Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-27
.SWEAT-BOX IN VOGUE
No Longer Considered a Nov
city in Paris.
HOME TURKISH BATH
OLDEST OF ALL WoRLD-sYsTEMs
OF PREVENTIVE MEDICATION.
Used by American Indians in Treat
ment of Diseases-Relievest the
Body of Many Poisons.
HOME TURKISH BATH

Special Correspondence OF The 01ar.
PARIS, May IA 1905.
What is home without a sweat-box? A
year ago it was a novelty in Paris. Since
then it has made such progress that We are
beginning to think a home is not up TO
date without it-not in line with Pastenr
Institute teaching, not in line with the prac-
tice of the rich, the well-informed and
happy.
With the sweat-box goes the household
douche, or, at a pinch, the tepid tub: and
thanks to the combination monsieur and
madame start their day bright, light and
lively, freed from many poisons of their
bodies making. High-priced specialists
could do no more for them. Indeed. the
high-priced specialists began 1t, and the
vulgariZaton of electricity has done the
rest.
In reality it is the Turkish bath at home,
because the sweat-box is no other than that
oldest OF all world-systems of preventive
medication, practiced universally through
out the period and extent of the ancient
Roman empire. practfced by our North
American Indians who knows how many
centuries before Columbus. Today half the
world counts on it to keep in condition
I. e., Russia and Siberia. Egypt, Turkey,
Persia and surrounding peoples, and great
part of India and China.
The other day one of the younger Pas
teur Institute men declared himself much
edited when I told him how our own In
dams used to take it. The buck would be
out of sorts. bilious, feverish or grippy.
who knows? No matter what, his faithful
squaw would put tight skin tent up near
a stream. On the floor, in its center. she
would set a big bowl full of water. Out
side in fire she would heat stones.
One by one the faithful squaw would drop
the hot stones into the big bowl of water.
Soon the tepee would be filed with steam,
and into it she would then push her
grumpy brave.
Endured It With Stole Calm.
With stole calm, Lo the poor Indian
would sit, suffering and sweating till the
drops rolled in great streams from out
million pores till he gasped and pulled and
could not stand it any longer. and with
terrific yell he would dash out. upset the
tent and throw himself into the stream OF
water Then he would swim out, wrap up
and take a rest.
When he had finished resting he would he
well. At least l told the Pasteur Institute
man so, and he said there We're good rea-
sons why he might be; that it was ire
mendously interesting, and that he was go
ing to tell Metchnikoff. 1 even gave him
reference to it in the Jesuit Relations
from their Canada Indian missions.
He would tell Metchnikoff because Metch-
nikoff is one of the Parisans who takes
his box" every morning for two weeks
then intermits slows down and begins
again. and Metchnikoff is one of the men
who in all the world knows best why ne
does it.
He is the great man of the Pasteur In
stitute. who says that can ought to die
willingly, full of days, around about his
140th year; and that not to live to be 100
years old is kind of assassination by the
perversity of modern conditions. He eats
scarcely any meat, living principally on
Id - los n
uncooked fruit of the microbe-infested
ground. Deploring the possession of
great Intestine, he is nevertheless wise
enough to compromise with it by furnishing
it with plenty of material to keep 1t active.
The great thing. says Metchnikoff, is TO
allow oneself to be as little poisoned as
possible by the 12S,OOO, 900 900 microbes
which the researches of Strassburger show
to swarm in the great intestine d lilly. How
ever hygienically we live, some of their
soluble products will pass into the lymph
and blood; and these are the slow poisons
which bring about hundred Ills, not to
speak Of the scierosis, which is Metchni-
koffs pathological old age which kills
men off at sixty and seventy years.
Why He Drinks Sour Milk.
This is why Metchnisoff drinks sour milk
Cor buttermilk) because the Tactic microbe
is a destroyer of the mcrobe of putrefac-
ton. This is why Metchnikoff goes in for
cell-commonwealth-th Is to say, his body
an unequal struggle against waste matter
the microbe products already mentioned,
and the natural poisons, ptomaines, we de-
velop daily.
l know Parisians who take the sweat-b0X
as a remedy against high living, others as
a remedy against high drinking, others for
nerve-tire or neurasthenia, others to get
thin, others to get plump. others for dys-
pepsia, others for rheumatism and others
for just keeping in condition. These are the
ajority, perhaps; and. really, when You
have once tasted the lightness and physi-
cal gayety resulting from the sweat-box
followed by douche, you will have no diff
Guilty in understanding why they do it.
Turkish bath habtues preserve the Same
cult, because they feel the same lightness
and well-being. The sweat-box-and-douch
Is the same thing. That is to say it is the
simplest thing in the world. It is the In
dian tepee.
1 have seen some very swell sweat boxes
in the past six months, running up in cost
to 200 francs (S240) apiece, set up in work.
ing order your premises: but a perfectly
first-class one can be had for, say, 300
francs $500.
In Paris the best boxes have their heat
ing done by electricity Inside, around the
four walls there are narrow shelves in
which are fixed rows of common electric
light bulbs of 16 candle power each. The
box may have many as fifty such bulbs,
strong that it rolls from You in rivulets.
Beginning the Use Of the Sweat Box.
How quickly do you begin sweating like
this? The whole convenience of the box is
thereto get the thing over without suf-
fering martyrdom, as some folks do in
Turkish baths. 1t varies with persons.
Some sweat naturally with more difficulty
than others. But with all the first sweat
ings are the slow ones How could it be
otherwise If the pores are all stopped up
with grease and dead matter?
In fact, one gets soon to have a perfect
horror of clogged-up pores. Aid with that
comes the habit of sweating easily, until
you fad that you are in a profuse perspira-
ton within three minutes of sitting down
In yhe box. Ten or fifteen minutes of good,
SOLD rivulet sweating is enough; even five
Minutes is good.
One important thing is that every third
lamp each shelf shall be SO wired that.
first, one-third of them all be lighted
simultaneously by turning button Then
the second, then the third.
Thus the heating of the box is graduated.
How many degrees of heat do you need?
You need no thermometer. With little
experience you will find your own body
sufficient thermometer. You get in and
btrJ oP ioI,f hal 1u