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 4^>
 
 Manual of the Turkish Bath,
 
 The H. 
 
 am?nam.
 
 Manual of the Turkish Bath. 
 
 Heat a Mode of Cure 
 
 and a 
 
 Source of Strength 
 
 for 
 
 Men and Animals, 
 
 From Writings of Mr. Urquhart, 
 
 Edited by 
 
 Sir John Fife, M^.y f.r.c.s., 
 
 Senior Surgeon to the Newcastle Infirmary* 
 
 London, 1865: 
 John Churchill and Sons, New Burlington Street. 
 
 \The right of Translation raer-ved.']
 
 Introduction. 
 BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 In introducing to the medical profession and 
 to the public a work on the Turkish Bath, by 
 an author not of the profession, it is necessary, 
 in the first instance, to guard against any hasty 
 conclusions, on the one hand ; or, on the other 
 hand, the rejection of statements that may seem 
 at variance with the therapeutic science of men 
 experienced in the value, and justly confident in 
 the indications, which therapeutics afford. 
 
 As regards the use of the baths of the 
 ancients in a sanitary point of view, or as an 
 habitual luxury of cleanliness unattainable to 
 the same degree in any other way, doubts will 
 exist only in the minds of those who have not 
 experienced the enjoyment produced by the 
 operation, or the sensations of elasticity and 
 vigour it leaves afterwards. 
 
 2017864 •
 
 IV 
 
 Introduction, 
 
 The same persevering confidence which 
 enabled the author to effect the restoration 
 to us of this Greek and Roman luxury may 
 be well excused in regarding the Turkish 
 bath as a panacea, because without such a 
 faith in its powers no one could have laboured 
 so long, or have made the sacrifices required 
 to revive this institution, buried for nearly 
 a thousand years. 
 
 The history of medicine shows how generally 
 it is the fate of new remedial agents to be at 
 first overrated, then undervalued, and at last 
 forgotten ; but such a destiny cannot reasonably 
 be anticipated in a case where such a hold is 
 gained upon the feelings and confidence of those 
 who use it, even in instances of commencement 
 in alarm, aversion, or ^Drejudice. 
 
 In the year 1859, having previously satisfied 
 my own mind of the efficacy of this process, I 
 brought it under the consideration of the Patho- 
 logical Society of Newcastle, and afterwards 
 addressed on the subject the House Committee 
 of the Newcastle Infirmary; who, encouraged 
 by his Grace the Duke of Northumberland, well 
 experienced dm^ing his Eastern travels in the 
 value of the Turkish bath, entered energetically
 
 By the Editor. v 
 
 into the enterprise of constructing such baths 
 for the hospital. The effect of this wise measure 
 has been essentially economical, inasmuch, as 
 by shortening considerably the necessary period 
 of confinement within the walls of the hospital, 
 less expense has been incurred in restoring 
 many hundreds of working men to their habits 
 of useful industry. 
 
 Great must be the value of a process which 
 in a few minutes will secure a general diapho- 
 resis, bring the circulation to tlie extremities, 
 and equalize the arterial action, instead of 
 permitting a disordered nervous influence to 
 direct an undue flow ujDon one tortm-ed part tc 
 the comparative deprivation of arterial blood to 
 other and distant structures ; a process compe- 
 tent to allay spasm immediately, in many cases 
 which might resist all other diaphoretics, or ex- 
 hibit their effects only in gastric and intestinal 
 irritation. 
 
 It may be safe to conclude that it will prove 
 of service in every case of internal congestion, 
 and its effects are most remarkable in obviating 
 disorders and palliating the diseases of the liver 
 and the kidney; as it not only distributes a 
 more equal circulation, but allays spasm in the
 
 vi Introduction. 
 
 excretory duets — ^the passage of gall-stones, and 
 the sudden relief of liver obstruction, occurring 
 immediately on the use of the bath. 
 
 S^Dasmodic and permanent stricture of the 
 urethra, enlargement of prostate gland, vesical 
 mucous inflammation, albuminuria, and diabetes 
 are palpably amenable to this bath; and in 
 one of the most remarkable cases of strictured 
 m^ethra of thirty years' dm-ation that ever came 
 under my notice, health was restored, and life, 
 even in advanced age, rendered cheerful and 
 comparatively strong. 
 
 In the treatment of the diseases of joints, 
 as may be easily imagined, its efficacy is re- 
 markable, whether they are of an organic and 
 scrofulous character, or inflammatory and rheu- 
 matic ; indeed, in many cases of the latter de- 
 scription, the bath, with ordinary attention to 
 the digestive organs, will effect complete resto- 
 ration, independent of many of those counter- 
 irritants so painful in themselves and so often 
 required. 
 
 It is in vain to hope for the same remedial 
 powers from the ordinary hot water bath, which 
 can seldom be borne much above 100^, which 
 leaves behind it relaxation, debility, suscepti-
 
 By the Editor, vii 
 
 bility to cold, and that moisture of the surface 
 which is coexistent with coldness of the extre- 
 mities. 
 
 I am unable to point out any class of cutaneous 
 diseases in which the Turkish bath may not 
 prove an effectual treatment or an important 
 auxiliary, as the skin which has been long in 
 an almost impervious condition, with obstructed 
 pores and inflamed epithelium, entirely changes 
 its character in a few minutes, and exhibits 
 moisture on its surface, to the inexpressible 
 relief of many uneasy sensations previously 
 experienced. 
 
 In bronchial inflammation or laryngeal, the 
 sm^face affected is instantaneously reached. A 
 clergyman well known for his eloquence, having 
 quite lost his voice for some days, accompanied 
 me to a Turkish bath, which he entered with a 
 whispering hoarseness, but which he quitted 
 with a restored voice, and continued well enough 
 to preach on the following day. 
 
 Instances of sudden relief from spasmodic or 
 inflammatory obstruction of the viscera or their 
 ducts, or gradual relief from chronic disorder, 
 might be multiplied without end, but the 
 Turkish bath is incontestably as valuable a
 
 viii Introduction, 
 
 remedy in many diseases as it is a luxury and a 
 means of training in health. 
 
 We have yet to discover the degree to which 
 our remedial process may be exercised as re- 
 gards temperature, duration, and frequency; 
 therefore I put to Mr. Urquhart the question, 
 '' What is the precise point in effectiveness and 
 economy that may be attained in yom- belief by 
 your plan of radiating heat, and ventilation by 
 suction ? " 
 
 EEPLY. 
 
 *^ The practice to which I have now reached 
 is, on getting out of bed, to go in at 220^ (up to 
 250^), for a period varying from ^yq to ten 
 minutes. I then plunge into cold water and 
 come out to di^ess, saving at least half-an-hour 
 on the time it would take me to dress without 
 the bath. I repeat the operation at night on 
 going to bed. This takes from ten minutes to 
 a quarter of an hour. Should I require the 
 bath on account of indisposition, incipient or 
 threatened, I repeat the above operation, and 
 continue doing so till the cause has ceased." 
 
 In the Newcastle Infirmary the number of
 
 By the Editor. ix 
 
 people sent into the Turkish baths amounted to 
 about fifteen a day, according to the report of 
 Dr. Bolton, our house surgeon; and most of 
 these were under my care. This number does 
 not appear great till it is remembered that 
 there are four physicians and four surgeons, 
 dividing thus the number of cases into eight 
 parts : of these, many with organic diseases, or 
 compound fractures, or requiring capital opera- 
 tions, could not easily enjoy this luxury or obtain 
 its benefits ; and a large proportion of such 
 cases always fall to my lot, as to the share of 
 the three other surgeons. 
 
 In an hospital of a more medical and less sur- 
 gical character, though of less extent altogether, 
 a wider field might be found for the trial of the 
 Turkish bath ; but from what I have witnessed 
 of its effects in health for training, convalescence 
 for enabling the valetudinarian to commence 
 exercise, in disease as a remedy or a palliation, 
 I am not afi:aid to stake my professional cha- 
 racter, by declaring my belief in its efficacy. 
 
 JOHN FIFE.
 
 Topics. 
 
 1. — Use of Heat in pre- historic times. 
 2. — The Bath an artificial climate. 
 3. — A Substitute for exercise. 
 
 4. — Its action in acute, chronic, and epidemic dis- 
 orders. 
 
 5. — Arrests consumption. 
 6. — Prevents the diseases of children. 
 7. — Efiects in insanity. 
 8. — Discharges poisons, animal and mineral. 
 9.— Relief in childbirth. 
 10. — Why man perspires. 
 11. — Relationship of perspiration to disease. 
 12. — Temperature of various diseases. 
 13. — Detection of disease by the smell. 
 14. — Disease incidental to the restriction by clothing 
 of the discharge through the skin. 
 
 15. — Construction of public and private baths, and 
 for asylums and hospitals. 
 
 16. — Radiant heat: its connection with solar rays, 
 the source of life and motion. 
 
 17. — Muscular power increased, as shown in runners, 
 wrestlers, boxers and Race Horses. 
 
 18. — Productiveness increased in regard to work, 
 flesh, milk, and progeny, as shown in Farm Stock.
 
 Maladies. 
 
 Ague, 199, 222 ; case of, 310. 
 
 Albuminuria, vi. 
 
 Anaesthesia, 101. 
 
 Apoplexy, 283, 301, 321. 
 
 Barrenness, 6, 49. 
 
 Bronchial Inflammation, vii. 
 
 Bruises, 106. 
 
 Bright' s Disease, 148, 320 ; case, 
 
 337. 
 Bums, 46, 111. 
 
 Cancer, 14, 75, 153, 282, 283, 287. 
 Cataract, case of, 304. 
 Catarrh, 74, 198. 
 Childbearing, 46 ; case of, 309. 
 Childbirth, 6, 51, (note), 325. 
 Cholera, 37, 112, 196, 281, 282. 
 Congestion, 32. 
 Consumption, 55, 75, 92, 118, 153, 
 
 200, 240, 259, 285. 
 Contraction of Joints, 27. 
 Constipation, 195. 
 Corpulence, 79. 
 Cough, 274. 
 Debility, 275. 
 Delirium Tremens, 217. 
 Diabetes, vi. 
 Diarrhoea, 198. 
 Diphtheria, 321. 
 Diseases of the Heart, 11, 16, 17 
 
 (note). 
 Diseases of the Joints, vi, 10, 93, 
 
 197 ; case of, 315. 
 Disease of the Kidneys, vi, 197, 
 
 282 ; case of, 305, 352. 
 
 Diseases of the Lungs, 11, 188, 
 
 327. 
 Diseases of the Liver, vi, 11, 197, 
 
 199, 230. 
 Diseases of the Skin, vii, 197. 
 Diseases of the Spine, 191. 
 Dropsy, 55, 285, 402. 
 Dysentery, 198. 
 
 Dyspepsia, 103, 106, 141, 249, 274. 
 Eczema, 34, 95. 
 Enlargement of Prostate Gland, 
 
 vi. 
 Epilepsy, 300. 
 Fatigue, 188. 
 Fever, 36, 56, 59, 104, 118, 224, 
 
 227, 282. 
 
 Typhus, 402. 
 
 Yellow, 112. 
 
 Gout, 13, 14, 28, 39, 118, 145, 153, 
 
 196, 197, 217, 333, 337, 338, 345. 
 Hsemoptysis, 274. 
 Hair, Colour restored, 309. 
 
 Growth of, 75, 76, 77. 
 
 Head, Tendency of Blood to, cases 
 
 of, 300. 
 Headache, 191. 
 Heartburn, 109. 
 Hernia, 199. 
 
 Inguinal, case of, 304. 
 
 Herpes, 145. 
 Hoarseness, vii. 
 
 Hooping Cough, 54. 
 Hydrophobia, 283, 307; caseof, 299. 
 Hypochondria, 199, 249.
 
 Xll 
 
 Maladies. 
 
 Indigestion, 13, 14, lOo, 191. 
 Inflammation, 37, 106, 118, 196, 
 
 227. 
 Influenza, 198. 
 
 Insanity, ease of, 306, 347, 352. 
 Insomnia, 147, 195. 
 Interna] Congestion, v. 
 Leprosy, 283 ; case of, 294. 
 Loss of Sight, case of, 305. 
 Lumbago, 197. 
 Myalgia, 72. 
 
 Neuralgia, 13, 14, 72, 197, 249. 
 Night Perspirations, 275. 
 Paralysis, 191, 321, 352. 
 Peptorrhoea, 149. 
 Pneumonia, 254. 
 Poison, Immunity from, cases, 
 
 302. 
 Poisoning, 13. 58, 333. 
 Prurigo, 39. 
 Eheumatic Fever, 32. 
 
 ! Rheumatic Gout, 93, 198. 
 Rheumatism, 13, 14, 58, 72, 151, 
 
 196, 197, 249 ; chronic case, 
 
 317. 
 St. Vitus's Dance, case of, 153, 
 
 313. 
 Scald, 47. 
 
 Scarlatina, case of, 285, 308. 
 Sciatica, 196, 197. 
 Scrofula, 13, 14, 15, 75, 118, 153, 
 
 199; case of, 310. 
 Sickness, 2. 
 
 Sea, 353. 
 
 Sores, 106. 
 Spasms, V, 32. 
 Sprains, 8. 
 
 Stricture of Urethra, vi. 
 Sunstroke, 2. 202, 222. 
 Tendency of Blood to Head, 300. 
 Vesicle, Mucous Inflammation, vi. 
 Viscera, Obstruction of, viii. 
 
 PART IL— CATTLE. 
 
 Asphyxia, 371. 
 Barremiess in Cattle, 398. 
 Bats (in horses), 392. 
 Black Quarter, 394. 
 Bronchitis, 391. 
 Colic, 391. 
 
 Diseases of Skin, 386. 
 Distemper (in pigs), 391, 395. 
 Dropsy, 391. 
 Dysentery, 391, 393, 394. 
 Garget (in dairj- stock), 391. 
 Hardness of TJ dder, 394. 
 Indigestion, 391. 
 
 Jaundice (in dogs), 391, 395. 
 
 Mange (in horses and dogs), 391. 
 
 Pleuro-pneumonia (cattle), 393. 
 
 Rheumatism, 386, 391. 
 
 Scour (in calves), 392. 
 
 Sore Shins, 386. 
 
 Mouth and Peet (in sheep), 
 
 391. 
 Strains, 390. 
 Strangles, 391. 
 Sturdy (in sheep), 391, 394. 
 Swelling (in head of calf), 391, 
 
 394.
 
 Contents, 
 
 PAET I. -ACTION ON MEN. 
 
 Page 
 FIRST DIALOGUE.— Heat : How useful for Man, 
 
 AND HOW USED BY HiM 1 
 
 Notes : 
 
 Removal of Barrenness 49 
 
 Ease in Childbirth 51 
 
 Effect of the Bath on the Milk .. .. 53 
 
 Ovarian Dropsy 55 
 
 Use of the Bath in the Tropics .. .. 56 
 
 SECOND DIALOGUE.— Conversation between Mr. 
 Urquhart and the members of the Medical 
 
 Society of London 60 
 
 Notes : 
 
 Description of the Bath of Riverside . . 121 
 
 The Bath of the Finns 132 
 
 Waste of Fuel in England 135 
 
 Clothing not requisite in our Climate .. 138 
 
 Dyspepsia treated by One Meal a Day .. 141 
 
 Medical Teatment of Rheumatism .. .. 151 
 
 One Meal a Day.— Milk Diet 154 
 
 ON THE ART OF CONSTRUCTING A TURKISH 
 
 BATH. Read at the Society of Arts 158 
 
 WHY MAN PERSPIRES. A Lecture at Newcastle . . 210 
 CONSUMPTION PRODUCED BY HABITS, NOT 
 
 CLIMATE 240 
 
 TREATMENT OF CONSUMPTION BY THE TURKISH 
 
 BATH. ByDr. Leared .. .. .. ,.259 
 
 Dr. Thudichum on the Contents of Perspiration 280
 
 xiv Contents, 
 
 Page 
 
 CANCER, LEPROSY, HYDROPHOBIA, AND APO- 
 PLEXY 283—301 
 
 Special Cases 302—317 
 
 DR. BRYCE ON CURE OF CATARACT WITHOUT 
 
 AN OPERATION 304 
 
 CONSTRUCTION OF A BATH WITH RADIATING 
 HEAT FOR INVALIDS. Correspondence with Sir 
 
 John Fife 318—345 
 
 Dr. Stokes on Detection of Maladies by the 
 Smell 346 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF THE BATH INTO LUNATIC 
 ASYLUMS, AND NAVAL AND MILITARY 
 HOSPITALS 347 
 
 DR. ROBERTSON'S EXPERIENCE AT SUSSEX 
 
 LUNATIC ASYLUM 347 
 
 HEAT-RAYS, SUN-RAYS, ELECTRICITY, AND 
 
 VITAL POWER .357 
 
 PART IL— ACTION ON ANIMALS. 
 
 THE BATH IN THE FARM 365 
 
 Training of Horses 375 
 
 The Domestic Animals 383 
 
 Admiral De Rous on the Bath for Horses 386 
 FOUR YEARS' EXPERIENCE OF THE BATH ON 
 
 AN IRISH FARM, by J. E. Scriven, Esq. . . 389 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 1.— Experience of Sunshine on the Body .. 405 
 No. 2. — Anticipation of the Remedial Use of Heat 
 
 in 1826, by Dr. Gosse, OF Geneva .. ..409 
 No. 3.— Opening of the New Sweating Room at 
 
 Jermyn Street— Letter of Dr. Sheppard .. 412
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 30, for the title "Tendency of Blood to the Head and Epilepsy," read 
 "and Apoplexy." 
 „ 65, line 4, for " treating," read "heating." 
 ,, 92, „ 2, for "for since cure," read ''cure" (the words "for since cure" 
 
 to be cut out). 
 „ 97, „ 15, for "Bath," read "Baths." 
 „ 117, ,, 3, ior " wasted," vead " washed." 
 
 „ 119, ,, 6, for "%/i<es( specific gravity, "read "/tzp/iesi specific gravity." 
 „ 171, last line, for "split," read "spilt." 
 y, 183, note, line 3, for " tenticulari," read " lenticulari." 
 „ 206, line 3, for "wowW," read "s/iow^d." 
 „ 227, „ 3, for "facilities," read "faculties." 
 „ 235, „ 19, for "woM^cZ," read "s/ioitW." 
 ,, 298, „ 17, for "sowew^at self-reproach," read "ifivere self-reproach."
 
 Part I. 
 
 Action of the Bath on Man,
 
 First Dialogue,^ 
 
 Heat : how useful for Man, and 
 how used by him. 
 
 July zjth^ i860. 
 
 Present, between 30 and 40 Medical and 
 Professional Gentlemen, and others. 
 
 Mr. Witt. — How was it that in the East you took up 
 the bath as a matter to be introduced into Europe, 
 seeing that no other traveller had hitherto done so ? 
 
 3Ir. Vrquhart. — I became an Eastern, and, therefore, 
 I wanted it in Europe. 
 
 Mr. Erasmus Wilson. — Was it luxury or health which 
 prompted you ? 
 
 Mr. Vrquhart. — First, as a luxury ; secondly, as a 
 necessity. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — Have you experienced its application 
 in disease in your own person? 
 
 Mr. Urqnhart. — I have; I have saved my own life 
 by means of it on four occasions. 
 
 Mr, Wilson. — Your acquaintance with the bath goes 
 further back than recent years when you have tried it 
 
 * From skort-hand notes.
 
 2 Heat in Mythology, 
 
 for the purposes of health. You discovered it as the 
 botanist discovers a new plant, as the physiologist, who 
 has discovered some new function. What was it, in the 
 first instance, that led you to consider that the bath was 
 so necessary? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I did not find, in the East, the bath 
 used for the cure of disease. I only inferred that it 
 must have that effect; and, therefore, when I was 
 myself afflicted with sickness, I made use of it, and 
 with success. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — Will jom give us an instance? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I had been quail- shooting on the 
 coast of the island of Scio. On my return to the town 
 of Scio, on one of the hottest days of August, I received 
 a stroke of the sun. I arrived in the port of Scio in a 
 delirious condition, but yet so far master of myself as 
 to require to be taken to a bath. I had great difficulty 
 in getting myself carried thither, as the people believed 
 it would kill me. I was placed in the hottest part, and 
 continued there for six hours: then only did the pers- 
 piration break out. 
 
 Dr. Sibson. — They gave no reasons for their objection 
 to the use of the bath ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — They have no thought of its use in 
 this fashion. 
 
 Dr. Sibson. — It had never been tried. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Apparently not there, at that time. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — Then, as used by the Easterns as by 
 the Romans, the bath seems to have been employed 
 rather as a luxury and means of cleanliness than as a 
 necessity?
 
 Heat in Mythology, 3 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — An answer would involve illustra- 
 tions. 
 
 Mr. Witt. — If you please. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Among tlie E-omans, as amongst 
 tlie Turks, the curative effect was unconsciously pro- 
 duced. It has been an old saying, that during five 
 hundred years there was no medical man in Rome. It 
 is the same to-day amongst the Turks. For the first 
 time now, and in consequence of what has been done 
 in England, the bath is dealt with in Turkey as a 
 medical agent, as appears by a series of articles which 
 has appeared in the Turkish Medical Gazette. The first 
 time I entered a bath in Turkey, it was in company 
 with two eminent physicians, now strenuous advocates 
 of the bath. An expression of one of them on that occa- 
 sion probably fixed my attention to the subject in an 
 investigating fashion. Experiencing a feeling of faint- 
 ness, the attendant dashed cold water over my feet : he 
 exclaimed, " Those brutes of Turks!" I was, however, 
 immediately relieved; and thus I first began to doubt 
 the infallibility of European physiology. 
 
 Mr. Witt. — Are we to infer that the medical use of 
 the bath has remained up to this time unknown? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — There can be no question that, in 
 primeval times, so evident a provision of nature as 
 heat could not have been, and was not, overlooked; and 
 races who retain their primitive characters continue so 
 to employ it. One instance wiU sufiice. Here is a note 
 I have just received from Captain Burton, giving an 
 account of the medical use of the bath with herbs by 
 the tribes of Mesopotamia.
 
 4 Heat in Mythology. 
 
 (Note read.) 
 
 It will suffice to connect this still extant usage with 
 the story of Medea, to establish an uninterrupted se- 
 quence during more than thirty centuries of this prac- 
 tice among primitive races in and surrounding the 
 Caucasus, with whom the Greeks first, and subse- 
 quently the Eomans, came in contact. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — What could have first suggested to the 
 mind of man the use of the bath ? 
 
 Mr. UrquJiart. — Will you allow me to substitute for 
 "bath" ''heat?'' 
 
 Mr. Wilson.— Yes. 
 
 Mr. Urqiihart. — I conceive heat to be the meaning 
 in mythology of the " negative and the positive prin- 
 ciples." These pervade all religions ; the}^ are the 
 groundwork of all ancient philosophy, whether in the 
 Western or Eastern world. These are water and heat- 
 The sun represents the one, the moon the other; 
 for the moon was held to be the emblem of water. 
 This is the myth of the lotus. That plant dropping in 
 a capsule its seed upon the lake Manaswara, expanding 
 and growing without contact with**|he earth, nourished 
 by the water and called up by the sun ; represents the 
 conjunction of the two principles operating in the pro- 
 creation, and for the development of the animal and 
 vegetable worlds. They deified moisture and heat. 
 Can there be a doubt, that having traced their action 
 they had called in their aid ? Heat and moisture con- 
 stitute the bath. The sun to the Egyptian was the 
 "performer of miracles." They distinguish between 
 apparent heat and curative heat; that heat that we seek
 
 Heat in Mythology. 5 
 
 when in sickness, that is to say in a state of deficient 
 electricity — these direct rays being electrical. We are 
 only beginning after thirty centuries to understand that 
 meaning in the rays of the sun, which induced the Egyp- 
 tians to symbolize them by the human hand. Before 
 Galileo, the Egyptian definition of musical chords was 
 incomprehensible. Until we had the scientific analysis 
 of the rays of the sun, the distinction between a value 
 attributed to the sun as rays and the sun as heat, was 
 equally so. We know now that not only the rays of the 
 sun have a power independent of heat, but that each 
 subdivision of those rays possesses independent powers. 
 We also know now that even the most recondite parts of 
 our frame — the bones for instance — are dependent upon 
 the action of the rays of the sun upon the surface 
 for their very substance. This, therefore, gives us the 
 value of those early instincts of man which have always 
 been right, for they were based on observation, not for- 
 mulas. What is essentially good is always so ancient 
 that its origin is a mysterj^ 
 
 This use of heat has been so clearly an instinct, that 
 it is not found in those regions of the earth where the 
 temperature is so high as not to require it. In the 
 torrid zone, and for some degrees north and south, 
 accumulation upon and congestion of the skin is not a 
 source of disease as in countries of a moderate tem- 
 perature, where the body has been artificially covered 
 up. In the latter the bath appears to have been almost 
 universally a primeval institution. The whole of the 
 north of Europe possesses it in one shape or another. 
 The Eed Indians of America have it ; the Swedes have
 
 6 ' Heat in Mythology. 
 
 it ; the Russians have it ; the Fins have it ; the Tar- 
 tars, the Persians, have it ; the Celtic races possess the 
 remnants of it in the Irish '' sweating houses ; " the 
 Gothic races originally had it too. But when you 
 come down to the south it is no longer to be found. 
 
 Mr. . — I thought the bath was particularly 
 
 Mussulman, at least that it was enjoined by that religion, 
 and that religion had its origin in a very hot country. 
 
 Mr. JJrquhart. — That is a common belief in Europe, 
 but like so many other beliefs, it is not onh^ without 
 foundation, but the very reverse of the truth. The prac- 
 tice before Mahomet's time had spread from the Greeks 
 into Arabia, but was held to be an innovation on 
 early simplicit}-, and effeminate : consequently Mahomet 
 struggled vehemently against it. He even risked his 
 credit by attempting to put it down. He denounced it 
 as impure. He coupled it with the grave-yard, using 
 these words : '' In these two I have no part.'' He was, 
 however, beaten, and had to give in, suffering its use 
 on a point which nearly touches the feelings of East- 
 erns, and on which depends the perpetuation of the 
 human race.* His proselytes held that by the agency 
 of the bath barrenness was removed, and the labour 
 and danger of childbirth diminished. In confirmation 
 of this view some interesting particulars will be found 
 in the letters of Lady Mary W. Montague, f Thus you 
 have it not in the islands of the Indian Archipelago ; 
 you have it not in Japan ; you have it not in China ; 
 you have it not originally in India ; you have it not in 
 
 * See note at the end, on "Babeenness." 
 t See note at the end, on " Childbibth."
 
 Heat in Mythology, 7 
 
 Arabia, nor among the primitive tribes of Africa^ 
 although its earliest type is perhaps that of the city- 
 populations of Morocco, as derived from the Iberians. 
 It has, however, to be observed that it is not unknown 
 in intertropical regions, but it is there only used in 
 case of disease. * Thus in whatever region of the earth 
 the bath was requisite, it was invented and applied by 
 the ingenuity or the instinct of primitive man. 
 
 Mr. Witt. — You say, speaking of the action of the 
 sun, that it was known and understood by the ancients. 
 Pliny, in both his country-houses of Florentinum and 
 Tuscum provided special walks with evergreen clipped 
 hedges, where he could take his walks naked and bare- 
 footed daily in the sun. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — When I speak of antiquity, Rome 
 sinks to the level of London. You first called my atten- 
 tion to that passage where Pliny describes himself as 
 preparing a field for his own exercise; so that the 
 breezes of heaven and the rays of the sun should come 
 upon him. He must have understood that it is the 
 sun which more especially gives us length of days, and 
 strength to enjoy them. I have myself successfully 
 treated a case of consumption solely by the rays of the 
 sun. 
 
 In America, where Actinism has been peculiarly 
 studied, they now look upon the handling the rays of the 
 sun as an item in the Pharmacopoeia. We do not turn 
 science to account for our bodies. Look at electricity 
 
 * See note at the end, on " The Use of the Bath in 
 Sickness by Inteeteopical Eaces."
 
 8 Effect on the Body, 
 
 and animal chemistry: what have these and all other 
 sciences done for our health, our food, and our houses? 
 What have they done for our dress? — what for our 
 habits ? 
 
 Mr. Wihon. — As to the influence of caloric upon the 
 surface of the human body, there are just one or two 
 little illustrations that occurred to me : they may be 
 interesting to you, I have always attached, from my 
 earliest days upwards, the greatest value to any prac- 
 tical hint ; and I have frequently had to admit that the 
 old woman was more powerful than the most learned or 
 scientific man. Accompanying a country medical man 
 in his rounds, he told me he had made a great discovery 
 in the treatment of sprains. We all know there is 
 nothing more painful or more serious than a sprain of an 
 ankle: it will lay a man up longer than the fracture of 
 a bone; and he may recover with a very weakened 
 joint. Now, the orthodox treatment of the sprain of an 
 ankle is this : firstty, a number of leeches are to be 
 applied to it — possibly to abstract that which does not 
 exist, but which may come — inflammation; secondly, 
 cold applications very largely, and the part to be as 
 nearly frozen as possible. But my friend said, " I find 
 that that is all wrong ; and the way I cure a sprain is 
 this : I take some lard ; I warm it, and rub it into the 
 sprain half or three-quarters of an hour ; I then take 
 some cotton wool, and wrap around the joint, and put 
 on a light bandage. That sprain which would have 
 taken many months to get well, gets well in a few days 
 — certainly in a few weeks, without any ill efifects or 
 after consequences.'* " Well, but," said I, " what is
 
 Effect on the Body. 9 
 
 your theory ?'' " Why/' he said, '* it is caloric : the 
 old system abstracted the caloric ; I retain the caloric, 
 and even add more to it." A few days afterwards, a 
 friend of mine in Hanover-square slipped from his 
 horse, and had a sprain. I put my country friend's 
 treatment into use ; and after I had once packed the 
 joint, my duty as a physician was at an end. He got 
 well, and in a few days was walking about his room 
 on this seriouslj^- sprained joint ; whereas, on a previous 
 occasion, when he had a sprain, he had been laid up for 
 months. Another illustration of the effect of caloric 
 upon the surface I had myself to-day. I was in 
 Mr. Rolland's bath, enjoying a temperature of 160 
 degrees for some time ; and then I was invited into a 
 temperature of 170, the heat of which was rendered 
 still more appreciable by its being moist air instead of 
 dry. When I made an attempt to go in, I stepped 
 back. My friend, however, said to me, " Go in ; you 
 will bear it :" and I went in ; and then I was astonished 
 to find that the part of the body that was most sensitive 
 to the influence of the heat was just the part of the body 
 which, according to previously-considered theor}^, should 
 not have felt it. It was my face and my hands which 
 felt burnt, and not the rest of my body. Whereupon 
 I was jobliged to say, ** The least sensitive part of my 
 body is that which is covered by my clothes;" and I 
 acquired the knowledge that the exposure of my face 
 to the air had given the skin an appreciation of tem- 
 perature which the rest of the body was incapable of, 
 and which, in point of fact, indicated that the rest of 
 the body was, to a certeiin extent, in a paralyzed con-
 
 'lo Effect on the Body. 
 
 dition. Those are the two remarks wliieli I liad to 
 make. 
 
 Mr. Pollard. — The observation of Mr. Wilson with 
 respect to the practice of the sprain by the country 
 practitioner explains the success of Dr. Scott, of Bromley, 
 with diseases of the joints. I had occasion to attend 
 his practice with his patients, which consisted in 
 spreading over the joints an ointment — the mercurial 
 ointment with it, but only in small quantities — of 
 putting a plaster on it, and wrapping it up as jou 
 describe the country practitioner to have done with a 
 loose bandage ; and it is astonishing the success which 
 I have myseK both seen and experienced. Dr. Scott 
 made an enormous fortune by his treatment of these 
 diseases. I never heard an explanation of it before 
 this evening. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — The part of the body that was less 
 painfully affected by this amount of temperature, was 
 it not that part of the body that had been painfully 
 affected by a lower temperature ? 
 
 Mr. Wilson.— Yes. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — There are therefore two distinct 
 kinds of sensation of the skin, since it can become sen- 
 sible in one respect and less sensible in another, and 
 vice versa ? 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — Yes. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Therefore there must be two natures 
 involved in the transmitting power of the nerves between 
 the surface and the brain ? 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — Yes. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Shall we pursue this point ?
 
 Effect on the Body. 1 1 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — Certainly. 
 
 Mr. JJrquhart. — Well, I have asserted the state of 
 our skins as resulting from our habit of covering up 
 the body, and so excluding air and light, to be morbid. 
 The sense of pain is a matter of degree ; but taking 
 the average sensation of pain that we endure from 
 average causes, these, I say, are symptoms of disease, 
 not conditions of health. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — Clearly. 
 
 Mr. JJrquhart. — I have myself found from experi- 
 ment made upon a child, by bringing him up with his 
 body exposed to the action of the light and air, and 
 subject to the extremest alternations of heat and cold 
 which our climate affords, that he presented the oppo- 
 site phenomena, namely, sensitiveness to pleasurable 
 impressions and insensibility to unpleasant ones. I 
 arrived at a subdivision of the fibral nerves. The 
 same conclusion has been microscopically arrived at, 
 I imderstood, at Berlin. Thus we have engendered 
 a state in ourselves which when we examine it, as that 
 of nature, disqualifies us for understanding the physio- 
 logy of man. 
 
 Mr. Witt. — What is your experience as to the value 
 of the skin ? 
 
 Mr. JJrquhart. — The results of my experience are, 
 that I have the consciousness of possessing entire com- 
 mand over all organic disease by means of the skin, and 
 can command the skin by heat. A man comes to me 
 with a disease of the heart, the lungs, the liver ; if he is 
 still able to move about, I am certain as to the result. 
 I can arrest the further progress of the disorder : if
 
 12 Heat Cures 
 
 the diseased organ still affords him the means of life, he 
 can then live on. The skin becomes the medicine for 
 the other organs. That it is so, should be inferred 
 a priori upon these grounds ; that it is the only organ 
 in contact with the world. This case keeps you within 
 yourself, through it jou touch surrounding bodies, 
 through it you receive all external impressions. You 
 can therefore handle it or manage it. It moreover is 
 the means through which you cast out a portion (in 
 composition at least) of the disintegrated tissues, 
 whilst it is the principal means by which you expel 
 the poisons produced by the very operation through 
 which life is generated during ' every second of time. 
 If that organ is not kept in due working order, the 
 whole frame must suffer ; suffering, and yet life not 
 being extinguished, to restore the working order of 
 that engine is to relieve any other overpowered organ 
 whatever it may be. Now, as this organ is with us 
 invariably in a morbid state, and as its restoration to 
 healthy activity is easy, it follows that the first cura- 
 tive effort must be directed to this end. It occurs to 
 me daily and hourly, and without failing, that all dis- 
 eased organs obtain relief when I have got the skin to 
 act. Incontestably this is the subject matter of medi- 
 cal science, yet it has not been dealt with as such. 
 Medicine when it has touched the skin has touched it 
 specifically with reference to its own disease. But as 
 the means of acting upon the skin is not by chemical 
 agencies, but by external heat, and as medicine never 
 so much as articulated that word, it follows that by 
 medicine the means of cure have been entirely neglectedj
 
 all Disorders, 1-3 
 
 and that no experience derived from ordinary medical 
 treatment can be quoted on tlie other side. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — It is a bold as it is a broad assertion 
 that all diseases can be remedied by the use of beat. 
 If we glance at some of the more common phases of 
 disease we shall see the extent of this declaration. We 
 have scrofula. Is it to be cured by heat ? We have a 
 host of diseases originating in the stomach, which go by 
 the name of indigestion, rheumatism, gout, neuralgia. 
 Are they all curable by the agency of heat ? We have 
 a series of diseases which originate in poisons — poisons 
 which are received into the body by contact, or through 
 the agency of the air ; are these to be treated by heat ? 
 Mr. Urquhart has taken a very strong position, and 
 a very bold position as a non-medical man ; he declares 
 that which will make the whole medical profession 
 shudder, that all these diseases are to be cured by heat. 
 Now, I am very much inclined, from what I have seen, 
 to agree wholly with Mr. Urquhart. I will explain to 
 you why. Let me give an illustration which has just 
 occurred to my mind. Suppose that I had a complex 
 piece of machinerj^ with an aperture at one end by 
 which I was enabled to introduce a power that would 
 work that machine — all its wheels, and aU its various 
 contrivances — so that I could bring about an infinity of 
 results from the proper working of that machinery. 
 That machinery is concealed from view. Now, my 
 difficulty is this : I can supply the material which gives 
 power to the machine, but somehow or other the 
 machinery will not always work rightly. There is 
 something or other in the material which I supply to it
 
 14 Heat Cures 
 
 that does not go quite right. And yet the machine is 
 a most perfect one in itself. I say, if I had any power 
 by which I could regulate that which gives an impulse 
 to this machine, I could manage all its actions in such 
 a manner as to produce perfection. This machine is 
 the human body. That which I introduce into the 
 machine is food. Food is the sustenance of the body. 
 Food necessarily consists of a great variety of substances 
 which in different combinations are calculated to cause 
 disease, and which must be removed from the body, or 
 if not removed they will interrupt the harmony of the 
 functions. Xow, there is no power by which the proper 
 direction of nutrition can be attained excepting through 
 the skin, and that I believe to be the explanation of the 
 extraordinary results which seem to flow from the use 
 of the bath. The bath does no more than regulate the 
 nutrition. Scrofula is imperfect nutrition : cancer is 
 imperfect nutrition; indigestion, rheumatism, gout, 
 neuralgia, are imperfect nutrition. Give a power by 
 which nutrition can be regulated, and you can imme- 
 diately control these various diseases. Then if you take 
 the other class of diseases originating in poisons : they 
 have to be removed. The skin is the agent by which 
 they are to be removed, either primarily or secondarily. 
 The skin is perfectly equal to the removing of any 
 poison that may be taken. There is another class of 
 poisons which act as a yeast, or ferment ; but this again 
 is removeable by the agency of the skin, and you have 
 only to combine with it some internal remedy which 
 would control the fermentation of this material to cor- 
 rect this disease at once. There is no great difficulty in
 
 all Disorders, 1 5 
 
 understanding how tlie batli, or how heat applied to the 
 surface of the body so as to create perspiration may cure 
 diseases which originate in poisons ; because it is clear 
 that the perspiration mechanically carries the poison 
 out of the body ; and neither do I conceive there would 
 be any difficulty in comprehending how the bath would 
 equally regulate nutrition, and consequently those 
 diseases which in their essence are mal-nutrition, or 
 as we technically call them, mal-assimilation : you 
 have only to take a scrofulous child and give it 
 good food, plenty of air, plenty of oxygen, plenty of 
 exercise, and you cure the scrofula. But you necessarily 
 have to work against considerable difficulties, all of 
 which difficulties would be removed if you could regu- 
 late the distribution and the supply of the nourishing 
 matter which you give to the child through the agency 
 of the skin. You can by perspiration make the body 
 take up nutritive matter more actively than it ordinarily 
 does. By withdrawing from the body a certain quantity 
 of moisture you make it more ready to imbibe into its 
 tissues moisture which is taken into the stomach, and 
 which moisture at the same time carries with it the 
 nutritive matter. I want to know whether I have 
 sufficiently clearly explained my view with regard to 
 this mode of application of the bath to the skin. I want 
 to show that it is not simply the action of the bath, the 
 action of heat upon the skin itself directly, but that it 
 is the indirect action upon the source of nutrition, con- 
 sequently upon the whole mass of the blood. If you 
 can regulate nutrition, which I apprehend you can 
 through the agency of the bath, you are then in a posi-
 
 1 6 Heat Cures 
 
 tion to cure all diseases which, are at all dependent upon 
 nutrition. 
 
 Mr. . — Is there any action of the air through 
 
 the skin upon the blood ? 
 
 Mr. Wihon. — Yes. I have not the slightest doubt of 
 the action of the air upon the blood through the agency 
 of the skin, although I must confess that I have been 
 very much surprised latterly in meeting a gentleman, a 
 companion of the bath — Mr. Witt's bath — and a physio- 
 logist of great celebrity, who doubted the action of the 
 atmosphere upon the blood. Why he could have doubted 
 it for an instant, I cannot comprehend, because we are 
 aU phj^siologists enough to know that the lungs are 
 nothing more than a bit of skin turned in, just as the 
 internal surface of the lung would become skin if it 
 were exposed externally : that there is no special struc- 
 ture about the lung which enables it to be the special 
 respiring organ, beyond its being a moist membrane, 
 whereby oxygen passes in, on the one hand, and car- 
 bonic acid gas passes freely out, on the other ; and 
 assuming that the skin is thus made moist, an active 
 respirative current will be established in both direc- 
 tions, inwardly and outwardly. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I should like to follow up what Mr. 
 Wilson has said. I find that in the bath, persons 
 sufiering from disease of the heart obtain instant relief, 
 although the number of pulsations is increased. It is 
 just as in the case of a steam-engine going down an 
 inclined plane : the piston works more rapidly, because 
 the work is done for it. The skin comes to the aid of 
 the heart and lungs. Again, in a very high tempera-
 
 all Disorders, 
 
 17 
 
 ture, you lengthen your respirations. Up to a certain 
 heiglit you are oppressed, say at 110, 120, 130, 140. 
 The sense of enjoyment begins to manifest itself at 
 155, as if from that upwards there was a reKef afforded 
 to the heart.* Now, as the object of the action of the 
 heart is to bring back the blood, and to pour it into 
 the lungs, in order that it may there lose its poison or 
 carbonic acid, and regain new life, or oxygen, — that is 
 to say, undergo the chemical operation of decarboniza- 
 tion ; if that operation should take place partially 
 throughout its course and at the extremities, the heart 
 by this chemical subvention is mechanically relieved. 
 The counterpart of this reasoning explains disease, 
 whether of the liver, the kidneys, the lungs, or the 
 heart, — namely, that the skin being coated with a 
 varnish more or less impervious, the decarbouization of 
 the blood does not take place so freely, and an effort is 
 thrown upon the lungs and heart to drive it through, 
 or upon the kidneys or the liver, for the elimination of 
 
 * In July, 1863, a friend, who has a bath of his own, wrote 
 to me:— "My mother, who is seventy-five, has suffered from 
 ,organic disease of the heart for years, and often goes into the 
 hath so ill as to find her way with difiiculty, hut after lying a 
 short time in her hammock she falls asleep, to waken free from 
 pain and oppression, and walks to the house with a step more 
 elastic than many younger women. The tonic effect of heat in 
 this case is remarkable. The hath never fails to restore 
 strength, and is never taken under 140°, 160° being preferred." 
 
 In January, 1864, in answer to a letter urging him to obtain 
 a higher degree of heat, he writes : — " I have been able to 
 raise the heat to 180°, but cannot get it beyond that point. 
 My mother prefers it at that heat, and experiences greater 
 relief from it. After the bath at 180°, the irregularity of the 
 beats of the pulse entirely ceases." 
 
 c
 
 1 8 Perspiration in Horses, 
 
 foreign matter, beyond that whicli is allotted to tliem ; 
 and so, being called upon for extra toil, they are over- 
 powered, and become disordered. Weakness ensues ; 
 tben tbe patient is confined to bed, and thus tbe cura- 
 tive eflPect of rest is called in. The balance is thus 
 partially restored ; and unless death ensues, the patient 
 is rendered capable of recovery. When this happens, 
 it is attributed not to rest, but to the method of treat- 
 ment, which consists in administering poisons for the 
 infliction of comparative disturbance on the less suffer- 
 ing organs, as a means of relieving the more oppressed 
 ones. If you varnish the skin of any animal it will die. 
 The cause of death would be suffocation, not because 
 his mouth was closed, but because his skin was closed, as 
 in the case of small-pox. We have a very remarkable 
 instance on the accession to the pontificate of Leo X., 
 when, to represent the golden age, a child was gilt : it 
 died in the course of a few hours. Therefore we are 
 always living through the skin. It stands to reason, 
 that a piece of mechanism never would have been 
 formed, if it was not to be of use. Every portion of the 
 surface of our bodies is pierced with fountains. , These 
 fountains will run with foul water, so long as there are 
 impurities within the man, and with distilled water 
 from the moment that these are expelled. Thus the 
 nauseous effluvium that belongs to impurity is given us 
 as a warning. The impui'ities of man come from 
 within ; the cleansing power of man comes also from 
 himself. Disease is only filth, 
 
 Mr. Witt. — Therefore you do not think that perspi- 
 ration is weakening ?
 
 Training Horses. 19 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I could understand a bird saying 
 "perspiration is weakening."* I could also under- 
 stand any but an Englishman saying " perspiration 
 is weakening/' considering that we are occupied in 
 the training of horses. You are here to-day, for 
 the first time in the metropolis, thinking about a 
 practice which has already spread throughout the 
 country amongst the working men. The reason is 
 this : that the working man is not like the educated 
 man ; he does not talk nonsense. Talk to a working 
 man about perspiration being "lowering:" he will 
 laugh in your face. His bread is earned by the 
 sweat of his brow. In Central Asia, the groom tests 
 the perspiration, in order to find out the condition of 
 the horse. They do it in two ways ; the one by taking 
 it so, between the finger and thumb, for the purpose of 
 seeing if it is sticky. So long as it is sticky, the horse 
 is not in condition. The other mode is by tasting it ; so 
 long as it is acrid, the horse is not in condition. You 
 see there what the purpose of training is, it is simply to 
 cleanse by perspiration. The adipose matter that has 
 filled up the apertures of the skin has to be removed, 
 that the acrid matter that runs from the blood may 
 escape. I myself regulate the bath for myself by my 
 eyelids. So long as the perspiration running into my 
 eye causes it to smart, I continue in. I am not clean 
 till it ceases to be acrid. Your notions of cleanliness 
 have reference to that which, philosophically, is not 
 filth. My sense of cleanliness is chemical. Your idea 
 
 * E-eferring to the analogy of perspiration and urine.
 
 20 T^he Gymnasium 
 
 is washing a sponge on the outside ; my idea is taking 
 and compressing that sponge. 
 
 You train a horse that he may be enabled to pass over 
 a certain space of ground in a certain time ; you do not 
 propose to supply muscle^ but wind. Wind is supplied 
 by the decarbonization of the blood otherwise than by 
 the lungs. That and health is the object of training. 
 The "^ivdnner of the Oaks was not trained in the ordinary 
 way, but in a Turkish bath. At Sheffield, there are run- 
 ning matches and wrestling matches still extant ; and the 
 men no longer train as formerly, by toil, but by frequent- 
 ing the bath.* You have got two means by which this 
 may be attained — one by training, the other by. the 
 bath. Both are great operations. This is the country 
 of training. Probably not one in this room can tell 
 how it is done. It is a mystery and an art in itself. 
 The trainer's art is a great achievement. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — It is medicine. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — But it beats your application of it. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — It is medicine. My " medicine " applies 
 as well to the beef-steak as to the black-draught. 
 
 * Champion Belt or England won by the Turkish 
 Bath.— [From Sporting Life, Dec. 2nd, 1863.]—" While train- 
 ing for the race under notice, lie (William Lang) broke down, 
 one of his legs giving way, and Mr. Martin, his backer and 
 mentor, was at one time fearful he would not be able to come 
 to the scratch to contend for the belt which, having twice won, 
 he had almost within his grasp. Acting upon advice, he had 
 recourse to Turkish baths, and by local application, almost 
 daily, he was soon as ' sound as a roach,' and on Monday he 
 appeared in splendid condition ; indeed, so confident were his 
 friends and the public generally of his success that odds of 2 
 to 1, and ultimately 3 to 1, were offered on him."
 
 and the Bath. 2 1 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Supposing the whole of England 
 underwent training, you would have a people of a supe- 
 rior order, physically ; and, as you can obtain for the 
 horse equal if not greater results, by another process, 
 it follows that there are two processes by which this 
 condition of men and animals can be attained. Either 
 will develope the powers ; each will be a safeguard 
 against disease ; by each every man will be made 
 lighter, stronger, more alert to take up any work, 
 and more able to accomplish it, and with a less 
 quantity of sleep and food.* Both, therefore, are re- 
 m.arkable results as obtained in particular cases by indi- 
 viduals or b}^ entire nations. Now, suppose both these 
 processes conjoined, what a wonderful people you would 
 have. Look at that handful of Greeks, who made for 
 themselves a name that is like the sun in the heavens : 
 look at that little collection of Italian outlaws, who 
 gave laws to the world, and whose name remains 
 synonymous with noble ! The distinctive character of 
 Greeks and Romans, was that they combined the Gym- 
 nasium and the Bath. 
 
 Sir W. Topham. — Is extreme perspiration weakening ? 
 — is very profuse perspiration weakening? — because that 
 is the objection that is raised by people who are ignorant. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart — No substance goes out from you by 
 perspiration, except the noxious matter that you ought 
 to get rid of ; and you might as well ask if the dinners 
 of a city might not be diminished were its sewers over- 
 flushed. 
 
 Mr, WiUon. — A man's greatest enemy is his stomach. 
 * '&ee postea, the Chapter on " The Farm."
 
 22 Purification and 
 
 A man would be a god if it were not for his stomach. 
 Now, as there is no possibility of preventing man from 
 destro}ing his health and strength by food, the bath 
 comes in as the remedy. It not only diminishes his 
 appetite, but it takes away all that excess that has been 
 taken into the man's stomach, and which, by over- 
 loading his system, produces loss of rest, sleeplessness, 
 incapacity. We shall never be able to invent any con- 
 trivance which will act as a check to the quantity that 
 a man will put into his stomach. We have the glorious 
 resource of the bath, which controls, and regulates, and 
 diminishes, and abstracts that which has been taken 
 in excess ; because I suppose that, even in the instance 
 of training, the reception of food is a very important 
 item. While you take away the old matter by yoiir 
 bath and perspiration, you are supplying good and 
 wholesome matter for the purposes of nutrition by the 
 stomach. 
 
 Mr. Witt. — I think there are many here who would 
 rather that the conversation should go upon the bath 
 proper. What is the difference between the cleanliness 
 of the East and that of the West ? We English esteem 
 ourselves a clean people. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — As health can be appreciated only by 
 disease, and disease by health, so it is with reference 
 to cleanliness and filth. Those only who have gone 
 through the bath can say, " Xow I know how filthy I 
 have been." But until you put a man through that 
 process, he will be offended if you render him the ser- 
 vice of telling him that he is filthy. Not only in the 
 East, but in all antiquity, throughout the whole human
 
 Pollution, 23 
 
 race down to our times, and in our European districts 
 of the world, there has been a standard of cleanliness — 
 a standard in the mind applied to every action of man, 
 and to every circumstance of life. The instinct of 
 early society always pointed to the construction of a 
 standard. So soon as a doubt arose men said, '* Let us 
 solve this doubt ;" consequently the simplest rule was 
 adopted. If you go to the British Museum and look at 
 the Elgin marbles you will see a standard of measurement 
 in a bas relief representing the bust of a man with out- 
 stretched arms. In the same way there was a standard 
 of colour ; you have now all sorts of colours, but having 
 lost the standard you have no colour. There was blue, 
 red, and yellow ; these are now words only, the discri- 
 minating sense having disappeared. So, in like manner, 
 of right and wrong. There was therefore a standard 
 of cleanliness. Nothing has cost me more than the 
 attempts to convey such an idea to a European. I take 
 a person into a suite of rooms belonging to the bath, 
 and I say to him, " This is ' the clean,' and that is ' the 
 dirty.' " I have had printed cards docketed " clean " 
 and " dirty,'' in order to fix attention thereby. "VYhat 
 we are examining now is no longer the bath of the 
 East, but our own minds or our own bodies. The stan- 
 dard of cleanliness was religious no less than social. The 
 Jews had not the bath : the Mussulman ablutions are 
 distinct from the bath — the five canonical washings 
 were not superseded by the bath. These ablutions came 
 from the fire-worshippers, who again did but copy. 
 All religious, and consequently all political institutions, 
 were based upon the ceremonial of cleanliness. Clean-
 
 24 Purification and 
 
 liness was incorporated in the sacrifice to the Manes 
 or the Ancestral worship. The oblation could not be 
 made by an unclean person. The abdest is a washing 
 onh^ of the five organs, the hands, the feet, and the head, 
 and it was with pure running water. Yet these have 
 not of necessitj^ to be repeated three or four times in 
 the twenty-four hours. I may take my morning abdest. 
 I then go on till night without another, if in the mean- 
 time nothing has occurred to pollute me — that is to say 
 if I have not been exposed to one of the five impurities 
 from within, and if I have not been touched with any 
 moist or unctuous matter, any external object which 
 adheres to my skin. When pollution has occurred, 
 the man can be restored to intercourse with his fellow 
 man only after purification has been performed, which 
 consists in washing first, and then rinsing ; an idea 
 which is wholly incompatible with our notion, which 
 is putting a dirty Kmb in a vessel of clean water and 
 so polluting it. The clothes are washed in the same 
 -way, so also the room you occupy. Once polluted, 
 purification is imperative, on the penalty of i]}m facto 
 excommunication. There is not a member of the 
 Hindoo, of the Bhuddist, or Mussulman religions who 
 from the moment of his birth to that of his death has 
 ever once deviated in that respect. Christ on earth 
 followed the ceremonial of the Jews. Open the Old 
 Testament ; you will now see how incomprehensible to 
 you have hitherto been all words connected with pollu- 
 tion and purification. They must remain so until you 
 acquire the idea of a standard. The two principles 
 have never stood in contrast or opposition except in my
 
 Pollution. 
 
 =5 
 
 own residence. They can only be in opposition to 
 struggle, or if not to struggle, to be the one conquered 
 by the other ; because I say, whenever they have come 
 for a moment into open opposition, cleanliness has gone 
 down before filth. You see it is just as the bath itself. 
 The bath has been possessed through uncounted ages, 
 through nearly all the races and varieties of mankind, 
 and there never was an article in a paper written 
 about it ; there never was a sheet of print about 
 it ; there never was a word of talk about it ; it was 
 possessed and known, and could not be talked about. 
 Where not possessed, it could not be written about. So 
 of cleanliness. Where the rule of cleanliness exists, 
 of course it cannot be spoken about. By those who do 
 not practise it, again, of course, it cannot be spoken 
 about. The two have come into contrast for the first 
 time now and here ; and when you put to me the ques- 
 tion how it was that I had thought of introdu.cing the 
 bath when no other European had done so, I was on the 
 point of giving you this answer : " The first time that I 
 saw water poured over the hands in washing, instead of 
 being accimiulated in a basin to be dabbled in, I adopted 
 that rule, and I have never since once deviated from 
 it. I said to myself. This is my nature and not the other, 
 and I practised it accordingly, and from that time to 
 the present I never have washed my hands in dirty 
 water. No other European has done the like, and there- 
 fore no other European has introduced or could intro- 
 duce the bath." The Sikh abjures community with 
 mankind ; he is the renegade and outcast of all human 
 classes and sects, and he establishes his war with the
 
 26 Their Canonical Sense 
 
 human race by taking water and washing his hands in it, 
 drinking it afterwards. You may imagine the loathing 
 and disgust that a European creates in the East ; and 
 you can now imagine what Easterns will become when 
 that loathing disappears. '' Ci\aLisation " has driven 
 the bath out of Greece. The last time I was at Con- 
 stantinople I could not get a bath, at least such as it 
 used to be. Cleanliness is a matter of self-examination, 
 not of external seeming. You must acquire the ideal 
 standard of cleanliness before you can acquire the habits 
 of that refined people from whom you are endeavouring 
 to adopt this practice. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — But, admitting cleanliness to be good, 
 I am afraid that we must have a stronger argument than 
 cleanliness to make the bath popular with the inhabitants 
 of Great Britan. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Unless you introduce simultaneously 
 with the bath the habits which belong to such a people 
 as the Romans or the Turks — because they are exceed- 
 ingly alike — you will not have the bath long, if you 
 have it at all, in England ; and you will have it dis- 
 appearing, and leaving a noxious vapour behind, — you 
 will have it vulgarized, debased, demoralized, ridicidous, 
 and hateful ; and it will pass by as a vagary which a 
 practical nation had the taste to detect and the sense to 
 reject. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — But how are we to become Romans or 
 Turks ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I was saying to a gentleman, a Kttle 
 whilo ago, " The bath is going on too quickly." As 
 Lamartine said, " Time only respects that in which he
 
 in Early Religions, 27 
 
 has himself a part." It is not an easy operation. You 
 have had the bath in Europe. It belonged to the Celtic 
 races. It was introduced, if not found, by the Romans. 
 It was then introduced, by the Crusaders, against the 
 plague. It was in use in the last generation univer- 
 sally in Ireland. If then it is capable of going out 
 merely by the want of discrimination, how much more 
 so if you do not introduce it with all its proper conco- 
 mitants ? How is it to be introduced ? Who will be 
 the undertakers ? Tradesmen of one sort or another. 
 Gain, and gain only, will be the object. If the bath 
 is to be introduced, we must have a model insti- 
 tution. The capital must be raised, not for dividends ; 
 and there must be no pandering to the public taste 
 or to common notions. I should be quite prepared to 
 undertake — on condition of not being interfered with — 
 not only for the architectural part, but also to instruct 
 men in shampooing, so that the double and heavy expense 
 and delay would be saved of sending out an architect to 
 Constantinople, and bringing from Constantinople a 
 staff of shampooers, &c. There can be no bath without 
 shampooers. The luxury, the enjoyment, the cura- 
 tive power of the bath are inseparable from the sham- 
 pooing. If we had time, I could give you details of 
 cures — ^marvellous cures — effected ; but I should always 
 have to bring in shampooing as the operative part. I 
 will only give you one instance. A medical man came 
 to me yesterday from Torquay, Dr. Toogood. He had 
 been for years bent, and unable to convey his food to 
 his mouth, from a contraction of his fingers. He had 
 two good hours of it, with shampooing ; he stood erect
 
 28 How to introduce 
 
 before lie left tlie bath, and used at dinner bis own 
 knife and fork. Shampooing is a peculiar service^ a 
 delicate operation. But it, too, is going out. If I 
 were going into a batb at Constantinople, I would have 
 a crowd of Turks round, to see tbe operation properly 
 and elaborately performed. 
 
 Mr. Wihon. — I am afraid that you are assuming such 
 a standard of perfection, that we can hardly hope to 
 reach it, and that it hardly accords with the character of 
 Englishmen to take such a holy view of the subject 
 as you have just suggested. And I think that if one 
 Englishhian gets rid of his gout in the bath, however 
 imperfect the bath may be, he will induce others to 
 come, and be equally relieved. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart, — The medical men have not found 
 it out as a cure, nor have the philosophers discovered it 
 as a social element, nor the antiquaries renewed it as an 
 adornment of life. Have they given you a single idea 
 upon the subject ? Have they led any man to desire 
 its benefits, or to comprehend it ? Not the least. But 
 the Turks have preserved it, and they practise it to this 
 day. You can get the knowledge of its existing life 
 from them, and you can transplant it from them just as 
 you would transplant a lettuce. A standard being thus 
 estabhshed, there will be no difficulty in extending the 
 practice. If you commence wrong, you will not go 
 right afterwards : if you commence wrong, you will 
 certainly go wrong afterwards. Establish it as an insti- 
 tution for the land, as well as a means of cure for the 
 invalid, — give to it its attractions and its real and solid 
 value, by bringing it to bear upon the morals of the
 
 'the Bath. 
 
 29 
 
 people, by introducing habits of politeness, by affording 
 a field for the meeting of the different classes of society, 
 by giving man an idea of what man is, by enabling one 
 man to see another man without his artificial coyering 
 of clothes, — then it will have re-formed a new standard 
 of what is desirable and what is enjoyable in cleanli- 
 ness. 
 
 Mr, Witt. — You remember a medical man at your 
 house the other day, who was desirous to establish a 
 bath in the West of England, and his first observation 
 was, *' I wish to build a bath for the rich, and another 
 for the poor." I remember you expressed your extreme 
 disgust at such an idea. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — It is a very English idea, nevertheless. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — That separation of class into class, 
 which you do not observe because it is your state, but 
 which is so painful anywhere else, because even persons 
 from the Continent are struck with it, is the great 
 misfortune which every individual undergoes. That 
 " tuft-hunting," that seeking the society of people above 
 them, destroys half the value of life for every man. 
 Whatever tends to destroy this false appetite, and to 
 restore man to himself, is a blessing to the land and 
 each of its inhabitants. I belong to England, but I 
 belong to the Turks equally; and I can, therefore 
 explain to you the cause of the difference in this respect 
 between them and you : you are not polite, and you are 
 not clean. When politeness is wanting, it is impossible 
 for different classes to meet. In the East, I can make 
 my servant sit down at table with me. The code of 
 etiquette is so perpetually occurring, that intercourse
 
 30 Politeness and 
 
 never engenders familiarity: indeed, vulgarity is quite 
 a modern invention, and only to be found with '' march 
 of intellect.'' Etiquette is there always, and marks the 
 distinctions, whatever they are, and fixes those dis- 
 tinctions. Here it is a different rule. The other is a 
 rational and a real one, because the distinctions between 
 man and man in their grades depends upon the age of 
 a man, the wealth of a man, the talents of a man ; all 
 these so combined, that in every room there is always 
 one mau who is fixed upon as superior : no two men 
 are considered equal for a moment. That being esta- 
 blished, then, the form of etiquette is established : we 
 all meet together ; it is nothing but for the pleasure of 
 intercourse ; no derogation takes place ; the beggar 
 comes and he sits down at the same table with the 
 prince. Again : that free intercourse could not take 
 place, unless cleanliness were equally common to all. 
 Supposing that, by reason of a code of etiquette, the 
 workman from the streets could come and sit down at 
 table here, the state of his hands would prevent it. It 
 is utterly impossible to have free — let me say, human — 
 intercourse among a people, unless those characteristics 
 belong to all and each — namely, politeness and clean- 
 liness. But if this distinction is drawn, and the enjoy- 
 ment of intercourse with our fellow-creatures is limited, 
 then what ensues ? You put something else in the 
 place of your enjojonent ; you lose the natural gratifi- 
 cation in intercourse from the qualities of the individual : 
 the something else which you put in lieu of this is jouv 
 own self-love. The present Grand Vizier was formerly 
 ambassador here. I put the following question to him : —
 
 Cleanliness, 3 1 
 
 *' What strikes you as being tlie essential contrast 
 between your people and mine ? " He thought for a 
 moment and said : "It seems to me the chief contrast 
 is this : that we visit one another because we like it ; 
 and you visit one another that you may be seen in 
 certain places." 
 
 To politeness and cleanliness another quality has to 
 be added to make a people happy, and that is sobriety. 
 Sixtj^ million pounds a-year are expended upon stimu- 
 lants alone in this country. The desire is unquestion- 
 ably, in part, superinduced by anxiety of mind and 
 suffering of body, to which may be afforded, in many 
 cases, instantaneous relief. Look at the aliments for 
 disease thus furnished — the amount of drugs, the loss 
 of valuable time, the expenditure of needful means. 
 The enterprise is too simple, it is too easy, it is too 
 great : there is the difficulty. 
 
 Mr. Pollard. — Can you explain how, after the bath 
 had been in such universal use among the ancients, 
 and was found of such remedial advantage, that it fell 
 into disuse, and appears to have been lost in Europe 
 soon after the introduction of Christianity, and only 
 kept up in the East among the Mahomedans ? 
 
 Mr, U^-quhart. — I think I can : mankind is very 
 stupid. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — Is there any project before us for such 
 an institution as that which you mention ? 
 
 Mr. JJrquhart. — I am not aware of any actually 
 formed. I wish to revert to the word " bath : " in it 
 resides the great obstacle. The appKcation of external 
 caloric to the frame is a very simple idea, but it is
 
 32 A Case of 
 
 imperceptible behind the fog of the word " bath." 
 Boiling water is poured over my feet ; I prevent a 
 blister from forming ; and next day I put on shoes and 
 stockings, as if nothing had happened. There is no 
 medical means by which to prevent the blister, to relieve 
 the pain, and suddenly to restore the foot to its pristine 
 state. A medical man observes the incident : he says, 
 *' The bath has done it." Now, if he said, " Heat has 
 done it," it would be impossible for him to resist a 
 return upon himself, and saj^, " Have I, then, up to this 
 hour disregarded at once the simplest and the most 
 powerful of all the agencies of nature ? " 
 
 As many persons have questioned the accuracy of 
 the statement I made in my lecture at Brompton, 
 respecting the degree of heat to which I had been 
 subjected at Berlin, when there recovered from the 
 jaws of death, I wish to recur thereto, as there are 
 now in this room four persons present who were 
 eye-witnesses. The malad}^ was rheumatic fever, 
 accompanied with spasms and local congestion. I 
 was beyond all medical treatment, and sinking rapidly 
 under the most excruciating tortures. The facilities 
 of the German stove enabled those who attended 
 me to heat a room. By keeping up a constant fire 
 in the stove, the room was got up to 150 degrees. 
 This was persevered in for a whole afternoon, and the 
 ensuing night ; the greater portion of the next day the 
 same. It relieved me from pain, but it did not touch the 
 malady. The next day, the 25th of August, there was a 
 consultation at half-past three o'clock, and a telegraphic 
 message, indicating a fatal termination, sent thereon to
 
 Acute Disorder, 
 
 33 
 
 London. Then it was that, as by a last mental effort, 
 I caught at the idea of more heat, and proposed it in a 
 whisper. The sofa was brought close up to the stove, 
 blankets placed all round, and so the heat was got up 
 to 175^. At eight o'clock that evening I was brush- 
 ing my own hair with my own two hands ! I 
 expressed myself in these words : "I cannot under- 
 stand how I could have been ill." The medical 
 man, coming in, stood aghast in the middle of the 
 room ; he trembled, stuttered, and walked away. To 
 have said a word would have been to admit a miracle : 
 he was terrified. Talk of miracles, you could not have 
 anything more like a miracle than this. Now, had 
 the additional twenty-five degrees not been obtained, 
 this would have been an experiment triumphantly 
 to quote in proof of the delusion of the influence of 
 heat.* 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — Mr. Urquhart comes before us in a two- 
 fold sense as a discoverer ; he not only discovers the bath, 
 but he discovers an application of the bath which was not 
 known before, which originated in his own instinct. It was 
 necessary to be in the state in which he was, and to 
 have his mind to be able to suggest probably that it 
 was not a temperature of 150^ that was suitable 
 
 * At this time I attributed the result to the difference be- 
 tween 150*^ and 175*^. I have since seen that the difference 
 lay much deeper : having been brought close up to the stove 
 merely for increase of heat, an unexpected effect followed. 
 The body was exposed to the rays of heat. These rays have 
 distinct properties from transmitted heat, as I have since 
 discovered. This may be termed active heat, as contrasted with 
 'passive heat. 
 
 1)
 
 ^4 ^ ^^^^ of 
 
 to him, but that it was a temperature of 170^. But 
 we have known nothing of heat as a treatment of 
 disease. I do not know any work where it has been 
 referred to in the most distant manner. Here a new 
 mode of treating disease has been introduced by Mr. 
 Urquhart. A short time since I saw a gentleman now 
 present suffering under a well-known disease, exima, — 
 a disease which is generally very intractable, which 
 requires careful treatment by means of medicine, and is 
 a long time before the constitution is able to throw it 
 off. I saw that gentleman going into a bath at a high 
 temperature, and remaining in it for many hours — a 
 whole night for example, I think, or living in it almost 
 for two days, and it struck me that there was an experi- 
 ment going on which was very interesting to see, and I 
 should like to know the result of it. I made an inquiry 
 as to the result to-day, and I find that the result was a 
 most perfect cure in a short space of time. I am 
 ashamed to say, in a much shorter space of time than I 
 could have effected it, and the agent of cure was the 
 application of caloric to the surface of the body in the 
 way detailed to-night. Was there any modification of 
 food? 
 
 Mr. Witi.—ThQ point was the temperature of 160° 
 as compared to that of 120°, the temperature as stopping 
 fermentation. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — After what you witnessed in 1852, 
 when you treated me and saw me recover, under the 
 action of the bath, after considering my case desperate, 
 I made sure of you. I was certain that some day you 
 would come back to me.
 
 Acute Disorder^ 35 
 
 Mr, Wilson. — You are mistaken. That incident 
 made no impression on me. I only considered it a case 
 of extraordinary endurance. I said no other man would 
 go through with the like. How could I do otherwise, 
 I was doctus, you were indoctus. How could I be taught 
 by you ? 
 
 Mr, Urquhart — But I have not finished my Berlin 
 story yet ; indeed the most instructive part is still to tell. 
 I thought myself cured. That is on the 25th August. 
 Half a dozen friends took tea with me, some of whom are 
 now present. I was put to bed in the cold room. I was 
 seized again during the night ; before I could get the 
 other room heated several hours elapsed, and the malady 
 had returned in all its violence, at least of pain. Then the 
 struggle came on between heat and disease. It lasted for 
 ten days. It was like the pumps working against a leak. 
 I was only able to get back to England by having a room 
 heated beforehand ready for me at each hotel as I 
 arrived. They made no difficulty about it, and would 
 made no additional charge. At Dusseldorf the room 
 was large and lofty, and the heat was up to 190^. Mr. 
 Wilson has spoken of my *' instinct.'^ It was no 
 instinct. I am slow and patient at my work. It 
 was a conclusion worked out. In Turkey the large 
 attendance at the baths, and the opening and shut- 
 ting of the doors causes a lowering of the tempe- 
 rature during the day. If you go at a late hour it 
 is full of vapour. Often in travelling I slept in the 
 bath ; and was led to this in part from the enjoyment 
 I derived from the dry air which you get at early morn- 
 ing. I had thus my mind fixed upon the dry air to
 
 ;^6 Nature* s Thermometer. 
 
 begin with, as contrasted with steam, and soon after 
 began to employ the bath as a medicine, or in lieu of 
 medicine. 
 
 Mr, Witt. — At the lecture that you gave at Brompton 
 you spoke of " Nature's thermometer," to the effect that 
 at particular points of the scale there were operations 
 effected on the human body with the same regularity 
 and certainty as in chemistry, metallurgy, &c. Will 
 you enlarge on this point ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — My starting point was that fever 
 had a standard degree, just as boiling water, — the one 
 being 212^, the other 112<>. Why was it not 111<^ or 
 113^ ? I have worked at that while riding along 
 moors and toiling up hill-sides. I finally answered 
 myself thus : '' If it were 113^ it would no longer be 
 fever." If water boiled at 213*^, the whole eco- 
 nomy of nature would be upset. I then saw that the 
 fever was not the disease, but the effort of nature to cure 
 the disease. So I looked deeper for the disease. The 
 next formula was, "Help nature over the 112^." This 
 came out true. My first stage, then, was 112^. It was 
 long before I reached the second, 160^. This was fixed — 
 not merely on account of coagulation and fermenta- 
 tion, but because it puts you safe beyond that at which 
 the sebaceous glands are emptied, — that at which 
 gummy matter is dissolved, together with the solution 
 of some active chemical agents. But the stage of 160^ 
 is not final, for to reach it you must go far beyond 
 it> You do not raise the temperature of the body 
 to that of the medium in which you place.it. This 
 medium must rise far above 160^, to give you
 
 Nature's 1'hermometer, 37 
 
 the eflPect of 112^ ; and this again is only prac- 
 ticable through the extraordinary facility presented 
 to this very end, as I suppose, by the circulation of 
 the blood. That blood, at the extremity of its course 
 flies, as it were, in air, from one system of vessels to 
 the other. A certain portion of it is thus constantly 
 presenting itself on the surface of the skin ; so that 
 with the bath say at 200^, you may get a portion of 
 the blood operated upon, so as to take inflammation out 
 of it ; and as all the blood will successively pass in like 
 manner — perhaps in half an hour, certainly in forty- 
 five minutes — the whole blood of the body will be sub- 
 jected to a similar action. The cholera might have been 
 arrested with as much certainty as I feel in dealing with 
 any ordinary disease. A man in the Midland Counties — 
 by an absurd process of reasoning, it is true — fell upon 
 the idea of heat as the cure, and they shut him up in a 
 madhouse. I have amongst these papers the pamphlet 
 he published at the time. He used to put them before 
 a hot fire, with blankets ; and he cured, as he states, 
 every person he undertook. I am myself an instance 
 of a cured relapse in cholera. It occurred at Gibraltar. 
 Dr. Dumbreck, now chief of the London stafi", attended 
 me. On the occasion of the relapse he was not within 
 reach. I got down four men from the Arsenal. I 
 gave one limb to each. I was put in hot-water, 
 blankets were put round me, and I told the men to hit 
 me as hard as they could, to relax the congestion. Dr. 
 Dumbreck used these words : — " Your determination 
 has saved your life ; there was no other chance.'* It 
 was not the determination, but the reasoning.
 
 38 Mr, Wilson 
 
 Mr, Wilson. — Mr. TJrquliart has certainly sliown xm 
 some very important matters to-night. He has shown 
 not only the good effects of caloric upon the body, but 
 he has also shown the manner in which heat may 
 be brought to operate upon the body. It is known 
 to all physiologists, that the interior of the body 
 does not become elevated in temperature, however 
 high the temperature may be to which it is exposed ;— 
 that a man with a thermometer in his mouth may be in 
 a temperature of 400^, and the thermometer will keep 
 the same temperature as if he were in a temperature of 
 60^. Therefore, at ffrst sight, it might be a little 
 difficult to understand (the temperature being 90*^) how 
 these high temperatures could act upon the body at 
 large ; but it is quite clear that the surface of the body 
 must be super-heated : and if all the blood of the body 
 is brought to the surface of the body, within a certain 
 number of minutes, it is clear that the whole of the 
 blood of the body must be super-heated, and must be 
 placed in a perfectly new physiological condition to that 
 in which it was placed before. In fact, it must be in 
 a state we can scarcely comprehend, possessing the 
 power of destroying poison, resisting poison, putting 
 the morbid changes altogether in a new point of 
 view, and explaining that which otherwise is somewhat 
 difficult to understand — the extraordinary power which 
 heated air has on disease. It has lately been dis- 
 covered that sulphur and india-rubber being subjected 
 to a very high temperature, they combine in such a 
 manner as to produce a substance totally different from 
 both — a substance possessing extraordinary and very
 
 Sums up, 3^ 
 
 valuable qualities — whicli goes by the name of vulcanite, 
 and whicli is now applied to supply materials for artifi- 
 cial gums. It is indestructible, impermeable to mois- 
 ture, exceedingly light, smooth, not altered by use, 
 inexpensive, and may be melted into moulds, and not 
 l-equiring the mechanical process which the preparation 
 of plates for the mouth before required. So that it has 
 become the means not only of supplying teeth, but of 
 preserving the mouth when the teeth have been actually 
 lost. I mention this as an illustration of the way in 
 which heat acts chemically upon two substances brought 
 together, which opens to us a new field of research as 
 to the mode in which thfe blood itself might be influ- 
 enced by a very high temperature. Of the value of the 
 bath, there can be no doubt, as all those who have been 
 in it must be witnesses to. Some of us have seen its 
 influence upon disease. I have seen gentlemen who 
 have had the gout dissolved out of their loins. A short 
 time back a medical man applied to me, who was sufier- 
 ing from a very terrible and annoying complaint called 
 prurigo. I recommended him to pay Mr. Witt a visit. 
 He came here; he had a bath, which he enjoyed very 
 much, and he left his complaint behind him. That 
 gentleman went away to his own town, and has there 
 established a bath ; and I have no doubt that he there 
 hopes to be most useful to his fellow-men, as his fellow- 
 men have been of use to him here. Therefore those of 
 the medical profession who have been fortunate enough 
 to see its good efiects, I think will not lose sight of 
 them. For my own part, I intend, as soon as I can, to 
 fit up a bath. The great question of all is the institu-
 
 40 Mr, Urquhart 
 
 tion of the bath in Great Britain. I think that is the 
 subject to which Mr. Urquhart has been endeavouring 
 to draw our attention. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I have always expected to be met 
 with the objection that the temperature of the body- 
 could not be raised. I never had to give the answer 
 which I have now given, because the objection was 
 never put ; and probably if Mr. Wilson had not been 
 sitting beside me I should not have thought of doing so 
 now. I felt that though not making the objection, it 
 would have occurred to him afterwards. 
 [After a pause.] 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I had intended to be concise in an- 
 swering, but that required consecutiveness in questioning. 
 You have been rather discursive, and I consequently 
 diffuse. I am therefore desirous to sum up more metho- 
 dically. We have spoken of — 
 
 1. Bringing the skin into action^ and so evoking its 
 latent powers, as the means of reinvigorating the con- 
 stitution and throwing off disease. 
 
 2. Of heat independently of that of the skin, and its 
 effect upon the morbid condition of the blood. 
 
 These are the two salient ideas which I have to pre- 
 sent, affording the means of cure severally for chronic 
 and acute disorders. But we have not touched upon — 
 
 3. Endos7nose and Exosmose, or that law of nature 
 by which the contents of a vessel are interchanged 
 with the contents of an external medium. This 
 is now practised in tanning. Instead of laying, 
 as formerly, skins and tan alternately in layers, now 
 they sew up the skin and put the tanning matter
 
 Sums up, 41 
 
 outside. You would suppose that if you put the 
 tanning matter on both sides of the skin it would be 
 the best means of impregnating the skin, but it is not 
 so ; and what formerly took months to effect is now done 
 in a few hours. This is by endosmose. This law of 
 nature is the source of vegetation. It is also the motor 
 in those mysterious functions of our frame where we are- 
 unable to trace organic instrumentality. If you take 
 a bladder and fill it with water, adding some foreign 
 matter, such as vermilion, and if you put that bladder 
 in a vessel of water, presently you will see the water 
 all around coloured. The foreign matter will find its 
 escape out of that bag the moment you immerse it in 
 water. The same wiU happen if you employ thin slabs 
 of marble. If you will look at the human body as a 
 bladder, and expose it to the same action by giving it 
 an external medium, and if you facilitate the trans- 
 mission by a high temperature, you will see how, by the 
 bath, you can extract from the body its foreign and 
 incidental contents. Exosmose generally acts from the 
 denser to the less dense medium, as if in order that more 
 should benefit thereby, and discharge the matter which 
 is contained within ; say that the body contains mercury 
 which may have lain there for years, apply the external 
 medium and you can draw it out, and that too whilst 
 the perspiration pouring out facilitates its exit. I was 
 led to connect endosmose with the action of heat by one 
 day seeing a butcher strip the skin from off a sheep. 
 It came away snow white, without tincture of blood ; 
 yet the blood circulates in the skin. A word calls the 
 instantaneous colour to the cheek — the teU-tale blood.
 
 4£ Mr. Urquhart 
 
 Endosmose, then, enters into the mechanism of the circu* 
 lation, and it is at the moment of this mysterious flight 
 that the perspiration is dropped. This is a third branch. 
 
 4. Electricity, You know what it is to isolate a chamber 
 for the purpose of making experiments. You never isol ate 
 a chamber for the benefit of your bodies. I have got an 
 isolated chamber, and if I am fatigued, I go into it, and 
 am relieved, and in a few minutes fit to resume my 
 work. I will not talk of negative or positive electricity, 
 but this is sure and certain, that when a man is not in. 
 condition he is short of electricity ; he is a machine and 
 is worked by means of it ; he produces it for his need> 
 and what he does not keep for himself goes ofi" to others. 
 I defy you to distinguish between animal heat and elec- 
 tricity. At one time I had all the mattresses and 
 cushions stufied with silk, but I have found that marble 
 is a sufficiently good non-conductor, and as my prin- 
 cipal bath is a chamber of marble I obtain the results of 
 isolation. Nor is it only that the electricity in course 
 of generation is not extravasated, does not fly off to 
 the nethermost parts of the earth, and aid a Tartar to 
 mount his horse, or a Chinaman to use his chop-sticks, 
 but the supply is increased with a diminution of the 
 drain of vital power. There is heat supplying what 
 your unaided chemical process had hard labour to get. 
 
 5. Actinism, historically and constructively. The type 
 of the bath ascends to primitive and unartificial societies* 
 Therefore it was confined and dark. The Turkish bath 
 is dark and gloomy, no sun comes in. The Roman bath 
 originally was dark : at a later period it was light ; 
 they had plate glass, but there was no idea of letting the
 
 Sums up. 43 
 
 sun in. They had the idea of the sun playing on their 
 naked person which indeed superseded his utility in the 
 bath. The only thing I have ventured on in the way 
 of innovation has been to let in the sun, and that has 
 arisen from having been the first to introduce the prac- 
 tice to a race which had it not without the concurrent 
 introduction of the normal building. You will see in 
 my bath in the garden a slab of glass let into the wall, 
 so that when reclining on the couch in the hottest part 
 the sun streams in full upon you. 
 
