"_It is essentially alterative_ in the continual removal of old matter: its renewal is shewn in the maintenance of the same weight. "An important hydropathic principle is, that almost all its _measures are applied to the surface_. One of the most formidable difficulties with which the ordinary physician has to contend is, that nearly all his remedies reach the point to which they are directed _through one channel_. "The only means of relieving certain diseases is _by inundating the stomach_ and bowels with foreign and _frequently_ to them _pernicious substances_. "Hydropathy employs a system of most extensive energetic general and local counter irritation. "A fifth physiological feature of hydropathy is the number of coolings. The _generation of caloric has been traced to its right source_. It results from the burning up of waste matter, which by accumulation would become injurious. "It is singular enough that almost all arguments used against cold bathing are the strongest theoretical arguments in its favor. Dr. Baynard, a most sarcastic writer, gives us the following anecdote:-- "Here a demi-brained doctor of more note than _nous_, asked, in the amazed agony of his half-understanding, how 'twas possible that an external application should affect the bowels, and cure pain within? 'Why doctor,' quoth an old woman standing by, 'by the same reason that, being wet-shod or catching cold from without, should give you the gripes and pain within.' "If a rude exposure of the surface to cold and wet is capable of producing internal disease, there is no _doubt that a close relation exists between these agents and the morbid_ conditions of internal parts." After devoting upwards of thirty pages to prove the value of Hydropathy, the reviewer sums up as follows:-- "After what has been said and written in favor of Hydropathy.--_Judgment must therefore be entered by default against its opponents, and hydropathy is entitled to the verdict of harmlessness, since cause has never been shown to the contrary._" IV.--HOW ARE THE EFFECTS DESCRIBED IN THE LAST CHAPTER PRODUCED? Are the effects, as described by hydropathists and by the British and Foreign Medical Review, produced without purging, vomiting, drugging, or the lancet--or by what other means are such essential results to be attained? We answer, by hydropathy alone are they to be produced, through the medium of the external and internal skin or mucous membrane, the most important organ in the human structure, and the most neglected by the guardians of the public health; and by the promotion of all the secretions and excretions.