1002 Method of using the Cold Bath to most Advantage. opportunity of referring to the book, to inform me, whether it was an imprimatur, without any terms of approbation or explanation, which licenfers would fome times ufe. W. & D. "Fies nobilium tu quoque Fontium." Mr. URBAN, 08. 31. HE intention of the following lines Twill be fufficient apology for troubling you with them. I hope and truft the hints they contain may make them worthy the attention of many of your readers, as well as contribute to the health and comfort of fome individuals of that number; than which nothing can be more gratifying to the writer, whofe fole view in their publication is the benefit of thofe who feek, what they deserve, Health. The important good confequences of Cold-bathing needs nothing laid at this time of day to recommend it to the notice of the debilitated. The experience of inankind has taught its ufes and effects; which have been further fan&tioned by many writers, and fome of the most eminent in the medical world, who have, at different times, very ably employed their pens on its fubject. To the latter for its virtues, and to the prefent enlightened Faculty for the propriety of its ule individually, the application of invalids is recommended. When that is determined, it is the mode only I am about to prefcribe. Waving, therefore, every endeavour at attempting to offer any thing new on the general fubject, as to the medical powers of the Cold Bath, I fhail only briefly relate what led me to use the mode recommended below; what were its eftects on myself, and on fome others who, by my advice, have been in the habit of uling it; adding a few practical hints, which, I hope, will make an operation, very frightful to many, not only pleafanter, but much more effectually, and, I hope, more extenfively, ufetul." From a natural delicacy in my confli tution, and withing to enjoy what one would almost think fome people thought not worth having, I have been long accuftomed to this remedy, and have the greatest cafon to think I owe much comtoit to its friendly aid. Sea-bathing, if my attentive obfervation has not deceived me, in general has been more certainly advantageous in its tonic powers; but whether that fuperiority ariles only from [NOT. its holding faline particles diffolved, or whether the large body of water the fea contains is at all contributing, or if any thing is particularly due to its comparative specific gravity; whether the purity of the air breathed during its ufe compared with that of a crowded city, and the relaxation of the mind from business, and the amusement enjoyed in a large fo pofed to be and to make happy, has not ciety, where every member feems difeach its demand; which feparately has hard to determine, while it must be althe greatest claim, it would perhaps be lowed that each has its merit. Something probably is due to its impregnation; but the fum of all thefe circumstances of its effects; and in its ufe likewise, as co-operating no doubt fills the measure well from my own obfervation as from the information of others, whose conftitutions were alike tender, I have learned there is much less chance of taking cold, an accident to which the most tender are, fpection, occafionally expofed in ufing even with the greatest care and circumthe Cold Bath in the ufual way. This circumftance has induced me for fome years past to recommend, in the dipping fea, the addition of as much fea or bay weakly children at a distance from the falt to the water as would make the folution nearly as falt, or rather a little falter than fea-water; and the event has ever fully rewarded the practice, and substantiated the preference; for I have feen fome unhealthy children more benefited by a few weeks bathing in this way than by months in fresh-water; and others, who have received no benefit by fresh long continued, very foon get colour, fpirits, and ftrength, from a change to the falted. The formation of fuch a bath was easy for infants, but lefs manageable for adults. To avoid, there fore, in the common method of using the Cold Bath, fuch temporary interruptions to its ufe, and their difagreeable confequences, which I have frequently known to be a continual diftrels to the too quickly apprehenfive mind of the valetu dinarian; and ftudious myself to enjoy that luxury as often as poffible, with every advantage to be derived from any improvement my fancy could fuggeft; it claimed much of my attention: and many fchemes, fome inconvenient, and others impracticable, cccurred, till the following pretented itfelf to my mind; and, af ter long ufe, I have the pleasure to think it highly deferving of notice, as it feems to give the fresh-water Cold Bath fome of the properties of fea-bathing, and to me that fatisfactory incentive to its ufe, the recollection of never having caught cold fince it was adopted. It has ftill another advantage or two of its own; the first and not the fmalleft of which is, that by it, the towels being rendered rougher, the friction in drying after the bath is increafed; and what is, I fear, too often neglected, I mean the rubbing by thofe with whom it fhould be particularly a matter of the firft confequence <the tender and chilly), who are generally thofe who are apt to be too much in a hurry to get on their cloaths, and by that means frequently take cold. For their fakes, now that friction is the fubject, viewing the importance of that part of the operation, it would feem wrong to proceed without urging the practice of it to a much greater extent than is cuflomary, and that immediately before as well as after bathing. I believe, from my own experience, that the good effects of