Page:Macfadden's Fasting, Hydropathy and Exercise.djvu/92

86 tribes over their Southern neighbors. Egpyt and Persia vanquished by Greeks, Greece by Romans, Rome by the barbarians of the Teutonic forests, South-German Austria by North-German Prussians, Southern Russia by the descendants of Rurik, Southern Italy by Savoy, South-Spanish Moors by North-Spanish Goths, Dixie by Yankeeland, South Mongol China by North-Mongol Japan. Highlanders, the world over, boast their superior vigor and longevity.

Physiology explains those facts and confirms the claim of the hydropathist Schrodt that refrigeration is one of the few natural tonics, stimulating the activity of the organic functions without the risk of deleterious after-effects. A cold bath and a current of cold air accelerate the pulse and the process of respiration. The gasps resulting from a cold plunge-bath indicate the effort of Nature to restore the proper degree of animal warmth by setting the calorific apparatus to work under high pressure.

A dose of drastic drugs, e.g., alcohol in its concentrated forms, accomplish a similar result with almost equal promptness, the organism labors with feverish activity to rid itself of a life-endangering poison, and temporarily the whole