 6. Cleanliness. This can be obtained by no other 
 process ; and this alone is probably equal in curative 
 efiects for the sum and generality of maladies to the 
 whole contents of all the apothecaries' shops in the 
 three kingdoms. 
 
 With these six distinct means of action, what a 
 command is not acquired over the whole of the pheno- 
 mena of human life ! 
 
 I have not spoken of medicine, for it is foreign to the 
 subject. Medical science has perceived none of these 
 means of cure. What I say has no connexion with 
 vulgar and general abuse of the profession. I myself 
 am too happy to profit by the knowledge and science 
 of the physician when I require such aid ; but while I 
 respect his science of physiology, and within limits of 
 pathology, I have no respect for him in reference to the 
 means of cure. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — We claim the bath : it belongs to us ; 
 it is a great medicine. 
 
 Mr. Witt* — The moment that any patient speaks to 
 
 * Mr. Witt is a retired medical man, having had for many 
 years an extensive practice at Bedford.
 
 44 Objections of 
 
 a medical man about the bath, be bas but one answer : 
 " It is a capital tbing, but " — pointing to bis individual 
 patient — ** it will not suit you." He first of all tells 
 wbat is not true, saying be understands it ; and tben 
 be goes on to flatter tbe self-love of bis patient. 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — Wben Mr. Urqubart first spoke to me 
 about tbe batb, I tbougbt I knew as mucb about it as 
 be did. I am asbamed to say tbat I took no notice of 
 bis invitation to see it, till somebody said to me one 
 day, ** Tbere is a gentleman living in Prince's-terrace, 
 wbo wants you to go and see bis batb. You must not 
 put it off, because it is a tbing to be seen ; but if you 
 agree to go, you must look upon it as a religious act, 
 and not fail," and tben I came to Mr. Witt's batb, and 
 since tben I bave ceased to be mj^self. I am now a 
 disciple of tbe batb. 
 
 Mr, Urquhart. — My statement was tbat medical 
 science bad not possessed itself of tbese means ; and as 
 tbey are tbe most simple and tbe most effectual — as 
 tbey are of undoubted benefit in many diseases in wbicb 
 medicine bas no pretension to interpose between patient 
 and disorder, it follows tbat wben a medical man per- 
 ceives tbis new light, be also perceives bis own previous 
 darkness, so that there can be no acceptance without re- 
 cantation. And thus it is that the matter has been viewed 
 by the body of practitioners. Their instinct tells them 
 tbat tbere is tbat in it which is incontrovertible ; and 
 tbat instinct is true. But they have another instinct 
 which is not true, which is that they will lose their 
 individual patients. The medical man with a founda- 
 tion of practice, and a superstructure of capacity, wbo
 
 Medical Men. 
 
 45 
 
 will frankly accept and boldly act upon these new 
 perceptions, will have the profession at his mercy, say 
 for instance, Abernethy. Their tremulous state is by 
 nothing better exhibited than by this : that there has 
 appeared in the course of this long discussion but a 
 single exception to that timorousness that will neither 
 accept nor deny. The incident may be an appropriate 
 close to this evening's discussion. 
 
 Dr. Corrigan, holding a professorship in Dublin, and 
 so instructing the minds of the young, whilst operating 
 on the bodies of the old; a journalist, too, and pro- 
 prietor of a review, has taken up the defence of 
 medical science against the bath. By the aid of this 
 science he has learned that that temperature which 
 many of those present have enjoyed and benefited by, 
 parches the skin, inflames the blood, convulses the 
 heart, smites the brain, and drives distracted spleen 
 and liver, stomach and kidneys. In fact that in 
 140^ man becomes a cinder. I could not be 
 indifferent to the means of instruction and correction 
 thus afforded me, and I being, as Mr. Wilson has said, 
 not doctuSf and he being very doctus, I addressed 
 myself to him craving for enlightenment in regard to 
 some of the incidents of my daily life. I hold in my 
 hand a copy of a letter which I wrote to him. Would 
 you like to hear it ? 
 
 Mr. Wilson. — By all means let us hear it. 
 
 " Eiverside, Feb. 15, 1859. 
 " Sir, — A few days ago I saw a controversy on the Turkish 
 bath in an Irish paper, and glanced at the concluding paragraph 
 of a letter of yours, to the effect that heat (140°) was injurioui
 
 i^S Dr. Corrigan 
 
 and dangerous to the human frame. I therefore take the 
 liberty of submitting to you my domestic experience of the last 
 four- and- twenty hours, trusting that you will be so good as to 
 set me right in regard to the explanation of the phenomena. 
 
 1. Yesterday forenoon, I being absent from home, my child, 
 aged four and a half, playing before the drawing-room fire, lost 
 his balance, and saved himself by falling, with his right hand 
 closed, against the bar of the grate, inflicting a severe burn 
 across the upper part of the hand. The servant in charge 
 applied spermaceti, but in consequence of the agony which the 
 child suffered, he was, after some time, taken into the bath, at 
 about 180^. The pain was immediately allayed, and from that 
 time he experienced none until the time that I returned, late 
 in the evening, when I had the bath heated up to about 230^ 
 in the hottest part : kept him in it, varying the heats, for about 
 an hour and a half. This morning he was in at the same heat, 
 but for a longer period. The blister which had risen over the 
 whole injured surface has collapsed, except in one corner. 
 From my experience, I am satisfied that had he been submitted 
 to the action of heat immediately on the occurrence of the 
 burn, the injured part by this time would have exhibited no 
 traces of the accident. 
 
 I have now to submit to you, — First, how a temperature of 
 dry air at 230^ did not produce on this child the consequences 
 which you state to be inevitable even at 140*^ ? Secondly, how 
 it was that in this case the pain ceased within ten minutes of 
 his being subjected to a high degree of heat, and that reco- 
 very has been the rapid result ? 
 
 2. A lady resident here (six months enceinte), and in the habit 
 of taking a bath every morning, complained yesterday of suffer- 
 ing much at night from oppression in the region of the stomach, 
 palpitation of the heart, inability to lie on the left side. I re- 
 commended her to try the bath at night as well as the morn- 
 ing, and also to subject herself for a longer period of time to 
 the highest temperature. She consequently did so last night, 
 and her report this morning is that she passed an excellent 
 night, suffered from none of the causes of uneasiness, and was 
 able to sleep on her left side. She had formerly found benefit 
 from taking the bath at night, but never to the same extent.
 
 States Objections » 47 
 
 But on those former occasions it was a vapour batli which she 
 had taken, and not a dry-air one. She further observed, with 
 respect to last night, that when sitting in the hottest part, the 
 palpitations seemed rather increased than diminished ; but that 
 while conscious of the rapidity of motion, she suffered no 
 inconvenience or mental uneasiness : the weight seemed to be 
 taken off. 
 
 Hot air being injurious to the human frame, the results in 
 in this case also require explanation. 
 
 3. Although the incident I am about further to add has not 
 occurred within the twenty-four hours, yet it is one so simple 
 and striking that I venture to trouble you with it. At the time 
 I sent for the medical man at Rickmansworth, to be witness 
 should the accuracy of my statement be questioned. I had 
 returned home late one night, had got on my dressing-gown 
 and slippers, and was seated before the fire. The candles not 
 having been lit, and wanting a cup of tea in a hurry, the ser- 
 vant placed the teapot on the rug beside my foot, and in pour- 
 ing the boiling water into it he missed the teapot, and poured it 
 over my foot. Without the delay of a moment I was carried 
 into the bath, remained there, exposing it to the extremest 
 heat I could endure, for a couple of hours. I repeated the 
 operation early next morning. In the afternoon of that day 
 there were no traces whatever of the scald except a few small 
 blisters on the other parts of the leg, where sparks had fallen, 
 but which spots had not been subjected to the same heat as the 
 scald itself. You will understand that a jet of hot air was 
 directed upon one particular part of the foot. The sparks on 
 other parts not having been observed were not so treated. 
 
 Here I have to submit how a scald from boiling water was 
 not aggravated by hot air, and how it was cured except by the 
 hot air, seeing that no other means were applied to it ? 
 
 Although 230^ is the habitually highest temperature at pre- 
 sent used, that is by no means the limit. Tv^o medical men 
 from St. Thomas' Hospital came down recently to inspect my 
 bath. It was raised that day to nearly 300^, much to their 
 enjoyment and benefit (both of them being themselves in- 
 valids). 
 
 I cannot close this letter without thanking you for boldly
 
 48 JDr, Corrigan 
 
 raising for the first time as a medical man the question of the 
 action of heat on the human frame. 
 
 I have the honour to remain, sir, 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 D. Uequhaet. 
 To Dr. Corrigan, Dublin. 
 
 Mr. Wilson, — I shall be curious to hear the answer 
 to that letter. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I am sorry I cannot gratify your 
 curiosity, for no answer has as yet reached my hands. 
 (Exclamations of surprise.)
 
 Removal of Barrenness. 
 
 (Note to page 6.) 
 
 At first, I of course believed, in common with, every 
 other European, that the bath was a Mussulman institu- 
 tion. When an old sheik told me the reverse, and 
 added that one of the reasons which constrained Mahomet 
 to give in to its use was, that it produced fruitfulness 
 in women, I passed the notion by as trivial or fan- 
 tastic. It was only on hearing from the writer of the 
 paper on the Farm (inserted elsewhere), of the efiect on 
 cattle, that the statement of the old sheik returned 
 upon me. 
 
 On the farm in question the case had been brought 
 to a test perfectly satisfactory, viz., the same individuals 
 male and female, being tried, first without the bath, that 
 is before it came into use ; and then tried with the bath ; 
 failure being the result in the one case, success in the 
 other, all other circumstances remaining unchanged. 
 
 After the statement of such results, I reverted to the 
 tradition preserved of the opinions prevailing twelve 
 hundred years ago among the women of the East, as 
 to an indication of great value, and a conclusion founded 
 on experience. 
 
 Indeed, it has only to be stated in order to carry con- 
 viction with it — that, as on the health and vigour of 
 the parents depend the vigour of the ofispring, so on 
 the same qualities of the would-be parents must it 
 depend, whether they have ofispring or not. As the 
 bath, invigorates for all purposes, so must it invigorate for 
 
 £
 
 50 Removal of Barrenness. 
 
 eacli purpose. It will be seen elsewhere that the effect 
 on the stomach is to promote, alike desire and per- 
 formance — that is, gives appetite and facilitates diges- 
 tion. 
 
 But, independently of this general cause, there is a 
 special one. Some functions are peculiarly electrical, 
 and this process of the application of pure heat calls 
 forth an electrical intensity in the body, which is not 
 dispersed as it would be were the heat accompanied by 
 moisture, or the subject of it encumbered with clothing. 
 Kor is this all. The activity of secretions must depend 
 on their purity. The purity of these must depend on 
 the general purity of the blood, 
 
 Nor in regard to the delicate matter under review, 
 and consequently so difficult to handle, is the purity of 
 the exterior of our bodies to be overlooked. It is the 
 imagination alone that can here take upon itself to 
 be the expounder to the indiAddual mind, of the arcana 
 of physiology. 
 
 That it should have required the case of these 
 cattle to call my attention to a point so grave as the 
 propagation of the species, through a practice which I 
 am introducing among my countrymen, is to me both 
 strange and humiliating ; and the more so, as particular 
 instances have not been wanting which sufficed to 
 awaken the attention of the most indifferent ; such as 
 three children at a birth by the bath mistress at Bristol, 
 and within the week, foiir children at a birth by the 
 bath mistress at Liverpool. All these children have 
 done well, as have their mothers. They were both in 
 the bath up to the hour of their confinement. These
 
 Ease in Childbirth, 
 
 5' 
 
 women had been for a considerable period, as also tbeir 
 husbands, in tlie bath dail}^, acting as shampooers. It 
 is to be hoped that ladies going in periodically only, 
 and then only to be shampooed, would not run the risk 
 of so large a fertility. However, it is perhaps fortunate 
 for the bath that the career of Malthus was cut short, 
 before it came on the carpet. 
 
 Ease in Childbirth. 
 
 (Note to page 6.) 
 
 In respect to childbirth, there can be no question as 
 to the solid reasons possessed by Mussulman women, in 
 the time of Mahomet, for coercing him in regard to 
 his violent prejudice against the bath. That the use of 
 it during gestation relieves the worst symptoms, and 
 prepares the body for its severe trial ; that the use of 
 it immediately afterwards allays incipient fever, and 
 relieves in very grave cases of lactation, is established 
 beyond question by numerous cases that have occurred 
 in England within the last few years. 
 
 As evidence of action on that order of functions and 
 complaints, I would refer to its beneficial efiects in that 
 malady, as dreaded by women as cancer, ovarian dropsy. 
 
 I subjoin some passages from Lady MaryW. Mon- 
 tagu, who did introduce vaccination from the Turks, 
 but who did not introduce the bath : — 
 
 January 4. 
 
 What is most wonderful is the exemption they (Turkish 
 women) seem to enjoy from tlie curse entailed on the sex.
 
 52 Ease 
 
 in 
 
 They see all company the day of their delivery, and at the 
 fortnight's end return visits, set out in their jewels and new 
 clothes. I wish I may find tlie influence of the climate in this 
 particular. But I fear I shall continue an Englishwoman in 
 that afiair. 
 
 Lady Mary Montagu was in the habit of going to 
 the bath, after ber confinement. She writes : — 
 
 March 10. 
 I don't mention this as one of my diverting adventures, 
 though I must own that it is not half so mortifying here as in 
 England, there being as much difference as there is between 
 a little cold in the head, which sometimes happens here, and 
 the consumption coughs so common in London. I returned 
 my visits at three weeks' end, and about four days ago crossed 
 the sea which divides this place from Constantinople to make 
 a new one. 
 
 The following is from a lady who, reporting tbe case 
 of another, reports also ber own : — 
 
 I wish you had been with me during my last visit to Ire- 
 land, or that I could convey to you what I saw ; for I am sure 
 it would remove both doubts and objections, and induce you 
 to make use of the means which I have myself found so very 
 agreeable for the alleviation of the great trouble and penalty 
 of our sex. 
 
 A lady in a house where we were staying was near her 
 confinement. They had a bath, but only just completed. 
 Consequently she had only been using it for a short time. 
 She looked anything but well, and was not able for much 
 exertion. We returned to the same house in about a month ; 
 I never sav such a change in any one. She looked perfectly 
 fresh and well, and told me that she felt a different creature. 
 She had been using the bath both night and morning ever 
 since. 
 
 Now, then, this is what I have to tell you ; and it is only 
 the repetition of what I have already told you in my own case : 
 but there is a virtue in repetition. When I recollect that for-
 
 Childbirth. 
 
 53 
 
 merly I could do notking without my walk, my drive, or my 
 gallop, and now that I write a great deal, seldom walk, and am 
 never on horseback, I think I have given you the proof positive, 
 and shall expect you to thank me for this in the way that will 
 please me best : that is, by sending for a builder, without a 
 moment's delay, that you may know the benefit of the bath 
 even yet before your trial comes on : at least, have it for after- 
 wards. Having this unexpected and blessed means placed 
 within one's reach, I should be guilty of a crime if I did not 
 endeavour to obtain it for those I love. For you, too, it is not 
 less so, to put it lightly aside. 
 
 The following instructive curiosity is from a savage 
 people : — 
 
 CALIFORNIAN MIDWIFEEY. 
 
 [From the " Medical JN'ews," Sept. 5, 1863.] 
 The mother now (after the birth) remains quiet for fifteen 
 or twenty minutes, when she goes to the nearest spring or pool 
 of water, in which she bathes herself thoroughly. She is next 
 caused to undergo a species of steam-bath, which is prepared by 
 digging a hole in the earth, in which are placed hot stones, 
 which are covered with sticks, over which are placed herbs ; 
 next water is poured upon the stones, the patient, meanwhile, 
 being placed over them in such a manner as to be exposed to 
 the vapour thus generated. She is exposed to this medicated 
 vapour bath, wrapped in blankets, for half a day, and thus 
 returns to her hut, from which I have often seen her come 
 forth, in two or three days afterwards, in comparatively good 
 health, and resume her ordinary avocations. 
 
 Effect of the Bath on the Milk. 
 
 Letter from Mr. Craw shay. 
 
 Tynemouth, Feb. 1, 1863. 
 Dr. Bramwell, of North Shields, when here to-day, seeing 
 the children, who are in the first stage of whooping cough, said 
 he was curious to see what would be the course of the complaint
 
 54 Effect on Milk. 
 
 with the use of the bath. He expected it would be much modi- 
 fied. He had found the bath had a strong tendency to increase 
 all excretions ; and he concluded, therefore, it would assist in 
 the throwing off the mucous substance, on the getting rid of 
 which recovery depended. He has himself had a bath for some 
 time. He had never tried the bath upon whooping cough, not 
 having had a case in his house ; but a lady, during the period 
 of lactation, had found that the use of the bath increased the 
 milk very considerably without causing any fatigue or exhaus- 
 tion. He had most carefully questioned her as to this. Since 
 he had discovered this, other ladies among his patients had 
 tried his bath for the same purpose, and in all cases with the 
 same result. The usual heat of his bath is 150^ to 160^. 
 
 From Dr. Bramwell. 
 
 Worth Shields, Peb. 22, 1864. 
 I have found the Turkish bath have a decided influence in 
 two cases in promoting an increase of the secretion of milk. 
 One lady stated that she felt a decided rush into the breasts 
 while in the bath, and that she always found after a bath taken 
 in the evening that there was a much better supply of milk for 
 the child during the night. The other case I purposely re- 
 quested to use the bath, with the object of increasing the flow 
 of milk, which was exceedingly scanty; and I found a good 
 result : but the lady had not opportunity to continue the use 
 of the bath sufficiently frequent to have any permanent effect. 
 
 March, 1864. 
 A lady who had been obliged to wean her child, from defi- 
 ciency in the secretion of milk, asked my permission to have a 
 Turkish bath, about ten days after having weaned her child. 
 She informed me that while in the bath the breasts were so 
 stimulated that they filled with milk, even to running out. 
 She considered that there had been no milk in the breasts for 
 at least a week previous to taking the bath.
 
 Ovarian Dropsy, 
 
 Dr. Toulmin to Mr. Urquhart. 
 
 Turkish Baths, Brighton, Feb. 22. 
 
 Sir, — I have been honoured by the receipt of yours of this 
 morning respecting a case of ovarian dropsy under my care. 
 I expect you met with it in " Public Opinion" of JN'ov. 7, which 
 was a spontaneous ejQfusion of gratitude on the part of the 
 patient herself. The case is not yet completed, and therefore 
 I have refrained from publishing it. At present the facts are 
 these : — 
 
 She took six baths without my knowledge in the beginning 
 of May last, when, finding herself the better for them, she 
 placed herself under my care, and came into my house. She 
 was then unable to walk, and as large as she could be, without 
 endangering her life. She had then been tapped three times. 
 
 Before resuming the bath, I drew off eighteen quarts of 
 fluid ; and from that time to Dec. 4th I kept the disease at 
 bay — that is, kept deposition balanced by absorption. 
 
 This was accomplished jointly by medicinal treatment, 
 great attention to diet, and her taking a bath daily from May 
 to December last ; during which period she daily improved in 
 health and strength, was capable of walking six miles a day, 
 and was looked upon as the model of female health and vigour 
 in my family. 
 
 On December 4, circumstances compelled her to return 
 home ; and I am fearful, with the loss of her bath, the deposit 
 of fluid may have regained the ascendant : but time alone will 
 show this. 
 
 There is, however, another disease over which the bath has 
 complete control, even in its later stages, viz., tubercular con- 
 sumption ; and inasmuch as its altar is stained with the blood 
 of the largest number of victims, it is the most important dis- 
 ease to which humanity is subject. 
 
 I have the honour to be. Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient and obliged Servant, 
 
 A. Toulmin. 
 
 David Urquhart, Esq., &c.
 
 The Use of the Bath in the 
 Tropics. 
 
 (Note to page 7.) 
 Our fellow subjects have been transferred to tbe re- 
 gions of the 3^ellow fever in the New World, of putrid and 
 intermittent fevers in the Old. Our medical men have 
 been transported likewise to Jamaica and Sierra Leone. 
 Every inducement was thus supplied to profit by the 
 experience of the aboriginal populations : but hitherto 
 in vain, as the subjoined examples will show. 
 
 Africa. 
 
 From Banieirs Medical Topography and Diseases 
 of Guinea, p. 119. 
 
 European practitioners in any degree conversant with the 
 medical customs of the negroes of intertropical Africa, cannot 
 fail to be deeply impressed "^vith the marked attention paid by 
 the native doctors to the due action of the cutaneous tissues, 
 and their encouragement of this as a means of relieving disease. 
 The Mahomedan code of laws, whose sanitary injunctions are so 
 well adapted for the advancement of the moral and physical 
 condition of the barbarous pagan tribes in Central Africa, strictly 
 enjoins not only abluent but other hygienic measures for the 
 promotion of cleanliness, and the proper discharge of the 
 cutaneous functions. The inhabitants of most of the maritime 
 localities in the Bights are fully acquainted with the importance 
 of these views, and treat the remittent and other fevers to 
 which they are subject by endeavouring to excite a long-con- 
 tinued and copious exudation of sweat by the aid of heated 
 sand and hot water. In some countries the patient is placed
 
 Use of the Bath in the Tropics. 57 
 
 close to a large fire, whilst in others lie is lield over it, water 
 being slowly dropped thereon, so that the steam as it ascends 
 may act on the affected portion of the body. After a careful 
 observation of the good effects of this remedial system, I was 
 led to pay more particular study to the utility of its applica- 
 tion, and at length to try a modified adaptation of it for the 
 cure of those adynamic remittent fevers so destructive to 
 European life. I have no hesitation in asserting that not only 
 myself but many others who have experienced its efficacy by 
 the speedy restoration to health, can vouch for its superiority 
 over the ordinary practice of venesection, saline purgatives, and 
 large doses of calomel, &c. 
 
 America. 
 
 From The Ten Tribes Historically Identified; 
 Appendix, p. 363. 
 
 Among the means employed by the Mexican physicians for 
 the preservation of health and cure of distempers, that of the 
 bath was most esteemed. The Mexicans and other tribes of 
 Anahuac made frequent use of the vapour bath or Temazcalli. 
 This bath is formed of bricks. The form of it is similar to 
 that of a baker's oven, but with this difference, that the pave- 
 ment of the Temazcalli is a little convex and lower than the 
 surface of the earth, whereas that of ovens is plain and a little 
 elevated for the accommodation of the baker. Its greatest 
 diameter is from eight to nine feet and its greatest height six. 
 The entrance, like the mouth of an oven, is wide enough to 
 allow a man to creep in with ease. In the place opposite to 
 the entrance, there is a furnace of stone or raw bricks, with its 
 mouth outwards, to receive the fuel from without, and a hole 
 above it to carry off the smoke. 
 
 The part which unites the furnace to the bath, and which is 
 about two feet and a half square, is shut with a dry stone of 
 Tetzoutle, or some other porous stone. In the upper part of 
 the vault is an air hole, like that to the furnace. 
 
 When any one goes in to bathe, he first lays a mattress
 
 58 Use of the Bath in the Tropics. 
 
 •vvitliin the Temazcalli, a pitclier of water, and a bunch of frag- 
 rant herbs. He then orders a fire to be made in the furnace, 
 which is kept burning until the stones which join the Temazcalli 
 and furnace are quite hot. The person who is to use the bath 
 enters accompanied by a domestic ; he is either nude or slightly- 
 covered. As soon as he enters he shuts the entrance close, but 
 leaves the air-hole at the top open for a few minutes to let out 
 the smoke, should any have collected in the vault. When it is 
 all out he stops up the air-hole. He then throws water on the 
 hot stones, from which immediately arises a thick vapour to the 
 top of the Temazcalli. While the person lies upon the mat, 
 the domestic drives the vapour downwards, and with a bunch 
 of herbs gently beats the patient on the ailing part. The herbs 
 being first dipped in the water which is by that time a little 
 warm. The patient falls immediately into a soft and copious 
 perspiration, which is increased or diminished at pleasure, ac- 
 cording as the case requires. 
 
 When the desired evacuation has been obtained, the vapour 
 is let off, the entrance is cleared, and the sick person clothes 
 himself, or is transported on the mat to his chamber, as the 
 entrance to the bath is usually within some chamber of his 
 habitation. 
 
 The Temazcalli has been successfully used in various dis- 
 orders, especially those connected with the digestive organs. 
 The Indian women use it frequently, and always after child- 
 birth ; as also ^persons who have been stung hy some poisonous 
 reptile. 
 
 It is undoubtedly a powerful remedy for all such as have 
 occasion to carry off gross humours, and certainly it would be 
 very useful in countries where rheumatism is prevalent. "VMien 
 a copious perspiration is desired the sick person is raised up 
 and held in the vapour ; as he perspires the more the nearer he 
 is to it. 
 
 The Temazcalli is so common that in every place inhabited 
 by the Indians there are many of them.
 
 U^e of the Bath in the Tropics, 59 
 
 Asia. 
 
 Letter from Captain Burton to Mr. Urquhart. 
 
 As regards the hot-air bath, the people of Makran and 
 Belochistan generally use it to induce perspiration during the 
 algid state of fever. It is simply effected by sitting under a 
 large woollen or camel hair cloak, called by the Arabs Aba (or 
 Abayah), and by the Beloch Choghah. Fire is placed upon a 
 potsherd, the favourite fuel is " braise," the smaller branches 
 of tamarisk well charred. In fever a little frankincense (lubar) 
 or bdellium (mukl) is added. No cold affusion or exposure to 
 the air follows the operation, the patient after perspiring is left 
 to sleep.
 
 Second Dialogue. 
 
 The Medical Society at Riverside. 
 
 Riverside, Kickmaxsworth. 
 
 Feb. 25, 1861. 
 
 Dr. Dndtt. — Celsus advises people, when they come 
 in fatigued, to be anointed. He makes much more of 
 anointing than of the bath. 
 
 Mr. Urqiihart — Ihe skins of the Eomans were sub- 
 jected to much wear, and oil was therefore of use for 
 them. ♦ 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — My question is, whether in Rome 
 anointing was not coincident with the bath ? It is 
 difficult to separate the one from the other in Celsus. 
 
 Mr. Urqiihart. — I know the Turkish bath, and can 
 tell you about it. I never was in a Roman bath, and 
 consequently can tell you nothing about it. I have 
 searched again and again in Celsus, and have found 
 nothing on the subject to quote. You see what he is 
 by the passage which has just been quoted from him. 
 No one is ignorant as to the use of oil for anointing 
 by the Romans. In the Turkisk bath no oil is used. 
 To a Turk the very idea is abhorrent : it is pollution ;
 
 Roman Bath, 6i 
 
 he goes there for purification. To occupy our time 
 with the Eoman bath, its practices or origin, would be 
 to lose that time, as well as the occasion for understand- 
 ing that which has brought you here, and which I take 
 to be the means placed by nature and Providence 
 within our reach, for the preservation of our health and 
 the cure of our disorders. 
 
 Dr. Thudichum. — Still, would you be kind enough to 
 give us your views on that point — the origin of the 
 Roman bath ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Well — since you desire it. The 
 Romans commenced on a given day, and as bandits : 
 they were not a race. All that was possessed by Rome 
 she borrowed. There is nothing original, whether in 
 constitution, ceremonial, or architecture. She drew 
 everything from the Etruscans, the people of Latium, 
 the Sabines, the Samnites. The bath does not appear 
 in any Etruscan shape. We shut off, then, the bath 
 from the beginnings of Rome. The bath is introduced 
 unobtrusively ; we find it, but how it came is never 
 mentioned. It is spoken of as old in the time of the 
 Caesars, and as having been small, dark, and hot. 
 We must assume common habits and institutions in 
 Magna Graecia and Sicily. Therefore, as we know that 
 it flourished in the latter,* we may assume that the 
 Romans found it when they extended their operations 
 
 * At the siege of Syracuse by Marcellus, about a century 
 and a lialf before Ckrist, the bath was in such common use, 
 tbat in mentioning tbe neglect by Archimedes of the usages of 
 life, it is said that his friends had to take him to the bath, as 
 well as to the dinner-table. When there, he began to draw 
 lines in the ashes.
 
 6 a Origin of the 
 
 to the South, and especially in the war with Pyrrhus. 
 Yet, had it been then a novelty, it scarcely would have 
 been passed by without notice, seeing the number of 
 writers on that period. Besides, the bath as known to 
 the Greeks was neither small nor dark. "We may, 
 therefore, refer it to an earlier period — that of their 
 conquests in the North. The Graulish tribes had the 
 bath, small, dark, and hot, as preserved in Ireland to 
 this day in the " sweating houses," and in general use 
 up to the last century. Still, this is npt the type of the 
 Roman bath, which was not an independent and de- 
 tached building, but a heated floor. The bath of the 
 Celts is an oven swept out, and a man put in just as 
 a batch of bread might be. The bath of the Romans 
 was a room over an oven, like the bath of Morocco. 
 The one practice being established among a people, they 
 would not change to another. I do not suppose the 
 Romans copied the Moors or ancient Iberians ; but the 
 same type, in a more constructive and primitive form, 
 exists to this day in Europe among races who do not 
 change. I will now mention the incident which sug- 
 gested to me the derivation of the Roman bath. 
 
 One winter's night, entering a cottage on the Balkan, 
 I observed that, after my supper had been cooked, a 
 stone was removed from the back of the fireplace, and 
 the embers were then shoved in behind. I asked, 
 " What is that ? '' They said, " That is the stoba.'' I 
 said, "What is the stoba?" They said, "Come and 
 see." I was taken behind to a room raised about two 
 feet above the level of the first, being over the oven, 
 behind the hearth. This is the hypocaust of the
 
 Roman Bath. 6j 
 
 Eomans. This form of domestic arcliitecture is the 
 Northern adaptation of the primitive scheme of the 
 Southern latitudes, where the cattle occupy the lower 
 level. This mode of treating an apartment and a 
 house is so economical alike in structure and in fuel, 
 and so admirable, that it could not be seen without 
 being adopted by a judicious people. Now, the peculiar 
 character of the Romans was their judgment in select- 
 ing whatever was useful among their neighbours, allies, 
 and enemies. This does not, indeed, give us the bath ; 
 but it gives us the h5^pocaust, or under-heat. This form 
 of apartment the Romans did employ for common 
 purposes : thus storehouses were so constructed in 
 the North. I will show you presently beautiful Roman 
 flour, from which bread has been baked after a lapse of 
 1,300 years, and which was found in a similarly con- 
 structed building. What more natural, than to slip 
 from a ivarm to a hot room ? Instances had, no doubt, 
 occurred of benefit from some accidental great heat, and 
 the bath so introduced would consist in one super- 
 heated chamber adapted to each house. The apart- 
 ment which I have described receives the name of 
 stoba, which is our word stove^ and the French etuve, — 
 applied, indeed, by us to the fireplace, not to the apart- 
 ment : the Greeks have a-rocfya ; — showing a common 
 derivation throughout Europe from this primitive 
 source. Throughout Tartary the name remains to the 
 apartment. In Poland the large pottery stove is 
 swept out and used for the bath, as in the Irish sweat- 
 ing houses. Whether as used for ordinary purposes 
 or for sweating, the advantage of this early practice is
 
 64 Origin of the Roman Bath, 
 
 equally apparent, and presents a painful contrast with 
 our open fireplaces and straight chimneys, by which 
 23 out of 24 parts of the fuel is wantonly wasted, 
 besides the loss of an equable temperature, and all the 
 filth and trouble of open fireplaces.* Besides, the 
 Romans never had a tj^pe. A Turkish bath is an idea 
 in stone. It is as remarkable in its completeness and 
 in its thought as the mosque itself. In the thermae of 
 the Eomans there is no parallel. It is merely a palace ; 
 porticoes and halls, marbles and paintings — an accumu- 
 lation of these, and that is all. 
 
 Br. Thudkhum. — Do you think that certain adapta- 
 tions of the bath might have been introduced from Asia 
 to Rome ; or do you think that the introduction of the 
 bath into Rome was of a much earlier date ? 
 
 Mr. TJrquliart. — Certainly, the latter. The Greeks, 
 like the Romans, were without the bath at the begin- 
 ning. We need not go beyond the terms of their 
 language for the proof. Their word was " washing," — 
 Joutra, or heracleia loiitra. The ancient vases display 
 the process, — streams of water at the height of a man, 
 under which they scrub themselves. The word ^' hot," 
 thermal, belongs to a late period. It was also adopted 
 in Rome. Lucian speaks of the genius required in the 
 architect for such a building. A Turk would not so 
 speak. He has a type, and the structure is normal. 
 The practice became universal in Greece as in Rome. 
 After the Macedonian conquests, and the Roman exten- 
 sion southward and eastward, there was, of course, 
 
 * See note at the end on " Waste of Fuel in England — 
 Economy by the Bath."
 
 Healthful Clothing of the Ancients. 65 
 
 interchange and imitation in all things : then the habits 
 of the East would be introduced, and the practice of both 
 in regard to the oil-bottle and the strigil become iden- 
 tical with what we see in the tombs of ancient Lycia, 
 especially at Myra. The most remarkable incident of 
 the whole is the present Pantheon at Rome, anciently 
 the Apodyterium of the Baths of Agrippa, identical with 
 the Turkish Mustaby, and which stands by itself in 
 classical antiquity. It is without parentage and off- 
 spring : neither Eome nor Greece afforded the model, 
 and there has been no imitation of it. 
 
 Mr. Rolland. — That view of the case is confirmed by 
 a dialogue in " The Clouds'' of Aristophanes. The bath 
 is mentioned in such a way as to show that it had 
 nothing to do with hot air. The discussion wholly 
 hinges upon the relative merits of cold and hot water 
 to wash with ; the one being mentioned as the ancient 
 and vigorous, the other as the modern and effeminate 
 practice. Commending the first, one of the speakers 
 saj^s : ''We wash in Hercules' Baths {HeracleiaLoutra).*^ 
 The bath was, therefore, not known in the time of 
 Pericles. 
 
 Mr. JJrquhart. — There would be much to say even on 
 these points, were we to occupy our time with them. I 
 will, however, crave your permission to touch on the one 
 point in connexion with Pome and Greece which I con- 
 ceive to be instructive for ourselves. Their clothing 
 excluded neither light nor air. It did not maintain a 
 permanent and general warmth round the person. It 
 was of such material, and so interchangeable in form, 
 that friction was obtained for the skin. The soles of 
 
 F
 
 66 Healthful Clothing 
 
 the feet alone were protected from too mucli wear ; in 
 other respects they were naked. The head had no special 
 covering, a fold of the toga being thrown over it at 
 times. The costume thus adapted to the need of the 
 body, and open to the agencies of nature, was at the same 
 time easy for the person, graceful to the eye, developing 
 noble motions in the wearers, and investing the race by 
 which it was used with attributes of majesty. We 
 oannot carve a statue not repulsive to our own sight, 
 without reverting for our inanimate images to that 
 drapery of Eome which we will not employ for our live 
 selves. The ruins spread over the earth testify to the 
 energies of that race. This, then, is the lesson we have to 
 learn ; and if we cannot change our costume in the mass 
 or in ordinary life, let us examine into the difference, in 
 order that, understanding what effects the contrary habits 
 produce, — namely, our habits, — we may individually, 
 that is, each of us here present, know how to escape 
 from these consequences, at least when suffering from 
 disease. jS^ow, I consider the bath as having (for per- 
 sons in health) only a negative value ; as recovering those 
 benefits which the Romans already possessed in their 
 costume, and in escaping from the effects of our cos- 
 tumes : for health cannot be maintained if you exclude 
 light and air, if you prevent changes of temperature, 
 and if the skin is not exposed to friction. I have found 
 but one modern writer who has indicated a trace of 
 thought on this most essential of all considerations, and 
 that is Robertson. Speaking of the commerce of 
 Bactria, he says that the introduction of fine stuffs — 
 cottons, silks, and muslins — which form so large an item
 
 of the Ancients, 67 
 
 in our trade with the East, was not of the same import- 
 ance to the Greeks and the E-omans, because the vesture 
 of these people being woollen, supplied all their wants. 
 Then he goes on to remark that it was probably in con- 
 sequence of their frequent use of the bath that they did 
 not seek those pleasurable sensations from softer textures 
 which we find in linen. JN'o application, no deduction 
 follows. 
 
 There is, indeed, another reference to the sub- 
 ject in a writer of authority and celebrity — Gibbon; 
 but the citation would scarcely be in place, except in an 
 exposition (an invaluable work when written) of the 
 obliquity of modern philosophical and historical vision. 
 In a panegyric of modern times, he says, '* The common 
 labourers of England command luxuries that were 
 unknown to the Emperors of Eome. Augustus had 
 neither glass to his window, nor a shirt to his 
 back !" What chance is there for the young man here 
 in our times to know anything of his own nature, when 
 he is dropped into unnatural habits from his birth ; and 
 then, with sensations rendered artificially morbid, he 
 passes to the regions of instruction only to receive per- 
 verted maxims ? 
 
 But Eome, that had been great, became little : that 
 is, she underwent change, and change in all things. 
 Already at the period of Eoman greatness a great 
 change had manifested itself in the introduction of the 
 under garment or tunic. The evidence is, however, 
 preserved of the one garment in the obliged clothing 
 of the candidates for the curule offices. He was called 
 candidatus, because his toga was white, that is, without
 
 68 Exposure of the Body 
 
 tlie red stripe of his order. But this was not all ; it 
 was the only garment, as an explanation of it allows us 
 to perceive : for that explanation was, that the candi- 
 dates exhibited to the people their honourable scars. 
 On one occasion, mention is made of exhibiting the 
 absence of posterior scars in a way to leave no doubt 
 as to the total absence of all interior clothing, just as 
 among some of the tribes of Mauritania of this day. 
 The toga was woollen, but not flannel : that is, the 
 3'arn was hard-twisted or hard-laid. I can show you a 
 Moorish ha'ic exactly such as the Romans wore. This 
 not only gave it an immense durability, but also realized 
 the great end, the friction of the body. 
 
 Coming to a later period, another change presents 
 itself. Tertullian, in the third century, says, " the dead 
 alone wear the toga." The drapery of the true Roman 
 had become the winding-sheet of the false one. They 
 had fallen into something approaching our integiimental 
 clothing. That most wonderful phenomenon among 
 human aberrations arose amongst us from copying the 
 military dress — the case of armour. AAThen that was 
 thrown aside, the vestment remained adapted to its form. 
 One man, Petrarch, recorded it at the time. He 
 referred, indeed, particularly to that strange process, 
 with which you have become too familiar to notice, of 
 encasing the feet. This change of costume in Eome, 
 arising precisely from the same cause — the adoption 
 of the military sagum by the whole people — was 
 coincident with the rage for the bath, and with the 
 great light and intense heat to which it was raised under 
 the Emperors. The people had so recently shut out
 
 in Ancient Times, 69 
 
 nature, that they sought once in every twenty- four hours 
 to give their bodies the benefit of light, air, and heat.* I 
 have said, when first treating of this subject, that ''Rome 
 owed her conquest of the world quite as much to the stri- 
 gil as to the sword." At that time I had not considered 
 the points just stated. Nevertheless, the words are cor- 
 rect, because the bath had already been established in a 
 greater or less degree before the first conquest eastward 
 took place — I mean the Macedonian conquest, the con- 
 sequence of the struggle with Carthage. As conquests 
 advanced, so did the bath ; so that the period of the 
 greatest military eminence of Rome coincided with that 
 of the largest enjoyment of this luxury. Then observe 
 that the clothing up of the body took place first among 
 the soldiers of Rome. The Romans were as sedulous 
 as the Turks to-day in supplying means of bathing for 
 the soldiers. We have recently got some remarkable 
 evidence on this head, — a camp in the neighbourhood 
 of Homburg, where 'a body of men was placed in ob- 
 servation in the midst of a hostile country — that region 
 from which the storm broke which overwhelmed the 
 West. The post, which could not contain more than 
 1,000 men, had no less than two baths, these baths 
 sufficing each for the bathing of forty-five persons at a 
 time ; so that they had provided the means of bathing 
 dailj^ for each soldier in garrison. 
 
 If, therefore, it be disputed that Rome owed her 
 
 * Until tlie end of the Republic, the population of Italy- 
 worked naked in the fields in summer. In winter they wore 
 one coarse garment. This we know, because of Cato's habit of 
 working with his slaves. Up to this time, also, they had but 
 one meal a day.
 
 yo Heat of the Bath. 
 
 conquests to tbe strigil no less than to the sword, it 
 will scarcely be denied that to the strigil she owed 
 their retention. When you come to the period of their 
 decline, the Romans had lost their bath ; they lost it 
 as the Turks are losing it to-day, and just as I have 
 myself seen the Greeks lose it. Men run into one 
 excess, and then they run into another excess. The 
 human race, when it has got a good thing, is always 
 in a hurry to lose it (at least, so soon as they begin 
 to reason about it) : there is nothing words will not 
 smother. Already has the same course of decay mani- 
 fested itself here before even the birth has taken place. 
 Bath is heat. Reduce the heat, where is your bath ? 
 Some one gets up and says, as you medical gentle- 
 men are now saying, " You must regulate your heat — 
 extremes are dangerous." Unreasoning men judge by 
 the effect. No longer obtaining the advantages of the 
 proper practice, the fashion goes out; and so the 
 Romans at the time of their decline had so completely 
 lost the bath, that at the later period of their literature 
 it is only mentioned to be sneered at. 
 
 Dr. Bruitt, — I want your opinion on the point, how 
 far anointing is adverse to the oxydating theory of the 
 bath, and your experience on the virtues of anointing 
 per se. Let me add, that I have seen wonderfully good 
 results from the latter in my practice, in consumption 
 and atrophy. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart — I cannot say more than I have 
 already said : the daily use of the bath, the contest of 
 the palestra, the absence of close-fitting garments, the 
 constant friction of the woollen toga and pallium, ex-
 
 Heat of the Bath. 7 1 
 
 posed the skin of the Romans and Greeks to the very- 
 contrary evil of that from which we suffer — namely, 
 excessive abrasion. 
 
 Dr. ThiicUchum. — As you have touched upon the 
 question of heat, I may venture an important evidence 
 on the heat of the bath in the East. Yesterday, Dr. 
 Wollaston says, in a letter in the " British Journal," 
 that at Constantinople he was in the habit of taking 
 his thermometer with him into the bath, and he found 
 the heat always ranging between 150° and 160°. 
 This sets aside all the talk which we have lately heard 
 of the baths in the East not being heated to that 
 temperature, which you have advised. 
 
 Mr. UrquJiart. — We must fix the heat for ourselves. 
 In reference to this '^ Roman Bath," I have said you 
 cannot explain so much as the words you use ; you cannot 
 tell the heat of caUdarium or tepidarium. At the Asiatic 
 Society, the other evening, we had a singular illustration 
 of this dilemma. Mr. Eedhouse, during his lecture, was 
 constantly speaking of the " cold room," it being clear 
 that he was meaning a hot room. He was translating 
 a Turkish word without explaining it, or even mention- 
 ing it ; that word being souk havhity which certainly 
 means cold room, but which is a hot room. 
 
 Dr. Thudichum. — You have mentioned that the Tartar 
 couriers, after a long and severe journey on horseback, 
 come from the hot bath new men and able to continue 
 their journey. The Cossacks, when crossing Germany 
 in the French war, used to cause the common baking 
 stoves of the peasantry, which are two or three feet high 
 and very large, to be heated, and pushing boards inta
 
 7 1 Muscular Pain : 
 
 these stoves, then crept in. TTe should be happy to 
 hear what you have to say on this reinvigorating 
 power. 
 
 Mr. TJrqnhart. — You invite me on a great and untrod- 
 den physiological field. It is one on which 500 years 
 hence something may be known. The newh"- invented 
 term myalgia, or muscle-pain, points in that direction, 
 as inviting inquiry into pain itself, independently of 
 the disease or cause producing it. What an assistance 
 in the examination of its nature would be the discovery 
 of a relief for it ! Now we have that relief, and it is 
 equally common to fatigue. "We may, therefore, assume 
 a relationship between the two. The relief is again 
 twofold, being heat and friction, or rather blows. By 
 giving blows, you produce pain in your arms ; by blows 
 received, that pain is relieved. An Arab camel-driver 
 in the desert is exhausted and unable to proceed. He 
 rolls himself in the hot sand ; one of his fellows combes 
 up and tramples on him, or beats him. He jumps up 
 ready to resume his journey. So, cold will give the 
 pains cf rheumatism ; blows will in like manner take 
 those pains away. — But I hold that myalgic pain will 
 not be produced when the surface is exposed. The 
 muscles of the face may suffer from neuralgia, or pain 
 of the nerves, — that is, general pain ; but they are not 
 subject to m}' algia, or pain of the muscle, — that is, local 
 pain. You have never rheumatism in the face ; and that 
 is the only part of our bodies constantly exposed to the 
 air, to the light, and to cold. Our life is electrical no less 
 than sanguineous. When it is exhausted, the muscle 
 suffers, and the symptom is pain. Restore the vital
 
 its Cause and Remedy, J^ 
 
 current and develop a larger amount of electricity, and 
 the sj^mptom disappears, and the muscle thereupon re- 
 sumes its power of continued action ; so that you obtain 
 the results that would otherwise have to await a pro- 
 longed cessation from labour, and the intervention of the 
 restoring influence of sleep. I come in exhausted — have 
 pain accompanying that exhaustion. I should have to 
 lie for hours before the refreshing took place ; I should 
 have to sleep upon it again in order to obtain it. But I 
 go into the bath, wherein, in addition to heat, I have 
 manipulations, and blows if necessary. I come forth 
 again fit for my work, and relieved from sufiering. This 
 is what one can only call miraculous. I have been on 
 horseback four days and five nights without resting. I 
 had two intervals which I might have employed in 
 sleeping ; but, instead of sleeping, I went into the Jbath 
 and started afresh. In such a case as this, no disorder 
 with its nomenclature intervenes to confuse the sight. 
 You have merely life diffused by the effect of its own 
 superaction ; you throw in a new element and restore 
 it. What is that element? The simplest, the most 
 self-evident that human ingenuity could devise, if human 
 ingenuity based itself on getting back from art to nature. 
 These results have not come by progressive experiments 
 in a science of which you are to-day continuing the 
 line, and for the future triumphs of which you are 
 accumulating the materials. Nor are they the achieve- 
 ments of some brilliant epoch of past investigation over 
 which the tide of barbarism and oblivion has swept. 
 They are the simple expedients and instincts of un- 
 lettered and untutored man, who, in the operations of
 
 74 Adaptation of Bath to Climate. 
 
 his mind, when not distorted, presents a subject of 
 inquiry of an interest analogous to that which we feel 
 in examining the laws of nature in inanimate objects. 
 
 Dr. Leared. — Do you think the bath is adapted to a 
 climate like ours ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — What do you mean by " adapted " to 
 a climate ? 
 
 Dr. Leared. — Whether the bath is as well adapted to 
 our cold, moist climate of England, as it is to the dryer 
 climate of the Levant, where it has become naturalized ; 
 because, after all, we find that people adopt fashions and 
 customs as much from instinct as from anything else. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — You adapt a shaft to a mine, an arrow 
 to a string, or a saddle to a horse's back ; but I do not 
 see how you can '' adapt '' a bath to a cKmate. If you 
 had. a *' bath " and a " climate " in each hand to fit into 
 one another, as a handle into a brush, then I could 
 understand the word " adapted." Your climate is one 
 that, more than a dry one, assists disease. If you had a 
 dry climate, the bath would be of less service. Having 
 superinduced a morbid sensitiveness to cold and engen- 
 dered a liability to catarrh, you go on heaping on bed- 
 clothes, shutting out air, and swaddling up your bodies, 
 in consequence of the variations of your climate and its 
 moisture. Much of this, and the consequent sufiering 
 and malady, you could escape if your climate were dry : 
 therefore the bath is peculiarly adapted to your neces- 
 sities. Again, you contrast our climate as a moist one, 
 with that of the Levant as a dry one. Constantinople, 
 the metropolis of the bath, has a climate far more vari- 
 able than ours. In the middle of winter, summer is
 
 Effect on the Hair, j^ 
 
 wafted by a soutli wind to the Bosphorus ; and in tlie 
 middle of summer, Boreas will bring down winter from 
 the Black Sea. You have superadded so many things 
 to climate, that climate, being no longer to be seen, 
 becomes a pitfall. Those other things are feather bedS;, 
 window glass, open fireplaces, fleecy hosiery, close-fit- 
 ting clothes j then the dark colours of your outer gar- 
 ments, the soft texture of your inner ones, and the 
 leather cases for your poor feet. These, then, make your 
 climate, as well as your consumption, your cancers, your 
 scrofula, and the morbid sensitiveness of your bodies, 
 whether as to cold or as to pain. You have just dis- 
 covered that the climate of Russia is good for consump- 
 tion : but the Russians have taken your open fireplaces, 
 and so consumption has invaded Russia also.* It is 
 everywhere the same thing: Europe, talkative and 
 scientific, pollutes whatever she touches, and she will 
 handle everything. Clothing, not sky, is climate. 
 
 Dr. Rogeis, — It is believed that the open fireplace is 
 desirable. 
 
 Mr. Urqiihart. — Examine, then, into that belief. 
 
 Dr. Druitt.— There is one efiect I have heard as- 
 cribed to the bath, but I do not know whether it be true 
 or not. Some ladies who have taken it, fancy that the 
 hair comes out quicker than it did before. Have you 
 any fact that bears upon that ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Your question reminds me of a small 
 
 * The Samovar, that most admirable of machines for getting 
 hot water, and the name of which combines the sacred words for 
 fire and water of the Sanscrit and the Zende, has been adopted 
 by the Russians from the Tartars. A friend offered to bring 
 me one from St. Petersburg. A Cockney tea-urn came.
 
 76 l^ffect on the Hair, 
 
 incident which has produced upon me a lasting impres- 
 sion. Some ladies were in this room conversing on the 
 improvement of their hair. A medical man from 
 Rickmans worth, Dr. Garlick, came in. He said, " Now, 
 if there were any virtue in the bath, it would show itself 
 in the hair ; whereas we know it produces exactly the 
 contrary effect." The exclamations which immediately 
 burst forth warned him that he had dug a pit for him- 
 self. Last week, one of these supposititious cases as to 
 injury from the bath was brought to issue between two 
 medital men now present : I mean Mr. Spencer Wells 
 and Dr. Thudichum. 
 
 Br. Thudichum. — Some time ago, Mr. Spencer Wells 
 communicated to me a case which had been under his 
 own observation. A gentleman with thick hair, whis- 
 kers, and moustache, after one or two baths lost his 
 hair in handfuls, particularly from his beard. Mr. 
 Wells expressed his apprehension that he would become 
 bald. Upon that, I stated the case to Mr. Urquhart, 
 and asked him. to supply me with his experience upon 
 the point. In reply, I received a letter from Mr. 
 Urquhart^s secretary, who for four or five years has 
 been among all classes of bath-men, and seen as much 
 as any man, I believe, in this country. He stated that 
 not only had he never known any case in which the 
 hair had been lost in consequence of the bath, but that, 
 on the contrary, it had been constantly observed by 
 bath-men (meaning the attendants in the baths) how 
 much more the hair grows in consequence of the new 
 habit. I sent that letter to Mr. Wells ; and he had the 
 kindness to state in reply that, from further information
 
 Effect on the Hair. 77 
 
 obtained from the case in question, it appeared that no 
 permanent damage had been done. I may refer to Mr. 
 Frquhart's chapter on the Bath in the "Pillars of 
 Hercules/* where he says that the Eastern ladies who 
 constantly take the bath, and who remain in the bath 
 for many hours, and expose the hair particularly to the 
 influence of the heat, — that the hair of these ladies is 
 celebrated for its luxuriance, and for the beautiful silky 
 and curly condition of its fibre. 
 
 Mr, JJrquhart. — Is that sufficient as to the hair ? 
 
 Dr. Bruitt. — I put the question because it has been 
 put to me. I should like to ask whether it is better to 
 go into the bath with the hair wet or dry. A gentleman 
 got his hair partially singed. The temperature was 
 180°: he did not wet his head. 
 
 Mr. JJrquhart.— 1 have felt, when the temperature has 
 been very high, alarm about the hair : I could not touch 
 it, it was so hot. As I did not care about losing my 
 hair, I continued the experiment to the extremest point 
 of endurance, covering my knees, shoulders, and feet, 
 and leaving my hair exposed : no injurious effect fol- 
 lowed, as you may see. The hair is then highly elec- 
 trical, giving ofi" sparks and crackling. Take it as 
 certain that we have never seen a case of injury to the 
 hair. What we have seen, is grey hair recovering its 
 natural colour. The vitality of all the parts are, of course, 
 increased. But this may also be referred to the elec- 
 trical currents. The hair being treated almost as vilely 
 as the feet by Europeans, any change will be beneficial. 
 It is constantly greasy. The hard brushing destroys 
 the texture of the skin. When a man goes into a bath,
 
 7 8 Development of Electricity, . 
 
 the first thing to deal with is the head. I have to 
 explain to him wh}^ the head is put upon his shoulders, 
 and why the hair is put upon the head — that it may- 
 afford the means of getting lather for the body. This 
 is, in fact, the only unalloyed use of the head. The hair, 
 when subject to a new excitation, will contain a mass 
 impervious to that action ; and the first impulse will be 
 to throw that hair ofi", in order that fresh young hair 
 may come out.* 
 
 Mr. Druitt. — May I interpose one question as to the 
 electricity of the hair ? — whether that electricity in 
 the hair may not be owing to its dryness ? Patients 
 always find that the hair sparkles when they dress it 
 at night ; but that state disappears when they are well. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — If the hair of sick persons gives off 
 electricity, and that of healthy persons does not ; then 
 the first lose it, and the second retain it. I do not see 
 the connexion between that and the superabundance of 
 electricity to which I referred. Dryness does not 
 develop electricity. But in the bath, as I have it, when 
 there is both heat and drjTiess, the heat excites it and 
 the dryness retains it, until an escape is found. If 
 you mean the question as controverting what I have 
 said, I beg to reply that in this case, were you suc- 
 cessful, you would be controverting, not me, but the 
 
 * A friend thus writes : — " A man of sixty-two, povverfully 
 built, who had been completely broken down by hard living 
 and excessive work as a navvy, came to the bath, suffering 
 from emaciation and inability to eat. His head was entirely 
 bald. After four baths, appearances of hair showed them- 
 selves, in tufts. These increased, and the intermediate spaces 
 filled in, till he had a head of soft brown hair, like a boy."
 
 Effect on Fatness. jn 
 
 established and recognized laws of electricity and pa- 
 thology.* 
 
 Br. Lcarcd.^-1 should like to ask if it is true that 
 the bath tends to corpulency ? The Turks are noted 
 for their stoutness, particularly the Turkish ladies. 
 
 Mr JRollancL—The Turks fat ! 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — If by corpulence you mean fat, I 
 answer that it has directly the contrary effect. I have 
 here a letter from Mr. Banting, who is the type of 
 obesity. He says — 
 
 " I believe the restoration of the bath the greatest blessing 
 which has fallen upon man for the last 1,000 years. It is like 
 manna distributed to the Jews in the wilderness, according to 
 Scripture history. To me they are most invigorating. I have 
 striven against obesity for near twenty years unsuccessfully. 
 Through the baths alone (thirty-seven in three months), I am 
 reduced in girth many inches, and in weight 5 lbs.; besides 
 being positively and unquestionably invigorated in body and 
 mind — physical power to take exercise, and mental to enjoy 
 it." 
 
 Five pounds are distinctly set down, but there must 
 be some mistake. It must be 35 lb. I think I heard 
 it mentioned that he had been reduced that amount. 
 
 * " As vapour and water are good conductors of electricity, 
 they must exhaust the living body of its due supply, and debi- 
 litate it ; while hot air, being a non-conductor of electricity, is 
 well calculated to regenerate and retain it within the system. 
 Sir James Murray ascertained in Belfast, years ago, that in a 
 moist, low locality, where an electrical machine could not be 
 excited, and the power of the magnet to raise a weight was 
 reduced from 50 to 10 lb., the inhabitants there were severely 
 scourged with the prevailing epidemics, as if, being unduly 
 exhausted of their animal electricity, they became an easy 
 prey to pestilential poisons." — De. Tuckee, of Sligo.
 
 8o Development of Vigour. 
 
 The deposit of fat indicates a morbid condition. By- 
 restoring the healthy action, you must remove that 
 deposit. You will have one man diminishing in bulk 
 and weight, and you will have another man increasing 
 in bulk and weight ; the same cause producing the 
 contrary results. In the one case the fat is dissolved, 
 in the other the fibre is increased. 
 
 Mr. RoUancl. — Since I have had a bath of my own, 
 taking it daily, I have not increased my usual amount 
 of exercise, nor altered my diet; and yet I am four 
 inches less in girth : my weight has been brought 
 down from 14 stone to 12 stone 7 lb. But in regard 
 to the use of dumb-bells, to fencing, and tennis -play- 
 ing, there is not the slightest comparison as to what I 
 can perform before and after I have had the bath. 
 
 B}\ Thudichum. — Let any one go to the baths and ask 
 questions there. He will find dozens of persons attend- 
 ing them for the very purpose of reducing their obesity. 
 Thirt3^-six pounds is the highest I have heard of from 
 the person who has experienced it. But if a man goes 
 to the bath and feeds like a pig all the time, it is quite 
 clear that that person will increase in fat. Therefore, 
 if a person will live properly, there is no doubt that 
 the bath will increase the fibre, and decrease the dead 
 matter which we call fat. 
 
 Dr. Leared. — I had in mind the popular notion that 
 the fatness of the Turk is due to the bath. 
 
 Mr Urquhart. — The assumption that the Turks are 
 fat is as groundless as that their climate is dry. The 
 safe rule in all such cases is to take the contrary of a 
 popular notion. The Turks are singular in this, that
 
 Development of Vigour. 8 1 
 
 they combine slothfulness and energy. I am not speak- 
 ing, of course, of the labouring population. The value 
 of the bath, in a military point of view, can be esti- 
 mated from the health and endurance of their army. 
 The Duke of Wellington reckons ten per cent, to be 
 deducted for sickness from the effective force of the 
 English army, which is supposed to be in the best pos- 
 sible condition. Through the last Russo-Turkish war 
 of 1828 — 9, as you will find by a statement added as an 
 appendix to " Molkte^s Campaign,^* the number of the 
 Turks in hospital was set down at five per cent. — this 
 in war time, and these raw levies. In what you call 
 the Russian war of 1854, there was a French expedi- 
 tion to the Dobroja. It was absent a fortnight : it 
 consisted of 14,000 men. Seven thousand only returned, 
 not a man having been lost before the enemy. There 
 was no enemy where they were sent. The Turks 
 engaged with them had only their average proportion 
 in hospital.* 
 
 I had looked to the co-operation of the army sur- 
 geons, whose interest it is to stop disease, but hitherto in 
 
 * " Thanks to their excellent state of health, cases of illness 
 are rare in the Ottoman armies : * To such a degree,' says Mr. 
 Skene, ' that on one occasion, when 50 men out of 3,450 were 
 in the hospital, the circumstance appeared so alarming that an 
 extraordinary consultation was held. One sick man in seventy 
 is not an extraordinary proportion in the military hospitals of 
 Great Britain. While the Eussians occupied the Principalities 
 conjointly with the Turks, it has happened that the same day, 
 after a parade, 300 Russians had to go into hospital, out of 
 whom 160 died in a few days ; while there was not a single 
 case of death in the Ottoman army.' ** — UbxcinIj Lettres sur la. 
 Turguie, p. 370 ; 1853.
 
 82 High Temperature 
 
 vain. However, tlie idea has at last arisen of intro- 
 ducing the bath into the British army : so, at least, I 
 infer from a letter I received two days ago from Lord 
 Herbert. 
 
 Br. Rogen. — You spoke of the changeableness of the 
 climate of Constantinople as requiring a bath. May I 
 ask if it has taken root in Egypt, where the climate is 
 so dry that we look upon it as a model one ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I did not say that it was desirable 
 on that account : I was merely clearing away ground- 
 less objections. I need not say groundless, for all 
 objections are from their nature groundless. If a pro- 
 position be not established, the evidences have to be 
 called for ; if false, its falsehood has to be shown. A 
 witness is examined and cross-examined ; he is not 
 objected to. Whether the climate be dry and hot, 
 or wet and cold, the bath will be in use, or not in use, 
 according to the sense or senselessness of the people, or 
 of their ancestors. 
 
 Br. . — The objection to the introduction of the 
 
 bath is the fear that our frames could not endure the 
 transition from 160'^ or 170*^ to one which may be as 
 low as 30°. The skin, becoming sensitive, would rapidly 
 cool down, and be unable to retain its normal tempe- 
 rature. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Really, this is perplexing. The 
 objection that I have had hitherto to meet, was that 
 the heat in the bath would kill. So soon as that 
 monster is put down, its shadow starts up. ISTow it is, 
 *'the cold without will destroy." Let me put your 
 objection in the form of a proposition, for otherwise
 
 not Dangerous. 8j 
 
 I cannot deal with it: — "Alternations of temperature 
 are injurious to man." I place against it the pro- 
 position, " Alternations of temperature are ordained for 
 the confectioning of the human frame." * We must first 
 put some limits to the term "temperature." Doubt- 
 less, you will accept as such the extremes of our own 
 climate. I will therefore add, " The alternations of 
 our climate may be borne without clothing." If I 
 succeed in establishing both propositions, I will then 
 expect you to admit two consequences, — the one physi- 
 cal, the other metaphysical : the first, that we have en- 
 gendered in our bodies a morbid condition ; the second, 
 that the morbid condition of our bodies has passed to 
 our minds. 
 
 To prove my case, I have to address myself, not to 
 your ears, but to your eyes. The proof stands before 
 you in flesh and blood. Look at that child : observe 
 his complexion, feel his muscle, try if you can hurt 
 him by pinches or by blows. Well, that child only 
 wears clothes for company. If you saw him twelve 
 hours hence, it would be sleeping naked on the floor, 
 with the window open. He has no more sense of cold 
 than of pain. If you ask him if he is cold, he feels 
 himself to find out. 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — What is the temperature of his skin 
 under these circumstances ? 
 
 Mr. Urqnhart. — Hot in the central regions, but so 
 
 cold in the limbs as to make me shiver on touching 
 
 him. He had been brought up in the ordinary way 
 
 until the fourteenth month. The process of weaken- 
 
 * See at the end of this Dialogue, *•' Bath or the Finns."
 
 $4 Clothing unnecessary 
 
 ing had produced in him more than ordinary results, 
 so that it was a misery to see him. He had a flaccid 
 face, the cheeks hanging down like those of Louis- 
 Philippe : the incessant crying was unbearable. I sat 
 down and considered what could be done; and it 
 occurred to me to operate upon the mind through the 
 body, so that by hardening the one I might fortify the 
 other. The process of tempering metal is that 
 which I followed. That process is mere alternation 
 of temperature. A little later, and it would not 
 have been commenced at all ; because I should have 
 perceived the morbid sense of pain, and I should have 
 desisted. 
 
 Mr. Rolland. — Having observed the experiment, 
 I can testify. He was then about fifteen months old. 
 The experiment had been commenced about a month. 
 It was in the cold winter of 1856. I was staying at 
 St. Anne's. I met Mr. Urquhart carrj^ing the child, 
 absolutely naked, through a wood. The temperature 
 was about 10*^ above zero. He had just come out of 
 the bath at 170^. He passed from 170^ to 22^ 
 below freezing point without any consciousness of 
 the difference. Large stalactitic icicles were hanging 
 from the rocks. I took one of these and rubbed him 
 from head to foot, and pressed it against him. He 
 took it, — played with it, looked at it and amused 
 himself with it. I, in my winter clothing, was glad 
 to' drop it. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — That is my case, and I hold I 
 am entitled to a verdict, — namely, that he who 
 holds alternations of temperature to be injurious to
 
 in Our Climate, 85 
 
 man, lias superadded to a morbid skin a diseased 
 mind, 
 
 [The batt was here announced as ready. The con- 
 versation was continued, but the shorthand notes were 
 resumed only between two and three hours later.] 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — Will you tell us how children should be 
 treated so as to enable them to go without clothing in 
 our climate ? 
 
 Mi\ Urquhart. — Take off their clothes. 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — But, as a question of fact (for on such 
 questions all a priori reasonings go for nothing), will 
 you tell me the facts upon which you built your obser- 
 vation ? 
 
 3£r. Vrquhart. — The results I have obtained depend 
 upon the a priori conclusions. " Fact" means " thing 
 done." 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — Well, what led you first to make the 
 experiment ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — It would be more to the purpose if I 
 were to ask you on what ground you had come to the 
 conclusion that clothes are necessary in our climate, or 
 why you have not given lip a notion which you now 
 own is erroneous. To tell you the process of reasoning 
 and observation I passed through would take hours, and 
 would shut out entirely the subjects for which j^ou have 
 taken the trouble to come down here, and with a view 
 to which your reporter is taking notes, — viz., that the 
 Medical Society should be able to pronounce an opinion 
 on the medical value of the bath. Nevertheless, I will 
 give you what you will call a " fact," but which I do
 
 86 Clothing unnecessary 
 
 not pretend to designate otherwise tlian a " narra* 
 tive." 
 
 In 1846 I was boar-hunting in Morocco. It was in the 
 month of January. I had gone there in the lightest of 
 summer clothes, and never in my life did I suffer more 
 from cold. I had to remain for several hours shivering 
 at my post, while the man beside me, leaning with his 
 gun over a rock, allowed his toga -like drapery (the hdic) 
 to fall away as if he did not know what cold was. 
 
 Dr. Leaved. — Darius, in his expedition against the 
 Scythians, is reported to have seen some who had no 
 clothes. One was taken prisoner, and he was asked 
 how it was he went with his body uncovered. In turn, 
 he asked his captor how he went with his face un- 
 covered. He said he was used to it ; upon which the 
 Scythian replied, '' So am I : I am face all over/' 
 
 Mr. . — There is the case more in point of the 
 
 ancient Britons, as it happened in our climate, 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — The wearing clothes has nothing to 
 do with the power of being able to dispense with clothes. 
 It is narrated of the Irish by a French writer of the 
 fifteenth century, that, being in the house of a chief, he 
 was told to put himself at eese, meaning that he was to 
 throw off his clothes, as the chiefs did when the ex- 
 ternal ceremonial was over. They clothed themselves for 
 company. The ancient Britons, in like manner, were 
 clothed ; but on certain occasions they unclothed them- 
 selves. A person may be clothed during the day like 
 every one else, and yet at night, when sleep exposes 
 him to the influence of cold much more than in the day- 
 time, when the cold also is more intense, he may wear
 
 in Our Climate. 87 
 
 none. A gentleman in Ireland who witnessed this 
 experiment from the beginning tried it on himself, and 
 in the course of a fortnight brought himself to dispense 
 with clothing during the greater portion of the night 
 (that must have been in November and December), to the 
 great relief of his complaint, a chest disease, and the 
 manifest improvement of his appearance.* 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — Will you tell us the modus operandi — 
 how you set about training this child ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — After great difficulty with the nurse, 
 I got one blanket removed, and then I got a second 
 
 * One of those present having applied to the gentleman in 
 question for a statement of the case, received the following 
 reply : — 
 
 " 28th January, 1864. My deae Sie, — I have no objection 
 to answer your questions. Horrified at the reports I heard of 
 Mr. Urquhart's cruel treatment of his son, I went to Blarney, 
 determined to urge Dr. Barter to take legal steps to put an end 
 to it. I took every opportunity of examining the child, and I 
 was compelled to admit to myself that he was not only in 
 robust health, but enjoyed a flow of spirits not often met with. 
 Arrived at this, I began the experiment on myself, sleeping 
 at night without covering. This I have now continued without 
 one omission for three years, with the window open. I did not 
 at first pass the whole of every night thus, but I always 
 remained on the outside of the bed till I had gone asleep. 
 Some time previous to this, I had had a severe attack of 
 bronchitis, which rendered me liable to a recurrence ; and on 
 catching cold, I often doubted whether it were wise to risk the 
 chance of a second attack for the sake of the experiment. 
 However, I continued, and never suffered from a cough : colds 
 passed away rapidly. The muscles became firmer, and the 
 power of enduring fatigue increased. — Yours sincerely, J. E. 
 
 SCEIVEN."
 
 88 Clothing unnecessary 
 
 blanket removed. The removing of the third blanket 
 required the preliminary operation of removing the 
 nurse : I did so, intending to supply her place with a 
 rational woman. After several experiments, I discovered 
 that such a person was not to be found. I was thus 
 left with the child on my own hands, and had to 
 become nurse. We had arrived at the last blanket in 
 the month of October of the very cold winter of 1856. 
 The bedroom was to the north, without fire ; the win- 
 dows open. The child was on a rug on the floor : 
 I began by laying the last blanket half over his loins ; 
 he did not creep under the warm part. 
 
 Br. Bruitt. — Did you find the effects correspond mth 
 the object for which you commenced the experiment ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I did. The experiment, however, 
 was not as to whether a child could endure the cold of 
 our climate, but whether the cold of our climate could 
 be of service to correct a fractious disposition.* I do 
 not wish the subject to close without pointing out the 
 economical view of the question. On my becoming 
 nurse, a reduction of 10s. per week was effected in the 
 washerwoman's bill. It is much for a child, but I 
 suppose other people are not more economical. There 
 was further a great saving in clothes, and of labour 
 in the household — a child so brought up giving 
 little or no trouble. In this case one servant was 
 saved. We reckoned, at the time, the saving at 
 
 * The incident is recorded in a paragraph in a Cork paper, 
 headed " The Wonderful Child," which was repeated in all the 
 papers at the time. See note at the end, — "Clothing 
 
 UNNECESSAEY IN OUR ClIMATE."
 
 in Our Climate, 89 
 
 between £70 or £80 a year. Look at the difference, 
 then, in a family of five or six children. Say that 
 the saving amounts but even to a tenth, and let that 
 be again noted according to the varieties of grades,. 
 and see what the difference will amount to as regards 
 the public wealth. Or put it the other way — see 
 what you squander in the process you employ to 
 diminish the strength and the enjoyments of the young 
 population. 
 
 Mr. . — There are two boys, the sons of a Ger- 
 man doctor at Brighton, who some years ago hearing 
 you speak on the subject, brought up his sons accord- 
 
 Dr. Learecl. — The earliest of our race, so far as we 
 have any historical record, clothed themselves. What 
 wouM be the process of reasoning that would have 
 induced them to cover their bodies as we do at the 
 present day ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — What ! Adam and Eve. Singular 
 illustration you have chosen. When they did put on 
 clothes — and, after all, a fig-leaf — it was not because 
 they were cold. You yourself just quoted the example 
 of the ancient Britons the other way. You ask why 
 men have put on clothing, implying thereby that it can 
 only be because they were cold. "Pride knows no 
 cold,^' says a Scotch proverb. Clothing is finery ; 
 clothing is false taste; clothing is vanity. Clothing 
 is pride ; — the African savage parading under a 
 burning sun in an old uniform coat. The history of 
 clothing is the history of the weakness of man's 
 character in the first instance, of his frame in the
 
 90 Modern Ailments of Children, 
 
 second, and of ttie perversion of his intellect in the 
 third. You have reached to the most ungainly costume 
 that has ever been devised, and the most perverted 
 ideas of your own nature that have ever been attained 
 to, until at last you have justified yourselves in the 
 shame which you feel for the noble form in which 
 God has created you. You are nov/ inflicting on your 
 horses all your own disorders, and by the same process ; 
 covering them with clothes, enclosing them with win- 
 dow-glass, and feeding them four times a day. A 
 groom is frightened at a breath of air for an animal 
 whose race has sprung in Tartary and the Himalaya, 
 and has descended in all his vigour from above the 
 level of Mont Blanc. There is a charming little ode 
 of Pignotti instituting a comparison between the fig- 
 leaves of our primitive forefathers and the words of 
 our modern philosophers, ending with — 
 
 " Le Parole cosi, sono le fronde 
 Con cui la propria nudita nasconde." 
 
 Br, Bogers. — Does he sufier from chilblains in the 
 winter? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — ISTot at all. He does not sufier from 
 anything : that child has not had, and will not have, 
 hooping-cough, measles, or any of those ailments of 
 modern children. 
 
 Mr. Rolland. — The Nubians, men to whom old age 
 does not come until they have turned their hundredth 
 year, lining in the tropical desert under a bright sun, 
 are in like manner insensible to cold. AMien exposed 
 to cold, as they are also to pain, those who have gone
 
 Morbid sense of Pain. 9 1 
 
 up to the second cataract will all testify to this. The 
 work of Mr. Parkyn contains remarkable instances. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart.-^'l. had a dinner-party of travellers 
 from all parts of the world at Manchester during the 
 Exhibition. They had been testing what I told them 
 of this insensibility to pain, and inquiring the ex- 
 planation. I said it was because he slept naked. Upon 
 this each in turn exclaimed-^'' This explains why the 
 Patagonians are insensible to pain/^ '' why the Abys- 
 synians," &c. 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — Now^ I want to ask you a question of 
 practical use, because my daily life is spent in solving 
 questions like these. I have known a case of an infant 
 B.ye weeks old, that has been blue with cold, miserable, 
 husky, and troubled with difl&culty of breathing ; and 
 I know that by wrapping it warmly in fleecy woollen 
 glo thing, it will be restored to health. Let me put the 
 case in a practical point of view with regard to a young 
 infant ; and let us suppose the case of a prematurely 
 born infant. What course would you take ? 
 
 Jfr. Urqiihart. — A Turkish Reis Efiendi being 
 exposed to a variety of questions from an English Am- 
 bassador in reference to what he would do in certain 
 hypothetical cases, answered thus : — '' It is not the 
 custom of the Mussulmans to give a name to a child 
 before it is born and the sex known." 
 
 Dr. Rogers. — Still, you start with the elements of 
 health, when you speak of making such a change in 
 the constitution of the child. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — It is you who make a change in the 
 constitution of the child. It is I who propose to leave
 
 92 
 
 Milk Diet. 
 
 his nature unelianged. I seek to retain the element of 
 health : you destroy it. You invent disease by your 
 ingenuity, without having the ability to cure it by your 
 science. Solomon said, long ago, " God made man 
 perfect, but he has found out many inventions.*' 
 
 Mr. . — You, then, conclude that the heat of the 
 
 bath does not produce any injurious effect by reason of 
 a superinduced sensitiveriess of the skin to the cold of 
 our climate? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — The question should come from me, 
 as to whether you perceive the groundlessness of such 
 assumptions. 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — You said just now that your boy's food 
 was milk. What quantity will he consume ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — About two quarts a day. Medical 
 men, both here and on the Continent, have earnestly 
 remonstrated with me on the insufficiency of food. Tg 
 live on milk was an idea bewildering to them. 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — Does he take no solid food ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — His diet is milk. I have reduced 
 him from five meals to two meals a day. The change 
 was an immense relief, nature not having to throw off 
 the superfluous food. He is now in the condition in 
 which a human being ought to be. 
 
 Dr. Thudichum. — In that remarkable case in which 
 you treated consumption by the means of the rays of 
 the sun, you mention, I see, by the notes of your 
 lecture at Brompton, that you had recourse to other 
 means — dietetic and others. Was milk one of those 
 means ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Most certainly. I should never think
 
 Case of Rheumatism, 93 
 
 of treating any disease without a return to nature. As 
 I connect disease itself with habits, for since cure, that is 
 care, must consist in rectifying them. I must begin with 
 relieving the patient as much as possible from hampering 
 clothes, and by supplying to him the nourishment of his 
 childhood, the only nourishment which is prepared in 
 the body of one animal for assimilation in the stomach 
 of another.* 
 
 Mr. RoUand. — May I ask for specific cases, as more 
 to the purpose than general speculation ? — that case of 
 the old man at St. Anne's. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — That was the first morning the first 
 bath was opened. I was going in, about nine in the 
 morning, when I met this old man coming out, sup- 
 ported by Mr. Rolland and Mr. Scriven. He had been 
 in already an hour and a half. He was a man with a 
 remarkable countenance; the magnitude of his frame 
 in its past existence was evidenced by his skin hanging 
 about him like a sack. He had been suftering for 
 fourteen years from rheumatic gout, with thickening of 
 the joints. I induced him to return with me. The heat 
 was 170°. I shampooed him, not in the ordinary 
 way, but applying the whole of my strength ; hitting 
 him as hard as I could, and standing on his chest and 
 limbs. In the intervals, I subjected him to alternate 
 rushes of hot and cold water, as he lay flat on the floor 
 to get its full weight. After three hours, he walked 
 away erect. The chains of fourteen years were broken 
 in a single operation. 
 
 * See note at the end, on "Milk Diet."
 
 94 Supposititious Cases 
 
 Mr. Rolland. — His own expression was, "I went in 
 on all-fours, and I went away on wings." 
 
 Dr. Dniitt. — May I mention, as a matter of fact, two 
 circumstances wliicli I have known of injury resulting 
 from the use of the Turkish bath? I mention them 
 simply as matters of fact. 
 
 Mr. Urguhart. — Say, of inquiry. 
 
 Dr. Druitt, — The first was a young lady about nine- 
 teen or twenty, the daughter of very conspicuous people. 
 She took the Turkish bath. 
 . Mr. Urquhart. — This was in Turkey? 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — She took it at Dr. Barter's. What the 
 details of that bath are I cannot say, but I know the 
 result. The skin, which was remarkably fair and nice- 
 looking before, was scorched : she was for some weeks 
 afterwards sunburnt. The other case is of a gentleman 
 who took the bath at Mr. Witt^s. The hot air so 
 scalded his trachea, that he was not able to speak 
 above a whisper for a fortnight afterwards. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — You have now given us two narra- 
 tives, and these rumours only, for you do not say that 
 you saw the persons and examined them. Medical men 
 do not accept cases on hearsay. How are these intro- 
 duced ? An authenticated case had just been stated of 
 restoration from one of the most grievous of maladies 
 which afflict human nature, and especially in our 
 climate ; one in which all medical means had been tried 
 in vain for fourteen years.* The science of medicine, 
 if anything, is the science of cure. Are you not glad 
 
 * See note at the end, on " Medical Teeatment of 
 Eheumatism."
 
 of Injury. ^ 95 
 
 that a means of cure should be discovered ? — do you not 
 desire to extend the knowledge of it ? It cannot be that 
 it has no interest for you ; and yet a rumour of a burnt 
 face or a scorched throat as happening somewhere to 
 somebody makes you forget it. I am here at your service 
 to answer questions connected with my own experience : 
 you are here, as I understand, to question me on those 
 points. But if questions wholly irrelevant are put by 
 one individual, while the rest are sincerely anxious to 
 examine into the subject to which they have devoted 
 a day of their time, I should be acting most unfairly 
 and uncourtebusly to them if I allowed myself to be 
 drawn away either into supposititious cases or into futile 
 discussion. 
 
 Doubtless, there is great liability to injury from those 
 heated cellars and suffocating rooms called Turkish 
 baths. But these " facts " do not belong to this cate- 
 gory : for they are alleged to have occurred in the 
 baths of Mr. Witt and Dr. Barter, where the only 
 inconvenience that can arise is in cases (eczema* for 
 
 * See p. 34, what Mr. E. Wilson says as to the kigk keat 
 requisite for the treatment of this disorder. I would mention 
 that a patient brought to the bath in Golden-square a note 
 from an eminent practitioner, saying that he was not to be 
 subjected to more than 130^. The manager, in his perplexity, 
 came down to consult me. I told him that 130° would 
 only irritate, and that relief would only be experienced after 
 that point was passed, and that he should let the patient feel 
 his own way to the higher temperature. Next day the medi- 
 cal man came in while his patient was relating the two ex- 
 periences, which fell out exactly as I had said. The 130° is, 
 in fact, the pons asinoeum.
 
 o6 Supposititious Cases in 
 
 instance) where a low heat only irritates, and does not 
 relieve. 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — Then how are we to distinguish between 
 the true and the false ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Ah ! there is, then, a true one ? I 
 can afford little time to this matter, yet I gave eight 
 months to Dr. Barter : my task I considered then com- 
 pleted. Unless some one of you who are here now 
 should happen to be a man of genius, or unless I am 
 successful in putting you in the right way, so that your 
 self-love will be on that side, I shall also have to regret 
 that I ever called your attention to the subject. By past 
 experience, I have learned that in every man who takes 
 up the bath with the view of turning it to profit, 
 whether as a builder, a practitioner, a speculator, or a 
 patentee, I have to reckon ultimately on a bitter enemy. 
 On these grounds I have refused to undertake any build- 
 ing in London, except on the condition that there shall 
 be no architect.* The bath which you have seen, 
 elaborate as it may seem to you, was built without 
 architect, or builder, or even marble cutter. I taught 
 myself the common bricklayers to cut and polish the 
 marble. So in this neighbourhood, at least, the bath 
 and I will have made no enemies. 
 
