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             THE

 ART  OF  SWIMMING,
      EXEMPLIFIED BY DIAGRAMS,
FROM WHICH BOTH SEXES MAY LEARN TO SWIM AND
        FLOAT ON THE WATER;
              AND
 RULES FOR ALL KINDS OF BATHtNG,
             IN THE
     PRESERVATION OF HEALTH,
              AND
CURE OF DISEASE:
AUTHOR OF THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF PRACTICAL**WOKKEEPING BY
  DOUBLE ENTRY, OF BOOK-KEEPING BY SINGLE ENTRY, AND
     OTHER LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC WORKS.
     NEW-YORK:
COLLINS, BROTHER  & CO.
        18 3. 
            vaF




         „   J«4-fe  .

        'f~)/,/)n/ <-lk 2s/  j.v. y






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 7? 6, by
          C. H. BE N N ET,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern
          District of New-York,
VtHCENT L. DILL, 6TERE0TYFER 
THE ART  OF  SWIMMING.
             GENERAL REMARKS.

Swimming is the  art of sustaining the body in
water while making headway by the*action of the
hands and feet.  The frog presents the most per-
fect example for human swimming.
   This art, which is common to both savage and
civilized nations, and which has been in use in all
ages, is, notwithstanding, not well  understood  by
those who most practice it.
   The ancients used to characterize the  unedu-
cated, by  saying—" neque literas, neque natare
didicet "—he can neither read nor swim.
   Swimming has  seldom been a regular  branch
in the education of youth, and almost  all  persona
who practice it, and even those who most excel in
it, have been self-taught,  and  their  eminence in it
has been the result of practice, and  not of fixed
rules.  A person, therefore, who has acquired this
eminence, if capable of writing, must be best qual- 
4       THE ART OF SWIMMING.

ified for giving  instructions to those who cannot
swim, as well as to such as wish to become real
proficients in the art.
   Although the nature and  principles of good
swimming have  not had their due  consideration,
yet the  art is not recondite or difficult to under-
stand.   The greatest diffiqulty is in the first at-
tempts,  and in persuading the individual that if he
is  calm, and will keep a certain position in  the
water, and perform certain motions with his hands
and feet, he will be sure not only to  remain on the
top of the water, but to go ahead.   This difficulty
can be surmounted only by experiment  and  prac-
tice, which will give the individual confidence the
oftener  he tries  to succeed.  The learner must
always bear in  mind, that his  body, while he can
breathe, is lighter than water, unless he is uncom-
monly  thin in flesh,  when  it will be  about the
same specific gravity, or weight of water, bulk for
bulk. A very fleshy person is much lighter  than
water, on which he can float like a log.
   We  learn from the Philosophical Transactions,
that  a variety of experiments on the gravity of the
human body, have been tried in Europe.  That in
comparing the weight of ten different individuals,
with that  of the water each  displaced, the follow-
ing results were ascertained, viz :  " Excepting 
           GENERAL  REMARKS.          5

two, each man was  lighter than his equal bulk of
salt water."  This holds good with regard to the
whole body ; but if we  cut off a human foot  and
throw it into water, it will sink.  So of the whole
leg, to the knee. And so of the whole leg and thigh,
unless it be a female or male thigh, uncommonly fat,
when in this case the whole foot, leg, and thigh,
will be about the same weight of the  water  they
displace, even after the arteries have been filled
with this fluid.  The human head will also sink
in consequence of the large quantity of brain  and
bone composing it.  So will the hand and fore-
arm, but the arm  to the shoulder of a very fat fe-
male, will not sink, as the bone is not in propor-
tion  to the spongy  flesh.  Thus,  then, when we
divest the  human  body of all its  members,  and
leave but the trunk, if we throw it into the water,
it will float like a log, and will require a weight
to sink it.   These experiments have all been tried.
   Another experiment was : They plugged up
the  nose, and  put i.u  aohesive  plaster on  the
mouth of a man just accidentally killed, so as to
prevent the access of  water to  the  lungs   and
stomach, and then launched  him into deep water,
where he floated in an upright position, with  a
portion  of  the head out, from the eyebrows  up-
wards. 
V       THE ART  OP SWIMMING.

   It will then be seen from  these experiments,
as well as from  the experience of every good
swimmer, that it requires but  little well directed
action  to keep the human body  afloat,  as well as
give it headway in the water.  But although the
action of swimming is very simple, yet  as regards
mankind it has to be" acquired, for if left to his
own uncouth  struggles he will be  sure to drown.
Throw almost any of the young inferior animals
into  water, and it will  swim;  whereas, if we
throw in an infant, it will drown.  Man, therefore,
is not  a swimmer by nature, but must become so
by art.                                v
   Doctor Franklin's opinion on  the  gravity of
the human body when compared  with water, is
well known.   He thinks that the legs, arms, and
head, are specifically heavier than fresh water, but
lighter than salt water.  Experiment has shown,
however, that the legs, arms, and  head, are heavier
than either fresh or salt water, and that the trunk,
in consequence of the air in the intestines, stomach,
and lungs, is much lighter than either salt or fresh
water.  When Doctor Franklin wrote, the experi-
ments  were not tried, and of course he gave mere-
ly an opinion.
    The Doctor also  states that clothes give  little
additional weight in the water.   This, however. 
GENERAL  REMARKS.
7
depends on  their kind, for woolen  clothes, wher
wet, will  immediately sink, while cotton clothes
are buoyant. But clothes of any kind are extremely
incumbersome to the swimmer, and if possible he
should throw them off.
   A good  swimmer can very readily throw off
his coat and vest by turning on his back, and in-
deed can wholly strip himself in the water, if his
boots be not too tight, for while he strips one foot
he can kick with the other—can  open the knots
on his draws, and do all other acts necessary to
strip.  He can then tie up and carry them to land,
if within reach.  And if he should become fatigued
in these exertions, all  he has to do is to throw
himself back on the  water, with his head under,
all but  his  mouth and nose, and  his arms, either
under his back, projected  above his shoulders, or
out from his sides, under water, and then float at
his ease as long  as he may think proper.   A good
floater might throwhimself into the Hudson at the
city of New-York, and float on his  back with the
tide out of the Narrows, seven miles,  or  even to
Sandy Hook, twenty miles.  With a flask of good
port wine, and a few crackers, the  author of this
little book would not think much of the feat, the
water being sufficiently warm.
   Fat persons who cannot swim, are much more 
8       THE ART  OF  SWIMMING.
fortunate than lean ones in the same predicament;
for if they but lie straight on the water, and keep
the back part of the  head with the arms, under,
they might take  a comfortable nap, and not know
they were out of bed.   A fat man or woman must
be both extremely cowardly as  well as clumsy, to
get drowned  at all, if  not injured when falling in.
   A person with his face to the water, is  more
buoyant  than when on his back, but  swims with
less ease to himself, because the air in his lungs is
nearer his breast than his back.  The distress is
occasioned by the weight of his body  pressing on
his lungs on one side,  and the water on the other,
whereas on his back there is no pressure whatever.
   When at  rest in the  water, the feet and legs
sink first; and when on the back it is necessary,
in order  to float, to get the balance of  the body
by throwing the  head  back under the water, so as
to have the air of the lungs and  intestines support
the lower extremities. Some persons attempt to
float by holding in their breath as long as possible
and discharging  it in  as short a time as  possible,
keeping the air for the greater part of the time in
the lungs; but this  is  somewhat distressing, and
need never be resorted to excepting by very thin
persons,  whose bones make the greater part of
their weight.  Ordinary breathing will be sufficient; 
            GENERAL REMARKS.         9

for at every inspiration the body rises a little, and
at every expiration sinks a little—I think about an
inch—the equilibrium remaining the same.
   But the  great difficulty with the untaught, is
to maintain this equilibrium of the body.  The first
act of faith must be that the body is lighter than
water, and will float; and the next must be cour-
age, or the absence of fear at least.  A person who*
will  not  stretch himself out perfectly straight on
the  water, cannot float, as  he cannot throw the
centre of the gravity of his body on the air in his
lungs, and you can hardly persuade him to put his
ears under water.  There is a  cowardly drop  in
such persons, who have often vexed me to see their
stupidity.  There is nothing so contemptible  as
cowardice in the human race.
    To a novice in the art, it is  almost incredible
£o what perfection swimming can be brought.  A
good swimmer can  propel  himself forward to  a
distance equal  to the  length of his body at each
stroke, and can  go at  the rate of three miles an
hour without artificial means applied to his  hands
and  feet; and by floating, to rest, can remain two
or three  days and nights in the water.
    Thirst and hunger are less  severely felt than
on land,  owing, it is probable, to the bracing and
cooling effect of the water. 
 10      THE  ART OF SWIMMING.

    Persons have been  known to have performed
 the  extraordinary distance  of thirty miles  on a
 stretch ;  and it is recorded that  Nicolo Pesce, a
 famous Neapolitan diver, performed the incredible
 distance  of fifty  miles  on the coast of Calabria;
 arid  that  water had become  almost  as well suited
 to his nature as the land on which he was  born.
 He is said to have remained five successive days
 and  nights at sea, with the most perfect impunity;
 and  that  he was web-handed, and web-footed, like
 a  duck.  Bernardi's pupils,  it is said, were  able
 to perform, on  the eleventh  day of their instruc-
 tion  in swimming, a circuit of six miles.
   There are many fanciful  positions and motion
 practised by persons who are masters of the art,
 besides common swimming  and  floating; such as
 holding  one toe and spinning round like  a top:
 swimming on the back, by throwing the hands at
 every stroke out of the  water and seizing on the
 fluid in advance of the head, like oars : by swim-
 ming very fast, and  then throwing a somerset out
 of the water:  by walking  the  water with  the
hands folded on the  breast:  by swimming on the
 back and moving feet  foremost, the toes  being
over water:  by swimming with  artificial fins on
the hands and feet.
   Diving, or the power of descending in water ei- 
GENERAL  REMARKS.         H
 ther obliquely or perpendicularly, is also a kind of
 swimming.  It is astonishing to what perfection it
 can be brought by constant practice. No people per-
 haps, in the world, are equal in this respect  to the
 inhabitants of Otaheite.   These divers have caught
 a BritHh shilling, when thrown into th^ sea, before
 it reached the bottom.  Pearls and  shell-fish are
 brought from the bottom of the sea by expert di-
 vers, and in ancient times, divers  were employed
 to  destroy the  ships of the enemy  at sea.  All
 good swimmers can dive less or more,  but great ex-
 pertness can be attained only by constant practice.
    The safest way of going into deep water  from
 a height, is feet-foremost,  as has  been proved by
 the celebrated Sam Patch, who jumped into the
 Passaic, the Niagara, and  the  Genesee  Falls,  at
 which last place, being in liquor, he lost his life, by
 losing  his  balance  going  down;  but those  who
 dive head-foremost should always  go in with the
 hands  and arms extended above  the head, the
 hands and  head entering  first, the feet last, the
 whole  person being perfectly straight.   When
 swimming under water, the eyes should always be
kept open, so as to  be able to see any object that
may be in  the way.  When  the sun  shines,  it  is
really beautiful to look round you  in clear water.
At the  first attempt at  keeping the eyes open,  it 
12
THE  ART  OF  SWIMMING.
 will be found somewhat  disagreeable, but after a
 few times it will not be noticed.  The water, too,
 pressing against the external membrane of the ear,
 is sometimes annoying, and, in  fact, is injurious to
 some individuals ; but this can be avoided  by plug-
 ging the  ears with a little cotton wool.   #
     Man  does not appear to be intended by nature
 for  diving,  or  at least for  remaining any  great
 length  of time  under  water,  regular  respiration
 being  so necessary for  the maintenance of life.
 By  the greatest inspiration he  cannot carry down
 with him a larger quantity of air than will supply
 his blood for  two minutes.   This we learn  from
 the  physiologists,  but we think  two minutes more
 time than any ordinary diver can remain under
 water.  At half a minute, I myself  begin to feel
 a little uneasy;  at three quarters of a minute, very
 much so ; and at a full  minute, almost suffocated;
 and  this is longer than  most persons can  remain
 under water, but I acquired it by constant practice,
 and  found too, that when a student on vegetable
 diet, I could remain longer than in after life, when
 living more on animal food.   The divers in the Ar-
 chipelago take down oil in their mouths, and  dis-
charge  it  to calm the surface of the water,  that
they may  see the better the objects for which they
are in search.  Oil  spreads itself  on  the surface, 
GENERAL  REMARKS.         13
 and will calm all the ripples and waVes in a very
 short time.  A barrel of oil will calm an immense
 surface of the sea.
    There is, however, another difficulty attending
 divers in very deep water, which is its immense
 pressure on  the chest.   It does appear to me that
 this pressure increased in thirty  feet water, in
 which I used to dive, in arithmetical progression.
 It appeared  like winding me in a rope.
    Many speculations have been entered into with
 regard to the relative natural  aptitude of man for
 swimming, when compared to other animals.  Man,
 it must be confessed, labors under considerable in-
 feriority in this  respect,  merely from his physical
 construction, for if he had a long neck like a horse,
 so as to be able  to keep his nose out of the water,
 he would be  supported by the  air in his trunk, and
 could swim by merely pawing like that animal, as
 this is one of the fanciful methods practiced by good
 swimmers.   But by practice man can exceed all
 the other animals in this  art.  There is no animal,
 not even a fish, that has ever attempted to swim on
 its back, while a strong human swimmer can not
 only do this,  but jump out of the  water like the
 trout  or salmon, falling  in again  head-foremost.
 The shark turns  on his back when  about to seize
his prey, but  does not swim so. 
           s
 14      THE  ART  OF SWIMMING.

    Fish swim not by means of their fins, which
 mostly serve to balance them in the water, but by
 a stroke of their tails,  first one way, then the other ;
 and those with horizontal tails make an undulatory
 motion, as the others make a lateral motion, first to
 one side then to the other.  At most the fins have
 very little propelling power.  But fish of all kinds
 possess natural abilities for swimming, such as the
 air-bladder, or bodies, flat or  thin, or long and flexi
 ble.  Water, however, is  their natural element,
 and they swim in it and not on  it.  Some  of them
 when chased by an enemy, will leave  the water
 and fly through the air.  The author of this little
 book saw two of these flying fish, in 1810, spring
 from  the water,  in the Atlantic ocean,  and  fly
 through the air, describing an arch, the  chord line
 or distance on the  sea of which,  was at least half a
 mile, and the height or versed  sine of which was
between two and three  hundred feet.   It is said
that they can fly as long as their fins remain  wet,
but this has not as  yet, he thinks, been established
as a fact.
    The brute  creation, though  incomparably in-
ferior to fish in this respect, are yet  superior, at
least  while young, to  the  human race.  They
are, in the first place,  it is said, incapable of fear.
But this, as regards some of them, maybe doubted; 
            GENERAL REMARKS.         15

 for we know that  the horse is afraid both before
 and after he is in the water.
    Bernardi states it as a reason why the inferior
 animals swim so well, because their heads are so
 light, in proportion to their bodies.   This does not
 hold good with respect  to the horse, for his head
 being nearly all bone, is as heavy, or nearly so, in
 proportion to his body, as that of man, yet he is an
 excellent swimmer.  If the horse had a neck and
 face like a man, he would drown in five minutes,
 and so would most of the other inferior animals.
   It may be interesting as well as  instructive to
 some of my youngreaders, tohearhowthe author,
 now their teacher,  learned to swim.
   When about seven years old, he was in the habit,
 with other boys, some who could swim and others
 who could not, of resorting to a small brook  after
 school hours, with  a view of taking a wash.  The
 water was  in places from three to six feet deep,
 with a fine sandy bottom.
   One afternoon we were down as usual at the
brook, all  stripped, and  the large boys who could
swim in the  water,  when a young man, a neighbor,
came along, stripped and  plunged  into  the  deep
water also.   He immediately came out, stepped up
to me, and said, " James, I will show you how to
swim ;  get on my back, my boy, and put your hands 
16      THE ART  OF  SWIMMING.

