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FRIGIDARIUM TEPIDARIUM CALIDARIUM FIG
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See also:FRIGIDARIUM See also:TEPIDARIUM CALIDARIUM FIG . 4.-See also:Section of See also:baths of See also:Pompeii.
from such facts as these, that in the baths of See also:Diocletian one See also:room has been transmuted into a See also: At the bottom of the plan is shown a See also:long See also:colonnade, which faces the See also:street, behind which was a See also:series of See also:chambers, supposed to have i e iiill!!!!T!U!1T! 111HI!Ul . r l .a.... a.00 oo o. ..aoo a o.o. See also:coal/ FIG. 5.-Ground plan of the baths of Caracalla. been See also:separate bathing-rooms. Entering by the opening in its centre, the visitor passes what was probably an inner colonnade See also:round the See also:main See also:building. Passing in by either of the See also:gates (2, 2), he reaches the large chamber (3), which has been variously called the natatio or large See also:swimming-See also:bath, or the tepidarium. The See also:great central room (4) in all See also:probability was the calidarium, with two labra (6, 6) on opposite sides, and with four alvei, one in each corner, represented by small circular dots. (9) has been regarded by some as the See also:laconicum, although it appears very large for that purpose. The rooms (15 15) have been variously described as baptisterla and as laconica. N ost authors are agreed in thinking that the large rooms (13) and (16) were the sphaeristeria or places for playing ball. Returning to the outside, (I) and (18) and the corresponding places on the other See also:side are supposed to have been the exedrae for philosophers, and places corresponding to the See also:Greek xysti. (20) and (19) have been considered to be servants' rooms. (22) was the stadium, with raised seats for the spectators. The space between this and the large central See also: The most important bath utensil was the strigillus, a curved See also:instrument made of See also:metal, with which the skin was scraped and all sordes removed. The bath servants assisted in See also:anointing, in using the strigillus and in various other See also:menial offices. The poorer classes had to use their strigils themselves. The various processes of the aliptae seem to have been carried on very systematically. The hot baths appear to have been open from r P.M. till dark. It was only one of the later emperors that had them lighted up at See also:night. When the hot baths were ready (for, doubtless, the plunge baths were available at an earlier See also:hour), a See also:bell or aes was See also:rung for the See also:information of the See also:people.., Among the Greeks and Romans the eighth hour, or i o'See also:clock, before their FiG. 6.'-See also:Ring on See also:dinner, was the commonest hour for bathing. which are suspended The bath was supposed to promote appetite, some of the articles and some voluptuaries had one or more in use in the thpbaths after dinner, to enable them to begin terium. eating again; but such excesses, as See also:Juvenal tells us, occasionally proved fatal. Some of the most effeminate of the emperors are said to have bathed seven or eight times in the course of the day. In See also:early times there was delicacy of feeling about the sexes bathing together—even a See also:father could not bathe with his sons; but latterly, under most of the emperors, men and See also:women often usred the same baths. There frequently were separate baths for the women, as we see at Pompeii or at Badenw,eiler; but although respectable matrons would not go to public baths, promiscuous bathing was See also:common during the See also:Empire. The public baths and thermae were under the more immediate superintendence of the aediles. The See also:charge made at a public bath was only a quadrans or quarter of an as, about See also:half a See also:farthing. Yet cheap though this was, the emperors used to ingratiate themselves with the populace, by making the baths at times gratuitous. Wherever the Romans settled,, they built public baths; and wherever they fe•and hot springs or natural stufae, they made use of them, thus saving the expense of See also:heating, as at the myrteta of Baiae Qr the See also:Aquae Sulis of Bath. In the cities there appear to have been private baths for hire, as well as the public baths; and every See also:rich See also:citizen had a set of baths attached to his See also:villa, the fullest See also:account of which is given in the Letters of See also:Pliny, or in See also:Ausonius's Account of a Villa on the Moselle, or in See also:Statius's De Balneo Etrusco. Although the Romans never wholly -gave up See also:cold bathing, and that practice was revived under See also:Augustus by See also:Antonius Musa, and again under See also:Nero by Charmis (at which later See also:time bathing in the open See also:sea became common), yet they chiefly practised warm bathing (calida See also:lavabo). This is the most luxurious See also:kind of bathing, and when. indulged in to excess is enervating. The women were particularly fond of these baths, and were accused, at