The Turkish bath / by Wm. J. Cummins, M.D., Edinburgh.

  • Cummins, William J.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Turkish bath / by Wm. J. Cummins, M.D., Edinburgh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    mixed at any temperature ; beyond these again is the cold douche, which can be directed on any part of the body, and its force regulated by a flexible tube. The bather having undressed, wrapped himself in a sheet, and put on wooden clogs, is first introduced into the middle chamber, and reclines there or walks about conversing with his friends [not forgetting to drink an occasional glass of cold water, which the Ganymede or Hebe, as the case may be, presents to each in turn] for a variable period, generally about an hour, but regulated entirely by the condition of the skin, as, until it is soft and perspiring freely, it is not safe to enter the hot room ; as soon as this is the case he proceeds towards the inner chamber, and remains there until he has perspired copiously for twenty minutes or hall' an hour, drinking water constantly to replace the aqueous part of the perspiration. He then enters the washing room, and having carefully cooled his head with tepid water, washes his body with an unlimited quantity of the same, and then directs the cold douche over every part except the head. It is impossible for any one who has not experienced it to conceive the pleasure afforded by this part of the process. This being done, the hot room is again remained in for a short time, when, passing through the second apartment, the bather arrives at the first I have described, where, lying at ease on one of its peculiarly constructed couches, fanned by the cool atmosphere, he almost realizes the sensations of Coleridge's ancient mariner, when, after the long and