Hammam

“ Scarcely less popular as an amusement and mode of passing the time is the bath, or hammám,—a favourite resort of both men and women of all classes among the Muslims who can afford the trifling expense which it requires ”

“ Devotions, the toilet and bathing occupy much of the women's time. They are very fond of the hot vapour bath and the heated chambers, and some of them will spend the greater part of the day at the hammam. ”

“ The women who can afford to do so visit the hammám frequently; but not so often as the men. When the bath is not hired for the females of one family, or for one party of ladies, exclusively, women of all conditions are admitted. ”

“ Vapor baths are in common use with the Crees, and form one of the chief remedies of their medicine-men. The operator shuts himself up with his patient in the small sweating-house—in which red-hot stones besprinkled with water, and having a few leaves of a species of prunus strewed around them, produce a damp atmosphere of a stifling heat—and shampoos him, singing all the time a kind of hymn. As long as the medicine-man can hold out, so long must the patient endure the intense heat of the bath, and then, if the invalid be able to move, they both plunge into the river. ”

“ Take a Turkish bath, or the whole body should be stripped and immediately wrapped in a sheet wrung out of cold water, but not so as to get rid of all the water; then, rolling the patient in a thick blanket, inclosing the arms, like a mummy, he is placed beneath a feather bed, covering all up to the chin. In a quarter of an hour or so reaction comes on, and a most profuse perspiration breaks out over the whole body. When the sweating has continued from an hour to an hour and a half, everything should be taken off, and cold water poured over the whole body by means of a shower bath ”

“ Hot-air and Vapour Baths, Turkish Baths, &c.—The Lancet expresses a strong objection to that form of bath which involves the patient being in an erect or sitting posture, where the bath is used to produce perspiration; it is always possible that some amount of faintness or giddiness may be experienced by the bather even when the blanket or tent-shaped envelope is so effectively applied as to prevent the fumes rising to the mouth and being inspired. It is always far better, and ought to be a rule, that the patient should be in the recumbent position. ”

“ I will turn to the more agreeable subject—the operation of the bath, which is quite luxurious. The sensation experienced on first entering the hottest chamber is almost overpowering—the heat is extremely oppressive; and at first I believed that I could not long support such a temperature; but after the first minute, I was relieved by a gentle, and afterwards by a profuse perspiration, and no longer felt in any degree oppressed. It is always necessary for each lady to send her own bathing-linen, a pair of high clogs, a large copper vessel for hot water, two copper bowls, and towels. ”

“ In order to take the bath, the water must not be entered at once. The skin must first be moistened with a towel or sponge soaked in the warm water; the hands, feet, armpits and breast. The hair must be allowed to float unfettered (this is for the natives and for women) and a hishaku (dipper) should be used to pour water over the knees, shoulders and head. Only after this preparation should the bath be entered. It is not well to remain too long immersed. If this is done the blood mounts to the head, the lungs become congested, vertigo ensues and consciousness is lost. ”

“ I like hot baths and spend a good deal of time in the Turkish bath at my club. After steaming myself for half an hour and taking a cold plunge, an alcohol rub and a cocktail, I feel younger than ever; but the sight of my fellow men in the bath revolts me. Almost without exception they have flabby, pendulous stomachs out of all proportion to the rest of their bodies. Most of them are bald and their feet are excessively ugly, so that, as they lie stretched out on glass slabs to be rubbed down with salt and scrubbed, they appear to be deformed. I speak now of the men of my age. ”

“ There is no question that these baths are effective in this direction, though it may be said that they are only a poor substitute for daily exercise as a blood-purifying measure. The man who neglects his requirements in the way of physical activity may strive to make up for it by a Turkish bath, but cannot get the same results, although it is true he can accomplish a great deal in this way. The great objection to Turkish and Russian bath establishments is to be found in the unsatisfactory ventilation usual in such places. ”

“ The bath itself (inner chamber) is a spacious vaulted chamber, paved and lined with marble; beside it are four small rooms: a vapour continually rises from a fountain and cistern of hot water, with which the burnt perfumes mingle."
His notice of the process of shampooing differs somewhat from that of others:—"A gentle moisture diffuses itself over the body; a servant comes, gently presses and turns the bather, and when the limbs are flexible, makes the joints crack without trouble, then masses (touches lightly) , and seems to knead the body without giving the slightest sensation of pain. ”

“ And the Bath strengthens and tones the nervous system far more than any tonic we wot of, moreover its constant use makes the work which the liver and spleen have to perform, mere play, so to speak; and if the Bath invigorates muscle—and we know it does—it must act as a roborant or tonic to the heart itself, which is composed for the most part of muscular tissues.
Many people produce a species of irritable indigestion, by the use of stimulants, for this the Anglo-Turkish bath is an almost certain cure, as it relieves internal congestions, steadies the nerves and produces refreshing sleep. ”

“ The treatment must have regard to the general health of the patient. The mode of life must be regulated. A change of scene, if it can be procured, is often of the greatest benefit. Baths are also very useful. They may be taken in the form of a 'sponge bath,' or 'hip bath.' If the former be preferred, the patient should every morning, in a warm room, sponge the whole body, at first with tepid water and, after a time, with cold, the skin being well dried and rubbed with a coarse towel. The hip-bath may be employed either of simple, or of salt, or of medicated water. ”

