Various accounts have been given of the Russian baths, but we believe none is more accurate than that of Dr Sanches, first physician to the late empress Catharine, inserted in the 25th volume of the Jour nal de Physique, with which we shall conclude this article.
The baths are erected as near as possible to a plentiful supply of water and wood, these being the most necessary articles for their consumption. When the ground is marked out, two parallel trenches are dug, and lined with brick, or stone, for the purpose of carrying off the waste water. Then the walls of the bath are rai.,ed. These must be built between the two trenches ; the length of each wall being about 18 English feet, and the height 10 or 11 feet. A furnace is placed within the building, supplied with wood, 'vaulted like an oven, and lined with stones, that become red-hot by the fire within, and thoroughly heat the air. Two or three stages are placed round the room, one above the other, three or four feet distant from the furnace ; and on these lie the bathers, to receive the heat of the stone. The floor of the bath forms an inclined plane, at the bottom of which is a small pipe, for carrying off through the trenches the water that has been. used. Such is the construction of the public baths, from which those of private families differ only in having better accommodations, and a chamber for the bathers to repose after bathing.
The baths are entered when the wood, with which the furnace is supplied, is nearly burnt to ashes ; and the chimney is then closed, so as to render the heat of the room almost intolerable to those who are not accustomed to it. The bathers enter the room quite naked. In the private baths, some water is generally thrown upon the stones of the furnace before enter ing them ; but, in the public baths, the common people expose themselves to the burning heat, lying on the stages where it is the most intense. The great heat at first often produces violent headache, and great thirst, to relieve which great draughts of cold water are sometimes taken, though (as Dr San ches remarks) to the g-reat injury of the constitution.
When the room is sufficiently heated, and the warmth becomes troublesome, cold water is poured upon the hot flints around the furnace ; this is instantly con verted into vapour, and fills the whole room ; and the water is renewed whenever the vapour begins to clear away. This excites in the bathers a most co pious sweat, which they keep up by renewing the steam, and by friction of the whole body with the downy leaves of the lime tree rubbed with soap. The frictions being finished, the bathers cool them selves by pouring buckets of cold or tepid water over their bodies, or, what is more common, by plunging into a pond that is always near the bath, or, in winter, rolling in the snow. They then dress, and return to their respective occupations. The same general process is pursued in the private baths, except that there the bathers retire to the small room adjoining the bath, where they recline on beds till the sweating be over, and often sink into a profound sleep.
Cold bathing in the sea is also practised by the Russians ; and the bathers here seem to pay very little regard to delicacy or decency. We are assured by Mr M‘Gill, that, at the Russian ports on the Euxine, it is very common for males and females of all ages to bathe together in the open sea ; and, deprived of all adventitious covering, to enjoy, with primitive simplicity, the pleasures of their favourite pastime. See M'Gill's Travels in Turkey, AT. vol. i.
On the _subject of this article, see Floyer and Baynard on Cold Bathing, and Hot and Cold Baths; Marcard Uber the Natur and den Cebrauch der Ba der, published at Hanover in 1793 ; or Parant's translation De la Nature, et de P•Usage des Thins, published at Paris in 1801 ; Duncan's Medical Com mentaries, vol. xx. ; Saunders' Treatise on Mineral Waters, chap. vi. ; Currie's Medical Reports on the Effects of Water, 3d edit. vol. i. ; and a 'Treatise on Cold and Warm Bathing, lately published at Edin burgh. See also Clarke's Travels, vol. i.; and Wa ring's Tour to Sheeran. (f)