Life at the water cure : facts and fancies noted down during a month at Malvern : a diary / by R.J. Lane ... and ... Confessions of a water-patient by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton.

Date:
1851
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Life at the water cure : facts and fancies noted down during a month at Malvern : a diary / by R.J. Lane ... and ... Confessions of a water-patient by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Glance at tlie ordinary antmnn Iriji; or cross tlie cliannel — take a well-selected route—be for eight or ten hours m a dtlige/ice—don’t iorget your passport—look to your luggage— be ever straining to remember something—speiui your monev— enjoy your high living, your wine, your soup, and your sola;— be lull ot irregulaiities in all your movements—take your till of such excitement—and how is it t Why (you answer) tliat is just what ] enjoy ten times more than your beef and mutton and pudding—-your morning walks, and your boasted baths—your bread and butter and water. 'J'hat is what suits me, and agrees wdth me—what I like, and what I live bv- Now, what is my rejoinder? Very w^ell—you get what you seek, and you have your leward; but does it never occur to you, O merchant, that while tue are accumulating capital of liealtli, yo<«are borrowing on tliat cajiital atsevenly-tive percent ? In the unasked and unanswerable testimonies that meet me on every side, 1 see enougli to justify my enthusiasm for tiie cause. Rapid amendment and remarkable cures attest that the w'ATEii CURE lias made^—is making—cannot but make rapid progress, and is supported by an array of facts that defy dispute and disarm opposition. (The truth is like a cork in water, wdiich may be lield down by repeated edbrts ; biitw liich, ever and anon, will be bobbing up to the surface—until, the depressing power being tired out, its own intrinsic nature keeps it aHoat.) We find, too, that tlie foremost of our great Physicians prac- tice and inculcate those healthy habits, which are, at least, the sworn associates of the Water Cure—the first step towards a recognition of its moving power; that, taking that “first ste}i,” from the bed to the bath, they court the morningair: and cease nut to drive their patients from the smoke and dirt—the strife and bustle of the town, or the modified impurities of the suburb ; and in singleness of heart say to Mr. Tooley—Mrs. Thread- needle— Alderman Leadenhall—Little Mary Axe—Young Bircliirn, or Old Jewry—Really i cannot cure you in the City. Writing from this House 1 would not omit to mention that I find the Doctor has been for three or four years engaged on a systematic work on the Water Cure: (he promised me some extracts for my Appendix, but has failed to send them—the Book will however soon be published)—nor that, in order to render this Sanatorium all tliat can be desired for the invalid, he has availed himself of the services of Dr. L. Stommes, late Physician to the Water Cure Establishment at Grasmere.
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