504. _Simple Vapor Bath._--Wrap the patient in blankets, which fasten closely about the neck, leaving the head exposed: then place him in a chair, under which set a basin or deep dish, with half a pint of spirits of wine, or whisky, which should be ignited: close the blankets to the floor, and in a few minutes the patient will be in a profuse perspiration, and should be put to bed between warm blankets. 505. _Advantages of Bathing._--It is a fact officially recorded, that during the terrible visitations of cholera in France, out of nearly 16,228 subscribers to the public baths of Paris, Bordeaux, and Marseilles, only two deaths among them were ascribed to cholera. We doubt whether there exists a more effectual preventive of disease of every kind, and a greater promoter of good health at all times, than the practice of daily bathing. 506. _Uses of Hot Water._--The efficacy of hot water, on many occasions in life, cannot be too generally known. It is an excellent gargle for a bad sore throat, or quinsy. In bruises, hot water, by immersion and fomentation, will remove pain, and prevent discoloration and stiffness. It has the same effect after a blow. It should be applied as quickly as possible, and as hot as it can be borne. Insertion in hot water will also cure that troublesome and very painful ailment, the whitlow. 507. _Good effects of Bathing._--"I am often asked, what baths are safest--as if everything, by its fitness or unfitness, is not safe, or the reverse. The value of all baths depends upon their fitness; and that, in many instances, can only be known by trial. It depends upon constitution, more than upon the name of a disease, whether particular patients shall be benefited by one bath or another. Generally speaking, when the skin is hot and dry, a cold bath will do good; and when chilly, a hot bath. But the reverse sometimes happens. The cold stage of ague, may at once be cut short by a cold bath. I have seen a shivering hypochondriac dash into the cold plunge bath, and come out, in a minute or two, perfectly cured of all his aches and whimseys. But, in cases of this nature, everything depends upon the _glow_ or _reaction_ which the bath produces; and that has as much to do with surprise or shock as with the temperature of the bath. I have seen a person with a hot, dry skin, go into a warm bath, and come out just as refreshed as if he had taken a cold one. In that case, the perspiration which it excited, must have been the principal means of relief. "So far as my own experience goes, I prefer the cold and tepid shower-baths, and the cold plunge-bath, to any other; but there are cases in which these disagree, and I, therefore, occasionally order the warm or vapor-bath instead."--_Dr. Dickson._