Part 9

To those who desire a detailed and scientific account of the water cure in a popular form, we recommend “The Confessions of a Water Patient,” by Sir Bulwer Lytton; “The Water Cure,” by Dr. Wilson; and “Hydropathy,” by Dr. Lane; whilst to those desiring a learned, lucid, and most able scientific treatise, we would suggest “The Water Cure in Chronic Disease,” by Dr. Gully; and “Domestic Hydropathy,” by Dr. Johnson.

A friend of ours was told by a physician in whom many place confidence, that if he opted to take the Turkish bath, it would KILL him. Having, however, read something on the subject, he went to Blarney, tried the bath, luxuriated in it, and derived the greatest benefit from its use. We can tell the reader that this physician at the time he prophesied, had never visited the Blarney bath, nor could he have known any thing about it, as no description of it had been published at the time. Under such circumstances an unsophisticated mind would think it more becoming for him to have said—“I cannot advise you in this matter, as I have not studied the subject; what you do must be on your own responsibility.” It is such illiberality of mind as the above—such a want of pursuing truth for its own sake—which has brought discredit on the medical profession, and loosened its hold on the public.

1. “Turkish Bath; with a View to its Introduction into the British Dominions.” London: David Bryce, 48, Paternoster-row.

2. “The Turkish Bath; being a lecture delivered at Bradford, by Dr. Barter.” London: Routledge & Co.

In the vapour-bath, or vapour-chamber, the whole of the body is surrounded by vapour, whilst in the vapour-box the head of the patient is exposed to the influence of the external air. In neither case can the bather endure a higher temperature than 120° Faht., while in the Turkish bath a temperature of 300° may be endured with perfect safety.

We read in Chambers’ Dictionary, published in Dublin in 1758, (under the head “turf sweating,”) an account of an air bath much used by the Indians; and a case is related in America of a gentleman, 74 year of age, who was cured by it of an illness, which for 9 weeks (during the entire of which he was confined to bed) resisted all the ordinary modes of treatment: it adds that he enjoyed excellent health for 11 years after, dying at the age of 85. The operation consisted in heating sods in an oven, which were then spread on the ground, the patient being laid on them enveloped in a sheet, under a covering of hot sods and blankets. Verily there is nothing new under the sun.

The surface of the body in an ordinary sized individual contains 7,000,000 of pores, the bringing of which into action from a state of inactivity, is equivalent to giving the system the benefit of a second set of lungs.

When the pores of the skin are clogged and unable to perform their functions, their duty is thrown upon other organs of the body, which become diseased from overwork, consequent on the double duty imposed upon them.

It is a fact of which Ireland may feel justly proud, that the FIRST Turkish bath which was ever specially designed for curative purposes, was erected by an Irishman upon Irish ground. The eastern world had long enjoyed the bath as a social and religious institution; but the shrewd intelligence of Dr. Barter first saw a great principle involved in it, and he straight-way set to work to apply it to the cure of disease. From Blarney, as a centre, this bath is rapidly spreading itself over the surface of Great Britain, and it is difficult to say where the movement, once commenced, will end. A Constantinople journal has lately observed, that the western world had borrowed the construction of the bath from the east, and in return had taught them to appreciate its curative power, an element which had not hitherto received from them the attention it deserved.

The two heated chambers were called respectively by the Romans, the Tepidarium, and Sudatorium, or Caldarium: the first, or anteroom, where the concluding portion of the bath was enacted, was termed the Frigidarium and the plunge bath, when it existed, the Piscinum.

This sensation which can only be compared to a kind of waking sleep—a dreamy but conscious existence, is so novel in kind, that to be realized, it must be experienced.

The body becoming accustomed to these extremes of temperature, treats with the utmost indifference all the intermediate changes of which this climate is capable—looking on them as the “Idle wind, which it regards not.”

Cyprus is in point, containing a mixed population of Mahommedans and Christians: the former take the bath as a religious observance, and are free from consumption; the latter do not, and are victims to the disease.

At Blarney, the healthy appearance of the shampooers, at once strikes the visitor.

The “Oriental Bath,” paper read by Dr. Haughton before the Royal Dublin Society, April, 1858.

Since the above was written, we have heard that arrangements have been made for the immediate erection of a Turkish bath in this city on an extensive scale, and on the most approved principles (in Lincoln-place, Merrion-square), to which we wish every success. Six Turkish baths are now in operation in the town of Bradford in Yorkshire, three at Blarney, two at Cork, in the vicinity of which latter town a third one is now erecting by Dr. Barter, on a scale of magnificence hitherto unattempted in the western world.

Of Dropsy, Dr. Osborne asserts, that, “sweating being accomplished, the disease, if free from complication, never fails to be removed.”

It is the use of the Turkish bath which enables the Turks to smoke to the excess they do with impunity—the noxious vapours being burned out by the excessive temperature. How different must be the effects of smoking in a damp climate like ours, where the poisonous fumes, unable to evaporate, remain in the system, a prolific source of disease.

The blacksmith, begrimed with smoke and dirt, who freely perspires over his daily task, is cleaner in the true sense of the term than the best washed individual in the land. Surface washing alone will not suffice; to secure health the blood itself must be purified, its inmost channels flushed and cleansed.

If we always breathed pure air, took daily exercise to perspiration, performed daily ablutions, and partook temperately of plain and wholesome food, disease would be almost unknown amongst us. Whenever we depart from these conditions of health, we lay the sure foundation of disease. It has been truly said, that if we took the same care of our own bodies as we do of our horses’, we should enjoy much better health than we are wont. Sir Astley Cooper used to say, that “man did not pay sufficient attention to the grooming of his body.”