parts of healthy blood, the average normal proportion of red globules is said to be about 127, and of metallic iron about 0.51; these have been found reduced in cases of anæmia by about one-third, or even more. Our fair readers must not suppose, by our use of this hard Greek word, that the matter does not concern them; on the contrary, they are usually the greatest sufferers from the class of diseases we have mentioned. There are few females in town life who do not know, by sad personal experience, some of the almost infinite varieties of ailment synonymous with, or arising out of, what is popularly called "debility," or "want of tone in the system;" and in a very large number of these cases the fundamental cause of all the mischief is the want of a few grains more of that health-giving metal, a thousand times more precious than gold. Nor are women the only sufferers. The fast life, both bodily and mental, of the present age has brought the more robust sex also considerably under the anæmic category. It is not improbable that a direct relation may exist between the state of the corporeal fluid and that of the mental and nervous energy; and, if this is so, the production of a poem, or the solution of a hard mathematical problem, may have a material effect upon the red globules, and we may say that, whenever a great engineer, like Stephenson or Brunel, racks his brain to design a Britannia Bridge or a Great Eastern, for every ton of iron he puts into the structure, he abstracts a fraction of a grain of the same material from the lifeblood flowing in his veins. For those ills that our modern flesh is so peculiarly heir to, the obvious remedy is to add to the system the substance which it lacks, and hence preparations of iron form a large element in every doctor's prescriptions, and in every apothecary's stores. Tonics, as they are called, are, now-a-days, the most popular of all medicaments; and rightly so, for, since Nature is after all the only real acting physician, the best of her deputies and assistants devote their chief endeavours Tonics are simply aids to Nature, and some of the most valuable tonics are the various preparations of iron. The sulphate, the muriate, the citrate, even the simple oxide of the metal from a blacksmith's forge or from rusty nails, are all made avilable; "steel pills" are almost in as common request as sal-volatile ; and of late some clever fellow, having found out that phosphorus is a large ingredient of the cerebral matter, has given us phosphate of iron, with the view of furnishing us at one draught with both body and brains! No doubt these preparations are very beneficial; and heaven forbid that any discouragement should be offered to their fuller development or to their enlarged application! But they are still only artificial; and, somehow, Nature has a way of preferring her own productions, when she can get them, to those we make for her. And there is a way of getting iron into the system, which, as it is Nature's own contrivance, is better than the doctor's, however good the latter may be. "Apuoтov μèv vowp, water's the thing the best preparation of iron. in the world is iron water, and the best iron water in the world is that of Langen Schwalbach in Nassau, where I am now writing this article. : The efficacy of mineral waters in cases of chronic disease is very imperfectly appreciated in England, either by the public or the medical profession. Our own few springs are but little resorted to with any serious intention; and, although we know the principal foreign ones well enough by name, we are too much in the habit of considering them only as resorts for gaiety, or gambling, or for pleasantly passing a holiday, and of attributing the cures they work only to change of air, scene, and occupation. Few of our medical practitioners have taken the trouble to learn much about them, or have qualified themselves to give advice as to their use; and, consequently, when English patients resort to them in serious cases, they often go wrong, and bring discredit on what are really institutions of the highest value. as to the accidental advantages and collateral attractions of the mineral springs. It is true that thousands go to such places as Baden Baden or the Pyrenees merely to enjoy themselves; and small blame to them, for it is impossible to conceive a more delightful mode of passing a holiday. And it is also true that in Baden, and Homburg, and Ems, and some other places, those much-maligned green tables attract considerable numbers. And it is further impossible to deny that the change of scene and habit, the invigorating air, the careful diet and regimen, have an important part in the hygienic effects, and may, indeed, themselves be sufficient in certain cases to effect a cure. But still the real physical changes produced are very, very far beyond anything that can be accounted for in this way, and the therapeutic action of the waters on the system is as positive and well established as that of any article