The treatment was indeed drastic, and we might truly add cruel. Tom Verney had "a tertian ague and a feaver," and for this he had "only a vomit, glister, a cordiall, and breathed a vane"--that is, was bled. Another patient, Sir George Wheler, who had caught a chill after dancing, had all sorts of "Applications of Blisters and Laudanums," so that his Christmas dinner at Dr. Denton's cost him "the best part of 100 pounds." For an eruption in the leg, Sir Ralph Verney was advised to apply a lotion "so virulent, a drop would fech of the skin when it touched." Young Edmund Verney was ill in 1657, and writes to his father, "Truly I might compare my afflictions to Job's. I have taken purges and vomits, pills and potions, I have been blooded, and I doe not know what I have not had, I have had so many things." In 1657-58 the epidemic known as "The New Disease," proved very fatal, and created quite a panic. The treatment adopted by the doctors may be gathered from a prescription of Dr. Denton's, one of the most famous physicians of the time. He writes to Sir Ralph Verney, "I see noe danger of Wm. R., and if he had followed your advice by taking of a vomit, and if that had not done it, then to have beene blooded, I beleeved he had beene well ere this." Then he adds "It is the best thinge and the surest and the quickest he can yet doe, therefore I pray lett him have one yett. 3 full spoonfulls of the vomitage liquor in possitt drinke will doe well, and he may abide 4 the same night when he goes to rest; let him take the weight of vi{ds} of diascordium the next day or the next but one; he may be blooded in the arm about 20 ounces." Some of the ladies of the time did not, however, approve of this kind of treatment, and preferred their own remedies, or their own notions of remedies, to the doctor's prescriptions. We select two examples. Lady Fanshawe described the disease as "a very ill kind of fever, of which many died, and it ran generally through all families." While she suffered from it she ate "neither flesh, nor fish, nor bread, but sage possett drink, a pancake or eggs, or now and then a turnip or carrott." But Lady Hobart ventured to prescribe. She writes, "If you have a new dises in your town pray have a car of yourself, and goo to non of them; but drink good ale for the gretis cordall that is: I live by the strength of your malt." Few, we anticipate, would object to her ladyship's advice, and most would prefer her "good ale" to Dr. Denton's "vomitts," and the loss of 20 ounces of blood. Our illustrations might be indefinitely multiplied, but those given will amply suffice to show the way in which our fathers were physicked. Medical Folk-Lore. BY JOHN NICHOLSON.