“Where the bath is the practice of the people there are no diseases of the skin. All cases of inflammation, local and general are subdued. Gout, rheumatism, sciatica, or stone, cannot exist where it is consecutively and sedulously employed as a curative means. I am inclined to say the same thing in reference to the plague. I am certain of it with reference to cholera. (In Cork the men employed in cleaning out the brewers’ vats, and who have thus been in a Turkish bath, were, during the prevalence of cholera, free from that disorder. The other workmen in those establishments petitioned to be put to that work.) 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 unknown where the bath is practised, but is curable by its means.”
We ourselves have seen obstinate cases of sciatica, which for several years had baffled all the remedies of the most eminent Allopathic physicians, yield completely to the benign influence of the Turkish bath in the course of six weeks. We have witnessed similar effects produced in cases of rheumatism, and contracted joints arising from rheumatic gout; whilst in cases of skin disease it is a sovereign remedy, unrivalled by any other mode of treatment, not excepting the Harrowgate waters. And it should be remembered, that all the beneficial effects here mentioned are experienced, not at the cost of a weakened and debilitated constitution, too often the result of Allopathic treatment, but in conjunction with an [[47]]improved state of health and body, the whole system being strengthened and invigorated, whilst the special disease is driven out.
We know that some people imagine that the Turkish bath is weakening in its effects, but on this point hear Mr. Urquhart:—
“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. First, in affection of the lungs, and intermittent fever, the bath is invariably had recourse to against the debilitating nightly perspirations. The temperature is kept low, not to increase the action of the heart or its secretions. This danger avoided, its effect is to subdue, by a healthy perspiration in a waking state, the unhealthy one in sleep. No one ever heard of any injury from the bath. The moment a person is ailing he is hurried off to it.”
The perspirations so often attendant on consumption, are nature’s last struggle to supply the system with oxygen, by opening the pores of the skin, this additional source of supply being rendered necessary by the diminished action of the lungs, consequent on their diseased condition; the perspirations cease, however, on the patient having recourse to the Turkish bath, as there nature’s efforts are superseded by an action, similar in kind, but greater in degree, unattended by debilitating effects. As an instance of nature’s efforts at self-relief, it may be stated, that in several cases of chest disease, recovery has dated from the commencement of the nightly perspirations.
The benefit of the bath in cases of consumption is undoubted,[10] arising, as we believe, from better oxidation of the blood, consequent on the improved action of the pores of the skin, which enables the oxygen to enter and aerate it. As a result of this, the digestive organs are strengthened, and healthy blood elaborated, the non-formation of which is the cause of the disease.
“Second, after long and severe fatigue—that fatigue such as we never know, successive days and nights on horseback—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.”
Again he says:—
“Well can I recall the hâmam-doors which I have entered, scarcely [[48]]able to drag one limb after the other, and from which I have sprung into my saddle again elastic as a sinew, and light as a feather.… You will see a hummal (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.
“Third, the shampooers spend eight hours daily in the steam. They undergo great labour there, shampooing perhaps, a dozen persons, and are remarkably healthy.[11] 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 return after their 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 me as ninety, and who, from eight years of age, had been daily eight hours in the bath. I might adduce, in like manner, the sugar-bakers in London, who, in a temperature not less than that of the bath, undergo great fatigue, and are also remarkably healthy.”
We have seen at Blarney the Turkish bath administered with equal benefit to the child of only a few months old, and the man of eighty summers.