plished. You do not forget what was said about cold bathing -its salutary effects. I believe I only just alluded to its effects in preventing cold. But this is one of its highest recommendations. It does this, usually, though it does much more than this. Habitual cold bathers have few colds, if any. I have, indeed, met with a few who practised cold bathing, or said they did, who still suffered from cold, to some extent. But I always doubt, in such cases, whether they are as thorough in the matter as they should be; and whether there is not some error in regard to the mode, whose effects operate as a drawback upon its natural and legitimate

benefits.

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My doubts have been confirmed by observation. I have met with those who made it their practice, on rising in the morning, to take a cold or shower bath. But instead of rising with a strong resolution to do their duty, and do it with all their might, with a kind of desperation, even, if need be, -they have been faint-hearted. It has been cold weather, or they have felt bad in the head, or the stomach; or they have been timid from some cause or other. Hence they have lain in bed a little while after they ought to have risen, dreading the operation. Then, with a feeble impulse,— perhaps with reluctance, they have dragged themselves to the bath.

Others have risen and gone immediately to the bathing room, but have shivered a while, in dread, on the spot. And the more they have dreaded it, the more they have unfitted themselves for the process. Some have even warmed themselves at the fire before they ventured.

Others, still, have showered too long. In general, the quicker the process, and the more rapid the wiping and the friction, the better. Yet I have seen the very persons who were

most languid in body and mind, and most poorly prepared for securing a good reaction, remain in the water the longest.

Need I repeat that these three errors all stand in the way of effecting the object which it is desired to attain? The individual who goes to the bath hen-hearted must expect to come away from it with a feeble reaction. It would be almost a miracle were it otherwise. He will not only be more languid and feeble than before, but more liable to take cold.

I found a woman on Cape Cod, who, having received a few crude and imperfect ideas about the beneficial effects of cold bathing, and being a great sufferer from debilitating diseases, had begun the practice of bathing in the morning. But how? Why, after lying late, she would get up and remain in a cold tub from ten to fifteen minutes. She was not, indeed, so great a loser by the process as I should have expected. She had actually an iron constitution. She had abandoned medicine, and had unbounded faith in water. Her freedom from the effects of drugging, and her great faith, prevented her from being rapidly injured. A little good advice, carefully heeded, was, however, of great service to her, and greatly facilitated her recovery.

I have met with some few, who, in spite of the light shed abroad on this subject, used the cold bath at evening, and wondered why they received no benefit from it. Others I have found using the warm bath in the forenoon, or late at evening, and then walking home a half a mile or so in the damp night air; and then denouncing the bath, because it made them take cold!

They, in short, who expect to harden their systems against cold, must use a little common sense about it. All blessings may be turned into curses. So efficient an agent as the cold

bath is like a sword with two edges, that, if it does not cut in the right direction, will be sure to cut wrong.

And he must persevere

He who would break the habit of taking cold must set out with the determination to break it. He must count the cost. He must believe he shall succeed. till success is attained, whether it requires two years of effort, or ten, or twenty. With some it will require a longer, with others a shorter period. To the consumptive person the price paid could not be too great if it required twenty-five years.

But there are many more things to be done in order to prevent taking cold. At least there are many which may be done. Nothing is lost in this warfare. If the cold bathing, of itself, is sufficient, so far as mere taking cold is concerned, yet the other measures which I am about to recommend will invigorate the whole frame a matter which, of itself, is vastly important to consumptive people.

Medicine must be avoided with great solicitude. There is a confused idea, in most men's minds who have come in contact with calomel at all, that its use exposes a person to take cold. And it certainly does so. It disturbs the functions or offices of the skin, and leaves this organ somewhat crippled ; and whatever does this exposes us to colds.

But mercurial medicines are not the only medicines that have this effect. It is so, in a degree, with all medicines, from the strongest to the weakest. They disturb, somewhat, the action of the skin, and leave it, for the time at least, less active and energetic, and less able to resist the tendencies of sudden changes.

Or, if the first effect of some of them seems to be to increase the cutaneous action, as from their known character might be expected, yet they are followed at no great distance

by a degree of debility which only exposes us the more. Thus the drinker of hot tea has the action of the skin somewhat raised for the time, but it is only to be followed by a collapse, which increases his danger of taking cold.

And herein is one objection to the use of high-seasoned food. By its first or stimulating effect, we are indeed a little warmer for a short time, and a little less likely to take cold; but this stage of increased excitement soon passes away, and unless the same beverage or excitant is renewed, or some other extra stimulant substituted, we fall into a sort of collapse, under whose influence we are more likely to suffer than we were before. High seasonings are medicines, as truly so as mercury.

This leads me to say that they who will be thorough in their efforts to break the habit of taking cold must be careful to exclude from their tables all hot food and drink. Whatever is received, whether solid or fluid, or whatever its quality, should be cool and unirritating. Observe, however, I do not say cold, that is, as cold as ice, but cool.

It is surprising to observe how generally - how almost universally consumptive people are fond of hot things; hot I mean in their internal character and nature, and also of an elevated temperature. But singular as it may be, the observation of every one who has his eyes at all open will confirm the statement. Well do I remember a consumptive man, who, in my earliest years, was a frequent guest at my father's table. No food was too hot for him, or too stimulating. Grahamism would have had no charms for him. High-sea

soned meats, strong and hot tea, long-salted food, hot new bread and butter, hot shortcake, hot buckwheat cakes, hot doughnuts, - these were his element. He swam in them a little while, however, and perished.

And well do I remember an oft-repeated injunction of my own shrewd and honored mother, when she saw me so eager after hot and unwholesome food "Beware; consumptive people are always fond of that." And O, how many a time has this injunction come to my mind, both in early and later life, and saved me from excess! Would that it had saved me from its use entirely !

Consumptive people are usually fond of every form of sensual indulgence. This is the more surprising, as the indulgence of their appetites is, in just about the same proportion, more dangerous than in other people. They have no vital energies to spare in eating, drinking, or licentiousness. They are crushed by them almost immediately. Their colds are numerous, and severe in proportion to their indulgence, and consumption is hastened apace.

It will be difficult though I grant not impossible — to break the habit of taking cold till obedience is secured to the physical laws generally. But to present all these in detail, and in this connection, would be both to repeat and to anticipate. I will, therefore, mention only one or two things

more.

It is of the utmost importance, in order to be free from colds, that we train our systems our calorific powers in particular to the great work of generating their own heat. There is no one thing, perhaps, in which the practice of mankind differs more than in this particular. Some are constantly dependent for their heat on external sources I mean as long as the temperature of the atmosphere is a little low; others almost never.

And, what is particularly unfortunate in this matter, the more we yield to the inclination to indulge in hot rooms, hot beds, hot clothing, and hot food and drink, the more we may.