 * The name of Mr. Somers Clarke does appear as architect to 
 the Jermyn Street Company, but these conditions were never- 
 theless carried out, as will be seen by the terms of his accep- 
 tance of the appointment when writing to me in December, 
 1860 : "Mr. Holland has requested that I would communicate 
 with you as to an appointment I have to make with you at 
 E,iverside, in connection with my acting as practical and pro- 
 fessional adviser {sic) under you to the Turkish Bath Company."
 
 spurious 'Turkish Baths. 97 
 
 Dr. Druitt, — I am exceedingly grateful to you for 
 mentioning this, because I had not the remotest idea 
 but that Dr. Barter's was an orthodox establishment. 
 
 Mr. Urqnhart. — The bath is putting England on her 
 trial. I never knew what the Turks were till now, by 
 the contrast with us. Seeing that it was good, they 
 accepted it without an emotion of self-love or a thought 
 of self-interest. 
 
 Dr. Leared. — You laud the Turkish character. How, 
 then, do you account for it that the Turkish bath, even 
 in Turkey, has become so altered and so enfeebled ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I was not speaking of the modern 
 Turks. 
 
 Dr. Rogers. — I think it would be useful to know the 
 specific faults in the bath that exist. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — They cannot be mended, they must 
 be swept away. An edifice such as those in Constanti- 
 nople is about to be constructed in London. The im- 
 pulse on which the money was subscribed was the 
 announcement that Dr. Barter was about to invade Enof- 
 land with his ** improved" Turkish bath. Let us but 
 get a proper one and so establish the practice ; and then 
 the door will be open to the introduction throughout the 
 land of a practice that will improve the condition of the 
 whole people. In the first bath at St. Anne's I gave 
 them the three essentials : 1st, the building ; 2nd, the 
 beat ; 3rd, the shampooing. I gave them also the dis- 
 tinction between the '^ clean" and the "dirty:" also 
 the method, the style, and some sense of the dignity of 
 the procedure. These are now lost or vulgarized. The 
 temperature, I understand, of the Dublin bath is only 
 
 H
 
 p8 Spurious 'Turkish Baths. 
 
 10^ above* that of the tent with double canvas roof 
 used by our officers in the plains of India, and to which 
 they have to retire for protection against the sun. As 
 warm rooms for washing in, with an abundant supply of 
 hot and cold water, they are most commendable ; and in 
 as far as the run of sickness goes, their habitual use 
 would be of more service than the contents of all 
 the apothecaries' shops in the Three Kingdoms. But 
 this is not the bath. In addressing lately an audience 
 largely composed of medical men and students, with a 
 medical man in the chair, in a town where the whole 
 faculty have adopted the bath, and where it has been 
 introduced into the infirmary by Sir John Fife, the man 
 of highest professional reputation out of the capital, I 
 thus entered my protest against the whole of the specu- 
 lations known under the name of " Turkish Baths" : — 
 
 " The only apprehension I have is, that, remaining 
 satisfied with the first attempt, and content with em- 
 pirical innovations, you stop short of the perfect thing ; 
 and instead oi recovering the luxury, pride, enjoyment, 
 and strength of the most luxurious and philosophic, 
 learned and military of the races of the earth, this 
 endeavour shall pass away as a troubled dream. It is thus 
 I am driven to address you, not only by the desire 
 to introduce for my countrymen a benefit of which I 
 know and experience daily the value in my own person, 
 but also by the necessity of preventing this experiment 
 
 * An attendant in the bath at Dublin being attacked with 
 typhus, and not being able to give him a higher heat than 
 130°, they had to send him to the hospital !
 
 Non-perspiring Patients, oo 
 
 from lapsing, by reason of self-love and speculation, into 
 a disastrous and shameful abortion."* 
 
 Mr. Urqiihart. — Now, then, let me give you a " fact'^ 
 of injury from the bath. It will be neither anonymous 
 nor supposititious. It has been already the subject 
 of a letter from me to the Medical Society, It has been 
 examined by Mr. Erasmus Wilson, who reported on it, 
 in the first stage, in writing. His letter is here, if you 
 wish to refer to it. The patient is a woman between 
 forty and fifty ; her name is Stocker ; she is housekeeper 
 to Mr. Holland, and the incident occurred in his bath. 
 She was sufieringfrom a complication of maladies, some 
 of old standing. She was wasting away; there was only 
 before her to take to her bed and die. Observing the 
 efiect of the bath on others, she had the idea, without 
 consulting anyone, of taking it herself. She went in 
 at a heat of 170^ to 180^. She experienced unpleasant 
 sensations, but she persevered. She went on, I believe, for 
 a couple of hours, and was brought out at last with her 
 body swollen, and in something described as convulsion. 
 However, satisfied that the bath was her only chance of 
 life, she repeated the experiment three times, and always 
 with the like results. When Mr. RoUand became 
 acquainted with what had happened, he did not know 
 what to think or what to do. It never occurred to him 
 to consult me. So he sent her to Mr. E. Wilson, who 
 sent her back, saying that nothing could be done for her. 
 His words were, "It is one of the non -perspiring cases." 
 There the matter would have rested, had I not by the 
 
 * Neivcastle Daily Journal, January 22, 1861.
 
 lOO Non-perspiring Patients. 
 
 merest accident met her, — I think it was just as she 
 had returned from Mr. Wilson. I was passing, in haste, 
 and just heard these words, — " She was taken ill in the 
 bath, and cannot perspire.'^ I called out from the cab 
 I had got into, '' Send her down to Riverside, and she 
 will return next da}^ all right." 
 
 She did return all right the next day. From that time 
 she took the bath at Mr. Eolland's regularly, and in a 
 few weeks recovered her health. You may suppose this 
 as an extreme if not unparalleled case, and to have given 
 me much trouble. Not the slightest. Nor was it till 
 days or weeks afterwards that I learnt the antecedent 
 circumstances which I have related. On arriving, I 
 sent for the housekeeper, and said to her, " Mr. Holland's 
 housekeeper is coming down to-morrow to take the 
 bath, as she cannot perspire. Go in with her yourself, 
 to-morrow evening and the morning afterwards ; and 
 see that she perspires." This is my ' fact ' of injury 
 from the bath. 
 
 Br. Rogers. — How was she made to perspire ? Is Mr. 
 Rolland's not a good bath ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — She could have perspired just as well 
 in jSIr. Eolland's as in mine ; only it requires to know 
 how. It is simply gradual heat that is wanted. She 
 was probably kept a couple of hours at 130^, perhaps 
 she had alternate ablutions of hot and cold water — 
 perhaps she was well soaped and scrubbed — perhaps she 
 was sponged with vinegar — perhaps she had a pint of 
 lime-juice to drink. My housekeeper having orders to 
 make her perspire, would employ the necessary means 
 to that end.
 
 Anesthesia. loi 
 
 Br. Rogers. — What is the case that occurred at Mr. 
 Witt's. Is ]\Ir. Witt's not a good bath ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Oh, Sir James Clark ! I am glad 
 you mentioned it, as these two cases furnish the whole 
 list of incidents against which precautions have to be 
 taken. True, they are both of rarest occurrence ; yet I 
 mj^self was once affected in the same way as Sir James 
 Clark, and I owe to it my having my attention originally 
 fixed on the bath, as furnishing physiological lights 
 unknown to modern science. I made this statement 
 on the last occasion on which I was subjected to 
 scientific examination.* The affection itself was at 
 that time unknown and unnamed. It is Dr. Simpson's 
 discovery of anmsthesia. Mr. Witt's bath was no more 
 in fault in this case than Mr. Holland's had been 
 in the other ; only, neither Sir James Clark nor 
 Mr. Witt knew how to deal with a case which 
 any Turkish shampooer would have relieved in an 
 instant — if, indeed, they knew what it was. But on this 
 subject I must refer you to Dr. Thudichum, who men- 
 tioned it to me. Had Sir James Clark taken the bath 
 here, nothing of the sort would have happened. I 
 repeat to you, I never had any case of injury whatever. 
 I never heard of one in the East ; I never heard of one 
 in Ireland : I cannot so much as imagine such a case. 
 It is, however, as dangerous to go into a bathes into 
 a boat, unless you know that you have to step on the 
 thwarts, and not on the gunwale. 
 
 Dr. Leared. — I am desirous of knowing if you have 
 
 * See First Dialogue, p. 3.
 
 I02 Effect in 
 
 turned jomy attention to tlie operation of the bath on 
 the digestive functions ; how it conduces to appetite, 
 and what its effect is in cases of dj^spepsia ? 
 
 Mr. Urqiihart. — As to appetite and digestion, I have 
 nothing to say ; they belong to the healthy state ; and 
 you cannot improve upon health. As to indigestion or 
 dyspepsia, the bath, by calling the blood to the surface, 
 affords relief to the stomach. There must be inflam- 
 mation when there is difficulty of digestion. That 
 inflammation must impair the force of the digestive 
 juices, and disquaKfy the stomach for dealing with 
 food, so that it lies there a source of increased irrita- 
 tion, as any other foreign matter might be. Those 
 present, not medical men, and who have never handled 
 a human stomach, may apprehend the difference between 
 a healthy and a dyspeptic one by taking the first to 
 resemble this sheet of writing-paper, and the second 
 to resemble this sheet of blotting-paper. The one is 
 to the other as inflamed to uninflamed skin on the arm 
 or the leg. The inflamed leg has to remain quiet and 
 get well; but the inflamed stomach has to go daily 
 on with its task. Seated in this dark interior which, 
 cannot be reached, the malady presents insuper- 
 able obstacles to such treatment as medical men 
 would employ if it appeared on the surface. They 
 would apply poultices and emollients in one stage, 
 lotions and astringents in another. The process of 
 digestion calls to the stomach, and all the organs 
 immediately connected therewith, a mass of blood 
 inconceivable to those who have not followed the 
 cruel operations upon animals by which we have, so
 
 Dyspepsia, 1 03 
 
 to say, inspected with the eye the internal operations 
 of the body. Now, disease in the stomach permanent^ 
 produces the effect of disturbing the equilibrium by 
 congesting the blood within. You can, therefore, judge 
 of the relief afforded by determining the blood to the 
 surface, even if it be for a very limited space of time in 
 the course of the four- and- twenty hours. The stomach 
 also will be relieved in another way. Oxygen being 
 more available, the assimilation takes place more rapidly 
 and more completely. Thus, less food sufficing, there 
 will be less digesting to be got through. There is also 
 less detritus from the body, and therefore less waste to 
 be made good. Whilst the patient is exposed to a 
 high heat, there is during that period a reduced de- 
 mand for animal heat, for the production of which so 
 much of our food is required. I am satisfied that the 
 constant use of the bath diminishes by one third the 
 amount of food required. My servants have given up 
 one of their three meals a day. 
 
 I would also refer, if in but a single word, to a 
 consideration of the highest importance, and equally 
 ignored by medical men — the temperature of the diseased 
 stomach. Against the chance of perceiving this point, 
 which alone to perceive placed larger therapeutic means 
 in their hands than the whole Pharmacopoeia affords, 
 they have carefully bandaged their eyes by the pro- 
 position that the temperature of the body remains the 
 same in all zones, and whatever the external tempe- 
 rature may be. We have been experimenting here 
 latterly, and the results have been given in Dr. 
 Thudichum's paper at the Medical Society. I may add,
 
 I04 Relief in Dyspepsia, 
 
 tliat I have since been repeating the experiments, and 
 have found, in addition, that the temperature within the 
 body rises in the same degree as that of a thermometer 
 cased in wet flanneL Now, in case of fever, the heat 
 is seeking to ascend, to attain to the purifying and 
 perspiring power. Not so that of the stomach. By 
 stimulants, by the superimposed heat of the surround- 
 ing viscera, and, above all, by the unnatural excitements 
 of reiterated meals — that dreadful maxim, " Little and 
 often," — you maintain a decomposing heat. Often a single 
 shock of cold water on the external body will brace it for 
 a day. Wh.y not brace the afflicted stomach in like 
 manner ? Combine, then, the two processes : call the 
 blood to the surface by externail heat ; then supply inter- 
 nal cold ; but ^ do not use the relief thus afforded to be 
 expended on medicine, on stimulants, and on that itera- 
 tion of meals which is the primary cause of all dj^spepsia. 
 It is not, however, going in for an hour once or twice 
 a week that will effect anything. It is a great effort 
 that has to be made. When a man is ill, it is his first 
 duty to get well; and he must endure whatever has 
 to be borne for that purpose. He must be in two 
 or three hours a day. In that period of relief afforded 
 from the internal pressure of blood and consequent 
 heat, the vessels can regain their contractility against 
 the inevitable recurrence of the labour of digestion. 
 But this malady in its progress will involve all the 
 other organs. Now, that relief which is afforded 
 to the stomach by directing the blood to the sur- 
 face, is in like manner afforded to the other organs 
 secondarily involved, whilst in several and separate
 
 Consequences of Eating Often, 105 
 
 ways tlie symptoms of disturbed functions are alle- 
 viated. 
 
 Yet what avail the means I offer you of alleviating 
 this disorder, if you only use the margin to fill it out ? 
 You have produced it first by indulgence, and then by 
 theory. England originally had but two meals ; and 
 they did not dabble with eating or drinking in the 
 intervals. The old verse runs — 
 
 "Up at five, dine at nine, 
 Sup at live, bed at nine." 
 
 Having indulged themselves without reserve, they 
 then convert their practice into maxim ; and no longer 
 the weak man says to himself, but the physician to his 
 patient, " You must eat little and often." I invite you 
 to the examination of that most important of all con- 
 siderations for the medical man who woidd do his duty 
 by qualifying himself to understand the origin of those 
 ailments which afflict in an extraordinary degree that 
 species which is the most perfectly constituted, and 
 amongst whom there should be no malady save old age. 
 If he does so, then he will use the instrument I place in 
 his hands, not to allow his patient a further latitude of 
 self-indulgence, but to enable him to bear up against 
 the consequences of a vicious habit which he is now 
 resolved to rectif}'. 
 
 Digestion is a frightful operation, from its difficulty: 
 repeat it not, then, oftener than is required. You must 
 lose the capacity for taking food, or you must take 
 more than is needed. Look, in the latter case, at the 
 toil you impose on all the organs to get rid of it. It is 
 not, then, the food that supports you — you have to
 
 io6 Alternations of, 
 
 support tlie food. I wisli I could parade before you the 
 array of persons that I myself have restored to health 
 and comfort \iy persuading them to this abstinence. 
 People have often said to me, "Why are you not a 
 doctor?" My answer has been, "Were I a doctor, I 
 would starve at least in England ; for the apothecary 
 here makes the physician, and the apothecary would not 
 approve of the plan." 
 
 In ancient times, among Romans, Greeks, and 
 Persians, the discipline for the young consisted in 
 subjecting them to privations: they had to endure heat 
 and cold, to endure hunger and thirst. Now it is 
 " warm clothing," it is " plenty of food," and nothing 
 is more dreaded than an " empty stomach." I have 
 the — advantage, I was going to say, — but, at least, 
 the occasion of studying this disease in myself.* A 
 feature of dyspepsia is the craving for something to 
 put into the stomach. This is a symptom not peculiar 
 to dyspepsia, but it is also common to those disorders 
 that are connected with the use of stimulants. The 
 bath has the quality of allaying that craving, as it does 
 even in extreme delirium tremens. 
 
 Br. ThudicJmm. — WlQ the counterpart of this view 
 hold? That is to say, suppose we have an external 
 irritation analogous to the internal irritation, will the 
 determining of the blood to the surface injure in that 
 case, as it relieves in the other ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — In all cases of external inflamma- 
 tion, abrasion, bruise, sore, incision, suppuration, relief 
 
 * See note at the end, on " Dyspepsia Teeated by One 
 Meal a Day."
 
 Heat and Cold, 
 
 107 
 
 is immediate. The exposure of an abraded surface is 
 supposed to be injurious, in consequence of the action of 
 the air. You go into the bath with the part exposed : 
 you suffer no inconvenience from the air ; you are re- 
 lieved from the irritation of the ointment or plaster, and 
 you get the benefit of the heat. In surgical cases the 
 bath will be found to be a wonderful agent. I have as 
 yet had but a single case. The operation was one of 
 the most painful and precarious ; it was attended with 
 long suffering. The patient, when capable of removal, 
 was, with my friend Mr. W. Fergusson's concurrence, 
 and by his advice, brought down here. The change in 
 the asj^ect of the wound in four-and-twenty hours was 
 wonderful. 
 
 Dr. Leared. — A recent French writer has advised 
 dipping the patient into icy-cold water; and he says 
 that they come out with an ap|)etite to which they have 
 been strangers before. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Well, I give icy- cold water, as well 
 as burning-hot air : that is a partial groping only. 
 Without the heat, the application of cold is a very fool- 
 hardy experiment. Dr. Marshall Hall has used this 
 means in cases of suspended animation. If he used 
 the cold onlyy he would ensure death. The concomi- 
 tant effect — the sending the blood backwards and for- 
 wards, from without to within — calls the whole f»ame 
 into action. You have never seen men suffering from 
 dyspepsia who are exposed to great stress on the system. 
 Races exposed to precariousness of food acquire great 
 powers of digestion. 
 
 Dr, Druiit. — As a matter of fact, I differ from you
 
 io8 Strengthening Effect 
 
 there. Many cases of dyspepsia witliin ray experience 
 have been brought about by unusual abstinence. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I said " races,"* not individuals. I 
 said that races exposed to privation are not dyspeptic. 
 A man brought up as you are will, of course, suffer from 
 going v/ithout his luncheon. 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — The Laplanders suffer a great deal from 
 dyspepsia. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — The Laplanders ! Can you digest 
 blubber and tallow ? Admitting that thej' are dyspeptic, 
 you have to go to the Pole for an instance and then to a 
 race subjected to more than privation. My object has 
 been, in the experiment I have made, not to go to the 
 limit of depression, but to find the limit of fortitude. 
 I must hit the point where the power of expansion shall 
 not be curtailed, where the power of endurance shall 
 not be passed. You have before you a specimen of 
 another race — a being brought up from infancy in 
 another manner. He will be proof against dyspepsia 
 at one hundred years, but then he will presently be 
 on one meal a day. 
 
 Mr. RoUand. — The Red Indians are frequentty exposed 
 to privation for several days without food in their hunt- 
 ing excursions ; so are the Hottentots : jet they never 
 suffer from dyspepsia, although they gorge themselves 
 freqtiently afterwards. To establish this point, take any 
 book of travels. Take Dr. Darwin's "Adventures of 
 the Beagle ;" take Parkyns, take Atkinson, or any other 
 traveller, it does not matter who. The less a man has 
 
 * See " Maesh's Geneeal Theeapeutics," 1863.
 
 of One Meal a 'Day, 109 
 
 studied the subject the better, because lie gives you the 
 result of observation. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — I have myself gone through all this. 
 I have reduced myself to one meal a day in order to be 
 able to go through with my work, which has for years 
 prevented me from taking an hour's exercise or recrea- 
 tion : and so I have been able to work sixteen hours a 
 day, and sometimes twenty ; and also to pass from the 
 one extreme of inaction and fatigue to the other. Before 
 I fell into this practice, which arose out of my observing 
 the Mussulman fast of the Rhamazan, I was tortured 
 with that form of dyspepsia called heartburn. It dis- 
 appeared, not that I noted the change at the time, under 
 that practice. Eeturning to Europe and relaxing into 
 the ordinary meals, — I mean, two a day, with tea and 
 coffee, or the like, — all returned in an aggravated form. 
 Cicero tells somewhat the same story of himself. Ackbar 
 did the same, as mentioned by Abul Fazel. Talley- 
 rand, I was told the other day, also reduced himself to 
 one meal. I hold that one meal in the twenty-four 
 hours is the intention of nature, as made plain by the 
 dimensions of the stomach and the necessity of filling it 
 to obtain perfect digestion. I am, moreover, satisfied on 
 historical grounds, that a race exceeding two meals a 
 day can no more be permanent than an empire that 
 sends its phosphates down its rivers. * The physical con- 
 
 * The earlier legislations took care to prevent this waste. 
 They did so by enjoining, not discussing. Tliey enjoined their 
 professors not to pollute the elements. In this the moderns 
 have only seen superstition. Pliny (Nat. Hist., L. xxx. c. 2) 
 thus explains the objections of the envoy of Tiridates to go on 
 board ship: — "Navigare noluerat, quoniare expuere in maria.
 
 no Perspiration 
 
 dition of permanency must be — 1st, the restoration to 
 the soil of the elements of vegetation ; 2nd, the preser- 
 vation of the stomach for the digestion of its food. We 
 have a specimen in the Chinese as contrasted with the 
 Romans in former times, and the British to-day. They 
 have seen the first rise, change from one meal to two, 
 and then to three and fall; and so will they the 
 second. 
 
 Before leaving dyspepsia, let me say that the influence 
 of the bath on this malady is comparatively small ; the 
 command by it of the disordered stomach by no means 
 corresponds with its control over the disordered head, 
 heart, liver, or kidneys. I want now to come to what to 
 me is the important part of our subject — perspiration. 
 
 Dr. Dncitt. — "\Yhat is your experience as to the 
 lowest temperature at which a man can be comfortable ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Comfortable is a very fanciful word. 
 
 Dr. Thudichiim. — I can say there is no limit to the 
 time during which I can be naked in a cold room at 
 this temperature and not feel cold; but I begin to feel 
 cold as soon as I put on my clothes. 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — Now, we are anxious to hear what you 
 have to tell us about perspiration. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — It would be better brought out by 
 question and answer than by mere statement. 
 
 Dr. Druitt. — What amount do you believe a man 
 
 aUisque mortalium necessitatibus violare naturam earn, fas non 
 putant." They had for this season no cities on the coast. 
 The Chinese and Japanese take individual measures for saying 
 the matters requisite for the continuous fertility of the soil. 
 See Appendix to " Liebig's Natural Laws of Agriculture."
 
 and Disease, 1 1 1 
 
 ouglit to lose from his skin daily, weight of solid matter 
 — not of water ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — If you want mere chemistry, I must 
 refer you to Dr. Thudichum. 
 
 Dr. Thudichum. — When you first stated to me the 
 effect of the bath, the principal feature you described 
 was perspiration. First, as to quantity; secondly, as to 
 quality. Will you give us your opinion on the part 
 played by perspiration in the human economy. But 
 the first question I would ask is, respecting the relation- 
 ship between perspiration and disease ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Time will not admit of my doing 
 more than putting it in general terms. I have found 
 in acute general disorders, and in topical affections, 
 whether acute or chronic, that disease and inability 
 to perspire are coincident; consequently, force perspi- 
 ration and you subjugate the disorder. It would seem, 
 then, that nature works towards the discharge by 
 the skin, or, as Hippocrates puts it, ''purgation by 
 the skin," or that disease only manifests itself when 
 the effort falls short. You may experience the very 
 condition, and then trace this action distinctly as 
 with the eyes. I burn my finger : not the finger 
 onl}^, but the hand — not the hand only, but the arm 
 refuses to perspire. On going into the bath, the 
 faculty of perspiration is evidently suspended in the 
 injured part, and in the surrounding parts. But heat 
 in time forces it out. This is what the phj^sician dimly 
 looks for by means of diaphoretics, diuretics, sudorifics, 
 purgatives, and blisters. 
 
 By what process the skin is thus locked up —
 
 1 1 a Perspiration and 'Disease. 
 
 whether it be so locked up as a consequence of disease, 
 whether disease is a consequence of the locking- up of 
 the skin, is beyond me to inquire into. Nor do I care 
 to inquire into it, since I am in possession of the remedy. 
 This is true and certain, that coincident with disease, 
 is the suspension, more or less, of the perspiring faculty; 
 that that faculty is recoverable by the application of 
 external heat. Then the disease is subdued. If phy- 
 sicians have not thought of external heat, at least they 
 have sought after perspiration. They seek to obtain 
 it by specifics administered internally. This only 
 renders it the more marvellous, that during so many 
 ages they should have neglected the first of the powers 
 of nature, by means of which Xh^j operate in the 
 laboratories, by which all culinary operations are carried 
 on, by which all mechanical arts subsist, by which the 
 earth gives her produce, and, in a word, the whole 
 mechanism of the universe is put in motion. 
 
 Were there no physicians, the common sense of 
 mankind would readily find its way back to the remedy. 
 A letter on the table from Jamaica, from Mr. Percy 
 Smith, mentions that, on explaining to them the bath, 
 they immediately said, " Oh, that will stop the yellow 
 fever, for a man is saved when he perspires." A man 
 at Sheffield cured cholera by placing the patient before 
 a hot fire, with blankets round him, and was in conse- 
 quence shut up in a madhouse. Medical science has 
 not only neglected heat, but has invariably put it down. 
 In my experience, there has been no case of sufficient 
 obstinacy not to yield to heat when raised sufficiently 
 high, and continued sufficiently long.
 
 Perspiration, iij 
 
 I)r. Thudichum, — Now let us have, if you please, 
 your answer with respect to tlie contents of perspira- 
 tion. 
 
 Mr. UrqiiJiart. — First as to perspiration itself. I am 
 lost in the magnitude of the subject. It is in reference 
 to our bodies what free will is in reference to our minds. 
 In all other emunctions we are not free agents ; in 
 this one we are free agents. Our neglect will not 
 absolutely destroy us ; but on our due culture of our- 
 selves depends our perfected health. What comes 
 forth by the lungs is under the control of involuntary 
 muscles ; it neither depends on the circumstances of your 
 life, nor on the exercise of your judgment. In the 
 same way, what passes from the kidneys, and what 
 passes from the bowels, these are operations which 
 nature performs for herself, and in which you are com- 
 pelled and constrained to do your part. But what passes 
 from you in the way of sweat, depends upon the habits 
 of your class or the operations of your mind. Thus, 
 if you allow that a given quantity of the poisons that 
 have to make their escape has to pass through the skin, 
 that portion not being subject to fixed rules belonging 
 to your frame, there can be no ratio established between 
 that portion so escaping and the other portions other- 
 wise escaping. For these nature provides ; for this 
 you yourself are left to provide. Supposing the emunc- 
 tion by three or four processes all equally necessary, 
 your perfect condition of health depends upon what you 
 yourself do with reference to the skin. 
 
 Dr. Thudichum. — I had that beautifully expressed in 
 one of your letters : — *' While the other functions are 
 
 I
 
 114 Perspiration 
 
 withdrawn from our interference, the function of the 
 skin is committed to our care." 
 
 Dr. Druitf. — Is that the fact with the skin more 
 than the other organs ? Are not they all by various 
 means more or less under the control of the will ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — The subject is physical; the dis- 
 tinction is metaphysical. 
 
 Dr. Thudichum. — You will find that j'ou can remove 
 as much from the skin in one hour in the bath as can 
 be removed by any other organ in twenty- four hours. 
 That is a point which no scientific man has hitherto 
 observed. It is a point of the greatest importance, which 
 we must make up our minds to study and look at 
 in every direction. 
 
 Dr. . — What amount of perspiration can be 
 
 got rid of in a given time, say in an hour ? 
 
 Mr, Urquhart. — ^^Vith the skin in a good condition, 
 and with the means of passing from one temperature to 
 another, so as to be able to continue the operation with 
 comfort — say with one temperature at 130°, and another 
 at 180° or 190°, — you would discharge from a pound to 
 a pound and a half an hour, and twice as much at 
 higher temperatures.* 
 
 Dr. . — What will that amount to, as regards the 
 
 whole blood of the body ? 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — If the general supposition of thirty 
 pounds of blood were correct, it would thus at the lower 
 rate take about twenty hours to refresh the blood. But 
 
 * For further experience on the amount of perspiration, 
 see postea, " Consteuctiox or a Eadiating Chambeb."
 
 Committed to Man's Care. 
 
 115 
 
 as this estimate is erroneous by one half, and as the 
 vital portions of the blood will in either hypothesis 
 remain the same, I reckon that seven or eight hours in 
 the one case, and four or five in the other, will suffice 
 for exchanging dirty for clean blood, supposing that 
 the operation could be endured without drinking. 
 
 Dr. . — So, then, it becomes a long operation. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — That is as it may be considered. If 
 you, as a medical man, proposed to purify entirely the 
 blood of a man in a corrupted state, and if you attempted 
 to do so by means of medicine, you would probably 
 claim merit for expedition, as well as success, if you 
 efiected your purpose in weeks, or even months. 
 (After a pause.) 
 
 If there are no more questions, I should wish to con- 
 clude by one further consideration. I become thirsty in 
 consequence of perspiration. Water is at once available. 
 It has not to be digested ; it is so managed that it passes 
 almost instantaneously into the blood. We suppose 
 that the cravings come from the stomach ; but that is 
 not the case. Here the cravings come direct from 
 the blood. Give a man salt water, and he wiU not be 
 a bit the less thirstj^, but more so. Let him fill his 
 stomach with salt water, and he will be more thirsty 
 than he was before, because of that power of salt in 
 regulating the distribution of fluid between the stomach 
 and the circulation. In my first gropings in the dark, 
 I looked at perspiration as local and circumscribed. 
 For instance, in point of cleansing, I imagined that if 
 I perspired, I had a clean skin. I was then in total 
 darkness as to the whole history before us. Now I
 
 1 1 6 Perspiration 
 
 know tliat the source of perspiration is the blood itself, 
 and the whole blood, minus the serum and the globules. 
 Perspiration is not like the produce of the kidneys ; it 
 is not a secretion, it is simple condensation. When, the 
 other day, the discussion between Mr. Erasmus Wilson 
 and Dr. Thudichum was going on, I made no remark. 
 They were speaking of the amount of the perspira- 
 tory vessels being equal in amount to two-thirds of 
 the kidneys. I was anxious not to interrupt, for 
 fear of losing anything. I now say, that no ratio 
 can be established between the one and the other, 
 because the kidneys are a secreting organ ; by which I 
 mean that a chemical change is effected. At the time, 
 I interposed the word *' sponge ;'' and I would convey 
 the difference by that word. The perspiratory organs 
 are only recipients ; they catch the water dropped by the 
 blood under the increased action of the heart, whether 
 accompanying or produced by the action of the muscles, 
 or merely as the result of extraneous heat applied to the 
 body, at the moment of the transfusion of the blood 
 from the extreme vessels of the arterial sj^stem into the 
 extremities of the venous system. At that moment 
 when it is set free from its organs, down drops into 
 these spongy vessels the watery portions, and the 
 remainder passes on. The peculiarity is this, that all 
 extraneous matter accompanies the outgoing part. 
 That extraneous matter consists of chemical products. 
 These products are the causes of disorder, unless dis- 
 charged. All escape with the watery portion ; it charges 
 these sponges, and thence issues forth by the spiracles 
 to the surface. The source being then the whole blood ;
 
 Committed to Man's Care. 
 
 117 
 
 tlie purification takes place not only in so far as the 
 skin is cleansed, but also in so far as the whole body is 
 cleansed. Each particle of blood is, so to say, wasted. 
 That purification has not been efiected until you 
 have removed the whole of the watery portion. This 
 cannot be done at once : circulation could not go on ; 
 you require to replenish it by taking liquids into the 
 stomach ; and in proportion as you do so, you soil the 
 newly-injected liquid, so that the operation must be pro- 
 longed far beyond the time that would be required 
 for a simple extraction. That is the ground of my 
 discovery of heat as a mode of cure. I put it 
 into this shape that you may treat it as a specific 
 proposition to be accepted or confuted. Wherever there 
 is disease, there is impure blood : you cannot pretend to 
 say you can cure that disease unless you remove this, 
 its cause. You can remove it in one way — you can 
 remove it by washing the blood ; you cannot remove it 
 without washing the blood. Therefore, when I get a 
 case of acute disorder, I am certain of cure ; for I put the 
 patient into the bath, and keep him there till he has 
 discharged the whole of the impurities in his blood. 
 But you get in such disorder a change in the nature of 
 the vital portion of the blood itself : what are you to do 
 then? The evil is not limited to the presence of the 
 foreign matters, but extends to their effects. Instead 
 of making use of these millions of vessels placed at your 
 disposal by nature, you go and tap the human body. 
 But you say, " We reduce inflammation thereby — the 
 blood that is drawn exhibits at once its corrupted state ; 
 its very appearance shows the necessity of getting rid
 
 1 1 8 Perspiration 
 
 of it.'* I take out the impurities floating in tiie blood, 
 and by the self- same process I restore the vital portion 
 of tbe blood to its healtby state. The discharge called 
 perspiration effects the first, and the heat which 
 evokes it effects the second. The one takes away the 
 disease, the other removes the symptoms. I have used 
 the latter word, not in your sense, but in my sense. For 
 that to which I apply the word " disease," you have 
 no analogous term ; that is, the unremoved poisons, 
 products of the phenomena of life. My word '* symp- 
 tom," is your word " disease ;" i. e. the inflammation, 
 the fever, the gout, scrofula, consumption.* The differ- 
 ence of appreciation shows itself in the two practices. 
 I handle the blood, change its contents, renovate it, 
 restore it, carefully preserving every particle. You 
 take this fluid life out of the man and put it into 
 bowls ; these bowls you confide to the care of a nurse, 
 to inspect next day. If the patient survives, you say, 
 " How lucky for him, he called me in in time !" Or, 
 you apply a blister, and rob the man of a portion of 
 his serum. The other night, at the Medical Society, it 
 was admitted that heat changes the corpuscles ; one 
 of the speakers said, "We know very well that heat 
 will change the colour from venous to arterial." 
 
 Dr. TImdichum. — I believe that was based on a fal- 
 lacious experiment. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — Whether the experiment was fal- 
 lacious or not, the conclusion is true. I need only refer 
 to Watson's late work. 
 
 * ^QQjposteay "Gout A Symptom not a Disease."
 
 Washes the Blood, 1 1 9 
 
 Br. Thudichum, — There is one point upon whicli I may, 
 perhaps, make a remark. It is this : whereas, on the 
 one hand, the digestive organs are only enabled to take 
 up the nutritive material which has a certain degree of 
 dilution, and whereas, on the other hand, the blood has 
 the power to nourish the body most effectually when it 
 possesses the lightest specific gravity, and whereas those 
 two extreme conditions are opposed, it is clear that 
 perspiration, by removing from the blood the watery 
 particles, and thereby increasing the specific gravity, 
 must put the blood into the most favourable condition 
 for producing muscle. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart. — This valuable reflection comes appro- 
 priately to close the subject. I have now been answer- 
 ing questions seven or eight hours. I trust we will 
 drop the bath at dinner, and not renew it afterwards. 
 Permit me, therefore, a final observation. If any 
 material specific were announced as added to the 
 Pharmacopoeia for the cure of one disorder, and for 
 which remedies are already possessed, it would be a 
 subject of interest to science. Here is a mere habit, 
 which operates for the removal of all disease. I, least 
 of mankind, can be under any illusion as to the 
 difficulties in the way of the acceptance .of such a means 
 by the faculty. Doubtless, it does open to the individual 
 medical men who are the first to accept it a large field 
 of professional distinction. There can be no question that 
 being able to cure is one element of medical success. This 
 career is, however, only open to those who are possessed 
 of an ingenuous mind ; for it can only be entered upon 
 after the sacrifice of professional self-love. The medical
 
 1 20 Perspiration, 
 
 man is called upon for tlie highest effort of abnegation 
 that it is possible for him to conceive — the suffering of 
 his patient to stand on the same level as himself.* 
 
 The faculty has not made the discovery ; it is an issue 
 which is forced upon them. I have done my best, and 
 shall continue to do my best, to render it impossible for 
 them to avoid either accepting or rejecting it. My 
 object is neither scientific nor professional ; it is the 
 good of my fellow- creatures. In the first case, it is in 
 their power, or in that of any eminent individual 
 belonging to their body, to make this discovery 
 promptly available. I desire to obtain the help of 
 medical men. If I do not obtain such help, then it 
 will be by their own act that I shall be forced into 
 striving to make each man his own physician. 
 
 * About this time a fierce war was waged against the Bath by the 
 medical journals. In replying to one of these, Dr. Thudichum wrote 
 as follows : — 
 
 " The public in this matter is far in advance of the medical profes- 
 sion. Our duty, as doctors of the heaUng art, simply is, to make ovir- 
 selves acquainted with the use of this therapeutic instrument." 
 
 The following is the description of the bath taken by 
 the members of the Medical Society then present : —
 
 The Bath of Riverside 
 
 FROM MR. ERASMUS WILSON's "TURKISH BATH/' 
 
 Let me endeavour to draw a sketch of Mr. IJrquliart^s 
 bath — a bath dear to the memory of all early bathers — 
 the bath at Riverside. We arrive at the door of the 
 Frigidarium ; we loosen the latchets of our shoes, and
 
 122 The Bath 
 
 we leave tliem behind the lintel ; the portal opens, and 
 we enter. The apartment is small, but it is sunny and 
 bright ; through the glass doors we see a balcony 
 festooned with the tendrils of the rose, now leafless and 
 out of bloom, for it is early winter ; beyond the parapet 
 of the balcony are terraces of which the rose is still the 
 favoured ornament ; further on, the rippled surface of a 
 boisterous, noisy stream; then meadows with grazing 
 herds and flocks, and the faithful horse ; beyond, the 
 wooded hiU, arching like an eyebrow around the bright 
 spot in which, as the apple of the eye, sparkles the 
 bath. At our side is a dureta, over-against us a 
 reclining chair, and along the sides of the apartment 
 a soft -cushioned divan ; in mid space, a sofra supporting 
 a nargille ; while around are books, some Turkish orna- 
 ments and chibouques. We tread on the carpet of Persia, 
 and the clean, fresh matting of India. Opposite the 
 glass doors is an immense sheet of plate glass ; through 
 it we see marble steps, and in the depths to which these 
 steps descend there is the reflection of the sun. Shades 
 of Maecenas and Pliny, will ye not smile? Shade of 
 Seneca, look not austere at the luxury of this Briton of 
 ancient descent, who courts the rays of Phcebus, smiling 
 through festoons of roses, to visit the deepest pool of his 
 bath. Here he can swim, while the sun glistens in the 
 crystal drops that linger on his skin, or makes mimic 
 rainbows in the spray that he dashes before him in his 
 plunging revel. 
 
 A door opens by the side of the immense barrier of 
 glass ; we enter ; the door closes behind us. Then a 
 second door ; we pass through that, and we are greeted
 
 of Riverside, 123 
 
 with a deliglitful atmosphere ; experience tells us that 
 no place of terrestrial existence can yield that soft, 
 balmy, warm aether but one ; — that one, the bath. We 
 descend two steps, and reach a platform, all of whitest 
 marble ; we become sensible of an increase of warmth 
 to the soles of our feet as we descend, and we are glad 
 to find soft napkins spread on the lower steps to catch 
 our footfall. Two steps more, and then another plat- 
 form : the apartment expands at this point into a large 
 square lofty hall, and the marble platform stretches 
 from side to side the whole breadth of the hall. We 
 are sensible, as we stand on this platform, that we have 
 reached the tropical line of the bath, and that at no 
 great depth beneath our feet must be the Hypocaust. 
 To our right is a small square tent, surrounded with 
 scarlet hangings ; this is the hottest of hots, the Spartan 
 Laconicum ;"it is placed immediately over the furnace. 
 We glance within the parting curtains of the entrance ; 
 we see a cushioned divan of tempting softness. At a 
 later stage of our bath, we pass ten minutes in that fiery 
 tent ; its customary temperature is 240^ or 250*^. 
 
 On the left of our present station is another divan, 
 not enclosed by curtains like the other, but admitting 
 of being so if required. On this divan, at a later stage 
 of the bath, I spent many minutes of genuine enjoyment ; 
 being farther from the furnace, but still over the meri- 
 dian of the Hypocaust, it was less hot than the enclosed 
 tent : its common temperature is 170^. " If you would 
 like a breath of fresh air,'* said my host, " draw out 
 that plug.*' I saw a plug just above my head, just near 
 enough to reach by stretching out my hand. I with-
 
 1 24 The Bath 
 
 drew it, not because I wanted air, but in a spirit of 
 obedience, or, if yow will, of lazy indolence. "V^Hiat a 
 reward ! wbat a delicious gush of ambrosial air ! 
 Heavens ! wbat Sybaritic contrivance is here ? I looked 
 round for tbe sbade of old Pliny, expecting to see him 
 peering over m}^ sboulder ; but he was not there ; the 
 modest Roman shade was abashed, was vanquished by 
 the modern Maecenas: the perfume was that of mi- 
 gnonette ! Although the last of the season, enough 
 remained to enable my fancy to judge how delicious 
 that air must have been a month or two earlier. This 
 was one of the ventilating-holes of the bath, and my 
 host had brought the air that was to cool his bath from 
 the perfumed atmosphere of a bed of mignonette. How 
 I longed at that moment for one half-hour of summer, 
 that I might test the other spiracles, that I might per- 
 chance inhale the breath of roses here, and violets or 
 lilies there ! 
 
 And now comes a deeper descent (four steps), and 
 behold, I am on the floor of the bath. Still costly 
 marble greets my tread. In the corner opposite the 
 fiery tent is another divan ; here, far removed from the 
 torrid meridian, the temperature is still lower (about 
 150°), but the atmosphere is everywhere fresh : it is 
 clear that ventilation is perfect, and there are no 
 vapoury mists, no fleeting gauze of ghost-like moisture. 
 
 I am permitted to gaze about me for a while, when 
 my host leads me to a small recess on the side corre- 
 sponding with the couch of perfume. A curtain is with- 
 drawn, and I perceive that the bottom of this recess is 
 below the level of the floor, and that a marble step placecl
 
 of Riverside* 125 
 
 at one end breaks the descent to the bottom. The bottom, 
 also, is peculiar : the marble slab slopes downwards to 
 an opening, through which water finds its way into the 
 drain. I am aware that this is the Lavaterina or 
 Latrina — that here the novitiate is made to pass through 
 the first ordeal of the bath. Before he entered the 
 sacred precincts of the Apodyterium, he undid the 
 latchets of his shoes : he left his shoes beyond the door ; 
 he brought with him none of the dust of the external 
 world into the portals of the bath. In the Frigidarium, 
 or rather in the Apodyterium, he left behind him his 
 vestments, and assumed the simple garb of the inner 
 bath. JSTow, and before he can claim to select his place 
 on the divans, he pays a further tribute to the god of 
 purity : the outer layers of his scarf-skin must be peeled 
 away — he must yield up his skin to the ordeal of the 
 glove, the gmiil, or the soap ; and then, semi-purified, 
 he may range at will the apartment — he may explore 
 at leisure the mysteries of the bath. 
 
 We seat ourselves on the clean marble at the edge of 
 the Lavaterina; our host plays the soft pad of gazul 
 over the head, the back, the sides; we complete the 
 operation on the limbs and feet ourselves. Basin after 
 basin of warm water rinses the gazul and the loosened 
 epidermis from the surface, and we rise from the 
 Lavaterina to recommence our observations. 
 
 Immediately in front of the flight of steps already 
 described, and occupying the centre of the remaining 
 wall of the hall, is a square pool, between four and five 
 feet in depth, and reached by several steps. In this 
 pool are two feet of water, perfectly cold, with a tap
 
 126 The Bath 
 
 from wliicli as mucli may be obtained as may be 
 required. This water is pumped up from tbe river, and 
 filtered before it is admitted into the bath : it, like the 
 bather, is made to leave its dusty shoes outside the door, 
 and is thoroughly cleansed before it is permitted to 
 invade the sanctuary. In this pool, this imcina, the 
 bather refreshes himself with a plunge in cold water — 
 in the summer cooled down with ice — when he issues 
 heated from the " hottest of hots," or when he completes 
 the bath ; and here he may take his dip or his plunge, 
 his douche or his swim, with the sun shining in upon 
 his polished skin. 
 
 Having received my freedom of the bath in the 
 Lavaterina, I commenced a series of visits to all the 
 soft, the warm, the perfumed, the hot, the cool, the cold 
 nooks, that I could find. I rolled in enjoyment on the 
 divan by the side of the piscina, watching my " com- 
 panions of the bath," and especially a little Antinous, 
 or rather an infant Hercules, of five years of age, who 
 one while crept into the fiery tent, and another while 
 disported himself like a young sea-god, with e^ddent 
 delight, in the cold jnscina. I then took my place in 
 the higher temperature of the torrid zone, on the divan 
 that was breathed over by the sweet expirations of the 
 mignonette ; and anon crept into the tent with the 
 scarlet cui'tains serving as a door, and wondered that I 
 could breathe an atmosphere heated to 240® without 
 inconvenience. 
 
 It was now approaching the hour of breakfast, and 
 however disinclined I might be to leave the warm 
 world in which I had spent more than an hour, I was
 
 of Riverside, 1 27 
 
 ready to acknowledge certain material warnings of tlie 
 charms of breakfast. Before, however, I could quit the 
 bath, it was necessary that the pores, which had been 
 all this while filtering the waste fluids of the body 
 through their numberless apertures, should be made to 
 close ; and with this intent I descended into the pool, 
 to experience and enjoy a new sensation. I crouched 
 under the tap, while a cold torrent poured over me, the 
 little Hercules catching greedily on his head any waste 
 jets that glanced aside, and then shaking his flaxen 
 ringlets over his face and shoulders with a joyous laugh. 
 But my last experience was to come. At the word 
 *' Hold firm ! " a full pail of hot water rushed upon me 
 like an avalanche, and was instantly followed by the 
 same quantity of cold : this was repeated in quick 
 succession a number of times, and then, when my host's 
 arms seemed tired of the further repetition, I arose from 
 the pool, and shook my soused frame on the platform 
 above, with a feeling of freshness and vigour that I 
 shall long remember — remember tcJien the hath and all its 
 vagaries shall have become too familiar to suggest a note of 
 their early impressions. 
 
 I was soon warm enough to quit the region of water, 
 and ascend into that of air — to quit the region of fire, 
 and mount into that of the sun, then smiling beamingly 
 in at the window. My host gave my head a good rub 
 with a warm, soft Turkish napkin, and threw a warm 
 mantle over my shoulders ; and it was with a feeling of 
 '' divided duty," the bath on one side and the breakfast 
 on the other, that I ascended to the Frigidarium. 
 Throwing myself on a softly- cushioned dureta, a half-
 
 1 28 The Bath 
 
 honf was spent in suggestive and instructive conversa- 
 tion, and then " to breakfast witli what appetite we 
 may/' Shade of immortal Shakspeare I Speaking 
 for myself, I should say, with the appetite of a man. 
 Keed I say more ? This is my memory of the delicious 
 bath at Riverside. 
 
 My host placed before me a dish, or rather a basket, 
 of that wonderful Moorish food, the kuscotissoo, and our 
 conversation naturally drifted away to the mode of 
 preparing food pursued by different nations, and par- 
 ticularly to the mode of its preparation in the countries 
 where each particular food is indigenous. I was struck 
 with my host's remark, that while we draw food from 
 other countries, we fail to learn the native manner of 
 preparing that food ; and that from our ignorance on 
 this point we frequently deteriorate, and often destroy 
 its properties altogether. 
 
 It is to be regretted that the very highest branch of 
 the science of chemistry — that which has for its object 
 the preparation of the food which God in His goodness 
 has bestowed upon us for the sustenance and preserva- 
 tion of His greatest work, man himself — should be so 
 miserably neglected. How much happier man's state 
 would be if this department of chemistry were more 
 cultivated and better understood ! — how greatly would 
 the nutritive power of food be developed, how much 
 would be economized in its use ! How much might 
 even the life of man be prolonged ! Of the many that 
 die daily in their beds, surrounded by warm coverings, 
 costly hangings, and sorrowing friends, there are many 
 who die of absolute starvation — starved, because the
 
 of Riverside, 129 
 
 modern science of culinary chemistry has no better 
 nourishment to offer than abominable beef-tea, wretched 
 mutton broth, miserable arrowroot or sago, or detestable 
 gruel. Tell me, ye sick who have so narrowly escaped 
 death, whether what I am saying is not perfectly true ; 
 and that between nauseating physic on the one hand, 
 and equally nauseating diet on the other, have you not 
 " run the gauntlet '* of destruction, from which your 
 escape is indeed miraculous ? 
 
 Subjoined are the Regulations of this Bath. 
 
 The two baths at Riverside are open for the use of 
 persons suffering from disease, only on the following 
 conditions : — 
 
 The bath being the practice of a cleanly and a polite 
 people, the habits of cleanliness and politeness must be 
 observed. Visitors, therefore, must seek to learn from 
 the attendants how to conduct themselves. 
 
 They must learn the distinction between the clean 
 and the dirty. The clean is the part, whether of the 
 apartment, furniture, or dress, which has not been 
 exposed to pollution, or which, having been polluted, 
 has undergone purification. Everything is polluted 
 which has been in contact with filth. That is clean 
 which, after having been washed clean, has had pure 
 water poured over it. Shoes and boots which have 
 
 K
 
 130 'The Bath 
 
 touclied tlie dirt of the streets, can never toucli tlie 
 " clean," — that is, the floor of the apartment, whether 
 matting, marble, tiles, or boards, on which the clean 
 persons sit or walk. 
 
 In the East, the foot being always clean, the distinc- 
 tion of dirty and clean is marked by the shoe or the 
 bare foot. Until the same result is obtained here, it is 
 necessary to assume that the foot is clean, although it 
 be not so. 
 
 If any person, through heedless habits of Europeans, 
 steps with his boot or shoe on the clean part, it will not 
 do to say '' Oh ! " and pull it back ; but he has himself 
 to announce to one of the attendants what he has done, 
 or he has, himself, to wash clean the part which he has 
 polluted : otherwise he wiU be practising deceit. 
 
 When a vessel of water is placed beside a European, 
 and he is told by means of it to wash a limb clean, he 
 will immediately take the filthy limb and pollute the 
 clean water, by putting the limb into the vessel, instead 
 of taking some of the water out of the vessel to wash 
 the limb. The habits of politeness and cleanliness enjoin 
 the contrary. 
 
 The European, not being accustomed to feet, but to 
 boots and shoes, when reduced to the use of feet by 
 entering the bath, is liable to accidents, by not knowing 
 how to manage his feet on polished marble : it is, there- 
 fore enjoined upon him to be very observant in the 
 manner of planting his feet. 
 
 In like manner, he must be very observant in order 
 to learn how to sit down, how to rise up, how to walk, 
 and how to move, and, above all things, to take care not
 
 of Riverside, 131 
 
 to sit on and crusli cushions, which are intended for his 
 support and comfort after he has seated himself. 
 
 Bathing is a process : that process is an elaborate one ; 
 it comes without thought to those accustomed to it, and 
 no form of words can convey it to those who are not. 
 It can be acquired only by observation ; but no one can 
 observe without desire and acuteness ; and herein lies 
 the difficulty, because Europeans think that they know 
 everything, sneer at what they do not know, and, not 
 being polite, cannot be observant.* This is the cause 
 why, during so many centuries, the bath has not been 
 introduced ; and, the bath being introduced, this is the 
 danger of its falling into desuetude. To make the people 
 cleanly, it becomes necessary to make them also polite. 
 
 [The subject of Pollution and Purification has been treated 
 of in the First Dialogue.] 
 
 * "The Japanese find it hard to forgive Europeans for walking 
 in their boots over the matting wkich they only tread in their 
 stocking feet. It is in their eyes as great an outrage as it 
 would be in ours if a guest were to walk about on the table- 
 cloth at our dinner, leaving his mark at every step. Yet there 
 is no help for it ; and this the shop-keepers have begun to 
 discover, for they frequently lay strips of cotton over their 
 mats to preserve them from the foreigner's foot." — Niphon and 
 Peehili, 6, E.B., Fonblanque, p. 20.
 
 The Bath of the Finns. 
 
 (See page 83.) 
 
 FROM *' TRAVELS OF ACERBI IN 1798-9," p. 296. 
 
 Another particular that appeared very singular 
 among the customs of the Finns, was their baths and 
 manner of bathing. Almost all the Finnish peasants 
 have a small house built on purpose for a bath. It 
 consists of only one small chamber, in the innermost 
 part of which are placed a number of stones, which are 
 heated by fire till they become red. On these stones, 
 thus heated, water is thrown, until the company within 
 be involved in a thick cloud of vapour. In this inner- 
 most part, the chamber is formed into two stories for 
 the accommodation of a greater number of persons 
 within that small compass ; and, it being the nature of 
 heat and vapour to ascend, the second story is, of course, 
 the hottest. Men and women use the bath promiscuously, 
 without any concealment of dress, or being in the least 
 influenced by any emotions of attachment. If, however, 
 a stranger open the door and come on the bathers by 
 surprise, the women are not a little startled at his 
 appearance ; for, besides his person, he introduces along 
 with him, by opening the door, a great quantity of 
 light, which discovers at once to the view their situa- 
 tion, as well as forms. Without such an accident they
 
 Bath of the Fins in 1807,
 
 "The Bath of the Finns, 133 
 
 remain, if not in total darkness, yet in great obscurity, 
 as there is no other window besides a small bole, nor 
 any light but what enters in from some chink in the 
 roof of the house or the crevices between the pieces of 
 wood of which it is constructed. 
 
 I often amused myself with surprising the bathers in 
 this manner, and I once or twice tried to go in and join 
 the assembly; but the heat was so excessive that I could 
 not breathe, and in the space of a minute at most, I 
 verily believe must have been suffocated. I sometimes 
 stepped in for a moment, just to leave my thermometer 
 in some proper place, and immediately went out again, 
 where I would remain for a quarter of an hour, or ten 
 minutes, and then enter again, and fetch the instrument 
 to ascertain the degree of heat. My astonishment was 
 so great that I could scarcely believe my senses, when 
 I found that those people remain together, and amuse 
 themselves for the space of half an hour, in the same 
 chamber, heated to the 70th or 75th degree of Celsius. 
 The thermometer, in contact with those vapours, became 
 sometimes so hot that I could scarcely hold it in my 
 hands. 
 
 The Finlanders, all the while they are in this hot 
 bath, continue to rub themselves, and lash every part of 
 their bodies with switches formed of twigs of the birch- 
 tree. In ten minutes they become as red as raw flesh, 
 and have altogether a very frightful appearance. In 
 the winter season they frequently go out of the bath, 
 naked as they are, to roll themselves in the snow, when 
 the cold is at 20, and even 30 degrees below zero.* 
 
 * I speak always of the thermometer of a hundred degrees, 
 by Celsius.
 
 134 ^^^^ ^^^^ of the Finns, 
 
 They will sometimes come out, still naked, and con* 
 verse together, or with any one near them, in the open 
 air. If travellers happen to pass by while the peasants 
 of any hamlet or little village are in the bath, and 
 their assistance is needed, they will leave the bath, 
 and assist in yoking or unyoking, and fetching provender 
 for the horses; or in anything else, without any sort of 
 covering whatever, while the passenger sits shivering 
 with cold, though wrapped up in a good sound wolf's 
 skin. 
 
 There is nothing more wonderful than the extremities 
 which man is capable of enduring, through the power 
 of habit. 
 
 The Finnish peasants pass thus instantaneously from 
 an atmosphere of 70 degrees of heat, to one of 30 degrees 
 of cold — a transition of a hundred degrees, which is the 
 same thing as going out of boiling into freezing water I 
 and what is more astonishing, without the least incon- 
 venience, while other people are very sensibly affected 
 by a variation of but five degrees, and in danger of 
 being afflicted with rheumatism by the most trifling 
 wind that blows. Those peasants assure you that 
 without the hot vapour baths they could not sustain as 
 they do, during the whole day, their various labours. 
 By the bath, they tell you, their strength is recruited 
 as much as by rest and sleep. The heat of the vapour 
 mollifies to such a degree their skin that the men easily 
 shave themselves with wretched razors, and without 
 soap.
 
 "Waste of Fuel in England. 
 
 ECONOMY BY THE BATH. 
 
 Note to page 64. 
 
 The prodigality of nature in endowing England, as she 
 .has done, with a supply of fuel, has engendered among 
 us a recklessness and wantonness in respect to it, which 
 have entailed costliness to ourselves in the expense 
 together with the destruction of the material itself. 
 
 Nor is it costliness alone that has ensued from waste- 
 fulness, but disease also. The very element by which 
 we might attain to health when afflicted by disease, has 
 been converted into a means of generating disease in the 
 healthy body. 
 
 Warmth, especially with draughts, is the hot-bed of 
 disease — heat is its cure. The open fire-place which 
 destroys 23 parts out of 24 of the fuel, creates this 
 warmth and prevents the idea of heat from arising as 
 to curative, means. 
 
 I had fixed on the proportion of 23 parts loss in 24 
 by experiments made long ago. I built two apartments, 
 one with the ordinary open fire-place, the other flued, 
 and found the difierence as above stated.
 
 I J 6 Waste of Fuel 
 
 I have since found this estimate too low. Taking the 
 Hammam in Jermyn-street, and comparing it with so 
 many London apartments of equal dimensions, multi- 
 plying them by 3 for the difference of temperature, and 
 again by 2 for the continuity of heat during the night 
 as well as the day, I find the difference of cost between 
 what is charged in an hotel, or in lodgings, and the 
 expenditure at the Hammam to stand as 39 to 40. 
 The given apartments would cost for fires 120 shillings 
 a day ; the charge for the Hammam is three shillings 1* 
 
 Were one of the Tartars, whose flued habitations are 
 described by Atkinson, to visit London and to be asked 
 on his return what he had seen as most remarkable in 
 that capital, might he not be supposed to answer ? — 
 
 " I have seen a people to whom God has given much 
 wood under ground. Some of them busy themselves 
 in digging it up. Others spend the day in consuming 
 it in open fire-places, and sending it to heat the clouds 
 through straight chimneys/' 
 
 We have hitherto indulged in the belief that the 
 supply was inexhaustible. That likewise is now rudely 
 brushed away. Buckland some years ago uttered the 
 ominous words, " The Extinction of Coal!" Eecently, 
 Sir William Armstrong made this matter the feature of 
 his address at Newcastle to the British Association, He 
 said : — 
 
 " The question is not how long our coal will endure 
 
 * Since the period referred to there has been an increase of 
 price of one shilling ; this will be repaid by the improved work- 
 ing of the furnaces.
 
 in England, 137 
 
 before absolute exhaustion is effected, but how long will 
 these particular coal mines last which yield coal of a 
 quantity and at a price to enable this country to main- 
 tain her present supremacy in manufacturing industry ? 
 So far as this particular district is concerned, it is 
 generally admitted that 200 years will be sufficient to 
 exhaust the principal seams, even at the present rate of 
 working. If the production should continue to increase 
 as it is now doing, the duration of those seams will not 
 reach half that period. 
 
 " In an ordinary furnace employed to fuse or soften 
 any solid substance, it is the excess of the heat of com- 
 bustion over that of the body heated which alone is 
 rendered available for the purpose intended. The rest 
 of the heat, which in many instances constitutes by far 
 the greater proportion of the whole, is allowed to escape 
 uselessly into the chimney. The combustion also in 
 common furnaces is so imperfect, that clouds of powdered 
 carbon, in the form of smoke, envelope our manufactur- 
 ing towns ; and gases, which ought to be completely 
 oxygenized in the fire, pass into the air with two-thirds 
 of their heating power undeveloped. 
 
 " Not less wasteful and extravagant is our mode of 
 employing coal for domestic purposes. It is computed 
 that the consumption of coal in dweUing-houses amounts 
 in this country to a ton per head per annum of the entire 
 population ; so that upwards of twenty-nine millions of 
 tons are annually expended in Great Britian alone for 
 domestic use. If any one will consider that one poimd 
 of coal applied to a well constructed steam-engine boiler 
 evaporates ten pounds, or one gallon of water; and
 
 138 Waste of Fuel in England. 
 
 if lie will compare this effect with the insignificant 
 quantity of water which can be boiled off in steam by a 
 pound of coal consumed in an ordinary kitchen lire, he 
 will be able to appreciate the enormous waste which 
 takes place by the common method of burning coal for 
 culinary purposes. 
 
 " The simplest arrangements to confine the heat, and 
 concentrate it upon the operation to be performed, would 
 suffice to obviate this reprehensible waste* So also in 
 warming houses, we consume in our open fires about 
 five times as much coal as will produce the same heating 
 effect when burnt in a close and properly constructed 
 stove. Without sacrificing the luxury of a visible fire, 
 it would be easy, by attending to the principles of radia- 
 tion and convection, to render available the greater part 
 of the heat which is now so improvidently discharged 
 into the chimney. These are homely considerations — 
 too much so, perhaps, for an assembly like this ; but, I 
 trust, that an abuse involving a useless expenditure, 
 exceeding in amount our income-tax, and capable of 
 being rectified by attention to scientific principles, may 
 not be deemed unworthy of the notice of some of those 
 whom I ]jtave the honour of addressing.'^
 
 Clothing not Requisite in our 
 Climate. 
 
 (See p. 88.) 
 
 CorTc Examiner, January 1857. 
 
 The subject of the costume of the ancient Britons has often 
 been discussed; it has been asserted that they were naked. 
 Those who opposed that view adduced as reasons the coldness 
 and variable nature of the climate. The question has been set 
 at rest by an experiment which has recently been made on a 
 child at St. Anne's, Blarney, near Cork. The child is fourteen 
 
 months old, and is the son of Mr. , who determined to 
 
 ascertain what the human frame would bear. The child is 
 perfectly naked night and day ; he sleeps without any covering, 
 in a room with the thermometer at 38 degrees ; from this he 
 goes into a bath at 118 degrees ; he sometimes goes to sleep in 
 the bath ; he is perfectly indijQferent to heat or cold ; is lively, 
 active, cheerful, and intelligent ; his appearance constantly re- 
 minds the observer of the best efforts of our best painters and 
 sculptors. Therein is the *' beau ideal ;" he is the reality. His 
 simple, graceful, natural, easy, and ever-varying postures are' 
 charming. He arrests the attention and commands the admira- 
 tion of all who see him. The peculiar character of his skin is 
 very striking; it is exquisitely healthy and beautiful. It may
 
 140 Clothing not Requisite in our Climate, 
 
 be compared to the rays of the sun streaming through a painted 
 window. 
 
 During the progress of the experiment, he has cut three teeth 
 without manifesting any of the disagreeable symptoms usual to 
 children in that condition. He appears to be quite insensible 
 to pain. Occasionally he has an ugly fall, but not a sound 
 escapes from his lips. His manners, demeanour, and general 
 behaviour are equally striking. His mode of saluting a person 
 is to take the hand in a graceful manner and kiss it. He is 
 under the complete control of his father, and is perfectly quiet 
 during meals, and also whenever he is told to be so. He goes 
 about all day, amusing and occupying himself in a quiet way. 
 iNo one accustomed to children would know there was a child 
 in the house. So incredible are these results, that some of the 
 residents at St. Anne's regard the whole matter with mingled 
 feelings of horror, amazement, and wonder. Those who have 
 made a careful observation for themselves, and prefer the 
 evidence of their eyes rather than their ears, see nothing but 
 to admire and respect. JN'o doubt, some of them would even 
 go so far as to repeat the experiment on their own children, 
 were it not for the fear of that terrible question, "what will 
 Mrs. Grundy say ? "
 
 Dyspepsia Treated by One Meal 
 a Day. 
 
 (See page 106.) 
 
 Since tlie period when this answer was given I have 
 had further experience, which I desire to record, on two 
 grounds. First, as the first case in which I found the 
 bath of no value directly ; and secondly, because relief, 
 and I may now say cure, was obtained by a treatment 
 based on the general grounds relating to dyspepsia laid 
 down in my answer of February, 1861. 
 
 The species of dyspepsia was that manifested by pain 
 in the regions of the stomach, that is at the entrance 
 under the left ribs, after the operation of digestion had 
 been gone through ; never appearing whilst there was 
 food in the stomach, not evincing itself merely at the 
 end of digestion, but continuing long afterwards, some- 
 times extending to ten hours. It was momentarily 
 allayed by food, but then it involved inability to receive 
 food, as evinced by loss of appetite and repugnance for 
 food. The term dyspepsia, meaning difficulty of diges- 
 tion, is not in this case properly applied, since the
 
 142 Dyspepsia 'treated by 
 
 digestion was excellent, but only the appetite failed. 
 Whatever I could eat I could digest, the difficulty was 
 to find out a species of food that I could swallow. Every 
 kind of food was tried without the slightest difference as 
 regards the pain. 
 
 When the pain first manifested itself it was relieved 
 by a small dose of alkali. But as each day went by and 
 it returned with unerring regidarity, the dose of alkali 
 had to be increased. Likewise the effect was only tem- 
 porary. In an hour, or half an hour, or a quarter of an 
 hour, the pain returned in full vigour. At night this 
 became exceedingly distressing : just as I dropped off to 
 sleep I was awakened by the pain, and after I had taken 
 a certain amount of alkali there was no more sleep 
 for me until morning dawned. 
 
 The disorder having gone on increasing in violence 
 and intractibilit}^, had reached in iS'ovember last the 
 point at which there seemed to be no longer any hope. 
 Sleep deserted me, strength was gone, neither sofa nor 
 bed afforded me any rest ; the extremities were hot and 
 cold by turns, at times cramp possessed itself of the 
 limbs ; all mental exercise was impossible, and life 
 became a burden. When, by change of place or 
 weather, I recovered a little, five minutes of mental appli- 
 cation, or even a passing, if a painful thought, would at 
 once reproduce the pain and the prostration. My only 
 relief was in the alkalies, which I took to the amount of 
 an ounce and a half in one night. 
 
 I continued the use of the alkali despite the objection 
 of my medical advisers, as I was resolved, if possible, not 
 to allow the substance of the stomach itself to be injured.
 
 One Meal a Day. 14J 
 
 The malady had grown upon me whilst I was taking 
 the bath, and despite of it. I therefore gave it up for 
 considerable periods, but without the least benefit. It 
 did, however, afford me alleviation of the pain for the 
 moment ; and to it I must attribute the power of throw- 
 ing off the large amoimt of alkali, and subsisting on the 
 very small amount of food I was able to take. During 
 this time I tried all kinds of diet — at one time meat, 
 at another vegetables, at another fish ; the least objec- 
 tionable I found to be turtle soup : total abstinence 
 from wine and other stimulants for weeks together. 
 
 I submitted myself to medical treatment, and in 
 every case aggravation of the symptoms followed the 
 administration of the remedies. There were severally 
 prescribed for me, arsenic, quinine, opium, belladonna, 
 strychnine, carbon, bismuth with hydrocyanic acid, and 
 colchicum. That is to say, I was treated for sub-acute 
 inflammation of the stomach, ague, flying gout, &c. So 
 that to the bodily suffering was superadded utter hope- 
 lessness by the uncertainty attached to every reasoning, 
 and the failure of every system. 
 
 Thus it was that at the end of the month of Septem- 
 ber, being thrown entirely on my own resources, I made 
 up my mind that the malady from which I suffered 
 could be nothing save an undue discharge of gastric 
 juice. On this diagnosis I immediately proceeded to 
 act, in the first instance by ice taken internally ; and 
 subsequently by reducing myself to one meal a day. I 
 swallowed the ice crushed and in large quantities, the 
 extremest limit being l^lb. in a quarter of an hour. 
 The effect was instantaneous. I was on the first occa-
 
 144 Dyspepsia Treated by 
 
 sion for forty-eight hours without a trace of pain ; 
 unfortunately I again yielded to the representations of a 
 medical friend, diminished the dose of ice and took 
 some belladonna and opium. The pain returned again. 
 For two months I continued the ice, but not to such 
 an extent as at first ; I abstained from everything hot, 
 and from taking anything between my two meals. 
 During this time there were intervals of days during 
 which I was quite free from pain. Still it was evident 
 that T had not overcome the morbid state, as the least 
 mental exertion or anxiety brought it back again. 
 
 In the month of JSTovember I had recourse to the 
 further expedient of putting myself upon one meal a 
 day. My medical friends looked upon this step with as 
 much alarm as they had done upon the use of the ice. 
 There was, however, one of them who had previously 
 treated me on the theory of ''tender patch" with 
 bismuth and hydrocyanic acid ; who, on my stating to 
 him the conclusion I had come to, and the treatment I 
 had consequently proposed to adopt, used these words : 
 
 "That is pathology and logic combined. It is a 
 treatment that deserves to succeed. As appetite grows 
 you ma}^ have a struggle to maintain your resolve. Do 
 not give in through a feeling of faintness : j^ield only 
 to positive hunger." 
 
 On the 3rd of February I wrote to a medical friend, 
 who has laid me under heavy obligation for the anxiety 
 he has expended on the treatment of my case. 
 
 "Eed House, Feb. 3d, 1864. 
 " I am now in the fourth day of absolute freedom from pain ; 
 after this long loathing of food, an enormous appetite. Also the
 
 One Meal a Bay, 14^ 
 
 symptom I wrote to you about lias disappeared. As the result 
 has not been arrived at, as at the beginning of the experiment, 
 under a total cessation of mental occupation, and as the pro- 
 gress has been gradual and the period of time extended, and as 
 moreover, the weather is at this moment anything but favour- 
 able for me, I think I may consider it now as conclusively 
 obtained. It is now above four months since I resorted to the 
 ice, and above two months since I adopted the one meal a day. 
 
 " In further confirmation I have to add that, following Dr. 
 Bryce's suggestion, not to give in from a feeling of faintness, 
 and only to yield under the pressure of positive hunger, I have 
 during the last few days been taking almost two meals a day. 
 I am, in fact, now living again instead of dragging on a miserable 
 and hopeless existence. 
 
 " I have mentioned this as it will be satisfactory to you, not 
 only on my account, but I hope also as establishing the proposi- 
 tion in respect to the treatment of dyspepsia, that the way to 
 ruin a human stomach is to eat little and often. In this, as in 
 the other points which I have worked out bearing on bad 
 habits, a medical man is debarred from accepting it and employ- 
 ing it save on the condition of recantation. This can be dared 
 only by a pure and upright as well as a strong and courageous 
 mind. This is a natural and necessary consequence of ceasing 
 to administer drugs and commencing to rectify evil habits. 
 
 " I beseech you do not run off on there being cases when an 
 invalid cannot endure food and must have it administered in 
 infinitesimal doses: I refer to 'little and often' as applied to 
 the treatment cf dyspepsia. It is against that persuasion that I 
 say, dyspepsia is the production of 'little and often.' In 
 other words, where ' much and seldom' prevails, dyspepsia is 
 unknown. But of course patients are impatient. They will 
 swallow anything, but abstain from nothing. 
 
 " I have further to say that if I had to deplore the obstinacy 
 with which my ailments refused to adapt themselves to your 
 theory of interchangeable maladies, I now have to rejoice 
 thereat. For if gout, herpes, and dyspepsia would invade me 
 simultaneously, they have now simultaneously taken their flight, 
 as foul harpies driven from their meal."
 
 146 Dyspepsia 'treated by 
 
 The last sentence suggests the '' one meal a day" as 
 the treatment for other maladies, beside those of the 
 stomach. Here were two concomitant maladies; these 
 have wholly disappeared, together with the alleviation 
 of the stomach disorder. Had I had recourse to the one 
 meal a day for the herpes and for the gout, and either 
 had been removed, a strong case would have been offered 
 in favour of this treatment for either. I have already 
 stated as a proposition, that all constitutional derange- 
 ments (blood poisons) proceed from the stomach, and 
 that the disturbance of the stomach proceeds from in- 
 dulgence, not in regard to the nature of the aliments, 
 but in regard to the repetition of the meals. 
 
 With regard to appetite, the return of it was the first 
 effect of the one meal a day ; so that after the first 
 twenty -four hours of abstinence I was able to eat more 
 in the one meal than I had formerly done in the two. 
 I must observe that I had suffered from an exceedingly 
 bad appetite for some months before the pain showed 
 itself. 
 
 Shortly after the date of this letter the pain returned. 
 I consequently returned to the one meal a day, and 
 again after ten days subdued the pain. I have gradually 
 proceeded in this fashion, until I have now got back 
 to the two meals without recurrence of suffering. 
 
 A tumbler of milk gave rest for one hour and a 
 quarter exactly ; my greatest sufferings have resulted 
 from the attempt to allay the pain by these repeated 
 draughts of milk. This expedient I had recourse to 
 whilst still looking to medical conclusions, and yielding 
 to my medical man's anxiety that I should '^ give the 
 domach something to do^
 
 One Meal a Day, 147 
 
 I have found that brandy and water (sugar and 
 lemon included) produces no evil effects. So also in 
 Beaumont's experiments on St. Martin, brandy did not 
 excite the flow of the gastric juice. 
 
 During this experiment I made an incidental dis- 
 covery which may prove hereafter a great alleviation 
 for human suffering. I can best describe it as " motion 
 
 AS A MODE OF CURE.^' 
 
 I had been several days at Cowes, on shore, and suffer- 
 ing very severely. I was then several days afloat, but 
 at anchor immediately opposite the window of the 
 Gloucester Hotel where I had endured so much pain, 
 but there days and night enjoying complete immunity. 
 Had I gone to sea I should have of course attributed 
 the change to the vague words — now at least felt to be 
 vague and unmeaning — '' at sea." I at once suspected 
 that it was the motion that had wrought the change. 
 However, to leave no doubt on the point, a corrobora- 
 tion was afforded me day by day, during a fortnight, in 
 a friend troubled with insomnia, who slept soundly 
 every night that I was free from pain, and who was 
 unable to sleep on two or three nights during that fort- 
 night, when also my pains returned ; that is, on nights 
 when being under canvas or at anchor there was abso- 
 lutely no motion. 
 
 The rationale being evident for medical men in the 
 connexion of the stomach and the brain, and in the 
 effect of motion on the latter, I will not dwell on. 
 
 The motion of the waves (for very little sufficed) 
 being easily imitated by a swinging cot, caused to 
 vibrate, it follows that by means of the assiduity of a 
 single donkey, during the night a hundred patients
 
 148 Dyspepsia treated by 
 
 might enjoy invigorating sleep, who now seek that 
 solace in vain from morphia. 
 
 This motion is not exercise, it is motion applied 
 externally. It is well known that the nausea of sea 
 sickness is counteracted by exercise. 
 
 I should, therefore, wish to add something to my 
 answer on the 25 th of February, 1861. 
 
 " The caustic juices required in the part of the opera- 
 tion performed in the stomach itself, would, if emitted 
 without the presence of food, waste and corrode it. The 
 emission of the gastric juice is therefore an electrical 
 and most delicate operation. It may be compared to 
 a hair trigger. A person eating frequently is like a 
 boy taking a pistol with a hair trigger and snapping it, 
 until at length it flies ofi" at half-cock. JN^o medicine 
 will reach it. The medical man may, indeed, reach it, 
 if at once a physiologist and a logician. The bath will 
 be of service to him, however, by allaying the craving 
 or false appetite, so that less mental effort will in 
 abstaining from food more than once a day be required.'' 
 
 The bath can no more reach this malady than it could 
 an arrow-head lodged in the leg. The malady is in 
 the strength of the secretion, the bath does not tend to 
 dilute secretions. I have thus discovered a disease in 
 which the bath will act but a subordinate part. 
 
 The discoverer of a cape is considered entitled to give 
 to it a name. Diseases are not so easily or so often dis- 
 covered as promontories. We have the rare example 
 of Dr. Bright who discovered the malady, but not the 
 cure, and died of the malady that bears his name. Had 
 I been afflicted with his disease I should not have been
 
 One Meal a Day. 149 
 
 able to define it, but I sliould have bad the remedy. 
 Having discovered this species of Dyspepsia, I have the 
 right of giving it a name ; that name shall be Pepto- 
 RiLEA, QT flow of gastric juice, im,plying undue discharge, 
 as the due discharge would not be a disease. 
 
 This malady is not correctly defined by the word, 
 though included in dyspepsia. In dyspepsia, food is 
 not digested because the solvents are feeble ; in Pepto- 
 rhaea the stomach is disordered and ultimately destroyed, 
 because they are strong. 
 
 The treatment, however, is the same, because in both 
 alike irritation has to be allayed. 
 
 It may be said that there is no novelty in the symp- 
 toms here described. Symptoms in some respects 
 analogous, no doubt, are common. There is pain after 
 digestion has been completed, and pain relieved by 
 alkali. This is mentioned by Dr. Watson as one 
 species of dyspepsia, and he ascribes it to an undue 
 quantity of acid remaining in the stomach as a result 
 of digestion, but whether derived from the gastric juice 
 or the food, he is uncertain. If this were all, however, 
 how is it that the pain returned after having been 
 removed by alkali, although no food had been taken in 
 the meantime ? It is evident that if the malady in my 
 case began in this common form, it afterwards trans- 
 formed itself into another, and that form one to which 
 Dr. Watson's theory does not apply. I think I may then 
 conclude that this disease is fortunately as rare as it is 
 extreme. It seems to be contingent on a peculiar 
 condition of cerebral super- excitation, into which there 
 enters at once continuous effort and unceasing anxiety.
 
 1 50 Dyspepsia Treated by One Meal a Day, 
 
 I cannot end without subjoining some extracts from 
 the standard work of Dr. "Watson, because the obserra- 
 tions he makes are suggestive of the conclusion I have 
 arrived at ; and would, I apprehend, have led him to the 
 same, but for the habit of connecting the exhibition of 
 some particular drug with every morbid condition of 
 the body. 
 
 De. "Watsox on the Gastbic Juice. 
 
 " Dr. Budd believes the secretion of the gastric juice to be a 
 reflex process ; which he assimilates to, and illustrates by, the 
 secretion of tears. Tears may be presently made to flow by 
 direct mechanical irritation of the conjunctiva, or indirectly, 
 by pungent vapours acting upon the nostrils, or by certain feel- 
 ings of the mind. In like manner the secretion of the gastric 
 juice may, he conceives, be excited, not only by some stimulus 
 apphed immediately to the mucous surface of the stomach, but 
 also under certain diseased conditions, or injuries of distant 
 organs (as the brain and lungs), and even by mental emotion. 
 In this way he would explain the occurrence of perforation or 
 softening, after death, by blows on the head, when no food had 
 been recently introduced into the stomach, and after death by 
 pulmonary consumption. That more or less digestion of the 
 tissues of the stomach after death is exceedingly common, is a 
 fact which was well known to John Hunter, but which has 
 been lost sight of by the majority of more recent observers." 
 
 He then refers to Dr. Budd as pointing out circumstances 
 that interfere to prevent this effect of the gastric juice, one of 
 ■which is the presence of ammonia and alcohol in the stomach,- 
 which have been given in some medicinal form. Because " the 
 solvent property of the fluid is arrested whenever its acidity is 
 neutralized by the admixture of an alkali. This has been fully 
 proved by Spallanzani, and others. The same is true of alcohoU" 
 — Watsons Principles and Practice of Physic, p. 412, 41S.
 
 Medical Treatment of Rheumatism. 
 
 (See page 94.) 
 
 In perusing the following description of the means to 
 'which medical science has recourse in the hope of afford- 
 ing a precarious relief, the reader must bear in mind 
 that the malady is one which immediately yields under 
 •a change of climate— the Turkish bath is no more. 
 The case of rheumatism is not peculiar, it is only given 
 as an example. 
 
 ** Most persons who have been for any considerable time in 
 practice have their own favourite method of conducting the 
 disorder to its termination. While many employ free blood- 
 letting, and other antipklogistic remedies, some, on the con- 
 trary, even in the present day, put their trust in bark. Some 
 give large doses of calomel in the outset of the disease, such as 
 half a scruple or a scruple, without or with a grain of opium ; 
 and they repeat the dose daily, or oftener, with purgatives perhaps 
 intervening, till the urgent symptoms give way ; and in this 
 manner I have seen the disease apparently cut short. But I 
 have also known many instances in which the disease was pain- 
 ful and protracted, and obstinate, although this practice was 
 adopted early, and fairly prosecuted. Some physicians give 
 smaller and more frequent doses of calomel and opium ; and 
 some think opium alone to be as useful as this combination. 
 Others beheve or depend mainly upon colchicum j others, upon
 
 152 Medical 'Treatment 
 
 large and repeated doses of coniura ; and some attempt the cure 
 of acute rheumatism by sweating the patient by means of 
 guaiacum, and similar stimulant medicines, and a profusion of 
 bed clothes." 
 
