Manual of British Rural Sports

TRAFNTNG FOR RUNNING. 451 which may be kept up for an hour or so, either by being coveredup with horse-rugs or a feather-bed, or by lying in front of a Koodfire. At the expiration of this time the whole of theclothes should be stripped off, besinning with the upper part of the body,and sponging each limb with hot salt ami water belbre drying itwith a coarse towel, after whichDinncford's gloves should beused freely, and the dressing may be as usual, taking care to expose each limbas siiort a time as possible. Sucli is the natural mode. 300.ARTIFICIAL SWEATING consists in the plan first proposed by Preistnitz, and since then so much used in this country by other practitioners. It is as follows :—The whole body should be stripped and immediately wrapped in 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 lato be placed beneath a feather-bed, cover­ ing all up to the chin. In a quarter of an hour, or rather more, reaction comes on; and a most profuseperspiration breaks out over the face, and, infact, overthe whole body. Among the hydropathists it is usual to supply the patient liberally with cold water, by small draughts at time, during the sweat; but for our purpose this is not desirable, because it causes too great an action on the kidneys, thereby weakening tlie frame considerably. When this sweat­ ing has continued from an hour to an hour and a half, everything should be taken oft', 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 artiticialmode of sweating is not so likely to give cold as the natural one, ami it does not exhaust and tire the frame nearly so much. It also produces great buoyancy of spirits, and it may begradu­ ated much more exactly.It has, however, tlie disadvantage of producing a liability to boils,which, in the rower, are sufliciently annoying without this sweating process. Wherever there is an unusual collection of at, on that part must,in either mode, be leaped agreater amount of clothing, and 'specially if the shoulders should be clogged and loaded. No one can reach well over nrv!^ '' ' 1 3 shoulder-blades are confined, u his abdomen is too bulky; and the rat thing to be done is to sweat down the " as 1 'mve described.Eit her of the above pocesses may be repeated two or three nwhf a " week ' and they are far better than ot th 8weat ' n K ''y Dover'spowder or any Wf.™ sweat " 1 K liquors which formerly oso much recommended. 0F S WEATING L IQUORS What- ' metll ciue is taken tor this purpose,it would be unsafe either to use coldwater next morning, or to expose the body as in rowing; and therefore they are quite inadmissible in an exercise which positively necessitates exposure of the body. It has been long held that for long-continued or fast work sweatingmedicine is absolutely necessary; and no doubt many of our best runners have used it. I believe,however, in all cases, the hydropathic wet sheet packing will be found far better for pedes­ t ian purposes. It gives much greater lightness of spirits, more agility of limb, and less tendency to rheumatic stiffness. Let any person make trial of it, and he will " throw physic to the dogs " ever after­ wards, at least for this purpose. It may be used twice, or even thrice a week, before breakfast, and 1} lb. to 2 lb., or even 3 lb. may be got off each time it is applied. In sweating for pedestrian purposes, the arms and body shouldbe clothed much heavier than the legs. The great object is first to unload the great viscera from all fat inter­ fering with their functions, and next to reduce the absolute weight of the whole body above the hips, including the abdo­ men, chest,neck, andanns, which are all of little use in walking or running, as com­ pared with the legs. It is very easy to apply the wet sheet exclusively to the trunk and arms, and to clothe the legs only slightly, or only just so much as to prevent a chill. Natural sweating is wholly inad­ missible in this kind of training, since it shortens the stride, IVorn the quantity of cl thing, and makes th pace slow, slovenly, and dull; the choice, therefore, is between the wet sheet packing and a sweat by a scruple of Dover's powder at night, or half- a-pi t of whey made with white wine, and with 30 drops each of antimonial wine and sweet spirits of nitre added. This is no doubt a strong sweater, but it upsets the stomach and leaves the skinto be easily chilled. In any case, the whole body should be rubbed with Dinneford's gloves uight and morning. 302. T HE FOLLOWING D IET will,I think, be found the best for all training purposes, except the reduction of weight for riding, t which I have lluded at page 419, where a great restriction must generally be put upon the appetite Breakfast There is no doubt that the very best food for this meal is oatmeal porridge, with the addition of a certain allowance of beef or mutton, and alittle bread; but many have the greatestobjec­ tion to this diet, andnever eat it without loathing. For them, I believe the next best beverage is a pint of table-beer, home­ made, and not too strong, and giving w th it a largerallowance of bread. It is not