Chapter III: Part 3

Having now described the bath, as we hope, in a form intelligible to our readers, we would make some observations on its physical and moral effects: and, first, as to its physical. For cleansing the blood from all impurities there is nothing equal to its effects. Sarsaparilla may hide its diminished head. By the principle of endosmosis and exosmosis, a principle well known to chemists, the serum containing all the morbid portions of the blood, on passing off in perspiration, is replaced by water, and the fountains of life are cleansed. This benefit will be appreciated when it is recollected how many of “the ills that flesh is heir to” are derived from a diseased and morbid condition of the blood. As an instance of the purifying effect of the Turkish bath we may mention, that where mercury exists in the system, the gold ring of the bather has been turned to the colour of silver, owing to the mercury amalgamating with it on its exuding from the skin. Mr. Urquhart observes:—

“Where the bath is the practice of the people there are no diseases
of the skin. All cases of inflammation, local and general are
subdued. Gout, rheumatism, sciatica, or stone, cannot exist where
it is consecutively and sedulously employed as a curative means. I
am inclined to say the same thing in reference to the plague. I am
certain of it with reference to cholera. (In Cork the men employed
in cleaning out the brewers’ vats, and who have thus been in a
Turkish bath, were, during the prevalence of cholera, free from
that disorder. The other workmen in those establishments petitioned
to be put to that work.) As to consumption—that scourge of
England—that pallid spectre, which sits by every tenth domestic
hearth, among the higher orders—it is not only unknown where the
bath is practised, but is curable by its means.”

We ourselves have seen obstinate cases of sciatica, which for several years had baffled all the remedies of the most eminent Allopathic physicians, yield completely to the benign influence of the Turkish bath in the course of six weeks. We have witnessed similar effects produced in cases of rheumatism, and contracted joints arising from rheumatic gout; whilst in cases of skin disease it is a sovereign remedy, unrivalled by any other mode of treatment, not excepting the Harrowgate waters. And it should be remembered, that all the beneficial effects here mentioned are experienced, not at the cost of a weakened and debilitated constitution, too often the result of Allopathic treatment, but in conjunction with an improved state of health and body, the whole system being strengthened and invigorated, whilst the special disease is driven out.

We know that some people imagine that the Turkish bath is weakening in its effects, but on this point hear Mr. Urquhart:—

“We can test this in three ways. Its effects on those debilitated
by disease, on those exhausted by fatigue, and on those who are
long exposed to it. First, in affection of the lungs, and
intermittent fever, the bath is invariably had recourse to against
the debilitating nightly perspirations. The temperature is kept
low, not to increase the action of the heart or its secretions.
This danger avoided, its effect is to subdue, by a healthy
perspiration in a waking state, the unhealthy one in sleep. No one
ever heard of any injury from the bath. The moment a person is
ailing he is hurried off to it.”

The perspirations so often attendant on consumption, are nature’s last struggle to supply the system with oxygen, by opening the pores of the skin, this additional source of supply being rendered necessary by the diminished action of the lungs, consequent on their diseased condition; the perspirations cease, however, on the patient having recourse to the Turkish bath, as there nature’s efforts are superseded by an action, similar in kind, but greater in degree, unattended by debilitating effects. As an instance of nature’s efforts at self-relief, it may be stated, that in several cases of chest disease, recovery has dated from the commencement of the nightly perspirations.

The benefit of the bath in cases of consumption is undoubted, [30] arising, as we believe, from better oxidation of the blood, consequent on the improved action of the pores of the skin, which enables the oxygen to enter and aerate it. As a result of this, the digestive organs are strengthened, and healthy blood elaborated, the non-formation of which is the cause of the disease.

“Second, after long and severe fatigue—that fatigue such as we
never know, successive days and nights on horseback—the bath
affords the most astonishing relief. Having performed long journeys
on horseback, even to the extent of ninety-four hours, without
taking rest, I know by experience its effects in the extremest
cases.”

Again he says:—

“Well can I recall the hâmam-doors which I have entered, scarcely
able to drag one limb after the other, and from which I have sprung
into my saddle again elastic as a sinew, and light as a feather....
You will see a hummal (porter), a man living only on rice, go out
of one of those baths, where he has been pouring with that
perspiration which we think must prostrate and weaken, and take up
his load of five hundred-weight, placing it unaided on his back.

“Third, the shampooers spend eight hours daily in the steam. They
undergo great labour there, shampooing perhaps, a dozen persons,
and are remarkably healthy. [31] They enter the bath at eight years
of age. The duties of the younger portion are light, and chiefly
outside in the hall, to which the bathers return after their bath.
Still there they are from that tender age exposed to the steam and
heat, so as to have their strength broken if the bath were
debilitating. The best shampooer under whose hands I have ever
been, was a man whose age was given me as ninety, and who, from
eight years of age, had been daily eight hours in the bath. I might
adduce, in like manner, the sugar-bakers in London, who, in a
temperature not less than that of the bath, undergo great fatigue,
and are also remarkably healthy.”

We have seen at Blarney the Turkish bath administered with equal benefit to the child of only a few months old, and the man of eighty summers.

