Bathing considered as a means of promoting health : a lecture delivered in the Bath Saloon, Victoria Street, Glossop-Road, Sheffield, on Monday evening, May 8, 1837 / by Charles F. Favell.

  • Favell, Charles F.
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bathing considered as a means of promoting health : a lecture delivered in the Bath Saloon, Victoria Street, Glossop-Road, Sheffield, on Monday evening, May 8, 1837 / by Charles F. Favell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    and sufficient re-action cannot be established. Now it is exceedingly injudicious for persons to remain in the Bath till they feel even the slightest symptoms of exhaustion. They do not know what serious risks they run. When a person first commences the practice of cold Bathing, he should stay in the water only a very short time. It would be better merely to plunge in, and then come out again. Afterwards he will be able to remain in a much longer period with impunity. With respect to the time of day, I may remark, that it is of little or no consequence what time is selected by persons in robust health, but those who are delicate should select the forenoon : it is then, usually, that the circulation is in the greatest vigour. But no one should go to the Bath soon after having taken a* meal, because there is a particular condition of the cir- culation required during the process of digestion, with which it is not prudent to interfere. But, again, some persons will ask whether there is not considerable danger from going into the Bath whilst you are overheated. To this I reply, that I conceive it depends upon whether you are fatigued as well as overheated. 1 do not apprehend danger from plunging into cold water when the body is overheated, provided there be not accompanying fatigue. We know very well that, in some countries, there is no- thing more common than to plunge into a cold Bath, whilst the body has purposely been brought into a state of perspiration. For instance, in Russia they are in the constant habit of using the Vapour Bath, and, whilst the perspiration is flowing from every pore, they roll them- selves in the snow; and yet the practice cannot be exten- sively prejudicial, or it would not be so commonly adopted. I confess, however, that I should not recommend any of you to follow this example. I may, perhaps, make myself more perfectly understood on the point now under consi- deration, by a brief quotation from the work of a very eminent Physician,* who paid considerable attention to the effects of cold water on the system :—“ On the 1st of September, two students of medicine, at Edinburgh, set * Dr. Currie. See “ Medical Reports on the Effects of Cold Water.1