118

WILDBAD. — CIIAFT. VII.

who lias fallen under an attack of apoplexy, or lie who lias become paralytic for some other rcason,—why should he allow the paralysis to invetcrate during the space of six or nine months, intervening between the access and next summer, when perhaps a coursc of bathing would have become useless. Why should bc who has fractured some limb, wait so long a time for chasing away the callous ex- crescences or the stiffness of hismember? — Instances have shown that the sanative powers of Wildbad are exactly the same in winter, as during the other seasons, and every precaution has been taken at the bathing-establishment for such cases; besides, tlicre are some sufferings, — as for instance, a sort of debility, arising froin a relaxed influence of the nervous System upon the reproductive actions of the organism — which certainly require the sending of the in­valid to a morc bracing climate; such, instead ofhastening to Italy witli the first approaches of autumn, ought to go to some such place as Wildbad, when to the fall

“ — — — the joyous winter-days

Frosty, succeed; and thro’ the blue serene,

For sight too fine, the ethereal nitre flies;

Killing infectious damps, and the spent air Storing afresh with eleinental life,

Close crowds the shining atmosphere; and binds Onr strengthened bodies in its cold embrace,

Constringent; feeds, and animates our blood;

Refines onr spirits, thro’ the new-strung nerves In swiftcr sallies darting to the brain:

Where sits the soui, intense, collected, cool,

Bright as the skies, and as the season keen.”

Persons however, who are inclined to perspire and are liable to catch cold, or to be exhausted frorn that circum- stance, will find the mild spring and autumn months pre- ferable. In the spring, the crisis is brought about more