At all events, this system corroborates a practice which I have now followed and publicly recommended for many years; namely, the “CALIDO-FRIGID SPONGING, or LAVATION.” This consists in sponging the face, throat, and upper part of the chest, night and morning, with _hot_ water, and then immediately with _cold_ water. I have also recommended that children should be habituated to this sponging all over the body, as the means of inuring them to, and securing them from, the injuries produced by atmospheric vicissitudes. It is the best preservative which I know against face-aches, tooth-aches, (hot and cold water being alternately used to rinse the mouth,) ear-aches, catarrhs, &c. so frequent and distressing in this country. But its paramount virtue is that of preserving many a constitution from pulmonary consumption, the causes of which are often laid in repeated colds, and in the susceptibility to atmospheric impressions.[47] END OF THE FIRST PILGRIMAGE. (Second Pilgrimage.) CHEMIN DE MER—CHEMIN DE FER. A short run of fourteen hours from the Tower, on a road as smooth as that of the Great Western Railway, deposited us safely at Ostende—a kind of flat and fortified Gravesend, where John Bull, as far as tongue and table are concerned, is as much at home as if he were in Deptford or Greenwich. At six in the morning, every thing is bustle among the baggage, and it requires half a dozen omnibuses to convey travellers, trunks, clothes-bags and band-boxes from the hotels to the station. And here I would advise every passenger to mark the _destination_ on every package, and take care of the receipt ticket, otherwise he may find, on his arrival at Brussels, Liege, or Antwerp, that his luggage has travelled to quite a different quarter, requiring a “reclamation” to be sent along the lines, and perhaps two or three days’ delay! One of my trunks, and that too, the one containing the “sinews of war,” was “absent without leave,” when I reached Brussels, and was afterwards found lying in the office at Ghent! Short as was our passage to the Station by the OMNIBUS, it gave rise to a warm discussion respecting this very convenient and economical vehicle, which was considered by one of the party as a great recent improvement on hackneys, cabs, and stage-coaches. An Irish Tutor, however, who was one of the company, maintained that the OMNIBUS was in common use more than two thousand years ago, in every country between the banks of the Ganges and the pillars of Hercules. This was so startling an assertion that the gentleman was called on for proof. “That I will give,” said he, “from the tenth Satire of Juvenal, which commences thus:”— “OMNIBUS in terris quæ sunt à gadibus usque Auroram et gangem.”—— The cockneys stared at each other, and one or two gentlemen laughed most immoderately. The DOMINE proceeded to translate the passage for the benefit of the ladies, and others who might not possess a knowledge of the dead languages.