“The body has come forth shining like alabaster, fragrant as the
cistus, sleek as satin, and soft as velvet. The touch of your own
skin is electric. Buffon has a wonderful description of Adam’s
surprise and delight at his first touch of himself. It is the
description of the human sense when the body is brought back to its
purity. The body thus renewed, the spirit wanders abroad, and,
reviewing its tenement, rejoices to find it clean and tranquil.
There is an intoxication, or dream, that lifts you out of the
flesh, and yet a sense of life and consciousness that spreads
through every member. Each breastful of air seems to pass, not to
the heart but to the brain, and to quench, not the pulsation of the
one but the fancies of the other. That exaltation which requires
the slumber of the senses—that vividness of sense that drowns the
visions of the spirit—are simultaneously engaged in calm and
unspeakable luxury; you condense the pleasures of many scenes, and
enjoy in an hour the existence of years. But this, too, will pass.
The visions fade, the speed of the blood thickens, the breath of
the pores is checked, the crispness of the skin returns, the
fountains of strength are opened—you seek again the world and its
toils, and those who experience these effects and vicissitudes for
the first time exclaim, ‘I feel as if I could leap over the moon.’
Paying your pence according to the tariff of your deserts, you walk
forth a king.”
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.”