BATHING. 



341 



Bathing. 



History of 

 ^ihiiiy 



Use of ba- 

 thing a- 

 mong the 

 Jews ; 



Among the 

 Greeks ; 





danger in a plethoric state of 'the body, or where 

 there is much ''termination to the head. In such 

 cases, previous steps must be taken to remove ple- 

 thora, or relieve the head. 



Though the external use of water, for the pur- 

 poses of cleanliness and healthy exercise, must have 

 been common among all nations, and in every age, 

 the practice of bathing as a luxury, or a remedy, ap-_ 

 pears to indicate considerable progress towards re- 

 finement and civilization, and has been almost entire- 

 ly confined to the polished nations of Europe and 

 Asia. In the earliest records of antiquity, indeed, 

 mention is made of bathing, either as a religious ce- 

 remony, or as the means of fortifying the body 

 against the hardships and fatigues of war; and with 

 these views the cold bath alone appears to have been 

 employed. 



The practice both of general bathing and partial 

 ablution, formed a part of the Mosaic institution ; 

 and the precepts delivered on that head were evidently 

 intended to promote cleanliness among a people who 

 seem to have been peculiarly subject to leprosy and 

 other diseases of the skin. (See Ltvit. xv. &c.) 

 Washing the hands and the feet before and after 

 meals, was an established custum among the Jews; 

 and we find our Saviour reproved by the Pharisees 

 for sitting down to meat with unwashed hands. On 

 various occasions, bathing is mentioned in the scrip- 

 tures as a remedy for diseases ; and it is probable that 

 the famous pool of Bethesda, in which so many lame 

 and diseased persons were healed, was nothing more 

 than a natural warm bath. It is certain, that in the 

 days of David and Solomon, the custom of bathing 

 had become a luxury among the Jews, though it was 

 probably never carried among that people to the 

 height at which we shall immediately observe it 

 among the Greeks and Romans.* 



Among the Greeks, bathing was practised, even as 

 a luxury, before the time of Homer, or in what have 

 been called the heroic ages. Frequent allusions are 

 made in the works of that immortal poet to this 

 luxury ; and it appears that the baths were supplied 

 chiefly with warm or tepid water, which in most cases 

 was poured on the body by attendants. Thus Venus 

 is described in the Odyssey as flying, after the public 

 disgrace she had sustained in the discovery of her 

 amour with Mars, to the groves of Paphos, where 

 she is laved by the Graces ; and the improvement pro- 

 duced by the bath on the native beauty of the god- 

 dess, is particularly remarked. See Homer's Odyssey, 

 lib. viii. v. 362. 



While at the court of Alcinous, Ulysvs is de- 

 scribed as laved by attendant nymphs, and in the 

 tenth book of the Odyssey, the whole process of 

 bathing that hero, at the court of the enchantress 

 Circe, is minutely described. [Id. lib. x. v. 358.) 

 It appears from this passage, that it was usual in 



those early ages to anoint the body with oil or un- Bathing. 

 guents, after the warm bath. ' 



Among the Spartans, cold bathing was particularly 

 practised ; and bathing and swimming formed a part 

 of the gymnastic exercises inculcated on the Spartan 

 youth by the laws of Lycurgus. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that in later times the Spartans also employed 

 the warm or vapour bath, as the term laconicum, ap- 

 plied to the stove used in the warm bath among the 

 Romans, is evidently derived from Laconia.-f 



Cold bathing and swimming were practised by the Among the 

 Roman youth as part of their exercises in the Campus Romans. 

 Martins, and the latter commonly terminated the foot 

 race. The youthful candidates for the prize in this 

 exercise, directed their course towards the banks of 

 the Tiber, and after the violent exertion of nu.ning, 

 plunged headlong into the stream. This they were 

 accustomed to cross twice before the contention end- 

 ed ; and it was usual to anoint the bodies of the 

 swimmers before the contest, a practice which would 

 have the effect of diminishing the action of the cold. 

 See Horace, Od. lib. i. ode 8. ; and Satyr, lib. ii. 



In the later periods of the Roman empire, when re- 

 finement and luxury had arrived at the highest pitch, 

 the custom of warm bathing generally prevailed 

 among the more wealthy citizens, and the most mag- 

 nificent and extensive apartments for the exercise of 

 this luxury were constructed by the emperors and no- 

 bles. Many remains of these splendid edifices still 

 exist, and afford us admirable specimens both of the 

 architecture and refinement of the Romans. In the 

 public baths there were sometimes six apartments, 

 and seldom fewer than five. The first of these was 

 called apodyterium, where the bathers undressed, and 

 deposited their clothes, whence it was also called spo- 

 Hatorium. In the ordinary baths this apartment was 

 wanting. The second room in the most complete, 

 and the first in the ordinary baths, was the frigidari- 

 nm, or apartment for the cold bath. Where there 

 was no apodyterium, the bathers undressed in this 

 room, whether they were to use the cold or the warm 

 bath. The third apartment was the tepidarium, so 

 called, not because it contained the warm bath, but 

 because it was warmed to a moderate temperature, to 

 serve as an intermediate room between the warm and 

 cold baths, thus diminishing the danger of sudden ex- 

 posure to the air, after warm bathing. In the fourth 

 room, called laconicum, was placed a stove for heating 

 the air of the room ; and here those who were to use the 

 warm bath remained for some time before immersion, 

 and were anointed after warm bathing, or before enter- 

 ing the cold bath. The fifth apartment was the proper 

 balneum, or warm bath, and was usually made sufficient- 

 ly large to contain several bathers at the same time. It 

 was furnished with a gallery, where those who waited 

 for their turns in the bath might walk, and was light- 

 ed by a single window, placed immediately over, or 



It appears, from a remarkable passage in the second book of Kings, that the practice of bathing as a remedy for cutane- 

 ous diseases, was well understood among the nations in the neighbourhood of Judea, and that certain rivers were celebrated 

 for their medicinal properties in this respect. Thus Naaman the Syrian, when desired by Elisha to bathe in Jordan for the 

 cure of his leprosy, exclaims, " Are not Abana and Fharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel ? May 

 I not wash in them and l>e clean ?" 2 A'/n^*, v. 1 2. 



+ Marcard appears to have been mistaken, when he speaks of laronium being employed by the later Greeks to signify the 

 old bath, as various passages in the Roman poets shew, that by the Romans, who borrowed their principal refinements from 

 "the Greeks, the word was used in the sense which wc have given it in the text. See in particular, Martial, lib. vi. Epig. 2. 



