m each other
as to every element affecting vision by more than the degree
from which gold and silver varied from the French standard
of fifteen and a half to one for whole decades."
The German Imperial Parliament passed a resolution, in June,
1895, in favor of Bimetallism, and the Prussian Parliament
passed a resolution favoring an international bimetallic convention,
provided England joined it, May 22, 1895.
The great increase in the gold product of the world, and
the constant diminution in the value of silver, have put an
end to the danger of the movement for the free coinage of
silver, and made the question purely academic or theoretic,
at any rate for a good while to come. The same causes have
diminished the desire for a bimetallic standard, and make
the difficulty of establishing a parity between silver and
gold, for the present, almost insuperable. So the question
which excited so much public feeling throughout the world
for nearly a quarter of a century, and endangered not only
the ascendancy of the Republican Party, but the financial
strength of the United States, has become almost wholly one
of theory and ancient history.
After leaving Paris I spent a few delightful weeks at Innsbruck
in Austria, and Reichenhall in Germany, both near the frontier
between those two countries. The wonderful scenery and the
curious architecture and antiquity of those towns transport
one back to the Middle Ages. But I suppose they are too well
known now, to our many travellers, to make it worth while
to describe them. I went to those places for the health of
a lady nearly allied to my household. She was under the care
of Baron Liebig, one of the most famous physicians in Germany,
the son of the great chemist. I got quite well acquainted
with him. He was a very interesting man. He had a peculiar
method of dealing with the diseases of the throat and lungs
like those under which my sister-in-law suffered. He had
several large oval apartments, air-tight, with an inner wall
made of porcelain, like that used for an ordinary vase or
pitcher. From these he excluded all the air of the atmosphere,
and supplied its place with an artificial air made for the
purpose. The patients were put in there, remaining an hour
and three quarters or two hours each day--I do not know but
some of them for a longer time. Then they were directed to
take long walks, increasing them in length day by day, a considerable
part of the walk be
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