inclined to set greater value than is generally attributed to it-I mean food for the eye. Wandering along the cliffs of a fine summer's day, the resident here may behold the expanse of sea labouring beneath the weight of stately merchantmen laden with the commerce of half an island, passing through the narrow straits that separate us from the coast of France. The white canvass, spread from many a yard, dots the blue surface as far as the eye can reach, and this drifting flood of ships of all nations and of all descriptions, never fails to fix the attention and to engage the fancy. Should the wind arise, the invalid, through the window of his warm chamber, can behold the angry waves rolling their crests of foam right up on the beach in incessant thunder, or see the stormstricken bark tossing on the great billows, in the full enjoyment of that selfish pleasure which Horace has glorified. The monotony of the sea is lost here, for its surface is surcharged with life and action, and the mind is filled with a quiet anxiety as it speculates on all these rich argosies

"Laden with sighs and smiles and various fortune. "

Of the amusements of the place, such as nature has made them, I will say a few words in another chapter. As to the people, though the old practices of their ancestors have left some traces of their existence among them, I may say, with truth, they are honest, hard-working, and acute, with all the hardy qualities which distinguish the sea-faring population of this

coast.

G

The practices to which I allude are now no more. Smuggling may be said to have ceased altogether, but the reckless and daring spirit in which it origi nated still exists, and, in some degree, the desire for excitement which accompanied them also. Many are the traditions, not very remote, of the bold deeds of Jack This and Bill That in the good old days of brandy and tobacco running-nor is it long since an ingeniously contrived recess was discovered in one of the houses which had been occupied by a person of irreproachable character." But the watchful gentlemen with the everlasting spy-glass, perched up on the cliffs the quick, handy cutters, cruizing about for ever—and the deadly white boats, gliding about quietly at night from point to point, have nearly put an end to the genius which presided over the free lances who cheated Her Majesty's Exchequer.

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CHAPTER IV

SUGGESTIONS TO INVALIDS.

WHEN once the patient has, by the advice of his physician, determined the locality in which he is to reside, and has taken up his abode there, he should at once resolve, and follow out his resolve, to place himself strictly under the regimen which is prescribed for him, to observe regularity in his meals, and in taking such medicines as may be ordered for him, and to apply himself steadily to the recovery of that invaluable blessing-health, without which the greatest temporal advantages are valueless.

Using the masculine gender to include patients of both sexes, I will proceed to consider the numerous modes of treatment which may be adopted in the principal cases which are likely to be benefitted by a sojourn at Sandgate, without doing more, however, than just indicating the general direction of the course which medical experience has suggested, and not pretending to offer to my readers a "Buchan's Domestic Medicine," or any such dangerous substitute for the care and skill of a regular practitioner. I am certain that I can call on any mother, who has ever taken a family of young people to reside here

for the summer months, as a witness to the suitableness of the place for those whom Mr. Dickens calls "London-bred children." It is true that any one who visits the parks of London will see there as fine boys and girls as can be found in any part of the kingdom, but if he inquires, he will soon learn that they belong to the higher or middle classes, and are taken out of town regularly every year to the country or the sea side. A visit to the dark, close streets, or a peep down the lanes of the busier portions of the metropolis, will soon satisfy him of the " struggle to live" which is carried on by the children of the poor, and a glance at the Registrar-General's returns will inform him of the melancholy result of the contest. Delicate children, particularly if of a strumous habit, are much benefitted by a removal during the heats of summer to the sea side, and the judicious use of the sea bath is attended with results which have been probably witnessed in the families of a large proportion of my readers. I must here, however, warn parents that the indiscriminate use of the cold sea bath with infants and very young children is dangerous, and that it has caused or aggravated scrofulous disorders to such an extent as proved fatal to life. When a child is seen to be unusually fretful, plagued with thirst, with an uncertain appetite, with night sweats, light coloured secretions, and muddy urine, he should be at once carried to a milder climate, for these are but the incipient symptoms of tuberculous cachexy, though often confounded by the ignorant

with evidences of other disorders.

Unless these

symptoms be checked the patient will become "potbellied," weak-limbed, and feeble; the mucous membrane becomes irritated; matter oozes from the ears, glandular swellings appear in the neck, and sometimes the skin is covered with blotches and watery pustules.

It is, above all things, necessary, in this first stage of the disease, to attack the seat of it at once, and to remove the "dyspepsia," which is creating these distressing appearances. Many mothers, in their dread of weakening their children, literally make assaults on their lives. By feeding up a child with strong soups, eggs, animal food twice a day, porter, wine, and by giving it "something to eat" whenever it is asked for, they think they are going the sure road to make the little one lusty and vigorous, when the tongue, the pulse, and the eye, all speak aloud and cry out against this stimulating food, and demand farinaceous diet, milk, light meals, and medicine.

I have not the slightest doubt but that the exertions of the physician are amply rewarded in cases of this kind at Sandgate. The camp ground, the upper part of the town, is very well adapted for most cases of scrofula in children. I have, in the course of my practice, met with numerous cases in which the most complete success has waited on the labours of the physician. As the child advances towards puberty it too often happens that an anxious temperament, combined with the rapidity of growth, debilitates and