BATIIING, or the act of applying water, under various states and modifications, to the surface of the body, is a subject of such acknowledged importance, and such general interest, as to demand, in a work on miscellaneous literature, a much fuller consideration than it has usually obtained. In the present article, we shall endeavour to give as complete and popular a view of this subject, as is compatible with the nature and limits of our undertaking. We propose, first, to consider the several varieties of baths, and the effects which each produces on the human body in its natural healthy state ; thence to deduce some practical con clusions and precautions on the use of bathing, in the preservation of health and the cure of disease ; and to conclude with a brief historical sketch of the practice of bathing among various nations, both in an. cicnt and modern times.
The term bath has, by many writers, been employ ed in a very extensive sense, as comprehending not only every kind of liquid in which the body can be I immersed, but air, earth, sand, and other dry mate rials by which it can be surrounded. Thus, we hear of baths of milk, whey, broth ; and if we may credit the fables of mythology, and the legends of monkish superstition, even human blood has been employed in this capacity. When the naked body is exposed for a considerable time to the cold air, this is termed the air-bath, a practice recommended by ,Franklin and others as a substitute for bathing ; and when the naked body is surrounded with sand, or half buried in- the earth, as has been practised on various occasions, both by regular physicians and empirics, it is said to be placed in a sand-bath, or an earth-bath. How ever convenient these terms may be in a medical point of view, they do not seem suited to the general par ' poses for which this article is intended ; and we shall accordingly confine ourselves entirely to those species of. bathing, in which water, under some form or other, is the agent The water of which baths are composed may be nearly pure, or it may be naturally impregnated with various mineral substances; it may be possessed of 'very different degrees of temperature, from near the freezing point to a heat considerably above that of the human body ; and it may be applied universally to the whole surface, or only partially to particular regions. These circumstances constitute the princi
pal varieties of baths, which we are now to consider.
The water which flows in small rivers, brooks, or burni, or which fills ponds, lakes, canals, and con duits, and to which recourse is very commonly had for the purposes of bathing, may be regarded as nearly pure, since it contains but little mineral impregnation. Its action on the surface, when of a medium tempe rature, must therefore be little more than that of a •detergent or cleanser. Sea water, which is so com monly used for bathing, contains, besides sea salt, a considerable quantity of other saline ingredients, as muriale of magnesia, and sulphate of lime, the saline matters forming more than of the whole weight. Many other mineral waters are occasionally used for bathing ; as. those of Bath in England, Vichy in France, ancl•Pyrmont in Westphalia, which are chaly beate ; and Harrowgate in England, Moffat in Scot land, Aix-la-Chapelle in Germany, and Barege at the foot of the Pyrenees, which are sulphureous. The effects of these baths will depend on the nature of their impregnations, and shall be considered presently.
By far the- most important varieties of baths are those in respect of temperature ; as, from the power of.conducting.or transmitting heat possessed by wa ter,* and the large volume in which this element can be applied, its effect. in increasing, and more espe cially in diminishing the temperature of the surfaie, and hence that of the whole body, must be consider able. Most modern writers refer the whole effects of bathing to the temperature of the bath ; and though in this they perhaps generalise. too much, it. must be allowed, that the effects ascribed to impreg nation are very trifling when compared with those which depend on change of temperature. In this re spect, baths were formerly dividedinto coldand warm ; but since the use of the thermometer has become more general, four degrees of•temperature have been mark ed in baths, and these are now distinguished into cold, tepid or temperate, warm, and hot.