 "We may by leeches, or cupping, or cold applications, be 
 able perhaps to subdue the inflammation in a knee or an elbow ; 
 but from the migratory character of the disorder, we incur the 
 risk by such topical measures of repelling the poison into the 
 circulating blood, and of thus giving it a new and more serious 
 location." 
 
 " I believe few persons now adopt the plan of forced perspira- 
 tion for the cure of acute rheumatism. Formerly it was the fashion 
 to give sudorifics, Dover's powder, or antimony in large doses, 
 and the patient was ' accintus ad sudorum ;' covered up in bed 
 between thick blankets, with a hot bottle or brick at his feet. 
 But in the severe unequivocal fibrous form of rheumatism the 
 perspiration is profuse without any artificial means being used 
 to excite it, and it is not accompanied by the smallest allevia- 
 tion of the pain : nay, sometimes the patients will tell you that 
 they are worse, in that respect, while the sweating continues." 
 
 " Colchicum is very apt to produce deadly nausea and vomit- 
 ing, griping and diarrhoea; and when these consequences ensue 
 from its use, the infiammation of the joints often subsides 
 entirely. At any rate if the rheumatism does not give way 
 when the stomach and bowels become thus affected, you maybe 
 certain that to push the colchicum further would be useless." 
 
 " There are some cases which yield readily to calomel and 
 opium; and in the fibrous disease, I think that calomel and 
 opium are the remedies to which, after sufficient bleeding, you 
 will do well to trust. For it is under this character that the 
 extension of the disease to the membranes of the heart is so 
 liable to happen; and if anything can protect the patient 
 against this fearful complication of a malady, which previously 
 attended by no danger, becomes by this addition, almost neces- 
 sarily fatal, it is in my opinion mercury." 
 
 " Dr. Latham has given a masterly analysis of the purpose, 
 and the effects of the main remedies for acute rheumatism, both 
 in their separate use and in their varied combinations. He
 
 of Rheumatism, 153 
 
 shows liow, in one case, vensesection may suffice, by subduing 
 vascular action and febrile beat ; bow, in another, opium may 
 solve the disease by allaying nervous disquietude and pain ; 
 bow calomel and purgatives, in a third, may cleanse the liver 
 and bowels, and the w^hole system of a colluvies of morbid secre- 
 tions, and so set the sufferer free ; and finally, how, in most 
 instances, these three remedial remedies may together, or with 
 occasional interjection of colchicum, achieve the desired end 
 more certainly, and with less of distress, and of expenditure of 
 vital power, than could either of them singly." 
 
 " In the form of chronic rheumatism, what some call passive, 
 the remedies that answer best are of a difi'erent kind. The pain 
 is alleviated by friction of the joiat, and the patients are most 
 comfortable when they are warm in bed, and especially when 
 moderate perspiration is present. They are singularly henefited 
 by summer weather. Persons who are much troubled by this 
 wearing complaint, and who can afford to live where they please, 
 would do well to take up their residence in a warm climate. 
 "Wheresoever they may be, such patients should be protected 
 against atmospheric vicissitudes by tvarm clothing : they should 
 be cased in flannel from the neck downwards."* 
 
 The effect of " summer weather/' which ought to have 
 taught everything, is lost, being converted into " warm 
 clothing/' which, is exactly the reverse in its action on 
 the morbid human body of " summer weather." 
 
 Rheumatism is no more a disease than gout, scrofula, 
 consumption, cancer, or St. Yitus's dance ; it is merely 
 a symptom of that general disease — an inert skin. 
 
 * Watson's Principles and Practice of Physic, vol. ii., pp. 
 677-683.
 
 One Meal a Day — Milk Diet. 
 
 (See.p. 93.) 
 
 No expositions on this subject Kave descended to ns 
 from antiquity, but indications are not wanting* which 
 confirm the existing records of ancient practice in the 
 subsisting habits of races of unchangeable character. 
 
 To me it seems an impossibility that the earth should 
 have ever been peopled, had man either required or 
 indulged in, three or even two meals a day. I hold, 
 also, that the important historic periods of the human 
 race have been the passage, 1st. From the one meal to 
 the two ; 2nd. From the two to the three ; and 3rd. 
 From the three to a still greater number. The first 
 epoch seems to extend downwards to that great dis- 
 turbance of pre-existing things by general conquests, 
 
 * In tliat interesting portion of the correspondence of Cicero 
 with. Atticus which refers to his government of Cilicia, we are 
 incidentally informed that the old military practice of the 
 Republic was, to eat once a day. Cicero, reliered the provin- 
 cials from the charge of feeding his troops. His lieutenant 
 disobeyed him under the authority of an edict of the Senate. 
 Still, as Cicero remarks, it was but once a day, conformably to 
 the old rule, that this exaction was made.
 
 Milk Diet. 
 
 ^SS 
 
 such as were carried on by the Macedonians and the 
 Eomans.* 
 
 The second epoch for the Western world may in- 
 clude the period since the Roman conquest to our days. 
 The continent of Europe knew no third meal to the 
 close of the great wars. It is since then that the 
 English breakfast has invaded the European races, 
 though only as yet partially. 
 
 The third epoch has commenced in England only 
 within a couple of generations, but it has advanced 
 among the English colonists of the new world, where 
 already the most alarming symptoms of decay reveal 
 themselves in the organs. The dentists, aurists, oculists, 
 and druggists of the United States surpass in propor- 
 tion those of England, as much as those of England do 
 those of the Continent. 
 
 Having met the most pertinacious and bitter scep- 
 ticism in physiologists and medical men, whenever I 
 have narrated what I myself have witnessed among 
 primitive tribes, and among those which subsist ex- 
 clusively on milk — being constantly told that it is 
 impossible for a man to do his work on a single meal, 
 or to subsist at all on a single meal, if consisting only 
 of milk, I subjoin a couple of notes giving incidental 
 testimony on both points. 
 
 15, St. George's-terrace, South Kensington, 
 
 March 9th, 1864. 
 
 Deab Sie, — About three months ago I had the priyilege of 
 
 some conversation with you, when you mentioned that you 
 
 had deriyed benefit from taking only one meal a day. This 
 
 * See De Quincey on " The (no) Breakfast of the Eomane."
 
 156 One Meal a 'Day — 
 
 reminded me of the custom of working men in Cliili. A sliOEt 
 time afterwards I asked a gentleman wliom I liad known in 
 Valparaiso if I was correct. He could not speak witli certainty 
 on the subject as regarded Chili, but he had travelled on horse- 
 back in Mexico and the country about Buenos Ayres, and 
 there, he said, the invariable custom amongst the travelling 
 servants was, to take a cup of chocolate before starting, and 
 take one full meal on arriving at the end of the day's journey. 
 
 It was not until yesterday that I had an opportunity of 
 asking another gentleman, from whom I hoped to obtain more 
 definite information. 
 
 He told me that the Copiapo miners, who are amongst the 
 strongest in the world, and do very hard work, dine in the 
 middle of the day on red beans (frijoles) ; but they do take a 
 light supper. 
 
 The workmen in Uruguay take only one meal a day, which 
 consists of beef and maize. 
 
 1 am, &c., Andeew John Eobeetson. 
 
 33, Westbourne Villas, 
 Blomfield Road, Paddington, W. 
 30th December, 1863. 
 My Deae Sie, — There are Hindu hermits or penitents 
 called Tapasees, who live in the depths of forests and moun- 
 tains, in almost every part of India, from Cashmere and 
 JS'epaul to Cape Comorin. Their food is exclusively the milk 
 of the cow. They generally boil it in order to be certain that 
 it is pure and unadulterated. Our gymnosophists are now fast 
 disappearing ; there are, however, a few instances here and 
 there. At Cashmere, for instance, there is one now living, 
 whose only food is milk. As to people generally, in domestic 
 life, they live upon milk and fruit only on fasting days. Aj 
 regards the question of one meal per day, there is a class of 
 Brahmins called Saravugee, who follow that custom ; these 
 men are employed as soldiers in the British army in the
 
 Milk Diet. 
 
 157 
 
 present day, and it is a custom extended even to their families. 
 I may also mention that many persons, from a religious motive, 
 restrict themselves to one meal a day, and are, on that account, 
 greatly esteemed. 
 
 Believe me, &c., C. Pooeoshottum. 
 
 Yeneration in any part of the East can be obtained 
 by no one save on this condition. As to India, the re- 
 cord of early usages is preserved alike in the Brahminical 
 rule of eating but once of a meal, in which fire and 
 water are required, and in the observance of widows who 
 are allowed but one meal. 
 
 The periods of meals, like all these phenomena in 
 connexion with the use of various degrees of tempera- 
 ture, may be understood some 600 years hence, should 
 in the interval a man of head arise. That it is possible 
 that such an idea should penetrate into a modern and 
 even a scientific mind I have proof of in a note from 
 Dr. Brereton before his departure for Sydney, in which 
 he expresses his regret at not being able to pay me a 
 parting visit, in order that we might discuss ** that most 
 important of all propositions, as afiecting the permanent 
 condition of man — the periods of his meals.'' 
 
 It is a mere indication that can • here be given, to 
 treat the subject properly would require a volume.
 
 On the Art of Constructing a Turkish 
 Bath ; 
 
 ITS ECONOMY AS A MEANS OF CLEANLINESS. 
 
 Read at the Society of Arts, February, 1862. 
 
 The subject towbich. I have the privilege of inviting 
 your attention this evening, is neither a construction of 
 art, nor a principle of nature ; it is neither a social 
 institution, nor a pathological operation ; it is neither a 
 domestic convenience, nor a religious observance ; it is 
 neither a means of sobriety, nor an economy of food ; it 
 is neither a psj^chological adaptation to relieve the over- 
 strained brain, nor a gymnastic device to strengthen 
 the body. It is none of these as exclusive of the others, 
 for it combines them all— a habit. 
 
 A habit is only spoken of when unknown : it is, 
 therefore, a habit to be introduced. This habit, by 
 rendering us more cleanly, will give us greater strength 
 of muscle, greater power of digestion, greater immunity 
 from disease, greater facilities in recovering health, a 
 longer term of life, a greater contentment in life, more
 
 )IACONAL ANCLES 
 
 MAC/
 
 Plan Shewing. SEeiiONS And fovHDSTioNS oe fLvES AiKPiPts &« 
 liii?T I . "^ - '' 1 I 1 '-i I I i"f* 
 
 M^ mm\^_ 
 
 Plan of Baih ino Portion ofCDlo h 
 
 gt^^^H
 
 Art of Constructing a 'Turkish Bath, 159 
 
 equanimity of mind, less desire for foreign stimulants, 
 whether physical or mental, which will bring with it a 
 larger share of self-respect, and diminish those causes 
 of disrespect to which we may be exposed from others. 
 
 This habit is no invention. It is as old as the human 
 race. . It has ruled in all climes ; it has belonged to 
 every grade of human culture, or human destitution. 
 It has prevailed long ago in these very islands, to whose 
 inhabitants it has now to be presented as something 
 claiming their study and deserving their adoption. I 
 do not, however, disguise from myself the arduous nature 
 of the enterprise I have undertaken. The introduction 
 of a habit, judged of by human experience, must be far 
 more difficult than the conquest of an empire. Religions 
 may be introduced, constitutions implanted ; but the 
 engrafting of the familiar practices of one people on 
 the stock of another, by the rarity of its occurrence in 
 the history of man, must evidently be attended by next 
 to insurmountable difficulties. 
 
 We have arrived at a stage pecuKarly adapted for 
 calm and fruitful investigation ; the subject is neither 
 strange as new, nor uninteresting as familiar. It is but 
 the first uncertain steps of experiment, that have doubt- 
 ingly as yet been made. There is enough to show that 
 it may command public adoption, and yet enough to 
 show that it is exposed to public reprobation. We are 
 no longer at the point when, speaking as in the air, it 
 has to be said, such and such is a Turkish bath. The 
 obstacle and danger now proceed from the impressions 
 derived from false experience. Persons go to the so-called 
 baths spread over the country, and, with only rare
 
 i6o Art of Constructing 
 
 exceptions, come away thinking they understand, and 
 saying they have been to, a Turkish bath. The experi- 
 ment would have been profitably made only, if they said, 
 " I now know what a Turkish bath is not.'* At least, 
 it can now be said to them, " It is neither a cellar with 
 a furnace, nor a row of hospital beds. Do not imagine 
 that in entering and passing through rooms strangely 
 fitted up, in London and provincial dwelling-houses, you 
 any more experience the sensation of a Roman or a 
 Turk, than j^ou behold the majestic Thermae of the one 
 people, or the Hammam of the other. '^ 
 
 Time must be invested in every entei'prise which he 
 is destined to consecrate. Time, if put to profit, is 
 experiment, and experiment that is profitable means 
 failure. Failure has ever signalised the strides towards 
 perfection. You have commenced your experiments; they 
 are excessively encouraging in this sense. It now de- 
 pends on the public temperament alone whether this 
 shall pass ofi* as an ephemeral delusion, or remain as an 
 increase of the good things that fortune showers down, 
 and a diminution of the pains and penalties attached to 
 the larger number of our fellow-creatures, too lowly for 
 her smiles to reach. 
 
 This nation at this moment presents the spectacle 
 either of a prey furnished to unscrupulous empirics, or 
 of a public judgment adapting itself to admit a great 
 conviction. But it is by the effort to discard the 
 spurious imitation that the public judgment will have 
 disciplined and qualified itself to admit and to accept 
 the new conception. 
 
 When on other occasions you have met or may meet
 
 a Turkish Bath, i6i 
 
 in this place, the inducement is the acquisition of know- 
 ledge. The order in which the spheres revolve, the pro- 
 cesses by which the various arts of life are carried on, how 
 some man has added an additional dose of sand to bricks, 
 or extended the limits of the chamber in which combus- 
 tion is effected. This evening that to which you will 
 listen concerns yourselves. The knowledge to be ac- 
 quired is, how a man may do for himself in reference to 
 matters concerning him in the most vital manner, and 
 which he has absolutely hitherto committed to others. 
 Each has, therefore, not something to learn in regard to 
 what others have done, but something to acquire as a 
 possession for himself — a possession which, from my own 
 experience, I can state, and in this I am confirmed by 
 many, that if it were to be calculated in money, I would 
 not exchange for any sum that could be set down, if 
 considered as entering into the superfluities of existence. 
 Nor is it only what a man may do for himself, but, if 
 so minded, the well-being of others becomes a part of 
 his own by his desire to promote it, and here is an 
 opportunity of effecting much at little cost. The effect 
 upon the domestic condition of the working classes of 
 the habit which prevails among the similar order of the 
 Turkish population, would require, as a parallel in 
 relief, that some ten millions were remitted in the 
 yearly taxes, or an equivalent subscribed by individual 
 charity. I do not mean to say that the benefit to be 
 derived from this habit would be of no more value to 
 them than that number of millions a year, but that, by 
 promoting this habit among the working classes, each 
 may contribute more to the public well-being, and 
 therefore to the public fortune, than any amount of 
 
 M
 
 1 6 2 Art of Constructing 
 
 private sacrifice for other objects would efiect. The 
 first public address I ever delivered on this subject was 
 in 1847, to a body of working-men in the borough I 
 then represented in Parliament. When I had concluded, 
 a medical man, who was in the chair, said, '' You are 
 poor men, and every penny is to you of value. Yet I 
 will tell you, without the slightest hesitation, that had 
 a fifty pound note been put in each of your pockets, the 
 value to you and to your families would not be equal to 
 what you have received to-night, if you only have sense 
 enough to put it to profit." 
 
 Among remarkable things, perhaps there is none 
 more so than the losing of discoveries. "We have had 
 in this island of ours, 2,000 years ago, the enjoyment of 
 this benefit and luxury. You are now assembled to 
 learn something in regard to this matter, which has 
 neither been heard of nor dreamt of during these long 
 years. In the meantime, in those lands, where the 
 Romans equally had sway, those happy habits of social 
 and domestic life have been preserved by men destitute 
 of philosophic tendencies. Turkey, which offers to you 
 the bath to-day, will have it no longer in two genera- 
 tions. I myself have seen, in one country, the extinction 
 of it. Mj^ first acquaintance with it was in Greece. 
 Greece knows it no longer. That polished Greece — that 
 accumulation of small and fervid existencies — where 
 the imagination of man burnt most brightly, when 
 engaged in its struggle with the Turks, and, under the 
 imitation of the West, dropped their bath. To-day, at 
 Constantinople, the young Turks, imitating Europe, 
 :ain from going to the bath ; and the last time I
 
 a Turkish Bath, 163 
 
 visited that capital the only bath in which I found the 
 old usages maintained was in a small nook of the 
 Dardanelles. What we are doing now in England may- 
 prevent its loss in the East. A series of articles in the 
 Medical Gazette of Constantinople, wherein, for the first 
 time, type has been used in reference to the bath, has 
 been prompted by what we have been doing in England. 
 If the thing itself be of any value, it is worth having, 
 not only because of its worth, but because otherwise it 
 will be lost to future generations. We have had the 
 ruins of the E-omans — we have had the classical litera- 
 ture of our universities ; that has not sufficed to convey 
 the thing to us. Dead knowledge will not give you the 
 living thing. You cannot prepare a dinner out of the 
 organic remains of extinct breeds of cattle ; no more 
 can you get the habits which belonged to institutions, 
 and the practices which are dependent upon those 
 habits, by mere ink and paper. Even in familiar 
 conversation familiar things find no part ; it is the 
 exceptional which alone claims attention. To a far 
 greater degree the rule holds in formal composition. 
 Notwithstanding the habits of literary description 
 among us, a future age would find it impossible to 
 arrive at any exact perception of our mode of carrying 
 through the most ordinary of the occupations of life. 
 How much, then, is the difficulty increased of ascer- 
 taining, by written records, what the practices are and 
 were of those nations who have or had the bath, being 
 or having been, all of them, the reverse of loquacious ? 
 We are, to this day, unable positively to sa}'^, what were 
 the taxes in Rome. It is not, therefore, surprising that
 
 164 Art of Constructing 
 
 we should be absolutely destitute of data as to the 
 origin among them of the bath, and nearly in the same 
 condition as to the original process, and the modifica- 
 tions in successive ages of the operation itself. It is, 
 therefore, utterly impossible that any remains of Rome 
 can enable us to-day to construct the thermae of Rome 
 for the use of our people. And this is the reason why 
 I make it a point that this shall be called the "Turkish 
 bath." That word irritates no doubt our self-love. 
 Each man says, " Am I to be taught by barbarians ? " 
 A man better than others is distinguished by the 
 moderation of his self-esteem. But how can you 
 constrain a man, when falsely confident in himself, to 
 adopt a new thing unless you conquer his pride ? The 
 Turks have preserved the bath from ancient times ; 
 they have also the habits and manners belonging to it ; 
 and, therefore, when you say '' Turkish bath," you 
 confess that you have to go to the Turks for it. 
 
 We have, indeed, the living practice of the Turks, 
 but were the bath to disappear from amongst them, 
 what record would remain to a future age ? Scarcely 
 more than a wholly undidactic incident in the Arabian 
 Nights. Nor have our travellers, with all the desire to 
 find pictures to transfer to their volimies, served us 
 better. When my attention was first turned to the 
 subject, and I commenced immediately to investigate, 
 I took up successively every work on the East, and the 
 disappointment which followed set me on noting and 
 recording the operation. With that description I will 
 now beo-in. I will then proceed to the edifice, so as to 
 connect the operations with the structure. I will then
 
 a Turkish Bath, 165 
 
 lay before you the steps which, under the influence of 
 trifling incidents, I made towards the investigation of 
 the action of heat, whence has arisen the present appli- 
 cation of the bath to the cure of diseases, and then I 
 shall indicate the new field opened in regard to science, 
 both chemically and pathologically, in the distinction 
 between transmitted and radiating caloric. The appli- 
 cation of the whole will consist in showing that this 
 best method of cleanliness is also the cheapest, and may 
 easily be realised for the whole body of the people, 
 either gratuitously or at a trifling cost. 
 
 The bath, when first seen by the Turks, was a 
 practice of their enemies, religious and political ; they 
 were themselves the filthiest of mortals ; they had even 
 instituted filth by laws and consecrated it by maxims. 
 INo sooner did they see the bath than they adopted it ; 
 made it a rule of their society, a necessary adjunct to 
 every settlement. Princes and Sultans endowed such 
 institutions for the honour of their reign. 
 
 In adopting they purified it from immorality and 
 excess, carrying the art of cleanliness to perfection; 
 they made themselves the most sober-minded of the 
 nations of the earth. This arose from the simplicity of 
 their character and the poverty of their tongue. They 
 had no fallacious term into which to convert it, and no 
 preconceived ideas by which to explain it. Knowing 
 they were dirty, they became clean ; having common 
 sense, they did not rush on a new device, or set up 
 either a " water cure," or a joint- stock washing com- 
 pany, but carefully considered and prudently adopted 
 what the experience of former ages presented to their 
 hands.
 
 1 66 Art of Constructing 
 
 The operation consists first of the seasoning of the 
 body ; second, of the manipulation of the muscles ; 
 third, of the peeling of the epidermis ; fourth, of the 
 soaping. There are three essential apartments : the 
 great hall, or mustahy, open to the outer air ; the middle 
 chamber, where the heat is moderate ; the inner hall, 
 which is properly the thermce. The first scene is acted 
 in the middle chamber ; the next three in the inner 
 chamber; and the last in the outer hall. The time 
 occupied is two hours ; the operation is repeated once 
 a week. 
 
 On raising the curtain over the entrance to the street, 
 .you find yourself in a hall, circular, octagonal, or square, 
 covered with a dome open in the centre : it may be one 
 hundred feet in height. The Pantheon of Rome, relic 
 of the baths of Agrippa, may be taken as the type — 
 
 " Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime." 
 
 This is the apodyterium, conclave^ or spoliatorium of the 
 Romans. In the middle stands a basin, the '' sea ^' of 
 the Jews, the piscinum of the Romans ; a fountain plays 
 in the centre. Plants are trained over or around the 
 fountain, and by it is placed the stall to supply coffee, 
 pipes, or nargilles. All round there is a platform raised 
 about three feet. You are conducted to an unoccupied 
 couch to undress ; your clothes are folded, and deposited 
 in a napkin, and tied up ; you are arrayed in the 
 bathing costume, three towels, two yards by one, soft 
 and rough, with broad borders in blue or red of raw 
 silk. This costume has an air of society, not of the 
 laundry or washhouse. One is wrapped with an easy
 
 a Turkish Bath, 167 
 
 fold round the head, so as to form a high and peculiar 
 turban ; the second is bound round the loins ; this is 
 the ordinary costume of the attendants, and known in 
 antiquity as Trepl C^/^ta, prcecinctorium and suhligacuhim, 
 which have been of difficult interpretation, as implying 
 at once a belt and a clothing. The third is thrown over 
 the shoulder. They are called peslitimal ; the proper 
 name is futa, a word borrowed, as the stuff is, from 
 Morocco. While you change your linen, two attendants 
 hold a cloth before you. The strictest decency is 
 observed, though the apartment is not cut up into boxes. 
 There is nothing which more shocks an Eastern than 
 our want of decorum, and I have known instances of 
 servants assigning this as a reason for refusing to 
 remain in Europe, or to come to it. 
 
 Thus attired, you step down from the platform into 
 wooden pattens {nal in Turkish, coh cob in Arabic), to 
 keep you off the hot floors, and the dirty water running 
 off by the entrances and passages ; two attendants take 
 you, one by each arm above the elbow, walking behind 
 and holding you. The slamming doors are pushed 
 open, and you enter the region of steam. 
 
 Each person is preceded by a mattress and a cushion, 
 which are removed the moment he has done with them, 
 that they may not get damp. The apartment he now 
 enters is low and small ; very little light is admitted ; 
 sometimes, indeed, the day is excluded, and the small 
 flicker of a lamp enables you to perceive indistinctly its 
 form and occupants. The temperature is moderate, the 
 moisture slight, the marble floor on both sides is raised 
 about eighteen inches, the lower and centre part being
 
 1 6 8 Art of Constructing 
 
 the passage between the two halls. This is the ''cold 
 chamber " of the Turks, the Roman tepidarium. Against 
 the wall your mattress and cushion are placed, the rest 
 of the chamber being similarly occupied ; the attendants 
 now bring coffee and serve pipes. The object sought 
 in this apartment is a natural and gentle flow of 
 perspiration ; to this are adapted the subdued tempera- 
 ture and moisture ; for this the clothing is required and 
 the coffee and pipe ; and, in addition, a delicate 
 manipulation is undergone, which does not amount to 
 shampooing ; the sombre air of the apartment calms 
 the senses, and shuts out the external world.* 
 
 During the subsequent part of the operation, you are 
 either too busy or too abstracted for society ; the bath 
 is essentially sociable, and this is a portion of it so 
 appropriated — this is the time and place where a 
 stranger makes acquaintance with a town or village. 
 "Whilst so engaged, a boy kneels at your feet and chafes 
 
 * One of the luxuries of the Eoman baths consisted in their 
 brightness, the command of the prospect around, and in various 
 strange contrivances. By one of these, the bather, while 
 swimming in warm water, could see the sea ; by another, the 
 bathers within were seen magnified without. " They were not 
 content unless they were coloured as well as washed," says 
 Seneca, Epist. 87. 
 
 Multus ubique dies radiis ubi culmina totis, 
 Perforat, atque alio sol improbus uritur sestu. — Stat. 1. i. 
 This excess of light in a bath savours of indecency. See 
 Sueton., ApolL lib. ii., epist. 2. It was not the early practice of 
 Rome, nor certainly of those from whom the Romans took the 
 bath. " Our ancestors," says Seneca, " did not believe a bath 
 to be warm unless it was obscure." " Redde Lupi nobis tene- 
 brosaque balnea Grilli." — Mart. i. 60.
 
 a Turkish Bath. 169 
 
 them, or behind your cushion, at times touching or 
 tapping you on the neck, arm, or shoulder, in a manner 
 which causes the perspiration to start. 
 
 2nd Act. — You now take your turn for entering the 
 inner chamber : there is in this point no respect for 
 persons,* the bath man (the tellach of the Turks, the 
 nekaes of the Arabs, the tradator of the Romans) has 
 passed his hand under your bathing linen, and is 
 satisfied that your skin is in a proper state. He then 
 takes 3^ou by the arm as before, your feet are again 
 pushed into the pattens, the slamming door of the inner 
 region is pulled back, and you are ushered into the 
 adytum, — a space such as the centre dome of a cathedral, 
 filled — not with dull and heavy steam — but with gauzy 
 and mottled vapour, through which the spectre-like 
 inhabitants appear, by the light of tinted rays, which, 
 from stars of stained glass in the vault, struggle to 
 reach the pavement through the curling mists. The 
 song, the not unfrequent shout, the clapping (not of 
 hands, but sides), f the splashing of water and clank 
 of brazen bowls, reveal the humour and occupation of 
 the inmates, who, here divested of all covering save the 
 scarf round the loins, with no distinction between 
 bathers and attendants, and with heads as bare as bodies 
 and legs, are seen passing to and fro through the mist, 
 or squatted or stretched out on the slabs, exhibiting the 
 wildest contortions, or bending over one another, and 
 
 * The Koman expression, quasi locus in halneis, was equiva- 
 lent to *' first come, first served." 
 
 t The bathing men give signals for what they want by 
 striking witk tke hand on the hollow of the side.
 
 lyo Art of Constructing 
 
 appearing to inflict and to endure torture. A stranger 
 might be in doubt whether he beheld a foundry or 
 Tartarus ; whether the Athenian gymnasia were re- 
 stored, or he had entered some undetected vault of the 
 Inquisition. That is the sudatorium. The steam is 
 raised by throwing water on the floor,* and its clearness 
 comes from the high and equal temperature of the air 
 and walls. 
 
 Under the dome there is an extensive platform of 
 marble slabs : on this you get up ; the clothes are taken 
 from your head and shoulders ; one is spread for you to 
 lie on, the other is rolled for your head ; you lie down 
 on your back ; the tellack (two, if the operation is 
 properly performed) kneels at your side, and bending 
 over, gripes and presses your chest, arms, and legs, 
 passing from part to part, like a bird shifting its place 
 on a perch. He brings his whole weight on you with 
 a jerk, follows the line of muscle with anatomical 
 thumb,! draws the open hand strongly over the surface, 
 particularly round the shoulder, turning you half up in 
 so doing ; stands with his feet on the thighs and on the 
 chest, and slips down the ribs ; then up again three 
 times ; and lastly, doubling your arms one after the 
 
 * " Let the air of all the rooms be neither particularly hot nor 
 cold, but of a proper temperature, and middling moist ; which 
 will be effected by plentifully pouring temperate water from 
 the cistern, so that it may flow through every room." — Galen, 
 '' Therap. Meth." 1. x. 
 
 t " Percurrit agili corpus arte tractatrix, 
 
 Manumque doctum spargit omnibus membris." 
 
 Mart. iii. 82.
 
 a Turkish Bath. 17 r 
 
 other on the chest, pushes with both hands down, 
 beginning at the elbow, and then, putting an arm under 
 the back and applying his chest to your crossed elbows, 
 rolls on you across till you crack. You are now turned 
 on your face, and, in addition to the operation above 
 described, he works his elbow round the edges of your 
 shoulder-blade, and with the heel plies hard the angle 
 of the neck ; he concludes by hauling the body half up 
 by each arm successively, while he stands with one foot 
 on the opposite thigh.* You are then raised for a 
 moment to a sitting posture, and a contortion given to 
 the small of the back with the knee, and a jerk to the 
 neck by the two hands holding the temples. 
 
 3rd Act.— E-ound the sides there are cocks for hot 
 and cold water over marble basins, a couple of feet in 
 diameter, where you mix to the temperature j^ou wish. 
 You are now seated on a board on the floor at one of 
 these fountains, with a copper cupf to throw water over 
 you when wanted. The tcllack puts on the glove — it is 
 of camel's hair, not the horrid thmgs recently brought 
 forth in England. He stands over you ; you bend 
 down to him, and he commences from the nape of the 
 neck in long sweeps down the back till he has started 
 the skin ; he coaxes it into rolls, keeping them in and 
 up till within his hand they gather volume and length ; 
 he then successively strikes and brushes them away, 
 and they fall right and left as if split from a dish of 
 
 * " Et summum dominse femur exclamare coegit." 
 
 Juvenal, Sat. vi. v. 422. 
 t These basins are the pelves of the Eomans.
 
 172 Art of Constructing 
 
 macaroni. The dead matter which will accumulate in 
 a week forms, when dry, a ball of the size of the fist. 
 I once collected it, and had it dried — it is like a ball of 
 chalk : this was the purpose for which the strigil was 
 used. In our ignorance we have imagined it to be a 
 horse-scraper to clear off the perspiration, or for other 
 purposes equally absurd.* 
 
 4th Act. — Hitherto soap has not touched the skin. 
 By it, however strange it may appear to us,t the 
 operation would be spoiled. The alkali of the soap 
 combining with the oily matter, the epidermis loses the 
 consistency it must have to be detached by rolling. A 
 large wooden bowl is now brought ; in it is a lump of 
 soap, with a sort of powder-puff of Uff,X for lathering. 
 Beginning by the head, the body is copiously soaped 
 and washed twice, and part of the contents of the bowl 
 
 * " Tke stHgil was used after bathing, to remove theperspira' 
 Hon, The hollow part was to hold oil to soften the skin, or to 
 allow the scraped grease to run off." — Dennis, vol. ii. p. 426. 
 
 t Whenever our writers touch on these matters, they fall 
 into inevitable confusion, e. g. : — " In the baths of the East, 
 the bodies are cleansed by small bags of camel's hair woven 
 rough, or with a handful of the fine fibres of the Mekha palm- 
 tree combed soft, and filled with fragrant saponaceous earths, 
 which are rubbed on the skin, till the whole body is covered 
 with froth. Similar means were employed in the baths of 
 Greece, and the whole was afterwards cleansed off the skin by 
 gold or silver strigils." — Manners and Customs of Ancient 
 Greece, J. A. St. John, vol. ii. p. 89. 
 
 X Nut of the palm, and consequently hard and not fit to use 
 on the person. The Moors, though they do not use soap in 
 the bath, always use their soft liff with their soft soap, which 
 practice the Turks have imperfectly followed.
 
 a Turkish Bath, lyj 
 
 is left for you to complete the operation yourself. Then 
 approaches an acolyte with a pile of hot folded futas on 
 his head, he holding a dry cloth spread out in front. 
 You rise, having detached the cloth from your waist, 
 and holding it before you; at that moment another 
 attendant dashes on you a bowl of hot water. You 
 drop your wet cloth ; the dry one is passed round your 
 waist, another over your shoulders; each arm is seized ; 
 you are led to the middle chamber, and seated; the 
 shoulder cloth is taken off, another put on, the first 
 over it ; another folded round the head ; your feet are 
 already in the wooden pattens. You are wished health : 
 you return the salute, rise, and are conducted by both 
 arms to the outer hall. 
 
 The platform round the hall is divided by low balus- 
 trades into little compartments, where the couches of 
 repose are arranged, so that while having the uninter- 
 rupted view of all around, parties or families may be by 
 themselves. This is the time and place for meals. The 
 bather having reached this apartment is conducted to 
 the edge of the platform, to which there is only one 
 high step. You drop the wooden patten, and on the 
 matting a towel is spread anticipating your foot-fall. 
 The couch is in the form of a letter M* spread out ; it 
 takes less space than a chair. As you rest on it the 
 weight is everywhere directly supported — every tendon, 
 
 * The duretum introduced by Augustus at Rome. ** On 
 trouve alors des lits delicieux ; on s'y repose avec volupte, on 
 y eprouve un calme et un bien-etre difficiles a exprimer. C'est 
 une sorte de regeneration, dont le charme est encore augmente 
 par des boissons restaurantes, et surtout par un cafe exquis." — 
 D'Ohsson, t. vii. p. 63.
 
 174 -^^^ of Constructing 
 
 every muscle is relaxed ; tlie mattress, fitting, as it were, 
 to the skeleton ; there is a total inaction, and the body- 
 appears to be suspended. The attendants then re- 
 appear, and, gliding like noiseless shadows, stand in a 
 row before you. The co£Pee is poured out and presented, 
 the pipe follows ; or, if so disposed, you may have 
 sherbet or fruit ; the sweet or water melons are pre- 
 ferred, and they come in piles of lumps large enough 
 for a mouthful ; or you may send and get kebobs on a 
 skewer, and if inclined to make a positive meal at the 
 bath, this is the time. 
 
 The hall is open to the heavens, but nevertheless a 
 boy with a fan of feathers, or napkin, drives the cool air 
 upon you. The Turks have given up the cold immersion 
 of the Romans, yet so much as this they have retained 
 of it, and which realises the end the Romans had in 
 view to prevent the breaking out of the perspiration ; 
 but it is still a practice with the Turks to have cold 
 water thrown upon the feet. The nails of the hands 
 and feet are dexterously pared with a sort of oblique 
 chisel ; any callosities that remain on the feet are 
 rubbed down ; during this time the linen is twice 
 changed.* These operations do not interrupt the 
 chafing of the soles,t and the gentle patting on the 
 
 * Galen ("Method. Therap." 1. x. c. 10,) says, "Let then one 
 of the servants throw over him a towel, and being placed upon 
 a couch, let him be wiped with sponges, and then with soft 
 napkins." How completely this is the Turkish plan, one 
 familiar with, the bath only wiU understand. Explanation 
 would be tedious. 
 
 t If you desire to be awakened at a certain hour, you are 
 not lugged by the shoulder or shouted at in the ear ; the soles
 
 a Turkish Bath. 
 
 75 
 
 outside of the folds of linen which I have mentioned in 
 the first stage. The body has come forth shining like 
 alabaster, fragrant as the cistus, sleek as satin, and soft 
 as velvet. The touch of the skin is electric. Buffon 
 has a wonderful description of Adam's surprise and 
 delight at the first touch of himself. It is the descrip- 
 tion of the human sense when the body is brought back 
 to its purity. The body thus renewed, the spirit 
 wanders abroad, and, reviewing its tenement, rejoices 
 to find it clean and tranquil. There is an intoxication 
 or dream that lifts you out of the Jlesh, and yet a sense 
 of life and consciousness that spreads through every 
 member. Each breastful of air seems to pass, not to 
 the heart, but to the brain, and to quench, not the 
 pulsations of the one, but the fancies of the other. 
 That exaltation which requires the slumber of the 
 senses — that vividness of sense which drowns the visions 
 of the spirit — are simultaneously engaged in calm and 
 unspeakable luxury ; you condense the pleasures of 
 many scenes, and enjoy in an hour the existence of 
 years. 
 
 But '' this too will pass."* The visions fade, the 
 
 of your feet are chafed, and you wake up geutly, and with an 
 agreeable sensation. This luxury is not confined to tkose who 
 have attendants, few or many ; the street-porter is so awakened 
 by his wife, or child, or brother, and he in turn renders the 
 same service. The soles of the feet are exposed to a severity 
 of service which no other muscles have to perform, and they 
 require indulgent treatment, but with us they receive none. 
 
 * Motto of the Vizir of Haroun el Easchid, when required 
 by his master to find one which should apply at once to 
 happiness or adversity.
 
 176 Art of Constructing 
 
 speed of the blood thickens, the breath of the pores is 
 checked, the crispness of the skin returns, the fountains 
 of strength are opened ; you seek again the world and 
 its toils ; and those who -experience these effects and 
 vicissitudes for the first time exclaim, " I feel as if I 
 could leap over the moon." Paying your pence 
 according to the tariff of your deserts, you walk forth a 
 king. 
 
 A writer in the " Library of Travel '' says :— 
 *' Strange as it may appear, the Orientals, both men 
 and women, are passionately fond of indulging in this 
 formidable luxury ; and almost every European who 
 has tried it speaks with much satisfaction of the result. 
 When all is done, a soft and luxurious feeling spreads 
 itself over your body ; every limb is light and free as 
 air ; the marble-like smoothness of the skin is delight- 
 ful ; and after all this pommelling, scrubbing, racking, 
 parboiling, and perspiring, you feel more enjoyment 
 than ever you felt before.'^ 
 
 This chief of luxuries is common, in a barbarous land 
 and under a despotism, to every man, woman, and child ; 
 to the poorest as to the richest, and to the richest no 
 otherwise than to the poorest.* But howis it paid for ? 
 
 * Yolney once entered a Turkish bath, and, in horror and 
 dismay, rushed out, and could never be induced to enter one 
 again. Lord Londonderry was more submissive, and endured 
 its tortures to the end; hut rejected the coffee, and pipes, and 
 civilities then proffered. He has given us a detail of his 
 sufferings, which appear to have been national. Sir G. Wilkin- 
 son, in his work on Thebes, cites them at length, and this is all 
 that he deems it requisite to tell the strangers who arrive in 
 Egypt on this subject.
 
 a Turkish Bath, lyj 
 
 How can it be within the reach of the poor ? They pay- 
 according to their means. What each person gives is 
 put into a common stock; the box is opened once a 
 week, and the distribution of the contents is made 
 according to a scale ; the master of the bath comes in 
 for his share just like the rest. A person of distinction 
 will give a pound or more ; the common price that, at 
 Constantinople, a tradesman would pay, was from ten- 
 pence to a shilling ; workmen, from twopence to 
 threepence. In a village near Constantinople, where I 
 spent some months, the charge for men was a halfpenny,* 
 for women three farthings. A poor person will lay 
 down a few parahs to show that he has not more to 
 give, and where the poor man is so treated he will give 
 as much as he can. He will not, like the poor Roman, 
 have access alone, but his cup of coffee, and a portion 
 of the service like the rest.f Such habits are not to be 
 established, though they may be destroyed, by laws. 
 
 This I have observed, that wherever the bath is used 
 it is not confined to any class of the community, as if it 
 was felt to be too good a thing to be denied to any. 
 
 * The charge at Rome was a quadrant, or farthing; children paid 
 
 nothing. " Nee pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum sere lavantur." 
 — Juvenal, Sat. ii. v. 152. In some baths it would appear 
 that even grown persons were admitted gratis. " Balneum, quo 
 usus fuisset, sine mercede exhibuit." — Jul. Capit. 
 
 t A poor man will go to the shambles, and cut off a bit of the 
 meat that is hanging there, and the butcher will take no notice 
 of it. If he goes to have a cup of coffee, and has not five 
 parahs (one farthing), he will lay his two or three on the 
 counter, instead of dropping them into the slit; the next 
 customer will lay down ten, and sweep them in together.
 
 J 7 8 Art of Constructing 
 
 * All these practices vary among the Moors. First, 
 there is no bath linen. They go in naked. Then there 
 is but one room, under which there is an oven, and a 
 pot, open into the bath, is boiling on the fire below.* 
 There are no pattens — the floor burning hot — so boards 
 are used. At once the operation of shampooing com- 
 mences. There is a dish of gazule, for the shampooer 
 to rub his hands in. You are seated on the board, 
 with the legs straight out ; the shampooer seats himself 
 on the same board behind you, stretching out his legs. 
 He then makes you close your fingers upon the toes of 
 his feet, by which he gets a purchase, and, rubbing his 
 hands in the gazule, commences upon the middle of the 
 back with a sharp motion up and down, between beating 
 and rubbing, his hands working in opposite directions. 
 After rubbing in this way the back, he pulls the arms 
 through his own and through each other, twisting you 
 about in the most extraordinary manner, and drawing 
 his fingers across the region of the diaphragm, so as to 
 make even a practised bather shriek. After rubbing in 
 this way the skin, and stretching at the same time the 
 joints of the upper body, he places himself at your feet, 
 dealing with the legs in the like manner. Then thrice 
 taking each leg and lifting it up, he places his head 
 under the calf, and raising himself, scrapes the leg with 
 a rough brush, for his shaved head has the grain down- 
 wards. The operation concludes by his biting your 
 heel. 
 
 * An incident, at Athens, in the time of Demetrius Poliorcetes 
 shows a similar cauldron, with a lid in the Greek Thermai.
 
 a Turkish Bath, 
 
 179 
 
 A great deal of learning has been expended upon the 
 baths of the ancients, and a melancholy exhibition it is 
 — so much acuteness and research, and so little or 
 rather no profit. The details of these wonderful struc- 
 tures, the evidences of their usefulness, have prompted 
 no prince, no people of Europe to imitate them, and so 
 acquire honour for the one, health for the other. The 
 writers, indeed, present not living practices, but cold 
 and ill-assorted details, as men must do who profess to 
 describe what they themselves do not comprehend. 
 From what I have said, the identity of the Turkish 
 bath with that of the Romans will be at once perceived, 
 and the apparent discrepancies and differences ex- 
 plained. The apodyterium is the mustdby, or entrance 
 hall ; after this comes the sweating apartment, sub- 
 divided by the difference of degrees. There two opera- 
 tions are performed, shampooing, and the clearing off 
 of the epidermis. The Romans had in the tepidarium 
 and the sudatorium distinct attendants for the two 
 operations, the first shampooer receiving the appropriate 
 name of Iradator ; the others, who used the strigil, 
 which was equivalent to the glove, being called suppe- 
 tones. The appearance of the strigil in no way alters 
 the character of the operation. They used sponges also 
 for rubbing down, like the Moorish gazule. They used 
 no soap ; neither do the Moors ; the Turks use it after 
 the operation is concluded. The laconicum I understood 
 when I saw the Moorish bath, with the pot of water 
 heated from the fire below, boiling up into the bath. I 
 then recollected that there is in the Turkish baths an 
 opening, by which the steam from the boilers can be let
 
 I So Art of Constructing 
 
 in, althougli not frequently so used, nor equally placed 
 witliin observation. Many of the Turkish baths have, 
 doubtless, been originally Greek. The change in 
 respect to the use of cold water is compensated for* by 
 the cold air of the outer room, into which the Turka 
 come, and is preserved in the partial use of cold water 
 for the feet. The hot-water reservoirs, the labnim and 
 wliumf are still to be seen in the private baths ; they 
 are in those of the Alhambra. When used, the cha- 
 racter of running water, an essential point among the 
 Turks, is given to them by a hole being left below, 
 which is unplugged, and a stream kept running in from 
 a cock. It would appear that the Romans followed the 
 same method. The piscinum of the Romans is found in 
 the Moorish gardens. In the use of the depilatories, or 
 the shaving off the hair, the practice of the Turks is 
 exactly that of the Romans ; the parts of the bath 
 appropriated to that purpose being the same. The 
 okarea are alone wanting. The Mussulmans would 
 consider the smearing of the body with oil or ointments 
 not as a part of the bath, but a defilement, for which 
 the purification of the bath was requisite. 
 
 The Romans took the bath daily ; the Turks have 
 restricted its use to once a week. The Romans entered 
 
 * '' On entering, tkey remain in the hot air, after wliich they 
 immerse themselves in hot water, then they go into cold water, 
 and then wipe off the sweat. Those who do not go from the 
 sudatory at once into cold water burst out, on returning to the 
 dressing room, into a second sweat, which at first is immoderate, 
 and then ceases, and leaves them chilly." — Galen, " Method. 
 Med." 1. X. c. 2.
 
 a Turkish Bath. 
 
 I8l 
 
 the bath naked ; the Turks have introduced a bathing 
 costume ; the Romans allowed the two sexes to enter 
 promiscuously — the Turks have wholly separated them. 
 Preserving the good, they have purified it from excesses, 
 which, to a people of less discrimination, might have 
 appeared to constitute its essential character, or to be 
 entailed as its necessary consequences. Our studies and 
 learning have furnished us with no such results. These 
 very excesses have been assigned as a reason for the 
 disuse of the bath by the early Christians. If the 
 explanation were true, the difference between the Chris- 
 tians and the Mussulman would amount to this, that the 
 first could see and reject the evil, the second perceive 
 and select the good. 
 
 There is one point connected with the bath on which 
 I must say a few words, especially as in this case our 
 usages do not present any obstacle to the adoption of a 
 good habit, and I have repeatedly had the gratification 
 of finding that the suggestions which follow were of 
 use. 
 
 Those who wash the rest of their body often, except 
 the head ; the practice of smearing it with oil almost 
 universally prevails. The Easterns do the reverse — 
 they shave it. A greater comfort there cannot be than 
 a bald pate. Washing the head is in no case prejudicial. 
 Unless you wash the head, the washing of the body is 
 neither complete nor satisfactory. The refreshment of. 
 washing the head may often be procured when it is im- 
 possible to wash the body. Soap and water are injurious^ 
 not to the hair, but to the hair-dressers. The men of 
 the East have no hair to show, but if soap and water
 
 1 8 2 Art of Constructing 
 
 injure the hair, whence comes the luxuriant abundance 
 
 of that of the women ? The hair of the head, like the 
 
 fur of animals, is made to bear rain and wind, and to 
 
 be a protection against them. You cover it up. The 
 
 fur of animals thickens and strengthens when exposed 
 
 to air and wet. Your hair falls off, and you oil it. If 
 
 it grows weak, change its habits. If it is not washed, 
 
 and if it is oiled, begin to wash it, and leave off oiling it. 
 
 Every week an Eastern lady has her hair thoroughly 
 
 washed at the bath. It is first well soaped and rubbed. 
 
 They are very particular about soap, and use none but 
 
 that made of olive oil. The Castile Soap, which in this 
 
 country is sold at the apothecary's, is the soap the least 
 
 injurious to the skin. This is twice repeated. After 
 
 the soap, they apply a paste of Armenian bole and rose 
 
 leaves. This is rubbed into the roots of the hair, and 
 
 left to imbibe all the grease of the head ; it is then, like 
 
 the soap, washed off with bowls of hot water, and leaves 
 
 the locks perfectly clean and silken. From time to 
 
 time they dye it. On these occasions an attendant 
 
 mixes up a handful of henna-dust in hot water, and 
 
 thoroughly smears with it the hair, which is then turned 
 
 up into a ball, and bound tightly with a napkin. In 
 
 this state they go through the bath. When the napkin 
 
 is removed, and the henna-paste washed out, the hair, 
 
 if before black, will have become of a bronze auburn, 
 
 and if grey, red. The bath occupies from three to four 
 
 hours, with the smoking, chatting, music, and dancing 
 
 which accompany it, in an atmosphere which excludes 
 
 every unpleasant sensation. The women are not, like 
 
 the men, contented with the bathing linen and apparatus
 
 a Turkish Bath. 183 
 
 which, they find there ; but are followed by female 
 slaves, who bear bundles of towels, in silk and satin 
 wrappers, boxwood pattens, incrusted with mother of 
 pearl, silver basins and bowls, or sometimes enamelled 
 ones, and aloe- wood and ambergris to perfume both the 
 apartment and their coffee. This finery is less than 
 what they indulge in in their private baths. 
 
 The Romans and Greeks, in like manner, were ac^ 
 companied by their slaves, and did not trust to the 
 service of the thermce. Each person brought his strigil 
 and his anointing vase (strigilis et ampulla, XriKvOos koI 
 iCa-rpa)* or sent them by his slave. The practice 
 furnishes the familiar metaphors which express the 
 different conditions.! The strigil was the sign of 
 comfort, and also of sobriety and industry. It was, 
 according to Cicero, necessary to the happiness of the 
 
 * "The two instruments were shmg together. The guttug 
 was round, and from its round flat orifice the oil distilled. 
 " Guttatim tentieulari forma, terite amhitu, pressula rotunditate" 
 — Apuleius. On coins, vases, and bas-reliefs, it has been mis- 
 taken for the pomegranate, for a bulbous root, or a lustral vase. 
 A curious Greek papyrus, in which a reward is offered for a 
 runaway slave, or Lechythophoros, has cleared this matter 
 from all ambiguity. Mr. Letronne has restored and translated 
 the papyrus. It is also to be seen in the Lycian tomb, of 
 which a cast is in the British Museum, and one of the groups 
 is given in colours in Fellows's " Lycia." 
 
 t hvTokT]KvBos, signifies a poor man. ^EfxavTov 'QaKavev(T<a, 
 was equivalent to " I am my own butler." " Have you dreamt 
 of Lechy th, or Xystra ? that is the sign of a woman that attends 
 to her household {oiKovpiov) or of a faithful handmaid." — Artemid^ 
 ♦* Oneiroc." i. 64.
 
 184 Art of Constructing 
 
 Roman citizen ; it had to do with the fortunes of the 
 Roman state. Rome was indebted to her strigil no less 
 than her sword for the conquest, of the world. 
 
 Mr. Chadwick has asked me some questions which 
 I wish to answer: — "Is not the strigil a substitute 
 for the shampooer, or may it not be referred to as the 
 poor man's substitute ; ought it not to be tried ? How 
 were shampooers to be got in sufficient number for the 
 crowded baths of the poor ? One of the shampooers 
 told me that twelve hours a day exhausted him. At 
 that rate, would not 6d. per person be about the charge 
 for the labour ? This would be an obstacle to the very 
 poorest, and I apprehend turn the scale of the warm 
 water bath. Does not the use of the strigil meet such 
 cases '? " 
 
 My answer is as follows : — As to your question 
 respecting the strigil, I have to reply that it is the 
 instrument of the shampooer, and cannot be a substi- 
 tute for him. But the shampooer is not only the 
 professional man, he is also every man. It was after 
 a month that I visited the experimental bath in Jermjm- 
 street, where the patients from the Consumptive Hospital 
 had been taking it, and I found them all dependant 
 upon the regular shampooers. AYhen I expressed my 
 astonishment at such a sight, they on their side ex- 
 pressed themselves much delighted with the idea of 
 shampooing one another. It is one of the desirable 
 results to be obtained from this new method, to break 
 down that sense of menial service attached to the assist- 
 5ince that man has to render to man, and which belongs 
 to the coarseness and vulgarity of our manners, and
 
 a Turkish Bath. 185 
 
 which so pervades us that we read ourselves only in the 
 picture of the most opposite character held up to us by 
 the East to-day, or by antiquity. 
 
 I have more than once quoted the expression, mavTov 
 BaXvevdeii, or " a man bathing himself," as the designa- 
 tion of all that was wretched, mean, and sordid. But 
 Englishmen, reading the word, and finding it even 
 accompanied with my explanation of it, can only see 
 in it " independence." 
 
 I once went to the bath with Ahmed Pasha, then 
 High Admiral, and the first man in the empire. Six 
 Pashas accompanied us. They performed the service. 
 The Captain Pasha himself insisted on shampooing me, 
 and further took the charge of Chiboukji. You can 
 have no idea of the difierence it makes to life, when on 
 the one hand there is dignity and etiquette, and on the 
 other a readiness and a love to perform every service 
 by which one man can render himself agreeable to 
 another. As politeness is of all things that which it 
 is desirable for the people of this country to learn, so 
 of all means does the bath present in its operations the 
 readiest for inculcating it and practising it. 
 
 Therefore you will see that there will be no increase 
 of expense in connexion with shampooing. Nor do I 
 think it will be desirable to introduce the strigil, because 
 the rubbing ofi" the skin by means of the glove is a far 
 more efficacious as well as agreeable process, than 
 scraping it off with the strigil. 
 
 This constant washing occasions, it may be supposed, 
 an enormous waste of water. A Turk uses less water 
 than an English gentleman. It is true every Turk,
 
 1 86 Art of Constructing 
 
 high and low, uses the same quantity, and washes in 
 the same manner ; but the utensils and conveniences 
 are differently adapted. There are no wash-hand basins 
 and ewers in bedrooms, no foot-pans, hip-baths, shower- 
 baths, &c. They do not dabble in dirty water, defiling 
 a great quantity. They wash under a stream of water 
 running from a fountain, urn, or ewer. A handful 
 serves to moisten the soap and to rub with it, and a 
 couple more rinse it completely off. The fountains are 
 placed in the passages, staircases, &c. By the mosques, 
 and in the streets, they are so arranged that, by sitting 
 on the step you can wash the feet and the head. When 
 you wash in a room, one attendant brings the basin, 
 laen, with its pierced cover, and kneels before you; 
 another the ewer, ibrik, with its long, narrow neck to 
 pour the water.* In the bath, steam and perspiration 
 cleanse, and two or three large saucerfuls suffice for 
 rinsing ; — fifty persons may be bathed with the same 
 water that serves to fill our trough for washing one. 
 
 "What a difference it makes in domestic comfort to 
 be certain that every person around you, and everything 
 you touch and eat, are absolutely clean ! After this 
 manner of life, the habits of Europe are most painful ; 
 
 • I find the most convenient substitute, a vase holding about 
 two gallons of water, with a spout like that of a tea urn, only 
 three times the length, placed on a stand about four feet high, 
 with a tub below ; hot or cold water can be used ; the water 
 may be very hot, as the stream that flows is small. It runs for 
 a quarter of an hour, or twenty minutes. The Castilian soap 
 should be used in preference to the made-up soaps of England. 
 Of English soaps, the common yellow washing soap is the best. 
 N.B. — A clean sheet on the dressing-room floor, and no 
 sUppers.
 
 a Turkish Bath, 187 
 
 you are constantly oppressed with the touch, or sight, 
 or knowledge of things which, by the European, are 
 not considered unclean, or are submitted to as una- 
 voidable. It would but faintly describe my impressions 
 to say, that I felt as if passing from a refined to a rude 
 condition of society. Neither do we know how to 
 cultivate or handle the body. One of the first thoughts 
 was, " What shall I do in sickness ? " All Europe's 
 seductions and luxuries put together will not make up 
 for this one. 
 
 The European is clean, in so far as he is so, for 
 appearance ; he has clothes and shoe-brushes, blacking, 
 starch, smoothing irons, &c. ; in these consists his neat- 
 ness.* The clean shirt is put upon the dirty body; the 
 hands and face, being alone open to the air and sun and 
 the eyes of the neighbours, are washed. Nothing is 
 filthy that is unseen.f The Eastern has no brush or 
 blacking ; no care is expended or expense incurred for 
 neatness. He has his religious ablutions for prayer. J 
 
 * Neat and proper, are two words which we have changed 
 from their original sense to cleanUness. 
 
 t Granting that the English are tolerably clean in the 
 matter of their faces and hands, their houses and clothes, it 
 must be confessed that they do not seem sufficiently impressed 
 with the importance of keeping their whole bodies clean. 
 Suppose the English were the cleanest people in the world, it 
 would be fearful to think, when we know what they are, how 
 dirty the rest of the world must be. — " Family Economist," p. 40- 
 
 t The ahdest of the Mussulman consists in washing hands to 
 the elbow, feet, face, and neck, five times a day in cold water, 
 without soap. The wadhan of the Jew is only three times, and 
 does not extend to the feet. The priests washed feet and 
 hands.
 
 1 8 8 Art of Constructing 
 
 He will not tell you that lie washes for his comfort or 
 his health, but because it would be a sin not to do so. 
 
 Our intercourse with the lo\7er orders is broken off 
 by there being no settled occasion on which we are in 
 contact with them, and by the want of cleanliness in 
 their persons. Here both classes are constantly brought 
 into the presence of each other. Contempt and distaste 
 are removed on one side, degradation and irritation on 
 the other ; they know one another ; the intercourse of 
 various ranks requires and sustains a style and de- 
 meanour which strikes all Europeans, who are astonished 
 that the bearing of the peasant is as courtly as that of 
 the Pasha, — he is as clean as the Pasha. What must 
 Easterns think of us where the difference of condition 
 can be traced in speech, manner, and washing ? The 
 bath is of as great value to society as to the individual. 
 A political economist, glorifying his age, exclaims — 
 "Augustus in all bis splendour had neither glass for 
 his window nor a shirt to his back." The slave and 
 the beggar in Pome were daily in the enjoyment of 
 luxuries which no European monarch knows. 
 
 There is an impression that the bath is weakening. 
 We can test this in three ways : its effects on those 
 debilitated by disease, on those exhausted by fatigue, 
 and on those who are long exposed to it. 
 
 1. In affection of the lungs and intermittent fever 
 the bath is used. The effect is to subdue, by a healthy 
 perspiration in a waking state, the unhealthy one in 
 sleep. 
 
 2. After long and severe fatigue — fatigue such as 
 we never know — successive days and nights on horse-
 
 a Turkish Bath, 189 
 
 back — the bath affords the most astonishing relief. 
 Having performed long journeys on horseback, even 
 to the extent of ninety-four hours, without taking 
 rest, I know by experience its effects in the extremest 
 cases. 
 
 A Tartar, having an hour to rest, prefers a bath to 
 sleep. He enters as if drugged with opium, and leaves 
 it, his senses cleared and his strength restored, as much 
 as if he had slept for several hours. This is not to be 
 attributed to the heat or moisture alone, but to the 
 shampooing, which in such cases is of an extraordinary 
 nature. The Tartar sits down and tumbles himself up ; 
 the shampooer (and he selects the most powerful man) 
 then springs with his feet on his shoulders, cracking 
 his vertebrae ; with all his force and weight he pummels 
 the whole back, and then turning him on his back and 
 face, aided by a second shampooer, tramples on his body 
 and limbs ; the Tartar then lays himself down for half 
 an hour, and, perhaps, though it is not necessary, sleeps. 
 "Well can I recall the hammdm doors which I have 
 entered, scarcely able to drag one limb after the other, 
 and from which- 1 have sprung into my saddle again, 
 elastic as a sinew, and light as a feather. 
 
 You will see a hammal (porter), a man living only on 
 rice, go out of one of those baths, where he has been 
 pouring with that perspiration which we think must 
 prostrate and weaken, and take up his load of five 
 hundred- weight, placing it unaided on his back. 
 
 3. The shampooers spend eight hour^ daily in the 
 steam; they undergo great labour there, shampooing, 
 perhaps, a dozen persons, and are remarkably healthy.
 
 190 Art of Constructing 
 
 They enter the bath at eight years of age ; the duties 
 of the younger portion are light, and chiefly outside 
 in the hall, to which the bathers retire after the bath ; 
 still, there they are from that tender age exposed to 
 the steam and heat, so as to have their strength broken, 
 if the bath were debilitating. The best shampooer 
 under whose hands I have ever been, was a man whose 
 age was given to me as ninety, and who, from eight 
 years of age, had been daily eight hours in the bath. 
 This was at the natural baths of Sophia. I might 
 adduce, in like manner, the sugar-bakers in London, 
 who, in a temperature not less than that of a bath, 
 undergo great fatigue, and are also remarkably 
 healthy. 
 
 The Komans furnish another example. Unlike the 
 Arabs, who restrict its use to once a week, they went 
 into it daily. The temperature was gradually raised, 
 until, in the time of Nero, it became excessive. Their 
 habits, in other respects, were not such as to be conducive- 
 to health, and must have disqualified them for using 
 the bath, if it did debilitate ; it served, therefore, as an 
 antidote to their manner of life, and relieved the excess 
 of the patrician, as it does to-day the fatigue of the 
 Tartar. 
 
 Life is chemical and galvanic, but both these agencies 
 result in, and depend upon, motion ; the vessels are 
 constructed for conveying fluids — ^the muscles for gene- 
 rating power. Thus, shampooing exerts over the human 
 body a power analogous to that of drugs administered 
 by the mouth. A blow which kills, a posture which 
 benumbs, pressure which in long disease becomes a
 
 a Turkish Bath, 191 
 
 chief obstacle to recovery, exercise which gives health 
 and strength — are all evidences of the influence of 
 motion over our system. 
 
 Who has not experienced in headaches and other 
 pains, relief from the most unartful rubbing ? You 
 receive a blow, and involuntarily rub the part. Cold 
 will kill; the remedy is brandy and friction. The 
 resources of this process surely deserve to be developed 
 with as much care as that which has been bestowed 
 upon the Materia Medica. Where practised, human 
 suffering is relieved, obstructions are removed, indiges- 
 tion is cured, paralysis and diseases of the spine, &c., 
 arising from the loss of muscular power, are within its 
 reach, while they are not under the control of our 
 medicines. Here is a new method to add to the old. 
 Wherever it can be employed, how much is it to be 
 preferred to nauseating substances taken into the sto- 
 mach ; how much must the common practice of it tend 
 to preserve the vitality of the whole frame ! Even if 
 disregarded as an enjoyment of health, it offers a solace 
 which ought to be invaluable in the eye of a medical 
 man, as of course it must be of the patient. We have 
 all to play that part. 
 
 Where the practice is familiar, it is used not merely 
 in the bath, but upon all occasions. It is to be found 
 without the bath, as among the Hindoos, some Tartar 
 tribes, the Chinese, and the Sandwich islanders — the 
 latter present one of the most remarkable phenomena. 
 The different ranks are of different stature. The chiefs 
 are sunk in sloth and immorality; and yet it is not 
 they who, like the grandees of Spain, are the dimin-
 
 192 Art of Constructing 
 
 utive and decrepid race — they are shampooed.* A 
 practice which our epicures and our stoics, our patients 
 and our doctors, would alike despise — counteracts the 
 consequences of gluttony, intoxication, debauchery, and 
 sloth, and supplies the place of exercise and temperance ; 
 and a people which can boast no school of philosophy, 
 whose nostrils have never been regaled by compounds 
 of Beauvilliers, and whose pulse has never been 
 stretched out to a Halden, is able to combine the 
 health of the Brahmin with the indulgence of the 
 Sybarite. 
 
 The human body is formed for labour, and requires it, 
 and this labour is accompanied by perspiration. It is 
 the safety-valve for the heart — the sewer of the secre- 
 tions — the scavenger for the skin. Those who are 
 
 * ** Tiie chiefs of either sex are, with very few exceptions, 
 remarkably tall and corpulent. For this striking peculiarity 
 various reasons may be suggested, * * * But in addition 
 to any or all of these possibilities, one thing is certain — that 
 the easy luxurious life of a chief has had very considerable 
 influence in the matter ; he or she, as the case may be, fares 
 sumptuously every day, or rather every hour, and takes little 
 or no exercise, while the constant habit of being shampooed 
 after every regular meal, and oftener, if desired or expedient, 
 promotes circulation and digestion, without supei;inducing 
 either exhaustion or fatigue. "Whatever may be the cause or 
 causes of the magnitude of the patricians, the effect itself so 
 seldom fails to be produced, that, beyond all doubt, bidk and 
 rank are jilmost indissolubly connected together in the public 
 mind — the great in person being, without the help of a play 
 upon the words, great also in power." — Sir Geoege Simpson's 
 " Voyage Kound the World," vol. ii., p. 51.
 
 a Turkish Bath, 
 
 ^93 
 
 thrown repeatedly into perspiration possess, however 
 seldom washed, many advantages over those who have 
 not to undergo severe bodily toil, however often they 
 may use soap and water to the surface. 
 
 The bath substitutes an artificial and easy perspiration, 
 and this explains how the people who use it do not 
 require exercise for health, and can pass from the 
 extreme of indolence to that of toil. 
 
 The functions for carrying on life are of the nature 
 of a steam-engine and chemical apparatus ; lethal gases 
 are given forth as from a furnace ; poisons are produced 
 by every organ ; from every function there is residuum, 
 and the body, while soiled by labour, is rusted by 
 repose. 
 
 The extremities of the vessels become charged with 
 unctuous matter ; the deadened cellules of the epider- 
 mis are covered with a varnish, which is partly insoluble 
 in water, and this internal accumulation and external 
 coating prevent the skin from performing its functions, 
 which are not confined to those of shielding the bod}-, 
 but are essential to the chemical processes within. The 
 skin has analogous duties to those of the lungs, supplying 
 oxygen to the blood at the extremity of its course, and 
 when most completely in need of it. It has to aid at 
 the same time the action of the heart. In its health is 
 their health, and its health is cleanliness. Unlike the 
 two other organs, it is placed within man's reach, and 
 confided to his care ; and curiously interspersed through 
 it are glands secreting peculiar odours, that the touch 
 and sight shall not alone warn, but a third sense be 
 enlisted in the guardianship, crjdng aloud on every 
 
 o
 
 1 94 Art of Constructing 
 
 remissness, and cliarging and reciprocating every 
 neglect.* 
 
 The Russians come out at a steam at 160° to roll 
 themselves in the snow. This is explained by the 
 fervour of the circulation, which enables them to with- 
 stand the shock. If so, the strong and healthy might 
 bear it — not the weak and suffering, the octogenarian 
 and the child. The sudden passage from a Russian 
 bathf to a glacial atmosphere is attended by neither 
 shock nor danger ; and far from the oppression that 
 would result from the absorption of vital action in the 
 efforts of the heart to overcome the violent contraction 
 of the circulation by the cold, there is a sense of ineffable 
 relief. You seem to take in and throw forth your 
 breath in mere playfulness, no longer dependent upon 
 it momentarily for life. In fact, the lungs and heart 
 are discharged in part from the toil of that unceasing 
 labour which, beginning with the cradle, ends with the 
 grave. Of what service must it not be to aid a machine, 
 the efforts of which, in the most delicate girl, are equal 
 to a steam-engine of fourteen horse-power ?J 
 
 * "Eecte olet ubi niliili olet." — Plautus. 
 
 t In the Eussian bath the heat is obtained, as in that of the 
 Mexicans, by stones heated in a furnace, and on which water 
 is thrown. They have seats at different heights, and, by 
 ascending, increase the temperature (the concamerata sudatio, 
 as painted in the baths of Titus). They have a cold douche, 
 which descends from the top of the chamber, and is repeated 
 twice during the bathing. They do not shampoo, but with a 
 bunch of birch, with the leaves on, thrash the body all over, 
 laying it along, first on the back then on the face. 
 
 X The vessels running through the skin would extend in a
 
 a Turkish Bath, 195 
 
 " The bath has the effect of several classes of medi- 
 cines; that is to say, it removes the symptoms for 
 which they are administered ; thus, it is a cathartic, a 
 diuretic, a tonic, a detersive, a narcotic ; but the effect 
 is produced only when there is cause. It will bring 
 sleep to the patient suffering from insomnia, but will 
 not, like opium, make the healthy man drowsy ; and 
 relieve constipation without bringing on the healthy — 
 as aloes would — diarrhoea ; it is thus a drug, which 
 administers itself according to the need, and brings on 
 no after consequences. 
 
 ''This is not a drug in a shop, to be exhibited by 
 prescription after a visit to a patient. It would be 
 something to obtain a new simple, or an improved plan 
 of administering a known remedy in any one disorder. 
 It would be much by such a suggestion to diminish, in 
 a few cases, the pains of sciatica or of rheumatism, the 
 tortures of gout or stone. This is a habit ; one which 
 shall become, when adopted, that of the whole people. 
 
 " To reason out the subject, I should require to be 
 a profound physiologist and physician ; but my 
 deficiencies in this respect, and the appearance of 
 presumption in speaking confidently on a medical 
 subject, will not deter me from declaring that with 
 full knowledge of the uses of different degrees of tem- 
 perature, you have an entire command over those acute 
 disorders which constitute nine-tenths of our maladies. 
 
 straight line twenty-five miles ; the respiratories coming to the 
 surface of the body, and opening through the epidermis, 
 amount to seven millions.
 
 196 Art of Constructing 
 
 All inflammation, local and general, can be subdued. 
 Gout, rbeumatism, sciatica, will equally yield. I am 
 inclined to say tlie same in reference to the plague. I 
 am certain of it with, reference to the cholera.* As to 
 consumption, that scourge of England, which, sits by 
 every tenth domestic hearth among the higher orders, 
 its ravages may be arrested with certainty, I had almost 
 said with, ease, if taken in time.'' 
 
 These preceding paragraphs are not tbe result of 
 experience, but the anticipation of it. It was written 
 four-and- twenty years ago for a work I was then about 
 to publish, and suppressed at the entreaty of a friend, 
 as being too offensive to tbe British public. It was, 
 however, printed in a subsequent work fourteen years 
 ago. I now adduce it as having an historical value, 
 and I do so at tbe suggestion of a friend, whose dis- 
 crimination and long administrative habits, combine 
 to constitute a profitable adviser. 
 
 Your curiosity may be awakened as to the effect of 
 such a statement on the medical world, and my answer 
 '\\T.11 be itself a curiosity. It produced no effect at all. 
 The proposition, " Heat is the simplest, the easiest, and 
 the m.ost effective of remedial agencies, and it has the 
 peculiar merit of never having been so much as noticed 
 in any work of medicine," passed by as if no words 
 whatever had been used. I utterly failed in my 
 
 * In Cork the men employed in cleaning out the brewers' 
 rats, and who have thus heen in a Turkish hath, were, during 
 the prevalence of the cholera, free from that disorder. The 
 other workmen in these establishments, at the time, petitioned 
 to be put to that work.
 
 a Turkish Bath, * 197 
 
 attempt to secure so mucli as tlie attention of one 
 medical man, when it was by means of forms of speech 
 that I addressed myself to their understanding. I 
 then adopted the other process. I built. Then medical 
 men, by the processes of persuasion and reproach, being 
 induced to enter, the road to the brain was opened 
 through the skin. The first bath built was that of Dr. 
 Barter, of Cork. When engaged on it, a friend, resid- 
 ing in Northumberland, came over with an architect, 
 and the consequence was the first private bath in Eng- 
 land. Sir John Fife was induced to enter it and as 
 a patient experienced its efiects. The result was the 
 introduction of the Turkish bath into the Great In- 
 firmary of the North. This has been the most success- 
 ful operation for several years ; but no other infirmary 
 or hospital has followed the example. Sir John Fife 
 says to me in a letter : — "I state as the result of my 
 experience, that in diseases of the skin, joints, liver, and 
 kidney, the action of the Turkish bath is immediate 
 and direct. When it is remembered that in most 
 diseases the important viscera above mentioned are 
 deranged in their action, we see at once in how vast 
 a number of diseases the Turkish bath, by correcting 
 the morbid action of these viscera, must inevitably 
 exercise an influence beneficial and powerful, though 
 indirect. ^^ 
 
 The report of this Infirmary says : — 
 
 "The class of cases first submitted to its influence 
 were of a rheumatic character, both acute and chronic^ 
 lumbago, neuralgia, sciatica and gout; and with such 
 beneficial results, that in the course of a few weeks the
 
 1 98 Art of Constructing 
 
 bath had become most popular, and rheumatic cripples 
 were being brought from all quarters ; some with their 
 joints much swollen, and suffering a martyrdom, were 
 conveyed helpless down into the bath, into a species of 
 elysium, where ache and pain vanished as if by magic. 
 One of the worst cases of rheumatic gout that I have 
 seen was admitted into the hospital, in October, 1860 ; 
 he was a baker, aged 46 ; since 1855 he had suffered 
 from the affection in his joints, and had been under 
 treatment here and in another hospital, without gaining 
 any relief; his elbows, wrists, fingers, knees, and ankles 
 were much enlarged and stiffened, so as to cripple his 
 every action. I quote his own words : — * For the last 
 two years I had been getting much worse ; during the 
 whole of this period I had very little refreshing sleep, 
 and had continued gnawing and acute pains in all my 
 affected parts. I have experienced much benefit from 
 every bath which I have taken, and can, at the present 
 time (February, 1861), use my hands and arms with 
 much freedom ; previously I could not stand alone, now 
 I am able to walk without any assistance.' Equally 
 satisfactory results have followed in cases of dropsy, the 
 profuse perspirations affording marked relief. 
 
 " In catarrh, influenza, and many affections of the 
 throat and air passages, diarrheea, and dysentery, the 
 genial atmosphere of the bath, at a temperature of 130 '^ 
 Fahr., exerts an influence far surpassing the benefit to 
 be obtained by medicine. As a simple illustration, I 
 may mention the case of a gentleman who had travelled 
 from the south, a journey of many hours; he was 
 labouring under a severe cold, and had almost lost his
 
 a Turkish Bath, 
 
 199 
 
 voice ; he was easily persuaded to enter the bath, and, 
 in the space of a single hour, had completely recovered 
 his vocal powers, and was enabled to attend a ball the 
 same evening. 
 
 " The power the bath unquestionably exercises in 
 equalizing the circulation, renders it peculiarly useful 
 in all cases of congestion or stagnation of the blood, and 
 obstructions of the viscera ; hence the averting of the 
 ague iit which I have frequently witnessed, the disper- 
 sion of haemorrhoidal and varicose conditions, the neutral 
 (tonic) cure of hernia, and the relief of stomach and 
 liver affections. 
 
 "In scrofula affecting the integuments, glands, and 
 joints, incipient phthisis, and other conditions attended 
 by wasting, the tonic influence of the bath is speedily 
 evinced by an increase of appetite, flesh, and general 
 condition ; while, at the same time, the patient himself 
 voluntarily casts off the damp flannel that has chilled 
 his breast for many a day. 
 
 " In regard to the treatment of disorders peculiar to 
 females much might be said, and, under medical super 
 vision and direction, much effected by the use of the 
 bath. 
 
 <'The hypochondriac, the man of no leisure, the book 
 and desk- worm, to whom the bare crossing of the street 
 proves an effort, will have reason to rejoice in what will 
 assuredly relieve him of bile, vapours, and malaise.^' 
 
 I do not consider the bath in the Newcastle Infirmary 
 as a test by which medical men can arrive at a due 
 estimate of what can be effected by heat. They are 
 only making use of perspiration. They are there as
 
 200 Art of Constructing 
 
 yet but in a state of transition, and in that respect, 
 perhaps, their experience is the more valuable, as it 
 smooths the way for others to enter by degrees on a 
 path so perfectly at variance with the present practice, 
 and to the admission of maxims which cannot be other- 
 wise than repulsive and offensive to the body of science 
 who have instituted a code of cure to the exclusion of 
 the most powerful of the agencies which nature had 
 placed at their disposal. Such an avowal will never be 
 made save by men remarkable, and therefore rare ; and 
 even in the case of men of high moral worth and intel- 
 lectual power, a great amount of logical constraint must 
 be brought into play before they will even attend, far 
 less capitulate. 
 
 Sir John Fife, in his enumeration of internal organs, 
 has omitted the lungs. This is of necessity, there being 
 no such patients there ; while the heat employed, and the 
 extent in time of its employment, are not calculated in 
 the IN'ewcastle Infirmary bath for more than alleviation. 
 In my experience, however, the lungs figure as the 
 organ over which the largest control is afforded by the 
 use of heat. In the incipient stages it is as easy to 
 stop the disorder as to wash the face. In the further 
 stages, it can be arrested so long as there remains undis- 
 organized substance sufficient for the functions of life. 
 What is perhaps more remarkable is, that the substance 
 of the lung already exhibiting signs of decay, can be 
 brought back to the healthy condition. Some patients 
 from the London Consumptive Hospital have been 
 admitted recently to use a small experimental bath, on 
 the premises of the Turkish Bath Company in Jermyn-
 
 a Turkish Bath. 201 
 
 street. One of the phj^^sicians of the hospital, Dr. 
 Leared, writes as follows : — 
 
 " Three patients affected with consumption have been 
 for some time subjected to the Turkish bath treatment. 
 They were all in an advanced stage of disease, as the 
 tubercular deposit in the lungs was not only consider- 
 able, but had become softened or ulcerated. The 
 general symptoms of all are greatly improved, but the 
 most remarkable circumstance is, that in one case the 
 signs indicating softened tubercle have disappeared, the 
 lung becoming, comparatively, dry and solid." 
 
 These patients were simply admitted to the hot 
 chamber for an hour every second day, that is to say, 
 for three hours every week, the temperature not ex- 
 ceeding 140 degrees, as marked b}^ the thermometer. 
 This I should consider as nothing at all, and as not to 
 be rated as a means of action against a morbid state, 
 and yet such were the benefits resulting from these 
 trifling means. The word "bath" is utterly un- 
 meaning. So soon as the operation comes to be regu- 
 larly performed the word must be dropped, and the 
 annotation, as the case will be, "so many degrees of 
 heat radiating or transmitted, and so many hours of 
 exposure to it." 
 
 I could fill a volume with interesting extracts and 
 confirmatory evidence from letters of medical men. 
 Those I have given will suflB.ce to show that the prac- 
 tical commencement has now been made, and that 
 medical science will now have to adjust itself on a new 
 basis, and one not the result of its own discrimination 
 or experiment, but fortuituously presented.
 
 202 Art of Constructing 
 
 I must liere observe that in the East, thougli tlie 
 batli serves to secure health, and affords immunity from 
 many of our diseases, it is not there employed as a 
 remedial agent. For that a very different degree of 
 temperature is required. Here the starting point was a 
 stroke of the sun, which I received when without the 
 reach of medical aid, when the idea occurred to me that 
 if I could perspire I should be saved. In consequence 
 of this, I had an ordinary Turkish bath raised to an 
 inordinate degree of temperature, which of course 
 expelled the moisture. I remained in it for six hours, 
 that is, until the constriction of the skin was relaxed, 
 and the perspiration flowed. Out of the incident came 
 subsequently the entire sj^stem of hot air as applied to 
 disease. 
 
 The next step was at the interval of many years, and 
 occurred to me two years ago, when a difference of 
 effect from the manner of the impinging of the heat^ 
 suggested to me the existence of a difference between 
 transmitted and radiating caloric. It was to test 
 thoroughly this difference that the experimental bath 
 in Jermyn- street has . recently been constructed, and 
 it was in that bath that the results were obtained as 
 regards the consumptive patients, which I have above 
 quoted. 
 
 Before leaving the medical aspect of the subject, I 
 have to observe that with mere medicine the physician 
 treats his patients, but here the patient treats himself. 
 He must himself take in and understand what has to be 
 done, and do for himself. He must know that while 
 an agreeable temperature is very sufficient for a habit
 
 a Turkish Bath, 
 
 203 
 
 in health, the force requisite for counteracting disease 
 has to be generated by a high, and the highest endurable 
 degrees of heat. The terms Hammdmy Spjac, and 
 Thermce all mean heat, and if that word were employed 
 by us instead of the inapplicable, the false, and the 
 perverting one of bath, one branch of the lamentable 
 quackery, at present to be listened to, would be excluded. 
 I can assert, in regard to my own experience, that, 
 though patients constantly come to me in desperate 
 circumstances, and given over by medical men, I have 
 never had a death. I can recall no case in which, if a 
 cure has not been effected, alleviation has not been 
 obtained, and a suspension of the progress of disease so 
 long as the means were persevered in. Every man 
 may thus become his own physician, so that what I 
 have to propose is the bath, as a substitute for the 
 hospital. 
 
