and the green and smiling hills in which it is embosomed, all unite to render it a captivating little place. The town, almost entirely built on the right bank of the Rhine, consists mainly of hotels, which are protected by the hills in their rear from northerly winds. On the opposite bank are meadows, gardens, and vineyards, presenting an agreeable contrast. The little Duchy of Nassau is assuredly a lucky country. Its vineyards, notoriously Johannisberg, are famous throughout Europe, and nowhere are so many important mineral sources congregated within the same small space. Besides those at Ems, there are those of Schwalbach, Schlangenbad, Wiesbaden, Selster, Geilnau, Weilbach, Soden, and Fachingen.

The springs of Ems, which are numerous, but which are all partaken of alike in the Kurhaus, belong to the class of such as are purely alkaline, but they are not even in that respect to be compared with those of Vichy. They are, as in most other instances, rendered palatable by the presence of carbonic acid. Taken as a bath, the waters of Ems have some relation to those of Schlangenbad; they communicate a sensation of remarkable comfort to the body, and the skin becomes soft and smooth, as if the water held soapy matters in solution. The establishment called that of the "Four Towers" is devoted to the bathing department; the use of the douche is, however, as yet very imperfectly understood on the Rhine. The waters are imbibed in the morning to the sound of an harmonious orchestra, and their operation is assisted by promenades and donkey rides. Some drink again between four and five in the afternoon, and in the evening "on respire un parfum de bonne compagnie" in the brilliant rooms of the Kursaal.

The waters of Ems have been much vaunted in pulmonary affections. This reputation was enhanced by the benefits derived from their use by the Empress of Russia; their efficacy appears, however, from the majority of testimonies, to have been much overrated. They are certainly useful in nervous affections, and hence the fair sex particularly favour Ems. They are also renowned for the cure of sterility. Indeed, it is said, that as Agrippina frequented these sources, the dubious honour of Caligula's birth may be assigned to them. The particular spring is called Bubenquelle, and the waters are used as a douche, but considering from what different causes sterility may arise, one common treatment is neither more nor less than empirical. The waters of Ems are most beneficial in dyspepsia, diarrhoea, and affections of the liver, kidneys, and other viscera, where there is a preponderance of the acid principle. These virtues they enjoy in common with many other alkaline springs, but they are acknowledged superior even to Vichy, where it is wanted to treat the complaint without excitement and, consequently, possible irritation. But even at Ems a few days' use of the waters produces disagreeable symptoms, which require to be averted by the use of aperients or saline waters. Lee observes, justly enough, that Ems is, upon the whole, inferior to Vichy, where a course of alkaline thermal waters is required.

The Selter or Seltz waters are almost solely in use in bottles. They contain small quantities of chloride of sodium, as also of carbonates and sulphates of soda. Although upwards of two millions of bottles are exported annually of these well-known waters, still that commonly sold is a

mere gaseous solution. The springs of Fachingen and Gielnau, in the same neighbourhood, are also highly gaseous, but their reputation is eclipsed by the renown of Selter.

The ferruginous waters of Schwalbach are, like other springs of the same description, sought after by a peculiar class of patients. Old men, with weak and laborious digestions and persistent somnolence; young men, threatened by the excesses and fatigues of town life with premature

old age; chlorotic young girls and leuchorrhotic females, are the class of

persons who chiefly seek to re-establish their health at an otherwise dull enough watering-place. There are springs that contain more iron than Schwalbach, but the great advantages which these present are the fixidity of the iron, or the resistance which it presents to decomposition by atmospheric action, and the pleasantness imparted to the waters by the presence of carbonic acid. This we do not, for example, meet with at Tunbridge Wells. It is important to understand these nice points in judging of the comparative virtues of different mineral waters. Schwalbach was once so celebrated for its anti-sterile properties that it used to be a place of pilgrimage, and the good citizens of Frankfort were wont to stipulate in their marriage contracts that their wives should not go more than twice in their lives to partake of the fecundating waters.

Close to Schwalbach are the springs of Schlangenbad, or of the snakes, so called from a tradition that the waters thereof are rendered viscous and unctuous by the presence of little reptiles (Coluber flavercens) that abound in the neighbouring mountains. As far as chemical data go, these waters would appear to be very innocuous, but chemical data sometimes mislead, and experience gives them a decidedly sedative, or at all events a soothing influence. But even if the therapeutic powers of the waters are null they have other claims to patronage: they are of a bluish tinge, and there is a piscina, or large swimming-bath, which is much frequented by the gentle sex, to whose already fair skins the water has the effect of giving the semblance of alabaster. Invalids also frequent Schlangenbad to drink goat's milk, goats being brought for that purpose from Switzerland, and fed on the fragrant heights of the Taunus.

