The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-04-25

selves cool; and, adds Sir John, 'tthat
they do not commonly receive any in
jury, or catch any cold thereby, am
fully convinced, from the experiments
have seen made with it. Thus we
had the cold-water cure century and a
half ago. Half century later, Horace
Walpole, in letter to Mr.. Cole, dated
June 5, 1775, says: "Dr. Heberden Gas
every physician, to make himself talked
of, will set up some new hypothesis)
pretends that damp house, and even
damp sheets, which have ever been
reckoned fatal, are wholesome. At
Malvern, they certainly put patients
into sheets just dipped in the spring"
Sir John Floyer seems to have found
the golden mean of happiness. He pre-
served his health and spirits to the adj
vanced age of ninety, four years pre-
viOus to which he visited Bishop
Hough, at Hartlebury. The bishops
neighbors were all surprised to see a
man of that age, with his memory, I'M
derstanding, and faculties perfect, and
appearing to labor under no infrmity.
In compliance with the wishes of par
ty of young folks, he communicated his
receipt for preparing the ELIXIR Virtde,
and, informed them that, by attention
and habit, he obtained SO great COM
mand over his temper, as never to be
moved with any thing that he could not
hope to remedy; and by this, and a
constant disposition to enter into the
innocent amusements and enjoyments
of others, he had extended his life to
that period in peace and comfort.
SALTWATER BATHS.
The salutary medicinal effects of sea-
bathing are generally acknowledged,
although too frequently recommended
in cases which do not warrant the prac-
tice; in such circumstances they often
prove highly prejudicial. The ancients
held sea-water baths in such estimation
that Lampridius and Suetonius inform
us that Nero had it conveyed to his pal
ace. AS sea-bathing is not always with
in the reach of those who may require
1T, artificial sea-water has been consid-
cred desirable substitute and the
following mode of preparing it, not be-
ing generally known, may prove of some
utility: To fifty pounds of water
add ten ounces of muriate of soda. ten
drachms of muriate of magnesia, two
ounces of muriate of lime, six drachms
of sulphate of soda, and the same
quantity of sulphate of magnesia. This
is Swediaur's receipt. Bouillon, La
grange, and Vogel, recommend the sup
preston of the muriate of lime and sui
phate of soda, to be replaced with car
Donate of lime and magnesia; but this
alteration does not appear necessary, or
founded on sufficient chemical grounds
for adoption.
Sea-water taken internally has been
considered beneficial in several mala-
dies and, although not potable in CIV
ilized countries, it is freely drunk by
various savage tribes. Cook informs us
that it is used with impunity in Easter
Island and Schouten observed several
fishermen in the South Sea drinking it,
and giving it to their children. when
their stock of fresh water was expend-
ed. Among the various and capricious
experiments of Peter the Great, an edict
is recorded ordering his sailors to give
saltwater to their male children, with
a view of accustoming them to bever-
age which might preclud the necessity
of laying in large stocks of fresh water
on board his ships The result was
obvious this nursery of seamen per-
ished in the experiment. Russell, Lind,
Buchan, and various other medical
writer's, have recommended the internal
use of sea-water in scrofulous and Gu
taneous affections but its use in the
present day is pretty nearly exploded.
CURE FOR CANCER.
A multitude of strange remedies are
prescribed for cancer. When Lord
Metcalfe, the Governor of Canada, was
beset with this cruel disease, Mr.. Kaye,
his biographer, tells US: Zone CORES
pendent recommended mesmerism,
which had cured Miss Martineau an
other hydropathy, at the pure springs
of Malvern third, an application of
the common dock leaf a fourth, au in
fusion of couch grass a fifth, the baths
of Docherte, near Vienna; a sixth, the
volcanic hot-sp ings of Karlsbad;
seventh, a wonderful plaster made of
rose-leaves, olive-oil, and turnip-ju
an eighth, a plaster and powder, In
which some part of a young frog was a
principal ingred ent ninth, mixture
of copperas and vinegar tenth, an
application of pure ox-gall an eleventh,
a mixture of Florence oil and red pre-
cipitate while twelfth was certain of
the good effects of homeopathy, which
cured Charlotte Elizabeth. Besides
these varied remedies, many men and
women with infallible recipes, or GER
tain modes of treatment, were recon-
mended by themselves and others.
Learned italian professors, mysterious
American women, erudite Germans, and
obscure Irish quacks-all had cured
cancers of twenty years standing, and
all were pressing or pressed forward to
operate on Lord Metcalfe." DR.. Bran
DIM, of Florence, has disco, cred that
citric acid will assuage the violent pain
which is the usual concomitant of can
Ger. One of his patients, aged seven
ty-one, at the hospital of Santa Maria
della Scala, was afflicted with cancer on
the tongue. The poor man, in the
midst of his torrents, asked for a lem
on, which was nothing very remarkable,
as cancerous patients generally have an
liking for acids. But the
seat of the disorder being IL the mouth, |
a circumstance was observed which |
might otherwise have escaped attention |
the Juice of the lemon diminished the |
pain. The patient, on finding this, |
asked for another on the following day, |
and it gave him still greater relief than |
the day before. This led DR.. Brandini |
to try citric acid itself in a crystalized |
state. A gargle was composed of four
grains of the acid in three hundred and |
fifty grains of common water, and it |
entirely carried off the pain on its re-
the same remedy was repeat
ed with the same success.
Moving.
Among the miseries which, for various |
we agree to treat rather with |
ridicule than with sympathy, few are