CHAPTER XV.
HYDROPATHY.
When a weary traveller, after having urged his way through dark thickets, over unsightly fens, or across some arid desert, arrives at last at a clear fountain, or stream of pure water, he is gratified and refreshed; so perhaps the reader, after plodding through the labyrinth of Homœopathy, will rejoice that he is for once out of the woods, although, it may be, soon to plunge into some new jungle. And if he has not, like Tantalus, forgotten his thirst in the contemplation of infinitesimals, a little cold water may not be unacceptable. Yet it is very possible that what we have to offer will be too lukewarm, or even too hot, to suit some tastes.
Water has been employed in therapeutics, as a principal, or an auxiliary agent, ever since the Fall. The earliest families of the human race used it, not only as a common beverage, but also
