Turkish and Other Baths Part 2

Referring to (Plate One) they say:--

"This ill.u.s.trates our Apparatus as used under the chair, for giving a hot-air bath only, or hot-air and vapour combined, also for either a Medicated or Mercurial bath.

"At the back of the top rail of chair is fixed a socket, with a set screw, a square rod slides up and down this socket, and a folding ring fits into the top of the rod.

"By this arrangement the hoop for keeping the cloak extended, can be raised or lowered to be either level with the shoulders leaving the head exposed, or, if preferred, raised sufficient to cover the head.

"The person about to take the bath puts the apparatus ready for use under the chair, and placing the cloak lightly over the hoop, sits down, slips the two ends of the hoop together, draws the cloak round, tying it down the front with the strings provided, and adjusting it round the neck, may take the bath comfortably from fifteen to forty minutes, according to inclination."

But it is possible that the bather may prefer to recline while enjoying this calming and luxuriant bath. This is easily done, and if the reader will glance at Plate Two, he will see the modus operandi. Nothing could be more simple, nothing more effective.

We are not, however, the first to have discovered the merits of Messrs.

Allen's luxurious invention. It is in general use now all over the country, and medical men are constantly in the habit of recommending the bath to their patients. So also is the professional press, and among these such well-known Journals as "The London Medical Record"; "The Medical Times and Gazette"; "The Medical Examiner"; "The Medical Press and Circular"; "The Lancet"; and "The British Medical Journal" are loud in their praises of the apparatus.

It will be especially observed by the intelligent reader that Allen's bath may be used entirely as a dry hot air bath, or as a mixed hot air and vapour bath. Well, this in our opinion is a capital idea, because one can use it as either. We, ourselves, perspire freely, and therefore use only the hot air, but as Sir Erasmus says: "The great purpose to be arrived at, so far as temperature is concerned, is to obtain one which shall be agreeable to the sensations."

The following is what Messrs. Allen and Sons write me themselves concerning their bath:--

"Our idea is, that the hot air and vapour bath combined is the truest approach to the Eastern Turkish bath, in which, after the bather has been in the heated room some little time, and begins to feel somewhat oppressed, they (the attendants) come round, sprinkle the heated floor with water; this produces a vapour, and it is almost immediately after this that the body begins to perspire freely, the vapour also relieves the breathing very much with some. There are those who will not perspire in the hot-air bath at all, but do with the hot-air and vapour bath, which, mingling with the hot-air, produces a moist heat, softens the skin, and produces perspiration much more quickly."

There is one advantage which the portable bath possesses over the regular sanatorium Turkish:--the head is not covered, it is not in the heated atmosphere, and therefore purer air can be breathed, although both face and scalp perspire as freely as any other part of the body.

The head, however, may be covered if this is thought more pleasant.

Dr L.E. Turner, it would seem believes in having the head exposed during the bath.

"By the use of your bath," he says "the patients can breathe pure air uncontaminated by the foetid humours pouring forth from the seven millions of pores in your neighbour's skin as he sits by your side in the ordinary Turkish or Russian bath. Besides there is no risk from over expansion of the pulmonary tissues of the lungs; as when people are compelled to breathe a heated atmosphere; nor risk from rupture of the delicate blood vessels of the brain. There are many other advantages which tend to make me, and not only myself but all other professional men who have tried them, strong advocates for their use, in place of all other kinds of Turkish, Russian, or herbal baths."

CHAPTER FIVE.

THE TURKISH BATH--CONTINUED. THE TRAVELLER'S BATH.

In chapter third we enumerated briefly a few of the ailments likely to be either entirely removed, or, at all events, alleviated, by the use of the Turkish Bath.

We think that Sir Erasmus Wilson mentions that terribly distressing ailment eczema among those which yield to the emollient and cleansing effects of the bath.

Kidney ailments, and even dropsy itself, have succ.u.mbed to its power.

"I have just," writes a medical man, "retired from the post of medical officer of H.M. Convict Prison at Portland, and my late a.s.sistant Surgeon has kindly informed me how admirably it acts in kidney affections, and I am anxious to have one as soon as possible."

The following are the words of Sir Erasmus Wilson himself:--

"The bath is a preventative of disease, by hardening the individual against the effects of variations and vicissitudes of temperature, by giving him power to resist miasmatic and zymotic affections, and by strengthening his system against scrofula, consumption, gout, rheumatism; diseases of the digestive organs, cutaneous system, muscular system, including the heart; nervous system including the brain; and reproductive system."

"The bath," he continues, "has the property of hardening and fortifying the skin, so as to render it almost insusceptible to the influence of the cold. A Doctor of Divinity told me, that during the winter time he was scarcely ever free from cold, often so severe as to lay him up for several weeks, and that he also suffered from attacks of neuralgia; but that since he had adopted the use of the bath twice a week, all disposition to colds and neuralgia had ceased; and for the first time in sixteen years, he had pa.s.sed the winter without a cold."

