Manual of British Rural Sports by Stonehenge 17th Edition

640 i GENERAL TRAINING OF MAN. rhubarb pills will answer very wellin some persons. If the liver is torpid (which may be known by the pale colour of the motions), then five grains of blue pill should be taken at night, and the oil or draught in the morning, and the same should be repeated every two or three days till the colour be­ comes of a good brown or yellow. For any other purpose aperient medi­ cine is to be avoided, and it willgene­ rally be found that beyond the first dose, which I think good as clearing off all undigested food, it will seldom be wanted. Some men have such an abundance of fat that they weightwo or even three stone more than they ought to do. The consequence is that not only isall that weight a dead loss, but the fat itself actually interferes with the due action of the muscles, and especially of the heart. Two modes of sweating maybe adopted—• one natural, the other artificial ; the former is by far the best and healthiest, but either should be used the first thing in the morning, rising frombed a little earlier for the express purpose. NATURAL SWEATING is managed by putting on extra clothing over those parts more particularly which are loaded with fat. Thus, if the legs are very fat, two or three pair of trousers should be drawn on ; if the abdomen is full, then a double apron of flannel should be suspended from the neck under the trousers ; and if the arms and neck are loaded, one, two, or three thick jerseys may be pulled on, and a woollen shawl wrapped round the neck. When thus clothed, a brisk walk, or slow run of a few miles, brings on aprofuse perspiration, which maybe kept up for an hour or so, either by being covered up with horse-rugs or a feather-bed, or by lying infront of a good fire. At the expiration of this time the whole of the clothes should be stripped off, beginning with the upper part of the body, and sponging each limb with hot salt and water before drying it with a coarse towel, after which horse­ hair gloves should be used freely, and the dressing may be as usual, taking care to expose each limb as short a time as possible. Such is the natural mode. ARTIFICIAL SWEATING can be accom- plislied by a Turkish bath ; or by the pluu tirst proposed by Preissnitz, and since then much used in this country by other practitioners. This is as follows :—The whole body should be stripped and immediately wrapped it, a sheet wrung out of cold water, but not so as to get rid of all the water. Then, rolling the patient in a thick blanket, and including the arms, like a mummy, he is to be placed beneath a feather-bed, covering all up to the chin. In a quarter of an hour, or rather more, reaction comes on ; and a most profuse perspiration breaks out over the face, and, in fact, over the whole body. Among the hydropathists it is usual to supply the patient liberally with cold water, by small draughts at a time, during the sweat; but for our purpose this is not desirable, because it causes too great an action on the kidneys, therebyweakening the frame considerably. When this sweating has continued for an hour to an hour and a half, everything should be taken off, and cold water poured over the whole body, either by means of a shower- bath or a common watering-pot; then rub dry, and clothe. This artificial mode of sweating is not so likely to give cold as the natural one, and it does not exhaust and tire the frame nearly so much. It also produces great buoyancy of spirits, and it may be graduated much more exactly. It has, however, the disadvantage of produc­ ing a liability to boils, which, in the rower, are sufficiently annoying with­ out this sweating process. "Wherever there is an unusual collection of fat, on that part must, in either mode, be heaped a greater amount of clothing, and especially if the shoulders should be clogged and loaded. No one can reach well over his toes if his shoulder- blades are confined, or if his abdomen is too bulky ;and the first thing to be done is to sweat down the fat as 1 have described. Either of the above processes may be repeated two or three times a week, and they are far better than night sweating by Dover's powder orany of the sweating liquors which formerly were so much recom­ mended. THE USE OF SWEATING LIQUORS most objectionable, and should never be resorted to if avoidable. Whatever medicine is taken for this purpose, it would be unsafe either to use cold water next morning, or to expose the body as in rowing; and therefore