though they are not agreed as to the manner in which Bathing. they operate on the human body. See MEDICINEIndex.

Bathing is a practice of great antiquity. The Greeks, as early as the heroic age, are faid to have bathed them felves in the fea, in rivers, &c. We even find mention in Homer of hot baths in the Trojan times; but these feem to have been very rare, and only used on extra ordinary occafions. Athenæus fpeaks of hot baths as unufual even in his age. In reality, public baths appear to have been difcouraged, and even prohibited, by the ancient Greeks, who were contented to wash themfelves at home in a fort of bathing-tubs. The method of bathing among the ancient Greeks was, by heating water in a large veffel with three feet, and thence pouring it on the head and shoulders of the perfon feated in a tub for that purpose, who at coming out was anointed with oil.

The Romans were also long before they came into the use of baths; the very name of which, therme, shows they borrowed it from the Greeks. As the ancient Romans were chiefly employed in agriculture, their custom was, every evening after work to wash their arms and legs, that they might fit down to fupper with more decency: for it is to be obferved, the ufe of linen was then unknown; and the people of that age went with their arms and legs bare, and confequently expofed to duft and filth. But this was not all; for every ninth day, when they repaired to the city, either to the nundina or to attend at the affemblies of the people, they bathed all over in the Tiber, or fome other river which happened to be nearest them. This feems to have been all the bathing known till the time of Pompey, when the custom began of bathing every day. See BATH..

:

The Celtic nations were not without the use of bathing the ancient Germans bathed every day in warm water in winter, and in fummer in cold. In England, the famous bath in Somersetshire it faid by fome to have been in ufe 800 years before Chrift. Of this, however, it must be owned, we have but very slender evidence: but Dr Mufgrave makes it probable that it was a place of confiderable refort in Geta's time; there being ftill the remains of a ftatue erected to that general, in gratitude for some benefactions he had conferred upon it.

Although bathing, among the ancients, made, as it were, a part of diet, and was used as familiarly as eating or fleep; yet it was in high efteem among their phylicians for the cure of difeafes, as appears from Strabo, Pliny, Hippocrates, and Oribafius; whence frequent exhortations to wafhing in the fea, and plunging into cold water. The firft inftance of cold bathing, as a medicine, is Melampus's bathing the daughters of the king of Argos; and the first inftance of warm bathing is Medea's ufe of it, who was faid to boil people alive, becaufe Pelias king of Theffaly died in a warm bath under her hands. The cold bath was ufed with fuccefs by Antonius Mufa, phyfician to the emperor Auguftus, for the recovery of that prince; but fell into neglect after the death of Marcellus, who was thought to have been destroyed by the improper ufe of it. It was again brought into requeft towards the close of the reign of Nero, by means of a phyfician of Marseilles named Charmis; but during the ignorance of the fucceeding ages, the practice was again banished for a long time.--Both hot and cold bathing are now prescribed in many cafes by the physicians,

Bathing among the Turks, as among the ancients, makes a part of diet and luxury; and in every town, and even village, there is a public bath. Indeed, the neceffity of cleanliness, in a climate where one perfpires fo copiously, has rendered bathing indifpenf able; the comfort it produces preferves the use of it; and Mahomet, who knew its utility, has reduced it to a precept. Of these baths, and the manner of bathing particularly at Cairo, the following account is given by M. Savary in his Letters on Egypt.

"The first apartment one finds in going to the bath, is a large hall, which rifes in the form of a rotunda. It is open at the top, to give a free circulation to the air. A fpacious eftrade, or raised floor, covered with a carpet, and divided into compartments, goes around it, on which one lays one's clothes. In the middle of the building, a jet-d'au fpouts up from a bafon, and agreeably entertains the eye. When you are undreffed, you tie a napkin round your loins, take a pair of fandals, and enter into a narrow paffage, where you begin to be fenfible of the heat. The door fhuts to; and, at 20 paces off, you open a fecond, and go along a paffage, which forms a right angle with the former. Here the heat increases. They who are afraid of suddenly expofing themselves to a ftronger degree of it, ftop in a marble hall, in the way to the bath properly fo called. The bath is a spacious and vaulted apartment, paved and lined with marble, around which there arefout clofets. The vapour inceffantly rifing from a feuntain and ciftern of hot water, mixes itfelf with the burning perfumes. Thefe, however, are never burnt except the perfons who are in the bath desire it. They mix with the fteam of the water, and produce a mont agreeable effect.

