y other popular forms of
amusement often border on dissipation.

[Sidenote: Suicidal Amusement]

Amusements which weaken and degrade are not hygienic. Many who need
amusement make the fatal mistake of getting it in suicidal ways, in the
saloons, dives, and the low dance-halls.

Play is simply a half way stage between work and rest. In a hygienic
life there must be a certain amount of actual rest. Every bodily power
requires rest after exertion. The heart rests between beats. The muscles
require relaxation after every contraction. The man who is always tense
in muscle and nerve is wearing himself out.

[Sidenote: Relaxation]

The power to relax, when fatigue requires it, is one of the most
important safeguards one can possess. Lying down when tired is a good
rule. A very hard-working college president when asked about the secret
of his working-power and length of life replied, "My secret is that I
never ran when I could walk, never walked when I could stand, never
stood when I could sit, and never sat when I could lie down."

[Sidenote: A Rule for the Lazy]

Such rules as these are valuable, of course, only when the requirements
of one's occupation tend toward ceaseless activity. For idle and lazy
people the rule should be reversed--never to lie down when one could
sit, never to sit when one could stand, never to stand when one could
walk, and never to walk when one could run! A complete life must have
all in due proportion. Relaxation is only a short vacation, as it were,
between two activities.

[Sidenote: Bathing and Swimming]

Bathing and swimming supply, in their numerous forms, examples of both
healthful activity and relaxation. A cold spray or shower, alternated
with hot, affords excellent gymnastics for the skin. A very hot bath,
lasting only a minute, or even a hot foot-bath, is restful in cases of
general fatigue. The most restful of all is a neutral, that is, tepid,
bath of about the body-heat (beginning at 97 or 98 degrees and not
allowed to drop more than 5 degrees and continued as long as
convenient).

[Sidenote: How to Induce Sleep]

The wonderful nervous relaxation induced by neutral baths is an
excellent substitute for sleep in case of sleeplessness, and often
induces sleep as well. Neutral baths are now used not only in cases of
insomnia and extreme nervous irritability, but also in cases of acute
mania. When sleep occurs in a neutral bath, it is particularly restful.
A physician who ofte