metropolis of the Pyrenees, there are also thermal, saline, and ferruginous springs. The mineral waters, however, the most rich in sulphur, as also in chloride of sodium, in the Pyrenees, are those of Labassère, but as yet they are only used transported to Bagnères, for there is no establishment at the springs.

The mineral springs of Central France are more particularly concentrated in the volcanic districts of Auvergne and Bourbonnais. The valley of Mont Dore is especially one of the most singular and picturesque regions in Auvergne. It gives birth to six thermal and one cold spring, all gaseous, and containing small proportions of different salts; so small, that the celebrated chemist, Thenard, attributed their therapeutic agency to the sole presence of arseniate of soda-an opinion which Dr. C. James undertakes to combat upon the same insufficient data which we have already discussed. Close to Mont Dore is the Puy de Sency, the loftiest peak of Central France, with a Château du Diable and Gorges d'Enfer-names which convey some idea of the grandeur of the surrounding scenery.

In the same neighbourhood is the renowned Puy de Dôme, with numerous mineral springs, amongst which La Bourboule, the most arsenical of any spring known, very gaseous and strongly mineralised; Saint Nectaire, celebrated for its incrustations; Royat, alkaline and ferruginous; Saint Allyre, ferruginous and acidulous, and also remarkable for its petrifactions; and, lastly, Châteauneuf and Châteldon, alkaline and ferruginous.

The Cantal district boasts of the more renowned sources called Chaudes-Aigues, the hottest springs in France, and Vic-sur-Cère, where are found united alkaline salts, muriatic salts (chlorides), and ferruginous salts. These waters are said to be invaluable in diseases of debility of the liver and kidneys. Experience has also designated them as essentially lithontriptic. The mineral springs of Vichy, the most celebrated in France, having been the subject of previous special description, we shall not enter into details on the present occasion. These sources are all of them eminently alkaline, the bi-carbonate of soda predominating over all other mineral constituents. They contain, however, small proportions of arsenic and iodine, which must have some influence. In the same department (Allier) are the mineral springs of Néris, Saint Pardoux, and Bourbon l'Archambault-springs of minor importance, yet the latter of which were most in vogue of all the mineral sources of France in the time of Louis XIV.

The sources of Bourbon Lancy (Saône-et-Loire) possess rather an historical than an actual interest. It is related that they cured Catherine de Medicis of a sterility of ten years' standing, and had something to do with the birth of Charles IX. They have in modern times been favoured by the support of an opulent marquis-M. d'Aligre-but they are not much in vogue. The sources of Saint Honoré (Nièvre), founded upon a vast Roman piscina, are sulphureous, alkaline, and slightly iodurated. They are the only thermal sulphureous springs of Central France, have been found to be of great benefit in pulmonary affections, and, although much less potent, can be had recourse to when the springs of the Pyrenees are scarcely accessible. In the same department are the sources of Pougues, in vogue in the time of Henry III. and IV., Louis XIII.

and XIV., and they are still considered to be specific against the gravel, containing as they do carbonates of lime, soda, and magnesia. Add to this, they have an advantage over Vichy, that they are not debilitating; on the contrary, they are stomachic and strengthening.

The mineral springs of Eastern France are chiefly saline, and of a less elevated temperature than those of the volcanic regions of the centre. There are a few, however, as Plombières and Bains, which have some relations with rocks of igneous origin, and contain alkaline sulphates and carbonates.

The little town of Plombières is situated in a deep valley at the southern limits of the Département des Vosges; it is dominated from the west to the east by two high mountains, which compress it within a narrow space. A kind of torrent, l'Eau Gronne, traverses it in all its length, but its waters are in part vaulted over and removed from sight. The climate of Plombières is temperate and very salubrious, although atmospheric vicissitudes are very abrupt, and storms are exceedingly common.

This town is one of those in which I met with the greatest number of thermal establishments. There are no less than five: the Imperial Bath, the Temperate Bath, the Bath of the Capucins, the Roman Bath, and the Ladies' Bath.**

The Roman Bath is a charming pavilion situated in the centre of the town, where was formerly a Roman piscina; its architecture is very graceful. It is lighted by a glass dome, and its floor, all of marble, is heated by the thermal waters beneath. There are twenty-four bathing-rooms, each of which is roomy, and supplied with a douche, as also "avec les ajutages nécessaires pour les injections." The Roman Bath is more particularly frequented in rainy weather and during the autumnal evenings, which are always cool in mountainous regions.

It is needless to detail the names and temperature of the different sources which supply the numerous establishments at Plombières. Those, however, of the Bain Impérial are called les étuves d'enfer, from their high temperature, comparable almost to those of Aix, in Savoy.

