[1] 1. “Turkish Bath; with a View to its Introduction into the British Dominions.” London: David Bryce, 48, Paternoster-row.
2. “The Turkish Bath; being a lecture delivered at Bradford, by Dr. Barter.” London: Routledge & Co. [↑]
[2] In the vapour-bath, or vapour-chamber, the whole of the body is surrounded by vapour, whilst in the vapour-box the head of the patient is exposed to the influence of the external air. In neither case can the bather endure a higher temperature than 120° Faht., while in the Turkish bath a temperature of 300° may be endured with perfect safety. [↑]
[3] We read in Chambers’ Dictionary, published in Dublin in 1758, (under the head “turf sweating,”) an account of an air bath much used by the Indians; and a case is related in America of a gentleman, 74 year of age, who was cured by it of an illness, which for 9 weeks (during the entire of which he was confined to bed) resisted all the ordinary modes of treatment: it adds that he enjoyed excellent health for 11 years after, dying at the age of 85. The operation consisted in heating sods in an oven, which were then spread on the ground, the patient being laid on them enveloped in a sheet, under a covering of hot sods and blankets. Verily there is nothing new under the sun. [↑]
[4] The surface of the body in an ordinary sized individual contains 7,000,000 of pores, the bringing of which into action from a state of inactivity, is equivalent to giving the system the benefit of a second set of lungs. [↑]
[5] When the pores of the skin are clogged and unable to perform their functions, their duty is thrown upon other organs of the body, which become diseased from overwork, consequent on the double duty imposed upon them. [↑]
[6] It is a fact of which Ireland may feel justly proud, that the FIRST Turkish bath which was ever specially designed for curative purposes, was erected by an Irishman upon Irish ground. The eastern world had long enjoyed the bath as a social and religious institution; but the shrewd intelligence of Dr. Barter first saw a great principle involved in it, and he straight-way set to work to apply it to the cure of disease. From Blarney, as a centre, this bath is rapidly spreading itself over the surface of Great Britain, and it is difficult to say where the movement, once commenced, will end. A Constantinople journal has lately observed, that the western world had borrowed the construction of the bath from the east, and in return had taught them to appreciate its curative power, an element which had not hitherto received from them the attention it deserved. [↑]
[7] The two heated chambers were called respectively by the Romans, the Tepidarium, and Sudatorium, or Caldarium: the first, or anteroom, where the concluding portion of the bath was enacted, was termed the Frigidarium and the plunge bath, when it existed, the Piscinum. [↑]
[8] This sensation which can only be compared to a kind of waking sleep—a dreamy but conscious existence, is so novel in kind, that to be realized, it must be experienced. [↑]