The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-03-24
Hot Air BRthina.

Hot Air Bathing.
We publish upon another page an interest
ing account, by DR.. Angel, Of journey he
recently made for the purpose of observing
the administration Of hot air bathing establish
ments in various European countries. His
travels extended from the ruins of an old
Roman bath at Dublin as far as Constanti-
nople, ''girt with purple SEAS" at the opposite
extremity of the Continent, and the articles
shows very conolusively the growing popu-
larity Of the ''hummam" all over the civilized
world. Twenty-Five years ago there was
scarcely good Christian living who would
not have secuted at the idea of 'perspiration
bath" as barbarous and hideously filthy
absurdity. Increasing knowledge, aided,
perhaps, by the glowing accounts by Mr..
Bayard Taylor and other travellers of the
ecstatic pleasures of the Turkish bath,
has effectually changed all this. We
now know that it is an eminently
pleasant and clearly luxury. Physicians, too,
who are something better than quacks,
are now to be found who openly advocate
this form of bathing as one of the most eff
cient, speedy and safe of curative agencies in
those forms of disease which spring chiefly
from imperfect activity of the skin. While,
therefore, we have learned not merely to en-
dure, but to positively like the sensation Of
having our bodies thoroughly purified, the
belief is fast spreading that in the t'hummam''
alone can be found cure for certain mala-
dies-such as govt and rheumatism and
various nervous affections-which, though 80
sadly frequent among us, are almost abso-
lutely unknown in countries where hot air
bathing is the common luxury of rich and
poor.
We have no doubt that the time will come
when hot air baths, instead of being left to pri-
vate enterprise, will be erected in every little
town in the country at the public expense, and
will be conducted upon exactly the same broad
and far-sighted views of the public interest as
have dictated the establishment of free SWIM
ming baths in Boston and New York and other
cities. ga sound mind in sound body
and that the Turkish bath is a valuable means
to this end is admitted on all hands-is clearly
a legitimate boon for the State to secure to its
clUZenS. IL ii very prODaDle, even, tnat not
air baths would prove the most effectual rem
edy for the greatest curse of Anglo-Saxon civ
Observation-Disclosures Men usually drink to
excess, not because they like liquor, but
because ntoxication is the only temporary
cure they know of for certain species of ner-
vous irritation. They have ''the blues" and
they do not know how to get their spirits
up again except by pouring spirits down.
Now, as any experienced Turkish bather
will bear witness, hot air bath is
the surest and pleasantest cure for any
kind Of mental depression however severe.
Under the hands of the shampooer, the bather
gradually feels all his faculties, whether of
body or of intellect, recover tone aud
wholesome vigor, and he energies into the
outside world again in the full enjoyment of
the very highest, perhaps, Of all material
pleasures-the pleasure of consciously healthy
existence. Were this but more widely known
and it is pleasant to see that the Turkish
bath is very speedily becoming one of our
most cherished institutons-we should soon
see about us world of much happier people
than at present