in the Materia Medica. No one who has had the opportunity of learning much about the foreign "Heilquellen" can doubt the reality of their wonderfully healing properties, or can do otherwise than regret that such admirable and beneficent provisions of Nature for the health of mankind should have remained without due appreciation. Almost all the nations of Europe, except ourselves, understand them, and flock to them in shoals, and their study is as much a part of a French or German physician's education as that of any other medicament. The baths in Germany and France are increasing their fame, and extending their operations; and at this moment a company is being formed for the purpose of opening out new sources in a large district of France (the province of Auvergne), where mineral springs have been discovered in great abundance, and of great value, but which have been hitherto undeveloped for want of capital. But it is our object now to speak of the one particular watering-place which we have already mentioned as celebrated for its fine tonic chalybeate waters. Schwalbach is not unknown many years ago in a charming little book entitled "Bubbles from the Brunnen of Nassau, by an Old Man." The author states that he was suddenly sentenced, in the cold evening of his life, to repair his worn-out frame by drinking the Schwalbach waters; and, as he toddled about in his old age, with grizzled eyebrows, and stiffened muscles, he was driven to amuse himself by blowing the "Bubbles" which have travelled so far and so wide. This was in 1825; and, if the account the author gave of his age be correct, it is certainly a proof of the miraculous efficacy of the waters that he is now, after forty years, still alive and active, as was proved by his attempt, a short time ago, to upset one of the most prominent historians of the day! The account of the place given in the "Bubbles" is excellent, and still remains, in a great measure, correct; but, though we can lay no claim to follow the "Old Man" in the graces of his style, we conceive the place will bear a few additional words of plain description. The Taunus mountains, belonging to the Duchy of Nassau, and lying in the space bounded on three sides by the Rhine, the Lahn, and the Maine, are peculiarly rich in mineral waters, containing the celebrated springs of Wiesbaden, Homburg, Ems, Schwalbach, Schlangenbad, Soden, Weilbach, Selters, and others less known. It is also worthy of remark that on their west slope lies the well-known district of the Rheingau, famed for producing the most valuable wines in the world. InIdeed the wine and the water form the great wealth of the little duchy, and furnish the chief elements of its prosperity. Schwalbach is a small village lying in the heart of the Taunus, about ten miles north-west of Wiesbaden; but the nearest point of access to it is a station called Eltville, on the right bank of the Rhine, a little above the hill of Johannisberg. This place has railway communication from Calais parts of healthy blood, the average normal proportion of red globules is said to be about 127, and of metallic iron about 0.51; these have been found reduced in cases of anæmia by about one-third, or even more. Our fair readers must not suppose, by our use of this hard Greek word, that the matter does not concern them; on the contrary, they are usually the greatest sufferers from the class of diseases we have mentioned. There are few females in town life who do not know, by sad personal experience, some of the almost infinite varieties of ailment synonymous with, or arising out of, what is popularly called "debility," or "want of tone in the system;" and in a very large number of these cases the fundamental cause of all the mischief is the want of a few grains more of that health-giving metal, a thousand times more precious than gold. Nor are women the only sufferers. The fast life, both bodily and mental, of the present age has brought the more robust sex also considerably under the anæmic category. It is not improbable that a direct relation may exist between the state of the corporeal fluid and that of the mental and nervous energy; and, if this is so, the production of a poem, or the solution of a hard mathematical problem, may have a material effect upon the red globules, and we may say that, whenever a great engineer, like Stephenson or Brunel, racks his brain to design a Britannia Bridge or a Great Eastern, for every ton of iron he puts into the structure, he abstracts a fraction of a grain of the same material from the lifeblood flowing in his veins. For those ills that our modern flesh is so peculiarly heir to, the obvious remedy is to add to the system the substance which it lacks, and hence preparations of iron form a large element in every doctor's prescriptions, and in every apothecary's stores. Tonics, as they are called, are, now-a-days, the most popular of all medicaments; and rightly so, for, since Nature is after all the only real acting physician, the best of