Bather

“ I have been talking in the bath, and talking is of doubtful propriety; the demeanour of the bather while in the bath must be tranquil, composed, calm; he must give himself up to the dissolving process without exertion of muscle or mind; he may rub his skin gently; he may talk gently, sententiously, like a Turk, but he must not allow himself to become animated, and above all, he must not be vociferous. The bath is a practice intended for the body's health, and therefore deserves all our consideration and respect. ”

“ It is no slight recommendation of the Soap-bath, that while being an absolute luxury both for the feeble and robust, it cannot be resorted to as a mere indolent indulgence: the lungs and muscles are called into full action, a moderate though pleasant shock is encountered, and the bather has the satisfaction of knowing that all the pleasure and advantages gained are actually earned. ”

“ Bathing is, of course, the centre round which existence revolves. Half-a-dozen small baths, fitted with hot and cold water, that the temperature may be modified to suit each bather, enable the stranger to bathe in the solitude he prefers. ”

“ The bather, having undressed in the outer room, and retaining nothing but a piece,of loose cloth round his waist, is conducted by the proper attendant into the hall of the bath: a large white sheet is then spread on the floor, on which the bather extend himself. The attendant brings from the cistern, which is warmed from a boiler below, a succession of pails full of water, which he continues to pour over the bather till he is well drenched and heated. ”

“ In slight colds the bath may be continued, but in the rare case of an extremely violent one, or affection of the throat, the bather, however much against his will, must perforce give it up for a time. ”

“ It is highly unadvisable to be leisurely over this part of the bath, however one may dawdle in dressing: the coldness of the water would gain upon the warmth of the body, but without waiting for this, the bather at once quits the cold bath, and proceeds to make ample use of dry towels. ”

“ The bather in those waters habitually provides himself with a long keen blade, which, when he finds himself encountered by one of these monsters, he elevates above his head in his extended right hand. ”

“ The bather should apply the soap and water to her own skin, and that she may use it freely and in her own comfortable bedroom, the bath-mat, which I have described, is indispensable. It never wears out, gives no care, and is on the whole, a most happy device. ”

“ In my experience it has rarely happened that a novitiate has felt any inconvenience on his first entrance into the bath. The practised bather is never disturbed from the beginning to the end of the process. But the beginner may, after the first quarter of an hour, or when the perspiration is coming forth in abundance, feel a little oppression, sometimes a little faintness, and sometimes a little increased action of the heart. Whenever this is the case he should step out of the Calidarium ”

“ The bather should rub his limbs and the front portion of his body while the attendant pours water over his chest and shoulders, and rubs vigorously his back and sides. A person can take the bath very well alone by using a rather long coarse towel which can be drawn back and forth across the back by grasping one end with each hand. ”

“ He next has a shower or douche of cold water, which effects the closure of the gaping pores, and is extremely refreshing. He then envelopes his body in a cotton mantle or sheet, and retiring to a cool room, to which the external air is freely admitted, he sits or reclines, remaining as impassive as possible, until the skin is thoroughly dried, and feels smooth and satiny in every part. The bather then resumes his usual dress, and the process is complete. ”

“ I have shown, in an illustration at p. 78, how the bath may be used for the removal of fatigue, of hunger, the cobwebs of the brain; and how it may be made to fortify the powers of the muscular system and of digestion.
The practised bather will know when to cease the bath, without reference to other authority than his own sensations and experience. The weak and the strong must be equally guided by their powers of endurance, and all must be influenced to a greater or less extent by the thermometer. ”

“ It must, however, never be lost sight of that these unpleasantnesses are absolutely under the control of the bather, and never arise except with the very ignorant or very foolish: speedy reaction must be attained and can invariably be secured, even by the most feeble, provided the unpardonable and suicidal sin of too long a stay in the cold water be avoided. ”

