Turkish and Other Baths Part 3

Now comes your last question, (but let me here say parenthetically that we may be consulted about everything connected with the bath, and baths of all kinds, or about any ailment, chronic or otherwise, that bathing in some forms is likely to cure or alleviate.)

What you want then, in order to enjoy the luxury of a bath in your own room, is first, one of the portable baths; secondly a shallow bath like the one here depicted; (Plate Four.) Thirdly a good big sponge; fourthly, a small hand shower bath, cost I believe is 5 shillings from Messrs. Allen and Sons, (Plate Five); fifthly, a flesh brush; sixthly a piece of good soap (Pears' transparent tablet is by far and away the best, and really least expensive in the long run,--it is _so_ well made, and lasts so long); and seventhly, a few good rough towels.

All being ready, you light your lamp and fix up the apparatus according to instructions given with every portable bath. The shallow bath is to be half filled with nice hot water, all ready. After you have perspired enough, turn out and turn into the shallow bath. Here you are to lather and sponge, and use the flesh brush well.

Next use the hand shower, or the sponge if you prefer it, filled with cold water, do not be afraid of this, it is life and luxury combined.

Then to dry, and dress leisurely, to loll on the sofa for a while, and quietly sip your tea or coffee, while the fresh breeze from an open window is playing around you. This is indeed enjoyment.

People who use the bath for the purpose of gaining health and strength, should live temperately, both as regards eating and drinking, take abundant suitable exercise in the open air, and make use of some tonic, with now and then a gentle aperient.

Both the tonic and aperient must be carefully chosen to suit individual idiosyncrasies and cases, but we have seen very much good indeed accrue from this conjunction of tonics, with mild and suitable aperients while taking a course of Turkish baths.

CHAPTER SIX.

ON THE USES OF THE VARIOUS MEDICATED BATHS.

It will be as well for the generality of our readers, if we confine ourselves in this chapter to a brief consideration of those medicated baths only, which have been proved to be efficacious in the amelioration and cure of illnesses, whether chronic or acute. We must preface our remarks, however, by stating that no course of baths is likely to be of the slightest avail to a sufferer, unless he first and foremost makes up his mind to adhere to certain rules of living, and endeavours to conform to the laws of health.

Exercise must be taken in the open air, he must also be most careful to study his diet and his clothing, and to secure sound sleep by every natural means in his power, narcotics however being avoided as poisons (see pages 21, 22, and 23).

Tonics, taken with judgment, a.s.sist a patient to recover strength, but they must be administered or prescribed by a medical man, who is acquainted with the symptoms and nature of the case.

It is really surprising the amount of good that can be done by a well-regulated course of Turkish or other baths, combined with some carefully adapted plan of const.i.tutional treatment and regulation in living. If this were only more generally known, thousands would soon be enjoying all the blessings of health, who are now languishing on beds of sickness, or confined to warm and stifling rooms, instead of breathing the free fresh air of heaven.

It would seem that Professor Lionel Beale is somewhat of the same opinion as ourselves, and he even goes somewhat further, for he deprecates foreign travel, or at least considers wandering abroad in search of health, is, in many cases, a needless expense.

"If," writes this learned authority, "patients could be induced to retire to a pleasant part of the country where they would take moderate exercise, and be free from mental anxiety, meet with agreeable society, live regularly, take small doses of alkalies, and bathe themselves for an hour or two a day in warm water, in which some carbonate of soda has been dissolved, they would receive as much benefit as by travelling hundreds of miles away; and at much less trouble and expense."

There is a great deal in these words _free from mental anxiety_. It is to obtain this very needful aid to the cure of chronic complaints, especially those brought about by over-work or fast living, that we ourselves are in the habit of recommending to our patients a short sea voyage, such as that to America or Madeira and back. But very great benefit results in numerous cases from a short residence at some of the innumerable hydropathic establishments, which, like small terrestrial paradises, are scattered here and there in our beautiful island home.

Those actually sick may go there, as well as the languishing invalid or _the over-worked_ man of business, or worn-out pleasure hunter. To those resorting to these sanatoria, we can confidently recommend a handy and useful invention, recently brought out by Messrs. Allen and Son (Plate Six). It is a portable electric bell, the cords can be pa.s.sed under or over the doors, from one room to another, and by this means the nurse or attendant can be called immediately and _quietly_ at any hour of the day or night.

We do not mean here to say much about the mercurial bath, because it must only be used under medical advice, but while reminding the reader that there is provision made for this kind of bath in the portable Turkish bath (page 44) there is (see Plate Seven) a nice handy little apparatus which can be used for this purpose used for this purpose or any other kind of fumigatory bath which the physician considers it right to recommend.

Some of the most efficacious medicated bath in common use are:--

1. THE BORAX BATH.--This is soothing and calmative in many irritable forms of skin disease. It is made in the proportion of four ounces of borax and three of glycerine, to thirty gallons of hot water.

2. THE AMMONIA BATH, used as a skin stimulant and derivative. The following is Mr Grantham's formula:--Two ounces of strong hartshorn in two gallons of water, used in a hip bath. An excellent hip bath, very useful for people to whom stooping is objectionable is that made by the Messrs. Allen (Plate Eight). One glance at the figure will show its many advantages, and we strongly recommend it.

People who suffer from cutaneous eruptions ought to take skilled advice before using a course of baths, but the following sentences excerpted from E. Wilson's "Diseases of the Skin" may be read with profit by all.

