Chapter XVIII Baths

Sunday, August 31, 2025 03:54PM

CHAPTER 18

BATHS

Baths are divided into classes, according to the temperature, as follows:

1. very cold……………….32 degrees to 55 degrees F.
2. cold…………………….55 degrees to 65 degrees F.
3. cool…………………….65 degrees to 80 degrees F.
4. tepid…………………80 degrees to 92 degrees F.
5. warm………………...92 degrees to 98 degrees F.
6. hot…………………...98 degrees to 104 degrees F.
7. very hot……………..104 degrees F. and above

Rules for Bathing

1. Never take a full bath within two hours after meals. Local applications of water may be made in a shorter time, such as foot baths, fomentations, compresses, and even sitz-baths.
2. Always use the thermometer when possible in preparing baths for the sick. The method used to test water for babies by pacing the elbow in the water will sometimes help when a thermometer is not available.
3. Temperature of the room should be between 70 degrees and 85 degrees F. Patients or invalids require it warmer. There should always be good ventilation, but no drafts.
4. Do not use either extremely hot or cold baths for very old, feeble, or extremely nervous patients.

Although it is permissible when just warm enough to start perspiration, never take a cold bath when extremely fatigued or exhausted. It is better to start with tepid and increase to the cold water.

5. Never allow more than three or four days, at the most, to elapse without a warm cleansing bath. A cold morning bath is an excellent means of stimulating the whole nervous system as well as preserving bodily cleanliness.
6. Bath attendants should carefully avoid giving shocks to nervous people, or those affected with heart disease, or apoplexy.
7. The best time for hydrotherapy treatments is about three hours after breakfast.
8. Cold baths should not be taken during menstruations. A warm sponge-bath is best.
9. Always use the purest and softest water obtainable.
10. Baths should always be given of an agreeable temperature to sick persons, unless giving some particular treatment for effects.
11. When symptoms of faintness appear, apply cold to the head an face, give drink of cold water, or lower the temperature of the bath by adding cool water.
12. As a precaution against taking cold, always decrease the temperature of the bath before finishing if the person is not strong enough for a shower or cool sponge bath.
13. Cold baths should always be brief, unless given for a specific purpose to a portion of the body.
14. It is extremely important that the patient should be carefully dried. Never leave a patient chilly. Rub him until warm.
15. It is well to have patients exercise a little before and after bathing.
16. Rest after bathing will add to its beneficial results. It is best to lie down and keep covered.

Baths are one of the most powerful means of affecting the human system in either health or disease. Weak patients should have sponge baths, or if necessary, sponge baths in bed. If susceptible to chilliness, sponge one portion at a time, dry, cover, etc.

Turkish Baths

Turkish baths are given to produce profuse perspiration. Plenty of water should be taken before, during and after the bath to make up for that which is lost by perspiration. The chief agent is hot air. The temperature varies from 105 degrees to 140 degrees F. There are usually unpleasant sensations, but as soon as the patient begins to perspire, these disappear.

After the patient has perspired thoroughly, he is taken to a room of about 90 to 100 degrees F., where the attendant thoroughly rubs and manipulates the body to remove all the dead skin, after which the whole body is thoroughly lathered and rubbed, either with the hand or a brush. A shower is given, and then the patient is immersed in a tub of cool water. The spray is all that is necessary, however. The patient is then dried, wrapped in a sheet (a blanket sometimes being necessary), and lies down in a room where the temperature is 70 or 80 degrees F.

Besides being powerful to produce perspiration, the Turkish bath wonderfully stimulates elimination. It is a king of remedies in acute or chronic rheumatism, jaundice, malaria, syphilitic diseases, obesity, dropsy, rheumatic gout, skin diseases, eczema, and hydrophobia. It will break up fevers, typhoid, etc.

The Roman bath is quite similar to the Turkish, with the exception that after the patient has been dried, he is thoroughly rubbed with some sweet oil. This is excellent for persons who are very susceptible to colds.

How to Give a Turkish Bath Without a Cabinet.

Use a common No. 3 washtub. Tilt with a two-by-four or block of wood. Fill with hot water; also fill a large pan for feet. Place blanket on edge of tub, place patient in tub with his back on the blanket, and feet in pan of hot water. Cover well with a sheet, which should be tight around the neck. Take water out and add hot water until the patient perspires profusely, giving him plenty of water to drink. This is preferable to a pack if the patient can be moved.

Electric Light Bath:

This bath is simply artificial sunlight. The advantage is that the patient is not subjected to a hot atmosphere, yet it produces profuse perspiration. It is a fine tonic, and is good for use where it is desired to increase the activity of the skin, which it penetrates.

Sitz Bath.

The sitz, or hip-bath, is one of the most useful. A common tub may be used, placing under one edge something that will elevate it three or four inches. A regular tub made for this purpose has the back raised higher than the front to support the back, the sided slanting down to support the arms. The water should cover the abdomen. The temperature should be suited to the condition of the patient.

