In Answer to your Request, concerning my Illness, as near as I can remember, I here give you in short the Matter of Fact. In the Month of October, Anno 1694, I was sent for to my old Friend and Acquaintance, Colonel Warwick Bamfield, at Hardington in Somersetshire; I being then in London, and had been very ill all the Summer at Bath; my Case was, as I and other Physicians thought, a true and confirm’d Phthisis; for I had an habitual Heat and continual Cough, Night and Day, a very quick and frequent Pulse; I spit Blood, and exputed a viscous tough Matter, sometimes Green, Yellow, Ash-colour’d, and that in great Quantity. It would sink in Water, and smell ill and fœtid when cast upon live Coals. My Flesh went off, my Stomach decay’d, and I had that Livor Genarum, as tabid People usually have, Night-Sweats, &c. so that every Body gave me over as lost and gone; but through a constant and cool Regimen in Dyet, chiefly Milk and Apples, sometimes with Honey and Sugar of Roses, and a distill’d Milk, with the temperate and cool Pectorals, together with constant Riding Night and Morning in the Air, and that on the highest Hills and Places I could find. I thank God, in two Months time my Hectic abated, Cough ceas’d, Flesh came on, and my Stomach return’d; and by continuing Riding, and other Field-Exercises, I recovered to a Miracle: And this present Year 1705, falling into the same Distemper, I was cured by the same Means, but chiefly Riding. This is very well known, and observed by all that knew me at the Bath; And I wish others, in my Case and Circumstances, may find the like happy Success. I am,

Dear Sir,

Your humble Servant,

Edw. Baynard.

I shall here insert a Relation of a very strange Cure by Riding, which was communicated to me by Dr. Sydenham, the Son of the Eminent Writer of that Name; who was likewise pleas’d to acquaint me, That he himself took a Journey into Scotland, that he might get rid of a Cough, which seem’d to threaten a Consumption, and that his Journey took it off. But the Cure I am going to mention, was of a Gentleman who is related to the Dr. and now living in Dorsetshire, who was brought so low by a Consumption, that there seem’d to be no Possibility of a Recovery, either by Medicine or Exercise; but it being too late for the first to do any good, all that was to be done, was to be expected from the latter, tho’ the Dr. did not think that Riding would then do. However the poor Gentleman, seeing there were no other Hopes left, was resolv’d to attempt to ride into the Country; but was so extremely far gone, that at his setting out of Town, he was forc’d to be held up upon his Horse by two Porters; and when he got to Branford or Hounslow, the People of the Inn, into which he put, were unwilling to receive him, as thinking he would die there, and they should have the Trouble of a Funeral; but notwithstanding, he persisted in his Riding by small Journeys to Exeter, and got so much Strength by the way, that tho’ one Day his Horse as he was drinking, lay down with him in the Water, and he was forc’d to ride part of the Day in that wet Condition, yet he got no Harm by it, but came to the abovemention’d place considerably recovered; where thinking he had then gain’d his Point, he neglected to ride any more for some time; but finding himself relapsing, he remember’d the Caution which Dr. Sydenham had given him at his setting out, That if he should be so happy as to begin to recover, he should not leave off Riding too soon, for he would infallibly relapse and die, if he did not carry on those Measures long enough; so he betook himself to his Horse again, and rode till he obtain’d a perfect Recovery.

And I have lately met with a Gentleman of this City, who upon the Advice of the same Physician, set upon a Course of Riding, and recovered of a Consumption, in which he was very far advanc’d; and had try’d a Milk-Diet, and other proper means to no purpose, and all along spit Blood very much. This Gentleman set out on a Journey to York, and by Riding close Day after Day for about Ten Weeks; in which space of time, he rode by Computation a Thousand Mile, he return’d healthy and well to Town.

It is to be consider’d from these two last Cases, that the Riding through Variety of Airs in a long journey, is of great Consequence to Consumptive People, and is much better than riding constantly in one Air; besides the new Scenes that appear every Day in a long Journey, create some sort of Amusement in the Minds of Sick Persons, that is not to be thought altogether contemptible.

