EXERCISE AND BATHING. 233 



Time for Bathing. For students, or others who do 

 not take a great deal of vigorous exercise, which keeps 

 the skin active, this means of keeping the skin active is 

 especially valuable. The use of warm water for cleansing 

 seems best adapted (for busy people) to the time of going 

 to bed. But the best time for the cool bath is on getting 

 up in the morning. 



Warm Baths vs. Cold Baths. Prolonged warm baths 

 are debilitating, and probably increase a tendency to take 

 cold, whereas cold bathing is one of the very best means 

 of fortifying against cold, and especially against the ten- 

 dency to take cold on slight exposure. For most 'persons 

 a cool sponge bath, on rising, will act as a most excellent 

 tonic ; but if it seems to produce neuralgia, it should be 

 used with caution. 



Exercise of Arterial Muscles. We have learned that 

 the blood supply to any organ is regulated by the action 

 of the plain muscle fibers in the walls of the small arter- 

 ies. Now, when we are subject to changes in temperature 

 these muscles get exercise, and one writer has well called 

 the cold bath the gymnastics of the plain muscle fibers, 

 and we can understand how the system can be trained to 

 adjust itself to cold, and enabled to avoid " taking cold" 

 so frequently. 



Habit of Cold Bathing acquired Gradually. There 

 are undoubtedly many persons who do not profit by cold 

 bathing, but probably many of these would soon adapt 

 themselves to it by beginning with tepid water and gradu- 

 ally using cooler. To stand stripped in a cold room, of 

 course, is not a safe thing to do. And the great secret of 

 the benefit that may be expected from the operation, as 

 most people are situated, is to be very brisk, the whole 



