Volume 2

Health lectures for the people.

Date:
1883-1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Health lectures for the people. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    83/600 (page 71)
    wrapt in warm blankets, take hot spirits and water in small occasional doses, and then be left to rest and sleep. The Warm Bath is not nearly of such general application as the cold and cool bath. For the purpose of thoroughly cleansing the skin it is more useful than the cold. The warm bath should be taken in the evening, and those who have not the means of bathing at home, but who go to a public bath, ought to take a cool or cold shower afterwards, in order to brace up the skin and so to avoid the danger of a chill from the effect of cold upon the skin while the vessels are still in a partially paralysed condi- tion. As the warm bath is sedative in its action, it should not be used very frequently unless followed by the cold affusion. The very warm bath is enervating, and it was in consequence placed at one time under the ban of the Church. It should not be used by those who have tendency to faint. If after a day of great fatigue the muscles are tired and stiff a warm bath in the evening for twenty minutes or half an hour will, by facilitating the transformation in the tissues, remove the sense of fatigue much sooner than it could be done by rest alone. Napoleon after a day of fatigue, instead of seeking rest in sleep, so refreshed himself by a warm bath that he was able to continue a march overnight and, if need be, to engage the enemy the next day. Those of rather delicate constitution, and those recovering from some debilitating illness may, by sponging with warm or tepid salt water, obtain an amount of stimulation which could only have been attained by the use of fresh water of a cooler temperature. Such a bath is very useful for delicate children the subject of frequent cold in the head and chest, who cannot bear even the milder form of cool sponging without catching fresh cold. By the persistent use of tepid or salt water sponging they may become much less like hot-house plants. The Hot Bath can only be borne for a very short time. It powerfully excites the action of the heart. The Eussian Bath ought not to be taken by those affected with palpitation of the heart, heart disease, or fulness of head. The Turkish Bath should not be taken very frequently,