her deputies and assistants devote their chief endeavours Tonics are simply aids to Nature, a ad some of the most valuable tonics are the various preparations of iron. The sulphate, the muriate, the citrate, even the simple oxide of the metal from a blacksmith's forge or from rusty nails, are all made avilable; "steel pills" are almost in as common request as sal-volatile ; and of late some clever fellow, having found out that phosphorus is a large ingredient of the cerebral matter, has given us phosphate of iron, with the view of furnishing us at one draught with both body and brains! No doubt these preparations are very beneficial; and heaven forbid that any discouragement should be offered to their fuller development or to their enlarged application! But they are still only artificial; and, somehow, Nature has a way of preferring her own productions, when she can get them, to those we make for her. And there is a way of getting iron into the system, which, as it is Nature's own contrivance, is better than the doctor's, however good the latter may be. "Aptoтov pèv vowp, water's the thing the best preparation of iron in the world is iron water, and the best iron water in the world is that of Langen Schwalbach in Nassau, where I am now writing this article. : and The efficacy of mineral waters in cases of chronic disease is very imperfectly appreciated in England, either by the public or the medical profession. Our own few springs are but little resorted to with any serious intention; and, although we know the principal foreign ones well enough by name, we are too much in the habit of considering them only as resorts for gaiety, or gambling, or for pleasantly passing a holiday, of attributing the cures they work only to change of air, scene, and occupation. Few of our medical practitioners have taken the trouble to learn much about them, or have qualified themselves to give advice as to their use; and, consequently, when English patients resort to them in serious cases, they often go wrong, and bring discredit on what are really institutions of the highest value. as to the accidental advantages and collateral attractions of the mineral springs. It is true that thousands go to such places as Baden Baden or the Pyrenees merely to enjoy themselves; and small blame to them, for it is impossible to conceive a more delightful mode of passing a holiday. And it is also true that in Baden, and Homburg, and Ems, and some other places, those much-maligned green tables attract considerable numbers. And it is further impossible to deny that the change of scene and habit, the invigorating air, the careful diet and regimen, have an important part in the hygienic effects, and may, indeed, themselves be sufficient in certain cases to effect a cure. But still the real physical changes produced are very, very far beyond anything that can be accounted for in this way, and the therapeutic action of the waters on the system is as positive and well established as that of any article in the Materia Medica, No one who has had the opportunity of learning much about the foreign "Heilquellen" can doubt the reality of their wonderfully healing properties, or can do otherwise than regret that such admirable and beneficent provisions of Nature for the health of mankind should have remained without due appreciation. Almost all the nations of Europe, except ourselves, understand them, and flock to them in shoals, and their study is as much a part of a French or German physician's education as that of any other medicament. The baths in Germany and France are increasing their fame, and extending their operations; and at this moment a company is being formed for the purpose of opening out new sources in a large district of France (the province of Auvergne), where mineral springs have been discovered in great abundance, and of great value, but which have been hitherto undeveloped for want of capital. But it is our object now to speak of the one particular watering-place which we have already mentioned as celebrated for its fine tonic chalybeate waters. Schwalbach is not unknown many years ago in a charming little book entitled "Bubbles from the Brunnen of Nassau, by an Old Man." The author states that he was suddenly sentenced, in the cold evening of his life, to repair his worn-out frame by drinking the Schwalbach waters; and, as he toddled about in his old age, with grizzled eyebrows, and stiffened muscles, he was driven to amuse himself by blowing the "Bubbles" which have travelled so far and so wide. This was in 1825; and, if the account the author gave of his age be correct, it is certainly a proof of the miraculous efficacy of the waters that he is now, after forty years, still alive and active, as was proved by his attempt, a short time ago, to upset one of the most prominent historians of the day! The account of the place given in the "Bubbles" is excellent, and still remains, in a great measure, correct; but, though we can lay no claim to follow the "Old Man" in