Turkish and Other Baths: A Guide to Good Health and Longevity — John Shaqi
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
"Aqueous remedies," says the dermatologist, "present themselves in the
form of simple water in its various states of cold, tepid, warm, hot and
steam; water impregnated with saline matter as in the sea-bath, and
saline solutions; in lotions, fomentations and poultices. Water may be
sedative, emollient, or stimulant, according to the manner in which it
is employed. As a tepid bath or fomentation it is sedative, and its
sedative action is increased by the addition of various substances, such
as oatmeal, starch, gelatine, and soda in small quantities. It is
emollient when used as a water dressing or in the condition of steam,
and it is stimulant when cold or hot. When hot it is the best means
known of relieving pruritus (itching), and in its cold state it
refreshes and gives vigour to the skin; hence, the morning bath, the
sea-bath, and daily ablutions with soap. On this principle it is that
we advise daily cold ablutions with soap of the face in cases of acne
(pimples), and to other parts of the body, particularly the _axilla_ and
_perinaeum_ in chronic eczema or chronic pruritus. Aqueous lotions of
_liquor plumbi_ (sugar of lead) are refrigerant and sedative, while
lotions of carbolic acid, sulphurate of _potash, acetate_ of _ammonia_,
and _bicarbonate_ of _ammonia_ are anti-pruritic. Warm fomentations are
sedative and anodyne, and their properties are increased by the addition
of poppy heads. Poultices are emollient and sedative, but their
protracted use, as of all aqueous applications, macerates and weakens
the skin, and tends _to perpetuate_ the disease or cause boils. As a
rule, all aqueous applications except simple bathing, must be employed
with great caution in skin diseases. Saponaceous ablutions generally
aggravate eczematous affections; but certain forms and stages of that
disease are benefitted by their use."
As a means of using the hip bath, whether medicated or otherwise, and
for female complaints and irregularities, there is nothing to equal the
bidet herewith figured (Plate Nine).
3. FOMENTATIONS are simply local baths and are used to relieve pain and
reduce inflammation, as in the poppy head or laudanum fomentation to
painful swellings, or the turpentine fomentation to redden the chest in
severe colds. The water must be very hot, and two pieces of flannel
must be used, wrung from the water, time about. These may be sprinkled
with laudanum or turpentine as the case may demand.
4. THE MUSTARD FOOT-BATH is useful in cases of incipient colds,
headaches, or languor and listlessness with restless nights. A
bucketful of hot water with a handful of mustard in it is all that is
wanted; in this the legs are to be bathed for twenty minutes before
going to bed.
5. THE OAK BATH is made by adding a pound of bruised oak bark to a
quart of cold water and boiling for half an hour; the half of this maybe
put in the morning tub as a tonic bath.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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