“ The purity or foulness of the air in the hot rooms forms all the difference between a good bath and a bad one, which latter is infinitely worse than no bath at all. There exist, at the present time, scores of baths where the odours of the sudatory chambers are nauseating. Such foulness arises from stagnation of the air. There is no continuous flow, and the respirations and exhalations of the bathers are not removed. A system of ventilation may be pointed out, but it is on the wrong principle, and does not act. There is no change of air. The atmosphere of such places becomes pestilential. ”

“ In the numerous cases arising from sudden changes in the temperature of the body, a copious perspiration, which a stay of more or less duration in the Calidarium is sure to occasion, does, in the great majority of cases, restore the body to the equilibrium of health. After over-exertion, again, the bath is had recourse to. In short, it is looked upon so much in the light of a panacea by the lower orders, that they hardly ever dream of consulting a physician when taken unwell. If the bath fail to cure them, nothing else will succeed. ”

“ The spa doctors candidly allow that the waters of Aix, “if taken too hot and in quantities too large, may produce irritation, and even purgation. But the latter is not a very common effect of these waters. In small doses they are favourable to digestion; and, taken in moderation, they are not calculated to weaken.” As baths, these waters act on the surface, and, by sympathy, on the internal organs, exciting the nervous, secreting, and circulating organs. The temperature of the blood (98°) is considered the best for the bath. “If taken at a higher degree, or too often, they are dangerous.” ”

“ When the fingers are drawn forcibly over the skin of the practised bather, the white streaks caused by the pressure are instantly restored to their pink hue when the pressure is relaxed; the sanguineous stream seems to follow the pressure like a surge and instantly obliterates its effects; and the skin recoils with a snap like India-rubber when it is pulled away from the body and suddenly released. In the bath there are no wrinkles and no decrepit age; the skin becomes firm and elastic ”

“ A true hydropathic establishment of any size should be provided with two Turkish baths, one for ladies and one for gentlemen, as the power and efficiency of the treatment may depend upon the regularity and persistency with which it is carried out. Where there is only one bath, it has to be set apart on different days for the use of ladies and gentlemen, and it is evident that the benefit of a course of baths may be greatly lessened by the occasional unreadiness of the bath. ”

“ The cold bath, when too long continued, not only occasions an excessive flux towards the head, but chills the blood, cramps the muscles, relaxes the nerves, and wholly defeats the intention of bathing; hence expert swimmers are often injured, and sometimes lose their lives. All the beneficial purposes of cold bathing are answered by one immersion at a time, and the patient ought to be rubbed dry the moment he comes out of the water, and should continue to take exercise some time after. ”

“ The heating chamber for the bath adjoins it, and on a cloudy day we turn in steam to take the place of the sun's warmth. Next comes a roomy and cheerful undressing room for the bath, from which you pass into a cool chamber containing a large and shady swimming bath. If you prefer more room or warmer water to swim in, there is a pond in the court with a well adjoining it, from which you can make the water colder when you are tired of the warm. Adjoining the cold bath is one of medium warmth, for the sun shines lavishly upon it, but not so much as upon the hot bath which is built farther out. ”

“ Hot baths are weakening and relaxing, hence weak people should not stay long in the hot bath. Cold baths are stimulating to strong people and depressing to those who do not react well from them. Swimming is far different from taking a cold bath. A person who can swim with benefit and comfort for twenty minutes would have a chill, perhaps, if he remained for five minutes in the bath tub in water of the same temperature. Swimming is such an active exercise that it aids the circulation, keeping the blood pretty well to the surface in spite of the chilling effect of the water. ”

“ During the operation of a Turkish bath, the novice is often astonished at the amount of effete matter eliminated from the pores of the skin. "A surprising quantity of scarfskin, which no washing could remove, peels off, especially if a glove of camel's-hair or goat's-hair be used, as they are in the East, where also the soles of the feet are scraped with pumice. The deposit of this skin of only a week's date, when collected, is often as large as one's fist. Much more solid matter is contained in the perspiration of those who take the bath for the first time, or after a long interval. ”

“ 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 ”

“ For the relief of, spasm, the hot bath stands first among our external and simpler remedies; but miserable and wretched indeed is the hot bath by the side of the Turkish Bath. In the hot bath it is a perpetual struggle to keep your balance in the water, to keep the head from going down and the feet from coming up; the head is kept above the water in a temperature different from that of the body, the neck feels cold and damp ”

“ It is when the perspiration commences to flow in abundance, that the beginner in the use of the bath, or the owner of a susceptible constitution, becomes aware of an increase of rapidity of the heart's pulsations; and this sensation is commonly associated with a feeling of oppression, something approaching to faintness. On the first hint of this sensation, the bather should retire to the Tepidarium or to the Frigidarium, and sit there for a few minutes, or until the sensation has ceased ”

“ If we walk fast, or a long distance, to the bath, it is requisite to repose a little to tranquillise the lungs; then before perspiration ceases, we ought to undress quietly, and either plunge head foremost into the water, or wet the head and chest previously, to prevent the blood mounting to those regions.
Whilst bathing, the head ought to be immersed several times. After the sweating or packing process, great care is to be observed in not exposing any part of the body to the air previous to entering the bath. The patient should keep in movement, rubbing himself well the whole time. ”

“ A brisk rubbing should be kept up until the skin is in a good healthy glow. This bath is followed by a feeling of great exhilaration, and it gives a beautiful glow to the face and skin. It removes the tired feeling of the day’s work, and leaves one feeling greatly refreshed for the evening. A daily ablution or a daily shower, with friction, will not cause an undue removal of the oil of the skin. All cold baths, when given in suitable cases, tone up the system to resist disease, and are the best preventives against ordinary colds and sore throat. ”