round my neck."  This I did, nothing fearing,  for
I was on the  back of the best swimmer  I have
ever seen from  that day to this.  He then took
both my hands in one of his, and plunged in head
fore-most, and carried me under water about a rod.
Although somewhat frightened, I soon found that
there was no  harm done, yet I did not like the ex-
periment repeated, as I had swallowed some water
against my inclination, but he  having hold of my
hands said,  " shut your  mouth  and  hold your
breath," which I did,  when he suddenly went to the
bottom, and  crossed  the brook again like a shark
with his prey. " Now," said he, " James, you will
be a swimmer."
  The name  of this young man was Thomas Tay-
lor, who afterwards became a distinguished Metho-
dist  preacher.
  " Now," said he, " if you promise not to be afraid,
I will show you  that  you can lie on the water like
a log, and will not sink if you obey my directions."
The boys all knew him to be so good a swimmer that
none feared drowning in his presence. This also
gave me courage. He then took me in his afms, laid
me on my back in the water, and told me  to make
myself as straight as possible, with my feet a lit-
tle apart.  He then placed his hand under  the mid-
dle of my back, and told me to extend my  arms out 
           GENERAL REMARKS.         17

from my sides under the water, which I did. " Now
lay your head back quite low in the water, over the
ears, and keep perfectly straight;" this was also
done.  " Now, draw in your breath for a moment,"
was the next command; at that instant he withdrew
his hand from  my back, with the caution not to
stir.  I obeyed, and to my great delight floated
like a  piece of wood.  Seeing me distressed for
breath, he placed his  hand again under my back
and enabled me  to breathe a few times, when he
again left me to myself, when I floated as before ;
and although I could  not  yet  swim, I have been
able to float from that  day to this, and never had
but this one lesson.                           '
  " Now,"  said Mr. Taylor, "since you have been
so fearless and obedient, I shall  show you how to
swim."  He  then took me out of the water, and
closing the  fingers of his right hand, and bringing
his  thumb close to  the  forefinger, forming  a hol-
low in the hand, " do  that "  said he ;  which I did.
"Now, with the other hand" said he. This I also did.
'.' Now, put your thumbs and  forefingers together,
thus, with the palms  of your hands  downwards.
Now  bring  your hands up to your breast, thus,
with your elbows  close to your sides.  Now ex-
tend your hands out before you in that position in
front of your breast as far as you  can."  This was
                               2* 
 18       THE  ART OF SWIMMING.

 done.  " Now stoop and separate your hands by
 making a slow stroke outwards  and backwards,
 thus.   Very  well,"  said he ;  " do it again,—and
 and again,—and again."  After  exercising me  in
 this way for sometime, he said,  " stand on the bank,
 and see me kick like a frog in the water."  He then
 went in, and after seeing his motions I felt quite
 sure that I could swim.
   But on trial, I began to strike  so fast, that  I
 would have sunk, had Mr. Taylor not supported me,
 and at  the same time scolded me for not striking
 slow and wide, as he had directed.   I  then made
 the second trial, and succeeded.   I now enjoyed
 the most exquisite pleasure, to think that I could
 both swim and  float,  after a lesson of less than half
 an hour.  This same Thomas Taylor, by a peculiar
 action  of his hands  and arms, would roll on the
 water like a barrel on the ground, first to the right
 and then to the left.
   When the stroko is made in swimming, each of
 the hands must describe the quadrant of a circle, at
 least; but the best swimmers  take in a sector of
 one hundred and thirty degrees, one of the semi-
 diameters commencing at the breast, and termina-
ting in front of the  head, the full  length of the
 hand and arm, and the other  terminating the ef-
 fectual stroke, and meeting the first at the breast. 
GENERAL  REMARKS.
19
    When  the  stroke  with  the hands is making,
 the  legs must  be drawn up, and when the hands
 are returning in front, the kick must be made, the
 feet  being kept by a grown person about two feet
 apart, or more.   The kick must be made obliquely
 downwards, and as strong and quick as possible.
   Boys when  learning to swim, should always do
 so in calm, shallow water, not more than three or
 four feet deep ; and to enable them to learn how to
 strike and kick, they may use a pair of hog's blad-
 ders or India-rubber globes, on a short string under
 their arms, or cork wood will answer this purpose
 quite as well.   They can also  learn to float,  by
 placing either of these articles under the lower part
 of the back, or at such a point as will maintain the
 equilibrium of the body in the water ; but by most
 learners none of these articles will be required.
  The floating baths in cities are most excellent and
 safe  places for both men, women and boys to learn
 to float and swim. Every humau being with perfect
limbs, or wjio is capable, should learn to swim and
 float; for floating is quite as useful as swimming.
By it you can rest  when tired;  and, with a few
crackers and flask of wine or water, you can swim
almost any distance, particularly in deep, warm salt
water. The person who cannot float, soon tires, and
if far at sea must be lost,  unless picked up. 
20
THE ART  OF SWIMMING.
    practice  of th,e %xt of  Swimming.

   Notwithstanding the foregoing general remarks,
we think proper to treat this important subject in
a more systematic manner.  The learner is, there-
fore, called on  to notice
            DIRECT SWIMMING.
   1. That the fingers of the hands must be kept
close  together, the thumbs pressing  close to the
fore-fingers, forming a cavity within the palm.
  2.  That when about to commence swimming, the
hands must be  brought up to the breast, with the
thumbs and fore-finger  touching each  other, and
the palms towards the water, thus :
   3. That before making the stroke, both hands
in the last position must be extended  in front of
the breast, as far as possible.
 
           DIRECT  SWIMMING.         21

   4. That the stroke must be made by sweeping
the hands as far round as you can, in an outward
and obliquely downward direction, the  thumbs
downwards, and the hands maintaining  an angle
during the stroke, of about twenty degrees  from
the surface of the water, thus :
 
22
THE  ART OF  SWIMMING.
   5. That at the termination of the stroke, the
hands are to be brought quickly in under the breast
to their first position, to be ready for another effort.
   6. That while the stroke  with the hands  is
making, the legs must be brought up for the kick,
with the knees open, and the feet pointed back, to
prevent the resistance of the water.
   7. That the kick  must  be made a little out-
wards and downwards, at the instant the hands are 
         SWIMMING  ON  THE BACK.      23

returning to their position for a stroke, and the in-
side of the feet nearly  parallel with the bottom.
    8. That while the  kick is  making, the  feet
must be at right  angles with the legs in their po-
tion as standing.
    9. That the head must be thrown back, and
the chin projected upwards to keep the water out
of the mouth and nose.
    10. The efforts with both hands and feet must be
made as far distant as possible, and moderately slow.   <
    These rules being  observed, the learner must
most certainly swim, if he keeps himself void of
that puny fear, which the love or care of mothers
usually communicate to their sons.

         SWIMMING  ON  THE BACK.

  Let it be observed—
  1. That swimming on the back is mostly effect-
ed by kicking with the  feet, the hands being folded
across the breast, but
  2. That some assistance may be given  to the
headway by drawing the hands as far back as pos-
sible, close to the sides, and making a push  with
the fingers pointed to the surface of the water.
  3. That  the head must be thrown back under
the water, and the whole person kept straight, aa
in floating. 
24      THE ART OF SWIMMING.

  4.  That to  make  rapid headway on the back,
the hands must be raised out of the water, with the
thumbs  uppermost, when the arms  are  extended
by the sides, and thrown  obliquely back  of the
shoulders into the water, taking hold of the  fluid
as oars, the back edge of the hand entering first,
and the  stroke made in that position towards the 
       FLOATING ON THE  WATER.      25

feet, and brought up, again  edgewise for the next
stroke.
  5. That this may be done in fanciful swimming,
first with  one hand  and opposite foot, and then
with the other.
  6. That in all  these motions the knees must be
kept wide apart, and the toes pointing obliquely
outwards.
  7. That the swimmer may put his hands down
deep in the  water, as far as he can put his arms
back, and  make  a strong quick  stroke under him,
with the palms of the hands facing his feet, or even
strike farther out from the  body.
  8. That the hands are then to be drawn back ra-
ther slowly, edgewise, so as to effect the next stroke.
  9. That the effort with the  feet is  to be made in
any of these cases when the hands are returning.
  10. That  a person who cannot  float can  rest
himself much by lying on  his back in the water,
and kicking moderately with his feet, just so as to
keep himself up, his  hands  either in the water or
resting on his breast.

        FLOATING ON THE  WATER.

  In my description of Thomas Taylor's instruction
to me in the art of floating,  when a boy, I have
given a most excellent lesson to any one who  will 
26       THE ART  OF  SWIMMING.
take the instruction as I did, yet I think it will not
be quite lost to repeat it here in order.

  1. When you turn on your back to float, if you
are a thin person, throw your arms obliquely above
your head, with your hands and arms under the
water.
  2. Lie back  quite straight  on  the  water with
your head under as far as you can, leaving  your
mouth and nose out.  See the diagram.
  3. Your legs  may or may not  be kept apart
when your hands are thrown in  advance of your
head, as your balance in the water will be readily
produced either  by dropping one leg or by open-
ing both legs, which shortens your length the same
as when standing.
  4. If you are a fat person, your hands may  eithet
be placed under  your  back,  alongside you in the
water, or folded on your breast.
  5. No  person  will ever float who  pulls up hia 
SWIMMING  ON  THE BACK.      27
 knees, for the instant that is done the weight of
 the bones in his legs and thighs is brought to bear
 on his pelvis or hips, which sends that part down,
 and consequently the head up, then the weight of
 the head will send all down.
   6. Thin persons may find much assistance in
 floating by  waving the  hands gently alongside,
 under water, after the manner of sculling a boat,
 first from you, with the little fingers  inclined  up,
 then towards you, with the thumbs inclined up. This
 motion will enable them to breathe freer,  whereas,
 fleshy persons need no such  assistance.
   7. Floating looks best to a bystander when  the
 toes are shown over water, and in  a  thin person
 who finds  it necessary to  keep his hands under
 water.

   8.  To turn round and swim in an opposite direction.
 If floating orswimmingon  your back, the shortest
 way is to let  your feet down, and  turn your face
 to the water, or you  can bring yourself round  by
 striking one hand and both feet, either one way or
 the other.  If swimming face downwards, and you
 wish to  take the opposite course, let your feet
down and turn on your back, then turn  instantly
over, if you wish  to assume your former position,
or you can get round to any direction  by using 
28      THE ART  OF SWIMMING.
  one hand  more than  the other, but not quite  so
  easily as the  other way.
    DIVING,  AND  SWIMMING UNDER WATER.

     1. Inhale all the  air you can by taking what is
  called a long breath ;  and if swimming when you
  are about to dive, stoop your chin to  your breast,
  when at the same moment throw your feet up, and
  strike backwards and upwards with  your hands,
  kicking at  the  same time  until  you arrive  at
  any  depth  you think  proper, then you may swim
« in any direction, or creep  on the  bottom with
  your eyes open.
     2. In returning to the surface of the water, you
  will, of course, make the shortest cut right up-
  wards, using both hands and feet, as in common
  swimming, or by pawing.
     3. As the quantity  of air  taken down will not
  supply the blood for more  than a minute in ordi-
  nary persons, without suffering great pain, and per-
  haps death, your motions under water must be very
  rapid.
     4. As the air in  the lungs has  a  tendency  to
  bring you  up and bring you  to  the  surface, the
  palms of your hands must be always facing your
  feet, and the stroke made backwards and upwards
  to keep you down. 
DIVING.
29
   5.  When you dive head-foremost from a height,
place  both your  wrists on your head, with your
hands open, in the attitude of swimming, and dive
with your knees perfectly straight and stiff, other-
wise you may receive injury.
   6.  Never fall flat on the water from any great
height, or you will be killed almost as quick as
on land.  You may dive obliquely,  but the angle
your body makes with a perpendicular should not
exceed seventeen or tvv*enty degrees.
   7.  When you leap into the water feet foremost
from a moderate height, you may place your hands
flat and close to your thighs, with  your  arms as
close as possible to your body ; but I prefer leaping
in with my arms extended as high as possible over
my head, and keep them so until the force of the
plunge is broken by the water, or at least until I
am well under the water.
   8. In leaping from  a very high place into deep
water, a la  Sam Patch,  your hands  and  arms
should be extended above your shoulders at an
angle  of forty-five degrees with the horizon, for
the purpose of  keeping your balance in the air,
but when you approach the water, throw them up
close  to your head,  to prevent their injury by en-
tering the water.
    9.  In leaping into the water, you must always 
 30      THE  ART OF SWIMMING.

 keep your feet and knees  close together, for if
 open you will suffer by it.
            FANCIFUL  SWIMMING.

    1. To swim on  the back feet foremost. • First
 float with the feet together, and the toes over water,
 keeping  your hands with the palms downwards,
 or out along your thighs, then make a bold stroke
 with both hands either directly under you down-
 wards and outwards, returning your hands slowly
 to their first position for a new effort, and you will
 move moderately quick feet foremost.   This  kind
 of swimming appears extremely handsome to per-
 sons looking on who are not themselves adepts in
 the art of swimming.
    2. Rolling over  in the water like a barrel on
shore.  This fancy touch can be done only while
you hold  your breath, because your face will come
into the water every time you go over, if the feat
be  handsomely   done, but  some  swimmers  can
catch their  breath  and  continue   for  a lonp-er
                                          o
time.
    Suppose you wish to roll to the right, first float,
keep your hands along your thighs, the left  near
the surface  of the  water, with the palm down-
wards, the right hand deeper, with the  palm up-
wards ; then strike with  the right hand up and the
j 
           FANCIFUL  SWIMMING.       31

left hand down, and you will go handsomely over
to the first position, when you can repeat your mo-
tions  and keep it a-goino-.
    3. To spin round like  a top.  Take hold  of
your right big toe, with your left hand, then kick
with your left foot and strike the water backwards
v/ith  your right hand.  We never  thought this
much of a feat.
    4. Walking the water.   Either fold your arms
across your breast, or throw them up Out of the
water, to show the bystanders that you really walk
the water; then, either with your breath retained
or not, you can make quick headway,  with your
shoulders  over  water,  at  the  expense  of much
muscular exertion.   A very active, strong person
can make this a beautiful  feat,  as he  can keep
himself much higher out of water, but  ordinary
persons can only keep the head over water.  You
must kick with one foot after another, something
like the  effort to run.
   Leaping out of water, like a Trout or Salmon.
This  feat can be  accomplished well only by an
extremely  strong and  rapid swimmer, and even
then it must be done from a dive, as you are com-
ing up.   In fact, the water  is not entirely cleared,
but as the person goes  over, head-foremost, his
feet coming up after him, his second dive makes 
32      THE ART  OF SWIMMING.
it appear as though he really did leave the water.
If is possible, however, to bring up the thighs in
such a bowed way as to clear the water, going over.
   6.  Letting yourself to the  bottom slowly in a
standing position.   While  walking the  water,
cease  the action of your feet, keep your elbows
close  to your sides, then strike with your hands up-
wards, and return  them to their position for thes
next stroke edgewise.  You must take down with
you all the air you can, as you may go handsomely
down in twenty feet water, or more, if very alert,
for your return will be extremely quick.
   7. To turn a  somerset in the  water.  When
swimming on your back, and going as fast as  you
can, throw your hands out of the water in advance
of your shoulders, and take a strong rapid stroke
towards your feet,  at  the same moment  bending
your head  back  as much as  possible, and bring
your knees up to your breast, when you will turn
over easily in consequence of the  water's resist-
ance against your face and  breast, caused by the
headway you are making.  You will immediately
find yourself on your face and swimming in your
natural position; when, if you wish to repeat the
feat from direct swimming, you must again  put on
speed, and traking a deep hold in the water with
your hands, and pressing your chin on your breast, 
FANCIFUL  SWIMMING.        33
make a powerful stroke as in the act of diving, at
the same time throwing your  legs back  on your
thighs, but keeping your thighs straight with your
body, and you will instantly find yourself over on
your back.  When about to perform this last part
of the feat, you must take in all the air you can,
to make  your breast as buoyant as possible, so
that your legs may descend quickly in the water;
otherwise, if not an  adept, you might kick your-
self down in the water instead of up, as we our-
self did the first time we tried  it, and got almost
drowned; but there is not the  smallest danger if
you take this precaution,  and  do  not.kick with
your feet until you legs are lower than your breast.
These two somersets can be kept going one after
the other in quick  succession,  so as to seem quite
curious, and even  astonishing  to a novice in the
art of swimming.
    I must here warn all swimmers against re-
maining too long in  any kind of water, but more
particularly so in cold water, as debility and con-
sequent cramp are  sure to follow.   The best of
swimmers are very frequently drowned from this
very cause, more than from all others put together.
    8.  To practice  swimming  with one  hand is
very useful, with a  view of-saving persons who
cannot swim.  But  the best   way of holding  a 
34       THE ART  OF SWIMMING.

drowning person, is  when  on your back, as you
can keep; him from seizing hold of you at a proper
distance.   You can keep yourself up by using the
other hand and kicking with your  feet.  Every
person should know that  when in  the  water he
should not attempt to seize on the person who at-
tempts to save him, as then both must drown.  Two
persons can  very easily save a third, who cannot
swim, even if he cannot be  persuaded to float.
But we hope that by means of this little book,
many lives may be saved, and many learn to swim.
All should know how to swim, women  and men,
and girls and boys.
   9. To swim like a. Dog or Horse.  Strike deep,
first with one hand and the opposite leg, then with
the other and opposite leg, or throw each hand al-
ternately out of the water,  and strike back from
the surface, which will give a more easy and  cu-
rious motion.

