The eastern or Turkish bath

by Sir Erasmus Wilson

In reference to the sanitary purposes of the bath, I assume that it is Preservative of Health; that it is Preventive of Disease; and that it is also Curative of Disease.

The mode in which its power operates in the fulfilment of these results is by the production and maintenance of a healthy skin. A healthy skin I therefore assume to be the end and aim of the bath; and to support my argument it will be necessary that I should point out the importance of a healthy skin in the animal economy, and those conditions and circumstances of common life that tend to deteriorate its structure and function; to show, in fact, why the skin is worth preserving, and how its preservation in a state of health conduces to the health of the entire organism.

The skin, from its large extent, deserves to be ranked among the great organs of the body, and belongs especially to that group that are commonly called emunctory—in other words, the cleansers or purifiers of the blood. In this sense it ranges side by side with the liver and kidneys; and, all things considered, it would be a difficult problem for any physiologist to solve, to determine which of the three deserves to stand before the others in importance. These three organs are sometimes called the scavengers of the body; and they may with considerable truth be regarded as three great and important systems of purification and drainage.

Now, if to drain the system of its impurities, to cleanse and purify the blood of the animal economy, three grand systems of drainage are required, the inference is plain, that one would not be enough—that two might perform the office, but with a strain upon the machinery. But to be perfect, to perform the office completely and efficiently, to be, in fact, in health, to constitute health, all are needful. Therefore, if in the course of these observations I can show that one of these scavengers is weakened in its powers, and being weakened in itself, throws an additional degree of labour on the remaining two; if, in fact, our present mode of management of the skin tends to deteriorate its powers as a purifier of the body, and consequently produces a strain on the liver and kidneys, which leads to their deterioration and disease, I shall, provided I can also show that the bath preserves the health of the skin, make out a primâ facie case in favour of the bath.

But it is not as an emunctory or purifier only that we must regard the skin; its influence and power have a wider range of action in the maintenance of health. Besides comprehending a vast system of drainage tubes, which open on the surface by seven millions of pores, and which in actual measurement would stretch over nearly thirty miles if laid end to end; besides this, which belongs to its purely emunctory function; besides, also, a wonderful and perpetual labour, by which the skin is drawing from the blood certain organic elements in the fluid state, and converting them into solid organic formations, which are known as cells and scales, these cells and scales being the tesselated mosaic with which the skin is finished upon the surface, so as to render it capable of existence in the atmosphere of the external world; besides this, and much more, unnecessary in this place to detail, the skin is converted into a kind of sponge by the myriads of bloodvessels which enter into its structure—bloodvessels, that many times in an hour bring the whole—ay, every drop—of the blood of the body to the surface; bring it that it may furnish the materials for the microscopic pavement; that it may be purified by the abstraction of its unwholesome principles; that it may breathe the vital air of the atmosphere without;—besides this, also, the skin near its surface is one vast network of nerves—nerves, mysterious organs, that belong in their nature to the unknown sources of the lightning, the electric currents of the universe. And, besides these again, there is every variety of animal tissue and contrivance by which all this apparatus is held together and maintained in the best state and position to ensure its safety and perfection. In truth, the contemplation of the structure and functions of the skin, when viewed with the eyes of the mind, is almost overwhelming; and as we gasp breathless, to gain an instant of reflection, the words of the Poet break upon our memory:—

"In human works, though labour'd on with pain,

A thousand movements scarce one purpose gain;

In God's, one single can its end produce,

Yet serves to second, too, some other use."

One word more as to the importance of the skin in the animal economy, and that word a summary of its functions and principal vital attributes. The skin is a "sanitary commissioner," draining the system of its impurities; it is an energetic labourer, in that perpetual interchange of elements which in its essence constitutes life; it is a regulator of the density and fluidity of the blood; it performs the office of a lung in supplying the blood with oxygen, and abstracting its carbon; it changes the crude organic elements of the blood, so as to render them capable of nutrition; it emulates the heart in giving speed to the circulating blood; it is the minister of the brain and spinal marrow in its properties of sensation; and it feeds and nourishes, and keeps in the highest operative condition, that part of the nervous system which is confided to its care. Viewing the skin in this way, and recognising its just claims to consideration as an important animal organ, we are led to the conclusion that the skin is a part of the digestive system, like the liver and kidneys, by virtue of its emunctory and nutritive powers; it is an appendage of the heart and a part of the system of circulation of the blood; it is a surface lung, a breathing organ; and it partakes of man's intellectual nature by its close connexion with, and dependence on, the brain. In the lower animals, the skin combines in itself alone, the feeling, seeing, smelling, hearing, and judging organ.