The swimming baths of London / by R.E. Dudgeon.

  • Dudgeon, R. E. (Robert Ellis), 1820-1904.
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The swimming baths of London / by R.E. Dudgeon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    THE SWIMMING BATHS OP .j T*aJ \<y t, )»( 1 Jv Swimming is an exercise at once healthful, pleasant,, ah^ useful. The full hygienic effects of swimmings Oah only be obtained when it is practised in the open air, and in unpolluted water of a natural temperature. In a close, more or less imperfectly ventilated room, and in water artificially heated, from which, consequently, the air has been partially expelled, swimming, while still retaining its characters of pleasantness and utility, ceases to be a hygienic agent of any considerable power. Every town which aspires to be considered at all perfect in its sanitary arrangements should possess ample swimming baths of pure water in the open air. The seaside towns of this seagirt land are provided by nature with a most exquisite description of swimming bath in the ever-changing, ever-fresh sea—ever-fresh, that is, when not polluted by the drainage of the town, as often happens. But our inland towns are not so well off, and unless in the neighbourhood of a lake or a river, they must construct artificial baths or do without them. Even when they have a lake or a river they too often allow it to be so polluted by sewage as to render it unfit for bathing purposes; and when they have neither lake nor river, they too often neglect to provide artificial substitutes, thus depriving themselves of a powerful hygienic agent, a plea- sant recreation, and a useful accomplishment. The healthful effects of swimming in cold water in the open air result from the peculiar exercise, the temperature of the surrounding mediums, and the exhilaration of the spirits it causes. Before entering the water, and each time of leaving it, we enjoy an air-bath, the beneficial effects of which are not solely or chiefly dependent on the temperature, but are mainly owing to the actual impact of the atmospherical gases, and of the light, and possibly the