BATHING. In addition to the historical, eco nomical, and physical details respecting the practice of Bathing, which have been inserted in' the body of the Encyclopedia, we find many investigations in the works of some of the latest authors, relating to its medical and physiological effects, which require to be attentively 'considered.
A methodical arrangement of these effects, re ferred to the respective divisions of therapeutic agencies, would be of great use in enabling us to attain a distinct idea of their nature; but such an arrangement is, in fact, a matter of extreme diffi culty, for two reasons; first, Because the tempera ture, the continuance, and the impregnation of the bath, are capable of being so varied, as materially to vary the nature of the remedy, without any distinct limit between its different forms ; and, secondly, Be cause the classes of medical agents, to which several of these effects belong, are by no means distinctly defined ; to say nothing of the additional complexity arising from the division of the effects into immedi ate and remote, which Is often extremely important. The remote effects, however, being of a more gene ral nature, and relating• chiefly to the improvement or deterioration of the actions of the whole system, it is only the immediate effects that require to be accurately analyzed and distinguished ; and these • we must endeavour to reduce to some methodical classification of therapeutic powers.
Baths, as depending on water, have been na turally referred to the class of diluent remedies, in which water is comprehended ; and they have some times even been recommended as nutrients ; they may also act as excitants of cutaneous sensation ; as stimulants, or rather calffacients, increasing the ve locity of the circulation of the blood; as sudorffses ; as diuretics ; as " sorbentia" or sorbefircients ; as re frigerants or astringents ; as tonics ; and as retar dants of the pulse, a capacity in which some would call them relaxants ; while they seem in many cases to be useful as antispasmodics, or to relieve certain nervous affections, by something like a narcotic or sedative power. We might also refer the mechani cal effect of ablution, in removing the natural secre tions of the skin, to the dietetic habits conducive to the preservation of health ; but this process, though highly necessary for our comfort, is perhaps less essen tially important to health, than has often been ima gined; and, in some particular cases, the practice of the very frequent removal of the unctuous and volatile secretions• of the skin has even appeared to be injuri•