Essay on the mineral waters of Carlsbad

Front matter

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Preface

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HEN I left Vienna, after thirty-three years practice, in the spring of 1826, to recover at Carlsbad my health totally impaired by gouty affections, and to pursue there my medical career, the english visitors scarcely amounted to twenty, and the greater part of those came not directly from England, but were sent by continental physicians, whom they had consulted in the course of their travels. A great change has since taken place. Excellent roads, quicker stage-coaches, steam-boats, better accommodations, useful improvements in the town itself, successful treatments, have increased the fame of our hot springs, upon which, since 1521, innumerable latin and german books have been published, some of them by physicians of universal renown, such as Frederick Hoffmann and Tralles in the eighteenth century, Hufeland and Kreysig in the nineteenth. Impressed with the utility of giving an account of the nature and effects of these waters, in a language universally understood among the higher orders of society and learned men of all nations, I published in French: Carlsbad, ses eaux minérales et ses nouveaux bains à vapeurs. Carlsbad, 1827; with an Appendix since 1829; and later, the Almanach de Carlsbad, ou Mélanges médicaux, scientifiques et littéraires, relatifs à ces thermes et au pays. Prague, 1831, 1832, 1833, 1834, 1835. Though the booksellers, who have the copy-right, take no trouble whatever to sell them beyond the place, the good effect of these publications, bought by english visitors, and occasionally read in England by physicians and invalids, has been, conjointly with the above enumerated causes, so manifest, that the List of strangers, published during the last season, presents the names of 153 british ladies and gentlemen, amongst whom are to be found their Royal Highnesses the duke and duchess of Cambridge, an ambassador, an envoy extraordinary, six lords, four baronets, a field-officer, a consul, an exlord mayor of London, a gentleman of His Majesty’s privy-chamber, two doctors of medecine, a surgeon, two clergymen and several military and naval officers, most of them with their families.

The establishment at Brighton, where the various german mineral springs, and also those of Carlsbad, are imitated by a chemical process, has drawn the attention of the public more towards them than the best publications. The patients, who came over to us, after having drunk Carlsbad at Brighton, held all the same language. Those who thought themselves benefited by the imitation, said: “We come to you to accomplish our cure;” and those whom Brighton had not restored, regretted their having placed confidence in artificial preparations. Far from attempting to depreciate those imitations, or examining in what respects art and nature may agree or differ, my sole object is to point out the causes of the increase of english visitors at Carlsbad. Knowing that hepatic, splenetic, dyspeptic, gravelly, herpetic and gouty cases abound in Great Britain, as indeed more or less every where, many of those invalids have encouraged me to publish an english description of the place, and a short account of the nature and effects of our waters, and of the various ways of using them, either by drinking, bathing or steam. It will be perhaps considered as a bold undertaking, to write in a language which I learned nearly half a century ago, during my medical studies at Edinburgh. My only wish is to be understood, and I shall never take it amiss, if my reader now and then smiles at a gallicism or a germanism.

As far as I know, the english medical litterature has no other writings to produce upon Carlsbad, but

1. A Letter of James Mounsey. M. D., Physician to the Czarina’s army, to Mr. Baker. F. R. S., on the hot springs of Carlsbad. Riga, 1 July 1749. Philos. Trans, vol. 46, p. 217.

2. J. Milles. Relatio de aquis mineralibus Carolinis in Bohemiâ. Ibid, vol. 50. P. 1, p. 25.

3. Robert Whytt’s works. Edinb. 1768. 4.

4. A translation of Dr. Kreysig’s (of Dresden) german work, under the title of Treatise on the use of the natural and artificial waters of Carlsbad, Ems. Marienbad, etc. London, 1824. Sold at Brighton.

