Bethesda.

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NICHOLS' BARK AND IRON

the nervous currents reversed and deranged, thick darkness settles down over life's vista.

The fog by the sea-shore does not more completely shut out the sun and the beautiful world in which we live, than do the clouds of sickness and ill-health exclude from human sight the unnumbered blessings and joys by which we are surrounded on every side.

How many men and women are there in the united states who are heroically engaged in this constant warfare with their physical and mental conditions, which may have arisen from a defective constitution, inherited from infancy.

Time, together with lack of care, and the winds and waves of trial, of overwork and disease, have made sad havoc with the poor hull of humanity.

Her owner may well hesitate before he trims her sails for the open sea of life's long warfare, where the winds of competition blow heavy gales, where the waves of care and trouble overwhelm him, where the rocks of sickness in its varied forms lurk unseen, yet ever surrounding him. He would rather lie at anchor in the bay and expend his strength at the pumps ; but this is stagnation and death and he finds himself sinking at last within sight of the haven of health and happiness. Under these circumstances, it behooves every sick man or woman to make the most heroic efforts to rise superior to their inherited or acquired weaknesses, and use any remedy which gives promise of relief. Breast the gale, if possible ; if not, the accept the certain aid and protection afforded by the anchor of Iron ; cling to it ; hold on, until the storm abates and the clear sky appears. Then, once having realized its saving power, carefully preserve the remedy, and have the Iron anchor ready for the next appearance of the storm.

To our suffering friends, who are well-nigh discouraged by the unequal combat with disease, who feel that they must fly away to some doubtful or far-away Bethesda, as the only hope for relief from anguish and pain, we offer some suggestions and brief descriptions

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BETHESDA

of well-known resorts which we have visited, with our impressions of their influence as health cures. Our remarks on the several localities are based on personal investigations ; we therefore mention only those places which we have visited.

Our Atlantic sea-board offers numerous inducements to the invalid. during the summer months, our coasts, from Maine to Pennsylvania, and our mountain health resorts, are crowded with thousands of sick and convalescent citizens, seeking in their health-giving breezes, sublime scenery, and pure sanitary surroundings, a renewal of that vigor and mental and physical strength which the severe strain of prolonged labor and the undue pressure on the mental and physical organism by business anxieties has prostrated and enervated. But in the fall and winter months, and in early spring (from November till June) the invalid must, as in other countries, seek a more genial clime. It is to be regretted that we have no mountain ranges on our Southern Atlantic coast, similar to the Maritime Alps of Italy. Had we such ranges of hills or mountains a mile of two from salt water, we should organize on their slopes, facing the sea, a series of Winter Resorts equal to any on the shores of the Mediterranean.

But though we have not in America a Nice, Men tone, Cannes, or Paul, we have efficient and equally salubrious substitutes within our own territories. First,

Atlantic City,

fifty miles south from Philadelphia, is an island ten miles long and about one half a mile in width. It is separated from the main land at either end by broad bays, which are connected by a narrow arm of the sea. The nearest body of fresh water is the Delaware River, sixty miles distant. All land breezes pass for many miles over a dry, porous, sandy soil ; the winds from the south and east blow from across the

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