1849-] WATER CURE. 379 



I was prevented, by being unwell, from going to Warwick, 

 though that, Le. the party, by all accounts, was wonderfully 

 inferior to Blenheim, not to say anything of that heavenly 

 day at Dropmore. One gets weary of all the spouting. . . . 



You ask about my cold-water cure ; I am going on very 

 well, and am certainly a little better every month, my nights 

 mend much slower than my days. I have built a douche, 

 and am to go on through all the winter, frost or no frost. 

 My treatment now is lamp five times per week, and shallow 

 bath for five minutes afterwards ; douche daily for five minutes, 

 and dripping sheet daily. The treatment is wonderfully tonic, 

 and I have had more better consecutive days this month 

 than on any previous ones. ... I am allowed to work now 

 two and a half hours daily, and I find it as much as I can do ; 

 for the cold-water cure, together with three short walks, is 

 curiously exhausting ; and I am actually forced to go to bed 

 at eight o'clock completely tired. I steadily gain in weight, 

 and eat immensely, and am never oppressed with my food. 

 I have lost the involuntary twitching of the muscle, and all the 

 fainting feelings, &c. black spots before eyes, &c. Dr. Gully 

 thinks he shall quite cure me in six or nine months more. 



The greatest bore, which I find in the water-cure, is the 

 having been compelled to give up all reading, except the news- 

 papers ; for my daily two and a half hours at the Barnacles is 

 fully as much as I can do of anything which occupies the 

 mind ; I am consequently terribly behind in all scientific 

 books. I have of late been at work at mere species de- 

 scribing, which is much more difficult than I expected, and 

 has much the same sort of interest as a puzzle has ; but I 

 confess I often feel wearied with the work, and cannot help 

 sometimes asking myself what is the good of spending a week 

 or fortnight in ascertaining that certain just perceptible dif- 

 ferences blend together and constitute varieties and not 

 species. As long as I am on anatomy I never feel myself in 

 that disgusting, horrid, cut bono, inquiring, humour. What 



