312. Which do you prefer--sea bathing or fresh water bathing?

Sea bathing. Sea bathing is incomparably superior to fresh water bathing; the salt water is far more refreshing and invigorating; the battling with the waves is more exciting; the sea breezes, blowing on the nude body, breathes (for the skin is a breathing apparatus) health and strength into the frame, and comeliness into the face; the sea water and the sea breezes are splendid cosmetics; the salt water is one of the finest applications, both for strengthening the roots and brightening the colour of the hair, provided grease and pomatum have not been previously used.

313. Have you any directions to give as to the time and the seasons, and the best mode of sea bathing?

Summer and autumn are the best seasons of the year for cold sea bathing - August and September being the best months. To prepare the skin for the cold sea bathing, it would be well, before taking a dip in the sea, to have on the previous day a warm salt water bath. It is injurious, and even dangerous, to bathe immediately after a full meal; the best time to bathe is about two hours after breakfast-that is to say, at about eleven or twelve o'clock in the forenoon. The bather, as soon as he enters the water, ought instantly to wet his head; this may be done either by his jumping at once from the machine into the water, or, if he have not the courage to do so, by plunging his head without loss of time completely under the water. He should remain in the water about a quarter of an hour, but never longer than half an hour. Many bathers by remaining a long time in the water do themselves great injury. If sea bathing be found to be invigorating and how often to the delicate it has proved to be truly magical-a patient may bathe once every day, but on no account oftener. If he be not strong, he had better, at first, bathe only every other day, or even only twice a week. The bather, after leaving the machine, ought for half an hour to take a brisk walk in order to promote a reaction, and thus to cause a free circulation of the blood.

314. Do you think a tepid bath * may be more safely used?

A tepid bath may be taken at almost any time, and a bather may remain longer in one, with safety, than in a cold bath. 315. Do you approve of warm bathing?

A tepid bath from 62 to 96 degrees of Fahrenheit.

*

A warm bath may with advantage be occasionally used -say, once a week. A warm bath cleanses the skin more effectually than either a cold or a tepid bath; but, as it is more relaxing, ought not to be employed so often as either of them. A person should not continue longer than ten minutes in a warm bath. Once a week, as a rule, is quite often enough for a warm bath; and it would be an excellent plan if every boy and girl and adult would make a practice of having one regularly every week, unless any special reason should arise to forbid its use.

316. But does not warm bathing, by relaxing the pores of the skin, cause a person to catch cold if he expose himself to the air immediately afterwards?

There is, on this point, a great deal of misconception and unnecessary fear. A person, immediately after using a warm bath, should take proper precautions-that is to say, he must not expose himself to draughts, neither ought he to wash himself in cold water, nor should he, immediately after taking one, drink cold water. But he may follow his usual exercise or employment, provided the weather be fine, and the wind be neither in the east nor the north-east.

Every house of any pretension ought to have a bath-room. Nothing would be more conducive to health than regular systematic bathing. A hot and cold bath, a sitz bath, and a shower bath-each and all in their turn-are grand requisites to preserve and procure health. If the house cannot boast of a bath-room, then the Corporation Baths (which nearly every large town possesses) ought to be liberally patronised.

MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR.

317. What is the best application for the hair?

A sponge and cold water, and two good hair-brushes. Avoid grease, pomatum, bandaline, and all abominations of that kind. There is a natural oil of the hair, which is far superior to either Rowland's Macassar Oil or any other oil! The best scent for the hair is an occasional dressing of soap and water; the best beautifier of the hair is a downright thorough good brushing with two good hair-brushes! Again, I say, avoid grease of all kinds to the hair. "And as for woman's hair, don't plaster it with scented and sour grease, or with any grease; it has an oil of its own. And don't tie up your hair tight, and make it like a cap of iron over your skull.

* A warm bath from 97 to 100 degrees of Fahrenheit.

And why are your ears covered? You hear all the worse, and they are not the cleaner. Besides, the ear is beautiful in itself, and plays its own part in the concert of the features."*

If the hair cannot, without some application, be kept tidy, then a little castor oil, scented, might, by means of an old tooth-brush, be used to smooth it; castor oil is, for the purpose, one of the most simple and harmless of dressings; but, as I said before, the hair's own natural oil cannot be equalled, far less surpassed!

If the hair fall off, the castor oil, scented with a few drops either of otto of roses or of essence of bergamot, is a good remedy to prevent its doing so; a little of it ought, night and morning, to be well rubbed into the roots of the hair. Сосоаnut oil is another excellent application for the falling off of the hair, and can never do harm, which is more than can be said of many vaunted remedies for the hair!

CLOTHING.

318. Do you approve of a boy wearing flannel next the skin?

England is so variable a climate, and the changes from heat to cold, and from dryness to moisture of the atmosphere, are so sudden, that some means are required to guard against their effects. Flannel, as it is a bad conductor of heat, prevents the sudden changes from affecting the body, and thus is a great preservative against cold.

