city of Somersetshire in England, seated in W. Long. 2° 30'. N. Lat. 51° 27'. All the different names that this city has borne in different ages and languages have been taken from its medicinal waters, as the *thermae*, or "hotwaters," of Ptolemy; the *aque felis*, or "waters of the sun," of Antoninus; the *Caer Baden*, and *Caer Ennant*, i.e. "the city of baths," and "the city of ointment," of the Britons; and the *Ackmanchofer*, i.e. "the city of valetudinarians," of the Saxons. The baths consist of the King's-bath, the Queen's-bath, the Crofs-bath, the Hot-bath, the Leper's-bath, and the duke of Kingston's-bath. This place was of old a resort only for cripples and diseased persons; but now it is more frequented by the sound for pleasure, than by the sick for health. The waters are very pleasant to the taste; and impregnated with a vitriolic principle, yielding, upon evaporation, a little neutral salt, and a calcareous earth and iron. They are very efficacious in strengthening the bowels and stomach, bracing the relaxed fibres, and invigorating the circulation. In bilious complaints they are counted specific; and prove serviceable in most nervous, paralytic, rheumatic, and gouty complaints. At the King's-bath is a handsome pump-room, where the gentlemen and ladies go in a morning to drink the waters; and there is a band of music that plays all the time. In the Crofs-bath is a monument of marble, representing the descent of the Holy Ghost attended by angels, erected by the earl of Melfort (who was secretary of state for Scotland) when king James II. met his queen here. The King's-bath is a large bathon of 65 feet 10 inches by 40 feet 10 inches, containing 346 tons 2 hogheads and 36 gallons of water when filled to its usual height. In the middle is a wooden building with niches and seats for the accommodation of the bathers. There are also iron rings all round for them to hold by; and guides, both male and female, to attend them in the bath. The person intending to bathe puts on, at his own lodgings, a bathing dress of brown canvas hired for the purpose; and is carried in a close chair, of a particular make, to one of the slips which open into the bath. There he descends by steps into the water, where he is attended by a guide. Having fluid his stated time in the bath, he ascends again into the slip, where he puts off his bathing-dress, and being wrapped up in blankets, is carried home to bed, where he lies for some time to encourage perspiration. The King's-bath is overlooked by the company in the pump-room; and adjoining to it are places furnished with pumps to pour the hot streams on any particular part of the body. The Queen's-bath communicates with the King's, from which it is filled; therefore the water of it is not so hot, being at a greater distance from the source. As the heat is here more moderate, the bathers descend first into the Queen's-bath, and advance gradually to the centre of the other. In the year 1755, the abbey-house, or priory, belonging to the duke of Kingston, was taken down, in order to erect a more commodious pile of building; and in digging for the foundation, the workmen discovered, about twenty feet below the surface of the earth, the remains of Roman baths and fountains constructed upon an elegant plan, with floors suspended on pillars, and surrounded with tubulated bricks, for the conveyance of heat and vapour. These were supplied by a spring of hot water, of the same properties and temperature with those of the King's-bath; and the sewer was found still entire, that conveyed the waste water into the river. The duke, having cleared the spring and the sewer, has erected several convenient baths and fountains on the spot, where invalids may be accommodated at all hours, by night as well as by day. The two seasons are the spring and fall; but those who take the waters purely for their health do not regard the seasons, but drink them all the year round. There are a number of gentle sedan chairs, which carry people to any distance, not exceeding half a mile, for expense. The company assemble in the afternoon, alternately, at two stately rooms, to converse together, or play at cards. At a very pretty new theatre near the parade, plays are acted every other night; and there are balls twice a-week, for which and the rooms, and books at the libraries, the gentry generally subscribe. The city is surrounded with hills on all sides, except a little opening. ing to the east and west, through which the Avon runs.