    SWIMMING  BY  MECHANICAL  MEANS.

  The ancerine  tribe of birds, such  as  the duck
and  goose,  with many'  others, are formed by
nature for swimming in or on the water, as is shown
by the young taking to  the water the minute they
can walk, and by the web that unites their toes to-
gether.   When diving under the water these birds 
MECHANICAL  MEANS.        3d
 use their  wings in swimming as other birds use
 theirs  in flying.  A man may,  therefore, imitate
 them, and use for the same purpose artificial hands
 and feet.  All he has to do, therefore, is to enlarge
 the surface of both hands and feet, so as to  take a
 greater hold of the water ;  but these  surfaces must
 not' be too large, or  they will become  an encum-
 berance to the swimmer, instead of an assistance in
swimming or diving.
  Take a piece  of thin board, mahogany, oak, or
 other wood, and make it exactly the shape of the
foot by laying your naked  foot on it, from two  to
two and a-half inches larger all round, except at the
heel. Round it off a little from the foot to the edge,
and make it a little hollow on the under side.  When
you have gottheshape and size ofone, the other may 
         >
36       THE ART  OF SWIMMING.

be readily made by it. Fasten them on the feet ex-
actly after the manner of a skate,  with soft straps
and buckles, by making holes or slits in the boards
and passing the straps through them.  They must
be put on so as not to move, to give the hands  and
feet perfect command of them.                '
  Those for the  hands are to be shaped in" the
same way, and must come up to the joints of the
wrists, but  as there is more motion in the hands
and less strength in the arms than in the feet, they 
           MECHANICAL MEANS.        37

must not be as large in proportion.  One and a
half inch all round larger than the hand will  be a
full allowance.  These  must be more hollowing
than those for the feet, to suit the shape of the back
of the hand when  formed for  swimming,  for the
hands must be on the inside instead of the outside
when used. They must buckle with straps round
the wrist, and  have places formed for the fingers
and thumbs by putting on,  with  screws,  small
pieces of thin  leather the size of each finger, two
on each finger at the joints, and one on the thumb,
so that the  fingers  and thumb may go in tight.
  All your actions with  these appendages on will
be exactly  the same as without them, only much
slower, until you acquire a perfect command of
them, as they will  be  quite awkward at first. But
when you acquire full command you can swim and
dive like a  fish.  You can walk the  water  with
these on, so as to  place  your  person above your
balance, and you would of course fall over, but then
you can use less action  and walk the water waist
high or breast  high at your ease.
  Let it be recollected, that the use of  these ap-
pendages, like  skating, has to be acquired, but it is
not half so  difficult to acquire it, as that of skating.
It is not desirable to form these artificial hands
and feet of very light  wood, particularly those of
                               4 
38       THE ART  OF  SWIMMING.
the hands.  In bringing up the legs and feet for a
kick, the toes  must be pointed back  as much as
possible, to prevent the resistance of the water, as
the  heel  must come up first, and the  knees and
feet wide apart, both in bringing up and striking
out.
  When the foot is pressed  naked on  a board, it
will be wider across the toes than at the heel: in
marking out your artificial foot, you must, therefore,
follow this increased width, so that it will be con-
siderably wider before than behind.   I am of opin-
ion that the effect would  be better to  shape it off
much narrower from the centre of the foot to the
heel, and have it even shorter behind the heel, so
that there will be but little resistance  in returning
the foot for the kick.
  I have also had artificial feet which opened and
shut like those of a duck, but could not succeed in
consequence  of the quantity of back water they
drew after them in returning for the kick : where-
as,  the  stiff wooden ones are not subject to this
objection.  This  grows out  of the length of the
human heel.  Ducks and geese  have no such ob-
structions, as they have no os catsis, or bone form-
ing a heel like man.   See the diagrams.
  Note.—Those who swim with  draws on  should
have t>""- "'   '  ^ to the skin  every where, ex- 
           MECHANICAL  MEANS.        39

 cepting at the knee joints and hip joints.  A pair
 of loose draws  fills with water on the inside, and
 become  very encumbersome as  well as  uncom-
 fortable.

   To  the Reader.—The article which follows, on
 bathing, has  been selected from  various  sources
 of the best authority, embracing several of our own
 notes which we  took when attending the Medical
 College in New York; the whole being so modi-
 fied as to suit our present purpose; and  we are
 not afraid to  challenge  the English language for
 any article on  this most important subject, that
 conveys more valuable information  and advice on
 bathing,  in 60 condensed a  form,  than the  one
 here presented for  the  most attentive perusal of
 all those who may find  it necessary to  resort to
 any of the baths, either for health or pleasure.
   Of that part of the work on swimming, it is un-
necessary to say much,  as it will  either  condemn
or recommend itself:  yet it may be proper to add,
that the author  has, perhaps, exercised  as much
in the useful art  of swimming, between seven and
forty years of life, being now fifty-seven,  as  any
other person in America.  He has never seen but
one man whom he thought a better swimmer than
himself, and that man was the Rev.  Thomas Tay- 
40       THE ART OF  SWIMMING.

lor, the  Methodist preacher, his only preceptor in
the art.
  One of our feats, which, in some measure, grew
out of necessity, was performed about twenty-five
years ago, with Captain French, in the middle of
the Atlantic ocean,  for about  the  distance of ten
miles.  Having challenged the captain, who was a
most excellent swimmer, to take a swim, in a per-
fect calm which then prevailed, in we  dashed and
off we went in a south-easterly direction for a dis-
tance of probably two miles, when we turned to
float.  After lying sporting for some  time  on the
mighty deep, we heard a shot fired from the ship,
when we immediately perceived that a wind had
sprung up from the  south, which  was bending a
sail almost over that was ahead of us.  We instant-
ly made for the ship, when we saw the jolly-boat
on the water, but the blow became so  violent in
an instant on us and the boat, that the latter was
blown back like  a  feather, and  the ship Union
under full  headway for  New York.   We  re-
mained  in  the water about two hours before  we
were picked up. 
BATHING.
41
BATHING,
   Bathing, or the  act of applying water under
various states and modifications to the surface of
the body, is a  subject of such acknowledged im-
portance and such general  interest, as to demand
a much fuller consideration than it has usually ob-
tained, even from Professors of the Institutes and
and Practice of physic, in the Medical Colleges.
   The best practical hints we have ever heard
on this important subject, were given by the late
Dr. David Hosack,  Professor of Medicine in the
College of Physicians and Surgeons of the State
of New-York, when we ourself were a student of
medicine at that Institution.
   Our old friend  and  preceptor, the  late  Dr.
Macnevin, Professor of Chemistry in the same in-
stitution, and in whose office we studied about five
years, was also a great advocate for cold and warm
bathing, when regulated by medical advice, and
so were Professors  Francis and Mott, two shining
lights in the profession.
                              4* 
42
BATHING.
   We propose to consider the  several varieties
of baths, and the effects which each produces on
the human  body  in its  natural  healthy state.
Secondly, to deduce from these some practical
conclusions and precautions on the use of bathing,
in the preservation  of health and the  cure of
disease.  And thirdly, to conclude with a brief his-
torical sketch of the practice of bathing among
various nations, in ancient and modern times.

   The term bath, has by many  writers been em-
ployed in a very extensive sense, as comprehend-
ing every kind of liquid in which the body can be
immersed;  air, earth, sand, and  other dry mate-
rials by which it can be  surrounded.   Thus we
hear  of baths of milk, whey, broth; and if we
may credit the fables of mythology, and  the le-
gends of monkish superstition, even human blood
has been employed in this capacity.
   When the naked body is exposed for a con-
siderable time to  the cold  air, this  is termed an
air-bath ; a practice recommended by Dr. Frank-
lin and others, as a substitute for bathing.
   When the  naked  body  is  surrounded with
sand;  or, half-buried in the earth,  as has been
practised on  various  occasions,  both  by  regular
physicians and empirics, it  is said to be placed in 
BATHING.
43
a sand bath, or an  earth  bath.   However conve-
nient these terms may be in  a  medical point of
view, they are not suited to the general purposes
intended by us ; we shall therefore confine  our-
selves wholly to  those species of bathing, in which
water, under some form or other, is the agent em-
ployed.
    The water of which baths are composed, may
be nearly pure, or it may be naturally impregnated
with various mineral substances ; or it may be pos-
sessed of very different  degrees of temperature,
from near the freezing point, thirty-two degrees
Fahrenheit, to a heat considerably above that of the
human body, which is ninety-eight Fahrenheit, or'
it may be  applied universally to the  whole surface,
or partially to particular spots.
    These circumstances constitute  the different
varieties of baths which we are now to consider.
    The water which flows in small  rivers, creeks,
and brooks, or which fills ponds, lakes or canals,
and to which recourse is very commonly had for
the purpose of bathing, may be regarded as nearly
pure, for it contains  but little mineral  impregna-
tion.  Its  action  on the  surface, when  of a medi-
um temperature, is therefore little more than a
detergent or cleanser.   Sea water, which is so com-
monly used for bathing, contains, besides sea-salt, 
44      •         BATHING.
a considerable quantity of other saline ingredients,
as muriate of magnesia and  sulphate of lime, the
saline matters forming more  than  one-thirtieth of
the whole weight.
    Many other mineral waters are occasionally used
for bathing; such as those of Saratoga in the State
of  New-York;  Bath, in England;  Vichy,  in
France, and Pyrmont, in Westphalia ;  all of which
are chalybeate; and several  springs in the United
States;  Harrowgate, in England;  Moffat, in Scot-
land ; Aix-la-Chapelle, in Germany, and Barege,
at the foot of the Pyrenees,  which are all sulphu-
reous.   The effects of these  baths will depend in
some  measure on the  nature  of  their impregna-
tions.
    By far the most important  variety of baths are
those in respect of temperature, as from the  power
of conducting  or  transmitting heat possessed by
water, and the large volume  in which this element
can be applied, its effects in  increasing, and more
especially in diminishing the  temperature  of the
surface, and hence that of the whole body, must
be very great.   We are aware that  chemists are
not fully agreed  respecting  the manner in  which
heat is transmitted through  fluids, some  attribut-
ing this  transmission to a conducting power pos-
sessed by the fluids, while others explain  it on the 
BATHING.
45
principle of intestine motion in the fluid, by which
its particles carry heat to each  other;  but this is
not part of our subject.
   Most modern  writers, as well as  professors,
refer the whole effects of bathing to the tempera-
ture of the bath and the manner and circumstances
under which it is applied ; and though in this they
generalize too much, it  must be  allowed that the
effects ascribed to impregnation are very trifling
when compared to those which depend  on  change
of temperature.  In this respect, baths were for-
merly  divided into  cold and warm, but since the
use of the thermometer has become more general,
four degrees of temperature have been marked in
baths, now distinguished  into cold, tepid or tem-
perate, warm,  and hot.
              THE  COLD  BATH.

   The cold bath is that which possesses the ordi-
nary temperature of the atmosphere in a temperate
climate, varying from about thirty-two to sixty-five,
Fahrenheit's   thermometer.   Between  these de-
grees we may estimate the temperature of most of
the natural  waters  employed  in  bathing.  The
water of pools and small brooks sometimes  exceed
sixty-five, while that of the sea between New York
and Boston is  seldom below  forty.  The tempera- 
46
BATHING.
 ture of most springs in the  United States is  not
 far from  forty, at  which point water  is  consid-
 ered at its maximum density.  They sometimes,
 however,  reach forty-five, but  the  well-water of
 thirty or forty feet depth is uniformly, winter and
 summer, about forty degrees, Fahrenheit.

              THE TEPID BATH.
    The tepid, or temperate bath, is variously  de-
 fined  by authors and professors.   Some authors
 fix the  medium temperature  of the tepid bath at
 ninety degrees, while others think it cool between
 sixty-five and eighty-five degrees.  The temperate
 bath is usually artificial,  but there are several
 natural springs of celebrity that  possess a temper-
 ature between  sixty-five and eighty-five degrees,
 and are employqd  as tepid  or temperate  baths.
 Such  are the  springs  of Matlock, Buxton, and
 Bristol hot-wells, in England.   Of these, the coolest
 is  Matlock, sixty-six degrees, Bristol, seventy-four
 degrees, and Buxton, eighty-two degrees.

              THE  WARM BATH.
   The range of the warm bath is from eighty-five
 to ninety-seven degrees.  On  the continent  of
 Europe there are several baths of this description,
but that of Pyrmont, in Westphalia, is the most 
BATHING.
47
celebrated.  Crossbath,  at  Bath, in England, is
about ninety-four degrees.   We are not aware of
any  springs  of this  temperature in the United
States.
                 HOT  BATHS.

  When baths  exceed the  ordinary temperature
of the human body, ninety-eight degrees, they are
called hot baths.  It is scarcely possible to assign
the highest  limits of these baths in point of heat,
as this must depend much on the sensations of the
patient.
  An artificial hot bath seldom exceeds one hun-
dred and five  degrees,  but the heat  of natural
springs, when used for hot bathing, is very great.
The waters  of the  King's bath, at Bath, in Eng-
land, are at a medium of one hundred and sixteen
degrees.   Those of Vichy, in  France, one hun-
dred and twenty; of Aix-la-Chapelle, in Germany,
about one hundred and forty; while those of the
Caroline  baths, at Carlsbad, in Bohemia, are one
hundred and sixty-five degrees.  The heat of the
baths at Baden, in Switzerland, is also very great:
but those of Pisa, in Italy, do not exceed one hun-
dred and four degrees, and are we think the coolest
of the natural hot baths in Europe.
   According to the mode in which  baths  are 
48               BATHING.
employed,  they are  usually  distinguished  into
general and partial; and of these there are several
varieties.   The term  bathing is most strictly  ap-
plicable to  those  cases  where  the  whole body is
plunged or immersed in the  water.  This is  the
ordinary mode of employing both the cold and
warm baths.   But frequently the water is thrown
over the  body, either from a bucket, or by means
of an apparatus which causes it to descend on  the
head in a shower, constituting what is called  the
shower bath.   This method is by medical menand
medical writers called  affusion, and is practised
both with  cold and  tepid water, with the best
effects.  When the feet oxe immersed in warm or
tepid water, the bath is  professionally called pedi-
luviam.  And when the lower half of the body is
immersed in a similar bath, it is called semicupium.
             THE  VAPOUR BATH.