These waters have this in common, that they are all unctuous and of a perfect transparency; they have no odour, although the vapour that escapes from them has something in it that is slightly unpleasant. They are tasteless at first, but after being exposed for twenty-four hours to air and light, they acquire a very disagreeable taste, without at the same time forming any deposit. Soapy waters present something softer to the feel than other springs, and hence their distinctive name. This pretended soap, on which so many hypotheses have been suggested, appears to be nothing more than an aluminous matter, with which the waters are charged, and which is infinitely subdivided during its subterranean transit. Notable quantities of such a substance were, indeed, shown to me in the fissures of the feldspathic rocks, through which the mineral waters percolate; nor has it any particular medicinal virtue. (We should be much more inclined to trace this saponaceous quality to the presence of silicates of magnesia and alumina; that of the silicate of soda is already attested by analysis. Such substances might have a real therapeutic agency, which would not be the case with the more clayey decompositions of feldspar in the rocky crevices.)

The waters of Plombières are very slightly mineralised. A quart of the

Since this was written, the Emperor Napoleon III., who has honoured the mineral springs of Plombières with preference over all others, has laid the foundation-stone of a new establishment, to be called "The Napoleon Baths and Hotel." Plombières was also much in favour with the Empress Joséphine.

spring of the Crucifix, which is that most commonly drunk, only contains, according to the recent analysis of MM. O. Henry and Lhéritier, 0.317 grammes of fixed principles, of which

as also traces of silica, of alumina, of iron, and of arsenic, with no carbonic acid. They are then, chemically speaking, such insignificant waters, that one does not know what class to rank them with. And yet, by a peculiarity which we have before had occasion to notice, these waters enjoy the most real and important therapeutic properties.

The effect of these waters is to give tone to the appetite, and to sensibly increase the urinary secretion. The soapy water is more especially mixed with wine; it is much less mineralised than the other sources, and is consequently lighter to the stomach. The baths are highly stimulating at first, but when used in excess, as for an hour, or an hour and a half, become, on the contrary, exceedingly prostrating. This effect is traced by M. Duval and M. Lhéritier to the asthenic influence of the arsenic held in solution by the mineral water, an opinion which is, as usual, combated by Dr. C. James. The waters of Plombières have been as yet most used in cases of gastralgia and those dyspepsias which are the result of serious disorders; they are also of great use to convalescents. They have also been much in vogue for affections of the womb, sterility, nervous affections, and rheumatic gout. They are not, however, at all adapted to lymphatic temperaments, and they actually hasten the development of tubercles in the lungs.

The springs of Bourbonne, celebrated with the Romans, are still much in vogue in the present day for neuralgic and even paralytic affections, for old wounds, and for those abdominal congestions which follow upon intermittent fevers; but, like Luxeuil, Bains, Bussang, Contrexville, and Vittel, all also in the Vosges, and presenting great variety of mineralisation, they are eclipsed by Plombières.

France boasts, in addition to these local concentrations of mineral springs, of numerous other sources scattered over the land, and many of them possessing valuable and important therapeutic properties. Such are the springs of Castera Verduzan in the Gers, sulphureous and ferruginous; those of Campagne in the Aude, as renowned as those of Encausse and Bourbonne in diseases consequent upon intermittent fever; those of Crausac in the Aveyron, specially antifebrile; those in Uriage in the Isère, close to Grenoble, and renowned in the treatment of complaints of debility; and a number of others too various indeed to enumerate. The environs of Paris even boast of their mineral waters. Those of Enghien, once high in renown, are sulphureous; those of Passy and those of Auteuil are both slightly ferruginous and saline.

It is almost needless to say that the Alps, with their varied geological structure and contrasted configuration, give birth to many important mineral springs. Among the most celebrated are those of Aix, in Savoy, thermal and sulphureous; those of Saint Gervais, at the foot of Mont Blanc, calcareo-sulphureous; those of Loeche, the piscina at which presents a motley scene of young and old, girls and boys, soldiers and

monks, peasants and nuns, all floundering about in the same great bath! Weissemburg, coming into repute for pulmonary affections; Pfeffers, celebrated for nervous cases; Baden, too often confounded with BadenBaden; and Schinznach, with its baths for cutaneous complaints.

Lastly, Italy has also its mineral waters of more or less value, especially to its own population, but not always easily accessible to strangers. Among the more celebrated are the springs of Acqui, in Piedmont, best known for their mud baths; Lucques, in Tuscany, thermo-saline; MonteCatini, also in Tuscany, muriatic; La Porretta, in the Roman States, sulphureous and bituminous, and giving off so much carburetted hydrogen, that it is actually utilised as a lighting gas.

