Note 56 — Chapter XIII
Reading edition
The author tried the practice of bathing the feet in cold water in the morning, while traveling on these frontiers, and found it invariably injurious to him. The application of cold water to the feet and body of more than one-fourth is positively injurious. To others it is highly beneficial. This depends on the temperament. Mr. Clark had a sanguine-nervous temperament, and received benefit. The writer has a bilious-nervous temperament, and the circulation sluggish. To such, the experience and observation of fifty years have taught that the cold bath is injurious, while the hot bath is exhilarating. Careful observation and experience are the only safe guides. It is sheer quackery to prescribe the same treatment to all persons.