Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/180

 standing in the upright position. If earthern jars, filled with water, be kept out of doors all night, and brought in at daylight, the water will be as cool as can be desired. Not a few use the tepid bath, but I do not recommend it to one in good health,it is too relaxing, and not to be compared with the cold douche. Few bathe oftener than once a day, and most continue bathing during the coldest weather, when they shriek aloud at the shock.

Cold bathing is one of the most healthy pieces of discipline practised in India, and no small part of its advantages is a free use of soap all over, and the brisk friction in drying the skin with a huckaback towel. The cold bath is the best protection against sudden changes of temperature, the tepid against internal chronic affections.

The watercloset should be visited every morning at a fixed hour, as regularly as the bathroom. Such habitual visits are the best preventative against constipation, a very common complaint in India.

12. DIET. As most people get up early, it is customary to take a cup of coffee or newly-drawn milk, a couple of plantains or a wine biscuit before going out. This I believe to be a good system, it has part of the effects of a dram without its bad consequences, and prevents that squeamishness—that sinking of the heart as it is