OUR NATIONAL THANKSGIVING.

"All the blessings of the fields,
All the stores the garden yields,
All the plenty summer pours,
Autumn's rich, o'erflowing stores,
Peace, prosperity, and health,
Private bliss and public wealth,
Knowledge with its gladdening streams,
Pure religion's holier beams-
LORD, for these our souls shall raise
Grateful vows and solemn praise."

We are most happy to agree with the large majority of the governors of the different States-as shown in their unanimity of action for several past years, and which, we hope, will this year be adopted by all-that THE LAST THURSDAY IN NOVEMBER shall be the DAY OF NATIONAL THANKSGIVING for the American people. Let this day, from this time forth, as long as our Banner of Stars floats on the breeze, be the grand THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY of our nation, when the noise and tumult of worldliness may be exchanged for the laugh of happy children, the glad greetings of family reunion, and the humble gratitude of the Christian heart. This truly American Festival falls, this year, on the twenty-fifth day of this month.

Let us consecrate the day to benevolence of action, by sending good gifts to the poor, and doing those deeds of charity that will, for one day, make every American home the place of plenty and of rejoicing. These seasons of refreshing are of inestimable advantage to the popular heart; and, if rightly managed, will greatly aid and strengthen public harmony of feeling. Let the people of all the States and Territories sit down together to the "feast of fat things," and drink, in the sweet draught of joy and gratitude to the Divine giver of all our blessings, the pledge of renewed love to the Union, and to each other; and of peace and good-will to all men. Then the last Thursday in November will soon become the day of AMERICAN THANKSGIVING throughout the world.

WHO ARE THE AUTHORS OF THE ATLANTIC
TELEGRAPH?

In a late number of Frazer's Magazine, there appeared an able and interesting article written by Mr. Henry Thomas Buckle, in which he describes "The Influence of Woman on the Progress of Knowledge." The summary of the writer's views may be stated thus:

"Our knowledge is composed not of facts, but of the relations which facts and ideas bear to themselves and to each other; and real knowledge consists not in an acquaintance with facts, which only makes a pedant, but in the use of facts, which makes a philosopher.

"The scientific inquirer, properly so called, that is, he whose object is merely truth, has only two ways of attaining his result. He may proceed from the external world to the internal; or he may begin with the internal, and proceed to the external. In the former case, he studies the facts presented to his senses, in order to arrive at a true idea of them; in the latter case, he studies the ideas already in his mind, in order to explain the facts of which

his senses are cognizant. If he begin with the facts, his method is inductive; if he begin with the ideas, it is deductive.

"The inductive philosopher collects phenomena either by observation or by experiment, and from them rises to the general principle or law which explains and covers them. The deductive philosopher draws the principle from ideas already existing in his mind, and explains the phenomena by descending on them, instead of rising from them."

After explaining and illustrating these general principles in various ways, the author proceeds to establish two propositions: "First, That women naturally prefer the deductive method to the inductive. Secondly, That women, by encouraging in men deductive habits of thought, have rendered an immense, though unconscious, service to the progress of knowledge, by preventing scientific investigators from being as exclusively inductive as they would otherwise be.

"In regard to women being by nature more deductive, and men more inductive, you will remember that induction assigns the first place to particular facts; deduction to general propositions or ideas. Now, there are several reasons why women prefer the deductive, and, if I may so say, ideal method. They are more emotional, more enthusiastic, and more imaginative than men; they therefore live more in an ideal world; while men, with their colder, harder, and austerer organizations, are more practical and more under the dominion of facts, to which they consequently ascribe a higher importance.

"Another circumstance which makes women more deductive is, that they possess more of what is called intuition. They cannot see so far as men can, but what they do see they see quicker. Hence, they are constantly tempted to grasp at once at an idea, and seek to solve a problem suddenly, in contradistinction to the slower and more laborious ascent of the inductive investigator."

