Literary Notices. 157 



it contains. A few tourists are likewise familiar with its magni- 

 ficent scenery, and now comes an accomplished physician to recom- 

 mend it to the attention of invalids for its baths and medicinal 

 springs. Prom the analyses of the various waters which Dr. Cross 

 cites, there can be no doubt of the high claims of the district to share 

 with better known localities in the treatment of the swarm of 

 patients who anxiously seek to recruit their health with prescriptions 

 prepared in Nature's pharmaceutical laboratories ; and we confess 

 a strong sympathy with the aesthetic sensibilities of those who prefer 

 to be made well in beautiful localities. Rheumatism can rejoice in 

 brimstone, scrofula and cancer can be mollified with arsenic, and 

 weak digestions excited by salines and tonics in this wondrous land 

 of extinct volcanoes, Avhere the subterraneous fires are constantly 

 employed in boiling invisible pots, and effecting combinations which 

 would puzzle the apothecary to imitate, and which we do not doubt 

 possess peculiar efficacy in a host of other ailments. Dr. Cross 

 discourses on these subjects with the tact and moderation of a man 

 of science, and his elegant little volume is embellished by views of 

 the principal places where accommodation for invalids can be 

 obtained. He also supplies a useful body of " guide-book informa- 

 tion" in a gentlemanly and scholar-like style. As an illustration of 

 the efficacy of arsenic in the treatment of cancer he mentions the fol- 

 lowing case which occurred in his own practice, the patient alluded 

 to having suffered from that malady, though the consultation he 

 describes was necessitated by other symptoms, which suggested 

 the idea of arsenical poisoning, and this was confirmed by an exami- 

 nation of the paper of her bed-room, recently renovated. Removed 

 to another apartment she recovered slowly from its effects. " Mean- 

 while the pain, haemorrhages and fetid discharge of her original 

 complaint had been so completely suspended, that her attention had 

 been entirely directed to her new malady ; the arsenical disease had, 

 in fact, superseded the cancerous. As the former, however, sub- 

 sided, the latter came again into activity ; and being now far 

 advanced, very soon afterwards came to a fatal termination." The 

 doctor adds, that he intends to suggest a trial of the Bourboule 

 springs at an earlier stage of a similar complaint. At St. Nectaire 

 the baths are supplied with an apparatus for the employment of 

 carbonic acid douches, "found efficacious in neuralgic affections and 

 muscular rheumatism." Some of the Auvergne springs resemble 

 those of Germany, Royal being like Ems, St. Nectaire like Carlsbad, 

 and many resembling Vichy ; Puy la Poix are similar, but more 

 powerful than the sulphur springs of the Pyrenees ; but the arsenical 

 water of Bourboule, Dr. Cross considers to be without a rival in their 

 peculiar way. 



Simon's Monthly Meteorological Magazine. August, 1867. 

 (Stanford.) — The first article in this number relates to the excessive 

 rainfall of July 26th, which is stated to have been as remarkable as 

 any that has occurred of late years, " Excepting the remarkable 

 case in 1857, when on August 6th a waterspout burst over Scar- 

 borough, and the rain-gauge which held nine inches was filled and 

 found running over ; and 1864, May 20th, when at West Retford, 



