The uses of water in health and disease

by John Harvey Kellogg

LEG BATH.

For this bath a vessel deep enough to receive the limbs to the middle of the thighs is required. The bath may be taken at any desired temperature; but it is usually employed somewhat cooler than baths which involve the trunk of the body. It is a powerfully derivative bath, and is found very useful to prevent wakefulness in nervous persons, and to relieve cerebral congestion in epileptic patients. It is especially applicable to chronic ulcers of the leg, swollen knees and ankles, and limbs which have suffered by exposure to severe cold. It gives much relief in gout; there is no danger of causing a metastasis of the disease by the application of this bath.