BAT 
tifkial ones may at the time be ufed, 'See Dr. Cheque's 
Account of, and Dr. Falconer’s Effay on, the Bath Wa¬ 
ters ; Monro’s Treatife on Medical and Pharmaceutical 
Chemifhy. 
Bath Agricultural Society. See Society. 
Knights of the Bath, a military order in England, for 
which fee the article Knight, 
Bath Kol, the daughter of a voice. So the Jews call 
one of their oracles, which is frequently mentioned in the 
Talmud; being a mode of divination invented by the Jews, 
though called by them a revelation from God’s will, which 
he made to his chofen people, after all verbal prophecies 
had ceafed in Ifrael. It was in fail a method of divina¬ 
tion fimilar to the fortes Virgiliance of the Heathens.. For 
as, with them, the firft words they happened to dip into, 
in the works of that poet, were a. kind of oracle whereby 
they predicted future events; fo, with the Jews, when 
they appealed to Bath-kol, the firft words they heard from 
any man’s mouth were looked upon as a voice from hea¬ 
ven, directing them in the matter they inquired about. 
The Chriftians were not free from this fuperftition, ma¬ 
lting the fame ufe of the Scriptures as the pagans did of 
the works of Virgil. It was pradtifed by Heraclius, em¬ 
peror of the eaft, in the beginning of the feventh centu¬ 
ry : for, being at war with Chofroes king of Perfia, and 
in doubt, after a fuccefsful campaign, where to take up 
his winter quarters, he confulted the book of the Scrip¬ 
tures in this way of divination, and was determined there¬ 
by. In France, it was the practice for feveral ages to ufe 
this kind of divination at the confecrations of abifhop, in 
order to difcover his life, manners, and future behaviour. 
This ufage came into England with the Norman conqueft; 
for we are told, that, at the confecration of William the 
fecond Norman bifhpp of the diocefe of Norwich, the 
words which firft occurred on dipping into the Bible were, 
Not this man, but Bar abb as: Ibon after which William died, 
and Herbert de Lozinga, chief fimony broker to king 
William Rufus, fucceeded him ; at whofe confecration the 
words at which the Bible opened were the fame which Je- 
fus fpoke to Judas the traitor; Friend, wherefore art thou 
come? This circumftance fo affefted Herbert, that it 
brought him to a thorough repentance of his crime ; in 
expiation of which he built the cathedral of Norwich, the 
firft (tone of which he laid in 1096. 
Bath Town, a fea-port of North Carolina, hi the 
United States of America, on the river Pamticoe. Lat. 
35. 30. N. Ion. 77. 14. W. Greenwich. 
BA’THA, Bath, or Ba'chia, a town of Hungary, 
fituated near the Danube; once the fee of a bifhop, now 
united to Colocza, taken by the emperor in the year 16S6. 
It is twenty leagues fouth of Buda. Lat. 45. 34. N. Ion. 
36. 50. E. 
7 oB A'THE, v.a, [ bathian , Sax.] To wafh, as in a bath: 
Others on filver lakes and rivers bath'd. 
Their downy breaft. Milton. 
To fupple or foften by the outward application of warm 
liquors. —Bathe them, and keep their bodies foluble the 
while by clyfters and lenitive bolules. Wifeman. —To wafh 
any thing: 
Phenician Dido flood, 
Frefh from her wound, her bofom bath'd in blood. Dry den. 
To Bathe, v. n. To be in the water, or in any refem- 
blance of a bath : 
The gallants dancing by the river fide, 
They bathe in film me r, and in winter Aide. Waller. 
BA'THING, the adl of ufing or applying a bath; that 
is, of immerging the body, or part of it, in water or other 
liquid. Bathing is a praftice of great antiquity. The 
Greeks, as early as the heroic age, are faid to have bathed 
in the fea, in rivers, &c. We even find mention in Ho¬ 
mer of hot baths in the Trojan times; but thefe feeni to 
have been only ufed on extraordinary occafions. The Ro¬ 
mans alfo came early into the ufe of baths; the very name 
BAT 803 
of which, themes, fhews they borrowed it fr6m (he Greeks, 
As the ancient Romans were chiefly employee in agricul¬ 
ture, their cuftom was, every evening after work, to wafh 
their arms and legs, that they might fit down to’ flipper 
with more decency : for the people of that age went with 
their arms and legs bare, and confequently expofed to drift 
and filth. But, every ninth day, when they repaired to 
the city, either to the nundinae or to attend at the aflem- 
blies of the people, they bathed or walked all over in the 
Tyber, or fome other river. 
