innocent. only cases, I believe, where it can be posi- constitution. It bequeathes none of the tively mischievous is where the pulse maladies consequent on blue pill and scarcely beats-where the vital sense is ex- mercury-on purgatives and drastics-on tremely low-where the inanition of the iodine and aconite-on leeches and the frame forbids the necessary reaction in lancet. If it cures your complaint, it will cholera, and certain disorders of the chest assuredly strengthen your whole frame; if and bronchia; otherwise at all ages, from it fails to cure your complaint it can scarcethe infant to the octogenarian, it is equally ly fail to improve your general system. applicable, and in most acute cases, equally As it acts, or ought, scientifically treated, to act, first on the system, lastly on the Hydropathy being thus rapidly beneficial complaint, placing nature herself in the in acute disorders, it follows naturally that way to throw off the disease, so it constantit will be quick as a cure in chronic com- ly happens that the patients at a hydropaplaints, in proportion as acute symptoms are thic establishment will tell you that the mixed with them, and slowest when such disorder for which they came is not recomplaints are dull and lethargic-it will moved, but that in all other respects their be slowest also where the nervous exhaus- health is better than they ever remember it tion is the greatest. With children, its ef- to have been. Thus, I would not only refects, really and genuinely, can scarcely be commend it to those who are sufferers from exaggerated; in them, the nervous system, some grave disease; but to those who renot weakened by toil, grief, anxiety, and quire merely the fillip, the alterative, or intemperance, lends itself to the gracious the bracing which they now often seek in element as a young plant to the rains. vain in country air or a watering-place. When I see now some tender mother cod- For such, three weeks at Malvern will dling, and physicking, and preserving from do more than three months at Brighton every breath of air, and swaddling in flannels, her pallid little ones, I long to pounce upon the callow brood, and bear them to the hills of Malvern, and the diamond fountain of St. Anne's-with what rosy faces and robust limbs I will promise they shall return-alas! I promise and preach in vain -the family apothecary is against me, and the progeny are doomed to rhubarb and the rickets. or Boulogne; for at the water-cure the whole life is one remedy; the hours, the habits, the discipline-not incompatible with gaiety and cheerfulness, (the spirits of hydropathists are astounding, and in high spirits all things are amusement,) tend per force to train the body to the highest state of health of which it is capable. Compare this life, O merchant, O trader, O man of business, escaping to the sea-shore, with that which you there led-with your shrimps and your shell-fish, and your wine and your brown stout-with all which counteracts in the evening, the good of your morning dip and your noonday stroll. What, I own, I should envy most is the robust, healthy man, only a little knocked down by his city cares or his town pleasures, after his second week at Dr. Wilson's The water-cure as yet has had this evident injustice, the patients resorting to it have mostly been desperate cases. So strong a notion prevails that it is a desperate remedy, that they only who have found all else fail have dragged themselves to the Bethesda Pools. That all thus not only abandoned by hope and the College, but weakened and poisoned by the violent medicines absorbed into their system for a establishment-yea, how I should envy the score or so of years, that all should not recover is not surprising! The wonder is that the number of recoveries should be so great; that every now and then we should be surprised by the man whose untimely grave we predicted when we last saw him, meeting us in the street ruddy and stalwart, fresh from the springs of Graafenberg, Boppart, Petersham, or Malvern. The remedy is not desperate; it is simpler, I do not say than any dose, but than any course of medicine-it is infinitely more agreeable-it admits no remedies for the complaint which are inimical to the exquisite pleasure which he would derive from that robustness made clear and sensible to him. The pure taste, the iron muscles, the exuberant spirits, the overflowing sense of life. If even to the weak and languid the water-cure gives hours of physical happiness which the pleasures of the grosser senses can never bestow, what would it give to the strong man, from whose eye it has but to lift the light film-in whose mechanism, attuned to joy, it but brushes away the grain of dust, or oils the solid wheel. I must bring my letter to a close. I meant to address it through you, Mr. | you may be panic stricken. Hold the docEditor, chiefly to our brethren-the over- tor responsible for getting you out of what jaded sons of toil and letters-behind he gets you into; and if your doctor be whom I see the warning shades of departed discreetly chosen, take my word he will do martyrs. But it is applicable to all who it. ail-to all who would not only cure a com- Do not begin to carry on the system at plaint, but strengthen a system and prolong home, and under any eye but that of an a life. To such, who will so far attach experienced hydropathist. After you know value to my authority, that they will the system, and the doctor knows you, the acknowledge, at least, I am no interested curative process may probably be conwitness for I have no institution to estab-tinued at your own house with ease-but lish-no profession to build up-I have no the commencement must be watched, and eye to fees, my calling is but that of if a critical