74G 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
were always cold, because she insisted upon covering them 
up with socks; but now that I leave them exposed to the 
air they are constantly warm.^’ 
It has been well observed by Mr. Wilson, that the 
function of the skin is also that of a breathing organ and 
a transmitter of oxygen, in which the blood is the principal 
agent engaged, and the degree of absorption of oxygen will 
be determined by the freedom and abundance of circulation 
through the capillaries of the skin. Now, one of the first 
effects of a high thermal temperature is to augment the 
circulation of arterial blood through the skin, to carry the 
arterial stream into capillaries that have long been inactive, 
and to bring the circulating blood nearer to the periphery 
and nearer to the oxygenising element. Therefore the use 
of the thermae must tend directly to the oxygenisation of 
the blood and to the perfection of those nutritive and vital 
processes that are due to the appropriation of oxygen. The 
lungs, which are the great oxydisers of the blood, are in 
structure very little different from the skin, the differences 
between them being more those of position than organi¬ 
sation ; the mucous membrane of the lungs is an inverted 
skin, while the skin may be regarded as an everted lung. 
The same author, speaking of the training capabilities of 
the Turkish bath, says: 
^^In employing the bath as a means of training, w’e must 
have clearly before us the powers of the bath, on the one 
hand, and the precise objects which we wish to attain, on the 
other. The bath will abstract the old material from the 
system, and will thereby render the system more ready to 
take up and more capable of appropriating new" and 
strengthening nutritious matter which may be given to 
supply its place. In other words, it will do the sweating 
part of the process excellently, without fatigue, without wear 
and tear to the economy. But this, although a necessary part 
of the process of training, is only a part of the process. 
Other means are required to direct the new’ nutritive matter 
to the organs w hich especially require it, the organs of loco¬ 
motion, and the principal of these means is exercise. The 
racehorse must still have his muscles trained b}’exercise; the 
prize-fighter, prize-runner, or prize-row’er, must still pursue a 
systematic course of exercise; but the exercise in both in¬ 
stances is only that which is required to educate the muscles, 