Though the nature of our springs has not been altered, since the three english physicians, just mentioned, wrote upon them, medical and chemical doctrines have undergone as many changes as the place itself and its institutions. Such writings, beside, inserted in scientific collections, are known but to some learned physicians, and treat only of a few questions concerning our waters. As to Dr. Kreysig’s work, the greatest praise is due to Dr. Gordon Thompson and Mr. F. W. Bekenn, whose translation is far more lucid and intelligible than the theoretical part of the original. Much, but not the same, can be said on natural and on artificial mineral waters, and the medical world has not yet understood how such a celebrated physician as Dr. Kreysig, could so completely assimilate art and nature, both in the text and title of his work.

PRAGUE, 12th January 1835.

Carlsbad

CARLSBAD.

IVE and twenty years before Wenzel Payer, of Ellbogen (¹), wrote the first medical treatise on the hot springs of Carlsbad, a bohemian nobleman, Bohuslas de Lobkowitz (²), sung their virtues in the following hexameters:

IN THERMAS CAROLI IV.

Fons, Heliconiadum merito celebrande cohorti, Unde tibi latices calidi, venaeve meantis Sulphuris, aut vivae, dictu mirabile, calcis? Per terras Siculamne ignis qui provocat Aetnam, Id facit? An Stygii forsan vicinia Ditis Has tepefecit aquas? Baïarum littora cedant. Atque Antenoreum prospectans unda Timavum. Et quae caeruleo consurgit proxima Rheno, Nobilitata tuo, sanctissime Carole regum, Interitu. Quantas emittit in aëra bullas! Aspice quam varie lapides et marmora pingit Per quaecunque fluit! Vix ipsa coloribus Iris Collucet totidem! Felix per secula mana, Fous sacer, humano generique salutifer esto! Redde seni validas vires, pavidaeque puellae Formosam confer faciem, morbisque medere Omnibus, et patrias accedat laetior oras Quisquis in hâc lymphâ fragiles immerserit artus! The classical beauty of these lines induced me, in the year 1828, to have them ingraved in golden letters upon black marble, and placed upon one of our bath-houses (the Mühlbrunn). In order to illustrate that simple and honourable monument, erected at public expenses, I published the Life of the poet, a commentary and numerous translations of the Ode, under the title: Ode latine sur Carlsbad, composée, vers la fin du quinzième siècle, par le baron Bohuslas Hassenstein (³) de Lobkowitz, avec une polyglotte, une natice biographique sur ce poète, des observations sur l’Ode, et sur l’antiquité de ces thermes. Prague, 1829.

Those versions increasing annually, their collection has acquired some philological worth, and interested the innumerable scholars of all nations, who render Carlsbad a living polyglot. For the present work I shall only select an english version, written last year by a Noble Peer, whose poetical talent was animated by his high opinion of the salutary effects of our springs; a gaelic one, particularly admired by several good judges of Ossian’s tongue, and a turkish one, composed by a student (since 1835 doctor) of medecine, son of a citizen of Carlsbad, a real αντοδιδαχτος, whose two versions (I publish only one here) have deserved the full approbation and admiration of the first orientalist of the Austrian dominions (⁴). ON THE HOT SPRINGS OF CHARLES IV.

Carlsbad, 16th September 1834.

Alvanley. GAELIC VERSION.

IV.

Donald Mac Pherson. TURKISH VERSION.

PÂDICHÂH CAROLOS ILIDJÉSI UZÉRINÉ.

Augustus Pfitzmayer.

According to an old tradition, supported by no historical records, the hot springs of Carlsbad were first discovered, about the middle of the fourteenth century, by Charles IV, emperor of Germany and king of Bohemia. One of his hounds, when following a stag, having fallen into the boiling water, gave by his howling such indication of pain, as to cause the monarch and his retinue to approach the wells, where they saw with amazement the wonderful and high springing Sprudel, which no one, even to this day, can contemplate without admiration. The emperor, labouring under an infirmity in his leg, his physicians recommanded him to bathe in this spring; he built a castle near the hot waters, encouraged the neighbouring peasantry to settle there, and named his new town Carlsbad (Charles ’s bath).

