The Turkish bath in health and disease : being the substance of a lecture delivered at Sheffield on the 16th of December, 1858 / by John le Gay Brereton.

  • Brereton, John le Gay.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Turkish bath in health and disease : being the substance of a lecture delivered at Sheffield on the 16th of December, 1858 / by John le Gay Brereton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Unless you desire to be private, you have the pleasure of varied society, one of the main attractions, to the poor man, of the public-house. You imbibe also the legitimate stimulant of the body, viz. oxygen, which sup¬ plants the appetite for drink, and imparts a taste for a finer and ten times more enjoyable exhilaration: you excite moreover warmth which will often last for days. Mr. Urquhart has most eloquently and forcibly dwelt on all these advantages in many of his writings ;* nor has he ex¬ aggerated them; and of this I am certain, that, for his enlightened and philanthropic exertions alone to establish the Batli in Western Europe, he will take his stand among the greatest benefactors of the age. I have said enough I hope to satisfy you that the Bath demands your serious investigation, and if after a trial you find that I have spoken within the bounds of facts, it is your duty to do all in your power to help forward the good cause, and to place the Bath within the reach of all classes. If you want to live long and healthily, I again say take the Bath : if you want to save doctors’ bills, take the Bath.f I do not mean to say that it altogether supersedes medicine; every poison has its use, and I am well aware that for local effects, hydropathic appliances are often necessary; but I do say, that in a vast maj ority of, if not in all, blood diseases, the Bath is more speedy, more certain, and far more agreeable, than any other treat¬ ment of disease. Above all this, it is the preserver of health; it heightens every personal charm; the complexion, especially, becomes clearer under its use, the eyes brighter, and the person positively fragrant. Homer does not exaggerate when he describes Achilles, on issuing from the Bath, as looking “taller, and fairer, and nearer the gods.” * Especially in his invaluable chapter on the Bath in The Pillars of Hercules, be¬ fore quoted. f When the population of Ancient Borne was said to be five millions (?) there were Baths in abundance, but no Hospitals; and it is recorded that during a period of 500 years, there was no physician in that vast city! LONDON, 1860 : PRINTED B Y JOHN LANE, 49, KING STREET WESTMINSTER. Price two pence, or twelve shillings per hundred. Lately published by John Lane, from a drawing by Mr. Edward Hull, a Print of a Private Bath, in Chromo-Lithograph, which shows how a gentleman’s morning room has been converted into a Bath. Price 2s. Gd. In the Press, and shortly will he Published, The on its Be-introduction into Britain. The Thermae of the Greeks and Romans; and The Haitlam of the East. By George Witt, F.R.S.
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