There are two mineral springs, one sulphureous the other ferruginous, within the city of Naples itself. There are others-one only, however, that is thermal-connected with Vesuvius, and others in Ischia. Many of these were of great repute in olden times, but have been neglected, and have in consequence lost favour in our own day. The springs of Castellamare, Bagnoli, Pisciarelli, that in the Temple of Serapis, and those of Gurgitello and Citara, in Ischia, are almost the only ones still in vogue.

It only remains to us to intimate that Dr. C. James grants but a very médiocre intérêt to the mineral waters of England, although some of them are far from possessing mean therapeutic virtues. We have, for example, the thermal springs of Bath, Buxton, and Matlock. The Bath waters contain carbonic acid gas, some salts of soda, silica, and a little iron. The Buxton waters contain also the same mineral substances, and both are of decided use, more particularly in certain forms of gout and rheumatism. The Matlock springs are less mineralised, and are used chiefly internally. We have also several cold mineral springs of different characters, saline with a small proportion of iodine, at Cheltenham and Epsom, ferruginous at Tunbridge Wells, and sulphureous at Harrowgate. We do not know where, except from a spirit of depreciation, Dr. C. James derives the idea that the hydro-sulphuric acid of the springs of Harrowgate is derived from the decomposition of vegetable matters. It is in the same spirit that the learned doctor intimates that, as British customs have a touch of originality which is to be seen in all matters, so it is in winter and not in summer that it is customary to follow a course of water-cure in England! The statement is not consistent with truth. Witness the seasons at Matlock, Buxton, Harrowgate, and Clifton. True, that the factitious waters at Cheltenham may be imbibed by old Indians in winter as well as in summer, and that gouty and rheumatic patients may avail themselves of the thermal waters at Bath or Buxton in the winter season, as several springs in France and Germany are also places of resort in winter; but the English are not more given to oddity in the use of mineral waters than some of our continental neighbours are given to unjust depreciation-possibly, in this instance, too, to cover a Britannic source, for James is not a name of French origin.

THE trial was just over, and the suffocating court was slowly emptying itself. What with the intense heat of the weather, and the close, tainted atmosphere, even the calm judges themselves thought they should never be cool again. The judges had retired quickly from the scene, the oldest and gravest of them with the tears yet wet upon his cheeks, for he had been moved to no ordinary emotion while passing the awful sentence of DEATH upon the young and lovely woman who stood in the dock before him. It was no common case which had brought the public together that day, from far and wide, and the prisoner's was no common crime. Sure never had a dark deed been committed, involving so great an interest, or whose attendant circumstances comprised so mysterious a field of romance. What had been the previous career of the lady (let us call her so she held that position when arrested), people could not exactly learn. Some told one tale, and some another: in these unhappy cases, the most outrageous stories get promulgated. The crime, for which Sophia Lyvett had been condemned to death, was child murder. A gentleman, of good family, believing her to be all she ought to be, had married her in direct defiance of the wishes and commands of his parents. A fearful punishment was to overtake him; rare, indeed, does retribution approach so quickly. On the very day of their arrival home, ere they had been united a fortnight, a child of some one-and-twenty months old, her child -it may be well not to inquire into these back details; the bare facts are sufficient to glance at-was brought home to her by the countrywoman who had taken charge of it from its birth, and who, from family changes, was unable to keep it longer. Overwhelmed by the terrible situation in which this placed her, expecting every moment the appearance of her confiding and unconscious husband, she took a cord which lay close at hand, put it round the child's neck, as he lay asleep upon her bed, and deliberately strangled him. Then she had to conceal the body, and she kept it by her all that night and all the following day, when she stole out with it in the darkness, an ugly bundle, and put it, as she thought, out of sight of man for ever. Not so: murder will out, sooner or later. Terribly soon, it proved for her, for ere the morning's sun had risen high and full over the London world, the little burden had been found. Suspicion fell upon her. Oh, poor criminals! when you do these things in the silence and secrecy of the dark night, and think that there is no eye upon you, that in this world, at least, you are safe from detection, you forget that there is ONE EYE, above, which never slumbers or sleeps; that the ways of the avenging angel are not as your poor, narrow-sighted ways, and that what you deemed was a secret between you and the darkness, shall speedily be proclaimed upon the house-tops! So it was here. She was arrested, committed, and had this day taken her trial; been found guilty, and condemned to death. Never was guilt more conclusively brought home to man or woman, and the peculiar atrocity of the crime, delibe