A document, of a rather questionable nature, had grounded the belief that Charles IV had used our baths in November 1347, whilst residing at Ellbogen, for the healing of wounds received at Crécy, on the 26th August 1346, where he lost his father, the blind king John, under Philip VI of France, against Edward III of England. New researches (Almanach de Carlsbad, for 1835, ch. IX.) have however demonstrated, without controversy, that Charles was not in Bohemia from the beginning of October 1347 to the 19th February 1348. That he ever bathed in our hot springs is uncertain, not one word being said about it in his Life, written by himself, nor by any of his historians, who followed almost every step of that beloved sovereign. That he granted important privileges to Carlsbad, dated from Nuremberg 14th August 1370; that he gave his name to the town, and that he resided there in 1370 and 1376, are the only historical facts we can quote. The foundation of the University of Prague, in 1348 (the oldest in Europe after those of Paris and Bologna), by Charles IV; the nomination of a great number of celebrated foreign and national professors, spread so much scientific knowledge in Bohemia, that it is probable enough that our hot springs, only known as a wonderful natural phenomenon, attracted then the attention of learned physicians, who gradually extended the fame of their medical virtues.

Before a mineral spring acquires renown, it is in general known in its neighbourhood alone, till successful cases attract the attention of physicians and of the owners of the soil, who then form establishments for the accommodation of visitors. Such was very likely the fate of Carlsbad, called formerly and still now, by the neighbouring peasants: Warmbad. Ellbogen, one of the oldest fortresses of Bohemia, five english miles distant from Carlsbad, was, long before that time, inhabited by kings and grandees, to whom the astonishing phenomenon of the bubbling springs and their thick vapours could no more remain unknown, in a valley open at both ends, than to woodsmen, sheperds, fishers and sportsmen. How could the most ignorant boor not be struck with such a scenery? How could he not notice that the river, lower than the wells, never freezes; that snow never stays on the ground about the thermal chaldron? In short, how could so many uncommon things remain unobserved by the neighbouring population? The existence of a castle is proved by indisputable documents (Almanach de Carlsbad, 1832, ch. XXI.), and though no farther vestige of a building is now to be seen, the names of a street (Schlossberg, Castle-Hill) and of a fountain on the top of that hill (Schlossbrunn, Castle-Wells) attest sufficiently the former existence of a castle.

Historical details about the successive improvements of Carlsbad, the calamities it has suffered by war, inundations and fire, the progress of its institutions, the privileges granted to its citizens by several sovereigns, the list of its numerous benefactors, not belonging to a sketch like this, we shall speak of the place and of its establishments, not such as they have been, but such as they are. Much has been done, in every respect, by Government and the inhabitants, since the beginning of this century.

… the year 1785: 445 families.

… the year 1795: 634

… the year 1805: 725

… the year 1815: 1302

… the year 1825: 1660

… the year 1834: 3287 or 6165 persons.

Travellers passing through Carlsbad are not inscribed in the Visitors List, and those who do not remain above five days, have no tax to pay. That tax (Cur-Tax) is four florins silver a head; children under fifteen years, as well as domestics, are free from it; children above fifteen, coming with their parents, pay the half-tax. That revenue is entirely devoted to useful establishments and embellishments.

Carlsbad, sixty german miles distant from Vienna, and sixteen from Prague, is situated in a deep and narrow valley, between granitic rocks, on both sides of the Teple, which throws itself into a larger river, the Egra, very near the town. The houses are all built on the declivity of the hills, and on the banks of the Teple. Those hills, beautifully wooded, offer innumerable and well kept walks, the greatest variety of prospects, and an interesting field to lovers of geology and botany.

According to the last observations of the Rev. A. David, royal astronomer at Prague, Carlsbad lays 50° 13′ 38″ of latit., 30° 32′ 47″ long., and 182 fathoms above the level of the sea near Hamburgh.

