345 



brought to the temperature it is in at ordinary times. The shock of 

 icy cold water is very bad, and though a fine hardy young man may 

 enjoy it for years, it most assuredly lays the basis for rheumatics in 

 his after life. 



Before getting into a cold water bath a man should wet his head 

 so as to prevent an effusion of blood thereto. This is all the more 

 essential in the case of full-blooded men. 



Let me, while this hardy fellow is having his bath, relate what 

 happened once to me. I was dressing in a hotel in Dublin many years 

 ago, and was in a great hurry as I had to meet the Meath Hounds 

 fifteen miles off, and I was very late. The bath in the bath-room being 

 of stone had an obtuse-angular bottom, so that the sides slanted down- 

 wards, unlike a metal bath which has the sides and bottom hollowed 

 out. Well, as is my custom I stretched full length, but doing so 

 hurriedly and with more than ordinary force, my shoulders got 

 completely wedged in between the sides of the bath, and there I was 

 absolutely drowning with about an inch of w^ater over my nose. It 

 was only after a life or death struggle that I got myself extricated from 

 this most ludicrous but at the same time unpleasant yz\i'. People talk 

 of drowning as being a pleasant death. After having had two 

 rehearsals, hosh say I as far as the first part of the play goes ! 



Let us now return to the poor fellow we left in the other bath, with- 

 out, perhaps, having reduced its temperature from forty degrees of 

 Fahrenheit ! After a good rub dow'n with a rough towel, and five or ten 

 minutes devoted to the vigorous use of 71b. dumb-bells, he should feel 

 warm enough. 



Hot or even tepid baths are enervating and should not be indulged 

 in by hardy fellows except under peculiar circumstances. 



Be it in the sea, bath, or basin, the eyes, when under water, should 

 be kept open, the action of the water being most beneficial to them. 



We all know that eating and drinking are the most important matters 

 a man has to consider if he wants to keep in good health and the fair 

 condition requisite for the enjoyment of field sports or any other 

 occupation he may have. I am quite confident that half the disorders 

 men are subject to are caused by improper use of "the table." 



Everything we eat, drink, and smoke should be of the best quality ; 

 one may wear cheap and bad clothes, but what goes inside should be 

 the best. As a rule men order the best meat and pay the highest price 

 for it ; not so their liquor, cigars and tobacco. They ofttimes strive to 

 get the best at the lowest price and deceive themselves by imagining 

 they succeed. If a man cannot afford to pay for good wane, let him 

 drink the best whisky ; if he can't afford that let him take to the best 

 ale or porter ; and if he can't afford them, let him have the best milk or 

 spring water. 



Smoking should be dealt with in the same way. It is a much better 

 plan to smoke the best and purest tobacco from an honest pipe than to 

 impregnate the system with fumes which come from indifferent 



