BATH. As the most ancient records of the human race refer to the use of the bath it is probably safe to surmise that the prehistotic peoples early discovered the cleansing effect of water and were eager to enjoy it To the an cient Egyptians, as to the more modern Mo hammedans, it is a part of their religious service, while among the early Hebrews it was not only one of the first purificative duties but it was positively prescribed by the Mosaic law in certain specified cases of uncleanness. Thus the Jew who had no bath in the court yard of his house, bathed in the streams, or, later, in the mixed, or public bath, while, besides water, bran was often used for ceremonial cleansing, especially by the women, just as the modern Arabs, when unable to obtain water, rub them selves clean with sand. See ArnArriox.
The earliest and most common. forrn of bathing was, of course, that of swimming in rivers, and bathing in such rivers as the Nile and the Ganges was supposed to possess a re ligious significance which tended to make the practice a very popular one. The use of oils and the greater luxury of perfumes became customary on occasions of sanitary bathing at a very early period. In later times the more wealthy Romans possessed many kinds of oils and pomades which they brought to the baths, that their bodies might be anointed with them, while even the poorest classes rubbed their bodies with flour of lentils after the bath.
The first reference to such a convenience as that of a public bath occurs in the Bible, where it is stated that the bathing (pools" were some times sheltered by porticoes, but this was a simple invention when compared to the perfect bathing facilities whkh were aftenvard pro vided by the Greeks and Romans, while the praise lavished upon the baths of Darius by Alexander the Great indicates that the Persians must also have possessed beautifully appointed bathing facilities.
The public baths, which began to be built in Rome shortly after Clodius had succeeded in supplying the city with water from Praeneste, soon became one of the most popular institu tions of the nation and emperors vied with their predecessors to construct the largest and most elaborate establishments. As the result, enor mous buildings were erected and these contained not only the bathing apartments but the gym nasia and libraries, or even theatres, and the most able writers of that time admit their in ability to describe the magnificence and luxuri ous appointment of many of these palaces of cleanliness and pleasure. For example, Seneca says, To such a pitch of luxury have we come that we are dissatisfied if we do not tread on gems in our baths." These baths, or therms, as they were called, contained swimming baths, warm baths, vapor baths and baths of hot and cold air.
Wherever the Romans settled they built pub lic baths, and wherever they found hot springs or natural stufie, they made use of them, thus saving the expense of heating, as at Baia and Bath. The charge made at a public bath was only a quadraus, or about one-quarter cent.
The delicacy of feeling concerning the bath ing together of sexes which is said to have existed in early times certainly did not extend to the days of the empire, when it was not at all uncommon for men and women to make use of the same bath and it was probably due to this practice that the public baths came to be condemned by the early Christians as places of unbounded license. While admitting the useful
ness of the bath from the standpoint of cleanli ness and health, the Church fathers insisted that baths should be taken for such purposes only and not for pleasure. It was at this time when the bath reached the height of luxuriousness; when rich citizens had magnificent private baths of their own attached to their villas, and when elaborate private bathing houses might be had for hire in all the cities; conditions which con tinued until about the 5th century, when the destruction of Rome's water supply by the Huns and the many disasters which accom panied the downfall of the empire tended to turn popular attention from the delights of the therince. How thoroughly the bath afterward fell into disuse, however, is a matter which historians have been unable to determine. In the East, of course, where the heat and dust make its use obligatory, there has never been any diminution in the practice, and while in Europe, for a time at least, perfumes were used to offset any disagreeable odors that might arise from uncleanliness of the person, this condition could not have existed for many centuries, for, by the latter part of the 12th century, the popularity of the bath had become so well re-established that there was scarcely any large city in Europe which did not possess well-patronized hot-air bathing houses. Again in the 17th century, when the Turkish bath was introduced, there was another revival of interest in the matter of personal cleanliness, and people of all classes flocked to the baths, as they were called, to enjoy the new luxury that had been imported friiin' the East While the Turkish bath, not to mention the Russian and Egyptian baths, are so similar to the hot-air baths of the Romans that many authorities have regarded them as nothing more or less than an outgrowth from the latter, the fact that the principle of the vapor bath has been known to many nations, and has even been found among savages, or races in an early stage of civilization, has led to the more recent and counter theory that the hot-air boxes of the Mexicans, the "medicine sweats" of the American Indians, the small baths of the an cient inhabitants of Scotland and Ireland, and the larger vapor baths of Japan, like those of Turkey and Russia, are of just as independent origin as those of the more ancient Rome. However that may be it is at least certain that while this luxurious form of bathing was largely responsible for the neglect of the cold bath and the sea-bathing, the virtues of which have been appreciated only within comparatively modern times, it is largely due to the pleasure able sensations resulting from this form of bath that the various nations of the world have not neglected those principles of cleanliness upon which the good health of a people so vitally depends.