104 HOT-AIR BATH. 



told that 'the Roman bath invigorates the horse's frame, 

 gives increased action to his liver, improves his appetite, 

 cleanses the pores of suppressed perspiration, and fortifies 

 the skin from extreme heat and cold; the joints become 

 more supple, the sinews more elastic, and the heart, lungs, 

 and kidneys, being freed from fat, horses are able to take the 

 stronger exercise without suffering from internal fever.' In 

 another paragraph, touching the breaking and training of 

 yearlings, the Admiral says : f As far as these early trials 

 are concerned, the experiment can now be made at half the 

 risk of destroying the colt, or, in other words, laying the seed 

 of future unsoundness, by using the hot-air bath for absorb- 

 ing his internal fat and superfluous flesh/ Some of the above 

 enunciated doctrines are questionable; with others I totally 

 disagree. Does the Roman bath invigorate the frame, or only 

 temporarily excite ? If the latter, will the excitement, if pushed, 

 become exhaustive? Does it increase the action of the liver; 

 and, if so, is that desirable? The improved appetite is ac- 

 counted for by the laws of nature ; it is her effort to draw 

 fresh material to supply the waste which the bath has induced. 

 Is there usually suppressed perspiration in race-horses under 

 the present system of training? Observation and experience 

 do not show this. Can the Roman bath be relied on for ren- 

 dering the skin proof against the extreme action of heat and 

 cold? The sinews, we are told, become more elastic through 

 the influence of the hot-air bath! This is the first time 

 we ever saw it deliberately written that sinews were elastic 

 at all ; and since, for obvious reasons, nature has not made 

 them elastic, it is not desirable, even if it were possible, that 

 the art of man should render them so. However, by other 

 destructive influences, not noticed by the Admiral, a very 

 opposite condition of the tendons (sinews) ensues. About 

 the internal fever which is said to prevail I must plead 



