1309.] 
\ 
first stripped, then allowed a jacket and 
a coarse pair of greasy trowsers, and at 
night consigned to the cold benches of 
the long-boat without straw or covering: 
the food was black bread, with coarse 
fibres and stalks in it, and thas be re- 
mained until the vessel arrived at Al- 
giers, exposed nightly to cold, dews and 
rain; and when there, daily driven to the 
cominon slave-market for sale. 
Yet under this discipline this gentle- 
man got daily better in health, and finally 
was so well recovered of his disorder, as, 
on procuring his liberty, by means of the 
Neapolitan Envoy, to go by Minorca to 
Spain, and from thence waik all the 
way to England. When I saw him on 
his return, he was perfectly hearty, 
strong, and very able to have walked 
with ease thirty miles a day. 
He attributed his cure to want of food 
(for at first he could not eat his wretched 
allowance), and to the cold dews of the 
night in afine atmosphere. I could add 
to these cases others, that point out to 
privations and dry cold air for their cure. 
The upper parts of Glocestershire, froin 
Cirencester to Stowe in the Wold, have 
done more towards recovering persons 
approaching to consumption, than all the 
damp warm southern coast of Egland.— 
In parturition the people called Gypsies 
rarely ever suffer a fever, or tose a child, 
and they always chuse to be delivered in 
the open air, even in winter, and pre- 
fer a hivh and dry flat country for that 
purpose. All animals do the like by 
instinct; and whatever dumb creature 
has by accident dislocated a joint, or 
broke a bone, seeks the nearest wet ditch, 
where, although often half famished, he 
assuredly recovers without a fever. But 
it will be replied, with loud consent, 
Would you have us treat consumptive de-" 
licate patients thus?——and what are we to 
doin the winter? To which I can only 
calmly answer, Not without their own 
consent: but in cases called desperate, 
which may not after all be so, I can see 
n¢é objection, if they admit of the reason- 
ing, to go very great lengths in this way, 
according to their habits of life; for before 
we getrid of a malady so fatal and'con- 
tagious, we must submit to many reso- 
‘lute experiments. ‘ 
Again, if I were to seek for an air 
proper for a person in this disease, I 
should always chuse to send him to that 
where the sheep seldom are subject to 
the rot, and where many recover that are 
tainted, as in the-upper part of Gloces- 
tershire I know to be the case ; not to 
a 
On the Prevention and Cure of Consumption. 
227 
the Estuaries of the Severn Sea, itself the 
seat of heavy vapours, fogs, and dense 
mists; where agues are within the reach 
of a ride, for all along every vale leading 
to its waters they reign; and through 
Dordham Down, and from Herfield to 
the hills all around, the air is the purest 
of the pure, yet the vicinity of our wet- 
dock and grounds, that extend from the 
Hot-wells to Cannon’s Marsh, can never 
be fit for tender lungs. The water of 
the Hot-wells, even under its at present 
improper management, thousands know 
to be a great corrector of intestinal 
acrimony ; and could they be received as 
they rise out of the earth with all their 
light and wholesome air, fresh, as Z 
may say, from the mine, and thus 
drank, accompanied with some light 
bread, or wholesome food, at any 
time that was agreeable to the patient, 
and in what quantity also was agreeable 
to him, no doubt they would do won- 
ders—but prescribed, as they often are, 
at too early hours, in too large quantities, 
and onan empty stomach; or, which is 
still worse, after previously being physick- 
ed and weakened, it is no wonder they 
have lost their reputation; especially 
when we consider that they are drank 
from acistern, not from the spring head, 
and consequently less warm and more 
vapid, of. course less imbued with those 
virtues which once made them so justly 
famous in these cases. 
But while a company of merchants hold 
these noble springs, the gift of heaven to 
the whole island, under perhaps a ques- 
tionable right of manor, and conduct 
them as a profitable concern, there is 
little hope of their sources being ever un- 
veiled as they ought to -be to all eyes; 
or baths formed in abundance, as are 
daily wanted for hundreds lingering une 
der ulcerous complaints, for which they 
are a sovereign acknowledged curative 
lotion, ae 
To effect this desirable object, the ci- 
tizens of Bristol have, however, only te 
demand of any one presenting himself at 
the next election for member of parlia- 
ment, that he shall undertake to bring in 
a bill for the purpose of purchasing this 
spring of the merchants, and restoring it 
to the public, to whom it ought ever to 
have belonged, with every accommoda- 
tion that the corporation could have pre- 
cured, gratis. 
In that case proper houses might be 
erected of the driest materials, where 
the air could be tempered by steam and 
ventilators, to receive the consumptive 
patients 5 
