_Dr. A._ Undoubtedly, and if you can make interest with Neptune to push you forward with his trident, and persuade Æolus to slumber quietly in his caverns, lose no time in availing yourself of such advantages; but as long as the wind "bloweth where it listeth," I entreat you, my good friend, to remain on _terra firma_; depend upon it that experience will fully sanction this advice;--of the great number of patients who have been sent on such an errand, by far the greatest proportion have had the progress of their pectoral complaints rapidly accelerated during the voyage; remember the various kinds of physical injury and distress to which you must be exposed on board of ship, before you can reach a steady and warm climate, from bad weather, and different local causes which it is not necessary to enumerate;--four and twenty hours beating to windward are sufficient to counterbalance all the advantages that might be anticipated. _Mr. B._ Why you must surely have been inoculated with the prejudices of Mr. Matthews, who tells us that the fatigue and discomfort of a vessel is much the same thing as being tossed in a blanket during one half of the day, and thrown into a pigsty for the remainder. _Dr. A._ I never was more serious. If the weather be bad the patient has but one alternative, he is either half suffocated with smoke or an oppressive atmosphere in the cabin, or exposed on deck to cutting winds, rain, and cold, and to an air by far too free for diseased lungs; then again sea sickness, whatever may have been said to the contrary, reduces his strength rapidly, and if damp sheets are the _bug-bears_ of land travellers, damp clothes of every description are unavoidable at sea, and which in stormy weather can seldom be dried. _Mr. B._ Well, you will at least allow that the motion of a ship is preferable to that of a carriage on a rough road. _Dr. A._ I will not even concede this point, and were you only to read the interesting case of Dr. Currie, I am sure that you would be soon convinced of the contrary. _Mr. B._ The opinion you have now expressed is sufficient; I shall not be readily induced to make the experiment of a sea voyage; suppose me then, if you please, to have been already transported across the channel on a calm day in a Steam-boat, and tell me to what part of the continent I am to direct my steps, in order to find a suitable residence for the winter months. I take it for granted that you consider the English Climate, from June to October as salutary to natives as that of any country in the world. _Dr. A._ Beyond question;--but as an invalid who seeks permanent advantage from a foreign climate must be content to remain abroad for, at least, two winters, you will readily perceive that the consideration of his residence during the summer season is not entirely a subject of indifference.