"The bathers are not imprisoned here, as in Europe, in a fort of tub, where one is never at one's ease. Extended on a cloth spread out, the head fupported by a fmall cushion, they ftretch themselves freely in every pofture, whilft they are wrapped up in a cloud of odo riferous vapours, which penetrates into all their pores. After repofing there fome time, until there is a gentle moisture over the whole body, a fervant comes, presses you gently, turns you over, and when the limbs are become fupple and flexible he makes all the joints crack without any difficulty. He maffes* and seems to knead * “ "Maf." the flesh without making you feel the fmalleft pain. comes from the Arabic This operation finished, he puts on a ftuff glove, and verb mafs, rubs you a long time. During this operation, he de- which fig taches from the body of the patient, which is running nifies with fweat, a fort of fmall fcales, and removes even touching in a delicate the imperceptible dirt that stops the pores. The fkin manner. becomes foft and smooth like fatin. He then conducts you into a clofet, pours the lather of perfumed foap upon your head, and withdraws. The ancients did more honour to their guests, and treated them in a more voluptuous manner. Whilft Telemachus was at the court of Neftor, the beautiful Polycafta, the handfomeft of the daughters of the king of Pylos, led the fon of Ulyffes to the bath; washed him with her own hands; and, after anointing his body with precious oils, covered him with rich habits and a splendid cloak. Pififtratus and Telemachus were not worse treated in

the

"The closet to which one is conducted is furnished with a ciftern and two cocks; one for cold and the other for hot water. There you wash yourself. Soon after the fervant returns with a depilatory pomatum, which in an inftant makes the hair fall off the places it is applied to. Both men and women make general ufe of it in Egypt. It is compofed of a mineral called rufma, which is of a deep brown. The Egyptians burn it lightly, knead it with water, mixing it with half the quantity of flaked lime. This greyish paste applied to the hair, makes it fall off in two or three minutes, without giving the flighteft pain.

"After being well washed and purified, you are wrapped up in hot linen, and follow the guide through the windings that lead to the outer apartment. This infenfible tranfition from heat to cold prevents one from fuffering any inconvenience from it. On arriving at the eftrade, you find a bed prepared for you; and fcarcely are you laid down before a child comes to prefs every part of your body with his delicate fingers, in order to dry you thoroughly. You change linen a fecond time, and the child gently grates the callofity of your feet with pumice ftome. He then brings you a pipe and Moka coffee.

"Coming out of a ftove where one was furrounded by a hot and moift fog, where the sweat gufhed from every limb, and tranfported into a fpacious apartment open to the external air, the breaft dilates, and one breathes with voluptuoufnefs. Perfectly maffed, and as it were regenerated, one experiences an univerfal comfort. The blood circulates with freedom; and one feels as if difengaged from an enormous weight, together with a fupplenefs and lightnefs to which one has been hitherto a ftranger. A lively fentiment of existence diffuses itfelf to the very extremities of the body. Whilft it is loft in delicate fenfations, the foul, fympathifing with the delight, enjoys the moft agreeable ideas. The imagination, wandering over the univerfe, which it embellishes, fees on every fide the moft enchanting pictures, every where the image of happiness. If life be nothing but the fucceffion of our ideas, the rapidity with which they then recur to the memory, the vigour with which the mind runs over the extended chain of them, would induce a belief that in the two hours of that delicious calm that fucceeds the bath, one has lived a number of years."

Such are the baths, the ufe of which were fo ftrongly recommended by the ancients, and which are ftill the delight of the Egyptians. It is by means of them that they prevent or difpel rheumatifins, catarrhs, and fuch cutaneous diforders as are produced by want of perfpiration. Hence likewife they find a radical cure for that fatal evil which attacks the fources of generation, the remedy for which is fo dangerous in Europe. By the fame refource they get rid of that uncomfortable feeling fo common to all nations who do not pay fo much attention to the cleanlinefs of their bodies. Mr Tournefort, indeed, who had ufed fteam baths at -Conftantinople, where there is lefs refinement in them than at Cairo, is of opinion that they injure the breaft.

