constitution, are to be described in a second
notice, which will accompany the child on its
return to Paris, where it will be examined again.
The Administration will thus be able to form a
competent judgment as to the value of the new
therapeutic means which it places at the
disposal of its medical men. Every fortnight, a
detailed account of the state of each child is
sent to Paris, so that the parents (of such as
have parents) can know how their children are
going on. And that is the history of Dr.
Perruchaud's pet hospital.

But although the overgrown wooden toy is
dilatable and transferable at pleasure, there is
no thought of removing it from its present site,
which is all that can be wished. Suppose,
Reader, you come with us, for an easy and
recreative jaunt, and take a look at it.

In less than an hour, the Boulogne Railway
drops us at the station of Montreuil-Verton.
A road running off to the left would take us
inland to Montreuil itself; we follow, instead,
seaward, a road to the right, which leads us
through a sandy plain of pleasant pasturage and
close-cropped meadows to the large long loose-
twisted village of Berck: an irregular street of
three thousand inhabitants, which seems to be
continually creeping onward, like a colossal
worm protruding its snout of new-built houses,
in the hope of one day reaching the sea. The
centre of the vermicular burgh bulges out into
a cavity or hollow stomach, wherein are
contained a well, some benches serving as market
stalls, and, studded along the ribs of the
village, sundry retailers of meat and drink.

Out of the village, we have the sandy plain
again, still sandier, bearing tufts of marram-grass,
sea-side convolvulus, and other members of
the maritime flora. The place is flooded with light
and with dry pure air; there are no marshes
near, no stagnant pools; no river is discharging
itself and bringing down decaying vegetable
deposits. Before us is the deep blue sea, and an
enormous area of yellow sandy beach, impregnated
only with the bromine and iodine left by
the retiring tide, stretching right and left with
no visible boundary. The extent would be
oppressive to the mind, were it not relieved and
broken up by scores of stranded fishing-boats,
some in full employment, with masts and
rigging, others retired on half-pay, and roofed
with thatch. After a few steps, the scene
groups itself into a sparkling picture, with
wooden erections on either side, cottages at the
service of strangers, lodgings clean but not
luxurious, where a regimen of coddling is
impossible. Thus, at the clean-looking sign of the
emperor's godson, Louis Eugène Drapier
receives lodgers for the baths—and we presume
for no other purpose on earth. The whole is
overlooked by the considerable Hôtel de la Plage,
and the more considerable Hôtel des Bains, where
good entertainment and pleasant company are to
be found. All this, being in front of the boundary
of sandhills,constitutes a world of the shore
quite distinct from the world of fields. We have
left inland life and town life far behind us.

Where, but here, would you find planted, in
the middle of your path, a board with an inscription thus poetically and decorously conceived:

defense est faite aux hommes de venir se baigner
sans avoir un calecon que chacun doit porter
de même sur la plage un homme en nudité
subira les rigueurs d'une autre autorité
le maire              fontaine

Done freely into English, thus:

no man who comes to bathe may ever here
without a proper bathing-dress appear
nude individuals are sure to be
punished by gendarmes and authority
the mayor           fontaine

A few steps to the left, passing a Russian
lady's wooden cottage villa, and we are within
hail of a wooden terrace, on whose railing several
children's windmills are spinning, while merry
voices salute us with shouts of "Bonjour,
Monsieur Perrochaud!" The plan of the hospital
is seen at a glance—three sides of a square, open
to the sea, with an isolated box-chapel in the
middle. The whole takes to pieces, and may
be enlarged. The wing on one side is occupied
by boys, that on the opposite side by girls.
These are connected by a sort of gallery which,
besides containing a passage or corridor, is
partitioned off into the doctor's room; the sisters'
refectory; the linen-room, with sheets, and every
needful article of clothing, coarse, but well-aired,
and in apple-pie order; the pharmacy, or apothecary's-
room, where medicines are perfectly well
dispensed by a sister who purposely studied two
years in a druggist's shop; and the kitchen,
redolent of savoury smells, the cooking also being
done by neat-handed culinary sisters.

"Some soup, my sister*, if you please." It
is a meagre Wednesday for the hard-working
Franciscans; for the children it is a meat day,
all the same. "Excellent soup, indeed, my
sister; suppose we try a little more." And we
enjoy a hearty plateful, with carrot and bread,
without scruple of robbing the poor. The city
of Paris and the Administration Générale pay
for all, and can afford without grudging, this
slight refreshment to the passing traveller.

* Religious women are addressed as, "Ma sœur,"
the Mother Superior as "Ma mère."

As these poor children are made to partake of
sea-bathing and sea-side lodgings, like the
children of the rich, so are they fed with the diet
of the rich, to strengthen their feebleness and
spur on their constitutions. Pleasant little
extras are forthcoming, when required; green
or blue curtains, and green spectacles for the
weak of sight. Take note that the director-
general has conceived the notion that the
children's cure may be hastened BY SPOILING
THEM. Every mother will understand this novel
principle of hospital treatment. This smart
collection of barrows and rakes, play things which will
enjoy a reign of eight-and-forty hours, was sent
only the other day, in order that the patients may
amuse themselves with removing the sand, which
drifts into the front court and also into their
playgrounds, like snow. When tired of this,