intellectual processes, and producing sensible impressions on physical organs, it was most essential to divert this mighty power from himself; for, unless thus directed, its faculty of exaggeration, and its exquisite refinement of feeling, could only be productive of misery. He also cautioned him against trusting too much to medicines.

Three weeks after they parted; when the physician and his party, travelling between Freyburg and Schaffhausen, left their carriage to walk up the steep hill between Lenzkirch and Bondorf, they saw a carriage toiling up the ascent, at some distance above them, and a gentleman and a lady walking in advance of it. On overtaking them, to the surprise and pleasure of all, they recognised the poor invalid and his sister. Nothing could be more astonishing than the change which so short a period had produced upon both of them. His countenance had lost much of its sallow hue, and anxious expression; and his cheeks were already beginning to fill up, and to shorten the melancholy length of visage, which was before so strikingly characteristic of the state of mind under which he was labouring. He was almost a new man; and although still somewhat taciturn, yet, he conversed upon the scenery and condition of the country over which he had travelled; and did not once refer to his complaints. The recognition was indeed delightful on both sides, and both only regretted they were again obliged to separate.

The parties met for the last time, two months afterwards, at Rotterdam: the invalid was then in excellent health and spirits; and the doctor, who was also renovated, had the gratification of receiving most cordial and grateful thanks for the plan which he had chalked out for the dyspeptic, and which the patient had pursued with such complete

success.

The second case may be more briefly related. The professional assistance of a physician was requested by a lady who had come from Scotland, and had several years been labouring under a severe dyspeptic complaint, accompanied with hypochondriasis. On investigating her complaints, the doctor was anxious not to take the entire responsibility of the case on his own shoulders; he therefore requested the assistance of another distinguished Esculapius. They attended her together for several months, without any beneficial result being obtained; indeed, on the contrary, so excessive was the morbid sensibility of her nervous system, that they could not enter her room, which was always darkened, without incasing their feet in list shoes. As they found that medicine was of no avail, they suggested the experiment of travelling, but a difficulty arose respecting the manner in which that advice could be followed under the existing condition of the patient. One of the physicians having withdrawn, the other, some weeks afterwards, ventured to propose to the husband of his patient, that he should fit up his carriage with a kind of litter for the accommodation of his wife; and that she should be forcibly removed from her bed to it, and travelling begun and continued without stopping more than a day at any place. The doctor was fully aware of the difficulty of accomplishing this point, and anticipated the accusations of cruelty which his friend must be prepared to bear from his wife; but, as the experiment was intended for her benefit, he urged him to be regardless of her transient displeasure, and firmly to adhere to his purpose. It required some strength of mind to comply with this advice; but, after a few days consideration, the husband screwed up his courage to the event, and carried off the

lady in the manner which had been advised. The experiment completely succeeded. They rattled on to Woburn; left behind them Leicester; dashed through Derby; and stopped for two days at Matlock; whence, changing their course, they passed to Birmingham, thence to Gloucester; and as Mr. A. wrote to his medical friend every three or four days, in less than ten days afterwards, in a letter from Bath, he informed him that Mrs. A., had walked out, and was in other respects greatly improved. Whilst the summer lasted, and in the early part of autumn, the invalid travelled through the whole of the west of England and Wales with decided advantage, and as the winter approached, she was nearly in a state of convalescence. The doctor, however, urged the parties to persist in the plan laid down, and to proceed into Italy. The last letter which he received from his friend, on the subject of his wife's health, was from Florence, on his way home. It assured him that Mrs. A- was now perfectly well, and that her spirits were as much renovated as her bodily powers. The doctor saw Mrs. A two years afterwards in London, in excellent health and spirits; instead of the thin, sallow, mummified, irritable person, whom he had so long attended, she was then an elegant, graceful, old lady, full of cheerfulness and amiability, and rather corpulent than otherwise.

