as a mere emollient and companion of oxygen, returning unchanged and unabsorbed to the external world as soon as it has safely delivered the indispensable vivifying agent, oxygen, to the circulating fluid; how different, I say, from its ingestion into the alimentary canal, where it furnishes an indispensable agent for the maintenance of life!

It is true, the gas is only known from its negative properties. But ought we not to seek in it some great and powerful connexion with vitality, if we find its combination with hydrogen to be the most stimulating, reviving, and reanimating substance that can possibly be taken (viz., ammonia NH2)?

Whilst oxygen is necessary to keep the organic machinery in motion and to circulate vital caloric through all our tissues, forming, as it were, the oil of our living flame, azote is, on the other hand, equally indispensable to restore wasted tissues and fluids. Without the former we should suffocate; without the latter, starve. I should not go so far as to attribute a nourishing property to the azote introduced into the absorbent vessels with the highly diluted water; but when it is admitted that our tissues constantly discharge effete matter from our cutaneous pores in a gaseous form, would it not be reasonable to attribute some restorative function to the contact and combination of the gas with organic particles? We know that, in old age, earthy or inorganic formations prevail in the reproductive sphere. Limbs become more rigid, the joints less pliable, secretions retarded, excretions diminished, vital elasticity and resisting power impaired. Substances ordinarily carried rapidly along the vascular canals in a dissolved state, are now precipitated out of the slowly moving mass, and deposited in spaces where they further impede voluntary movement.

If we see the use of a mineral water, causing distinct retrogression of these anti-vital phenomena; if we perceive gouty concretions to proceed towards absorption; if we observe contracted limbs gradually to try feeble efforts of long-forgotten exercise; if we find cutaneous harshness and rigidity to diminish, and to give way to a former softness; if we behold a resuscitated desire for muscular exertion and for mental work in a prostrate individual, and we know the spa, the originator of these changes, to possess a great quantity of azote, is it not legitimate to attribute to this gas some part of the efficacy?

Whilst the chloride of sodium exercises its well-known beneficial influence on organic metamorphosis, stimulating digestion by forming hydrochloric acid on the one hand, and combining

with albumen as soda on the other, counteracting earthy formations, azote may powerfully assist this process, and contribute towards the curative changes.

A highly respected physician of Munich, the late Dr. Öttinger, who visited Wildbad last year, and who, of course, could have no interest in propagating its fame, expressed himself in these enthusiastic terms:

Wildbad: July 1850.-The first month of the season has already passed, and furnished very happy results. Prince Tcould only walk with difficulty on sticks, and was oppressed by physical and mental suffering; now, cheerful and restored, he departs with grateful recollections out of the healing valley of the Enz.

Many other visitors exchange their crutches for sticks, and walk about without further support. Several persons, bent down by spinal suffering, are daily enabled to approach more the erect posture. Paralytics, who had been unable to leave their beds for years, descend after three or four weeks' course from their gardenchairs, and try the former habitual step with a satisfactory result. But Wildbad must not be thought as affording exclusive aid to the disabled. Deeply-seated internal diseases sometimes are checked here, and become retrogressive, or cured. An emaciated person with impaired digestion, through a gastric ulcer, increases in corpulence and is able to perform digestion after a four weeks' course. Another required the daily application of a catheter for two years, in consequence of an arthritic affection of the bladder, and after the sixth bath he can already dispense with that assist

ance.

'We have personally witnessed these results, and received confirmation out of the mouths of the respective visitors. The fair sex is very numerously represented here, seeking and finding relief from their Protean nervous complaints. 1,000 guests may be accommodated at a time. The apartments are good; some very elegant; the arrangements for bathing excellent in every respect. The douche is extremely well understood, and managed with highly satisfactory results. Few therma offer the complex advantages of a water with the most appropriate temperature, analogous to that of blood, receiving the bather immediately in the bubbling sources, without conducting pipes, without the artificial aid of heat or cold, and thus without volatilisation of its gaseous constituents. Wildbad has been too little appreciated by physi

cians.

The unfortunate term 'indifferent' therma, seems to have

served as a privilege to cease exploring either its chemical ingredients or its comprehensive and energetic medicinal efficacy.

Though no more salts are contained in this therma than in common drinking water, this very circumstance might serve to cause a more intense penetration into the organic tissues. The fact that retrogression of disease and even cure have ensued in incipient spinal softening, in gastric ulcers, in swelling of the uterus and ovaries, in chronic catarrh of the larynx and trachea, &c., justifies the above assertion.

unpre

When larger sums have been devoted to the scientific examination of its imponderable gaseous constituents, and particularly of nitrogen, the most powerful agent of this therma, the spa will be properly appreciated and more frequently recommended. This year's season will be a brilliant one: as a non-resident and judiced observer, I do not think I make too bold a prediction if I prognosticate for Wildbad, that, by the aid of further progress in science and medicine, the period will come when this therma will receive a more determined and well-defined position among therapeutic agents. Then it will not merely be resorted to in such internal diseases as resist pharmaceutical remedies, or where clear indications are wanting. This spring, bubbling out of numerous holes, will then no more be designated as indifferent,' but as decidedly and sovereignly efficacious.'

