Health, or, How to Live

COLD BATHING

THE following is taken from an editorial in the Laws of Life for Feb., 1862: HHTL 125.1

“In the treatment of diseases by hygienic means, we apply water at different temperatures, and of course comparatively cold, at sometimes at such a degree of cold as to produce a decidedly stimulating effect; but not for the mere purpose of making the patient feel better immediately. The object in such applications is to induce changes in the structures of the tissues, or in the nervous or circulatory relations of the system, such as shall result in more healthful conditions. In this we feel justified, which we could not do in summoning into action an extra amount of vitality, that it might be expended in work; unless, indeed, it should be in an emergency which demanded, and was worthy, a sacrifice. Yet it is not a difficult thing to do, and there is no doubt that it has been done, in thousands of instances, by Water Cure physicians, and in as many more by invalids on their own responsibility, in applying water for the purpose of inducing healthful changes, to summon up vital action to a destructive degree. It is as true of the method of treatment as it is of the Allopathic, that a patient may be undergoing a most successful cure by it, and that by the time he is cured, he will die. There is no contradiction here. Morbid conditions may be overcome by means which exhaust the constitutional powers, and leave nothing for the person to live upon. HHTL 125.2

“As great a mistake has been made in regard to the propriety of severe friction applied to the skin, as in the matter of cold bathing. To a considerable extent the flesh-brush has been used separate from the application of water; and as a general thing, persons using cold baths take pains to get the coarsest, roughest linen obtainable for wiping the body. The tendency of harsh friction of the skin is to destroy its sensitiveness and healthfulness. One who, at first, can only bear the flesh-brush applied in the gentlest manner, can, after a few months, use it with as much impunity on his own skin as he could upon that of a rhinoceros; and he thinks, may be, that he has gained something by the change; whereas he has actually destroyed the natural sensibility of the very delicate nerves which are distributed so abundantly upon the inner layer of the skin. The human body was never intended to be as hardy as that of the rhinoceros. If it had been, it would have shown that conditions without having to be put through such an artificial process. All friction applied to the body after a bath, should be of the gentlest character. The linen used for wiping may be coarse, but it should be soft and pliable, and rubbing with the dry hand afterward should be brisk, but gentle.” HHTL 125.3