Cyclists And Cold Baths

A physician, who ís himself a wheeltan of several years' experience and Who has also devoted great attention to other athletios, lays down this general proposition: "Never take a cold bath when you are tired." He poinla out that the greater the exercise the more poisonous waste material is created, and that a cold bath does not assist the skin in rid of this product, whereas a warm bath does. The doctor addis: "When you take a cold bath you depend upon the heart to bring about reaction. If this heart be already tired by the long ride it may not be stroop ernough to bring about reaction, and the blood and its waste material may not be brought to the surface. Internal eongestions may follow, and, as I have seen in two cases, death, may ensue. It matters not how hot you may be, how much you may be perspiring, the cold bath is harmless provided always the heart be not tired. A simple rule for the bicyclist, w.hereby he may know whether the heart be tired is simply to count the pulse, having in a prq,vious quiescent state ascertained what h.is individual pulse rate per minute is. When, after a long ride, his pulse rate is normal he may with safety use the cold bath. He staould, tlhefpefore, rest after a tiresome journey untll tihe pulse is normal or thereabouts, say even ten beats per minute faster tban normal, or what is far better, get into a tepid bath, one neither very hot nor very cold. When he has remained ie the warm water long enough for the pulse rate to bc about normal, he can then, with perfect safety, plunge into cold water, and these two procedures form the ideal way of using water on the surfao3 after fatigue."