CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 119 



pellation of Sprudel soup, and verily it must be equally delicious and 

 salutary. It is the duty of genuine patriots to bring the mess under 

 the notice of temperance societies. 



Impressed with a due sense of the hospitality and comfort he ex- 

 perienced at the " King of the Spas," the complaisant Doctor breath- 

 ed a grateful aspiration for its prosperity as he set out on his journey 

 for Marienbad, whose salutiferous sources were first made known to 

 Europe about the beginning of the present century. Although this 

 is a watering-place but " of the other day," yet it already vies with 

 the principal Spas of Germany for the beauty of situation and embel- 

 lishments, the great affluence of strangers to it from all parts, and the 

 tried efficacy of its springs. At a distance the place exhibits the 

 semblance of an immense garden ; as the traveller approaches it his 

 first impression is quite delightful. Dr. G. stopped for a few minutes 

 to enjoy its contemplation, and he styled it the " Garden Spa of Bo- 

 hemia," which has some pleasant distractions, but is not rich in artifi- 

 cial amusements. In his peregrination to the " Temple of Health" 

 he was seeking, the Doctor met herds of very small cows, tended by 

 fine, healthy-looking peasants. These animals resemble the Welsh 

 ones, but they have a far prettier head, and prettier limbs ; their coat 

 is of a uniform rich brown tint, sleek and shiny. Both men and 

 maidens were seen walking barefooted, although he was within a few 

 minutes of an assemblage of gentle blood, crowded in gay saloons, or 

 dispersed through groves and gladsome promenades. 



Marienbad and the regions around it afibrd prospects of the love- 

 liest nature imaginable. Here, too, you expand your lungs with 

 freedom and elasticity : the air is light, pure, ethereal. After a sum- 

 mer's shower, the renewed freshness of the atmosphere carries on its 

 wings a balmy fragrance from the surrounding forests ; and the deep- 

 er green with which the white Grecian-and-Roman-looking houses 

 of this lovely place are intermingled in profusion, adds to the beauty 

 of the scene, and almost converts it into one of enchantment. This of 

 itself. Dr. G. feels convinced, would cure many of those vile stomach 

 disorders which the London doctors strive in vain to remedy with 

 that eternal and never-varying blue pill and its sable follower, with 

 their golden creations. 



All the Marienbad waters are cold, and their sources are found on 

 flat ground ; some of them exude from peat or a marshy soil, others 

 from fissures in the granite. They are all accompanied with more or 

 less of free carbonic acid gas, and this imparts to them a tartness 

 which disguises their natural saline taste. At their first issue they 

 are transparent, but afterwards become turbid, and deposit a yellow- 

 ochry sediment. Immediately after being drank they feel cold to the 

 stomach, and the gas rises into the head as after drinking a glass of 

 champagne. These springs are of two kinds, saline-alkaline and alka- 

 line-chalybeate; the latter produces tonic, the former has aperient ef- 

 fects, and they both operate in nearly the same way as the same kinds 

 of water, having the same strength, are used to do at other places. 



