592 Of the Salubrity of Warm Bathing. 



the temperature of the blood, though it may feel warm 

 when we first go into the bath, yet that sensation will 

 soon be followed by one of a very different nature, and 

 the water will carry off heat very rapidly from the sur- 

 face of the body. 



A rapid cooling of the body, by carrying off by a 

 mechanical process the heat generated in the body 

 by the action of the vital powers, may or may not be 

 advisable in certain cases. That is a question of nice 

 discrimination, and one upon which I am perfectly 

 sensible that I am not qualified to decide ; but I may 

 be allowed to point out physical consequences not very 

 obvious, and consequently not likely to be subjects of 

 meditation and investigation, which ought certainly to 

 be rightly understood. 



There is one observation more respecting tepid and 

 temperate baths which appears to me to be deserving 

 of particular attention; and that is the state of inaction 

 in which a person commonly remains in such a bath, 

 and the probable consequences of inaction under such 

 circumstances. Swimming is universally allowed to be 

 a wholesome exercise, and there are' few instances, I 

 believe, of harm arising from it, even when the water 

 has been at a much lower temperature than that of the 

 blood ; but I am far from being of opinion that remain- 

 ing in the water without any muscular exertion would 

 be found to be equally conducive to health. 



Cold baths are perfectly different from hot baths 

 and tepid baths, and the intention of the physician 

 in ordering them is also different. I am not prepared 

 to explain the physical effects produced by a momen- 

 tary plunge into cold water, and much less to give an 

 opinion respecting the salubrity of the practice of cold 