The writer then comes to the principal object of his discourse, which is to show that women have "rendered great though unconscious service to science, by encouraging and keeping alive this habit of deductive thought; and that if it were not for them, scientific men would be much too inductive, and the progress of our knowledge would be hindered." But he has first to meet an objection of many persons who will not willingly admit this proposition, because, as he truly remarks, "in England, since the first half of the seventeenth century, the inductive method, as the means of arriving at physical truths, has been the object, not of rational admiration, but of a blind and servile worship; and it is constantly said, that since the time of Bacon, all great physical discoveries have been made by that process. If this be true, then of course the deductive habits of women must, in reference to the progress of knowledge, have done more harm than good. But it is not true. It is not true that the greatest modern discoveries have all been made by induction; and the circumstance of its being believed to be true is one of many proofs how much more successful Englishmen have been in making discoveries than in investigating the principles according to which discoveries are made."

Some very striking instances are then given of the

triumph of the deductive method, commencing with "the most important discovery yet made respecting the inorganic world"-the discovery of the law of gravitation, by Sir Isaac Newton, which is thus vividly narrated:

"Five or six years after the accession of Charles II., Newton was sitting in a garden, when (you all know this part of the story) an apple fell from a tree. Whether he had been already musing respecting gravitation, or whether the fall of the apple directed his thoughts into that channel, is uncertain, and is immaterial to my present purpose, which is merely to indicate the course his mind actually took. His object was to discover some law, that is, rise to some higher truth respecting gravity than was previously known. Observe how he went to work. He sat still where he was, and he thought. He did not get up to make experiments concerning gravitation, nor did he go home to consult observations which others had made, or to collate tables of observations; he did not even continue to watch the external world, but he sat, like a man entranced and enraptured, feeding on his own mind, and evolving idea after idea. He thought that if the apple had been on a higher tree, if it had been on the highest known tree, it would have equally fallen.

"Thus far, there was no reason to think that the power which made the apple fall was susceptible of diminution; and, if it were not susceptible of diminution, why should it be susceptible of limit? If it were unlimited and undiminished, it would extend above the earth; it would reach the moon, and keep her in her orbit. If the power which made the apple fall was actually able to control the moon, why should it stop there? Why should not the planets also be controlled, and why should not they be forced to run their course by the necessity of gravitating towards the sun, just as the moon gravitated towards the earth ? His mind thus advancing from idea to idea, he was carried, by imagination, into the realms of space, and, still sitting, neither experimenting nor observing, but heedless of the operations of nature, he completed the most sublime and majestic speculation that it ever entered into the heart of man to conceive. Owing to an inaccurate measurement of the diameter of the earth, the details which verified this stupendous conception were not completed till twenty years later, when Newton, still pursuing the same process, made a deductive application of the laws of Kepler, so that, both in the beginning and in the end, the greatest discovery of the greatest natural philosopher the world has yet seen was the fruit of the deductive method. See how small a part the senses played in that discovery! It was the triumph of the idea-it was the audacity of genius-it was the outbreak of a mind so daring and yet so subtle, that we have only Shakspeare's with which to compare it.

Another case of the application of what the writer terms "the ideal method" of discovery is added from the organic department of nature:

"The highest morphological generalization we possess respecting plants is the great law of metamorphosis, according to which the stamens, pistils, corollas, bracts, petals, and so forth, of every plant, are simply modified leaves. It is now known that these various parts, different in shape, different in color, and different in function, are successive stages of the leaf-epochs, as it were, of its history. The question naturally arises, who made this discovery? Was it some inductive investigator who had spent years in experiments and minute observations of plants, and who, with indefatigable industry, had collected them, classified them, given them hard names, dried them, laid them up in his herbarium that he might at leisure study their structure, and rise to their laws? Not so! The discovery was made by Goethe, the greatest poet Ger

many has produced, and one of the greatest the world has ever seen. And he made it, not in spite of being a poet, but because he was a poet. It was his brilliant imagination, his passion for beauty, and his exquisite conception of form, which supplied him with ideas, from which, reasoning deductively, he arrived at conclusions by descent, not by ascent. He stood on an eminence, and, looking down from the heights, generalized the law. Then he descended into the plains, and verified the idea. When the discovery was announced by Goethe, the botanists not only rejected it, but were filled with wrath at the notion of a poet invading their territory. What! a man who made verses and wrote plays, a mere man of imagination, a poor creature who knew nothing of facts, who had not even used the microscope, who had made no great experiments on the growth of plants-was he to enter the sacred precincts of physical science, and give himself out as a philosopher? It was too absurd. But Goethe, who had thrown his idea upon the world, could afford to wait and bide his time. You know the result. The men of facts at length succumbed before the man of ideas; the philosophers, even on their own ground, were beaten by the poet; and this great discovery is now received and eagerly wel comed by those very persons who, if they had lived fifty years ago, would have treated it with scorn, and who even now still go on in their old routine, telling us, in defiance of the history of our knowledge, that all physical discoveries are made by the Baconian method, and that any other method is unworthy the attention of sound and sensible thinkers."

