The New York Packet

Extract of a letter from Cracow, in Poland, dated December 28, 1786.

"Some virtuosi of this place visiting the grottoes near Kiow, were determined to know whether there were any preserved human bodies buried there, as has long been a prevailing notion here: They accordingly explored those grottos; and we find, by a letter received from one of them, that they have discovered some bodies, but none so black or hard as the Egyptian mummies. By the account which the same gentleman gives of the waters near Kiow, I should not wonder if in time it becomes as famous a place as Spa. The most inveterate gout is effectually relieved by them, as is the palsy and other obstinate disorders. The water has an odour in the spring season, and is balsamic in taste. The inhabitants near the place scarce know what sickness is. A man, upwards of a hundred years old, who has drank of it these 40 years, now works hard at his business as a weaver, and retains all his faculties. Some physicians, however, have thought it necessary to write against these waters: Their reason is very evident, though they have no great abilities to boast. It is a reproach to this country, that our physicians and clergy are both ignorant."