Bakewell’s Travels in the Tarentaise, §c. 
the stairs into your bed-room. This is 
the most terrific part of the ceremony : 
the stairs are generally very steep and 
narrow, and, as the porters ascend with 
great swiftness, it is difficult to preserve 
a balance. Should you fall, you must 
roll down like a log, as your hands and 
feet-are completely confined; but such 
is the dexterity of the porters, that acci- 
denis of this kind are unknown. The 
bed being previously warmed, the por- 
ter’s take off the woollen wrapper, 
leaving the wet sheet round your body ; 
one man takes you by the shoulders, 
the other by the feet, and you are lifted 
like a corpse into bed. They wish you 
good morning, and depart. - Your ser- 
vant or attendant then covers you over 
with the bed-clothes, and leaves you 
for a longer or shorter time, according 
to the directions of your physician. A 
profuse perspiration immediately suc- 
ceeds, and generally continues till your 
attendant comes to release you from 
your confinement; warm your linen, and 
assist you to dress. Half an bour was 
considered sufficient in my case, but 
for rheumatism or palsy, the patients 
sometimes remain in bed three or four 
hours. 
The operation is somewhat painful, 
and very exhausting; it may be aptly 
compared to purgatory, where all the 
peccant humours are to be expelled, by 
the continued modified agency of fire. 
The whole expence of douching, in- 
cluding the porters, is only a franc and 
a half each time. Out of this the 
douchers and porters have four sous, or 
ouly one sou each; the remainder be- 
longs to the government, and it is cal- 
culated that the king of Sardinia re- 
ceives a clear revenue of about 15004. 
per annum from these baths. ‘The sca- 
son for taking the douches is from the 
middle of June to the latter etd. of 
September. Before or after that time 
douching is considered dangerous, the 
the mornings and evenings being fre- 
quently cold. he annual number of 
patients varies from J500 to 1800. A 
list, with the names and residences of 
all the visitors who arrive at Aix, is 
published by the government every 
week. It is seldom that patients re- 
main at Aix more than three weeks or 
a month at one time, the process being 
too severe to be continued for a longer 
period without an intermission; but, in 
obstinate cases, the physicians generally 
recommend their patients to go away 
to recruit, and then to renew the 
@ouchings before the season is over. 
Monrtuty Mae, No. 391. 
585 
The waters are particularly efficacious 
in palsey, gout, rheumatism, sprains, 
and rigidity of the joints; also in 
scrophulous complaints and glandular 
swellings. 
I haye been more particular in the 
account of these baths, as their merits 
are not generally known in England, 
and I believe there is no place in Eu- 
rope, where douching can be practised 
with so much advantage. There is 
water sufficient to douche a thousand 
persons a day, if the upper source were 
employed in the same manner as the 
lower or sulphur spring. 
THE LAKES. 
That the lakes in Savoy, in Switzer- 
land, and in our own country, are gradu- 
ally lessening, must be obvious to any at- 
tentive observer, though the progress of 
their diminution may, in somé instances, 
be very slow. On the lake of Geneva 
we have fortunately a chronometer to 
mark the progress of the diminution, 
The upper Rhone enters the lake at the 
north-east end, and brings down the 
débris from a line of Alps of nearly one 
hundred miles in length, on each side 
the valley through which it passes. The 
immense quantity of sand and stones 
thus»brought down, and deposited near 
its entrance, must occasion the land to 
advance into the lake ; in proof of which 
Port Valois, the ancient Portus Valesia, 
which is now situated about two miles 
from the mouth of the Rhone, was a 
port at the head of the lake, in the time 
of the Romans. 
The waters of the lake of Geneva are 
said to be gaining on the land in some 
parts of the southern shore. A gentle- 
man residing at Colligny, immediately 
above the lake, informed me that there 
were formerly quarries at the bottom of 
the hill, which supplied Geneva with 
building-stone. They are now covered 
by the water of the lake, and may be 
seen under its surface. 
It has been supposed that the submer- 
sion of these quarries was occasioned 
by the land on the opposite side having 
been encreased by débris, carried there 
by the Rhone or currents, thus throwing 
the water back on the southern bank ; 
but this explanation cannot be admitted, 
unless the quarries had been always 
lower than the level of the lake ; for the 
water could not rise on the southern 
side, without the general level of the 
Jake had also been raised, which is not 
the case. 
A subsidence of the strata seems re- 
quired to explain the submergence of 
4F these 
