Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/454

438 already mentioned is one of them. Two small chambers which adjoin each other, one containing a tank of hot water, the other containing a trough, over which are two taps, one of hot and one of cold water, occupy the two other angles ; while the fourth angle of the square is occupied by the chamber which contains the fire, over which is the boiler. &quot; The bather having entered this apartment soon per spires profusely from the humid heat which is produced by the hot water of tanks and fountains, and by the steam of the boiler. The bather sits on one of the marble seats, or lies on the leewau, or near one of the tanks, and the operator then commences his work. The operator first cracks aloud every joint in the body. He makes the vertebrae of the back and even of the neck crack. The limbs are twisted with apparent violence, but so skilfully, that no harm is ever done. The operator next kneads the patient s flesh. After this he rubs the soles of the feet with a kind of rasp of baked clay. There are two kinds of rasps, one porous and rough, one of fine smooth clay. Those used by ladies are usually encased in thin embossed silver. The next operation is rubbing the bather s flesh with a small coarse woollen bag, after which the bather dips himself in one of the tanks. He is next taken to one of the chambers in the corner, and the operator lathers the bather with fibres of the palm tree, soap and water. The soap is then washed off with water, when the bather having finished washing, and enveloped himself in dry towels, returns to the beytowwal and reclines. Here he generally remains an hour to an hour and a half, sipping coffee and smoking, while an attendant rubs the soles of the feet and kneads the body and limbs. The bather then dresses and goes out.&quot; The following description of a Russian bath is from Kohl s JKiiss ia : &quot;The passage from the door is divided into two behind the check-taker s post, one for the male, one for the female guests. We first enter an open space, in which a set of men are sitting in a state of nudity on benches, those who have already bathed dressing, while those who are going to undergo the process take off their clothes. Round this space or apartment are the doors leading to the vapour-rooms. The bather is ushered into them, and finds himself in a room full of vapour, which is surrounded by a wooden platform rising in steps to near the roof of the room. The bather is made to lie down on one of the lower benches, and gradually to ascend to the higher and hotter ones. The first sensation on entering the room amounts almost to a feeling of suffocation. After you have been subjected for some time to a temperature which may rise to 115&quot;, the transpiration reaches its full activity, and the sensation is very pleasant. The bath attendants come and flog you with birchen twigs, cover you with the lather of soap, afterwards rub it off, and then hold you over a jet of ice cold water. The shock is great, but is followed by a pleasant feeling of great comfort and of alleviation of any rheumatic pains you may have had. In regular establishments you go after this and lie down on a bed for a time before issuing forth. But the Russians often dress in the open air, and instead of using the jet of cold water, go and roll themselves at once in the snow.&quot; Turkish baths have, with various modifications, become popular in Europe. The Russian baths were introduced into most German towns about half a century ago. They had a certain limited amount of popularity, but did not take firm root. Another class practically owes its origin to Dr Barter and Mr Urquhart. It professed to be founded on the Turkish bath, but in reality it was much more of a hot air bath, i.e., more devoid of vapour than either Roman or Turkish baths ever were, for it is doubtful whether in any case the air of the laconicum was free from vapour. These baths, with their various modifications, have become extremely popular in Great Britain, in Germany, and in Northern Europe, but have, curiously enough, never been used extensively in France, notwithstanding the familiarity of the French with Turkish baths in Algiers. In England hot air baths are now employed very extensively. They are often associated with Turkish and electric baths, and with the usual processes of hydropathic treatment. Bathing among the ancients was practised in various forms. It was sometimes a simple bath in cold or in tepid water ; but at least, in the case of the higher orders, it usually included a hot air or vapour bath, and was followed by affusion of cold or warm water, and generally by a plunge into the piscina. In like manner ths order varies in which the different processes are gone through in Turkish baths in modern Europe. Thus in the new baths in Vienna, the process begins by immersion in a large basin of warm water. Sudation is repeatedly interrupted by cold douches at the will of the bathers, and after the bath thoy are satisfied with a short stay in the cooling-room, where they have only a simple sheet rolled round them. In Copenhagen and in Stockholm the Oriental baths have been considerably modified by their association with hydro pathic practices.

This leads us to notice the introduction of hydropathy. Although cold baths were in vogue for a time in Rome, warm baths were always more popular. Floyer, as we have seen, did something to revive their use in England ; but it was nearly a century and a half afterwards that a Silesiau peasant, Priessnitz, introduced, with wonderful success, a variety of operations with cold water, the most important of which was the packing the patient in a wet sheet, a process which after a time is followed by profuse sudatiou. Large establishments for canying out this mode of bathing and its modifications have within the last thirty years been erected in many places on the Continent and in Great Britain, and have enjoyed a large share of popularity. But the greatest and most important development of ordinary baths in modern times has taken place in England, and has been extending gradually to the Continent. The English had long used affusion and swimming baths freely in India. Cold and hot baths and shower baths have been introduced into private houses to an extent never known before; and, from 1842 downwards, public swimming baths, besides separate baths, have been supplied to the public at very moderate rates, in some cases asso ciated with wash-houses for the poorer classes. Their number has increased rapidly in London, and in the prin cipal Continental cities. Floating baths in rivers, always known in some German towns, have become common where- ever there are flowing streams. The better supply of most European cities with water has aided in this movement. Ample enclosed swimming baths have of late years been erected at many sea-side places. When required, the water, if not heated in a boiler, is raised to a sufficient temperature by the aid of hot water pipes or of steam ; and gas has been utilized for heating small quantities of water for baths in private houses. As to separate baths they used to be of wood, painted ; they are now most frequently of metal, painted or lined with porcelain enamel. The swimming baths are lined with cement, tiles, or marble and porcelain slabs ; and in some of the newest baths a good deal of ornamentation and painting of the walls and ceiling of the apartments, in imitation of the ancients, has been attempted. We have thus traced in outline tha history of baths through successive ages down to the present time. The medium of the baths spoken of thus far has been water, vapour, or dry hot air. But baths of more complex 