Having now observed on the physical effects of the Turkish bath, we shall quote Mr. Urquhart’s opinions regarding its moral aspect:—

“Next are temperance and sobriety. At first sight the connection
will not appear so immediate. It will, however, be unquestionable
to those familiar with countries where the bath is in use. I know
of no country, in ancient or modern times, where habits of
drunkenness have co-existed with the bath. Misery and cold drive
men to the gin-shop. If they had the bath, not the washing-tub, but
the sociable hâmam, to repair to, this, the great cause of
drunkenness, would be removed; and if this habit of cleanliness
were general, restraints would be imposed on such habits by the
feelings of self-respect engendered. The poor of England have never
had an opportunity of knowing the comfort which is derived on a
cold day from the warmth imparted by such an atmosphere. How many
of the wretched inhabitants of London go to their chilly homes in
the winter months, benumbed with cold, and with no means of
recovering their animal warmth but by resorting to spirits and a
public-house fire! The same six-pence which will only procure them
a quartern of the stimulant, which imparts but a momentary heat,
would, if so expended, obtain for them at once warmth and
refreshment.

“Do not run away with the idea that it is Islamism that prevents
the use of spirituous liquors—it is the bath. It satisfies the
cravings which lead to those indulgences, it fills the period of
necessary relaxation, and it produces, with cleanliness, habits of
self-respect which are incompatible with intoxication. It keeps the
families united, which prevents the squandering of money for such
excesses. In Greece and Rome, in their worst times, there was
neither ‘blue ruin’ nor ‘double stout.’”

This opinion of Mr. Urquhart’s is further supported by the following extract from Lord Stanley’s address to the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, as quoted by Dr. Haughton [32]:—

“All men know and deplore the destruction of life and property by
intemperate habits in England; but not all men know (though it has
been repeatedly proved) that one of the strongest predisposing
causes to intemperance is that sense of depression, and general
weakness, demanding and seeming to justify the use of stimulants,
which, itself a disease, attacks those who live in undrained and
unventilated localities.”

The Turkish bath supplies this stimulant, the desire for which prompts intoxication, and so becomes, as Mr. Urquhart argues, a powerful engine in the promotion of temperance; by improving the general health, it also removes the desire for the stimulus.

Having now dwelt on the numerous advantages of the Turkish bath, its beneficial effects in preserving health and curing disease, we cannot refrain from expressing our astonishment that the year 1857 should find our noble city destitute of so valuable an institution. [33] Shall we any longer allow this state of things to continue, and permit barbarians to enjoy a source of comfort and of health which we deny to ourselves? Shall we any longer practise this self-denial, and any longer be content to lag behind the civilization of the East? Is it not astonishing that our medical practitioners should have hitherto overlooked the wonderful curative agency of this Turkish bath? and through its want have permitted cholera, and other diseases [34] equally fatal, to roam unchecked through our city, carrying off thousands of our countrymen. Shall the sufferer from sciatica longer submit to the cupping, blistering, and mercurial dosing of the Allopathic physician, undermining his constitution and ruining his health, when he might obtain certain relief from the delightful and health-restoring bath?

We will not fatigue our readers by following Mr. Urquhart into his calculation regarding the probable cost of erecting a Turkish bath in this country, but we believe that an expenditure of about £800 would prove sufficient for the purpose; and dull indeed must we be in perceiving our own interests if we hesitate, for this trifling outlay, to secure to ourselves so great a blessing—at once a luxurious indulgence, a purifier of the blood, a preservative of health, [35] and a remedy against disease.

It must not be supposed that we seek here to advocate the Turkish bath as a better means of maintaining health than that of exercise to perspiration, [36] the means ordained by nature for promoting a healthy activity of all the functions of life: no—we can never improve on the laws of nature, which have been pre-eminently adapted by a beneficent Providence, for the accomplishment of their specific ends: it is only when those laws have been outraged and neglected by the “over-working-brain and under-working-body” habits of a 19th century, that art steps in, in the shape of the Turkish bath, and proposes to produce those beneficial effects on the system, without injury to it, which nature had meant to be produced by active exercise. The Turkish bath is, in short, an antidote for the unwholesome lives we live, [37]—a peace-offering to outraged nature for our non-compliance with her laws. To ladies, to invalids, and men of business, whose sedentary occupations preclude the possibility of healthful exercise, the Turkish bath presents an inestimable boon.

We strongly recommend the perusal of Dr. Barter’s lecture at Bradford to our readers, as a masterly exposition of a subject by the only physician in the kingdom who has practically studied it.

NOTES

[1] 1. The Water Cure in Chronic Disease. By James M. Gully, M.D. London: Churchill.

2. The Water Cure. By James Wilson, M.D. London: Trubner and Co.

3. Hydropathy. By Ed. Wm. Lane, M.D. London: Churchill.

4. Confessions of a Water Patient. By Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, Bart, M.P. London: H. Baillière.

5. An Address to the Public on the Prevention and Treatment of Cholera on rational principles. Cork: Geo. Purcell and Co.

