BATH, Balneum, a convenient receptacle of water for persons to wash or plunge in, either for health or pleasure.—Baths are distinguished into hot and cold; and these again are either natural or artificial. The natural hot baths are formed of the water of hot springs, of which there are many in different parts of the world; especially in those countries where there are or have evidently been volcanoes. The artificial hot baths consist either of water or of some other fluid made hot by art. The cold bath consists of water, either fresh or salt, in its natural degree of heat; or it may be made colder by art, as by a mixture of nitre, sal-ammoniac, &c. The chief hot baths in our country are those of Bath and Bristol, in Somersetshire; and those others of Buxton and Matlock, in Derbyshire; which latter, however, are rather warm or tepid than hot. The use of these baths is found beneficial in diseases of the head, as palsies, &c. in cuticular diseases, as leprosy, &c. obstructions and constipations of the bowels, the scurvy and stone, and in most diseases of women and children. The baths have performed many cures, and are commonly used as a last remedy in obstinate chronic diseases; where they succeed well, if they agree with the constitution of the patient: but whether they will agree or not, cannot be known without trial.
As to the origin of those hot waters, of which the natural hot baths are formed, we are very much in the dark. All that can be affirmed with certainty is, that where there are volcanoes, there also there are hot springs in great abundance; but how the heat of the volcano should be constantly communicated to the waters of a spring for many ages, during a great part of which the volcano itself has lain in a dormant state, seems almost beyond the reach of investigation. Another thing that creates a great difficulty is, that the fire of a volcano must certainly lie very deep in the earth, and most probably shifts from place to place; but the waters of a spring must always issue from a place situated lower than the origin of the spring itself. Besides, though we should suppose the water to come from the top of a volcano itself, and consequently boiling hot, it could not be supposed to percolate far through cold earth, without losing all the heat it acquired from the volcano. From some observations, however,
Bath. however, it certainly does appear, that there are some spots on the earth which have a power of producing heat within themselves, independent of any thing foreign; and that water is so far from being able to destroy this power, that it seems rather to promote and continue it. We know that water hath this effect upon a mixture of iron filings and sulphur; but whatever quantities of similar substances we may suppose to be contained in the earth, we must also suppose to be destroyed by one great conflagration soon after they have begun to act upon each other, so that by their means no lasting heat in waters could be produced. Dr Stukeley indeed would solve this, and several other phenomena, by making the fire and smoke of volcanoes the effects of electricity: but here sufficient proof is wanting; for electricity, even in its most powerful state, is not very apt to set bodies on fire. The thought, however, deserves attention; for if electricity is capable of setting a volcano on fire, it is undoubtedly capable of producing solfateras where it meets with proper materials, and from them springs of any degree of heat.
The cold bath is found one of the most universal and innocent remedies yet discovered, though still its use is not to be adopted without precautions.
Baths in vapour, the fume or steam of some decoction is received upon the body to promote a perspiration.—These are also by some called Balnea Laconica.
Vapour baths are, when the patient is not plunged into what is prepared for the bath, but only receives its steam upon those parts of his body which require it: as in some distempers of the fundament and womb, where the patient sits and receives the fumes of some proper fomentation, &c. To these may be added the bagnio; where people are made to sweat by the heat of a room, and pouring on of hot water; after which they generally go into a hot bath or bagnio.
A peculiar sort of vapour-bath was much used by the ancient Mexicans, and is still in use among the present Indians their descendants. According to the abbé Clavigero, these baths are built of raw bricks, and their form is similar to that of ovens for baking bread: but with this difference, that the pavement of the bath is a little convex, and lower than the surface of the earth; whereas that of most ovens is plain, and a little elevated for the accommodation of the baker. The greatest diameter of a bath is about eight feet, and its greatest height six. The entrance, like the mouth of an oven, is wide enough to allow a man to creep easily in. In the place opposite to the entrance there is a furnace of stone or raw bricks, with its mouth outwards to receive the fire, and a hole above it to carry off the smoke. The part which unites the furnace to the bath, and which is about two feet and a half square, is shut with a certain dry stone of a porous texture. In the upper part of the vault there is an air-hole, like that to the furnace. This is the usual structure of the temazcalli; but there are others that are without vault or furnace, mere little square chambers, yet well covered and defended from the air.—When any person goes to bathe, he first lays a mat within the temazcalli, a pitcher of water, and a bunch of herbs or leaves of maize. He then causes a fire to be
made in the furnace, which is kept burning until the stones which join the bath and furnace are quite hot. The person who is to use the bath enters commonly naked, and generally accompanied for the sake of convenience, or on account of infirmity, by one of his domestics. As soon as he enters, he shuts the entrance close, but leaves the air-hole at top for a little time open, to let out any smoke which may have been introduced through the chinks of the stone; when it is all out he likewise stops up the air-hole. He then throws water upon the hot stones, from which immediately arises a thick steam to the top of the temazcalli. While the sick person lies upon the mat, the domestic drives the vapour downwards, and gently beats the sick person, particularly on the ailing part, with the bunch of herbs which are dipped for a little while in the water of the pitcher, which has then become a little warm. The sick person falls immediately into a soft and copious sweat, which is increased or diminished at pleasure, according as the case requires. When the evacuation desired is obtained, the vapour is let off, the entrance is cleared, and the sick person clothes himself, or is transported on the mat to his chamber; as the entrance to the bath is usually within some chamber of his habitation.—This sort of bath, called temazcalli by the natives, has been regularly used in several disorders, particularly in fevers occasioned by costiveness. The Indian women use it commonly after childbirth, and also those persons who have been stung or wounded by any poisonous animal. It is undoubtedly a powerful remedy for all those who have occasion to carry off gross humours; and certainly it would be most useful in Italy, where the rheumatism is so frequent and afflicting. When a very copious sweat is desired, the sick person is raised up and held in the vapour; as he sweats the more nearer he is to it. The temazcalli is so common, that in every place inhabited by the Indians there are many of them.
