BAT 



37 



BAT 



the continental nations. In scrofulous diseases, especially 

 when they affect the skin and the glands, benelit is derived 

 from the vapour-bath, unless there be a manifest tendency 

 to active inflammation, and great irritability of the nervous 

 system. In some chronic affections of the nervous system, 

 especially when connected with the repulsion or imperfect 

 development of cutaneous diseases, the vapour-bath is of 

 great use : and also in some affections of the respiratory 

 organs, such as dry catarrh, asthma, spasms of the muscles 

 of respiration, if these are r.ot complicated with inflamma- 

 tion or organic disease of the lungs or heart. 



The use of the vapour-bath would be found to ward off 

 many acute diseases resulting from exposure to cold, if had 

 recourse to immediately after exposure to the exciting cause ; 

 as after travelling, or falling into the water in winter. 



The local application of warm vapour is very serviceable 

 in many recent diseases. Catarrhs, sore throats of an in- 

 flammatory kind, inflammations of the eyes and ears, are 

 greatly alleviated by such means. But when the lungs are 

 inflamed, though Mudge's or other inhaler is much recom- 

 mended, yet the effort required to draw in the vapour is in- 

 jurious. The head, from which a flannel cloth may fall 

 down, in such a way as to hinder the vapour from escaping, 

 should be held over a bason full of warm water, and the 

 vapour inhaled in the ordinary mode of respiration. The 

 vapour-bath is very improper for plethoric persons, those 

 predisposed to congestion, or to apoplexy, and also for indi- 

 viduals in a state of great debility. 



The employment of heated air, as an application to the 

 body, causes the primary action of heat to manifest itself 

 more than the secondary. The hot air-bath is therefore 

 powerfully stimulant to the skin and nervous system, and 

 is of great service in all cases where the production of animal 

 heat is less than natural, as in the cold stage of fevers, and 

 exhaustion of the nervous power. It has been employed 

 beneficially in congestive fever, and after great and conti- 

 nual mental exertion. It proved less useful in the Asiatic 

 cholera than was anticipated. A convenient apparatus 

 for applying it was invented by the late Dr. Gower, called a 

 Sudatorium, and also others by Jones of the Strand, London. 



Medicated baths rarely possess greater power than that 

 possessed by the water alone ; but there are a few exceptions. 

 The admixture of common salt makes the water more sti- 

 mulating and tonic. 



Sulphurous vapour-baths fall under the head of medicated 

 baths, and a few remarks may be here made respecting 

 them. Nightraen, and other individuals who live much in 

 an atmosphere charged with sulphurous exhalations, are 

 rarely affected with chronic diseases of the skin, while other 

 trades seem to predispose to their development, such as the 

 baker's itch and grocer's itch. It is chiefly for the cure of 

 cutaneous diseases that the sulphurous vapour-baths are 

 employed. In many of these they are very useful, espe- 

 cially those belonging to the genus scabies and genus 

 impetigo of Bateman. A caution is requisite for their safe 

 employment, that the vapour should not be applied to more 

 than a fourth part of the body at one time, lest the disease 

 should be suddenly cured, and the internal organs suffer by 

 the repulsion. The person who uses the sulphurous vapour- 

 liath must be careful not to breathe any of the vapour. 

 This kind of bath has been used in rheumatic affections, 

 sonic diseases of the stomach, and in chronic paralysis. It 

 may sometimes be a useful addition to internal treatment, 

 but alone can be of little avail, till the state of the internal 

 organs be improved, especially the liver, the action of which 

 is almost always faulty in gout and rheumatism. 



The nitro-muriatir; bath of Scott is of use in chronic in- 

 flammation of the liver, such as occurs in warm climates. 

 The iron-baths in Nassau and the Hartz are more tonic 

 than the simple cold-bath : but none of the iron can be ab- 

 sorbed at the low temperature of these baths; it is only there- 

 fore by their direct action upon the skin, and the sympa- 

 thies of this with the internal organs, that they are more 

 beneficial. We have no knowledge of the effects of the mi- 

 neralized mud baths, called by the Italians Lutatura. 

 (See Gainlner On Mineral Springs, p. 404.) 



Though unacquainted with the results of employing hot 

 sand or a a hes, as done by the Turks, we can conceive them 

 useful in allaying cramps and neuralgic pains, as heat ge- 

 nerally dots in whatever way applied. A collection of the 

 opini os of antient writers on the subject was published in 

 . \teenth century. (De balneit omnta qute extant apud 

 Gra-con, Latinot, et Arabet, fol. Tenet, apud Junt. 1553.) 