This river, which has been made navigable to Bristol by act of parliament, washes the city on the east and south sides, and there is an elegant bridge over it. This city hath formerly had a flight wall, of which some part still remains, as well as one or two of its gates; but almost all the new buildings, and much the greatest and finest part of the city, is without the walls, particularly the fine square called Queen's-square, in the middle of which is a small garden, with gravel walks, and an obelisk in the centre. But the greatest ornament at Bath is the circus: it is of a circular form, consisting of houses built on an uniform plan, with three openings at equal distances to the south, east, and west, leading into as many streets. The fronts of the houses, which are all three stories high, are adorned with three rows of columns in pairs, of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders, the frieze embellished with sculpture. The whole has an air of magnificence, which cannot fail to strike the most indifferent spectator. In the centre of the area is a reservoir, or basin, filled by two or three springs rising in the neighbouring hills; whence the streets in this district are supplied with water. On the south side of the town are the north and south parades, two noble walks, paved with hewn stone, raised upon arches, facing each an elegant row of houses on one side, and having a stone balustrade on the other. These, with the two streets that join them, were planned and executed by one Mr Wood, an able architect, who likewise built the square, and projected the circus. The two public rooms stand betwixt the north parade and Orange-grove; which last is a square planted with trees, having in the middle a stone obelisk, inscribed in Latin to the late prince of Orange, who recovered his health in consequence of drinking the Bath waters, and gave his name to this part of the town. Several new streets and rows have of late years been built on the north-side of Bath, in the neighbourhood of the square, such as Gay-street, Millom-street, Edgar-row, Harlequin-row, Bladud's-buildings, King's-mead-street, and Brock-street. Their advantages for building here are very great, having excellent free-stone, limestone, and flate, in the neighbourhood. One sort of their lime is as white as snow. The guild-hall of Bath stands in the market-place, and is said to be built on a plan of Inigo Jones, which, however, exhibits nothing worthy of that great architect: besides, one end of it has been rebuilt in a different style. The hall is ornamented with some portraits of the late prince of Wales and other remarkable personages: but the greatest curiosity of the place is a Minerva's head in bronze, a real antique, dug up in Stall-street, in the year 1725. Bath boasts a noble infirmary, or general hospital, for the reception of the sick and lame from all parts of the three kingdoms. It extends 100 feet in front, and 90 in depth, being capable of receiving 150 patients. Here was anciently a monastery, of which the present cathedral was the church. It is a venerable pile; the principal front of which is adorned with angels ascending and descending. The bishop of the diocese is nominated both from Bath and Wells; yet he and his chapter always reside at Wells. There are three other churches in Bath, and several chapels and meeting-houses. Besides the infirmary, there are several other hospitals, almshouses, and charity-schools. The corporation consists of a mayor; eight aldermen, of whom two are justices of the peace; and 24 common-council men. The city is extremely well provided with stage-coaches, post-coaches, chaises, machines, and waggons. Bath is the general hospital of the nation, and a great number of invalids find benefit from the waters: but as the city lies in a bottom surrounded by very high hills, the air is constantly surcharged with damps; and indeed this place is more subject to rain than any other part in England. The markets are remarkably well supplied with provisions of all kinds at reasonable rates, particularly fish and poultry. They also afford excellent mutton fed upon Landown, one of the highest hills that overlook the city. This down, remarkable for its pure air, extends about three miles; and at the extremity of it there is a stone monument, with an inscription, erected to the memory of Sir Bevil Granville, who was here killed in a battle which he fought with the parliament's army in the reign of Charles I.

in medicine, chemistry, &c., signifies a quantity of matter either moist or dry, included in a proper vessel, and sufficient for the total immersion of the human body, or any other substance which it may be judged necessary to cover with it. Hence baths are divided into moist and dry, according as the materials are either aqueous or not; the first are subdivided into hot and cold; and these 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. Sometimes indeed the vapour of water, either naturally or artificially heated, is made use of without suffering the person to enter the water itself; this is called the vapour-bath, and is a powerful sudorific. The cold bath consists only 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.