I have little to add to these cases as demonstrative of the influence of travelling in dyspeptic affections, more especially those which derive their origin from mental causes. But although medicine can do little in this disease, yet, I am willing to admit the salutary aid, which may be derived from it. The condition of the intestinal canal must never be overlooked; it is always essential to watch and to correct its irregularities, but that must be the work of the physician. I will only remark here that the proper adininistration of mild chalybeates, the cold affusion to the head, and of the, shower-bath to the body, are of the utmost benefit, even when the tongue is in that state which, in the opinion of many physicians, contra-indicates their employment. But still we must recur to the moral treatment, namely, breaking the chain of diseased associations, and no method so effectually accomplishes this as travelling.

I must acknowledge, however, that this remedial agent is expensive, and can only be employed by the opulent; but, it is in that class of society that moral or mental indigestion chiefly occurs. It is to be lamented that the remedy is beyond the reach of many; this, however, forms no argument against its efficiency. When it is not within the means of the patient, other methods must be adopted. Exercise in the open air, athletic sports of various kinds, reading where there is a taste for it, avoiding solitude, cultivating agreeable society, and engaging in occupations, sufficient fully to employ, but not to fatigue the mind; are the most likely to prove successful.

"Idleness of mind," says Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy, "is the badge of gentry, the bane of body and mind, the nurse of naughtiness, the stepmother of discipline, the chief author of all mischief, one of the seven deadly sins, the cushion upon which the devil reposes, and a great cause of melancholy."

14th December, 1839.

A. T. T.

This haughty captain's name was Torrabello,
The frigate he commanded, the Tornado,
His master's mate's (that very old young fellow),
Smash. A harum-scarum renegado,

Much prone to swearing-more to getting mellow;
Add to these virtues a most hungry blade, O.-
(For rhyme, I bagg'd that O.) When straits environ
Your verse, 'tis well to copy from Lord Byron.

Well-the Tornado, just from a long cruise
At single anchor swung.

Hers was the hungriest of all hungry crews,

And of the crew the hungriest, Mr. Smash. He had sprain'd his jaws, had blister'd all his tongue Crunching salt junk, and biscuit hard as flint, (Fresh prog to buy, alas! he wanted cash)

Whilst under the cool half-deck, there daintily hung

A plump young hare-most delicate and sweet,
To stuff the Nobs, itself being stuff'd with mint
And other odoriferous savoury herbs-a treat
Which, very naturally, Smash long'd to eat.

And long he long'd. The hare had many friends,
Ay, quite as many as that hare that Gay
Has told about so smoothly in his fable:
But, of my hare, I'm very proud to say,

That all her admirers for most worthy ends
Would gladly with her have set down to table.

And Smash's friendship was a passion quite;
So he went down "i'th' witching time o' night."
Which is the hour when the lone church-clock tells
By twelve deep sounds another day is past;

At sea, they only say "'t has gone eight bells,
The larboard, or the starboard watch go call."
The larboard watch was call'd, as again Smash cast
Wildly his eyes around, as with a pall

Darkness had muffled up his visuals; thus

The pupils of his eyes were much expanded, And staring hard as much as ever man did He met th' expanded pupils of Poor Puss.

"The deed is done !-didst thou not hear a noise ?" A smother'd squeak and all again was calm'Tis now farewell to all his woes and joys As Pope has sung, "It now avails him not, To whom related, or by whom begot." Tabby's nine lives Died with his mews,

Beheld the cat,

And smelt a rat,

Then swore an oath would make a deal board crack,
He'd lay a cat of nine tails on the back
Of him, who in fun,

Would send down his belly any cat with one.

if hesitate you do,
I'll seize up to the gun
Every mother's son !

By thunderbolts, and shrapnel shells, I will!
So eat your fill!

Devour it all! Pick the bones clean!
For if a morsel's left of fat or lean,
Gristle or sinew,

By Jove! I'll skin you!

Come, buckle to-or, by the gods of slaughter!
You'll marry, on this very spot, the gunner's daughter!"

With rueful visages, poor Smash and Co.
Went to their meal, each looking but so-so.
Very polite they were, each to the other,
Helping the largest slices like a brother.
At length they finish'd the detested fare,

In the best worst manner they were able;
Wisely preferring the cat upon the table
To having another cat they well knew where.

MORAL.

'Tis dangerous to "bell the cat" on shore,
To kill a cat at sea, much more.
"Tis much more dangerous, we repeat it,
To steal the captain's hare, and eat it.