806 BAT 
ther. Delicate weakly women, who may have fuffered 
from frequent miicarriages, and the long train of com¬ 
plaints confequent to fuch accidents, will not be difap- 
pointed in their expectations of relief from cold fea-ba'-' 
thing ; with the proper precautions it commonly produces 
mamreft and permanent benefits. Thofe who have fre¬ 
quently experienced this cafualty, fliould continue the life 
of the bath until their pregnancy is far advamed; provi¬ 
ded it can be done without any alarm, and being in itfelf 
perfectly agreeable to their feelings. 
When the conffitution has been much reduced by the 
long continuance or frequent recurrence of intermitting 
fevers, the cold fea-bath will afford confiderable relief, 
aided by moderate exercife in the open air by the lea fide. 
After difeafes of this kind have been of long duration, 
the abdominal vifcera are more or lefs affected, which re¬ 
quires particular attention. If the fur face of the body, 
or whites of the eyes, are tinged with yellow, or the urine 
high coloured, there is reafon to fufpeft obftruCtions in 
the liver and biliary veffels : until thefe fymptoms are re¬ 
moved by appropriate medicines, and (he life of the warm 
bath if neceflary, the patient mu ft not attempt cold ba¬ 
thing. As cold fea-bathing is very generally effeemed a 
luxury, young people, if not careful, are apt to indulge 
themfelves to their prejudice. They are difppfed not on¬ 
ly to life it too frequently, but, in warm weather, often 
flay longer in the water than is falutarv ; thereby weaken¬ 
ing the firft impreflion on the habit, and preventing the 
benefit they might reafonably expert. 
The cuffom of bathing children in cold water from ear¬ 
ly infancy is becoming more and more general ; and it is 
certainly very conducive to health, whether confidered 
with a view to cleanlinefs, ftrengthening the conffitution, 
or rendering them lefs fufceptible to the great and hidden 
changes of the atmofphere. When it is intended to bathe 
children in the fea on account of impaired health, efpe- 
cially at an early age, or under five years, it is eflentially 
neceffary to examine the abdomen, and obferve if it is 
larger and fuller than natural, or if there are any figns of 
obflrttrtions or enlargement of the mefenteric or other in¬ 
ternal glands. Thefe affertions are very common, and 
not fufficiently attended to by thofe who have the care of 
the rifing generation. When fitch fymptoms are perceiv¬ 
ed, before they attempt the cold bath, repeated doles of 
calomel fliould be given at bed-time, purging it off in the 
morning gently, with infufion of fenna. 
The fpirit of cleanlinefs, the commendable luxury of 
the age, is now extenfively diffufed; and, where cold-ba¬ 
thing is adopted for children from the birth, or at leaff 
conffant waffling, fymptoms of the rickets rarely appear. 
To thofe w ho bathe in the fea for pleafure, independent 
of medical confiderations, cautions and directions may ap¬ 
pear fuperfluous; yet it is proper to imprefs upon their 
minds, that many accidents have been occafioned by going 
into cold water when the body has been heated and other- 
wife difordered ; fevers, head-achs, vertigoes, and apo¬ 
plexy, ufually attributed to cramp, are the fad confequen- 
ces. To avoid the chance of being injured in this way, 
let them go into the water early in the morning, or at fuch 
a diftance of time from having taken food, that the pro- 
cefs of digeftion may have been finiflted ; it being at all 
times dangerous to bathe in cold or warm water on a full 
ltomach. Should they feel the fmalleft fenfation of inter¬ 
nal chillinefs while in the water, they fiiould immediately 
return, and ufe exercife. 
We fliall conclude with hating in what cafes fea-bathing 
may be falntary, and in what improper. In all diforders 
afferting the head with pain, giddinefs, fenfe of fulnefs, 
enlargement, hydrocephalus, and deafnefs; in all difeafes 
of the bread, in every fpecies of pulmonary confumption, 
fpitting of blood, catarrh, aftltma during the fit, and dif¬ 
ficulty of breathing, pain, flitches in the fide, or uneafi- 
nefs upon taking a full infpiration ; fea-bathing is impro¬ 
per. When the vifcera of the lower belly are not in a 
found and healthy flute; when the inteflines are conflipa- 
B A T 
ted, or loaded with faeces; when the liver, the fpleen, the 
kidneys, the bladder, give figns of enlargement, obllruc- 
tion, or any other deviation'froin a found (late; when the 
biliary veffels are obfirucled by calculi, infpiflated bile, or 
when there is a deficiency in the quantity fecreted of that 
fluid, with a yellow tint on the fkin or whites of the eyes, 
attended with debility ; in a loofenefs or diarrhoea; fea- 
bathing muff be avoided. 
