Jail Hospitals, and Charitable Institutions over which the State has control. Those in authority, on whom the responsibility of Executive administration devolves, are not solicited to adopt any speculative novelty, or give effect to any new-fangled experimental notions, but they are asked to profit by the light of science and experience-to make available for "the health, comfort, and welfare" of the helpless, what science has demonstrated to be beneficial, and what a matured and multiplied experience has proved to be at once the most economical and effective means by which their sufferings can be alleviated.

We ask, how is it possible to read the evidence we have adduced in those pages respecting the benefits derivable to health generally from the use of the Bath, and more particularly in the treatment of disease, and yet remain indifferent to its introduction into our public Asylums and Hospitals? When we have the undoubted evidence of enlightened, and eminent scientific practitioners, testifying to the inestimable blessing the Bath has proved in the treatment of mental and other diseases, how can responsibility cloak itself with apathy, and make no effort to secure for the helpless sick so great a "boon to humanity ?"

Into one or two Military and Naval Hospitals the Bath has been introduced with remarkable success, but it should be made available for the Army generally. No Barrack should be without its Baths, and were bathing encouraged as a matter of healthy discipline, one-half the diseases, and more, under which soldiers. suffer, would be prevented. There is no prophylactic equal to it, and it is powerfully so in those very diseases to which soldiers are most exposed.

In Cavalry regiments the use of the Bath would be of inestimable service to the horses, as well as to the men, and one bath could be easily constructed suitable for both. Under its influence the sore backs and diseases generally which impair, on the slightest extraordinary exertion, the efficiency of even our "crack" Cavalry regiments, would be effectually guarded against, and in point of mere economy, there is no measure that would effect such a desirable improvement in the efficiency of the

service, as the establishment of a system of bathing, so prophylactic-so universally applicable-so easily attainable, and so truly enjoyable.

There is in these Kingdoms a noble spirit of true Christian benevolence anxious to do good work, and willing to labour with unflagging zeal in a humane cause. Here then is a rich field for active philanthropic labour. It need not be expected that local authorities or our Executive administration will voluntarily assume the initiative in this matter, but much can be done by well-directed zeal to instruct them respecting its importance, and stimulate them to exertion. The machinery exists by which this great blessing can be brought home to those who want it most-the helpless in our Hospitals and Asylums, and the cost is insignificant; in fact the cost involves economy. We trust, then, that a true philanthropy may move those who have the means and the opportunity to take this matter up, and enlist an enlightened public opinion to promote a cause the success of which may yet immortalise some spirit akin to that of a Howard or a Wilberforce.

CHAPTER XXV I.

The Sanitary and Sanative influences of the Bath on Horses, Cows, and the Lower Animals generally-Report of the Committee of the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland-The advantages of the Bath in farming operations, etc.

WHAT has been said respecting Sanitary and Sanative influences of the Bath in relation to the human economy, is equally true as regards all domesticated animals. Two years after the Bath had been in use at St. Anne's, the experience Dr. Barter had acquired led him to the conclusion that it would prove singularly beneficial in the diseases to which those animals are peculiarly liable. Prima facie, on physiological grounds, there was every reason to believe that its effects on the lower animals would be similarly sanative as on man. It was indeed but reasonable to suppose that what was highly therapeutical in affections of the lungs, the bronchi, and congested conditions of the human body, would exercise a similar remedial power in pleuro-pneumonia and other distempers to which cattle are sub

ject.

Resolved to bring theory to the certain test of experience, Dr. Barter in 1858 erected a Cattle Bath and instituted a series of experiments which proved remarkably satisfactory, and realised his most sanguine expectations. "The first occasion on which the Bath was tried," says Dr. Griffith, "was that of eight cows labouring under pleuro-pneumonia, out of which number seven completely recovered and one died. About a fortnight afterwards, three cows being seized with puerperal fever, a few days after calving, the Bath was at once had recourse to, with the result of two recoveries and one death,

the Bath being administered to them twice a day. Since then, it has been the uniform habit to give every cow a few baths previous to calving, and no case of puerperal fever has since occurred. In cases of distemper, five or six baths were generally found to effect a recovery, and the animals did not show any after-appearance of being the worse for the attack.”—The Turkish Bath, etc., p. 18.

