BATHING. 



337 



Bathing. 



In respect 

 of mode of 

 applica- 

 tion. 



Vapour 

 bath. 



Effect! of 

 baths on 

 the healthy 

 body. 



Effects of 

 bathing in 

 simple te- 

 pid water. 



land, is also very great ; but those of Pisa, in Italy, 

 do not exceed KH , and are, we believe, the coolest 

 of the natural h/t baths. 



The vapour bath is a modification of the hot bath, 

 and will be considered presently. 



According to the mode in which baths are em- 

 ployed, they are usually distinguished into general 

 and partial ; and of these there are several varieties. 

 The term bathing is most strictly applicable to those 

 cases where the whole body is plunged or immersed 

 in the water. This is the ordinary mode of employ- 

 ing both the cold and warm baths ; but frequently 

 the water is thrown over the body, either from a 

 bucket, or by means of an apparatus which causes it 

 to descend on the head in a shower, constituting what 

 is called the shmver-bath. This method is by medi- 

 cal writers termed affusion, and is practised both 

 with cold and tepid water with the best effects. See 

 Affusion and Medicine. 



When the feet are immersed in warm, or tepid wa- 

 ter, the bath employed is professionally called pedi- 

 luvium ; and when the lower half of the body is im- 

 mersed in a similar bath, this is denominated semicu- 

 pium. 



The vapour bath may be employed either univer- 

 sally or partially. It consists in the application of 

 steam, brought by pipes from a vessel of boiling 

 water, and either admitted to the whole body, placed 

 in a chamber for that purpose, or to any particular 

 limb, inclosed within a proper apparatus. Sometimes 

 this consists of a close box, made of tin-plate, com- 

 municating with a common boiler, or kettle, by 

 means of a tin tube, proceeding from a head resem- 

 bling that of a still ; but, in particular cases, the box 

 has adapted to it an air-pump, for the purpose of ex- 

 hausting or rarefying the air of the vessel befcre or 

 after admitting the steam. See Blegborough's Ac- 

 count of the Air-pump Vapour Bath ; and Edinburgh 

 Medical and Surgical Journal, vol. vi. p. 313. 



Having now examined the general nature of baths, 

 and enumerated the most important varieties, we pro- 

 ceed to describe the effects which they produce on 

 the human body, in its ordinary state of health and 

 vigour ; and to point out how these effects may be ad- 

 vantageously employed in the prevention or the cure 

 of disease. 



The effects of bathing will depend, partly on the 

 quality and composition of the water employed, and 

 partly on the quantity and mode of application ; but 

 more especially on the temperature of the bath. 



Immersion even in simple water, of such a tempe- 

 rature as to affect the body with no striking sensa- 

 tion either of heat or cold, * is attended with seve- 

 ral advantages. The surface of the skin is freed from 

 that scaly sordes, which always collects more or less 

 in the healthiest persons ; and hence the pores of the 

 skin are opened and relaxed, and the natural perspi- 

 ration is promoted ; the limbs are rendered supple, and 



any stiffness which may have been produced by great Bathipg, 

 exertion or fatigue is removed. Such an immersion * v~ -' 

 has also been found to alleviate thirst ; a clear proof, 

 in the opinion of most physiologists, that a quantity 

 of the water is absorbed, or enters through the skir* 

 into the circulation. 



If, instead of immersion in tepid water, affusion be 

 employed, the general result is much the same, ex- 

 cept that, if the body continue exposed to the air 

 after the affusion, a sensation of coldness is produced, 

 and this in proportion as the air is more favourable 

 to evaporation, and, consequently, to the generation 

 of cold on the moistened surface. 



When water of the same medium temperature, but Effects of 

 impregnated with some mineral substance, is employ- bathing in 

 ed, it is generally supposed, that the impregnating mineral 

 matters produce on the system effects, similar to those waters *' 

 which would follow their internal exhibition. That 

 this is the case in some instances we shall not deny, 

 but, in most cases, the effect is very trifling, and in 

 some scarcely perceptible. Immersion in sulphureous 

 tepid waters commonly produces an increased perspi- 

 ration ;. and a similar use of chalybeate waters, espe- 

 cially if these contain any aluminous impregnation, is 

 followed by a corrugation of the skin, and an increa- 

 sed action of the vessels. These effects we can rea- 

 dily explain, from the absorption of the sulphureous 

 gas in the former instance, and the corrugating effect 

 of the alum and chalybeate acting as an astringent on 

 the skin, and thus producing pressure, and conse- 

 quent contraction, or acceleration of the fluids, in the 

 vessels near the surface ; but that alkaline, or earthy 

 salts, should produce any remarkable effect when ap- 

 plied in solution in the way of bathing, is not to be 

 expected, as these salts cannot, we conceive, thus enter 

 the absorbents of the skin. Indeed, that they are 

 not absorbed, is evident from the circumstance, that 

 even sea-water will allay thirst, merely by wetting 

 with it the surface of the body. We are therefore 

 disposed to think, that the advantages of sea-water 

 over fresh, as a bath, used rather for health than for 

 exercise and recreation, have been much exaggerated. 

 In some cases, the salt may certainly act as a gentle 

 stimulus on the surface ; and this effect will be in- 

 creased by heat, friction, or a long immersion ; but in 

 cases where the immersion is only momentary, or 

 where affusion is employed, and where the body is im- 

 mediately dried, salt water can have little more ad- 

 vantage than that of convenience. 



In describing the effects and uses of baths of diffe- Effects of 

 rent temperatures, we shall begin with the cold bath, the cold 

 whose temperature does not exceed 65, as that * jat ' > * 

 which has, in this country, been most universally em- 

 ployed. 



When a person, in the ordinary state of health, is 

 immersed in the cold bath, he first experiences a ge- 

 neral sensation of cold, which is almost immediately 

 succeeded by as general a sensation of warmth ; the 



It is proper to remark, that the sensation of heat or cold, which a person may feci on immersion in water of a medium 

 temperature, will depend on the degree of heat or cold to which his body has previously been exposed ; so that a person much . 

 chilled will, on entering such a bath, feel the water leans, while another, who has been much heated by exercise, &c. will 

 find it nfmbly cool. This h well illustrated by the familiar experiment of immersing one hand in a vessel of very cool water, 

 and the other in one of water that is moderately hut, and then plunging both at the same instant into tepid water. The. 

 ooled hand will fuel the tepid Water warm, while the heated hand will feel it cool. 



VOL. in. i-AflX II. 2 V 



