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poor hypochondriac to bear any longer, is-do not anticipate us, kind reader, we mean neither his drowning, nor marrying, nor any such venturous deed; the first being a mark of insanity, the latter of his malice prepense to injure another's peace of mind—our remedy we say is to toss the invalid into a stage-coach, and commend him to some friend in Pittsburgh, St. Louis, or Nashville, or any such decently remote part, so as to insure adequate jolting and attention to the safety of neck and limb, a forced look abroad at scenes as they present themselves, and some little efforts at civility, and a polite desire to please others, in order that the traveller may himself receive civility.

"A canter is the cure for every evil, and brings the mind back to itself sooner than all the lessons of Chrysippus and Crantor. It is the only process that, at the same time, calms your feelings, and elevates your spirits, banishes blue devils, and raises you to the society of" angels ever bright and fair." It clears the mind; it cheers the heart. It is the best preparation for all enterprises, for it puts a man in good-humour both with the world and himself; and whether you are going to make a speech or scribble a scene― whether you are about to conquer the world or yourself-order your horse. As you bound along, your wit will brighten, and your eloquence blaze, your courage grow more adamantine, and your generous feelings burn with a livelier flame. And when the exercise is over, the excitement does not cease, as when it grows from music, for your blood is up, and the brilliancy of your eye is fed by your bubbling pulses. Then, my young friend, take my advice-rush into the world, and triumph will grow out of your quick life, like Victory bounding from the palm of Jove!"

Just published at the Literary Rooms, No. 121 Chesnut Street.

A TREATISE ON BATHS AND MINERAL WATERS, BY JOHN BELL, M. D. Lecturer on the Institutes of Medicine, and Medical Jurisprudence, &c. in one 12mo volume of more than 500 pages.

The work consists of two parts. The first is divided into eight chapters, in which are given, in succession, a historical sketch of bathing; a view of the functions of the skin and means of protecting it against atmospherical vicissitudes; accounts of the utility in health, and the remedial value in diseases, both acute and chronic, of cold, sea, tepid, warm, hot, and vapour baths. The distinctive characters of each kind of bath, and the circumstances in which it is beneficial or hurtful, are clearly laid down, and accompanying precautions in regard to regimen and exercise in chronic diseases carefully noted. The chapters on sea and cold bathing are particularly full-the chapter on vapour baths includes also an inquiry into the efficacy of the inhalation of common watery, and of medicated vapours, as of iodine and chlorine, for the cure of consumption; the whole illustrated by cases.

The second part of the work is divided into seven chapters, in which will be found, a history of Mineral Waters, and of their general reputation in the cure of diseases. Copious accounts of the most celebrated mineral springs of the United States, and their medicinal virtues are still further illustrated by references to the powers, in these respects, of the chief mineral springs of Europe, of similar composition and temperature.

The' work, though mainly addressed to the medical profession, contains numerous useful precepts and hints for the guidance of those who would resort to bathing as a means of refreshment or luxury or for the preservation of health. But in no instance is it pretended to make an invalid his own doctor, even in the use of baths; it is only meant that he should be cautioned against popular errors, and be better prepared, when actually suffering under disease, to accede more cheerfully to the recommendations of his physician to use them.

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In our last number, we took occasion to show, that a belief in the contagious nature of a disease, which was not conclusively proved to be so, is productive of many inconveniences to the healthy, and of manifest danger to the sick. It is no sufficient excuse for a timid person to say, that it might be discovered to be contagious, and that he would keep on the safe side, by acting as if it really were. Connected with, and indeed forming an important feature in this matter, is the operation of Quarantine* laws and regulations, including Lazarettos, on which we shall now offer a few remarks.

Legislative enactments for arresting the progress and preventing the diffusion of contagious disease, were made at a very early period, as the reader may soon convince himself, by referring to the book of Leviticus, (chap. XIII, XIV.) It is there directed that the priests should visit the houses infected with the plague of leprosy; which, if necessary, are to be scraped, and even pulled down, or the walls are to be scraped and white washed, and the infected persons to be shut up.

As directed against the spreading of epidemical fevers, the

* Quarantine or quarantain, is the French word signifying forty days.-This is the period which seems to have been fixed upon for various kinds of probation, (probably from the duration of Lent,) "we have that quarantain of the king of France, which denotes a truce of forty days appointed by St. Louis, during which time, it was expressly forbidden to take any revenge of the relations or friends of people who had fought, wounded, or affronted each other in words. So again in the law of England, the word quarantine denotes a benefit allowed to the widow of a man dying seised of land; by which she may challenge to continue in his capital messuage or chief mansion house, so it be not a castle, for the space of forty days after his decease, during which time her dower shall be assigned."-Coke upon Lit. 34, 35.

VOL. III.-5

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laws of quarantine, are, however, of more recent origin. Mura tori tells us that quarantine was first ordered to be performed by the Venetians, in 1484. The extensive commerce carried on by these people, with all parts of the Levant and Egypt, would naturally expose them to frequent intercourse with places suffering from the plague, and also compel them to adopt some precautionary means of protection for themselves.

