Belvedere and Angleterre are almost exclusively occupied by speakers of our language. The Belvedere has, perhaps, the best situation and Herr Coester thoroughly understands making his guests comfortable. The Angleterre has a pleasant, genial English landlady and the furniture is of English pattern. These, with the cosy open fireplaces, make one almost feel in the country which, grumble how we may, we know in our inmost souls is, after all, far and away the best in the whole world. The Buol is lighted by electricity which is of considerable advantage in the matter of ventilation. The Kurhaus is the only one which attempts any serious ventilation apart from door, window and stove. Indeed, ventilation is the serious drawback to Davos; and when we remember that from three or four o'clock in the afternoon to nine next morning must be spent indoors by the majority of the invalids, this drawback assumes very large proportions indeed. The Britannia dépendence of the Kurhaus admits fresh air from outside, which is warmed by passing through a stand of steam pipes. These pipes are enclosed in a case made of layers of paper welded together to the thickness of a quarter of an inch, and the air enters the rooms through holes in the top of these cases. The amount of air entering can be regulated by the occupant. The paper case is so bad a conductor of heat that its external surface is scarcely warmed, however hot the pipes may be. But there are two grave objections to this systemfirst, it is used primarily to heat the chamber; when, therefore, this is sufficiently warmed, the air inlet is shut off and thus departs all attempt at ventilation. Second, there is no outlet for used-up air anywhere. When I naturally expressed blank surprise on discovering this I was naïvely told that you might open the window if you wished to get rid of the foul air. All these hotels chiefly depend upon upper fall-back windows; but the efficacy of these with stoves I found to be quite insufficient, my bedroom being stuffy on awaking in the morning though my fall-back window was opened its widest. There are dotted about occasional tobins and wall outlets, but

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these seem scattered haphazard, and some of them, at any rate, do not act. The Belvedere, at which I stayed, has four fairly lofty intercommunicating salons. I made a point of entering these just before the lights were put out at 11 p.m., and always found them disagreeably close. I suspect the atmosphere of the salons in the other hotels, whose rooms are less lofty, cannot, at any rate, be better in this respect.

The Kulm Hotel at St. Moritz is finely situated, looking down upon the lake and across it to the pleasant pinewood path to Pontresina, where the clear and cloudless Stützer See lies darkly hidden; and then, farther south, the eye runs up the green pinewood slopes to the snow-clad summit of the Piz Rosatsch. But this is of summer that I speak for in MidOctober, when I saw it, the whole was white and as we left we saw Dr. and Mrs. Main starting the first toboggan of the season. The rooms of the Kulm are finer than any in Davos : they are extremely lofty and quite handsomely furnished. The salon is an especially fine chamber with vaulted roof and elegant top lighting. In this room (as in the public rooms of the Kurhaus at Davos) there is inlet and outlet suitably situated. The ventilation of the bedrooms was no better than in the hotels of Davos, but as the Kulm rooms are larger and loftier the consequent disadvantages were correspondingly less. But I believe the energy of Herr Badrutt is going to change all this. At any rate in the new part, which he was kind enough thoroughly to explain to me, there is an elaborate and complete system of ventilation, in this wise :-The inlet of warm fresh air is practically on the same plan as that of the Britannia Dépendence of the Davos Platz Kurhaus, but here, in addition, is a properly provided outlet, which is situated near the floor at the opposite end of the room. The pressure of the steam in pipes is only equal to half an atmosphere, hence the temperature never exceeds that of boiling water, and thus all excessive drying of air is, to a large extent, avoided. As to this outlet being near the floor, it is so for the following reasons-First, in winter the outside temperature is so low

that were it near the ceiling there would simply be a rush of the pure warm air from inlet to outlet and the floor of the room, where the patient is, would remain very imperfectly ventilated; but with the outlet near the floor, the pure heated air rushes up against the ceiling and then, as it cools, slowly descends upon the occupant till, foul and cool, it slinks along the floor to the outlet, outside which, still comparatively warm and buoyant, it ascends above the house to be refrigerated and purified. Of the perfection of this method I have no experience, but both Herr Coester, of Davos Platz, as well as Herr Badrutt, assured me of its practical efficacy. One drawback to it is that the lowest strata of air in the room is the coldest, and thus cold feet are likely to be perpetuated or else unpleasantly-warmed brains. If the patient be confined to bed, it should of course act perfectly.

The great Kursaal on the Maloja has, I think, the best ventilation of all. Here the system is a central one: the air rushes over hot pipes in the basement and thence ascends through closed channels to the various chambers. The air enters each room close to the floor, the amount being regulated by the occupant. It is of a pleasant temperature, and hence some air is always required and thus continuous ventilation obtained. The outlets are two in number in the wall opposite to that of the inlet-one is near the ceiling and is for the summer season chiefly when simple unheated air enters by the inlet: the other, near the floor, is so placed on the same principle as that of the St. Moritz Kulm. Of the efficacy of the Maloja ventilation I made practical observation. On going to bed I shut window and door (there is no fireplace), opened the inlet and both outlets; in the morning the air was found to be perfectly sweet-so far as the sense of smell wentwhilst the temperature had been kept pleasantly warm, allowing of very scanty bed covering. Yet I woke with none of the malaise from dry heated air to which I am usually easily susceptible.*

* Dr. Wise says that 3,500 cubic feet of air can be supplied to each person in the Kursaal when this is full, i,e., has 500 inmates.

Of the drainage system of the Maloja I know nothing, but the closet was quite sweet, and well appointed and heated. The other arrangements were excellent and the public rooms very fine. Though we sat down but five to table d'hôte I have nothing but praise to bestow upon the cuisine.

When discussing the value of mountain climates we have, amongst other things, to consider

(a.) The Temperature. It is evident that the colder the inhaled air is the greater drying effect it must have upon the lungs. For the exhaled air has the temperature of the body according to Steffen, or at any rate always reaches 85° to 95° as Hermann Weber thinks. Hence if air saturated with moisture at 32° be inhaled and heated to, say, 85°, it must exert more drying power than the inhalation of saturated air at 62°, which would be heated, say, to 90°, by the amount represented by 53° – 28, i.e. 25° F. For in each case the exhaled air is almost, if not quite, saturated.

(b.) Humidity. But apart from the low temperature and therefore the small amount of absolute moisture in the air of mountain valleys-which in the case of Davos for the six winter months only averaged 3'2 mm. Mercury and only 4'9 for the whole year-the relative humidity in these regions is very small; for the winter six months of the year being 815 and for the whole year only 78°. But even this does not state the whole case for, as one would expect, the air being so strongly heated by the reflected rays of the sun during the day the relative humidity is much diminished. For instance, in January, 1887, the mean relative humidity of the month, taken at 7 a.m., 1 p.m., and 9 p.m., was 88°, but that at I p.m. only 84. Again, in June, 1887, the difference is far greater, for we find the numbers to be 65 and 46 respectively. But as the average absolute humidity for June was 6.67 mm. Mercury, whereas that for January was only 2'09 mm. it is probable that the drying power of the air was greater in January. This difference of relative humidity in different periods of the day is most important from the invalid's point of view. They