The waters of Wiesbaden belong to the saline thermal class. The chief source- -the Kochbrun-contains 7.332 grammes of common salt in the quart. It was in analysing these waters that Walchner determined, for the first time, the presence of arsenic, which has since been found in most mineral waters. The Wiesbaden waters are used chiefly in the form of bath, and are very stimulating, hence they are best adapted for complaints of a chronic character. They have been much recommended in gout and rheumatism, but it must be in the torpid and passive stage of these maladies, and the gouty persons who go to Wiesbaden for relief must not forget that they will have to go through a period of aggravation before they can expect to derive any benefit from them.

The waters of Weilbach are sulphureous and cold, and they present some features of peculiar interest. They have an especially lowering or sedative effect. M. Roth, the resident physician, explains this result by supposing that the waters dissolve the blood globules. Be this as it may, they are of great advantage to plethoric patients, and in all cases of congestion, pulmonary, cerebral, hemorrhoidal, or otherwise. No other source, with the exception of Penticouse, in Spain, is known, having

similar valuable properties; that is to say, curing congestive diseases without acting as an aperient. Yet are these springs very little frequented, and the establishment looks like a monastery in the Taunus, surrounded by a brilliant town, yet itself silent and neglected.

The springs of Soden are saline, but being very numerous, they vary much in strength. The one known as No. 6 A is the strongest, and contains 14.327 grammes of common salt in the quart. They are supposed to be specifically useful in diseases of the lungs.

Must we admit (says Dr. Constantin James)—and it is the most commonly received explanation of the day-that these waters are indebted for their chief effects in the treatment of pulmonary affections to the direct action of the chloride of sodium? The derivation produced by the action of the bowels, no doubt, plays no small part. But we ought not to omit, at the same time, the influence of hygienic conditions. What can be more favourable than the position of the village at the foot of the mountains, protected from the winds of the north by the Feldberg and the Altkönig, the two loftiest summits of the chain of the Taunus. The air is, in consequence, of remarkable purity, and almost always of an equable temperature. Add to these advantages a calm and peaceable mode of life, rural resources, and walks without fatigue in shady paths.

This would grant but little real medicinal virtue to these vaunted springs. If they act simply as a derivative, one would rather adopt milder saline aperients than chloride of sodium, but there is no doubt that they do possess other properties, more particularly from the combination of this salt with others with bases of magnesia, lime, and iron, and from the presence of more active medicinal agents, as brome and iodine. M. Thilenius, the Hippocrates of the site, administers only two or three glasses in the morning, with milk. He thus obtains mild laxative results, the effects of which are much more beneficial than more hasty purgation.

At a short distance from Soden, and like it at the foot of the Taunus, are the cold ferruginous waters of Kronthal. They are little frequented, although possessing eminently valuable properties. They are very gaseous, and contain saline ingredients in addition to iron, a circumstance which gives them an advantage over Schwalbach, whose waters are often too astringent.

Homburg is to Hesse what Wiesbaden is to Nassau, not only a source of wealth to the principality, but actually its chief town. The springs are artesian, and issue forth from the oriental extremity of the Taunus. They belong to the saline muriatic class, and vary in strength. Patients generally begin at the Elizabeth spring, which is the weakest, and finish with the Emperor. The stomach reconciles itself easily with the Louis spring, which is the most gaseous. The Stahlbrunn is at once saline and ferruginous. The class of diseases which are said to derive most benefit from the use of these waters, whether taken internally or as baths, are the various abdominal affections.

Dr. Aldridge says of Homburg :

The situation of the Brunnens is one of the chief advantages of Homburg, to which the equality of its climate gives additional value. These springs emerge in a broad, cheerful valley, nearly half a mile from the town, and the pure, pleasant air, and the sensation of expanse around you, are of themselves sufficient to exhilarate and invigorate. The contrast between one's sensations in this airy valley, which is sheltered to the north and east, and those experienced upon visiting other spas, was very much in favour of the former. We remem

bered the gloomy-looking Brunnens at Ems, shaded by the murky Kurhaus built over them, which required all the glitter of the sparkling, many-coloured goblets, the excitement of music, and the novelty of the diversely-tongued crowd, to neutralise their saddening influence. The Kochbrunnen at Wiesbaden, surrounded by vulgar town-buildings, had a similar effect, which not even the graceful promenade which led to it could entirely obviate. Even at Kissingen, the low situation of the Brunnens, so near the river, and the dark appearance of the umbrageous quincunx that covered the Platz, gave an idea of humidity, which was only strengthened by the long colonnades, however handsome, and the light pavilions, however graceful, but which still show the necessity for protection. But the valley of the springs at Homburg appears to scorn all such precautions; as if confident in the excellence of its climate, it spreads itself out to the smiling sun, with a few poplars alone for shade, ever cheerful and salubrious. And under such circumstances, the usual concomi tants of spa life must have double influence-the early hours, the calm of mind, the novel scene, and the delicious music. It would be strange if people, leaving the uniformity of a city, the anxieties of every day's experience, the harass of routine pettinesses, the atmosphere of decay and pollution, should not, when placed for three weeks or a month under influences so totally dissimilar, find their health and spirits apparently renewed. ("A First Trip to the German Spas and to Vichy." By John Aldridge, M.D., &c. P. 123.)

