MELANCHOLY.

307

bowels inflated with wind ; the complexion pale ; the pulse slowand weak. The functions of the mind are also greatly perverted,insomuch that the patient often imagines himself dead, or changedinto some other animal. Some have imagined their bodies weremade of glass, or other brittle substances, and were afraid to movelest they should be broken to pieces. The unhappy patient, inthis case, unless carefully watched, is apt to put an end to his ownmiserable life.

When the disease is owing to any obstruction of customary evac-uations, or any bodily disorder, it is easier cured than when it pro-ceeds from affections of the mind, or an hereditary taint. A dis-charge of blood from the nose, looseness, scabby eruptions, thebleeding piles, or the menses, sometimes carry off this disease.

Regimen. — The diet should consist chiefly of vegetables of a cool-ing and opening quality. Animal food, especially salted or smoke-dried fish or flesh, ought to be avoided. All kinds of shell-fishare bad. Aliments prepared with onions, garlic, or any thing thatgenerates thick blood, are likewise improper. All kinds of fruitsthat are wholesome may be eaten with advantage. Boerhaavegives an instance of a patient who, by a long use of whey, water,and garden-fruit, recovered, after having evacuated a great quantityof* black-coloured matter.

Strong liquors of every kind ought to be avoided as poison.The most proper drink is water, whey, or very small beer. Teaand coffee are improper. If honey agrees with the patient, it maybe eaten freely, or his drink may be sweetened with it. Infusionsof balm-feaves, penny-royal, the roots of wild valerian, or the flow-ers of the lime-tree, may be drank freely, either by themselves, orsweetened with honey, as the patient shall choose.

The patient ought to take as much exercise in the open air as hecan bear. This helps to dissolve viscid humours, it removes ob-structions, promotes perspiration, and all the other secretions. Eve-ry kind of madness is attended with a diminished perspiration ; allmeans ought therefore to be used to promote that necessary andsalutary discharge. Nothing can have a more direct tendency toincrease the disease, than confining the patient to a close apart-ment. Were he forced to ride or walk a certain number of milesevery day, it would tend greatly to alleviate his disorder ; but itwould have still a better effect, if he were obliged to labour a pieceof ground. By digging, hoeing, planting, sowing, &c. both thebody and mind would be exercised. A long journey, or a voyage,especially towards a warmer climate, with agreeable companions,has often very happy effects. A plan of this kind, with a strictattention to diet, is a much more rational method of cure, thanconfining the patient within doors, and plying him with medicines.

Medicine. — In the cure of this disease, particular attention mustbe paid to the mind. When the patient is in a low state, his mindought to be soothed and diverted with variety of amusements, asentertaining stories, pastimes, music, &c. This seems to havebeen the method of curing melancholy among the Jews, as welearn from the story of King Saul : and, indeed, it is a very rational

I