Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/531

Rh their action. They do not purge by indigestion, as those of Contrexéville are believed to do.

Their use is in curing—

(a.) Gravel, when caused by uric acid. (b.) Chronic ailments of the liver and hepatic colic. (c.) The gout of the anæmic. (d.) Vesical catarrh. (e.) Enlargement of the prostate gland.

It may be added that many cases of anæmia and chlorosis find their cure at these excellent springs.

5. —This is another little town in the valley of the Vair, a pleasant drive from Vittel, among rolling fields of wheat. The valley is small and narrow, cutting off the breeze in summer, so that the place is hot, according to French standards, though its temperatures never approach the fervors of our own summers. Less than a thousand people are included in the census of the place; but the summer visitors count by thousands, and among them you will find now and then an American; though the great majority of the visitors here, as at all other French spas, except perhaps Vichy, are French. The park and gardens offer a lively spectacle during the season; they are planted with fine old trees, and the usual good band of music may be heard. The establishment is built upon a peninsula formed by a loop of the stream; there are parlors for reading, for conversation, for games, and a fine casino. Contrexéville has not at all an ascetic reputation, and one of the attractions claimed for the place is that you get a better dinner here than even in Paris. Situated as it is in the midst of a fertile country, rich in almost every edible product of France, there is good ground for the claim of a superior cuisine—one, by-the-way, that is made for the city of Bordeaux, where they claim to give the best and the best-cooked breakfasts in Europe. Certainly, the breakfast of the Bordeaux restaurants would be hard to beat in any of the various quarters of the world.

The waters of Contrexéville are cold, limpid, colorless, with a slightly ferruginous taste and smell. On standing in contact with the air they form upon their surface the filmiest film of an iris-colored pellicle that one can imagine, and the water stains the cups and glasses in which it is used. There are four springs, all belonging to the class of calcic waters. Their action is diuretic, producing a strong effect upon the kidneys; and after the fourth day there is generally a laxative effect, which continues throughout the time of treatment. The secretory functions of the skin are sometimes increased—effects which are attributed to the indigestion of the mineral water. However this may be, some of those who take the treatment are purged by seven or eight glasses of the waters, while others bear twenty or thirty easily. The waters are cold.

Their special curative values are—