Note 205 — PART II. OF DISEASES. (continued 9)

The late celebrated Dr. Smollet has indeed said, that if he were persuaded he had an ulcer in the lungs, he would jump into the cold bath: but here the Doctor evidently shews more courage than discretion; and that he was more a man of wit than a physician, every one will allow. A nervous asthma, or an atrophy, may be mistaken for a pulmonary consumption; yet, in the two former, the cold bath proves often beneficial, though I never knew it to in the latter. Indeed, all the phthisical patients I ever saw, who had tried the cold bath, were evidently hurt by it.