eader, from a body of notes of a more professional character,
of which the destination is different:--Few springs have been so
celebrated as those at Vichy, and no mineral waters, perhaps, have
performed so many real "Hohenlohes," or better deserved the reputation
they have earned and maintained, now for so many centuries! Gentle,
indeed, is their surgery; they will penetrate to parts that no _steel_
may reach, and do good, irrespective of persons, alike to Jew or
Gentile; but then they should be "drunk on the premises"--exported to a
distance (and they are exported every where) they are found to have
lost--their chemical constitution remaining unchanged--a good deal of
their efficacy. Little, however, can Hygeia have to do with chemistry;
for the chemical analysis of _all_ these springs is the same while the
_modus operandi_ of each, in particular, is so distinct, that if gout
ails you, you must go to the "Grande grille;" if dyspepsia, to the
"Hopital;" or, if yours be a kidney case, to the "Celestius," to be
cured--facts which should long ago have convinced the man of retorts and
crucibles at home (who affirms that 'tis but taking soda after all),
that he speaks _beyond_ his warrant. Did ever lady patroness, desirous
of filling her rooms on a route night, invite to that end so many as
Hygeia invites to come and benefit by these springs? And what though she
reserve the right of patent in their preparation to herself, does she
not generously yield the products of her discovery in the restoration of
health and comfort to thousands, whom neither nostrum nor prescription,
the recipe nor the fiat, could restore? In cases, too, beyond her
control, does she not mitigate many sufferings that may not be removed?
To all that are galled with gall-stones, to those whom the _Chameleon
litmus paper_ of "coming events casts their shadows before;" to Indian
_livers_ condemned, else hopelessly, to the fate of Prometheus, preyed
upon by that vulture _Hepatitis_, in its _gnawing_ and chronic forms;
and to the melancholy hypochondriac, steeped at once both in sadness and
in pains--she calls, and calls loudly, that all these should come and
see what great and good things are in store for them at Vichy. And
finally, difficult though gouty gentlemen be to manage, Hygeia, nothing
daunted on that score, shrinks not from inviting that large army of
_involuntary_ martyrs to repair thither at once. Yes! even gout, that
has so long laughed out at al