An essay on warm, cold and vapour bathing : with practical observations on sea bathing &c. &c. / by Sir Arthur Clarke.

  • Clarke Arthur, Sir, 1778-1857.
Date:
1827
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on warm, cold and vapour bathing : with practical observations on sea bathing &c. &c. / by Sir Arthur Clarke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    expenditure rapidly debilitates, and a bath at 60 degrees would be tonic under such circumstances, by abating the de- bilitating cause. If the same person had been long exposed to a range of tem- perature below the freezing point, the power of life would be equally exerted in keeping up the 98 degrees, but in a different way; and there would follow an equal waste and an equal debility: the same bath of 60 degrees would then prove tonic, by arresting the necessity ' for such a wasteful exertion of the vital powers, and giving the constitution breathing time. Thus, the temperature of snow is sufficient for stimulating frost- bitten limbs. To a person chilled by the ordinary temperature of our wintry rains, and more especially if of a weak habit, this same bath of 60 would be too cold, and would, under these cir- cumstances, debilitate still further; in such a case, a tepid bath would alone be tonic, by its direct stimulus.
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