CHAPTER VIII 



The Origin of Therapeutic Bathing 1 



THE comparative study of the sciences, upon which I 

 have insisted, I trust not unduly, may not be only 

 of value where pure science is concerned, but may also 

 prove of immense service in many of the arts of life. The 

 conception of hostile symbiosis is of such obvious relevance 

 in politics that what was an art can at once be converted 

 into a section of biology. Moreover, this and allied con- 

 ceptions tending to show the vital analogies in all con- 

 struction may be employed generally in education, and 

 especially in medicine, in which narrowness of outlook 

 is especially dangerous. For knowledge of one kind may, 

 and indeed must, act as a catalyst on thought with regard 

 to another. It seemed to me when first considering the 

 subject of this chapter, which may, perhaps, seem not strictly 

 connected with these that precede it, that anthropology, 

 upon which light can be thrown by general biology, physi- 

 ology and pathology, might prove of the greatest value, if 

 taught intelligently and with due appreciation of its wide 

 bearings, to all students of the human brain and body. It 

 thus appeared to me that a very simple subject which was 



1 Although never read, this paper was written as an address to a 



Balneological Society, and therefore may retain some indication of its 



origin. For most of the facts I am, of course, indebted to The Golden 



Bough, the mightiest storehouse of co-ordinated knowledge in the English, 



or any other, language. 



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