   The vapour bath is  a  modification  of the  hot
bath, and may be employed either universally or
partially.  It consists in the application of steam,
brought by pipes  from  a vessel of boiling water,
and either admitted to the whole body, placed in a
small room, fitted up  for the purpose, or to any
particular limb enclosed in a proper  apparatus.
Sometimes this consists of a close box, made of 
■•■/
                BATHING.                49
 tin plate, communicating with a  common boiler,
 by means of a'tin  tube, proceeding from  a  head
 resembling that of a still; but in partial cases, the
 box has adapted to it an air-pump, for the purpose
 of exhausting or rarifying the air of the vessel, be-
 fore or'after admitting the steam.  See the Edin-
 burgh  Medical and Surgical Journal, vol.  vi. p.
 313.

            THE  SHOWER  BATH.

    The shower bath may be  considered pretty
 much the same as the cold bath, yet water of any
 of the usual temperatures may be used in it.  It
 is nothing more than a  kind of box, composed  of
 wood or sometimes of tin, with four tin columns,
 standing on a square or round tin pan at the bot-
 *bm, to recive the water when  it falls on the  per-
 son bathing.   The  water is contained in a tin, or
 other vessel at the top, suspended in such a man-
 ner as to be turned over into another  vessel per-
 forated  with many holes, by a string, at the pleas-
 ure of the person about to receive the shower and
 shock. When constructed with columns, it is usual-
ly enclosed in a curtain, which goes all round it. A
small quantity of water let down slowly will make
the bather much cooler than a large quantity let
down suddenly.  No person should ever enter the •
                               5 
50
BATHING.
shower bath unless quite warm ;  if in a perspira-
tion, not  from  disease or debility,  however, so
much the better; nor should he receive, at one time,
more than one rapid shock, unless in the  highest
state of health,  when a second or third may be
taken,  until he  becomes  quite  cool;  and  when
dressed, or in bed, if no glow follows, it has not only
been over-done,  but is absolutely injurious, on the
same principle of too long continuance in cold
water.
   The greatest recommendation of the  shower
bath is its convenience as a cold bathffor jumping
into cold water will give the shock equally  well.
Some medical men  object to its  use, but we can
see no valid objection,  but would rather recom-
mend its judicious use,  having found  it beneficial
in our own person, and have known it so in others.*
We consequently on this head will .make  no fur-
ther remarks.

   Having now examined the general nature of
baths, and recommended the most important varie-
ties,  we proceed to describe the effects which
they produce on the human body, in its ordinary
state of health  and vigor,  and  to point out how
these effects may be advantageously employed, in
the prevention or cure of disease. 
BATHING.
51
  The effects of bathing will depend partly on the
quality and composition  of the water  employed,
and partly on the quantity  and mode of applica-
tion, but more  especially on the temperature of
the bath.
   Immersion, even  in simple  water, of such a
temperature as  to affect the body with no striking
sensations, either of heat or cold, is attended with
Beveral advantages.  It is, however, proper to re-
mark, that the sensation of heat or cold which a
person may feel on immersion in  water of a me-
dium temperature, will depend  on the degree of
heat or cold to which the body has been prevh^s-
ly exposed ; so that a person much chilled wiflfon
entering the  bath, feel the water warm,  while
another who  has been  much  heated by exercise,
etc., will find  it sensibly cool.  This can be proved
by immersing one hand into very  cool water and
the other into water up  to one  hundred and five
decrees, or more, and then plunge both at the same
instant into tepid water.   The  cooled hand will
feel  the water warm, while the other will feel it
cool.
   The surface of the skin  is, however, by bathing
and washing in tepid water, freed  from that scaly
sorcles which always  collects more or  less  in  the
healthiest persons; and hence the pores of the skin
     \ 
52
BATHING.
are opened and relaxed, and the natural perspira-
tion promoted.  The limbs are also rendered sup-
ple, and any stiffness which may have  been pro-
duced by great exertion or fatigue will  be remov-
ed.  Such an immersion has  been found to alle-
viate thirst, which is a  clear proof, in the opinion
of most physiologists, that a quantity  of the  water
is  absorbed  or enters through the skin into the
circulations;  but we think that thirst is allayed by
the abstraction of heat, and not by the absorption
of the fluid.
    If, instead of immersion in tepid water, affusion
bAmployed, the general result is much the  same,
except that, if the body be  continually exposed to
the air after affusion, a sensation of coldness will
be produced, and this in proportion  as the  air is
more favorable to evaporation, and  consequently
to  the removal  of the caloric or heat from the
moistened surface.
    When water of the same medium temperature,
but impregnated with some mineral  substance, is
employed, it  is generally supposed  that  the  im-
pregnating matters produce on the system effects
similar to those which would follow their internal
exhibition.   That this is the case in some instances
we shall riot deny, but  in most cases  the effect is
very trifling,  and in some scarcely perceptible. 
      I
BATHING.
53
   Immersion in sulphureous tepid waters com-
monly produces an increased perspiration : and a
similar use of chalybeate waters, especially if these
contain any alumenous substance, is followed by a
corrugation of the skin and an increased action of
the vessels.
   These effects we can readily explain from the
absorption of the sulphureous gas in the former in-
stances, and the corrugating effect of the alum and
chalybeate acting as an astringent on the skin, and
thus  producing pressure, and consequent  contrac-
tion, or  acceleration of the fluids  in  the vessels
near the  surface.  Indeed, that  they are  not ab-
sorbed, is evident from the circumstance, that even
sea water will allay thirst merely by wetting with
it the surface  of  the body.   We conceive that
thirst is produced  by heat, and the  removing heat
from the surface will remove it  from the  internal
parts, from the distributing tendency  of caloric,
which even tends to produce an  equilibrium.,
   We are, therefore,  disposed  to think  that  the
advantages  of  sea water over  fresh,  as  a bath,
used rather for health than for exercise  and recrea-
tion, have been much exaggerated.  In  some cases,
the salt may act as a gentle stimulant  on  the sur-
face,  and this  effect  will be increased by heat,
friction, or long immersion, but in cases where the
                               5* 
54
BATHING.
immersion  is  only  momentary, as in the  shower
bath,  or by affusion, and the body immediately
dried, salt water  can have little more advantage
than that of convenience, if fresh cannot be had.

        EFFECTS  OF COLD BATHING.

   When a person in the ordinary state of health
is immersed in a cold bath, when its temperature
does not exeed sixty-five degrees, he first  feels a
general sensation  of cold ; but in a few moments,
what was almost unbearable, becomes not only
quite  bearable, but moderately  comfortable.  If
the immersion be  sudden and momentary, and the
body immediately dried and covered from a cold
air/an immediate agreeable glow of warmth will
come over  the whole  person, when he will feel
refreshed  and invigorated;  and, under favorable
circumstances, the natural perspiration is increas-
ed.  If, however, the immersion be continued for
a considerable time, and  the water not near the
highest range of the temperature, that is, sixty-five
degrees Fahrenheit's thermometer, instead of the
glow of warmth, the immersion will be followed
by numbness  and shivering.  The skin becomes
pale and contracted ; the vessels near  the surface
are evidently  diminished in diameter, and their
contents are either lessened in volume, or propel- 
BATHING.
55
led with greater force towards the internal  parts.
The person feels drowsy and inactive ; his joints
become rigid and inflexible ;  his limbs are affected
with pains, and often with cramps ; his respiration
becomes quick and irregular; and generally a co-
pious discharge of urine takes place.
    If the immersion be still continued,  and the
water very cold, the pulse gradually ceases  at the
wrist; the action of the heart becomes weak and
languid; a sensation of faintness, and coldness of
the stomach  is experienced, followed by a rapid
dimunition of the whole animal heat, and at length
delirium and torpor  come  on, and the person is
carried  off by a fatal apoplexy !
    In the preceding description we supposed that
the patient had been put suddenly into the water,
head-foremost, or suddenly any way; but if,  as
often happens with weak or timid people, he enters
the bath slowly, and if the water be much below
sixty degrees, the sensation of cold is more strik-
ing; a shivering is  produced, and as the person
advances, so  as to make the water rise on his per-
son up to the breast, a shuddering and convulsive
sobbing takes place, sometimes attended with sick-,
ness and head-ache.
    When the cold bath is applied by way of affu-
sion, as  in the shower bath, or throwing on water 
56
BATHING.
from a pail or watering-pot, its effects are perhaps
somewhat  more  sudden  and more transient, al-
though  by  repeated showers or  affusions, the
 effects may be increased or prolonged to almost
any  required extent.   The degree  of re-action
and  warmth in this case,  will depend  upon how
long the affusions were continued, or to what ex-
tent the heat of the person was carried  off, and to
the immediate application of clothing.
    It is generally thought by medical  men, and
entered on record in medical books, that the in-
crease of heat, which will  always follow the true
point of bathing, is  to  be  ascribed to that re-
action of  the system which  enables it to  resist
an  external impression  by which it  might be
injured.
    This, according to my view of the matter, is  an
unphilosophical explanation ; and although this is
the first time, perhaps, the explanation I shall of-
fer was ever given  to the world, yet I shall ven-
ture my bread on the waters, even if I should not
see it after many days.
    My explanation is this :—On plunging into the
cold water it will attract a great  portion of the
heat near the surface, and by remaining in, it will
continue to abstract all that approaches the surface,
to supply the equilibrium of temperature of the 
BATHING.
57
whole person, so that, if too much has not been
removed by the water, the remaining heat in  the
body approaching the  surface, which is still cold,
will give all those sensations of relative heat whic^i
we experience, after being just the proper length
of time in the bath;  for when  too much of the
caloric  or  heat is carried off, there will  not be
enough left to produce a comfortable,  equal  de-
gree of warmth all over the person, and of course
a shivering comes on, and a head-ache follows,
from  the contraction  of the vessels of the brain,
or perhaps from an affection of the stomach.
    It is  this re-action of the  heat of the system,
which enables the body to derive advantage from
the application of the cold bath;  and when  the
re-action or glow of warmth does not  take place,
or only in a small degree, the cold bath has been
excessively and injudiciously employed ; for when
after the use  of a cold bath a person feels  heavy,
inactive or chilly, or  afflicted with head-ache, or
tightness across the chest, it is evident  either  that
it does not agree with  him, or that he has remain-
ed in too long a time.
    Hence when the system has been  debilitated
by long continued exertion, or disease, when the
temperature  of the body is  below the  natural
standard, ninety-eight degrees, or where a profuse 
58
BATHING.
perspiration has come on without action or exer-
cise, cold bathing should be avoided.
   From what we have  now  stated,  it appears
that the cold bath is attended with three principal
effects ;  a sudden and powerful shock given to the
body on the first application ; a sudden abstraction
of heat from the surface ;  and the re-action of the
remaining heat of the system, to restore the equi-
librium of the temperature,  which coming  to the
cooled surface, causes the glow.  In its general
and primary effects,  therefore, the cold bath acts
as a powerful stimulant to the whole system, and
to this effect its advantages as a remedy are to be
chiefly ascribed.
   It has been very commonly  supposed, even by
medical men,  that immersion in  the cold bath,
when the body is considerably heated with  exer-
cise or from the temperature of the weather, is a
dangerous  practice;  and consequently,  it is  a
general custom with bathers  who find themselves
over-heated, to wait till they are cool before they
plunge into the bath.   This opinion and practice
have been examined by some of the ablest medical
writers, and ably controverted.  They have shown
both from  theory and practice,  and we ourself
know by experience, that the opinion is erroneous
and  the practice injudicious.  It is proved that 
BATHING.
59
while the body preserves a temperature above the
natural standard of ninety-eight degrees, and  the
strength is not exhausted by perspiration or fatigue,
the immediate use of the cold bath is not only safe
but salutary.   Some medical men advise their pa-
tients to take such a degree of exercise before going
into the cold bath, as will excite the vascular sys-
tem, and increase the animal heat of the body. See
the British Medical Reports, v. 1., p. 111.
    From the effects of the cold bath on the healthy
body, we may deduce the  following conclusions
respecting its employment in the case of disease:
    The principal advantages of cold bathing, in a
medical point of view,  are the reduction from  the
surface of excessive heat, and the producing a sa-
lutary re-action of the system by the distribution
of the remaining heat equally over  the body.  In
the former way it will prove beneficial in all those
cases where the temperature of the body continues
steadily above the natural standard; as is evident
in fever,  the hot stages of intermittents, the yellow
fever of  the  West Indies,  and in  several febrile
diseases ; as in the early stages of scarlet fever,
measles,  arid in the small pox, so long as there is
no appearance of eruption.
    The mode of application in these cases will de-
pend on  the strength of the patient; but in gene- 
:o
BATHING.
 ral, affusion is more advisable, and more efficacious
 in reducing the morbid temperature, than immer-
 sion.  Immediately after  bathing, unless in cases'
 where the heat is much above the natural stand-
 ard, the patient should be placed in bed and co-
 vered lightly  with a blanket.  But the bath, when
 such  excessive heat  exists, should  be repeated
 until  the  temperature is  reduced to the natural
 standard, or somewhat below it.
    In cases where the patient is much debilitated,
 it will be proper to defend  the  body by flannel
 from the action of the cold.
    As producing a salutary re-action of the system,
 cold bathing has been employed with advantage in
 Tetanus, or locked-jaw; in those convulsions which
 so commonly affect young children; in insanity;
 and in several chronic diseases.
    Cold bathing is advisable chiefly in summer and
 autumn,  and  except in those cases where swim-
 ming has become habitual, and is borne with im-
 punity, the time of immersion should not exceed a
 few minutes,  and in most  instances, if the water
t be very cold,  not  more than one minute—a mere
 plunge*.  Daily bathing in very cold water, in time
 of an epidemic, has been  known to prevent,  and
 even cure the yellow fever.
    The cold bath in all its forms is inadmissible in 
BATHING.
61
all those cases where the heat of the body is  less
than natural; when profuse perspiration has from
debility come on :  where there is any considerable
degree of plethora,.or unusual fullness of the blood
vessels; where the person is subject to inflamma-
tory affections of the lungs,  or any  considerable
determination of blood to the head ; or where, from
constitutional weakness  or unconquerable dread
of the bath, the use of this powerful remedy might
be  productive  of  unpleasant  feelings  or conse-
quences.
       EFFECTS OF THE WARM BATH.