all events in some provincial cities, of See also:drunkenness in them. The unbounded license of the public baths, and their connexion ' The figure represents four strigils, in which the hollow for See also:collecting the oil or See also:perspiration from the See also:body may be observed. There is also a small See also:ampulla or See also:vessel containing oil, meant to keep the strigils smooth, and a small See also:flat See also:patera or drinking vessel, out of which It was customary to drink after the bathing was finished. with modes of amusement that were condemned, led to their being to a considerable extent proscribed by the early Christians. The early Fathers wrote that bathing might be practised for the See also:sake of cleanliness or of See also:health, but not of See also:pleasure; and See also:Gregory the Great saw no objection to baths being used on See also:Sunday. About the 5th See also:century many of the large thermae in See also:Rome See also:fell into decay. The cutting off of the aqueducts by the See also:Huns, and the See also:gradual decrease of the See also:population, contributed to this. Still it is doubtful whether bathing was ever disused to the extent that is usually represented. It was certainly kept up in the See also:East in full vigour at See also:Alexandria and at See also:Brusa. Hot bathing, and especially hot See also:air and vapour baths, were adopted by the Mahommedans; and the See also:Arabs brought them with them into See also:Spain. The See also:Turks, at a later time, carried them high up the See also:Danube, and the Mahommedans spread or, it may be more correct to say, revived their use in See also:Persia and in Hindustan. The Crusaders also contributed to the spread of baths in See also:Europe, and hot vapour baths were specially recommended for the leprosy so prevalent in those days. After the commencement of the 13th century there were few large cities in Europe without hot vapour baths. We have full accounts of their regulations—how the See also:Jews were only allowed to visit them pnce a See also:week, and how there were separate baths for lepers. In See also:England they were called hothouses. See also:Erasmus, at the date of the See also:Reformation, spoke of them as common in See also:France, See also:Germany and See also:Belgium; he gives a lively account of the mixture of all classes of people to be found in them, and would imply that they were a common See also:adjunct to inns. They seem after a time to have become less common, though See also:Montaigne mentions them as being still in Rome in his day. In England the next revival of baths was at the See also:close of the 17th century, under the Eastern name of Hummums or the See also:Italian name of Bagnios. These were avowedly on the principle of the See also:Turkish baths described below. But there were several considerable epochs in the See also:history of baths, one in the commencement of the 18th century, when See also:Floyer and others recalled See also:attention to cold bathing, of which the virtues had long been overlooked. In the See also:middle of the century also, See also:Russell and others revived sea-bathing in England, and were followed by others on the See also:continent, until the value of sea-bathing became fully appreciated. Later in the same century the experiments of See also: The servant of the bath takes off his shoes and supplies him with a pair of wooden clogs. The first apartment has generally three or four leewans (raised parts of the See also:floor used as couches) cased with marble, and a See also:fountain of cold water, which rises from an octagonal See also:basement in the centre. One of the leewans, which is meant for the higher classes, is furnished with cushions or mats. In warm See also:weather bathers usually undress in this room; in See also:winter they undress in an inner room, called the beytowwal or first chamber, between which and the last apartment there is a passage often with two or three latrines off it. This is the first of the heated chambers. It generally has tworaised seats. The bather receives a napkin in which to put his clothes and another to put round his waist—this reaches. to the knees; a third, if he requires it, is brought him to See also:wind round his See also:head, leaving the See also:top of it See also:bare; a See also:fourth to put ,over, his See also:chest; and a fifth to See also:cover his back. When the bather has undressed, the attendant opens to him the See also:door of the inner and See also:principal apartment. This in See also:general has four leewans, which gives it the See also:form of a See also:cross, and in the centre a fountain of hot water rises from a small shallow See also:basin. The centre room, with the adjoining ones, forms almost a square. The beytowwal already mentioned is one of them. Two small chambers which adjoin each other, one containing a tank of hot water, the other containing a trough, over which are two taps, one of hot and one of cold water, occupy the two other angles; while the fourth See also:angle of the square is occupied by the chamber which contains the See also:fire, over which is the See also:boiler. The