The best modern treatise is that of Marcard, in German, an 

 abstract of which may be found in Dr. Beddoes's Treatiei 

 on Consumption. A French translation of it was published 

 in 1802. The natural baths will be treated of under the 

 article WATERS, MINERAL. (See Osann, Encyclop&dis- 

 ches Worterbuch der Med. Wissenschaft, art. ' Bad,' vol. iv. 

 Berlin, 1830, and Osann, Darstellung der Heilquellen Eu- 

 ropas, 1829.) 



BATHURST, ALLEN, EARL BATHURST, eldest 

 son of Sir Benjamin Bathurst, governor of the East India 

 Company in the years 1688-9, and treasurer of the house- 

 hold to the Princess Anne of Denmark, was born at West- 

 minster in November, 1684. His descent was from an 

 antient family of Luneburg, who resided at a place called 

 ' Batters,' and settled in England in very early times at 

 ' Batters Hurst' in Sussex. Of their property at this place 

 the family of Bathurst were deprived, and the castle de- 

 molished during the civil wars of York and Lancaster. 

 In 1699 Allen Bathurst was entered at Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, of which his uncle, Dean Bathurst, was then 

 master; and, six years after, commenced his political life 

 as representative for the borough of Cirencester. As a mem- 

 ber of the legislature he actively promoted the union of the 

 two kingdoms, and concurred in the opposition to the Duke 

 of Marlborough and his adherents, of which Harley and St. 

 John were the leaders. In pursuing this course he pro- 

 bably acted from conviction and not as a political partizan, 

 since, upon the dismissal of the Whig ministry, he accepted 

 no place under government, though his abilities and con- 

 nexion with some of the principal Tories entitled him to notice. 

 He was, however, in 1711, made a peer of Great Britain by 

 the title of Lord Bathurst, Baron Bathurst of Battlesden, 

 in the county of Bedford. In the upper house he exerted 

 himself in the debates on many of the important questions 

 that were there agitated. In 1716 he opposed, as a violation 

 of the constitution, the Septennial Bill. He distinguished 

 Limself in 1 723 as a zealous defender of Bishop Atterbury, 

 when the bill for ' inflicting pains and penalties' on that 

 prelate was discussed in the House of Lords. In 1727 he 

 opposed a war with Spain which then threatened the coun- 

 try; and in 1731 supported the bill to prevent pensioners 

 from sitting in the House of Commons. On other occasions 

 also of public interest, in moving the address to the king 

 for discharging the Hessian troops in the pay of Great 

 Britain ; in resisting the undue taxation of the poor, on the 

 bill for the revival of the salt duty ; in advocating the mo- 

 tion of the Earl of Oxford for the reduction of the forces, 

 and in the debate on the mutiny bill, Lord Bathurst took 

 an active and decided part ; and, during the whole period of 

 which this narration is a brief review, he showed himself a 

 steady opponent of Sir Robert Walpole's administration. 



Lord Bathurst was married, in 1704, to Catherine, 

 daughter and heiress of Sir Peter Apsley, by whom he had 

 four sons and five daughters. In 1742 he was made cap- 

 tain of his majesty's Band of Gentlemen Pensioners, which 

 post he resigned in 1 744. He was appointed treasurer to 

 George III., then Prince George of Wales, in 1 757, and this 

 office he held till the death of George II., in 1760, when he 

 declined the acceptance of any further employment, on 

 account of his age. In consideration, however, of his pre- 

 vious services, he received a pension of ZOOOl. per annum 

 on the Irish establishment, and was advanced to an earldom 

 in 1772. He died at his seat near Cirencester on the 16th 

 September, 1775, aged ninety-one. 



In his private character Lord Bathurst was generous and 

 affable ; that he possessed knowledge and acquirements as 

 a man of letters may be inferred from his long and intimate 

 acquaintance with Pope, Swift, Prior, Rowe, Congreve, 

 Arbuthnot, Gay, and Addison ; and the sincerity of his 

 political friendships was manifested in his firm and stre- 

 nuous opposition to the attainder of Bolingbroke and Or- 

 mond. Mr. Pope acknowledged his obligations by dedicating 

 to Lord Bathurst the 3rd Epistle of his Moral Essays, and 

 in the following lines pays a happy compliment to the judg- 

 ment and integrity of his patron : 



The sense to value riches, with the ait 



T enjoy them, and the virtue to impart, 



Not meanly imr ambitiously pursued, 



Not sunk by sloth, nor raised by servitude ; 



To balance fortune by a just expense. 



Join with economy magnificence ; 



With splendour, charity i with plenty, health; 



O teach us, Bathurst I jet unspoil'd by wcallh. 



That secret rare, between the extremes to movo 



Of maJ food-uature, and of mean telf-love.' 