this remedy will, in many cafes, be confiderably increafed, if, before the immerfion, the body and extremities be well rubbed for a few minutes with a fiefh brush. To the notice of thofe afflicted with chronic rheumatifm, as well as to the fhivering bather, it is very earneftly recommended. The ftay of the delicate and those with tender bowels in the water should be very short; the more robuft may indulge longer. The other, and perhaps not lefs important advantage, is that of ufing their own towels (which fhould be coarfe and rough as can be borne), untainted with the excrementi tious difcharges of the skins of a multitude, and perhaps often negligently wathed; the truth of which no very nice degree of perfection in the olfactory nerves is necellary to difcover in the clean towels of a public bath. Except in this circumstance, perhaps no public baths in the world exceed in their con veniences and perfection those of London, as far as I have been able to learn. The practice alluded to, and which I can now with confidence recommend, is that of impregnating the towels with fea falt, by dipping them in a folution of that falt in water, and then drying them. The folution I have ufed is four ounces to a quart of water: a coarse hand towel of the common fize, by being thoroughly wetted in this folution, when dried, acquires an increase of weight of about an Ounce, confequently contains that quantity of fea falt, which is as much, perhaps, as is neceffary, or as would be pleafant. The folution may be repeated, after three or four times ufing them, by thofe who are fatisfied with one fet of towels fome time, as eafily as once by the more nice. The roughness given to the cloths, when dry, by the falt, affifted probably by the ftimulus of the falt itself, adds very confiderably to the much-to-be-wifhed-for glow. And as, in the action of rubbing the body, fome of the falt becomes diffolved by the drops hanging to the fkin, and is of courfe fpread over the whole furface of the body, and is partly abforbed; to that abforption, which is perhaps more alive during the empty ftate in which bathing is generally recommended, are to be attributed the good effects of medicated baths, both natural and artificial. fhower-bath will be much improved in its efficacy by the addition of a proper quantity of falt in its water. The common What is in the prefent cafe the immediate rationale of its action, or to what caufe is to be attributed the preference of fea over fresh water, as it is not the profeffed defign of this paper, we wish to leave undifcuffed. The fafeft means of applying a powerful and pleasant remedy to the difeafed, the refult of experience, being all we intended, the modus operanai is left for a more ably-directed pen. It may be that the ftimulus given by the faline fpicula to the cuticular glands, by its abforption, may not be the fmalleft of its caufes, efpecially when it is recollected how extenfive is its application, and at the fame time the great importance of the functions of the ab-. forbing furface. How powerful frequently is the application of a folution of fome of the neutral falts in local glandular atfections topically applied! Another circumftance, worth notice in an enquiry of this kind, is the effect of fome neutral falts in fresh-drawn blood; an example of which every winter affords in a wellknown culinary preparation of hog's blood; I mean, that of preventing its coagulation. In the extreme and minute fanguiferous veffels, where the circulation must neceffarily be very weak and flow, on account of their great diftance from the fource of its motion, its moving power, and especially in those of the skin, when expofed to cold air in fuch fitua tions; may not fomewhat like a disposition to coagulation exift? and may not the introduction of fuch particles do away an approaching evil? Perhaps infind firit recommended the use of that material with our foed for fome fuch 1004 Plan for raifing Water from deep Wells. wife purpofé: the practice will be found, upon recollection, very general, and gives a probability to fuch an idea. The learned and ingenious Bishop of Landaff has faid, in his "Chemical Effavs," that the falt in fea water applied to the fkin is not abfor bed. I confefs myself of a different opinion. That fome of it is abforbed I am convinced; or why is not rain, or any other pure water, equally efficacious, applied to fcrophulous glands? Before the fubject be entirely quitted, the writer wifhes to fubmit it to the experience of the medical world, to determine how far this mode of abforption may be usefully applied in a variety of cafes requiring the various baths which Nature has, probably for human ills, provided in different parts of the world, and which are too frequently, from fome circumftance or other, not within the reach or power of thofe to whom they would no doubt be of great fervice; and to add that, in more than one inftance, he has applied with the above faline folution fome few drops of the tin. ferri mur. he thinks with fome fuccefs in fome cafes where chalybeates feemed to promife relief. The Materia Medica will readily fupply, through the medium of Chemistry, a fund of powerful topicks to the ingenious Phyfician. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, BENEVOLUS. Nov. 4. 1 Let ABCD re- y q pr f. S ID [Nov. fixed by a ring at each end, fo as to have room to play; and in this manner water may be raised to any height. The lever by which the machine is worked muft be moved by machinery, the conftruction of which is eafy enough. The lever must be bent fo as to make the space paffed through by each of the piftons (fuppofing the bores of the pumps to be equal) equal. MATHESIS. Mr. URBAN, 08. 