The hips and abdomen should be rubbed will by the attendant. The patient must be covered with a sheet or blanket during the bath, and several blankets must be used if sweating is desired. Begin the bath at a temperature of 90 to 95 degrees F. The sitz-bath is useful in men’s diseases, piles, genital and urinary diseases and disorders, constipation, dysentery, diarrhea, congestion in the abdominal or pelvic regions. It is absolutely indispensable in uterine and many diseases peculiar to women. It is very valuable and effective in nervous affections and in diseases which involve the brain, such as cerebral congestion.

Foot Bath. The vessel used should be sufficiently large to have the feet and legs well covered with water to the knees. The hot and cold is a very useful remedy in chilblains and cold feet. The temperature should range from 100 to 120 degrees F. The cold watre should be 50 degrees F., or less. Keep the feet and legs in the cold water for not more than two minutes. By alternating, this will produce a powerful reaction. The feet should always be rubbed while in the bath. The foot bath is most useful in neuralgia, headache, toothache, catarrh, colds, cold feet, congestion of the abdomen and pelvic organs.

Leg Bath. This can be done by sitting in a bath tub. It is useful for chronic ulcers of the leg, swollen knees and ankles, varicose veins, and will also relieve headache and palpitation of the heart.

Tub Baths for Cleanliness. Full tub baths are the most beneficial baths that can be taken, and are also very pleasant. The full bath should be taken at least two or three times a week, thoroughly sscrubbing the entire body using a good soap, Ivory being one of the best. This will open the pores and make the skin glands active; then poisons can be eliminated from the system. When this kind of bath is given in diseases, if the patient is rubbed thoroughly while in the water, good results will be obtained.

A hot, full bath is a specific aid against colds, if taken as soon as they are contracted, making sure that the person does not become exposed or chilled afterwards. For rheumatism, neuralgia, gout, colic, sciatica, gall-stones, etc., the bath must be taken very hot, so that the person perpsires. Do not make the water hot to start with, but keep increasing the heat. For comfort and good results, when the person becomes too warm, have him stand up and shower off with cool water or rub body with towel that has been dipped into cool water. If the person has heart trouble keep icebag over the heart. Keeping cold compress on the head or areound the nec will do much to avoid faintness.

sickness, it is best to take the bath just before retiring. Baths have a tonic effect. The temperature must be determined by the individual, and should be suited to the case. The writer has taken many cases where persons had been diagnosed by doctors as having heart trouble, and was told that it was dangerous to give them a hot bath, and has given such persons warm tub baths freely with beneficial results. Of course, when there is heart trouble, or palpitation of the heart, great care must be taken when beginning the bath not to have it too hot, or leave e the patient in the tub too long.

Eye Bath. Applications of water and other solutions to the eye may be applied in many different ways. A brief application can be conveniently applied by placing the solution in the cup of the hand, holding over the eye and blinking, thus bringing the eye directly in contact with the solution. Small glass cups are also made for holding the solution. The solution should be changed frequently.

In giving applications of anything to the eyes it is essential first to know what the difficulty is, what caused it, and then apply the best thing to remove the cause.

When membrane which lines the eye lid and covers the eye ball becomes inflamed, or there is inflammation of the external structures, cold or cool applications are required. Inflammation of the cornea, or the pigmented membrane behind the cornea, perforated by the pupil, requires hot applications. Compresses made of two or three thicknesses of linen should be used, and changed every five minutes. Cool applications are excellent made in this way. Fomentations are the best method of applying heat. They should be as hot as can be borne. If they give relief, continue for a half hour or more. In case it increases the pain, stop immediately.

Alternate hot and cold applications will give relief in most cases. Leave the hot application on the longer, applying the cool for only a few minutes.

An eye bath of pure cold and hot water is infinitely superior to the patent eye washes on the market.

Daily eye baths of tepid water will benefit those who must use their eyes a great deal in working, or who read a great deal. Many people ruin their eyes from neglecting to give them proper care and rest. An excellent eye wash is made by steeping one teaspoonful of golden seal, two heaping teaspoonfuls boracic acid powder, and half teaspoonful of myrrh in a pint of boiling water.

Ear Bath. Applications are made to the ears by use of fomentations, compresses, douches, sprays, or poultices. Fomentations and compresses are useful in inflammation of the structures of the ear, and abscesses, and will restore the hearing in many cases.

Syringing of the ear should not be practiced, as it often results in irreparable injury.

The douche is a valuable means of removing foreign substances and insects. Warm douches are good to remove hardened ear-wax, and thus restore the hearing. When taking the douche, lean the head over a basin, so that the water can freely run in and out of the ear.

Nose Bath. Close the mouth when drawing any liquid substance into the nose, or when injecting it by means of a fountain syringe. Always apply gently, violent applications often causing great pain and irritation. Never give injections with a piston syringe, as this often forces the substance into the Eustachian canal, and produces deafness. As a rule, the temperature of nose baths should be tepid or warm.

Salt Glows. Wet two pounds of common coarse salt with water. Have the patient stand ankle deep in warm water. The body should be wet. Begin with the arm, applying the wet salt. Have the hands on each side of the arm, and rub vigorously with to-and-fro movements until the skin is aglow. Rub the whole body in a like manner. The salt glow is a vigorous circulatory stimulant.

The end of my notes as of August 31, 2025.rk.