    In entering a bath of a temperature between
eighty-five and ninety-seven degrees, an agreeable
sensation of warmth is experienced, and this sensa-
tion is more striking as the body has been previously
cooled.  If, however, the water has not been kept
near the highest point of warm temperature, the
sense of increased heat soon diminishes, leaving only
a pleasant feeling of a moderate and natural tempe-
rature.  The frequency of the pulse is  always di-
minished, and this very remarkably in those cases
where, before immersion, it was preternaturally in-
creased.  This diminution of the pulse goes on
during a continuance in  the warm bath, although
the water be preserved at nearly its  original tern- 
62
BATHING .
perature, insomuch, that a natural pulse has, after
the immersion of an hour and a half, been reduced
by nearly twenty beats in a minute.  The respira-
tion is rendered slower, and the animal heat is  in
most cases diminished.  The absolute weight of
the body after an immersion in the warm bath,  is
said to be increased, notwithstanding the perspi-
ration that may have taken place during immer-
sion, and the patient feels a peculiar languor and
desire of repose, though the spirits are exhilarated,
and all previous irritability allayed.
    It has been generally thought that one constant
effect of the warm bath is to relax and debilitate
the body, and  accordingly it  has been most em-
ployed in casdfe of preternatural rigidity and contrac-
tion.  It is an observation founded on experience,
that moist warm air produces a relaxation and de-
bility of the living body; and hence it was natural
to conclude that the warm bath should be produc-
tive of the same effects; but  the  experiment of
many eminent physicians seems to prove that these
preconceived opinions are founded in error.  Warm
bathing has been employed in a great variety of
cases, where the patients were either naturally of
a weak habit of body, or had been  debilitated by
disease; and none of them experienced any de-
bilitating effect, but on the  contrary  all of them 
BATHING.
63
felt stronger on the days when they used the bath,
and most of them were restored to their former
strength.
   In a few cases, however, relaxation and debility
have followed the use of the warm bath, but these
are perhaps to be attributed to the heat of the bath
having been too great for the  constitution of the
patient, or the immersion having continued too
long.   See Marcard.   De la Nature et de l'Usage
des Bains,  p. 14
   The affusion of warm water,  whether from the
shower bath or otherwise, is more  effectual than
immersion in the warm bath, in diminishing a mor-
bid increase of temperature.  It also diminishes the
pulse and respiration, and produces a tendency to
sleep and repose ; these effects, however, are more
transient than those  which follow general  warm
bathing.
   On the whole it appears that the stimulant ef-
fects of the warm bath are very inconsiderable, and
that it is used chiefly in allaying irritation, dimi-
nishing morbid frequency of  the pulse, and re-
laxing and purifying the skin.
   Hence the warm bath is likely to  be attended
with advantage in those cases  of fever where the
heat is preternaturally great, but where from some
affection of the lungs, or other unfavorable symp- 
64               BATHING.
torn,  cold  bathing is inadmissible;  in  the pa-
roxysms of hectic fever;  in several eruptive dis-
eases attended with increased heat and dryness of
the skin;  in  most chronic eruptions  of the skin,
when it acts chiefly as a detergent and sudorific;
in atonic gout and rheumatism, accompanied with
stiffness and swelling  of the joints, but in this last
complaint the greatest care must be taken to wrap
in flannel on leaving the bath, and to avoid all ex-
posure to cold; in chlorosis ;  in  slight cases of
palsy; in scrofulous  swellings; in  some spasmo-
dic and convulsive affections, when the cold  bath
might prove too violent, especially hydrophobia,
as a soother of suffering; in all those affections of
the bowels that seem  to depend on  an irregular or
diminished action  of  any  part of the  alimentary
canal; and in cases of debility attended with ner*
vous irritation.
    When this remedy is intended  to produce in-
creased perspiration, it will be best employed in
the evening, when the immersion should not be
long continued, and the patient should be removed
from the bath to a warm bed.  The sweating will
succeed his leaving the bath, for while in the bath
those parts only that are exposed to the  air will
freely perspire.
    When, however, it is not intended  to  excite 
BAT HING.
65
 sweating,  the  most  proper time for bathing is
 about two hours  after  breakfast,  or about  10
 o'clock  in the  forenoon.   In  these  cases  the
 bathing  may  be  protracted to 20 minutes  or
 longer, according to the feelings of the patient,
 and after  bathing, gentle exercise  in the open
 air in mild weather,  should be employed, but in
 no case to suffer a sudden check or re-action from
 the cold.
    The warm bath is of incalculable benefit while
 under a mercurial course, for the cure of syphilis
 or hepatitis, but the greatest care must be  taken
 against cold.
    Those cases to which the warm bath is less ap-
 plicable, are principally affections of the lungs, ac-
 companied with great difficulty  of breathing, and
 some organic affections of the internal parts.

        EFFECTS  OF THE HOT BATH.

    The effects of the  hot bath differ in several par-
ticulars from those  of the warm bath.  The sen-
sation of heat experienced on entering a bath of
about 98 degrees, is in  general very striking and
permanent.  The pulse is increased  in frequency
and force;  the  superficial veins become  turgid;
the face is flushed;  the  respiration  quicker than
natural, and sometimes hurried and laborious.  If
                              6* 
66               BATHING.

the heat of the bath much exceeds blood heat, 98
degrees, or if the immersion be continued beyond
a few minutes, the determination of blood to the
head is greatly increased; the arteries of the neck
and temples throb violently;  a sensation of anxiety
at the breast, threatening suffocation, comes on ;
the person grows  giddy, and feels a fluttering  at
the heart;  and, if these warnings of approaching
danger be not attended to, he soon becomes insen-
sible, and will expire of apoplexy.
    Water of this  high temperature is scarcely
ever applied in the way of affusion from the shower-
bath  or  otherwise; nor  is  such  an application
likely to be  attended  with  advantage,  except  in
in  some  paralytic  affections of the limbs.  In
these cases it is not unusual to pump the hot water
on the affected limb.  By this dry pumping, as it
is commonly called, the water can be applied  to
the  affected  parts  under a higher temperature
than when used  for immersion.
    There can be no doubt that the hot  bath is a
most powerful stimulus, to be  applied  only in a
few cases when  the ordinary stimuli are found  to
be ineffectual.  Accordingly  it is but seldom re-
sorted to in medical practice, and almost the only
cases in which the general hot-bath  is employed,
are those of confirmed and obstinate palsy, yet >t 
BATHING.
67
 might be found highly beneficial in recent affections
 of that complaint.
    In the use of the hot bath,  much caution is
 required.   The  patient should  begin  with the
 lowest temperature of such a bath, or about nine-
 ty-nine degrees, and gradually increase the heat at
 each  successive  bathing, according  to its effects.
 The time should be short, not over a few minutes,
 and in leaving the bath,  the greatest care should
 be taken against cold.   In some  cases, attended
 with fulness of habit, it may be  necessary to bleed
 or purge before entering the hot bath.
      EFFECTS.OF THE  VAPOR  BATH.

   Although the vapor bath may be  regarded as a
 modification  of the  hot  bath,  yet its effects are
 much less violent;  and as  it  has been employed
 with considerable success in cases where the hot
 bath would be attended  with danger, it requires
 our particular notice.
   The usual mode of employing the vapor bath,
is, as we have already said, to  expose the naked
body in a small apartment, to which the steam of
hot water is  to  be admitted.   The apartment  is
generally  heated to a temperature  considerably
above that of the atmosphere, and the body is for
some time permitted to remain in this heated air; 
68
BATHING .
the common effect of which is to increase its tem-
perature,  and  accelerate the circulation of the
blood.  After some  time, the steam, now usually
mixed with aromatics, is admitted, when the for-
mer symptoms are removed, and a profuse per-
spiration is produced.  This  is usually promoted
by friction, and removal to a warm bed, but in no
case  must the patient  be  exposed to even  a
moderately cold air,  especially if rheumatism  be
his  complaint;  but we much doubt its benefit in
this disease.
    The general effect of this process  is to relax
the body, remove obstructions of the skin, allevi-
ate  pain and spasmodic contractions, swelling and
stiffness of the joints in rheumatism and gout, and
to promote sleep.
   In the vapor bath the stimulant power of heat
is much modified  and tempered  by  the moisture
diffused through the air;  and as the elastic vapor,
like air, is a less powerful conductor  of heat than
water, the effect of vapor in raising the tempera-
ture of the body is  much  less  than that of the
hot bath.   Its heating effects is also much diminish
ed by the copious perspiration which ensues.

       THE  AIR-PUMP VAPOR BATH.
    The air-pump vapor bath was contrived for the 
BATHING.
69
topical application  of steam to the greatest ad-
vantage.   The  apparatus consists of a vessel of
strong copper, lined on the inside, for  enclosing
the part of the  body to which the vapor is to be
applied, and  having attached  to it a bladder for
the purpose of  securing  it, so  as  to be  air-tight.
To one end of the  machine is fitted a pipe,  that
communicates with a portable boiler, in which the
water is heated by means of a spirit lamp.
    There is also a  small air-pump for exhausting
the machine when the application is to be made in
rarefied air, or after it has continued for a proper
time.   A  thermometer is also  adjusted to the ap-
paratus, for showing  the  temperature of the en-
closed air.
    This  apparatus acts  on the principle  of re-
moving the pressure of the atmosphere from the
part affected, while moist  and  heated air or vapor
is applied to it;  hence it combines the actions of
dry cupping and fomentation, each of which is oc-
casionally  employed  with advantage  in several
morbid affections.
    The cases to which this vapor bath, therefore,
seems  best adapted, are chiefly gout, both acute
and atonic;  acute rheumatism; palsy;  several
affections  of the skin, as  leprosy and  ulcers,  and
white  swellings of the joints.  It  is also recom- 
70
BATHING.
mended in  female  obstructions, chilblains,  te-
tanus and dropsy, and has proved  highly effica-
cious in inflammations of  the stomach and bowels.
The usual mode of application is to foment the
part affected by means of the steam admitted into
the body of  the machine,  for a time proportioned
to the nature of the case, commonly from half to
three quarters of an hour, and then to exhaust the
machine by means of  the air-pump,  which gener-
ally occupies another quarter of an hour.
   In the employment of the general vapor bath,
it is evident  that its first effects would be attended
with danger  in  a  plethoric  state  of the body,  or
where there  is  much  determination to the head.
In such cases, previous steps  should be taken  to
remove plethora, and relieve the head, by the lan-
cet or purging, or bath. 
HISTORY OF  BATHING.       71
HISTORY  OF BATHING,
    Although the external uses of water for the
purposes of cleanliness and healthy exercise, must
have been common among all nations, and in every
age, yet the practice of bathing as a luxury, or a
remedy, appears  to  indicate  considerable refine-
ment and civilization, and has been almost entire-
ly confined to the polished nations of Asia and
Europe.   In the earliest  records of antiquity,  in-
deed, mention is made of bathing, either as a re-
ligious ceremony, or, as  the  means of fortifying
the body  against the" fatigues of war; and with
these views, the cold bath, alone, appears to have
been employed.
    The practice both of general bathing and par-
tial ablution, formed a part of the Mosaic Institu-
tion ; and the precepts delivered  on  that head,
were evidently intended to promote cleanliness
among  the people, who seem  to have been pecu-
liarly subject to leprosy, and other diseases of the
skin. 
72       HISTORY  OF BATHING.

   Washing the hands and feet before and after
meals, was an established custom among the Jews,
for we find Jesus reproved  by the Pharisees, for
sitting down to  meat with unwashed hands.  On
various  occasions,  bathing is mentioned in the
Scriptures as a remedy for diseases ;  and it is pro-
bable that the famous pool of Bethesda, in which so
many lame and  diseased persons are said to have
been healed, was nothing more than a  natural warm
bath.  It is certain that in the days of David and
Solomon, the custom of bathing had become a luxu-
ry among the Jews, though  it was probably never
carried among that people, to the height to which
it was known among the Greeks and  Romans.  It
appears also from a passage in the  second book
of Kings, that the  practice  of bathing as a reme-
dy for cutaneous diseases, was common among the
neighboring  nations of Judea,  and   that certain
waters were  celebrated for their medicinal proper-
ties in this respect;  for Naaman, the  Syrian, when
told by Elieha to bathe in Jordan, for the cure of
leprosy, Naaman replied,  " Are not Abana  and
Pharpar, rivers  of Damascus, better than all the
waters of Israel 1   May I not wash in them  and
be clean ] "
   Among the Greeks, bathing was practiced even
as a luxury, before  the time of Homer, or in what 
HISTORY OF BATHING.        73
have been called the heroic ages.   Frequent allu-
sions are made in the works of that immortal poet to
this luxury, and it appears that the baths were sup-
plied chiefly with warm and tepid water, which in
most cases was poured on the body by attendants.
Thus  Venus is described in the Odyssey, as flying
after the public disgrace she had sustained  in the
discovery  of her amour with Mars, to the groves
of Paphos, where  she was  laved  by the Graces,
and the improvement produced by  the bath on the
native beauty of the Goddess, is particularly com-
mented on.
   While at the court of  Alcinous, Ulysses is
described  as laved  by attendant nymphs, and in
the tenth book of the Odyssey, the whole process
of bathing that hero at the court of the enchant-
ress Circe, is minutely described.   It also appears
from this passage, that in those early ages it was
the custom to anoint the body with oil, or unguents,
after immersion in the warm bath.
   Among the  Spartans, cold bathing was prac-
ticed to great extent; and bathing  and swimming
formed a part  of the  gymnastic exercises  incul-
cated on the Spartan youth by the laws of  Lycur-
gus.   It is probable, however, that in later times
the Spartans also used the warm bath, as the term
laconicum, applied to the stove used  in the warm 
74       HISTORY OF BATHING.
bath room, among the Romans, is derived from
Laconia.
   Cold bathing and swimming were practiced by
the Roman youth, as part of their exercises in the
Campus Martius,  and the latter commonly termi-
nated the foot-race.  The youthful candidates for
the prize, in this  exercise,  directed their course
towards the banks of the Tiber, and after the vio-
lent exertion of running, plunged  head foremost
into the stream.   This  they were accustomed to
cross twice before the contention ended.   It was
usual  to  anoint  the  bodies  of the  swimmers
before the contest, with a view of diminishing
the action of the cold.   See Horace's Odes, lib. 1,
Ode 8.
   This  custom of anointing the body with oil,
would not be amiss in our time, where the swim-
mer intends to take  a long journey, or when he is
to dive a great depth under water.
   In the  later periods of the  Roman Empire,
when refinement  and  luxury had  arrived to the
highest point, the custom of warm bathing gener-
ally prevailed among those  citizens who could af-
ford it; and the most  magnificent and extensive
apartments for the exercise of this luxury, were
constructed by the  emperors and nobles.  Many
remains of these  splendid  edifices still exist,  and 
HISTORY OF  BATHING.       75
 afford us admirable specimens, both of the  archi-
 tecture and refinement of the Roman people.
    In the public baths, there were sometimes six
 apartments, and seldom fewer than five.  The first
 of these was called apoditerium, where the bathers
 undressed  and left their clothes, whence it was
 also  called spoliatorius.  In the  common  baths
 this apartment  was wanting.  The second room
 was called  the frigidarium,  or apartment for the
 cold bath, where there was no apoditerium.   The
 bathers undressed  in this room, whether they in-
 tended to use the cold or warm bath.  The third
 apartment was  tepidarium, so called, not because
 it contained the warm baths, but  because  it was
 warmed to  a moderate temperature, to serve as an
 intermediate room between the warm  and  cold
 baths, thus  diminishing the danger of sudden ex-
 posure to air, after warm bathing.  In the fourth
room, called  laconicum,  was placed a  stove for
heating  the air, and here those who were to use
the warm bath,  remained for  some  time before im-
mersion, and were anointed before entering the
cold bath.   The fifth  apartment was the proper
balneum, or warm bath, and  was usually made
sufficiently  large to contain several bathers at the
same time.
   It  was furnished with a  gallery, where those 
76        HISTORY OF BATHING.