Invalids coming from Prague were formerly obliged to descend the mountain, at the foot of which the town and its springs lay, by roads fiter for goats and woodsmen, than for heavy carriages. During one of the most calamitous periods of his reign, from 1804 to 1806, the late emperor had a magnificent serpentine Chaussée constructed, at the expenses of 160,000 silver florins, by which the town is approached with so much ease, and offering so delightful a prospect, that visitors have been known to say, the pleasant sensation this causes was sufficient alone to come here. For lighter carriages, a shorter cut of a road, called the Tappenhof–Chaussée, leads more directly down the hill, and is far easier than the Prague street (Prager Gasse). From the Egra side the roads, formerly very bad, are now excellent and flat. A statement of what has been done for the improvement of roads in all directions, in order to establish better and shorter communications between the different watering places of Bohemia, and for the improvement of Carlsbad, only since the beginning of the present Grand-Bourgrave (governor of the kingdom) count Charles Chotek’s administration, viz. since 1827, is to be seen in my Almanach for 1833, ch. XII and XIII. The great improvements of roads have facilitated the establishment of Stage and Mailcoaches, under the name of Eilwägen (vélocifères). For those who, by motives of health, are obliged to travel slowly (à petites journées), veturinis (Landkutscher) are every where to be had. From Prague to Carlsbad, for instance, the Eilwagen requires fourteen hours, whilst a Landkutsche, with the same horses and loaded with baggage, requires two days.

According to an old custom, sometimes annoying to sick people, lodged on the Market-Place, but pleasing to those who enjoy the daily increase of visitors, watchmen, posted upon the Tower-gallery, salute with trompets, more or less numerous, according to the size and elegance of the equipage, the new comers, upon whom they wait the next day, for a remuneration, entirely left to the good will of the visitor, who has, for the next evening, another tribute to prepare for a regular sérénade, given under his windows by performers not unworthy of the philharmonic renown of Bohemia.

During the whole season, the names, quality and domicile of visitors are inscribed in a List (Cur-List), published almost daily, for the price of fl. 1. 24 kr, silver, and 12 kr, for the insertion of the name.

Strangers, accustomed to their own wine, can import, free of duty, one Eimer or eighty bottles of any foreign wine. One pound of tobacco is equally allowed to each visitor.

Since 1830, an elegant reading-room for german, french and english news-papers, has been opened for the moderate price of 40 creutzers a week.

During the season there are two booksellers at Carlsbad. Pianos and guitars can be hired; a theater, concerts, balls and other amusements are not wanting; but walking, riding and driving, offer to visitors the greatest variety of resources. The company, being composed of people of all ranks, of all nations, religions and professions, every one chooses what is more analogous to himself, rather than to seek equality, as impracticable at Carlsbad as any where else. It is out of the plan of this compendium to describe the numerous places which offer agreable excursions. Those who do not bring their own horses and carriages, find here caleches, few saddle-horses, and donkeys. Carlsbad, being nothing more than a most elegant hospital, is by no means a place of dissipation. The amusements are of a quiet and moderate kind; the necessary early hours for attending the wells in the morning prevent late ones at night; the strict prohibition of hazard-games; the obligation of submitting to a sober diet, and of taking much bodily exercise, have introduced very regular habits into society, and more than one gastronome and hard drinker has began at Carlsbad to understand the incalculable advantages of sobriety and temperance.

We have already mentioned the external and internal cleanliness of the houses, some of which are very small, others large enough for the accommodation of numerous families. The most elegant are on the Wiese and on the Market-Place, and more expensive than those situated in the higher and more remote streets. In most houses the beds are good, at least as good as in any part of Germany, though many tall visitors wish them longer, and the coverlids broader. The price of lodgings varies with their situation and the season, which begins with the 1st May and lasts to the end of September. It is not rare, however, to see patients at Carlsbad in April and October (⁵). The most crowded period is from the 15th of June to the 15th of August, and, of course, the price of lodgings then much higher than during the first part, and particularly than during the later part of the season, when proprietors, having nothing more to hope, take lodgers almost at any price. That price is always fixed weekly. Large families will act prudently in securing their lodgings before their arrival, and can apply, for that purpose, to the physician to whom they are recommanded; in which case it is indispensable to fix with precision the day of the arrival, the length of the stay, the number of rooms and beds, servants, horses, etc. Those who have not taken such precautions, will find in general temporary accommodations at the principal inns, such as the Golden Schield, the Golden Lion and the Paradise.