 We have now to glance at a distinct but most im- 
 portant branch — private baths. The public bath is at 
 best but an expedient. The real thing is the private 
 one. In it alone are the luxuries and enjoyments fully 
 presented, and there is the service to be rendered of 
 stopping malady, or treating it. I have mentioned that 
 of Mr. Crawshay, of Northumberland, as the first so 
 constructed in England. Several years, however, before, 
 one had been built by the Duke of Northumberland, 
 but it fell into disuse owing to the difficulty of procuring 
 the requisite attendance. This is the account of it 
 which I have received from the Duke himself : — 
 
 " It is true that I established a Turkish bath in York- 
 shire some years ago. In every respect it answered its
 
 204 Art of Constructing 
 
 purpose. But, in England, a proper attendance cannot 
 be supplied for want of suitable instruction. 
 
 " ^yhether the Turkish bath is as efficacious in 
 maladies as you suppose or not, I must leave others to 
 decide ; but' it is most agreeable ; it relieves fatigued 
 limbs most miraculously ; and it is not weakening. I 
 never took one except in robust health, and I never felt 
 or heard of any bad effects from it/' 
 
 The drawing on the wall will show how an apartment 
 in the centre of a house can be adapted for a private 
 bath. It is that in my own country residence. It is 
 so constructed that no pattens are required, and you 
 enjoy the luxury of walking on the marble slabs with 
 the bare foot, the hot air being let in. Here, in the 
 same apartment, you obtain every variety of tempera- 
 ture, from 80 to 220. This chamber contains 3,200 
 cubic feet. The furnace consumes the same amount of 
 fuel as two ordinary fires. By means of this one fire, 
 independently of heating the baths, five fireplaces are 
 dispensed with. Two bedrooms in the superior story 
 are entirely heated by the hot air passing from the 
 bath, and four public rooms adjoining to it, on the same 
 floor, are either partially or entirely heated from it. 
 Instead, therefore, of a private bath being an expense, 
 it is a very great economy. At Constantinople, there 
 are 300 public baths and 2,000 private ones. 
 
 Here is the description of the private bath of an 
 Eastern. Some interest may also attach to it, as the 
 name of the personage who built it has, unfortunately 
 for him and for ourselves, become but too well known 
 in this countr}^ — it is, Said JumbeUat Druze Sheik of
 
 a Turkish Bath, 205 
 
 tlie Lebanon. I read it from my work on *' The 
 Lebanon " : — 
 
 " Emin Effendi and the Caimacan being gone, Izzet 
 Pasba busy with his census, and Sheik Said with his 
 guests, — I betook myself to the bath. I had not visited 
 this part of the building before. I did not look for the 
 splendour of Ibtedeen, but I was surprised when led 
 through an ante- room that held a wide sofa, into a 
 small cupola of fourteen feet square, with two recesses 
 equally diminutive ; one of them containing the haou-s, 
 the plunge bath, or 7:>/.sc/»«m of the Eomans. It was 
 neat, however ; laid in slabs of Carrara marble, with 
 steps between of their own beautiful stone running 
 through a gamut of shades, from white, or pale stone 
 colour, to brick red, and of a consistency from the 
 friable limestone to flint. Of all species of apartments 
 the bath is the one requiring, and calculated for, the 
 display of marbles and mosaic. That of Sheik Said 
 was the only ornamental part of what remained to him 
 of his palace, and just the thing I have fixed upon 
 wishing to have, and hoping to live to see, attached to 
 every cleanly gentleman's establishment of modest 
 fortune in my own country. I found, on inquiry, that 
 the bath belonging to the old Serai had been ruined 
 with it, and that this one had been built by Sheik Said, 
 at a cost of about £350. In England it might be built 
 Tor the same, or less, and, with a better and larger ante- 
 room, might accommodate fifty persons a day." It 
 was on this type that my own was subsequently con- 
 structed. 
 
 The bath-going population of Constantinople — the
 
 2o6 Art of Constructing 
 
 Turkisli and Armenian — do not mucli exceed 300,000. 
 At this rate, and this habit being naturalised among us, 
 we would require for London and its suburbs, 3,000 
 public baths and 20,000 private ones. This would fall 
 far short of the proportion of Ancient Eome or Alex- 
 andria, the Romans going to it daily. This daily- 
 practice is commencing in England, and further it is 
 used by the sick. At the rate of E-ome we would there- 
 fore have to multiply this number by seven. Such is 
 the possible field that is opened to this new enterprise. 
 But then the necessary conditions must be these : — 1st, 
 Cheapness ; 2nd, the idea on the part of the wealthy of 
 contributing from their superfluities to the well-being 
 of their fellow- creatures. 
 
 The baths of Prusias (now Brussa) having fallen into 
 dilapidation, Pliny appealed to the Emperer Hadrian in 
 these terms : — " The dignity of the city and the splen- 
 dour of your reign alike require their restoration.'' 
 
 In like manner I appeal to you to restore the balnea 
 which the Romans constructed on your soil, for the good 
 of your people and the honour of your name. 
 
 This appeal I make with a confidence I could not 
 have felt even a year ago. Then it would have been a 
 mere intellectual conclusion to which I would have 
 pointed. I can now show you practical results. JS^erved 
 thereto by those spurious imitations, and not as a com- 
 mercial speculation, several gentlemen have associated 
 to furnish me with the opportunity of erecting in this 
 metropolis an edifice on the scale of the structures of 
 Constantinople. The drawings and models are there 
 before you ; although in the building now far advanced
 
 a Turkish Bath. ^07 
 
 towards completion, there has been a considerable modi- 
 fication, yet these exhibit what a bath ought to be. 
 There have been of necessity changes required by the 
 fuel of this country, and also as to ventilation, the 
 merits or demerits of which it would be premature to 
 enter on. This is the building which I now can offer 
 you for a model, and I trust that this very evening — 
 and a more auspicious spot could not be selected than 
 this, the Society of Arts — will see a commencement made 
 and the resolution taken, to construct baths, if not for 
 the gratuitous use of the people, at least to be opened to 
 them at a rate not higher than that of ancient Rome, 
 or of the present Constantinople. 
 
 Quadranie lavatum rex ibis, says our schoolboy friend, 
 Horace. The slave, his compatriot, went forth a king, 
 having paid but one farthing for the bath that made 
 him feel as such. With all our philanthropy, with all 
 our mechanics, can we not attain to this ? If I cannot 
 persuade you, at least suffer me to shame you, into 
 being at once thoroughly clean in yourselves, and really 
 charitable to your fellow subjects. 
 
 As to expense, a bath might be had for one quarter 
 of the price of a glass of gin ; for we have water in 
 more abundance, and fuel at a cheaper rate, than at 
 Rome or Constantinople. 
 
 But if a new charge be incurred, we have on the 
 other side to look forward to the possibility of retrench- 
 ment in consequence of the altered habits of the people. 
 The one that first presents itself is the diminution of 
 maladies, doctors' and apothecaries' fees and drugs, loss 
 of time from sickness and attendance; and here, to say
 
 2o8 Art of Constructing 
 
 notMng of the different value of life, the saving for 
 London alone will have to be reckoned by millions. 
 Next are temperance and sobriety. At first sight the 
 connexion will not appear so immediate; it will, how- 
 ever, be unquestionable to those familiar with countries 
 where the bath is in use. I know of no country, in 
 ancient or modern times, where habits of drunkenness 
 have co-existed with the bath. Misery and cold drive 
 men to the gin shop ; if they had the bath — not the 
 washing-tub — to repair to, this, the great cause of 
 drunkenness, would be removed ; and if this habit of 
 cleanliness were general, restraints would be imposed on 
 such excesses by the feelings of self-respect engendered. 
 Gibbon has indulged in speculations on the consequences 
 for Europe that would have followed had Charles Martel 
 been defeated on the plains of Tours. One of these 
 efiects would have been, that to-day in London there 
 would be no gia-palaces, and there would be a thou- 
 sand baths. 
 
 The poor of England have never had an opportunity 
 of knowing the comfort which is derived on a cold day 
 from the warmth imparted by such an atmosphere. 
 How many of the wretched inhabitants of London go 
 to their chilly homes in the winter months benumbed 
 with cold, and with no means of recovering their 
 animal warmth but by resorting to spirits and a public- 
 house fire. 
 
 Consider the heat and steam throughout the manu- 
 factories of England, which the instinct of a Russian 
 boor, or Laplander, or Ked Indian, would apply for the 
 benefit of the miserable population engaged in those
 
 a Turkish Bath. 209 
 
 works, and now allowed to run to slieer waste. The 
 filthiest population exists, with the most extensive 
 means of cleanliness. A nation that boasts of its steam, 
 that is puffed up with its steam, that goes by steam, does 
 not know how to use steam to wash its body, even when 
 it may be had gratis. 
 
 The people that has not devised the bath cannot 
 deserve the character of refinement, and, having the 
 opportunity, that does not adopt it — that of sense. 
 Servility, however, we do possess, and any person of 
 distinction has it in his power to introduce it. That 
 which all despise, when only a thing of use, will be by 
 all rushed after when it becomes a matter of fashion. 
 The sight of a bath of a new fashion, and enjoyed hy 
 another people, has impelled me to make this endeavour 
 to regain it for my own. Is Europe ever to remain on 
 the map the black spot of filth ? Can she owe the bath 
 only to the Roman sword or Moorish spear ? Must she 
 now await the Cossack lance? After ridicule for 
 warning, the day may come when I shall sufier reproach 
 for deprecating the event, and it will be said to me, 
 " These barbarians, who. Providence-like, have come to 
 compose our trouble — Roman-like to teach us to be 
 clean!" 
 
 In conclusion I will claim your indulgence for one 
 egotistical remark. I have expended great labour in 
 bringing this matter so far to bear. I have encountered 
 endless disgusts alike from the pride of science and the 
 self-love of ignorance. Over and over again I should 
 have given up the attempt, if not in aversion at least 
 in despair, had it not been for one consideration which
 
 210 Art of Constructing a 'Turkish Bath. 
 
 never forsook and always sustained me — it was this. 
 Those who are so favoured by fortune as not to depend 
 for their daily bread on their daily and precarious toil, 
 are so very few in number as compared with the rest, 
 that each man so situated has to consider himself, not 
 only as remarkably fortunate, but as bound in a solemn 
 bond to make use of the time so left to his disposal for 
 the good of those who have no time that they can call 
 their own. Before my eyes were ever present the daily 
 drudgery of the millions of my fellow men, known as 
 poor, the severity of their toil — the precariousness of 
 their existence— the paucity of their enjoyments. And 
 I have worked on in the hope of bringing within their 
 reach some compensation for their hard lot, in a practice 
 which relaxes the frame after the effort of labour, and 
 composes the mind worn by the load of care. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington, in opening the discussion, 
 said : — 
 
 '' I am certain that all who have heard this eloquent 
 and interesting paper must have received a lively im- 
 pression of what a Turkish bath is ; and I am certain 
 also that no one will consider it unworthy of consider- 
 ation and discussion, when it is recollected how largely 
 both in modern times, and also in the ancient world, 
 the bath was considered, not onl}^ as a domestic, but as 
 an important political and social institution."
 
 Why does Man Perspire ? 
 
 A LECTURE. 
 
 (From the Newcastle Journal, Jan., 1861.) 
 
 The chair was taken by George Eobinson, Esq., 
 M.D., who said they would sympathise with him in the 
 announcement he had to make to them, that, in conse- 
 quence of the death of a verj' near and dear relative, 
 their friend. Sir John Fife, was unable to take the 
 chair to-night. Tie might, as a medical man, be allowed 
 to bear his humble testimony to the great benefits the 
 Turkish bath was likely to confer upon the inhabitants 
 of this country, both medically and morally. The 
 functions of the skin, and the importancie of those func- 
 tions on the animal system, had not yet been ascertained 
 with the exactness which is desirable. But whatever 
 light physiology had yet cast upon this subject, fully 
 justified the opinion that the general use of this im- 
 portant agent, the Turkish bath, would greatly tend to 
 the preservation of health, to cut short many [painful 
 diseases, and, in conjunction with sanitary measures, to 
 the prolongation of human life. (Applause.) This
 
 212 Why does Man Perspire ? 
 
 climate was exceedingly unfavourable to health, and to 
 the discharge of the proper functions of the skin, by 
 the general prevalence of damp and cold. The bath 
 gave a warm and dry atmosphere — conditions peculiarly 
 favourable to the copious performance of perspiration, 
 and consequently to the discharge of the various noxious 
 principles which, if allowed to remain in the body, 
 would prove injurious to health. Though they were 
 indebted to Mr. TJrquhart for the re-introduction of 
 this bath into Britain, yet nearly two thousand years 
 ago it was very generally employed, even in this district, 
 by the Roman soldiers who conquered and civilized it. 
 In some of the most remote and wild parts of Northum- 
 berland, they could find, as described in the work of 
 Dr. Bruce, and other antiquaries, at various stations 
 along the Roman wall, and at the various encampments 
 which the Romans formed in this district, evidences of 
 the very general and prevailing use of the bath. (Hear, 
 hear.) They all knew how working men had to toil, 
 and that anything which could afibrd to them a cheap 
 and wholesome luxury was in the highest degree 
 desirable ; and he believed the Turkish bath and its 
 accompaniments, when properly introduced, would afford 
 that cheap and wholesome luxury ; and he was sure that 
 Mr. TTnQrHART would derive great gratification from 
 knowing that he had contributed materially to the 
 health and general benefit of so many of his industrious 
 fellow-countr3auen. (Applause.) He would beg for 
 himself to solicit from him somewhat of a detailed 
 explanation of his own bath; it would be a practical 
 objection, at the first introduction of a new system such
 
 Why does Man Perspire ? 213 
 
 as this for preserving health, if anything should he lost 
 by inattention to details. (Applause.) His friend, Mr. 
 Crawshay, who had provided a very perfect bath at 
 his residence in Tynemouth, had in his possession a very 
 important letter, which he would take that opportunity 
 of lajdng before them. 
 
 Mr. Crawshay said it was now precisely four years 
 since he went to Ireland, where Mr. Urquhart was at 
 that time building the first Turkish bath, and under 
 his advice he lost no time in erecting a bath at his 
 own house in Tynemouth. That was the first built in 
 England since the days of the Romans. Sir John 
 Fife had thus had the opportunity of trying it ; 
 and being satisfied, by his own experience, of its 
 great value, had brought it before the Pathological 
 fSociety of Newcastle, and, with the aid of the Duke of 
 ISTorthumberland, it was introduced into the Newcastle 
 Infirmary. (Applause.) Mr. Urquhart returned from 
 Ireland, and built a bath in Lancashire, especially for 
 the working classes ; and the consequence was, that 
 gradually the working classes began to erect baths of 
 their own, which spread very rapidly through many 
 towns in England. It was, in fact, one of that class 
 by whom baths had been established in London. Four 
 years ago, this was a matter confined to a few indi- 
 viduals. It had spread so rapidlj^ since that time, 
 that on all sides you heard of it. He himself was 
 unable to attend to all the applications and letters he 
 received asking for information. As it happened that 
 the heating of air was a much cheaper process than 
 the heating of water, baths of this description were
 
 2 1 4 JVhy does Man Per spirt . 
 
 found to be profitable ; and the consequence was an 
 existing and rapidly-increasing danger, that by tbis 
 great agency of bealtb and comfort being taken up as 
 a speculation by persons wbo are seeking only to make 
 money, it may be perverted from its original design ; 
 and, above all, quacks and impostors pretend to inven- 
 tions and improvements, and claim some peculiar dis- 
 covery of tbeir own ^s that by which the benefits of 
 the bath are to be conferred upon the English people. 
 He found that even the proprietor of the bath in 
 Ireland, who derived what little he knew from Mr. 
 Urquhart, had since put forth pretensions to have 
 made improvements in the bath ; and he saw by the 
 Medical Gazette that Dr. Barter had taken out a 
 patent. Now, we occasionally read in the papers about 
 trials about patents ; and if it could be shown that a 
 thing had been done a month before the patent was 
 taken out, it fell to the ground ; but he thought that in 
 the whole history of patenting such a thing was never 
 heard of as that — a process which was known to have 
 existed for 4,000 years, which, as the chairman had 
 told them, was enjoyed by the Roman soldiers in this 
 country 2,000 years ago, should be made the subject 
 of a patent. (Hear, hear.) When he said that, he 
 had said enough to show them the great danger that 
 existed, that this great event in the history of the 
 human race — for it was a great event the re-intro- 
 duction into the West of an institution which had 
 existed from the earliest times that are known, but 
 which had been lost in the West, and had been pre- 
 served in the East ; for the Turks did not invent the
 
 IVhy does Man Perspire ? 215 
 
 bath : they found it, and had the good sense to pre- 
 serve it — should pass away without producing beneficial 
 results, owing to the perversions of men, who were 
 thinking, not of benefiting their fellow- creatures, but 
 of filling their own pockets. (Applause.) Therefore, 
 those who are sensible of this danger, have considered 
 how to guard against it ; and the only way to guard 
 against it is to take means to have the matter 
 thoroughly understood; and in order that it may 
 be thoroughly understood, they must come to the 
 gentleman who was there that night. Grreat dis- 
 coveries were alwaj^s simple. Mr. Urquhart pretended 
 to no discovery. He had acted with that common sense 
 which was so rare : he had observed ; he had used his 
 eyes and his senses. He had enjoyed the bath in the 
 East ; he had been familiar with it ; he had studied it ; 
 and he had put to himself the question — " Why should 
 it not be in the West?" And he had not been like 
 ever}^ other traveller who for hundreds of years had 
 been to the East, and had tried the bath, and who, not 
 seeing it in the West, had imagined it could not be in 
 the West, forgetting that it had been in the West. 
 The matter was so simple, that when you come to con- 
 sider it, it only excited reflections on the stupidity of 
 mankind. Distinguished persons were only distin- 
 guished from the rest because they were not stupid ; 
 and when they did anything, everybody saw it was so 
 simple, they wondered they had not done it themselves. 
 Mr. Urquhart was not going to take out a patent, but 
 wished to convey to his fellow- creatures some informa- 
 tion for their benefit. Mr. Crawshay then read the
 
 2 1 6 fVhy does Man Perspire ? 
 
 following letter from Dr. Mille^'gen, physician to the 
 Sultan : — 
 
 "Constantinople, Nov. 6tli, 1860. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — I beg:, in conformity with the wish you express 
 in the letter you honoured me with, to send you the article I 
 published on the Thermse in the East ; and also what I consider 
 of much higher value to you — the two plates, with a bath, 
 copied after nature, and the plan of a public and also of a pri- 
 vate bath. With these two models before his eyes, it will be 
 an easy matter for an intelligent architect to build baths of any 
 dimensions, and far superior to those counterfeits, or imperfect 
 copies that have hitherto, as far as I am aware, been made in 
 England; and allow me to remark to you that neither the 
 Arabs nor the Turks have introduced, in the construction of 
 their baths, any innovation of their own. 
 
 "These buildings have been handed down from generation 
 to generation in everything (dimensions and magnificence ex- 
 cepted) identically similar to what they were during the Greek, 
 Eoman, and Byzantine periods. 
 
 " The principles on which they are constructed are so per- 
 fect as to admit of neither addition nor subtraction, without 
 ensuring complete failure. 
 
 "I shall do my best to answer the principal of the questions 
 you have put to me on the subject, and begin by your query — 
 as to the apipli cation of the bath in the prevention and cure of 
 diseases. The working classes among the Turks, for such 
 classes (though in England you appear to ignore it) do exist, 
 and are as numerous and fully more hard-working than else- 
 where, know of no other means of prevention, on feeling indis- 
 posed, but the bath. In the numerous cases arising from sud- 
 den changes in the temperature of the body, a copious perspi- 
 ration, which, a stay of more or less duration in the calidarium 
 is sure to occasion, does, in the great majority of cases, restore 
 the body to the equilibrium of health. After over-exertion, 
 again, the bath is had recourse to. In short, it is looked upon 
 so much in the light of a panacea by the lower orders, that they 
 hardly ever dream of consulting a physician when taken unwell.
 
 Why does Man Perspire ? 217 
 
 If tlie batli does fail to cure tliem, nothing else will do so. This 
 prevailing conviction accounts, in a great measure, for tlie total 
 absence of dispensaries and civil hospitals, not only in this 
 large city, but throughout all the empire. Yet I apprehend 
 from the tables of mortality monthly published, that the mor- 
 tality is not greater than it is in countries blessed with those 
 institutions. The higher classes, and women especially, do not, 
 as with us, know much about regular exercise, so that I per- 
 fectly agree with you that, were it not for the ample compensa- 
 tion afforded by the bath, they would not enjoy the excellent 
 health they generally possess. 
 
 "You speak of the temperance of the people as being pointed 
 out as the principal cause of gout being hardly known in this 
 country. If this is partly true, on the other hand I must 
 remark that intemperance of late years is much on the increase ; 
 and, moreover, that it is carried on to an extent which, if 
 stated, might be looked upon as fabulous. Yet the gout is 
 not more prevalent, nor delirium tremens either. This immu- 
 nity I can attribute to nothing else but to the expulsion of the 
 alcohol circulating in the system by the lungs and skin during 
 the stay in the bath. You wish to know how long, on an aver- 
 age, does a person remain in the bath. If a Moslem enters the 
 bath for the object of a legal ablution, half-an-hour is amply 
 sufficient ; if, however, a person wishes to go through all the 
 stages of a complete bath, an hour, or, at least, one hour and a 
 half, is the usual time. 
 
 "Have, forsooth, the English, no holidays ? Do they never 
 find time for coffee houses, taverns, gin-palaces ? In this, as in 
 most cases, I suspect, if there was a wish there would be a way. 
 
 " I shall not only be most happy, but consider it a duty, to 
 supply you, to the best of my knowledge, with any further 
 information you may subsequently stand in need of; for I con- 
 sider that you are engaged in an attempt, which, if successful, 
 will confer in a hygienic point of view, a service on our coun- 
 trymen, as eminent as the discovery that has immortalised the 
 name of Jenner. I have yet one question to answer, and it 
 relates to works on the subject of the bath. Of modern authors 
 I know not one, and this is but natural, who would write on a
 
 2 1 8 Why does Man Ter spire f 
 
 subject falling into oblivion. Celsus points out the diseases in 
 which, the baths were employed as curative means. Eamazzini, 
 in bis works on diseases, points out often most admirably how 
 many of these are due to the disuse of the Thermae. 
 
 " Begging to be most kindly remembered to Mr. Urquhart, 
 " I am, dear sir, very faithfully yours, 
 
 " J. MiLLENGEN. 
 
 "P.S. — We have not here the statistical returns indispensable 
 to ascertain whether the moyenne of human life is above or 
 below the average in other countries. Instances of extraordi- 
 nary longevity are far from being uncommon. I have known 
 and know yet, several individuals among the natives more 
 than a hundred years old." 
 
 Mr. Urquhart said : There is indeed imminent danger 
 for this incipient design in this country, through inte- 
 rested motives and empirical innovations. But whilst 
 danger menaces the very inception of the scheme in the 
 West, it is exposed to that of extinction in the country 
 from which it proceeds, namelj", in the East. Among 
 remarkable things, perhaps, there is none more so than 
 the losing of discoveries. We have had in this island 
 of ours, as your Chairman has remarked, 2,000 years 
 ago, the enjo^Tnent of this benefit and luxury. You 
 are now assembled, in this town of Newcastle, to learn 
 something in regard to this matter, which has neither 
 been heard or dreamt of during these long years. In 
 the meantime, in those lands, where the Romans equally 
 had sway, those happy habits of social and domestic life 
 have been preserved by men destitute of words, and 
 philosophic tendencies. Now, then, that same obscu- 
 ration is arising by which you have been so long 
 shrouded. Turkey, which ofiers to you the bath to-day, 
 will have it no longer in two generations. I myself
 
 JVhy does Man Pe7'spire ? ' 219 
 
 have seen, in one country, the extinction of it. My 
 first acquaintance with it was in Greece. Greece knows 
 it no longer. That polished Greece — that accumulation 
 of small and fervid existencies — where the imagination 
 of men once burned most brightly, because engaged in 
 struggles with the Turks, and under the imitation of the 
 West, dropped their bath, and are now without it. To- 
 day, at Constantinople, the young Turks, imitating 
 Europe, abstain from going to the bath ; and, the last 
 time I visited that capital, I was unable to obtain what 
 I should call a bath. In 1850, the only bath I had 
 was in a small nook of the Dardanelles, where the old 
 usages were still maintained. It is true that what we 
 are doing now in England may prevent its loss in the 
 East. I may instance the very letter which has been 
 read to you, from the author of a series of articles in the 
 Medical Gazette of Constantinople, wherein, for the first 
 time, type has been used in reference to the bath — the 
 alleged reason of the disquisition being that which I 
 have been doing in England. The subject is so vast? 
 so difficult because of its intricate complexity, it bears 
 upon so many collateral branches, carrying you back 
 into history with its interpretations — carrying you 
 onward to the sources of your own impressions, that in 
 the short time allowed for such a discourse, I can do no 
 more than indicate. I am here in the town where the 
 bath has been redeemed from the hands of quackery. It 
 is in Newcastle to the cure of disease and in the service 
 of the destitute, that the first application of it has been 
 made. It is to the directors of the Infirmary, who could 
 not have had the facilities of personal experience, who
 
 220 . Why does Man Perspire ? 
 
 must have trusted a great deal to a natural and intuitive 
 instinct, that the merit is due of having broken through 
 the habits of routine in order to give this advantage to 
 their fellow creatures. (Applause.) It is above all, to 
 the physicians of that institution that my gratitude is 
 due, and I think I maj^ extend the pronoun and say our 
 gratitude is due — (applause) — for having ventured to 
 face the obloquy, more terrible for a medical man than 
 for any other, of proposing something new. It is there- 
 fore quite excusable, if not absolutely necessary, that on 
 such an occasion I should leave the historical, the social, 
 the mechanical, or the practical bearings of the subject 
 aside, in order to direct your attention to the value of 
 this institution in reference to the cure of disease. I 
 have had hitherto to meet medical men as enemies. I 
 have had to discuss the matter with them at the point 
 of the lance, I have had the further disadvantage of 
 seeing the first experiment made by men, medical indeed, 
 but not professional. I refer to hj^dropathical establish- 
 ments — which has deterred medical practitioners from 
 even looking into it. Here, however, the case is altered, 
 and I may open the matter by stating that the father 
 of the profession, Hippocrates himself, claims to have 
 been the first of men to apply the bath to the cure of 
 disease. Perhaps the most responsible duty that belongs 
 to any man to perform in the present condition of 
 society is the selection of his medical adviser. Beside 
 this, it is a small matter to make the selection of a 
 general to command an arm}^ There is no man who 
 will not consider his medical adviser as a man as well 
 as a physician. He will think of his character, his
 
 Why does Man Perspire? 221 
 
 disposition, his qualities. He will place liimself in 
 these respects in the seat of judgment, and being there 
 he will be anxious to acquire the means of correct 
 judgment. Now this matter furnishes to every man an 
 additional test as to his medical adviser. While the 
 cure of disease is the aim and end of medicine, the pre- 
 vention of disease is the extinction of practitioners — 
 (applause) ; and if j^ou announce a means by which any 
 particular malady shall be stopped or extinguished, you 
 will have on the part of medical gentlemen two excla- 
 mations. The really scientific man will exclaim, 
 '* Thank God !" the practitioner of the opposite 
 quality will utter an exclamation of a different 
 order. (Laughter and applause.) The true medical 
 man sees in the means of preventing disease, a great 
 instrument : the false medical man, a great enemy. 
 And in this you will have the new test by which to 
 judge of the character of the man whom you employ as 
 your physician. To the young medical man, let me 
 parenthetically say, that whilst in the next generation 
 the number of medical men will be diminished, and the 
 quantity of money expended on drugs will be infinitely 
 reduced, whilst the general health of the communitj^ 
 will require very little attending to, that nevertheless to 
 the medical man, who is the first or amongst the first to 
 make use of those means to obtain the ends for which 
 medicine itself is instituted, there will be no diminution 
 of favourable circumstances as regards his professional 
 career. Those who will seize on them as their portion 
 from the first will deservedly obtain for themselves 
 the full benefit of their sense, science, and integrity.
 
 2 2 2 Why does Man Fer spire ? 
 
 Now, then, in what consists this new medical power. 
 I have constantly to do with disease. I have to do 
 so solely because I am successful. I began with 
 myself. I have been requested to relate to you to-night 
 how I came to the discovery. I said that Hippocrates 
 had made it, it had to be made a second time. But I 
 was not the discoverer, and I will tell you how first 
 the idea arose ; the same thing might have happened a 
 thousand times, without becoming a point of departure. 
 I was suffering from ague. I was on board a steam 
 yacht belonging to Lord Dundonald, whom England 
 has recently lost. He said to me, *' Heat must beat 
 cold ;" and rolling me in a blanket, being a strong and 
 tall man, he took me under his arm, and carried me 
 down into the stoke-hole, and stopped the fit. This 
 incident was forgotten b}* me till the other day, but 
 doubtless it influenced me. After a stroke of the sun 
 in the island of Scio, I insisted on having myself carried 
 into the bath, and succeeded, though with great diffi- 
 culty, in getting the heat raised during six hours to the 
 highest possible pitch. At last perspiration broke out, 
 and I was saved. (Applause.) The next occasion was 
 in London. I was, at the time, in the hands of Mr. 
 Erasmus AVilson, and as I find that he mentioned him- 
 self the incident to a gentleman now present, I may 
 relate it. I was given over. I heard him say these 
 words — " It's now a matter merely to allow him to die 
 with the least pain.-" I succeeded in getting them to 
 take me down to a bath that then existed. It was a 
 room filled with vapour, until the walls were thoroughly 
 hot, so that the air was rarified, and you obtained a very
 
 Why does Man Perspire ? 223 
 
 decent bath.. This was under the charge of a surgeon, 
 Mr. Walker, in St. James's-place. I was carried there. 
 Observe, I was given over. There were no medical 
 means that could reach my case. I was there ten days, 
 most part of the day and night in the bath, and then 
 I left it well. When, the other day, I was speaking 
 about it with Mr. Wilson, who has now come forward 
 as the medical expounder of the bath, he said to me, 
 "Do you know it is very curious, but I derived no 
 instruction from that incident ; " and he added, " You 
 know I was docfus, and you were not : how could I be 
 instructed by you ? I was astonished ; that was all. 
 I thought there must be some peculiar idiosyncrasy, 
 and there I left it." I said to him, *' I have, during 
 these ten years, always had the idea that you would 
 come to me one day, because it was impossible for you 
 to get rid of the certainty I expressed of my cure with 
 these means being used.'-' " Well," he said, " I ought 
 to have thought so, but the fact was I did not. I did 
 not think anything about it ; and that was all." I am 
 giving you particular cases, and those my own, because 
 I am explaining to you how I have arrived at the 
 conclusions, which make me work as I am doing. I 
 can bring you to my state best by endeavouring to 
 pass you through my own experience. What I am 
 going to mention now is, I conceive, the most important 
 case which has ever happened in reference to this mat- 
 ter; and unless it had happened, the discovery still 
 would not have been made. 
 
 [The incident is omitted, as it will be found narrated 
 in the " First Dialogue."]
 
 224 Why does Man Perspire ? 
 
 jN'ow liere is the point : it is not the bath. Let 
 us drop, if you please, the word " bath :" it is heat. 
 Let us away with that absurdity of '' hot air.'' It is 
 the application of heat to the human body. As you 
 require a certain degree of temperature to boil an ^%%j 
 to obtain a particular tint in dyeing, to perform any 
 chemical or any culinarj^ operation, so j^ou require a 
 particular degree of heat to act upon the human 
 frame. Why is fever heat 112^ ? Why is not 
 111^? Why not 113°? These were the questions I 
 put to myself, and the answer came at last, doubtingly, 
 of course, at first. "If it were 113°, it would be no 
 longer fever." Nature was struggling to get at its 
 remedy. "VYhen the remedy was got at, the malady 
 was conquered. Long before I had the opportunity of 
 erecting a building, I obtained much of the benefit by 
 merely using water at the highest endurable degree, 
 say 115° or 116°, enduring it as long as possible, and 
 then getting out into the open air again. I do not 
 mean to say that if you get 113° you stop fever ; but 
 what I mean to say is this — that the malady is working 
 towards its own cure, and that its own cure is heat. 
 Now I know what I was then guessing at; now I 
 know it, and see it as distinctly as I see your faces. 
 How comes it that, by means of a slight increase of 
 heat, there should be a sudden power given to the 
 body to discharge water ? Where does that water 
 come from ? It comes from the blood. When a man 
 sits on a chair in a heated room, and sees the little loch 
 spreading on the floor around him, he himself being its 
 foimtain, and then feels a craving for water, and takes
 
 Why does Man Perspire ? 225 
 
 up a jug and drinks, it is to be supposed that even if 
 tlie least curious of the human race, he will put ques- 
 tions to nature — that is, to himself — and say, " Why 
 am I to have at one and the same time water drained 
 out of me, and poured into me ? Why should water 
 run out, whether I will it or no, because it is hot? and 
 why shall I be left no choice but than immediately to 
 pour it in ? This is water — that is water. Why, then, 
 cannot I be allowed to keep my own ? " Having put 
 these questions, and got no answer, perhaps he will 
 begin again, and say, ''But is it the same water? 
 Though it looks the same, may there not be a diffe- 
 rence ? May it not be that the water going out is 
 soiled, whilst that coming in is clean ? " And this 
 question will be the solution of that great problem, 
 though never yet stated — Why does man perspire ? 
 Man perspires, because perspiration being the watery 
 portion of the blood, it, when discharged, carries out- 
 wards with it all extraneous matters. (Applause.) 
 The blood flows with intense and wonderful rapidity 
 through every portion of your frame. In the course 
 of an hour or two the whole mass of it goes through 
 every part. The limits I give may, as to time, be 
 questioned, because the quantity of blood is supposed 
 to be much greater than it is ; instead of thirty pounds 
 of blood in the body, there is not more than one-half, 
 according to the experiments of Bishoff, of Munich. 
 That blood has to carry away the effete matter which 
 results from each motion of the mind or of the body. 
 Whilst depositing fresh fibre, it has to remove old 
 poison. In fact, that blood, with its watery part, is 
 
 Q
 
 226 Why does Man Perspire ? 
 
 washing the whole internal man every instant of time, 
 or it is constantly repeating back upon him his own 
 pollution. Well, apply a certain increase of tempera- 
 ture to that body, and instantly comes into operation 
 that wonderful provision of nature through which 
 that blood relaxes its watery parts, and with it dis- 
 charges the whole of those poisonous matters. (Ap- 
 plause.) ^Yhen a man makes an effort, the immediate 
 consequence is perspiration. The effort is the purpose 
 for which the engine was created. You live and you 
 act ; your life is in your action ; therefore the action 
 itself is the purpose and aim of life. That action 
 relaxes those fluid contents of the blood. The same 
 happens whenever you raise the temperature. Life is 
 a chemical operation ; it is being performed every 
 minute, every minutest subdivision of time. Every 
 human being on the face of the earth is inventing, 
 second by second, life. His existence depends upon a 
 chemical operation which he carries on. That opera- 
 tion, like all others, is retro -active. It is in chemistry 
 as in dynamics. If you discharge a broadside of shot 
 into your enemy's vessel, there is an equal impingement 
 on your own, only you parry the blow. "Whilst, then, 
 you are constantly producing the phenomena of life, 
 you are as constantly producing the elements of death. 
 Death is the reaction, poison is the recoil. You know 
 your own breath will kill ; there is not a more deadly 
 poison : all that comes from you kills. The effete mat- 
 ter of your own body is poison. The pollution of man 
 is from himself — is from v/ithin. This is the primary 
 sense of the words of Christ, ''It is that which cometh
 
 Why does Man Perspire ? 227 
 
 forth out of a man wKich defileth. him." (Applause.) 
 If you impede — that is to say, if you interfere with the 
 natural facilities of that organ hy which that poison is 
 to be carried off as rapidly as it is created, you superin- 
 duce a morbid condition of the frame. It matters not 
 to me in what manner it shows itself — whether it is in 
 incomplete health or in positive disease. Inflammation 
 is one of those results. When it is produced, it is itself 
 a disease. The symptom becomes disease, and you die 
 of the inflammation. Little matter, then, will it avail 
 if we only can remove the causes of the disease after 
 those causes have produced the symptoms which are 
 themselves lethal. But observe this wonderful pro- 
 vision of nature. You know fermentation is an opera- 
 tion dependent entirely upon the degrees of caloric ; 
 that with all the ingredients requisite, you cannot 
 obtain it under a certain degree of heat, and you stop 
 it above another point of the scale. You cannot obtain 
 it under 90°, and it will stop at 140°. Now we are in the 
 habit — science itself, which has not regarded hitherto 
 this most wonderful of the manifestations of nature — 
 science, which has not perceived this first of the ele- 
 ments of cure, has already given the name of fer- 
 mentation to certain classes of inflammatory disorders. 
 The term zymotic, now in common use, brings me 
 back to that case at Berlin, where 140^ failed to effect 
 a cure. This was my reasoning. I started upon the 
 fever heat of 112'', and then went on to the point where, 
 taking the analogy between fever and fermentation, 
 fermentation should cease, viz., 140^^. I said, " If I can 
 get the blood subjected to a heat of 140^^, I will take
 
 228 Why does Man Perspire ? 
 
 the inflammation — that is to say, the fever out of it." 
 How subject the blood to 140°? The human frame 
 has such a wonderful capacity for wrestling with higher 
 and lower degrees of temperature, that it will conquer 
 cold and assimilate heat. But the surface of the body 
 may be affected by heat so as to be brought up to the 
 necessary point, as shown by its causing the flow of 
 perspiration. A certain portion of the blood passes to 
 the surfaces, the ends of the arterial circulation dwin- 
 dling to nothing ; the blood makes a leap by another 
 mysterious process into the extremities of the other 
 vessels, which constitute the venous system. . It is at 
 this portion of the body that these minute sponges, 
 which communicate with the exterior, are found ; and 
 it is at this moment of sudden and mysterious passage 
 that the water of the blood is dropped to become sweat. 
 At that point, if you have the surrounding temperature 
 at 170°, or at 200°, or at 250°, you will surely get a 
 portion of the blood subjected to a heat which destroys 
 fermentation ; and as that portion is rechanged in every 
 new pulsation of the heart, in the course of time the 
 whole of the blood will have passed through that 
 purifying process. (Hear, hear, and applause.) That 
 point is 140°. You will not get 140° in the body, 
 but observe, living and dead chemistry are different 
 things. Fire in a grate and life in a breast are che- 
 mically the same — the same aliment, the same product, 
 the same residue. The temperature only differs, the one 
 operation requiring 1,200°, and the other 100°. This 
 was the reason upon which I acted when I sought, at my 
 supposed last moment, to obtain an increment of heat :
 
 The Skin Digests. 229 
 
 it is a consequence of this reflection that I am now 
 alive. 
 
 The skin is what jow. live in ; it is your habitation. 
 You may not have thought of it in that point of view 
 precisely, but you know it is your habitation. But it 
 is also that by which you live. There are various 
 organs which are each of absolute necessity to your 
 existence ; you cannot give precedence to any one over 
 the other. Such are the heart, the lungs, the kidneys, 
 the liver, and so forth. The skin is not generally 
 reckoned as such ; but the skin is just as important in 
 that sense as any of the others. But I will show you 
 the skin from a point of view in which you will admit 
 that it has an importance which belongs to no other 
 organ. To know anything and everj'thing about the 
 heart would assist no one out of difficulty in regard to 
 it ; and so of liver and kidneys, these things being 
 buried in deep obscurity. No man has seen his heart 
 or his liver ; and it will not be a lucky day for him 
 when anybody sees them. You cannot pull them out 
 and place them on the table, and clean them and put 
 them back again. They are not remitted to your 
 judgment, and they are entirely secluded from your 
 curiosity. You never know anything of them but 
 when they are in a deplorable plight, and then you 
 only know you can do nothing for them. You may go 
 to some professor of dark mysteries, and ask him to feel 
 your pulse and look at your tongue : he may give you 
 poison to agitate one organ that is sound, to get a little 
 relief for the one that is sufiering ; and when you have 
 not been extinguished in the operation, you call your-
 
 230 'The Skin Digests. 
 
 self lucky and your doctor learned. (Laughter.) That 
 is a very unfortunate predicament for a man to be in, 
 in reference to his own belongings ; but he is not in 
 that predicament in reference to his skin. He can see 
 his skin and handle his skin ; he can manage it himself 
 when he knows how. It is confided to his own judg- 
 ment ; and if he exercises his judgment upon it — which 
 he can do when he understands its nature, which he 
 cannot do when he does not — then not only can he 
 keep that skin in order for itself, but by means of it 
 he can deal with all the other organs that he cannot 
 otherwise reach, (xlpplause.) 
 
 There is a great affinity between the organs. Your 
 lungs may be pierced and bored ; as if that was not 
 enough, you immediate^ have your poor heart affected, 
 as they call it, sympathetically. Your heart is in a 
 lamentable plight, and then your lungs suffer ; and so 
 with the stomach. We never hear of any sort of regard 
 or relationship between one organ and the other, except 
 it is when the one interferes to disturb the other. Now, 
 it is exactly the reverse with the skin. A man comes 
 to me with diseased liver. I saj^ to him, " I can cure 
 you." If he is philosophical, he will put questions, 
 *' How will you cure me ? You won't give me drugs ; 
 you are not a medical man." I will answer, " I will 
 make use of one of jowt parts to affect the other. I 
 will make your skin cure your liver. I will use your 
 skin by making it hot." (Applause.) 
 
 Now, I will tell you another use of the skin, for 
 which you are not prepared. You are all at this 
 moment engaged, not only in listening to me, but also
 
 T^he Skin Digests. '231 
 
 in digesting your dinners. Who do you think is busy 
 on the latter ? Your stomach, you will say. I answer, 
 " Not at all ; it is your skin that is digesting your 
 dinner ; and I will prove it.'' First of all, the lining 
 of the stomach is skin. It is the external covering 
 turned in. That, however, is not my proof. What I 
 mean to say is, that the preparation of those juices, 
 which, passing through the lining of the stomach, are 
 poured into that vessel to dissolve the food it has 
 received, depends upon the action of the external skin 
 of the body. These juices come direct from the blood ; 
 and their purity, and with their purity their efficacy, 
 depends on the puritj^ of the blood. Thus it is in 
 the stomach that the food is digested; but it is by 
 the blood that the food is digested; and the blood 
 means the lungs and the skin, which again are one, as 
 conjoin tl}^ required to fuse the blood with air. 
 
 The skin is what is between you and the world. It 
 is made very wonderfully to bear the wear and tear of 
 the world. A man does not live the same all his life : 
 he is undergoing constant changes. He changes the 
 tissue of his body just as much as he changes that of 
 his clothes, but he does not require a tailor. The old 
 suit or the old skin is not thrown aside like that of 
 a snake, and you do not come out under it. It is con- 
 stantly in process of reparation ; it repairs itself ; and 
 as every organ is made for its purposes so must the 
 purposes be for the organ. If your skin is made to 
 bear the wear and tear of the world, and jovl prevent 
 that wear and tear, then the excellence of the construc- 
 tion comes to be a source of decay. I beg your attention
 
 232 We Live by Wear and Tear. 
 
 to this, as I adduce it to meet a common objection, which 
 is, that it is empiricism to say that one medicine can 
 cure two diseases. I have this morning been engaged 
 for the first time in reading through something that 
 has been written on the bath — the lecture of Dr. 
 Brereton ; and in that lecture I find these words — '^ It 
 is not a question for me as to what diseases the bath 
 will cure : it is a question to me what disease it cannot 
 cure." The reason why heat cures all diseases is that 
 disease itself is a result of your departure from natural 
 habits. I assert — and who will contradict me ? — that 
 man is the most pei'fect of God's works ; and if the 
 inferior orders of creation suffer only from slight and 
 rare disturbances in the form of disease, and live out 
 the natural term of their lives, it follows that, wherever 
 there is habitual disease in the human frame, it is as a 
 penalty for having disturbed the natural course which 
 Providence has appointed, and misused the means which 
 nature has supplied. (Applause.) The very first of 
 these neglects has reference to that condition of the 
 skin with which I am now dealing. You have to bear 
 the wear and tear of the world — I mean friction. The 
 skin is constituted so that, in repairing itself, it fortifies 
 itself against external friction. What do you do ? You 
 go and place cases upon that body. You confine it, you 
 close it up, you cover it over, you condemn it to existence 
 in a dark dungeon, j^ou shut out the breath of Heaven, 
 you shut out the light of the sun, j^ou extinguish for it 
 the natural and fortifying alternations of temperature, 
 and protecting it from that friction which is necessary 
 to rub it down, you leave it unavailable for the admission
 
 Removal of Bead Skin. 233 
 
 of life-giving air and the emission of death- dealing 
 gases. This is the cause of that abnormal- condition 
 which is to be found whenever the clothes are fitted to 
 the person. 
 
 Wherever you are right, you are not right as regards 
 one point only, but all points. Beauty is a fruit of 
 nature no less than health. Enter a studio, observe 
 how a painter or sculptor will prepare himself fitly to 
 present the human frame ; you will find he is not 
 engaged upon specimens from the tailor's or milliner's 
 shop. You will find him travelling back to the Romans 
 and the Greeks to borrow the pallium and the toga to 
 robe his figure. 
 
 Thus there may be a single cure for many diseases. 
 In the bath, the most essential operation is the 
 removal of the dead skin. I have brought, with a 
 view of presenting to your eyes, as a means of fixing 
 attention upon the subject, some implements which are 
 used for this purpose. From the moment that inte- 
 gumental clothing was inflicted on man the clearing 
 away of the dead epidermis became the first necessity, 
 and, until that is done, a man has no sense of what 
 life in his own person is. Those only who have under- 
 gone this operation can say, '' I know what it is to be 
 clean." Here is a substance which I have found in 
 antediluvian baths, amid ruins compared to which the 
 pyramids of Egypt dwindle down to the products of 
 a toy shop. When I tell you that single stones built 
 into the wall are equal in extent to the length of 
 this hall, and about a half of its width, and a third 
 of its height — you may imagine what manner of men
 
 234 Removal of Dead Skin. 
 
 were those who raised them. In the lower part of 
 those structures there remain ashes of a peculiar kind 
 —ashes that are produced in the bath mixed with 
 the remnants of that substance which lies upon the 
 table. Now, this substance is found only in Africa. 
 It contains equal parts of the three principal earths, 
 and it has the peculiar faculty of rubbing off the dead 
 epidermis — of polishing the body. "We find traces of 
 it in ancient India. But at present it is confined as so 
 applied to Africa. The skin throws out, as I have 
 said, matter for its own protection. That not being 
 cleared away, there is added to it the products of 
 perspiration — that is to say, matter left w^hen it has 
 evaporated, the two together forming a varnish that 
 covers the skin and impedes the performance of its 
 duty, which is to throw off one half of the poisonous 
 matters that are produced in obtaining life. To bring 
 the body, therefore, into a wholesome state you must 
 remove that varnish. If the varnish were complete, 
 you would have only a few hours to live : if the surface 
 of the skin be rendered impervious to air — if it no 
 longer can admit the oxygen necessary for Hfe, and no 
 longer aUow the carbonic acid gas to escape from it, — 
 then you die. You die by suffocation just as much as 
 if a handkerchief was tied over your mouth. You do 
 not die so quickly, for in one case you will die in 
 two or three minutes ; in the other case you will 
 require about twice as many hours. The increase of 
 heat enables you to remove the covering matter; but 
 the heat itself will not remove it. Go into a bath at 
 any heat you like you wiU not be clean. Perspiration
 
 Removal of Bead Skin. 235 
 
 may pour from you, but unless you have cleared off 
 that horny matter you will not have allowed the free 
 vent to those impurities which as they are constantly 
 recurring require an equal facility of ventil^ion and 
 escape. Therefore is it that in those early times when 
 men were simple, when the perceptions were true, when 
 they, wholly ignorant, anticipated the result of science, 
 this matter was carefully attended to. The first plan, 
 of course, would be rubbing by the mere hand, and 
 that is the best way : there is nothing more perfect, 
 nothing can approach to it ; but the labour is very 
 great. It was with the ball of the hand that the horse 
 was shampooed, not curried. Still, after that we come 
 to the different methods adopted by different nations 
 and tribes. In the announcement of my lecture it is 
 said that I should give you an account of the bath as 
 practised among the ancients. I am afraid I have done 
 very little to realize that promise : what I am now 
 going to say you may take as an instalment. I would 
 be an impostor if I told you I knew anything about the 
 baths of the Romans. I know nothing about the baths of 
 the Eomans, but what I know is of the baths of Turkey : 
 when any man talks to you about the Roman bath you 
 may be sure that he is an impostor. Minute points 
 may be known as the one I am going to quote, and 
 perhaps that is the only one of which we have any 
 positive knowledge. The peculiarity of the Roman 
 bath was the Strigil. That was a curved piece of metal 
 with which the dead matter was scraped off. The bath 
 did not belong to the Romans any more than to the 
 Greeks or the Turks. "We trace it through them back
 
 236 Removal of Dead Skin. 
 
 to that antiquity in whicli all good things are lost. 
 No good things have been invented ; they have always 
 been found, — if there be indeed a distinction between 
 inventing and finding. The Romans, the Greeks, and 
 the Turks had a wonderful faculty in common — it was 
 the faculty of selection. When men have nothing they 
 have no pretence, and they look about them : when 
 they see anything desirable they take it, and when 
 they have taken it they hold fast to it. The Eomans 
 were a set of bandits. Who were the Greeks? ask 
 even where they came from ; and what but echo can 
 answer ? Who were the Turks ? ravagers even within 
 the limits of history ; and yet these three races were 
 great through transcendant judgment. When, there- 
 fore, we refer to anything Roman, we have commenced 
 and not concluded an inquiry. In reference to the 
 strigil of Rome and Greece, the first thing will be its 
 name. The ancients were not philologists. Yet one 
 of the later Romans did indulge a little in that branch, 
 and he tells us that the word came from Mauritania. 
 Nor were the ancients antiquarians. And it is, there- 
 fore, to an epigrammatist that we owe the informa- 
 tion that the strigil came from Troy : — 
 
 " Pergamus has misit, curvo distringere ferro, 
 Non tarn ssepe teret liutea fullo tibi." 
 
 The Strigil and the oil-bottle for anointing may be 
 seen on the bas-relief of the most ancient tombs and 
 caves of Asia Minor. A large cast of one of these may 
 be examined in the British Museum. The Strigil, 
 therefore, which represents one of the methods of
 
 Removal of Bead Skin, ly] 
 
 cleansing the skin, descends to us tlirougli the Greeks 
 and Romans, from those populations of Asia Minor 
 from whom the Greeks derived their arts, sciences, and 
 letters, and, indeed, everything which we know as 
 Greek. But these populations of Asia Minor were 
 themselves but the offshoots of the Modes, the Persians, 
 and the Assyrians, who were again themselves but the 
 successors of the great Mohabadian Empire, which 
 traces up to Jemshid and Cayoumeres. As it is to the 
 Bath of Darius that the Greeks owed the knowledge 
 of the structure itself, and as the permanencj^ of the 
 habits of these people has passed even into a proverb, 
 we have to infer not only that the bath, but that pecu- 
 liar modification of it in which the Strigil was em- 
 ployed, belongs to that great and glorious race, the 
 splendour of whose renown, though obscured, endures 
 through five thousand years — the Arians. 
 
 The second process, the rubbing or polishing down 
 the body with Gazul, I fell upon, to my great surprise, 
 in Morocco. Of such a process I had never heard in 
 the East. No indication of any thing of the sort had 
 I ever discovered in a book of travel — men cannot see 
 what they do not understand, nor describe what they 
 do not see. When I saw it I at once accepted it as the 
 most perfect method. I did not, however, take it as a 
 new invention, for in Morocco whatever you see is old. 
 Going there is just the same as if you lived back five 
 thousand years. It is the receptacle of things lost else- 
 where. Flying populations were here stopped by the 
 Atlantic, and the deserts behind protected them. I 
 have already told you that gazul was employed in Syria
 
 238 Removal of Dead Skin, 
 
 before Noah, built the ark. The traveller who goes to 
 the East, and who there enters the bath, will be sub- 
 jected to another process. After he has been suffi- 
 ciently sodden in the heat, and after he has been 
 worked and shampooed in all his Kmbs, the shampooer 
 will put a glove or bag upon his hand, and, commencing 
 upon him, will roll the dead skin from off him, and as 
 be looks around he will see lying what he may at first 
 take for pipes of maccaroni. Should the operation on 
 his body have reacted upon his mind, he will begin to 
 perceive what a difficult thing it is to make the body 
 clean, and he may say to himself '' How is it possible 
 that I have lived all my life in this condition of filth?" 
 The next reflection will be or may be, " Certainly these 
 people understand the philosophy of life better than we 
 do." Here tben are the three processes : — The strigil 
 covering the whole of the fields of classic antiquity, 
 and reaching back to the earliest periods of history ; 
 the gazul which extends over the western portion of 
 the old world and is co-equal in its claims to antiquity 
 with tbe other. The mass of human beings subject to 
 these processes have been pre-eminent for the energy 
 of their bodies and tbeir minds, and distinguished for 
 their performances at once on the fields of dominion 
 and of literature. The third is the glove of the bar- 
 barous Turks. 
 
 If ever there was a subject to enlist the attention of 
 men by its connexion with their own well-being, or to 
 command tbeir respect by the charm which purifica- 
 tion throws over intercourse with others — if ever there 
 was a subject which gave vent to benevolence, it is the
 
 Removal of Bead Skin. 239 
 
 one I have endeavoured to call your attention to to- 
 night. If I have succeeded in awakening that atten- 
 tion it will not flag, because it will demonstrate its 
 benefits and power in every act and circumstance of 
 domestic life. The onlj?- apprehension I have is, that 
 remaining satisfied with the first attempts and content 
 with empirical inventions, you stop short of the perfect 
 thing, and instead of recovering the luxury, pride, 
 enjoyment, and strength of the most luxurious and 
 philosophic, learned and military, of the races of the 
 earth, this endeavour shall pass away as a troubled 
 dream. Unless the edifices are constructed not only 
 with due regard to that which is essential to their own 
 purposes, but also under such control as shall prevent 
 their being turned to improper usages, instead of grati- 
 fication and satisfaction in having commenced the 
 enterprise, there will be for those who have done so 
 only obloquy and reproach. It is thus I am driven to 
 address jou, not only by the desire to introduce for my 
 countrymen a benefit of which I know and experience 
 daily the value in my own person, but also by the 
 necessity of preventing this experiment from lapsing, 
 by reason of self-love and speculation, into a disastrous 
 and a shameful abortion. (Loud applause.) 
 
 The Chairman, in tendering to Mr. Urquhart the 
 vote of thanks, stated on behalf of himself and the 
 medical profession of this town, that they were quite 
 prepared to accept the Turkish Bath as a great boon to 
 humanity, and as an important auxiliary to the cure of 
 disease.
 
 Consumption produced by Habits, 
 not Climate. 
 
 The Bralimins hold that all disease (excepting old age 
 and accident) is a disgrace and a sin, as it can arise 
 only from criminal indulgence of the lusts, or an 
 equally criminal misuse of (he reason. 
 
 It is more than twenty years since I have known Con- 
 sumption to be an artificial produce, and, consequently, 
 that the land can be lustrated from this pollution. 
 
 From that moment I felt myself laden with a heavy 
 duty, — namely, the spreading of that knowledge by 
 which others should be brought to co-operate with me 
 in effecting the changes in our habits requisite for the 
 extirpation of the disease. 
 
 The proposition was stated by me eighteen years ago 
 in these terms : — 
 
 " As to Consumption, that scourge of England — that 
 pallid spectre which sits by every tenth domestic 
 hearth among the higher orders, — it is not only un- 
 known where the Bath is practised, but is curable by 
 its means." * 
 
 * " Pillars of Hercules," vol. ii., cli. on Bath.
 
 Consumption produced by Habits. 24 1 
 
 At the end of these eighteen years, I find myself 
 writing an introduction to the report of a regular 
 Physician *'0n the Successful Treatment of Consump- 
 tion by the Bath/' published in the leading Medical 
 journal of Great Britain. 
 
 Had this been foretold to me at the former period 
 as to happen within a centurj^ I should have held it 
 to be an encouraging prospect. I accept it now as a 
 recompense for the toil I have undergone, and also for 
 that persecution which all must endure who, pro- 
 posing beneficial changes in common habits, offend the 
 self-love of their contemporaries. 
 
 Consumption is a modern disease. It was no more 
 known formerly in England than it is known to-day 
 in countries whose habits resemble those of England 
 formerly, even when there is no bath. 
 
 There can be, therefore, no greater error than to 
 suppose that the lungs are wasted by climate, — nor 
 consequently, that change of climate is a remedy foi 
 Consumption. After the disease has made progress, 
 relief may be so afforded. It is a chance, an incident, 
 and no more. Such relief is, however, within the reach 
 of a fraction only of the sufferers. Those who are so 
 favoured by fortune as to be able to change their abodes, 
 are at the present moment only flying from effective 
 means of restoration which are now to be found at home. 
 
 Concurrently with the idea that climate produces the 
 disease, the perception exists of the symptoms of the 
 as yet undeveloped malady. ''He (or she) is of u 
 
 R
 
 242 Consumption produced by 
 
 consumptive habit/"' is no uncommon expression. The 
 least observant can point to the thin and pearly teeth, 
 the pink complexion, and the flattened chest, and say, 
 ^' There walks a doomed man." It is in the structure of 
 the individual that the seed lies, if at the same time 
 his habits are conducive to its development. 
 
 The causes of Consumption are as plain as those of 
 the breaking of a bank or the fall of a structure — the 
 insufficiency of the lungs. 
 
 The condition requisite for its development consists in 
 covering up the skin, and in the exclusion of the pure 
 air and sun-light. Thus is impaired the activity of an- 
 other organ which, conjointly with the lungs, is charged 
 with the duty of supplying air to the blood. That 
 organ is the skin. The skin, the lungs being small, is 
 called upon for increased service, and would supplj^ it 
 if healthy, — that is, when exposed to the air, the light, 
 and friction. But the skin inclosed in close-fitting and 
 dark garments of cloth and leather, and protected 
 against alternations of temperature, is not only un- 
 equal to this supererogatory duty, but is even incapaci- 
 tated for its normal work. 
 
 Putting these points together — seeing the distinctive 
 signs on the one hand, and the facilities of precaution 
 on the other, neither being abstruse and scientific, 
 but both being evident and plain — so plain that the 
 blind only will not see, — it follows that no one using 
 his senses suffers from Consumption except because he 
 likes it. But the modern man — that is, the man of
 
 Habits, not Climate, 243 
 
 tlie historical periods, from Abraham and Lao-tsee 
 downwards, does not use his senses ; he puts in their 
 place ill-assorted and uncertain memories, the rum- 
 maging amongst which he calls his reason. 
 
 I am describing the condition of every skin in 
 modern Europe. In cases of insufficient lungs those 
 lungs being unequal to their own work, and having, in 
 addition, a part of the work of the skin to perform, the 
 effort becomes overpowering ; thence distintegration of 
 the tissues, deposition of morbid secretions, topical in- 
 flammation, sweating fevers ; in other words, that 
 disease to which the significant names — Decline, 
 Wasting — have been applied by our people. 
 
 For such a malady there is no remedy in the Phar- 
 macopoeia. 
 
 Far, however, from considering this deficiency as 
 alarming, I should hold it to be propitious for any 
 consumptive patient in whom I took an interest ; 
 because the medical man is disabled from objecting to 
 the other means, not medical, which may commend 
 themselves to the common sense of persons uninstructed 
 in the science, but nevertheless able to understand this 
 disease quite as well as any physician.* 
 
 Were the patient afflicted with gout, the medical 
 man would say, " I have my colchicum." The Phar- 
 
 * " The pubHc in this matter is far in advance of the medical 
 profession. Our duty, as doctors of the heahng art, simply is, 
 to make ourselves acquainted with the uses of this therapeutic 
 instrument." — Dr. Thudichum.
 
 244 Consumption produced by 
 
 macopoeia — the knife — tlie lancet — would lay insuperable 
 barriers in the way of enlisting the skin against the dis- 
 orders afflicting severally the organs, or pervading by 
 their poison the whole system. In Consumption, fortu- 
 nately, the field is clear ; and the medical man who must 
 at some point of the malady utter the word or the doom 
 " Madeira," cannot say to his patient, or to that 
 patient's relatives and friends, " I forbid you, on pain of 
 death, the Turkish Bath." 
 
 ^Vhen you go to a legal man, you get from him law. 
 When you go to a medical man, you do not from him 
 get health. He has acquired no amount of that com- 
 modity with his diploma to dispense to those who seek 
 his coimsel. No medical man can cure, or profess to do 
 so. All he can legitimately pretend to, is to advise or 
 assist the sufierer's bod}^, so as to call forth its own 
 resources in its struggle with disease. Now, the means 
 to this end, in the age and country in which we live, 
 consist chiefly in heat, — as by it alone can the skin be 
 recovered from its inertness. But medicine has taken 
 no account of heat. The chief agency of nature has 
 been disregarded by medical science.* Having disre- 
 garded it, they have constructed theories of therapeutics j 
 and these now stand in their way, and prevent them, 
 except in rare instances, from admitting as a medical 
 agent, that " purgation by the skin," which is the 
 
 * " "We have hitkerto known nothing of heat as a treatmen 
 for disease. I do not know any work where it has been 
 reft^rred to in the most distant manner." — Erasmus Wilson.
 
 Habits, not Climate. 245 
 
 very foundation of the curative art, — at least, as in its 
 origin expounded by Hippocrates, tlie first as well as 
 the last of physicians, being the only great man that 
 medicine has produced. 
 
 In the case of Consumption, let us see what the 
 patient would gain by spending some time daily in 
 an apartment with an elevated temperature and elec- 
 trically isolated. 
 
 1. "Warm air admitted to the lungs. 
 
 2. Complete external purification. 
 
 3. The results of exercise which he cannot take. 
 
 4. The saving of electricity (life), otherwise dis- 
 persed. 
 
 5. The cleansing of the blood from all floating 
 impurities. 
 
 6. The blood being reduced as to liquid, firmer 
 muscle is deposited, ♦and the power of repairing diseased 
 tissues increased. 
 
 7. The healthy perspiration supersedes the imhealthy 
 night-sweats. 
 
 8. The power of sleep is increased. 
 
 9. The advantages of a warm climate are combined 
 with those of a cold one, and vice versa. 
 
 10. The exposure of the body to the sun*s rays, by 
 which alone the ravages of Consumption can be arrested. 
 
 11. The freeing of the body, for a certain number of 
 hours in the daj^, from the exhausting encumbrance of 
 clothes. 
 
 12. The dead skin is removed by shampooing ; so that
 
 246 Consumption produced by 
 
 the oxygenation of the blood is carried on all over the 
 body, to the relief of the heart as well as of the lungs. 
 
 13. Other organs, such as the liver and the kidneys 
 which may be indirectly involved, are equally relieved. 
 
 Those who desire to follow out these various branches 
 have the means of doing so elsewhere : it is but an 
 outline I give. I will take now two points out of these 
 thirteen for illustration, — Shampooing and the Rays of 
 the Sun. 
 
 Shampooing. 
 
 I shall dispose of this by a passage written at Baal- 
 beck in 1850 :— 
 
 " A man is not born into the world with clothes ; nor are 
 ready-made hatters, hosiers, and tailors, natural products. Man 
 is born in his skin, and is, so to say, his own clothier : it is that 
 skin that has to sustain the wear and tear of the world ; and 
 being endowed with that faculty, it is needful to it to undergo 
 that wear and tear. Man is his own clothier : instead of having 
 to go to a shop for a new suit of skin, he from within is con- 
 stantly repairing that which he has. But, if he puts a covering 
 over that skin, the wear and tear no longer takes place ; and 
 the impenetrable varnish so supplied by nature not being worn 
 off, the body becomes suffocated, and the man is afflicted, just 
 as a plant would be when taken out of the hght and excluded 
 from the air. Thus it is that, from the moment that the verdant 
 and partial covering of Adam and Eve was replaced by textile 
 and general clothing, the first necessity of man came to be the 
 removal of his dead skin, 
 
 " For this purpose four processes have been adopted through- 
 out the famihes of the human race. The first was, the rubbing 
 down with the ball of the hand, as still used for currying horses 
 of high breed. The three others are, scraping, rolling, and
 
 Habits J not Climate. i/^rj 
 
 polishing. The scraping was with the strigil, which we know 
 of from the Eomans and Greeks, but which is figured on the 
 tombs of Lycia. The rolling is by means of the goat-hair glove, 
 as to-day practised by the Turks. The polishing is with the 
 gazul, and practised by the Moors, to whom it is confined, 
 and who alone possess the admirable substance which is used 
 for it." * 
 
 Rays of the Sun. 
 
 As to the effect in the way of cure, of the mere 
 exposure of the body to the rays of the sun, what I 
 have to say was stated in a lecture I delivered at 
 Brompton in 1860, as follows : — 
 
 " Before I had a Bath to use, before there was one in this 
 country, I was at Wakefield giving a lecture upon the subject, 
 and I took Consumption as illustrative. After the lecture, the 
 gentleman who had been in the chair came to me, and said, 
 ' You have been describing what I have seen before my eyes 
 day by day for years. I have seen it in an elder sister, in a 
 wife, in a daughter, in a son : they are gone. I now see it 
 renewed in a second daughter. We have had a consultation 
 of medical men, yesterday, and she is ordered to Madeira. T 
 know what that means. Will you come and see her ?' I went 
 and saw her, and finding her a sensible woman, I made her 
 understand the hopelessness of cure by art, while I showed her 
 that there were natural means by which she might be so far 
 restored as to enjoy life, if she was willing to alter her habits 
 so as to use them. That lady is now alive ; and the last time 
 I heard of her, she was able to walk a mile daily. The means 
 that I employed were, divesting her of tight and dark clothing, 
 and making her lie in the sun during every hour that he shone: 
 
 * " The Lebanon," vol. ii., p. 386.
 
 248 Consumption produced by 
 
 thus obtaining relief from the pressure of clothes, admission of 
 air and of the sun's rays to her skin. The skin has a right to 
 the rays of the sun, to the breezes of the air. We shut out 
 those rays, and deprive it of those breezes : we shut out from it 
 the alternations of heat and cold, we deprive it of moisture, 
 and finally shut it up in a ease, in which it is darkened and 
 confined until at last we render it no longer serviceable for the 
 purposes for which it was intended. We rebel against the 
 laws of our existence, and justly are we punished for doing so. 
 The case which I have related is useful as showing how much 
 we can obtain even without the Bath, by restoring the order of 
 things which has been interrupted. I esteem as the first of all 
 these means, the direct action upon the skin of the rays of the 
 sun : not sunlight, observe, as generally diffused, but the sun's 
 rays striking the surface of the body." * 
 
 As a matter of mere experimental science, Aetimsm 
 (Ray-ism) lias been attracting attention in the United 
 States and in Germany, without the suspicion arising 
 of its importance for man. A physician of New York 
 has, however, fallen upon it accidentally, as would 
 appear from the subjoined extract taken from " Public 
 Opinion" of the 8th of August, 1863.t 
 
 * Lecture at the Brompton Literary Institute, " On the 
 Effects of Light and Heat on the Human Body," February 7th, 
 1860. 
 
 t " Beneficial Effects of SunsJilne. — Seclusion from sunshine 
 is one of the misfortunes of our civilized life. The same cause 
 which makes the potato-vines white and sickly when grown in 
 the dark cellars, operates to produce the pale, sickly girls that 
 are reared in our parlours. Expose either to the direct rays of 
 the sun, and they begin to show colour, health, and strength 
 One of the ablest lawyers in our country, a victim of long and 
 hard brain-labour, came to me a year ago, suffering with partial 
 paralysis. The right leg and hip were reduced in size, with
 
 Habits^ not Climate. 249 
 
 Reasons, however cogent, in favour of a metliod, are 
 as nothing compared with the objections, however 
 frivolous, that are or may be urged against it. The 
 objection in this case is, " the Bath {loerspiration) is 
 loiceringJ^ 
 
 Dr. Leared has given the reply of experience in this 
 very malady. I may add, that one of these patients 
 (Wright) is at present engaged as a shampooer in the 
 Hammam in Jermyn- street, being unable to pursue 
 his ordinary avocation (wood-cutting) away from the 
 Bath. 
 
 The maladies in which the most immediate relief is 
 afforded, are where the head, the heart, or the lungs are 
 affected. In these maladies no one would recommend 
 
 constant pain in the loins. He was obliged, in coming up-stairs, 
 to raise the left foot first, on every stair, dragging the right 
 one after it. Pale, feeble, miserable, he told me he had been 
 failing several years, and closed with, ' My worlc is done. At 
 sixty, I find myself worn out.' I directed him to lie down 
 under a large window, and allow the sun to fall upon every 
 part of his body, — at first, ten minutes a day, increasing the 
 time until he could expose himself to the direct rays of the sun 
 a full hour. His habits were not essentially altered in any 
 other particular. In six months he came running up-stairs 
 like a vigoij^us man of forty, and declared, with sparkling eyes, 
 *I have twenty years more of work in me.' I have assisted 
 many dyspeptic, neuralgic, rheumatic, and hypochondriacal 
 people into health by the sun-cure. I have so many facts 
 illustrating the wonderful power of the sun's direct rays in 
 curing certain classes of invalids, that I have seriously thought 
 of publishing a work to be denominated the ' Sun-Cure.' " — 
 Dr. Warren.
 
 250 Consumption produced by 
 
 to the patients to undergo labour in the Bath. Yet 
 there are no less than three persons engaged in the 
 Hammam (the superintendent and two shampooers), 
 because, being consumptive, they are equal to do work 
 in the Bath, and are not so elsewhere. 
 
 The shampooers, who are engaged in the Bath for 
 fourteen hours daily, enjoy perfect health. On making 
 inquiry as to the amount of charges on their sick-fund, 
 I was answered, that no money had as yet been paid, 
 as no case of sickness had arisen. This among from 
 twenty to thirty men, during seventeen months. 
 
 The history of the subjoined experiments is as 
 follows : — 
 
 In February, 1861, the Turkish Bath was brought to 
 the cognizance of the medical body through a paper 
 read before the Medical Society of London, in which its 
 claims were asserted, not only as a medical agent, but 
 as one so pre-eminent as to call for the revision of pre- 
 existent therapeutic theories.* 
 
 A discussion ensued after the reading of this paper, 
 and twelve medical men, not one of whom had ever 
 
 * " Mr. Urquliart wrote to me, towards the close of last year, 
 ' If we are not to wait these 500 years before we know anything 
 about the Bath, if we are to experience in onr lifetime the value 
 and to learn the nature of these results, it will be by the 
 appearance of a man capable of standing by himself, who, 
 dropping the clouts and the finery of preconceived notions, — 
 making renunciation of the past, and starting with freedom on 
 the new career of experiment — the Bacon of the human frame, 
 — will accomplish the opus magnum of pathology. By this
 
 Habit Sy not Climate. 251 
 
 been in a Bath, or knew anything about it, spoke suc- 
 cessively, giving utterance to opinions and asserting 
 them with a confidence which could only be the result 
 of the reverse of knowledge. Being invited to speak, 
 I could do neither more nor less than say that it was 
 impossible for them to judge of a matter of which they 
 were ignorant ; but that if they desired to understand 
 it, which they could only do by experience, I should be 
 very happy to see any of them, or the whole Society, at 
 my residence in Hertfordshire, where they could take 
 the Bath themselves ; and, after that, I should be very 
 happy to answer any questions that they thought fit to 
 put to me. 
 
 This invitation was accepted : an entire day was 
 allotted for this purpose ; and the deputation, filling 
 an omnibus, and accompanied by a short-hand writer, 
 arrived soon after ten a.m., returning to the station 
 only about ten p.m. It was singular that not one of 
 the twelve who had spoken so decidedly on the subject 
 at the meeting appeared among the number ; although 
 T have since learnt that the most eloquent on 
 
 experimental process he will obtain results which he will convert 
 into instruments available to every land, so as to make science 
 the handmaid of daily practice ! ' 
 
 " I have made tliat renunciation in full ; and if I claim to be 
 honest by pointing my finger in the direction of error, and by 
 denouncing false principles of action and modes of thinking, 
 I am no less so in inviting you to participate in the benefits of 
 such an act, by imposing it upon yourselves." — Dr. Thudichim s 
 Faper read before the Medical Society of London.
 
 252 Consumption produced by 
 
 that occasion — Dr. E.ichardson — lias since become a 
 convert. 
 
 I was subjected to an examination of seven Lours. 
 Every objection put forward was met and withdrawn, 
 and. my statements were left intact, I would not ven- 
 ture to say so, were not the short-hand notes in existence, 
 and available as proof if called for. 
 
 It was then that, for the first time, I saw the author 
 of the papers now reprinted. He was one of those 
 whose questions most indicated scepticism, and he did 
 not leave on me the impression of a favourable result. 
 
 Soon afterwards, a company was formed for the 
 building of a Turkish Bath. The project sprang from 
 the alarm felt by some who knew from experience in 
 the East what a Bath really was, lest the public 
 favour, then culminating, should turn to disgust by the 
 spurious and mercenary imitations arising on every 
 side. 
 
 Whilst the building in Jermyn-street was in progress, 
 Dr. Leared came to visit it, and thus our intercourse 
 was renewed ; several conversations succeeded, and find- 
 ing that his basis of judgment was hospital results, I 
 proposed to him to obtain a small share for himself, 
 offering to build a Bath at once, and put it at his 
 disposal for the patients of the Consumptive Hospital, 
 in which he was physician. The Board (of the Turkish 
 Bath Company) having sanctioned this arrangement^ 
 I was enabled shortly afterwards — that is in October, 
 1861, — to redeem my pledge. The experiment
 
 Habits y not Climate. 253 
 
 recorded in the subjoined papers thus extend beyond 
 two years. 
 
 Whilst these cases were attending the Bath, I scru- 
 pulously abstained from so much as an observation in 
 respect either to the degree of heat or the period of 
 time. It was with great difficulty that I so restrained 
 myself. These patients were barely undergoing the 
 ablutions which I should hold to be conducive to the 
 maintenance of health. Had these patients been in 
 my hands, they would have been in the Bath each day 
 twice the number of hours that they spent in it during 
 the week, and at double the temperature, — that is, at 
 100 degrees above the ordinary summer atmosphere, 
 instead of 50°. 
 
 Feeling, however, that we were only at the very dawn 
 of a new day, and that professional men must feel their 
 way slowly, doubtingly, cautiously, and experimentally, 
 I held that there was more chance of ultimate success 
 from the hesitating and almost unwilling admissions of 
 Dr. Leared, than if this first regular experiment had 
 been conducted by a bolder man. There is, however, no 
 reason — now that so fortunate an issue has been arrived 
 at by such slender means, and that his patients have 
 absolutely themselves broken away from him, and en- 
 gaged themselves as shampooers so as to get the Bath 
 fourteen hours a day instead of two hours a week — why 
 I should not now say that the results might have been 
 attained in a quarter if not in a twentieth part of the 
 time.
 
 254 Consumption produced by 
 
 I give, as confirmation, a note of the treatment of 
 a case during the winter preceding these experiments, 
 when the patient was taken for treatment into the 
 bleak, cold, mining regions of the county of Durham, 
 and with no medical supervision. But he went into 
 that desolate region to find a Bath at 200°, and to 
 use it daily. An Ironmaster writes to me, December 
 26th, I860,— . 
 
 "My engineer, who has got a Bath at his own house 
 here, has got a brother pretty far gone in Consumption : 
 pulse 120 ; weak, and growing weaker; cough — spitting matter ; 
 hectical, and growing worse. He has had him about three 
 weeks in his own house, treating him daily with the Bath, and 
 thinks liim virtually cured : pulse 75 ; coughs very little ; 
 good appetite ; good sleep ; walks two miles a day, without 
 feeling it, in the deep snow and bitter frost. Certainly, if there 
 be any stages of Consumption which it will not cure, it is not 
 the early stages." 
 
 I will now give an instance of one of the inflam- 
 matory attacks which may end in Consumption. Here 
 it is a medical man who will speak for himself: the 
 writer is a London practitioner, and the most eminent 
 medical chemist : — 
 
 " September 30, 1861. 
 
 " On Saturday the Bath effected wonders upon my frame. I 
 was close to an attack of pneumonia, and in presence of many 
 dangers. I knew the feeling so well from former experience, 
 that it is impossible to misconstrue it. I came out of the Bath 
 a new man, that is to say, one to whom six weeks of illness 
 have been spared. Before the Bath, I was close to faintness, 
 sick, and weak on my legs ; I suffered agonizing headache, and 
 could not keep my eyes open from photophobia ; I shivered and
 
 Habits J not Climate. 255 
 
 fevered in turns, and had those premonitory stitches in the 
 right chest which are with me a sure sign of coming inflamma- 
 tion. Two hours in the Bath changed the aspect of affairs so 
 
 completely, that I was able to walk home with Lord E. M , 
 
 and spend some hours w^ith him in agreeable conversation. It 
 was to me the most wonderful experiment I have yet made. I 
 was yet weak yesterday, but not ill : to-day I am in almost 
 perfect health." 
 
 Two days later he writes — 
 
 *' Last Saturday's experience with the Bath has engendered 
 a new feeling in my mind, which I cannot describe otherwise 
 than as security against unnatural death." 
 
 It is painful to reflect that so many days, weeks, 
 months, and years have elapsed since such results have 
 been unquestionably established, without any steps to 
 render them available for the hundreds of thousands of 
 our fellow creatures who, in the mean time, have been 
 dragging out lives of hopeless suffering, or have been 
 consigned to an untimely grave. Physicians stand in 
 the way, stopping those who would look forward, and 
 pretending the desire of investigation, demand the pro- 
 duction of hospital experience and results. How can 
 such results be obtained, except by their co-operation 't 
 Those who stand in the way of trial, and who then 
 deny to their patients the benefit of a cleanly habit, for 
 the Bath is no more, because the trial in one peculiar 
 fashion has not been made, would be the first to demand 
 that test were they not satisfied that it would be success- 
 ful. Every patient has now, however, the means which 
 he never possessed before, of testing the capacity or the
 
 256 Consumption produced by 
 
 integrity of his medical adviser. At all events, the 
 friends of the patient ordered to Madeira can fairly say 
 to medical men, '' Will you not allow your patient first 
 to try the effect of the Turkish Bath ? " 
 
 Morocco in climate resembles Madeira. Morocco is 
 inhabited by three races : the inhabitants of the towns, 
 who use the Bath ; the dwellers in tents, who do not use 
 the Bath, but whose garments are open, like the toga of 
 the Eomans ; the Jews who do not, or rarely, use the 
 Bath, and who cover up their bodies in clothes. The 
 , first two do not know Consumption ; the third are 
 peculiarly subject to it. 
 
 The foregoing pages having been submitted to the 
 medical man who has the first right to speak on this 
 subject, his acquaintance with the Bath in the East 
 being copval with my own, and he having introduced 
 it at the time of the Crimean war into one of our 
 hospitals on the Bosphorus ; he made thereon a criticism 
 which I am bound to quote : it was in substance this : — 
 
 "The friend or relative of the consumptive patient 
 who reads these pages with the view of acting thereon, 
 will of course refer them to some medical man for his 
 opinion. Such medical man, if he is minded to dissuade 
 his patients from using the Bath, will at once say, ' You 
 cannot rely on the statements here put forth, and I will 
 give you the proof of their unsoundness. The writer
 
 Habits y not Climate. 257 
 
 says that ordinary medicines cannot reach. Consumption 
 in the way of cure. This is not true. If you will not 
 take my word, ask any medical man you like ; you 
 can even consult for yourself medical works : take 
 for instance, the highest authority on Consumption, 
 Williams; turn to p. 193, and you will find the distinct 
 enunciation of the curability of Consumption in certain 
 cases.' 
 
 " Now, if you stated your case in a less absolute or 
 in a more distinctive fashion, you would deprive an 
 objecting physician of such advantage. I mean, that 
 after having referred to the predisposing structure of 
 the individual, you should have distinguished in refe- 
 rence to hereditary taint and in reference to predis- 
 posing circumstances, so as to show, especially in regard 
 to the latter, that where the lungs, being themselves in 
 due proportion, are subject to accidental lesion, then 
 depuration may take place while the patient is under- 
 going medicinal treatment, and the physician will of 
 course designate the result as cure." 
 