The reader is now prepared to understand the "incalculable service women have rendered to the progress of knowledge."

"Great and exclusive," proceeds the lecturer, "as is our passion for induction, it would, but for them, have been greater and more exclusive still. Empirical as we are, slaves as we are to the tyranny of facts, our slavery would, but for them, have been more complete and more ignominious. Their turn of thought, their habits of mind, their conversation, their influence, insensibly extending over the whole surface of society, and frequently penetrating its intimate structure, have, more than all other things put together, tended to raise us into an ideal world, lift us from the dust in which we are too prone to grovel, and develop in us those germs of imagination which even the most sluggish and apathetic understandings in some degree possess. The striking fact that most men of genius have had remarkable mothers, and that they have gained from their mothers far more than from their fathers-this singular and unquestionable fact can, I think, be best explained by the principles which I have laid down. Some, indeed, will tell you that this depends upon laws of the hereditary transmission of character from parent to child. But, if this be the case, how comes it that, while every one admits that remarkable men have usually remarkable mothers, it is not generally admitted that remarkable men have usually remarkable fathers? If the intellect is bequeathed on one side, why is it not bequeathed on the other? For my part, I greatly doubt whether the human mind is handed down in this way, like an heirloom, from one generation to another. I rather believe that, in re. gard to the relation between men of genius and their mothers, the really important events occur after birth, when the habits of thought peculiar to one sex act upon and improve the habits of thought peculiar to the other sex. Unconsciously, and from a very early period, there is established an intimate and endearing connection be tween the deductive mind of the mother and the inductive mind of her son. The understanding of the boy, softened

and yet elevated by the imagination of his mother, is saved from that degeneracy towards which the mere understanding always inclines. It is saved from being too cold, too matter-of-fact, too prosaic; and the different properties and functions of the mind are more harmoniously developed than would otherwise be practicable. Thus it is that, by the mere play of the affections, the finished man is ripened and completed; thus it is that the most touching and the most sacred form of human love, the purest, the highest, and the holiest compact of which our nature is capable, becomes an engine for the advancement of knowledge and the discovery of truth."

May we not see, in the views which this writer has so admirably set forth, an explanation of some of the most striking peculiarities of our national character? There is no country in which the influence of woman in society and education is so great as in the United States. Since common schools were first established here, the great majority of the teachers have been women. In Massachusetts, the proportion of them to the other sex is, we believe, as high as seven to one; and in all the States, both in public and private tuition, women are largely engaged. In the household, the educated wife and mother exerts a degree and a kind of influence hardly known in most countries of the Old World. Brought up under this influence, it might be expected that our people would be distinguished especially for quickness in seizing new ideas, readiness in developing and applying them, and moral energy and perseverance in carrying them into effect.

Numberless illustrations of these national traits crowd upon us on every side. Whenever a new and valuable invention is to be perfected and applied, a new theory to be developed and made practically useful, a new idea in science or art to be evolved and turned to account, there is always among us some busy brain and enthusiastic spirit, prompt and equal to the task. Whether it be, like Franklin, to draw down the lightning from the skies, and make it obedient to the human will, or, like Whitney, to invent, on the spur of the moment, a machine for cleansing cotton from its seeds, or to hang a bridge over a cataract, or to discover a new and harmless medical agent for assuaging pain, or to devise a new reformatory system for criminals, or an improved method of teaching the blind-in short, in every department of human knowledge, and especially in those most beneficial to mankind, the American mind has proved itself always capable, active, and full of resources. If the Americans, more than all other nations, have honored woman, cultivated her mental powers, and given her her rightful position in society, and in the family, may we not say that they are rewarded a hundredfold in the wonderful development of intellectual activity among them, and especially in the moral influence by which this idea is guided and controlled.

