It would be beyond the limits of this work to consider at length the effects of various baths on the animal economy, in health as well as in disease; in the present article, therefore, a few important particulars as to their employment as therapeutic agents will be considered. For further particulars, the reader is referred to an excellent treatise by Dr. Forbes,* from which the greater part of this article is drawn.

2911. The Cold Bath is employed chiefly with a view of producing one of the three following effects: - 1, the shock on the nervous system, independently of the accompanying refrigeration, or subsequent reaction; 2, refrigeration, independently of the nervous shock, or vascular reaction; 3, reaction, independently of the shock or refrigeration. The two first of these objects are of inferior practical importance; the last comprehends nearly the whole doctrine of cold bathing.