Of the Salubrity of Warm Bathing. 591 



hour quite motionless in a tub of water at the tempera- 

 ture of 55 or 60 degrees; and yet, if I am rightly 

 informed, baths at that temperature have sometimes 

 been ordered by physicians, and even for persons of 

 delicate constitutions. 



Because we are able to support that degree of cold 

 without injury in air, that is very far indeed from 

 being a good reason for concluding that water at 

 that temperature would not be hurtful ; for water is 

 800 times more dense than air, and consequently when 

 it is cold must deprive our bodies of heat when we are 

 immersed in it, with infinitely greater rapidity than air 

 at the same temperature can do. 



Having reason to think that physicians in general 

 are not sufficiently aware of the very great difference 

 there is in the powers of these two fluids to carry off 

 heat when they are both at the same temperature, 

 and having myself been a witness more than once to 

 very alarming consequences which have resulted from 

 the use of what was called a tepid bath, I cannot resist 

 the inclination I feel to avail myself of this opportunity 

 of calling the attention of medical men to a circum- 

 stance which is most undoubtedly of very serious 

 importance. 



When we go into a bath at the temperature of about 

 96 degrees (which is blood heat), though the water at 

 first may seem warm to us, and even hot, yet it is not 

 capable of communicating much heat to us : for our 

 bodies being at the same temperature, except it be 

 perhaps at the very surface of the skin (where the 

 nerves of feeling are most plentifully distributed), there 

 is no reason why heat should pass out of the water 

 into us ; but if the water be only a few degrees below 