The latest and most remarkable effort of American genius is certainly the Atlantic Telegraph; and the steps by which it has been accomplished are all worthy of notice as illustrating these principles. Benjamin Franklin, by a happy inspiration, was led to conclude that lightning was a result of electricity, and proved it by drawing the eleetric fluid along a moistened string from the clouds to the earth. Eighty years later, Professor Morse conceived the idea that the same fluid might be made to pass with lightning speed through many miles of wire, and write, at one end of the line, what he dictated at the other; and, with unwearied perseverance and ingenuity, he at length carried out his idea in practice, and commenced the network of telegraphic wires which now overspreads two continents. Twenty years afterwards, a New York merchant argued that, if an electric wire could be carried across the

British Channel, it could be carried across the Atlantic Ocean; and we all know with what wonderful energy and ability Cyrus W. Field and his coadjutors achieved this grand design. According to the English writer whose remarks we have quoted, the feminine quickness of sugges tion and the feminine enthusiasm which have been manifested by these illustrious thinkers and workers among our countrymen may be fairly traced to the influence of their mothers and teachers on their youthful minds. And, on the strength of this philosophy,* which commends itself so strongly to our convictions, we can confidently claim for American women a large share in the glory of this greatest achievement of the age; they are the ideal authors of the Electric Telegraph.

VALEDICTORY ADDRESS.-Medical Science is one of the new and appropriate studies now opening for woman. The practice of this profession, so far as regards women and children, should be in the hands of educated female physicians, or doctoresses as we would have them styled. That this good work is gaining public confidence we will not stop to prove; every year brings numbers of these well-instructed ladies into the medical profession. We have here a valedictory address by Miss Ann Preston, M. D., "Professor of Physiology and Hygiene in the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania," for the session of 185758. We have room for only an extract. The address is well worth studying for its true thoughts and fervent hopes of doing good. Doctress Preston is a lady of fine abilities, and she has won, what she well deserves, a wide popularity in her profession.

"The question of the success of woman as physician is not now an open one. Her success is already a matter, not of hope or of prophecy, but of history. That women, as well as men, who are unqualified and incompetent, have entered the ranks, we cannot deny; but there are medical women in practice, amply sustained pecuniarily, who walk daily amid the benedictions of those whom their skill and knowledge have relieved.

"We grant, what is so often repeated, that home is woman's sphere, where her character is most symmetrically unfolded. We revere the holy name of home, for we also have hearthstones around which our dearest associations are clustered. But if woman's exertions and charities were confined to these, where would be the teachers of the land? where our benevolent associations, and the thousands of missionaries of charity that have left the privacy of their own homes and at this hour are threading their way through lanes and alleys to make joyful the abodes of others? Miriam and Deborah, Phebe and Priscilla, and they who were 'last at the cross and earliest at the grave,' found their spheres where they could sympathize with the suffering or minister to human welfare!

"The lights would be dimmed in the homes of the civilized world to-day, if the names and deeds of the Veturias and Hypatias, the Joans of Arc and Laura Bassis, the Lady Guyons and Mrs. Fletchers, the Elizabeth Frys and Grace Darlings, the Dorothea Dixes and Florence Nightingales of the world were blotted from the page of history and the memory of man! In medicine too, an irreparable blank would be made if the writings and observations of Madame Boivin and Madame Lachapelle were swept from its records.

"Ladies, it is for the very purpose of making home enjoyments more complete that you have been delegated to

*This philosophy will be found more fully illustrated in the "Dictionary of Distinguished Women." See second edition, published by the Harpers, New York.

day to bear health and hope to the abodes you enter. You go into them when pain and sickness prostrate the body, often when fear and anguish prey upon the spirit. You meet your patients where dissimulation is laid aside, and the character is bare before you. Those who are thus admitted into the very sanctuaries of society, and intrusted with the most sacred confidences, should indeed be strong, and wise, and pure, and good."

