A

CHAPTER XVI.

BATHING AS PRACTICED IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES.

FULL account of bathing as now practiced, independent

of the history of bathing in ancient and modern times, would in itself fill a volume. We are therefore confined to such general and special considerations, in both branches of the subject, as may be treated of within moderate limits.

Bathing may be regarded as divisible into four kinds, as determined by the motives prompting and the objects sought to be accomplished by the practice. These are, for recreation and comfort; for cleanliness in the interest of general health and agreeableness; for increasing vigor and beauty of person; and, lastly, for medical treatment.

As to the last object, it is to be remarked that, only very recently has the regular medical profession accorded any large measure of acceptance to hydropathic treatment in disease. Hydropathy, so-called, for a long period, and even yet in some degree associated with a visionary pathology, which fitted treatment to nearly all the ills which flesh is heir to, generally repelled regular physicians. A similar consequence ensued from a similar cause in the case of electropathy. The beginning and end of the affair in both cases are not anomalous. From the times of Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Galen, down to the present era, the main body of physicians found to its hand, or had proffered to it by the laity or some of their own brethren, procedures which it, as a wisely conservative body of men, was not willing at a moment's notice to accept. The duty of such men, besides being pioneers in discovery, is to prove all things and hold fast only that which is good.

The day has now arrived when the regular profession will

accept hydropathy and electropathy within due limitations. Under the names of hydro-therapy and electro-therapy, the most advanced physicians of the day now frankly accept in them whatever facts have been ascertained as to both, regardless of their source, and have themselves made greater strides in discovery in the department of electro-therapy than can be discerned in its history during the whole period there of the reign of quackery. It is most natural that this should ever be the tenor of events, since physicians work from the basis of sound pathology, unmodified to suit the exigencies of any special treatment, and upon that of a fund of the greatest general scientific knowledge of the day.

But here, with this brief mention of the present status of hydropathic treatment, a word as to which could hardly be omitted in an account of the application of water to the surface of the human body, we dismiss the topic as only indirectly connected with the subject of this work. Hydro-therapy relates to the cure of disease by means of water, whereas bathing relates to the maintenance and increase of health. One point, however, within hydro-therapeutic treatment should be mentioned in conclusion, as not unduly trenching on our necessarily assigned limits, because it should be known in every household. as to the calming effect of the tepid bath. fact can be utilized for many home purposes. nervous system is the tepid bath, that, in a properly-heated atmosphere, children taken screaming from their beds, in a paroxysm of colic, and, plunged into it, have been instantly and permanently relieved of pain.

This is Knowledge of the

So sedative to the

With the permission of the reader, we will begin our description of bathing facilities with those of the ordinary city appliances for household bathing. These, at their minimum, are a good-sized metal-lined tub, with a sloping back,-all good features of the construction. The only household addition to

this is the cold and warm shower-bath,―a very useful appliance if not abused. Cold shower-baths should be taken with strict reference to the capacity of reaction in the individual bather. We have known persons to come blue-lipped from a five-minute immersion in the ocean. Some delicate constitutions cannot bear the combined salt- and cold-water stimulation. So, also, there are some persons who cannot bear cold fresh water, whether in quiet contact with, or falling in a shower upon, the body. The supreme test of whether good is being done has back of it the opinion of all the physicians of the world. It is contained in the answer to the question, Is there a good reaction? A good reaction is that in which, when the skin is rubbed vigorously with a towel, the blood freely rushes to the surface. If, upon being rubbed, the surface becomes instantly red and tingling, there is the most beneficial effect; if not, not. Injury lies on one side of the line, benefit on the other. To some persons health may lie on one side of the line and death on the other. All the persons whom we have known who boasted of breaking a film of ice to take their morning baths have died early. As was declared in ancient times of oratory, that it depends upon action, action, action, we say, of good to be derived from bathing, that it depends upon reaction, reaction, reaction. The towels used should be rough as to their surface. Huckaback toweling is good, and Turkish best of all.

It is important that a bath-tub should be lined with what becomes readily heated by conduction, and can easily be cleansed. Beauty should be the last consideration in its construction. The justification of a bath-tub's being is first use and then beauty. Use prescribes avoidance, for a bath-tub, of a material whose specific heat is low. The most beautiful tubs for bathing that we ever saw were in the St. Charles Hotel, in New Orleans. They were made of Carrara marble, and handsomely sculptured outside. But stone does not conduct heat well, and its specific

heat is low. It is not agreeable to have one's bare back supported by marble.

There is a rage now for tile bath-tubs. Tiles have their decorative uses, but not legitimately for bath-tubs. Their specific heat is not so low, nor their power of conducting heat so poor, if we mistake not, as those conditions are in marble; nevertheless, for the same and other reasons, one of which is that they cannot, at the tile junctions, be kept so clean, they do not make proper bath-tubs, and whatever does not naturally fit a purpose cannot be handsome as applied to that purpose, whatever may be its intrinsic beauty.

A porcelain lining conducts heat well. Its cleanliness for a bath is a great charm. A porcelain bath-tub is, however, quite expensive as compared with the ordinary kind. Celluloid could be adapted to the same purpose. But we confess that, if we were a millionaire, we should have a silver-lined bath-tub. Silver is an extraordinary conductor of heat, as any one can determine for himself, if he will put a teaspoon into a cup of hot tea, and soon feel the top of its handle. In the open air silver does not tarnish at all. In house air it tarnishes only slightly, from the presence there of a trace of sulphuretted hydrogen. If a tub lined with it were wiped out daily, as all bath-tubs should be, the film of sulphide of silver would be inappreciable to the sight. On the other hand, the silver surface, as silver is susceptible to the smallest trace of sulphuretted hydrogen, would make a superlative test for normal house purity of air in the bath-room, which in so many modern houses is associated with a water-closet.

The only additional appliance which we could suggest for household bathing, for the case of handsomely-appointed dwellings, would be one enabling a person to take a pure-vapor or a medicated-vapor bath. Only a very small amount of room is necessary for the purpose. A suitable device for it will be