The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-04 00:00:00

CHANGE OF AIR AT HOME.

Patients who go abroad for benefit of health too often
forget that change of climate can do little more than
place them under circumstances more favourable to
their efforts, by fit regulation of their time and diet,
and by use of prescribed remedies, to re-establish
health. They embark for Rome at Nice, throwing the
doctor overboard, expecting climate to do all : climate
then fails, and as a remedy, it comes to be pro-
nounced a piece of quackery. As a specific, as a
sole remedy, no doubt it is, on the whole, as much a
quack remedy as Morison's Pill; that pill contains in-
gredients of use in their right place. Quackery con-
sists, not in any thought or thing, but in the method
of employing it. We say, then, that the Sanatorium,
proposed by Mr. Paxton, though not wanted by the
healthy, and of use only to some among the sick,
are institutions which may be established as most
valuable auxiliaries to the doctor. They will not super-
sede all travel among invalids; although we call it
travelling " for change of air," it is not change of
air alone by which the patient who can travel
receives benefit. In the first place, he gets a sea voyage,
and there are not a few sick men and women whom that
mode of travelling improves in health. The sea-sick-
ness is often a curative process. The rolling of the ship,
causing a constant action of the muscles of the body, has
been called a sort of exercise, taken unconsciously, which
gives the system strength and tone. Then there is the no-
velty of circumstances; there are the chances and changes
of the voyage to amuse the mind. Travel involves, then,
change of scene, a constant invitation of the mind to
look without, and to forget to pore over the body's ali-
ments. Sights are strange, and sounds are strange ;
the English ear is plunged into a bath of French or
Italian chatter. Settled abroad, the patient's climate is
not shut up in a glass-house, with a collection of plants
soon familiar ; he wanders under open sky, in town
streets, among picturesque and novel costumes, over
hill and dale, by sea and river side. He takes the diet of
the country so far as it suits him ; eats the birds and
fishes, or the fruits, perhaps, of the climat®
_he

has sought. To be sure, cooks might supply each Sa-
nitoriurn with an ordinary of the dishes of the climate,
for those patients not under peculiar regimen; but the
how :e and the glass building, with the flowers, the
food, and air of Italy, walked into from a street door,

perhaps in Piccadily, must inevitably want a very
large number of these accessories to travel which are
to many invalids the most important elements of
cure. Not even ten miles of panorama iu the hall,
starting from London-bridge, exhibited before the neo-
phyte, would be a substitute for the preparatory jour-
ney. A " Madeira Sauitorium" near Regent's-park,
would poorly imitate the ripple of the waves and the
warm sea-breezes of that very wholesome island. This is
not said, however, with the least feeling of discourage.
ment towards the propositions made by Mr. Paxton.
His project is no colnplete substitute for foreign travel,
no encroachment upon foreign innkeepers, or invasion
made on our domestic doctors. It simply professes,
that if change of climate be auxiliary to medicine in
certain cases of disease, that change can be provided
here in England, here in London, for those patients
who either are past bearing the fatigues of travel, or are
too poor for the expense of travel, or who cannot travel
without losing the advantage of that medical assistance
in which they could have most reason to repose their
trust. This proposition could not have been made fifty
years ago, or if made, the necessary arrangements could
not have been carried out. It is made now, when it is
strictly practicable, and deserves of all men serious at-
tention.—Dickens's " Household Words."

HEII. MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—Amongst the noble
and distinguished individuals honouring the performance at
her Majesty's Theatre on Saturday evening with their
presence were the following :—His Grace the Duke of Wel-
lington and the Marchioness of Douro, the Duke and Duchess
of Cleveland and Lady Augusta Paulet, the Duke of Leeds,
his Excellency the Swedish Minister, the Earl of Malmes-
bury. Her Majesty's box was occupied by the Marchioness
of Waterford and Viscountess Canning. There were also
present Viscount Enfield, the Countess de Flahault and Miss
de Flahault, Lady Henrietta St. Maur and Lady Ulrica St.
Maur, Lord George Paget, Lady and Miss Graham, Lord
Robert Browne and the Ladies Browne, the Baroness Von
Stenzhady and Miss Palmer, Count Graben, Hon. Mrs.
Tollemache, Sir G. Hayter, Bart, M.P.; Major the Hon.
James Macdonald, Sir George Wombwell, Bart. ; Sir Ralph
Howard, Bart., M.P. ; Lady and Miss Howard, Sir Thomas
Burritt Lennard, Bart., and Lady Barritt Lennard ; General
the Hon. 11. Cavendish, Sir Seymour Sadler, Mr. C. W.
Packe, M.P., and Mrs. Packe, Reading; Miss Burdett
Coutts and party, Colonel Freestun, M.P., and Mrs, Lockyer
Freetstun ; Mr. B. Disraeli, M.P., and Mrs. Disraeli ; Mr.
Henry Baring, M.P. ; Captain Meynell, M.P. ; Mr. Strutt,
M.P. ; Mr. O. Morgan, M.P. ; Mr. W. Rose, Mr. Hubert de
Burgh, Captain Plunkett Burton, Mr. Storer, Mr. C. J.
Palmer, Mr. and Mrs. Tudor, Mr. Maclean, &c.

