The most common purpose for which baths are used is the cleansing of the skin, and the importance of this, of course, cannot be over-estimated. When we speak of a clean skin we mean a skin with clean pores as well as a clean surface. The indolent and luxurious man, whose skin is spotlessly clean, but whose sense of the proprieties is such that he never indulges in a good vulgar sweat, has not, in reality, so healthy and clean a skin as the navvy, whose myriad sweat-ducts are constantly being flushed by the hardness of his work; but whose skin surface, possibly, is soiled with the various grimy particles with which his labour has brought him in contact. A clean skin is an impossibility without perspiration; and if the necessary perspiration be not brought about by the ordinary business of life, it is advisable to encourage it by artificial means. Hence bathing is more necessary to the man of sedentary occupation than to one who knows the daily luxury of physical exertion. For the purposes of cleansing, the bath should be warm, the skin should be well soaped, and a subsequent thorough friction with a rough towel should be indulged in. This process has the effect of removing the outer layer of the cuticle, of softening the secretion lying in the mouths of the sweat-ducts, and by the action of the heat dilating the blood-vessels of the skin and encouraging perspiration. Its utility and its comfort are so well known that there is no necessity for making any formal remarks thereupon. Perhaps there is no better form of exercise than that to be found in a good swimming bath, always provided that an open river or the sea is not at hand. The swimmer exercises every muscle in his body; and, if swimming be vigorously kept up, there is nothing which more speedily induces fatigue. For an athlete in training a daily swim ought to be a part of his course of exercise. We wish there were more swimming baths in London than there are. Such as exist are all overcrowded in the summer, and in many of them the ventilation is not of the best. To take violent exercise in a close, badly-ventilated room must be wrong, and we would advise no one to patronise a bath which smells in the least degree stuffy. Swimming should be practised not more than once a day, and about midway between two meals. The bather, at the commencement of his course, should not remain more than five minutes in the water; and if his bath be not followed by a healthy glow, he will recognise that even that is too much for him. The time of the bath may be gradually extended.