The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-09-14
FIRST BATH TUB
By CINCINNATI MAN
Was Once Condemned by Medical
Authority. and OutIawed in
Boston

That the bathtub was once gener.
ally condemned by medical authority
in the United States and that all
bathing was pronounced illegal in
Boston by legislative authority, "ex
cept for medicinal purposes" will
probably surprise some who think
that the regulation Of our private
habits has reached its maximum ir
year of 1921, says the Literary Di
gest. Such, however, are the facts
as related by the writer Of '"An Out
line History of Tubing" contribu'
ted to Gas Logic (New York, Au.
gust). According to him, the first
'bathtub to be bssk and used in the
Republic was perpetrated by one
Adam Thompson, of Cincinnati, in
the year 1912. The word "perpetrat.
ed"' is used advisedly, we are
told, for Mr.. Thompson's tub appear.
ed as a serious misdemeanor, if not
a high crime, in the eyes of the
press, the public, the medical profes-
sion and the legislatures of the day.
He goes on:
1--WE have no record that it was
inveighed against by the clergy, but
it was roundly denounced in the pub
lie prints as subversive of democrat
ic simplicity and pioneer hardihood.
The good DOCTORS avered that so
luxurious a form of bathing, prae-
ticed in winter, would lead to
'phthisis, rheumatic fevers, infam-
nation Of the lungs, and the whole
category of, zymotic Diseases To
prevent any such disaster, the Com
mon Council of Philadelphia con-
sidered but failed to pass by mar
gin Of two votes, a measure making
bathing illegal between November 1
and March Is. Virginia by legisla-
tice action laid a tax Of $50 on all
bathtubs, while Boston went to the
whole hog by making bathing unlaw-
lawful save on the advice of a physi-
cian. Be it said in extenuation Of the
hygienic condition of the Bostonese
that the ordinance was never en-.
forced and that in 1852 it was re-.
pealed.
president Fillmore braved the
shafts of ridicule of 1851 and had a
bathtub installed in the White House
and report says that this action so
far destroyed the prejudice that by
1880 every hotel in New York had a
bathtub, and some Of them two or
three, fact which must have to
some extent lessened the Saturday
night congestion in these latter hos
telric. During the sixty years since
this event progress has reached, the
point of 1000 rooms-1, 900 baths,
school baths, public baths, Senatorial
baths, soon to be reopened, and even
compulsory baths. The last, it is
true, operate only with respect to
certain clases, cr we might with more
accuracy say conditions, of men, one
Of whom perhaps not unjustifably
understood his thirty-day sentence to
be for "fragrancy."
"While tile and porcelain bath
rooms, with unlimited supplies Of
hot water always available from au-
tomatically regulated gas water
heaters, may be long step in ad-
vance Of Mr.. Thompson's mahogany
tub lined with sheet lead, or its i'm
mediate copper-llned successors,
whose water enanated from the
kitchen stove via the tea-kettle, it is
only ip the mechanical apparatus Of
the bath that we have surpassed the
bathing arrangements Of other ages
and other races. Socially and sani-
tarily speaking, we have yet ssme
to go before reaching the standards
of ancient Persia or Rome and Of
Japan.
''The luxury Of Egyptian baths
has been duly exploited by a we'll
known soap manufacturer, and the
splendor of the great Roman ther-
mae, club houses, theaters, gymnasia,
libraries and baths in one, has been
sung by historians and psychologists
from the time of their erection
do,un Tho o1an1d dai1v hot-ihath