THE MOTHER OF THE CHEVALIER DE BAYARD.-When his mother was told that her youngest son was on his horse, impatient to be gone, descending from the tower of the castle, whither she had retired to weep bitter tears for his departure, she thus addressed and commanded of him three things: the first was, "to love God above all things, and recommend himself night and morning to God, and serve him without offending him in any way, if it might be possible." The second thing was, "to be courteous to all men, casting away pride; neither to slander or lie, nor be a talebearer, and to be temperate and loyal." The third was, that "he should be charitable, and share with the poor whatever gifts God should bestow on him." These were commands which he implicitly obeyed; and to his observance of them he is indebted for a title far above that of prince or noble, that of "the knight without fear and without reproach." From boy to man, he was beloved and respected for his courtesy, bravery, benevolence, invincible integrity, and piety. Francis the First would receive the honor of knighthood from no hands but his. Being once asked what possessions a man had best leave to his son, Bayard replied: "Such as are least exposed to the power of time or human force-wisdom and virtue."

MISS S. J. HALE'S BOARDING AND DAY SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES, 922 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, reopened on Monday, September 13th.

This school is designed to give a thorough and liberal English education, to furnish the best facilities for acquiring the French language, and the best instruction in music and the other accomplishments. The moral training and the health and physical development of the scholars are carefully attended to.

References: Mrs. Emma Willard, Troy, N. Y.; Henry Vethake, LL. D., Wm. B. Stevens, D. D., Wm. H. Ashhurst, Esq., Louis A. Godey, Esq., Philadelphia; Charles Hodge, D. D., Princeton, N. J.

SUBSCRIBERS FOR THE WASHINGTON PORTRAIT. Mrs. Elizabeth M. Elsegood's Club, Easton, Pennsylvania.-Mrs. Amelia Jenks, Miss Amelia Snyder Jenks, Mrs. Euphemia Dawes, Miss Jenny Green, Mrs. Mary A. Sitgreaves, Miss Sophia C. Kemper, Mrs. Caroline E. Baldwin, Miss Elizabeth Berlin, Mrs. Charles Mixsel, Mrs. Henry Green, Miss Josephine S. Elsegood, Mrs. Anna S. Noble, Mrs. Amelia L. Atwood, Mrs. Mary Snyder, Mrs. Elizabeth M. Elsegood, $1 each.

Mrs. Mary A. Read's Club, Jefferson City, Mo.-Mrs. M. Pointer, Mrs. E. B. Ewing, Mrs. B. F. Massie, Mrs. J. S. Stewart, Mrs. T. P. Miller, Mrs. J. C. Watson, Mrs. W. E. Dunscomb, Miss A. Sterne, Mrs. C. Roberts, Mrs. M. A. Read, Miss B. Miller, Judge G. Miller, Mr. W. D. Dawson, Mr. A. R. Glover, Mr. F. F. Weller, $1 each.

Mrs. M. S. Jenkins, Beaufort, S. C., $5.

Mrs. George Morey, $3; Mrs. F. J. Lobdell, $3; Mrs. George Bancroft, E. S. Lobdell, Annie L. Lobdell, C. G. Prentiss, $1 each, Boston, Massachusetts.

Mary Ann Robeson's Club, Churchtown, Pa.-Mr. G. W. Compton, Mr. A. R. McCormick, Mr. James E. Giffin,

Mrs. Ann Albright, Mr. Edward D. White, Mr. George Plunk, Miss Anne Jones, Mr. D. H. Sensenich, Mrs. C. S. Jacob, Mrs. C. Jacobs, Mrs. E. Reigert, Miss M. Wise, Miss Arthur, Miss Carmichael, Mr. Isaac Evans, Mr. Jacob R. Byler, Mr. Beynard Way, James B. Yoder, Dr. L. J. Ringwalt, T. J. Ringwalt, Martin Leber, Mrs. M. A. Robeson, $1 each.

Mrs. Charles Holmes, Littleton, Massachusetts, 81.
T. G. Calvit, Alexandria, Louisiana, $1.
Miss C. Newton, Cloversport, Kentucky, $1.
Selina Kinney, McGrawville, N. Y., $1.

Mrs. R. A. Wright's Club, Centreville, Md.-Mrs. J. C. Tilghman, Mrs. W. Turpin, Miss A. Turpin, Miss S. Wright, Mrs. R. A. Wright, $1 each.