the graces of his style, we conceive the place will bear a few additional words of plain description. The Taunus mountains, belonging to the Duchy of Nassau, and lying in the space bounded on three sides by the Rhine, the Lahn, and the Maine, are peculiarly rich in mineral waters, containing the celebrated springs of Wiesbaden, Homburg, Ems, Schwalbach, Schlangenbad, Soden, Weilbach, Selters, and others less known. It is also worthy of remark that on their west slope lies the well-known district of the Rheingau, famed for producing the most valuable wines in the world. InIdeed the wine and the water form the great wealth of the little duchy, and furnish the chief elements of its prosperity. Schwalbach is a small village lying in the heart of the Taunus, about ten miles north-west of Wiesbaden; but the nearest point of access to it is a station called Eltville, on the right bank of the Rhine, a little above the hill of Johannisberg. This place has railway communication from Calais in twenty-five hours and a half from Charing Cross. From Eltville to Schwalbach is a two hours' pleasant drive through a charming country, by way of Schlangenbad; and omnibuses run to and fro in correspondence with the trains. The baths are said in an old chronicle to have been known to the Romans under the name of Aqua Vinariæ, the present chief source being called the Wine Spring. In A.D. 790 the village was given by Charlemagne to the Abbey of Priim; and, after changing hands repeatedly, it came, in 1816, into the possession of the Duchy of Nassau. Modern history authenticates the existence of the Wine Spring in 1569, when it is said to have worked wonderful cures. It was made known some years after by a celebrated physician of Worms, who had himself received benefit from it; and, before the middle of the seventeenth century, patients are said to have flocked to the place in large numbers. From this time to the middle of the eighteenth century it was one of the most fashionable resorts of Germany, provided with gaming tables and places of public amusement; and in July, 1711, it numbered no less than eleven personages of princely, and fifteen of ducal, rank among its visitors. It was during this period that the place was generally laid out as it now stands. It fell off during the French occupation of Germany; but, after it became transferred to Nassau, it again flourished— not, however, this time as a fashionable resort, but for its curative powers; and it has continued to preserve its reputation to the present day. Schwalbach (from Schwalbe, a swallow, and Bach, a brook) lies in a short, deep cleft of the mountains, formed at right angles to the valley of the Aar, a river draining the north-western slope of the Taunus hills, and falling into the Lahn, at Diez. The village is elevated The village is elevated about 900 feet above the sea, or 700 feet above the Rhine, but it is within a mile or two of the summit of the range, which is about 450 feet higher. The lent roads give access in three different directions-from the Rhine, from Wiesbaden, and from Ems, respectively. The country is highly picturesque, and the hills are covered in many places with fine woods of oak, beech, and fir trees, through which well-kept paths afford pleasant walks of considerable extent and variety. The air at this elevation is fresh, bracing, and healthy; the surrounding hills protect the village from piercing winds; and the salubrity of the place is remarkable, endemic disorders being unknown. This healthy state of the locality is said to be due to the remarkably good drainage, from the porous schisty rock lying immediately below the soil, combined with the steep slope of the ground. This prevents the accumulation of water, and the consequent generation of noxious miasmata. Hence the place is admirably adapted for invalids, the only precaution necessary being to wrap up warm when the temperature is low. The months when there is the greatest influx of visitors are July and August; but May, June, and September are also available. The Schwalbach ravine lies nearly east and west, and is of the shape of the letter Y. The lower leg, abutting at the east end directly on the Aar, is nearly a mile long, and is built over for a great part of its length, forming a long street; whence the name Langen Schwalbach. This part, however, is inhabited almost entirely by the permanent residents, and the inhabitants of the poorer class; the visitors occupy the two diverging arms of the ravine, in which the principal springs are situated, and which rise rapidly towards the hills. There are a great number of mineral springs, all more or less of the same nature, in the immediate neighbourhood. Ten well-defined ones exist in the village itself, but only three are known to visitors-namely, the Weinbrunnen, the Stahlbrunnen, and the Paulinenbrunnen; one or two others being, however, made use of to supply water for bathing. The Weinbrunnen is said to furnish 150, the Stahlbrunnen, 30, and the Paulinen |