The eastern or Turkish bath

by Sir Erasmus Wilson

"Hampton Court, Nov. 28th, 1860."

I have assumed for the skin the rank of a respiratory, of a breathing organ; and have endeavoured to show that the cooling and drying operations of the Frigidarium are an important part of the bath, as their performance is associated with the exposure of the skin to the atmosphere. Mr. Witt urges the prolongation of this period of the bath to as lengthened a degree as possible; and he delights to tell his auditors, dispersed around him like Roman senators in the Forum, and with no other garment than a cotton scarf, variously and negligently twined around their bodies—that this was the period when Pliny betook himself to his garden, and in the full light of the sun, and refreshed by the sweet breath of the unfettered winds of Heaven, walked in pleasant contemplation on a terrace carpeted with a beautiful little moss of velvet softness. We read that Sir Walter Scott indulged in this kind of atmospheric bath; we recognise in it the special charm and much of the value of the river bath and the sea-shore bath; and we are not startled when we hear from the mouth of an advocate of the Turkish Bath, Dr. John Le Gay Brereton, in a lecture delivered in Sheffield in 1858, that—"After leaving the hot room in Bradford bath, bathers were in the habit, last winter, of jumping into a bed of snow which had been collected for the purpose. I have myself spent the whole night in the woods at Blarney, without any clothing save the bath-sheet, after coming out of Dr. Barter's bath at that place. This was after a ball, when, with several other gentlemen, we had retreated to the bath for the sake of refreshment from fatigue. So delightful was the cool air, that when far away from any dwelling, we threw aside even our sheets, to enjoy the morning breeze at daybreak. You need not then fear exposure to the air, after the bath; it is not so much for the sake of cooling that this process is necessary, as to keep up the action of the bath by exposing the skin to air; it is to compel the skin to breathe."

The importance of ventilating the skin is illustrated in the process of clipping and singeing, as applied to the horse. The thickening and lengthening of the coat of the horse in the autumn season is a change obviously adapted to prepare the animal for the coming severity of the winter; and however natural in his wild state, is ill suited to his condition as a useful and obedient servant of man. As autumn advances, and after a few cold days, the coat of the horse appears as if "broken up" into plots, and the individual hairs stand out roughly, or, in technical language, the coat "stares." Accompanying this change in the appearance of the skin, the animal becomes weak and languid, loses his spirit, breaks out into sudden and abundant perspirations upon slight exercise, and shows himself unequal to his work. Now, the ready remedy for this state of things is the removal of the excess of hair, and the exposure of the skin to the action of the atmosphere. If the coat be clipped close to the skin or singed, or, better still, be shaven, the animal preserves his strength and vigour, and is equal to all the labour that may reasonably be imposed upon him. Of the three processes, shaving is the best, then clipping, and lastly singeing. As to the latter, it is not quite clear whether its inferior position in rank to the others is due to the less complete exposure of the skin to the action of the air, or to the sealing of the ends of the hairs by the act of burning. It is not improbable that the cut ends of the hair in shaving and clipping may serve as breathing pores for the inhalation of air, an advantage to the oxygenization of the circulation in the skin that is lost in the contraction and obliteration of the cells of the hair which ensues after singeing.

Another curious concomitant of clipping is the change in the colour of the coat, a change which seems to indicate that the colour of the hair produced in the winter time is different from that of the summer.

Dr. Barter, who has done so much to advance the popularity of the bath in Ireland, and has given much attention to farming operations, has applied the bath to the treatment of animals suffering under disease. The following extracts from a "Report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the Utility of the Turkish Bath erected by Dr. Barter, at St. Ann's, Blarney, for the Cure of Distemper in Cattle," have an interest peculiarly their own. Referring to one of the patients, the reporters observe: "We were informed she had been about an hour and a half in, had been eight days under treatment, and, as we were able subsequently to satisfy ourselves, had scarcely a trace of disease about her, and the next day was to be returned to the herd cured. She seemed quite to enjoy her position, the perspiration was rolling off her freely, and her breathing was slightly quickened. She carried her head erect, her eyes clear and healthy, and when she was removed to the outer room to get her douche-bath, no one could mistake the feeling of refreshment and pleasure that the dashing of each successive bucket of water over her seemed to give, and when she had been slightly rubbed down she was turned out to graze, the day being fine and warm; but when otherwise, there is a shed close by into which the animals are turned after leaving the bath, to let them further cool and dry before being allowed out.

"One circumstance is worthy of remark, which applies to all the animals treated in the bath, and testified to by the men in charge of the four different baths we were shown—namely, the evident pleasurable recollection the bath seems to leave with them; all the different animals—horses, dogs, cattle, and pigs—going of their own accord to the door of the bath, and dogs particularly indicating their anxiety by waiting at the door, whining till it is opened, and then running in.

"This finished our inspection, and we now beg to submit to your council the conclusions at which we have arrived from the above facts, and the information we were able to obtain in the course of our inquiries.

"First, the proportion of deaths to recoveries in the treatment of cattle distemper with the Turkish Bath does not appear to exceed one in ten, while the proportion that has been hitherto usual under other forms of treatment has varied from one death in three to one in four of the cattle attacked.

"Secondly, that the constitution is not impaired by the treatment with the bath as it is by any of the other systems with which we are at present acquainted; and that this fact is particularly illustrated by the rapidity with which, in every case, the milk almost immediately returns on the animal being relieved from the disease.