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, particularly chronic rheu matism.
Cold bathing is advisable chiefly in summer and autumn, and, except in those cases where swimming has become habitual, and is borne with impunity, the time of immersion should not exceed a few minutes.
The cold bath; in all its forms, is inadmissible in all those cases where the -heat of the . body is less than natural; where profuse perspiration has come on ; where there is any considerable degree of ple thora, or unusual fulness of the blood-vessels ; where the person is subject to inflammatory affections of the lungs, or any considerable determination of blood to the head ; and where, from constitutional weak ness, or unconquerable dread, the use of this power ful remedy may be productive of unpleasant feelings. Its utility in serophula, in which it has been • much employed, is at best but ambiguous.
• We cannot dismiss this part of our subject without remonstrating, in the strongest terms, against the folly and absurdity of that indiscriminate use of cold bathing which is so prevalent in this country, and which,•we are convinced, is daily productive of the most pernicious consequences. If we consider the great difference that commonly exists between the summer atmosphere and the temperature of the sea, with the bleak exposed aspect of many of our water ing places, and the keen winds to which the bather is often exposed, we cannot but think, that a great number of invalids, delicate females, and young and puny children, have been often materially injured in their health by an injudicious use of this powerful application. (See Saunders On Mineral Waters, p. 427.) We would especially caution our readers against an indiscriminate and unadvised use of the shower bath, from which we have ourselves seen and experienced ill effects.
In entering a bath of a temperature between 85° and 97°, an agreeable sensation of warmth is expe rienced ; and this sensation is more striking in pro portion as the body has been previously cooled. If, however, the water be not kept near the highest point of the warm temperature, the sense of increased heat soon diminishes, leaving only a pleasant feeling of -a moderate and natural temperature. The frequency
of the pulse is always diminished, and this very re markably in those cases where, before immersion, it was preternaturally increased. This diminution of the pulse goes on during a continuance in the warm bath, though the water be preserved at nearly its ori ginal temperature ; insomuch, that a natural pulse has, after immersion of au hour and half, been reduced by nearly twenty beats in a minute. The respiration is rendered slower, and the animal heat is, in most cases, diminished. The absolute weight of the body, after immersion in the warm bath, is found to be in creased, notwithstanding the perspiration which com monly takes place during immersion ; and the patient feels a peculiar languor and desire repose, though the spirits are exhilarated, and any previous irritabili ty 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 employed in cases of preternatural rigidity and contraction. It is an observation founded on experience, that moist, warm air produces a relaxation and debility of the living body ; and hence it was natural to conclude, that the warm bath should be productive of the same effects ; but the remarks and experiments of Dr Marcard. seem to prove, that these preconceived opi nions are founded in error. He has employed warm bathing 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 expe rienced. any debilitating effect, but, on the contrary, all of them felt stronger on the days when they used the warm bath, and most of them were restored to their former strength. In a few cases, however, re laxation 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 been continued too long. See Mai-card De la Na ture et de l' Usage des Rains, p. 14: The allusion of warm water is more effectual than immersion in the warm bath in diminishing a morbid 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.