But I have been the more willing to insert these two last Cases, because they do manifestly justifie that well-grounded Distinction, or as I think, I may rather call it, Discovery of that Excellent Physician, whom I have so often cited, viz. That it may be too late to force any one Secretion to good purpose; and yet it may not be too late to move all the Secretions of the Body at once, equally and gently by moderate Riding; which I doubt not will be found, by all who shall try it, to be a real Truth, and of the greatest Importance, tho’ it happens to be so difficult of Access to the Understandings of some People, and so cross to the Expectations of this Age, that there are Thousands of Naaman’s Opinion to be found, who will choose to suffer any thing, rather than be convinc’d, that there can be so much Healing in the Waters of Jordan.

I could give several more Instances of this Nature; I could bring the Example of a Young Lady, the Heiress of a very Eminent Family, who ow’d what ease she had under a certain Distemper, chiefly to frequent Riding on Horseback, and to whom the being put out of that Method prov’d Fatal, when Her ordinary Physician being out of the way, another, who mistook her Case, took wrong Measures. But I only mention this, to shew that it may not be so incongruous a thing, and altogether without Precedent, to recommend these Measures in some pressing Circumstances, even to that tender Sex; who if they knew the surprising Advantages, that may sometimes be obtain’d by this Exercise, would I doubt not break through the Mode to come at ’em: No Woman living would bear some of the severer Hysterick Symptoms, if she knew any way to get rid of ’em; and I am widely mistaken if some of those Symptoms, do not as it were point out to us the clearest Indications for these Measures; as in those Women who have been long distress’d and broke with this Distemper, we may observe sometimes, that their Spirits are so scatter’d, or the Nerves so impair’d, that they can’t well bear any thing that pleases, or displeases very much, without some disorder; if they happen to desire a Thing very earnestly, they can’t wait a little while for it, without some visible uneasiness; and tho’ they are sensible of this, and their Reason is as strong as ever, yet they can’t command themselves, because the Animal Spirits, the Medium by which the Rational Soul exerts it self, are so broke and confounded. The same is likewise indicated by those intense Hysterick Shiverings, which sometimes tho’ more rarely are to be met with. Now if Women, who happen to be thus Tormented, believ’d that a Recourse to this Exercise would relieve ’em, I leave it to any one to judge, whether they would dispute the putting it in Practice.

What I have said concerning Exercise, I hope may suffice to convince any Man, that the Power of Healing is not confin’d to the Drug only, but that this course may come in for a share also, and be esteem’d upon a Level in due place with common Physick. And if I should venture to say something greater of it, I should not speak my own Fondness or Phancy, but the Opinion of one who is known to have been a very Ample Judge of the Demands of Nature, I mean Dr. Sydenham, with whose Encomium on this very Exercise, as he has given it us in his Dissertatio Epistolaris, and his Treatise of the Gout, I shall conclude. In the first of those abovecited Places he has these Words. At verò nihil ex omnibus quæ mihi hactenus innotuere, adeo impensè sanguinem spiritusque fovet firmatque, ac diu multumque singulis fere diebus Equo Vehi. Cum enim in hac Gymnasticæ specie impetus fermè omnis in Ventrem inferiorem fiat, in quo Vasa Excretoria (quotquot fœculentiis, in sanguinis massa stabulantibus, educendis à naturâ instituuntur) sita sint, quæ tanta functionum perversio, aliáve Organorum Naturalis impotentia vel fingi potest, cui tot succussionum millia eodem die ingeminata, idque, sub dio, opem non attulerint? Cujus Calidum innatum usq; adeò deferbuerit, ut hoc motu non excitetur & denuo effervescat? Quæ verò sive præternaturalis substantia, sive succus depravatus in aliquo harum partium sinu recondi potest, qui non hoc Corporis Exercitio, vel in statum naturæ consentaneum perducatur, vel quaquaversùm dissipetur elimineturque? Quid quod sanguis perpetuo hoc motu indefinenter agitatus ac permistus quasi renovatur ac vigescit. And in his Treatise of the Gout, he thus expresses himself with some Exultation. Sanè diu multumq; mecum reputavi, quod si cui innotesceret Medicamentum, quòd & celare vellet, æquè efficax in hoc Morbo (scilicet Podagrâ) ut & in Chronicis plerisque, ac est Equitatio constans & assidua, opes ille exinde amplissimas facilè accumulare posset.