20 Dr Traill on the Russian Vapour- BatJi. 



vapour-bath, and found that in chronic rheumatism, in the stiff- 

 ness of limbs consequent on gout, and other long continued in- 

 flammations, in some cases of palsy, in various cutaneous dis- 

 eases, it is a most powerful and valuable remedy. While in the 

 establishment I saw an invahd enter, who informed me, that^ 

 after severe acute rheumatism, of several months'* duration, he 

 was so lame that he had been carried by two persons into the 

 bath ; but that, after live or six times undergoing the discipline 

 I have described, he could walk alone as well as I saw him (he 

 had walked, aided by a stick, from his house to the bath), and 

 appeared confident that in a little time he should entirely re- 

 cover the power and flexibility of his limbs. 



From all I could learn in Hamburgh, I am inclined to consi- 

 der the Russian vapour-bath as a most valuable remedy in some 

 chronic diseases, and regret that we have not a similar establish- 

 ment in any of our medical charitable institutions. 



February 31. 1832. 



On the Breeding Spots of Birds. By Frederick Faber.* 



X HE learned editor of the interesting Travels of M. Boie in 

 Norway, considers it as indispensable, for the complete deve- 

 lopment of the eggs, that they come in contact with the external 

 skin of the bird. This is certainly the case ; but I doubt very 

 much if it is the reason of their plucking the feathers off their 

 belly. Some water-birds, as the different species of Ccli/mbus, 

 preserve the same dense mass of feathers on their belly during 

 breeding, as at other seasons. Most birds, however, at this 

 period have a much thinner covering on their abdomen than 

 usual, and this is produced, in my opinion, partly by the fric- 

 tion of hatching, partly by the excess of animal warmth which 

 is concentrated in that region. The female of the Iceland grous, 

 and of many wading birds, have the breast and belly nearly 

 quite bare while breeding. But this falling out of the feathers 

 is a consequence of hatching, and belongs to the next period. 

 An entirely different relation takes place among some of the 

 boreal aquatic and wading birds. These pluck off' a number 



• These observations are taken from Faber's very interesting work on the 

 Habits and Manners of Boreal Birds, of which a translation, now finished, 

 will, we trust, soon be published 



