Ancient Baths.—The use of the bath as an institution, apart from occasional immersion in rivers or the sea, is, as might be anticipated, an exceedingly old custom. Homer mentions the bath as one of the first refreshments offered to a guest; thus, when Ulysses enters the palace of Circe, a bath is prepared for him, and he is anointed after it with costly perfumes. No representation, however, of a bath as we understand it is given upon the Greek vases, bathers being represented either simply washing at an elevated basin, or having water poured over them from above. In later times, rooms, both public and private, were built expressly for bathing, the public baths of the Greeks being mostly connected with the gymnasia. Apparently, by an inversion of the later practice, it was customary in the Homeric epoch to take first a cold and then a hot bath; but the Lacedæmonians substituted the hot-air sudorific bath, as less enervating than warm water, and in Athens at the time of Demosthenes and Socrates the warm bath was considered by the more rigorous to be an effeminate custom. The fullest details we have with respect to the bathing of the ancients apply to its luxurious development under the Romans. Their bathing establishments consisted of four main sections: the undressing room, with an adjoining chamber in which the bathers were anointed; a cold room with provision for a cold bath; a room heated moderately to serve as a preparation for the highest and lowest temperatures; and the sweating-room, at one extremity of which was a vapour-bath and at the other an ordinary hot bath. After going through the entire course both the Greeks and Romans made use of strigils or scrapers, either of horn or metal, to remove perspiration, oil, and impurities from the skin. Connected with the baths were walks, covered race-grounds, tennis-courts, and gardens, the whole, both in the external and internal decorations, being frequently on a palatial scale. The group of the Laocoon and the Farnese Hercules were both found in the ruins of Roman baths.
Modern Baths.—With respect to modern baths, that commonly in use in Russia consists of a single hall, built of wood, in the midst of which is a powerful metal oven, covered with heated stones, and surrounded with broad benches, on which the bathers take their places. Cold water is then poured upon the heated stones, and a thick, hot steam rises, which causes the sweat to issue from the whole body. The bather is then gently whipped with wet birch rods, rubbed with soap, and washed with luke-warm and cold water; of the latter, some pailfuls are poured over his head; or else he leaps, immediately after this sweating-bath, into a river or pond, or rolls in the snow. The Turks, by their religion, are obliged to make repeated ablutions daily, and for this purpose there is, in every city, a public bath connected with a mosque. A favourite bath among them, however, is a modification of the hot-air sudorific bath of the ancients introduced under the name of 'Turkish' into other than Mahommedan countries. A regular accompaniment of this bath, when properly given, is the operation known as 'kneading', generally performed at the close of the sweating process, after the final rubbing of the bather with soap, and consisting in a systematic pressing and squeezing of the whole body, stretching the limbs, and manipulating all the joints as well as the fleshy and muscular parts. Public baths are now common in Europe, but the first English public baths and wash-houses of the kind now common in all cities were established in Liverpool and near the London docks in 1844. In 1846 an Act was passed for their encouragement, and a series of statutes, known as 'The Baths and Wash-houses Acts 1846 to 1896', followed. The establishment of cheap swimming-baths was authorized in 1878.
The principal natural warm baths in England are at Bath, in Somersetshire (the hottest), and Buxton and Matlock, in Derbyshire. The temperature of the Bath springs ranges from 109° to 117° F., while that of the Buxton and Matlock waters scarcely exceeds 82°. The baths of Harrogate, which are strongly impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen gas, are also of great repute for the cure of obstinate cutaneous diseases, indurations of the glands, &c. The most celebrated natural hot baths in Europe
are those of Aix-la-Chapelle, and the various Baden, in Germany; Toeplitz, in Bohemia; Bagnières, Baréges, and Dax, in the south of France; and Spa, in Belgium. Besides the various kinds of water-bath with or without medication or natural mineral ingredients, there are also milk, oil, wine, earth, sand, mud, and electric baths, smoke-baths and gas-baths; but these are as a rule only indulged in after specific prescription.
The practice of bathing as a method of cure in cases of disease falls under the head of hydropathy; but even when it is employed simply for pleasure or purification due regard should be paid to the physiological condition of the bather. In many cases cold bathing should be avoided altogether, especially by those who have any tendency to spitting of blood or consumption, by gouty people, or by those who have any latent visceral disease or apoplectic tendency. Wherever the bath is followed by shivering instead of by a healthy reactionary glow, it is undesirable; and a cold bath in the morning after any debauchery or excess in eating or drinking on the previous evening is exceedingly imprudent. Delicate persons and children ought not to bathe in the sea before ten or eleven o'clock in the morning, and in no case should bathing be indulged in after a long fast. In cold streams and rivers additional precautions should be taken, the cold plunge, when heated or fatigued, being frequently attended with fatal results. Even warm baths are not wholly free from danger; apoplexy and death having been known to follow a hot bath when entered with a full stomach. As a rule the temperature should not exceed 105°, and they should not be too long continued. Frequent indulgence in them has an enervating effect, though the majority of people need as yet no renewal of Hadrian's prohibitive legislation in this matter. See also Douches; Thermæ.—Bibliography: W. A. Becker, Gallus; J. Farrar, Baths and Bathing; W. P. Gerhard, Modern Baths and Bath Houses; R. F. Fox, Principles and Practice of Medical Hydrology.
Bath, Knights of the, an order of England, supposed to have been instituted by Henry IV on the day of his coronation, but allowed to lapse after the reign of Charles II till 1725, when George I revived it as a military order. By the book of statutes then prepared the number of knights was limited to the sovereign and thirty-seven knights companions; but the limits of the order were greatly extended in 1815, and again in 1847, when it was opened to civilians. It now consists of three classes, each subdivided into (1) military members, (2) civil members, and (3) honorary members, consisting of foreign princes and officers. The first class consists of Knights of the Grand Cross (G.C.B.); the second of Knights Commanders (K.C.B.); and the third of Companions (C.B.). The Dean of Westminster is dean of the order. In 1917 the Companions of the order were given the privileges and precedence of Commanders, the badge being now worn round the neck. In 1918 the statutes were amended in order to admit officers of the Royal Air Force to the military division. The ribbon of the order is crimson; the military badge a gold cross of eight points, with the lion of England between the four principal angles, and having in a circle in the centre the rose, thistle, and shamrock between three imperial crowns; motto: Tria juncta in uno. Stars are worn by the two first classes, with additional motto, Ich dien, for the military members only. See Knighthood.
Bath-brick, a preparation of siliceous earth found in the River Parret, in Somersetshire, in the form of a solid brick, used for cleaning knives, &c. See Sand.
Bath´gate, a town, Scotland, Linlithgowshire, pleasantly situated, and having in the vicinity the paraffin-works known as Young's, a paper-mill and other works, and coal and iron-stone mines. Pop. (1921), 8504.
Batholite, a mass of igneous rock having no visible floor, and presumed to pass down into some region of the earth's crust where molten rocks at one time prevailed over all others. Granite blocks, like those of the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland, or the long ridge of the Leinster Chain, which have intruded into their surroundings, are regarded as batholites the crests of which have become exposed by denudation. A batholite in its original molten condition may exist under any large area of volcanic activity, and the similarity of the igneous rocks sent to the surface over broad regions of the earth, constituting what are called 'petrographical provinces', points to the existence of very considerable continuous rock-cauldrons in the crust.
Bathom´eter, an instrument, invented by C. Williams Siemens, for measuring the depth of sea beneath a vessel without casting a line. It is based upon the fact that the attraction exerted upon any given mass of matter on the ship is less when she is afloat than ashore, because of the less density of sea-water as compared with that of earth or rock.