CHAPTER III. Origin of Warm Bathing-Thermal Springs used by the PriestPhysicians Converted into Baths by various nations-Origin of the Hot-Air Bath—Its existence in Greece, &c.—The Early Roman Baths-The Hot-Air Bath adopted from the Greeks -The magnificent Baths of the Roman Emperors-Knowledge of the Bath carried to Britain—Decline and Destruction of the Bath in Rome and Western Europe-Is Preserved in Asia, Africa, &c.—Descriptions of the Baths of the Russians, Fins, Egyptians, Intertropical Africans, Chinese, Japanese, North American Indians, Mexicans, &c., and of the IrishThe universality of the Hot-Air Bath conclusive as to its utility to Mankind. THE Warm, the Vapour, and the Hot-Air Baths were wellknown to the ancients as curative and alleviative agents in the treatment of disease. In his excellent work on the Eastern Bath, Erasmus Wilson says, "The heated rock and the vapourisation of Water would seem to have originated the primitive idea of a hot-air and hot-vapour bath." No doubt, the supposition is well founded; and we may reasonably conclude, as already observed, that hot bathing of every description was first suggested by the thermal springs which are to be found in every quarter of the globe. At what period or among what people the practice of hot bathing first originated it is now impossible to discover; but we know from Homer that the warm bath must have been established among the Greeks more than three thousand years ago, for he alludes to its use in the Greek camp as an established custom, during the Siege of Troy, or 1194 years B.C. Diomed and Ulysses are refreshed by the Bath on returning from a night expedition "Now, from nocturnal sweat and sanguine stain, They cleanse their bodies in the neighbouring main; Their joints they supple with dissolving oil."-Pope. Nestor desires Hecamede to prepare "the strengthening bath" for Machaon: and the "fair-haired handmaids" of Andromache "Heat the brazen urn, The bath preparing for her lord's return." It may be reasonably assumed that, perhaps long anterior to this period, warm bathing was a familiar practice throughout the East; for it is alluded to in the Odyssey as an existing institution in the countries visited by Ulysses. The Phoenicians are represented by Homer to have placed their chief delight in repeated changes of apparel, hot baths, and couches. Ulysses gives a glowing description of the bath prepared for him by the nymphs of Circe "That in the tripod o'er the kindled pile The water pours; the bubbling waters boil; And take the painful sense of toil away."-Pope. In ignorant and credulous ages, it was to be expected that superstitions should readily centre round thermal springs. Heated by an invisible agency, they were regarded, not as natural phenomena, but as manifestations of some special supernatural power, and this feeling the Priest-physicians were prompt enough in turning to their own advantage. Hence such springs came to be considered sacred, as influenced or presided over by some particular divinity; and as people, when labouring under disease, flocked to them in the hope of obtaining relief, invocations were addressed to that divinity, and it followed that temples should be erected beside or enclosing the springs, for the performance of the rites and ceremonies of worship. As a belief in the curative efficacy of thermal waters increased, greater numbers resorted to them; thus the necessity arose for increasing the bathing capacity of the springs,-for collecting and confining the waters in capacious basins, so as to be always ready for use; and hence the origin of artificial baths, the ruins of many of which that were celebrated in ancient times still exist. The Greeks were most probably the first who converted their thermal springs into capacious baths. They had several that were early famous for the cures ascribed to them; and as the prevailing feeling-so carefully cultivated by their Priestphysicians-was to attribute all bodily infirmities to the malign influence of some divinity, so for their relief they sought the direct interposition of supernatural power; hence all their thermal springs were dedicated to some fabulous god, principally to Hercules as the god of strength. The Romans, who appropriated from the Greeks in arts, customs, and superstitions, in like manner consecrated their thermal springs to some favorite deity, and their Priest-physicians introduced a ritual to be observed in making use of the waters. Hence, when any benefit was derived, or cures effected, the priests encountered no difficulty in persuading ignorant and superstitious votaries that the alleviations experienced were entirely owing to the beneficent interposition of the particular deity under whose protection the waters had been placed by the solemn rites of consecration. The Jews also had thermal Baths, renowned for the curative virtues they were believed to possess. Josephus mentions the warm baths at Emmaus, famous "for the recovery of the health of the body," near which the Emperor Tiberius built a city, and called it Tiberias.