bather having entered this apartment soon perspires profusely from the humid See also:heat which is produced by the hot water of tanks and fountains, and by the. See also:steam of the boiler. The bather sits on one of the marble seats, or lies on the leewan or near one of the tanks, ,and the operator then commences his See also:work. The operator first cracks aloud every See also:joint in the body. He makes the vertebrae of the back and even of the See also:neck crack. The limbs are, See also:twisted with apparent violence, but so skilfully, that no harm is ever done. The operator next kneads the patient's flesh. After this he rubs the soles of the feet with a kind of rasp of baked See also:clay. There are two kinds of rasps, one porous and rough, one, of See also:fine smooth clay. Those used by ladies are usually encased in thin embossed silver. The next operation is rubbing the bather's flesh with a small coarse woollen bag, after which the bather dips himself in one of the tanks. He is next taken to one of the chambers in the corner, and the operator lathers the bather with See also:fibres of the See also:palm See also:tree, See also:soap and water. The soap is then washed off with water, when the bather having finished washing, and enveloped himself in dry towels, returns to the beytowwal and reclines. Here he generally remains an hour to an hour and a half, sipping See also:coffee and smoking, while an attendant rubs the soles of the feet and kneads the body and limbs. The bather then dresses and goes out." The following description of a Russian bath is from See also:Kohl's See also:Russia (1842): " The passage from the door is divided into two behind the check-taker's See also:post, one for the male,. one for the See also:female guests. We first enter an open space, in which a set of men are sitting in a See also:state of nudity on benches, those who have already bathed dressing, while those who are going to undergo the See also:process take off their clothes. Round this space or apartment are the doors leading to the vapour-rooms. The bather is ushered into them, and finds himself in a room full of vapour, which is surrounded by a wooden See also:platform rising in steps to near the roof of the room. The bather is made to See also:lie down on one of the See also:lower benches, and gradually to ascend to the higher and hotter ones. The first sensation on entering the room amounts almost to a feeling of suffocation. After you have been subjected for some time to a temperature which may rise to 145° the transpiration reaches its full activity, and the sensation is very pleasant. The bath attendants come and flog you with birchen twigs, cover you with the lather of soap, afterwards rub it off, and then hold you over a See also:jet of See also:ice-cold water. The See also:shock is great, but is followed by a pleasant feeling of great comfort and of alleviation of any rheumatic pains you may have had. In See also:regular establishments you go after this and lie down on a See also:bed for a time before issuing forth. But the Russians often See also:dress in the open air, and instead of using the jet of cold water, go and See also:roll themselves at once in the See also:snow." Turkish baths have, with various modifications, become popular in Europe. The Russian baths were introduced into See also:German towns about 1825. They had a certain limited amount of popularity, but did not take See also:firm See also:root. Another class practically owes its origin to Dr See also:Barter and See also:David See also:Urquhart. It professed to be founded on the Turkish bath, but in reality, it was much more of a hot air bath, i.e. more devoid of vapour than either Roman or Turkish baths ever were. for it is doubtful whether in any See also:case the air of the laconicum was See also:free from vapour. These baths, with their various modifications, have become extremely popular in Great See also:Britain, in Germany and in See also:northern Europe, but have, curiously enough, never been used extensively in France, notwithstanding the familiarity of the See also:French with Turkish baths in See also:Algiers. In England hot air baths are now employed very extensively. They are often associated with Turkish and electric baths. Bathing among the ancients was practised in various forms. It was sometimes a See also:simple bath in cold or in tepid water; but at least, in the case of the higher orders, it usually included a hot air or vapour bath, and was followed by affusion of cold or warm water, and generally by a plunge into the See also:piscina. In like manner the See also:order varies in which the different processes are gone through in Turkish baths in modern Europe. Thus in the baths in See also:Vienna, the process begins by See also:immersion in a large basin of warm water. Sudation is repeatedly interrupted by cold douches at the will of the bathers, and after the bath they are satisfied with a See also:short stay in the cooling-room, where they have only a simple See also:sheet rolled round them. In See also:Copenhagen and in Stock-holm the See also:Oriental baths have been considerably modified by their association with