SIR - I am much obliged to you for your kind enquiries after my
health, which has been lately in a very declining condition. In
consequence of a cold, caught a few days after my arrival in
France, I was seized with a violent cough, attended with a fever,
and stitches in my breast, which tormented me all night long
without ceasing. At the same time I had a great discharge by
expectoration, and such a dejection of spirits as I never felt
before. In this situation I took a step which may appear to have
been desperate. I knew there was no imposthume in my lungs, and I
supposed the stitches were spasmodical. I was sensible that all
my complaints were originally derived from relaxation. I
therefore hired a chaise, and going to the beach, about a league
from the town, plunged into the sea without hesitation. By this
desperate remedy, I got a fresh cold in my head: but my stitches
and fever vanished the very first day; and by a daily repetition
of the bath, I have diminished my cough, strengthened my body,
and recovered my spirits. I believe I should have tried the same
experiment, even if there had been an abscess in my lungs, though
such practice would have been contrary to all the rules of
medicine: but I am not one of those who implicitly believe in all
the dogmata of physic. I saw one of the guides at Bath, the
stoutest fellow among them, who recovered from the last stage of
a consumption, by going into the king's bath, contrary to the
express injunction of his doctor.
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