who waited  for their turns to  bathe might walk,
and was  lighted by  a single window, placed im-
mediately opposite the alveum, or receptacle for
the warm water.   The  sixth  and last apartment
was called unctuarium, which was a kind of closet
for holding  the oils and unguents.  Below the
building  was  a furnace  for  heating the  several
apartments.
    These structures  were called  Thermae,  and
were very numerous at Rome, but the construction
of public baths appear to have been  commenced
under Augustus, and introduced by Mecamas, his
favorite.
    The erection of baths, where the people might
enjoy this luxury gratis, became  an established
and successful method of gaining their affections;
and even at  this time, in this  republican country,
our  political  men  and  legislatures  would gain
great eclat and popularity, by erecting at the pub-
lic expense, baths to accommodate the  masses in
our large and  populous  cities.
    According to  Fabricius, there were in Rome
not fewer than 856  public baths, some of which
were sufficiently  large  to contain 1800 persons.
The most celebrated of  these were the baths of
Caracalla, Dioclesian and  Titus, the remains of
which still exist to testify to  the magnificence of 
HISTORY OF BATHING.       77
their  founders.  Vitruvius  and Lucian, give an
account of the baths of ancient Greece.
   We have denominated the thermae of the  Ro-
mans warm baths, but  it appears from many pas-
sages in Seneca and Martial, that their tempera-
tare was so high as  to entitle them to the appella-
tion of hot bath.  These  hot baths had become
excessively in  use  during the reigns of Adrian
and Severus, but about the time of Galen they
had fallen into disrepute.
   Bathing at  a very  early  period  appears to
have been an established  custom as an article of
luxury among the Asiatics; but  it became  uni-
versal among the followers of Mahomet, after the
promulgation of the Koran.   The precepts  on
this  head,  like  many  others  of the   Arabian
prophet, appear to  have been borrowed from an
antecedent code, and they were readily  adopted
from their congeniality with the manners of his
disciples.
   Joseph, the Mormon Prophet of the Western
Empire of Saints, has also, we  are assured, re-
commended ablutions and bathings to his disciples,
if he has not enjoined it as an article  of their re-
ligion.   There  is a great font,  supported by a
number of carved bulls, under the Mormon Tem-
ple at  Nauvoo, Illinois, where  the ciders baptise 
78       HISTORY OF BATHING
for the dead and immerse the living.  We think
it a most excellent institution.
   The Mahometans view bathing as one of the
necessaries  of life;  and  besides the  numerous
public baths erected in  their cities, and even vil-
lages, almost every family of distinction has bath-
ing apartments within its own dwelling.
   The Arabians or Moors, who conquered Spain
and other parts of Europe, carried with them their
predilections for warm bathing ;  and Moorish an-
tiquities still exist in these countries, notwitstand-
ing the rage for destroying them,  which  exhibit
some excellent models for artificial baths.   In
particular, the  Palace  of Alhambra, in Granada,
contains a magnificent basin, which might be used
either for cold or warm bathing, besides smallei
apartments for odorific fumigations.
   In Russia, according to Dr. Sanches'  account,
all ranks enjoy the luxury,  at the public expense,
of what they  call the sweating bath, which much
resembles the hot baths of the east.
    Cold  bathing, in the sea,  we are assured by
McGill, in his travels, is also much  practised by
the Russians, where he asserts both sexes may be
seen enjoying this favorite recreation, quite naked,
 as they came into the world, without feeling any
 shame on the one side  or the other. 
HISTORY OF BATHING.        79
   Few of the nations of modern Europe,  have
practised warm bathing to any considerable extent,
prior to the seventeenth  century, nor has  it been
used even among the rich in England, to warrant
its notice, until within the last fifty years.  At this
time,  however,  the  cities  both  of  Europe and
America are mostly  supplied with public warm
baths, or rather warm baths for the public, got up
by private enterprise, and used by a small  portion
of the people  at a  most  enormous cost.  The
writer has paid four shillings sterling, in England,
and two shillings sterling in  New-York,  for the
privilege of taking at each a twenty minutes luxu-
ry in a warm bath.   Why does not  John.Jacob
Astor immortalize his name as a public benefactor
in establishing  in New-York,  from part of his
princely fortune, a free  public bath, like that of
Caracalla, for the benefit of succeeding genera-
tions, who would sing praises to, and call blessings
on  the  name of the munificent  founder of The
Astor Bath ?  As  the  Astor House has  been
converted to a private, mercenary purpose, it will
not stand as a monument of generosity, reflecting
honor on  its founder and builder;  nor will the
donation of the Library  Fund, be of much more
consequence, as that will be monopolized  by the
literary few; but a magnificent free bath  for the 
80       HISTORY  OF BATHING.

benefit of the  people,  would fix his monument,
like that of Washington, the father of his country,
in the hearts of many and remote generations to
come. 
DIETETICS,
ADAPTATION OF DIET  TO CONSTITUTION, AGE, SEASON,
                  AND MODE OF LIFE.

Food to be adapted to constitution and circumstances—Diet
  must vary with time of life—Diet in infancy—The mother's
  milk the best; substitutes for it—Over-feeding a prevalent
  error—Diet after weaning—Too early use  of animal food
  hurtful—Diet of children in the higher classes too exciting;
  and produces scrofula—Mild food best for children—Inces-
  sant eating very injurious—Proper diet  from childhood to
  puberty—It ought to be  full and nourishing, but not stimu-
  lating; often insufficient in boarding schools—Diet  best
  adapted for mature age—Regimen powerful in modifying
  the constitution, mental as well as physical—Farther inves-
  tigation required.
   In practice, a distinct modification of  diet ought to be
adopted for every marked variety of constitution, as, unless a
proper relation subsists between the qualities of the food and
the nature of the system  which it is intended to nourish, due
advantage cannot be obtained from its use.  For example, the
highly concentrated and stimulating food which is found ne-
cessary for the proper sustenance of the trained pugilist  or
sportsman, whose muscular frame is in high development and
constant exercise, would prove far too exciting to the slender
and irritable  constitution of a person whose characteristic
feature is the predominant  activity of  the brain and nervous 
82
DIETETICS.
system.  In like manner, the generous and stimulating diet
which suffices to merely rouse a phlegmatic organization to
ordinary energy, would prove by far too nutritive for a person
of a florid and sanguine temperament, whose predisposition is
already toward inordinate activity.
   Viewed in this light, the necessity of adapting the diet and
regimen to the Individual constitution and mode of life, be-
comes so obvious to reason as to excite surprise that it should
ever have been neglected.  But, strange to say, although the
ancient writers attached much importance to the subject, the
relation between diet and constitution, as a practical consi-
deration, has, of late, been so entirely overlooked, and sound
physiological principle has been so little consulted in the pro-
per adaptation of the one to the other, that we are at this mo-
ment in possession of very little information of any yalue re-
garding it, and a long time must elapse before more can be
supplied.
   Where the constitution is of a mixed nature, or a com-
pound of two or more of the temperaments already described,
a diet composed of animal and vegetable aliment in nearly
equal proportions is, under ordinary circumstances, the best.
But  where  any one  temperament predominates,  the  diet
ought to be modified accordingly.   Where, for example, the
sanguine constitution prevails, characterized by a florid com-
plexion, great activity, strong action of  the heart and blood
vessels, and a consequent liability to  diseases of excitement
and inflammation, the food ought to be habitually of a  kind
calculated rather  to  soothe  than to  stimulate.  Red meat,
spices, wines,  and fermented liquors ought to be used spar-
ingly; and  the principal support to  be derived  from re-
freshing soups, fish, fowls, mucilaginous vegetables, acidulous
fruits, and diluting drinks.  In the case of lymphatic persons,
on the other hand, where  the circulation is weak and slow, 
DIETETICS.
83
and all the functions are feeble, the system is benefited by
the stimulus of a larger proportion of animal food, especially
red meat and game; while vegetables, soups, and fluids of
all kinds prove relaxing and hurtful.  Aromatics and spices,
however, are useful, as is also wine in moderation, and con-
joined with adequate exercise.
    If, again, the individual presents a highly nervous  tem-
perament, characterized by delicacy,  unusual sensibility to
impressions,  and  great  excitability,  without proportionate
strength, such as is often seen in females and in men of genius,
care ought to be taken not to make use of a heating or stimu-
lating regimen.  White meat, such as fish and fowl, are more
suitable than  the kinds in  ordinary  use.   Spices  are also
hurtful, but farinaceous and mucilaginous aliments, and ripe
fruits, are generally admissible—always supposing that mode-
ration in quantity is attended to, and that the mode of life is,
in other respects, regular and rational.
    Where the dark  energetic bilious temperament predomi-
nates, and  much bodily activity in the open air is enjoyed,
more latitude in the choice of food is admissible than in any
other constitution.   If,  however, much and continued exer-
tion be required, a full supply of animal food becomes  indis-
pensable for the due support of the system, and the strength
cannot  be adequately supported  on vegetables alone.  In
such circumstances a moderate allowance  of  wine or other
stimulus is borne with less detriment, if not  with more ad-
vantage, than where the temperament is essentially nervous.
    On this subject, however,  there is still  so  much need for
inquiry, that I shall for the present only refer  the reader to
the general principles, and urge upon him the necessity of ren-
dering our knowledge more complete, by diligent and dis-
criminating observations.                    •
    There is no kind of  alimentary substance of which it can 
84
DIETETICS.
be said absolutely, that it is always proper for the sustenance
of man.   To be serviceable, the food must, as we have seen,
be adapted, not only to the constitution, but to the age, state
of health, and mode of life of the individual, and to the climate
and season of the year.  The same diet which, administered
to an adult, is healthful  and nutritious, may prove irritating
and injurious to a child; and, in like manner, the stimulating
animal diet which in  winter  is highly grateful to the system
of a hard-working unexcitable laborer, may prove utterly de-
structive of health  when  indulged in during summer by an
inactive and excitable female.   It becomes, therefore, an ob-
ject of deep interest  to determine the principal causes and
states of the system which render modifications of diet neces-
sary.
   Among these modifying causes, the varying state of the
body at  different periods of life ought certainly to be con-
sidered  as  one of the most influential.  The differences ob-
served in the constitution of the same person at different ages
are at least as  great as those subsisting between different in-
dividuals at the same  age,  In infancy the lymphatic  and nu-
tritive functions greatly predominate over the muscular; and
if the highly annualized food which suits the latter were then
freely administered,  it would infallibly induce disease, and
fail to afford the requisite nourishment.   In manhood,  again,
when muscular activity and nutrition are at their height, the
lymphatic system in abeyance, and  the porson subjected to
laborious exertion, the mild food of infancy would be equally
misplaced.  In advanced  age another change of constitution
occurs.   The soft tissues of early life have  disappeared, and
the whole frame is dry and wasted—a condition which, in its
turn, requires food of a different kind from that fitted for either
of the preceding stages.
    I may, however, remark, that even the state of the diges- 
DIETETICS.
85
tife organs at different ages is sufficient  to indicate a corres-
ponding modification of diet to be proper for each.  In early
infancy, for example, when no teeth exist, and the muscles
which move the jaws are still small and comparatively pow-
erless, and mastication is consequently impossible, milk, from
the mother's breast, is manifestly the only food intended by
nature for its use ; and, so long as it can be obtained of healthy
quality and in sufficient quantity, no other ought to be substi-
tuted in its place.
   The appearance of the first incisor teeth, however, is an
indication that the digestive  organs have now become suffi-
ciently developed to admitfof small portions of barley water,
panada, thin arrow-root, or milk  and water, being given two
or three times daily in addition  to the nourishment drawn
from the mother's breast, if the latter be at all deficient.  But
great care must be taken neither to exceed in quantity nor to
give  the food too rapidly;  for otherwise the stomach will be-
come too full, and be weakened by the efforts it is obliged to
make.  I have already pointed out the importance of attend-
ing to this rule; and, in accordance with it,  Nature, by ar-
ranging that  the milk  shall  flow only by slow degrees, has
taken care that, in suckling,  the child  shall receive its  food
very gradually.  The very appearance  of the teeth indicates
a preparation  of the digestive functions for more substantial
aliment;  and by beginning cautiously the use of small quan-
tities of such simple articles as those above-named, and gra-
dually increasing them according to the wants of the  system,
an excellent preparation will be made for the process of wean-
ing, which would otherwise,  by its suddenness, be attended
with serious risk to both parent and child.
   After the child has been  weaned, panada, gruel, thin ar-
row-root, tapioca, sago, rusk,  or crust of bread may be al-
lowed along with the fresh milk and water and sugar, which
                                        8 
86
DIETETICS.
ought still to constitute the principal part of the food ; and
one or other ought to be preferred according  to  its effects.
When these are given in moderate quantity, and not too fre-
quently,  they generally  agree well; but in some delicate
children they cause acidity,  flatulence, and griping.  In this
case a proportion of weak chicken broth, or beef tea  freed
from fat and thickened with rusk, soft-boiled rice, or arrow-
root may be added.
   The same kind of food ought to be continued till after the
appearance of  the  canine or  dog-teeth.   When  these  have
fairly protruded, a portion of soft-boiled egg may be given as
an introduction to the use of a more completely animal diet.
In general, solid animal food ought not to be allowed in any
quantity till  all the  teeth have appeared and the digestive
powers be fully adequate to its assimilation.
   In this respect there are two errors which ought equally
to be avoided.  If  animal food  be given too early or in too
great quantity,  the system Jjecomes excited, and diseases of
irritation are apt  to  be produced, which impede nutrition,
and lead ultimately to the production of scrofula and other or-
ganic changes in the glands and bowels, and not unfrequently
also  in the  brain and lungs.  In these  instances the  child
generally eats heartily, but, nevertheless, continues thin, and
is subject to frequent flushing and irregularity of the bowels,
headache and restlessness.  His  mind partakes of the general
irritability of the system, and peevish impatience takes the
place of the placid good-humor natural to healthy childhood.
In this state the ordinary diseases of infancy—measles, scar-
let fever, and hooping-cough—are often attended with an un-
usual and dangerous degree  of constitutional disturbance;
and, when inflammation takes  place, the necessary depletion
is borne with difficulty, and the  system does not easily rally.
  The consequences now enumerated, and the  error  from
. 
DIETETICS.                  87
 which they spring, are most frequently met with in the mid-
dle and higher classes of society.   Aware that  animal sub-
stances contain the largest proportion of nutriment in a given
bulk, but ignorant of the relation subsisting between particu-
lar kinds of food and  particular states of the system, and
which, in practice, can never be safely overlooked, the fond
parent naturally imagines that the more nutritious the food
and  the larger the quantity administered,  the  stronger and
healthier will the child become.  No suspicion is entertained
that strong diet may overpower weak organs, and thus induce
the  very evils which it is sought  to avoid;  whereas, by
adapting the quality and quantity of the food to the condition
of the system, the assimilating powers may be gradually in-
vigorated, and healthy nutrition be completely insured.
   Among the  wealthier classes  imperfect nutrition most
generally arises from excess in quantity, or a too stimulating
quality, of food ; but among the lower classes from  deficiency
in quantity or quality, added to scantiness of clothing, want
of cleanliness, and  imperfect ventilation.  And hence  Sir
James Clark, in  treating of the prevention of scrofula and
consumption in early life, lays great stress on the proper re-
gulation of diet, and shows  that, even in families free from
all hereditary taint,  a morbid condition of the system  ex-
tremely  favorable to the production of  both diseases, is
speedily brought about by continued mismanagement of diet;
and both the public and the profession are deeply indebted
to him for drawing attention  to the extensive  influence of
dyspeptic ailments in paving the way for the future inroads
of a deadlier disease. It is true that it  has long  been the
fashion to ascribe all bodily and mental disorders to bile, in-
digestion, or the state of the bowels; but the rationale  of the
result has seldom  been perceived, or turned to any good ac-
count in improving preventive or remedial treatment.  Sir 
88                   DIETETICS.

