Clafs II. i. 6. 7. OF SENSATION. 253 



appetite began to improve. Still his cough continued, and his 

 hectic flumings, though the chills were much abated and very 

 irregular. 



The falutary effects of motion being now more ftriking than 

 ever, he purchafed a horfe admirably adapted to a valetudinarian 

 in Dumfriesfhire, and being now able to fit on horfeback for an 

 hour together, he rode out feveral times a day. He fixed his 

 refidence for a few weeks at Moffat, a village at the foot of the 

 mountains whence the Tweed, the Clyde, and the Annan, de- 

 fcend in different directions ; a fituation inland, dry, and healthy, 

 and elevated about three hundred feet above the furface of the 

 fea. Here his ftrength recovered daily, and he began to eat an- 

 imal food, which for feveral months before he had not tafted. 

 Perfevering in exercife on horfeback, he gradually increafed the 

 length of his rides, according to his ftrength, from four to twenty 

 miles a day ; and returning on horfeback to Lancafhire by the 

 lakes of Cumberland, he arrived at Liverpool on the firft of Sep- 

 tember, having rode the laft day of his journey forty miles. 



The two inferences of moft importance to be drawn from this 

 narrative, are, firft, the extraordinary benefit derived from gefta- 

 tion in a carriage, and ftill more the mixture of geftation and 

 exercife on horfeback, in arrefting or mitigating the hectic par- 

 oxyfm -, and fecondiy, that in the florid confumption, as Dr. 

 Beddoes terms it, an elevated and inland air is in certain circum- 

 ftances peculiarly falutary ; while an atmofphere loaded with 

 the fpray of the fea is irritating and noxious. The vicinity of 

 the fea appears very injurious to almoft all vegetables, and fliould 

 on that account be fufpected in refpect to its general falubrity, 

 though it may neverthelefs be medicinal in fome difeafes, if re- 

 forted to for a time in the fummer months, but muft be ineligible 

 as a permanent refidence. See Clafs I. 2. i. 15. 



The benefit derived in this cafe from exercife on horfeback, 

 may lead us to doubt whether Sydenham's praiie of this remedy 

 be as much exaggerated as it has of late been iuppofed. Since the 

 publication of Dr. C. Smyth on the effects of fwinging in low- 

 ering the pulfe in the hectic paroxyfm, the fubject of this nar- 

 rative has repeated his experiments in a great variety of cafes, 

 and has confirmed them. He has alfo repeatedly feen the hectic 

 paroxyfm prevented, or cut ihort, by external ablution of the 

 naked body with tepid water. 



So much was his power of digeftion impaired or vitiated by 

 the immenfe evaucations, and the long continued debility he un- 

 derwent, that after the cough was removed, and indeed for fev- 

 eral years after the period mentioned, he never could eat animal 

 food without heat and flufhing, with frequent pulfe and extreme 



drowfinefs. 