hydropathic practices. This leads us to See also:notice the introduction of the curiously misnamed system known as See also:hydropathy (q.v.). Although cold baths were in See also:vogue for a time in Rome, warm baths were always more popular. Floyer, as we have seen, did something to revive their use in England; but it was nearly a century and a half afterwards that a Silesian See also:peasant, Priessnitz, introduced, with wonderful success, a variety of operations with cold water, the most important of which was the packing the patient in a wet sheet, a process which after a time is followed by profuse sudation. Large establishments for carrying out this mode of bathing and its modifications were erected in many places on the continent and in Great Britain, and enjoyed at one time a large See also:share of popularity. The name " hydropathic " is still retained for these establishments, though hydropathy so-called is no longer practised within them to any extent. But the greatest and most important development of See also:ordinary baths in modern times was in England, though it has extended gradually to some parts of the continent. The See also:English had long used affusion and swimming-baths freely in See also:India. Cold and hot baths and shower baths have been introduced into private houses to an extent never known before; and, since 1842, public swimming-baths, besides separate baths, have been supplied to the public at very moderate rates, in some cases associated with See also:wash-houses for the poorer classes. Their number has increased rapidly in See also:London and in the principal See also:continental cities. Floating-baths in See also:rivers, always known in some German towns, have become common wherever there are flowing streams. The better See also:supply of most See also:European cities with water has aided in this See also:movement. Ample enclosed swimming-baths have been erected at many seaside places. When required, the water, if not heated in a boiler, is raised to a sufficient temperature by the aid of hot water pipes or of steam. Separate baths used to be of See also:wood, painted; they are nc w most frequently of metal, painted or lined with procelain See also:enamel. The swimming-baths are lined with See also:cement, tiles or marble and See also:porcelain slabs; and a good deal of ornamentation and See also:painting of the walls and See also:ceiling of the apartments, in See also:imitation of the ancients, has been attempted. We have thus traced in outline the history of baths through successive ages. The See also:medium of the baths spoken of thus far has been water, vapour or dry hot air. But baths of more complex nature, and of the greatest variety, have been in use from the earliest ages. The best known See also:media are the 'various See also:mineral See also:waters and sea-water. Of baths of mineral substances, those of See also:sand are the See also:oldest and best known; the practice of arenation or of burying the body in the sand of the seashore, or in heated sand near some hot See also:spring, is very ancient, as also that of applying heated sand to various parts of the body: Baths of See also:peat See also:earth are of comparatively recent origin. The peat earth is carefully prepared and pulverized, and then workedup with water into a pasty consistence, of which the temperature can be regulated before the patient immerses himself in it. There are various terms that may be termed chemical, in which See also:chlorine or hydrochloric See also:acid is added to the water of the bath, or where fumes of See also:sulphur are made to rise and envelop the body. Of See also:vegetable baths the number is very large. Lees of See also:wine, in a state of See also:fermentation, have been employed. An immense variety of aromatic herbs have been used to impregnate water with. At one time fuci or sea-See also:weed were added to baths, under the idea of conveying into the system the See also:iodine which they contain; but by far the most popular of all vegetable baths are those made with an See also:extract got by distilling certain varieties of See also:pine leaves. The strangeness of the baths of See also:animal substances, that have been at various times in use, is such that their employment seems scarcely credible. That baths of See also:milk or of whey might be not unpopular is not surprising, but baths of See also:blood, in some cases even of human blood, have been used; and baths of See also:horse dung were for many ages in high favour, and were even succeeded for a short time by baths of See also:guano. See also:Electrical baths are now largely used, a current being passed through the water; and electrical See also:massage, by the d'See also:Arsonval or other system, is colloquially termed a "bath." Baths also of compressed air, in which the patient is subjected to the pressure of two or three atmospheres, were formerly employed in some places. A See also:sun bath (insolatio or heliosis) , exposing the body tc the sun, the head being covered, was a favourite practice among the Greeks and Romans. Some See also:special devices require a few words of explanation. Douches were used by the