James Clark's treatise, however,  presents a  remarkable ex-
ception, and may be referred to as a most instructive speci-
men of cautious and discriminating medical inquiry.
   But although the premature use of animal food  is~thus
injurious, a certain proportion of it becomes essential to health
after the organization has become sufficiently developed; be-
cause the instruments of mastication are now fully adequate
to their office, and the stomach is no longer oppressed by the
effort of digesting it.   To make it safe, however, even at that
age, ample exercise and exposure to the open air are indis-
pensable.   By undue confinement to the house or to school,
and deficient exposure to the air, a degree of general delicacy
may be kept up, which is incompatible with the daily use of
a stimulant animal diet.  The waste occasioned by bodily
action being then too limited to require the copious supply
of any very nutritious substances; if these be freely allowed,
they serve only to oppress the digestive functions and impair
the health.
    The prevalent and pernicious custom of tasking the minds
and confining the bodies of children for many hours in succes-
sion at home and in schools, at a time of life when the growth
of the body and the welfare of the system  require frequent
and playful exercise in the open air, and perfect freedom from
care and excitement of mind,  is  the fruitful  source  of much
future bad health, and is  eminently  calculated to defeat  the
object aimed at by parents, namely, the mental excellence of
the child.  The premature exertion of intellect to which it is
stimulated by the constant excitement of emulation and vanity,
far from strengthening, tends to impair the  health  and  tone
of the brain,  and of all the organs depending on it; and hence
we rarely perceive the  genius of the school manifesting in
future years  any of the superiority which attracted  attention
in early life; but we  find him, on the contrary, either sunk 
DIETETICS.
89
below mediocrity, or dragging out a  painful existence, the
victim of indigestion and  melancholy.   On the other hand,
some of the most distinguished men who ever lived were in
childhood remarkable only for health, idleness,  and apparent
stupidity.  The illustrious Newton was, by his own account,
an idle and inattentive boy, and  " very low in the school,"
till he reached twelve years of age; and the young Napoleon
himself is described as "having good health, and being in
other respects like other boys."  Adam Clarke was considered
li a grievous dunce " when a boy, and was seldom praised by
his father, except for his ability in rolling large stones, which
his robust frame and good health  enabled him to do.  Shak-
speare, Gibbon, Byron, Scott, and Davy were in like manner
undistinguished  for precocious genius, and were fortunately
allowed to indulge freely in those wholesome  bodily exer-
cises, and that freedom of mind, which contributed so much
to their  future excellence.  The mother of Sheridan,  too,
long regarded him as '• the dullest and most hopeless of her
sons."
   Among the many who give great promise in early life, and
whose talents are then forced by ill-judged cultivation  into
precocious maturity, how few  live to manhood to reap the
reward of their exertions, and how few of those who survive
preserve their superiority unimpaired!  Tasso was early dis-
tinguished,  and wrote his immortal epic at twenty-two years
of age, but his life was miserable  and  his reason disordered,
and he died at fifty-one.   Pascal is another example of the
same result,  and Kirke  White  and many others might be
named were it necessary.
   Experience, indeed, amply demonstrates that precocious
and excessive activity of intellect and vivacity of feeling are
most powerful impediments to healthy and vigorous digestion,
and,  consequently, to a  sufficient nutrition.  In early life, 
90
DIETETICS.
therefore, when not only health but future usefulness depend
mainly on the completeness and vigor with which the system
shall proceed towards its full development, the preservation
of the digestive organs  by suitable diet, exercise  and regi-
men, ought  to  be a primary object of attention with every
sensible parent.  Even as regards superiority of mind, the
healthy development of the body  is of essential importance,
as the only sure  foundation on which mental excellence can
be built; because, so long as mind and body are intimately
connected with each other, the former must  continue to be
affected by every  change in the condition of the organization
on which it depends.  We enjoy acuteness of vision by pre-
serving the eye in high health, and exercising it regularly and
moderately; and,  in like  manner, we can obtain and preserve
intellectual power only by preserving  the health of the brain,
and exercising it in conformity with its natural constitution.
   Instead, then,  of .feeding the closely confined and excita-
ble children of the middle and higher classes from early in-
fancy on  quantities of stimulating animal food, and even giving
them wine and  fermented liquors, we  shall act  more in  ac-
cordance with the laws of Nature  by restricting  them, during
the three or four earliest  years of childhood, chiefly to a mild
farinaceous dfet, with a small allowance of meat on alternate
days; and by seeking to increase their digestive power and
bodily vigor by constant exercise in the open air, before giv-
ing them a more solid diet.   By  these means the  develop-
ment of the organization,  the keenness of  appetite,  the tone
of digestion, and the desire of, and fitness of the system for,
animal- food, will  increase in regular proportion, and a free
supply of that species of aliment will even become  necessary
to carry on the  growth.   In short, it must ever be remem-
bered, that strength is to be obtained, not from  the kind of
food which contains most nourishment in itself, but from that 
DIETETICS.
91
which is best adapted to the condition of the digestive organs
at the time when it is taken.
   Children who are prone to bodily exertion, and live almost
entirely in the open air, as many of those of the lower orders
do, and who display no unusual sensibility or activity of mind,
or, in other words, no unusual irritability of the nervous sys-
tem, not only bear but require a larger proportion of animal
food  than  their more delicate and sensitive companions.  Not
only is their digestion more vigorous, but the waste going on
in the system is much greater and the nutritive functions are
more active; the need, consequently, for nourishing food,
and  the desire to procure it,  are  proportionally increased.
Hence it happens that, in the  wealthier  classes of society,
young children suffer most from  over-feeding; while in the
poorer classes they suffer chiefly from the opposite cause.
In both,  defective  nutrition is the result;  but the modes  in
which it is brought about  are very different.
   One of the most pernicious  habits in which children can
be indulged is that of almost incessant eating.   Many mothers
encourage it from the facility with which, for a  time, the of-
fer  of " something nice " procures  peace.   Even from in-
fancy the  child ought to be gradually accustomed to eat only
when hungry, and when food is  really required.  After two
years of age,  an  interval  of four hours between meals will
rarely be more  than  enough; and  to  give biscuit,  fruit,  or
bread in the meantime, is just subtracting from the digestive
power of the stomach.  Like almost every organ of the body,
the stomach requires a period of repose after the labor of di-
gestion;  and,  accordingly, in the healthy state, the sensa-
tion  of appetite  never returns  till it has been some  time
empty.   To  give food sooner,  therefore,  is analogous  to
making a weary  traveller walk on without the refreshment
of a Jialt. 
92
DIETETICS.
   It is a great mistake to suppose that  children would not
be quiet or contented without such indulgence.   On the con-
trary, they would be healthier and happier were the opposite
system steadily pursued.  The  greatest  obstacle to be en-
countered is the ignorance of the nurse or mother,  and her
want of resources for the entertainment  and exercise of the
child's bodily  and mental  faculties.  If  these  be  duly at-
tended to, the  child will not think of eating till the return of
appetite enforces the demand; whereas,  if it be left idle and
neglected, every thing will be carried to its mouth, as its only
remaining resource against absolute inanity.  So true is this,
that  I should regard that nurse  as unfit for her employment,
who should complain  that her  charge,  otherwise  in  good
health, is incessantly craving for something to eat.  In this
respect children are like adults.   Give them something to do
and to think about, and they will seek meat only when hun-
gry.   But leave them idle and  listless,  and eating will be-
come their chief subject of contemplation.
   In  a  matter so important as the rearing of children, one
would imagine that every mother and nurse would be anxious
for instruction on  the nature, functions, and wants of the be-
ing committed to  their fostering care.  And yet it is notorious
how rarely either one or other of them possesses any but the
crudest notions of the animal economy,  or can give reasons
for the practices they recommend, or modify them in any de-
gree to suit modifications of circumstances  and constitution.
In reality the wonder comes to be, not that so many children
die, but that so many survive their early mismanagement.
   From the age  of six or seven years up to that of puberty,
when the animal activity is at its height, growth hi full pro-
gress, and the  nutritive  functions in their greatest vigor, a
larger proportion  of animal food and a more generous diet be-
come necessary to the  enjoyment  of health and vigor; but 
                     DIETETICS.                   93

they must still be accompanied by ample  exercise and  free
exposure, otherwise they will tend only to clog  and impede
the functions of life.  At that age the teeth and other organs
concerned in digestion  have become developed and fit for the
assimilation of a richer aliment, and the rapid growth which
takes place renders an  abundant provision of the latter  in a
manner indispensable.   It is then that the healthy youthful
appetite demands quantity as well as quality, and that diges-
tion goes on with an ease and vigor which the dyspeptic pa-
rent contemplates with a covetous and  regretful eye.
    At that age, indeed, the  nutritive  functions are so predo-
minantly active for the purpose of carrying on growth, and
supplying the rapid waste caused by youthful activity, that if
the natural craving for  exercise in the open air be freely in-
dulged, and due attention be given to the development of the
bodily frame, the young may be very safely left to choose for
themselves both the quality and quantity  of their food. In
such circumstances the natural taste inclines so essentially to
the preference of plain substantial nourishment, that there is
very little risk of excess being committed.  But where the
parents are intent  only on the intellectual advancement of
their children, and accustomed to subject them daily to many
successive hours of confinement and study, with  only an hour
or so of relaxation in the open air,  as  is too commonly the
case both with those  educated at home and in boarding-
schools, an artificial state of being is  induced, which makes
the rule no longer applicable, and renders necessary a more
careful attention to dietetic regimen.
    Among the higher classes of society the unrestricted use
of  the most exciting kinds and preparations  of  animal  food,
and the daily use of wine, are the  means generally resorted
to  for  the removal  of the delicacy  thus engendered; but
when  we consider the real state  of the case, no remedy can 
 94                  DIETETICS.

 seem more preposterous.   The evils to be corrected are im-
 perfect nutrition  and the want of strength.   The imperfect
 nutrition, however, is caused, not by deficient food,  but by
 impaired powers of digestion and assimilation, and these suf-
 fer only because the lungs are denied the free air, the muscles
 their necessary exertion, the brain its cheerful recreation, and
 the circulation the healthy stimulus which these united con-
 ditions infallibly produce.   Instead, therefore, of oppressing
 a weakened stomach  by administering stronger food than it
 has the power  of digesting, the natural  way of proceeding
 would be to prescribe at first  a milder and less stimulating
 diet—to improve the tone of digestion by fulfilling the condi-
 tions above referred to—and then, in proportion as the stom-
 ach  was strengthened,  to  adopt a  more  nourishing  diet,
 suited to the increased efficiency of all the animal functions.
   By running counter to  this  method, and using highly stim-
 ulating food improperly, many young people of the wealthier
 classes incur as much suffering from imperfect nutrition, and
 the diseases to which it predisposes, as if they  were really
 the victims of an impoverished diet.  Sir James Clark, after
 making some very judicious remarks on the influence  of bad
 digestion in inducing the  consumptive constitution  of body,
 expresses himself strongly on the evils to which  I  have  just
 alluded.   "Food in excess," he says, " or of a kind too ex-
 citing for the digestive organs, may  also induce tubercular
 cachexia—a circumstance  which is not sufficiently attended
 to—I may say,  not generally  understood, even by medical
 men; nevertheless, I hold it to be a frequent cause of scro-
 fula, and believe that it produces the  same effect on the sys-
 tem as a deficient supply."  "The imperfect digestion  and
 assimilation in the one case,  and the inadequate nourishment
in the other, being equally injurious ;  the forms and general
characters which the disease assumes may differ, but the ul- 
DIETETICS.
95
timate result will be the same in both cases.  The adaptation
of the food, both in quality and quantity, to the age of the in-
dividual, as well as to the powers  of the digestive organs, is
too  little considered; and the evil consequences of this neg-
lect are often evident in  the children of the Wealthy classes
of society, who are allowed an unrestricted use of the most
exciting kinds of animal food."*
    The opposite error, of not providing a sufficiently nourish-
ing diet for the young, is,  often from kind but mistaken views,
much more prevalent than it ought to be, particularly in fe-
male boarding-schools, where,  as already mentioned, the sys-
tem of diet is frequently insufficient for due sustenance and
growth ; and where, consequently, the natural expression of
impaired health, if not actual disease, is a marked feature in
the aspect of most of the pupils.  So defective, indeed, is the
common school management in this and other respects, that
we have the best authority for  considering it as a rare excep-
tion for a girl to return home in full health after spending two
ur  three years at an ordinary boarding-school.
    It  is true that much  of this result is owing to excessive
confinement, neglect of cheerful exercise, ill-ventilated sleep-
ing apartments, and other depressing influences ; but to these,
that of an insufficient diet may often be added; and when it
does exist, it acts with double force from the impaired diges-
tion, which seldom fails to ensue where the  laws of health
are so widely outraged.
    I have seen some striking instances of incurable scrofulous
disease, induced by the depressing influence  of  misfortune
added to the want of a sufficient supply of nutritious food.
After the mercantile disasters of 1836—7, many cases  of this
kind occurred, especially in famihes whose  sensitive feelings
uiduced them to shrink from public observation, and to suffer
    * Clark on Pulmonary Consumption and Scrofula, p. 230. 
9G
DIETETICS.
 the severest privations rather than allow their situation to be-
 come known.   In these cases the tone of the general  health
 first became reduced, and then local disease was easily ex-
 cited by any trivial cause.  In one, the structure of the bones
 and joints became disorganized, and amputation of the limb
 preserved life, but could not prevent other parts of the osseous
 system from being attacked.  In another, caries of the bones
 of the foot ensued, but the constitution itself was so thoroughly
 tainted that no operation could be performed with even mo-
 mentary success,  and, after much suffering, the patient died.
 The same causes undermined the health of another member
 of the same  family, and led  to his death, from consumption,
 at an early age.
    In regard to the diet best adapted to different  constitu-
 tions in mature age, I have already confessed that I have little
 new information to offer.  In determining the question, seve-
 ral other circumstances  besides the  mere temperament  re-
 quire to be considered.   A more or  less laborious mode of
 life, for example,  will require a more or less nutritious diet,
 whatever the original habit of body may  be.  In like manner,
 if any temperament be in excess, and we wish to repress its
 predominance, the same kind of food which is suitable  for it
 in a lower degree, will no longer be applicable.  Thus,
 when the lymphatic constitution is predominant, and our ob-
 ject is to diminish its ascendancy and stimulate the system to
 greater  vigor, a larger proportion  of solid nourishing food,
 combined with increased exercise,  will be  proper than if
t there were no such excess.  Where, on  the other hand, the
 nervous or  sanguine  temperament preponderates, a plainer
 and less exciting regimen will be necessary  than  where the
 constitutional tendencies are more equally balanced.
    The power we possess of modifying the constitution  by
 well-directed regimen is very great, and  only requires to be 
DIETETICS.
97
sufficiently investigated to have due importance assigned to
it in conducting physical education.   This is wellexemphfied
in the art of training, where diet and exercise are reduced to
a practical science for the attainment of certain  results, and
with remarkable success.  In the hands  of a  trainer,  the
breathless and oppressed frame of a person overburdened
with lymph and fat speedily becomes  converted into an ac-
tive, firm,  and  well-conditioned organization, exhibiting a
promptitude of action of both mind and body the  very op-
posite of its former manifestations ; and if such a change can
be effected, by rigid adherence to rules, in the course of two
or three months, we may easily conceive the degree of im-
provement  which would follow the uniform observance  of
proper regimen and dietetic precepts in ordinary society.  In
improving the moral and intellectual as well as physical con-
dition of the working-classes, the influence of food, air, and
exercise will soon be discovered to  possess a degree of im-
portance of which at present  scarcely a suspicion  is enter-
tained.   They constitute, in fact, the very foundation of sys-
tematic education;  and mere intellectual cultivation will fail
to produce  its  full beneficial results, till the organization by
which the mind operates be itself improved by  a  treatment
in harmony with its own constitution.
   If it be impossible for me to communicate sufficient infor-
mation to enable each of my readers at once to determine be-
forehand the kind of diet which is likely to suit him best, it
will give him at least some satisfaction  to know that the ful-
filment of the conditions of healthy digestion, already explain-
ed, is of even  greater importance  than the selection of the
proper  kind of food.  By  observing  personally,  however,
what kind of food agrees best with the stomach and constitu-
tion, and at the same time attending to  the laws of digestion,
the probability of causing mischief by an ill-selected diet will 
98
DIETETICS.
be greatly diminished.  When we refrain  from eating too
much and at unreasonable hours, and are  not conscious of
any undue oppression or discomfort after our meals, but on
the contrary, feel light or refreshed, and, after a time, ready
for renewed exertion, we may  rest  assured that the food
which we have taken is wholesome and suitable for us, what-
ever be its nature and general effects.   Whereas, if, without
committing any excess or other dietetic error, we experience
the opposite sensations of oppression, languor, and uneasi-
ness, we may be  just as certain  that our food, whatever its
general character for lightness and digestibility, is not whole-
some or suitable for us under our present circumstances.  So
that, with a little  care and trouble, we shall rarely be at any
loss to find out what we ought to eat and what to avoid; and,
accordingly, it is notorious  that indigestion  from a wrong
choice of food is induced at least nine times by wilful indul-
gence, for once that it occurs from errors orginating in igno-
rance alone.  If the proper quantity of food be not exceeded,
and the other conditions of digestion be carefully fulfilled, no
serious consequences will result from any accidental mistake
in its selection.
   I need hardly  add that, although there  are very few arti-
cles of diet which a person in health, and leading a sufficiently
active  life, may not eat with impunity, there are, neverthe-
less, some which  ought  to be preferred, and others which
ought to be avoided, by those whose digestion is impaired.
Thus, vegetables are, generally speaking, slower of digestion
than animal  and farinaceous aliments,  and,  consequently,
when digestion is feeble, are  liable to remain in the  bowels
till acetous fermentation takes place, and gives rise to acidity
and flatulence.  Fat and oily  meats are nearly in the same
predicament, and  hence both  form  unsuitable articles of diet
for dyspeptics.  Soups and liquid food are also objectionable, 
DIETETICS.
99
both because they are ill adapted for being properly acted
upon by the gastric juice and by the muscular fibres of the
stomach, and because they afford  insufficient nourishment.
From the former cause they frequently  impair the digestive
functions ; and from the latter they induce diseases of debility
which it is difficult to subdue.   Daily experience furnishes
examples of stomachic disorder from eating soups,  especially
as preliminary to  an  otherwise substantial dinner; and the
fatal epidemic which prevailed a few years ago in the Mil-
bank Penitentiary, in England, was distinctly ascertained to
have been partly caused by an insufficient and too liquid diet.
It is common, indeed, to see heart-burn and indigestion of re-
cent origin cured simply by giving  up soups and vegetables,
and diminishing the quantity of liquid taken at breakfast and
tea.
    When, from the state of health, or other causes, chicken
tea, beef tea, veal broth, or other kinds of soup require to be
given, their digestibility will generally be promoted by the
addition of bread or rice to give them  consistency, and by
taking little or no other food along with them.  Even vege-
tables, when  taken alone,  are sometimes digested without
difficulty, where, if mixed with other substances, they disor-
der the stomach.   Dr.  Abercrombie mentions a very remark-
able instance of this kind in a gentleman who " had been for
many  years a martyr to  stomach  complaints, seldom a day
passing in which he did  not suffer greatly from  pain in his
stomach, with flatulency, acidity, and the usual train  of dys-
peptic symptoms ; and, in particular, he could not taste a bit
of vegetable without  suffering from it severely.  He had gone
on in this manner for years,^ when  he was seized with com-
plaints in his head, threatening apoplexy, which, after being
 relieved by the usual means,  showed  such a constant ten
 dency to recur, that it has been necessary ever since to  re- 
DIETETICS.
      ' ui to a diet almost entirely of vegetables, and in very
  (derate quantity.  Under this regimen, so different from
his  former mode of living, he has continued free from any
recurrence of the complaints in his head, and has never been
known to complain of his stomach."*   In this case, however,
both the very moderate quantity of vegetable food  to which
the patient restricted himself, and possibly also the gradual
adaptation of the gastric juice to the nature of the  food, had
no small share in the subsequent improvement of his digestion.
    Dr. Beaumont mentions, as a general result from his ex-
periments on St. Martin, that vegetable food is slow of diges-
tion; but it is much to be regretted that he gives  the parti-
culars of only one or  two trials,  which  lead  to no very
important  results.  In one  of  these  St.  Martin ate " nine
ounces of  raw, ripe,  sour apples at  2 o'clock 35 minutes'
At 3 o'clock 30 minutes the stomach was full of fluid and
pulp  of  apples, quite  acrid,  and irritating the edges of the
aperture,  as is always the case  when  he  eats acescent
fruits or vegetables."^  In  another instance ten ounces of
raw cabbage were given,  and in two  hours not a particle of
it was to be found in the stomach; while, on a  third occasion,
half a pound of raw cabbage, cut fine,  and macerated in vine-
gar, disappeared in little more than one hour and a half!  If
in the latter  experiments  the cabbage were really digested,
and not  merely propelled out of the  stomach into the intes-
tine, we shall be forced to admit that we  have still much to
learn concerning the  digestibility of different kinds of food,
 for the result is contrary to all generally received opinions.
 When vegetables are allowed, great stress is  commonly laid

