WASH-DOWN. 417 



the head, neck, etc. This is a mild affusion, and stronger in effect 

 than the towel-bath. 



WASH-DOWN. 



The patient stands in an empty sitting or wash-tub, beside 

 which stands a pail of tepid or warm water with two coarse towels 

 soaking in it. The bath-attendant, taking his place behind the patient, 

 lifts one of the towels, all loaded with water, and lays it quickly on the 

 patient's head. The patient immediately seizes it, removes it from 

 his head, and rubs himself rapidly with it his face, his throat, 

 shoulders, arms, chest, stomach, bowels, thighs, and legs. Having 

 gone rapidly over the whole body once, he drops his towel into the 

 pail again, which the bath-man presses down to the bottom of the 

 water, then lifts out and places it on his head again. As before, the 

 patient seizes it and goes over the same ground once more, and then 

 drops it into the water again, when the bath-man again lifts it and 

 places it on the head to be a third time removed by the patient and 

 applied as before, rapidly, actively and energetically, all over his 

 body in front. The bath-man is industriously occupied all the time 

 behind in the same manner, from the back of the neck to the back 

 of the legs, wetting his own to\\ r el as often as he wets that used by 

 the patient, viz., three times. This is called a wash-down of three 

 towels. The patient is then dried in a dry sheet. It is a more 

 powerful bath than the common towel-bath, but not in all respects 

 so convenient to take. 



THE COLD FOOT-BATH. 



One of the first things people who are troubled with cold feet 

 do, is to plunge them into cold water. Nor is the assertion put 

 forth in some of the hydropathic works, that the cold foot-bath was 

 prescribed by Priessnitz for the same purpose that the faculty 

 ordered warm ones, correct. When the feet are already cold, neither 

 Priessnitz nor any one in his sober reason would prescribe cold 

 water, which can only make the parts colder. To obtain the good 

 effect of the cold foot-bath, so far as the feet are concerned, they 

 should be warm whenever it is taken. For a tendency to coldness of 

 the feet a very common symptom in these days of so-called luxury 

 and refinement, and one that indicates a state of things in the sys- 

 tem incomparably more to be dreaded than the mere coldness of the 

 feet, this is the remedy. It may be taken at any convenient time; 

 just before the morning walk is a very suitable occasion, the parts 

 being usually warm early in the day. At other times if cold, they 

 should, if at all practicable, be warmed by exercise and friction, 

 before subjecting them to the action of cold water. But in cases of 

 old age, great debility, etc., the hot foot-bath and other warm 

 applications may be resorted to before the cold. Thus with cold, 

 exercise and friction, accustoming the feet daily and frequently to 