 Fully accepting this criticism, I will add that in 
 referring to the passage of Dr. Williams I observe an 
 expression of peculiar significance. In treating of the 
 exceptional cases in which a cure is hesitatingly pre- 
 dicated, he says — 
 
 " Under treatment, and favourable circumstances of 
 air and climate, these symptoms and signs have been 
 gradually removed." 
 
 " Air and climate " is all I contend for as sufiicient
 
 258 Consumption produced by Habits. 
 
 to stop the progress of the disease up to the moment 
 when the amoimt of working power of the lungs 
 ceases to be equal to the sustaining of life. But then 
 the "air" shall be admitted through the skin as well 
 as the lungs, and " climate " shall represent heat raised 
 to the point of efficiency.
 
 Treatment of Phthisis by the Turkish 
 Bath. 
 
 By ARTHUR LEARED, M.D., M.R.I.A., 
 
 Physician to the Infirmary for Diseases of the Chest. 
 
 From the "Lancet " of November and December, 1863. 
 
 I HAVE long believed that we make far too little use 
 of the skin as a means of depurating the blood, and 
 that the uncertain action of diaphoretic medicines has 
 had much to do with this neglect. The great import- 
 ance of the skin will be acknowledged, if we remember 
 that the volatile matters discharged through its pores 
 are about double the amount of those discharged by the 
 lungs, and that even the quantity of water expelled by 
 the skin nearly equals that discharged by the kidneys. 
 
 When in Turkey some years ago, I had frequent 
 opportunity of experiencing and observing the effects 
 of the Turkish Bath. I became convinced that it was 
 the only reliable means of causing diaphoresis, and that 
 it might be most effectively employed as a remedial 
 agent, as well as one of cleanliness and luxury. Gout, 
 a true blood disease, is said to be unknown amongst 
 the Turks ; and this exemption is probably as much due 
 to the free action of the skin caused by the Bath as to
 
 26o Treatment of Consumption 
 
 their temperate habits. In estimating the value of the 
 Bath as a enratiye agent, however, the special effects of 
 caloric on the body are to be taken largely into account. 
 The effects of the higher degrees of heat possess a great 
 but as yet an almost unrecognized importance. 
 
 The treatment of phthisis has made little or no pro- 
 gress for many years. General tonics, as mineral acids, 
 iron, and quinine, are found highly useful in this 
 disease, as well as in others marked by depression of 
 vital power. But, with the single exception of cod-liver 
 oil, none of the special remedies proposed have stood 
 the test of experience. The utility of the oil is proved 
 by the undoubted extension of life in the case of those 
 patients who take it compared with those who do not. 
 Being convinced that other valuable agents in the 
 treatment of the disease may be discovered, this has 
 been long a subject of my experimental inquiry. It 
 is my present purpose to place before the reader the 
 results of the treatment of phthisis by the Turkish or 
 Hot-air Bath. 
 
 An opportunity of trying the effects of this treatment 
 in the fullest manner was kindl}^ afforded me by the 
 Directors of the Turkish Bath Company in Jermyn- 
 street. A good deal had been said or written in a 
 general wa}" about the beneficial effects of the Bath in 
 affection of the lungs, but it seemed desirable that its 
 action upon phthisis should be patiently tested and 
 fairly made public. Although resolved not to allow 
 any theory to occupy my mind, it appeared to me that
 
 by the Turkish Bath. 2'6i 
 
 Ke Bath was likely to prove useful in phthisis for the 
 following reasons : — 
 
 First. As the functions of the skin are promoted by 
 the removal of effete matters which clog its pores and 
 hinder free excretion, benefit might be expected from 
 the Bath regarded in a purely hygienic light. Experi- 
 ence proves that whatever promotes the general health 
 of the patient tends to retard the destructive changes in 
 the lungs. 
 
 Second. If, as is highly probable, the perspirations dt 
 phthisis are an effort of nature to depurate the blood 
 by excretion of offending material, the substitution of 
 sweating induced artificially might effect the same end 
 in a better and safer manner. 
 
 Third. In cases in which sweating was a marked 
 symptom, this, as well as the exhausting fever which 
 precedes it, might be replaced by the operation of a 
 process agreeable to the sensations of the patient, and 
 one which, being completely within control, might be 
 regulated according to his strength. 
 
 Fourth. The inhalation of heated air might prove 
 beneficial by a direct action on the lungs, as would be 
 evidenced by check of the cough and expectoration. 
 
 For several months at first a small private Bath was 
 employed, but subsequently the large Bath was used by 
 the patients. The temperature ranged from 120° to 
 180° F., and the patients remained exposed to it from 
 half an hour to an hour or longer, the time being regu- 
 lated by the action of the skin and their own feelings.
 
 262 T^reatment of Consumption 
 
 Great care was taken not only to observe anj^ improve- 
 ment, but also to prevent possible harm. 
 
 I regret that I am unable to bring forward a larger 
 number of results. Several patients commenced with 
 the Bath, and, although well satisfied with its effects, 
 were compelled to desist in consequence of not being 
 able to give up the necessary time to it. But the long 
 period during which two of the cases were under treat- 
 ment, and the precision with which the facts will be 
 detailed, give these cases unusual importance. 
 
 The first patient I shall mention died unexpectedly ; 
 but, as will be seen, death was not caused by phthisis, 
 and the rare opportunity was afforded of examining the 
 lungs of a phthisical patient, in whom improvement of 
 chest-symptoms was going on up to the time fatal 
 disease of another kind set in. 
 
 J. C is a man of small stature and dark complexion, forty- 
 two years of age. His father died of phthisis ; also a maternal 
 uncle, and a sister of his own. Early in 1851 the patient had 
 cough, and felt out of health. In May of that year he had 
 for the first time an attack of haemoptysis. He thinks the 
 quantity of blood brought up was not less than a pint. It 
 continued to come up in smaller quantities almost daily for 
 about three months. He was at length able to attend to busi- 
 ness, although in very delicate health. In March, 1852, haemo- 
 ptysis returned, accompanied by the same symptoms, and he was 
 under medical treatment until September. In 1854 he was laid 
 up from May to July from the same cause. Again in August, 
 
 1858, blood was brought up in such quantities that his life was 
 almost despaired of, and he was under treatment until April, 
 
 1859. The cough then became a little better ; but great diflB- 
 culty of breathing remained. In 1860 he became an out-patient
 
 by the "Turkish Bath. id'}^ 
 
 at the Brompton Hospital for Consumption, and continued so 
 for twelve montlis, when he left, his breathing and cough 
 being unrelieved. In 1861 he became for many months an 
 out-patient at the Eoyal Infirmary for Diseases of the Chest. 
 He had the old symptoms, and blood made its appearance 
 several times, the last time having been in November of that 
 year. 
 
 Present state. — Jan. 1st, 1862 : Pale and very thin, but thinks 
 himself less so than he has been. Complains of weakness, and 
 great dyspnoea even from ordinary walking ; shooting pains in 
 the chest, especially through the right side ; night-sweats ; 
 troublesome cough, with yellow sputa. The upper and ante- 
 rior part of the right side of the chest is dull on percussion, 
 and in the same position crepitation is heard over a consider- 
 able space, as also in the right axillary region. He was ordered 
 a hot-air bath three times a week. 
 
 Jan. 27th (fourth week of Bath treatment). — Has taken ten 
 baths; says he felt benefited by the first bath; pain and night- 
 sweats quite gone ; cough better, and expectoration less ; 
 what he chiefly notices is improvement in his breathing ; 
 has also a feeling of improved general health, and the bad 
 headaches from which he suffered at short intervals for 
 years have entirely left him ; bowels regular ; except for 
 cough and slight dyspnoea, would consider himself well. 
 Weighed Jan. 1st, 9 st. 4 lb., and on Jan. 26th, 9 st. 6 lb. 
 The crepitation that existed over the front of the right lung 
 decidedly smaller, and in the mammary region hardly to be 
 distinguished. 
 
 Feb. 17th. — Cough and expectoration rather better; 
 breathing about the same ; appetite good, and attends to 
 business more closely than for a long time previously ; up 
 to present date has taken cod-liver oil and quinine as he did 
 before commencing Baths. All internal medicines to be now 
 omitted. 
 
 April 21st. — Health in every respect improved ; cough and 
 expectoration very slight ; some dyspnoea on strong exertion, 
 but " nothing like what it was ;" lives in Long-lane, Smithfield,
 
 264 Treatment of Consumption 
 
 and now walks to and from the bath (about six miles) without 
 inconvenience ; could not have attempted this for a long time 
 previous to taking baths ; the dulness on percussion over right 
 apex seems less ; crepitation less marked. 
 
 June 11th. — Breathing greatly improved ; cough has lately 
 been rather troublesome before breakfast. Sent to Dr. George 
 Johnson, who kindly examined the patient, and made the fol- 
 lowing note : " Slight dulness ; feeble respiration and crackling 
 at right apex; harsh breathing at left apex." 
 
 25th. — Continues very well; removed to Bethnal-green- 
 road a month ago ; walked twelve miles on one day this 
 week without trouble ; has taken not less than fifty baths in 
 all. After careful examination, could detect no crepitation in 
 the right lung ; in the infra-clavicular space slight crumpling 
 sound and a sonorous rale ; dulness on percussion hardly 
 appreciable. 
 
 Sept. 26th. — In consequence of his improved health, has 
 taken no baths except two for three months ; one last week, 
 and one the week before. Took them as he was not so well as 
 usual. Has on the whole gone on very favourably. Physical 
 signs the same as on June 25th. Seen to-day by Dr. G. John- 
 son, who made the following note : — " Slight dulness on 
 percussion; diminished expansion and feeble respiration at 
 right apex ; no moist sound ; respiration at left apex 
 harsh, almost tubular, with prolonged expiration ; face 
 still pale." 
 
 Oct. 20th. — Had bath on day he last saw me ; none since. 
 About a month ago began to make the bodies of hats, in which 
 process ammonia is evolved. On account of his health has not 
 worked at this branch of his trade since 1851. At present 
 does full work. Can walk any reasonable distance, but ascend- 
 ing tries him. Cough troublesome at times. In all other 
 respects doing well. Physical signs : Ko crepitation at right 
 infra-clavicular region, but a low and peculiar rumbling sound. 
 To resume the Baths. 
 
 Dec. 2nd. — Baths twice a week regularly since last note. 
 Breathing and cough considerably improved. Says his general
 
 by the Turkish Bath, 265 
 
 liealtli is good. Physical signs unchanged. Showed me a 
 swelling on left side of chest, about three inches below nipple, 
 which he noticed for the first time yesterday. It could scarcely 
 be called sore, and was not painful. Said he did not feel at all 
 weak. Advised him to apply a poultice, and to see me again 
 if it did not soon improve. 
 
 7th. — I was sent for in haste to visit him, but he had expired 
 before my arrival. His wife told me that from the time of my 
 last seeing him he had become gradually weaker until the 
 debility was excessive. The swelling continued almost painless, 
 although it had increased considerably in size. He had taken 
 nothing but beef-tea to support him, as a physician formerly 
 consulted had advised him never to take stimulants of any 
 kind. His wife added, that he had been of late greatly 
 depressed in mind by business affairs. There was no increase 
 of cough or other chest symptoms. At eight o'clock this 
 morning he managed to dress and get down-stairs ; had some 
 tea ; returned to bed much exhausted, and died calmly about 
 ten o'clock. 
 
 Examination of the hody, eighteen hours after death, — Body 
 in very good condition; sub-clavicular spaces well filled. 
 Three inches below the left nipple was an anthrax two inches 
 in diameter, having a very dark appearance, and on its sur- 
 face several points of ulceration. Some elevated dark spots 
 were scattered about on the surrounding healthy skin. The 
 cellular tissue involved in the anthrax was in a sloughy con- 
 dition. On laying open the thorax, a layer of fat at least half 
 an inch thick was found beneath the skin. The heart was 
 larger than natural, and lay more to the right side than usual. 
 All the valves appeared healthy. The right lung was a good 
 deal smaller than the left, which accounted for the position of 
 the heart. There were firm adhesions in various parts, and 
 the apex was so adherent to the opposed surface that a 
 portion of lung-structure was torn through in separating 
 it. Crepitation was impaired, and it had a much more solid 
 feel than is natural; this was remarkably the case at the 
 summit, but there was no appearance of tubercular matter.
 
 266 Treatment of Consumption 
 
 The left lung was adherent in places, but less so than the 
 right ; and it was less crepitant than natural. At the apex 
 there was a tubercular mass about the size of a filbert, and 
 of a cheesy consistence. 
 
 Remarks. — It is plain that death in this case did not 
 result from phthisis. So far from being emaciated, the 
 patient was in good condition ; and the state of the 
 lungs, which contained neither cavities nor softening 
 tubercular matter, precluded the idea. It is certain 
 that death was due to the debility which is well known 
 to occur in cases of anthrax ; and it is probable that 
 the timely use of stimulants would have averted the 
 fatal issue. The question then arises, did the long ill- 
 health of the patient depend upon phthisis ? A review 
 of the case admits no other conclusion. None of the 
 leading symptoms of the disease were wanting. The 
 case was certainly of a very chronic character ; and 
 this may be said to weaken any conclusions that may 
 be drawn from it. But let it be remembered that, up 
 to the time of commencing the Baths, this man's life 
 had been for years only a succession of illnesses, with 
 attacks of haemoptysis, and of imperfect rallyings. 
 From the time of beginning the Bath treatment until 
 his death, a period of nearly a year, there was not the 
 slightest haemorrhage, and, until his fatal illness, he 
 greatly improved in health. At one of his last visits 
 he said to me : " This is the first year since 1851 that 
 I have not had constantly to take medicine, and use 
 blisters." It is also worth remarking, that the patient
 
 hy the 'Turkish Bath, 267 
 
 regarded the Bath treatment as very agreeable. Crepi- 
 tation at the summit of the right lung was perfectly- 
 determined, not only by myself, but by the independent 
 observation of Dr. Johnson. Both of us observed also 
 that the crepitation subsequently ceased. No tubercles 
 in the stage of softening, or other appearances that 
 might have been expected, were found in the part of 
 the lung mentioned. But the local crepitation must 
 have depended on softened tubercle ; and it can only 
 be supposed that the tubercular matter had disappeared. 
 I am of opinion that at the place of adhesion an abscess 
 of the lung had existed, which having been discharged, 
 its fundus became adherent to the adjacent surface of 
 the chest- wall. 
 
 A. W , aged seventeen years, a wood-engraver, 
 
 became my patient in October, 1860. His sister, who 
 had been a patient of mine, died of phthisis the previous 
 month; and he lost his mother also from the same 
 affection. He then stated that his health had been 
 good until recently, when he found that he was losing 
 flesh and strength, and had a slight cough. The 
 treatment consisted of cod-liver oil, tonics, and sedatives, 
 under which he soon improved, and ceased to consult 
 me. In June, 1861, he again consulted me, and 
 remained under treatment until he went into the 
 country on the 17th of August, where he stayed imtil 
 October 10th, since which time I have seen him at 
 intervals. He improved at first under the same treat-
 
 268 Treatment of Consumption 
 
 ment. but lie has lateh^ grown weaker and less capable 
 of exertion. Slight haemoptysis occurred once. 
 
 I^ov. 20th, 1861 (thirteen months from commencement of 
 illness). — Much thinner than when in health; complexion of 
 such a remarkably dusky hue as to lead to suspicion that the 
 supra-renal capsules are diseased ; feels weak and languid, 
 especially in the afternoon ; slight night-sweats ; very easily 
 put out of breath ; cough very troublesome, and attended by 
 mucous expectoration. 
 
 Physical signs. — Marked dulness on percussion, and moist 
 crackling over the space bounded above by the left clavicle, and 
 at a distance of four inches below by a line drawn parallel to 
 the clavicle. Ordered the Hot-air Bath twice a week. 
 
 Jan. 24th, 1862. — In nine weeks and three days has taken 
 eighteen baths — two per week. Stayed in the hot chamber 
 about an hour, and was shampooed on every occasion but one. 
 Has latterly taken the cold douche. Continued taking cod- 
 liver oil and sulphate of quinine, as he had done for a long 
 time previously ; but the cough medicine was omitted, as he 
 found it unnecessary ; expectoration also much less. The 
 attacks of debility in the afternoon have quite left him ; he 
 sleeps well ; no night perspirations since first bath. The 
 appetite is greatly improved, and, what is most remarkable, 
 the dusky hue of his complexion has almost entirely dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 A fortnight ago he had a severe attack of pain passing from 
 a spot beneath the left cavicle to the back ; this lasted three 
 days. A small blister and poultices of hot bran were employed 
 to remove it. 
 
 Physical signs. — Dulness on percussion as before ; no crepitant 
 sound whatever on deep inspiration or coughing, but a pecuHar 
 low creaking sound ; no cavernous breathing or other signs of 
 cavity. 
 
 Feb. 12tli. — Shown to seven members of the Society for the 
 Study of Diseases of the Chest, at Dr. Webb's. With one 
 exception, all regarded the results of the Bath treatment favour-
 
 by the Turkish Bath, 269 
 
 ably. The fjentleman in question ascribed patient's improve- 
 ment to his having worked at engraving two hours less since 
 beginning baths ; he works at present seven hours daily instead 
 of nine. Chest examined by the members, and absence of 
 crepitation admitted by all. 
 
 21st. — General symptoms good. Omit all treatment, except 
 Baths. 
 
 March 24th. — Since last entry has had baths three times 
 weekly, except one week, when he had them twice only. Was 
 weighed on 9th ult., and found he had gained four pounds and 
 a half in a month. Cough rather better ; fine crepitant sounds 
 under left clavicle. 
 
 April 16th. — Twenty-first week of Bath treatment; has 
 had about fifty baths in all. Is now in all respects going on 
 well. Sleeps well, and has no night-sweats ; appetite good ; 
 bowels regular ; cough almost gone. Has worked ten hours 
 a day for last two months, except on days when he takes the 
 bath. 
 
 May 18th.— Doing well. Weighed on 15th ult. 126 pounds, 
 without any clothes, and before taking bath. (This mode of 
 weighing is to be understood whenever his weight is afterwards 
 mentioned.) Sent to Dr. George Johnson, who was kind enough 
 to examine him and make the following note : — " Dulness at 
 left apex; deficient respiration; large crepitation; broncho- 
 phony; face pale ; night-sweats have ceased. Has been taking 
 Turkish Baths three times a week ; soon began to improve ; 
 has gained flesh and strength." 
 
 July 16th. — Going on well. Physical signs : Large crepita- 
 tion under left clavicle. Bath closed for the present. , 
 
 Sept. 10th. — States that he continued very well without anv 
 baths until about a month ago, when he got pain under left 
 clavicle, night-sweats, and increase of cough. Took three baths, 
 one per week, at an establishment in the Euston-road, with 
 direct benefit. With the exception of about ten days, when so 
 unweU, as stated above, and on the days when he takes the 
 baths, has worked full time for several months. Ordered 
 medicine for cough, as it is now sometimes troublesome. Large 
 crepitation as before.
 
 2/0 'Treatment of Consumption 
 
 26tli. — Taken only two baths since last date. Note by Dr. 
 Johnson: " Dulness over left upper lobe ; gurgling under cla- 
 vicle ; crepitation large, as low as mamma. Expectoration in 
 morning." 
 
 Oct. 29th. — Has lately been occupied two hours in drawing, 
 in addition to ten hours at engraving, daily, except on the 
 bath days. Cough trifling, with a little mucous expectoration 
 in the morning. Takes bath twice a week, with the cold plunge 
 after it. Weight on Oct. 1st, 121^ pounds. Physical signs as 
 in Dr. Johnson's report. To omit drawing-lessons. 
 
 Dec. 31st. — Increased two pounds in weight between Oct. Ist 
 and Nov. 21st, and a pound and a half between Nov. 21st and 
 Dec. 30th. Weighed yesterday 125 pounds. Cavity seems 
 drier. 
 
 March 11th, 1863. — Is looking weU, and a week ago weighed 
 126 pounds. Cough has given little trouble ; no night-sweats ; 
 appetite very good ; works on an average nine hours a day ; 
 has taken the baths and cold plunge twice and sometimes three 
 times a week. 
 
 May 14th. — Says his cough is better than since commencing 
 Baths ; can go up-hill much better than he could some months 
 ago ; works and takes baths as usual. He has long been in the 
 habit of walking to and from the bath, a distance of about six 
 miles ; but his weight has not been sustained lately : weighs 
 119 pounds. 
 
 30th. — Not so well as usual for some days ; cough trouble- 
 some at night ; working seven hours a day. Physical signs : 
 Kight side as before. Left : some dulness on percussion under 
 the clavicle, and slight crepitation on coughing. 
 
 June 22nd, — Hgemoptysis in smaU amount came on early on 
 the 19th ult., and occurred throughout the day when he 
 coughed ; sputa more or less tinged since. Weighed, June 19th 
 116^ pounds. Ordered a grain of quinine three times a day, 
 and to continue Baths. 
 
 Sept. loth. — Has lost weight considerably; weighed on the 
 11th ult. 118 pounds. Has not worked at his trade for 
 some time. Physical signs as before. Has left oflf the
 
 hy the "Turkish Bath, 271 
 
 quinine. Ordered for the cougli a mixture of ipecacuanha 
 and morphia. 
 
 Nov. 19th. — Like J. C , the Bath is a source of enjoy- 
 ment to him ; his fondness of it and faith in it are indeed 
 remarkable. On Sept. 26th he took, without my knowledge, 
 a situation as shampooer, from a conviction that his being con- 
 stantly in the Bath would prove still more beneficial to him. 
 Since then he has been from eight to ten hours daily employed 
 actively in his duties. He assures me that he seldom coughs 
 when in the Bath, and less at night than he did previously ; 
 that his " chest feels quite easy," and that his appetite and 
 strength are improved, but that he feels a good deal fatigued 
 at night from the labour. He takes the cold douche daily, and 
 very often more than once. What is most remarkable is, that 
 his weight has increased six pounds since he has been constantly 
 in the Bath. Physical signs show that the cavity in the left 
 lung has become drier ; no moist sounds can be heard except 
 on coughing, and the same is true of the crepitation at the 
 right apex. 
 
 Remarks. — This patient has been subjected to the 
 Bath treatment exactly two years. I have found that 
 when he does not drink, he loses by perspiration two 
 pounds in weight in the course of an ordinary bath. 
 From the commencement up to September 26th he had 
 taken not less than 170 baths. At the rate mentioned, 
 that would give a total loss of 340 pounds from this 
 source. Add to this four pounds a day loss (a moderate 
 estimate) during forty-six days that he has been con- 
 stantly in the bath, making 184 pounds, and the total 
 loss of forced perspiration from both sources will be 
 524 pounds. This is* more than four times the highest 
 observed weight of his body — 126 pounds. Some idea
 
 272 Treatment of Consumption 
 
 may be gained from these figures of the activity of the 
 treatment.* As to the result, it is, of course, admitted 
 that the disease, which from the physical signs seemed 
 arrested at first, afterwards advanced. On the other 
 hand, when the Baths were omitted for several weeks, 
 the bad symptoms returned, and were to all appearance 
 removed by resuming them. Again, when his general 
 health and weight had fallen off so considerably, a 
 prolonged and daily exposure to the Bath was followed 
 by a great improvement in both, and there is reason to 
 hope it will be long maintained. 
 
 In testing a new remedy, it is desirable that the 
 diseases against which it is employed should be well 
 developed. If the action of the remedy is favourable, 
 it ma}^ reasonably be supposed that it would be still 
 more efficacious in the earlier stages of the same disease. 
 
 The following is a case of phthisis in its first stage 
 treated by the Bath : — 
 
 Feb. 3rd, 1862. — H. W , aged twenty-seven, is an omni- 
 bus conductor, but was a butcher until twelve months ago. Is 
 married, and of steady habits. His parents are living. A 
 brother of his father died of phthisis. He has been out of 
 health about thirteen months ; has lost flesh and strength ; had 
 some cough with expectoration ; and has had slight haemoptysis 
 at intervals for some months, marked dyspnoea, and slight 
 night-sweats. Says he has at present no cough or expectora- 
 
 * " It may be laid down, I think, as a general rule, that large 
 evacuations by sweating may be employed more freely, and 
 with less disadvantage to patients, than*by any other secretion." 
 —Todd's Clinical Lectures, 1860, p. 409.
 
 hy the 'Turkish Bath, 273 
 
 tion, and tliat tlie dyspnoea is less troublesome. Physical 
 signs : Well-marked dulness on percussion in tlie right infra- 
 clavicular region; deficiency of expansion, and roughness of 
 respiration. 
 
 He has taken cod-liver oil and quinine for about six months 
 with advantage ; and in December last he took, by my advice, 
 three Turkish Baths, which seemed beneficial. Circumstances 
 prevented his resuming them until the 15th January, since 
 which time he has had seven baths. 
 
 May 3rd. — Every bad symptom has disappeared. He has 
 taken no medicine for several weeks, but has had two baths a 
 week, with some interruptions, since the last note was made. 
 Except when he takes baths, he works fourteen hours and a 
 half daily. 
 
 Nov. 13th, 1863.^Has taken the baths ever since at intervals 
 of about a fortnight. He is constantly employed at his busi- 
 ness, and is free from pulmonary symptoms. On carefully 
 examining his chest, I could not detect any physical signs, 
 except a slight roughness of respiration at the right apex. 
 
 After much careful and prolonged observation of 
 these cases, the evidence that the Bath treatment proved 
 beneficial is to myself conclusive. I have been anxious 
 that every source of error should be eliminated as far 
 as possible, and, at the risk of being tedious, any cir- 
 cumstances that seemed to have relation to the improved 
 health of the patients, such as going into the country, 
 curtailment of hours of work, &c., have been carefully 
 noted. I am well aware that the statements of patients 
 who are subjected to any new treatment are not to be 
 hastily accepted. There is a tendency on their parts to 
 believe that they are deriving benefit, and if the mind 
 of the physician is itself biassed in favour of a remedy,
 
 274 Treatment of Consumption 
 
 tlie conditions for erroneous conclusions are complete. 
 But even if I liad not steadily held this danger in view, 
 the length of time during which the patients were 
 under observation must have corrected fallacies. As 
 soon as it was plain that the Bath treatment could be 
 safely substituted for internal remedies, all medicines 
 were omitted in order to give the Bath a more perfect 
 trial. 
 
 It will be convenient to consider the effects of treat- 
 ment in the foregoing cases relative to the prominent 
 symptoms of phthisis under separate heads. 
 
 Cough. — The patients who suffered from this asserted 
 that the Bath had a decidedly beneficial effect. 
 
 Bijspncea. — There was marked improvement of this 
 symptom in all the cases. J. C especially com- 
 plained of a long-standing dyspnoea when he com- 
 menced the Baths, and he attributed his power of 
 increased exertion as much to *' better breath" as to 
 greater strength. The diminution of dyspnoea is very 
 suggestive. 
 
 Hcemoptysis. — It might be supposed that spitting of 
 blood would be induced, where the predisposition to it 
 existed, by the stimulating effects of a high degree of 
 heat. On reflection this seemed to me improbable, as, 
 notwithstanding acceleration of pulse, the stimulating 
 action is mainly exerted on the surface of the body. 
 The superficial circulation being thereby promoted, 
 blood is diverted from the internal organs. The re- 
 sult proved that any apprehension was unnecessary.
 
 hy the 'Turkish Bath. 275 
 
 J. C , who suffered so mucli from haemoptysis, never 
 
 had the least return of it while using the Bath ; and 
 
 H. W , who had it in a milder degree, continued to 
 
 take the Bath during its occurrence, not only without 
 injury, but with apparent advantage. 
 
 Night perspirations. — The direct action of the Bath has 
 been more stronghj shown in removing night-siceats than in 
 any other symptom. As already stated, this was ex- 
 pected on rational grounds. In several other cases I 
 have recommended the Hot-air Bath for this distressing 
 symptom. A patient who had been drenched by night 
 perspirations told me recently, that after having taken 
 a bath which I advised for him he had no return of 
 them, and several days had then elapsed. 
 
 Behility and loss of weight. — A strong impression 
 prevails that the Bath weakens the body ; and it is not 
 uncommonly asserted by healthy people, whose expe- 
 rience is confined to a single trial, that they did not 
 recover from its effects for several days. One of the 
 following alternatives must therefore be accepted : a 
 mistake must be made, from prejudice or other causes, 
 by those who in health declare the Bath to be weaken- 
 ing ; or else the Turkish Bath is peculiarly adapted for 
 the consumptive. As debility is a leading symptom in 
 phthisis, patients suffering from the disease would be 
 much more sensitive of anj^thing having a weakening 
 tendencjr than those in health could possibly be. Now, 
 not only in the cases detailed, but in several other 
 instances which came under my notice, the Bath wa*
 
 276 Treatment of Consumption 
 
 from t"he first pronounced by the patients to be comfort- 
 ing and sustaining.* As far as all outward appearance 
 was concerned, that was really the case. To myself it 
 is plain that, if not beneficial, positively bad effects 
 must soon have been discovered. It is impossible to 
 suppose that patients in whom vitality was so much 
 impaired could endure the abstraction of from two to 
 four pounds f of sweat twice or three times each week, 
 unless these apparent losses were in reality a gain ; 
 that gain was evidenced by increased strength and 
 weight of body, and improved general health. The 
 
 remarkable increase of weight in the case of H. W 
 
 may be compared with the happiest results of the same 
 kind from taking cod- liver oil. 
 
 One remarkable change of opinion has resulted from 
 the introduction of the Turkish Bath. Xot five years 
 ago it was generally supposed that to pass while in a 
 state of profuse perspiration into water the temperature 
 of the air in winter, must be injurious, or even highly 
 dangerous. The dread of the contact of cold water to 
 the heated skin was sometimes carried to a ludicrous 
 extent. I well remember, when a schoolboy, having 
 been taken to bathe with other boys, and, if heated by 
 
 * It is admitted that in exceptional cases the bath, when 
 taken for the first time, or else at rare intervals, causes tem- 
 porary debility, drowsiness, or headache ; but these effects are 
 soon dispelled by repetition. Sea-bathing, as is well known, 
 frequently induces the same results in those unaccustomed 
 to it. 
 
 t As proved by accurate weighing before and after the bath.
 
 by the Turkish Bath. 277 
 
 exercise, being compelled to wait in a state of semi- 
 nudity until the point of regulation coolness was 
 attained before entering the water. This refrigeration 
 was, of course, the best possible foundation for bad 
 results from bathing. It remained, however, for the 
 Eastern Bath to prove that the most profuse perspira- 
 tion may be suddenly checked, not only without risk, 
 but with positive advantage. 
 
 Now, it seemed to me that since my phthisical 
 patients endured the influence of heat as well, if not 
 better, than the healthy, they would equally resist any 
 bad consequences from cold. At first I took the pre- 
 caution of being present, so as to watch the result of 
 the new experiment. That result exceeded my most 
 sanguine expectations. The patients declared the im- 
 mediate effects to be agreeable, and no subsequent 
 catarrhal or inflammatory affection could ever be attri- 
 buted to the practice. Not only was this the case, but 
 they became much less liable to catch cold than pre- 
 viously. This is a very encouraging effect of the bath ; 
 for, as is well known, intercurrent attacks of bronchitis 
 and pleuro-pneumonia from changes of weather are 
 common complications of phthisis, and too often preci- 
 pitate the fatal event. Nothing is more important for 
 the phthisical patient than that he should be as much 
 in the open air as possible. His hope lies in living as 
 hardy a life as his condition admits of. In selection 
 of climate for the invalid, temperature has been far too 
 much regarded. A dry, bracing, winter climate is to
 
 278 Treatment of Consumption 
 
 be preferred to one whicli is relaxing. The absence 
 of rain and harsh winds is mainly to be considered. 
 According to my experience, then, the hot-air bath and 
 cold plunge in a great measure supply the deficiencies 
 of climate by rendering patients more tolerant of our 
 o\NTi changeable seasons. 
 
 The remarkable modifications which the physical 
 signs underwent in two of the cases require some com- 
 ment. The well-proved disappearance of crepitation in 
 
 the case of J. C was, to say the least, a matter of 
 
 the rarest occurrence ; and the state of the lung under 
 post-mortem examination went to show that it must 
 have undergone a favourable change. In the case of 
 
 H. W , crepitation disappeared and returned, as if 
 
 the vital power, aided by treatment, had gained an 
 unsustained mastery over the disease. 
 
 I admit that the number of cases is insufficient 
 to warrant the inference that the bath treatment 
 arrests the depositions of tubercle, or causes tubercle 
 already deposited to pass from an active to a passive 
 and less injurious condition. Its good efiects are, of 
 course, to be looked for with most confidence in the 
 first stage of phthisis, before breaking up of the lung 
 
 structure has occurred ; and the case of H. W is 
 
 highly encouraging. There is enough to make us 
 hopeful of further success in future trials of a remedy, 
 which has the great advantage of being agreeable to 
 the sensations, and refreshing to the mind as well as to 
 the body of the patient. In a disease which condemns
 
 hy the T^urkish Bath. 279 
 
 BO many to prolonged suffering and death, and in which. 
 we have been powerless to save, a treatment cannot fail 
 to be welcome which as an agent of cure promises so 
 well, and which has been at least proved greatly to 
 alleviate suffering. 
 
 If it, unfortunately, fell to my lot to be affected by 
 phthisis, I should give the hot-air bath the fullest trial.
 
 DR. THUDICHUM ON THE CONTENTS OF PER- 
 SPIRATION AS DISCHARGING THE MATTER 
 OF DISEASE. 
 
 December 26t]i, 1860. 
 
 My deae Sie, — The secretions of tlie liuman skin may be 
 divided into volatile and solid. For the sake of convenience, 
 we include the water that divides the solids with the volatile 
 portion, though it is not always entirely so. 
 
 The volatile ingredients are— 1. Carbonic acid; 2. Water; 
 3. Some volatile acid, not yet accurately determined. 
 
 The fixed contents are — 1. Urea ; 2. Chloride of sodium ; 
 3. Fatty matter; 4, Earthy salts of some fatty acids ; 5. Small 
 quantities of some other alkaline salts. Phosphates and sul- 
 phates, always present in any other secretion, I have never 
 found in sweat. 
 
 When the contents of perspiration are so arranged as to give 
 the first place to the greater quantity, they take the following 
 order: — Water, carbonic acid, chloride of sodium, urea, and 
 other ingredients. The presence of water and carbonic acid 
 constitutes the analogy of perspiration with the excretion of the 
 lungs ; the presence of urea and chloride of sodium with that 
 of the kidneys. While the excretions of the skin are analogous 
 to some extent to those of the lungs and kidneys, they are not 
 entirely so, and cannot be substituted for the others ; for the 
 kidneys are alone empowered to remove phosphates and sul- 
 phates and acid from the blood, together with colouring matter : 
 it is a privilege of the skin to remove volatile acid ; the lungs 
 are restricted to carbonic acid and water. 
 
 The dignity of the skin as an excreting organ becomes more 
 apparent from a stady of the quantities of matter discharged 
 by the several organs ; for while the lungs in twenty-four hours
 
 Perspiration, 281 
 
 discharge fifteen ounces of volatile matter, the skin discharges 
 thirty ounces ; so that two-thirds of all volatile excretions pass 
 by the skin. An almost equal weight of water leaves the body 
 through the kidneys, charged with matter peculiar to that 
 secretion, particularly urea and chloride of sodium. But a 
 very small amount of carbonic acid leaves by the kidneys. 
 
 The lungs discharge the products of combustion, of warmth, 
 producing food ; the lungs discharge the final products of the 
 same, together with some mineral food, and the results of food, 
 producing motion (muscle albumen). The kidneys discharge 
 the products of albuminous food (sometimes called plastic, 
 muscle-forming) in the form of urea and mineral salts, of several 
 of which they are the sole channel of exit. 
 
 Considering that the bulk of the sweat glands in the aggre- 
 gate amount to two-thirds of that of both kidneys, the quanti- 
 tative importance of the solids excreted by the skin cannot be 
 doubted. 
 
 If the evaporation prevents the sweat from collecting on the 
 surface of the skin, the solids are deposited in a crystalline 
 form round the mouth of the sweat gland. The urea then soon 
 decomposes, producing carbonate of ammonia, which combines 
 with volatile acid. Such ammonia salts constitute the smelling 
 elements of sweat, viz., the most repugnant one. Healthy, 
 fresh sweat from a clear skin has a most agreeable odour, or 
 none at all. 
 
 Suppression of the action of the skin becomes fatal by the 
 accumulation in the body of carbonic acid ; the lungs cannot 
 do the office of the skin because they are too small, because 
 they are only intended to ventilate the blood, and to inhale 
 oxygen, their principal function, and not the tissues, which are 
 80 distant and ill-connected with the lungs. The ventilation of 
 the bulk of tissue, cellular and muscular, is the duty of the skin. 
 
 Suppression of the function of the kidneys becomes fatal by 
 occasioning the retention, as poison in the blood, of urea, and 
 those matters which the kidneys alone can excrete. But in 
 cholera and other diseases the skin secretes a fluid which con- 
 tains enormous quantities of urea. Thus life is prolonged and 
 saved.
 
 282 Perspiration, 
 
 In kidney diseases, chronic or acute, tlie bath will cause the 
 skin to do extra duty, and prolong or save life. In all pul- 
 monary diseases, the body need not succumb to retention of 
 carbonic acid. Cholera in the algid stage need not any longer 
 be fatal. Typhus and yellow fever may be turned in acme, 
 now we have the means of controlling those of their symptoms 
 or features which made them so fatal. 
 
 Cancer oflfers some remarkable features. I found cancer 
 juice to be full of chloride of sodium. The bodies of cancerous 
 persons contain an excess of this salt. Whatever the relation, 
 cancer and excess of salt coincide. Is the kidney unable to 
 rid itself of salt because the skin retains its portion ? Is cancer 
 of the stomach so common because this organ, surrounded in 
 and outside with chloride, cannot escape its irritating influence ? 
 The cancerous tumours off'er features only found in vegetables ; 
 alone, of all tissues of animals, it drains a juice when heated. 
 Here are questions pregnant with results when investigated. 
 Under any circumstances, the bath will remove conditions 
 accompanying, favouring, or perhaps producing that awful 
 disease, cancer. The bath will rid the body of excess of 
 chloride of sodium in the tissues. 
 
 The efiects of the bath upon the nerves must be wonderful. 
 But these I do not touch. It was my intention only to sketch 
 the humeral effects, as it were. The specific vital electrical 
 effects must be legion, and equal in importance with the 
 material or ponderable. The bath is an engine for the pro- 
 duction and maintenance of health ; and I would express my 
 conviction that I consider it to be such, and do not desire to 
 limit it to the destiny of a medical instrument. It is for the 
 benefit of all men j the sick, however, will have a large share 
 of its blessings. 
 
 I have read "The Pillars of Hercules" with a pleasure 
 which no book has given me before. You have done justice to 
 our silly self-love and ignorant complacency. Many thanks 
 for all the good I have derived from it for my part. 
 I am, yours truly, 
 
 J. L. W. Thudichum, M.D. 
 
 D. Urquhart, &c.
 
 CANCEE, LEPEOSY, HYDROPHOBIA, AND 
 APOPLEXY. 
 
 Such experience as the British pubh'c has as yet had 
 of the curative effects of the bath is confined to chronic 
 disorders, or at all events to the acute stages of dis- 
 orders with which we are familiar in a chronic state ; 
 that is to say, to gout, rheumatism, colds, stiffness of 
 joints, sciatica, neuralgia, and the like. 
 
 My experience of it began in cases of acute and 
 rapid malady, and these when already beyond the 
 reach of all medical aid. Consequently my appre- 
 ciation of it is in reference to the grand and trium- 
 phant march of febrile action as displayed in those 
 maladies which suddenly overpower the individual, 
 and which devastate communities — namely, fever in 
 all its forms, intermittent, remittent, putrid, scarlet, 
 typhus, the plague, the cholera, and j^ellow fever. 
 
 When these ideas came to be sufiiciently settled for 
 me to open the subject to others, I found no one pre- 
 pared to admit so much as the possibility of having of 
 himself recourse to such means in an acute malady — 
 in all such cases being under his medical man ; and at 
 the time I refer to there was no medical man who did 
 not treat the bath as empiricism.
 
 284 Cancer J Leprosy y 
 
 I was thus thrown back on the necessity of pre- 
 senting the matter theoretically, and with reference 
 rather to chronic than acute diseases. It appeared to 
 me that, if I could challenge the faculty in reference 
 to some particular disorders of a hopeless character, 
 and which might on that very account afford the oppor- 
 tunity of submitting patients to the test of experiment, 
 I should, if successful, be able to carry conclusions in 
 reference to acute disorders. So it was that I selected 
 three maladies, which were cancer, leprosy, and hydro- 
 phobia, to which I subsequently added a fourth — 
 apoplexy. 
 
 In regard to the two first, I have succeeded in ob- 
 taining something like an experiment. As to hydro- 
 phobia, two cases of successful treatment have since 
 been reported on as having occurred in France. As 
 to the fourth, although no fit of apoplexy has been 
 brought into the bath, to be there directly dealt with, 
 still its efficiency in allapng the tendencv of blood to 
 the head must establish reasonable a priori grounds for 
 the conclusion I have stated. 
 
 I have selected these four maladies as tests, because 
 so dissimilar that if an agent can be found capable of 
 successfully dealing with them in common, this con- 
 clusion cannot fail to be established — that by extreme 
 alternations of heat and cold, you place that body in a 
 condition favourable to the developing of its own re- 
 sources in the combating of disease. This is all I con- 
 tend for in reference to the bath. But it covers every 
 case of disorder, whether as merely impairing health, 
 or as bringing death from unnatural causes.
 
 Hydrophobia^ and Apoplexy, 285 
 
 I would offer this analogy. 
 
 A hospital containing a thousand beds, including 
 every variety of human ailment, is restricted in its 
 ventilation, in consequence of the ideas and the habits 
 of the country in which it is erected, which lead them 
 either to exclude atmospheric air without thought, or 
 to do so by maxim. A peasant, ignorant and indoctus, 
 comes from a far land, and says to the leariled patho- 
 logists attending at the bed-sides, " Your diagnosis is 
 folly, your science is empiricism, your drugs are useless. 
 I will cure for you your patients, or rather I will let 
 them live, if only you will let me throw the windows 
 open or break the glass if they have no hinges." 
 
 The physician would exclaim, *' What ! Treat cancer 
 and dropsy, treat scarlet fever, treat consumption by 
 one and the same remedy ! This is empiricism. Do 
 you come here to kill our patients if you fail, and to 
 take the bread out of our mouths if you succeed ?" 
 
 Cancer is a disorder which afforded little chance 
 of making the experiment ; being either in an 
 incipient or an advanced state, so as in the first to 
 preclude the trial of a new remedy by the hope of 
 relief from the old ; and, in the second, being beyond 
 the reach of recovery by any means. 
 
 The proposal in such a case of a new remedy was, 
 moreover, obnoxious to strong and obvious objections 
 so long as the discussion revolved within the theoretic 
 circle, because of the numerous specific treatments 
 which had arisen among the faculty itself during 
 recent periods, all of which had proved illusory, and 
 had been, in consequence, abandoned.
 
 286 Cancer y Leprosy ^ &c. 
 
 Next came tlie difficulty of determining true cancer. 
 This, indeed, is an objection in terms only ; as it little 
 m.atters to the patient what the name may be which is 
 given to a disorder ; and as the remedy now proposed 
 is a general, not a specific one, the chances of success 
 are at least as great in the ninety-nine cases of supposed 
 cancer as in the one case of real cancer. 
 
 When, then, a case of undoubted cancer presented 
 itself, in which, after an operation the nucleus had 
 been again re-formed, I conceived I had obtained the 
 occasion so long desired. 
 
 On seeing the patient, I at once determined that 
 these means in themselves must utterly fail, unless at 
 the same time the patient could be aroused out of her 
 condition of nervous atrophy, and so constrained to 
 abandon habits of self-indulgence bearing upon the 
 quality of her food and drink, the frequency of its 
 repetition, and the listlessness which hopelessness had 
 superinduced in regard to every effort, mental or cor- 
 poreal. How far I was successful in the means em- 
 ployed to this end, the subjoined correspondence will 
 show. 
 
 Cancer, alike individual and hereditary, alternates 
 with consumption and scrofula and their cognates, indi- 
 cating a common origin. These cognates are unques- 
 tionably resolvable by the same process as that here 
 applied to cancer. 
 
 Cancer is unknown in countries where the bath is in 
 use, as also in countries where, the bath being un- 
 known, the temperature is such that excretion by per- 
 spiration is active. It is, therefore, to be inferred that
 
 Case of Cancer. 287 
 
 cancer owes its origin, like consumption, scrofula, &c., 
 to the habits of Modern Europe ; that is to say, to the 
 enclosing of the body in warm and close-fitting vest- 
 ments, to the exclusion of air from the apartments, to 
 the over-supply of food, and to the frequency of the 
 efforts called for from the stomach for the purpose of 
 digestion. 
 
 This view is further confirmed by the chemical 
 analysis of the cancerous matter, which consists, first, 
 of a substance analogous to vegetable pulp, and closely 
 resembling the matter of peach ; secondly, of common 
 kitchen salt, substances in themselves destitute of any 
 noxious qualities, and therefore presenting no visible 
 difiBculty of absorption, so that by the presence of ex- 
 ternal heat the absorbents are brought actively into 
 play. 
 
 At the time of this experiment I was not in possession 
 of radiating iieat. 
 
 CASE OF CANCER. 
 
 CORRESPON DENCE . 
 
 Eickmansworth, August 9th, 1861. 
 Peae Sie, — It is now more than four months since you 
 accompanied me to Kickmansworth, in order that I might 
 avail myself of Mr. Urquhart's generous and kind permission 
 of daily admission to his bath; and believe me it is with the 
 deepest feelings of gratitude and thankfulness to him, and 
 likewise to yourself, to whom I am indebted for the introduc-
 
 288 Case of Cancer. 
 
 tion, that I now can bear testimony to the invaluable benefits 
 I have derived from its use. 
 
 For upwards of twenty years I have been extremely delicate, 
 but it is only within the last ten or twelve that my complaints 
 assumed a serious character; at one time regarded as con- 
 sumptive — a disease prevalent in my family ; then appeared 
 tumours, considered by many medical men to be of a cancerous 
 nature. From these severe illnesses, however, I rallied ; and 
 it was not until about a year and a half ago that, in conse- 
 quence of a severe blow received on my breast, decided cancer 
 appeared ; and so rapidly did disease manifest itself, that in 
 less than three months from the time of the accident an opera- 
 tion was performed, being pronounced as absolutely necessary. 
 After a tedious recovery, I was for a time perfectly free of 
 pain ; but within a very short period my sufferings returned, 
 and increased during the past winter. I became fat and puffy, 
 without strength in proportion. I could not even walk a mile, 
 or take the least exertion without cold and clammy perspira- 
 tions ; and what little strength I had was rather the effect of 
 stimulants than natural. My nights were feverish and sleep- 
 less, and the pain in my breast and arm so acute as to awaken 
 me with a start when sleep did overtake me. When not out, 
 I was always reclining on the sofa. I was nervous and hys- 
 terical ; and, in fact, my every energy seemed dormant, although 
 not, perhaps, actually in low spirits. I had followed the pre- 
 scriptions given me, but they neither relieved pain nor reduced 
 the disease. It Wiis then my friends urged me to leave Jersey, 
 where I was residing. On reaching London, I consulted the 
 surgeon, who had performed the operation, and likewise seen 
 me last September. He pronounced the disease not only to 
 have returned, but to have made certain and sure progress, 
 although not rapid, in the six months ; and he candidly told 
 me that, excepting to try some means to alleviate the pain, he 
 could do nothing more for me. This brings me to the time of 
 your seeing me, and by the united opinion of Mr. Urquhart 
 and Dr. Thudichum, I was placed on an entirely new system, 
 both as regarded the taking the bath, and a total change of 
 diet. As regards the former, I may say that for the^r*^ montfc
 
 Case of Cancer, 289 
 
 the treatment seemed severe ; and so great was the prostration 
 I experienced on my return from the batli, that my spirits 
 sank ; and I was urged by many friends to give up a treat- 
 ment which they expected would shorten, not prolong my 
 days ; but I had passed my solemn word, not only to Mr. 
 Urquhart and the doctor, but to my brother, that, whatever 
 I might feel or suffer, I would not give in or relax one iota, 
 unless pronounced by them a failure. And now I can indeed 
 rejoice that I firmly refused to yield to their solicitations, as 
 from that period up to the present time I have gradually and 
 steadily progressed towards health and strength; and I am 
 now assured by Dr. Thudichum that the disease is perfectly 
 arrested, and that there no longer is external evidence of its 
 existence, the swelling and hardness having greatly diminished. 
 In order, however, to confirm my general health, so recently 
 restored, he advises me to continue the bath for some time 
 longer ; and I am both willing and anxious to persevere. I can 
 now take a good long walk, seldom lie down through the day, 
 rise earlier, retire later, rest better and much more calmly ; 
 and if pain is not yet altogether gone, it is greatly diminished, 
 and not constant. Instead of feeling listless, inert, and in- 
 capable of thought or a&tion, I can now employ myself 
 throughout the day ; and, in fact, I feel the greatest change, 
 both physically and mentall3^ At first the bath seemed to 
 exhaust, but now I come out feeling stronger than when I go 
 in, the more so if the temperatura be high. If at 130° and 
 upwards, and the alcove high in proportion, say 200° and above, 
 I experience the most benefit ; in fact, it is a hrish heat, and 
 the sudden alternations from the hot room to the cold, that 
 seems to be of the greatest benefit to me ; and provided I am 
 well heated before I use it, I experience the greatest comfort 
 from the free use of cold water thrown over my head, &c. ; 
 but if the temperature of the bath be low — that is under 130°, 
 and downwards, I feel the shock of the cold water, and,almost 
 shiver. In the first instance, it invigorates my whole frame ; 
 in the second, I feel a degree of languor when I leave the bath. 
 When I came, my right arm was much swollen, and con- 
 siderably thicker than the other. By measurement every ten 
 
 U
 
 290 Case of Cancer, 
 
 days or so, I gradually found it diminisliing ; and by the 1st of 
 June there was a very trifling difference between it and the 
 other arm. Since then there has been no change. By the 
 advice of Mr. Urquhart, I have bathed it night and morning 
 in water as hot as I can bear it, plunging it alternately into the 
 hot and cold water. At first there was no jperspiration whatever 
 in that arm. Now, with the exception of a narrow stripe at 
 the back, it perspires freely. I think this statement would be 
 incomplete were I not to say something respecting the change 
 of diet. Having previously lived fully and freely, taking food 
 often, and of the most solid kind, with wine and ale, I found 
 the change to a milk and vegetable diet, with only two meals 
 in the day, so trying during the first month, that it became 
 necessary to allow me a little meat and a glass of wine occa- 
 sionally when low and hysterical. At first I loathed the milk, 
 and felt sick after taking it ; and in the evening a species of 
 aguish, cold shivering came on ; but this last symptom has 
 quite disappeared, and gradually I have ceased to care either 
 for meat or stimulant, and am now taking the diet originally 
 prescribed. In a morning I take sour milk instead of sweet; 
 and this I not only relish, but it does not in the least nau- 
 seate me. Many might have thought I would be starved, 
 but here I am, at the end of four months only, walking about 
 as those in health, active and vigorous. Even two months 
 ago, when I visited London, those friends who had seen me 
 previously to my coming here were perfectly astonished at my 
 improved appearance, and particularly at the clearness of my 
 complexion, and the brightness of my eyes. I think I can add 
 nothing more but to reiterate my grateful thanks to you and 
 Mr. Urquhart for having placed in my power a means of cure 
 so simple, pleasant, and efficacious, and of having recalled me, 
 as it Were, from the brink of the grave to the enjoyment of 
 life. • 
 
 Believe me, &c., 
 
 Agnes Eobertson. 
 P.S. — I may as well mention that for the first month I felt 
 attendance on the bath as irksome, and only a duty ; now I ex- 
 perience all the pleasurable sensations described by so many.
 
 Case of Cancer, 291 
 
 August 20tli. 
 In the liurrj of the moment I omitted two or three things 
 in my letter, which I think it would be desirable to add as a 
 sort of postscript, viz., that when in the bath, Mr. Urquhart 
 recommended me to drink milk instead of water, a change 
 which \ have found beneficial as well as agreeable. Another 
 very great change which I have made is in the clothing I wear. 
 When I first came to E-ickmans worth it was of the warmest 
 description, and I wore much flannel. This I have entirely 
 removed, and my dress is now of the thinnest material, and as 
 little of it as possible. Again, in allusion to my improved sleep 
 and nights' rest, I did not mention that I attribute this im- 
 provement in no small degree to my now keeping my bed-room 
 window wide open all night, and having only a thin covering 
 on my bed. Besides this, I sit in the morning and evening 
 with but a light dress on, in my room with either a thorough 
 draught, or as much air as possible, with perfect impunity ; 
 and I am certain that the habit is conducive to health. There 
 are other two circumstances which I may add as a summing- 
 up and proof of the renewed vigour of my health. In the 
 letter I mentioned having become very fat and puffy during 
 the past winter. Since taking the bath, although not really 
 thinner, I have entirely lost that puffiness and feeling of 
 swelling and breathlessness. The second is, that my hair, 
 previously short and thin, has grown longer, and become much 
 thicker since I came here. I think now I have mentioned all 
 in my case that can be useful to others. 
 
 Rickmansworth, August 28th, 1861. 
 Dear Sie,— I feel that my letter to Mr. would be in- 
 complete, as far as you are concerned, were I not to mention 
 an additional circumstance, to which I attribute much of my 
 recovery, and for which I must ever entertain tlie deepest 
 feelings of gratitude towards you individually. I allude to the 
 effects produced on me by what you said on the first day of 
 my coming to Eiverside, and the advice you gave me then, 
 and on subsequent occasions. At the moment I considered
 
 2 9 '2^ Case of Cancer, 
 
 your opinion erroneous, and even felt hurt and disposed to 
 resent it ; but your words led me to reflect and examine 
 into mj previous state of mind; and if, at first, as I am 
 ashamed to confess, my compliance with, the prescribed rules, 
 proceeded from piqued pride, and the determination to prove 
 to you that I was not void of energy, these feelings soon 
 gave place to a more healthy mental condition ; and reason 
 and principle influenced me from that time. These reflections 
 likewise led to the discovery, that what I had believed to be 
 resignation to the will of Heaven was little else than an apa- 
 thetic indifference arising, perhaps, from the belief that it was 
 useless to try any further remedies for my disease. 
 
 It is, you, therefore, that I must regard as the chief means 
 of my restoration to health and vigour : for I am convinced 
 that, had you not roused my dormant energies, and shown me 
 my real state, that in all probability, by a continuance of self- 
 indulgence, the good eff*ects of the bath would have been of 
 little avail. 
 
 Believe me, &c., Agnes Eobeetson. 
 
 D. Urquhart, Esq. 
 
 Eiverside, August 31st, 1861. 
 
 Deae Madam, — Your letter has afforded me a gratification 
 of no ordinary kind, the occasion having been one of the few 
 great and painful eff'orfcs which I have made in my life. You 
 know how few the moments were between my placing my eyes 
 on you and the commencement of the endeavour. In that 
 interval, however, my mind had been made up that your chance 
 of life" depended on the chance of my success in wrenching 
 your spirit. Had I failed, besides that failure in itself, you 
 would have preserved against me to your dying day an un- 
 quenchable hate, so that I should have left you worse every 
 way than I found you. You may, therefore, now judge of the 
 gratification you have enabled me to experience, to which is 
 added the agreeable surprise that you have yourself followed 
 the operation. 
 
 Believe me, &c., D. TJequhaet. 
 
 Miss Eobertson.
 
 Case of Cancer. 293 
 
 65, South Audley-street, London, 
 
 October 1, 1861. 
 
 My deae Miss Robeetson, — When in March last you placed 
 yourself under my care, you had sufiered a relapse of the dis- 
 order, for which a severe operation had been performed upon 
 you only a twelvemonth before. In less than five months the 
 new tumour had increased from the size of a pea to that of a 
 cherry. You suffered severe pain, were encumbered with a 
 swelling of the right arm, which made it almost useless, and 
 the disorder of the blood, of which the tumours are but a local 
 expression, had reduced you to such a state of weakness that 
 you could not walk a distance of one mile. Your mind, more- 
 over, was in a condition of hopeless indifference, which made 
 you very unhappy. 
 
 A persistent use of the Turkish bath, and the adoption of a 
 peculiar specially adapted diet, have now, after seven months, 
 effected such a change in your condition, that the dyscrusia of 
 the blood has ceased to produce the amount of morbid material 
 which is necessary for the deposition of tumours. But not only 
 has the progress of the local disease been thus arrested, but in 
 addition, the relapse, which had attained the size of a cherry, 
 could at my last examination, not be perceived any longer ; the 
 tumor had evidently been dissolved. The arm had lost much of 
 its size, and its surface had begun to share in the important 
 function of the remaining part of the skin — perspiration. Pain 
 had been mitigated, digestion had been restored. Strength and 
 well-being had returned to you to such a degree that you could 
 walk a distance of five miles, and felt called upon to give 
 expression to your altered state of mind, in a letter to your 
 benefactor, Mr. Urquhart. 
 
 At this juncture the question arises, whether you should 
 continue the use of the bath and of the diet, which have 
 effected such remarkable results. Considering that you were 
 the subject of an experiment, that the experiment has been so 
 far successful, but that it is not yet complete by any means, 
 I think I am obliged to advise you most decidedly to con- 
 tinue the present mode of treatment. For though your disorder
 
 294 Case of Leprosy, 
 
 is arrested, and its local expression diminished, it is by no 
 means cured. The risk of a relapse is constantly threatening 
 you, and you would jeopardize your own safety, and the issue 
 of the great experiment of which I want to make your case a 
 foundation, if you were now to return to old habits of living. 
 
 I am, &c., 
 
 J. L. W. Thudichum. 
 
 This case ended fatally, but not till after a long 
 cessation of the means that had proyed effectual, and 
 a relapse into the habits that had been for a time 
 amended. 
 
 CASE OF LEPEOSY. 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE. 
 
 Burlington-street, Ashton-under-Lyne, 
 June 12, 1860. 
 
 Hespected Sie, — I wrote to you some months since, stating 
 the disorder of my skin. I gave you a fuU detail of the con- 
 dition I was in, and you gave me some very good advice. I 
 followed your instructions as well as I could, 
 
 Now, sir, I am happy to inform you that I am well, and free 
 from any scurf on my body. 
 
 I have been in the Turkish bath at Staleybridge 195 times, 
 and in one at Ashton, making a total of 207 baths. All who 
 saw me before say they never saw such a sight. 
 
 I am, &c., Isaac Summeb. 
 
 D. Urquhart, Esq.
 
 Case of Leprosy . 295 
 
 Burlington-street, Askton, 
 
 15th June, 1860. 
 
 E.ESPECTED SiE, — I am sorry to inform you that your original 
 note is mislaid, and I cannot meet with it ; but I wiU try 
 to give you a detail of my condition when first I wrote to you. 
 
 There were mounds on my head like eggs. My neck was 
 spotted with white scurf. My arms were covered with scurf 
 from my shoulders down to my wrist. My back was like fishes' 
 scales, and my belly very red. My thighs were nearly all of a 
 scurf, and the calves of my legs very bad. Indeed, I was 
 afflicted in every part of my body with this malady. It has 
 been about seventeen or eighteen years in making this progress. 
 
 You advised me to refrain from all intoxicating drinks, and 
 coffee (if not tea). Also you wished me to live making an 
 experiment of one month on milk, which I tried to do. You 
 desired me to refrain from animal food ; so I did for some 
 months. 
 
 I had wet bandages on my arms, thighs, and legs, with oil 
 silk over them, and renewed the bandages three times a day ; 
 also, that on my belly for some months, I had fresh bandages 
 nearly every morning, and found the oftener I had clean ones 
 on the better. 
 
 I am now without the wet bandages. I have continued the 
 above process for nearly two years. Added to the above, I 
 have had two dripping sheets every morning as soon as I have 
 got out of bed, one warm and the other cold. 
 
 All last winter I had three Turkish baths per week, and con- 
 tinued this practice till the beginning of this spring. After 
 that I took two, and now I only take one. 
 
 I have had many crises during this time. I have been so 
 sore at these times that I could not bear to be touched. During 
 this period I have had dropsy in my legs, but soon mended 
 from that. Now I am quite free from any scurf on my body, 
 and can walk as well as ever. But before it was very painful 
 for me to walk, and especially to go up steps. I generally 
 soaped down two or three times while in the bath, and went under 
 the shower bath four or five times before I dressed. I was 
 only once lounging between the sheets. I dressed immediately
 
 296 Case of Leprosy . 
 
 after coming out of tlie bath, and never took cold but once. I 
 found my own towels. 
 
 The scurf has come off me in such large flakes during the 
 night that we have had to sweep the bedroom every morning, 
 and a large quantity has come for a long time this way. 
 Indeed, it has bristled like leaves. My duty to you. 
 I am, respected Sir, 
 
 Your humble and obedient servant, 
 
 Isaac Sfmnee. 
 
 P.S. — Have stopped in the Turkish bath two hours and one 
 and a-half hours at one time. Tried to stop in as long as I 
 could. 
 
 Eiverside, June 17th, 1860. 
 
 My Deae Sir, — I do not know if you are aware that in the 
 course of last year leprosy broke out in JN'orway. I learnt the 
 circumstance in Berlin. The Swedish Government having 
 desired the attendance of a distinguished physician from that 
 city to examine, treat, and endeavour to arrest the malady. 
 Dr. Virchow was the physician selected, and, before his depar- 
 ture, I earnestly entreated him to try the effect of the bath, 
 which is in use in JN'orway, but failed to make any impression 
 upon him. I mentioned to him that there had been a case in 
 England, which I had not seen, but in respect to which I had 
 been consulted. He inquired what the results of the treatment 
 I proposed had been, but I could give him no answer. Since 
 that period I had heard nothing of this case, and had dismissed 
 it from my mind, supposing either that my advice had not been 
 followed, or that it had been followed without beneficial results. 
 
 I have now received a communication from the patient 
 announcing his perfect restoration to health from a supposed 
 incurable disorder by which he had been afflicted for seventeen 
 years. I enclose two letters, which cannot fail to be of interest 
 to you. I much regret that my first letter of instructions has 
 not been preserved, but I can sum them up in these words. 
 Exposure of the body as far as practicable to air and to the 
 sun. The total disuse of stimulants, of animal food, and of
 
 * Case of Leprosy. 297 
 
 every aliment excepting milk. Whilst taking the batli as often, 
 for as long a period of time, and as hot as he could endure it. 
 
 In the "Arabian Nights," (Lane's translation), vol. 1, page 
 75, you will find a curious incident of a similar cure, — a tra- 
 dition of the times, when Easterns knew the bath as a curative 
 agent, which they have now forgotten. 
 
 Are we never to have a talk on this subject ? The talk when 
 we have it must be here. London atmosphere kills conversa- 
 tion, and you must have a bath here before you can know what 
 a bath is. 
 
 I cannot conclude with one of our meaningless endings, but 
 to you must say — Homan-like — " Health and farewell." 
 
 D. Ubquhart. 
 
 To Erasmus Wilson, Esq. 
 
 17, Henrietta-street, Cavendish-square, W., 
 June 28, 1860. 
 My Dear Sie, — All honour to the bath. I am not surprised 
 to hear that a seventeen years' malady has been cured by it. 
 It is a mighty power, easy of control, but needing control and 
 judgment; certainly not fitting to be entrusted to everybody 
 and anybody. You will soon learn the difiereuce between the 
 physician and the quack ; you are the physician, and can esti- 
 mate the mischievous propensities of the quack. Augustus 
 said, " that at thirty all men were physicians or fools." Alack, 
 how few physicians there be. The seventeen years' case is 
 either one of chronic eczema, in other words, psoriasis, or 
 lepra vulgaris, the common lepra of Europe. Both are curable 
 complaints, but there is this difference between them, viz., that 
 the former being cured remains cured ; but the latter is certain 
 to recur. So that supposing the latter to be the disease, we 
 shall hear more of it by-and-by, or probably so. The old leprosy, 
 the elephantiasis of the Greeks, that stalked its hideous way 
 from the shores of the Nile, through Syria, Greece, Italy, and 
 France, to England ; then turned about, and marched north- 
 ward, to Scotland and Scandinavia ; that still lingered in the 
 Hebrides, at the close of the last century ; and has ever since
 
 298 Case of Leprosy, 
 
 been revelling in Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and the north of 
 Eussia, is a totally different disease, and, happily, never seen 
 in this country now, except when imported. A capital treatise 
 on this dreadful disease was published in Sweden in 1848, and 
 it was to suggest a treatment for it that Virchow's assistance 
 was doubtless wanted. I fear that in consequence of the 
 dreadful organic mischief existing in the ancient leprosy ; even, 
 the bath would fail. I have at present under my care a young 
 girl suffering under this dreadful malady, and hopelessly 
 doomed. 
 
 May God send you health and wisdom. 
 
 Eeasmus Wilson, C.B. 
 
 David Urquhart, Esq. 
 
 Eiverside, Eickmansworth, 
 
 June 29 th, 1860. 
 
 My Dear Sie, — Your letter has acutely revived in me a long 
 and somewhat self-reproach, that of not having pursued leprosy 
 in the East ; but this I can tell you, that the malady that is 
 there held to be such, is perfectly distinct from elephantiasis, 
 it is the same in the remote part of the East as in India. • 
 
 I have had leprosy in my mind as the heau ideal of a neg- 
 lected skin, and that will account for the peculiar interest I 
 took in a case within reach ; conceiving it to be an extreme 
 test of the means by which we propose to purify the skin. 
 
 In the East it is held to be incurable, but there it is not sub- 
 jected to the action of the bath. In the ceremonial laws of the 
 Jews, leprosy is not assumed to be incurable, but the contrary, 
 as sacrificial ordinances are ordained ; but this is remarkable, 
 that the means of cure are indicated in the disposal of the 
 leper ; not shut up within walls, as practised now in the East, 
 but sent forth into the wilderness, that is to say to be treated 
 by means of the rays of the sun, the breath of heaven, the 
 waters of the sky, and the alternations of heat and cold. 
 
 You say nothing of the hoped-for enjoyment and instruction 
 which my letter to you was intended to propose and expected 
 to hasten.
 
 Case of Hydrophobia, 299 
 
 If the order of tlie bath is to be re-instituted, your grade 
 must surely be Grand Cross. 
 
 And believe me to be, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 David Uequhabt. 
 Erasmus Wilson, Esq. 
 
 Up to the present time (June, 1864) nothing more 
 has been heard of this case, so the cure would appear to 
 have been permanent. 
 
 CASE OF HYDROPHOBIA. 
 
 I should not mind my own child being bitten by a mad dog, 
 so certain am I that the bath would cure him. Some time 
 since I asked a medical man to find me a case of hydrophobia, 
 as I was convinced that that disorder must yield to the bath. He 
 told me that my idea had been anticipated in the only known 
 case of cure. A French physician, having been bitten by a 
 mad dog, and suflfering from the first symptoms of the disorder, 
 knowing that medicine was of no avail, and thinking only how 
 he could die most easily, had himself carried into a vapour 
 bath, there to remain till death. He remained until life. He 
 was carried out cured. — D. JJrquliart at Corh, August, 1856. 
 
 Case reported in Galignani^s Messenger, Oct. 1863. 
 
 Dr. Buisson has addressed the following communication to 
 the Aheille Medicale : — 
 
 A single vapour bath is sufficient to prevent hydrophobia by 
 eliminating the virus ; nevertheless, for the sake of greater 
 security, I caused seven to be taken in as many days, at a tem-
 
 300 Tendency of Blood to the Head 
 
 perature of from 42° to 48° Eeaumur (127° to 140° Fahrenlieit. 
 Care should be taken to press the wound well while in the 
 bath, in order to promote the expulsion. If the disorder has 
 declared itself, I only prescribe a single bath, and leave the 
 patient in it till the cure is eflfected, taking care to raise the 
 temperature gradually. Hydrophobia may last three days. 
 Experience has proved to me that the cure is certain on the 
 first day of the outbreak ; on the second it is uncertain, and on 
 the third impossible, from the difficulty and danger there 
 would be in conveying the patient to the bath, and keeping 
 him in. Who would wait for the third day, knowing my 
 treatment ? jN'or should one wait for the outbreak ; it ought 
 always to be prevented. Hydrophobia never breaks out before 
 the seventh day, so that there is time to perform a long joarney 
 to obtain what is called a Hussian vapour bath. 
 
 TENDENCY OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD AND 
 EPILEPSY. 
 
 It is generally supposed, and naturally enough I admit, 
 
 THAT PERSONS WHO HAVE A TENDENCY OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD 
 WOULD BUN GREAT RISK IN TAKING THE BATH. I Suffer much 
 
 from a high temperature when dressed, being inconvenienced 
 and oppressed by a hot day or hot room ; but I can and do 
 stand in the hot room of a Turkish bath, without any incon- 
 venience with the thermometer at 170'*'. 
 
 Oct. 1st, 1862. . J. Wells. 
 
 I used this kind of bath as a remedy for fulness of blood in 
 the head. I find not only relief at the time of taking the bath, 
 but a permanent amelioration of the symptoms of determina- 
 tion. The profuse perspiration on the forehead and hair takes 
 away all sense of weight and heaviness consequent on a sur- 
 charge of blood in the brain, and makes it circulate evenly 
 throughout the frame. This I can testify from experience. 
 
 Nov. 16, 1861. John Cooke.
 
 and Epilepsy. 301 
 
 I write to corroborate my former statement of Nov. 16, 
 1861, as to tLe efficacy of the Turkish bath as a remedy 
 for fulness of blood in the head, from which many middle- 
 aged persons of the learned professions are apt to suffer. 
 I am still in the habit of taking the bath twice a week to 
 ensure a cool forehead. I am aware that an erroneous 
 impression exists about the Turkish bath causing rushing 
 of blood to the head and eyes, whereas my experience is 
 that the warmth of the bath causes an even circulation, a 
 circulation which is felt even before the heaviness affecting 
 head and eyes begins to go off. 
 
 Nov. 19, 1863. John Cooke. 
 
 What is the chief danger in the various forms of Bright's 
 disease of the kidneys ? Is it not non-elimination of urea ? 
 
 But it may be said that apoplexy is very common in this 
 disease ; and the Turkish bath should not be used when there 
 is a tendency to apoplexy. But what is the chief cause of the 
 apoplexy here ? Is it not uraemia ? And will not the skin, 
 under the influence of heat, eliminate urea ; and thus, in pre- 
 venting further toxaemia, if not removing that already present, 
 prevent also the apoplexy which depends upon it? — " Turkish 
 Bath," by Dr. Cummins, MD., Edinburgh,
 
 302 special Cases, 
 
 SPECIAL CASES. 
 
 IMMUNITY FROM POISONS BY A HIGH 
 TEMPERATURE IN COPPER MINES. 
 
 Extracts from "Reports of Commissions, Session 1842. 
 
 Diseases of the heart and great vessels might, a priori, be 
 expected to be of frequent occurrence under the above circum- 
 stances (inhalation of carbonaceous and mineral particles). 
 My own experience leads me to believe that they are rare, if 
 we except such degrees of hypertrophy and dilatation as are 
 usually found in those who have followed laborious occupations 
 during a long series of years. Vascular disease is very un- 
 common. The unplethoric condition of the miner, and the 
 very free perspiration maintained during his labour, will serve 
 to account for his not being the subject of disease of the great 
 organs of circulation to the extent which might have been 
 anticipated. — (Dr. Barham, in Appendix to First Eeport.) 
 
 One peculiar feature attendant upon copper works is the' 
 devastating influence of the smoke they emit upon the vege- 
 tation of the country around them, over which it appears to 
 throw a species of poisonous deposit, at once destructive to the 
 herbage and the animals which graze upon it ; and so great is 
 its influence felt in the immediate neighbourhood of the works, 
 that the verdure of the land is completely destroyed, and the 
 most fertile meadows converted into sterile wastes, on which 
 scarcely a trace of vegetation appears. 
 
 Notwithstanding the deleterious eflfects of the copper smoke 
 upon vegetable and animal life, as above described, the inha- 
 lation of it does not appear to operate prejudicially upon 
 human health, as will be observed by the testimony of 
 the workpeople and agents who reside around the works, 
 and of the medical gentlemen in the neighbourhood, that 
 those dwelling close to the works are generally the most
 
 Special Cases, 303 
 
 healtliy. The doctor attends these people at one-third less 
 per month than the colliers pay. This s.tatement is borne 
 out by the evidence of Mr. W. P. Evans, the surgeon of the 
 works, and of G. G. Brice, Esq., M.D., of Swansea, who has 
 extensively practised in the immediate neighbourhood of copper 
 works for the last fifteen years. 
 
 I may observe that the heat endured by the furnace-men of 
 copper works is, both in intensity and duration, fully equal 
 to the scorching temperature experienced by the founders or 
 puddlers of the iron works. 
 
 I have seen the copperman skimming his furnace (a process 
 of fifteen or twenty minutes' duration), standing within six 
 feet of its open door, exposed to the reflective heat of the large 
 body of molten metal within, and the scum or slag which he 
 was abstracting flowing in a stream of liquid fire at his feet — 
 a position of elevated temperature which could not be ap- 
 proached within many yards by unpractised persons. In this 
 position I have seen him go through his laborious operation, 
 stretching his heavy iron rabble or skimmer into the furnace, 
 until the perspiration ran off" his person like drops of rain, and 
 the few clothes he wore became dripping wet ; and it is not, 
 the men say, until this profuse perspiration appears, or, as 
 they term it, they become "wringing wet with sweat," that 
 they can easily bear the smarting influence of the fire. 
 
 During these severe operations the men usually carry a 
 towel on their shoulders to wipe the perspiration off" their 
 faces ; and as soon as the labour is over, they not unfrequently 
 run to a jug of cold water, and drink ofl" a pint or two with 
 impunity — a practice which, to them, does not seem to be 
 attended with any ill efi*ects. — (Report of R. W. Jones on the 
 Employment of Children in the Copper Works of Glamorgan- 
 shire, p. 679.)
 
 304 special Cases, 
 
 inguijS'al hernia. 
 
 Oct. 22nd, 1862. 
 "While residing at Tripoli some years ago, I witnessed an 
 Arab mode of reducing inguinal hernia. The AralD doctor 
 placed some lighted charcoal into a small iron shovel, and then 
 kept moving this about in a circular manner over the seat of 
 the tumour, at a short distance from it, and withoat touching 
 any part of the patient's person. The swelling seemed at first 
 to increase a little ; a gurgling sound was then heard ; and, 
 finally, the swelling disappeared entirely. 
 
 E. D. Dickson, 
 Physician to the British Embassy. 
 
 CATAEACT CURED WITHOUT AN 
 OPERATION. 
 
 Case communicated by Dr. Bryce. 
 
 In the month of September, 1859, I had an attack of oph- 
 thalmia, with severe inflammation in right eye, and was under 
 Dr. Macmurdo as my medical attendant, who reduced the 
 inflammation in about six weeks ; and I was enabled to do 
 without any further medical attendance till about August, 
 1860, when it came on again ; and on applying to Dr. Mac- 
 murdo, he told me I had cataract in both eyes, and he strongly 
 advised me to undergo an operation on the left eye, and have 
 it removed at once before I entirely lost my sight. At this 
 time my sight was very bad. I arranged to undergo the 
 operation, but was unable to fix the day ; and before I could 
 do so, Mr. Barnes was taken seriously ill, which prevented my 
 being able to leave business for the purpose. In December 
 I was sufl'cring very acutely from rheumatism, and expressed
 
 special Cases, 305 
 
 a wish to Dr. Macmurdo to try the Turkish bath, which at 
 first he objected to, but afterwards consented; and about the 
 middle of December 1860, I took the first Turkish bath, and 
 found 80 much benefit to my general health, that I have con- 
 tinued it to the present time, more or less. On taking the 
 first bath, I left off" all medical treatment ; and on calling, in 
 July 1861, on Dr. Macmurdo, at his request, he was astonished 
 to see the alteration in the eyes ; and instead of advising an 
 operation, he advised the contrary, and to keep on as I was 
 going, and allow no one to do anything to my eyes. My sight 
 improved on first taking the baths, and has continued so to 
 this time, except for a short time last summer, when I got a 
 severe cold in the right eye ; but on applying to Dr. Macmurdo 
 again, he got rid of that, but said nothing about the cataract. 
 
 IMPEOYEMENT OF THE SIGHT. 
 
 Extract from a Private Letter. 
 
 He also said, " My sight is a good deal aflfected sometimes, 
 and I cannot see even with two pairs of spectacles. I then go 
 off" to the Turkish bath, and when I come home my eye-glass 
 is quite suflBcient for me, and I feel I could walk miles. I often 
 go to the Turkish bath, for I feel that nothing but that wiU do 
 for me when I require two pairs of spectacles." 
 
 DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS. 
 
 From a London Practitioner. 
 
 October 2nd, 1861. 
 An old case of kidney disease comes to the bath daily ; and 
 with the assistance of nitrous acid, exercise, milk diet and 
 regimen, I have brought the albumen in the renal secretion 
 down from forty to four grains per day. 
 
 A colonel, retired, also a sufferer from the kidney, with a 
 most irregular heart, and martyred by neuralgia, had for 
 
 X
 
 3o6 Special Cases. 
 
 montlis been frightened that the bath would damage him. 
 I accompanied him myself to the bath. He bore it exceedingly- 
 well . His heart continued as fitful as before, but no symptom 
 occurred ; and he is now a staunch advocate. 
 
 EXTRACT FHOM CASE REPOETED IN THE 
 ''BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL," BY DR. 
 ROBERTSON. 
 
 M. W. (No. 720) was admitted at Hayward's Heath on Feb- 
 ruary 23rd, 1863. 
 
 State on admission, a. Bodily. — He was veryweat. The 
 toDgue was furred and tremulous ; the whole frame in a state 
 of tremor. He was restless and did not sleep, b. Mental. 
 The mind was quite confused ; he was unable to understand or 
 answer questions. There was difficulty of articulation. He 
 was unable to tell his name ; and was disposed to be destructive 
 and dirty. 
 
 February 25. — Want of sleep and restlessness continued. 
 He was very nervous and tremulous. Pulse feeble, 90 ; pupil 
 contracted. He ate slops. He was ordered to have a glass of 
 whisky at bed-time, and to be packed in the wet sheet for two 
 hours, with two cold pails afterwards. 
 
 «: * ^ * # * 
 
 May 10. — He had lost ground ; the restlessness and incohe- 
 rence continued. He was noisy at night ; his habits were 
 dirty : he was feebler. (Edema of the legs had set in. The 
 urine* was found laden with albumen, abundant in quantity, 
 specific gravity 1025, clear, no deposit. The heart was healthy ; 
 pulse 110. He was rambling in his conversation ; he spoke 
 also of his strength and ability, and that he would build me a 
 carriage and provide four horses for it, and drive it himself. 
 
 * Unfortunately, the urine was not microscopically examined.
 
 special Cases. 307 
 
 He was very troublesome, secreting things, &c. He was 
 ordered to have the bath at 150° ; to omit the sedative mix- 
 ture. He was so feeble that he could hardly stand. He had 
 to be carried to the bath. The skin acted feebly ; pulse 70, on 
 his return. 
 
 May 21. — The bath was continued twice a week at 170°. 
 The skin acted better. He was still very feeble. The oedema 
 of the legs was less. His mind was no better ; he had delu- 
 sions, and was incoherent. The albumen was less in quantity. 
 
 June 17. — He was in every way better. His conversation 
 was more rational. He was gaining strength daily. He still 
 entertained rather an exaggerated idea of his ability and 
 strength, and had a propensity to secrete and collect trash as 
 before. He was ordered to continue the bath twice a week, 
 and to go to the carpenter's shop. The cedema of the legs was 
 quite gone. His appetite was hearty. Albumen was slightly 
 present only. 
 
 October 5. — A steady improvement had taken place. There 
 had been no trace of albumen for some weeks in the urine. 
 He was convalescent. The mind was clear and rational. He 
 worked steadily in the carpenter's shop, and was allowed to go 
 about the premises alone, satisfied witli his position and care, 
 and prospect of discharge. 
 
 jN^ovember 30. — He was discliarged on trial for a month. 
 During the month, he came to Hayward's Heath to ask for a 
 bath. I found him sound in mind and body, and working for 
 the Brighton Eailway Company, in their carriage factory, at 
 thirty-three shillings a week. 
 
