WARM SEA-WATER BATHING. 63 



warm sea-water bath is universally applicable. By its means 

 invalids may gradually prepare themselves for the more stimu- 

 lating and invigorating influences of the cold bath, who might 

 not otherwise have been able to withstand the shock. Thus em- 

 ployed, it is better to diminish the temperature of the bath 

 five or six degrees each time, trying the effect of applying cold 

 to the back while immersed in the bath. Persons whose nerves 

 are very irritable and cannot easily bear the shock of the first 

 dip in cold water, and cannot bear the loss of animal heat, 

 should not try the experiment, nor need they relinquish the 

 good to be obtained by bathing. In the graduated scale of 

 the temperate, tepid, and warm bath, a very little attention 

 will enable them to hit the right medium, and they will thus 

 possess an excellent substitute for the open sea. 



Tepid and warm sea-water bathing has many uses. It acts 

 as a sedative, promoting diaphoresis and determining from 

 internal organs. It is advantageous also in nervous affections, 

 rheumatism, gout, in certain cutaneous diseases, and in 

 hepatic dyspepsia. 



