The second way to take this bath, is the following.
The bath is filled as mentioned before, but the water has the temperature of 30° to 35°. With these baths 35° should never be exceeded, (when, and in which cases, they are to be applied, must always be said expressly,) but also no lower temperature taken than 28°; on the average I advise and prepare them myself with 31° to 33° R.
Thosu who take this bath go into the warm water not once, but three times, and also into the cold water three times. This is the so-called warm full-bath with threefold change. The whole bath takes precisely 33 minutes; the different changing is done as follows:
10 minutes in the warm bath,
1 minute in the cold bath
10 minutes in the warm bath
1 minute in the cold bath
10 minutes in the warm bath
1 minute in the cold bath
Without exception the proceeding must always be concluded by the cold bath. Healthy, strong people sit down in the cold-water-bath, and dip in slowly up to the head. Sensitive persons sit down and quickly wash chest and back without dipping under. A whole ablution answers the same purpose for those who are too much afraid of the cold bath. The head is never wetted; if it has become wet, it must be dried. Likewise after the last cold bath no other part of the body is to be dried except the hands, and these in order not to wet the clothes when redressing.
For the rest, especially as regards the necessary exercise after the bath, the same rules are to be observed as regarding the first baths.
I owe a few remarks here.
Warm baths alone, i.e. without subsequent cold baths or ablutions, are never prescribed by me. The higher degree of warmth, especially if it lasts and operates for a longer time, does not strengthen, but it weakens and relaxes the whole organism; it does not harden, but makes the skin still more sensitive to the cold; it does not protect, but it endangers.
The warm water opens the pores, and lets the cold air in, the consequences of which are to be seen even in the following hours. The cold baths or cold ablutions following the warm ones, act as a remedy to the latter; (I do not allow any application of warm water without the following cold one,) the fresh water strengthens, by lowering the higher temperature of the body; it refreshes by washing off, as it were, the superfluous heat; it protects by closing the pores, and making the skin more firm.
The same prejudice against the sudden cold following the warmth, meets us again here. It is precisely on account of the cold baths following, that the warm ones can, and must, be given at a higher temperature than is usual, or than I myself would agree to generally. The body is filled with so much warmth, armed as it were, that it is able to stand well the shock of the penetrating cold.
Those who are too much afraid of the cold bath at first, may take a whole ablution; they will thereby get courage. It depends entirely upon the first trial. Those who have once tried it, will never take a warm bath again without the following cold one, if only on account of the comfort it gives. To many who at first trembled with fear, but later on became used to the strange changing and liked it, I was obliged to trace strict limits to prevent the excess of good from turning to evil.
The prickling and crawling sensation on the skin, which is strongly felt upon going back to the warm bath, after the cold one, especially on the feet, need not frighten any one; later on it will seem like an agreeable rubbing.
For these two kinds of whole baths there is no necessity of preparations, e. g. to bring the body to the right temperature.
Here, as for all the warm baths, I never, or at least very seldom use warm water alone; decoctions of different herbs are always mixed with them.
a. The warm full-bath for the healthy.
If I order warm whole- baths for healthy persons, i.e. comparatively healthy, (healthy, but weak persons,) I do so only in case where such weakened people cannot make up their minds to take cold baths, and solely for the purpose of preparing and ripening them by this warm full-bath, with the cold one following, for the fresh cold bath.
My principles, and my practice, with reference to this are as follows:
I seldom, or almost never, order warm baths for quite healthy and strong natures, whose fresh, rosy complexion sparkles, as it were, with warmth and vital fire.
Nor do they desire them either, for they long for the cold water like a fish.
But I recommend them for younger people who are weak, poor of blood, and nervous, especially those who are inclined to cramps, rheumatism and such like complaints; and before all others to the mothers of families, who are worn out so early by every possible hardship. Such a bath with 28° R. and subsequent cold ablution, taken for 25 to 30 minutes, every month, would be sufficient for them.
For those who are inclined to articular disease, gout, podagra, two such baths a month would be better than one.
Younger persons should try the cold full-bath in summer time.
To aged, weak people I recommend at least one warm full-bath every month of 28° to 30° R., taken for the space of 25 minutes and concluding with a cold ablution, for cleanliness of the skin, for refreshment and for strengthening. They will feel quite renewed after each bath on account of the greater perspiration (activity of the skin) and the more vivid circulation of the blood.
b. The warm full-bath for the sick.
In which cases of illness the warm full-bath is to be taken, is said where the various diseases are spoken of.
Both kinds are in use, and with due precaution and exactness there is nothing whatever to be feared. These baths aim at a twofold purpose: In the one case they increase the bodily warmth by a new supply of warmth; in the other they operate the evacuating and dissolving of materials which cannot be removed by the diseased body itself. The warm full-baths are prepared as:
Hay-flower baths,
Qat-straw
Pine-sprig
Mixed baths
The manner of preparing as well as the effect of the two first kinds of baths, have already been mentioned in the description of the warm sitting-bath.
I only wish to repeat a few points for precaution's sake:
aa. The hay-flower bath.
A small bag filled with hay-flowers is put in a kettle full of hot water and boiled with it for at least a quarter of an hour. Afterwards the whole decoction is poured into the prepared warm bath, which is then filled up with warm or cold water until it has reached the prescribed temperature. This bath, the easiest to prepare and the most frequently used, is indeed the most harmless, the normal bath for the warming of the body. Healthy people, too, may take it whenever they like. In my country there are many such water-men going about, surrounded by the odor of such hay-flowers. The coffee-brown water thoroughly opens the pores, and dissolves materials shut up in the body.
bb. The oat-straw bath.
A good bunch of oat-straw is boiled in a kettle of water for half an hour, then the decoction is used as above said.
cc. The pine-sprig bath.
It is prepared as follows: The sprigs (the fresher the better), small branches, even very resinous pine-cones, all cut in pieces, are thrown into hot water and boiled for half an hour, the