6. A few Facts forgotten by the Faculty. By S. B. Birch, M.D. London: H. Baillière.

[2] Because either they disapprove of whatever is not practiced by themselves, or they are ashamed to follow new opinions, and to acknowledge when old, the errors they had imbibed in youth.

[3] The ganglionic nerves are those which cover the stomach, and regulate the digestive organs: they are also called the “Solar Plexus.”

[4] The late melancholy case of Mr. Stafford O’Brien is an instance of this injurious practice; that gentleman was copiously bled, doubtless that he might be the better enabled, in his so enfeebled condition, to resist the action of a powerful poison (opium) afterwards administered with deadly effect. We cast no imputation whatever on the attendant physician in this case, as we believe the treatment pursued by him was strictly that enjoined by the orthodox school. Yet, if one wished to destroy life, could they take a surer means of doing it?

[5] “The generality of men are not so much accustomed to pursue this or that course, in consequence of their previous conviction that it is right, as to believe that it is right, because they have been accustomed to pursue it.”—Archbishop Whately.

[6] We do not pretend to assert, that consumption is curable when ORGANIC disease of the lungs has actually been established, but we maintain that the disease is perfectly curable in its incipient stages, though not by drugs nor banishment to a foreign clime. The latter may somewhat prolong the disease, but will not cure it, unless by accident, when of a very mild form.

[7] The temperature and vitality of our bodies depend upon the continued and rapid combination of oxygen with the oxidizable products of the blood; if the necessary supply of oxygen be interfered with, the vitality of the system flags, and disease results.

[8] The very name of scrofula points to the origin of the disease, it being derived from the Latin Scrofa, a pig (quod sues præcipue hoc morbo vexantur. Cels. 5, 38), in allusion to the condition of the skin in those persons in whom a scrofulous habit has been engendered. It has been proved beyond contradiction that the partial closure of the pores, which every one suffers from in some degree, is the chief source of scrofula in all its hideous forms.

[9] When blood is overloaded with carbon, and deprived of its necessary supply of oxygen, the term “veinous” is applied to it.

[10] Where consumption has been relieved by residence abroad, the benefit derived must be attributed to the action on the skin produced by the hot climates to which the patient is usually ordered, but recovery in this way has been confined to very mild forms of the disease, and cannot be looked upon as a scientific mode of treatment; the improved action of the skin deserving to be considered rather as induced accidentally than by design; as otherwise more attention would have been paid to so important a matter, and there would have been no necessity for ordering the patient abroad, as similar results could have been obtained much more easily and effectually by keeping him at home; the use of the Turkish bath conferring all the benefits of increased temperature, followed by the tonic effects of cool air and water, by which the debilitating effects of continual residence in a warm climate are obviated.

[11] Dr. Hufeland remarks—“The more active and open the skin is the more secure will the people be against obstructions and diseases of the lungs, intestines, and lower stomach; and the less tendency will they have to gastric (bilious) fevers, hypochondriasis, gout, asthma, catarrh, and varicose veins.”

[12] The wearing of flannel close to the skin has a two-fold injurious effect:—First, by driving the blood from the surface, whereby the activity of the skin is seriously impaired; and secondly, by shutting out the air, and so preventing it from having access to the blood, to aerate and purify it.

[13] By healthy waste, we mean waste accompanied by corresponding renewal.

[14] We have seen consumptive patients arrive at Blarney shivering with cold though swathed in flannels, who before leaving it were able to wear clothing in winter, under which they previously would have shivered in the hottest day of summer.

[15] The great mortality which has attended the Allopathic treatment of cholera, ought to make us have little compunction in trying something new. There is no fear, in this case, of our “jumping from the frying-pan into the fire;” we are already in it—let us quench it.

[16] Dr. Russell, a well-known Homœopathic author, appears to give the palm to Hydropathy in some rheumatic cases. He thus writes: “In regard to rheumatism, I am inclined to think that there are some varieties of this complaint which utterly defy all Homœopathic medicines, from the deeply morbid condition of the blood; and that in these cases a thorough water course, by effecting a rapid and total renovation of this fluid, might enable our remedies to act more beneficially.” Contrast this liberality with that of the Allopathic physician.

[17] We were told by our physician that the water system would kill us, as we had “not sufficient reaction to stand it.” Had he, however, understood anything of its working, he could not have made this observation, as Hydropathy implies cold water only in those cases to which cold water is suited; and if he had asked Dr. Barter, he would have told him that the chief thing he had to guard against in practice, was excessive reaction, instead of the want of it. We ran the gauntlet, however, and can truly say we never knew what real health was until we did so, and forswore the use of drugs.

[18] The administering of poison to cure disease, is nothing short of a contradiction of terms; for the word poison, if it means anything, means something injurious to bodily health, and therefore incompatible with its welfare. We might as well try to strengthen a man by bleeding him.

[19] 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.

[20] 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.

[21] 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.

[22] 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.

[23] 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.

[24] 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.

[25] 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.

[26] 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.

[27] 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.

[28] 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.

[29] 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.”

[30] 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.

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

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

[33] 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.

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

[35] 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.

[36] 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.

[37] 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.”