KISSINGEN  , a

town and watering-place of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, delightfully situated in a broad valley surrounded by high and well-wooded hills, on the Franconian Saale, 656 ft. above sea-level, 62 m . E. of Frankfort-on-Main, and 43 N.E. of Wurzburg by rail . Pop . (Igoo), 4757• Its streets are regular and its houses attractive . It has an Evangelical, an English, a Russian and three Roman Catholic churches, a theatre, and various benevolent institutions, besides all the usual buildings for the lodging, cure and amusement of the numerous visitors who are attracted to this, the most popular watering-place in Bavaria . In the Kurgarten, a tree-shaded expanse between the Kurhaus and the handsome colonnaded Konversations-Saal, are the three principal springs, the Rakbczy, the Pandur and the Maxbrunnen, of which the first two, strongly impregnated with iron and salt, have a temperature of 51.26° F.; the last (50.72°) is like Selters or Seltzer water . At short distances from the town are the intermittent artesian spring Solensprudel, the Schonbornsprudel and the Theresienquelle; and in the same valley as Kissingen are the minor spas of Bocklet and Briickenau . The waters of Kissingen are prescribed for both internal and external use in a great variety of diseases . They are all highly charged with salt, and productive government salt-works were at one time stationed near Kissingen . The number of persons who visit the place amounts to about 20,000 a year . The manufactures of the town, chiefly carriages and furniture, are unimportant; there is also a trade in fruit and wine . The salt springs were known in the 9th century, and their medicinal properties were recognized in the 16th, but it was only during the 19th century that Kissingen became a popular resort .

The town belonged to the

counts of Henneberg until 1394, when it was sold to the bishop of Wurzburg . With this bishopric it passed later to Bavaria . On the loth of July 1866 the Prussians defeated the Bavarians with great slaughter near Kissingen . On the 13th of July 1874 the town was the scene of the attempt of the fanatic Kullmann to assassinate Prince Bismarck, to whom a statue has been erected . There are also monuments to Kings Louis I. and Maximilian I. of Bavaria . See Balling, Die Heilquellen unddBader zu Kissingen ( Kissingen, 1886) ; A .