342 



BATHIN G. 



lathing, opposite to, the akeum, or receptacle for the warm 

 ~ " - water. The sixth ami last apartment, called elcothe- 

 rium or unciiiurium, seems to have formed a sort of 

 closet for containing the oils or unguents with which 

 the bathers were anointed. Below the building was 

 a furnace called hypounut or m tp e nnma , for heating 

 the several warm apartments, and probably the water 

 employed in the warm bath. 



These structures were called thermal, and were 

 very numerous in the capital of the Roman empire. 

 The construction of public baths appears to have 

 commenced under Augustus, and to have been intro- 

 duced by Mecsenas his favourite. It was soon carried 

 to an astonishing height ; and the erection of baths, 

 where the people might be accommodated gratis, be- 

 came an established and successful method of gaining 

 their affections. According to Fabricius, there were 

 in Rome not fewer than 856 public baths, some of 

 which were sufficiently large to contain at once 1800 

 persons. The most celebrated of these were the 

 baths of Caracalla, Dioclesian, and Titus, the remains 

 of which still exist, to testify the magnificence of their 

 founders. * 



Though wc have denominated the thermce of the 

 Romans, warm baths, it appears from many passages 

 in Seneca and Martial, that their temperature was so 

 high as to entitle them to the appellation of hot baths, 

 (Mart. Epig. lib. iii. 25.) The use of very hot baths 

 had become excessive during the reigns of Adrian and 

 Severus ; but about the time of Galen they had fal- 

 len into disrepute. 

 Among the Bathing appears to have been au established cus- 

 Arabians torn, as an article both of diet and luxury, among the 

 *iid Turks. Asiatics at a very early period ; but it became uni- 

 versal among the followers of Mahomet, after the pro- 

 mulgation of the Koran. The precepts on this head, 

 like many others of the Arabian prophet, appear to 

 have been borrowed from the law of Moses, and they 

 were readily adopted from their congeniality with the 

 manners and customs of his disciples. The Maho- 

 metans consider bathing as a necessary of life ; and, 

 besides the numerous public baths erected in their 

 cities, and even villages, almost every family of dis- 

 tinction has bathing apartments within their own dwel- 

 lings, for their private accommodation. These consist 

 of two small chambers communicating with each 

 other, and usually joined to the house by a small room 

 in which the bathers undress. The passage between 

 the two chambers is secured by double doors lined 

 with felt, inclosing between them a space where the 

 bathers may stop, before they enter either chamber 

 from the other. The chambers are heated by a fur- 

 nace below the innermost apartment ; and over this 

 furnace is placed a cauldron that is immediately un- 

 der the marble floor of the apartment, and from which 

 proceed several pipes through the walls of the cham- 

 ber, some for conveying the heated water to the bath, 

 and others communicating with the cupola that forms 

 the roof of the apartment. Thus the room is heat- 

 ed on all sides ; and the heat produced is so great, 

 that the bathers are obliged to employ high wooden 

 sandals to preserve their feet from the burning floor. 



Notwithstanding this great heat, and the profuse Bathing." 

 perspiration which it occasions, the women are accus- ' " v ' -' 

 tomed to pass several hours in these private baths. 



The public baths are on a similar construction, 

 though on a larger scale, and the outer apartment is 

 generally open at the top. In this the bathers un- 

 dress, gird a napkin round their loins, and put on a 

 .pair of sandals ; they then enter a narrow passage, 

 heated to a moderate degree, and extending for about 

 twenty paces between the outer apartment and the 

 bath. This is a spacious vaulted apartment, with a 

 small hall next the passage, having four closets round 

 the centre. The floor is spread with mats or cloths, 

 on which the bathers repose, with their heads sup- 

 ported by small cushions ; and in this position they 

 are subjected to the heated vapour, which rises on all 

 sides of the bath. When this begins to excite per- 

 spiration, an attendant gently presses, and, as it were, 

 kneads every part of the body with the knuckles, 

 turning over the body, and making all the joints crack. 

 After this operation, the skin is rubbed all over with 

 a piece of coarse stuff, and the bather is then conduct- 

 ed into a closet, and is washed or laved with perfumed 

 lather, which finishes the bathing. After bathing, it 

 is customary to rub over certain parts of the body a 

 particular paste or ointment, which acts as a depila- 

 tory, for depriving those parts of hair. Savary's 

 Travels, vol. i. p. 1 1(1. 



The Arabians or Moors, who conquered Spain and 

 other parts of Europe, carried with them their pre- 

 dilection for warm bathing ; and the Moorish anti- 

 quities still existing in those countries, exhibit some 

 excellent models of artificial baths. In particular, the 

 palace of Alhambra in Granada, contains a magnifi- 

 cent bason, which might be used either for cold or 

 warm bathing, besides smaller apartments for odorilic 

 fumigations. See Alhambra. 



Few of the nations of modern Europe have prac- Among the 

 tised warm bathing to any considerable extent, though ,I,odcrn 

 among all of them the cold bath has been generally tui ' P ear ' s - 

 employed as a favourite and healthy exercise. In the 

 west and north of Europe, warm bathing was scarce- 

 ly practised prior to the 17th century, and the cus- 

 tom is only gradually advancing in France and Eng- 

 land. Within the last thirty years, artificial baths, 

 both for cold and warm bathing, have been construct- 

 ed in various parts of this island. In no part of Eu- 

 rope, however, are warm and hot bathing so general as 

 in Russia and Hungary. In Russia especially, a!l 

 ranks employ the luxury of what is called the sweat- 

 ing bath, which nearly resembles the hot baths of 

 the East. 



Various accounts have been given of the Russian j n R U!s ; a , 

 baths, but we believe none is more accurate than that 

 of Dr Sanches, first physician to the late empress 

 Catharine, inserted in the 2."th volume of the Jour- 

 nal de Physique, with which we shall conclude this 

 article. 



The baths are erected as near as possible to a 

 plentiful supply of water aiid wood, these being the 

 most necessary articles for their consumption. When 

 the ground is marked out, two parallel trenches are 



For a particular account of the Roman liaths, we may refer to Vitruvius, Seneca in his Epistks, and Pliny in his X* 

 ^r< Hiitory. An account of the Grecian baths is also furnished by Vitruvius, and by Lucian in his Hippiai. 



