80 WARM BATH BENEFICIAL 



connected with each other, that what is really good 

 for one rarely if ever fails to be beneficial to the 

 rest. Thus while exercise, adequate clothing, the 

 bath, friction, and cleanliness are very efficacious 

 in promoting the insensible perspiration and equal- 

 izing the circulation, they are almost equally influ- 

 ential in promoting the vital action of the innumer- 

 able nervous filaments ramified on the skin, and the 

 tone of which is as essential as that of the blood- 

 vessels to the proper discharge of the cutaneous 

 functions. In the large and afflicting class of ner- 

 vous and mental diseases, attention to the skin be- 

 comes therefore almost a sine qua non of successful 

 treatment. As a preservative, too, it is influential. 

 In most nervous ailments, languor and inaction of 

 the skin show themselves simultaneously with the 

 earliest dawn of mental uneasiness, and often attract 

 notice before the morbid feelings of the mind have 

 acquired either permanence or strength. At this 

 early period, the use of the bath will frequently 

 prove very efficacious in restoring health. 



Many imagine the tepid and warm bath to be 

 weakening, but experience shows that they are so 

 only when abused. When not too warm, and not 

 prolonged beyond fifteen or twenty minutes, the 

 tepid bath may be employed daily with perfect safety 

 and advantage by persons in health ; while invalids, 

 whose condition requires its use, are often strength- 

 ened by a much longer and equally frequent immer- 

 sion. I have seen it resorted to for an hour daily, 

 for months in succession, by nervous invalids, with 

 much benefit to health and strength ; and in France 

 it is employed to an infinitely greater extent. At 

 the immense hospital of Salpetriere at Paris, and 

 also at Charenton, M. Esquirol has for many years 

 directed it to be extensively used for two, three, 

 and even five or six hours a day, and with excellent 

 effect. When I visited the hospital for the insane 

 at Charenton, and M. EsquiroPs admirable private 