14. ANY and various are the recipes M and noftrums offered to the pub lick for that terrifying accident, the bite of a mad dog, and yet few are the inftances published of rational and regular cures. Oftentatious relations are indeed feen in the papers, that ferve as advertifements and wrappers to the medicines; but thefe are generally confidered as puffs to vend them, having in their favour the fortuitous application to bites of dogs exafperated by cruelty, and not really mad. While an ethiology of the nature and effects, more than the reputed confequences of the bite, is a laudable purfuit for fcientific men, to trace thofe effects to a caufe more certain than any hitherto affigned; yet, to forward the general purpose, it must fill be of use to promulgate whatever from public authority comes recommended to general attention, enforced by certificates of efficacy. One of the laft remedies made known, and difcovered abroad, is an arcanum pur chafed by the late King of Pruffia, after a particular investigation of its happy effects by a commiffion of medical gentlemen, one of which was the King's own furgeon. The fecret was in the poffeffion of a peafant, who ambulently ap plied the remedy for his fubfiftence, from the generous difclosure of a Silefian gentleman, in whofe family it had for years been kept, and charitably administered. The commiffion, having made enquiry on the fpot, and taken evidence on oath of moft creditable perfons there, made a report to his Majefty of the falutary ef fest of the remedy; upon which a fum of money was ordered to the peafant, fufficient to fet him at eafe during life. What he revealed was taken down by the commiffion, and published upon royal order by the College of Phyficians, with a ipecial injunction to all apothecaries and venders of drugs to prepare the medicine, Band keep it ready for immediate ufe, throughout the King's dominions. To give this discovery the molt ample scope earth's furface. Each of there pittons is worked by rods from the lever Eygpr, of of fuccefs, the edict iffued by his Majefty's order required all nobles and country gentlemen, all parish minifters, fextons, and even publicans, to attend, and fee that fufficient quantities of the medicine be kept at hand in central places, to be had on all emergencies. Thefe in junctions are in fact fo much refpected and obeyed, that the remedy is found ready for ufe every where in the Pruffian erritory. The edit from which this account and the following abftract are taken, was published at Neufchatel, in Swifferland, and tranfmitted by a counsellor of his Pruffian Majefty's Chancery there to a relation here, Mr. Tavell, in Gowerftreet, Bedford-fquare. Whether this piece, from its length, can have place in your ufeful Collection, I know not; but I offer it for infertion without remark or obfervation. Medicines, compofed by perfons not following the rules of pharmacy in their prefcriptions, muft not immediately be judged of by the known or admitted virtues of their ingredients, feveral unfcientific compounds having produced effects unaccountably fortunate. The principal article ufed in this fpecific remedy is a beetle, the body of which is (without the head) preferved in honey, and occafionally bruifed and mixed up with it for ufe. This beetle, cockchaffer, or profcarabé, is by Linnæus arranged by the name of meloés, in the clafs of coleopteres. It is the anticantharus defcribed by Schoeffer, and not the Scarabeus melotontba, the common beetle, but a plump infect without wings, yet covered with the common brown cafes, not fhining nor hard, but of the confiftence of thin leather. It has three pair of feet of unequal length; the body, thick as a finger, is ftreaked with blue, green, and chiefly red colour, and is often an inch and an inch and a quarter long, and the female biggeft, although there is a fmaller fort equally good and useful. They are gathered in May, in warm and dry days, in fields and high meadows. They are fo tender, as, when touched, to emit a mucilaginous yellow fluid of a grateful fmell, that tinges the skin in order, therefore, not to bruife them, they fhould be raised with a small flat flick, and turned over into a glafs or glazed veffel, out of which being flid on a plate, . one by one, the head is (with a harp knife) to be fevered from the body, which is immediately to be dropped into a jar of honey, fufficient in quantity to cover a number, In this ftate they may be preferved two or three years, the jar be ing clofe ftopped, kept in a cool, dry place, and fome honey fupplied for what may dry away and leave them uncovered. For ule, 24 beetles, with the honey adherent to them, are taken, bruised, and mixed on a plate; to them are gradually added the following ingredients: of theriaca, or conferve (rob) of elder, two ounces; of ebony fhavings pulverifed, two drachms; Virginian fnake-root in powder, one drachm; filings of lead, one drachm; and of dried mushrooms, or fungus laricis, twenty grains; all which are by degrees, in the order here ftated, intimately to be mixed, made into paste, and, when taken, rubbed down to the confiftence of an electuary. The part remaining untaken must be kept clofe and cool, like the jar with the beetles. The dofe of pafte is according to age and the ftrength of the patient for men, from 80 to 30 years, 2 drachms; at 25 years, 1 drachm; from 20 to 10 years, one drachm; from 10 to 6 years, 30 grains; at two and one year, 24 grains; and for children at the breaft, the nurse is to take the dose that fuits her age, the quantity for women being one-fourth or one-fifth lefs than that prefcribed