The Bath that cleanses the inward as well as the outward man, that is applicable to every age, that is adapted to make health healthier, and alleviate disease whatever its stage or severity, deserves to be regarded as a national institution, and merits the advocacy of all men, and particularly of medical men; of those whose special duty it is to teach how health may be preserved, how disease may be averted. My own advocacy of the Bath is directed mainly to its adoption as a social custom, as a cleanly habit; and, on this ground, I would press it upon the attention of every thinking man. But, if, besides bestowing physical purity and enjoyment, it tend to preserve health, to prevent disease, and even to cure disease, the votary of the Bath will receive a double reward. Having, in my own person, and in the experience afforded me by its regular use, become convinced of the power and importance of the Bath, I felt it to be a duty to make my impressions known to the Medical Profession. With this object I addressed an essay, entitled, "Thermo-therapeia, the Heat-cure," to the British Medical Association, at their meeting at Torquay in August, 1860. In this paper, I urged upon the members of the medical profession, particularly in the provinces and rural districts, to erect a bath for themselves, as an auxiliary armament against disease, as an addition to their pharmacopœia; and to give their support to the establishment in every village and hamlet in Britain of an Eastern Bath. In September, 1860, I was invited to address a paper on the "Revival of the Eastern Bath, and its Application to the Purposes of Health," to the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, at their meeting in Glasgow; an abstract of that paper will be found in the second chapter of this treatise. And, having subsequently been called upon to deliver a popular lecture at the Parochial Institution of Richmond, I penned the historical account of the Bath which is embodied in the first chapter. This explanation I hope my readers will accept as accounting for a certain degree of repetition which occurs in this volume; and which, without the devotion of more time to the labour than I have at my disposal, could not be avoided. It will be guessed, and with truth, that I am no longer a sceptic of the value of the Bath, when the Bath embraces the virtues which are possessed by the Eastern Bath. That it is a source of much enjoyment may be inferred from the suddenness with which it has spread through the metropolis of London. Turkish Baths meet our eye in almost every quarter of the town, and three Companies have been formed, or are in course of formation, for the establishment of Eastern Baths on correct principles. One of these Companies, under the presidency of Mr. Stewart Rolland, professes to draw its inspiration directly from Constantinople, and will take, as its especial model, the Turkish Bath.