seat-cushions, as a precaution against damp beds, which, however, are seldom met with in France or Italy. Essence of ginger is a useful stimulant, and a teaspoonful in a cup of tea on arriving after a days journey is very refreshing. Those who are in weak health, and travellers in general, should eat very sparingly of animal food when on a journey, as it tends to produce heat and flushing. Black tea is one of the most useful articles travellers can be provided with, as it is seldom good in small towns or at inns on the road. As an evening meal, tea, with a little cold meat or chicken, is much preferable to a hot dinner or supper, which not unfrequently is a cause of sleeplessness. Those who are subject to cold feet should be provided with short boots of coarse cloth, to slip on and off, over their ordinary boots, as occasion may require, and a small feet-warmer should be placed in the carriage. A large medicine chest, which is a constant companion of many families, will be cumbersome and unnecessary, as almost all medicines of good quality may be obtained in all the towns frequented by invalids. A small chest containing a few articles likely to be required at out of the way places (as lint, soap-plaster, James's powder, a small quantity of calomel, laudanum, extracts of henbane and colocynth, a box of aperient pills, spirits of ammonia, tartarised antimony, castor oil, rhubarb, weights and scales,) will, however, be a useful precautionary addition to the luggage.»

The cheering and beneficial influence of travelling through a succession of novel and agreeable scenes, to a mind under the distressing moral influences of grief, anxiety, or disappointment,—so frequently the precursors of disease,—is too apparent to need any expatiatory remarks on the subject; but we would particularly remind the valetudinarian who naturally, may be tempted to a frequent enjoyment of the prevailing sunshine of the winters of Touraine, that more, than an apparently sufficient warmth of clothing is necessary for such occasions; for, when the still powerful rays of the sun occasionally become suddenly obscured by clouds, or after that luminary has disappeared below the horizon, a rather formidable transition from a comparatively high to a low temperature is here the common result. The proper time for such persons to take exercise at this season of the year, is between twelve and three o'clock.

Nothing conduces more to a healthful action of the digestive functions, a free circulation of the blood, and the due performances of the various secretions, than a sufficiency of daily walking exercise, indeed than the neglect of it, a more common predisposing cause of disease does not exist:—a congestive state of particular organs, an impaired action of the muscles of respiration thereby inducing a tendency to consumption; and habitual cold feet, are among the multitudinous evils emanating from a listless and sedentary mode of life.

To persons addicted to travelling or who are necessarily much exposed to atmospheric vicissitudes, we would particularly recommend the hydropathic treatment, or perhaps more properly, what Dr Johnson terms the «Calido-frigid sponging, or lavation.»

This consists in sponging the face, throat, and upper part of the chest, night and morning, with hot water, and then immediately with cold water. Children also should be habituated to this sponging all over the body, as the means of inuring them to, and securing them from, the injuries produced by atmospheric vicissitudes. It is the best preservative against face-aches, toothaches (hot and cold water being alternately used to rinse the mouth), earaches, catarrhs, etc., so frequent and distressing in England. But its paramount virtue is that of preserving many a constitution from pulmonary consumption, the causes of which are often laid in repeated colds, and in the susceptibility to atmospheric impressions.

Invalids, on their arrival, should also pay great attention to their diet and regimen.

WINES.

The wines of this country, should at first be but sparingly taken, for, on account of their acidity, an ordinary use of them at the outset, will frequently occasion considerable derangement of the digestive functions, but when persons become sufficiently accustomed to them, they constitute a light and wholesome beverage.

It is indeed worthy of remark that the wines of France, rank before those of other countries for their Purely vinous qualities, and so multitudinous are their diversities, that it is confidently affirmed there is no variety in the world which might not find an approximation to some one or another of her growths, and which invariably are manufactured according to well-fixed scientific principles.

The wines grown near Tours, are divided into three classes, namely, what is called rouge noble, vin du Cher, and rouge commun.

Those of Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, Joué, Saint-Cyr, Chambray, and Saint-Avertin, are the most esteemed growths of Touraine.

The Champigny of Richelieu, and Clos-Baudouin of Vouvray and Rochecorbon, are also much in request. These red wines if of a genuine quality, are remarkable for their flavour and soft bouquet, which is balmy to the palate, and moderately taken are wholesome and exhilarating.

The price of the best Bourgueil is from one hundred and thirty francs to one hundred and fifty francs per barique, of about three hundred and fifty bottles; and the Joué and Chambray from eighty to ninety francs per barique. Some tolerable effervescing white wines are produced in the neighbourhood of Tours, the prices of which are a little under the red, but they are for the most part heady and treacherous, and want the perfume and vinosity of Champagne.

The highly esteemed rose coloured champagne may be purchased for seven francs per bottle, very tolerable may be had for three francs, and the recently, and most successfully Champagnized red Joué for two francs. A very good effervescing wine is grown on an extensive scale at Villandry, about twelve miles from Tours, and which is exported in large quantities to Russia.

Of the sounder, most delicate and recherché of the red wines to be readily obtained at Tours, we may particularly enumerate Bordeaux—which even when prepared for the English markets, still possesses the fine qualities of the pure wine;—and Burgundy, of which, the Romanée Saint-Vivant, and Romanée Conti, are the best and most perfect. It may also be observed that the vin crémant d'Ay which is the least frothy and fullest bodied of the effervescing wines, is held in high repute, being grateful and stomachic.

The Champagne wines are divided into sparkling (mousseux), demi sparkling (demi-mousseux), and still wines (non mousseux). Their effervescence is owing to the carbonic acid gas, produced in the process of fermentation. And we are told that as this gas is produced in the cask or (as more quickly) in the bottle, the saccharine and tartarous principles are decomposed.

If the latter principle predominates, the wine effervesces strongly, but is weak; if the saccharine principle be considerable and the alcohol found in sufficient quantity to limit its decomposition, the quality is good. Wine of moderate effervescence is invariably selected by connoisseurs in Champagne, and such wine carries the best price.

Of the still class, a wine put into bottles when about ten or twelve months old designated, ptisannes of Champagne, is greatly recommended as aperient and diuretic.

The champagne wines are light in quality in respect to spirit, the average of alcohol in the generality of them, according to professor Brande, being but 12.61 per cent.

It is a remarkable and