This garden is of considerable extent, and contains numerous walks. Those who like to be in the crowd may find their wishes satisfied in the middle alleys—those who are fond of solitude, may indulge their meditations in the remote paths. Those who are fond of comparing notes with their brother and sister sufferers, have ample means of doing so, in this asylum of valetudinarians.
At eight o’clock all disperse to their breakfasts; after which they either repose for an hour or two, or take some walking exercise. At eleven o’clock, the bathing process commences, after which another promenade or repose—and then the one o’clock dinner. After dinner, and perhaps a cup of coffee, the promenades in the garden, and the excursions into the country are made. In the evening, the garden, the conversation-halls, theatre, and gambling-tables, are the great places of resort.[59]
I shall conclude with the following remark of Dr. Balling.
“In speaking of the gaming-tables of the Kurhaus, which are open from three till ten o’clock every afternoon, it is to assert, in the most positive manner, that all such games are eminently injurious to invalids, and greatly obstruct the cure of their complaints. This is the case whether the individual wins or loses money. In the state of excitement, almost febrile, produced by the waters themselves and the re-action of the constitution, the valetudinarian runs the risk of some dangerous perturbation in the animal organism, which may cost him his life, and, at all events, must interrupt the salutary operation of the springs.”
P.S.—On visiting these waters in August, 1840, I found that the number of English invalids had somewhat decreased during that season. The reputation of the waters, however, is evidently on the increase. I saw several English who had experienced considerable benefit in stomach complaints; whilst others complained much of the bad effects of the waters on the head and nervous system. They are powerful waters, and require attention. The spa doctors of Kissengen now enjoin a most rigid system of diet, which greatly aids the medicinal effects of the waters. No wine is allowed. The food is confined to soup and a little meat, without any pudding, fruit, vegetables, or made dishes of any description! This dietary, with early hours and plenty of water, must go a good way to insure restoration of health, independently of the medicinal ingredients in the springs.
BOCKLET.
When the waters of Carlsbad or Kissengen have washed away the superfluous green fat and ill-assimilated roast-beef from the body of John Bull—the sour krout and rancid sausages from the German—and the caviare and train oil from the Russ—then these worthy personages repair to Bocklet or Bruckenau, to undergo a very different process from that of depuration—namely, to have their ribs lined with steel, and their stomachs converted into gizzards. According to my information, those who come to these acidulous chalybeate springs with digestive organs in a state analogous to that of blotting-paper, go away from them, with the same organs in a condition very closely resembling well tanned sole-leather!
The visitors of Carlsbad and Kissengen, are all radical reformers, tearing up by the roots the numerous vices and abuses that have crept into their constitutions;—but at Bocklet and Bruckenau, they become eminently conservative—carefully rebuilding the various dilapidated portions of the body corporate in the firmest manner, and on the most durable foundations.