The morning after his arrival, Mr. Lane fairly entered upon the Water System:  and his diary for the following month shows us that his time was fully occupied by baths of one sort or another, and by the needful exercise before and after these.  The patient is gradually brought under the full force of hydropathy:  some of the severer appliances—­such as the plunge-bath after packing, and the douche—­not being employed till he has been in some degree seasoned and strung up for them.  A very short time sufficed to dissipate the notion that there is anything violent or alarming about the Water Cure; and to convince the patient that every part of it is positively enjoyable.  There was no shock to the system:  there was nothing painful:  no nauseous medicines to swallow; no vile bleeding and blistering.  Sitz-baths, foot-baths, plunge-baths, douches, and wet-sheet packings, speedily began to do their work upon Mr. Lane; and what with bathing, walking, hill-climbing, eating and drinking, and making up fast friendships with some of his brethren of the Water Cure, he appears to have had a very pleasant time of it.  He tells us that he found that—­

The palliative and soothing effects of the water treatment are established immediately; and the absence of all irritation begets a lull, as instantaneous in its effects upon the frame as that experienced in shelter from the storm.

A sense of present happiness, of joyous spirits, of confidence in my proceedings, possesses me on this, the third day of my stay.  I do nut say that it is reasonable to experience this sudden accession, or that everybody is expected to attribute it to the course of treatment so recently commenced.  I only say, so it is; and I look for a confirmation of this happy frame of mind, when supported by renewed strength of body.

To the same effect Sir E. B. Lytton: 

Cares and griefs are forgotten:  the sense of the present absorbs the past and future:  there is a certain freshness and youth which pervade the spirits, and live upon the enjoyment of the actual hour.

And the author of the Hints to the Sick, &c.: 

Should my readers find me prosy, I hope that they will pardon an old fellow, who looks back to his Water Cure course as one of the most delightful portions of a tolerably prosperous life.

When shall we find the subjects of the established system of medical treatment growing eloquent on the sudden accession of spirits consequent on a blister applied to the chest; the buoyancy of heart which attends the operation of six dozen leeches; the youthful gaiety which results from the ‘exhibition’ of a dose of castor oil?  It is no small recommendation of the water system, that it makes people so jolly while under it.