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The women are paffionately fond of these baths. They frequent them at least once a-week, and take with them flaves properly qualified for the purpose. More luxurious than the men, after undergoing the ufual preparations, they wash their bodies, and above all their heads, with rofe-water. It is there that female head dreffers form their long black hair into treffes, which they mix with precious effences inftead of powder and pomatum. It is there that they blacken the edge of their eye-lids, and lengthen their eye-brows with cohel, a preparation of tin burnt with gall-nuts; it is there they itain the finger and toe nails with the leaves of henne, a fhrub common in Egypt, and which gives them a golden colour. The linen and clothing they make ufe of are paffed through the fweet fteam of the wood of aloes; and when the work of the toilet is at an end, they remain in the outer apartment, and pafs the day in entertainments. Females entertain them with voluptuous fongs and dances, or tell them tales of love.

BATHURST (Ralph), M. D. an eminent phyfician, poet, and divine, born in the year 1620. He ftudied divinity in Trinity college, Oxford; but the times of confufion coming on, he changed the course of his ftudies, and applied himself to phyfic. He took a doctor's degree in that faculty; in which he rofe to fuch eminence, that he was, in the time of the ufurpation, appointed phyfician to the ftate. Upon the reftoration, he quitted his profeffion of phyfic; was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and prefident of his college; and having entered into holy orders, he was made chaplain to the king, and afterwards dean of Wells. Soon after, he served the office of vice-chancellor of Oxford, and was nominated by King William and Queen Mary to the fee of Bristol; which he refufed to accept. His learning and talents were various. He was an orator, a philofopher, and a poet: he poffeffed an inexhauftible fund of wit, and was a facetious companion at 80 years of Ridicule was the weapon with which he used to correct the delinquents of his college; and he was fo abfolute a mafter of it, that he had it always at hand. His poetical pieces in the Mufe Anglicana are excellent in their kind. He wrote feveral poems, both in English and Latin; and died June 14. 1704, in the 34th year of his age.

age.

BATHURST (Allen), Earl of Bathurst, one of the laft worthies of Queen Anne's reign, that thining period of triumphs, tafte, genius, and elegance, was born in the year 1684. His ftudies and his education were equally conducive to the brilliant figure he was deftined to make in focial life and in the fenate, as a polite fcholar, a patriot, and a flatesman. Thefe talents he had an opportunity to difplay as early as the year 1705; when, at the request of his father Sir Benjamin Bathurft, and the folicitation of the conflituents of Cirenchefter, he ferved in parliament for that borough, his native foil, with reputation and integrity. He dilinguished himself particularly in the ftruggles and dehates relative to the union between the two kingdom,

K 2

firmly

His Lordship, in the latter part of his life, preferved his natural cheerfulness and vivacity, always acceffible, hofpitable, and beneficent. Lately he delighted in rural amufements; and enjoyed, with a philofophical fatisfaction, the fhade of the lofty trees he had planted himself. Till within a month of his death he conftantly rode out on horfeback two hours before dinner, and conftantly drank his bottle of claret or Madeira after dinner. He used to declare, in a jocofe manner, he never could think of adopting Dr Cadogan's method, as Dr Cheyne had affured him, 50 years ago, he would never live feven years longer unless he abridged himfelf of his wine. Purfuant to this maxim, his Lordfhip having, fome years ago, invited feveral of his friends to fpend a few cheerful days with him at his feat at Cirencester, and being one evening very loth to part with them; on his fon the late chancellor's objecting to their fitting up any longer, and adding that health and long life were beft fecured by regularity, he fuffered him to retire: but, as foon as he was gone, the cheerful father said, Come, my good friends, fince the old gentleman is gone to bed, I think we may venture to crack another bottle."

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His Lordship was advanced to the dignity of Earl in 1772; and lived to see the above nobleman, his eldeft fon, feveral years Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, and promoted to the peerage in 1771 by the title of Baron Apfley. Lord Bathurst married Catherine daughter of Sir Peter Apfley, by whom he had two other fons, and five daughters. His death happened, after a few days illness, at his feat near Cirencefter, in the gift year of his age, and on the 16th of September 1775.

