Cold Bathing.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 308, 17 October 1888, Page 3

Cold Bathing.

The Ufte of cold water for bathing pur. poses is a time-honoured institution in many, if nob in all countries. Though necessarily limited in ibs application by consideration of convenience, it is probably nowhere more highly appreciated than in the British Isles. Respecting its value ai a bracing geneial ntimulant in suitable cases there can be no question, and the difference in this particular between its influence and the depressing effect of frequently- repeated warni bathing 1 i& obviously a point in its favour. The sharp and transient shock of cold is doubly beneficial. It clearly acts not only ag a stimulus to the circulation, constricting for the moment the surface blood vessels,, and thus piovoking their after dilation, but it is also by the game process an acclimatise!'. The risk of chill from sudden changes of wind and weather is manifestly ' lessened in the case of those whose vasomotor system has been trained to adapt itself to such movements by the discipline described above. It is true that constitution, state of health for the time being, and age cannot be left out of account, but we snail not err in saying that, given a ran 1 degiee of \ascular tone, unimpaired by any serious weakness of the heart muscle, a frequent cold bath rapidly gone through, is a tonic as natural as it is beneiicial. In beginning the practice it is wisest to choose the summer season, and it may then be continued daily or on alter nate days throughout the winter. A corres pondent who has been in the habit of thus refreshing himself for ten years informs us that though neither young nor robust (his age is 53), he has enjoyed a dip every morning, even in the depth of sevei'e winters. He experienced apparently equal benefit whether he selected for a given season, his bath, the sea, or a fresh- water lake as the scene of his ablutions. He is naturally a strong believer in cold bathing II is not necessary even for all bona-fide. bathers to tolloWhis plan in detail, but his \ general rules are worth observing. These are — to take a rapid dip, say one which occupies three or four minutes, to bathe on alternate days, to be well warm with exercise before immersion, and to keep up the glow after it. The directions are excellent. In order to follow them out with benefit, a robust physique is not necessary, at all events for bathers in-doors ; but at least an average degree ot vascular tone is. — 'Lancet.'

flow women can manage to sib bolt upright; and not change a position, looking neither to the right nor left during a sermon in church, passes the understanding. A man will sit on the picket fence all the after toon to see a ball match, but put him in a church pew' for three-quarters of an hour and he will wobble all over the pew.