"Aqueous remedies," says the dermatologist, "present themselves in the form of simple water in its various states of cold, tepid, warm, hot and steam; water impregnated with saline matter as in the sea-bath, and saline solutions; in lotions, fomentations and poultices. Water may be sedative, emollient, or stimulant, according to the manner in which it is employed. As a tepid bath or fomentation it is sedative, and its sedative action is increased by the addition of various substances, such as oatmeal, starch, gelatine, and soda in small quant.i.ties. It is emollient when used as a water dressing or in the condition of steam, and it is stimulant when cold or hot. When hot it is the best means known of relieving pruritus (itching), and in its cold state it refreshes and gives vigour to the skin; hence, the morning bath, the sea-bath, and daily ablutions with soap. On this principle it is that we advise daily cold ablutions with soap of the face in cases of acne (pimples), and to other parts of the body, particularly the _axilla_ and _perinaeum_ in chronic eczema or chronic pruritus. Aqueous lotions of _liquor plumbi_ (sugar of lead) are refrigerant and sedative, while lotions of carbolic acid, sulphurate of _potash, acetate_ of _ammonia_, and _bicarbonate_ of _ammonia_ are anti-pruritic. Warm fomentations are sedative and anodyne, and their properties are increased by the addition of poppy heads. Poultices are emollient and sedative, but their protracted use, as of all aqueous applications, macerates and weakens the skin, and tends _to perpetuate_ the disease or cause boils. As a rule, all aqueous applications except simple bathing, must be employed with great caution in skin diseases. Saponaceous ablutions generally aggravate eczematous affections; but certain forms and stages of that disease are benefitted by their use."

As a means of using the hip bath, whether medicated or otherwise, and for female complaints and irregularities, there is nothing to equal the bidet herewith figured (Plate Nine).

3. FOMENTATIONS are simply local baths and are used to relieve pain and reduce inflammation, as in the poppy head or laudanum fomentation to painful swellings, or the turpentine fomentation to redden the chest in severe colds. The water must be very hot, and two pieces of flannel must be used, wrung from the water, time about. These may be sprinkled with laudanum or turpentine as the case may demand.

4. THE MUSTARD FOOT-BATH is useful in cases of incipient colds, headaches, or languor and listlessness with restless nights. A bucketful of hot water with a handful of mustard in it is all that is wanted; in this the legs are to be bathed for twenty minutes before going to bed.

5. THE OAK BATH is made by adding a pound of bruised oak bark to a quart of cold water and boiling for half an hour; the half of this maybe put in the morning tub as a tonic bath.

6. THE PINE BALSAM BATH is good in cases of rheumatism and great nervousness. The balsam is a distillation front the leaves of pines, and is simply added to the bath.

7. THE ALKALINE BATH may be used twice or three times a week by gouty or rheumatic subjects. Two ounces of the bicarbonate of soda are added to three gallons of warm water, and the bath is ready.

8. THE PEAT WATER Bath is a German invention, and seems to be of great value to sufferers from gout and rheumatism, swelling of the joints, congestion of the liver, etc. Why the peat of this country should not be as efficacious as that from German bogs we fail to understand.

9. THE ELECTRIC BATH is a good deal used at seaside places, and often with advantage, especially in cases where the tone of the system has been much lowered.

10. THE VINEGAR SPONGE BATH consists of one part of vinegar to three of cold water, the body or hands and arms, feet and legs, are then sponged with it.

11. THE IRON BATH is sometimes used as a tonic, and is of considerable efficacy, especially to delicate females and children. It is composed of half an ounce of sulphate of iron, in four gallons of cold or tepid water.

12. SULPHUR BATHS, CREASOTE BATHS, and NITRO-HYDROCHLORIC BATHS are all good in their way, but must only be used under medical advice.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE ORDINARY HOME BATHS--SEASIDE BATHING.

The morning tub is a bath that people in ordinary health should take every morning. It is not only invigorating but it so tones the skin and nerves as to render catching cold all but impossible. A far better tonic for those who can bear it, is the shower bath.

A cheaper sort of Shower Bath is that represented underneath. (Plate NINE.)

From a recent Magazine Article of ours, we cull the following hints which may be found of use. In speaking of House Baths we say:--

1.--Then you must consult your own feelings as to whether or not you ought to continue the bath through the livelong winter. We should say, "Try to do so."

2.--Let the first spongeful of cold water be applied to the head and shoulders and adown the spine.

3.--If you feel too much exhausted in the morning for a cold bath, from having been up late, raise the temperature of the cold bath several degrees.

4.--Be guided by your own feelings as to the temperature of hot and cold water. From 32 to 60 degrees would be right for the cold bath, and about 90 degrees for the water in the basin.

5--A cold bath may be taken with advantage when the body is heated, from whatever cause, so long as there is no exhaustion or fatigue; but never go into the water if there be the slightest feeling of chilliness, nor after a full meal.

Plate Twelve represents a useful kind of bed bath which has been a source of comfort to many an invalid. (All these baths are manufactured by Messrs. Allen and Son.)

In bathing at home, after lathering the whole body with warm water and soap, a cold sponge bath containing a handful or two of either Tidman's or Brill's Sea Salt will be found very invigorating.

We have before us a splendidly got up work ent.i.tled "Luxurious Bathing,"

published by Messrs. Field and Tuer, Leadenhall Street, E.C. The book is beyond praise, its well-executed etchings ent.i.tle it to a place on the drawing-room table, and its advice to those who value health, is simply invaluable.

Those who suffer from weakness, or who dread the winter's cold, would do well to combine a course of bathing, with one of tonics and cod liver oil. De Jongh's light brown is the only oil we ever use.

Those who wish to regain health in a month, "by the sad sea waves,"

cannot err by taking the following rules as a guide. They are from a Magazine article of ours:--

_Simple Rules for Seaside Enjoyment_.