106 CBITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



Dr. Granville's excellent advice, and haste avi^ay to commit them- 

 selves to the hands of medicated nature at the Spas of Germany. 



Dr. Granville descants agreeably on his Spas under four distinct 

 geographical groups. The first is his Baden-Baden and Wurtem- 

 burg group, and it includes his descriptive sketches of the Baden- 

 Baden, Rippoldsau, Wildbad, Liebenzell, Deinach, Cannsladt, and 

 Boll spas, on each of which he bestows a due share of friendly and 

 philosophical attention. 



Baden is " Queen of the Spas of Germany," the second most his- 

 torical bathing-place in Europe. The place forms a most delightful 

 summer retreat of the sick and the healthy, and it lies in the bosom 

 of a most enchanting mountain scenery. You become almost ro- 

 mantic as you approach it on a road which keeps meandering into 

 the bosom of the valleys ; and when at length you enter the town, 

 through a long avenue of poplars terminating in a shaded road, the 

 sudden freshness is felt to be particularly delightful. By hills, the 

 queen of spas is sheltered from the east winds and from the westerly 

 gales ; and on the north side her protection is still more complete, 

 owing to the greater elevation of a mountain range. The place is 

 only a few hundred feet above the level of the sea : there are some 

 fevv degrees of thermometrical heat in the valley of Baden more 

 than in the flat country near and out of it. At the moderate 

 height of its position it enjoys a dry and very pure air, which ex- 

 erts, as Dr. Kramer observed, a happy influence on the moral as 

 well as the physical part of man. Dr. G. is disposed to think that 

 this representation is not one of the exaggerations which physicians 

 of watering-places indulge in, in behalf of their favourite spot of 

 residence. The climate here is exceedingly temperate, and one of 

 the most healthy in Germany. 



Apparently a prodigious multitude of jiersons frequent this de- 

 lightful retreat during the bathing season ; " but," says Dr. Gran- 

 ville, "at Baden a little trickery is resorted to in this matter, just 

 to raise its character by showing that a larger number of visitors flock 

 thither than to any other Spa, for the benefit of its waters." He cal- 

 culates, from observation of gait and countenance, that not one in a 

 hundred of the many people seen there can possibly have the excuse 

 of ill health for resorting to the place. Yet it has its patients, and 

 many such there are who could not stay away from it, or change it 

 for another place, without losing every chance of recovery. 



There are eleven secondary mineral springs at Baden, besides the 

 celebrated Ursprung, which pours out a profusion of thermal water, 

 at a temperature orly 58** short of the boiling point. According to 

 Dr. G., this scalding water is used for almost every domestic pur- 

 pose, including most of the culinary operations. It is, he says, per- 

 fectly clear, has a slight faint animal smell, a taste somewhat saltish, 

 and, when drunk as it issues from the spring, approaching to that of 

 weak broth ; but, he adds, this taste becomes less pleasant by the 

 mixture of cold water, milk, whey, or other ingredient. Its specific 

 gravity is 1.030, that of distilled water being 1.000; a pint of it 



