Warm baths, as aiding the action of the skin, have been regarded as of some value, when combined with proper diet and regimen, in the treatment of diabetes. In diseases of the skin warm bathing is occasionally of service. For _psoriasis_ a soaking in hot water has the effect of removing the scales from the body, but it has probably no real curative influence on the disease. In acne, chloasma, and diseases which are fostered by a want of attention to cleanliness, warm bathing is of great service, especially when aided by a liberal supply of soap and the rigorous use of the flesh-brush and rough towel. Although we are all ready, perhaps too ready, to recognise the great value of water applied externally, we are not always so quick at recognising the evil effects of an excessive use of baths. Professor Hebra, of Vienna, one of the greatest authorities living on the diseases of the skin, speaks in very decided tones of the occasional harmful action which water exerts upon the skin. “It is,” he says, “almost universally believed that the frequent use of vapour and shower baths, frequent bathing in warm or cold water, frequent washing and scrubbing, are healthful operations which can never do any harm. “Against this opinion I must enter my decided protest. On the one hand, we know that there are millions of human beings who have never bathed in warm or cold water all their lives long, who, at the utmost, give their hands and face a superficial rinse once a week, and nevertheless enjoy up to old age a state of health which may well be envied. On the other hand, none can prove by statistics that the frequent use of the various kinds of baths protect people from sickness, or that washing in cold water strengthens the body against catarrh and rheumatism and catching cold. So long as bathings are accompanied by a feeling of comfort, and are not followed by any eruptions on the skin, they may, no doubt, be allowed as a pastime, an amusement, an aquatic sport; but whenever the skin thus repeatedly irritated begins to react--as soon as itching, more or less severe, follows; as soon as persistent redness or wheals, or pimples or watery heads make their appearance--it is high time to leave off bathing and washing if we do not wish to produce diseases of the skin, which often take months and years before they disappear, and give the patient unspeakable misery.”