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Account of the Russian Vapour-Bath. By T. S. Traill, M. D. 

 Communicated by the Author.* 



A HE existence in Hamburgh of two establishments where the 

 Russian Vapour- Bath is used, brought to my recollection the 

 descriptions given by Acerbi, and other travellers, of the intense 

 heat and sudden transition to cold, so much relished by the na- 

 tions of Northern Europe, and raised my curiosity to experi- 

 ence in my own person the effects of this singular species of 

 bathing. I was further induced to take this step from finding 

 myself suddenly oppressed with a violent feverish cold, which 

 raised my pulse considerably above 100°, and rendered me lit- 

 tle able to join the public dinner-table in the Apollo Saal. 



Accompanied by two friends who wished to make the same 

 experiment, I repaired to the Alexanderbad, which is under 

 the direction of its proprietor, a Jewish physician, who had 

 liberally opened it gratuitously to the members of the Society of 

 Naturforscher, then assembled at Hamburgh. We were ushei*- 

 ed into a very neat saloon, provided with six couches, beside 

 each of which stood a dressing table, and a convenient appara- 

 tus for suspending the clothes of the bather. Here we un- 

 dressed, and were furnished with long flannel dressing-gowns and 

 warm slippers, after which we were all conducted into a small 

 hot apartment, where we were desired to lay aside our gowns 

 and slippers, and were immediately introduced into the room 

 called the bath, in which the dim light admitted through a 

 single window of three panes, just sufficed to shew us that 

 there were in it two persons, like ourselves in puris naturali- 

 bus ; one of whom was an essential personage, the operator^ the 

 other a gentleman just finishing the process by a copious affu- 

 sion of cold water over his body. This sudden introduction in- 

 to an atmosphere of hot steam was so oppressive, that I was 

 forced to cover my face with my hands, to moderate the pain- 

 ful impression on the lips and nostrils, and was compelled to 

 withdraw my head, as much as possible, from the most heated 



• Read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool. 