A case of paralysis of the lower extremities, produced by a severe delivery, came under my notice, which was completely cured at Wildbad during the season. Another case was reported to me of a horse-dealer, who was squeezed between two waggons, and lost the use of his legs' in consequence. He also found a complete cure in the healing source of Wildbad. I have to add, that the accommodation afforded by the little town of the Black Forest does not reach the luxurious scale maintained at some other more brilliant spas. But real invalids, merely seeking the restoration of their health, will meet here* with every requisite convenience and comfort, at comparatively moderate charges. Physicians:Dr. Burckhard, Dr. Hausmann, Dr. Fallati, Dr. Schönleber, Dr. Gruel.

*Hotel Bellevue.

LECTURE V.

PFÄFERS.

HAVING left Wildbad at half-past nine A.M., the diligence arrived at Stuttgardt in eight hours. The road, as far as Calw, is extremely interesting; it rises constantly, lined on both sides with charming forests. The carriage passes for some time along the brink of a ravine (separated from the high road by stones), down which the timid can scarcely look without a shudder. From Calw to Stuttgardt the prospect becomes more ordinary. The railroad being now open between Pforzheim and Stuttgardt, travellers may return to the former place, and then proceed by rail. From Stuttgardt the rail takes us to Canstadt (about four English miles distant), situated on the right bank of the Neckar, which here becomes navigable. The town contains upwards of 4,000 inhabitants, and is connected with Stuttgardt by a handsome park, through which a carriage-road passes. On the Wiesenplan,' in the south-eastern part of the town, a rural festival is celebrated every year, on the 28th of September, which is visited by an immense concourse of the surrounding country people. The environs abound in petrifactions. The elevation of Canstadt above the level of the sea is 600 feet. The climate is mild, the environs fertile and well-cultivated, abounding in wine and fruit, and are called by some the garden of Suabia.' The mineral springs originate from a ferruginous lime-tufa, superposed by strata of clay and slate. They belong to the class of saline chalybeates.

The temperature is 66° to 68° summer and winter. The water is clear, sparkling, and has a saltish piquant taste. That of the Sulzerainquelle tastes more agreeably than the others, and exhibits Sprudel' properties, its supply increasing and diminishing periodically. It contains about 39 grains of solid constituents in 16 ounces-viz., 17 of chloride of sodium, grain of chloride of magnesium, 10 grains of sulphate of lime, 2 of sulphate of

soda, th of sulphate of magnesia, 3rd of sulphate of potash, nearly 6 of carbonate of lime, 1 of carbonate of magnesia, less thanth of carbonate of iron, carbonic acid gas 21 cubic inches; temperature, 62° F. The other springs are very similarly constituted. The Wiesenquelle' contains 4th of a grain of iron. Besides the above, I will merely mention Die obere Sulz,' a small pond, occupying about a quarter of an acre, and formed by several confluent springs. The surface is constantly covered by gas-bubbles arising out of the depth, and consisting of carbnic acid and nitrogen; temperature, 68° F. The water deposits a great deal of mud, and seems to be in constant motion. Its amount of carbonate of iron is 4th of a grain. There is an ascending douche, very advantageously employed in catarrhal affections of the vagina and rectum; also a whey establishment. The water is considered as tonic and solvent. The celebrated orthopaedic institution of Dr. Heine is well worthy a visit. It is built near the Frösnerische Bad.' In the obere Sulz,' near the gardens of the establishment, the patients are enabled by certain contrivances to bathe in the pond at a temperature of 68° to 70° F.; artificial waves are produced by wheels, to increase the stimulating and tonic effects of the baths. Mud, douche, rain, and shower baths are likewise administered. I would further allude to Dr. Veiel's establishment for herpetic diseases, which annually increases in reputation, and in which artificial baths and river baths, with strong afflux, are used with considerable advantage. But I have given these details merely on account of the importance to be attached to Canstadt, from its neighbourhood to the great spa we have just left. If you proceed from Stuttgardt by railroad at eight in the morning, without stopping, south-east as far as Ulm, on the Danube, and then pursue a due southern course, slightly bending westward, you reach Friedrichshafen, on the Bodensee (Lake of Constance), in 7 hours-that is, at half-past three P.M. The steamboat waiting for the trains starts half an hour afterwards, as soon as it has received the passengers and cargo destined to cross the Bodensee.' I find in my journal the following remarks:

The view on the lake is most delightful, and particularly striking. Whilst hitherto the various modifications of forests, hills, and mountains exhibited their beautiful trees and luxuriant foliage, here nature displays charms of a different kind. The lake presents a green surface, gently moved by slight undulations. On the sides, masses of snow are perceived with the naked eye,