through what a region of pastoral calm, of smiling prairie and waving grain! Never have I seen such repose and beauty combined with the highest cultivation; one would call this part of France a garden of Eden, but for the fact that it is grain, not fruit, which is here mainly cultivated, and an apple-orchard is the proper connotation of the garden of Eden. On the southward limit of this lovely rolling upland, not yet invaded by the railway, a long ridge of eastward-trending hills arises; at its foot are the springs, the pretty town of four thousand people, at eight hundred and ninety-two feet above sea-level, and the railroad. On the hill-side are enormous distributing tanks, into which the steaming-hot mineral waters, too hot for use, are pumped up daily to cool under the starlight until they are at a usable temperature for the baths of the following day.
These waters, again, have been known and used since the Roman time, but especially since the sixteenth century. There are six principal springs, ranging from 28° to 66° C. (82° to 151° Fahr.); the water is limpid, with a slightly saltish taste, and one of the springs, the Source de la Reine, disengages a gas which has an odor distinctly the converse of attar of roses. These waters contain the chlorides of sodium and of magnesium, with sulphate of soda and a little iron; and they are used in all the ways known to modern balneology, the new establishment being completely provided with every form of apparatus—douches, piscines, vapor-baths, baignoires, and the new treatment by spraying with the "pulverized" or minutely divided water—a treatment now beginning to come into use at some of the springs in our own country.
Rheumatism, the scrofulous diathesis, and old wounds, are the ailments mainly treated here; and so efficacious are these waters in the latter class of cases, that the French Government sends many of its wounded officers and soldiers here. Dr. Magnin, the old inspector, and his genial nephew of the same name, and Drs. Cabrol, Bougard, and Causard, are among the excellent physicians of the place. Among the hotels, no more comfortable and quiet place can be found than the Maison Beaurain. M. Beaurain, the most affable of hosts, speaks English as well as French, and has a most refined class of guests.
Bourbonue-les-Bains is a pleasant place, and its waters are valuable and effective. But in deciding upon treatment it is not enough to know that the waters are good and that the place is pleasant. The waters must be adapted to the particular case. The main secret of successful treatment by mineral waters is in their right choice, and as to this I have one word of serious advice. Don't try to choose for yourself. The right prescription and choice among these delicate yet potent remedies can only be made by a physician who understands them, who has seen and studied their action, and who also understands the case for which treatment is required.