“ The feeling after quitting the Calidarium is one of defiance of cold; the bather has a longing for the cool air of the [117] outer world, and with no other covering than his cotton mantle, a lawn or a terrace would be his chosen resort if the opportunity were within his reach. In the hands of Mr. Urquhart, the bath has presented us with one remarkable instance of the power of endurance of the skin developed by its aid. A fine, athletic child of five years old has been brought up in the bath, and has never worn other clothes than a loose linen garment. ”

“ The bather who wants to enjoy a violent sweating rests full length for a few minutes on each step, while an attendant administers several hearty strokes of a stinging besom. Sometimes a woman climbs too far, and is brought down in a faint. ”

“ Everywhere are chairs and small tables for reading or gaming while in the bath. The bather may empty and fill the bath as often as he likes, and will find a chamber adjoining. There are fine walks along the river, besides artificial ones under galleries. These baths are placed in a valley commanded by the slopes of high mountains, which nevertheless are fertile and well cultivated. ”

“ All the air appears to be travelling along the top of the bath, and the bather reclining on the marble-topped benches would seem to be bathed in air that has passed along the top of the bath, round the shampooing rooms, and back along the floor. ”

“ He lays the bather on his back or face, and pins him to the ground by kneeling heavily on him; and having thus secured him, he handles him in the rudest and most painful manner: he twists and turns the limbs, so as to seem to dislocate every joint. ”

“ The cold water slowly but surely absorbs and extracts the vital heat; if the bath be unduly prolonged, chilliness, shivering, numbness, and exhaustion follow, and although the unpleasant symptoms will probably shortly disappear, the bather will have lost rather than gained in point of health. ”

“ Perhaps the most serviceable bath is a common flat bedroom bath, sunk into a cavity in the ground, and removable at will. A pretty tall block or for short-winged hawks a bow-perch, should be placed near the bath, so that the bather, having finished her ablutions may at once jump on to it. ”

“ It is a curious, but at the same time an obvious fact, with regard to perspiration, that it depends very materially on the habit and training of the skin. The beginner in the use of the bath perspires slowly, languidly, partially, incompletely, while the accustomed bather is known by the freedom of his perspiration. The apprentice-hand has no thirst in the bath, for a small portion only of the excess of watery fluid is abstracted from his tissues and from his blood. ”

“ It is advisable, however, for those who have not long hair, to bathe in plain linen caps, so as to admit the water without the sand or grit, and thus the bather, unless prohibited on account of health, enjoys all the benefit of the shock without injuring the hair. ”

“ Bathers would like a large pool or tank where, by a system of planks fastened to a central post, two bathers could go alternately up and down, one being in the water while the other was in the air, an arrangement like the see-saw which children are so fond of. It should have sufficient capacity to accommodate a number of bathers at once, and should be as near as possible to the sea, so as to be available by persons in bathing suits, who have already had a salt bath. ”

“ It is the chilliest hour of the twenty-four, and when we were wrapping our sheet or blanket more closely around us, we could hear the plunges and splashings of these early bathers. Rain or wind is all alike to them: their morning bath is never dispensed with. ”

“ On ancient vases, on which persons are represented bathing, we never find any thing corresponding to a modern bath, in which persons can stand or sit; but there is always a round or oval basin (loutēr or loutērion) , resting on a stand, by the side of which those who are bathing are represented standing undressed and washing themselves, as seen in the following wood-cut, taken from Sir. W. Hamilton’s vases.” [89] The vessels used by the Greeks in bathing were, (1) the asaminthos, in which, sometimes, the bather sat, while the water was poured over him, as we have seen in the bath of Ulysses ”

“ There are bathers who prefer a Shower-bath, and, to those able to stand it, nothing can be more agreeable and refreshing, but it may be safely questioned whether a Shower-bath taken on a cold wintry morning, with the water all but freezing, can possibly prove salutary even to the most robust. ”