Baths, Dry, are those made of ashes, salt, sand, shreds of leather, and the like.—The ancients had divers ways of sweating by a dry heat; as by the means of a hot sand, stove-rooms, or artificial bagnios, and certain natural hot steams of the earth, received under a proper arch, or hot-house, as we learn from Celsus. They had also another kind of bath by insolation, where the body was exposed to the sun for some time, in order to draw forth the superfluous moisture from the inward parts; and to this day it is a practice in some nations to bury the body over with horse-dung, especially in chronic diseases, to digest and breathe out the humour that causes the distemper. In New England they make a kind of stoves of turf, wherein the sick are shut up to bathe or sweat.
The same name is sometimes also given to another kind of bath, made of kindled coals, or burning spirit of wine; the patient being placed in a convenient close chair for the reception of the fume, which rises and provokes sweat in a plentiful manner: care is here taken to keep the head out, and to secure respiration. This bath has been found very effectual in removing old obstinate pains in the limbs; and venereal complaints; and will often complete a cure left unperformed by salivation.
Some authors speak of bloody baths, balnea sanguinolenta,
Bath. noenta, prepared especially of the blood of infants, anciently supposed to be a kind of specific for the leprosy.
Baths, Metalline, those made of water impregnated with the scoria of metals. The most common and useful of this kind are those prepared with the scoria of iron, which abound with the earthy, saline, and sulphureous substance of the metal; and these are of excellent service for strengthening and bracing up the part to which they are applied, and recovering weak and decayed limbs; stopping various kinds of bleeding; and restoring the menstrual and hemorrhoidal flux where obstructed; insomuch that they may well be substituted for the natural iron baths.
Adjacent to the smelting huts where metals are run from their ore, are to be found large quantities of the slag of copper, antimony, and cobalt, which abounding with sulphur, vitriolic salt, and an earthy principle, make serviceable baths for strengthening the lost tone of the fibres, and relaxing them when they are too stiff. These baths have likewise a detersive and cleansing virtue; so that with prudence, and due regard to circumstances, they may be used on many occasions. The way of making these artificial baths is, either to take the slags as they come hot from the furnace, or else to heat them afresh, and throw them into hot water; which is afterwards to be used either in the way of bath, or fomentation, occasionally. There are other artificial baths, prepared of alum and quicklime, by boiling them together in fine rain-water. Such baths are highly serviceable in paralytic disorders and weakness of the limbs.
The pepper bath, or pepper wasser, on the Alps, is one of the most celebrated in Europe, and has been the subject of particular treatises, besides what has been said of it occasionally by Scheuchzer and others. It was first discovered in the year 1240, and is of the periodical kind. The water breaks forth in a dreadful place, scarce accessible to the sunbeams, or indeed to men, unless of the greatest boldness, and such as are not in the least subject to dizziness. These baths have this singularity above all others, that they commonly break forth in May, and that with a sort of impetuosity, bringing with them beech leaves, crabs or other wood-fruit; and that their course desists in September or October. Scheuchzer professes himself of opinion, that these waters are not impregnated with any minerals, or, if they do contain any, that their virtues in curing distempers and preserving health do not proceed from them. They are exceedingly clear, destitute of colour, taste, or smell.
Baths, Balnea, in Architecture, denote large pompous buildings among the ancients, erected for the sake of bathing. Baths made a part of the ancient gymnasia, though they were frequented more for the sake of pleasure than health.
The most magnificent baths were those of Titus, Paulus Æmilius, and Dioclesian, of which there are some ruins still remaining. It is said that at Rome there were 836 public baths. Fabricius adds, that the excessive luxury of the Romans appeared in nothing more visible than in their baths. Seneca complains, that the baths of plebeians were filled from silver pumps; and that the freedmen trod on gems.
