The Roman bath : a few remarks showing the reason why it is to be preferred to the Turkish bath for the use of the English public, in consequence of the economy of time in its use, and the ground on which it is recommended to the public as a channel for investment.

Date:
[1861]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Roman bath : a few remarks showing the reason why it is to be preferred to the Turkish bath for the use of the English public, in consequence of the economy of time in its use, and the ground on which it is recommended to the public as a channel for investment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the Romans which have not been retained by the Turks, but in which the Englishman takes peculiar delight. The so-called Turkish Baths at present existing in the metropolis have been repudiated by the heads of the movement as conveying no idea of the luxury and refinement of the real Eastern Bath. I should be equally sorry, with one exception,* to take them as any sort of model of what the Roman Bath should he \ but I gather from the practice which obtains in them that the principle on which they are constructed is much more closely allied to the ancient Roman Bath than to the modern Turkish, and apart from the question of convenience and elegance, and the absence of a Plunge Bath, I do not find them unfavourable to the English constitution. I allude to the condition of the air which, in all I have yet visited is dry, in contradistinction to the Baths at Constantinople, the air of which is saturated with moisture. So also is the Russian Bath, and we might with as much reason take this latter with its heated air, more or less moist, and getting rid of the moisture, retain the name, as we do in taking’ the Turkish Bath, chang-ing its peculiarity in respect to vapour, and still call it Turkish. Now, in respect to the quality of the air, what has Dr. Barter done in all the Baths he has erected ? He supplies fresh hot air with a small fountain in the tepidarium just sufficient to prevent the air in that department from becoming too arid; but this is very far removed from the “ air moistened with a thin vapour,” which * The Roman Bath, Newton Road, Westbourne Grove, W.