tioned above. Not only will the probabilities of the disease coming on be increased in these circumstances of combined predisposition, but the danger from the disease will be much greater.

Although the influenza, like other epidemic diseases, exhibits a general resemblance of symptoms in most of those attacked, there is not by any means a complete uniformity, much less that identity which we see in contagious diseases. Thus, the predisposition caused in a given number of persons by the peculiar condition of the atmospheric air, will, after similar exposures to cold and humidity, be converted into disease which shall affect such person differently from his companion in exposure. One will have, after a severe chill, a sore throat and pain in the head; another a slight hoarseness and change of voice; a third a hard cough, with pain and fever; a fourth will complain of his back and limbs, as if they had been severely beaten. Sometimes, though more rarely, the digestive system will be the part chiefly affected, and the sufferer will complain of soreness and cramp, as if he were seized with colic, or will have vomiting. On occasions, the first symptoms of the influenza will yield to a regular attack of rheumatism-pain and swelling of the joints, in those who are subject to this disease; and we have recently seen a slight fit of gout follow the cough and other symptoms of the catarrh.

We see very clearly then, from these details, that except in the greater diffusion of the predisposing cause, there is nothing specific or peculiar in influenza, by which it differs essentially from a common catarrh or cold. Persons exposed at other seasons than the present to the common causes of cold or catarrh, will be variously affected, according to their temperament, or natural constitution, or their acquired one from prior disease. Thus of three men exposed to recent cold at any season, the one may have a fit of the gout, the other a common cough, and the third great disorder and inflammation of the digestive organs.,

From all this it is easy to see, that the same prudential maxims, obedience to which would guard us against catching cold, are equally requisite and proper to protect us against influenza; and that as a slight cold is to be dreaded by a person far advanced in life, or by one liable to spitting of blood or to consumption, so is the influenza to be still more sedulously shunned by them. Hence in both cases, of common as well as of epidemic catarrh or influenza, to keep the feet warm and dry, to preserve an equable temperature of the skin, and clothing of suitable texture and quantity, to shun sudden transitions from heat to cold, are necessary means of prevention. If unavoidably exposed in this way, or by getting wet and chilled, to use a warm foot-bath or a general warm bath, and to keep at rest in-doors and use a very light regimen, are also important precautions. Should the influenza have made its attack in due form, it may, like a com

mon cold, be generally kept in subjection by rigid abstinencemild herb teas, toast and water, barley or rice water, being the only articles used for either food or drink. The irritation of coughing will be greatly mitigated by flax-seed tea, with the addition of a little lemon juice and sugar, or by gum Arabic, in water.

If other means be used, in the absence of a physician, we would particularly caution against those of a heating nature, such as spirituous liquors, in the various combinations of hot toddy, whiskey punch, or spices and condiments. More or less fever is always present with the cold or influenza; and which will be greatly aggravated by stimulating or exciting remedies. Saline medicines in moderate doses, or even a bleeding from the arm, will generally prove of much greater avail. We mention this practice not with a view to recommend it indiscriminately, but simply to say that it is incomparably safer than the heating or alexipharmic one, and ought, when recommended by a physician, to be had recourse to, without fear or demur. Opium, in its various forms of administration, should not be heedlessly or hastily had recourse to, especially in the first or more feverish stage of the disease; indeed we should recommend that it be only used under the direction of a physician. But after all, the chief hopes of relief, and means of avoiding future ills, the consequences of protracted influenza, will be in a cooling regimen, abstinence at first and afterwards of simple food, light and easy of digestion, such as the farinaceous articles, stewed fruits, &c.; and finally, though with caution, plain animal food in small quantities.

WINE DRINKING AMONG THE ANCIENTS.

AMPHICTYON is reported to have issued a law, directing that pure wine should be merely tasted at the entertainments of the Athenians; but that the guests should be allowed to drink freely of wine mixed with water, after dedicating the first cup to Jupiter, to remind them of the salubrious quality of the latter fluid. However much this excellent rule may have been occasionally transgressed, it is certain that the prevailing practice of the Greeks was to drink their wines in a diluted state. Hence a common division of them into strong wines, which would bear a large admixture of water, and weak wines, which admitted of only a slight addition. To drink wine unmixed, was held disreputable, and those who were guilty of such excess were said to act like Scythians. To drink even equal parts of wine and water, or, as we familiarly term it, half and half, was thought to be unsafe; and, in general, the dilution was more considerable; varying, according to the taste of the drinkers, and the strength

of the liquor, from one part of wine and four of water, to two of wine and four, or else five parts of water-which last seems to have been the favourite mixture. From the account which Homer gives us of the dilution of the Maronean wine with twenty measures of water, and from a passage in one of the books ascribed to Hippocrates, directing not less than twenty-five parts of water to be added to one part of old Thasian wine, some persons have inferred, that these wines possessed a degree of strength far surpassing any of the liquors with which we are acquainted in modern times, or of which we can well form an idea. But it must be remembered, that the wines in question were not only inspissated* but also highly seasoned with various aromatic ingredients, and had often contracted a repulsive bitterness from age, which rendered them unfit for use till they were diffused in a large quantity of water; in fact, they may be said to have been used merely for the purpose of giving a flavour to the water. In the instance cited from Hippocrates, the mixture of Thasian wine is prescribed for a patient in fever, and can therefore be regarded as nothing more than a mild diluent drink.

