easily felt than understood, by any one who, exposing his hand or his foot to this natural heat, compares his sensation with what the same limbs will feel, when exposed to the vapour of an artificially heated water. That natural, telluric, heat is mild, penetrating and comfortable, even to 36°—40° R., which can be considered as the middle temperature of those steam-baths, supported by some patients even to 44—46° R., whilst the vapour of common water, heated in a kettle, is sharp, burning and intolerable in a few moments, under far inferior temperature. We have, as already mentioned, general and partial steam-baths, and if the patient takes only a half-bath, that is to say, if he sits in the box up to the pit of the stomach, he bears a few degrees of heat more than in a whole bath. The head is never exposed to the vapour, which on account of the carbonic acid gas, would very soon produce dangerous effects.
Few individuals support a whole steam bath above twenty minutes, but a half-bath longer. Some patients, labouring under the tic douloureux, after having tried innumerable remedies, and even surgical operations, have been, if not radically cured, at least essentially relieved. The steam-baths have proved useful in some cases of deafness; and if such patients cannot support the stream of the vapour-douche in the inside of the car, it must be directed in the neighbouring parts of that organ. In rheumatism, lumbago, sciatic, stiffness of the joints, contractions
