314 Monthly Review of Literature. 



cellent manual to guide them in the search after health and fashion. We 

 cannot explain better its objects, than by an extract from the preface, promis- 

 ing our readers that it amply fulfils the object of its profession : 



" Individuals anxious to risit, either from motives of health or pleasure, 

 the Continental Watering-Places, are frequently at a loss where to bend their 

 steps, owing to there being no published Guide directing to those places 

 whose waters possess the most powerful medicinal virtues, or where there are 

 other inducements, in many instances as attractive and efficacious as the 

 waters themselves. 



" There can be no doubt, that mineral waters produce very salutary effects 

 in many cases of human infirmity ; but, perhaps, more than one half of the 

 virtues they are said to possess may be ascribed to the relaxation, the tem- 

 perance, and change of scene [and air, which patients enjoy at watering- 

 places, and, above all, to the constantly varied and unfatiguing amusements, 

 which, as it were, draw the valetudinarian from himself, and inspire livelier 

 ideas than any he has been accustomed to indulge. It is on this principle 

 that we may easily account for the numerous cures imputed to the waters. 

 Many people have no other object than pleasure or pastime in frequenting 

 them ; and such temporary retreats from business will enable them to return 

 with fresh vigour of body and mind to the duties of their respective stations. 



"The author, who has visited many, not only of the watering-places most 

 frequented, but those little known to the world, has been induced to collect 

 the opinions of the best writers on this subject, and arrange them with his 

 own observations in such a manner that they may be understood by the pub- 

 lic, omitting in general those analytic experiments, which are perfectly unin- 

 teresting to ordinary readers. This little work will answer the purpose the 

 author had in view, if it should afford useful information to the different 

 classes of persons for whom it was designed, whether they may have con- 

 sulted it from motives of curiosity or health, or with the mixed desire of 

 gratifying both. 



"It may here be observed, that most of the watering-places in France have 

 a resident medical inspector, appointed by government, whose duty it is to 

 make himself fully acquainted with the properties and medicinal virtues of 

 the waters at the respective stations an arrangement which, in some places, 

 is highly necessary for the safety of the invalids, who, in many cases, might 

 employ them in diseases in which they were prejudicial, or use them in a 

 manner inconsistent with their complaints. We now find a superintending 

 physician at almost all the principal mineral sources in that country men of 

 good education, who form a useful and gentlemanlike addition to the society 

 of the place, affording every information, not only to the invalid, but to the 

 naturalist, who may be induced to visit any of these sequestered spots." 



Conversations on Nature and Art. John Murray, Albemarle St. 



A CHARMING little volume containing all the popular information on the 

 mysteries of nature and science that may be conveniently communicated to 

 the young or otherwise uninstructed, and which we strongly recommend to the 

 use of parents and schoolmasters, as peculiarly adapted for the purposes of 

 education, and eminently fitted for general instruction. It is not the least 

 merit of this unpretending little work that it is given in the form of dialogue, 

 a mode of writing which we perfectly well remember, from our own experi- 

 ence, has peculiar fascinations for the infant mind. 



Caracteres Phrenologiques et Physiognomiques des Contemporains 

 les Plus Celebres. Par THEODORE PONPIN. 8vo. Baillierc. 



WE sit not down to weary our reader, with our own musings upon Phreno- 

 logy, but to introduce to him the author of a most delightful book, interest- 

 ing alike to the phrenologist and to the student of character. It is an 



