Turkish and Other Baths: A Guide to Good Health and LongevityStables, Gordon
Science
Turkish and Other Baths: A Guide to Good Health and Longevity
Stables, Gordon
Baths, Turkish
How much better would it be if tea and coffee took the place of
dangerous stimulants, and the balance of health was sought to be
retained by the daily use of the morning tub, and a bi-weekly indulgence
in an Anglo-Turkish Bath. It is not too much to hope for, and it
certainly is not too much to pray for, that public baths upheld in a
great measure by Government, may yet be one of the institutions of our
beloved land. What a blessing these would be to hard working men, and
to the tired and weary among all classes. I venture to predict, that if
people were to make a habit of using the Turkish Bath, say on the
Saturday afternoons only, gin palaces and dram saloons that now reek
with filth and disease would lose many a customer. Persons would find
out that there was no real way consonant with the acknowledged rules of
health and hygiene of banishing fatigue, of dispelling aches and pains,
of calming the nervous system, and preparing the mind for the perfect
enjoyment of that day of blessed rest called Sunday.
As a prophylactic against innumerable diseases, we have recommended the
use of the Anglo-Turkish Bath. It is almost unnecessary to enlarge upon
this head, but a word or two may not be thrown away. Two, then, of the
great _causae norborum_, or disease inducers in this country are cold
and indigestion. Now, so long as the skin is a healthy one, and in good
working order, it is next to impossible for any one to catch cold
through it, if he only takes care to clothe it not heavily but
judiciously in warm woollens or light soft silks. It stands to reason
that an organ, an instrument or machine--call it what we may--which is
perfect in workings, is not so easily thrown out of gear or out of order
as one not so perfect. We could fill a volume with cases of people who
are constantly in the habit of using Baths, who can stand exposure to
both cold and wet with but little inconvenience; and we also know a vast
number of votaries of the Bath who do at times catch cold like other
people, being probably constitutionally susceptible to its influence--
but who get clear of their colds in quite a remarkably short time. The
reason undoubtedly is that they have the power to "throw them off," as
the common saying is.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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