    * Abercrombie on Disease of the Stomach, &c, 1st edit., p. 73.
    t Beaumont's Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice
 and the  Physiology of Digestion.  Reprinted with Notes by Andrew
 Combe, M.D.  Edinburgh, 1838, p. 259. 
DIETETICS.                  101
upon the necessity  of their being thoroughly  cooked; and
yet, according to these experiments,  raw cabbage is very
nearly as digestible as soft-boiled rice or sago!  It is strange
that Dr. Beaumont  should not have remarked  this anomaly,
which he seems not to have done, since he neither attempts
to explain it, nor alludes to it as anything extraordinary. My
own suspicion is, that the cabbage was not entirely digested,
but had merely passed through the pylorous into the intestine.
    Dr. Beaumont's testimony  in favor  of farinaceous  vege-
tables is, however,  more precise and satisfactory.  In some
of his experiments St. Martin digested completely a full meal
of boiled rice, seasoned  with  salt,  in a single hour.  Soft
custard and boiled rich sago,  sweetened  with sugar, and
taken in quantities of a pint each time, were disposed of with
nearly equal despatch, and " there was no acrimony  of the
gastric contents,  or smarting  of the  edges  of  the aperture,
during their chymification, as is usual in most vegetable and
farinaceous aliments; " on the contrary, the sago " seemed
peculiarly grateful to the surface of the, stomach,  rendering
the membrane soft, uniform,  and  healthy."t  In these in-
stances, it ought to be remarked, nothing  else  was eaten at
the same time ; so that the stomach  was  not oppressed  by
quantity.
    In early life, when  digestion is  vigorous, the system ex-
citable, and  the habits peculiarly active, a full proportion of
vegetable and farinaceous food is proper and salutary.  Morn-
ing and  evening meals  of this  description, prepared with
milk, or taken along with it, are very useful—animal food be-
ing reserved for  dinner alone.   But as age advances and ex-
citability diminishes, and perhaps also as habits of activity and
exposure to  the open air are changed,  the same  proportion

   f Beaumont's Experiments and Observations, &c, p. 267.
                                      9* 
102                 DIETETICS.
of vegetable and farinaceous food can no longer be  digested
so easily, and, therefore ought not to be continued.
   Pastry, rich cakes, puddings, and other articles containing
much fatty or oily matter in their composition, are perhaps
the most generally indigestible of all kinds of food, and, con-
sequently, ought never  to be eaten when the tone of  the
stomach is  impaired.  There are states,  however, in which
oily articles seem to agree better than  lean.  I have seen
very  fat fried  bacon, for example, digested with ease at
breakfast, where even a small potato would have disordered
the stomach.   It is very difficult to afford any explanation of
the faqt, which, however, is not uncommon.   Perhaps it is
dependant on a peculiar state of the biliary secretion, for Dr.
Beaumont often remarked that the  presence  of bile in  the
stomach facilitates the digestion of  fat and oily aliments, and
that, even  out of the  stomach, gastric juice dissolves suet
faster when a little bile is added to the mixture than  when
the juice is pure.  He mentions, moreover,  that  he  never
found bile in  the stomach, at least during health, except when
food of an oily kind had been eaten; and, in accordance with
this, I have generally noticed that fried  bacon  agrees best
with what are called " bilious " subjects.   Still, however, the
quantity must be small, otherwise it will prove injurious.
   Plain, well-cooked animal food,  not too recently killed,
and eaten in moderate quantity with bread, rice,  or roasted
potatoes, forms one of the most easily digested  meals which
can be devised for a weak stomach.  Sometimes, however,
potato induces acidity and flatulence, and  ought not  to be
used.  Venison and most kinds of game are very suitable in
the  same circumstances.
   In some conditions of the system, where considerable ir-
ritability prevails, and the mode  of life is not sufficiently ac-
tive, red highly animalized meat proves too stjmulatiag, al- 
                     DIETETICS.                  103
                             I
though easy of digestion.   The  same thing happens during
recovery from illness; and hence fish, chicken, and other
white meats which excite less and are digested more slowly,
are often allowable where beef, mutton, pork, &c, cannot be
taken with impunity.   For the same reason, white and young
meats are the best adapted for the excitable systems of the
young.
    It would be easy to fill  many pages with disquisitions
about the preference due to individual articles of food, were
such the purpose which I had in view.   But'books devoted
to  this  branch of the subject abound, and  are already  in
general circulation.  My object is  the exposition of  practi-
cal principles rather than of minute details; and my great
aim is to enable every intelligent  person to understand, not
only what digestion is, but the laws by which it is regulated,
so that he may know at once why it is for his advantage to
adhere to one course of conduct in preference to another  in
regard to it—why, in different situations, diet requires to be
modified in order to adapt it  more effectually to the varying
wants of the system—and, lastly, the circumstances or rules
by which such modifications ought to be determined.   If I
have succeeded in the attempt to explain any or all of these
principles sufficiently to render them susceptible of a practi-
cal application  by the reader, not only will I be  greatly
pleased, but the advantage to him will speedily convince him
that I have acted judiciously in forsaking  the beaten path,
and drawing his attention  to truths of still greater importance
to his welfare than those which  are most commonly treated
of under the title of Dietetics.—See Dr. Combe on Dietetics. 
104
DIETETICS
TABLE SHOTTING THE MEAN TIME OF DIGESTION OF THE DIFFERENT

                        ARTICLES OF DIET.
Articles of Diet.
   Mode
     of
Preparation.
Rice   -
Pig's fent, soused
Tripe, soused
Eggs, whipped -    -    -
Trout, Salmon, fresh  -
Trout, Salmon, fresh
Soup, barley
Apples, sweet and mellow -
Venison steak
Brains    -
Sago   -
Tapioca  -   -    -    -
Barley -    -
Milk.....
Liver, beef's fresh
Eggs, fresh    -
Codfish, cured, dry
Apples, sour and mellow  -
Cabbage, with vinegar -
Milk  ----_-
Eggs, fresh  -
Turkey, wild  -
Turkey, domestic -
Gelatine  -
Turkey, domestic
Goose    -
Pig, sucking -
Lamb, fresh   -
Huh, meat and vegetables
Beans, pod    ...
Cake, sponge
  Potatoes,  Irish
  Potatoes,  Irish -
  Cabbage,  head
  Spinal marrow -
  Chicken, full grown
  Custard   -
  Beef, with salt only
  Apples, sour and hard
  Oysters, fresh
  Eggs, fresh
  Bass, striped, fresh
  Bfief, fresh,  lean,  rare
  Beef steak  -
  Pork, recently salted
| Pork, recently salted
Boiled
Boiled
Boiled
Raw
Boiled
Fried
Boiled
Raw
Broiled
Boiled
Boiled
Boiled
Boiled
Boiled
Broiled
Raw
Boiled
Raw
Raw
Raw
Roasted
Roasted
Boiled
Boiled
Roasted
Roasted
Roasted
Broiled
Warmed
Boiled
Baked
Boiled
Roasted
Baked
Raw
Boiled
Fricassee
Baked
Boiled
Raw
Raw
Soft boiled
Broiled
Roasted
Broiled
Raw
Stewed 
DIETETICS.                    105
TABLE SHOWING MEAN TIME OF DIGESTION—CONTINUED.
	Preparation.	Dig	estion
	Broiled	H 3	M.
	Boiled	3	
Soup, beans ---_..	Boiled	3	
	Boiled	3	
	Boiled	3	
	Baked	3	
	Boiled	3	
Oysters, fresh .....	Roasted	3	15
	Broiled	3	15
Pork, recently salted - - -	Broiled	3	15
	Roasted	3	15
	Baked	3	15
	Boiled	3	15
	Broiled	3	20
Flounder, fresh .....	Fried	3	30
	Fried	3	30
	Stewed	3	30
Beef, fresh, dry - -	Roasted	3	30
Beef, with mustard, &c. ...	Boiled	3	30
	Melted	3	30
Cheese, old, strong ....	Raw	3	30
	Boiled	3	30
Oyster soup -.--..	Boiled	3	30
Bread, wheaten, fresh ...	Baked	3	30
	Boiled	3	30
Potatoes, Irish .....	Boiled	3	30
Eggs, fresh......	Hard boiled	3	30
	Fried	3	30
Green corn and beans - - - -	Boiled	3	45
	Boiled	•3	45
	Boiled	4	
Beef, fresh, lean ....	Fried	4	
Veal, fresh ......	Broiled	4	
Fowls, domestic - - - -	Boiled	4	
	Roasted	4	
Ducks, domestic ....	Roasted	4	
Soup, beef, vegetables and bread -	Boiled	4	
	Fried	4	
Beef, old, hard, salted ....	Boiled	4	15
Pork, recently salted . - -	Fried	4	15
Soup, marrow bones ....	Boiled	4	15
Cartilage ------	Boiled	4	15
Pork, recently salted - - - -	Boiled	4	30
	Fried	4	30
	Roasted	4	30
	Boiled	4	30
Cabbage, with vinegar - - - -	Boiled	4	30
Suet, beef, fresh -	Boiled	5	3
Pork, fat and lean -	Roasted	5	15
	Boiled	5	30 |
 
SEA-SICKNESS,
   There are few constitutions among the human family that
can bear the rocking of a ship and the smell of bilge-water,
without experiencing more or less derangement of the stom-
ach and intestines, so as to produce what is generally called
sea-sickness.  In this affection  the peristaltic motions of the
bowels appears to be reversed, so that instead of discharging
the food downwards in the usual way, the stomach and intes-
tines become so disturbed, and  constipation sets in to such a
degree, that the whole intestinal tube and stomach have the
opposite tendency;  and in many cases discharge much of their
contents from the mouth.  In this condition the hepatic duct
discharges the bile and gall into the stomach instead of the
duodenum, and while the system  remains so, there will be
no chance of the unfortunate sufferer having any relief, as the
stomach will reject almost every thing solid or fluid that may
be taken on it.
   We find nothing among the medical writers that has the
smallest chance either of preventing or  curing sea-sickness,
nor has any thing ever been offered as a specific  for cure of
the disease. Some say, take a little brandy and water; others,
wine mixed with salt-water; others, drink salt-water: and Lord
Byron recommends  a beefsteak; which, by-the-bye, in a pe- 
SEA-SICKNESS.
107
   culiar crisis of the disease, is not a bad restorative.  But there
   is none of these things that can in all cases be relied  on as a
   true remedy.
     There are two indications  with regard to this disagreeable
   affection, viz:
      1.  To prevent sea-sickness.
      2.  To cure it after it has commenced.
      Persons who fear the disease  should fortify their  system
/  against it three or four days before going on board, by taking
   one or two doses of Rhubarb and Magnesia, which cathartic
   has the least tendency to  produce a subsequent  costiveness
   of the bowels.  Then, when on board, for the first twenty-
   four hours or more, no fluid of any kind, and  especially tea,
   should be taken on the stomach; no, not even solids should be
   taken, until the  system has got a little used to  the heaving of
   the vessel, and  more especially to that peculiar kick  of the
   ship that brings on puking.   This regimen must be  strictly
   adhered to, for,  if there is nothing in the stomach, there  can
   be nothing thrown off.  A  peculiar qualmishness, without
   puking, will then exist, which must  be removed  by retiring
   to a proper place, and taking one or two  good injections, or
   as many as will bring away a good stool; and these injections
   should be repeated as often as they seem  to be  needed, as
   no cathartic will be of any use at this period.
      Albumen is  the only real cure that we have ever found
   in sea-sickness,  for when nothing else  will remain  on the
   stomach,  eggs, boiled as  hard as possible, will!  There can
   be nothing, perhaps, more indigestible in a healthy stomach
   than hard boiled eggs, yet in a sea-sick stomach there is  no
   remedy we have  ever  found so potent.   Eat from  two to
   four and try them.
      When, without any previous preparation of the system, sea-
   sickness has supervened, the only true remedy will be found in 
108
S E A-SICKNESS.
repeated powerful injections of common salt and water, or of
castor oil, milk and molasses; but the common salt injections
are much more convenient, and will answer  full as well.
Perhaps emollient injections afterwards will  prove  more
agreeable to the intestines.  By these repeated injections the
bowels will be brought to their natural condition, and the
hard boiled eggs will then thoroughly settle the stomach.
The appetite will next become ravenous, so that the mackerel,
beef, and other good  things, will rapidly decrease on board
ship, while the individual will enjoy the full pleasure of the
voyage.  These remarks are made from my own experience,
and I hope  and trust  that other bilious and delicate constitu-
tions, male  and female, may receive the same benefit from
the remedies here recommended, that I did.
 «            ______________________________

              NOTE  TO  BATHING.
   One of the methods of cold bathing which we omitted to
mention, and which is highly recommended by medical men,
is, to strip in some proper place, and sponge the person all
over with cold water, which may be repeated, after drying,
as often as necessary, to the great comfort of the individual.
This mode recommends itself, on account of its great conve-
nience.
THE END 
 
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