[Pleased on the boiling wave. l. 387.  The story of AEson becoming young, from the medicated bath of Medea, seems to have been intended to teach the efficacy of warm bathing in retarding the progress of old age.  The words relaxation and bracing, which are generally thought expressive of the effects of warm and cold bathing, are mechanical terms, properly applied to drums or strings; but are only metaphors when applied to the effects of cold or warm bathing on animal bodies.  The immediate cause of old age seems to reside in the inirritability of the finer vessels or parts of our system; hence these cease to act, and collapse or become horny or bony.  The warm bath is peculiarly adapted to prevent these circumstances by its increasing our irritability, and by moistening and softening the skin, and the extremities of the finer vessels, which terminate in it.  To those who are past the meridian of life, and have dry skins, and begin to be emaciated, the warm bath, for half an hour twice a week, I believe to be eminently serviceable in retarding the advances of age.]

        Through his thrill’d nerves forgotten ardors dart,
390 And warmer eddies circle round his heart;
        With softer fires his kindling eye-balls glow,
        And darker tresses wanton round his brow.

        As dash the waves on India’s breezy strand,
        Her flush’d cheek press’d upon her lily hand,
395 VALLISNER sits, up-turns her tearful eyes,
        Calls her lost lover, and upbraids the skies;

[Vallisniria. l. 395.  This extraordinary plant is of the class Two Houses.  It is found in the East Indies, in Norway, and various parts of Italy.  Lin.  Spec.  Plant.  They have their roots at the bottom of the Rhone, the flowers of the female plant float on the surface of the water, and are furnished with an elastic spiral stalk, which extends or contracts as the water rises and falls; this rise or fall, from the rapid descent of the river, and the mountain torrents which flow into it, often amounts to many feet in a few hours.  The flowers of the male plant are produced under water, and as soon as their farina, or dust, is mature; they detach themselves from the plant, and rise to the surface, continue to flourish, and are wafted by the air, or borne by the currents to the female flowers.  In this resembling those tribes of insects, where the males at certain seasons acquire wings, but not the females, as ants, Cocchus, Lampyris, Phalaena, Brumata, Lichanella.  These male flowers are in such numbers, though very minute, as frequently to cover the surface of the river to considerable extent.  See Families of Plants translated from Linneus, p. 677.]

[Illustration:  Vallisneria Spiralis]