* Although the site of that city is now only discernible by the extent of its ruins, the Baths still exist about a mile south of the present town, and retain in popular estimation all their ancient virtues.† * Life, § 16; Antiquities, lib. xviii., c. 2., § 3. Volney's Travels, &c., vol. ii., p. 230; Clarke's Travels, &c., vol. iv., p. 217. In his graphic account of the last illness of Herod, it is related by Josephus that "he sent for physicians, and did not refuse to follow what they prescribed for his assistance; and went beyond the River Jordan, and bathed himself in warm baths that were at Callirhoë, which, besides their other general virtues, were also fit to drink, which water runs into the lake called Aspaltitis." And he also relates that "the physicians thought proper to bathe his whole body in warm oil, by letting it down into a large vessel full of oil"-Antiq., b. xvii., c.. vii., § 5. Commander Lynch, of the United States Expedition to explore the Jordan and Dead Sea, says he "stopped for the night in a cove formed by the Zerka Main, the outlet of the hot springs of Callirhoë. The stream, twelve feet wide and ten inches deep, rushes with great velocity into the sea. The temperature of the stream, 95°. It was a little sulphurous to the taste. The current was so strong that, while bathing, I could not, with my feet against a rock, keep from being carried down the stream; and walking where it was but two feet deep, with difficulty retained a foothold with my shoes off."Narrative, &c., chap. xvi. He also visited the baths at Emmaus. Ibrahim Pasha, he states, when Syria was in possession of the Egyptians, caused the baths to be re-fitted up, but they are again falling into decay. The Romans when they possessed the country erected spacious baths at these hot springs. Tristram, who visited several of them in 1863-4, says in his Land of Israel :— "I had been anxious to visit the hot sulphurous springs, of which no less than nine occur in the gorge of the Yarmuck, chiefly on its north side, and similar in character of the water to the hot baths of Tiberias." "One of the springs was in a ruined circular basin; and close behind it were the traces of Roman buildings, doubtless ancient baths, but no vestige of a town. I was told by my guide that lower down there is a much finer fountain, with the vaulted baths still remaining. the baths of Amatha mentioned by Eusebius."—P. 458. These are Tournefort, in his Voyage to the Levant in 1700-3, says:— "Two miles from Prusa, and one from the New Baths, in the road from Smyrna to the city of Cechrige, are the ancient Baths of Cap liza, which the Turks call Eski-Capliza. The waters of Old Capliza are very hot. And though this building be much like that of the New Baths, and by consequence not old, it is very probable that these are the Royal Hot Waters used by the ancient Greeks in the flourishing time of that empire, which are mentioned by Constantine and Stephen of Byzantium. Mahomet caused them to be repaired and put into the condition in which they now are." He also visited the baths of which, he thinks, Strabo speaks in his description of the places which lie between Clazomene and Smyrna, and he there found the remains of a temple of Apollo, adjoining the hot springs. Dr. Chandler, who visited these baths in 1765, says: "You descend by steps to the bath, which is under a modern vaulted roof, with vents in it for the steam, and adjoining to this is a like room, now disused. The current, which is soft and limpid, is conveyed into a small round basin of marble, and runs over into a larger cistern or reservoir beneath it. Our thermometer rose in the vein to 150. Near it is a duct, which supplies a cold stream, but in January, when I saw it, it was dry. A quantity of coagulated blood lay on the pavement. I was informed a sheep had been killed above, and that substance used instead of soap in shaving, which operation is often performed in the baths."-Chandler's Travels in Asia Minor, &c., chap. xxiii. The same author says of the hot spring of Alexander Troas, that: "It is reckoned very efficacious in the rheumatism, the leprosy, and all cutaneous disorders. They first scour the skin by rolling in the bed of the river, which is a fine sand, and full of holes or cavities, like graves, made for the body. By each enclosure is a shed where they sleep after bathing.” -Chap. xi. And of Hierapolis, he says: "The springs flow so copiously, that the city is full of spontaneous baths, and Apollo, the tutelary deity of the Hierapolitans, with Esculapius and Hygiea on their medals, bear witness to the medicinal virtues they possess. The pool before the theatre has been a bath, and marble fragments are visible at the bottom of the water, which is perfectly transparent."-Chap. lxviii. Throughout the East, indeed, there are everywhere to be found the ruins of Thermal Baths, famous in ancient times, and in some instances the ancient sites are still occupied by modern structures erected by the Turks. But the natural course of |