action ensues when you are at an observer-as an observer only do I home, return to the only care that can conspeak, it may be with enthusiasm-but duct it safely to a happy issue. When at the enthusiasm built on experience and prompt-institution, do not let the example of other ed by sympathy; to such then as may patients tempt you to overdo-to drink listen to me, I give this recommendation: more water, or take more baths than are pause if you please inquire if you will-prescribed to you. Above all, never let but do not consult your doctor. I have no the eulogies which many will pass upon doubt he is a most honest, excellent man the douche (the popular bath), tempt you -but you cannot expect a doctor of drugs to take it on the sly, unknown to your adto say other than that doctors of water are viser. The douche is dangerous when the but quacks. Do not consult your doctor body is unprepared-when the heart is whether you shall try hydropathy, but find affected-when apoplexy may be feared. out some intelligent persons in whose For your choice of an establishment you shrewdness you can confide--who have have a wide range. Institutions in Engbeen patients themselves at a hydropathic land are now plentiful, and planted in some establishment. Better still, go for a few of the loveliest spots of our island. But as days the cost is not much-into some I only speak from personal knowledge, I such institution yourself, look round, talk can but here depose to such as I have visitto the patients, examine with your own ed. I hear indeed a high character of eyes, hear with your own ears, before you Doctor Johnson, of Stansted-Bury, and his adventure the experiment. Become a books show great ability. Much is said in witness before you are a patient; if the praise of Doctor Freeman, of Cheltenham, evidence does not satisfy you, turn and flee. though his system, in some measure, is at But if you venture, venture with a good variance with the received notions of hyheart and a stout faith. Hope, but not dropathists. But of these and many others, with presumption. Do not fancy that perhaps no less worthy of confidence, Í the disorder which has afflicted you for ten have no experience of my own. years ought to be cured in ten days. Be-journed with advantage at Dr. Weiss's, ware, above all, lest, alarmed by some at Petersham; and for those whose business phenomena which the searching element and avocations oblige them to be near produces, you have recourse immediately London, his very agreeable house proffers to drugs to disperse them. The water- many advantages, besides his own long boils, for instance, which are sometimes, practice and great skill. as I have before said, but by no means Those who wish to try the system frequently, a critical symptom of the cure, abroad, and shrink from the long journey are, in all cases that I have seen, cured to Graafenberg, Dr. Schmidt, at Boppart, easily by water, but may become extreme-proffers a princely house, comprising every ly dangerous in the hands of your apothe- English comfort, amidst the noble scenery cary. Most of the few solitary instances of the Rhine, and I can bear ready witthat have terminated fatally, to the preju-ness to his skill; but it is natural that the dice of the water-cure, have been those place which has for me the most grateful in which the patient has gone from water recollections, should be that where I reto drugs. It is the axiom of the system ceived the earliest and the greatest benefit, that water only cures what water produces. viz., Doctor Wilson's, at Malvern; there Do not leave a hydropathic establishment even the distance from the capital has its in the time of any "crisis," however much I have so 66 advantages. The cure imperatively de- rity. For your impatient self, you might mands, at least in a large proportion of cases, sometimes prefer a brisker process-for abstraction from all the habitual cares of those in whom you are interested, and for life, and in some the very neighborhood of whom you are fearful-you would not risk London suffices to produce restlessness and a step more hurried. And since there is anxiety. For certain complaints, especially no small responsibility in recommending those of children, and such as are attended any practitioner of a novel school, so it is with debility, the air of Malvern is in itself a comfort to know that whoever resorts to Hygeian. The water is immemorially cele- Doctor Wilson, will at least be in hands brated for its purity-the landscape is a not only practised and skilful, but wary perpetual pleasure to the eye-the moun- and safe. He may fail in doing good, but tains furnish the exercise most suited to the I never met with a single patient who accure-" Man muss Geberge haben," one cused him of doing harm. And I may add, must have mountains," is the saying of that as in all establishments much of comPreisnitz. All these are powerful auxil- fort must depend on the lady at the head, so, iaries, and yet all these are subordinate to for female patients especially, it is no small the diligent, patient care-the minute, un- addition to the agrémens of Malvern, to wearied attention—the anxious unaffected find in Mrs. Wilson the manners of a perinterest, which Doctor Wilson manifests to fect gentlewoman, and the noiseless solicievery patient, from the humblest to the tude of a heart genuinely kind and good! highest, who may be submitted to his care. Here then, O brothers, O afflicted ones, The vast majority of difficult cures which II bid you farewell. I wish you one of the have witnessed, have emanated from his most blessed friendships man ever made— skill. A pupil of the celebrated Broussais, the familiar intimacy with Water. Not his anatomical knowledge is considerable, Undine in her