to have been desperate. I knew there was no imposthume in my
lungs, and I supposed the stitches were spasmodical. I was sensible
that all my complaints were originally derived from relaxation. I
therefore hired a chaise, and going to the beach, about a league from
the town, plunged into the sea without hesitation. By this desperate
remedy, I got a fresh cold in my head: but my stitches and fever
vanished the very first day; and by a daily repetition of the bath, I
have diminished my cough, strengthened my body, and recovered my
spirits. I believe I should have tried the same experiment, even if
there had been an abscess in my lungs, though such practice would have
been contrary to all the rules of medicine: but I am not one of those
who implicitly believe in all the dogmata of physic. I saw one of the
guides at Bath, the stoutest fellow among them, who recovered from the
last stage of a consumption, by going into the king's bath, contrary to
the express injunction of his doctor. He said, if he must die, the
sooner the better, as he had nothing left for his subsistence. Instead
of immediate death, he found instant case, and continued mending every
day, till his health was entirely re-established. I myself drank the
waters of Bath, and bathed, in diametrical opposition to the opinion of
some physicians there settled, and found myself better every day,
notwithstanding their unfavourable prognostic. If I had been of the
rigid fibre, full of blood, subject to inflammation, I should have
followed a different course. Our acquaintance, doctor C--, while he
actually spit up matter, and rode out every day for his life, led his
horse to water, at the pond in Hyde-Park, one cold frosty morning, and
the beast, which happened to be of a hot constitution, plunged himself
and his master over head and ears in the water. The poor doctor
hastened home, half dead with fear, and was put to bed in the
apprehension of a new imposthume; instead of which, he found himself
exceedingly recruited in his spirits, and his appetite much mended. I
advised him to take the hint, and go into the cold bath every morning;
but he did not chuse to run any risque. How cold water comes to be such
a bugbear, I know not: if I am not mistaken, Hippocrates recommends
immersion in cold water for the gout; and Celsus expressly says, in
omni tussi utilis est natatio: in every cough swimming is of service.

I have conversed with a physician of this place, a sensible ma