Flannel is as necessary in the summer as in the winter time; indeed, we are more likely both to sit and to stand in draughts in the summer than in the winter; and thus we are more liable to become chilled and to catch cold.

Woollen shirts are now much worn; they are very comfortable and beneficial to health. Moreover, they simplify the dress, as they supersede the necessity of wearing either both flannel and linen, or flannel and calico shirts.

319. Flannel sometimes produces great irritation of the skin what ought to be done to prevent it?

Have a moderately fine flannel, and persevere in its use; the skin in a few days will bear it comfortably. The Angola and wove-silk waistcoats have been recommended as substitutes, but there is nothing equal to the old-fashioned Welsh flannel.

Health. By John Brown, M.D.

320. If a boy have delicate lungs, do you approve of his wearing a prepared hare-skin over the chest?

I do not the chest may be kept too warm as well as too cold. The hare-skin heats the chest too much, and thereby promotes a violent perspiration; which, by his going into the cold air, may become suddenly checked, and may thus produce mischief. If the chest be delicate, there is nothing like flannel to ward off colds.

321. After an attack of Rheumatic Fever, what extra clothing do you advise?

In the case of a boy, or a girl, just recovering from a severe attack of Rheumatic Fever, flannel next the skin aught always, winter and summer, to be worn-flannel drawers as well as a flannel vest.

322. Have you any remarks to make on boys' waistcoats? Fashion in this, as in most other instances, is at direct variance with common sense. It would seem that fashion was intended to make work for the doctor, and to swell the bills of mortality! It might be asked, What part of the chest, in particular, ought to be kept warm? The upper part needs it most. It is in the upper part of the lungs that tubercles (consumption) usually first make their appearance; and is it not preposterous to have such parts, in particular, kept cool? Double-breasted waistcoats cannot be too strongly recommended for delicate youths, and for all men who have weak chests.

323. Have you any directions to give respecting the shoes and the stockings?

The shoes for winter should be moderately thick and waterproof. If boys and girls be delicate, they ought to have double soles to their shoes, with a piece of bladder between each sole, or the inner sole may be made of cork; either of the above plans will make the soles of boots and shoes completely water-proof. In wet or dirty weather India-rubber over-shoes are useful, as they keep the upper as well as the under leathers perfectly dry.

The socks, or stockings, for winter, ought to be either lambs-wool or worsted; it is absurd to wear cotton socks or stockings all the year round. I should advise a boy to wear socks not stockings, as he then will be able to dispense with garters. Garters, as I have remarked in a previous Conversation, are injurious-they not only interfere with the circulation of the blood, but also, by pressure, injure the bones, and thus the shape of the legs.

Boys and girls cannot be too particular in keeping their feet warm and dry, as cold wet feet are one of the most frequent exciting causes of bronchitis, of sore throats, and of consumption.

324. When should a girl begin to wear stays?

She ought never to wear them.

325. Do not stays strengthen the body?

No; on the contrary, they weaken it. (1.) They weaken the muscles. The pressure upon them causes them to waste; so that, in the end, a girl cannot do without them, as the stays are then obliged to perform the duty of the wasted muscles. (2.) They weaken the lungs by interfering with their functions. Every inspiration is accompanied by a movement of the ribs. If this movement be impeded, the functions of the lungs are impeded likewise; and, consequently, disease is likely to follow; and either difficulty of breathing, or cough, or consumption, may ensue. (3.) They weaken the heart's action, and thus frequently produce palpitation, and, perhaps, eventually, organic or incurable disease of the heart. (4.) They weaken the digestion, by pushing down the stomach and the liver, and by compressing the latter; and thus induce indigestion, flatulence, and liver-disease.* (5.) They weaken the bowels, by impeding their proper peristaltic (spiral) motion, and thus might produce either constipation. or a rupture. Is it not presumptuous to imagine that man can improve upon God's works; and that if more support had been required, the Almighty would not have given it?—

"God never made his work for man to mend.”—Dryden.

326. Have you any remarks to make on female dress? There is a perfect disregard of health in everything appertaining to fashion. Parts that ought to be kept warm, remain unclothed; the upper portion of the chest, most prone to tubercles (consumption), is completely exposed; the feet, great inlets to cold, are covered with thin stockings, and with shoes as thin as paper. Parts that should have full play are cramped and hampered; the chest is cribbed in with stays, the feet with tight shoes,-hence causing deformity, and preventing a free circulation of blood. The mind, that ought to be calm and unruffled, is kept in a constant state of excitement by balls, and concerts, and plays. Mind and body sym

*Several years ago, while prosecuting my anatomical studies in London University College Dissecting-rooms, on opening a young woman, I discovered an immense indentation of the liver large enough to admit a rolling-pin, produced by tight-lacing!