In great debility and proflation of ffrength, where the 
vital principle is lo much diminiffied as to prevent the re¬ 
action of the fyftem and fucceeding warm glow ; in gout, 
fixed or wandering; in rheumatifm, acute or chronic ; in 
every fpecies of dropfy, whether general or particular, 
whether leucophlegmatic or dropfical -diathefis ; in oede- 
niatous fwellings of the lower limbs; in every fpecies of 
fever or feverifh complaint, in which the pulfe is accele¬ 
rated or the heat of the body materially augmented; in 
all difeafes of an inflammatory nature, eruptions, with red 
and inflamed bufis; eryfipelas of every fpecies; in every 
kind of herpes, fhingles, &c. and during the period of na. 
tural evacuations; in the hemorrhoids or piles, external 
and internal. In all thefe cafes fea-bathing muff be dif- 
penfed with. 
But, in all cafes of impaired health, in which it is defira- 
ble to augment the energy ot the vital principle, to in- 
creafe the artion and ffrength of the nutfcles, to improve 
the appetite and aliifl the digeflive organs; to give liabi¬ 
lity and tone to the nervous fyftem, to fortify the mind 
againft weak and improper impreffioos, and to induce in 
the conffitution a genera! healthy artion ; the cold fea-bath 
will prove a valuable, an effectual, and a permanent, re¬ 
medy. 
In the following complaints and conditions of health, 
the tepid or warm fea-bath appears to be unad vifeable. la 
diabetes it is improper, becaule the abforption on the fur- 
face of the body will increafe the flux of urine. When 
great pain precedes the periodical evacuation, a arm orte- 
pid bathing will afford much relief; but it null not be 
continued after the pain is removed. In confirmed drop¬ 
fy relief is fcarcely to be experted, but it will not pro¬ 
duce any augmentation of the difeafe. In hemoptifes, or 
any internal hemorrhage, it is not to be attempted. Thofe 
who have ruptures fliould not ufe the warm bath, except 
when they are perfectly reduced, and it will be right to 
wear a trufs or bandage during the immerfion. On the 
other hand, the warm fea-bath, properly regulated, will 
be found a powerful agent in the cure of oedematous fvvel- 
lings of the lower limbs, incipient dropfy, depolition of 
fluid in any cavity of the body, or in any part of the cel¬ 
lular membrane; in all cafes where the artion of the ab- 
forbents is required to be increafed; in eruptions of eve¬ 
ry kind and fpecies ; in fwellings, fliffiiefs, and contractions 
of the joints, whether an original difeafe, or the confe- 
quence of gout, rheumatifm, or external injuries ; in fpaf- 
modic and convullive diforders, by its fedative operation; 
in the wandering gout, in rheumatifm of the chronic kind ; 
in chlorofis, attended with cedematous fwellings of the 
limbs; in rickets, and other difeafes of children, in which 
there is hardnefs and enlargement of the abdomen; in 
jaundice, indurations of the liver, and obltrurtions in the 
biliary veffels from calculi or infpiffated bile. In pulmo¬ 
nary complaints it may alfo be of ufe, under proper regu¬ 
lations ; for which, fee the article Medicine. ■ 
BATH'MIS,/. [from to enter. ] The feat orbafe: 
the cavity of a bone, which receives the protuberance of 
another. 
BATIl'MONSTRR, a town of Hungary, feparated 
from Batha by the Danube. 
BATH'RUM,/. in furgery, an inllrument ufed in the 
extenfion of fraClured limbs. 
BA'TIiURST (Ralph), an eminent phyfician, poet, 
and divine, born in 1620. He fludied divinity in Trinity- 
college, Oxford ; but he changed the courfe of his (Indies, 
and applied himfelf to pltyfic. He took a dortor’s degree 
in that faculty ; in which lie rofe to fuch eminence, that 
