f The most usual mode of employing the vapour bath is, as we have said, to expose the naked body in a room, into which the steam of hot water may be adinitted. This room is generally 'heated to a tem perature considerably above that of the atmosphere, ' and the body is for some time suffered to remain in this heated air ; the common effect of which is to in crease its temperature, and accelerate the circulation of the blood. After some time the steam is admit ted, when the former symptoms are removed, and a profuse perspiration is produced. This is usually promoted by friction, and removal to a warm bed. The general effect of this process is, to relax the bo dy, remove obstructions of the skin, alleviate pain and spasmodic contractions, and promote sleep.
In the vapour bath, the stimulant power of heat is modified and tempered by the moisture diffused through the air, and as the elastic vapour, like air, is a less powerful conductor or transmitter of heat than a watery fluid, the effect of vapour in raising the tem perature of the body is much less than that of the hot bath. Its heating effect is also further diminish ed by the copious perspiration that ensues, so that, on all accounts, the vapour bath is safer, and in most cases more effectual, than the hot water bath.
For the topical application of steam to the greatest • advantage, the air-pump vapour bath was contrived by Mr Smith ; and an account of the apparatus and its effects have been published by Dr Blegborough, in a pamphlet to which we have already referred. His apparatus consists of a vessel of strong copper tinned on the inside, for inclosing the part to which the vapour is to be applied, and having attached to it ,a bladder, for the purpose of securing it, so as to be air-tight. To one end of the machine is fitted a pipe that communicates with a portable boiler, in which the water is heated by means of a spirit lamp. There is also a small air-pump for exhausting the machine, when the application is to be made in rare fied air, or after it has continued for a proper time. A thermometer is adjusted to the apparatus, for shoving the temperature of the included air.
This apparatus acts on the principle of removing the pressure of the atmosphere from the part affected, while moist and heated air or vapour is applied to it. Hence, it combines the actions of dry-cupping and fomentation, each of which is occasionally employed with advantage in several morbid affections.
The cases to Which this vapour bath seems best adapted, are chiefly gout, both acute and atonic ; acute rheumatism, palsy, several affections of the ' skin, as leprosy and ulcers, and white swelling of the 1 joints. It is also recommended in female obstructions, chilblains, tetanus, and dropsy, and has proved high ly efficacious in inflammations of the stomach and bowels. The usual mode of application is, to foment the part affected, by means of the steam admitted in to the body of the machine, for a time proportioned to the nature of the case, commonly from half an hour to three quarters, and then to exhaust the ma chine by means of the air-pump, which generally oc cupies another quarter of an hour.
. In the employment of the general vapour bath, it is evident that its first effects would be attended with danger in a plethoric state of the body, or where there is much (:-termination to the head. In such cases, previous steps must be taken to remove ple thora, or relieve the head.
Though the external use of water, for the pur poses of cleanliness and healthy exercise, must have been common among all nations, and in every age, the practice of bathing as a luxury, or a remedy, ap-, pears to indicate considerable progress towards re finement and civilization, and has been almost entire ly confined to the polished nations of Europe and Asia. In the earliest records of antiquity, indeed, mention is made of bathing, either as a religious ce remony, or as the means of fortifying the body against the hardships and fatigues of war; and with these views the cold bath alone appears to have been employed.
The practice both of general bathing and partial ablution, formed a part of the Mosaic institution ; and the precepts delivered on that head were evidently intended to promote cleanliness among a people who seem to have been peculiarly subject to leprosy and other diseases of the skin. (See Levit. xv. &c.) Washing the hands and the feet before and after meals, was an established custom among the Jews; and we find our Saviour reproved by the Pharisees for sitting down•to meat with unwashed hands. On various occasions, bathing is mentioned in the scrip tures as a • remedy for diseases; and it is probable that the famous pool of Bethesda, in which so many lame and diseased persons were healed, was nothing more than a natural warm bath. It is certain, that in the days of David and Solomon, the custom of bathing had become a luxury among the Jews, though it was probably never carried among that people to the height at which we shall immediately observe it among the Greeks and Romans.* Among the Greeks, bathing was practised, even as a luxury, before the time of Homer, or in what have been called the heroic ages. Frequent allusions are made in the works of that immortal poet to this luxury ; and it appears that the baths were supplied chiefly with warm or tepid water, which in most cases was poured on the body by attendants. Thus Venus is described in the Odyssey as flying, after the public disgrace she had sustained in the discovery of her amour with Mars, to the groves of Paphos, where she is laved by the Graces; and the improvement pro duced by the bath on the native beauty of the god dess, is particularly remarked. See Homer's Odyssey, lib. viii. v. 362.