 December 30. — He was discharged cured. 
 
 Eemabks. — The therapeutic uses of the bath have yet to be 
 studied. I believe them to be very great. Of its curative 
 power in the early stage of phthisis I have had several 
 examples, and I can confirm all that Dr. Leared reports of its 
 action in the early stage of that disease. I long to see the bath 
 fairly tried in zymotic diseases. I believe, if used in sufiiciently 
 high temperatures (170°-200°), that the results will astonish us 
 all. If anything ever can cure hydrophobia, it will be the bath, 
 at 200°, continued for many hours.
 
 3o8 Special Cases, 
 
 Yet, strange to say, although three years have elapsed since 
 it was fairly and fully brought to the notice of the profession 
 by Mr. Erasmus Wilson, and although the public are building 
 baths, and using them eagerly and ignorantly, no London 
 hospital has thought it worth while to add this potent agent to 
 its armoury. The jN"ew castle Infirmary and the Sussex and 
 Devon Lunatic Asylums are the only hospitals in England (so 
 far as I know) provided with a bath. 
 
 In the Journal of Mental Science for July 1861, I gave an 
 account of the bath at Hay ward's Heath. In the same journal, 
 for July 1862, I published some cases of melancholia (with 
 refusal of food) successfully treated by the bath, and I have 
 since then regularly used the bath in my practice at Hayward's 
 Heath. 
 
 In the case above recorded, I have little doubt that the bath 
 saved the patient's life and restored him to reason. He 
 steadily lost ground until he began its use ; the delusions 
 increased ; the bodily health gave way ; oedema of the limbs set 
 in, and he was so weak that he had to be carried to the bath, 
 and could hardly stand when he came up from it. In six weeks 
 he was at work at his trade, and in six months he was discharged 
 from the asylum sound in mind and body, and able to earn a 
 comfortable living. This cure was the only possible result 
 which I did not foresee. I thought first that the case was 
 tending to permanent dementia ; then it looked as if general 
 paresis of the insane would be the end ; then it seemed as if 
 he were to die from dropsy and albuminuria. I cannot but 
 think that the bath was the agent which rescued him from all 
 these perils, and restored him to health of mind and body. 
 
 SCAELATINA. 
 
 Brighton, March, 1864. 
 I have been laid up with scarlatina, infected, no doubt, 
 during my attendance at St. Mary's Hall, where it has
 
 special Cases. 309 
 
 abounded. It is my belief, and so proclaimed, that the 
 severity of my attack was favourably influenced — in bed three 
 days only — by the skin-cleansing which you so kindly effected 
 for me immediately preceding my attack. 
 
 Chaeles Beyce. 
 
 CHILD-BEARma. 
 
 A manufacturer's daughter had been married some few 
 years, and was wishful to have a child to live. She had had 
 several, but all never came to maturity. The father of this 
 lady prevailed upon her to try the bath. She was then four 
 months in the state of pregnancy. She took the bath twice 
 a week up to a fortnight of her confinement. I should have 
 stated that in the former cases of pregnancy she never was 
 able to move about or do anything ; but after she commenced 
 using the bath she could assist in any household work she 
 thought proper, and went through her confinement as well as 
 it was possible any one could have done — the child a fine, 
 healthy boy ; and at the three weeks' end she came to enjoy her 
 bath, quite lively, and spoke of the bath in great praise, such 
 as I never heard any one before nor since. 
 
 This occurred in Bradford, in 1858. 
 
 HAIR RESTORED TO ITS ORIGINAL COLOUR. 
 
 A gentleman of the name of Booth, Barnsley, Yorkshire, 
 who erected a small bath for his own and family's use, whose 
 hair had gone grey, " with the use of the bath for several 
 weeks, twice and three times per week, restored it to its original 
 colour." This circumstance v^'as communicated to me by the 
 gentleman himself, when I called upon him to look at his bath
 
 3 1 o Special Cases. 
 
 in 1859. This was found out by the daughter at the dinner- 
 table a day or two before he related the circumstance to me. 
 
 John Thistlewhaite was afflicted for many years with scrofula 
 all over the face, and the eyesight to such an extent he could 
 scarcely see his way along the street without assistance. 
 Being in humble circumstances, I brought his case before the 
 committee ; and they granted him a free ticket for a quarter; 
 He took the bath every other day ; and after the second week 
 he could see to read bills posted on the walls as he came along 
 to the bath. He now enjoys good health, and is pretty good 
 in his sight, so that he can follow his employment, the bath 
 restoring him after every other means had failed. He had 
 been under the Eye Infirmary in Manchester, Leeds, iS^ew- 
 castle-on-Tyne ; and other treatment, med'cal and non-medical, 
 had been recommended to him. This case I had under my 
 charge in Bradford. He is now living in Victoria-street, 
 Manchester-road, and belongs to the Sick Club to which I 
 belong ; so that I can testify to his case. 
 
 AGUE. 
 
 Worthing, December 3rd. 1862. 
 
 I wish to give you an episode of yesterday in illustration of 
 the benefit of the bath in a household. 
 
 I am liable to extreme and prolonged suffering from the 
 cold easterly winds of this period. 
 
 Yesterday I took a long walk. It was a cold, bleak evening, 
 and the easterly wind was in my teeth. The well-known but 
 long-suspended pain came on in the region of the stomach; 
 and it was with difficulty I reached home at eight o'clock. 
 
 I had an important letter to write for the post. My symp- 
 toms of ague had declared themselves. An arm-chair was 
 wheeled before a blazing fire in the dining-room, and brandy 
 and hot water ordered. Mrs. Urquhart said to me. " You bad 
 better go for five minutes into the bath, as you are, and so get
 
 special Cases, 3 1 1 
 
 lieated." I did so. The fire had just been put on. The 
 thermometer stood only at 140°. I laid down, feeliug indis- 
 posed, and unable to get up again, and disembarrassed myself 
 gradually of my clothes. The heat rose rapidly : within a 
 quarter of an hour it was up to 160°. I was in profuse perspi- 
 ration, and the pain had ceased. Within another quarter of 
 an hour, the heat having risen co 180°, all sensation of suffering 
 had disappeared, except a scorching of the mouth, as if the 
 tongue was blistered. It took one hour more before I g )t rid 
 of this ; in all, an hour and a half; and the heat at lust rose 
 up to 214°. Instead of the brandy-and-water, I had about two 
 quarts of icy-cold water, besides being soused in the same. 
 Instead of a night of suffering, to be followed by weeks, if not 
 months, of the same, as during the three former years, I sat 
 down at a quarter to ten to dinner, which was followed by a 
 good night's rest ; and this day I look forward to be quite able 
 for my journey to town to-morrow, and am free from any 
 inconvenience, save the sensations of one who has recovered 
 from a severe ague. 
 
 My letter last night was also written, being able to dictate 
 it during the intervals when I had to come out of the furnace 
 within to get the cold blast outside. 
 
 You have noted the small platform outside at the door of 
 the hot-chamber, between the window and the door, in the 
 angle of the garden-wall, so that every blast from the sea, or 
 from the north, comes through and falls on it. During the 
 hour and a half I must have come out there seven or eight 
 times, from three to five minutes each time. Without this 
 facility of alternating the temperature, these startling results 
 cannot be obtained any more than they can without the very 
 high temperature (requiring a rapid circulation of air) and the 
 heat by radiation. 
 
 The place where I lay you must have remarked. It is closer 
 to the furnace than the thermometer, the difference being at 
 least 10°. I was there exposed, at a distance of four feet, to 
 the radiation from the red-hot metals ; so that 20° more may 
 be added for the difference between radiating and transmitted 
 caloric ; so that during the last hour of experiment the heat
 
 312 special Cases. 
 
 may be well reckoned at 250° ; alternately, five minutes in 
 that heat, and five minutes under the cold sea blast, when not 
 under the water-cock. 
 
 Had I been at Riverside, with my model bath there, no such 
 result could have been obtained. 
 
 Still less would it have been obtained in the Jermyn-street 
 Hammam. The latter I could only think of as a soup served 
 up in a golden tureen, and without salt. I trust, however, 
 that this will be remedied before long. The obstruction I have 
 had to encounter as an amateur from professional men will 
 probably now disappear ; and the success of the undertaking 
 (as they consider it) will unite for future operations the prac- 
 tical and professional man. 
 
 While undergoing this experiment, the words of Mr. E/Uskin, 
 which I mentioned to you, were constantly ringing in my ears : 
 " What can be more loathsome than a man stewing in his own 
 perspiration ? " There is a specimen of the dominion over men 
 of words. He fortified this by saying, " You know these are 
 your own words, and you cannot deny them." My words were, 
 "A man cannot be cleaner than his own perspiration ;" thereby, 
 to show the necessity of getting out the filth of his own perspi- 
 ration, that itself should become clean. But he had no notion 
 beyond this, that perspiration was, and must be, filthy ; and, 
 therefore, like all foul things in the notions of this age, to be 
 kept and concealed inside. 
 
 The case will not be complete unless I add, that during the 
 night I was awakened with a twinge of gout ; and at the same 
 time I perceived a troublesome indication of an eruption on 
 my fingers. The latter had gone in again before morning, and 
 the indications of gout had ceased. I was clearly in for a most 
 serious attack. 
 
 25th February, 1862. 
 On the night of the 23rd I underwent the premonitory 
 symptoms of an attack of ague, which with me brings on in- 
 flammation of the bladder. I am liable to these attacks in the 
 spring, as regularly following on cold easterly winds. They 
 have hitherto prostrated me for weeks and months.
 
 special Cases, 313 
 
 Yesterday morning I went into the bath at half-past eight. 
 The heat was low. It gradually rose to 150°. When I came 
 out, at eleven o'clock, I was then so much relieved that I was 
 able to breakfast as usual. Gradually the effect wore off, and 
 I went in again at a quarter-past three. The heat was then 
 195° by the thermometer. By sensation, the heat (radiating) 
 must have been equal to 230° or 240°. I came out at a quarter- 
 past four, again entirely relieved, and was able to dine as 
 tlsual. 
 
 After dinner I went through all the sensations that follow a 
 severe fit of ague, and could at times scarcely credit that 
 I had not had one. At a quarter-past ten I went in again. 
 It was then at 180°. I came out at a quarter-past eleven, went 
 to bed almost immediately, fell asleep, and woke at half-past 
 seven, without having stirred all that time, and with a feeling 
 of health, freshness, and vigour which I have not known for 
 years. My nights are always disturbed. After an hour this 
 morning, beginning at 150°, and rising to 180°, I went out to 
 walk, enjoying the blast of that cold, bleak, easterly wind, 
 which otherwise would have stricken me down as a scythe. 
 
 A friend who went into the bath yesterday after me, and 
 who was unacquainted with my illness, afterwards, on meeting 
 me, said, " So you have had a fit of the ague ; but I suppose, 
 from the smell I found there, that you have left it in the 
 bath." 
 
 CASE OF CHOREA (ST. VITUS'S DANCE). 
 
 I was requested to see Catherine Carroll, set. 10 years, about 
 the middle of last October. For twelve months previous the 
 parents had noticed something peculiar about the girl, extreme 
 restlessness, &c. This had gone on gradually increasing until 
 she reached the state in which I found her. At this time all 
 the symptoms of chorea were fully and strongly developed. 
 The spasmodic irritability of all the voluntary muscles was 
 extreme and incessant. When standing, she seemed every
 
 314 special Cases. 
 
 instant about to throw herself down ; when sitting, aha was 
 continually rolling and twisting herself about. At night her 
 restlessness was so great that they had to place her in a 
 separate bed apart from the rest of the family. If she lifted 
 anything— a plate, or cup, or dish, no matter what — she would 
 generally let it fall ; and not only that, but occasionally it 
 would be sent half way across the room, showing the great 
 muscular spasmodic irritability that existed. The expression 
 of her countenance and general appearance led to the idea that, 
 if she was not then, she was verging towards becoming an 
 imbecile. 
 
 The digestive functions were much disordered, the pulse 
 small and quick, appetite bad, and general debility very con- 
 siderable. Her temperament is of the nervous type — that is, 
 of a pale and somewhat sallow complexion, large black eye, 
 and spare habit. 
 
 Her treatment consisted, first of all, in a course of purgatives, 
 to remove any cause of irritation which might exist in the 
 intestinal canal, such as worms, &c. This was succeeded by 
 quinine and a liberal diet, warm bodj^ flannel having been 
 already ordered. The spinal column was then rather severely 
 blistered throughout its ^hole extent, and she was put upon a 
 course of the chloride of iron, anodynes in the form of morphia, 
 and, as an anti-spasmodic, the ammoniated tincture of valerian. 
 This treatment was continued for about a month, and to a 
 certain extent was beneficial. Her tongue became clean, her 
 appetite better, and the anodyne gave her better nights ; still 
 there was little improvement in the general symptoms. 
 
 I then thought of the Turkish bath ; and the parents being 
 in poor circumstances, I mentioned the case to Mr. Attwood, 
 who, with his usual and considerate kindness, at once allowed 
 me the free use of the bath which he has erected here. The 
 first three baths had little effect ; the fourth, however, excited 
 a free perspiration ; ?nd good results began to show themselves, 
 the first sign of which was her passing better nights without 
 the anodyne. So the case went on, the general irritability 
 gradually subsiding, until it altogether disai)peared. About 
 three weeks ago I advised them to discontinue the baths ; and
 
 special Cases. 2^S 
 
 at the present date I may say tliat slie is in perfect liealth, and 
 as strong as any girl of lier age and natural constitution. She 
 took the baths for about six weeks ; generally two in the 
 week. In all, she had either thirteen or fourteen, the tem- 
 perature being about 120°. 
 
 She was exceedingly weak when she first commenced with 
 them, but only in one instance had she to be taken out before 
 the usual time. This occurred at the second bath. With that 
 exception, she remained in each about half an hour, and seemed 
 to experience great comfort. 
 
 I look upon this case as being an extremely satisfactory one, 
 and affording unquestionable testimony of the efficacy of the 
 Turkish bath as a remedial agent. Many cases of chorea 
 undoubtedly arise from the presence of worms; and when 
 such is the case, unquestionably the first obvious indication 
 must be to dislodge them; but then in those instances the 
 bath would be proper ; for so great a constitutional disturbance 
 as chorea to be caused by the simple presence of worms, to 
 which all children are more or less subject, is sufficient evidence 
 that there must be something abnormal present in the system 
 or in the blood, the removal of which, and the consequent 
 purification of the blood, can be readily and efficiently effected 
 by means of the Turkish bath. 
 
 I may add that not only the parents, but the neighbours 
 about, have again and again expressed to me not only their 
 pleasure to see such an improvement in the girl, but their sur- 
 prise at the rapidity with which it has been accomplished. 
 
 EoBEBT Lang, Surgeon. 
 
 Tow Law, January 15th, 1863. 
 
 SWELLING OF THE JOINTS, etc. 
 
 Case of a Sergeant of Police. 
 
 Paddington, Nov. 2nd, 1863. 
 SiE^_The following are the particulars of my illness from 
 March, 1859, to September, 1859 :—
 
 3i6 Special Cases. 
 
 I had for many montlis previous to March, 1859, felt great 
 pain in the back and legs, great swelling of the veins and feet, 
 and contraction of the muscles of the legs ; the fingers would 
 swell to an unusual size in an instant, and as quickly disappear. 
 I walked, or rather hobbled, in very great pain, which was 
 chiefly in the feet. The colour of the skin below the knees 
 and round the loins was of a parchment-like colour, and I fre- 
 quently felt the sensation in the legs and feet which is termed 
 " going to sleep," and violent throbbing in the calves of the 
 legs. My appetite was very good, but still I wasted so rapidly 
 that I was reduced almost to a skeleton in May, 1859. I could 
 scarcely wear a boot or shoe, and when walking I felt a burning 
 sensation round the feet. I thought at this time that if I could 
 take some kind of bath which would produce a free perspiration, 
 it would have a beneficial efi'ect. With this view, I consulted 
 a medical gentleman, who spoke of sulphur, vapour, and lamp 
 baths, saying that he had no doubt such baths would prove 
 beneficial. I was speaking to a friend a few days later, and 
 he recommended me to try the Turkish bath in Bell-street, 
 which was conducted by Mr. Evans, and the only public bath 
 of its kind then in London. I entered the bath, and perspired 
 from the face, neck, and shoulders, hut not one drop of perspi- 
 ration came from the loins or legs. I continued to bathe daily. 
 The swelling increased, the pain becoming more acute, chiefly 
 in the feet ; and as I was then performing eight hours' duty 
 nightly, it was with great difficulty and pain I reached home 
 in the morning. After partaking of my breakfast, it was with 
 still greater difficulty (owing to the contraction of the muscles 
 of the knee) that I could get upstairs to bed. When I rose 
 up, my feet would be swollen to such an extent that the shoes 
 (for at this time I could not wear boots) which I had taken off 
 in the morning could not be worn by me for an hour or two 
 until the swelling had gone down. About the third week a 
 rash came out on the insteps of both feet, and disappeared in 
 a few days. About the fourth week the feet, for the first time, 
 began to perspire. The loins and legs at this time perspired 
 rather freely. During the fifth week large lumps began to 
 descend the legs from the body. I felt no pain in these lumps
 
 special Cases. 317 
 
 except that the pain, when they entered the feet, was much 
 greater, and a contraction of the muscles when they reached 
 the bend of the knee. 
 
 Eight or ten lumps descended each leg during the fifth week. 
 About the sixth week several small boils began to gather on 
 the insteps of both feet, from which a large quantity of matter 
 was discharged. As soon as the discharge had ceased I felt 
 very great ease, and in a week or two was quite free from pain. 
 I took the bath till Christmas, gradually reducing the numbers 
 from six to one bath per week. I still frequent the bath, and 
 have enjoyed very good health up to the present time, and 
 firmly believe that the bath was the means of saving my life. 
 I remain. Sir, 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 Benjamin Vaenals. 
 
 Mr. Johnson. 
 
 J. S., aged 33 years, afflicted with chronic rheumatism for 
 five years, finding no relief from medicine, took the Turkish 
 bath daily for three months at Mr. Cusden's, Canterbury- 
 terrace, Kennington, S.W., and for the last three years have 
 continued so doing twice a week. I am now perfectly cured, 
 and enjoy good health. When I first went to the bath my 
 joints were swollen, rheumatic pains in all my limbs, had par- 
 tially lost the use of my left arm, and my head was fixed, so 
 that I could not turn it. I consider my cure is entirely due to 
 the use of the bath, and have found my general health so much 
 improved since I have taken the bath regularly, that I shall, 
 D.V., continue its use while I live.
 
 Construction of a Bath. 
 
 CORRESPOjSTDEXCE. 
 
 Mr. Urquhart to Sir Johx Fife. 
 
 Worthing, Novemher 3, 1863. 
 
 My dear Sir, — 
 
 I HAVE to announce to you an event whicli, taken in 
 conjunction with the opening you have made in hospitals, 
 promises to lead to the introduction of the Bath into 
 the parochial and county establishments throughout 
 the land. 
 
 I have just returned from a visit to the Lunatic 
 Asylum of Sussex, where the Bath has been in operation 
 for about a year. I went to it expecting to find 
 low temperature, repidsive filth, and unventilated 
 cellars. I found these chambers light and airy, and a 
 temperature of ISO'^ ! 
 
 Dr. Robertson, the physician and manager, had 
 indeed, begun with the "130°" of the judicious men, 
 brick flues and the common prejudice against iron.
 
 Construction of a Bath. 319 
 
 Employing, however, in some repairs, a builder who 
 had formerly worked for me, he offered, at his own 
 charge, to change the flues, substituting iron ones, and 
 to replace the others if not approved of. Dr. Robertson 
 was glad to have the opportunity of testing the other 
 process. To his surprise, he found the higher tempera- 
 ture so obtained was more bearable and more agreeable 
 to the patients and to himself. Thus has the radiating 
 element been partially introduced ; and whilst the 
 temperature is so much raised as to be more than 
 doubled (taking as point of departure the general 
 temperature), the cost in fuel is diminished one- half. 
 
 Dr. Robertson had already seen my Bath, but not 
 before his own had been constructed. Having expe- 
 rienced the difference in effects between 130° and 180°, 
 he was prepared to accept my suggestion as to raising 
 the temperature to 200° and to 220°. 
 
 I was struck by the importance he seemed to attribute 
 to the mention I made of having never knoicn a case of 
 injury arising from any amount of heat. From this it 
 would appear that people still continue to believe that 
 they have got something to fear. The same illusion 
 may prevail at Newcastle, and prevent you from making 
 in the Infirmary due use of the means you possess. 
 What I said at Hayward's Heath may, therefore, b# 
 also serviceable for you. 
 
 Just as I was leaving, I found, from looking over 
 his "Case-book," that "administering the bath " meant 
 taking it once a week! Indeed, generally, I found
 
 320 Construction of a Bath 
 
 the words " once a fortnight : '' but for this, I should 
 have been left in ignorance of the infinitesimally small 
 amount of power exerted to produce the beneficial 
 results which he had to report. I begged of him not 
 to consider the Bath as a remedial agent, unless used 
 at least once a day at a heat of 200°; the patient 
 being exposed to it for periods varying from five to 
 ten minutes, so as to make up one hour. 
 
 For the present, and until his new Bath is con- 
 structed, he will not be able to get more heat ; but, at all 
 events, his Case-book will reveal the difference obtained 
 by the frequency of the operation. 
 
 It was a most pleasurable day that I spent at Hay- 
 ward's Heath : there was none of the vague, unmeaning 
 speculation with which one is always met by medical 
 
 men. 
 
 *'* * * * * * * 
 
 In reference to this malady (Bright's Disease), I may 
 mention that I saw at Hayward's Heath a case of 
 perfect cure. The patient had been entirely given over. 
 I saw the man, and heard his own statement.* 
 
 Believe me, &c., 
 
 D. Urquhart: 
 * Sir John Fife, M.D., &c. &c. 
 
 * This case has been since printed in the British Medical 
 Journal.
 
 for Invalids, 321 
 
 Sir John Fife to Mr. Urquhart. 
 
 Newcastle-on-Tyne, November 21, 1863. 
 My dear Sir, — 
 
 It is quite evident from your observations on the 
 temperature of the Bath, and the frequency of its use, 
 that we only have the institution in its infancy, and 
 that a minute description of your own might be of great 
 service in enabling others to comprehend the extent 
 of its proper application. 
 
 I am particularly interested in your correspondent's 
 observations on the symptoms of apoplexy or paralysis 
 in albumenuria from retention of urea in the circulatinsr 
 blood ; having myself recently discovered that similar 
 symptoms occurring in the convalescence following 
 diphtheria came from the same cause, and expecting in 
 such cases to find the Turkish Bath the most efficacious 
 mode of treatment. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 John Fife. 
 
 January 13, 1864. 
 
 My dear Sir, — 
 
 The only satisfactory answer to your letter of Novem- 
 ber last would be to take you into my hot closet, or rather 
 to let you take in a sufiering man and observe the effect 
 on him. This being impossible, I sit doAvn with the
 
 322 Construction of a Bath 
 
 intention of describing the means used, and the effects 
 produced so minutely, that it shall be in your power 
 to reproduce the like with certainty ; although I am 
 ready at a word to go to Newcastle for a week, which 
 would be more than sufficient for the reconstruction of 
 the Bath in the Infirmary. 
 
 I enclose a plan of my — let us call it — Sweating Closet 
 at this seaside cottage. 
 
 There is a furnace ; two couches, one raised and 
 receiving the close and full radiation of the red-hot 
 metal, the other moveable in the floor ; also a tank, to 
 which you descend two steps, there being a slab to 
 prevent splashing. You may have in it hot, tepid, or 
 cold water, as well as streams of hot or cold water, from 
 pipes arranged so that the stream gushes out as from 
 a rock. The water is heated simply by being in tanks 
 close to the ceiling. The water in the tank may be 
 three feet deep ; but one foot to twenty inches is enough 
 for sitting in, or baling over you, — an agreeable opera- 
 tion, and furnishing a necessary diversion, when by 
 cause of malady the Bath has to be endured for many 
 hours in the day. 
 
 The floor is in cement. There are no flues. From 
 a common laundry stove, an iron pipe conveys the 
 smoke across it. There is no plate glass, but only a 
 double sheet of crown glass let into the wall for a 
 window. 
 
 I use coke instead of coal, so as to keep the pipes 
 clean, that the heat may be given ofi": no coal is used.
 
 for Invalids, ';}^i'^ 
 
 even for lighting the fire. At a heat varying from 180*^ 
 to 230°, night and morning, the fuel consumed will 
 not amount to more than one-half of what is required 
 for an ordinary fire. The ventilation is by suction 
 from below. The air is drawn into the furnace : there 
 is a constant and rapid circulation up one side and down 
 the other. Entering the furnace heated, the combus- 
 tion is more perfect, the bad air is consumed, and 
 the saving of heat enormous. The fresh air being 
 admitted from above, it comes in its passage downwards 
 to the bather to breathe. , 
 
 There are three plug-holes adapted for the convenience 
 of the bathers ; so that when a high temperature is 
 required for a long time, they can refresh themselves, 
 or even envelope the whole head in a hood and breathe 
 as in the open air. 
 
 There is no difficulty whatever in thus obtaining 
 perfect command of the circulation. The suction being 
 everywhere inioard and downwards, crevices are easily 
 stopped. The door must, however, open outwards, and 
 with a screw hinge, or a flap pivot out of the perpen- 
 dicular : the edges being bevelled, the door falls-to close 
 at every point. The command of the admission of 
 air is such, that I am independent of the use of the 
 damper; and when the door and plugs are closed, the 
 draft through the furnace and flue is stopped. 
 
 An invalid can be carried in on a bed or chair. The 
 platform on the outside is on the level of a window that 
 can be thrown open to a current of air; or the ante-room
 
 324 Construction of a Bath 
 
 can be closed, and by leaving the batb doors open, 120** 
 can be obtained. There is but oxe step from the hottest 
 point to the open air or into the tank. 
 
 The cocks have particularly to be attended to. The 
 turning part must be equal to the running part, other- 
 wise the water will come out wabbling. A space suffi- 
 cient for washing must be allowed between the cock and 
 the basin : neither of these points an English tradesman 
 understands. The cocks must be large, so as to admit 
 of a full stream. The escape from the tank must also 
 be free, so as to change the water rapidly. It is 2 J inches 
 diameter. 
 
 In stating the cost to be not more than half an 
 ordinary fire, it has to be observed that refuse coke or 
 braise answers better in a stove, and does not cost more 
 than half. Therefore, such a fire can be kept up for 2g?. 
 a day. But even were the expense equal to several fires, 
 it would be an economy : by means of it, all the passages 
 in the house can be heated, and even several of the 
 rooms, besides having always at hand a drying closet. 
 I have myself, not only dispensed with seven fireplaces, 
 but taken them out. With our open fireplaces and 
 straight chimneys, fully 20 parts of the 24 of heat is 
 lost : managed in this way, 20 parts of the 24 are 
 retained. Such an apartment would be an economy 
 and an advantage in any house, wholly irrespective 
 of the uses of which I am at present treating. On the 
 other hand the incalculable benefit to the sick from the 
 Bath can never be otherwise realized ; for the patient.
 
 for Invalids. 325 
 
 secure them, must have it under the same roof, so as to 
 be able to go in at any hour of the day or night, and to 
 have it within reach in case of an acute disorder. 
 
 This closet has been constructed in the rudest fashion 
 and at the lowest possible cost. I found that my Bath 
 at E-iverside deterred rather than invited imitations, as 
 people thought less of the advantage than the cost, and 
 fancied that it required a thousand pounds to get a 
 wash. This closet, with all the fittings for the supply 
 of water hot and cold, and the building of three of the 
 walls, has cost £37. 
 
 This is the sixth Bath I have constructed for my own 
 use. All these have been built with a view to making 
 experiments, or for testing ideas that had suggested 
 themselves during the construction of previous ones. 
 This is, indeed, the eighth, for one of these underwent 
 three entire transformations. This one will not, how- 
 ever, be the last, though the most perfect of any yet 
 built. There is still one great improvement to be made 
 to come nearer to the rays of the sun, the type as well as 
 the source of this means of action on the human frame. 
 
 This Bath is the only one I have constructed specially 
 for invalids. It was made in view to the confinement 
 of a lady :* nevertheless, it thus loses none of the utiUty 
 or the charm that may be sought by the healthy. AYhen 
 I come back to it after absence and the use of other 
 
 * Lady Mary W. Montagu says, " Child-birth, so terrible 
 with us, is regarded by the Turkish women as of no more 
 moment than a slight cold."
 
 ^26 Construction of a Bath 
 
 Baths, even the best, it is like getting on the back of a 
 thorough-bred after having had to ride a cart horse. 
 It is of service at every moment and at all temperatures. 
 You come in from a journey, say before dinner ; you go 
 in not heated, when it may stand at 120^ ; you dress in 
 that charming temperature, with streams of hot or cold 
 water, or the tank to revel in. So, also, you may dress 
 in it in the morning. My regular practice, when not 
 requiring it for health's sake, is to go in on getting up 
 and on going to bed, dressing and undressing there. 
 Five to ten minutes suffice to bring on the flow of per- 
 spiration. After that, a plunge in the cold water, and you 
 come out fresh, glowing with a sense of cleanliness, 
 health, and strength, which no other operation can 
 convey to the body. You are then indifferent to the 
 heat of summer and the cold of winter. If time is an 
 object, the waste of time is thus no objection. 
 
 I will give an instance of its use as a substitute for 
 exercise. One wintry day, feeHng the want of exercise, 
 I was deterred by the aspect of the skies ; there was 
 sleet, and a bleak easterly wind blowing: so I bethought 
 me of going into the Bath, instead, for half an hour. I 
 found it particularly agreeable. Instead of half an hour, 
 an hour and a half had flown by ; so I looked at the 
 thermometer, and observed that the Bath stood at 176^, 
 and the tank at 76^. I had been passing from the one 
 to the other — say ten minutes out of the tank, and five 
 minutes in it, alternately. I noted these points as 
 furnishing a datum line, giving, without strain, the
 
 for Invalids, 327 
 
 contrasted enjoyments of the temperate and torrid zones. 
 I left tlie Bath invigorated as I might have been by 
 a gallop of fifteen miles under a bright sun on the 
 Sussex Downs. 
 
 When I quote the degrees of heat I use, I am dis- 
 believed. To be exposed to the radiation of red-hot metal 
 at the distance of less than four feet, seems impossible ; 
 it must appear so even to those most conversant with 
 the Bath as at present in use ; and this is why I com- 
 menced with saying that your inquiry could only be 
 satisfactorily answered by coming here and judging for 
 yourself. 
 
 A medical man of this place, who has been in the habit 
 of going in with patients, went to the Hammam in 
 Jermyn Street, expecting to find there something much 
 better. His astonishment was great when he found (as 
 he stated in a letter to the Chairman of the Company) 
 that he was more inconvenienced there in the " hot room 
 at 175^ in five minutes,** than he was in mine "at 230® 
 in fifteen minutes.** 
 
 Now as to the relative effects in sickness of radiating 
 and transmitted caloric. About this time last year, I 
 received a letter from a medical man, informing me 
 that the superintendent of the Hammam, Mr. Johnson, 
 was dying. He has for years been unable to live out 
 of the Bath, from an affection of the lungs. He was 
 suffering from a bronchial cough, which had become 
 spasmodic, and so constant as to deprive him of all 
 rest and sleep. This came on whilst daily in a Bath,
 
 328 Difference between Radiating 
 
 and in spite of it, lie being in it all day long. This 
 would appear to be conclusive that the Bath was 
 incapable of affording relief. The medical man 
 thought so. I knew that the heat in Jermyn Street 
 was insufficient in itself, and, besides, was not radiating. 
 I went up to town, and, after seeing him, promised that 
 if he could only bear the journey, I should send him 
 back in a week able to resume his work. This promise 
 was fulfilled to the letter. On the eighth day he did 
 resume work. 
 
 He arrived here about half-past 5 p.m., was put into 
 the bath at 6, remained there till 11, and then slept 
 an unbroken sleep for eight hours. The thermometer 
 ranged from 200° to 220°. 
 
 This great heat is here endurable for the following 
 reasons : — 
 
 1. The heat is radiating. I cannot pretend to treat 
 of this great secret of Nature : to work out this problem, 
 a Liebig is required. This I can say, that such heat is 
 more endurable than common heat. There is a liveli- 
 ness about it which transmitted heat lacks. You are 
 conscious of an electrical action. It is to transmitted 
 heat what champagne is to flat beer.* 
 
 2. The rapid circulation of air. This depends on the 
 
 • In Jermyn Street, in tlie hottest chamber, there is a partial 
 radiation. When the other chamber was raised to the same 
 degree (there being there no radiation at all), that is, 175°, it 
 was felt to be more oppressive than the other when 20 
 degrees higher.
 
 and Transmitted Heat. 329 
 
 great heating power ; and the saving of that heat by 
 the air escaping below, and not above. 
 
 3. The extreme dryness. This is obtained by the 
 great heat itself ; by the rapidity of circulation ; by the 
 water operations being carried on at a lower line, so 
 that there is very little evaporation ; and finally, by 
 great care in preventing any evaporation whatever 
 beyond the indispensable escape from the body. 
 
 Of this latter, the quantity is greatly diminished by 
 passing out and in every five minutes, so that half the 
 body evaporation takes place outside. Also by carrying 
 out the clothing, on which you have lain whilst per- 
 spiring. 
 
 Perfect dryness of the air is indispensable to the enduring 
 of a high temperature. 
 
 This dryness of the air is also of service for absorbing 
 and drawing out of the body the miasmiata of disease. 
 Relief is obtained only in so far as those miasmata flow 
 in a liquid or gaseous form. When the Bath is abso- 
 lutely dry and very hot, there will be, as it were, a 
 sudden discharge from the patient of fetid odours. 
 
 The practice of the Bath refines the olfactory nerves, 
 and renders them capable of perceiving smells other- 
 wise imperceptible. A wide field of observation is 
 thus opened in the quality of their odours and their 
 fluctuations. Nor is this all: the state of the body 
 can be known beforehand for hours and even days. 
 You may thus get warning of an impending attack, 
 just as a sailor is warned of a hurricane by the baro-
 
 ^^o D ryness of Air indispensable, 
 
 meter or tlie storm-glass. The sailor can, indeed, only- 
 make his vessel snug, and so await the blow ; but the 
 real physician, with caloric as his servant, can ward off 
 and disperse the storm. 
 
 This dryness is further requisite for electrical isola- 
 tion. With vapour in the chamber, an atmosphere is 
 created injurious to health, and conducive to disease. 
 It is the very condition in which low putrid and tjrphus 
 fevers flourish. The electrical spark will not ignite 
 in such an atmosphere, and the magnet will lose its 
 attractive power. We all know the difierence of our 
 own sensations on a dry and on a damp day. 
 
 This point is so plain and simple, that it is sure to 
 be misunderstood and perverted among those who 
 cannot see, but will object, and who refuse to accept 
 unless they can invent. Each must have something 
 new to say in regard to anything he speaks about, so 
 that a self-evident truth is either disregarded or falsified. 
 
 Some thirty or more years ago, a certain " fire-king " 
 raised much wonder by exhibiting himself, going into 
 an oven with a beefsteak and cooking it, — it was 
 believed that no mortal being could endure 300°. 
 When, in one of the Midland counties, an old working 
 chemist managed to put a saucer filled with water into 
 the oven. Long before the beefsteak was cooked, the 
 *' fire-king " rushed out in wild dismay. The moisture 
 from the beefsteak had not supplied a dose of moisture 
 sufficient to render the 300° unendurable. The evapo- 
 ration from the saucer had supplied it.
 
 Maladies detected by the Smell, 331 
 
 The difficulty of keeping the chamber dry is very 
 great. You will perceive it to be so, if you reflect for 
 a moment on the amount of fluid that may be drawn 
 from a man at 200^ or 250°. 
 
 The ordinary loss through the skin (lungs inclusive) is 
 about 2 oz. an hour. I have increased it ninety fold, that 
 is, 3 oz. per minute, or 11 lb. an hour. This amounts to 
 nearly the whole of the aqueous portion of the blood in 
 circulation. I speak of the rate at which sweat can be 
 obtained : of course, this heat can be endured only for a 
 few minutes at a time. 
 
 Before mentioning the plan I adopted for rating the 
 flow of perspiration, I must first observe that the greatest 
 accuracy is requisite as to the thermometer. Also the 
 word " Bath" must be discarded. If you spoke in the 
 abstract of *' calomel," no sense would be conveyed 
 as to your treatment of any case where that substance 
 was used, as it might equally mean a grain and a 
 hundredweight. So, instead of " Bath," we must speak 
 of heat by degrees, and of time by minutes. Then, to as- 
 certain the heat, the thermometers must be placed so as 
 to discriminate between the levels, the distances, and be 
 in sufficient numbers (always detached from the walls) 
 to give certain knowledge of the varieties of temperature 
 pervading the whole area. The difference in level of 
 one foot may give a difference of 20 degrees in the 
 thermometer. When radiating caloric is employed, the 
 discrimination is still more difficult, especially as here 
 there is a difference between the real and the apparent heat.
 
 ^^'i' Maladtes' detected 
 
 On the first occasion of testing tlie amount of per- 
 spiration, the thermometer stood at 232*^ behind the 
 couch where I lay, the heat radiating so that the real 
 heat must have been a certain number of degrees above 
 the apparent heat, say 15°. I used a large folded 
 sheet to collect the sweat. In five minutes the sheet 
 taken out weighed 2 lb. 5 oz. : the sheet dried weighed 
 1 lb. 5 oz. To test the loss by evaporation, the sheet 
 was hung up in the Bath double, so as to represent the 
 evaporating surfaces of skin and cloth. In five minutes 
 the sheet lost 5 oz. Thus in five minutes the sweat 
 and evaporation amounted to 21 oz., independently of 
 the loss by the lungs. In my case the constant use of 
 these high temperatures has superinduced a facility of 
 percolation ; but it will not be too much to set down 2 oz. 
 per minute as the rate at which perspiration can be 
 obtained, although it is impossible to maintain it for 
 more than five or ten minutes at a time. 
 
 Taking the watery part of the blood to amount to 
 12 lb., that quantity has to be got rid of for the purifica- 
 tion of the body. But this quantity cannot be sweated 
 out, as the blood would become incapable of circulation 
 and the heart be overpowered: water must then be 
 progressively supplied; which being polluted in turn, it 
 will require for the washing and rinsing of the particles 
 of the blood an evaporation of at least a score of pounds. 
 Such an operation will occupy a whole day. It is on 
 this ground that I consider the only treatment by the 
 Bath rational, complete, and not empirical, to be the
 
 by the Smell, ^23 
 
 putting the patient into the Bath to remain there until 
 cured. 
 
 This, however, has reference to diseases to which 
 physicians now apply the term " Blood-poisons." No 
 doubt, a very slight diminution of the amount of this 
 polluted fluid will afford immense relief, and often allow 
 nature to work her own way to the throwing off of the 
 disease : but it being in our power thus easily to cleanse 
 the whole body, it stands to reason that we should 
 employ it. 
 
 I have further satisfied myself by this long and 
 daily experience that the currents are constantly 
 depositing their contents, as we see in streams and 
 rivers, at the points of weakest circulation — that is, at 
 the extremities of their course, and especially where 
 the (Configuration of the body involves returns of the 
 currents on themselves, as in the fingers and toes. 
 These are the parts chiefly liable to gout. With us, 
 indeed, the feet are more subject to it than the hands, 
 which was not the case with the Romans : but while 
 our hands are exposed to the sun and air, our feet are 
 shut up in leather cases. The Romans suffered more 
 from cheiragra (hand-ache) than podagra (foot-ache). 
 The feet of the Romans were as much exposed to the 
 light and air as their hands. 
 
 Were there no such deposit of the poisonous matters 
 (urea, &c.), relief would not be afforded under ten or 
 twelve hours' perspiration ; but relief is often afforded 
 in a quarter of an hour, or even in five minutes
 
 334 Maladies detected 
 
 The healthy body is not inodorous. It is endowed 
 with a sweet odour, described, by those whose organs 
 are sensitive enough to detect it, as resembling fresh- 
 sawn fir boards. 
 
 At the common ordinary temperature, the body may 
 be inodorous in all its parts, and the breath also ; and yet, 
 on going into a temperature of 220°, in five minutes a 
 slight smell of gout will come out in the feet and the 
 breath. (I am describing what has occurred to myself 
 a few hours ago.) Half an hour later, and after 
 being in at the high heat ten minutes more, the smell 
 of gout may become very strong in the feet, legs, 
 thighs, breast, stomach, breath, and back. The smell 
 of herpes may have come out in the hands, the arms, 
 and shoulders. Half an hour later, and after having 
 been twice under the great heat, the smell may have 
 been taken out everywhere. Now this res^llt could 
 not have been obtained if the whole circulation had 
 to be purified, as for this, there has not been sufiicient 
 time. The result can only be attributed to there 
 being a local deposit towards the surface and in the 
 skin itself. 
 
 Supposing the experiment had been carried further ; 
 then, after the inodorous zone has been passed through, 
 we would come to the aromatic one, or that of perfect 
 health. I have observed that when, from the presence 
 of malady, I have spent eight or ten hours in the Bath, 
 and the sweet odour has come out, then I have had the 
 sleep of an infant, light, continuous, and refreshing,
 
 hy the Smell, 335 
 
 lasting for eight hours, and unaccompanied by any 
 change of position. 
 
 In these experiments I should be wholly at sea 
 without this guidance of smell ; without it, it would be 
 impossible to tell when the effect was produced, or 
 when you had to stop, for sensation is no guide. It 
 would, indeed, be impossible to sustain the attention. 
 By means of the nose, which detects at once all the 
 varieties and variations of the morbid state, and notes 
 and rates the action thereon of the cleansing power, 
 you proceed with that certainty of intellectual sight by 
 which the steersman, magnet-led, feels his way in the 
 darkest night. 
 
 Nor is the use of this guide restricted, as that of the 
 needle, to each passing moment of time. It is endowed 
 with the prophetic power. It wiU tell what is to come 
 as well as what is, and with equal certainty. The 
 future is brought up in the present, not as a coming 
 dread superadded to present suffering, but as a pro- 
 spective evil which, by being anticipated in the mind, 
 can be averted from the body. 
 
 Before pulsation was discovered, it would have appeared 
 a fantastic notion, had any one announced that the day 
 would come, when wise, staid, and learned men would 
 sit down, with watch in hand and finger on the wrist, to 
 discover therewith the working of the concealed agencies 
 of the man within. Still more fantastic will appear 
 the notion to-day, that the time will come when the 
 pulse wiU be reckoned but as a trifling index, and that
 
 2^6 Maladies detected 
 
 the grave and veteran leech, no longer able to train his 
 own nose, will have to be accompanied by a child to 
 scent his patient and inform, him of his state. 
 
 This is the third and last of my discoveries, and, like 
 the previous ones, was not fallen on by chance. In 
 regard to the effect of pure heat on disease, I had 
 reasoned to a conclusion before commencing to experi- 
 ment. So also in regard to radiating caloric. Again 
 I had concluded before I had obtained the practical 
 confirmation that each malady must be possessed of it» 
 emanation in smell, and that the human organs, if 
 retained in their sensitiveness, must be capable of 
 distinguishing it. 
 
 I watched in a child nurtured in the Bath for this- 
 result. It came about his fifth year ; at his eighth (the 
 present time) he can be relied on entirely as if the eye, 
 not the nose, were at work. I have had other boys 
 similarly trained, with results, not indeed equal, but at 
 all events encouraging. But what is most so, is that 
 the adult can be so trained. This has happened in the 
 case of the servant who has for some years served ma 
 as bath-man. 
 
 There is scarcely a visitor of mine, during the last 
 three years, who cannot bear testimony to what I now 
 assert. Hundreds have witnessed the same at the 
 Hammam, in London. Conscious, however, of the 
 incredulity with which such a statement will be 
 received, and as is always at first evinced by medical 
 men, 1 will quote some instances both of the detec-
 
 hy the SmelL 337 
 
 tion of actual disease, and of its announcement before- 
 hand. 
 
 During the past summer, I was one day at the Ham- 
 mam. There were about a dozen persons conversing 
 
 together, members of both Houses. General K 
 
 entered and joined the circle. He complained of great 
 suffering, and said he had come up from the country 
 for a Bath, in the hope of getting one night's rest. I 
 called the boy, who had not heard a word of what had 
 passed, and told him to pick out anjr one in the circle 
 who was ill. He walked round, not approaching nearer 
 
 than two feet, and stopped short at General K , 
 
 pointing, as it were; — I should rather, however, say, 
 turning away and making wry faces. 
 
 Some weeks afterwards, I was again at the Hammam. 
 Again there was a circle formed. Mr. Huntley (who has 
 built the Bath at Sydney) was complaining of a severe 
 attack of gout which had flown to the stomach ; he 
 laid his finger on the spot where the j)ain prevailed. 
 I stopped him, again called for the boy, instructed him 
 as before. He pointed at Mr. Huntlej^ I then told 
 him to find the part. He smelt him all over, and 
 pointed his fijiger at the very spot to which Mr. 
 Huntley's own finger had just before been pointed. 
 
 In November last, I was again at the Hammam. 
 Mr. Copping, a farmer from Spalding, one of the most 
 remarkable cases of cure of ''Bright's Disease," was 
 describing his former state and sufferings, and his 
 present relief : he was proceeding to say that the pains
 
 338 Maladies detected 
 
 lingered only in one part. I stopped him there, saying, 
 "I will tell you where your pains are seated/' I called 
 the boy, and pointing out Mr. Copping, said, '' Tell me 
 if he is ill, what is the matter with him, and where 
 he suffers." After running his nose up and down, he 
 answered, " He is ill; but it is not gout, nor herpes, nor 
 ague (the only diseases with which he is familar) : it is 
 something different. I don't know it, and it is very 
 bad here," pointing to the region of the left kidney. 
 Mr. Copping, in amazement, exclaimed, '' That is the 
 very spot !" Two eminent medical men were present. 
 
 Gout attacked me first two years ago. It took me 
 unprepared. The odour was as yet unknown ; at least 
 by its name. It was, therefore, fully developed before 
 I yielded credence to the assertion of my medical man. 
 I had not yet got into the free use of high heats, nor to 
 the full alternations, as at present, of hot and cold. I 
 was, indeed, then in the infancy of these matters. 
 However, by such means as I then employed, the positive 
 suffering was stopped after dx hours. 
 
 The second attack came in a month. I was still 
 without forewarning ; but otherwise I was better pre- 
 pared, and the malady went through its phases (laying 
 me up for ten days) without pain endured or rest lost. 
 Two medical men watched closely the operation. One 
 of these. Dr. Collet, writes in reference to it—'' What 
 has particularly to be observed is, that the attack has 
 been gone through under this great heat without the 
 ordinary accompaniment of pain, and its consequent
 
 hy the SmelL ^39 
 
 depression." The other, Dr. Sharpe, In commenting 
 on the case, further observed that the attack was un- 
 attended "by loss of sleep or of flesh." 
 
 I now arrive at the period of prevention. The boy 
 on whose nose I relied, had learnt to discriminate the 
 peculiar smell, and to give to it a name. The two 
 former attacks had followed at the interval of a month. 
 The period in the month was coincident with an extra 
 demand on me for labour, occasioned by a periodical 
 publication coming on the top of regular and continuous 
 work. With the third and subsequent months, I have, 
 at the corresponding periods, received notice of approach- 
 ing gout; and thereupon I have at once dealt with 
 myself as if the malady had been already developed, — 
 that is, remaining daily in the Bath for hours, as much 
 as six and a half, and never coming out until the 
 smell has disappeared. In every case the attack has 
 been averted, and no sensation of my own had indicated 
 so much as its approach. 
 
 I have, however, to cite three exceptions. Never 
 was there such an illustration of the maxim, " The 
 exception proves the rule." 
 
 These occurred when away from the Bath. Twice 
 I got back after the symptoms had appeared during 
 twenty-four hours. On both occasions two or three 
 days sufficed completely to restore me. On the third 
 occasion these symptoms had lasted forty-eight hours ; 
 and though the pain was stopped so soon as I got into 
 the high heat, still I was disabled from using mv foot
 
 340 Maladies detected by the Smell. 
 
 freely, either for walking or riding, for seven or eight 
 days. 
 
 From this you will see the grounds I have for 
 believing that I hold my tenure, not of health only, 
 but of life also, by heat ; and that tenure would be of 
 little value if I had to wait until my own sensations 
 informed me of a supervening malady. 
 
 I cannot conclude this letter, inordinate as is the 
 length to which it has already grown, without at least 
 one word on the important matter of absorption. 
 
 Taking the Bath regularly as I do, I can always tell 
 the quantity I perspire by the quantity I drink. I can 
 also estimate by the same means, in an approximate way, 
 the heat, and the time I have been exposed to it. When, 
 however, I came, in fighting the gout, to use the cold 
 water, my calculation was disturbed. So also, when, being 
 already thirsty, I went into the cold tank and remained 
 there some time, the thirst subsided. Proceeding there- 
 upon to observe closely, I discovered that I had not only 
 to deduct the time spent in the cold water from the sum 
 of drink, but that I had to reckon that time the other 
 way, in this fashion : that five minutes in the tank, the 
 water being at 65*^, compensated, in so far as drink was 
 required, for five minutes in the chamber at 230^. 
 
 Tip to this time the whole question of absorption had 
 been to me a puzzle. No medical man with whom I 
 had hitherto spoken, had gone beyond the assertion that 
 absorption was always going on ; this opinion being 
 based on the efiect on the evacuations of Baths, and
 
 ^he Law of Absorption, 341 
 
 lotions containing chemical ingredients. I had refused to 
 accept this solution, attributing such effects to endosmose 
 and exosmose, by reason of which the contents of fluids 
 are exchanged, although the fluids themselves remain 
 unaltered in volume. I spoke, however, to persons who 
 had never heard of endosmose, or who fancied it meant 
 a transmission of fluids. 
 
 It now appeared to me that I had discovered the law 
 of absorption, viz., that it was correlative with exuda- 
 tion, depending on the alternations of temperature ; the 
 vessels expelling the fluid at a high temperature, and 
 absorbing it at a low temperature. Also, that their faculty 
 of absorption was equal to their faculty of exudation : 
 consequently, that both functions were performed by the 
 same vessels. Otherwise, indeed, absorption would 
 require a distinct set of vessels in the skin, which are 
 wanting. 
 
 At first I apprehended that the cold would diminish 
 the discharge of poisonous matter : the reverse appeared 
 to be the result. This explanation suggested itself. 
 
 The pain, the malady, the gout, the urea, or whatever 
 term may be given to the undischarged residue of diges- 
 tion, must, though chemical, have a corporeal existence, 
 and occupy space. When compared with the minutest 
 vascular and cellular lining, this space will stand as mere 
 specks on an outstretched plain. To remove these noxious 
 particles is the duty of perspiration ; but the currents 
 of perspiration (though numbered by millions) are but 
 partial and finite streams, with difficulty searching for,
 
 34^ ^^^ Law of Absorption. 
 
 finding, and cleansing out these particles. If these 
 currents be at times reversed, the particles will be stirred 
 up, and be more easily carried out by the returning stream. 
 
 Excuse my venturing to speak thus on such matters* 
 Ignorance, as a rule, renders speech presumptuous. In 
 this case,^ however, it is ignorance alone that furnishes 
 to me the right to speak, or can supply to you the in- 
 ducement to listen. Had I been learned, I should not 
 have travelled beyond the circle of received ideas. It is 
 what I have experienced in myself, not what I know of 
 what others have done, that can alone be of value to you. 
 
 In every line I have been writing, I have had a design 
 against yourself. I want to constrain you into making 
 the resolve to have in the Newcastle Infirmary the 
 counterpart of what I have here, and so gain for your 
 12,000 yearly sufferers what I myself possess. If you 
 did so, it is not tens of thousands, but tens of million* 
 who would be benefited ; for the results obtained by you, 
 extending over such numbers, and coming with such 
 authority, must at once put down alike the interested or 
 the prejudiced opposition of medical men, axid the weak 
 illusions of patients and the public. After aU, it would 
 only be going back a century, when "Sweating Hoams"* 
 (look at the sensible and indigenous name, compared 
 with the "Eoman Bath," the '^OrientalBath," ^'Thermo- 
 Therapsea," &c., of the would-be schemers and imita- 
 
 * The " Sweating Houses" of the Irish still exist. A man of 
 ninety-two, in the county Louth, told me that in his youth every 
 respectable farmer lad a " Sweating EoomJ'
 
 The Law of Absorption. 343 
 
 •tors) were attached to infirmaries, and these heated to 
 250^. For in Sir Joseph Banks's experiments that 
 heat is mentioned, without comment, as obtained in the 
 Sweating Eoom of the Liverpool Infirmary. 
 
 For the treatment of disease, the Bath and the patient 
 must he under the same roof. 
 
 This can be obtained only in Hospitals, Infirmaries, 
 Unions, Asylums, and Barracks, or in the mansions of 
 the wealthy. 
 
 The Newcastle Infirmary, if it does not take the lead, 
 will be left behind. The process in its perfect form will 
 start up in unheard-of places, and new medical men, and 
 most probably from the number of the present opposers 
 and scofiers, will suddenly spring to eminence on the 
 very scafiblding raised by those first pioneers whom they 
 at present revile. 
 
 Not only at Newcastle is the matter in your own hands 
 as regards the Infirmary, but you have further this great 
 facility, that the whole faculty there are with you. Com- 
 pared with other medical men engaged in the same cause, 
 you repose on a bed of down — a position superinducing 
 slumber at times. 
 
 I have had for some time in my mind a plan which I 
 desire to submit to you; and that is, a Consumptive 
 Hospital, not only to be endowed with a perfect Bath, 
 but one in which the rays of the sun shall be called 
 into play, and the whole directed to the correction of the 
 vicious habits in the individual which are conducive to 
 the development of that disorder.
 
 344 Proposals for a 
 
 This idea arose from my having been induced by Dr, 
 Pollock to visit the Consumptive Hospital at Brompton. 
 We were engaged there in discussing how a Bath might 
 be added ; but I came away, not with the desire that this 
 should be effected, but with a far different one. It became 
 my ambition to build a Consumptive Hospital. I should 
 almost regret to see a Bath introduced in such establish- 
 ments on their present footing. 
 
 It is not to be expected that, until the knowledge of 
 the benefit becomes general, the money could be raised 
 on philanthropic grounds ; but the way might be opened 
 for it by a proprietary Consumptive Hospital, intended 
 for the wealthy, who at present send, or desire to send, 
 their sick relatives to Montpelier and to Madeira. 
 The pecuniary results of the Hammam in London, and 
 its rapidly-extending use by the higher and wealthier 
 classes, hold out inducements to make the attempt, if 
 any earnest and sincere persons would make a beginning, 
 being themselves moved by worthier considerations. 
 
 In a recent letter, you regretted that the Bath was not 
 mor^ generally known. Unfortunately, since Baths have 
 been opened, the sense of their importance has decayed. 
 This is, of course, attributable to the spurious imitation. 
 We have prevented a general disgust by getting one 
 proper Bath built. But what is one Bath, when, for 
 anything deserving the name of public benefit, they 
 should be counted by tens of thousands ; and these not 
 proprietary ones, but charitably and munificently en- 
 dowed for the public use, — at least, of the working
 
 Consumption Hospital, 345 
 
 classes ? What we have accomplislied is but a sample. 
 Having a whole people to cleanse, that building stands, 
 in reference to the national need, as would do the 
 landing of a bushel of wheat at Gloucester in reference 
 to the public hunger, were there famine in the land. 
 
 Believe me. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 D. IJrquhart. 
 
 P.S. — I find I have omitted to say, in reference to the 
 cited cases of gout (as in all other cases), that no medicine 
 of any kind was administered. 
 
 (Extract.) 
 sir john fife to mr. urquhart. 
 
 Newcastle-on- Tyne, 
 
 February 14, 1864. 
 
 Perhaps your pamphlet might go forth to the world 
 with greatest effect independent of any introduction by 
 me. But if you think otherwise let me know. 
 
 It seems to me that the faith, and hope, and zeal 
 which shine through your style may make a better 
 impression on the public mind than the qualified and 
 guarded statements of sceptical science.
 
 346 Detection of Maladies by Smell, 
 
 ANTICIPATION BY DE. W. STOKES OF THE 
 DETECTION OF MALADIES BY SMELL. 
 
 A pupil of Dr. W. Stokes informs me that, in his course of 
 lectures at Dublin, in 1848, after pointing out that the discovery 
 of Laennec, in reference to auscultation, had only realised the 
 anticipation of Hippocrates as to thoracic dropsy (when a sound 
 as of boiling vinegar could be detected by applying the ear to 
 the chest) went on to remark that " pathology, when carried 
 to greater perfection, would probably enable us to detect the 
 existence and conditions of many maladies, no less than auscul- 
 tation did in reference to those diseases in which the dis- 
 turbance of mechanical processes in connection with the fluids 
 enabled that organ to become perceptive. Thus, at some future 
 period, the nose may, from the mere surface of the body, be 
 able to detect the difference between pneumonia and bronchitis 
 — that is, disease of the substance of the lungs as distinguished 
 from disease of the ducts."
 
 Introduction of the Bath into the 
 Lunatic Asylums, and the Naval 
 and Military Hospitals. 
 
 There are two peculiarities of insanity wliicli point 
 to the Bath as a remedy. These are inertness of the 
 skin, and a disagreeable odour. The power of heat to 
 remove both being established, we may infer a power- 
 ful and beneficial action through the symptoms on 
 their causes. We are, however, no longer restricted to 
 the region of a priori reasoning ; we have entered on 
 the field of experiment. 
 
 SUSSEX LUNATIC ASYLUM. 
 
 Lunatic Asylum, Hayw^ard's Heath, 
 February y 1863. 
 
 My dear Mr. Urquhart, — I gladly comply with 
 your request that I should send you a few lines re- 
 garding my experience of the use of the bath in the 
 treatment of mental disease. In the " Journal of Men- 
 tal Science " for July, 1862, I published a short paper 
 " Cases illustrating the use of the Turkish Bath in 
 the treatment of Mental Disease," in which I endea- 
 voured to give an account of my use of the bath (recently
 
 348 Lunatic Asylums. 
 
 erected here) during the previous six months. The 
 temperature at which my observations (about thirty in 
 number) were then made was 145° to 150°. The results 
 as detailed in that paper were most encouraging, and 
 such as to have induced me to continue the use of this 
 powerful remedial agent in my practice here. Another 
 year's experience has, however, modified, as one might 
 expect, my views on several points connected with the 
 remedial use of the bath. Thus I have passed the 
 test you have often spoken of, of 150" ! I now as often 
 use the bath at 170"^ as at 150^, and I am slowly 
 feeling my way to your temperature of 200° ; and 
 I have no manner of doubt that, tmtil I arrive at the 
 use of these higher temperatures, I am not in a position 
 to learn or judge what the hath can accomplish in tJie 
 curative treatment of disease. Next, I have abandoned 
 the expensive fire-brick channels, by which I, in the 
 first instance, heated the bath, and have substituted the 
 direct radiation from iron smoke-pipes, the furnace also 
 beinsr in the hot room. I find that much hio^her tem- 
 peratures can noAV be borne by the patients . than with 
 the former brick flues. I am also gradually using the 
 bath for longer periods. I began with twenty minutes 
 once and twice a week. I have now got to an hour's 
 length, and am progressing herein also. I fully realize 
 how much I have to learn yet of the therapeutic uses 
 of the bath ; how little I know of its operations. 
 
 As regards the use of the bath in the treatment 
 of mental disease, I continue to entertain the most 
 favourable opinion. As yet we have no specific in 
 the cure of insanity, such as quinine is for the cure
 
 Lnnatic Asylums. 340 
 
 of ague ; and I for one do not look for such. Insanity- 
 is a disease depending on, and associated with, various 
 functional disorders, and especially with the perverted 
 nutrition of the organ of the mind. The treatment of 
 these pathological conditions consists not in the mecha- 
 nical administration of specifics, but in the rational 
 application of the principles of medicine to the special 
 symptoms of each individual case. Thus to illustrate 
 my meaning by a case. A patient is suffering from 
 an attack of mania, with great restlessness and inco- 
 herence of thought and violence, with increased action 
 of the heart, and congestion of the head and suppression 
 of the catamenia, and of the secretion of the skin, which 
 is rough and dry. The indications of treatment here 
 are to restore the balance of the circulation, and thus 
 to regulate the secretions and the supply of blood to the 
 brain, and so to restore the healthy action of the uterus, 
 the skin, and the brain. Experience teaches us that 
 such a result will only follow the slow and steady use 
 of remedies influencing the action of the heart and of 
 the nervous system. Of such remedies, few are more 
 powerful in their action than the bath ; and I find 
 that the continued use in such a case of this remedy 
 will, through its soothing action on the nervous system, 
 and the relief it affords to internal congestion by de- 
 termining the blood to the surface, modif}^, if not cure, 
 the symptoms of mental disease present. 
 
 My experience of the use of the bath has hitherto 
 been chiefly limited to cases of chronic mental disease. 
 In one instance of acute mania, depending apparently 
 on recent small-pox, I found immediate relief of the
 
 350 Lunatic Asylums, 
 
 maniacal symptoms follow the administration of the 
 bath. My great success has been with cases of melan- 
 cholia, with refusal of food, and loss of strength and 
 ftesh. I have a record of more than a dozen such cases 
 of melancholia which have materially benefited by the 
 use continued over a period of two or three months of 
 the bath twice a week. 
 
 In several cases of melancholia, complicated with 
 phthisis in its earlier stage, a great improvement both of 
 the mental and physical symptoms has followed the 
 treatment. 
 
 In irregularity of the uterine functions, which in 
 young girls is sometimes complicated with mania, I have 
 fotind in several instances a cure follow the restoration 
 through the agency of the bath, of the healthy uterine 
 action. 
 
 Setting the mental symptoms aside, I would here saj^ 
 that if the bath had only this one remedial power of 
 restoring suppressed menstruation, its value in reducing 
 the ills resulting from our high civilization would still be 
 great. I have within the last two months discharged two 
 young girls cured, who for many months sufiered from 
 maniacal symptoms, connected with irregular menstrual 
 action. 
 
 When you were at Hay v^ard's Heath the other day I 
 showed you a patient, M. W., who was admitted here on 
 the 23rd of February, 1863, apparently in a state of 
 confirmed dementia, unable even to tell his name ; rest- 
 less and destructive. He was much reduced in health, 
 and there was dropsy of the lower limbs, with albuminous 
 urine of a marked character. The patient gradually got
 
 Lunatic Asylums. 351 
 
 worse, and after he had been a month in the asylum, 
 I sent him to the bath almost as a forlorn hope. The 
 result of a month's treatment of the bath, twice a 
 week, was that the dropsy disappeared, that no trace of 
 albumen is now to be found in the urine, and that the 
 man is apparently convalescent. You will remember 
 seeing him here at his work as a carpenter. 
 
 These few words on the use of the bath in the treat- 
 ment of the insane would be incomplete were I to omit 
 to notice a specific power to remove the noxious secretion 
 of the skin so frequent with the insane, and which, in 
 the asylums of twenty years ago, one could recognize as 
 distinctly as the smell of a dog-kennel, and which still 
 sometimes refuses to yield to ordinary ablution. The 
 bath entirely removes this unpleasant complication. 
 
 Lastly, the bath is a remedial agent grateful to the 
 feelings of the insane, and which they do not, like other 
 means of washing, associate with the idea of punish- 
 ment. Were the bath at Hayward's Heath large 
 enough for the purpose (which, unfortunately, it is not> 
 having been built at a small cost, £40, as an experi- 
 ment), I should entirely replace the ordinary hot- water 
 baths used twice a week for cleanliness — with " the hath''* 
 as you always term it. 
 
 Believe me, sincerely yours, 
 
 C. L. EoBEKTsoN, M.D. Cantab., 
 
 Medical Superintendent. 
 
 D. Urquhart, Esq.
 
 35^ Lunatic Asylums, 
 
 In tlie Fifth Annual Eeport of the Sussex County Lunatic 
 Asylum, jus I. issued, Dr. Lockbart Robertson publishes some 
 important remarks on the Turkish bath as a curative agent. 
 He relates a case in which a patient was admitted with symp- 
 toms of mania, complicated with dropsy and albuminuria of the 
 most severe character. The patient was in a desperate state, 
 menaced with madness and paralysis, and apparently dying 
 from the extent of kidney-disease. Dr. Eobertson states that 
 the bath saved the patient's life and restored him to reason. 
 Dr. Eobertson observed that the medical uses of the bath have 
 yet to be studied. He believes them to be very great. Of its 
 curative power in the early stages of consumption he has had 
 several examples. He longs to see the bath fairly tried in other 
 diseases. He believes, if used at sufficiently high temperatures 
 (170" — 200°), the results will astonish us all. If anything ever 
 can cure hydrophobia it will be the bath at 200° continued for 
 many hours. — Tlie Lancet. 
 
 Dr. Power, in answer to a question, stated that the success 
 of the Turkish bath in the house was even greater than he 
 expected, and he was almost afraid to state his opinions of the 
 success that would attend the use of it, for fear, in the event of 
 any subsequent failure, his opinion might be quoted against the 
 bath as having been founded on a very short trial. Out of four 
 patients, however, regularly exercised on by it, one had been 
 dismissed cured, and the other three were working regularly, 
 which they have never done before. — Cork Examiner.
 
 Lunatic Asylums, 2S3 
 
 COLNEY HATCH. 
 
 Other asylums are now following the example of 
 those in Sussex and Ireland. I subjoin an extract from 
 a letter which I addressed to the medical superin- 
 tendent of the asylum at Colney Hatch, bearing on the 
 peculiar adaptation of the Bath to such establishments. 
 
 I may here mention that a similar bath for the Great 
 Naval and Military Hospital at Netley is shortly to be 
 constructed. It cannot fail thence to spread to the 
 other Government hospitals, as also to the barracks and 
 to vessels afloat.* Thus, in a short time the British 
 army may be in possession of this cleanser of the armies 
 of Eome formerly, and of the Turks to-day; and the 
 British navy enjoy the luxury which was shared in by 
 those of Syracuse, Carthage, of the Ptolemies, and of 
 Mithridates. 
 
 23rd May. 
 Dear Sie, — Since Monday last I have at every interval of 
 leisure been engaged in planning an adaptation of the bath to 
 the purposes of your institution. The bath, and that by radia- 
 ting heat, must of course be there ; but, in addition, you require 
 a large available space for the daily washing of your patients, 
 with abundant supply of hot and cold water, in a hall with an 
 Indian temperature. 
 
 * A bath on board passenger vessels will probably be found 
 to have the effect of stopping sea-sickness. 
 
 AA
 
 3^4 Lunatic Asylums. 
 
 I have on Saturday entered fully on this matter with Mr, 
 Wood, and he has carried away the dimensions so as to be able 
 to hare a plan proposed for submission to your Board to- 
 morrow. 
 
 I consider the advantages so self-evident, that no words are 
 required : still there are economic considerations which I would 
 urge, as these may assist the Board in coming to a decision 
 on the point now raised, which involves an increased expen- 
 diture in oneway, but brings a very large reduction in another. 
 
 The plan originally submitted to you was baaed on an expen- 
 diture of £300. The present is for £500. 
 
 For this you will have a structure which will become the 
 model for the asylums, hospitals, unions, and barracks of the 
 three kingdoms. 
 
 You will have your present washing rooms (30 or more) set 
 free for other uses, and no need of constructing more. 
 
 You will discharge yearly not 25, but 75 per cent, of your 
 patients. You will save nine-tenths of your hospital charges. 
 
 You will dispense entirely with stockings. 
 
 You will reduce by one-third the amount expended on clothing 
 and blankets. 
 
 You will reduce the amount of food consumed. 
 
 It is not, therefore, an increased charge of £500 that is pro- 
 posed, but a reduction of yearly expenditure to the amount of 
 tens Q^ thousands. 
 
 With the prospect brought before you of such benefits in 
 respect to the objects of the Institution, — the treatment of 
 insanity, and with the evidence by which it is even already 
 supported, you can scarcely put aside its consideration, nor 
 escape from the necessity of a trial in a more or less efficient 
 manner. 
 
 Such an edifice cannot be obtained without cost, and labour, 
 and care. 
 
 The Hammam in Jermyn-street, which by the best judges — 
 the Turks — is held to be the most perfect in existence, affords 
 you the mcdel, and if yours required an equal outlay, it would 
 be but natural. I offer you, however, a far different prospect.
 
 Lunatic Asylums, 2SS 
 
 During the last four years, and while engaged on this and 
 similar buildings, I have fallen on expedients by which the 
 results can be obtained in a far higher degree, and at infinitely 
 less coat. I could construct the same to-day at a third less. 
 
 The Hammam, however, has cost for the building part 
 £10,000 (£20,000 in all). The area is 7000 square feet. I pro- 
 pose to give you a building with an area of 1,500 feet, at a cost 
 of £500, and will undertake to pay the difference in case of 
 excess of expenditure. 
 
 In tbis is, however, not included the swimming basin, which 
 you will see in the outlines taken away by Mr. Wood, and to 
 which I suppose you can devote the spare labour of your 
 people. 
 
 You will thus have a place of recreation and exercise for your 
 patients, such as the Gymnasia of the Greeks, and the garden 
 prepared for himself by Pliny in the villa of Tusculum. 
 
 You will also have a bath, which, like that of Etruscus, will 
 be visited by the sun during every hour of the day. 
 
 " Multus ubique dies radiis ubi culmina totis 
 Perforat, atque alio sol improbus uritur aestu." 
 
 As you dispose of the patients' time, and can arrange relays 
 from six in the morning till eight at night (and herein lies your 
 facility), you can pass 700 patients through the operation of the 
 bath daily. For mere washing you can pass them through it 
 at the rate of 250 an hour. 
 
 The charge for fuel will not exceed Is. 6d. per diem. I will 
 not speak of soap or linen, as those charges you bear already. 
 
 As to the effect in lunacy, we have, besides inductive reasons, 
 the results obtained in the lunatic asylums of Cork and Sussex, 
 which show a greatly increased proportion of cures. But in 
 neither of these establishments is the bath of a power in any 
 degree approaching in efficacy or accommodation, in cheerful- 
 ness and enjoyment, to that of which I now submit to you the 
 plan. 
 
 In the Eeport of the Newcastle Infirmary the saving of drugs 
 is particularly insisted on as one of the benefits obtained by the 
 introduction of the Turkish Bath. Although theirs is of the
 
 356 Lunatic Asylums, 
 
 paltriest and meanest construction, yet they expressed tliem» 
 selves in these terms : — " The bath became a species of Elysium, 
 where ache and pain vanished as if by magic." 
 
 The whole will be arranged panoptically, so that a superin- 
 tendent, himself unseen, can, with the exception of one apart- 
 ment, watch every patient. With the resources of your estab- 
 lishment, the whole may be completed in four weeks. 
 I have the honour to be. Sir, 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 D. TJequhaet. 
 E. Sheppaed, Esq., M.D. 
 
 P.S. — I have referred back to a report I received some time 
 back from the Medical Superintendent of the Sussex Lunatic 
 Asylum, and find it so useful in your case that I have sent it to 
 be printed, and you will receive copies by this evening's post.
 
 Heat-Rays, Sun-Rays, Electricity, 
 and Vital Power. 
 
 ** Coal is but bottled Sun." — Stephenson. 
 
 That such degree of temperature in the air or in 
 bodies as we call heat is different from the heat that 
 travels through the air, everyone knows. The inquisitive 
 mind will doubtless seek to ascertain in what that differ- 
 ence consists, and the very first step he makes will also 
 be the final one. It consists not in its nature, but in its 
 motion. Then a wholly new field of inquiry opens. 
 The motion proceeds, not from its nature, but from 
 something foreign to it. The ray is discharged just as 
 the cannon ball ; it is the nature, not of the bullet, 
 but of the gunpowder with which we have to deal. 
 Heat discharged in this fashion is said to radiate; 
 that is, the heat is treated as rays, and is thereby assi- 
 milated to light, which is sensible to us only as rays. 
 But the rays of heat become at a certain point illumi- 
 nated, and pass into light just as the dark metal 
 from which they flash becomes luminous. The identi- 
 fication is complete. Heat and light differ only in 
 degree.
 
 358 Heat-Ray Sy Sun-Rays, 
 
 Then comes the question, " What is light ?" I do 
 not mean in its scientific character, but in its useful 
 application to man ; and among the endless variety of 
 these uses, " What is light in its restorative capacity ?" 
 
 When the difierence between heat as temperature, 
 and heat as rays, was brought home to me by my life 
 being prolonged through the accidental substitution of 
 the one for the other, after the efficacy of the first had 
 failed, this question was forced upon me, and I answered 
 it in somewhat the following manner : — 
 
 The rays of heat when they attain to brightness have 
 the same speed as those of the sun. Electricity has 
 an equal speed with both. Electricity can produce 
 both heat and light. Electricity is life. The three 
 fluids having common properties, and being inter- 
 changeable, it foUows that some portions of the virtue 
 and use of each in the economy of the universe must be 
 present in the other, heat converting itself into projec- 
 tile, and being as it were an artillery sweeping space, it 
 foUows that, having the power to produce this projectile, 
 I gain the powers of the sun himself. 
 
 We can produce light, and consequently rays, by the 
 combination of the opposite qualities of electricity. These 
 rays are at once sun-rays and radiating caloric. These 
 rays, falling on an opaque body, disappear. The light 
 is lost ; the heat also, in a greater or less degree, is lost. 
 Striking the body of a man, they are neither (in their 
 whole mass) transmitted, nor reflected, nor refracted, nor 
 absorbed. They must, therefore, be transformed ; that 
 is, decomposed ; that is, resolved into their elements, the 
 negative and positive electricity. If so, they must
 
 Electricity^ and Vital Power, 2S9 
 
 transfer to this human body a dose of vital power. 
 Thus, while transmitted heat raises only the tempera- 
 ture of the body, impinging heat does something more 
 than raise the temperature of the body. 
 
 I was one day adducing evidence on these points, 
 when a medical man present said, " No man can treat 
 such an idea as empirical after the experiments of 
 Professor Tyndall." 
 
 On this, I sent for Mr, TyndalPs book, *' Heat as a 
 Means of Motion," published last year, and found how 
 much I might have spared myself of idle argumentation. 
 
 That work, however, deals with the rays of heat 
 only as acting on dead matter, on vegetation and 
 healthy life. Expecting to elicit from the author what 
 might have been in his mind respecting their action in 
 a restorative sense, I applied to him, and received the 
 following reply : — 
 
 " I may say that I have lived mentally on radiant 
 heat for the last five years, but I have made no experi- 
 ments as to its effect upon the human system. This is 
 a matter which can be decided by experiment alone ; 
 but if I wanted information upon the subject, you are 
 the man to whom I would in the first instance turn. 
 , Now that you direct my attention to the subject, I will 
 tear it in mind, and I may possibly thus obtain some 
 strong light as regarding the rationale of the thing.''* 
 
 Conceiving that this work establishes the scientific 
 
 * In another letter he says : — *' The preference you give to 
 dry over moist air is, I think, justified by philosophy as well 
 as practice."
 
 360 Heat-Rays^ Sun-Ray s, 
 
 grounds for the results which I have gropingly ob- 
 tained, I call on all those whose duty it is to find the 
 best means of meeting disease — that is, medical men — to 
 study it before disregarding, on preliminary or abstract 
 grounds, the testimony I bear as to the results which 
 I myself have obtained. 
 
 I subjoin a passage on the agency of the sun, begging 
 the reader to bear in mind, while perusing it, that I 
 place in his hands the faculty of calling down this 
 power, of using it familiarly, and of applying it to the 
 relief of his own bodily suffering, or of those of his 
 relatives, his friends, and his fellow-creatures. 
 
 " Precisely the same considerations which we have formerly 
 applied to heat we have now to apply to light. It ^'^i at the 
 expense of the solar light that the decomposition of the carbonic 
 acid is effected. Without the sun the reduction cannot take 
 place, and an amount of sunhght is consumed exactly equivalent 
 to the molecular work accomplished. Thus trees are formed, 
 thus the meadows grow, thus the flowers bloom. Let the solar 
 rays fall upon the surface of the sand, the sand is heated, 
 and finally radiates away as much as it receives ; let the same 
 rays fall upon a forest, the quantity of heat given back is less 
 than that received, for the energy of a portion of the sunbeams 
 is invested in the building of the trees. I have here a bundle 
 of cotton, which I ignite; it bursts into flame, and yields a 
 definite quantity of heat ; precisely that amount of heat was 
 abstracted from the sun, in order to form that bit of cotton. 
 This is a representative case ; every tree, plant, and flower, 
 grows and flourishes by the grace and bounty of the sun. 
 
 " But we cannot stop at vegetable life, for this is the source of 
 all animal life. In the animal body vegetable substances are 
 brought again into contact with their beloved oxygen, and they 
 burn within us as a fire in a grate. This is the source of all 
 animal power ; and the forces in play are the same, in kind, as
 
 Electricity y and Vital Power, 361 
 
 those wliicli operate in organic matter. In the plant the clock 
 is wound up ; in the animal it runs down. In the plant the 
 atoms are separated ; in the animal they recombine. And as 
 surely as the force which moves a clock's hands is derived from 
 the arm which winds up the clock, so surely is all terrestrial 
 power drawn from the sun. Leaving out of account the 
 eruptions of volcanoes, and the ebb and flow of the tides, every 
 mechanical action on the earth's surface, and every manifesta- 
 tion of power, organic and inorganic, vital and physical, is pro- 
 duced by the sun. His warmth keeps the sea liquid, and the 
 atmosphere a gas : and all the storms which agitate both are 
 blown by the mechanical force of the sun. He lifts the rivers 
 and the glaciers up the mountains ; and thus the cataract and 
 the avalanche shoot with an energy derived immediately from 
 him. Thunder and lightning are also his transmuted strength- 
 Every fire that burns, and every flame that glows, dispenses 
 light and heat which originally belonged to the sun. In these 
 days, unhappily, the news of battle is familiar to us ; but every 
 shock and every charge is an application, or misapplication, of 
 the mechanical force of the sun. He blows the trumpet, he urges 
 the projectile, he bursts the bomb. He rears, as I have said, 
 the whole vegetable world, and through it the animal ; the 
 lilies of the field are his workmanship, the verdure of the 
 meadows, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. He forms the 
 muscle, he urges the blood, he builds the brain. His fieetness 
 is in the lion's foot ; he springs in the panther, he soars in the 
 eagle, he slides in the snake. He builds the forest and hews it 
 down ; the power which raised the tree and which wields the axe 
 being one and the same. The clover sprouts and blossoms, and 
 the scythe of the mower swinges, by the same force. The sun 
 digs the ore from our mines ; he rolls the iron ; he rivets the 
 plates ; he boils the water ; he draws the train. He not only grows 
 the cotton, but he spins the fibre and weaves the web. There 
 is not a hammer raised, a wheel turned, or a shuttle thrown, 
 that is not raised and thrown by the sun. His energy is poured 
 freely into space, but our world is a halting-place where his
 
 ;^62 Heat-Ray Sy Sun- Ray s^ 
 
 energy is conditioned. Here tlie Proteus works his spells ; tke 
 self-same essence takes a million shapes and hues, and finally 
 dissolves into its primitive and almost formless form. The sun 
 comes to us as heat ; and between his entrance and departure 
 the multiform powers of our globe appear. They are all special 
 forms of solar power — the moulds into which his strength is 
 temporarily poured, in passing from its source through 
 infinitude."* 
 
 To know the part the sun or any other agent has had 
 in your formation and growth is not of the remotest 
 value to any human being ; but to know how you can 
 use the sun, or any other agent, for the cure of your ills 
 or the prolongation of your life, is of the very greatest 
 value. 
 
 "We have already on several occasions had to remark 
 that the most recent scientific discoveries had been 
 anticipated by the earliest traditions, and also that these 
 traditions had appeared evidences of an ignorant and 
 a barbarous condition, because the interpretation was 
 impossible until science in these respects had become 
 capable of understanding them. 
 
 Another instance of the kind is furnished by the 
 discovery that space is not empty, but is pervaded by 
 what may be termed the inert matter of light, and con- 
 sequently of heat. 
 
