The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-20 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Stn,—It seems probable, though not desirable, that in-
discriminative eulogy of the " TURKISH BATH" may lead
to bad results. Few violent sanitary agents of this kind
require so much caution in their use, as the bath so
called Turkish. It may answer for the latitude of the
Mediterranean or the Levant, but surely it requires
serious attention, in such a London winter as we are
now passing through, of fog and frost, whether it has
all the virtues ascribed to it.
Let us remember that the Turkish bath is admitted to
bo of very doubtful advantage, if not directly mischie-
vous, in all nervous and cerebral diseases. It is equally
dangerous and equally useless in the cure of the class of
cases against which good Mr. Banting has, or has not,
in vain taken up his parable of late, and worked a not
small revolution.

On the other hand, there are certain diseases allied,
so to speak, to dropsies, depending on renal disorders,
or blood poisoning, where the benefit arising from the
Turkish bath is beyond controversy. It is probable that
divers troublesome forms of dropsy, and even diabetes,
have been very much relieved, if not cured, by the
Turkish bath. As to its use in skin diseases, &c., the
subject is not a very inviting one; but the effect there
is also good, as in all cases where the good old water
"packing" has proved of service.
But the reader will say—What is the general average
result, not in disease, but in rude health ? Good well-
meaning reader ! Does he know that six out of ten of the
men he believes to be in rude health would not be insured
in any decent insurance office ? If they have been great
University men at boating matches, their weak point is
soon found ; they have dilated heart, and will bo sure to
grow faint (though in " average" health) in the Turkish
bath.

Again, if theyhave been great smokers of tobacco, though
in so-called rude health, their nervous system is as un-
strung as a shipped mahogany piano after its arrival in its
box of deal in Australia from London. No doubt it is easy
to screw such men up to concert-pitch, but that is exactly
the thing they neglect. They expect the bath to do it all,
which it cannot do. "Average" health, indeed, of our
young men now-a-daysabout or after the age of 86!
What with gout or rheumatism, boat races, 15 or 20 cigars
a-day, gin and bitters, consumption, and other evils from
the use of nervous and other quack remedies ! Average
health, indeed, of men who never seek good medical ad-
vice, but trust to any advertising charlatan or prescribing
chemist to poison and ruin their constitution, who have
been from childhood drugged with physic, who live in ill
ventilated rooms, or are employed at some unhealthy work
where gas, and late hours, and indigestion, absinthe and
bitters, mercury and tobacco, undermine what little strength
they may have had. Average health, indeed, is often no
health at all, when it comes to be inquired into !
In a word, in some constitutions, the Turkish bath acts
in average health in the not ambiguous, but very similar
manner a coup de Boleil would act in Bengal. The condi-
tions are nearly the same. Our hottest summer day in
London is a joke to the baker's oven wasting of the bath,
notwithstanding its kaleidoscope windows, celestial sham-
pooing, snow-white heavenly soap-lathering, delectable
plunge into cold :water, eze.—the thermometer, anywhere
you wish, above or at the temperature for baking muffins.
In constitutions with gout lurking in them, the Turkish
bath may kill or cure, according as the patient is n
or fit
ofecause fit for the
bath or not. Many deaths have occurred .
vi o ent
good health might avoid diseasesoundadvice th ea indiscriminatingnadthst
corpor vi 1 a o
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ofna o
the on e
family ought
and unnaturalorotherphysiceiaxnp.e—riment, in I
am, &c.,
sackville-street, Feb. 17.

CHARLES KIDD, M.D.