Emperor Stephanos, son of Romanes. Here
also fled Ducas, the historian, after the
capture of Lesbos by Mohammed the Second.
Ducas was the contemporary of Phranza,
and far excelled the latter in clearness and
elegance of style. It is remarkable that
the great abilities of Ducas and Phranza,
were, in those remote times, no obstacle to
their employment in diplomacy. Now, of
course, the employment of men of letters in
an office which chiefly requires facility in
communicating the results of acute observation,
is out of the question. Rule Britannia!

Olivier has described some other springs
near Port lera. They chiefly contain nitre,
and are said to have been beautified by
Hussein, a capitan-pasha of much more
celebrity than he deserves. M. X. Landerer
(Professor of Chemistry at the University of
Athens) however, has most to say about the
medicinal springs of Lesbos. I shall chiefly
follow his lights in the remainder of the
present article; for M. X. Landerer was
a German, and exhausted his subject with
national patience and honesty. He is not
unreasonably surprised that such valuable waters
have not attracted more serious attention in
modern times. He attributes their origin to
volcanic influence; and quotes Strabo (who
was not necessary) to prove that the whole
island must have been detached from the
main land of Asia Minor from the same cause.

Galinos says that about forty stadia from
Mytilene, there existed in his time certain
hot salt-water springs, which acted as a
diuretic. They were highly astringent, and
said (like the water of Carlsbad) to be
particularly efficacious in reducing immoderate
fat. They were also a remedy for dropsy
and unhealthy watery tumours.

One of the most important springs thus
mentioned by Galinos, is situated at a place
called Korpho, and is now known as the
Pasha's Bath. It is within about half an
hour's walk of the capital of the island; and
its waters are serviceable from the month of
April to September. They act as a slight
purgative; and are valuable in obstructions
of the stomach and liver. Taken internally,
they prevent determination of blood to the
head. They are also determined enemies of
hemorrhoids. Hassan Pasha, one of the
heroes of Hope's Anastasius, beautified these
baths. Hassan had the amiable weakness of
desiring to leave some trace of his passage
wherever he went, so that Turkey owes all
sorts of public works to him. There is a
local tradition here (true, by the way), that
he went about with a lion. Luckily, the lion
bit him one day, and ceased to be the terror
of the neighbourhood.

Another of the hot-baths of Mytilene is
situated at a charming village called Thermi.
The springs here are of two distinct kinds,—
the one sulphurous, the other salt. The latter
are merely purgative; but the former act
usefully in all diseases of the skin. They
are a sovereign remedy against the Turkish
rash, as frequent as it is obstinate, during
the hot months. They are also reputed to be
an antidote to metallic poisons, and especially
the effects of mercury. Finally, they are
employed in rheumatism, with which our army
doctors will have more than enough to do.

Then near the pretty village of Tellonia
(abounding with game) are some purgative
waters called the Springs of Liota. They
gush out from a singular rock, and are
usually visited in August. On the twenty-
fourth of that month, there is an interesting
local festival held here. Near the Springs of
Liota is also found a hot sand, in which
rheumatic patients are buried for half an
hour daily, until cured.

Close by the sea-shore, and near the site of
the ancient town of Methymna, is found the
last of the Lesbian springs I shall now
notice Its waters are also said to be efficacious
in chronic rheumatism, which is one of the
most inveterate plagues of imprudent livers
in eastern countries.

God forbid that I should play the part of
Mr. Croaker in the comedy, and suppose that
all sorts of possible and impossible diseases
will follow our soldiers to the East. Let us
rather hope that care and prudence will
keep them in good health. Still we are not
infallible, and if people will now and then do
unwise things, it is as well to know how
and where to get relief from their
consequences. Therefore I have made these
present notes, with a serious sense of the
responsibility of doing so on no slight research
and inquiry; I hope sincerely that the few
observations my total want of medical science
has enabled me to offer, may direct the
inquiries of abler men in the same direction.

I believe that a moderate amount of common
sense employed in the use of baths and
exercise, early hours, one meal of meat a day,
a due respect for the sun, the instant change
of damp clothes on returning home, an attention
to keeping the feet warm, a wise fear
of cold at the stomach, reasonable temperance,
and a stout heart, may laugh at medical
men and medical waters in the East, or
anywhere else. But soldiers marching to battle,
cannot adhere to a rigid dietary, or take
many timely precautions; and, it is for them,
that I venture to recommend these springs.

NEW TALE by Mr. CHARLES DICKENS now
publishing weekly in HOUSEHOLD WORDS.
ON the Seventeenth of June will bo published, in Household
Words, the TWELFTH Portion of a New Work of
Fiction, called
HARD TIMES.
BY CHARLES DICKENS.
    The publication of this Story will be continued in HOUSHOLD
WORDS from Week to Week, and completed in Five Months, from its commencement on the First of April.
    Price of each Weekly Number of HOUSEHOLD WORDS
(containing, besides, the usual variety of matter), Twopence, or Stamped, Threepence.
    HOUSEHOLD WORDS, Conducted by CHARLES DICKENS,
published also in Monthly Parts in in Half-yearly Volumes.