100 



• KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Aug. 17, 18t3 



not of exercise but of direct stimulation of the sudatory 

 action. 



First, tlie question may be asked whether Turkish baths, 

 \-apour Ijaths, hydropathic treatment, and so forth, tend to 

 I'educe fat. 



We may take the Turkish bath as a typical process for 

 directly reducing weight by increased perspiration. Many 

 liave taken Turkish baths with the idea of diminishing 

 their weight, and have been disappointed. I believe that 

 those who most warmly advocate the use of the hot air 

 liaths, including those who are commercially interested in 

 establishments where these baths can be taken, claim no 

 fat-reducing effect from them. It is cerfain, as T know 

 from my own experience, tliat you may take a Turkish 

 bath live or six times in a week, and for several weeks in 

 succession, without appreciably affecting the weight. Two 

 or three pounds may be lost in the hot rooms, but then 

 two or three pounds will be added to the weight through 

 increased drinking during the next few hours. 



Yet Turkish baths may be effectively used for the special 

 purpose of reducing weight, if we remember that we are 

 not to trust to the loss of weight by increased perspiration 

 in the hot rooms, but to the improved condition of the 

 skin. I have taken as many as twenty Turkish baths in a 

 month without loss of weight, though" probably some forty 

 pounds' weight may have been actually parted with in the 

 hot rooms ; and I have lost as much as fifteen pounds 

 of weight in ten days, indirectly through tlie action of five 

 or six hot-air baths. This sounds paradoxical ; but it is 

 strictly true. In one case, I had been ill, and I took so 

 many Turkish baths, as an easy way of keeping the skin in 

 a healthy state when I was unable to take much exercise. 

 In the other case, I wanted to reduce weight, and I took 

 much exercise, especially just after each hot-air bath. The 

 same amount of exercise by which one would lose a pound's 

 weight under average conditions will remove two or three 

 pounds' weight after a Turkish bath. Thus hot-air baths 

 used as subsidiary to active exercise, are effective fat 

 reducers, — used as a substitute for active exercise they do 

 not reduce fat at all. 



But the best method of at once improving the health and 

 reducing the weight by increasing tlie action of the skin, is 

 one which involves no expense and properly followed out 

 supplies as much exercise, in itself, as one could get from a 

 small gymnasium : — 



Every morning after washing and thoroughly drying the 

 liead and neck, sponge with cold water (and a little soap, 

 but not much if this is done every day) the arms shoulders 

 chest and back, to the waist,— carefully rinsing. Then with 

 a moderately-rough large towel, commence steady but brisk 

 and energetic friction. Tirr. the right arm in drying and 

 rubbing the left, then tire the left arm in doing the 'same 

 by the right. Next tire both arms in drying and rublung 

 tlie chest. Now fling the towel over the right shoulder, and 

 holding it with the right hand in front(overarm)and with the 

 left hand behind (underarm), draw it steadily backwards 

 and forwards across the neck, right shoulder! and upper 

 back, — till both arms are again tired. Do the like with 

 the neck, left shoulder, and upper back, interchang- 

 ing liands. Throw the towel over both shoulders, and 

 alternately pull with right hand and left hand. Keeping 

 the towel still behind, let it fall to a little aViove the waist, 

 and repeat the steady alternate haul ins; with right and left 

 hands and arms. You now want a little rest. Take it 

 while you sponge with cold water and a little soap from the 

 waist to the knees and carefully rinse. Tire both arms 

 drying, rubbing, and polishing from waist to knees in front. 

 Pass the towel behind the back as in the last movement of 

 the former series, and haul awav alternately with right and 



left hand, till the back from waist to " small " is glowing 

 and almost burning. Next, let the towel hang under the 

 right thigh, and haul alternately upwards with right and 

 left hands till the back of the right thigh, from seat to 

 knee, is as nearly red hot as possible. Do the like with 

 the left thigh. Again a rest is wanted. So take it while 

 you sponge and rinse both legs from knee to foot. Then 

 lastly, tire thoroughly both arms in drying, rubbing, and 

 polishing both legs from knee to heels and toes. You can 

 now dress at your leisure. There is no fear of taking cold, 

 though you are likely to be rather slow at first, for the arms 

 are or ought to be thoroughly tired out for awhile. 



In the evening, just before going to bed, it is a capital 

 plan to repeat the rubbing, without the sponging ; or if 

 you sponge at all it should be with warm water, drying 

 before there is any time to feel cold ; for the body is not 

 able to bear cold well at night. 



By a vigorous rubbing daily, in this way, and still better 

 by two, the skin is kept not only clean, but as soft and 

 free from rugosities as kid, its action is healthily stimu- 

 lated, and the liver and kidneys are thus relieved from the 

 overwork they have to accomplish when the sudatory 

 glands are left clogged and hampered (as they are with 

 many even of those who daily i-ponge and daintily dry the 

 whole skin surface). 



We come lastly to those forms of exercise which tell 

 most effectively in reducing fat. 



{To he continued.) 



PRETTY PROOFS OF THE EARTH'S 

 ROTUNDITY. 



CHIEFLY FOR THE SEASIDE. 



By Richaed A. Proctor. 



(Continued from page 8G.) 



PAPiALLAX set a vertical mirror at a considerable 

 height above the sea-level to face the sea 

 horizon. Looking into this mirror you saw the sea 

 liorizon behind your head in the glass, and apparently 

 at exactly the level of the middle of the eye pupils. 

 Now it is obvious that when you look at your own 

 eyes in a glass, the line of sight from an eye to the 

 corresponding imaged eye is at right angles to the reflecting 

 surface, — and to the glass, if the glass is perfectly even in 

 thickness. Therefore, said Parallax to the bystanders (it 

 was on the Hoe at Plymouth, in 18G4, that / saw this 

 mirror trick) the line from the eye to the imaged horizon, 

 which you f:i;e at precisely the same level as your eye 

 pupils, is perpendicular to the vertical mirror, or truly 

 horizontal. Wherefore, my hearers, there is no depression 

 of the sea horizon as astronomers tell us, and as their 

 books show. (Here he had us, for too many of our books 

 Jo show a monstrous depression such as has no existence in 

 nature.) 



]Many, who hieiv the earth to be a globe looked into 

 Parallax's mirror and were perplexed. His reasoning was 

 correct. If the sea horizon is really depressed below the 

 real horizon, the sea horizon imaged in a vertical mirror 

 ought to be below the imaged eye-pupils ; yet apparently 

 it was not below. It looked as if there could be no depres- 

 sion and that the earth's surface must be flat. But they 

 knew right well (many of them were old sea-captains) that 

 the earth's surface is not flat. To one or two, only one 

 solution of the difliculty — to wit, punching Parallax's head 

 — presented itself. Yet this would not have satisfied the 

 company. 



