the liver, spleen, mesentery and other glandular viscera, attended by debility of the stomach, heart-burn, acidity, distention, eructations, constipation, jaundice, biliary concretions, hypochondriasis, hæmorrhoids, head-aches, giddiness, gouty feelings, cutaneous eruptions, scrofula, and urinary obstructions.”[74] This is an encouraging picture, but I have no reason to consider it as overcharged. Dr. De Carro observes, that it is impossible to explain the _modus operandi_ of such simple and minute ingredients on the human organism. “Whoever, he remarks, has experienced a crisis (called also the spa fever—the bad-sturm, &c.) in his own person, will never doubt the power of the Carlsbad waters.” Dr. De C. compares the action of the Carlsbad waters on the human frame to a good filter that separates all impurities from the constitution. “Hypochondriacal affections appear nowhere under more various forms than at Carlsbad; and the misanthropic and pusillanimous feelings of those unfortunate beings, passing, without known motives, from hope to despondency, from moroseness to exaltation, deserve the greatest indulgence and sympathy. When we see so many hepatic and splenetic patients whose temper depends entirely on the state of their abdominal functions, we feel disposed to forgive the materialism of the ancients, who placed the seat of so many passions in the liver; we remember unwillingly the _Fervens difficili bile tumet jecur_, the _jecur ulcerosum_ of Horace, as synonymous of _jealousy_ and _violent love_, and we understand how they could say that men _splene rident, felle irascunt, jecore amant, pulmone jactantur, corde sapiunt_.” The worthy Doctor deplores the disappointments and mortifications which many invalids from far distant lands annually experience here, when they learn, to their grief and dismay, that the mineral waters are totally inapplicable to their maladies! They have then only the alternative of laying their bones in Bohemian soil, or undertaking another long, fatiguing, and expensive journey towards their native land. Dr. De Carro blames the ignorance which prevails among the faculty generally, respecting the medicinal properties of the Carlsbad and other spas. But the spa doctors themselves, and spa tourists, are not entirely blameless. The exaggerated accounts that are published respecting the _miraculous_ powers of almost every spa in Germany, are quite sufficient to mislead practitioners and patients who have no personal knowledge of these vaunted springs. One great object of the present volume is the attempt to sift the grain from the chaff, or to filter these waters and depurate them of their gross crudities and absurdities.