Bathing seems to have been a very ancient practice. The Greeks, as early as the heroic age, are said to have bathed themselves in the sea, in rivers, &c. We even find mention in Homer of hot-baths in the time of the Trojan war; but these seem to have been very rare, and used only upon extraordinary occasions. Athenaeus speaks of them as unusual even in his time. In reality, public baths seem to have been for some time disdained if not prohibited by the Greeks, who were contented to wash themselves at home in a sort of bathing tubs. The method of bathing among them was by heating water in a large vessel with three feet, and thence pouring it on the head and shoulders of a person seated in a tub for that purpose, who at coming out was anointed with oil. The Greek baths consisted of seven different apartments, usually separated from one another, and intermixed with other buildings belonging to different kinds of exercises. These were:

1. The cold bath, frigidarium; in Greek ἀντρόποιος. 2. The chaletium, or room where they were anointed with oil. 3. The frigidarium, or cooling room. 4. The propnigenum, or entrance of the hypocaustum or stove. 5. The vaulted room for sweating in, or vapour-bath, called by the Romans concamerata fadatio. 6. The La- The Greek baths were usually annexed to palestra or gymnasia, of which they were considered as a part. They appear to have been double, one for men, and the other for women; but so near, that one furnace served for heating both. The middle part was possessed by a large bason, which received water by several pipes, and into which they went down by steps, being surrounded by a ballustrade, behind which was a kind of corridor, which formed a pretty large area to hold those who were waiting till there should be room for them in the bath. They were vaulted over, and only received light from the top.

The Romans were also long before they came into the use of baths; the very name of which, thermae, shows they borrowed the practice from the Greeks.—As the ancient Romans were chiefly employed in agriculture, their custom was, every evening after work, to wash their arms and legs, that they might sit down to supper with more decency; for it is to be observed, that the use of linen was then unknown, in Italy at least; and the people of that age went with their legs and arms bare, and consequently exposed to dust and filth. But this was not all; for, every ninth day, when they repaired to the nundinae, or to the assemblies of the people, they bathed all over in the Tiber, or some river that happened to be nearest to them. This seems to have been all the bathing used till the time of Pompey, when the custom began of bathing every day.—The Romans, when they found their stomachs overcharged with meat, went to the bath, as we learn from Juvenal, who inveighs against those that, having gorged themselves with eating, were forced to go into the bath to give themselves relief. They also found that a bath was good for refreshing them after some considerable fatigue, as we are informed by Celsus the physician. Hence, after Pompey's time, when luxury was prodigiously increased, the humour of bathing was carried to an extravagant height. Many by the immoderate use of the bath entirely ruined their constitution, being unable to taste food without bathing first. By this practice the emperor Titus is said to have lost his life. Hence Pliny inveighs severely against those physicians who held that hot baths digested the food. The emperor Adrian first laid a restraint on this immoderate humour of bathing, forbidding all persons to go to the bath before the eighth hour.

According to Dion, Mæcenas was the first who made a bath at Rome; yet there are instances of public baths before his time; but they were of cold water, small, and poorly decorated. Agrippa in his edifice built a bath of 160 paces in length, where the citizens might be accommodated with either the hot or cold bath gratis. After his example Nero, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Severus, Gordian, Aurelian, Maximian, Diocletian, and most other emperors who studied to gain the affections of the people, erected baths laid with the finest marble, and built according to the nicest rules of architecture. Alexander Severus was the first who allowed the public baths to be open during the night in the heats of summer.

In the Roman baths, the first part that appeared was a large bason called natatio and piscina. The middle was possessed by the hypocaustum, which had a string of four apartments on each side called balnearia, so contrived, that one might easily go out of one into the other. There were two floes called laconicum and tepidarium, which were joined together and built circular. Their floor was hollow and suspended, to receive the heat of the hypocaustum, which was a large furnace underneath. The same furnace also heated another room called vaparium, situated near the floes, wherein were placed three large brazen vessels called mullaria on account of their capacity; one for hot water, another for warm water, and a third for cold water; being so contrived, that the water might pass from one to the other by means of several siphons, and be distributed by pipes and cocks into the neighbouring bath, as occasion required. The rich had baths at home, and frequently very magnificent ones; but they used them only upon extraordinary occasions: the great men, and even emperors themselves, sometimes bathed in public with the rest of the people. At three in the afternoon, which is what Pliny calls hora colitura et nona, the Romans all repaired to the baths, either the public or private ones; the public baths were all opened at the sound of a bell, and always at the same hour.

