THE GENERAL REQUIREMENTS OF A PUBLIC BATH.
In order to avoid unnecessary expense in working and management, a
public Turkish bath should be convenient and _compact_ in plan. It
should be as perfect as possible in regard to heating and ventilation,
in order to insure patronage; and, for the same reason, it should be
made a thing of beauty. A badly-ventilated, inconvenient, and
ill-adorned bath does harm, both to the bather and the cause. It is its
own enemy, and harmful also to all other baths; whereas every
ably-designed bath has in itself the elements of success, and assists
existing institutions by increasing the number of converts to the
process.
A good bath does not necessarily mean an elaborate and expensive one,
but primarily one where the heating and ventilation are on the latest
and most approved principles, and where the shampooing and washing rooms
are kept sweet and clean, the bathing appliances effective, and the
cooling rooms ample, and supplied with an abundance of fresh air. This
is not the result of sumptuousness and elaboration, but of pure applied
science. Amplitude of space, however, facilitates its attainment, as it
is difficult to render a cramped bath beneficial and attractive.
By an attractive bath, I would be understood to mean one in which the
visitor will feel interest in the design; where pleasant objects are
presented to his eye, both in the sudorific chambers and in the cooling
rooms. Artistic decorations have here a commercial value. The bath
requiring time, the bather is compelled to pass some hours in the
various apartments, and it is therefore highly desirable that his
surroundings be rendered pleasant and entertaining. In a Turkish bath,
as in other architectural matters, this is not the result of a prodigal
expenditure on costly decorations and fittings, but rather of a careful
arrangement of necessary and desirable features, and a knowledge of the
methods of obtaining piquancy of effect by their distribution on the
plan.
The arrangement of the modern bath is modified from that of the Ancients
and Orientals to suit the accepted form of practice in this country, so
that the order of the different processes through which the bather
passes governs the disposition of the various apartments. The chief
object to be attained is to induce a more or less vigorous perspiration
by the application of heat. This heat is now generally applied through
the medium of the air, which is raised to a high temperature by being
passed over and in contact with the heated surfaces of stoves of various
designs, or by direct radiation from hot metal or firebrick.
Theoretically, the generally-adopted method of applying the heat to the
bather might be greatly improved, but practically it has been found the
best. Into these questions, however, I shall enter when treating of the
heating and ventilating of the bath. For the present, it will suffice to
say that the chief object to be attained in the bath is the supplying of
an abundance of _pure hot air_ to the various sudorific chambers, and
the rapid withdrawal of the foul air and exhalations.
Since the disposition of the various apartments is governed by the
methods of bathing in vogue, it will be necessary to first give the
reader a brief account of the various processes undergone by the bather.
The object of the profuse perspiration to be attained is twofold--(1) To
cleanse the blood of impurities; and (2) to loosen the dead scales of
the epidermis, or scarf-skin, that spreads itself everywhere over the
true skin or cuticle. Besides this, however, physiologists tell us that
the heat itself has a beneficial effect on the body in other ways, and
is, in cases of disease, a most powerful curative and remedial agent.
This latter fact explains the necessity for the high temperatures
employed, as mere perspiration could be attained with a comparatively
low degree of heat.
The course of treatment to be undergone by the bather, as given by Sir
Erasmus Wilson, is--(1) Exposure of the naked body to hot dry air. (2)
Ablution with warm and cold water. (3) Cooling and drying the skin. In
addition to these, however, there should be added the process of
"massage" or shampooing before washing.
The perspiration is attained in the various hot rooms--the _Tepidarium_,
_Calidarium_, and _Laconicum_. The nature of these apartments--which I
shall hereinafter consider in detail--must be determined by the
pretensions of the establishment.
Perspiration having been induced, the bather submits to the kneading of
the muscles of the trunk and limbs by the shampooer. For this operation,
which restores tone and vigour to the muscular and nervous system, a
separate and distinct apartment should, in high class baths, be
provided. Vigorous friction with a coarse glove succeeds the shampooing.
This detaches the dead portions of the epidermis, and is an operation
generally practised in the _Lavatorium_--a washing room adjoining the
shampooing room. In the same place the bather receives copious ablutions
with warm water. The less robust conclude the cleansing process with a
douche, needle, spray, or shower bath, graduated from warm to cold; and
the strong bather, by plunging into a bath of cold water, the object of
which is to contract and close the sweat-glands and pores of the skin
that have been swelled and opened by the high temperatures of the
calorific apartments. For these purposes a small room, with the various
appliances named, and a large chamber containing a more or less ample
plunge bath, must be provided. In small baths, provision for both these
operations is made in one general shampooing and washing room, where the
bather is "massed," rubbed down, washed, and takes the plunge or shower
bath. The plunge may, if thought advantageous, be placed partly in the
cool apartment and partly in the hot rooms, in which case, the bather
dives under a glazed partition of some sort, which, furnished with an
india-rubber flap dangling in the water, prevents the hot air of the
sudatorium from entering the cooling rooms.
