the mountains, and rarely reach us charged with dust. The Sirocco only blows at rare intervals, seldom lasts more than a day, and is not specially bad for persons with weak chests."

He also states

"That the water of Algiers, which is clear, limpid, and very agreeable in taste, is strongly impregnated with carbonate of lime, which is a notably remedial agent in phthisis. Indeed, it is to be remarked that consumption is very little known in countries whose water-supply is strongly charged with this substance."

Dr. Mitchell, after patient investigation of the matter, comes to the conclusion that phthisis is a disease considerably rarer in Algiers than in Europe or North America ; also that other diseases of the respiratory organs are much less frequent. And Dr. Jackson, in his "Medical Climatology," remarks—

"As a resort from the inclement season of northern Europe for persons threatened with pulmonary consumption, Algiers is deservedly in good reputation. The climate is far from being of a relaxing character: on the contrary, it combines with its usual mildness and equability, a decidedly bracing and tonic influence. Consumptive patients in whom there is a well-marked deposit of crude tubercle may pass one or more winters in Algiers with advantage, under circumstances which afford nature the most ample leisure for repairing the disorganized structure. The sooner the patient is placed under its influence, the more likely is the result to be beneficial. But when the disease has gone beyond what I have mentioned, Algiers is not to be recommended."

Indeed, in cases where the disease is approaching its fatal termination, it seems simple cruelty on the part of medical men, to drive the patient away from the loving care of his own family circle, to die in a strange land!

Happily, Algiers has not yet become the resort of this hopeless class of invalid, and the winter-visitor is spared

MEDICAL OPINIONS.

II

the sad sights and harrowing scenes which he so often encounters at Mentone, and other health-stations of the Riviera. The class of invalids who chiefly frequent Algiers. are persons affected by asthma, bronchial affections, and rheumatism, and these, who would be sufferers in their own land of fogs and damp, can, in the pure sunny climate of Algiers, scarcely be classed under that heading.

"There is a health-giving influence in a bright atmosphere and cloudless sky which is not fully appreciated. Light has a higher power in the functions of the animal economy than we are apt to think, and proofs are not wanting. Deprive the tadpole of its influence, nourish it as you will, and it will remain a tadpole still. But it is in the vegetable kingdom that we have the clearest manifestation of its working. In plants we find the secretions developed in greater perfection according to its intensity. Deprived of it, we find them flowerless, fruitless, and with small and stunted leaves. Had we no other proof, we should be authorised in inferring that that which is so potent on vegetable life, is not inert on animal life. The physiology of the two kingdoms is ever more or less closely associated, and that which stimulates the flower to expand its petals, giving as it were a welcome to the vivifying influence, is also, though perhaps more obscurely, a stimulus to man.

"Every man has experienced the gayness and brightness of spirits which a clear sunny day produces, and no man who has known the horrors of a London fog will be unable to paint the reverse of the picture, but it is a question if this bright, mental atmosphere which comes from a bright physical one, is not the direct result of its stimulating action on us simply as animals. Life within us is intensified, and the mens sana is tinged with the impressions of the corpus sanum." ."—On the Curative Value of the Algerian Climate. Dr. A. Mitchell.

At the

There can be no doubt that the first, the chief, the everpresent charm of Algiers is its beautiful climate. same time, again to quote Dr. Mitchell's pamphlet

"No climate is perfect, and the invalid who seeks Algiers expecting to find nothing but uninterrupted serenity will be disappointed.

Bad weather occurs there as elsewhere; but, on the whole, figures and experience justify me in saying, that few climates are superior, and more likely to benefit that class of patients who seek for health in a more genial temperature, and a less cloudy atmosphere than our own."

Before quitting the medical atmosphere it would perhaps not be out of place to mention some small matters of hygiene, which are recommended by physicians to travellers in this as in other warm countries.

It seems perhaps superfluous to say, Do not walk out in the burning sun without an umbrella; but it would be well for English travellers to remember, that an umbrella cannot be spared them as an article of dress in Algiers any more than in their own country, though its use is somewhat different, and to observe how thoroughly the natives, who understand these matters, shelter their heads from the fierce African sun.

Smoked glasses, but not blue, are also recommended for the

eyes.

"The diet of the European in Algiers," says Dr. Bodichon, "should be tonic." For persons disposed to consumption he advises plentiful feeding on meat, fish, oysters, lobsters, and other substances containing iodine, and the use of port-wine or claret as a beverage-tea being avoided, "since it increases perspiration."

Time to be spent in Algiers from the end of October to the first days of June.

This, with a general recommendation of air, regular, gentle exercise, and sun-baths, he believes would in most cases be found efficacious. For he says, in conclusion—

"Cure should be sought by hygiene rather than by physic. Consumption is a constitutional disease, and constitutions cannot be changed by physic, though they may be modified by hygiene."

HEALTH AND PLEASURE.

13

As a pleasure resort-as opposed to a health resortAlgiers can certainly not presume to rival her opposite neighbour, Nice.

For those who are lovers of nature, who drink in the beauty of a glorious landscape with delight, and find a charm in the quiet pleasures of the fields and lanes, Algiers has, indeed, an exhaustless store of attractions. In the ever-changing yet changeless beauty that meets him on every side, in the glowing colours of sea and sky, in the luxuriant wealth of wild-flowers that grow in his path, in the interest and mystery that cling about the Eastern people among whom he is suddenly plunged, the traveller who is a lover of the picturesque, who has anything of an artist's eye-though he, maybe, lack the artist's handmust surely rest content.

He can scarcely be able to regret the promenade—which is not; the shabby little Hyde Park in miniature-which is not; the Parisian toilettes-which are not-and other delights which Nice offers to the votaries of fashion. Perhaps it would not be too much to say that at Algiers, fashion is not.

There are wonderfully few French visitors at Algiers; those who come, invariably pronounce the place to be triste, and complain that there are no distractions.

There is a fairly good opera given three times a week during winter, but the absence of the promenade and the toilettes is an insuperable objection to French enjoy

ment.

In truth, Algiers is being gradually taken possession of by the English; the hotels are filled with English to the exclusion of other nationalities; the pretty villas of the suburbs are during the winter months occupied entirely by

English. Several English families have residences to which they return year after year for their winter season, forming what is beginning to be known as the English colony.

There is, therefore, a certain amount of quiet gaiety always accessible to English visitors, for the national colony of Algiers seems to be possessed with a more sociable and friendly spirit towards strangers, than is usually put to the credit of English people, and Lieutenant-Colonel Playfair, the English consul, sets the example of geniality and kindness. It may be as well to state, for the sake of those visitors who wish to enter into society in Algiers, that the foreign custom prevails, of new arrivals being expected to call on the older inhabitants.

General Chanzy, the Governor, following the example of his predecessor Marshal MacMahon, distinguishes himself by his hospitality towards English winter visitors. The Préfet of Algiers has lately married an English lady. Small subscription balls are not infrequent among the visitors at the Hôtel d'Orient, and, although unmarried ladies under thirty, and gentlemen whose dancing powers are not impeded by asthma, are at a premium, the English colony, and the English birds of passage manage to keep themselves tolerably well amused. Perhaps among the attractions of Algiers it would be a mistake to omit that which fills so large a place in the Englishman's beau-idéal-sport. Game of all kinds is plentiful in Algeria-partridges, hares, snipe, wildducks, and wild-boars are to be found within easy distances of Algiers itself; while lions and panthers to be hunted down still attract the more adventurous spirits southward. In conclusion, we again quote Dr. Mitchell, who looks at the agréments of Algiers from the invalid's point of view :—