grief, anxiety of mind, the depressing passions, over application to business, long continued study, and mental fatigue, an immoderate and exhausting indulgence of the animal appetites, late hours, and insufficient sleep are amongst the common excitants of this affection. To these may be added what very frequently accompanies many of them, namely, the habitual use of stimulating drinks, and narcotic drugs; these have a twofold operation; first, directly upon the stomach itself; and secondly, one equally direct upon the brain and nerves; in both, their effects are injurious to an extent little imagined. The feeling of exhilaration immediately following their use, and the frequent reapplication of the stimulus blinds people to their deadly consequences; and, in the language of Coleridge, (himself an opium eater), "they fly for relief of their sufferings to the very cause that reproduces them." The late Dr. Birkbeck believed that in all cases of indigestion of this character, their existed sub-acute inflammation of the mucous membrane, lining the stomach and duodenum, and to remove this was the object of his treatment.

In many instances some one symptom is particularly troublesome; such as heartburn, flatu

lence, acid eructations, cholicy pains, or costiveness. Piles are often exceedingly distressing; and frequently the patient is constantly annoyed with a sensation of tightness round the region of the belly, and pains in the muscles of the limbs and back. Occasionally the liver is chiefly affected, and obstruction or suppression of the bile, indicated by a yellow jaundiced hue of the skin, and white clay-colored stools, is the prominent complaint. But in all these cases the action of the Sulphur Water upon the bowels and kidneys is eminently serviceable, although it often requires to be accompanied with the exhibition of medicines adapted to the individual case.

HYPOCHONDRIASIS is another disease which is generally relieved by the judicious use of this water. This is an affection so compounded of bodily disorder and mental hallucination, that it has for ages puzzled nosologists whether it should be defined as a disease of the body or the mind. The very name, derived as it is from the ancients clearly proves their opinion to have referred it to the former;-which is further confirmed by the word melancholy, which signifies literally black bile. The corporeal symptoms generally present in hipped patients are costiveness, copious and

pale urine, acrid eructations, flatulency, wandering pains of the head and other parts, dizziness, dimness of sight, palpitation of the heart, and listless

ness.

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As to its mental phenomena they are almost infinitely diversified. Low spirits, weariness, peevishness, and discontent; suspicion, mistrust, and dissatisfaction are its general attendant miseries. Burton in his "Anatomy of Melancholy" has quaintly and well described the state of mind which is the wretched lot of those who suffer from this terrible disease. They are soon tired with all things; they will now tarry, now be gone; now in bed they will rise, now up, then go to bed, now pleased and again displeased; now they like, by and by dislike all, weary of all; sequitur nunc vivendi nunc moriendi cupido; discontented, disquieted, upon every light occasion or no occasion object; often tempted to make away with themselves; they cannot die, they will not live; they complain, weep, lament, and think they lead a most miserable life: never was any man so bad. They are testy, pettish, peevish, distrustful, apt to mistake and ready to snarl upon every occasion and without any cause with their dearest friends. If they speak in jest, the hypo

chondriac takes it in good earnest; if the smallest ceremony be accidentally omitted, he is wounded to the quick. Every tale, discourse, whisper, or question, he applies to himself. Or if the conversation be openly addressed to him, he is ready to misconstruct every word; and cannot endure that any man should look steadfastly at him, laugh, point the finger, cough, or sneeze. Every question or movement works upon him, and is misinterpreted, and makes him alternately turn pale and red, and even sweat with distrust, fear, or anger." To all these and such as these manifestations of mental irritability, there is always added an incessant anxiety and apprehension on the score of health. Every symptom is watched, magnified, and dwelt upon. One medical man after another is consulted; drug after drug is used and thrown aside. Diet and medicine form the

daily occupation and care. The most preposterous and ridiculous fancies take possession of the mind. One man fancies that he is made of glass, and dares not stir a finger lest it should snap off; another imagines that his body is of such enormous bulk that he cannot pass through the door; a third, like the baker of Ferrara mentioned by Donatus, thinks himself to be a lump of butter,

and dares neither sit in the sun, nor approach the fire, for fear of being melted. I was myself consulted some years ago by a gentleman who entertained a firm conviction that he was a book; or, as he himself expressed it, "a work," and the only matter that perplexed him, and upon which he seriously asked my opinion was, "whether he was in one volume or two."

Absurd and whimsical as the fancies of hypochondriacs are, it is of little use to attempt combating them by reason, or argument, and still less to assail them with ridicule, or treat them with contempt. The mode of treatment to be employed is to sooth and occupy the mind, and to obviate the bodily ailments as they prevail. The Sulphur Water of Harrogate is perhaps the best know remedy for the latter purpose; especially in relieving that obstinate costive habit of body which always prevails, and which, as noticed by Dr. Thomas, is less liable to return after its use, than when the resinous and drastic purgatives have been employed; while the former indication is well answered by the change of scene, agreeable excitement, and many objects of interest which a fashionable watering-place like this offers to the attention.