ancients, and have always been an important mode of applying water to a circumscribed portion of the body. They are, in fact, spouts of water, varying in See also:size and temperature, applied by a See also:hose-See also:pipe with more or less force for a longer or shorter time against particular parts. A douche exercises a certain amount of See also:friction, and a continued impulse on the spot to which it is applied, which stimulate the skin and the parts beneath it, quickening the capillary circulation. The effects of the douche are so powerful that it cannot be applied for more than a few minutes continuously. The See also:alternation of hot and cold douches, which for some unknown See also:reason has got the name of Ecossaise, is a very potent type of bath from the strong action and reaction which it produces. The shower bath may be regarded as a See also:union of an immense number of fine douches projected on the head and shoulders. It produces a strong effect on the See also:nervous system. An ingenious contrivance for giving circular spray baths, by which water is propelled laterally in fine streams against every portion of the See also:surface of the body, is now common. To all these modes of acting on the cutaneous surface and circulation must be added dry rubbing, as practised by the patient with the flesh See also:glove, but much more thoroughly by the bath attendants, if properly instructed (see also MASSAGE). Action of Baths on the Human System.—The See also:primary operation of baths is the action of heat and cold on the cutaneous surfaces through the medium of water. The first purpose of baths is simply that of abstersion and cleanliness, to remove any See also:foreign impurity from the surface, and to prevent the pores from being clogged by their own secretions or bydesquainations of cuticle. It need scarcely be said that such See also:objects are greatly promoted by the action of the See also:alkali of soaps and by friction; that the use of warm water, owing to its immediate stimulation of the skin, promotes the separation of sordes, and that the vapour of water is still more efficient than water itself. It has been supposed that water acts on the system by being absorbed through the skin, but, under ordinary circumstances, no water is absorbed, or, if any, so See also:minute a quantity as not to be See also:worth considering. No dissolved substances, under the ordinary circumstances of a bath, are actually absorbed into the system; although when a portion of skin has been entirely cleared of its sebaceous secretion, it is possible that a strong See also:solution of salts may be partially absorbed. In the case of medicated baths we therefore only look (in addition to the action of heat and cold, or more properly to the See also:abstraction or communication and retention of heat) to any stimulant action on the skin that the ingredients of the bath may possess. The powerful See also:influence of water on the capillaries of the skin, and the mode and extent of that operation, depend primarily on the temperature of the fluid. The human system bears changes of temperature of the air much better than changes of the temperature of water. While the temperature of the air at 750 may be too warm for the feelings of many people, a continued bath at that temperature is See also:felt to be cold and depressing. Again, a bath of 98° to 1o2° acts far more excitingly than air of the same temperature, both because, being a better conductor, water brings more heat to the body and because it suppresses the perspiration which is greatly augmented by air of that temperature. Further, a temperature a few degrees below blood heat is that of indifferent baths, which can be See also:borne longest without natural disturbance of the system. Cold baths See also:act by refrigeration, and their effects vary according to the degree of temperature. The effects of a cold bath, the temperature not being below 50°, are these:—there is a diminution of the temperature of the skin and of the subjacent tissues; there is a certain feeling of shock diffused over the whole surface, and if the cold is intense it induces a slight feeling of numbness in the skin. It becomes See also:pale and its capillaries See also:contract. The further action of a cold bath reaches the central nervous system, the See also:heart and the lungs, as manifested by the tremor of the limbs it produces, along with a certain degree of oppression of the chest and a gasping for air, while the See also:pulse becomes small and sinks. After a time reaction takes place, and brings redness to the skin and an increase of temperature. The colder the water is, and the more powerful and depressing its effects, the quicker and more active is the reaction. Very cold baths, anything below 5o°°, cannot be borne long. Lowering of the temperature of the skin•may be borne down to 9°, but a further reduction may prove fatal. The diminution of temperature is much more rapid when the water is in See also:motion, or when the bather moves about; because, if the water is still, the layer of it in immediate contact with the body is warmed to a certain degree. A great deal depends