§04 BATH 
you into a clofet, pours the lather of perfumed foap upon 
your head, and withdraws. The ancients did dill more 
honour to their guefts, and treated them.in a more volup¬ 
tuous manner. Whilft Telemachus was at the court of 
Neftor, ‘ the beautiful Polycafla, the handfomeft of the 
daughters of the king of Pylos, led the fon of Uly fifes to 
the bath ; wafhed him with her own hands; and, after, 
anointing his body with precious^oils, covered him with 
rich habits and a f'plendid cloak. 5 Pififtratus and Telema- 
chns were not worfe treated in the palace of Menelaus: 
‘ When they had admired its beauties, they were condlift¬ 
ed to bafons of marble, where a bath was prepared: beau¬ 
tiful female flaves wallied them ; and, after anointing 
them with oil, covered them with rich tunics and fuperb 
pellices.’ 
“ The clofet to which one is conducted is furnifhed with 
a cittern and two cocks : one for cold and the other for 
hot water. There, you wafh yourfelf. Soon after the fer- 
vant returns with a depilatory pomatum, which in an in- 
ftant makes the fuperfluous hair fall off the places it is ap¬ 
plied to. Both men and women make general tile of it in 
Egypt. It is compofed of a mineral called rvfma , which 
is of a deep brown. The Egyptians burn it lightly, knead 
it with water, mixing it with half the quantity of flaked 
lime. This greyifn pafle, applied to the hair, makes it 
fall off, without giving the flighted pain. After being 
well waflied and purified, you are wrapped up in hot linen, 
and follow the guide through the windings that lead to the 
outer apartment. This infenfible tranlition from heat to 
cold prevents one from fuffering any inconvenience, from 
it. On arriving at the eftrade, you find a bed prepared 
for you; and fcarcely are you laid down before a child 
comes to prefs every part of your body with his delicate 
fingers, in order to dry you thoroughly. You change li¬ 
nen a fecond time, and tlie child gently grates the calloflty 
of your feet with pumice-ftone. He then brings you a 
pipe and Mocha coffee. 
“ Coming out of a flove where one was furrounded by 
a hot and moift fog, where the fweat guflied from every 
limb, and tranfported-into a fpacious apartment open to 
the external air, the breafl dilates, and one breathes with 
voluptuoufnefs. Perfectly maffed, and as it were regene¬ 
rated, one experiences an univerfal comfort. The blood 
circulates with freedom; and one feels as if difengaged 
from an enormous weight, together with a fupplenefs and 
lightnefs to which one has been hitherto a ftranger. A 
lively fentiment of exiftence diffufes itfelf to the very ex¬ 
tremities of the body. Whilft it is loft in delicate fenfa- 
tions, the foul, fympathifing with the delight, enjoys the 
moll agreeable ideas. The imagination, wandering over 
the univerfe, which it embellifties, fees on every fide the 
moft enchanting piblures, every where the image of hap- 
pinefs. If life be nothing but the fucceffion of our ideas, 
the rapidity with which they then recur to the memory, 
the vigour with which the mind runs over the extended 
chain of them, would induce a belief that in the two hours 
of that delicious calm that fucceeds the bath, one has liv¬ 
ed a number of years.” 
Such are the baths, the ufe of which were fo ftrongly 
recommended by the ancients, and which are ftill the de¬ 
light of the Egyptians. It is by means of them that they 
prevent or difpel rheumatifms, catarrhs, and fuch cutane¬ 
ous diforders as are produced .by want of perfpiration. 
Hence likewife they find a radical cure for that fatal evil 
which attacks the fources of generation, the remedy for 
which is fo dangerous in Europe. By the fame refource 
they prevent that uncomfortable feeling fo common to 
all nations who do not pay fo much attention to the clean- 
linefs of their bodies. Mr. Tournefort, indeed, who had 
ufed fteam-baths at Conftantinople, where-there is lefs re¬ 
finement in them than at Cairo, is of opinion, that they 
injure the breafl. But, according to M. Savary, this is an 
error which further experience would have correbled. 
