When the daily exercises of the athletæ were finished, they were refreshed by immersion in a tepid bath, where the perspiration and sordes--scurf, pustules, or filthy adhesions--were carefully removed from the surface of the body by the use of the strygil.[1] The skin was then diligently rubbed dry, and again anointed with oil. If thirsty, they were permitted to drink a small quantity of warm water. They then took their principal repast, after which they used no more exercise that day. They occasionally also went into the cold bath in the morning. They were permitted to sleep as many hours as they chose; and great increase of vigour, as well as of bulk, was supposed to be derived from long-continued and sound repose.[2] The sexual intercourse was strictly prohibited. [1] For this instrument, rough coarse cloths are adopted, but not with advantage. [2] Little sleep is now prescribed; but its quantity should depend upon circumstances of fatigue, &c. The manner of training among the ancients bears some resemblance to that practised by the moderns. Perhaps it is because their mode of living and general habits were somewhat different from those of the present age, that a difference of treatment is now required to produce the same effects. The great object of training for running or boxing matches, is to increase the muscular strength, and to improve the free action of the lungs, or wind, of the person subjected to the process. Seeing that the human body is so capable of being altered and renovated, it is not surprising that the art of training should be carried to a degree of perfection almost incredible; and that, by certain processes, the muscular power, the breath (or wind), and the courage of man, should be so greatly improved as to enable him to perform the most severe or laborious undertakings. That such effects have been produced is unquestionable: they are fully exemplified in the astonishing exploits of our most celebrated pedestrians and pugilists, which are the infallible results of such preparatory discipline. The skilful trainer attends to the state of the bowels, the lungs, and the skin; and he uses such means as will reduce the fat, and at the same time invigorate the muscular fibre. The patient is purged by drastic medicines; he is sweated by walking under a load of clothes, and by lying between feather beds; and his limbs are roughly rubbed. His diet is beef or mutton: his drink strong ale. He is gradually inured to exercise, by repeated trials in walking and running. By extenuating the fat, emptying the cellular substance, hardening the muscular fibre, and improving the breath, a man of the ordinary frame may be made to fight for one hour, with the utmost exertion of strength and courage, or to go over one hundred miles in twenty-four hours.