The result of experience has proved that great a boon as the Bath is to humanity, it is calculated to prove even greater, when judiciously managed, to the lower animals whose wants cannot be made known. The undoubted success that attended its administration at St. Anne's, led the gentlemen in the vicinity to erect Baths for their cattle, and the farmers who kept stock followed their example. The utility of the Bath soon caused it to spread through the county, and there are now several in various parts of Ireland and in England. Two Veterinary establishments in Cork erected Baths for the regular treatment of cattle diseases, and Dr. Barter thus had the satisfaction of inaugurating a course of humane treatment for the lower animals, which is at once merciful to them, and at the same time a great protection against pecuniary loss to their owners.

In 1860 the Council of Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland appointed a committee to visit St. Anne's, "to examine and report upon the efficacy of the Turkish Bath as a remedy for distemper in horned cattle, and generally on its effects upon the health and constitution of the inferior animals." This report is very valuable, and ought to be attentively considered by every humane proprietor of stock-by every one indeed, who keeps domestic animals, and desires to maintain them in good health. The committee first examined the effects of the treatment at the St. Anne's Bath. They say

"Two dairy cows in full milk, about three months calved, had been attacked with lung distemper, one on the 27th and the other on the 29th May last; neither were put under treatment until unmistakable signs of distemper had manifested themselves, in the rapid drying up of the milk and subsequent quick respiration. The use of the bath (two hours at a

time) was ordered, at first three times, and when urgent symptoms, were got under, twice a day; and under this treatment, at the end of the third day, a manifest improvement in the state of each was the result, and at the end of the seventh or eighth day the further use of the bath was considered unnecessary; and from this period the milk, which had all but entirely disappeared during the violence of the attack, rapidly returned; and at the time of our visit, being the 17th and 19th days respectively from the date of the first attack, we were assured by the man who regularly milked them that they were both in quite as good milk as they had been previous to their being attacked; and we had no difficulty in crediting this statement, as it would have been impossible to distinguish either from any one of the 40 cows with which they were grazing, whether from the appearance of the udder or their general healthy character.

"We had also pointed out to us the several cows that were treated successfully during the last winter and early spring for distemper in the bath, and they were all, without exception, in perfect health, and stated by the herd to be in as good profit for the dairy as they had ever been previously. The diseased animals are not separated from the others, nor does any particular attention to, or change of, diet appear necessary.

"We were next shown three pigs of different ages, from four to eight months old, that had been attacked about ten days previously with a malignant form of disease, called in the country the black distemper, and from which a case of recovery scarcely ever occurs; the animal rapidly turning black about the head and ears, and generally dying in two or three days-sometimes even more rapidly.

"The effect of the bath in these cases seems to have been even more rapid and decisive than with the cattle, the fourth or fifth day's use of it having completely removed all distressing symptoms. Two of them we saw feeding greedily with the other pigs in the yard, and the third, though still a good deal cut up by the severity of the attack, feeding, and likely to do well.

"We were next shown a chesnut harness mare that had been attacked, twelve days previously, by strangles; she was treated with the bath two and three times a day, and no blister, or other application of any kind, used to the throat. This was continued for eight days, when she was so far recovered that the bath was discontinued, and when we saw her, although there were still the remains of the gatherings under the throat to be felt, she was perfectly recovered, her coat looking clear and healthy, and proved her recovery by travelling with us, on the inspection we subsequently made, a distance of some eight or nine miles, at a rapid pace, without showing the least distress."

They next proceeded to inspect the Bath of the late St. John -Jefferies, Esq., Blarney Castle, who had an immense stock, as