for men. As to animals, for full-grown horses, 3 drachms; for full-grown colts, 21 drachms; for colts, 50 grains; for hogs, 24 drachms; grown pigs, one drachm, 50 grains; fmall pigs, one drachm; for theep and goats grown, one drachm 510ths; young of both, grown, one drachm; lambs and kids, 50 grains; dogs, full-grown, two drachms; young, drachm; puppies, one drachmn: fowls, grown, one drachm; young, drachm. Thefe dofes are divided into equal parts: one given at night, the other in the morning. The perfon taking a prescribed dose of this medicine is to abftain 24 hours from eating, and 12 hours from drinking; if thirft becomes unfufferable, he may be allowed fome elder-flower infufion, or common tea. He must be kept in a temperate air within doors during the whole courfe, to encourage a necellary perfpiration, which may be procured at firft by lying 12 hours in bed. After 24 hours, he is to be fhifted with warm body and bed linen; the foul are to be removed immediately, in order to be purified. To perform a cure in winter, the patient's room must be kept moderately warm. When the bite has made a wound, the fpot is to be washed with wine vinegar. Beer vinegar, not being to harp, requires the 1006 Effectual Remedy for the Bite of a Mad Dog. [Nov. the addition of falt. And, when neither are at hand, foft water, in which falt is diffolved, may be used. Warm applica tion may alfo be made to the part with cloths dipped in thofe fluids; after which it is to be kept covered with plaifters of bafilicum ointment, or falt butter. The wounds must, from time to time, be anointed with fcorpion oil, vipers' fat, or with the unctuous fubftance of the cockchaffers, mixed with, and diftilled from, olive oil, in which thofe infects have been macerated, in order to keep the wound clean and open for a time; after which it is flowly to heal of itfelf. During the cure, and fome time after, the patient must keep quiet, avoid ftrong exercife, and whatever may caufe agitation of mind. He is to abftain from all ftrong liquors, and avoid all kinds of excels. As to cattle, when a beaft is bitten, it must be put up in a stable or byer by itfelf, have the medicine administered as above directed, and not be let out again till the cure be completed beyond doubt, at leaft for two days more; after which the ftable is to be well purified, that it may not be infectious for man and beaft; and the fame abftinence from eating and drinking is to be obferved for both; as likewife for the treatment of a wound, when there is one, the cleanfing of which, is effentially neceffary, to remove the froth and flaver of the animal, and prevent its mixing with the fluids of the body. The perfons who attend fuch patients are advised alfo to take a dofe of the fame medicine, to prevent infection from the breath or touch of the patient, as poffibly contagious. When the bite has made no wound, and only left a mark like a contufion, it will fill be proper to wash and foment the part with vinegar and the vetted cloths, as above directed. But if the fpots prove painful, it will be proper to lay a bliftering plafter upon them the first night, to procure a difcharge of the noxious humour they contain, and to make a fore, that is to be treated in the fame manner as thofe of the bites above defcribed. The purchase and publication of this arcanum affords not only an inftance of FREDERICK THE GREAT's care of the lives of his fubjects, but likewise an opportunity of recalling to mind, that, although clofely occupied with matters of ftate, held under his own conduction, he could often defcend to objects of civil government and police, when he found I Mr. URBAN, VERUS. 08. 15. HAVE with much pleasure and attention perufed Dr. Hodgfon's new tranflation of the works of Salomon, Pp. Lowth's Ifaiah, and Bp. Newcome's Minor Prophets, and have before me Dr. Blayney's Jeremiah and Lamentations, and Bp. Newcome's Ezekiel; and defire to offer. humble thanks to them my all for the pleasure and inftruction I have received from their labours. Permit me, through the channel of your widely-extended and much-esteemed Mifcellany, to request the favour of one of the two laft mentioned gentlemen to fill up the chafm that remains, by obliging the publick with a new tranflation of Daniel, in the fame manner with that of Jeremiah or Ezekiel. Perhaps the reverend Doctor may have a kind of claim to the work, having already published a Differ. tation on the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks. However, both the learned gentlemen have already shown themselves fo well qualified for the task, that I have no doubt of its meriting and receiving general approbation, if either of them, would undertake it. In your laft Mag. p. 787, note 7, you are ftill under a mistake about the baronets of the name of Goodére, the last having been the fifth, as you may fee by confulting the Baronetage. P. 792. One of your correfpondents, Mr. Urban, is undertaking the arduous task of refcuing Mr. Burke from the charge of inconfiftency. three years fince that gentleman was emIt is not yet ployed in going from one mad-house to another, and getting all the information in his power upon the fubject of lunacy, and then exulted in a certain honourable Houfe, that "God had hurled from his throne" the fovereign of one nation; and he is now become the warmeft panegyrift of the poor, weak, mifguided fovereign of another nation, who, after having encouraged and affifted the rebellious fubjects of Britain in their oppofition to their mother-country, is degraded, and defpoiled of his own autho rity and dignity, by a set of upstart, leveling republicans, who seem anxiously folicitous |