Although bathing, among the ancients, made, as it 
were, a part, of diet, and was ufed as familiarly as fleep ; 
yet it was in high efteem among their phyficians for the 
cure of difeafes, as appears from Strabo, Pliny, Hippo¬ 
crates, and Oribafius; whence the frequent exhortations 
to waftfing in the fea, and plunging into cold water. The 
firft inftance of cold bathing, as a medicine, is Melam- 
pus’s bathing the daughters of the king of Argos; and 
the firft inftance of warm bathing is Medea’s ufe of it, 
who was faid to boil people alive, becaufe Pelias king of 
Thefialy died in a warm bath under her hands. The cold 
bath was ufed with fuccefs by Antonins Mufa, phyficiau 
to the emperor Auguftus, for the recovery of that prince ; 
but it fell into negled after the death of Marcellos, who 
was fuppofed to have been deftroyed by the improper life- 
of it. it was again brought into requeft towards the dole 
of the reign of Nero, by means of a phyficiau of Mar- 
feilles named Charmis ; but, during the ignorance of the 
fucceeding ages, the pradice was banifhed for a long time. 
Among the Turks, as among the ancients, bathing is a 
great luxury ; and in every town and village there is a 
public bath. Indeed, the neceflity of cleanlinefs, in a cli¬ 
mate where people perfpire fo copioully, has rendered ba¬ 
thing indifpenfable ; the comfort it produces preferves the 
ufe of it; and Mahomet, who knew its utility, has redu¬ 
ced it to a precept. Of thefe baths, and the manner of 
bathing, particularly at Cairo, the following account is 
given by M. Savary in his Letters on Egypt: 
“ The firft apartment one finds in going to the bath, is 
a large hall, which rifes in the form of a rotunda. It is 
open at the top, to give a free circulation to the air. A 
fpactous eftrade, or raifed floor, covered with a carpet, and 
divided into compartments, goes around it, on which one 
lays one’s clothes. In the middle of the building, a jet 
d’eau fpouts up from a bafon, and agreeably entertains the 
eye. When you are undrefled, you tie a napkin round 
your loins, take a pair of fandals, and enter into a narrow 
paffage, where you begin to* be fenfible of the heat. The 
door ftiuts to; and, at t\\ enty paces of}’, you open a fecond, 
and go along a paffage, which forms a right angle with the 
former. Here the heat increafes. They who are afraid 
of fuddenly expofing themfelves to a ftronger degree of it, 
flop in a marble ha!!, tn the way to the bath properly fo 
called. The bath is a fpacious and vaulted apartment, 
paved and lined with marble, around which there are four 
clofets. The vapour, inceftantly arifing from a fountain 
and ciftern of hot water, mixes itfelf with the burning 
perfumes. Thefe, however, are never burnt except the 
perfons in the bath defire it. They mix with the fleam 
of the water, and produce a mod agreeable effed. The 
bathers are not imprifoned here, as in Europe, in a fort of 
tub. Extended on a doth fpread out, the head fupport- 
ed by a fmall cufhion, they ftretch themfelves freely in 
every pofture, whilft they are wrapped up in a cloud of 
odoriferous vapours, which penetrates into all their pores. 
After repofing fome time, until there is a gentle moiftnre 
over the whole body, a fervant comes, preffes you gently, 
turns you over, and, when the limbs are become fupple 
and flexible, lie makes all the joints crack without any dif¬ 
ficulty. He tnaftes or gently rubs the body, and feems to 
knead the flefn without making you feel the lmallefr pain. 
During this operation, he detaches from the lkin, which 
is running with fvveat, a fort of fmall icales, and removes 
even the imperceptible dirt that flops the pores. The ft; in 
becomes loft and fmooth like Latin, He then conducts 
you 
