as noxious and rancid as oil. "Jellies, plain pudding of rice, or bread and milk, baked fruits with the omission of the pastry, are light and easy of digestion, and often constitute an important part of the invalid's dinner; but before using too great a variety of these and similar articles, after a meal of more solid food, it may be well to remember the words of the poet: The stomach crammed with every dish, "Water is the element, wisely offered us by nature, for allaying thirst and diluting our solid food; and the art of man has hitherto been unable to produce any substitute better adapted for the purpose. The only reasonable objection to its use, arises from its occasional hardness and impurity; these, though said to exist much oftener than is really the case, may be easily obviated by previous boiling or distillation. 6 "It has been very truly remarked by the writer* from whom we have just quoted, When the stomach feels heavy or distended after dinner, a cup of good coffee is better calculated to remove these feelings and promote digestion than any quantity of wine, or weak mixture of spirit and water, which has of late been frequently recommended, and is often taken for that purpose: a tumbler or two of pure spring water is yet more effectual.' "But the whole weight of reason, authority, and appeal to the individual's own experience of injury from the practice, ought to be enlisted against heavy or meat suppers. A sufficiency of bread taken at the hour of tea will prevent the necessity of any farther call for food during the same evening. If tea be drunk, rather than milk and water, it will be prudent to add to the former a large proportion of milk-nearly one half. This will be both wholesome at the time, and prevent the gnawing feeling or that of emptiness often experienced after strong tea has been * Adam Hunter, M. D. On the Mineral Water of Harrowgate. London, 1830. drunk. At the risk of being denounced as an ascetic, and in the gay and fashionable world the denunciation is a formidable one, can fearlessly assert, that the person who is troubled with sick headach, and has fears of lying awake at night, will acquire infinitely more pleasureable feelings and sleep sounder after a plain supper, at tea time, of bread, or it may be of bread and butter, with water as the beverage, than after any other kind of repast, whether of tea or coffee, with meats, relishes, &c. To say nothing of the uneasy sleep, nightmare, and the like, experienced by the supper eater, and of his greater tendency to apoplexy, gout, obesity, scrofula, stone, dropsy, consumption, and similar complaints,' his feelings are any thing but enviable in the morning. Obtuse, compressed pulsation, pain in the head, hot, dry tongue, tainted breath, teeth loaded with sordes, general lassitude, and giddiness amounting sometimes to syncope, are in a greater or less degree his first sensations. The person, on the other hand, who wisely retires to bed without supper, or is at least contented with the repast just mentioned, or if his digestion be not specially impaired, a little bread and milk, or a little plain baked fruit and a glass of water, soon sinks into a calm and undisturbed sleep, awakes next morning refreshed and vigorous, his spirits animated, his head clear, and with a mind and body prompt and active to execute the evening's resolutions, and to undertake the labours of the day. 666 Nothing is more common than to hear persons complain that they have no appetite for breakfast. After making the usual condolence upon the weak state of the stomach, it will generally be found, on further inquiry, that they have eaten a little, here synonymous with hearty supper, drunk a small glass or two of wine or spirits after it, gone to bed and slept, or tried to sleep, till the family bell rings them down to breakfast. This requires no comment. To those who rise early, and eat little or no supper, the breakfast is generally a pleasant and ought to be a hearty meal.' "In comparing the directions given by a French writer with those given by an English one, to visiters to watering places and mineral springs, we cannot help, from the few simple hints by the former, in regard to eating and drinking, and the many specifications of what is to be avoided by the latter, drawing a conclusion that John Bull is a very crapulous kind of body. On the same grounds it is to be feared that brother Jonathan must come in for a share of this compliment; for to a certainty he has some of the oddest notions of regimen for a sick man that could ever be supposed to enter into the mind of a thinking being. "To the kinds of exercise and general range of amusements I have already adverted. I may add, on the subject of dancing, that if the company at a watering place breaks up at a season able hour, and if those who figure away on the floor should use a warm bath before retiring to bed, or at the farthest early next morning, that few objections (I speak now as a physician,) can be made to this pleasing exercise. I do not wish it, however, to be inferred that I recommend dancing as a substitute for other kinds of exercise; but merely as a means of agreeably diverting the attention from little uneasy feelings and of passing off the evening-a period which, without one has the enjoyment of pleasing converse, is apt to give our spirits a sombre hue. If, however, the fine and nervous lady, or feminine dandy cannot venture to expose their faces to the elements during the day, it would be very unjust even to themselves, if they were to be allowed to spend four or six hours of the night whirling and jumping, which, fashionably rendered, means waltzing and gallopading. QUALITIES OF VARIOUS FRUITS. THE strawberry when fully ripe is probably one of the most wholesome of our domestic fruits. It is both balsamic and refreshing, says an old writer, and its delicious flavour pleaseth all palates. The strawberry is mildly acid, contains a medium proportion of sugar and of mucilage, and the seeds are neither so numerous or hard as to produce much inconvenience to the stomach or bowels. In some cases, however, especially in children, they have been said to accumulate in the intestines, and occasion alarming disease. This, however, while it should induce caution, need not deter any one in ordinary health from partaking of the fruit. Strawberries have been extolled by some writers as an excellent preventive of gout and gravel, but we entirely disbelieve their possessing any such virtue. Wine, which is much used, especially in Europe, as an accompaniment to strawberries, is injurious to their beneficial qualities, however much it may augment their flavour. Cream and sugar as used with us, are not well adapted to weak stomachs, though they are highly nourishing to the robust, in whom nothing will sooner induce corpulency. As is the case with all other fruits, it is improper to indulge much in eating strawberries after dinner or late in the evening. Contrary to the general rule, the wild strawberry is superior in flavour, though not in size, to the cultivated varieties. Raspberries resemble strawberries in most of their qualities; but in flavour are far inferior-to some persons their peculiar taste is decidedly disagreeable. More saccharine and less acid, they will be found to agree, however, with a larger number than strawberries. |