on the form of the cold bath; thus one may have—(r) Its depressing operation,—with a loss of heat, retardation of the circulation, and feeling of weariness, when the same water remains in contact with the skin, and there is continuous withdrawal of heat without fresh stimulation. This occurs with full or sitz baths, with partial or complete wrapping up the body in a wet sheet which remains unchanged, and with frictions practised without removing the wet sheets. (2) Its exciting operation,—with quickening of the action of the heart and lungs, and feeling of glow and of nervous excitement and of increased See also:muscular See also:power. These sensations are produced when the layer of water next the body and heated by it is removed, and fresh cold water causes fresh stimulus. These effects are produced by full baths with the water in motion used only for a short time, by frictions when the wet sheet is removed from the body, by douches, shower baths, bathing in rivers, &c. The depressing operation comes on much earlier in very cold water than in warmer; and in the same way the exciting operation comes on faster with the colder than with the warmer water. The short duration of the bath makes both its depressing and its exciting action less; its longer duration increases them; and if the baths be continued too long, the protracted abstraction of animal heat may prove very depressing. Tepid baths, 85° to 95°.—The effects of a bath of this temperature are confined to the peripheral extremities of the nerves, and are so slight that they do not reach the central system. There is no reaction, and the body temperature remains unchanged. Baths of this kind can be borne for See also:hours with impunity. Warm baths from 96° to ro4°.—In these the action of the heat on the peripheral surface is propagated to the central system, and causes reaction, which manifests itself in moderately increased 519 flow of the blood to the surface, and in an increased frequency of pulse. With a hot bath from ros° up to Iro° the central nervous and circulating systems are more affected. The frequency of the pulse increases rapidly, the respiration becomes quickened, and is interrupted by deep inspirations. The skin is congested, and there is profuse perspiration. Very hot baths.—Everything above rro° feels very hot; any-thing above 12o°° almost scalding. Baths of from 119° to I260 have caused a rise of 2° to 42° in the temperature of the blood. Such a bath can be borne for only a few minutes. It causes great rapidity of the pulse, extreme lowering of the blood-pressure, excessive congestion of the skin, and violent perspiration. In the use of hot baths a certain amount of vapour reaches the parts of the body not covered by the water, and is also inhaled. Vapour baths produce profuse perspiration and act in cleansing the skin, as powerful hot water baths do. Vapour, owing to its smaller specific heat, does not act so fast as water on the body. A vapour bath can be borne for a much longer time when the vapour is not inhaled. Vapour baths can be borne hotter than water baths, but cannot be continued too long, as vapour, being a See also:bad conductor, prevents See also:radiation of heat from the body. A higher heat than 122° is not borne comfortably. The vapour bath though falling considerably short of the temperature of the hot air bath, raises the temperature much more. Hot air baths differ from vapour baths in not impeding the respiration as the latter do, by depositing moisture in the bronchial tubes. The lungs, instead of having to heat the inspired air, are subjected to a temperature above their own. Hot air baths, say of 135°, produce more profuse perspiration than vapour baths. If very hot, they raise the temperature of the body by several degrees. Vapour baths, hot air baths, and hot water baths agree in producing violent perspiration. As perspiration eliminates water and effete See also:matter from the system, it is obvious that its regulation must have an important effect on the See also:economy. In comparing the general effects of cold and hot baths, it may be said that while the former tend to check perspiration, the latter favour it. The warm bath causes swelling and congestion of the capillaries of the surface in the first instance; when the stimulus of heat is withdrawn their contraction ensues. A cold bath, again, first causes a contraction of the capillaries of the surface, which is followed by their expansion when reaction sets in. A warm bath elevates the temperature of the body, both by bringing a supply of heat to it and by preventing the radiation of heat from it. It can be borne longer than a cold bath. It draws blood to the surface, while a cold bath favours See also:internal congestions. But baths often produce injurious effects when used injudiciously. Long continued warm baths are soporific, and have, owing to this action, often caused See also:death by drowning. The effects of very hot baths are swimming in the head, vomiting, fainting, congestion of the See also:brain, and, in some instances, See also:apoplexy. The symptoms seem to point to See also:paralysis of the action of the heart. It is therefore very evident how cautious those should be, in the use of hot baths, who have weak See also:hearts or any obstruction to the circulation. See also:Fat men, and those in whom the heart or blood-vessels are unsound, should avoid them. Protracted See also:indulgence in warm baths is relaxing, and has been esteemed a sign of effeminacy in all ages. Sleepiness, though it will not follow the first immersion in .a cold bath, is one of the effects of protracted cold baths; depression of the temperature of the surface becomes dangerous. The See also:risk in cold baths is congestion of the internal See also:organs, as often indicated by the lips getting See also:blue. Extremely cold baths are always dangerous. For the medical use of baths see BALNEOTIIERAPEUTICS. Public Baths.