phlogistic symptoms, the cold affusion of a prescribed number of gallons of water, allowed to fall on the head, which may be held over the side of the bed, over a wide and large vessel to collect the water,the effect being increased when necessary, by pouring the water from a greater height,-may be justifiably regarded as one of the most efficient means we possess of relieving such a condition. I may mention that I have by this means succeeded in producing an absolute state of syncope, in a case where phlebotomy, carried to an unusually large extent, had produced no perceptible influence whatever on the character of the circulation. In many cases of spinal debility, with or without curvature, the affusion of cold salt and water down the spine,-which is easily managed without occasioning any uncomfortable wetting of the room, by directing the patient to sit on a stool that is a little higher than a tub, over which the lower part of the back projects, so that the water poured down the back may run into the tub,-forms a remedial measure of inestimable value. In many cases of local injuries, and imperfect use of a limb or joint, the consequence of dislocation, or fracture, or sprain, or severe bruise, the local affusion of cold water, or cold salt and water, has been proved to be of the greatest service. This is best managed by means of a double-action force-pump, constructed on the principle of the garden-engine; to which a pipe and nozzle of any required diameter is attached. By an apparatus of this kind, a stream of water of any desired calibre,

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and impelled with any required force, may be directed against any part of the body.

Sponging the surface of the body generally, or the head, or the back, with cold or tepid water, is another and valuable means of influencing the system through the medium of the skin, and of maintaining a healthy condition of the skin itself. The re-action from this should be prompt and of marked degree, or the practice is usually found to be unsuited to the habit of body, or the condition of the system.

There are some people, undoubtedly, who are of too feeble a habit, to bear even the habitual use of cold or tepid water to the whole surface of the body, by means of the sponge; there are, moreover, persons in whom the oleaginous secretion of the skin, obviously intended to protect the surface in some degree from cold or other sources of irritation, is not produced in adequate proportion to suffer its daily removal without some degree of disadvantage. In such cases, dry friction may be usefully substituted for the sponging, either by means of a coarse cloth, or the flesh-brush, or the hair-gloves, according to the delicacy and sensitiveness of the skin; and the inunction of a small quantity of oil after such friction, a practice so commonly followed after the use of the bath in many of the oriental countries,-might be attended with much comfort and advantage. Friction, indeed, is, even alone, or without the use of water in any way, an admirable means of giving vigour, activity, and tone to the vessels of the skin; and friction of the surface often proves to be

a most efficient remedy in cases of lingering debility, or protracted convalescence, or where, as in spinal cases, muscular exercise is not to be obtained, or not to be obtained to an adequate degree. And as an adjunct to the use of the plunge-bath, the showerbath, or sponging the surface with cold or tepid water, friction is invaluable; every bather ought to resort to it invariably, as a means of accelerating the re-action, and increasing it in degree: the towels with which he dries his skin can hardly be too rough.

Of some other ways in which water has been applied to the surface of the body with hygienic or remedial intentions, a few words may prove to be sufficient notice. The surrounding the body with a wet sheet, covering this immediately with blankets, or other efficient non-conductors of heat, by which means the whole becomes, by the confined heat of the body, converted into a vapour bath,—which is maintained in action for any required length of time,—and followed or not by immersion in a shallow vessel of cold or of tepid water,-the whole operation being repeated daily, or oftener, or more seldom, as may be directed,-appears to be a somewhat uncertain way of obtaining an efficient vapour bath, and a less efficient mode of procuring the results that are obtained in the Russian system of bathing, heretofore described, by following the use of the vapour bath by dashes of cold water over the body. I beg to repeat, that the much-vaunted wet-sheet and its appurtenances, of the hydropathists,-and all the parapher

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nalia of shallow tubs for the subsequent immersions, and other intricate contrivances,-are neither more nor less than a doubtfully efficient mode of obtaining a vapour bath, and an uncertain means of obtaining those results which the Russian mode of bathing obtains in so full a degree; while the apparent simplicity of the means used, and the comfortable sensations produced by the use of the wet sheet, &c., involves the great risk of the adoption of the plan in cases that are by no means adapted to the use of the vapour bath, or of cold or tepid immersion,—as well as the risk that must ever be incurred by the daily use of any bath whatever in lengthened courses, even in cases of health and unimpaired strength of system,—and, à fortiori, in cases of debility or disease.

The addition of iodine, or the iodides of potash, &c., to the water used as baths, in many cases of disordered health,-as well as the addition of the mixture of nitric and muriatic acids to the baths ordered in other cases,-deserve to be mentioned as important remedial measures, which seem to be seldom thought of, and which may be affirmed to be means of no doubtful or secondary character. As to the strength of the ioduretted baths, too much care can hardly be exercised. M. Lugol found that a proportion of six drachms of hydriodate of potash and three drachms of iodine to a bath containing 240 quarts of water, often produced much redness of the skin, sometimes a considerable degree of irritation, and occasionally so much cutaneous excitement,

as to be unbearable by the feelings of the bather. This is the more extraordinary, as M. Lugol has administered internally, stronger solutions of iodine and hydriodate of potash than the above formula represents. It would be difficult to commence the trial of this great alterative agent, in any case, in the form of baths, in too diluted a form,—gradually increasing the strength of the bath, according to circumstances, by the addition of more iodine and hydriodate of potash, in the proportion of one part of iodine to two parts of hydriodate of potash. It is necessary to be known that the trough used for the ioduretted baths should be made of wood. As to the strength of the nitro-muriatic acid bath, which undoubtedly acts on the system by virtue of the free chlorine disengaged, and which acts in so marked a degree on the hepatic functions as to merit the frequent consideration and suggestion of the profession, a pediluvium containing an ounce of the strong muriatic acid, and an ounce of the strong nitric acid of the shops, and four gallons of water, in which the feet and ankles may be immersed, and continued for fifteen or twenty minutes, the parietes of the abdomen, the back, and the legs, being well sponged and rubbed therewith, will be usually sufficiently strong. If this should not prove to be efficacious, one ounce and a half of each of the acids may be added to the four gallons of water. In severer cases, where a general bath for the immersion of the whole body may be desirable, it would be well to make trial, in the first instance, of a still weaker solution of the