The bath is coeval with the earliest existence of man. Can it be doubted that our first parents bathed their newly-created limbs in the river that "went out of Eden to water the garden"? History teaches us, that the Phœnicians and ancient Greeks of all ranks, from the daughters of their kings down to the poorest citizens, were wont to bathe in rivers and in the sea, for the purpose of cleansing their bodies and refreshing and invigorating their frames. They had recourse to the bath when they ceased from sorrow and mourning, after great fatigues of whatever kind, before and during their meals, and at the conclusion of their battles. Bathing was the first act of their lives, and it was a part of their funereal rites. The birth of Jupiter, the Thunderer, is celebrated by the poet Callimachus in the following lines:-- "As soon as you were born and saw the light, Your mother's grateful burden and delight, She sought for some _clear brook_ to purify The body of so dear a progeny." Again, of Alcestis, when about to lay down her life for her husband Admetus, it is written:-- "The pious dame, before the fatal day Of her own exit, bathed her beauteous limbs In _gentle rivulet_." Plato, also, records how the good old philosopher Socrates, before he drank the fatal cup of hemlock that was to consign him to Hades, _bathed_ and _washed_ himself, that he might save the women, whose duty it was, their troublesome office.[1] [1] "Part of the funereal rites of the Moors was to convey the corpse to the bath."--Urquhart, from "Mision Historial de Marueccos." A short stage in the history of the bath leads us to the discovery of springs of hot water, hot vapour, and hot air; and these very possibly suggested to man's inventive mind the means of procuring so great a luxury by his own contrivance. Homer commends one of the sources of the Scamander for its warmth, and tells us how Andromache, with matronly care, prepared a hot bath for her husband Hector, against his return from battle:-- "Her fair-haired handmaids heat the brazen urn, The BATH preparing for her lord's return." We are taught also that Vulcan, or, as others say, Minerva, discovered certain _hot baths_ ([Greek: Hêrakleea loutra]) to Hercules, that he might replenish his strength after undergoing severe exertion and fatigue. And the Phœdrians, according to Homer, laid great stress upon the importance to the health and happiness of man of frequent changes of apparel, comfortable beds, and _hot baths_.