The turkish or thermal bath affords one of the best, surest and safest sanative and therapeutic agents known to medical science. In a well-appointed establishment for this bath, the subject enters a room heated from 130° to 160° Fahrenheit; remains there until copious perspiration is induced. He is then taken to a room, temperature about 90° deg., where he is laid upon a slab or table and thoroughly shampooed with soap and water. This is followed by a spray, douche, shower or plunge bath; then he is dried and thoroughly manipulated by an attendant, after which he lies upon a couch from half to one hour to cool and rest. This bath is an expensive luxury, and not within the reach of rich or poor in any but our larger towns and cities.
A turkish or thermal bath at home, with a simple and inexpensive apparatus, has equal value as a hygienic or therapeutic agent. Any woman with ordinary common or nurse sense can give these baths satisfactorily by observing the following directions:
Take a chair with a wooden seat, an armed office chair preferable, place in it a piece of flannel blanket so folded that it will fall down in front; under the chair put a coffee cup one-third filled with alcohol. If any other vessel is used, be sure the opening is no larger than a cup, as this gives sufficient surface for the combustion of the amount of alcohol; have a foot tub in front of the chair, with warm water for the feet.
The patient is seated in nature’s raiments only, or as Mark Twain says, “in her complexion,” enveloped closely in woolen blankets. One of these is put over her in front and the other at the back, outside of the chair. After she is seated and covered, light the alcohol with a taper. Don’t risk burning yourself by using a match. The subject will begin to perspire in from three to five minutes. If blood rushes to the head, giving a red face and feeling of fullness in the brain, put a napkin round the neck, wrung from tepid water. This is better than wetting the head, and it has the advantage of not taking the “crimp” out of her hair.
If she is faint or sick at the stomach, as one may be with the first bath, or very bilious, let her drink copiously of hot water or very weak ginger tea. If the perspiration is slow in starting, or if the heat is excessive, the surface may be bathed with a sponge dipped in cold water. Let her remain fifteen to twenty minutes, or longer if necessary, to induce copious perspiration. She can then be bathed and rubbed sitting in the chair. If weak, or if longer perspiration is desired, let her lie upon bed or couch enveloped in the blankets, where she can be bathed under cover if necessary. Let the manipulation be thorough. Squeeze, press and pinch every muscle in the body and spat the surface with the ends of the fingers, having the wrist free. Using the entire arm and palm of the hand makes hard work, and does not give good results. If the attendant is magnetic, the fingers cause tingling, like hundreds of needles. Let the patient lie for an hour after this treatment to rest, cool and sleep.
How readily and easily this luxury and remedial agent can be carried into every home! The apparatus required is simply a wooden-seated chair, two and a fraction woolen blankets, an old cup, a foot tub and five cents’ worth of alcohol.
This bath should be taken at least two hours after eating. If taken sooner, it is nearly impossible to induce perspiration, besides interfering with digestion. For invalids, the preferable time is about ten or eleven in the forenoon. The business man or woman can take it upon rising in the morning, or just before retiring. If necessary, one can go out immediately after the bath. There is no danger of taking cold if one is bathed in cold or tepid water, and has thorough massage.
As a sanative measure the Thermal Bath can be taken at least once a week; for diseases, the frequency depends upon the case.
It is not weakening. Invalids, unable to sit up, gain strength with the daily use of this bath. In the first renovating process that is induced, one may have a sense of weakness or faintness, similar to the effects of medicine that rouses up the vital functions, but the cases are rare that this does not pass off in a few hours, leaving a corresponding gain. The Thermal Bath is valuable in health and disease.
1. It cleanses and promotes the healthy action of the skin as no other bath can do, thus relieving the other excretory organs.