Dr Wood writes as follows:--

"Dr Wood had a severe trial case to use Messrs. Allen and Son's. It was a case of heart disease and kidney affections where it was dangerous to give the patient a bath, or anything that would excite the circulation, and yet essential to have copious sweating. The patient was delirious. He has got well."

A great sanitary authority, Dr Richardson, said the other evening at a public meeting, that if it were possible to attain perfect cleanliness of person and surroundings, disease would become an obsolete term.

These are not the exact words, but they convey the sense.

But independent of the use the bath may be put to, for the purpose of curing or alleviating disease, for thoroughly cleansing the body and sweetening the system, or simply as a luxury, there are at least two other uses to which it can be put. It is a means of banis.h.i.+ng fatigue, and also of producing refres.h.i.+ng sleep. And this fact may be turned to good account on many occasions. A person may have been out all day on the hill, or hunting, or he may have been on the river or lake rowing, or by its banks fis.h.i.+ng. He returns tired and weary, and very probably, wet.

A wash and change of clothes, followed by a stimulant, are the usual remedies for such fatigues. How much better is it both for the comfort and health if he can spare a short half-hour, and enjoy the advantageous comforts of the Turkish Bath. Why, he feels double the individual afterwards, and if he is not all throughout the evening after as bright as a new florin, he must be a dullard at the very best, that is all.

Well, but a person may be a mere guest at some country Squire's, how about his Turkish Bath then? This is a difficulty that is easily overcome. We have the Tourist's or Traveller's bath, handy, convenient, useful and cheap.

This little contrivance will be of great benefit in dispelling the fatigue usually felt after a long journey in train or steamboat. While out boating or touring in any way it will be found invaluable. Indeed it is so small and compact that a tricyclist might easily take it in his bag.

Plate Three represents the apparatus set up ready for use for a hot-air or vapour bath, to be placed under a chair, the body to be well enveloped in blankets. The apparatus may also be used for boiling water for making tea and coffee, as well as for frying bacon, chop, steak, or cooking omelets, etc.

The Turkish bath is a calmative to the nervous and the vascular systems, and therefore of great utility in cases of sleeplessness. We advise those who are troubled with this disagreeable complaint to give it a fair trial.

For female complaints, of nearly all kinds, unless especially forbidden by the family physician, this bath may be also used with marked benefit.

We earnestly hope that this little guide of ours will fall into the hands of many sufferers, whose ailments are likely to be relieved, or banished entirely, by the regular use of this prince of baths; we cannot therefore do better, we believe, than finish this short chapter with some useful advice to those who may intend to give it a fair trial.

But first, let us endeavour to dispel a phantom that stands at the threshold of every Turkish bathing establishment, and tries to prevent those who have never bathed before from entering. We allude to the phantom fear. This bogle stood at the doorway when we ourselves went to have our first Turkish bath. "Oh!" he cried, "don't come in, don't come in, you'll catch your death of cold from the douche, don't come in, don't come in, I beseech you, I'm sure you have heart disease."

"Bother!" was our curt reply.

"Well," cried the bogle, extending his ghostly arms over his head, "_do_ go and see a doctor first." But we pushed the bogle boldly aside. That bogle looked very small indeed as we strode out again, about an hour afterwards.

Now, dear reader, the phantom will treat you precisely as it treats everyone else. Are you to fear it? That is a question which must be answered in no bantering mood. We honestly believe that ninety-five people at least out of every hundred, can enter an ordinary Turkish bathing establishment and go through all the processes with perfect safety.

Well, we will suppose that we are conversing in the consulting-room with some one who means to try the Turkish bath. He will ask such questions as:--

1. When should I begin to take the bath?

2. How long should I stay in the heat?

3. How often should I take it?

4. What is the best time of the day to have the bath?

5. Can you give me some general instructions to guide me in using it.

To question Number 1 we should reply: Begin to-morrow.

Question Number 2: Until you are in a glorious perspiration, and all aches and pains, and all sense of weariness forgotten. From a quarter of an hour to twenty minutes will be enough at first.

Question Number 3: How often should you take it? Once or twice a week, or even three times, or whenever required to banish ennui, fatigue, aches or pains, or incipient cold, or biliousness, or la.s.situde, etc, etc.

To question 4, the reply is: The bath must not be taken on a full stomach, about three hours after a meal is the best time. But those who dine about six or seven in the evening should take the bath before _dinner_. People who are engaged all day, may with advantage use it either before retiring for the night, or after getting up in the morning, following it by the usual cold sponge. If the cold bath is forbidden, then the best time is going to bed.