As to living, visitors coming without their own cook, find numerous eating-houses and {lang|fr|restaurans, where they can go to or send for their dinner. These houses are frequented by ladies as well as gentlemen. The Salle de Saxe, the Posthof and the Freundschafts-Saal, where the dinner is at so much a head (in general one florin silver), are frequented by the best company; but those who prefer to choose their dishes, dine à la carte, and equally well, at the Golden Schield, the Bohemian Salle, the Stadt Paris, the Three Pheasants, the Lusthaus, etc, etc. The Blue Pike (Blaue Hecht) on the Wiese sends dinners any where, but does not receive company. The coockery is plain and alike every where, and no invalid has reason to fear the temptation of dishes contrary to the laws of the cure, about which all inn-keepers have traditional and almost invariable principles, suggested by the medical Faculty. Besides, regimen and diet are always a subject of advice at the first interview between the physician and the patient.

Of the articles of diet allowed, beef and mutton are of good quality; veal, chicken and pidgeons are very seldom properly fed; venison (deer) and ducks are always to be had; partridges, pheasants and hares in their season; porc and goose are forbidden; vegetables are neither plentiful nor cheap, and not all salutary. Carp, pike and trouts are in general to be had, but particularly on fast-days, and all that class of farinaceous compounds, called Mehlspeisen, are perfectly well understood at Carlsbad. Made dishes and scientific ragouts are never to be met with, except when particularly ordered. Salad and raw fruit are not allowed. Breakfast will be treated of later.

Living, in general, is cheap, for those who are under the obligation of oeconomy, though innumerable occasions offer daily of spending money, as every where else. A very tolerable dinner, à la carte, of three or four dishes, with a bottle of good beer, can be had for half a florin (30 creutzers). For the sake. of those innumerable invalids, who weigh and calculate what they eat, and even for those who like, several dishes, but little of each, half-portions are to be had in many eating-houses.

The citizens of Carlsbad are in general civil and obliging, and strangers, travelling without servants, find in every house the necessary attendance. They are industrious; all sorts of workmen and tradespeople are found amongst them, and they have even acquired some renown in the fabrication of fire-arms, cabinet-work, cutlery and pins; the incrustations produced by the fixed parts of the waters, called Sprudel-stones, are an object of industry. A number of tradesmen of all sorts come, during the season, from Prague and Vienna; bohemian glasses, hyaliths, the pewter-ware of Schlaggenwald, fill very beautiful shops, and all the china and fine potter’s-ware manufactures of the kingdom are near Carlsbad.

The china or earthen cups, used by the water-drinkers, vary in beauty and price, but are of the same size, viz., about six ounces. Dials, with moveable hands, assist the memory of those who drink a great number of goblets.

Carlsbad has its magistracy, presided by a burgomaster; but, during the season, the Government of Prague delegates a commissary for the Inspection of the place, to whom strangers must apply about passports, in any contest that may arise between them and the inhabitants, in short, in every case where the assistance and decision of justice are requested.

Religious tolerance being complete in the Austrian dominions, I shall remark, for the tranquillity of those who might not be aware of it, that a part of the catholic church-yard is devoted to protestants, who are buried openly, and allowed to have their own funeral service performed by a clergyman of their confession, if they wish it, and if there happens to be one at Carlsbad, among the visitors. Many tomb-stones have been erected in that part of the church-yard, by non-catholics, to their deceased friends.

