ure water. The vapor bath, when the vapor is not
breathed, acts more powerfully, though much in the same manner as the
warm bath, but it is more useful in common cold and rheumatism. The
warm-air bath, at from 100 deg. to 120 deg., is highly convenient and useful,
where it is desirable to excite perspiration, as in rheumatism, scaly
eruptions, and certain stages of fever and cholera. The plan most
readily adopted is that of Dr. Gower: A lamp is placed under the end of
a metallic tube, which is introduced under the bed-clothes, which are
raised from the body by a wicker frame-work, and the degree of heat
regulated by moving the lamp.

The _cold bath_ is unsafe in infancy and old age, in plethoric habits,
in spitting of blood, in eruptive diseases, in great debility, during
pregnancy, and in case of weakness from any existing local disease of an
acute nature; but in nearly all other states of the body, cold water is
the best stimulant of the nerves, the finest quickener of every
function, the most delightful invigorator of the whole frame, qualifying
both brain and muscles for their utmost activity, and clearing alike the
features and the fancy from clouds and gloom.

Cold may always be safely applied when the surface is heated by warmth
from without, as from hot water or the vapor bath, and, indeed, whenever
the body is hot without previous exercise of an exhausting kind.
Probably, the method adopted by the Romans, in their palmiest days, of
plunging into the _baptisterium_, or cold bath, immediately after the
vapor or hot bath, or, as a substitute, the pouring of cold water over
the head, was well calculated to invigorate the system, and give a high
enjoyment of existence. The Russian practice of plunging into a cold
stream, or rolling in the snow, after the vapor-bath, is said to be
favorable to longevity. The Finlanders are accustomed to leave their
bathing-houses, heated to 167 deg., and to pass into the open air without
any covering whatever, even when the thermometer indicates a temperature
24 deg. below zero, and that without any ill effect, but, on the contrary,
it is said that by this habit they are quite exempted from rheumatism.
Would that the luxury of bathing, so cheaply enjoyed by all classes of
old Rome, were equally available among ourselves. The conquerors of the
world introduced their baths wherever they established their power; but
we have repudiated the blessings of water in such a form, and now the