and Bath as a Health Resort. 169 



generations gone by. But in no branch of therapeutics may 

 better work be done when experience and knowledge are 

 our guides. 



(B) Concerning the external use of our mineral Waters, 

 our own management may be favourably compared with 

 that of many foreign Spas. The temperature of the first 

 and second baths should never be above 96 degrees when 

 the patient enters them ; nor should it rise above blood 

 heat (98 degrees) during the whole time of the bath. The 

 duration of the first two baths ought not to exceed fifteen 

 minutes. In many cases both temperature and duration 

 require to be at lower points; and they must always be 

 determined by the strength of body and by the nature of 

 the disease. The arrangements for wrapping a patient, for 

 shampooing him, and for the application of electricity or any 

 medicated substance, form a ceremonial of itself which there 

 is no room to discuss here. Nor is it an unimportant func- 

 tion of the doctor to decide when constitutional peculiarities 

 and weakness forbid any bathing at all. But we heartily 

 agree with the old medical dogma that the external use of 

 our hot mineral springs does not weaken, but " stimulates 

 and invigorates ;" and to this end all professional instruc- 

 tions about bathing should steadily contribute. 



Thermal Water put in motion confers new therapeutic 

 power. In primitive times the water was taken into buckets 

 by tall and strong guides, who lifted the full buckets as high 

 as they could, and then let the water fall leisurely on the 

 part affected. During this process, which was clumsy and 

 inadequate, the patient stood in the hottest part of the bath. 

 Next four pumps were erected, which were called " wet " 

 and " dry ;" the wet pump drove the water on the invalid 

 when he was in the bath, and the pump quaintly called 



