pinions on any such subjects are, therefore, deserving of our special attention. Thus, on the subject of catching cold, he alleged, that instead of a cold being contracted by the body's being exposed to some external cause which may stop the insensible perspiration, such as cold air blowing partially on some part of the body, its continuing for some time wet, &c. a feast, or some excess in eating or drinking, will be generally found to have preceded. In confirmation of this opinion, he observed, that those who led temperate lives seldom caught cold even though their constitutions and habit of body might seem to be little able to withstand the effects of such causes.

I was a witness of, what I thought, a singular instance of the truth of this opinion. Upon my mentioning it to a gentleman who eats no animal food, and drinks no fermented liquor, or spirits, he said that he would give it a fair trial. He accordingly, early on the first dewy summer morning, walked among long grass, till his feet and legs were perfectly wet, and continued out of doors from six till eight, and, when he came in to breakfast, could not be prevailed on to have dry shoes and stockings till he returned to dress at noon. No cold ensued, though wet feet are reckoned among the most frequent causes of catching cold. He afterwards thanked me much for freeing him from many restraints, founded, as he now experienced, on prejudice.

Sir J. Pringle and the Doctor being confined at Calais by contrary winds, agreed to try the experiment. Sir John was to give such directions to the Doctor, as in his opinion would expose the Doctor to catch cold; and the Doctor was to prescribe such a diet to Sir John, while he cautiously avoided every cause that might expose him to catch a cold. The Doctor observing a moderation in diet escaped catching cold; though he frequently exposed himself, in such situations, as Sir John supposed might probably occasion the Doctor's catching cold. The wind became fair before the effects of Sir John's feasting appeared; but I have heard them both confess that the probability was on the Doctor's side. The experiment could not be well repeated in London, because both were so frequently exposed to company, that such strict rules could not be conveniently followed.

The Doctor remarked, that those who eat no suppers, especially after plentiful dinners, were much less liable to catch cold, for they thereby avoided adding a quantity of indigested juices with what are, in some degree, in a digested state. They who make their supper their principal

meal do not suffer by it, because the stomach being pretty empty, an improper mixture of juices does not enter the lacteals.

1791, March.

Yours, &c.

S. A.

LXXXIV. Method of using the Cold Bath to most advantage. "Fies nobilium tu quoque Fontium."

MR. URBAN,

HOR. 3. Carm. xiii. 13.

THE intention of the following lines will be a sufficient apology for troubling you with them. I hope and trust the hints they contain may make them worthy the attention of many of your readers, as well as contribute to the health and comfort of some individuals of that number; than which nothing can be more gratifying to the writer, whose sole view in their publication is the benefit of those who seek, what they deserve, health.

The important good consequences of cold-bathing needs nothing to be said at this time of day to recommend it to the notice of the debilitated. The experience of mankind has taught its uses and effects; which have been further sanctioned by many writers, and some of the most eminent in the medical world, who have, at different times, very ably employed their pens on the subject. To the latter for its virtues, and to the present enlightened faculty for the propriety of its use individually, the application of invalids is recommended. When that is determined, it is the mode only I am about to prescribe.

Waving, therefore, every endeavour at attempting to offer any thing new on the general subject, as to the medical powers of the cold bath, I shall only briefly relate what led me to use the mode recommended below; what were its effects on myself, and on some others who, by my advice, have been in the habit of using it; adding a few practical hints, which, I hope, will make an operation, very frightful to many, not only pleasanter, but much more effectually, and, I hope, more extensively, useful.

From a natural delicacy in my constitution, and wishing

to enjoy what one would almost think some people thought not worth having, I have been long accustomed to this remedy, and have the greatest reason to think I owe much comfort to its friendly aid. Sea-bathing, if my attentive observation has not deceived me, in general has been more certainly advantageous in its tonic powers; but whether that superiority arises only from its holding saline particles dissolved, or whether the large body of water the sea contains is at all contributing, or if any thing is particularly due to its comparative specific gravity; whether the purity of the air breathed during its use, compared with that of a crowded city, and the relaxation of the inind from business, and the amusement enjoyed in a large society, where every member seems disposed to be and to make happy, has not each its demand; which separately has the greatest claim, it would perhaps be hard to determine, while it must be allowed that each has its merit. Something probably is due to its impregnation; but the sum of all these circumstances co-operating, no doubt, fills the measure of its effects; and in its use likewise, as well from my own observation as from the information of others, whose constitutions were alike tender, I have learned there is much less chance of taking cold, an accident to which the most tender are, even with the greatest care and circumspection, occasionally exposed in using the cold bath in the usual way. This circumstance has induced me for some years past to recommend, in the dipping weakly children at a distance from the sea, the addition of as much sea or bay salt to the water as would make the solution nearly as salt, or rather a little salter than seawater; and the event has ever fully rewarded the practice, and substantiated the preference; for I have seen some unhealthy children more benefited by a few weeks bathing in this way, than by months in fresh-water; and others, who have received no benefit by fresh long continued, very soon get colour, spirits, and strength, from a change to the salted. The formation of such a bath was easy for infants, but less manageable for adults. To avoid, therefore, in the common method of using the cold bath, such temporary interruptions to its use, and their disagreeable consequences, which I have frequently known to be a continual distress to the too quickly apprehensive mind of the valetudinarian; and studious myself to enjoy that luxury as often as possible, with every advantage to be derived from any improvement my fancy could suggest; it claimed much of my attention and many schemes, some inconvenient, and others impracticable, occurred, till the following presented itself

