338 



BATHING. 



Bathing, latter rapidly increasing, jo as to cause the surround- 

 v ~' ing water to feel of an agreeable temperature. If 

 the immersion have been sudden and momentary, and 

 the body be immediately dried and covered from the 

 air, the agreeable sensation of warmth continues, the 

 whole body feels refreshed and invigorated, and, under 

 favourable circumstances, the natural perspiration is 

 increased. If, however, the immersion be continued 

 for a considerable time, and the water be not near the 

 highest range of the temperature which we have as- 

 signed to the cold bath, the sensation of warmth goes 

 off, and is followed by numbness and shivering ; the 

 skin becomes pale and contracted ; the vessels near 

 the surface are evidently diminished in diameter, and 

 their contents are either lessened in volume, or pro- 

 pelled with greater force towards the internal parts. 

 The person feels drowsy and inactive ; his joints be- 

 come rigid and inflexible ; his limbs are affected with 

 pains and cramps ; his respiration becomes quick and 

 irregular ; his pulse slow and small, but for a time 

 firm and regular ; his perspiration is suppressed ; and 

 generally a copious discharge of urine takes place. 

 If the immersion be still continued, or if the water be 

 very cold, the pulse gradually ceases at the wrist ; 

 the action of the heart becomes weak and languid ; 

 a sensation of faintness and coldness of the stomach 

 is experienced, followed by a rapid diminution of the 

 whole animal heat. At length delirium and torpor 

 come on, and the person is carried off by a fatal apo- 

 plexy. 



In the above description, we suppose that the body 

 has been suddenly plunged into the water. If, as 

 often happens with weak or timid people, the bather 

 enters the bath slowly, and if the water be much be- 

 low 60, the sensation of cold is more striking ; a 

 shivering is produced ; and, as the person advances, 

 so as to make the water rise towards the belly and 

 chest, a shuddering and convulsive sobbing take 

 place, sometimes attended with sickness and head- 

 ache. 



When the cold bath is applied by way of affusion, 

 its affects are generally more sudden and more tran- 

 sient, though, by repeated affusions, they may be in- 

 creased and prolonged to any required extent. The 

 degree of returning warmth, in this case, will depend 

 on the circumstance of the body's being freely ex- 

 posed to the evaporating action of the air, or protect- 

 ed from it by proper clothing. 

 Practical T^ e increase of animal heat, which so generally 



remarki. follows the sensation of cold experienced on the sud- 

 den application of the cold bath, is to be ascribed to 

 that reaction of the system which enables it to resist 

 an external impression by which it might be injured. 

 This re-action is in piooortion to the intensity of the 

 cause by which it is excited, and to the vigour of the 

 vital powers, of which it constitutes a peculiar effort. 

 It is this re-action of the system which enables the 

 body to derive advantage from the application of the 

 cold bath ; and, where the re-action does not take 

 place, or takes place only in a small degree, the cold 

 bath has been injudiciously or excessively employed.* 

 Hence, where the system has been debilitated by 



long continued exertion or disease ; where the tempe- Bathing, 

 raturc of the body is below the natural standard; or, ' w"* ' 

 where a profuse perspiration has come on, cold bath- 

 ing should be avoided. 



From what we have now stated, it appears, that 

 the use of the cold bath is attended with three prin- 

 cipal effects : a sudden and powerful shock given to 

 the body on the first application ; a sudden abstrac- 

 tion of heat from the suriace ; and the re-action of 

 the system to counteract the shock, and to restore 

 the diminished temperature. In its general and pri- 

 mary effect, therefore, the cold batli acts as a power- 

 ful stimulus to the whole system, and to this effect 

 its advantages as a remedy are chiefly to be ascribed. 

 It has been disputed, whether, from its abstraction 

 of heat, the cold bath can properly be considered as 

 a stimulant ; but this question, like many others in 

 philosophy and physiology, resolves itself into a mere _ 



verbal quibble, and it is not necessary that we should 

 here discuss its merits. See Currie's Medical Reports, 

 3d edit. vol. i. p. 1'i. 



It has been very commonly supposed, even by 

 medical men, that immersion iu the cold bath, when 

 the body was considerably heated with exercise or 

 other exertion, is a dangerous practice ; and accord- 

 ingly it is a general custom with bathers, who find 

 themselves overheated, to wait till they are cool be- 

 fore they plunge into the bath. This opinion and 

 this practice have been examined, and ably contro- 

 verted, by Dr Currie of Liverpool, who has shewn, 

 both from theory and experience, that the opinion is 

 erroneous, and the practice injudicious. He has 

 proved, that while the body preserves a temperature 

 above the natural standard of 98, and the strength 

 is not exhausted, by perspiration and fatigue, the 

 immediate use of the cold bath is not only safe, but 

 salutary ; and he was for some years in the habit of 

 directing his infirm patients, to employ such a degree 

 of exercise, before entering the cold bath, as might 

 produce some increased action of the vascular sys- 

 tem, with some increase of animal heat. See Me- 

 dical Reports, vol. i. p. 111. 



From the effects of the cold bath on the healthy Medical 

 body, we may deduce the following conclusions re- uses of the 

 specting its employment in the cure ot disease : cold bath. 



The principal advantages to be expected from cold 

 bathing, in a medical point ot view, are, the reduc- 

 tion of excessive heat, and the producing a salutary 

 re-action of the system. In the former way, it will 

 prove beneficial in all those cases where the tempera- 

 ture" of the body continues steadily above the natural 

 standard : as in ardent fever, the hot stages of inter- 

 mittents, the yellow fever of the West Indies ; and 

 in several febrile diseases, as in the early stages of 

 scarlet fever, measles, and small-pox, so long as there 

 is no appearance of eruption. The mode of applica- 

 tion, in these cases, will depend on the strength of 

 the patient ; but, in general, affusion is more advi- 

 sable, and more efficacious in reducing the morbid 

 temperature, than immersion. Immediately after 

 bathing, unless in those cases where the heat is very 

 considerably above the natural standard, the patient 



When, after the use of the cold Ixith, a person feels heavy, inactive, or chilly, or find himself affected with headache, or 

 tightness across the chest, it ta evident that it does not agree with him, or that he has continued in it for too long a time. 



