Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 41.djvu/385

Rh system, and therefore its activity should "be stimulated in every way, and it is most desirable by frequent baths to keep the pores open. The perspiration drying on the skin leaves a deposit of its salts and other waste constituents, and these should be washed off as a matter of health. A very useful appliance for this purpose is the "massage rubber," patented by Mr. Crutchloe. This consists of a serrated India-rubber surface, and when used it cleans the skin of all scurf as a Turkish bath does, rapidly brings the blood to the surface, and has the conditioning effect that grooming has on a horse. The India rubber seems to act on the skin much as it does in erasing lead-pencil marks from paper, and acts in a way that no towel or brush can equal. All the old loose scurf of the skin is cleared off, and a soft and smooth surface results. After the brisk use of this dry rubber, a tepid bath is a great adjunct to health in hot weather, to say nothing of its cooling and refreshing results. I see a well-known man in the Hospital Gazette says the massage rubber acts like a charm in rheumatism.

It would be no use advising those who take stimulants for the sake of their stimulating qualities, that spirits and beers, and certain wines, are too heating in the summer; and that, however suitable port, sherry, spirits, and beer may be in the colder months of the year, the most suitable beverages containing alcohol, for this reason, are those known as the light, dry Moselle wines. Even claret and Burgundy contain a large quantity of tannin, and taken in excess are therefore apt to disagree and derange the stomach. Where a nice dry Moselle is drunk in fairly moderate quantity no harm can accrue. Of course, the quantity that would apply to one person does not apply to another, and a free drinker would certainly not be satisfied with less than two bottles.

The man who lives to eat, drinks after his soup a glass of pale sherry; after his fish, Rhine wine; with his joint, Burgundy and champagne; with the entrées, Bordeaux or Burgundy; with the ice, champagne or liqueur, and with his dessert probably some old crusted port. But the man who eats to live would be satisfied with one pint of dry and delicate white wine, such as I have previously indicated, to cover the whole of this menu.

It is a well-known physiological fact that the system can not assimilate more alcohol than is contained in a pint of dry Moselle or claret, or in a half-pint of sherry or three pints and a half of table beer, supposing it to be in that form; or, if taken in the form of whisky, about a wineglassful of pure whisky per day. I do not mean to say that an excess of any of these quantities would be absolutely injurious to health, and many might and do exceed them considerably for very many years with impunity; but still, in ordinary individuals, this is the quantity that can be taken with no harm whatever. In some houses people seem to