The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-06 00:00:00

KIDDERMINSTER.

The borough of Kidderminster has a new candi-
date in the person of Mr. Albert Grant, who is
prepared to contest the seat against Colonel White.
Mr. Grant professes Liberal-Conservative principles,
and in his address states at length his views on the
important topics of the day. His financial and com-
mercial abilities have been tested in his capacity as
managing director of a successful company, and his
general talents fully entitle him to a seat in the
House of Commons.

A. Medical Tribute to The Hammam,
76, JEEMYN-STREET, ST. JAMES'S.

" And, 0 if there be an Elysium on Earth—
It is this ! It is this ! "—Moore's Lulla Itooke.

[From the newly-published number (July, 1865)
of The Journal of Mental Science (Churchill and
Sons), we extract the following fragments selected
by us from an admirable paper upon the Turkish
Bath, evidently penned by a professional contri-
butor, as he is dispassionate and enlightened.—ED.
Stet.]

The introduction of the Turkish bath into England has
unquestionably been one of the greatest events of this cen-
tury. As Admiral Rous says, " A new era has arisen."
We need some modern Agrippa to second the efforts of Mr.
Urquhart, and stud the town with these peerless temples of
health and comfort. It is no easy matter, however, to make
a practical assault upon the hereditary beliefs of a self-
satisfied people, by proposing to them an institution which
has only found a permanent home among a nation which
Englishmen despise, at whose effeminacy they shrug their
shoulders, and whose religious creed they regard with ab-
horrence.

It is curious that the application of caloric to the human
system by moans of the hot-air bath was neither used by
the Romans nor the Turks as an agencyin the treatment of
disease. It was simply a luxury, felt to be a necessity of
being, and so universally resorted to that sickness was
comparatively unknown. If its effect' was in any way cu-
rative, that effect was produced unconsciously. "For the
first time now, and in consequence of what has been done
in England, the bath is dealt with in Turkey as a medical
agent, as appears by a series of articles which has appeared
in the Turkise Medical Gazette." And this is probably due
to the circumstance that the bath is gradually falling into
disuse among the subjects of the Sultan. The bath ceasing
to be a national custom, disease isbecoming more a national
visitation.

It is worthy of observation, as indicating how clearly the
use of heat has been an instinct, that the hot-air bath is
not known in regions where the temperature is so high as
not to make it necessary. In other words, the ordinary
atmospheric condition is a perpetual hot-air bath in the
torrid zone, and the skin is exposed to the healthy influ-
ence of light and heat. The common belief that the
Turkish bath is of Eastern origin is, like most popular be-
liefs, a fallacy. It was introduced into Arabia from Greece,
and Mahomet strove to put it down as effeminate and im-
pure. lie coupled it (says Mr. Urquhart) with the grave-
yard, saying, "In these two I have no part." But in Wes-
tern countries, where the body has been artificially covered
up, the bath appears to have been almost universally a
primmval institution:
" The whole of the north of Europe possesses it in one
shape or another. The Red Indians of America have it ;
the Swedes have it ; the Russians have it ; the Fins have
it ; the Tartars, the Persians have it ; the Celtic races pos-
sess the remnants of it in the Irish sweating houses ;
the Gothic races originally had it too. But when you come
down to the South it is no longer to be found."
The use of the bath, however, died out among the na-
tions of the West. Greece now knows it not ; when the
Romans began to decline they too lost it, although Agrippa
alone had built more than one hundred and fifty bath-
houses iu the capital, and there was once no Roman camp
without abundant provision for the daily bathing of the
soldiers in garrison. Mr. Urquhart is of opinion that the
bath is now dying out in Turkey, where it has been pre-
served in sloppy impurity until the present day. Shall it
find a permanent home, under more improved conditions,
in a soagirt island where the Romans themselves have left
so many monuments of their greatness, where the climate
is as variable (though not more so) as that of Turkey,
where the inhabitants are prone alike to the diseases of
luxurious indolence and grinding poverty ?
Now let us inquire what are the great purposes to which
the bath is subservient, and what are likely to be its•effects
when permanently established and generally utilised
amongst us.
In the first place, the bath, properly understood, and used
with the precaution arising from its being understood, is
one of the best preservatives against disease. It antici-
pates evil. " Comme agent ptiventif, je ne crois pas
qu aucun attire puisse tsgaler le bain turc judicieusement
dirige." And in this crowding, pressing, business-like age
of ours, when men will not find time for exercise, save at
uncertain periods ; when day by day are accumulated from
excessive good living the poisons which afterwards mani-
fest themselves in dyspepsia and gout, it is hardly possible
to over estimate the value of a process by which alone man
is taught the true "dignity of the skin." Look at the
shoals of "City men" who pour into London every morn-
ing by rail and omnibus and steamer, and leave again in
the evening, utterly worn by the fatigues of the day.
What is their daily round ? Out of bed early, of necessity,
though tired and sleepy ; a cold sponge-bath—capital in
its way, but not a true bath ; meat breakfast—rush to rail
or omnibus—whirl up. to Babylon; letters to write, busi-
ness of various kinds to transact. Between ono and two
o'clock a sensation of exhaustion, met by a hot lunch—in
many cases a real and heavy dinner, with ale and stout,
two or three glasses of sherry, and then again to business.
At five or six o'clock there is a great exodus. Back again
to their country residences go our mercantile community ;
many arms are opened to embrace the well-fed citizens,
and many choice dishes (a second dinner) tempt them to
an indulgence of a most prejudicial kind. Perhaps on a
Saturday our younger friends get a row on the river or a
game at cricket—the elder ones a stroll with their wives
and children. Our citizens grow fat and flourishing, but
they are laying up for themselves the seeds of disease.
There has been no real outlet ; there has been no real eli-
mination from a system unduly plied with stimulants and
with food. If some discreet person suggests a Turkish
bath, the answer may be, " Oh ! I've no time ;" or, "Baths
don't suit me-1 get enough taken out of me in the City ;"
or, "I'm afraid of catching cold ;" or, "I'm subject to
rushes of blood to the head ;" or, " Disease of the heart is
in my family ;" and excuses of a similar nature.
Now set aside your prejudices and give the bath a fair
trial. If not a new man after the first, you shall at least
be so after your second and third. Your skin will be
brought into action in a manner which will astound you ;
and those who have analysed the sweat of first bathers
will tell you how much more charged it is with impurity
than that which exudes from the pores of a well-educated
dermal surface. Your body will be " ventilated" for the
first time in life ; its millions of pores shall stand with open
doors and oxygenate all your frame ; and when the pro-
cess has been completed by shampooing and the cold
plunge, you will experience what D'Ohssou happily phrases
thus :—" Un calmo et un bien-titre difficiles it exprimer—
une sorte de regeneration, dont to charms est encore aug-
mente par des boissons restaurantos, et surtout par un cafe
exquis."

We have much pleasure in announcing that Mr.
James Caird will succeed the late Mr. Wingrove Cooke as
Commissioner of Enclosures. This appointment of course
vacates Mr. Caird's seat in Parliament.

His Royal Highness Prince Arthur, accompanied
by the Dean of Westminster and Lady Augusta Stanley,
and attended by his Gentlemen-in-Waiting, visited the
French and I'leeaish Gallery, 120, yeetorday.