means by which that generation can be effected is by the healthful circulation of the blood, which involves a healthful condition of skin organism, while in no way can the skin be maintained in such purity and tone as by the genial action of the Hot-air Bath. It does nothing more than keep the cutaneous surface in a wholesome state; and, this done, Nature works her own purposes with the internal economy.

"It is impossible to avoid the conclusion," observes Erasmus Wilson," that the close clothing of the body from the moment of birth, and the continuance of the process throughout our lives, must tend to prevent the proper and healthy development of the skin, and also to debilitate it; and that the opposite course, of exposing the skin to the air, and promoting its natural functions by means of the Bath, must have the contrary effect of hardening and strengthening the skin, and rendering its functions more perfect." And, again, he says:-"In a word, the habit of clothing the body, of keeping it shut out from the air and from the light, weakens the nerves of the skin, and consequently the natural and healthy sensibility of the organ. The little boy bred in the Bath complains of no hurt when he is accidentally struck, or when he tumbles; and that which would be a punishment to another boy is none to him." The fondness that children accustomed to the Bath have for it, and the marvellous effect it produces on delicate, sickly infants, when judiciously administered, demonstrates how in accordance its action is with Nature's laws. It is an easy and certain means of strengthening the constitution of delicate children-it educates, trains the skin to withstand climatic changes, and thus prevents chills, colds, and an array of evil consequences-and, above all, it counteracts or eradicates, as nothing else can do, inherited proclivities to disease, which are the penalties of past transgressions of Nature's laws.

There are few houses now built for the occupation of the middle classes in which there is not some sort of provision made for bathing-some apartment that is not satirically designated "the Bath-room." But a trough for warm water, or a shower

bath, is a burlesque on bathing; and could the balance of good and evil produced by such bathing be truly ascertained, there can be no doubt that the latter would largely preponderate. Every house should possess a proper Hot-air Bath, which combines the advantages of being the most healthful, the most useful, and the most economical.

Healthful, because it purifies and invigorates the functional life of childhood, assists materially in the development of mechanical growth, and exercises a most beneficial influence over mental dispositions by its soothing action on the nervous system. It developes in the infant system an increased power to pass with safety and ease, if not with perfect impunity, through the ordeal of what are known as Infantile diseases, which the majority of people believe that children must take, but not one of which a child should take if Nature's laws were observed.

Useful, because in the Hot-air Bath there is also combined all that is beneficial in the warm water and shower baths, and that, too, in a way that when used their action cannot be otherwise than salubrious-the action of the hot-air on the skin precluding any danger from cold douching, but making it very enjoyable and healthful. "In the exclusive, combined, or alternate use of stimulants and sedatives," says Dr. James Wilson, "consists the whole 'art and mystery' of Physic;" and for young life, more especially, there is nothing in Nature to compare with the stimulating and sedative influence of Temperature judiciously employed.

Economical, because the cost of a hot-air bath, with all proper conveniences, need not exceed that of an ordinary bathroom, while, if properly constructed, it can be made available for many domestic uses. It will afford a constant and plentiful supply of hot water for household purposes; while, as a dryingroom, the convenience it affords can only be appreciated by those who have had experience of it. The annual expenditure caused in the generality of families by doctors' fees and "pharmaceutical filth," with which children are soothed into the grave, would

not only pay good interest on the cost of constructing and maintaining an excellent Bath, but leave a good balance; so that, as far as mere money is concerned-to say nothing of the wealth that lies in health-Nature in this, as in all instances, has economy on her side.

CHAPTER XXI.

The Bath falsely represented as a panacea—Its true meritsCurable and Incurable Disease-Drugging and Hydropathy contrasted-Illustrative cases-Skin Diseases.

THE allegation that the Bath is advocated as a panacea for all diseases, we have more than once referred to as totally unfounded; but it is one that is sneeringly whispered about in society by Physic practitioners; and small minds fancy they are uttering something remarkably smart and clever, when they parrot the jeering remark-"Oh! you know the bath will cure everything!" It is the Drug-school alone that ostensibly profess to have a specific for every complaint: no Hydropathist of character would practise any such scandalous quackery. He knows too well that there are incurable diseases as well as curable—that, as we have explained, people are born into the world with different organisms, destined to endure, if nothing whatever interfered with them, for shorter or longer periods of time-born with organic defects, with transmitted disease, or predispositions thereto, and possessing a given amount of vitality from which many things may combine to subtract, but to which no human art or skill can add.

Hence there necessarily are incurable diseases which no human skill can combat, but to accelerate their fatal termination human presumption, ignorance, and quackery, can do, and does do much. Yet it is even in such diseases that the Bath is enabled, in conjunction with an enlightened Hygiene, to afford substantial assistance; and the reader, who has followed thus far, need not have repeated how the Bath accomplishes this by assisting Nature's operations in the healthful regulation of the

functions of Nutrition. It was considering the Bath in this rational light that led the late Dr. Madden to regards its introduction among us as a very great blessing to humanity," and to say, truthfully, "there are few diseases, in my opinion, that might not be benefited by its use." And it is true; for when no human knowledge, skill, or power can possibly cure disease, its alleviation is possible, nay, almost always certain, and life is susceptible of being prolonged by the alleviation of pain; while by no means can this be so effectively, so easily, and so agreeably accomplished as by the soothing and stimulating properties of the Bath, when judiciously employed.

But far more than three-fourths of all disease are in their inception referable to functional derangements, and over these the Bath does indubitably exercise a sovereign power when promptly and skilfully exercised. We have seen how the skin is the great medium through which the Bath acts on the internal organism; but the skin itself is subjected to many loathsome diseases, and it is to them more particularly we now direct attention.

Disorders of the cutaneous organism have their primary source either in (1) inherited scrofulous taint, or in predispositions; (2) in the impurities engendered by what is so falsely termed "good living;" (3) in a debilitated condition produced by deficient and unwholesome food; (4) in the disturbance of healthy functions resulting from other diseases aggravated by drugging; (5) in the imperfect action of the skin itself, by which its secretions become corrupted, engender parasites, etc.; and (6) in poisonous taints received externally. But it will be observed that all these sources culminate in action in one-defective or perverted Nutrition, synonymous with want of oxygen in the system.

of

For the various disorders thus affecting the skin, Nosologists, course, have fabricated a formidable nomenclature with which Pharmacy has more than kept pace by concocting a tenfold number of specifics. But it is now almost universally admitted among medical men who have made skin diseases a speciality,