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Note1 (¹) Wenzel (Venceslas) Payer or Bayer, of Ellbogen, born in the year 1488, studied at Leipzic, and took his degrees in 1507. Highly protected by the counts Schlick, to whom the greatest part of the royal domain of Ellbogen, and even Carlsbad, was mortgaged for the money they often lent to the kings of Bohemia, those rich and mighty noblemen sent Payer to Italy at their own expense. Inflammed by the sight of the remains of ancient baths and of some modern bathing establishments, he paid, on his return home, a particular attention to the hot springs of Carlsbad, where he first recommanded their internal use and the douche, so much employed then in Italy. The title of his work is: Wenceslai Payer de Cubitu Tractatus de Thermis Caroli IV Imperatoris prope Ellbogen sitis. Lipsiae, 1521; 2. edition, 1614. He died on the 11th December 1526, thirty-eight years of age. The mode of his death is uncertain; but he died gloriously, as proved by two silver medals, coined by order of the counts Schlick, proprietors of the celebrated silver mines and of the mint of Joachimsthal, near Carlsbad, with Payer’s effigy and the honourable inscription: Cum pariter omnibus moriendum, non tardè sed clarè mori optandum. Those medals are at Vienna in the imperial numismatic Museum. Payer being represented as Curtius, precipitating himself into an abyss, it is highly probable that he died victim of his scientific zeal in investigating the Sprudel. I have described and commented these medals in my work: Carlsbad, ses eaux minérales, etc. p. 205.

Note2 (²) Lobkowitz, an illustrious bohemian nobleman, born in the year 1462, died in 1510; he was one of the most learned men of his age, an admirable latin poet, a great traveller, a distinguished statesman, and promoted mightily the restauration of the ancient classical litterature in Germany. He studied at Bologna and Ferrara, and visited afterwards several german universities, particularly Strasbourg, then imperial. In 1490, he embarked at Venice, visited the Ionian Islands, Candia, Cyprus, Rhodes, the Dardanells, Constantinople, Asia Minor, the soil where Troy was, Smyrna, the ruins of the Temple of Ephesus, went through Cilicia, Pamphilia, Syria, Arabia, and prayed over the cradle and the grave of our Saviour. He meant to go to India, but gave up that dangerous plan. He visited Egypt, its pyramids and cataracts, Alexandria, Cairo, the ruins of Carthago, and Tunis; crossing then the Adriatic, he landed at Venice in 1492. Lobkowitz, who gave an account of his travels in several latin letters, brought back a collection of the rarest and most precious objects, amongst others a manuscript of Plato, for which he paid 2000 Milanese ducats, existing still at Raudnitz, belonging to his family, the princes of Lobkowitz, dukes of Raudnitz. His library was the richest in Germany. His works were published sixty years after his death: Illustris ac Generosi DD. Bohuslavi Hassenstein a Lobkowitz, Baronis Bohemici, poetae, oratorisque clarissimi Farrago Poematum in ordinem digestorum per Thomam Mitem, Nymburgenum, Pragae, 1570. His Epigramma in Thermas Caroli IV is p. 179. We possess also his Epistolae and his Lucubrationes oratoriae. His cotemporaries called him the Ulysses, the Pliny, the Horace of Bohemia; they might also have called him their Juvenal, for his satire on the nobility, gentry and people of his country, and for his very sharp letter on the morals of Prague. His works, formerly taught at Leipzic, among the roman classics, are now very rare; scarcely more than fifteen copies are extant in the principal public and private libraries of Bohemia and Austria. He is commonly called The Great Bohemian (Der grosse Böhme).

Note3 (³) A family seat, his Tusculum, where he was born, where he passed a great part of his life, and where he died, reduced now to venerable ruins, in the circle of Saaz.