to my mind; and, after long use, I have the pleasure to think it highly deserving of notice, as it seems to give the fresh-water cold bath some of the properties of sea bathing, and to me that satisfactory incentive to its use, the recollection of never having caught cold since it was adopted. It has still another advantage or two of its own; the first and not the smallest of which is, that by it, the towels being rendered rougher, the friction in drying after the bath is increased; and what is, I fear, too often neglected, I mean the rubbing by those with whom it should be particularly a matter of the first consequence (the tender and chilly,) who are generally those who are apt to be too much in a hurry to get on their clothes, and by that means frequently take cold. For their sakes, now that friction is the subject, viewing the importance of that part of the operation, it would seem wrong to proceed without urging the practice of it to a much greater extent than is customary, and that immediately before as well as after bathing. I believe, from my own experience, that the good effects of this remedy will, in many cases, be considerably increased, if, before the immersion, the body and extremities be well rubbed for a few minutes with a flesh-brush. To the notice of those afflicted with chronic rheumatism, as well as to the shivering bather, it is very earnestly recommended. The stay of the delicate and those with tender bowels, in the water, should be very short; the more robust may indulge longer. The other, and perhaps not less important advantage, is that of using their own towels (which should be coarse and rough as can be borne,) untainted with the excrementitious discharges of the skins of a multitude, and perhaps often negligently washed; the truth of which no very nice degree of perfection in the olfactory nerves, is necessary to discover in the clean towels of a public bath. Except in this circumstance, perhaps no public baths in the world exceed in their conveniences and perfection those of London, as far as I have been able to learn.

The practice alluded to, and which I can now with confidence recommend, is that of impregnating the towels with sea salt, by dipping them in a solution of that salt in water, and then drying them. The solution I have used is four ounces to a quart of water: a coarse hand-towel of the common size, by being thoroughly wetted in this solution, when dried, acquires an increase of weight of about an ounce; consequently contains that quantity of sea salt, which is as much perhaps as is necessary, or as would be pleasant. The solution may be repeated, after three or four

times using them, by those who are satisfied with one set of towels some time, as easily as once by the more nice. The roughness given to the cloths, when dry, by the salt, assisted probably by the stimulus of the salt itself, adds very considerably to the much-to-be-wished-for glow. And as, in the action of rubling the body, some of the salt becomes dissolved by the drops hanging to the skin, and is of course spread over the whole surface of the body, and is partly absorbed; to that absorption, which is perhaps more alive during the empty state in which bathing is generally recommended, are to be attributed the good effects of medicated baths, both natural and artificial. The common shower-bath will be much improved in its efficacy by the addition of a proper quantity of salt in its water.

What is in the present case the immediate rationale of its action, or to what cause is to be attributed the preference of sea over fresh water, as it is not the professed design of this paper, we wish to leave undiscussed. The safest means of applying a powerful and pleasant remedy to the diseased, the result of experience, being all we intended, the modus operandi is left for a more ably-directed pen. It may be that the stimulus given by the saline spicula to the cuticular glands, by its absorption, may not be the smallest of its causes, especially when it is recollected how extensive is its application, and at the same time the great importance of the functions of the absorbing surface. How powerful frequently is the application of a solution of some of the neutral salts in local glandular affections topically applied! Another circumstance, worth notice in an inquiry of this kind, is the effect of some neutral salts in fresh-drawn blood; an example of which every winter affords in a well known culinary preparation of hog's blood; I mean, that of preventing its coagulation. In the extreme and minute sanguiferous vessels, where the circulation must necessarily be very weak and slow, on account of their great distance from the source of its motion, its moving power, and especially in those of the skin, when exposed to cold air in such situations, may not somewhat like a disposition to coagulation exist? and may not the introduction of such particles do away an approaching evil? Perhaps instinct first recommended the use of that material with our food for some such wise purpose: the practice will be found, upon recollection, very general, and gives a probability to such an idea. The learned and ingenious Bishop of Landaff has said, in his "Chemical Essays," that the salt in sea water applied to the skin is not absorbed. I confess myself of a