The Argosy — page 238: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

222 At Gastein. moment served as a walking-stick, “‘ I must be off. Though Gastein is so empty, I have already a few patients on my list. So good-bye. To-morrow, at ten o’clock, I will come to you.” With a handshake, without which token of friendliness he never met you, though it were a hundred times a day, the doctor abruptly took leave. Precisely at ten o’clock the following morning he made his appear- ance, brimful, as usual, of life and energy. We proceeded together to the bath-room, which looked comfortable, but felt warm. ¢Ah!” hecned. ‘“ That bad-meister, who is so fat himself that he needs an unlimited amount of heat to bring him down, thinks every one in like condition with himself. He has a mania for over-heating the rooms. I have wamed him of this over and over again, but it is of no use. He is a salamander, who, when we are melting, feels himself in his element.” In a few moments I had divested myself of every vestige of a refined and civilized age. The doctor proceeded then to knock and thump me about, sounded my liver, listened to the beating of my heart, looked to see if my shoulders were straight, and finally bade me enter the water. “Ts every one subjected to these examinations?” I asked, as my feet touched the stone bottom. ‘Without exception,” was the emphatic reply. ‘I allow no one to enter the baths without it.” ‘¢Not even the ladies? ” The doctor was a bachelor and modest, and the question sent a warm tinge into his face. ‘My dear sir,” he returned, inexpressibly shocked, “ how can you entertain such an idea? With the ladies we take everything for granted. How do you find the water ?” ‘Tt seems comfortable ; neither warm nor cold.” ‘¢That is just mght. As far as possible you should feel as if you were in nothing at all.” ‘‘T should have thought the hotter the water the more efficacious the bath.” “Ah!” he cried. ‘“ Like many other men who are apt to form opinions, A little does good, a great deal must do more, you argue. It is the reverse. If you took the bath too hot, it would ” “What?” ‘‘T hardly know what,” he laughed. “It might do you much harm, but it would not certainly bring the desired relief. Do you ever take a warm bath in England ?” ‘¢ Not being quite uncivilized—yes.” . ‘¢ Then I invite you to compare your sensations after those baths and these, and to give me a description of them.,.,,.And_ now) I will leave you. ‘Twenty minutes are nearly up; the wrinkles are comin ECOMicloooKs (C(O)