The eastern or Turkish bath : $b its history, revival in Britain, and application to the purposes of healthWilson, Erasmus, Sir
History
The eastern or Turkish bath : $b its history, revival in Britain, and application to the purposes of health
Wilson, Erasmus, Sir
Baths, Turkish
The history of the Bath, together with its practice, so far as I have
been able to comprehend it, both point to the Turkish Bath, as it at
present exists in the East, as representing the proper standard of
temperature. The Turkish Bath is a mixed bath of vapour and heat; and
although we have no information of its precise thermometric grade, yet
we have sufficient data before us to be assured that the temperature
cannot be high; for we know, on the one hand, that watery vapour above
120° of Fahrenheit is scalding; and, on the other hand, that the
Turkish Bath is constantly taken by travellers and strangers; and that
inconvenience resulting from its temperature is an accident of the
rarest kind; so rare, in fact, as to be scarcely possible. Whereas, in
the high temperatures at present in use in London, 170° and 180° of dry
air, disagreeable and even dangerous symptoms are extremely common.
The great purpose to be arrived at, as far as temperature is concerned,
is to obtain one which shall be agreeable to the sensations; which
shall slowly expand the pores of the skin; which _shall produce gently
and slowly and without effort; so that it may be continued for an
indefinite length of time_. The temperature of 135° or 140° is very
agreeable to the sensations; but in me it excites a perspiration which
is too profuse; the energy of perspiration occasions a feeling of
exhaustion; and the exhaustion is succeeded by quickened action of the
heart, throbbing pulse, a sensation of faintness, of oppression, which
makes it necessary that I should quit the Calidarium for a few minutes.
It is true that these unpleasant sensations quickly pass off; but they
are again renewed after a time, as often as I return to the Calidarium.
It is easy to see why these disagreeable sensations occur; it is easy
to understand, that the blood, suddenly robbed of a considerable
proportion of its watery fluid, must, for the moment, occasion a
physiological change in the whole economy. But we must do more than
explain them to our own mental satisfaction, we must stop them; and the
way to stop them is, I believe, to use lower temperatures.
Again, high temperatures clearly frustrate the purpose of the bath;
by producing excessive perspiration, they shorten the period passed
in the bath; they bring it to a too sudden and too rapid conclusion.
Profuse perspiration is an excess of function, and excess of function
cannot exist without fatigue and consequent injury to the organ so
excited; together with more or less disturbance of the whole economy.
I have had many complaints of the bath made to me, which have been
clearly referrible to the use of high temperatures at the beginning
of treatment; and the abuse is so plain, that I wonder, having once
occurred, it could again be repeated.
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