Personally, I would gladly enter a protest against the employment of the combined cooling and dressing room as a decidedly uncleanly habit. It is certainly not pleasant to know that, having obtained perfect physical cleanliness, both inwardly and outwardly, one must return to couches whereon previous bathers may, as likely as not, have, however temporarily, deposited more or less of their underclothing or superimposed raiment. But economy of construction is nowadays a question that must be considered at every step, and the combination apartment saves both space and materials, and is also economical as regards attendance. Moreover, it must be confessed that a cooling room provided with elegant and spacious divans, wherein the bather dresses and undresses, may be made very pleasing to the eye and withal comfortable and convenient. The dressing-boxes, too, of the separate apodyterium are not conducive to the general sense of comfort.

In arranging the plan of a combined cooling and dressing room it is necessary to first decide as to how the apartment will be furnished—viz. which of the plans above mentioned shall be adopted. This is much a matter of individual taste, though, as I have said above, the divan is to be preferred in many cases. It is often well to provide a cooling room of what may be called the "picturesque" order, or the reverse of stiff formality. By this I mean such an arrangement as 2, d. The bather can then choose between reclining in semi-privacy or in the open, or, again, resting in an easy chair. With a handsome plunge bath and a pretty little fountain, such rooms may be rendered very attractive.

Whatever be the plan adopted, it must, I repeat, be carefully thought out previously, and not left as an afterthought. The size of the reclining couch will be found to be the governing feature. This should be 6 ft. 6 in. long by 2 ft. 6 in. wide, or 6 ft. by 2 ft., according as luxury or economy is the end in view. Next to this must be considered the space allowed for each bather to dress in, and also the routes for bathers and attendants. Four feet between the couches is a sufficient space where couches are screened off in pairs.

Couches may be arranged in pairs or singly. Two pairs of couches screened off with only a small space between of 4 ft. or so is an objectional arrangement. It is difficult to explain why this is so; but the bather who has made one of four strangers thus closely penned up will appreciate the objection. An arrangement of four couches must expand into a spacious divan.

At Fig. 5 are shown different ways of arranging couches in the frigidarium. A shows the objectionable arrangement spoken of; B is the comfortable, spacious divan; C the method of placing couches in pairs; and D is a private couch suitable for ladies' baths.

The floor of a cooling room must be boarded. In a bath where cost is subordinate to excellence, a parquetry floor may be provided, and mats employed, as cleaner than fixed carpets. The walls and ceilings may be treated in any manner that may be chosen—plastered, papered, or decorated with colour.

Fig. 5.
Methods of arranging Couches in Cooling Room.
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Any shaped room may be adopted as a combined frigidarium and apodyterium so long as it fulfils the essential points—i.e. that it be spacious, capable of easy and perfect ventilation, and of being kept cool, light, and cheerful. In the cooling room the bather will often stay longer than in any other apartment, and no pains should be spared to render it healthy, comfortable, and attractive. The hygienic points to be attended to are, that there be an abundant supply of fresh cool air and an effective withdrawal of vitiated air; for the cold-air bath in the cooling room is, in its way, as all-important as the bath of hot air. The freshness of the air is of equally vital importance, as much of the invigorating effect of the bath—that effect which to the minds of the uninformed is weakening—results from submitting the heated skin to volumes of cold air.[2] In arranging any screens or screen walls in the cooling room, therefore, regard must be had to the method of ventilation, that there be no stagnant corners and recesses. The scheme of ventilation must be decided by the nature of the apartment and its position. In most cases the air is best admitted through the windows, fitted with fanlights falling backwards from the top, and extracted by a powerful self-acting exhaust at the ceiling level. In some positions extraction flues will have to be built, and, in others, flues of large area must conduct to the source from which the fresh air is drawn. Under certain circumstances perfect ventilation will not be obtainable without the aid of a powerful blowing fan-wheel driven by a motor of some sort, and running so as to exhaust the vitiated air. The means does not so much matter so long as the end be gained, and an ample supply of cool air obtained. A warm, close "cooling room" is worse than useless. In such places the bather will break out into renewed perspiration, and lie perspiring for hours, and become greatly weakened thereby, with a good chance of taking a chill on leaving the establishment.

Cooling rooms will always remain sufficiently warm in all weathers if they be in any ordinary relation to the heated apartments; but in the height of summer care is required to keep them sufficiently cool. Where simple, everyday precautions will not suffice, the air itself must be cooled, either by passing it through a cold chamber or over ice-boxes in inlet tubes, or through a water-spray. Only in exceptional cases, however, is it necessary to resort to such measures, as, contrary to the teachings of theorists, it has been found in practice that the proper temperature for the cooling room of a hot-air bath varies in different states of the weather, and should not remain constant all the year round.