Since water, then, entered so largely into the beverages of the ancients, neither labour nor expense was spared to obtain it in the purest state, and to insure an abundant supply from those fountains and streams, which were thought to yield it of the most grateful and salubrious quality. It is related of Ptolemy Philadelphus, that, after the marriage of his daughter with Antiochus, king of Syria, he caused her to be constantly supplied with water from the Nile, in order that she might not have occasion to drink any other; and the king of Persia, as we learn from Herodotus, would use only that of the river Choaspes; and in all his journeys and expeditions, part of his equipage consisted of a number of four-wheeled wagons, drawn by mules, and bearing a quantity of this water, previously boiled, and preserved in silver vessels. The exertions of the Romans to procure a liberal distribution of this necessary of life are well known. They sought for the choicest springs, and conveyed the waters of them, often from a great distance, clear and uncontaminated, into their cities, by means of those majestic aqueducts, of which the ruins strike us with astonishment, and must always be regarded as among the noblest monuments of ancient art.

In order more effectually to dissolve those wines which had become inspissated by age, the water was sometimes purified by boiling; and, when the solution was completed, the liquor was strained through a cloth, in order to free it from any impurities which it might have contracted. As this operation, however,

* Rendered thick like treacle.-Of these wines, many of which were made of the unfermented juice of the grape, we propose to give some account on a future occasion.

was apt to communicate an unpleasant taste, or at least to deprive them of their natural flavour, such persons as were nice in the management of their wines, adopted the expedient of exposing them to the night air, which was thought to assist their clarification without impairing their other virtues.

As the wines thus diluted were frequently drunk warm, hot water became an indispensable article at the entertainments of the ancients. We find Lucian describing a supper, at which wine and water, both cold and hot, were placed on a side table for the accommodation of the guests; in general, however, the latter was filled out to them, when called for, by the attendants. Whether the Greeks and Romans were in the habit of taking draughts of hot water by itself at their meals, is a point which, though of no great importance, has been much discussed by antiquarians, without ever being satisfactorily determined. Freinsheim, Butius, and others, who have compiled express treatises on the subject of ancient drinks, adduce a long line of authorities in support of the affirmative side of the question; but most of the passages on which they rely are, at best, of equivocal interpretation. When we find the guests at an entertainment, or the interlocutors in an ancient drama, calling for hot and tepid water, it does not follow, that this was to be drank unmixed; the water so required might be merely for diluting their wines, or for the purposes of ablution. And although Pleistonicus, with the view of obviating the injurious effects of wine, may have enjoined, that, during the winter season at least, draughts of hot water should be swallowed previously; yet there exists no evidence to show that his counsel was much relished by his countrymen, or that the practice ever generally obtained. On the contrary, there is reason to believe, that the habitual use of such mawkish potations was confined to those who took them as a remedy for the disagreeable consequences of their debauches, or to persons of an infirm state of health, for whom they were directed as an article of regimen; as may have been the case with the prosing pleader whom Martial describes as speaking against time, and refreshing himself with frequent draughts of tepid water in the intervals of his speech; and whom he advises to drink the water of the Clepsydra, and thus put an end to his harangue and his thirst together. That the prescription was not always followed from choice, may be seen from those lines of the same poet, in which he expresses his loathing of hot water, and his joy at the prospect of a speedy return to liquors of a more grateful temperature. So far, indeed, was mere hot water from being considered a luxury by the Romans, as some have absurdly imagined to be the fact, that we find Seneca speaking of it as fit only for the sick, and as quite insufferable to those who were accustomed to the delicacies of life.

In certain conditions of the stomach, however, as in that which arises from too free indulgence in the pleasures of the table, or from the use of gross and indigestible food, it cannot be denied, that hot water will allay the uneasy feelings more effectually than cold; and, as the Romans were notorious for their intemperance in eating, we shall probably find in this circumstance the true explanation of their frequent calls for that sort of beverage. The same usage, originating no doubt from the same causes, existed in France during the middle ages. In the ancient monasteries, as we learn from St. Bernard, when the vintage had failed, it was customary to serve hot water to the monks instead of wine; and in the time of Champier, who wrote at the commencement of the sixteenth century, the passion for hot drink prevailed very generally among all classes of people.*

CHILD'S NURSE.

As a general rule, it is undoubtedly a duty incumbent upon every mother to nourish her own infant; occasionally, however, when from disease, or some constitutional infirmity, the mother is incapacitated from performing this delightful task, it becomes necessary, as well for her own good, as that of her offspring, to transfer the care and nourishment of the latter to a proper nurse. We have thought, therefore, that some general remarks upon the qualifications which should be sought for, in her who is to assume the responsible office of foster mother, would not be unacceptable to a large portion of our readers-while from our remarks on this subject, mothers themselves may acquire a useful hint, even though they should not be placed under the disagreeable necessity of committing the rearing of their infants into the hands of another.

It is important, in the first place, that the female at whose breast a child is to be nourished, should be in the prime of life: between twenty and thirty years is the most desirable age, though a few years below or beyond this period will be of little importance, provided she is of a good constitution and enjoys perfect health. This latter is an all essential requisite, upon which the due support of the infant and its future health in a very great degree depend. No female, therefore, should be selected as a child's nurse who is labouring under any bodily infirmity, or who is strongly predisposed to consumption, scrofula, or convulsive diseases.

But it is not merely necessary that the foster mother should enjoy the physical advantages just enumerated; she should

Henderson-Hist. of Ancient and Modern Wines, p. 98. et seq.

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