]04 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



down at a certain season into the pool to trouble the water" before 

 the sick could enter it, is evidently figurative of the periodical or 

 occasional muddy condition of the pool of Bethesda, produced by the 

 town-physician making the waters turbid, and thus putting them 

 into the best state for medicinal and sanative purposes. Dr. G. pro- 

 ceeds to repeat the ''popular considerations" — that the journey to the 

 Spas of Germany, change of air, difference in the former mode of liv- 

 ing, release from laborious occupation, leaving behind of every worry 

 and anxiety of mind, gaiety of the spas, and the constant amuse- 

 ment to be found there amidst agreeable society, all act as auxiliaries 

 to the power and virtues of mineral waters. He grants, with great 

 candour, that these auxiliaries act as adjuvants in the cure, but 

 never as principal agents ; that they serve to hasten the recovery 

 and render the treatment more pleasant ; and that in many cases 

 they seem to be essential to the development of the power (not of 

 the effects) of the water. Dr. G. concludes, from a perfect and 

 impregnable induction, that the difference between an English and 

 a German spa is very considerable, and that the balance is greatly 

 in favour of the latter : and by the same induction the Doctor im- 

 poses an immense debt of gratitude on the English people for the 

 sagacity and eloquence with which he endeavours to persuade them 

 that the Spas of Germany are fraught with benefits every way un- 

 paragoned. 



Dr. Granville's method of defining the special objects in using 

 mineral waters is very philosophical. If it be true, he says, that mi- 

 neral waters possess great medicinal powers, their use must pre-sup- 

 pose a serious purpose, which purpose is either to cure a present dis- 

 ease, or to mitigate it, or to prevent a threatening one ; and therefore 

 he infers that most individuals use the waters as a means of cure. 

 Experience has enabled him to disclose the information that, in 

 curing, mitigating, or preventing disease, we have often need of 

 more than one mode of action on the part of the agent employed 

 for those purposes. We require, he says, either a purely restorative 

 or a purely corrective agent, or both modes (he means agents) may 

 be necessary at one and the same time, either in equal or in diffe- 

 rently proportioned degrees of such agents. Hence he has ascer- 

 tained that three classes of mineral waters may be established at 

 once, founded upon these three modes of action, which shall meet 

 every case likely to present itself at a mineral spring ; and that 

 between the four ends of Germany there are spas endowed with the 

 qualities we have need of for furnishing the three required modes of 

 action. The Doctor concludes this instructive branch of his " Popu- 

 lar Considerations" with the pleasant intelligence that, in Ger- 

 many, the people enjoy as good health as in this country, and do 

 not die in larger numbers under ordinary circumstances. 



" Rules for the Use of Mineral Waters, Regimen, and Diet" in- 

 volve topics of vital importance to those individuals who frequent 

 the Spas of Germany, where the dinners are delightful and the soci- 

 ety is exquisite. Dr. G.'s " Rules" are extremely judicious, and 