Club from California.-Mrs. R. A. Urich, Live Oak; Mrs. E. Barney, Michigan Bar; Mrs. C. Jewell and Miss J. McCartney, Cossumnes River; Miss S. Hays, Cook Bar, $1 each.

Louisa M. Kuhn's Club, Doylestown, Pa.-Mrs. Hon. Henry Chapman, Mrs. T. D. Shaw, Mrs. Wm. Fulmer, Mrs. E. Prizer, Mrs. Charles Wigton, Mrs. A. J. Yerkes, Mrs. Limeburner, Miss Anna Widdifield, $1 each.

Anna M. Maxwell's Club, Columbia, Pa.-Rev. T. Montgomery, Mrs. F. Garman, John Rose, Amelia A. Rose, Mrs. Dr. A. M. Hinkle, Dr. F. Hinkle, N. McDonald, Mrs. E. Clawges, Rev. Wm. Barns, Mrs. C. Caldwell, Mrs. C. S. Kauffman, Mrs. Wm. Lloyd, Mrs. A. E. Arms, Mrs. F. G. Lloyd, Rev. S. E. Appleton, Miss A. M. Maxwell, $1 each.

TO OUR CORRESPONDENTS.-The following articles are accepted: "Out in the Meadow"-"The Child's Dream""When First I Gazed"-"Hope's Light is Shining Yet""Hymn to the Southern Breeze"-"Cora"-"Lines""Friendship's Vows"-"Where is my Home"-"Farewell"-"The Invalid's Journey"-"Why does the Wavelet Murmur"-"Lines"-and "Spirit Love."

The following articles are not needed: "Advertising for a Wife"-"Cousin Edward"-"My Violet"-"To a False One"-"Divine Trust"-"Farewell, Loved Ones"-"The Bouquet"-"My Daughter"-and "Fantasies."

We have many MSS. on hand, accumulated during our absence, which will be noticed in December number.

Health Department.

RY JNO. STAINBACK WILSON, M. D. BATHING. As we shall have much to say on the hygienic and medicinal use of water, it may be proper to premise that we do not belong to the hydromaniacal class who seem to think that the human skin was made only to be washed. Indeed, we cannot say that bathing would be necessary at all, if all our habits were made to conform to the laws of our organism; if the passions were duly controlled and properly directed; if diet, exercise, clothing, temperature, air, sleep, amusements, etc., were just as they should be, bathing would still be desirable as a pleasurable indulgence, and as a measure of cleanliness, but it would

not be essential to the preservation of health. And as ladies are less subject to contamination than "the rest of mankind," they would but seldom find it necessary to bathe for the purpose of purification. But they, if possible, are even more unphysiological in their habits than the other sex; and they are peculiarly exposed, as society now exists, to all those influences which result in torpor of the capillary system of vessels, and congestion or engorgement of the internal organs. Bathing may be regarded then as absolutely indispensable; for, while it may not be competent to counteract all the evils consequent on the numberless violations of the laws of life, there is nothing so direct and effectual in the removal of these internal congestions, which may be considered the sum total of the multiform maladies to which civilized flesh is heir.

Every house should have a bathing apartment; but in the absence of all other conveniences, a quart of water and a towel can be procured at all places, and a general "wash down," or bath of some kind should be taken daily. The particular kind of bath, the temperature, etc., should be regulated by the condition and convenience of the bathers. When persons are in vigorous health, and have the necessary facilities, the cold plunge or shower-bath is highly conducive both to health and comfort. The fact is, ladies, if you have never experienced the indescribably delightful sensation resulting from the reactive glow of the cold shower or plunge bath, you have missed one of the greatest enjoyments of life. This is an excitement far more pleasant than that produced by snuff, opium, wine, or other stimulants; and even the last sensation novel is nothing to compare to it; while the best of all is, instead of enervating and destroying, it invigorates and preserves; it allays the tumult of passion and soothes a troubled breast, promotes cheerfulness, beautifies the complexion, strengthens the muscles, quiets the nerves, purifles the blood, expands the superficial vessels of the skin, relieves internal oppression, conduces in every way to health of body and mind, and is, consequently, one of the very best securities for a green old age. Go then, blooming maidens and mothers, wash and be healthy; plunge fearlessly into lake and stream, and you will soon be willing to incur all the trouble and inconvenience for the pure enjoyment, to say nothing of health.

