^SCULAPIUS. 507 



flomixings and pourings of the all-healing specific water, 

 and finally, like the miracle of soap and water upon soiled 

 linen, he should be clean, and consequently well, starched up 

 by the "stimulation of cold water." Shade of Zoroaster, be- 

 hold the splendid world that has sprung from the power of 

 the aquatic gods, or water-walkers ! Thine oracle, with a 

 divinely-directed instinct of the spirit, has thus prophesied 

 that final consummation so long and ardently prayed for, 

 even the achievements of the "Maine Liquor Law" and 

 Hydropathy, "with a government inseparable from water." 

 And here exclusiveness is impertinence again, and the 

 assumption of an absolute originality on the part of Priess- 

 nitz is an affectation of the most egregious intensity. 

 The value and importance of water has been self-evident 

 since its creation. The glory of water has always been 

 known and appreciated by all men, and its real signifi- 

 cance was long since revealed to them by the science which 

 discovered that their bodies were made principally out of 

 water; that four-fifths of the world were covered with 

 water ; that without this element of Nature all animals and 

 plants must perish from off the earth's surface ; that water 

 was infinitely beautiful, the symbol of spirit, and of Deity ; 

 that without it, the poet could not make a song, the painter 

 could not make a landscape, and God could not make a 

 world. But it has been reserved for these modern days to 

 make out the sublime demonstration, that all disease and hu- 

 man infirmity were to be specifically cured and readjusted by 

 water, especially dropsy, diabetes, and the reduction of 

 important inflammations ; in short, that all the virtues of 

 all medical agents, and all curative processes, reside in 

 simple water. This quiet putting aside of the science 

 of the times, this slapping the mouths of the anatomists, 

 physiologists, and pathologists, in their supposed discovered 

 laws of the body in the present habitat of man, is a con- 

 temptible insult to some of the best heads that have visited 

 this planet, and argues great thickness of skin, and a ver- 

 dancy not expected in the author of a system pretending to 