There are some richly saline springs at Nauheim, one giving as much as 23.599 grammes to the quart, but they contain less bromine than the Kreutznach Brunnens, and are consequently less efficacious in the treatment of the same class of diseases. Close by are the springs of Schwalheim, which are said to excel all others in the quantity of carbonic acid. According to Liebig, O. Henry, and Mialhe, one pint contains 1.576 of free carbonic acid. Schwalheim carries the palm, then, as a gaseous water, over Seltz, Pyrmont, Spa, Bussang, Saint Alban, or any other known spring. Its waters are eminently useful in all cases of dyspepsia and debility; their efficacy is increased by the presence of a small proportion of saline substances, and a little iodine and bromine. They also bear bottling better than most gaseous waters, and some three hundred thousand cruchons are exported annually.

One would naturally imagine, from the great crowd of persons who flock every year to Baden-Baden, that its Brunnens are the most powerful and efficacious in Germany. This is, however, by no means the case; and, on the contrary, they hold a very secondary position, as far as their therapeutic virtues are concerned. Strangers go there because others go, in search of what the French call "distractions," and also because the place is really a centre of varied attractions, which have been depicted by many, notoriously by Eugène Guinot in his "Eté à Bade."

We are not for the moment concerned with these matters. We wish to confine ourselves simply to the question of the comparative efficacy of the different mineral waters, in reference to their medicinal virtues. All the Brunnens at Baden-Baden are thermal. The chief is the Ursprung, at whose sources are the remains of a Roman tower. It is a saline muriatic spring, but less gaseous and less saline than those of Wiesbaden. As compared with Nauheim, the salts are pretty nearly as 3 to 25! The chief virtues of the Baden waters are conceded to lie in their temperature. At the Trinkale, or drinking-saloon, all kinds of mineral waters are partaken of, as is also goat's milk. Baths are also to be obtained at all the hotels. "The mineral waters of Baden," says Dr. Constantin James,

"appeared to me to be, in some instances, very obliging waters, whose virtues incline a little to be just what they are wished to be: des eaux fort complaisantes, dont les vertus sont un peu ce que l'on désire qu'elles soient."

Of the more important Brunnens of Central Germany, not connected with the valley of the Rhine, we may notice those of Rehme, in Westphalia, which belong to the saline muriatic class. They are much sought after by scrofulous, rheumatic, neuralgic, and paralytic patients. Pyrmont, in the same country, possesses most important ferruginous and gaseous sources, once much in vogue, now less so, yet no ferruginous springs known are better adapted for cases of general debility, the result of over study, or of excesses of every description. Instead of being astringent they are slightly laxative, and they give activity to and augment the secretions generally. The mineral waters of Lippspringe, also in Westphalia, have been much vaunted in modern times in the treatment of pulmonary complaints, more especially incipient tubercles. They are gaseous, and contain a variety of saline matters, but in very small proportions.

The Brunnens of Kissingen, in Bavaria, are deserving of special notice, not only because they have this summer been honoured by the confidence of the Emperor and Empress of Russia, but on account of their real and positive therapeutic importance. We shall therefore extract bodily from Dr. Constantin James:

Kissingen is situated in Lower Franconia, at nearly equal distance from Wurzburg and Bamberg, and in the centre of a very fertile valley, watered by the Saale. It is surrounded on all sides by gently swelling hills, whose summits are clothed with groves and vineyards, which add to the salubrity of the atmosphere at the same time that they impart a rural character to the town. Kissingen would be unknown, nay, perhaps it would not even exist, were it not for its mineral and saline waters. The latter appear to have been known to antiquity, for some learned persons believe that Tacitus alludes to them in the passage in his Annals in which he describes the fight of the Hermondures and the Cattes (A.D. 59), who disputed among themselves the possession of certain springs, renowned for their production of salt in that part of Germany. As to the mineral waters, their reputation is of modern date.

There are three principal sources: the Rakoczy, the Pandur, and the Maxbrunn. With a temperature of from 10 deg. to 11 deg. cent., the waters of the Rakoczy, which is the most important source, have, like the others, been united in a particular well, whence they make their way, bubbling through pebbles and basaltic stones. These waters are perfectly clear and inodorous; when tasted, at first slightly acidulated and saline, they leave an after sense of bitterness, which has nothing disagreeable in it. Exposed to the air they deposit a yellowish red sediment.

The Rakoczy is a richly mineralised water, and, according to M. Liebig, contains in every quart 8.554 grammes of fixed principles, as follows:

The Pandur assimilates closely to the Rakoczy in its nature. Only the salts