Swimming is one of the most agreeable and healthful accompaniments of bathing, and we would urge ladies to acquire this very desirable art; for, apart from the advantages mentioned, it may be the means of saving them from the dangers to which they are so often exposed in this reckless travelling age. Of course it is understood that the above is intended only for vigorous persons; those that are more feeble, and children under a year old, should use a tepid bath at first, gradually reducing the temperature as the system becomes accustomed to the water. By pursuing this course, very feeble persons and delicate children may take some form of cold bath daily, not only without injury but with great benefit; and every man, woman, and child in the land should have a daily general ablution with water either warm, tepid, or cold, according to circumstances; but, as a general rule, the colder the better. Yet, while it is true that cold water is the best as a hygienic agent, we must reiterate our caution against its use without due regard to the attendant circumstances of each individual case; and we consider this caution the more necessary because it is no uncommon thing for feeble and sensitive persons who have never been accustomed to bathing, to begin with the cold shower-bath, or cold affusion. Sponging the upper portion of the body in cold water is one of the very best preventives of colds, and is far preferable to the use of silks and flannels next the skin.

We would advise those who have weak lungs to wet the neck, chest, and arms every morning in cold water, following this application with active friction with a coarse towel or hair glove. Very delicate persons should use the water tepid or warm at first. If these directions were judiciously adhered to, we think that silk and flannel under garments might well be dispensed with in the large ma jority of cases in which they are now used; for the cold water is not only a better protection against atmospheric vicissitudes, but it is more pleasant and more safe, whatever hydrophobic people may think of this latter position. Those who have stung and smarted under their flannels in warm weather, and those who, to avoid this evil, have changed too early, will equally agree that there may be a better way. The fact is, the danger of removing flannels is so great in a variable climate like ours, that more colds have been caused than prevented, and more lives lost than saved by their use in our humble opinion.

After the temperature, the two most important considerations connected with bathing are the kind of bath and the time of bathing. As to the former, we will only say that water may be applied medicinally (as we shall hereafter show) in a great variety of ways; but its hygienic use may be properly restricted to general and partial ablutions, plunging, sponging, and showering. The time of bathing should be duly regarded. No general or even extensive partial bath should be taken immediately after eating, or when the body is fatigued, or exhausted from exertion, or any other depressing agent. There should be an interval of two or three hours between the meal and the bath; and the latter should be preceded and followed by exercise. For while fatigue is to be carefully guarded against, sufficient exercise to cause a glow and even perspiration will insure vigorous reaction with all its attendant benefits. It is a very prevalent popular error that it is highly injurious to check perspiration by the application of water to the surface; but so far is this from being true that it is best to exercise to the perspiring point, as a preparatory step; provided, always, that fatigue and exhaustion are not induced.

Early in the morning is the best and most convenient time for bathing; and preceding exercise is not so necessary then, as the vital reactive powers have been reinvigorated by "tired Nature's sweet restorer."

The application of cold water to the surface is followed. by two distinct and opposite effects. The first, or direct, effect, is that of a sedative-that is, it abstracts heat and depresses the vital powers. This temporary depression is. followed by reaction, which is the second, or indirect, effect, resulting from the use of water of a lower temperature than the body. In its indirect reactive action, it is stimulant or excitant. We have, then, the direct sedative and the indirect excitant effects of cold water.

The degree of reaction after the cold bath is, in general, proportioned to the coldness of the water, to the suddenness and force of the immersion, to the vigor of the circulation in general, and more particularly that of the surface, to the muscular movements IN the bath, to the friction and exercise AFTER the bath, and finally, within certain limits, to the period of stay in it.

It has been seen that the reaction is proportioned to the coldness of the water; but as the reactive powers can be known only by experiment, the most prudent course. would be to test the vital resistance, by reducing the temperature of the bath gradually, as directed for feeblo persons; and it should be remembered that the temperature is too low when headache, dulness, and chilliness: remain for any length of time after a cold bath. To remove these effects, active friction is second only to exer