The baths of Agrippa were built of brick, but painted in enamel; those of Nero were not only furnished with fresh water, but also had the sea water brought into them; those of Caracalla were adorned with 200 marble columns, and furnished with 1600 seats of the same matter. Lepius assures us they were so large, that 1800 persons might conveniently bathe in them at once. But the baths of Diocletian surpassed all the rest in magnificence; 140,000 persons were employed for many years in building them. Great part of these, as well as of the baths of Caracalla, are still standing; and with the vast high arches, the beautiful and stately pillars, &c. make one of the greatest curiosities in modern Rome.

The Celtic nations were not without the use of bathing: the ancient Germans bathed every day in warm water in winter, and in summer in cold. In England, the famous bath in Somersetshire is said by some to have been in use 800 years before Christ. Of this, however, it must be owned we have but very slender evidence: but Dr Musgrave makes it probable that it was a place of considerable resort in Geta's time; there being still the remains of a statue erected to that general, in gratitude for some benefactions he had conferred upon it.

Cold bathing was in high esteem among the ancient physicians for the cure of diseases, as appears from Strabo, Pliny, Hippocrates, and Oribasius; whence frequent exhortations to washing in the sea, and plunging into cold water. The first instance of cold bathing, as a medicine, is Melampus's bathing the daughters of the king of Argos; and the first instance of warm bathing is Medea's use of it, who was said to boil people alive, because Pelias king of Thessaly died in a warm bath under her hands. The cold bath was used with success by Antonius Musa, physician to the emperor Augustus, for the recovery of that prince; but fell into neglect after the death of Marcellus, who was thought to have been destroyed by the improper use of it. It was again brought into request, towards the close of the reign of Nero, by means of a physician of Marseille named Charmis; but during the ig- norance of the succeeding ages, the practice was again banished for a long time. Both hot and cold bathing are now prescribed in many cases by the physicians, though they are not agreed as to the manner in which they operate on the human body.

As to the origin of those hot waters, of which the natural hot baths are formed, we are very much in the dark. All we can affirm 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, it certainly does appear, that there are some spots on the earth that 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 Stukely 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 fountains where it meets with proper materials, and from them springs of any degree of heat.

in Hebrew antiquity, a measure of capacity, containing the tenth part of an omar, or seven gallons and four pints, as a measure for things liquid; or three pecks and three pints, as a measure for things dry.

Knights of the Bath. See the article Knight.

Bath-Kol, the daughter of a voice. So the Jews call one of their oracles, which is frequently mentioned in their books, especially the Talmud; being a fantastical way of divination invented by the Jews themselves, though called by them a revelation from God's will, which he made to his chosen people, after all verbal prophecies had ceased in Israel. It was in fact a method of divination similar to the fates Virgilians of the Heathens. For as, with them, the first words they happened to dip into, in the works of that poet, were a kind of oracle, whereby they predicted future events; so, with the Jews, when they appealed to Bath-kol, the first words they heard from any one's mouth were looked upon as a voice from heaven, directing them in the matter they inquired about. The Christians were not quite free from this superstition, making the same use of the book of the Scriptures, as the Pagans did of the works of Virgil. It was practised by Heraclius, emperor of the east, in the beginning of the seventh century; for, being at war with Chosroes king of Persia, and in doubt, after a successful campaign, where to take up his winter-quarters, he consulted the book of the Scriptures in this way of divination, and was determined thereby. In France, it was the practice, for several ages, to use this kind of divination at the consecration of a bishop, in order to discover his life, manners, and future behaviour. This usage came into England with the Norman conquest; for we are told, that, at the consecration of William the second Norman bishop of the diocese of Norwich, the words which first occurred, on dipping into the Bible, were, Not this man, but Barabbas: soon after which, William died, and Herbert de Loxinga, chief Simony-broker to King William Rufus, succeeded him; at whose consecration, the words, at which the Bible opened, were the same which Jesus spoke to Judas the traitor; Friend, wherewith art thou come? This circumstance affected Herbert, that it brought him to a thorough repentance of his crime; in expiation of which he built the cathedral church of Norwich, the first stone of which he laid in the year 1096.