virgin existence more sportive and his tact in diseases seems intuitive; and bewitching, not Undine in her wedded he has that pure pleasure in his profession that the profits of it seem to be almost lost sight of, and having an independence of his own, his enthusiasm for the system he pursues is at least not based upon any mercenary speculation. I have seen him devote the same time and care to those whom his liberal heart has led him to treat gratuitously as to the wealthiest of his patients, and I mention this less to praise him for generosity than to show that he has that earnest faith in his own system, which begets an earnest faith in those to whom he administers. In all new experiments, it is a great thing to have confidence, not only in the skill but in the sincerity of your adviser his treatment is less violent and energetic than that in fashion on the conti state more tender and faithful than the Element of which she is the type. In health may you find it the joyous playmate, in sickness the genial restorer and soft assuager. Round the healing spring still literally dwell the jocund nymphs in whom the Greek poetry personified Mirth and Ease. No drink, whether compounded of the gums and rosin of the old Falernian, or the alcohol and acid of modern wine, gives the animal spirits which rejoice the waterdrinker. Let him who has to go through severe bodily fatigue try first whateverwine, spirits, porter, beer, he may conceive most generous and supporting let him then go through the same toil with no draughts but from the crystal lymph, and if he does not acknowledge that there is no If he errs, it is on the side of cau- beverage which man concocts so strengthtion, and his theory leads him so much ening and animating as that which God towards the restoration of the whole system, pours forth to all the children of nature, I that the relief of the particular malady will throw up my brief. Finally, as health desometimes seem tedious in order to prove pends upon healthful habits, let those who complete. Hence he inspires in those who desire easily and luxuriously to glide into the have had a prolonged experience of his courses most agreeable to the human frame, treatment a great sense of safety and secu- to enjoy the morning breeze, to grow epi* Dr. Gully, whose writings on medicinal sub- cures in the simple regimen, to become jects are well known, is also established at Mal-cased in armor against the vicissitudes of vern, and I believe rather as a partner or associ- our changeful skies-to feel, and to shake ate than a rival to Dr. Wilson. As I was not un-off, light sleep, as a blessed dew, let them, der his treatment, I cannot speak farther of his while the organs are yet sound, and the nerves yet unshattered, devote an autumn to the water cure. nent. skill than that he seemed to have the entire confidence of such of his patients as I became acquainted with. 1st, That the soil of a country is intended by the Deity to maintain the people who live upon it. And you, O Parents! who, too indolent, | the national agriculture ought not to form a too much slaves to custom, to endure grave subject of national consideration. change for yourselves, to renounce for The positions we hold in regard to the awhile your artificial natures, but who still duties and rights of a national agriculture covet for your children hardy constitutions, are the following:pure tastes, and abstemious habits-who wish to see them grow up with a manly disdain to luxury-with a vigorous indifference to climate-with a full sense of the 2d, That it is the duty of those to whom value of health, not alone for itself, but for the tillage of the soil is intrusted, to see that the powers it elicits, and the virtues with the means of living are raised for the whole which it is intimately counected-the se- people-allowance of course being made rene unfretful temper the pleasure in inno- for extraordinary seasons, which no skill cent delights-the well-being that, content or industry can avert. with self, expands in benevolence to others 3d, And that, if the tillers of the soil do -you I adjure not to scorn the facile pro- not raise food enough for the whole people, cess of which I solicit the experiment. a free access to foreign markets should be Dip your young heroes in the spring, and permitted, for the purpose of supplying the hold them not back by the heel. May my remainder. exhortations find believing listeners, and may some, now unknown to me, write me word from the green hills of Malvern, or the groves of Petersham, "We have hearkened to you not in vain." Adieu, Mr. Editor, the ghost returns to silence. E. BULWER LYTTON. Such appears to us to be a reasonable view of the duties and economical position of a national agriculture; and yet a wise government will prefer and will encourage the growth of a full supply of food on the home soils of the country. For though a state of war is an unnatural state among Christian countries, yet occasional long periods of war have been so much the rule in modern history, that no country can safely leave out of its political calculations a contingency which, when corn must be import CHEMISTRY IN ITS RELATIONS TO AG-ed, might suddenly involve it in the most RICULTURE. From the North British Review. fearful calamities. We pass by the amount of encouragement we should be inclined to give to the home growth of corn, and the 1. The Relations of Chemistry to Agricul-shape we think that encouragement ought ture; a Treatise, showing the intimate connection that subsists between Chemistry and Agriculture. By the Earl of Dundonald. 4to, pp. 252. London, 1795. 2. Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, in a course of Lectures for the Board of Agriculture. By Sir Humphry Davy. Second edition, 8vo, pp. 479. London, 1814. 3. Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry and 17 to assume, because our present purpose carries us in another direction. We have said that the soil of a country is intended to maintain the whole people of may please the Deity to multiply the people that country. For purposes of His own, it of an isolated spot, like our island, beyond the capability of the land to support them. But history furnishes us with no clear case in which He has ever done so. We read of famine and pestilence being sent as His avengers, but never that the land in ordinary seasons could not in any country be made to maintain the whole population. "I will multiply thee," are words of blessing from the mouth of the Almighty, and we will not lightly believe that He has ever made them bear the curse of unavoidable famine to any industrious people. Above all, we will not believe that He intends so to punish our island, until we see every available resource made use of-the aids of science and of art everywhere called heavy, as fat, and more esteemed by the consumer, than those which were slaughtered for our forefathers at the age of six or seven. Then, in-and the capabilities of land and sea alike developed-which they are as yet far from having been. We rather see in the increase of our population a new stimulus to search for and avail ourselves of the in- 2. The larger production of enriching exhaustible stores of good He has every-manure by the increased and better fed where laid up for us, and which He the stock, gradually produced an almost equal more lavishly lays open, the greater the revolution in the growth of corn. Two amount of bodily and mental labor we ex- consequences especially remarkable have pend in the search for them. followed from the continuance of this practice of richer manuring—the old corn lands have been made to yield an increased produce of nearly one half, while the poor and valueless soils of former days now grow crops as large and heavy as were reaped from those which were then called rich. It is, then, we believe, the duty of the agricultural body to develop to the utmost the capabilities of the soil-at least to neglect no means within their reach to render the home growth of food equal to the demands of the home population. And of this duty the cultivators of the British soil have neither been unaware nor altogether neglectful. The art of tillage has not been standing still among us during the last two centuries. It has, on the contrary, during that period, made vast strides, though it has not fully kept pace with a population to the increase of which our manufacturing prosperity has given so extraordinary an impulse. It is interesting, however, to trace how, out of one almost fortuitous advance in practical agriculture, all the improvements which have taken place during this period, have, one after another, naturally, we may almost say necessarily, sprung. It was probably little imagined by those who first recommended the turnip for field culture, that it was to be the means of introducing an entirely new era into the agricultural practice and productiveness of the country. And yet such has been its effect: and no other vegetable is yet known, the general culture of which in our climate could have produced the same results. Thus, 1. To consume the turnips more cattle were kept. These cattle were valuable, both in manufacturing beef and in converting vegetable matter into enriching ma nure. But the same quantity of turnips was found to add more to the weight of one animal than of another. Attention was thus more generally drawn to the distinctions of breeds to the value of family and individual constitution among our domestic animals. Societies were formed for the encouragement of improved breeds-cattle shows were instituted-premiums were given and thus that remarkable revolution has been brought about which enables the stock farmer to bring to market an animal of little more than two years of age, as 3. But this rearing and fattening of stock, besides the turnips for winter food, demanded early grass for their keep in spring when the supply of roots was exhausted, or when they ceased to retain their wholesome and nutritive qualities. Thus the artificial grasses, the clovers, ryegrass, foxtail, and numerous others, were tried and recommended as giving a rich and early bite of grass in spring, or a more abundant crop of hay in autumn. A new traffic, that of agricultural seeds, sprung up, and this system of green cropping, as it is called, obtained not only a wide extension, but a permanent and established place in British husbandry. 4. Yet the greatest benefit of this green cropping does not consist in the larger amount of food for cattle, which it enables the farmer to raise on the same extent of land, without lessening the quantity of corn he yearly carries to market. The introduction of a skilful rotation or course of cropping to which it has led, is of far more importance in a national point of view. The practice of taking corn crop after corn crop-even as far, in Scotland, as fifteen or twenty crops of oats, or till the produce fell to two or three seeds-has not yet entirely disappeared in remote parts of the country. Nothing could be more ruinous to the land than such a course of procedure -nothing so likely to impair the future average produce of corn in districts in which it existed. It is difficult to bind down either farmer or proprietor to any other mode of culture than that which seems likely in his time to yield the largest profit. Mere abstract condemnations of the old system of corn after corn were of little benefit in arresting the evil. But when it came to be seen that more money was to be made immediately, |