 We have thus to the four elements of common speech 
 a fifth to add, that fifth consisting in empyrean atmo- 
 sphere, distinguished from that which we breathe, x^ow 
 the number of the elements of the earlier systems, — that 
 
 * TyndaU's *' Heat considered as a Means of Motion," pp. 430 
 —433.
 
 Electricity^ and Vital Tower, 
 
 ^63 
 
 is, of the astronomic reKgions, — was not four, but five ; 
 and the fifth is this very matter of light and heat and 
 motion, now rediscovered. 
 
 The religious and philosophical systems of the ancient 
 Hindus have classified these elements by their attributes, 
 as appreciable to the five senses of man, commencing 
 with the aether, as follows : — 
 
 ^ther. 
 
 Air. 
 
 Fire. 
 
 Water. 
 
 Earth. 
 
 Sound. 
 
 Sound 
 
 Sound 
 
 Sound 
 
 Sound 
 
 
 Touch. 
 
 Touch 
 
 Touch 
 
 Touch 
 
 
 
 Form. 
 
 Form 
 Savour. 
 
 Form 
 
 Savour 
 
 Odour. 
 
 The Sanscrit name for aether is akdka, from the 
 prefix a, towards, and 7;<2s, shine ; therefore implying 
 "everywhere shining;" hence it also means space; 
 &kasa being supposed to pervade the universe. 
 
 On this point, as in so many others, we have in 
 Greece, the reflection of Hindostan, as recorded in the 
 adjuration placed by -^schylus in the mouth of Pro- 
 metheus, 
 
 He is appealing to the powers of nature against the 
 tyranny of Jove, and he does so in this order : — 1. ^ther. 
 2. Air. 3. Water. 4. Earth. 5. Fire (the Sun). I 
 subjoin the passage, as wonderful in various ways. 
 Prometheus was chained on the Himalaya, — not on the 
 mountain range between the Caspian and the Euxine, 
 to which the original name of the " Mountains of the 
 Cash" (Caucasus) has been transferred. It is to the 
 latter, however, at this moment, that apply the words or
 
 364 Heat-Rays^ Sun-Rays, etc, 
 
 prediction of the Greek poet. To render the application 
 literal, it suffices to alter in the last line ^eds to "E^voy, 
 when the sense would run, " Behold what things I, a 
 nation, suffer from the nations !"* 
 
 HorafjLwv re Trrjyal, ttovt'iuv TCKVixdruv 
 'Avr]pidfxov y^XacTfia, iraixixrirSp re 7^, 
 Kal rhv TravSirrriv kvkXov t)Kiov koKu. 
 "iSecrSe p! oXa irpos Bewv Trdcrxw deSs. 
 
 " O divine ^ther, swift-winced breathings, fountains of 
 rivers, and countless smiles of ocean waves. Earth, of all 
 things mother; and all-seeing circle of the Sun, — I invoke 
 Sehold, what things I, a god, suffer from the gods ! "
 
 Part II. 
 
 Action of the Bath 
 On Horses and Cattle.
 
 Second Part. 
 
 The Bath in the Farm. 
 
 The use of the bath for cattle has been almost 
 restricted hitherto to the training of horses for the 
 race-course. The results suffice to establish a claim 
 on the attention of the farmer, the breeder, and the 
 landlord. 
 
 If, in the training of horses — an art perfected by the 
 care of so many and such able men — this process is 
 accepted as a means of rectifying errors, and of obtain- 
 ing power for the animal, independently of food and 
 exercise,* it must be for working cattle and the farm 
 stock at least of equal value. If so, unquestionably the 
 profits of labour and capital and the rent of the land 
 must be augmented by the general introduction of the 
 bath on farms. 
 
 It is now eight years since the value of this process 
 has been fully and experimentally established, and yet 
 I have in England and Scotland only one farm bath to 
 cite : it is that of Lord Kinnaird. I do so with peculiar 
 
 * See note at the end.
 
 368 The Bath in the Farm. 
 
 satisfaction, ^s this is the only case of an idea worked 
 out independently. 
 
 The universal difficulty I have had to contend with 
 has been the aversion to, and dread of, high heat, by 
 which alone you can operate on disease. To this dul- 
 ness of sight is superadded defective construction. 
 They cannot get high heats, and then thej^ say, " Any- 
 thing above 130° is injurious.'* Lord Kinnaird has got 
 heat, and has dared to use it. His thermometer ranges 
 up to 212'', and consequently he can stop disease at 
 once if acute, and more speedily relieve it if chronic. 
 " In Lord Kinnaird's bath for cattle, there having been 
 no trouble either with patients or medical men, the 
 necessity for high temperature for the cure of grave 
 disorders has been ascertained. The words of a report 
 in the * Scottish Farmer,' 1862, are : — * The heat re- 
 quired in cases of pneumonia needs to be very great — 
 — up to 200° to 212° — boiling point, in fact. At a less 
 temperature the curative effect was not visible.' " * 
 
 In respect to pneumonia, Alderman !Mechi says, in a 
 recent number of the " Gardener's Chronicle" (June 
 4, 1864), "AYhat is wanted is attention, or the Turkish 
 bath." The Turkish bath is '' attention," and nothing 
 more. If any one will attend to what, in the given 
 case "a cold," ripening into pleuro-pneumonia, is 
 wanted to relieve nature and baffle disease, he will of 
 necessity fall on the expedient of heat, or, in other 
 words, a warmer climate. If his attention is profitable, 
 he will also discover that, by the proper use of fuel and 
 
 * Prospectus of the Jermyn Street Hammam.
 
 ^he Bath in the Farm. 369 
 
 tlie proper construction of an apartment, lie can obtain 
 at any spot, for any time, any amount of climate that 
 he may desire. 
 
 Professor Gamgee, in either the April or May num- 
 ber of the " Veterinary Review," estimates the annual 
 loss of cattle in Great Britain from pleuro-pneumonia 
 alone at £6,000,000. 
 
 Animals that are slaughtered for the use of man, 
 ought not to die of natural — or, more properly speak- 
 ing, unnatural — death. If the}^ die, it is through mis- 
 management, and the loss incurred is but the penalty 
 attached to neglect. From the subjoined statement 
 of the results of four years' experience on an Irish 
 farm, it appears that no death had occurred either on 
 the farm itself or on those adjoining it. It is not, 
 therefore, theoretically only that I conclude, but ex- 
 perimentally also, that the bath would save to the 
 country the loss at present yearly suffered in farm 
 stock. 
 
 I owe to the courtesy of the proprietor of the Field 
 the communication of as yet unpublished returns of 
 the yearly loss in farm stock. The following passage 
 in the appended report is from the pen of a veterinarj^ 
 surgeon : — 
 
 *' The Turkish Bath, not only as a medicinal agent, hut also as 
 a preventive of disease, deserves consideration, and we cannot 
 help thinking the hot-air chamber is almost as necessary an ad- 
 junct to the extensive stock-keeper as to the veterinary surgeon, 
 and for the simple reason, that in it we have an agent which 
 exerts more powerful influence than any derivative, ox-purge, 
 or blister, without lowering vital power ; for it carries off, or at 
 
 BB
 
 jyo T^he Bath in the Farm, 
 
 any rate diminislies, the amount of any virus that may circulate 
 in the blood, and by this means cleanses the system, and renders 
 it better able to throw off disease, and to resist the attacks 
 of it." 
 
 Upon such data as are at present within our reach, 
 the yearly loss appears to be, exclusive of epidemic 
 years, two and a half per cent, on cattle, and five per 
 cent, on sheep. Reckoning the whole of this to be 
 saved by the general use of the bath, still it would 
 amount but to a small part of the gain. The saving 
 in sickness, alike in the cattle and sheep that would die 
 as in those that do recover, must be taken into account, 
 and can scarcely be placed at less than twice the 
 amount of value of mere life preserved. "We may 
 estimate the saving on farm stock at ten per cent., 
 independently of veterinary charges, which are esti- 
 mated by Alderman Mechi at sixpence per acre. 
 
 Next comes the increase of animal power, whether as 
 applied to labour or exhibiting itself in flesh and in 
 milk, and this may be estimated at one-third. In the 
 subjoined report, six pounds of flesh are stated as being 
 put on under the action of the bath, for four pounds 
 without it. 
 
 Under this head we may safely estimate at ten per 
 cent, the increase in the value of farm stock, giving us 
 a total of twenty per cent, on the whole amount of live 
 animals. 
 
 These results might be indubitable and yet unattain- 
 able. Were the expense considerable or the construc- 
 tion elaborate, j^ears might elapse before the mass of 
 agriculturists could expect to profit thereby. Such
 
 ^he Bath in the Farm, 371 
 
 would have been tlie prospect had I been writing four 
 years ago. Now, however, the cost is reduced to 
 almost nothing, and the value of the heat is multiplied 
 many fold. I subjoin in a note a letter that went the 
 round of the Irish papers at the beginning of this year, 
 showing that any farm may have its bath by means of 
 a spare loose box, an old stove, and fifty shillings in 
 money.* 
 
 * ACCIDENT TO A HOESE IN A TURKISH BATH— A WARNING. 
 
 Carysfort House, January 5th, 1864. 
 Sir, — On Wednesday last the coachman hearing a disturb- 
 ance in the bath in which there was a horse, opened the door. 
 The animal showed great uneasiness, and with difficulty was 
 got out, on which he was seized with frightful convulsions, 
 threw himself down in the stall and stable, and in this way 
 rolling himself over and over, made his way into the yard, 
 where he was secured, and prevented from destroying himself, 
 by the combined efforts of about a dozen men. The impression 
 which was produced was that he was seized with madness. 
 Mr. Urquhart happening to be here on a visit, pronounced at 
 once the case to be one of asphyxia. On his inspecting the bath 
 this was confirmed — the air entering only under the door, and 
 so reaching the furnace below. The horse had been in two 
 hours and three quarters, at a temperature from 180° to 190". 
 This was the first bath for horses constructed on Mr. 
 TJrquhart's new plan, of a furnace with the draught from 
 within, so as to ventilate by suction, and which, consequently, 
 requires that there should be an air-passage from the highest 
 point, and that it should be hermetically sealed below. A cow 
 had been in the bath some days before for a much longer-t'me 
 without injury, probably in consequence of carrying her head 
 lower. The accident may prove a warning against such over- 
 sight in future. This form of bath, combining so much economy 
 both in structure and fuel, is at tlie same time so much
 
 372 'The Bath in the Farm, 
 
 The appreciation of the process has so rapidly ex- 
 tended during the last few months, that it may be 
 anticipated that no long period will elapse before a bath 
 will be considered a necessary appendage to every farm 
 of two hundred acres and upwards, and of every veteri- 
 nary establishment. 
 
 The bath commends itself to every farmer on six 
 several grounds : — 
 
 1. Care of sickness in cattle, sheep, and pigs. 
 
 2. Saving of mortality in young stock. 
 
 3. Fortifj'ing the horses engaged in ploughing and 
 draught. 
 
 4. Increasing flesh and milk. 
 
 5. Increasing the productiveness of stock. 
 
 6. Collateral advantages : drying harness, clothes, 
 saving damaged grain and seeds, saving of sickness to 
 farm servants, and also to the farmer himself and his 
 family. 
 
 It was in Ireland that the experiment of heat was 
 first tried, or rather recommenced, on man. Naturally 
 it was there first tried on animals. It began with 
 horses, it was extended to cattle, and the results have 
 been made known by the reports of agricultural asso- 
 ciations. These results, surprising as they appeared, 
 are still wholly inadequate to represent the efiects 
 
 tnore efficacious, that it must come into general use. The cost 
 of turning a loose box into this sort of bath does not exceed 
 £l'10s. for labour, and about £2 10s. for laundry store and 
 sheet-iron pipes. 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 B. POOBB.
 
 'The Bath in the Farm, 213 
 
 obtainable by heat: for these baths were at best but 
 tiraid gropings in the dark. The report which I sub- 
 join bears on a bath which originally had also but small 
 power. Even with the knowledge in the proprietor 
 of the necessity of a high temperature, he has not 
 been able to raise his above 180°, and the heat is not 
 radiating. 
 
 By the experience of this Irish farm, we have four 
 years without death in that and the neighbouring farms, 
 nor was there sickness. Diseases were arrested on the 
 appearance of the first symptoms. Now this result is 
 peculiarly instructive, from the general deterioration of 
 Irish stock during these four years, as shown by the 
 following extracts from the official returns :* — 
 
 Total value of live stock in Ireland : — 
 
 1859 £35,368,259 
 
 1863 29,997,546 
 
 Decrease . . . 5,370,713 
 
 While thus the farms in question in the north, as 
 likewise other farms in the south, were emancipated 
 from the average loss in casualties and sickness, the 
 other farms throughout Ireland were suffering that 
 average loss, say four per cent, yearly, or sixteen pe^ 
 cent, in the four years, together with a further loss on 
 the four years of nearly twenty per cent. ; so that in 
 this period of time, had the bath been general in Ire- 
 land, the public fortune under this head alone would 
 
 * Parliamentary Papers, " Agricultural Statistics — Ireland," 
 for 1863.
 
 374 ^^'^^ Bath in the Farm, 
 
 have been increased by nearly £10,000,000, or say 
 £2,000,000 a year.* 
 
 The same proportion would be far below the mark 
 for England, either as regards average or stock ; the 
 number of stock being higher to the acre, and the pro- 
 portion of sheep, among whom the loss is double, being" 
 only as one to six ; so that, reasoning on these data, the 
 saving in Great Britain would be £10,000,000 per 
 annum. 
 
 The farmer would doubtless not be influenced by 
 general considerations : he would look to his own farm, 
 and would have to view the matter in this shape : " My 
 stock amounts to £500. Is it worth my while to incur 
 an outlay of £5, and a yearly charge of £10, to insure 
 it against loss, and to increase its productiveness, 
 together amounting to from ten to fourteen per cent.?*' 
 
 Why should not every farm of 200 acres adopt this 
 precaution ? When the Turks adopted the bath, they 
 made it a rule that no habitation should be placed at a 
 greater distance from a bath than three miles. Yet 
 their baths were serviceable only for the breed of men \ 
 by their process of heating, an expensive edifice was 
 required, with expensive fuel. What the English 
 farmer can obtain by means of a loose box (which re- 
 mains as serviceable as ever) and an iron stove, a 
 Turkish village could obtain only by the outlay of £200 
 or £300. 
 
 * This is independently of veterinary charges, -w^hich, if 
 estimated according to Alderman Mechi's scale, would exceed 
 a quarter of a million per anniun.
 
 The Bath in the Farm, 2I S 
 
 TRAINING OF HOESES, 
 
 In the first Dialogue, page 1, it has been shown 
 that the objects of training consist in health and icind. 
 To those passages the reader is referred. 
 
 The proper treatment for a horse is the proper treat- 
 ment for a man, and is to be found in the educational 
 maxims of ancient times, viz., to accustom the bodj^ to 
 bear the extremes of heat and cold, and to endure pri- 
 vations in regard to food. Our practice is the reverse 
 for man. Naturally enough we have applied the same 
 rule to the horse. We clothe and house him so that he 
 shaU not know the extremes of heat and cold. We feed 
 him often. The horse, like the camel, is indigenous to 
 the high and cold regions of the Tartarian ranges. 
 Nevertheless, he flourishes in hot and dry zones. He 
 has attained to the highest perfection in those into 
 which he has been introduced. Our own breed is im- 
 mediately derived from the Tafilet Barb and the Godol- 
 phin Arab. 
 
 Trainers have closed their stables and sheeted up 
 their animals. This was seeking heat by excluding 
 air. As men wrapped up their bodies from the sun, 
 and closed by glass their apartments from the air, and 
 have so brought upon themselves morbid sensations 
 and countless diseases, so have the like practices engen- 
 dered in the horse similar diseases, and the like liability 
 to disease.
 
 37^ ^he Bath in the Farm. 
 
 It is, then, pure heat that the horse wants, and not 
 muffling. But cold has also its virtue. By creating an 
 artificial climate we obtain the benefits of both, and sa 
 acquire the power of transporting a horse to the wastes 
 of Arabia for a certain period of the day^ and of 
 restoring him to his native bracing cold for the re- 
 mainder of it. 
 
 We have experienced to the fullest extent the benefits 
 of this operation in man, even to the cure of the most 
 hopeless and inveterate disorders. But we should 
 gravely err if we placed, in this respect,, the man and 
 the horse on the same footing. The facility of acting 
 on the horse is much greater in consequence of his 
 volume relatively to that of man. 
 
 A large portion of the food is expended on the 
 production of animal heat. The smaller the size of the 
 animal the larger is the surface in proportion to its bulk, 
 and therefore the greater the escape of heat. A canary 
 in proportion to its size and weight consumes many 
 times as much food as a man. Heat escapes far more 
 rapidly from the man than from the horse. The efiect, 
 then, in the form of saving food, is for the horse very 
 considerable. It is thus that the horse is enabled to 
 inhabit the regions adjoining the limits of eternal 
 snow.* Consequently heat, externally applied to him, 
 has so much greater power than on man. In the cold 
 regions of Tartary, or the hot ones of Persia, Meso- 
 potamia, the JSTedjd, or the African deserts, he is seve- 
 rally brought to the highest perfection by heat or cold. 
 
 * See Moorcraft's Journal in the Himalaya and Tibet.
 
 The Bath in the Farm, 377 
 
 / look therefore to the Bath as capable of furnishing a 
 finer breed of horses than has as yet been obtained. For 
 this end, however, it is not the adult animal that has 
 temporarily to be subject to this action, but the foal and 
 the colt. From the moment of birth, and during the 
 period of growth, it has daily to be immersed in the 
 torrid, and restored to the arctic zone, without protec- 
 tion or covering ; the aim being to fortify the muscle, 
 develop the frame, and brace the nervous power by 
 balancing the double and apparently opposing agencies 
 of cold and heat : in a word, using the elements at once 
 which separately are afforded by the Plateau of Pamer, 
 or the Roof of the World,* and the plains of the Sahara 
 below the level of the ocean. 
 
 Were any trainer or proficient in stable lore asked 
 this question, ** What has domestication done for the 
 horse?" he would probably answer, "We give him 
 regular instead of uncertain food; we protect him 
 against the severity of the weather; and, lastly and 
 chiefly, keep him in health and strength by the curry- 
 comb, supplying a requisite to well-being, of which, in 
 the natural state, he is entirely destitute.'* 
 
 I have disposed of the first two points of so-called 
 amelioration. As to the third — the currycomb — we 
 have not followed the rule we have laid down for 
 ourselves. We have never thought of clearing the 
 scarf-skin off our own bodies. We have taxed our 
 invention, then, in reference to the horse, and only 
 
 * The Turkish name for this district is " Eoofof the World" 
 — Bam i Duniah.
 
 37 8 ^he Bath in the Farm. 
 
 to inflict on him an injury equal to, if not greater, 
 than that which, through unreasoning and stupid 
 routine, he has sujffered at our hands on the two other 
 points. 
 
 Any one may find in any popular book on the skin 
 every detail respecting its structure and its functions ; 
 that is, whatever may be available for the acquisition of 
 knowledge, but nothing serviceable for the correction 
 of common and injurious habits. 
 
 I suppose the reader to have referred to some such 
 work, and therefore to know that there is a double 
 covering to the body, the one the skin, or, as it is 
 called, the ''true skin;" the other the cuticle, or the 
 covering of the skin. 
 
 K^ow, the process of reformation or reparation of this 
 cuticle differs entirely from that of the rest of the body, 
 which consists in the deposit by the blood of particles, 
 whilst the same blood carries or washes away the used-up 
 matter. 
 
 The cuticle is reformed by exudation from the nume- 
 rous papillae covering the " true skin,'* and is carried 
 off externally by friction. 
 
 Excess of friction prompts the discharge from beneath 
 of the gelatinous matter of the cuticle. Carried to any 
 extent, this is disease of the nature of leprosy. In the 
 same manner corns and bunions are produced, pressure 
 being substituted for abrasion. 
 
 The skin of the horse is far more delicate than that 
 of man, and consequently he is supplied with a natural 
 coat for its defence. In his natural state, the small 
 amount of cuticle he has to get rid of is carried off by
 
 'The Bath in the Farm. 379 
 
 tlie conjoint effects of perspiration, rapid motion, and 
 constant exposure to the air and the ivind. 
 
 Domesticated, of course his coat becomes clogged, 
 and means have to be taken to free it. These means 
 have been taken in the origin by man, and they are yet 
 to be found practised in the East. "We in Europe, 
 however, at least in modern times, have stepped beyond 
 the object, and by inventing for the skin of the horse 
 an iron instrument of serrated form, we produce a 
 condition of quasi-leprosy ; when we clear from its 
 teeth the accumulation of scarf-skin — the evidence of 
 our stupidity — we exclaim, "How clever we are to have 
 invented a currycomb, and how happy the horse to have 
 intelligent grooms hissing at him ; instead of having to 
 go and rub his itchy haunches against boulders of 
 granite or stumps of trees ! '^ 
 
 " With regard to the horse, in parts of Central Asia, 
 where an animal is expected to gallop twelve or four- 
 teen miles without rein being drawn, it is necessary to 
 put it through careful training, and especially to work 
 off the fat. For this purpose the horse is daily sweated ; 
 and the test of prime condition is the absence of acridity 
 and viscidity in the exudation. The taste determines 
 the former. The latter is judged of by collecting a 
 little of the secretion between the thumb and fore- 
 finger, which are then held up to the light and slowly 
 separated, when viscidity appears in threads long 
 drawn out. No currycomb is used, but the horse 
 is shampooed with the ball of the hand." 
 
 This passage, contained in a letter from Captain 
 Burton is the only one I have got to quote from either
 
 380 The Bath in the Farm, 
 
 writers or travellers conveying instruction in regard to 
 the horse in essential matters. I know nothing more 
 melancholy than horse literature, from the earliest essay 
 with which I am acquainted, i.e. that of Xenophon, 
 down to the monographs of General Daumas and Abd- 
 el-Kader. The only exception that I have to make are 
 incidental notices as regards points of natural history, 
 such as are found in Moorcraft, Sir John Malcolm, 
 &c. There is, indeed, a volume of Colonel Smith 
 in the ''Library of Natural History," but it is no 
 more than a collection of materials which have them- 
 selves to be critically examined before being used. 
 The regular works on the horse are relieved from 
 barrenness by perversion, bringing to bear upon the 
 animal in disease all the aberrations of therapeutic 
 science in regard to man, and supplying instruction 
 for his management calculated to produce the disorders 
 upon which therapeutic empiricism • has to act. The 
 recent protest of Admiral De Rous against the whole 
 system has, nevertheless, been received with respect 
 by trainers. Men unqualified by scientific acquire- 
 ments have now found a royal road to the truth. A 
 friend of mine, who was one of the first to employ 
 the bath in the stable, thus writes, in answer to 
 questions as to the results which he had obtained 
 during six j^ears' experience : — 
 
 '' 1. The skin is cleansed fae more completely than by any 
 other method of grooming. 
 
 " 2. The system reheves itself, through the skin, of every 
 kind of impurity. 
 
 " 3. The animal is enabled to bear, with perfect impunity, 
 the greatest alternations of heat and cold.
 
 The Bath in the Farm, 381 
 
 " 4. The appetite, ao frequently a poor one in training, is 
 increased, and digestion promoted. 
 
 " 5. The lungs are brought into strong play, witJiout in- 
 creased actio)i of heart and pulse. 
 
 " 6. What is commonly called inside fat of heart and lungs is 
 removed, and the wind consequently greatly improved ; and 
 this without the fearful wear and tear of legs and constitu- 
 tion, now so universally practised to attain that object. 
 
 " 7. Aloes and other drastics become superfluous. 
 
 •' 8. And lastly, whereas, in the opinion of the first trainers 
 of the day, by the present system, it is impossible to bring a 
 horse fit to the post more than once or twice in the year for a 
 great race, by the use of the bath he may ever be in the 
 highest state of condition. I have now only stated what I 
 believe I clearly proved, in the conditioning of five horses, 
 without physic, and with the bath, to the satisfaction of a 
 veterinary surgeon, my groom, and myself. But a few words 
 may be necessary to the uninitiated, as to how the bath should 
 best be used with effect. It should never be given less than 
 once or twice a week ; as much more frequently as you please. 
 The temperature {especially for disease) should be a high one, 
 varying from 140° to 180°. The admission of fresh air into the 
 bath should be plentiful. The animal should be thoroughly 
 shampooed on the muscles of the back, thighs, and arms. He 
 should be thoroughly washed after sweating, occasionally with 
 soap, and always with water hot and cold ; and having com- 
 pleted the process, he should be taken into the open air (the 
 colder the atmosphere the more beneficial to him) loitJwut 
 clothing, and receive as much exercise as is necessary. Above 
 all, he should return to a thoroughly cool and well-ventilated 
 stable ; and if requiring warmth, by exhibiting cold in his ears 
 or legs, he should receive it from clothing and bandages, and 
 NOT hy the exclusion of fresh air from his box. The benefit 
 which a clean skin derives from exposure to fresh air, after a 
 high temperature, is such as nobody can describe who has not 
 experienced and felt it. The advantages of such treatment, 
 where either the legs are doubtful or the constitution delicate, 
 are too obvious to require further explanation. Let anybody.
 
 382 The Bath in the Farm, 
 
 wlio is sceptical as to tlie effects of a Turkish batli, properly 
 given to a horse, ride the animal as soon as he comes out of 
 one, and judge for himself. I have repeatedly seen a veterinary 
 surgeon examine the pulsation and action of the heart, and 
 pronounced that there was no increase whatever of either, 
 though the action of the lungs in the bath was greatly promoted, 
 and I maintain beneficially, from the inhalation of pure hot air. 
 If the horse is kept in a thoroughly cool and well-ventilated 
 stable, grooms will object to the less shining appearance of the 
 coat; but this objection will scarcely hold with anybody who 
 knows that a hot stable and nitre will produce a brightness and 
 gloss which by no means indicate perfect health. There is less 
 cough and disease to be found by fifty per cent, in the cab-stands 
 of London, though the horses are badly groomed and exposed to 
 all weather, than in the choicest horse training or racing estab- 
 lishments. Affections of the kidneys, whether chronic or acute, 
 are at once relieved by the bath, to say nothing of rheumatism, 
 catarrh, and inflammatory attacks of all sorts."
 
 The Bath in the Farm, 383 
 
 THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
 
 The other domestic animals, the camel inclusive, 
 with the exception of the pig, stand in the same cate- 
 gory as the horse. They are equally natives of the 
 Tartarian levels, or very cold countries. So long, how- 
 ever, as they remained in their native seats, they were 
 endowed with an under-covering of down or fur,* which 
 has disappeared as they have spread over lower and more 
 genial districts. These have all attained to greater 
 development in hot countries, showing that heat (not 
 that of the close stable and byre) is beneficial for them. 
 
 Cats and dogs are on the Himalaya also furnished 
 with this down. 
 
 Barn-yard fowls of all descriptions are either migra- 
 tory by nature, or natives of warmer climates than 
 ours ; so that for them the bath, on mere historic 
 grounds, must be assumed to be highly conducive to 
 their development and fruitfulness, in a climate the 
 standard of which is so far below their own. 
 
 * Hence is derived the local name of the Himalaya— Undes 
 — or Una desa, wool country. The same is the name of the 
 country of the algoin and a]paca — Andes. The goats of 
 Angora— Una gori, wool mountain— retain tLc under-down.
 
 384 'The Bath in the Farm, 
 
 THE PIG. 
 
 Tlie pig stands by itself, or in the same category as 
 man. It does not belong to the Himalaj^a, or at least 
 not more so than to the Atlas, the Pyrenees, the Taurus, 
 the Alps, or the low regions of all the earth. It 
 resembles man also in its food, in its internal structure, 
 and in the taste of its flesh.* It has also a skin like 
 that of man, elaborately formed, so as to be able to dis- 
 pense with hair or wool. It is very cleanly by instinct, 
 whenever it is allowed the opportunity. It is very 
 sensitive to atmospheric influences, as all hunters of the 
 wild boar well know.f They feel the necessity of the 
 removal of the scarf-skin, and therefore enjoy scratching 
 and rubbing, as no other animal does. By domestica- 
 tion, it has acquired rounded shapes and more succulent 
 flesh, the scantling of the skeleton being, however, 
 generally diminished. This change has to be attributed 
 to a more regular supply of food, and to protection 
 against extreme inclemency of weather. They have 
 not, however, been subjected to the closing of doors and 
 windows, either at night or during the day, as has been 
 the case with horses and cows. 
 
 * In the Feejee Islands human flesh in the shambles is desig- 
 nated " Long pork," the joints being similar, save that they are 
 longer. 
 
 t On the north-western coast of Africa I have found it next 
 to impossible to start them with an easterly wind blowing. 
 They would allow the dogs to run in upon them, and stood at 
 bay in their lair.
 
 I^he Bath in the Farm. 385 
 
 Tlie pig, therefore, is the animal for which I foresee 
 the greatest benefit from the bath. It is not only its 
 maladies, more injurious to man than those of all other 
 animals combined, to which an end is put at once ; but 
 the sweetening of its flesh, the facilitating of the forma- 
 tion of that flesh, the restoration of its dimensions, and 
 the whole at a greatly reduced expenditure of food. 
 Now, when the prolific nature of the animal is con- 
 sidered, an estimate may be formed of the profit of such 
 an appendage to a farm-j'^ard where pigs are kept. 
 
 I trust it is not too late to point to the picturesque 
 but thriftless old breed of Irish pigs, the large dimen- 
 sions of which might be filled out to the plumpness and 
 succulence of those of Wiltshire. 
 
 cc
 
 386 ^he Bath in the Farm. 
 
 ON THE BATH FOR THE TRAINING OF 
 HORSES. 
 
 By the Hon. Admikal De Rous. 
 
 {Times, March 26tli, 1863). 
 
 " Thanks to Mr. Urquliart (to wliom this country is more 
 indebted than to any living man for the introduction of 
 Turkish alias Homan baths) a new era has arisen : the present 
 barbarous system of preparing horses to race by drastic purga- 
 tives, hot clothing, hot stables, and four and five mile sweats 
 will be ameliorated, and we may look forward with confidence 
 to a revolution by the aid of hot-air baths, which will enable a 
 trainer to bring his horses to the post in first-rate condition 
 without subjecting them to a destructive apprenticeship. 
 
 " The bath invigorates a horse's frame, gives increased action 
 to his liver, improves his appetite, cleanses the pores of sup- 
 pressed perspiration, and fortifies the skin from extreme heat 
 and cold; the joints become more supple, the sinews more 
 elastic ; and the heart, lungs, and kidneys being freed from fat, 
 horses are able to take the strongest exercise, without suffering 
 from internal fever. Hheumatism, sore shins, and cutaneous 
 eruptions are speedily subdued by hot air. Under this system 
 no horse ought to be exercised in heavy clothes. In my opinion, 
 it is always objectionable to give a horse a sharp or very long 
 gallop when he is clothed, and looking to hot air as an agent, 
 we may keep our horses sound /or thrice the estimated period of 
 their present efficacy ; the veterinary surgeon and the saddler 
 will send in diminished bills : this will balance the expenses of 
 the bath, and will save large sums of money to the proprietors 
 of race-horses.
 
 The Bath in the Farm, 387 
 
 " Of all animals in the world tliere are none better endowed 
 by nature to endure the vicissitudes of climate than a horse. 
 From the burning deserts of Arabia to the coldest regions of 
 Europe, Asia, and America, they enjoy the most perfect health 
 and vigour. Why are we, then, to treat them in this temperate 
 clime like exotic plants ? If, from the day a foal is dropped, he 
 is never shut up with his dam in a close hovel, except during a 
 severe frost ; if the same practice be adopted after he is weaned 
 till he is taken into the stable to receive his education, there is 
 very little risk of his catching cold, cough, or any disease, all 
 those indispositions arising from young stock being confined in 
 a close, unwholesome box, and then being suddenly exposed to 
 cold winds. 
 
 "When the yearling colt is removed to a well-built, warm 
 stable, you would suppose that, if he enjoyed perfect health 
 during his days of liberty, in the open air, rolling on the wet 
 grass, — if this mode of life agree with him, and added daily to 
 his growth and strength, that, as far as fresh air was concerned, 
 you would allow him all the advantages which nature can 
 bestow. From a life of freedom, housed in an open box, inha- 
 ling pure, fresh air, he is confined with his head tied up to a 
 manger in a close stable, the windows jealously opened by day, 
 as if the air was injurious to his health, and carefully shut on 
 an average of 13 hours during the greatest part of the year. 
 As a foal he roughed it in the paddock during the cold winds 
 of February; 18 months afterwards he is clothed and shut up 
 in a warm, close room. Before the colt is reconciled to his first 
 lessons of servitude, a woollen rug is strapped round him, to 
 add to the naturally inflamed state of his blood ; and, to crown 
 his misfortunes, from having always had free access to water, 
 the trainer restricts him to two draughts per diem ; it signifies 
 nothing whether the weather is hot or cold, — the stable regula- 
 tions, like the laws of the Persians, are inviolable. The trainer 
 drinks ten times a day if his throat is dry, but he never calcu- 
 lates that his horses may be more thirsty than usual if the 
 thermometer in his fusty stable rises to 90°. It has been 
 proved over and over again that if horses in a stable have free 
 access to water they will not drink as great a quantity as when
 
 388 ^he Bath in the Earm. 
 
 water is offered to them twice a day (excepting in sultry 
 weather) ; because the horses, having more sense than their 
 master, drink a whole pailful to lay in a stock to meet the exi- 
 gencies of feverish thirst, and the interior demands which 
 nature may require in the long interval of destitution. This 
 saves trouble, but it is in direct antagonism to the principle of 
 training men to run or to fight, who are never allowed to take 
 a large draught."
 
 "The Bath in the Farm, 389 
 
 FOUH YEARS' EXPERIENCE OF THE BATH 
 ON AN IRISH FARM. 
 
 BY J. E. SCRIVEN, ESQ. 
 
 My experience embraces horses, cows, sheep, pigs, 
 dogs, cats, hens, and chickens. It extends over a period 
 exceeding four years. The bath has twelve feet six 
 inches square of clear standing room ; it is nine feet 
 six inches high. The floor above is tiled, and used as 
 a corn kiln. Here are all descriptions of grain, and such 
 can be safely and economically dried. A similar build- 
 ing, including furnace flues and a double roof over aU, 
 would cost about £150. 
 
 The cost per annum for fuel, washing, attendant's 
 wages, and repairs, is £30. The fire is never out. 
 
 I have foimd great apprehension entertained of the 
 amount of water required, by persons desiring to have 
 baths of their own. I therefore desire to state how 
 little that expenditure amounts to. 
 
 In a report to the Board of Works, I have given the 
 following details for one week : — 
 
 Men ... 25 
 
 Women - - - 19 
 
 Horses - - - 5 
 
 Pigs . . , 7 
 
 Dogs - - - 4 
 
 60 
 
 At this time I had no sheep.
 
 390 '^he Bath in the Farm, 
 
 Water, cold - 
 
 - 180 gallons 
 
 „ hot - 
 
 - 80 „ 
 
 Scotch coal - 
 
 25 stone 
 
 Average temperature - 
 
 - 140° Fahr. 
 
 At first my labourers declined going in, on the 
 ground that they lost enough by work, and could not 
 stand any more perspiration. One of them broke down 
 on a hot day, when mowing. I said to him, "Now 
 you are done for a week or so, you may as well try 
 the bath."" He went in, and had a vigorous sham- 
 pooing. The next day he took the lead in the meadow. 
 That night the space could not accommodate the 
 applicants. 
 
 Cure after cure having been efiected, the want was 
 so felt, that a public bath was built in the neighbour- 
 hood, under my instructions. 
 
 The first horse I had to attend to for five days 
 myself, as none of my men would venture in. The 
 horse after an hour or so followed me round the apart- 
 ment, and would not rest unless he had his muzzle on 
 my shoulder, or was licking my hand. He recovered 
 from a bad strain in the loins. Weeks after he recog- 
 nised me on entering his stable, and licked my hand. 
 I asked a friend, sceptical of the horse's attachment, to 
 go up to him. The animal rejected his caresses, and 
 followed me with his eye. 
 
 This is no exceptional case. Horses, cows, sheep, and 
 pigs, all show their satisfaction, and return to it with 
 pleasure. 
 
 At first it was supposed that it would be dangerous
 
 T^he Bath in the Farm. 
 
 39 
 
 to put a dog in, as not being able to perspire, he might 
 go mad. 
 
 My first case was a water-spaniel, subject to rheu- 
 matism. It was very difficult to get him out ; when he 
 sees anyone going in, he goes too, and lies down in the 
 hottest corner. 
 
 I shall divide the subject into the five following 
 heads : — 
 
 I. Treatment of disease. 
 
 II. Protection against the effects of exposure, and 
 approaching disease. 
 
 III. Increase of power for labour and productiveness 
 in flesh, milk, and offspring. 
 
 lY. Subsidiary uses on the farm. 
 
 Y. Benefit to the farm servants. 
 
 I. Treatment of Disease. — Subjoined is a list of 
 diseases in which I have obtained successful results : — 
 Bronchitis, strangles, colic, dysentery, indigestion, drop- 
 sical swellings, distemper in pigs, sturdy in sheep, 
 jaundice in dogs, mange in horses and dogs, sore mouth 
 and feet in sheep, garget in dairy stock, swelling in the 
 head of calves. 
 
 Here I would call attention to the necessity of high 
 temperatures to efiect cures. All the cases of rapid and 
 decisive cures have been at what are ordinarily called 
 great heat, 170^ to 180®. My bath was unfortunately 
 constructed before the discovery of the cheap expedient 
 by which heat of a so much greater curative value can 
 be obtained. Still, no case has arisen either on my 
 own farm or on those of my neighbours who have 
 applied to me, that has not readily yielded, and these
 
 39^ T^he Bath in the Farm, 
 
 cases include all the diseases incidental to horses and 
 farm stock. 
 
 Horses. — The most violent forms of "bats" are 
 quickly got under. Fifteen minutes in the hot room 
 produce relief; and a recurrence of an attack after 
 entering is yery unusual. 
 
 A horse belonging to a dealer in the neighbourhood 
 was cured of strangles, and sold within one month : so 
 far from being reduced by the operation, he was 
 brought out in high condition. 
 
 Under this head, an important item is the accidents 
 common to horses in ploughing and carting. One of 
 my work mares, heayy in foal, fell under a load in soft 
 ground, and after violent plunging was released with 
 great difficulty. She was helped into the bath imme- 
 diately, and in three days was at her usual work. A 
 fine foal was born in due time. 
 
 An entire horse belonging to a neighbour becom- 
 ing restive while ploughing, threw himself, and was 
 severely strained, as well as cut. His owner brought 
 him immediately to me ; and without any dressing, he 
 resumed his work in a few days. 
 
 Cases of this nature are so numerous, and their cure 
 so certain, that no impression is made on my memory 
 now. 
 
 The import of my experience has been indeed esta- 
 blished throughout England as to running horses, but 
 not as to working horses. It appears to me very 
 surprising that the means employed in the one case 
 should have been disregarded in the other, and that too 
 where the plough is concernecL
 
 lihe Bath in the Farm, 
 
 393 
 
 Cows. — If only for tlie cure of one disease — distem- 
 per — this subject demands the attention of every stock 
 owner in the country. 
 
 Lord Kinnaird's experiments on distemper in cattle 
 are so conclusive, that I shall quote a report from the 
 "Scottish Farmer/' Sept. 1862. 
 
 " Lord Kinnaird's Bath at Millhill, designed for the treat- 
 ment of cattle, is largely made use of by the people in the 
 neighbourhood. The curative properties of the bath have 
 already been demonstrated in a marked manner in the case of 
 several calves suffering from scour, &c. ; but still more wonder- 
 ful is the influence it has had upon two or three feeding stots 
 affected with pleuro-jjneumonia. Out of three patients, two 
 that we saw have every appearance of progressing towards 
 perfect health. They eat well, walk about with seeming com- 
 fort and ease, the cough has lost its nasty metallic sound, the 
 discharge from the nose is stopped, they are no more hide- 
 bound, and their coat has no longer the staring aspect of 
 disease. The third patient, a larger animal than the other two, 
 is not yet so far recovered, but the beast is a great deal better 
 than it was. The heat required to produce a favourable impres- 
 sion in cases of pleuro needs to be very great — up to 200 to 
 212° — boiling point, in fact. At a less temperature the curative 
 effect was not very visible. In other diseases, less dangerous, 
 but, if neglected, hardly less fatal, the bath has been found a 
 * perfect cure.' It can be erected and carried on for a com- 
 paratively trifling cost — one that, we think, would repay large 
 stock owners to expend." 
 
 Dysentery among dairy stock, so injurious to their 
 milking, yields readily to heat. On the fourth day 
 after the beginning of an attack, I have frequently had 
 cows back to their full milk. 
 
 Heat in the skin, and loss of appetite, are got over 
 the day they appear.
 
 394 '^^^ Bath in the Farm, 
 
 ■ Hardness in the udder, and stoppage of the teat, are 
 thought little of here. These diseases require careful 
 shampooing. 
 
 I have never had a fully developed case of " black 
 quarter " since the bath has been built. Before that, I 
 lost several fine calves by this disorder. 
 
 In swelling of the head in calves, we have found it 
 most effectual. 
 
 Sheep. — Two cases are worthy of record. One was 
 a wether suffering from dysentery for three weeks, 
 emaciated at times, suffering intense pain, and bleating 
 pitifully. "When put in, the thermometer ranged from 
 150° to 180^: he chose the hottest part of the floor, and 
 lying down seemed quite happy. He was left there 
 several hours daily, and wlien turned out with the 
 flock, rapidly put on flesh. 
 
 The second is a case of "sturdy" (water on the 
 brain) — the most intractable, if not incurable, of all 
 diseases. To say a sheep has it, is to condemn it to the 
 knife. 
 
 One animal evinced the ordinary symptoms, going 
 violently round in a ring, moping by itself, and neglect- 
 ing its food. It was let in, thermometer IGO*^ to 170^, 
 daily for three weeks, when it was turned out with the 
 rest of the flock. Two months later, as I was going 
 round with a friend from a celebrated sheep district, 
 and long accustomed to examining the best flocks in the 
 country, he pointed out this very sheep as a good speci- 
 men of my flock, both for health and condition. 
 
 Firmly convinced as my herd is of the efficacy of the 
 bath in disease of cattle, he urged me not to make the
 
 The Bath in the Farm, 29 S 
 
 experiment in this case, as it was sure to fail, and lose 
 me whatever the animal might bring for mutton. 
 
 Pigs. — On no animal have I got more satisfactory 
 and decisive results than on pigs, whether fattening or 
 brood sows. Distemper is rapidly relieved ; the spots 
 appearing on the skin in two hours. I have had no 
 fatal case of this scourge. And the same thing I may 
 say with reference to those of my neighbours who have 
 sent their pigs to me. The rule is to keep the pig in 
 till the spots appear. Throwing alternately hot and 
 cold water over the animal is useful in developing the 
 spots. 
 
 When only a few hours old, the two youngest pigs of 
 a litter of fifteen appeared to be dying. The byre-man 
 put them in for some hours, and brought them again to 
 the litter. 
 
 He repeated this frequently for some weeks till they 
 were able to hold their own with their elder brethren 
 " These two pigs were dead three times, but for the 
 bath," was his answer to an objector. 
 
 Previous to the appearance of this litter, the sow had 
 been repeatedly put in, for a hurt from a horse. 
 
 The first distempered pig I experimented upon was 
 one of a litter of fatting hogs. He weighed one 
 stone heavier than any of the same litter. 
 
 Dogs. — I have had some remarkable cases of jaimdice 
 after distemper. One pointer, during treatment, became 
 so fond of the bath, that, when let loose, he ran to the 
 door, and scraped at it. He was shot over for years 
 afterwards. 
 
 A setter that had lost his scent after distemper was
 
 396 ^he Bath in the Farm, 
 
 sent to me for treatment. He recovered condition 
 rapidly, being put in three times a week, ffis scent 
 was quite restored. 
 
 The development of the power of scent by the bath 
 is a subject pregnant with important results, as regards 
 the detection of disease, as shown in Mr. Urquhart's 
 pamphlet, " Consumption arrested by the Turkish 
 bath." 
 
 II. Protective against the Effects of Exposure, and 
 approaching Disease. — In reference to this branch, Pro- 
 fessor Gamgee, in his work on Dairy-stock, says : — 
 
 " So far as my inquiries have extended, I believe dairy- 
 stock owners, whether in town or country, may find the 
 bath the cheapest, safest, and most desirable appendage 
 to their premises that has yet been suggested, if only as 
 a mere cleaning apparatus." — Page 237. 
 
 " As a therapeutic agent, the hot air chamber holds an 
 intermediate position between evacuants and stimulants. 
 It is undoubtedly a general tonic, because it fits impor- 
 tant organs for the free and healthy exercise of their 
 functions, and thus operates beneficially on the blood, 
 on nutrition, and hence invigorates the body. That it 
 is evacuant, no one can doubt, that has witnessed the 
 kind and quantity of cutaneous secretions, whether in 
 man or animals. 
 
 "Viewing the subject as a veterinary, I unhesita- 
 tingly say that we have in heat the most efiective 
 diaphoretic, the most active depurant, and the most 
 efficient means of producing healthy reaction that we 
 have yet had at our disposal. It is a great addition to 
 our therapeutic means. We needed a satisfactory means
 
 The Bath in the Farm, 397 
 
 of acting on tlie skin of lower animals in febrile and 
 other diseases, and here we have it." — Page 244. 
 
 " Cows are subject to blood disorders, to fever, func- 
 tional disturbance of the skin, and other secreting 
 organs ; to organic cutaneous diseases which are apt to 
 become chronic ; to rheumatic affections, and a large 
 number of inflammatory disorders. In the long category 
 of diseases included under the foregoing heads, we shall 
 find one and all pertain to the kind likely to be much 
 benefited by heat.* But it is to icard off disease, and to 
 preserve healthy that among dairy-stock, particularly in 
 large towns, the bath mi^i prove of great serviced* 
 
 Under the head of Positive Disease, I am not able to 
 quote an instance, on my own farm, of lung distemper. 
 This is attributable, I believe, to the preventive power 
 always at command ; the rule being to put every 
 animal in on the first symptom of sickness. 
 , The horse-dealer I referred to before, on being asked 
 if horses accustomed to the bath caught cold readily, 
 answered : — 
 
 " There is not a horse sheeted in the place. TJie top 
 halves of the stable-doors are always off. The horses are 
 alicays ready for work. You will not hear a cough in the 
 worst season. Whenever they are severely worked^ or 
 ex2)0sed, they are put in, and that sets them all right.'' 
 
 On one of the open nights last winter, I asked my 
 steward, how many horses he had had in at once. He 
 reminded me of a wet windy day that we had sent four 
 
 * The writer used a Greek word. I have thought it better 
 to put the English equivalent.
 
 39 8 '^he Bath in the Farm. 
 
 horses to some distance, and kept them standing very 
 much exposed. On their return late at night, he put the 
 men and horses in at once. The men dried their clothes, 
 and vrent home refreshed and warm. The severity of 
 the day had no effect upon either men or horses. 
 
 When we consider the number of such days in the 
 year, and the loss by sickness in consequence, the 
 advantage of such a preventive will be manifest. 
 
 III. Increase of Fower, for Lahour and Froductive- 
 ness, in Flesh and Milk and Ofspring. — I could give 
 numerous cases of broken-down horses trained by the 
 new process, because the)^ were useless, and could there- 
 fore be experimented upon, and several years added to 
 their working lives. 
 
 The first case so treated in England was a mare 
 that had been given up because her feet and legs would 
 not stand the training. She was brought into a splendid 
 condition in a few weeks without a gallop, and hunted tha^ 
 and succeeding winters as well as when in her prime. 
 
 We are enabled to dispense with the use of medicine 
 in getting horses into condition off grass. The results 
 in the availability of the horse for service are so mani- 
 fest, that I do not dwell upon them. 
 
 Having been disappointed of a foal from a , mare I 
 prized, I resolved to try on her the effect of the bath. 
 I was led to this by hearing of some cases in human 
 beings, from which it was to be inferred that the use of 
 the bath had removed confirmed barrenness. The result 
 justified the expectation. Not only was a foal obtained 
 in due course, but the foals have not ceased duiing 
 three vrars.
 
 The Bath in the Farm, 399. 
 
 In regard to muscular power, I will begin by stating, 
 that amongst men it has been now most fully 
 established, that the bath develops it in an extraordinary 
 degree without any corresponding consumption of food. 
 From this I inferred that the condition being improved, 
 the effect would be no less in regard to the carcase of the 
 animal when dead, than in respect of its power when 
 alive. 
 
 Three years ago, I made the experiment on two cows, 
 and found that where they had gained one stone in 
 weight previously, they gained eighteen pounds when 
 put in three times a week. They became quite free 
 from heated skin, and improved in appearance and 
 handling. 
 
 In this case I took means to measure^ the results. 
 But equal results, though not accurately measured, have 
 since been obtained. The gain being thus one-tJiird in 
 flesh, we may assume that there will be an equal gain in 
 labour. 
 
 AVhen the resources of nature are expended on milk, 
 we may expect not only an economy of food, but a 
 large increase of dairy produce, because the secreting 
 organs of milk are so immediately affected by action on 
 the skin, close to which the lacteal glands are situated. 
 I have no experience to report in this respect, my atten- 
 tion having been but recently called to the subject ; but 
 the grounds are so evident, and the results obtained in 
 women so striking, that there remains no doubt on my 
 mind that the gain in respect to milk will not fall short 
 of that in power and flesh. 
 
 I Y. Subsidiary Uses on the Farm. — In our damp
 
 400 The Bath in the Farm, 
 
 climate, tlie power of drying grain or seed, with, safety 
 and economy, is too obviously an advantage to require 
 comment. 
 
 Last harvest, by means of the hot room and the kiln 
 over it, I was enabled to save the produce of two acres 
 of beans that was heating, and on its road to destruction. 
 It was thrashed in the wet weather, and the beans 
 carried at once to dry. In a few days a great part of a 
 heavy crop was ground into meal, and fit for use. 
 
 Every one familiar with the ordinary mode of kiln- 
 drying grain, knows the danger of producing diabetes 
 in horses, arising from the admission to the grain of 
 the fumes of burning coal. Here the process is carried 
 on in pure ^ir, and with equal facility. 
 
 "We lose one million sterling a year in flax seed, 
 chiefly from the difficulty of saving it. Had every farm 
 the facility of drying flax seed at once, and without the 
 delay of using a public kiln, we might be that much 
 richer in feeding stufi". 
 
 So much, risk attends the process of drying flax straw, 
 preparatory to hand scutching, that it is carried on in 
 open temporary sheds, when a wet season retards, and 
 sometimes stops, the operation. Here it could be 
 accomplished at the time when labour on the farm is 
 impracticable, the produce brought to market in better 
 condition, and many weeks earlier. 
 
 I am happy to say that some small farmers in my 
 neighbourhood have applied to me for instruction how 
 to convert a farm office into a bath. 
 
 The injury to horses' shoulders and backs from wet 
 collars and saddles is avoided. The harness put into
 
 I^he Bath in the Farm, 401 
 
 tlie drying room at niglit is gradually and thoroughly 
 dried by morning. 
 
 Incidental to breaking in young horses, I have found 
 their shoulders much more rapidly made by sweating 
 them constantly during training, and the restiveness 
 arising from soreness and stiffness avoided. 
 
 How many corn sacks would be annually saved by a 
 convenient place to dry them in quickly ? 
 
 To the laundry also it is an addition of great 
 importance. 
 
 V. Farm Servants. — The preservation of health among 
 farm labourers is no small matter. My farm servants often 
 work willingly through wet windy days, well knowing 
 that an hour in the hot room will send them home in 
 dry clothes. This habit gives them also the power of 
 enduring cold : so also amongst my visitors. Many have 
 dispensed with flannel, some even at advanced ages. 
 All find themselves in better health, freer from rheu- 
 matic pains, and firmer in muscle. One of my labourers 
 was in the habit of wearing a flannel waistcoat and 
 drawers, two waistcoats and trousers, and a heavy coat. 
 Two years ago he left ofi' the flannel, and now wears but 
 one waistcoat, one pair of trousers, and seldom a coat. 
 He says he is " suppler " than he was ten j^ears ago, 
 and can now resume his potato- diet, which he had left 
 off from an enlargement of the stomach. 
 
 Improvement in digestion is one of the most marked 
 results in man as well as in animals. More than two 
 years ago, a man came to me sufiering from disease of the 
 stomach, inability to retain food, and dropsical swelling 
 of the legs. His first few visits were made in a cart. 
 
 D D
 
 402 'The Bath in the Farm, 
 
 After a fortnight, lie walked to the bath, and is now 
 in the enjoyment of robust health. 
 
 During a temporary absence from home, a neigh- 
 bouring farmer suffering from dropsy visited the bath. 
 He had previously requested my permission ; but as the 
 case was a severe one, I advised him to wait till I returned. 
 On my return, my bathman told me, with dismay, that 
 he feared the dropsical man had not reached home 
 alive, that he had not been able to make him perspire, 
 and his legs becoming more swollen, they hurried him 
 out, and got him into the cart as soon as possible. The 
 third day the cart drove up, and, leaning on two sticks, 
 my bathman saw the object of his fears walk to the 
 door. The night after his first visit, he had eight hours 
 of unbroken rest, and was able to get out of bed, and 
 sit at the fire. I took him in at 150*^, and for two hours 
 shampooed him, at first gently; by degrees he could 
 bear considerable pressure. The swelling diminished, 
 and his joints became more flexible. A short time 
 afterwards, I was saluted by a tall athletic young man, 
 in whom I recognised my dropsical patient. 
 
 A case of typhus fever is illustrative of the necessity 
 of high temperature to cure disease. The patient was 
 afraid of greater heat than 120^, and with it became 
 worse. He became nearly incoherent. A few days 
 afterwards he was with difficulty brought to me, when 
 he was kept in for two hours at 180*^. His clothes were 
 purified on the heating apparatus. He described the 
 effects by saying : *' He could not help taking ofi" his 
 coat, and running," on his way home. He was at full 
 work in four days.
 
 'The Bath in the Farm, 403 
 
 I may here mention the account given me of the 
 *' sweating houses/' by an old gamekeeper. 
 
 " In the county Fermanagh I could take you to ten 
 or a dozen of them. They are built in the form of a bee- 
 hive. Turf is burnt on the floor, till it is clear ; then 
 they close up the hole, and leave it for a time. When 
 3^ou are going to take the heat, the turf ashes are swept 
 out, and the floor covered with rushes. You go in, and 
 get towels and wipe the sweat ofi", and so on, till it is 
 time to come out. Some knowledgable body is there 
 that tells you when to come out, and you then jump 
 into a stream of water ; or if there is no natural stream, 
 water is led, and a hole made for it. There was a man 
 there, a strong (rich) farmer, and he built one for him- 
 self, and brought water through it in pipes. These 
 houses were first made by the ancient Milesians, long 
 before your bath was thought of." 
 
 This rude form of bath, now only found among 
 the mountains and islands, must have existed long 
 before the Romans introduced into the sister country 
 their bath, accompanied by every luxurious appliance ; 
 and when the departure of the Roman conquerors 
 deprived the Britons of their bath, the Irish had the 
 sense to preserve their unarchitectural, but efficient 
 structures. What is most remarkable is, that during 
 the English occupation no Englishman seems to have 
 had so much as the thought of entering one of these 
 sweating-houses. There they were, with their beneficial 
 efiiects before their eyes, and they saw nothing. Now, 
 indeed, they are written about, but • merely as an
 
 404 ^he Bath in the Farm, 
 
 architectural curiosity, and because of tlie introduction 
 from the East of a similar usage. 
 
 Since I obtained from Mr. Urqubart the knowledge 
 on which I have acted with so much profit to myself, he 
 has carried out his experiments to, at that time, wholly 
 unexpected results, alike as to economy and efficiency. 
 Having undergone the experience by being in a chamber 
 heated up to 250°, I enjoyed a new sensation from 
 the heat sent off in rays from the red-hot stove. It 
 reminded me of a practice of former j^ears, when 
 studying engineering in Lancashire. After a day's 
 hard work, I often went to the forge, and exposed myself 
 to the glowing heat of the air furnaces for some half- 
 hour ; and found the stiffness and fatigue dispelled, and 
 so much vigour supplied that I sought vent for it by 
 throwing off my coat, and taking to the hammer and 
 anvil. 
 
 The author of the foregoing paper is now applying 
 himself to test by experience, in regard to labouring 
 horses, the grounds laid down in this volume in respect 
 to the debilitating effects of frequent feeding, allowing 
 his horses but two feeds, and some only one feed a day.
 
 Appendix. 
 
 No. I. 
 EXPEEIENCE OF SUNSHINE ON THE BODY. 
 
 (Extract from a Letter.) 
 
 I WAS first led to reflect on the probable advantage 
 to bealtb of exposure of the body to the atmosphere by 
 reading the observations of Dr. Franklin in favour of 
 this practice, which he frequently adopted. 
 
 In the water cure, Priesnitz used to say that air was 
 quite as important an agent in the cure as water. 
 
 Some years since, after a long and debilitating iUness, 
 I went to the baths of Gastein. At these baths, Dr. 
 Proel, a clever physician of much experience, strongly 
 urged me to aid their action by taking, what he called, 
 air baths in the neighbouring pine forest. He was in 
 the habit of recommending this practice to his patients, 
 and those who, undeterred by the seeming eccentricity 
 of the proceeding, followed his advice, derived much 
 benefit. 
 
 Conforming with Dr. ProeFs instructions, I used 
 frequently to remain during a couple of hours undressed
 
 40 6 Appendix, 
 
 in the forest, carefully, however, seeking shade as well 
 as shelter. Judging from sensations of returning 
 health and vigour, and the instinct I acquired for this 
 original mode of cure, I confidently assert that my 
 health derived the greatest benefit from my contact 
 with the open air in this primitive guise. 
 
 When last upon the Continent, I was again induced 
 to take the air bath ; but I determined on the addition 
 of another element of power — full sunshine — which, in 
 former instances, I had carefully avoided. The weather 
 being seldom favourable, I was unable to make more 
 than four trials abroad, and one on my return to this 
 country. On each occasion their efiects and results 
 were precisely the same. 
 
 I am easily afiected by the sun ; the consequence 
 being headache and derangement of stomach. I found, 
 however, when the body was entirely exposed to the 
 sunshine, and without even the head being covered, or 
 the pit of the stomach, an equally sensitive part, being 
 sheltered from the rays, that I was not in the slightest 
 degree unpleasantly afiected. But on resuming my 
 clothes, or even a portion of my clothing, I instantly 
 experienced the symptoms I have alluded to, and was 
 obliged quickly to get into the shade. I reversed the 
 experiment, and proved the fact. 
 
 The sensation of sunshine on the body is very agree- 
 able. Genial warmth, not heat, is felt. A gentle 
 moisture on the skin causes it to feel cool under the 
 rays ; • but I noticed, on covering any portion of it with 
 a single fold of light clothing or linen, that the heat 
 on that part became intolerable.
 
 Appendix, 407 
 
 1 remained in this " sunshine bath" from half an 
 hour to an hour and a half, on different occasions, and 
 when the temperature of the day was that of ordinary 
 summer heat. 
 
 Within an hour after having concluded the sun bath, 
 symptoms were manifested which were repeated everj^ 
 time without variation. First, pricking and itching all 
 over the body. This was succeeded by great redness 
 and soreness of the skin in some places, with a slightly 
 erysipelatous appearance. At the back of the thighs 
 the muscles became rigid and corrugated under the 
 skin, which became sore and manifested all the appear- 
 ances of nettlerash, which, on examination, it was 
 declared to be by a medical man. To describe my 
 sensations plainly, I felt as if I were sitting in an ant's 
 nest. 
 
 I was not relieved of these symptoms for a couple of 
 days. But I appKed no remedy. I did not again 
 make trial of sunshine until they had disappeared, 
 when precisely similar results occurred. 
 
 Shortly afterwards, I was so fortunate as to meet one 
 of the most celebrated physicians in Europe — Dr. Scan- 
 zoni, of Wurtzburg. He was much interested in my 
 narrative, but he anticipated my statement respecting 
 the head, &c., not being affected by the sun. He ob- 
 served that the influence of the sun, so powerful on the 
 nervous organism of the skin and consequently upon 
 the circulation, being equally diffused over the whole 
 frame, the action of the blood would not be determined 
 merely to the head. Without venturing to quote the 
 words of this intelligent and most eminent man, I
 
 40 8 Appendix, 
 
 would say that he gave me to understand that the 
 greatest power is practically the most ignored by me- 
 dical science — that it is unreasonable not to believe that 
 the great centre of action in nature can exert vast 
 influence on the human organism and develop the 
 energies and resources of life. 
 
 I mentioned to Dr. Scanzoni that you had cured a 
 condemned consumptive patient by exposure to the sun 
 and without recourse to medicine. At this he ap- 
 peared not in the least surprised. 
 
 D. B.
 
 appendix, 409 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 ANTICIPATION OF THE REMEDIAL YALUE 
 
 OF HEAT, BY DU. GOSSE, OF GENEYA, IN 
 
 1826. 
 
 Geneva, Oct. 25th, 1864. 
 
 On opening with Dr. Gosse the subject of the Bath, 
 he answered me : " Tell me that it is introduced into 
 Europe, but tell me nothing more. I know all the 
 rest, and have known it before you were born. I have 
 even put it in print, though nobody attended to it." 
 I must also record another sentence of his : — 
 " Look at the armies of Eome, without sickness and 
 without ambulances ! Had there been the hospital 
 service of modern times, it is impossible that we should 
 have had no traces of it, in the military as well as the 
 political writers. Had there been such loss from sick- 
 ness as occurs in our armies, we should have had re- 
 ferences to it, as in the accounts of our own campaigns. 
 On this point, however, it is not negative testimony 
 only on which we have to rely. Their armies passed 
 through the extremest trials in regard to temperature. 
 They marched from the east to the west, from the 
 north to the south, — from Mauritania to Parthia, and 
 from Africa to England, — without the facilities of com- 
 munication by roads as to-day. Yet the numerical 
 force of a legion, on arriving at its destination, is not 
 supposed to vary from that of its departure from
 
 410 Appendix, 
 
 Rome. This wonderful superiority over our modern 
 armies they owe to two things : first, to the use of the 
 Bath ; and, secondly, to their wearing an animal sub- 
 stance — wool — next to the skin ; and not a vegetable 
 substance, such as linen or cotton ; by which means 
 air was admitted, and electricity not lost." 
 
 I replied : " You have forgotten a third ; which was, 
 that they only ate once a day." D. U. 
 
 From "D^.s Maladies RhumatdicleSy^ hij Br, Gosse, 
 Geneva and Paris, 1826, page 59. 
 
 "But the excitant which plays the most important 
 role in the phenomena, whether of health or of disease, 
 is caloric — a fluid imponderable and incompressible, 
 which pervades all bodies and vivifies all organized 
 existences. The reduction of the quantity of this fluid 
 brings, as we have seen, weakness and disorder, whether 
 general or local, in all nervous functions. It is, there- 
 fore, incontestable that its increase must augment their 
 energy and contribute to the restoration of their equi- 
 librium. 1^0 other agent can, therefore, be compared 
 with this one, in the treatment of rheumatoid dis- 
 orders. It is, so to say, the soul of this treatment ; 
 and all other means can only be regarded as subordi- 
 nate. Who can tell if even those substances which 
 we define as excitant are not indebted to its presence 
 for their properties ? At least, we find amongst them 
 principles eminently combustible, and which disengage 
 a considerable quantity of light and of caloric, as also 
 substances possessing a great affinity with the develop-
 
 Appendix. 41 1 
 
 ment of electricity. However, restricting ourselves for 
 the present to the mere effects of the sum of its accu- 
 mulation, it is clear that we should make application 
 of it chiefly in the intervals of congestion, and at the 
 spot most distant therefrom. JSTevertheless, in some of 
 these cases — chilblains, for instance — its local and im- 
 mediate application is the most powerful of means for 
 dissipating them. Its moderate action is equally in- 
 dispensable for overcoming the consequences of inflam* 
 mation. If the fibre be relaxed and humid, and the 
 constitution lymphatic, dry heat is preferable. If 
 either, on the contrary, nervous or vascular irritation, 
 with a temperament nervous or sanguineous, it is de- 
 sirable to combine moisture and heat. 
 
 " The efficaciousness of these means for restoring the 
 action of the shin explains the immense advantages 
 derived by the Greeks and the Eomans from the use 
 of the Bath — advantages possessed in our times by the 
 daily use of the like by the Russians and the nations 
 of the East. We have the more to regret the negli- 
 gence in reference to such establishments of the middle 
 parts of Europe, that our more variable climate mul- 
 tiplies rheumatoid affections, and renders them more 
 inveterate. We ought to put up prayers that the 
 European Governments may favour the introduction of 
 such public establishments, and so bring within the 
 reach of the citizens unendowed with fortune, this real 
 panacea for the larger portion of the evils that assail 
 mankind."
 
 412 Appendix, 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 OPENING OF THE NEW SWEATING-EOOM 
 AT JERMYN STREET. 
 
 From the Manager of the Middlesex Lunatic 
 Asylum. 
 
 Colney Hatch, Oct. 13, 1864. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 We have made the great experiment at the Ham mam. 
 Mr. Johnson was good enough to invite Mr. Wood (our 
 engineer) and myself to try the perils or delights (as 
 the case might be) of your room heated purely by 
 radiation. It was a great success. The room was at 
 a temperature of 205° when we entered, and felt much 
 less oppressive than the hot-room (of transmission) 
 upstairs, at a temperature of only 170°. 
 
 This is a very striking circumstance, and was equally 
 noticed by Dr. Goolden (who fortunately happened to 
 be present) and Mr. Wood. 
 
 I cannot see the occasion for raising (except for any 
 extraordinary cases) the temperature of the radiating- 
 room above 180°. At about this it would be perfect. 
 I think I shall arrange for our hottest room to be one 
 of purely radiated heat. You will be happy to know 
 that our plans for the Bath at Colney Hatch and the 
 specification, are now in the hands of the contractors for 
 the purposes of an estimate, which I may hope to 
 obtain in a few days. We shall then commence opera- 
 tions without delay. Believe me, &c., 
 
 E. Sheppard.
 
 Index, 
 
 Absorption, Law of, 340. 
 
 Actinism, 7, 42, 247. 
 
 Acute Disorder, Case of, 32. 
 
 Adaptation of Bath to Cli- 
 mate, 74. 
 
 Ague, Case of, 310. 
 
 cured by Heat, 222. 
 
 Air, Dryness of, indispensable, 
 330. 
 
 Action on Blood through 
 
 the Skin, 16. 
 
 Anaesthesia, 101. 
 
 Ancients, Clothing of the, 65. 
 
 Anointing after a Bath, 60. 
 
 Apoplexy, 301. 
 
 Banting, Mr., Experience of the 
 Bath, 79. 
 
 Barrenness removed by the 
 Bath, 49. 
 
 Bath, The, a primeval Institu- 
 tion, 5. 
 
 How to Introduce, 28. 
 
 Objections of Medical Men 
 
 to, 44. 
 
 Bath, not a Mussulman Institu- 
 tion, 49. 
 
 Use of, in the Tropics, 56. 
 
 Heat of the, 70. 
 
 Adaptation to Climate, 74. 
 
 its Importance to Soldiers, 
 
 81,409. 
 Alleged injurious Eflfects 
 
 of, 94. 
 
 not weakening, 188, 249. 
 
 Effects on Horses and 
 
 Cattle, 365. 
 
 and the Gymnasium, 20. 
 
 in the Farm, 367. 
 
 Four Year*' Experience 
 
 on, 389. 
 
 of the Finns, 132. 
 
 for Invalids, 318. 
 
 among the Moors, 178. 
 
 of Riverside, 121. 
 
 the Eoman, 60, 64, 180, 
 
 190. 
 
 the Turkish, 97, 158, 254. 
 
 Process of, 166. 
 
 Eadiating, Jermyn-street, 
 
 412.
 
 414 
 
 Index. 
 
 Bath, liow Introduced into 
 England, 1. 
 
 Spurious Turkish, 97. 
 
 Art of Constructing, 
 
 158. 
 
 Why called Turkish, 164. 
 
 Bath in the Farm — 
 
 Effects on Domestic Ani- 
 mals, 383. 
 
 Fowls, 383. 
 
 Pigs, 384,395. 
 
 Dogs, 390, 395. 
 
 Cows, 393. 
 
 Sheep, 394. 
 
 A Protection against Expo- 
 sure, 396. 
 A means of Increase of 
 Power for Labour and 
 Productiveness of Flesh, 
 Milk, and Offspring, 
 398. 
 Its use as a Kiln for Drying 
 
 Grain, 400. 
 Four Years Experience, 
 
 389. 
 Cost of, 389. 
 
 Benefit to Labourers, 390. 
 Diseases treated by, 391. 
 Blood, acted on by Air through 
 the Skin, 16. 
 
 Tendency of, to the Head, 
 
 300. 
 Body, Exposure of the, in 
 Ancient Times, 68. 
 
 Cancer, Cure of, 287. 
 
 Case of Acute Disorders, 32. 
 
 Eheumatism, 93. 
 
 Cancer, 287. 
 
 Leprosy, 294. 
 
 Hydrophobia, 299. 
 
 Inguinal Hernia, 304. 
 
 Cataract, 304. 
 
 Kidneys, 305. 
 
 Insanity, 306. 
 
 Scarlatina, 308. 
 
 Child Bearing, 309. 
 
 G-rey Hair, 309. 
 
 Ague, 310. 
 
 Chorea, 313. 
 
 Swelling of the Joints 
 
 315. 
 
 Typhus Fever, 402. 
 
 Dropsy, 402. 
 
 Cataract cured without an 
 Operation, 304. 
 
 Cattle, Loss of, from Disease, in 
 Great Britain, 
 
 Childbirth, Ease in, 51, 309. 
 
 Child, Mr. Urquhart's treat- 
 ment of his, 83. 
 
 Children, Ailments of modern, 
 90. 
 
 Cholera cured by Heat, 37. 
 
 Class Distinctions, Mischievous 
 Effects of, 29. 
 
 Cleanliness and Politeness, 22, 
 30, 43. 
 
 Cleanliness, European, 187.
 
 Index, 
 
 415 
 
 Climate, Adaptation of Bath to, 
 
 74. 
 Clothing of the Ancients, 65. 
 
 unnecessary, in our 
 
 Climate, 84, 139. 
 
 • not Requisite, 88. 
 
 Excess of, Injurious, 
 
 90. 
 Coal, waste of, 81. 
 
 Extinction of, 136. 
 
 Colney Hatch Asylum, 353, 412. 
 Construction of a Turkish Bath, 
 
 158. 
 Bath for In- 
 valids, 318. 
 Consumption produced by 
 Habits, 240. 
 
 curable by the Bath, 
 
 240. 
 
 treated by Sun's 
 
 Eays, 7. 
 Consumptive Hospital, Propo- 
 sal for a, 345. 
 
 — Benefit 
 
 of the Bath to the, 245. 
 Cork Lunatic Asylum, 352. 
 Corrigan, Dr., Letter to, 45. 
 
 Diet, Milk, 92. 
 Digestion, Difficult, 105. 
 
 through the Skin, 
 
 229. 
 Diseases, Cause of, 14. 
 Effect of Bath on, 197. 
 
 Domestic Animals, Effects of 
 
 the Bath on, 383. 
 Dyspepsia, Efiects of the Bath 
 
 in, 102. 
 treated by One Meal 
 
 a Day, 141. 
 
 Eating often, Consequences of, 
 
 105. 
 Electricity, 357. 
 
 Development of, 78. 
 
 as a Means of Cure, 
 
 42. 
 Endosmose and Exosmose, 41. 
 Eczema, Cure of, 34. 
 
 Farm, the Bath in the, 367. 
 Lord Kinnaird's Expe- 
 rience, 393. 
 
 Adv^tntages of the Bath 
 
 in the, 372. 
 Effect on Domestic Ani- 
 mals, 383. 
 
 Fowls, 383. 
 
 Pigs, 384, 395. , ' 
 
 Dogs, 390, 305. 
 
 Cows, 393. 
 
 -^ Sheep, 394. 
 
 A Protection against Expo- 
 sure, 396. 
 
 A means of Increase of 
 
 Power for Labour and 
 Productiveness of Flesh, 
 Milk, and Offspring, 398.
 
 4i6 
 
 Index, 
 
 Farm, the Batk in — 
 
 Its use as a Kiln for Drying 
 
 G-rain, 400. 
 
 Four Years' Experience, 
 
 389. 
 
 Cost of, 389. 
 
 Benefit to Labourers, 390. 
 
 Diseases treated by, 391. 
 
 Fatness, Eflfect of Batk on, 79. 
 Fever, Standard Degree of, 36. 
 Fife, Sir John, Experience of 
 
 the Bath, ix, 197. 
 Finns, Bath of the, 132. 
 Fowls, Effects of Bath on, 383. 
 Fuel, Waste of, in England, 135. 
 
 Gazul, 237. 
 
 Gosse, Dr., Anticipation of E-e- 
 
 medial Use of Heat, 409. 
 Gymnasium and the Bath, 20. 
 
 Hair, Effects of Bath on the, 75 ; 
 
 on Colour, 309. 
 
 Head should be washed, 181. 
 Heart-Disease relieved by the 
 
 h-ath 16. 
 Heat in My ihology, 2. 
 
 Effect on the Body, 8. 
 
 cures aU Disorders, 12. 
 
 of the Bath, 70. 
 
 and Cold, Alternations of, 
 
 106. 
 
 Eadiating and Trans- 
 
 mitted, 328, 412. 
 
 Heat, the simplest of all Eeme- 
 dies, 196. 
 
 Tyndall on, 360. 
 
 Anticipation of Eemedial 
 
 Value of, in 1826, 409. 
 - — Bays, 357. 
 
 A Tonic, 17. 
 
 Horses, Perspiration in, 18. 
 Training, 19, 358, 375, 
 
 386. 
 Improvement of Breed 
 
 of, 377. 
 
 Domestication of, 377. 
 
 ' Use of Currycomb, 377. 
 
 Treated by the Bath, 
 
 Letter on, 380. 
 ■ Letter of Admiral De 
 
 Eous, 386. 
 Hydrophobia, Case of, 299. 
 
 Increase of Animal Power and 
 Flesh by the Bath, 370. 
 
 Injurious (alleged) Effects of 
 the Bath, 94. 
 
 Insanity, Case of, 306. 
 
 Effects of Bath on, 347. 
 
 Insobriety, Evils of, 31. 
 
 Invalids, Construction of Bath 
 for, 318. 
 
 Joints, Swelling of the, 315. 
 Kidneys, Disease of the, 305.
 
 Index, 
 
 417 
 
 L eared, Dr., Experience of the 
 
 Bath, 249. 
 on the Treatment of 
 
 Phthisis, 259. 
 Leprosy, Case of, 294. 
 Lunatic Asylums, Introduction 
 of Bath to, 347. 
 
 Cork, Eeport of, 352. 
 
 Sussex, Eeport of, 352. 
 
 Mahomet opposed the Bath, 6. 
 
 Maladies detected by the Smell, 
 334, 346. 
 
 Meal, One, a Day beneficial to 
 Health, sufficient, 108, 154. 
 
 Medical Men object to the 
 Bath, 44. 
 
 Indifference of, 196. 
 
 Military Hospitals, Introduc- 
 tion of Bath to, 347. 
 
 Mdk, Effect of the Bath on, 53. 
 
 Diet, 92, 154. 
 
 Millingen, Dr., Letter from, 
 216. 
 
 Montague, Lady M. W., on the 
 Bath, 6. 
 
 Morocco, The Bath in, 256. 
 
 Mythology, Heat in, 2. 
 
 Nature's Thermometer, 36. 
 Newcastle Infirmary, Report 
 of, 197. 
 
 Northumberland, Duke of, Tes- 
 
 timony of, 203. 
 Objections of Medical Men to 
 
 the Bath, 44. 
 Ovarian Dropsy, 55. 
 
 Pain, Muscular, its Cause and 
 Eemedy, 74. 
 
 Morbid Sense of, 91. 
 
 Patients, Non-perspiring, 99. 
 Perspiration in Horses, 18, 20. 
 not Weakening, 19, 
 
 21. 
 
 and Disease, 110. 
 
 committed to our 
 
 care, 114. 
 washes the Blood, 
 
 117. 
 
 — Dr. Thudichum on. 
 
 280. 
 Perspire ? "Why does Man, 
 
 211. 
 Pigs, Effect of Bath on, 384. 
 Pliny, walked naked in the 
 
 Sunshine, 7. 
 Poisons, Immunity from, 302. 
 Politeness and Cleanliness, 30, 
 
 185. 
 Poor may enjoy the Bath, 184 
 
 207. 
 Private Baths, 203. 
 Process in the Turkish Bath, 
 
 166. 
 
 E E
 
 4i8 
 
 Index. 
 
 Purification and Pollution, 22 ; 
 their Canonical Sense in 
 early Eeligions, 26. 
 
 Eadiating Heat, 328-412. 
 Eays of the Sun, Efi'ects on the 
 
 naked Body, 247. 
 Eegulations of Bath at Eiver- 
 
 side, 129. 
 Eeligious Parity, 23. 
 Eheumatic Fever cured by 
 
 Heat, 32, 35. 
 Eheumatism, Case of, 93. 
 
 Medical Treatment 
 
 of, 151. 
 Eich should assist the Poor, 209. 
 Eiverside, Conversations at, 1, 
 
 60. 
 
 Bath at, 121, 204; 
 
 Eobertson, Dr., Experience in 
 
 Lunatic Asylums, 347. 
 Eoman Bath, 60. 
 
 Origin of, 64. 
 
 Use of, 180, 190. 
 
 Eussian Bath, 194. 
 
 Scarlatina, Case of, 308. 
 Scott, Dr., of Bromley, 10. 
 Shampooing indispensable, 27, 
 
 190, 246. 
 Shampooing, Benefit of, 93. 
 Sheppard, Dr., on Eadiating 
 
 Chamber, 412. 
 Sight, Improvement of, 305. 
 
 Skin, Value of, 11, 40. 
 
 the, digests, 229. 
 
 • Eemoval of Dead, 233. 
 
 Smell, Maladies detected by, 
 
 Soldiers of Eome, 69, 409. 
 of Turkey, 81. 
 
 Sprains, Treatment of, by Heat, 
 
 8. 
 Stomach, the, Man's Greatest 
 
 Enemy, 22. 
 Strigil, the, 172, 184. 
 Sun's rays, Effects of, 5, 7, 357, 
 
 405. 
 Effects of, in Con- 
 sumption, 7, 408. 
 Sunstroke, 2. 
 
 Sussex Lunatic Asylum, 347. 
 Sweating-houses of the Irish, 
 
 6, 62, 403. 
 Sweating-room in Jermyn- 
 
 street, 412. 
 at Worthing, 
 
 322. 
 
 Swelling of the Joints, 315. 
 
 Temperatures Alternate, Use- 
 ful, 83, 106. 
 
 Temperature, High, not dan- 
 gerous, 82; gives Immunity 
 from Poisons, 302. 
 
 High, Ifecessary 
 
 for Animals, 391. 
 Thermometer, Nature's, 36.
 
 Index. 
 
 419 
 
 Thudichum, Dr., on Perspira- 
 tion, 283. 
 
 Toogood, Dr., Experience of the 
 Bath, 27. 
 
 Training Horses, 19, 375, 386. 
 
 Tropics, Use of Bath in the, 56. 
 
 Turkish Baths, Spurious, 97. 
 
 Art of Construct- 
 
 ing, 158. 
 Phthisis 
 
 healed 
 
 by, 259. 
 Vigour, Development of, 80. 
 
 Washing, Manner of, in the 
 East, 186. 
 
 Waste of Fuel in England, 135. 
 
 Water, Economy in, 185. 
 
 Watson, Dr., on the Gastric 
 Juice, 150. 
 
 Wear and Tear, Use of, 232. 
 
 Wilson, Mr. Erasmus, Experi- 
 ence in the Bath, 9, 44; on 
 Heat as a means of cure, 13, 
 38; account of the Bath at 
 Riverside, 121. 
 
 LONDON : BENJAMIN PARDON, PRINTER, PATERNOSTER ROW.
 
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