THE ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.—Her Majesty's box
at the Royal Italian Opera was occupied on Saturday even-
ing by Major-General and Lady Isabella Wemyss and Miss
Wemyss, and party. Among the distinguished company
honouring the theatre by their presence were his Excellency
the Sardinian Minister, the Marchionness of Westmeath,
Marchesa Brancalioni, the Earl of Bessborough, the Coun-
tess of Glengall, Lady Margaret Butler, the Countess of
Mount Edgecumbe, and the Ladies Cust, Viscount and
Viscountess Sydney, Viscount Exmouth, Viscount Clifden,
and the Misses Ellis, Viscount and Viscountess Dupplin and
Lady Rose Lovell, Viscout Valletort, Viscount Torrington,
Lord Broughton and Hon. Misses Hobhouse, Lord Arthur
Hay, Lord and Lady Rokeby and Hon. Misses Montagu,
Lerd and Lady Dinorben, Lord Rosemore, Lady Suffield and
Miss Somerset, Lady William Powlett, Lady Keane, Lady
Pigot, Lady Seymour, Lady Domvill and party, Baron de
Steinberg, Count Hurdenberg, then Hon. J. Fortescue, M.P.,
the Hon. Henry Lumley, the Hon. Major Needham, the
Hon. Captain Frike, the Hon. T. Dillon, the Hon. H. Row-
ley, Sir Gerge and Lady Armytage, Sir J. Mackenzie, Sir
Henry Webb, Colonel Brownlow Knox, Colonel Blane,
Colonel Crombie, Lieutenant. Colonel Tyrwhitt, Major Gage,
Captain Bishop, &c.
DEATH OF MAJOR•GENERAL RIDDALL, K.H.—On
the 28th ult. this distinguished general officer died at South-
sea, aged 76 years. He entered the army in 1798, and was
actively employed with the 62d Regt. in Sicily, Egypt, Cala.
brie, Italy, Spain, and North America from 1806 to the end
of the war. He was detached with the Grenadier company
of his regiment to retard the advance of the French in their
march to invest Scylla Castle and invade Sicily; served at
the Faro in Sicily for several weeks under the fire of the
French batteries erected in Calabria. He was afterwards
second in command to General Blommart, in a Grenadier
battalion sent from Sicily to Spain ; was advanced with his
company and two field pieces in the attack on and expulsion
of the French from the heights before Genoa. Afterwards
he served in North America, and was second in command,
with detachments, up the Penobscot River; he also com-
manded the advance in forming a position at Hampden, de-
fended by treble our numbers. The late Major-General
Riddell was in 1832 nominated a K.H.

ACCIDENT TO THE MARQUIS OF LARSDOWNE.—
The Marquis of Lansdowne met with an accident two days
ago, by being thrown from his horse. Though his Lordship
did not appear much hurt, it was thought desirable to post-
pone a meeting of the Committee of the Privy Council of
Education, appointed to be held on Saturday at the Council-
office. The Noble Marquis has, however, sufficiently re-
covered from his fall to be able to resume his official duties,
though he is obliged to carry his arm in a sling.
THE ORANGE TREES OF THE TUILERIES.—Work-
men are employed at present in repairing the cases contain-
ing the orange trees of the Tuileries garden. These trees
are of great age, some going back as far as 700 years, and
the youngest 300. Every 20 years the earth in each case is
changed, and during the three following years they appear
sickly. They then acquire fresh strength, and throw out an
immense quantity of blossoms. It is this periodical change
of nourishment which has led to their longevity.— Galig-
-12 a 71 i's Messenger.

BREMEN:ALTG. I.—A schooner full of water, dis-
masted and abandoned, with part of cargo (tar) on
board, has been picked up a derelict, and carried into
Teedderwardeu,