65026 system 17

17

of respiration, or intestinal gases, but purely and simply of ill-smelling emanations froin the skin. And this does not refer only to people of the " working " classes. I have ofton met “ gentlemen " in frock-coats and top-hats, and ladies in cvening dress, of whom you could tell by the smcll of them, even at a distance of seyeral feet, that they seldom tóok a bath. It is a spccial smcll, just as people who are addicted to alcohol, for instance, harc their pcculiar smcll. Stipposing the person in question to harc a bad brcath and perhaps bc shorl-siglited as woli, so that convcrsation is regardcd as impossible unless the distance betweeu one's face and his be reduced to a few inches, we hare an ex-ceedingly disagrecable but uncommonly frequcnt situation

In the next place, the bath and tlić rubbing aro intendcd to serve as skin gymnastics, acting iipon the capillary vessels and nerres of the skin, and rendering them sound, healthy, and hardy -which is of the greatest possible irnportance to the body's generał health. One can lay it down as a rule that the good or ill troatment of the skin has an immediate effect on the whole generał State of one's health. The skin is not a sort of impermcable corering of the body, but is in ilself one of its most important organs ; we feel with, and partially breathe through it, and we use it to regulate the warnith of our bodies, and to pass off obnoxious matter. It is cery beucficial, indeed almost neces-sary for the health, to perspire a little every day, so long, be it obserred, as one washes immediately after. But if ihere be no immediate oppor-tunity for this, it is essential to keep in morement so as to maintain perspiration tmtil home or some bathing establishment can be reached. How many thousands have contracted pueumonia. or the germs of other diseases. through transgression of this rule ! This is cspecially the case with soldiers, who frequently, after sweat-inducing field exercises and other kinds of exertion, are compelled to remain absolutely inactire for a long time in the cold and wind, or, if it be summer, in the shade, lis-tening to theoretical instruction. A great deal of hanu could be avoided in such cases if a dry towel, which could be carried in the knapsack, were passed orer the hreast and back, eren if this were done under the shirt only. It always seems to me to be almost suicidal for a lady heated after dancing, or a perspiring cyclist, to sit down and eat an ice or to drink cold beer. To grow cold wliile "wet ” is always dan-gerous, whether the moisturebecaused by perspiration, rain, or by falling into water with ones clothes on. During evaporation a vcry large amount of warmth is drawn from the body. and this has the worsc effect for the very reason, cspecially when the moisture proceeds from perspiration, that the process of cooling is verv unequal. To be " dry-cold," on the other hand, is not so dangerous : yet it is cxactly this of which people have such a horror, and this is why they pack themsclves into so many clothes that they break out into perspiration with evcry little movement. the couseąuence being that they catch cold at onco. People take cold very frequently, not because they are insufficiently clad, but because they wear too many and too thick articles of apparel. It is far less dangerous when stripped to take sun-batks in the open air during the cold seasons ; yet this again is regardcd as terribly imprudent, so percerse is the public rnind regarding such matters.

1 have often heard people, even sportsmen and athletes, boast that they could do this, that and the other, without gelting into a perspiration; some indeed were so “strong" that they could not perspire at all.