68 THE INTEGUMENT, OR SKDT 



ever, both to health and comfort, to rest for a short time 

 directly after bathing, or to take some light refreshment. 

 This is better than severe exercise or a full meal. 



28. Bathing among the Ancients. The Romans and other 

 nations of antiquity made great use of the vapor-bath as a 

 means of preserving the health, but more particularly as a 

 luxury. Their method was not unlike that employed in some 

 parts of Europe at the present day. The public baths of Rome 

 and other cities are among the grandest and most interesting 

 monuments of ancient luxury and splendor ; and from their 

 ruins have been recovered some of the most beautiful works 

 of art. 



29. The Thermae, as the baths of Rome were called, were of 

 great extent, built very substantially, and ornamented at vast 

 expense. They were practically free to all, the cost of a bath 

 having been less than a cent. It is related that some persons 

 bathed seven times a day. After the bath their bodies were 

 anointed with perfumed oil. If the weather was fine, they 

 passed directly from the Thermae into the gymnasium, and 

 engaged in some gentle exercise previous to taking the midday 

 meal. Between two and three in the afternoon was the favor- 

 ite hour for this ancient luxury. Swimming was a favorite 

 exercise, and a knowledge of it was regarded as necessary to 

 every educated man. Their common expression, when speak- 

 ing of an ignorant person, was, "He can neither read nor 

 swim." 



30. The Sun-Bath. Some also were accustomed daily to 

 anoint themselves, and lie or walk in apartments arranged for 

 the purpose, with naked bodies exposed to the direct rays of 

 the sun. There is an interesting allusion to this practice, in a 

 letter of the younger Pliny to the historian Tacitus, describing 

 the destruction of Pompeii by an eruption of Vesuvius. " My 

 uncle " (Pliny the elder) " was at that time in command of the 

 fleet at Misenum. On the 24th of August, about one in the 

 afternoon, my mother desired him to notice a cloud which 



28. Bathing among the ancients ? Baths of Kome ? 



29. After the Jbath ? Swimming among the ancients ? 

 80. The sun-bath ? The story of Pliny ? 



