36

WILDBAD.

CIIAPT. II.

work tliey liave to perforiu, and tlie bad food, of whose pernicious consequences tlie faccs of the poor bear the fatal stanip. Tbis Observation applies eveu more to tlie feinale sex tban to the males, for while the lattcr are occupied in the forest, the former alonc remain charged with the field- labour. After nightfall one sees long files of women, often far advanced in pregnancy, retnrning from the tields, bcar- ing heavy burthens on tlicir heads.

The diseases prevalent here, mostiy are caused by excess of work , colds, caught froin exposurc to bad weather, or working in the Enz, and by drinking from cold sources. In lighter diseases the natives have no recourse to the physician, but eure themselves by the use of their mineral waters. Rhachitic persons and cripples are very rare, and only two or three cases of cretinism will be fonnd here. The abundance of goitres reported of this place is quite a fable.

As the water used here for household purposes, is of the greatest purity and clearness, (Acetate of Lead does not disturb it, and Goulard water is pcrfectly lirnpid here) no endemic maladies are to be fonnd. Coinplaints of the ehest also are great exceptions in this country, this is principally owing to the balsamic cxhalations of the resi- nous trees of the forest, and to the great quantity of Oxygen disengaged by them. 1t is a well known fact, and indeed, afifirmed by the authority of Saussure, tliat the trees of the pine-genus absorb more carbonic acid gas from the atmo- sphere than any other, and that tberefore the air in their vicinity must be highly saturated with Oxygen. In conse- quence those who enter this valley, almost instantancously feel an itidescribable Sensation of ease and well-being steal Over them; the longs dilate, and the ehest expands as if some heavy Ioad had been taken from it. Decarbonisation