The above description gives an outline of the cleansing and hygienic
processes, and of the nature of the requirements of those portions of
the bath devoted to their attainment. I have named them first as being
the most indispensable portion of the necessary suite of rooms, since
the bath may exist if it be merely in the form of an old Irish
"sweating-house," or a somewhat similar construction of the North
American Indian; but without the heated chamber and its appurtenances
there can be no bath.
The next important features to be considered are the dressing and
cooling rooms. Before entering the bath rooms proper, the bather must
divest himself of his clothing, and assume the bathing garment. The
dressing room or _Apodyterium_, and the cooling room or _Frigidarium_,
are generally made one and the same; but they may, with advantage, be
designed as separate and distinct apartments, the provision for dressing
and undressing consisting of a room or rooms with small dressing-boxes
around it. The frigidarium will then be a simple apartment designed for
the economical reception of the reposing couches, it being absolutely
essential that the bather rest awhile, after the bath, to allow the body
to gradually assume its normal temperature. Neglect of this precaution
may cause a renewal of perspiration, and possibly a "cold."
If a combined apodyterium and frigidarium be adopted, it must be fitted
with a number of divans to accommodate a given number of persons, or be
divided into smaller spaces with dwarf screens, each space receiving a
pair of couches. The divisions may be effected by more or less elaborate
and ornamental wooden partitions. In ladies' baths more privacy must be
observed. Each lady bather should have a private dressing and reposing
room, even if only formed by dwarf wooden partitions.
An arrangement may be designed whereby the bather enters first a room
fitted with a number of dressing-boxes, and then passes through the
frigidarium on his way to the hot rooms, whence he returns after his
bath. Where the establishment is on a large scale, the arrangement may
lead the bather first to a room fitted with dressing-boxes, then to the
hot rooms, and finally, by way of the plunge bath, into a commodious and
separate cooling room.
Subsidiary to the cooling and dressing rooms should be others for the
attendants, manager, and also for the hairdresser and chiropodist, or,
at any rate, some sort of provision made for them. A pay office, with
counter and a set of lockers for the receipt of the bather's watch,
money, and other valuables, should be the first object that one meets on
entering from the vestibule connecting the establishment with the
street. In connection with this office may be the manager's room, and
provision for the supply of refreshments. If the bath be the property of
a company, a board room may be required. As on entering a bath the
visitor must immediately divest himself of his boots and shoes, in order
that he may not pollute apartments that are devoted to the attainment of
that cleanliness which is next to godliness, a raised step must be
provided at the entrance to the apodyterium to warn him to enter unshod,
or a portion of the combined cooling and dressing room may be divided
off by similar means. Provision for the boots and shoes must be in the
form of a set of pigeon-holes near the entrance, where, also, racks for
coats and hats must be placed.
The hair-dressing room and accommodation for the chiropodist--if he does
not practise his art at the couch of the bather--must adjoin the
frigidarium, as also should the attendants' room. A lavatory must be
placed in the frigidarium when used as the dressing room. Closet
accommodation should be accessible from the same apartment, but should
be perfectly cut off from it by means of a passage or lobby. The
greatest care should be taken to prevent these conveniences from
becoming offensive. Returning from the bath, the sense of smell is
peculiarly sensitive, and the slightest odour is detected. The worst
position for the closets is near the door by which the bather leaves the
lavatorium. Defects in this point may ruin an otherwise excellent bath.
If the cooling rooms and hot rooms be on separate floors, the closets
may be designed off a landing on the staircase. In the separate
accommodation for attendants and shampooers the same caution must be
observed.
Adjoining, under, or partly under, the laconicum must be placed the
heating apparatus in its chamber, with stokery and provision for fuel,
&c. The stokery should be large, light, and properly ventilated, and the
attendants should be able easily to communicate with the stoker. Of the
arrangements for heating and supplying the water to the lavatorium I
shall speak in another chapter. Laundry, linen and towel rooms, and a
drying room must be provided. They are important necessities, and should
not be cramped in dimensions.