Macrobius tells us of one Sergius Oratus, a voluptuary, who had pendant baths hanging in the air.
According to Dion, Mæcenas was the first who made a bath at Rome; yet there are instances of public baths prior to this; but they were of cold water, small, and poorly decorated. Agrippa, in his edilitate, built 160 places for bathing, where the citizens might be accommodated, either with hot or cold gratis. After this example, Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Severus, Gordian, Aurelian, Maximian, Dioclesian, and most of the emperors who studied to gain the affections of the people, erected baths laid with the richest marble, and wrought according to the rules of the most delicate architecture. The rich had baths at home, and frequently very magnificent ones, especially after the time that the practice of pillaging the provinces had begun; but they only used them on extraordinary occasions. The great men, and even emperors themselves, sometimes bathed in public with the rest of the people. Alexander Severus was the first who allowed the public baths to be opened in the night-time during the heats of summer.
The Greek baths were usually annexed to palestræ or gymnasia, of which they were considered as a part. These baths consisted of seven different apartments, usually separated from each other, and intermixed with other buildings belonging to the other sorts of exercises. These were, 1st, The cold bath, frigida lavatio; 2dly, The clærothesium, or room where they were anointed with oil; 3dly, The frigidarium, or cooling room; 4thly, The propugnium, or entrance of the hypocaustum or stove; 5thly, The vaulted room for sweating in, or vapour-bath, called concamerata sudatio, or tepidarium; 6thly, The laconicum, or dry stove; 7thly, The hot bath, called calida lavatio.
As for the baths separate from the palestra, they appear to have been usually double, one for men, the other for women; but so near, that the same furnace heated both. The middle part was possessed by a large bason that received water by several pipes, and was surrounded by a balustrade, behind which there was an area for the reception of those who waited to use the bath. They were vaulted over, and only received light from the top.
In the Roman baths, the first part that appeared was a large bason, called κλῶστρον in Greek, and nata or piscina in Latin. In the middle was the hypocaustum, which had a row of four apartments on each side, called balnearia: these were the stove, the bath, cold bath, and tepidarium. The two stoves, called laconicum and tepidarium, were circular and joined together. Their floor was hollow and suspended, in order to receive the heat of a large furnace, which was communicated to the stoves through the vacuities of their floor. This furnace also heated another room called vasarium, in which were three large brazen vessels called milliaria, respectively containing hot, warm, and cold water; which were so disposed, that the water might be made to pass by syphons and pipes out of one or other of them into the bath, in order to adjust its temperature. The description is given by Vitruvius. At three in the afternoon, which is what Pliny calls hora octava et nona, the Romans all repaired to the baths, either the public or the private ones: this was
was called the bath hour, hora balnei, which in winter was at nine, in summer at eight. The public baths were all opened at the sound of a bell, and always at the same hour. Those who came too late, stood a chance for bathing in cold water.
They began with hot water; after which, as the pores were now opened, and might give room for too plentiful a perspiration, they thought it necessary for their health to close them again, either with the cold bath, or at least with a sprinkling of cold water. During the bath, the body was scraped with a kind of knives, or small strigils, such as are still found in the cabinets of the curious. After bathing succeededunction and perfuming, from which they went fresh to supper.
The Romans, when they found their stomachs overcharged with meat, went to the bath, as we learn from Juvenal, who inveighs against those who, having gorged themselves with eating, were forced to go into the baths to give themselves relief. They found also that a bath was good to refresh themselves after some considerable fatigue or travel, as Celsus tells us; which makes Plautus say, that all the baths in this world were not sufficient to remove the weariness he felt. After Pompey's time, the humour of bathing was carried to great excess, by which many were ruined, several having brought themselves to such a pitch, that they could not bear food without bathing first. The emperor Titus is said to have lost his life thereby. Hence Pliny inveighs severely against those physicians who held, that hot baths digested the food. The emperor Hadrian first laid a restraint on the immoderate humour of bathing, by a public edict, prohibiting all persons to bathe before the eighth hour.
BATHS of Agrippa, (thermæ Agrippinæ;) were built of brick, but painted in enamel: those of Nero, thermæ Neromanæ, were not only furnished with fresh water, but even had the sea brought into them: those of Caracalla were adorned with 200 marble columns, and furnished with 1600 seats of the same matter. Lipsius assures us they were so large, that 1800 persons might conveniently bathe in them at the same time. But the baths of Dioclesian, thermæ Dioclesianæ, surpassed all the rest in magnificence. One hundred and forty thousand men were employed many years in building them. Great part of these, as well as those of Caracalla, are still standing; and with the vast high arches, the beautiful and stately pillars, the extraordinary plenty of foreign marble, the curious vaulting of the roofs, the prodigious number of spacious apartments, and a thousand other ornaments, make one of the greatest curiosities of modern Rome.