Note4 (⁴) Augustus Pfitzmayer was born at Carlsbad, on the 16th March 1808, where his father, a native of Wirtemberg, keeps the Posthof, one of our best Restaurans. He received his first education at Carlsbad, but, when eleven years old, he was sent to Dresden (1819), to study under Mr. Philippi, director of a celebrated institution. Three years after he went to Pilsen (a small town in Bohemia), to attend his last philosophical classes. About that time he began to learn English, French and Italian, which he understands very well, and speaks as easily as can be expected from a young man, overloaded with other studies, and having few opportunities of conversation with foreigners. Of late he has made astonishing progress in the danish language. In 1827, he undertook the turk, without any teacher but Viguier’s Grammar, and the various turkish books he found afterwards in the public libraries of Prague and Vienna. Having met with insurmountable difficulties of admission in the Oriental Academy of Vienna, he tried jurisprudence; but seeing that neither the law nor the turkish language could lead him to any favourable result, he devoted himself to medecine, and took his degrees at Prague, on the 10th of March 1835. The best proof that he has not neglected oriental languages is the double turkish version of Lobkowitz’s Ode on Carlsbad, which he gave me, in April 1831. Having asked him leave of submitting both to Mr. de Hammer’s judgement, who himself, two years before, had declined to translate it at my request, as too difficult, the great orientalist of Vienna answered that „Pfitzmayer’s versions were admirable; that I could without any scruple print them in my Polyglot, etc.“ Augustus Pfitzmayer’s beginning Life, his two versions and Mr, de Hammer’s answers, are published in my Almanach de Carlsbad, 1832, ch. XVIII.

Note5 (⁵) Peter I, czar of Russia, came twice to Carlsbad, towards the end of October 1711 and 1712, and the last elective king of Poland, Stanislas Poniatowski, drank our waters, during the winter of 1761, viz. three years before his election.

The wells

THE WELLS.

LL the hot springs of Carlsbad, rising from the same natural reservoir, issue from different orifices; each has its name and its temperature. Their number has often varied, some of them having appeared, disappeared and re-appeared. Others, on both sides of the river, are found in several houses, and might be, if necessary, adapted to medical use. We have now the Sprudel, the Hygiaea, the Neubrunn, the Mühlbrunn, the Theresienbrunn, the Bernardsbrunn, the Schlossbrunn and the Spitalbrunn.

The boiler, which supplies them all, formed by the mineral sediments of the water itself (the fragments of which are called Sprudel-Stones), has a depth, thickness, extent and ramifications, which no human eye can scrutinize, and the enormous clouds of hot vapours, escaping from every accidental or artificial opening, will probably baffle all attempts to ascertain the dimensions of that wonderful laboratory. Such trials were made in 1713 and 1727, after a rupture of the boiler had taken place. The various boring and probing instruments penetrated through the calcareous crust, from one cavity to the other, till they reached at last an immense reservoir, the boundaries of which could not be attained by thirty fathoms length of poles, joined together, directed towards the Market-Place and the Hirschensprung. That a great part of the town stands upon these cavities, is sufficiently demonstrated, whenever the foundation of a new house is laid; copious streams of carbonic acid gaz are, moreover, incessantly seen bubbling in the river, near the wells.

Situated on the right bank of the Teple, in the centre of the town, the Sprudel, to which superior powers are attributed, is 60° R, or 168° F. It has various orifices, but two only are adapted to public use. One of them is exclusively called the Sprudel; the other, named Hygiaeia, on account of the statue of that goddess, placed near it, flows in a regular stream out of a pewter-pipe. Its vapour supplies our steam-baths. The broad square stones and long boards placed over the thermal chaldron, answer the purpose of a cuirass against the large masses of ice and floating trees, which, in their rapid course, when a thaw or an inundation takes place, might, like battering rams, break through the crust, and disturb the equilibrium indispensable to the regular spouting of the mineral water. In order to prevent such ruptures, whose cicatrisation is always slow, troublesome and expensive, the incrustation of its orifices is removed four times a year by a boring apparatus. The Sprudel water boils eggs hard, and is employed, since time immemorial, to scalding poultry and pigs, and to other such purposes, which are more oeconomical than grateful to the eye. The difference of temperature between fountains, coming from the same reservoir, is generally accounted for by the various distances of their orifice from the great focus, and by the warmer or cooler soil upon which the water circulates in the impenetrable meanders of this aquatic volcano.