tion of the veins which
predisposes to excessive formation of fat. For the same reason, it is
generally injurious where there is a tendency to dropsy, and in some
such cases I have known it immediately followed by great lymphatic
effusion in the cellular tissue, which has been quickly removed,
however, by saline aperients and tonics.

As it is the combination of heat and moisture that renders the thermal
bath so efficacious, it frequently happens that a thoroughly hot bath
most effectually facilitates the cure, and we are not astonished that
the parboiling waters of Emmaus, at 148 deg., on the shores of Tiberias, are
as famous for their cures as any of the German baths. The
semi-barbarians about the sea of Galilee, the inhabitants of Iceland,
and the savages of America, know how to employ the hot bath skillfully;
and if we were equally accustomed with them to exercise our natural
instinct and common sense, we also might bathe in hot water without
consulting the doctor; but as it is, we had better take advantage of a
better opinion than our own. I the more earnestly urge this course,
because I know the danger of all hot baths, wherever there is acute
disease of an inflammatory kind affecting internal organs, more
especially of the lungs, heart, and bowels. Even _acute_ rheumatism is
more likely to attack the heart when the hot bath is employed; and where
there is any considerable structural disorder of that organ, the use of
the bath in any form is at all times attended with risk.

Warm baths are useful in all nervous disorders attended with debility,
in all cases in which there is dryness of the skin and a tendency to
feverish less, in mental fidgetiness, in irregular circulation, as when
a person can not take due exercise, and is subject to coldness of the
feet or hands, and in many forms of congestion and dyspepsia, with
tenderness over the stomach. It is serviceable in the convulsive
diseases of children, and in painful diseases, especially of a spasmodic
kind, but more particularly in cases of chronic irritation from local
causes, whether of the skin or of internal parts. It is injurious to
plethoric persons, to persons subject to haemorrhage of any kind, and in
the active stage of fever. But whether it would be good or bad in any
individual case, can be determined only by one who has ability to
examine and judge of that case.

As a general rule, mineral and salt-water warm baths are less relaxing
than those of p