There are no people who make more frequent ufe of them 
than the Egyptians, and there is no country where there 
I N G. 
are fewer afllimatic people. The women are paftionately 
fond of thefe baths. They frequent them at lealt once a 
week, and take with, them flaves properly qualified for the 
purpofc. More luxurious titan the men, after undergo¬ 
ing the ufual preparations, they waflt their bodies, and 
above all their heads, with rofe-water. It is there that 
female head-dreffers form their long black hair into treffes, 
which-they mix with precious eflences inflead of powder 
and pomatum. It is there that they blacken the edge of 
their eye-lids, and lengthen their eye-brows with cohel, a 
preparation of tin burnt with gall-nuts; it is there they 
ftain the finger and toe nails with the leaves of henne, a 
flirnb common in Egypt, and which gives them a golden 
colour. The linen and clothing they make ufe of are palf- 
ed through the fvveet (learn of the wood of aloes; and,. 
v\ hen the work of the toilet is at an end, the)*remain in 
the outer apartment, where female attendants entertain 
them with voluptuous longs and dancesj or tell them tales 
of love. 
From fuch examples, which appear to combine utility 
with plealure, we cannot wonder that the rage for bathing 
fhould have arrived at fuch a height in England, not only 
in the tepid waters which flow among the enchanting fcenes 
of Bath, but upon the fea-fhores quite round the king¬ 
dom, infomuch that the indifcriminate ufe, we fear, hath 
often been productive of harm. As this is a matter of 
no trifling importance, it may be proper here to take a view 
of the general eftefts of fea-bathing, both warm and cold. 
Cold fea-bathing produces a powerful impreflion upon 
the furface of the body, and from thence on the internal 
parts; and.although in many difeafes it is an effectual re¬ 
medy, yet, when ufed without proper precaution, it may 
occalion fatal confequences. Dr. Reid obferves, in his 
late treatife on Sea-Bathing, that he has often known 
young perfons, high in health, after ufing the cold bath 
for a few times improperly, become pale, languid, lofe 
their ftrength and appetite, or feized with fevers that have 
in fome infiances terminated fatally. The adtion of cold 
water upon the human body when frequently applied, may 
be compared to labour, or any other debilitating caufe; 
and, in the firfit inftance, fomewhat fimilar to the rigor 
that is the leading fymptom of fever, producing a fpalin 
upon the extreme veffels. If there happens to be a fuffi- 
cient degree of ftrength in the fyftem to counteract the 
fliock of the firft immerlion, and produce re-aCtion, a ge¬ 
neral warm glow will enfue. This re-aCtion roufes the 
principles of life; or what Dr. Cullen terms the vis medi- 
catrix na.tu.nz overcomes the fpafm on the extreme veffels, 
and increafes"the energy of the conftitution, of that prin¬ 
ciple which, in all matter animate and inanimate, is cbn- 
tinually labouring for its own prefervation. In this man¬ 
ner it fhould feenx, the benefit is produced by cold bathing; 
and not, as has commonly been fuppofed, from increafing 
the tone or fpring of the mufcular fibre, by the mechani¬ 
cal impulfe of the water. Were the good effeCts of fea- 
bathing produced in this way, they would uniformly fol¬ 
low the application, independent of the ftate of the vis 
vitie-, but our experience proves the contrary; for we of¬ 
ten fee perfons perfift in bathing, until their ftrength is fo 
much exhaufted that they can fcarcely walk from the fea 
fide. When the warm glow immediately, or in a very 
fhort fpace of time, fucceeds the immerfion; when the 
fpirits are light, and the mind cheerful; the bathing will 
have a falutary effeCt upon thofe who ufe it. But, after 
coming out of the water, if they continue cold, chilly, 
fhivering, pale, more or lefs languid, the body evidently 
flirunk, and this after feveral trials, they fhould defift, nor 
again attempt bathing until the conftitution, by proper re¬ 
medies, is in a ftate to bear the abtion of the water, and 
produce the fucceeding warmth fo effentially neceffary. If 
the efFebt of cold water, applied to the furface of the bo¬ 
dy, is fimilar in fome degree to the firft attack of fever, 
producing a fimilar re-adtion of the heart and internal 
parts, it will be evident how neceffary it is to ufe this 
powerful agent with caution, and not without being pre- 
vioufly 
