_The_ species of cold bath following the hot is really of little moment, it is simply a matter of taste and convenience; and whether a plunge, shower, hip, sitz, or sponge-bath be used, the pleasurable and beneficial results will be very much the same. _There_ are bathers who prefer a _Shower-bath_, and, to those able to stand it, nothing can be more agreeable and refreshing, but it may be safely questioned whether a _Shower-bath_ taken on a cold wintry morning, with the water all but freezing, can possibly prove salutary even to the most robust. _Nearly_ freezing water from a shower-bath produces a feeling something akin to what might be imagined to result from a shower of red-hot lead; the shock is tremendous, and the shower, if continued for any length of time, would assuredly cause asphyxia. Professor Jamin shews conclusively that although ice is always at an uniform temperature of 32°, water may remain liquid at a very much lower temperature if guarded from external disturbance. _The_ nerves must be thoroughly braced up to take such a bath: the writer has a lively recollection of stepping into a shower-bath one intensely cold morning, when, the string being pulled, not a drop of water descended; the connections were all frozen, and the bath was empty; the shock resulting on that occasion from the absence of the water, though of a negative and totally different description, was really greater than would have been produced by the cold shower itself. _The Shower-bath_ should be taken warmer than the ordinary cold bath; the water may be advantageously placed in the bath on the previous evening, and, if necessary, a little warm water added in the morning. _If_ headache follow, or reaction be slow, accompanied by shivering, the shower must be discontinued, and a milder bath resorted to. _SEA-BATHING & SWIMMING._ Sea-bathing—at least in these islands—is generally believed in and largely practised, and some persons, by means of salts sold for that purpose, produce a close imitation of sea-water for their daily tubbing. A _Salt-bath_ thus prepared, when its use conduces to the enjoyment and health of the bather, is by no means to be discouraged, and may advantageously follow the soap application in place of fresh water. _Most_ of us must have noticed how renovating to enfeebled constitutions is the effect of even a short course of sea-bathing, but it is equally patent that the good effects quickly wear off, the physique returning shortly to its perhaps normal condition of relaxation and lassitude. The daily use of the _Soap-bath_ keeps the constitution permanently braced up to that delightful condition experienced by so few, that makes mere existence an absolute pleasure. A preliminary course of _Sea-bathing_ is by no means necessary to bring about this pleasant condition of things.