200 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to keep cold out as to keep heat in. The mistake is often made, of 

 taking great care to put on extra wraps and coats when preparing for 

 out-door exercise. This is not at all necessary in robust persons. 

 Sufficient heat to prevent all risk of chill is generated in the body by 

 exercise. The care should be taken to retain sufficient clothing after 

 exercise, and when at rest, to prevent the heat passing out of the body. 

 Indeed, persons very often catch chills from throwing off exti-a cloth- 

 ing after exercise, or from sitting about in garments, the material of 

 which is not adapted to prevent the radiation of heat from the body. 

 Linen and cotton under-clothing, when moistened by perspiration, parts 

 with heat very rapidly, whereas flannel and silk, being non-conductors, 

 prevent the rapid loss of heat. 



4. The most recent offense against the laws of health is the habit 

 of wearing false hair. The perspiration of the scalp is prevented, by 

 the thick covering, from evaporating, thereby causing a sodden and 

 weakened condition of the skin, which predisposes to baldness and 

 other diseases of the scalp. Again, it produces headache and confu- 

 sion of the intellectual faculties. We all know what a relief it is, dur- 

 ing hard mental work, simply to raise one's hair by running the fin- 

 gers through it. I should think literary ladies either do n^t wear false 

 hair, or take it off when at work. 



5. Ablution is another subject of paramount importance to health. 

 Mr. Urquhart, the introducer of the Turkish bath into this country, is 

 one of the benefactors of the age, and it is to be hoped some day there 

 will be a bath in every town and village in England. Doctors are 

 very much to be blamed for allowing themselves to be prejudiced 

 against it. The usual opinion given by medical men to their patients 

 is, that it is debilitating, and only to be borne by the robust. The 

 reverse is really the case: it is stimulating and strengthening, it is a 

 preventive as well as curative in disease. The effect of the Turkish 

 bath on the skin is to cause an active condition of its functions of 

 elimination, by removing the hardened epithelial scales, by removing 

 the fat from the pores, and by causing the sweat-glands to maintain 

 the activity of their functions, giving a general stimulus to the vital 

 power of the skin. Again, it keeps the body in a state of perfect 

 cleanliness, which is so essential to robust health ; but these are not 

 its only virtues it promotes purity of mind and morals. The man 

 who is accustomed to be physically clean shrinks instinctively from 

 all contact with uncleanliness. 



6. There are, however, certain precautions to be observed in the 

 use of the baths. Persons who are apoplectic, or suffering from fatty 

 degeneration of heart, should not venture to disturb the circulation by 

 the excitement of baths. The first effect of Turkish baths is to stimu- 

 late the circulation, the second to cause active congestion of the skin, 

 the third to produce profuse perspiration, the fourth to keep down 

 the temperature of the body by rapid evaporation. On leaving the 