BÅTHYLLUS and PYLADES, inventors of pantomime entertainments on the ftage. Bathyllus fucceeded in reprefenting comedy; Pylades, in tragedy. The art confifted in expreffing the paffions by geftures, attitudes, and dumb fhew; not, as in modern times, in machinery, and the fooleries of Harlequin. They flourished at Rome, under Auguftus, about A. D. 10. Each of them kept scholars, who perpetuated their mafter's name for the followers of Bathyllus, who excelled in the comic part, called themfelves Bathylli; and thofe of Pylades, who excelled in the tragic, called themfelves Pylada.

BATILLUS, a mufical inftrument made of metal, in the form of a ftaff, furnished with metalline rings, which being ftruck, yielded a kind of harmonical founds; used by the Armenians in their church-fer

vice.

BATIS; a genus of the tetrandria order, belonging to the diæcia clafs of plants, the characters of which are: Of the male, the amentum is four ways imbricated, and both the calyx and corolla are wanting of the female, the amentum is ovate, the involucrum diphyllous; calyx and corolla wanting; the ftigma is bilobate and feffile; the berries condunate and four-feeded. There is but one fpecies, the mantima, a native of Jamaica.

BATISTE, in commerce, a fine white kind of linen cloth, manufactured in Flanders and Picardy. There are three kinds of batifte; the first very thin; the fecond lefs thin; and the third much thicker, called Holland batife, as coming very near the goodnefs of Hollands.

The chief ufe of Batifte is for neck-cloths, head- Batman cloths, furplices, &c.

BATMAN, in commerce, a kind of weight ufed at Smyrna, containing fix okes of 400 drams each, which amount to 16 pounds 6 ounces and 15 drams of English weight.

BATMANSON (John), prior of the Carthufian monaftery, or Charter-houfe in the fuburbs of London. He was fome time a ftudent at Oxford, but it does not appear that he took any degree in that univerfity. He was intimately acquainted with Edward Lee archbishop of York, at whofe requeft he wrote against Erafmus and Luther. He died in the year 1531, and was buried in the chapel belonging to the charter-houfe. According to Bale, he was a proud forward perfon; and he fays that Erafmus, in one of his letters to the bishop of Winchefter, calls him an ignorant fellow. Pits, on the contrary, gives him the character of a man of fingular genius, zeal, piety, and learning. He wrote, 1. Animadverfiones in annotationes Erafmi in Nov. Teftamentum. 2. A treatise against fome of Luther's works. Thefe two he afterwards retracted. 3. Commentaria in proverbia Solomonis. 4. In cantica canticorum. 5. De unica Magdalena. 6. Inftitutiones noviciorum. 7. De contemptu mundi. 8. De Chrifto duodenni. 9. On the words, Miffus eft, &c. BATON, or BASTON. See BASTON.. BATRACHOMYOMACHIA, the battle of the frogs and the mice, the title of a fine burlesque poem generally afcribed to Homer. The fubject of the work is the death of Plycharpax, a moufe, fon to Toxartes, who, being mounted on the back of Phyfignathus, a frog, on a voyage to her palace, to which the had invited him, was feized with fear when he saw himself in the middle of the pond, fo that he tumbled off and was drowned. Phyfignathus being fufpected to have fhaken him off with defign, the mice demanded fatisfaction, and unanimously declared war against the frogs.

BATTE, (anc. geog.), a people of Germany, formerly inhabitants of what is now called Heffe. Being diffatisfied with their fituation there, they settled on the island formed by the Vahalis and Rhine, which from them took the name of Batavia, or Batavorum Infula. Their government was a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Their chief was, properly fpeaking, nothing more than a principal citizen, whofe bufinefs was rather to advife than to command. The principal men who exercised jurifdiction, and commanded the troops, in their respective districts, were chofen, as well as the kings, in an affembly of the people. A hundred perfons felected from among the people prefided over every county, and acted as chiefs in the different hamlets. The whole nation was, in fome meafure, an army always in readinefs. Each family compofed a body of militia, which ferved under a captain of their own chooting. See BATAVORUM Infula.

BATTALIA, an army ranged in order of battle,. or ready for engagement. The word feems formed from the Latin batualia, fometimes alfo written batalia, denoting a fort of military or gladiatorial exercise, as fighting with foils, or tilting at a poft. In this fenfe, we meet with the depth of a battalia; to march in battalia, with the baggage in the middle; to break the battalia, &c. In the Roman battalia, the haftati made the front.

BAT

Battalia.