590 Of the Salubrity of Warm Bathing. 



for a certain time, removes all obstructions in the vas- 

 cular system, and puts all the organs into that state 

 of regular, free, and full motion which is essential to 

 health, and also to that delightful repose, accompanied 

 by a consciousness of the power of exertion, which con- 

 stitutes the highest animal enjoyment of which we are 

 capable. 



If this statement be accurate, it cannot be difficult to 

 explain, in a manner perfectly satisfactory, why a warm 

 bath is often found to produce effects when first used, 

 and especially by those who stay in the bath for too 

 short a time, which are very different from those which 

 it ought to produce, and which it cannot fail to produce 

 when properly managed. We shall likewise be enabled 

 to account for the feverish symptoms which result from 

 going out of a warm bath into a warmed bed. 



The beginning of that strong circulation which is 

 occasioned on first going into a warm bath is an effort 

 of Nature to remove obstructions ; and if time be not 

 given to her to complete her work, and if she be 

 checked in the midst of it, the consequences must 

 necessarily be very different from those which would 

 result from a more scientific and prudent manage- 

 ment. Hence we see how necessary it is to remain 

 in a warm bath a sufficient time ; and, above all, how 

 essential it is that the bath should be really warm, and 

 not tepid, or what has been called temperate. 



When we consider the rapidity with which water 

 carries off heat from any body hotter than it which is 

 immersed in it, we shall find reason for astonishment 

 that any person, even the strongest man in a state of 

 the highest health, is able to support the loss of heat 

 which must necessarily result from lying for half an 



