over the springs which, supply the mineral
waters. But a hospital capable of receiving
with comfort four hundred invalid soldiers
and sailors, requires space, and cannot be
built on every rocky spot where a hot spring
issues from the ground. Besides sufficent
lodgings for the patients, there must be separate
buildings for the management, the
infirmiers, the bath-rooms, the wash-houses,
the chapel, and, above all, spacious grounds,
affording the choice of sun and shade, for men
confined within walls to walk at pleasure. As
might be expected, an obtainable spring was
situated on one spot and a sufficiently extensive
area of ground at another. The problem
was to combine the two.

At the time when the government decided
to establish a military hospital at Amélie-
les-Bains, its sulphureous springs — there are
hot springs there which are not sulphureous
—belonged to two proprietors, the Doctors
Pujade and Hermabescière, neither of whom
was willing to part with the thermal
establishments of which they were the respective
directors. In the end, Dr. Hermabescière
sold to the minister of war, for fifty thousand
francs (two thousand pounds) a
sulphureous spring, which gives from one
hundred and twenty to one hundred and
fifty quarts per minute. Taking a mean
of one hundred and twenty-five, it
supplies some ninety thousand quarts in the
four-and-twenty hours: which is amply
sufficient for a large number of bathers. This
spring being a kilomètre (four furlongs
and two hundred and thirteen yards) away
from the site selected for the hospital, and
on the other side of the ravine down which
the torrent Mondony rushes, it was decided
to convey the thermal waters across the
ravine in air-tight pipes, by means of an
aqueduct. This aqueduct forms a handsome
foot-bridge, which commands a cheerful
and picturesque view in whichever
direction you cast your eyes. Some people
wonder why the bridge was not made
wider, to allow the passage of carriages, and
mistakenly attribute its narrowness to the
selfishness or exclusiveness of the military
authorities. But the fact is, that the vibration
caused by the passage of heavy loads
over the aqueduct, would very speedily
dislocate its joints and produce a leak.

The utility of the appointment of a
pharmacien conservator will now be evident;
because if, by accident, the waters lose their
peculiar sulphureous and other qualities,
the course of treatment is then no more than
a mere case of hot-water cure. This did
actually happen during a certain space of
time, in consequence of an escape of gas
and a leakage of water from the pipes. At
its source, the water has a temperature of
seventy-seven degrees Réaumur, not far
below the boiling point. It loses five degrees
R. during its passage; that is, it reaches
the hospital at seventy-two degrees R. This
temperature is much higher than is required
for any mode of thermal treatment.
Consequently, a portion of it is cooled by causing
the pipe which contains it to pass through a
current of water obtained from the torrent.

Amélie's first step towards its present
importance was due to Marshal Comte
Castellanne, who for a considerable time
commanded the military division whose
head-quarters are at Perpignan. During the
campaigns of the first Empire, he had
contracted rheumatism which caused him great
suffering, and he took the opportunity of
an inspection at Amélie to try a few
sulphureous baths. The result of the experiment
was so satisfactory that he strongly
urged the minister of war to institute a
thermal military hospital in this locality,
which was then called Bains d'Arles, after
the commune of which it formed a part.
But through the general's influence, it was
raised to the dignity of a separate commune,
under the title of Amélie-les-Bains, after
Louis Philippe's estimable queen. This
name it is likely to retain, in spite of
dynastic changes.

The military hospital was inaugurated
on the 1st of July, 1854. It is capable of
containing four hundred patients. There
is talk of building a separate pavilion for
general officers. The thermes comprise
every hydropathic appliance known to
medical science at the present day.
Although the men use one compartment and
the officers another, and the latter is more
luxurious in its fittings, the whole treatment
is precisely the same for both. All
the inmates are medically equal in the
presence of disease and death.

TWILIGHT.

DRIFT little snowflakes 'mid the shells,
Break little waves among the pebbles,
Rise little notes in dulcet swells,
And faint again in silver trebles.

The hot sun stoops, and dips and dips
His burning brow to drowsy numbers,
Then kisses red the ocean's lips,
And sinks away to golden slumbers.

Come, twilight, with thy purple breath,
And freshen all the drooping willows;
The water-lilies faint to death,
The bending reeds, the fevered billows!

And beckon forth the timid stars,
To tread the cool dew-drooping heaven,
And quickly let the burning bars
That bind the impatient sea be riven.