716 RATIONALE OF THE HOT 



Hence the dibilitating influence of the hot bath 

 when continued for any considerable time. But 

 what else is the burning atmosphere of tropical 

 climates than a heated air bath? And hence 

 the invigorating influence of the tepid bath in 

 such climates, or even of the cold bath, when 

 employed for a short time, as it then augments 

 respiration. It is also of still greater importance 

 in all cases of preternatural or febrile tempera- 

 ture, by reducing the solids to the natural stan- 

 dard, so as to favour the nutritive process, which 

 cannot be carried on without the transition of 

 caloric and arterial blood to the solids. Nor is 

 it possible, that fever or any other constitutional 

 malady can exist, so long as this process is carried 

 on in the natural manner, or so long as the blood 

 is constantly renovated in the lungs, and depu- 

 rated by excretion. But the employment of cold 

 must never be carried so far as to reduce the sys- 

 tem below the normal standard, as it then dimi- 



the growth, strength, and health of birds, than to mammalia, if we 

 except the monkey tribes, the elephant, camel, rhinoceros, lion, 

 tiger, leopard, and a few other species, whose lungs are not suffi- 

 ciently developed to maintain their temperature during winter in 

 the higher latitudes, without artificial warmth. Nor could man 

 exist in cold climates without the aid of fires, or plenty of food 

 and warm clothing. Sir Charles Morgan observes, that in such 

 climates, " the whole energy of life is expended in maintaining 

 temperature." (Philosophy of Life, pp. 434.) He might have said 

 that heat is so rapidly abstracted as greatly to diminish the powers 

 of life, which are very soon annihilated without a due supply of 

 that important agent. 