—It was not till 1846 that it was deemed advisable in England, for the " health, comfort, and welfare" of the inhabitants of towns and populous districts, to encourage the See also:establishment therein of baths by the See also:local authority acting through commissioners. A series of statutes, known collectively as " The Baths and Wash-houses Acts 1846 to 1896," followed. By the Public Health Act 1875, the See also:urban authority was declared to be the authority having power to adopt and proceed under the previous acts, and in 1878 See also:provision was for the first time expressly made for the establishment of swimming baths, which might be used during the winter as gymnasia, and by an amending act of 1899, for See also:music or dancing, provided a See also:licence is obtained. By the Local See also:Government Act 1894, it was provided that the See also:parish See also:meeting should be the authority having exclusive power of adopting the Baths and Wash-houses Acts in rural districts, which should, if adopted, be carried into effect by the parish See also:council. Up to 1865 it seems as if only twenty-five boroughs had cared to provide bathing See also:accommodation for their inhabitants. There is no complete information as to the number of authorities who have adopted the acts since 1865, but a return of reproductive undertakings presented to the See also:House of See also:Commons in 1899 shows that 1 ro local authorities outside the See also:metropolis applied for power to raise loans to provide baths, of whom 48 applied before 1875 and 62 after 1875. In the See also:year 1907 the loans sanctioned for the purpose amounted to £53,026. The revenues of parish See also:councils are so limited that it has not been possible for them to take much See also:advantage of the acts. In the metropolis, by the Local Government Act of 1894, the power of working the act was given to vestries, and by the act of 1899 this power was transferred to the See also:borough councils. There are 35 parishes in London in which the acts have been adopted, all of which except 11 have taken action since 1875. These establishments, according to the return made in 1908, provided 3502 private baths and 104 swimming baths. The maximum charge for a second-class cold bath is Id., for a hot bath 2d. In 1904-1905 the number of bathers was 6,342,158, of whom 3,064,998 were bathers in private baths and 3,277,160 bathers in swimming baths. In 1896-1897 the See also:gross See also:total had been only 2,000,000. In cases where the proportion between the sexes has been worked out, it is found that only 18 % of the users of private. baths, and to % of the users of swimming baths, are See also:females. In 1898 the School See also:Board was authorized to pay the fees for See also:children using the baths if instruction in swimming were provided, and in 1907-1908 the See also:privilege was used by 1,556,542 children. The cost of this public provision in London —water being supplied by measure—is over £8o,000 a year. No account can be given of the See also:numbers using the ponds and lakes in the parks and open spaces, but it is computed that on a hot Sunday 25,000 people bathe in See also:Victoria See also:Park, London, some of the bathers starting as early as four o'clock in the See also:morning. These returns show how great is the increase of the See also:habit of bathing, but they also show how even now the habit is limited to a comparatively small See also:part of the population. People require to be tempted to the use of water, at any See also:rate at the beginning. There are still authorities in London responsible for 800,000 persons who have provided no baths, and those who have made provision have not always done so in a sufficiently liberal and tempting way. The comparison between English great towns and those of the continent is not in favour of the former. For the literature of baths in earlier periods we may refer to the See also:Architecture of See also:Vitruvius, and to See also:Lucian's Hippias; see art. " Bader" in Pauly-V1Wissowa, Realencyclopadie (1896), by A. Mau; Balneum in Daremberg and Saglio, Dict. See also:des antiquites; J. See also:Marquardt, Des Privatleben der Romer (1886), pp. 269-297; See also:Becker's See also:Gallus, and the article " Balneae " by Rich, in Dr See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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