Paris and Fonblanque are disposed to eulogise the wisdom of these quarantine regulations, long since adopted and enforced in most parts of the Mediterranean; and add, that the best praise of them, is to be found in their success; "for though twelve months never elapse, but that the plague rages in some parts of the Levant, and of the coasts of Barbary, the infection has seldom reached the coasts of Italy, France, and Spain." This reasoning strikes us as not very profound. The cities of Europe have for the last century, been gradually undergoing reforms in their streets and houses, and internal economy generally, so as to admit of freer ventilation, greater cleanliness, both public and personal; in fine, an improved domestic medical police. Whereas, the cities of Turkey, Asia-Minor, Egypt, and Barbary, have undergone no such ameliorations, but have rather progressively deteriorated. Some of the worst pestilences have ravaged and almost depopulated cities in the interior of a country, either remote from, or little exposed to contact with traders and such articles of commerce as are supposed to communicate the disease. Florence and Moscow may be instanced. London has enjoyed exemption for more than a century and a half; but we all know that the great fire in 1666, by which the city was nearly destroyed, 113,000 houses having been burnt down, did more to ward off subsequent visitations of pestilence than all the quarantine regulations ever dreamed of. After that event, London was rebuilt in an improved style, with wider streets, and more airy and spacious houses-it ceased to be a fit receptacle for plagues, and therefore had little to fear from all the alleged infection, of which bales of goods from the Levant might be supposed to be the conductors.

But, whatever facts and arguments may be adduced, to show the contagious nature of the Turkish and Egyptian plague, and we must confess that, in our judgment, they are inconclusive, nơ valid proof has been furnished of epidemical fevers, whether we call them yellow, bilious-remittent, cold plague, typhus-pleurisy, cholera, &c. being of this nature.

The modern doctrine of the belief in contagion, as the cause of epidemic diseases has been referred, and with much plausibility, to a device of Pope Paul III., to frighten the fathers of the council of Trent, and to serve as a pretext for translating it to Bologna. In furtherance of this scheme, Fracastorius, physician

to the council, with a stipend, was directed to publicly advocate his belief of the contagious nature of the epidemic, then prevailing at Trent, and to give it currency by sundry marvellous narratives. Among others of this nature, was, that out of one leather coat, for instance, (another edition has it a leather cap,) there died five and twenty Germans, who put it on one after another.

A revolting feature in quarantine and restrictive sanitary regulations is, that while all kinds of impediments are frequently thrown in the way of commercial intercourse, under the plea of preventing the importation of febrile diseases, the contagiousness of which is not proved by any conclusive evidence, no systematically prudential measures are taken to prevent the diffusion of those really contagious, such as small-pox.

The quarantine regulations of the present day, are for the most part an inheritance from former ages-the practice is maintained, when the belief from which it originated has been shown, in many instances, to be manifestly absurd. Boards of Health do not, as they ought, act on the deliberate sentiments of physicians, respecting the origin and means of dissemination of epidemic diseases. In our own country, they quarantine vessels from the Havanna, for fear they should bring in the yellow fever; and yet the opinion of the best informed, and most experienced physicians here, and general practice and sentiment in the West Indies is decidedly opposed to a belief in the contagiousness of this disease.

All along the sea-board, the Boards of Health of our different cities, are at this time uttering proclamations against the dreaded cholera, as if it were really a thing to be warned off, or as if it were a contagious disease; when, in fact, the great weight of testimony goes to prove that it is not. Much greater good would be done by publishing, if not enacting, sanitary regulations, calculated to make the people avoid exposure to those states of the air, and modes of living, which are eminently calculated to invite an attack of epidemic disease. Intemperate drinking and eating, late hours, and evening dissipation, scanty clothing, living in damp situations, and close apartments are much more prolific sources of epidemic disease, than all that could be imported of yellow fever from the West Indies, or of cholera from Russia, or of plague from Turkey. In place of inquiring whether the crew of a vessel have a clean bill of health, it would be a much more humane proceeding for our medical police to attend to the cleansing of streets, draining of marshes, filling up ponds, encouraging temperance throughout the land, and inculcating on the people habits of personal cleanliness, and the practice of free ablution. All our institutions, whether for the preservation of public health, or inculcating sound principles of hygiene, are behind the wants

of the age. There is an immense deal of cant about republicanism, rights of the people, &c. often uttered by the designing, and echoed by the ignorant. We wish that the true spirit of republicanism could be brought to bear on the grand questions of mental and physical education; and that those primary wants, on which all our after enjoyments in life must be based, of intellectual culture and bodily vigour and health, should engage more of the attention of our legislatures and city governments.

We have barely opened the question of quarantine regulations, it will be our duty to enlarge on and explain it more fully hereafter, in order to remove many mischievous prejudices and unfounded opinions.

NEW COSMETIC.

GENTLEMEN,-I am a constant reader of our public papers, and sometimes after having perused the news, foreign and domestic, cast my eye over the advertisements, among which I have recently found the announcement of a newly discovered essence of flowers-pectoral balsam of honey; a newly discovered anti-morbific powder, &c. &c. all intended, I am willing to suppose, for the good of at least that portion of the public represented by their several discoverers, and wholesale and retail venders. Of a different kind, however, is a noble, beautifying paste for the hands, face and neck, never known to fail; and also a kalydor, truly prepared from a secret direction only known in Italy, and celebrated for its real merit in taking off tan, scurf, freckles, &c. I suspect the words "taking off" to be an error of the press, and that the term " covering" ought to have been used in their stead; because I have often seen, both in France and Italy, the ladies' hands and necks covered with a kind of paste, which may perhaps have been this very one. "The famous Naples dew, just imported from Italy, which assumes, by the aid of chemistry, the consistency of cream, and whiteness of milk, and, without being a paint or plaster, produces on the face the good effects, only, of such :-men use it as well as women, after being shaved.”

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That paint or plaster of any kind ever produced any good effeets on the face of a modest female, that is, one of flesh and blood, was never before known; but the contrary is certain; though it is not so certain, from the language of the advertisement, whether the ladies, as well as the gentlemen, shave or not before they make use of this famous dew; the quality and effects of which, as set forth at large and duly certified, may possibly induce some persons, fond of every new, but especially of every foreign commodity and practice, to make use of it. In regard, therefore, to the complexions of the good people of this country, particularly

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