In some parts of America the Batata, next to maize, forms the principal diet of the poorer classes. The plant was introduced into England by Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins; but they do not bear the cold of our winters, and if grown here are raised in hot-houses, where they may be obtained without difficulty varying from 1 lb. to 2 lbs. in weight. They thrive better in the south of Europe. The tubers contain about 32 per cent. of solid matter, 16 of which is starch, 10 sugar, 1·5 albumen, 1·1 gum, 0·3 fat, 2·9 mineral matter. The leaves are used as a boiled vegetable.
BATH (bahth). Syn. Bal′neum, L.; Bain, Fr.; Bad, Ger., Sax. A place for bathing; a vessel or receptacle, natural or artificial, containing or adapted to contain water, and used to bathe in. In architecture and hygiene, a building fitted up for and appropriated to bathing.
Constr., &c. Here one of the first subjects which must engage our attention is the selection of the material of which the bath is to be formed. For FIXED BATHS polished white marble has always been in favour, owing to its cleanliness and beauty. For this purpose, slabs of sufficient thickness and free from flaws or cracks should be chosen; and they should be securely and properly bedded in good water-tight cement, in a well-seasoned wooden case. The objections to marble, independent of its costliness, are, that it is apt to get yellow or discoloured, and to lose its polish, by frequent and careless use; and that the restoration of its surface to its original purity, is a matter of considerable expense and difficulty. It is also only fitted to contain water with, at the most, soap, weak alkalies or alkaline carbonates, aromatics, or neutral organic principles; and cannot be employed with water medicated, however slightly, with acids, sulphurets, iodine, chlorine, salines (others than those just named), or calorific substances. As a cheaper material thick slabs of Welsh slate are often substituted for marble; but even this substance is attacked by chemicals, though much more slowly. A lining of large Dutch tiles is sometimes used: but here the joints are very apt to leak. For baths adapted to all the requirements of health and disease, and which are at the same time durable and comparatively inexpensive, we must, therefore, seek further. Porcelain, glass, and hard glazed stone-ware have been proposed, and are even sometimes used for baths; but they possess the disadvantages of being fragile, and
very liable to crack when filled with hot water in cold weather. Wedgewood-ware is very beautiful and durable; but is expensive, and baths formed of it can only be obtained on special order. Stourbridge-ware, as produced of late years, is the only product of the potter’s art that appears entirely to meet the case; but even this yields in durability to enamelled iron as a material for baths adapted to all liquids and temperatures, and to rough or careless usage. (See engr. 1.) The better qualities of PORT′ABLE BATHS (see engr. 2) are generally made of copper. Stout tinned or galvanised iron, and even stout block-tin thickly covered with waterproof paint or japan, are also employed; but though less expensive than copper, they have the disadvantage of being much less durable. All these substances are, however, readily acted on by chemicals. A durable and cheap portable bath, adapted to all purposes, must, therefore, like a fixed one, be made of one or other of the materials already noticed. For MED′ICATED BATHS large wooden troughs are frequently employed, particularly for acidulated, ioduretted, and sulphuretted baths.
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The arrangements for supplying cold and hot water must necessarily greatly depend on circumstances, and the quantity required. For a single fixed bath, or even for two or three of them, the common circulating water-heater or boiler, placed in some apartment on a rather lower level than the bath, is, perhaps, the most convenient; but where this is not attainable the water may be run, by means of a pipe, from a boiler situated on a somewhat higher level. In either case a supply of cold water must also be at hand, and conveyed in a like manner, to enable the bath to be reduced to any required temperature. On the large scale, as in our public baths, where numerous baths are in constant use during the day, the hot water is best supplied from a large cistern somewhere above the level of the bath-rooms, and which is heated by a coil of pipe supplied with high-pressure steam from a boiler situated on a lower level, as the ground floor or basement. The hot and the cold water, conveyed by separate pipes of about 11⁄2 inch diameter, unite in a two-way cock close to the bath, so as to enter it together, by which only one aperture in the end of the bath is required for the purpose. The bath is emptied, and excess of water removed, by a grated aperture in the bottom, also stopped by a cock which, like the former, has handles or keys so placed as to be accessible to the attendant outside the bath-room, as well as to the bather, whilst the danger of overflowing is obviated by a two-inch waste-pipe, opening into the bath at about two inches from the top.
For heating portable baths, so many plans are in use, and have been suggested, and even patented, that the reader cannot possibly be at a loss for one to suit his particular case. A small grate for burning charcoal is the one most commonly adopted; but where attainable, a ring or cross of small inflamed gas-jets, is more cleanly and manageable.