"Look, now, how different it is when you live in the water! Clothes here would be not only useless but could not be worn. The body and limbs have therefore perfect liberty to develope themselves to the utmost degree of perfection, and you see what beauty of form prevails here. No deformed limbs, no crooked backs, no dyspepsia, no disturbance of the functions of any of the organs are to be found in this subaqueous abode. The smooth hairless skin is eminently fitted for gliding uninterruptedly through the water; the equable pressure of the fluid medium in which we float renders it a matter of perfect indifference whether our head or our heels are uppermost. The suspension of the laws of gravitation for us when we inhabit a medium of the same specific gravity as our own bodies, enables us to use our limbs entirely for the purpose of working, moving about or engaging in our games and sports.
"How different is it when we live in the air! There, in order to avoid a rush of blood to the head, we must raise ourselves on our legs, and at every step we have to carry forward the whole dead weight of our body, whereby fatigue is soon produced. Then, on land, the least exertion causes us to perspire, and we must be perpetually drinking to supply the waste of fluids thereby produced. Rest is impossible unless we throw the whole weight of our body on to such contrivances as chairs or couches. In short, life on land is a mere burden.
"Whereas here, we have no sense of fatigue except what is produced by the excessive action of our limbs, and we obtain rest and refreshment by merely ceasing to move them. Diseases which, on land, are mostly produced by the excessive labour of carrying about your heavy bodies encumbered by a mass of heavy
