We believe we have mentioned every hydropathic appliance that is in common use, with the exception of what is called the ’rub in a wet sheet.’  This consists in having a sheet, dripping wet, thrown round one, and in being vehemently rubbed by the bath-man, the patient assisting.  The effect is very bracing and exhilarating on a sultry summer day; and this treatment has the recommendation that it is applied and done with in the course of a few minutes; nor does it need any preliminary process.  It is just the thing to get the bath-man to administer to a friend who has come down to visit one, as a slight taste of the quality of the Water Cure.

One pleasing result of the treatment is, that the skin is made beautifully soft and white.  Another less pleasing circumstance is, that when there is any impurity lurking in the constitution, a fortnight’s treatment brings on what is called a crisis, in which the evil is driven off in the form of an eruption all over the body.  This result never follows unless where the patient has been in a most unhealthy state.  People who merely need a little bracing up need not have the least fear of it.  Our own two months of water never produced the faintest appearance of such a thing.

Let us sum up the characteristics of the entire system.  In the words of Sir E. B. Lytton:—­

The first point which impressed me was the extreme and utter innocence of the water-cure in skilful hands—­in any hands, indeed, not thoroughly new to the system.

The next thing that struck me was the extraordinary ease with which, under this system, good habits are acquired and bad habits are relinquished.

That which, thirdly, impressed me, was no less contrary to all my preconceived opinions.  I had fancied that, whether good or bad, the system must be one of great hardship, extremely repugnant and disagreeable.  I wondered at myself to find how soon it became so associated with pleasurable and grateful feelings as to dwell upon the mind as one of the happiest passages of existence.

We have left ourselves no space to say anything of the effect of the Water Cure in acute disease.  It is said to work wonders in the case of gout, and all rheumatic complaints:  the severe suffering occasioned by the former vexatious malady is immediately subdued, and the necessity of colchicum and other deleterious drugs is obviated.  Fever and inflammation, too, are drawn off by constant packing, without being allowed to run their usual course.  Our readers may find remarkable cures of heart arid other diseases recorded at pages 24, 72, 114, and 172, of the Month at Malvern.  We quote the account of one case:—­

I was introduced to a lady, that I might receive her own report of her cure.  She had been for nine years paralysed, from the waist downwards; pale and emaciated; and coming to Malvern, she had no idea of recovering the use of her limbs, but merely bodily health.  In five months she became ruddy, and then her perseverance in being packed twice every day was rewarded.  The returning muscular power was advanced to perfect recovery of the free use of her limits.  She grew stout and strong, and now walks ten miles daily.