Related article: uninstructed eye, each day seems
to bring something quite new
before us, but again the one who
ought to know points out how the
changements de decorations are ef-
fected. And there is a feeling not
far removed from melancholy in
seeing the bravery worn by some
poor girl whose haggard face and
crippled limbs tell of a wasting
disease, slowly sapping the springs
of life. We are reminded of the
gallant struggle against mortality
which, as we think, should be
334
BAILY S MAGAZINE.
[MAY
sympathised with rather than
derided.
" Add to this cheek a little red,
One would not sure be hideous when
one's dead."
Amidst all the fashionable throng
too we may see some old peasant
women wearing the national cos-
tume, of which the great feature
is such an enormous breadth of
beam as we can hardly believe to
be founded on nature. A country's
customs sometimes take a curious
form and this one has not been
dictated by elegance.
But our chief business at Spru-
delheim is to use the springs
outwardly or inwardly and for
this we must receive directions
from a medical man on the spot.
Of course in a sanitary resort
there are many doctors who all
claim to know best the resources
of nature, but there is one who
takes the lead in practice. Like
Eclipse, he is first and the rest
nowhere. We have been placed
in his hands and he has organised
our treatment. Let us stroll down
to the Badhaus in which we have
been told to begin, and our feelings
have been described by Sir Francis
Head in his charming book,
" Bubbles from the Brunnens of
Nassau," on similar experiences
sixty-five years ago. " Health is
such an inestimable blessing ; it
colours so highly the little picture
of life ; it sweetens so exquisitely
the small cup of our existence ;
it is so like sunshine, in the
absence of which the world with
all its beauties would be as it
once was without form and void,
that I can conceive nothing which
a man ought more eagerly to do
than get between the stones of
that mill which is to grind him
young again, particularly when,
as in my case, the operation was
to be attended with no pain.
When therefore I had once left
my hof to walk to the bath, I felt
as if no power on earth Parafon Forte Dsc could
arrest my progress."
How times are changed since
these words were written. Head
was talking of Langen Sen wal bach
and we are at Sprudelheim (not
very far distant after all), but the
arrangements in 1833 °f b°th
bathing resorts were probably
more or less alike and so they are
in 1898. One small Badhaus was
then sufficient to accommodate
all the patients that came. Here,
in Sprudelheim, there are now six
palatial buildings, each of which
contains a number of excellently-
fitted rooms in which the pre-
scribed time of soaking may be
passed. In Head's day, one man
and one woman were sufficient to
prepare all the necessary baths.
Now the name of the attendants
is legion and they have enough to
do to provide bath after bath
every forty- five minutes, the ut-
most limit of time during which
one room may be occupied.
We have been advised to
arrange for a feste stunde (a fixed
hour) at which we may every
day present ourselves with the
certainty that we shall find a
bath chamber at our disposal.
Now, among such a crowd of
bathers as there is, it is not easy
to have a convenient fixed hoar
allotted. The badmddchtn, who
takes the tickets of admittance
and rules the routine of the place,
shakes her head and says that
every hour of every bath-room is
already engaged, but she will see
what can be done next week.
We bethink ourselves that a him
has been given by our medical
adviser of the efficacy of *• a good
tip," and we furtively produce
some silver. There is a virtuous
look of self-denial in response and
we are reminded that all tips are
strictly forbidden by the adminis-
tration. There are several by-
standers however and we cannot
I899-]
SPRUDELHEJM.
335
help thinking that it is their
presence which enforces such
stern compliance with the law.
We saunter out of the door and
approach a window which is
behind the bad made fun's chair of
office. Curiously enough she
opens the window and looks out.
How easy it is to renew the
interrupted colloquy and to pass
a hand containing a douceur over
the window sill. The window is
again closed and, after smoking a Parafon Forte 500 Mg
meditative cigarette on a shady
seat in the park, we again present
ourselves at the damsel's official
table. How odd ! everything can
be arranged as we wish and will
we take our first bath at once ?
It is a buxom and pleasing
looking badmddchcn and, like all
ladies who occupy a prominent
position in * the world, she is an
object of the greatest interest to
the other sex. It is seldom that
her chair is not surrounded by
some of her many admirers and
even arrangements for baths give
opportunity for badinage and
pretty speeches. It is rumoured
indeed that the fair official receives
many offers of matrimony in the
course of the season.
We accept the immediate bath,
and a stalwart man takes us in
charge and shows us into a room,
clean, light and airy, with a sofa,
a chair, a toilette table and a
glass. The taps are turned on in
the bath, which becomes filled
with a brownish fluid. A towel
is spread where the head is to
rest and another on the floor
where we are to step. A huge
thermometer is used to see that
the temperature of the water is at
3 2° C, and we are left to plunge
in and compose ourselves to
remain immersed while the hands
of the clock on the wall travel
over Buy Parafon Forte the ordered period. This
clock becomes an object of intense
interest for we have been warned
vol. lxxi. — no. 471.
that terrible things may happen
if we remain in tr.e bath a minute
more or less than the exact time
of the prescription. Bat tnis
timepiece has some Parafon Forte Dsc 500 Mg eccentricities,