“ You sit down at the edge of the water and you watch the bathers. The women come down, wrapped in long bath robes, which they throw off daintily when they reach the foamy edge of the rippling waves; and they run into the water with a rapid little step, stopping from time to time for a delightful little thrill from the cold water, a short gasp.
“Very few stand the test of the bath. It is there that they can be judged, from the ankle to the throat. ”

“ Bathers come out of their dressing-houses wrapped in short white sheets, which they deposit on the stones, taking an air-bath for some minutes before entering the water. Like everything in France, the bathing is excellently managed, and you feel the firm hand of a paternal and overlooking government the moment you issue from your hut. The Government will on no consideration consent to your being rash. There are six or eight worthy old sons of Neptune on the beach—perfect amphibious creatures—who, if you are a new-comer, immediately accost you and demand pledges that you know how to swim. ”

“ Enclosing the bath all round the four sides are six steps, the sixth landing the bather on the Schola, or platform. The riser of the bottom steps varies in depth from 15in. to 11in., with a tread of 14in., the next riser is 14in. with a tread of 11in., as also is the next step and the one following. The step above has a rise of 12in., and a tread of 14in. This step was scarcely covered with water, but it is evident the water flowed over it when bathers agitated it. The riser or the step above, 10in. ”

“ The most rational thing to do—when a person is hot—is to devise some means of getting one’s-self cool. And among the various devices commonly practised to produce this effect, that of bathing is said to be a very good one.
Many, therefore were the “bathers” that dropped over the ship’s sides to take a “salt-water cure” for heat, and among the bathers was Edwin. A sail had been let down with a large “bulge” in it from the main and mizen-yard, and on this, which had about the depth of six feet of water in its lowest part, the young middies and some of the passengers found a very pleasant bath. ”

“ But to have the water poured over us by several people is an outrage on our neighbours, through fondness for luxuriousness, and is done by those who will not understand that the bath is common to all the bathers equally. ”

“ I noticed in the water two black-clothed individuals, whose only business seemed to be to exercise those ladies and children who did not swim, so that they might not catch cold; to give lessons to beginners in the noble art of swimming, and to have an eye to the safety of the bathers generally. When the bath is over, the well-cared-for person is well wrapped up and hurried to the cabin, where a hot foot-bath is in readiness ”

“ Many bathers by remaining a long time in the water do themselves great injury. If sea bathing be found to be invigorating—and how often to the delicate it has proved to be truly magical—a patient may bathe once every day, but on no account oftener. ”

“ The shampooers spend eight hours daily in the steam; they undergo great labour there, shampooing, perhaps, a dozen persons, and are remarkably healthy. They enter the bath at eight years of age: the duties of the younger portion are light, and chiefly outside in the hall to which the bathers retire after the bath; still, there they are from that tender age exposed to the steam and heat, so as to have their strength broken, if the bath were debilitating. ”

“ Non-bathers often express an alarm lest the bath may be weakening. But the bath strengthens, it never weakens, except, as in the instances above narrated, it be used improperly. The idea of weakening is suggested by the loss of fluids by perspiration ”

“ The bath-house is very high, and terminated by a dome, in which a circular opening is contrived to light the whole interior. The stoves and baths are handsome, and very clean. When the bathers come out of the water, they seat themselves on small hurdles of thin osiers, dry themselves, and comb their beards. ”

“ At each side of the bath there is a large dressing-room, one for the men, the other for the women. Around the bath runs a gallery, where the friends or acquaintances of the bathers can assemble, and enter into conversation with them. ”

“ The authorities are very watchful of the bathers, for the undertow at times is very strong. Scattered along the beach one will at all times see men in bathing-costumes bearing coils of rope, who are ever on the alert. ”

“ Having threaded your way through these, and avoided a quadrille party on the one hand, and an excellent fat couple, reminding you of the picture of Mr. and Mrs. Bubb in the one-horse “chay,” who are bathing their family on the other, you address yourself to swimming. As you descended from the Digue you read, “Bathers are expressly recommended to hold themselves at least fifteen yards from the breakers by buoys designed.” ”