Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England Turkish and Other Baths A Guide to Good Health and Longevity By Gordon Stables Illustrations by Messrs Allen Published by Dean and Son, London. Turkish and Other Baths, by Gordon Stables. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ TURKISH AND OTHER BATHS, BY GORDON STABLES. PREFACE. No apology surely is needed for a work like this, and its preface need be but brief. Small is the book, in size little more than a pamphlet; yet mayhap it contains hints that will not be thrown away on any reader, and may be invaluable to many who wish to secure health, long life and happiness. The Author. Christmas Morning, 1882. CHAPTER ONE. THE SKIN--ITS USES AND GREAT IMPORTANCE IN THE ANIMAL ECONOMY. Apart from any consideration of the bath as a remedial measure, in cases of disease, its importance as an agent for preserving the health, and granting to those who use it judiciously a reasonable hope of long life, cannot easily be over-estimated. But in order to understand properly the beneficial action of baths on the system, we must have some little knowledge of the physiology of the skin. Without such knowledge, all arguments that we could adduce in favour of the constant use of the bath in some shape or form, would be of the _post hoc propter hoc_ kind, and therefore of little value. What, then, we may ask, are the uses of the skin, for what ends has Nature designed it, and what is its _modus operandi_? Briefly stated, the uses of the skin are as follows:--Firstly, it covers and protects from violence the surface of the whole body, and the various tender and sensitive parts that lie immediately beneath it; secondly, it is the organ of touch; thirdly, it is the great regulator of the heat of the body; fourthly, it performs the duties of a great emunctory, and by means of its millions of sudoriferous, or sweat glands, each with its efferent duct; it carries off and out of the body a vast quantity of effete matter, which, if retained in the blood, would poison it, and therefore unfit it for the healthful performance of its functions; fifthly, the skin acts as an absorbent; and, sixthly, it is to some extent an organ of respiration.