"_Cold_ water! of course you don't mean _cold_ water! What, _cold_
water, right _on_ me and _all over_ me? Why, Doctor, I couldn't
stand it! it would kill me!"
"Do you think you could take a hot bath?"
"Oh, certainly; I could take a hot bath easy enough." This
conversation occurs in January.
My dear child, you are entirely mistaken. Everybody can take a cold
bath, if properly managed, every day of the year; but, during the
cold weather, it takes a strong constitution to bear a hot bath; for
although the first, or momentary effect, is to make the skin warm
and comfortable, the secondary effect, or reaction, which comes on
very soon and lasts a long time, is to make the surface very cold.
During the warm weather, the hot bath is a great luxury. For the
moment it makes you warm, but the secondary effect, or reaction,
which will continue for a long time, leaves you in a cool,
comfortable state.
Foot baths afford a happy illustration of this Homoeopathic law,
"_Similia Similibus Curantur_,"--"_like are cured by like_."
You are troubled with cold feet. Dip the bottoms of your feet in
cold water. Let the water be half an inch deep. Hold the feet there
four or five minutes, and then give them a good rubbing. Perhaps
stand on the carpet with your naked feet, and twist from side to
side, until your feet are burning. Not only will your feet remain
warm all night, but after practicing this two or three weeks, unless
your digestion is _very_ weak, your feet will become warm as a
habit.
On the contrary, if you are troubled with burning feet, a frequent
hot foot bath will cure you.
But in every case the employment of hot foot baths will give
tendency to cold in the head.
But you say again that you like cold baths well enough in warm
weather; but if you use the cold bath in the winter, it makes you
cold and shivery, it gives you headache and depresses you.
Ah, I see you haven't taken the bath in the right way. If you take
it in the way I suggest, no such effects will follow. Apply soap to
every part of your skin rapidly with your bathing mittens. That is
the most important part of the bath. Now put on just as much or just
as little water as your comfort may suggest. If you can bear a good
deal, you may put it on; but if you are sensitive to the cold,
manage in the way I have suggested,--put on the soap, follow with a
damp mitten, and do it all just as rapidly as your hands can move,
so that from the time you take off your night dress, until the soap
has been applied to every part of the body, and followed by the damp
mitten and dry towels, will not be more than one to two minutes. If
this is done in your bedroom, instead of a cold bath-room, you will
hardly be chilled or depressed by it. If you are so exceedingly
sensitive that even this momentary exposure with a moist skin
produces an unpleasant chilliness, then follow the soap bath by the
most vigorous use of a pair of hair gloves.