When the water is of about the same temperature as the body, the effects are neither stimulating nor depressing. In some forms of sleeplessness, a tepid bath taken just before retiring has been found to be effective. In such cases, the body should be covered by the water for ten or fifteen minutes, and quietly dried with a soft towel, without vigorous rubbing or friction. =Hot Bath.=--The cold bath stimulates, the hot bath facilitates function. Both hot and cold baths increase the combustion going on within the body. The immediate effect of a cold bath is to chill the surface of the body. This sensation is promptly conveyed by the nerves of the skin, through the spinal cord, to the brain. Respiration and circulation are at once increased, and the temperature of the interior of the body is raised. The effect of a hot bath is to raise the temperature of the surface of the body and the temperature of the blood. As in the case of a cold bath, the respiration and pulse are quickened, and the escape of carbonic acid from the lungs is increased. Warm baths can be borne for a longer time than cold baths, but if the temperature be very high they deplete the system rapidly, and faintness is apt to occur. The warm or hot bath leaves the skin in a very delicate condition, susceptible to chill from exposure followed by internal congestion. The bather should dress quickly after a warm or hot bath, and spend a half hour or more in a warm room so as to allow the body to assume its normal temperature, or he may go from the bath to bed, and cover up well. =Popular Error.=--The belief is current that it is extremely dangerous to enter a cold bath when the body is heated or perspiring. The bracing effects of the bath are most manifest if taken while the individual is warm. The clothing should be removed quickly, the plunge or douche boldly taken, and immediately followed by a vigorous rubbing with a coarse towel. Some years ago, an eminent physician, desiring to test the effects of the cold bath when the body is warm, made a series of observations upon himself. The following is his statement: “Every afternoon a free perspiration was produced by a brisk walk in the sun. As soon as the clothing could be cast off, and while the body was still freely perspiring, a plunge was taken into a fresh water bath of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. No ill result followed. On the contrary, the sensation which immediately followed the bath, and which continued for six or eight hours afterward, was exceedingly pleasant. The health remained perfect, and the weight decidedly increased during the two months the practice was continued. There is probably no danger to a healthy person in this practice, but it is considered advisable to immerse the head first, to avoid increasing the blood pressure in the brain too greatly, which might result if the body were gradually immersed from the feet upward.”