THE SKIN. 237 



diately after meals. For then the cold bath might drive the 

 blood too much within, and oppress the stomach, which is 

 already excited with the work of digestion ; and the warm 

 bath, by relaxing the cutaneous vessels, might draw too much 

 of the blood outward, when it is needed for the work within. 

 In either case, the balance of the circulation is disturbed, 

 and the digestion is interrupted. 



573. The best time for the bath is in the forenoon, after- 

 noon, or evening, when the system is well nourished, and 

 the stomach is not full, nor the duodenum empty; never- 

 theless, the vigorous and robust may take it in the morning, 

 before eating, with impunity, and even with advantage. 



574. There is a very common notion that it is injurious 

 to go into the water when the body is warm. We have seen 

 ( 562, p. 233) that the Russians go from the hot vapor bath, in 

 a profuse perspiration, into the snow. It must not be supposed 

 that the case of one of these, heated by the vapor bath, is 

 strictly analogous to that of one who is profusely perspiring 

 with running or other exercise ; and therefore the practice 

 which is safe for the Russians in one case, may be unsafe 

 for one who is differently heated. Yet the contrary is not 

 true. The rule which is often enjoined upon boys and men, 

 that, when they go to the river-side or sea-shore to bathe, 

 they should first sit on the bank, in the cool air, until their 

 temperature is reduced somewhat toward that of the water, 

 lest they be injured by the sudden change, is not a good 

 one. One should not go into a cold bath when he is already 

 cold when he has lost so much heat that he can spare no 

 more, for any further reduction would be injurious. 



575. The practice of two young men, who, several years 

 since, bathed in the Connecticut River daily, during the 

 summer and autumn, even through the month of November, 

 was contrary to this ; and it certainly was successful in their 

 case, and doubtless may be in others similarly situated and 

 with similar constitutions. They lived rather more than 

 half a mile from the river, and on an elevation from which 

 there was a descending slope of about a hundred feet to the 



