fect, and that, on repetition, it seldom fails to subdue the disease, if employed during the first stage.

I introduce these facts to give weight to the following rule, respecting the cold bath There are very few circumstances, in which cold bathing will not be safest and most advantageous, if the bather, immediately before immersion, exerts himself enough to produce a gentle sense of warmth. There are no circumstances where an unprofessional person should omit this precaution, without the express injunction of a practitioner of medicine. Weakly people every day destroy or injure themselves by going into cold water, when they are not sufficiently warm. The robust themselves probably bring down the tone of the system by the same inadvertency. For this reason, I can see no sense in the common notion, that it is best to bathe with an empty stomach. I would not recommend the cold bath to a person full gorged. But it is desirable that the stomach should be in a state of gentle activity, as well as the external surface of the body.

It has appeared to me, in one or two instances of grown people, that a diarrhoea was induced by the cold bath, in consequence of the stomach being empty and inert at the

time of its use. I am certain that in feeble infants the same effect has followed, when the water has been even up to seventy degrees. When this happens, the temperature should be raised, and a small quantity of warm and spiced food should be given shortly before the infant is dipped. The sense of greater alertness and greater power to resist both cold and heat, are the surest signs that the water has been at a proper temperature, and that the whole process agrees. In infancy there is often, in a very short time, an evident increase of ruddiness, and a heightened complexion indicates, with considerable certainty, increased vigour of the whole system, as could be easily shewn by entering into physiological discussion.

The use of cold air is more ready, safe, and agreeable, than that of cold water. It is to the mere abstraction of heat, and not to any recondite quality that we owe, nine times in ten, the refreshment we experience on going abroad into the open air, when its temperature does not verge towards either extreme. It is from the same source that the few, who spend much time in the open air, without being chilled, or overworked and underfed, derive that freshness of feeling by which they are distinguished from sedentary mortals. GEORGE FOY.

J

midsummer she was thrown into a perspiration by play, and felt very hot, but not at all fatigued. She immediately dipped her face into a bucket of water, just fresh drawn from the spring. She is certain she had no general or partial chill after; on the contrary, her face in a very few minutes felt excessively flushed. Her skin from that time forwards grew more and more coarse, and in the space of a few months an eruption of pimples took place; and they have continued ever since, that is, for about ten years. The patient has also ever since been subject to the most violent flushings after dinner. The skin of the face is evidently altered in its whole tex

ture.

But although in the glow of perspiration it seems dangerous to take general or partial liberties with cold spring water, Dr. Franklin is of opinion that "during the great "heats of summer, there is no danger in

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bathing in rivers, which have been tho

roughly warmed by the sun, however hot

we may be." And all subsequent experience seems to vouch for the opinion of this great observer. But the continuance in the river should be short. Only when the chill of perspiration has come on, then undoubtedly every medium, capable of depriving the body

of warmth, and much more if it conduct heat rapidly, menaces danger. The moist garments should be laid aside, and the body rubbed before a fire. This seems the only

safe plan.

The same distinctions ought to be recommended to notice, as to drinks. In the warm state, a moderate quantity of liquid, not less than thirty or forty degrees above the freezing point, may be admitted. But cold water, and still more ices, should be strictly avoided. The chill requires liquids, (as wine and water) above the temperature of the human body, and indeed as warm as can be conveniently swallowed. In case of a chilly seizure from the unwary use and application of cold water, very hot liquids, taken till the contrary sensation arises, would probably prevent all injurious consequences. And at those orgies of courtly gluttony, where we hear of the serving up of ices in such profusion, and where, every now and then, it is the fate of an ambassador to eat himself to death, almost on the spot, I am of opinion that there should always be at hand an urn, full of warm cordial beverage. By a draught of this, at the decisive moment, such serious diplomatic accidents would, I will venture to say, be prevented even more frequently than persons

are recovered from drowning by the measures of the humane society. Nor am I acquainted with any contrast more miserable than that which is formed by the ingenuity of the professors of the culinary art in providing poisons, and their stupid neglect of antidotes. And this where the existence of grave personages, charged with the interest of nations, is at stake! Nor would it be amiss, if sovereigns, in selecting their representatives, were a little mindful of the power of the stomach, as well as of the head!

It may somewhat assist the judgment, if I observe that the effect of any cooling application should be considered as acting through successive moments, or by successive quantities. If a person in a heated state drink half a pint of cool liquid, that may not sensibly reduce him below the natural healthy state. But if he pour down a double quantity at once, the last half pint may be regarded as operating upon the system, reduced by the first, and sinking it into a dangerous chilliness. So immersion for a moment in a sunny river may strengthen and refresh, as many pedestrian travellers have experienced; whereas delay in the water would be attended with great hazard, on account of the continued operation of a heat-abstracting medium upon a system,