Chapter 9 of 48 · 3978 words · ~20 min read

Part 9

_Cold baths_ act by refrigeration, and their effects vary according to the degree of temperature. The effects of a cold bath, the temperature not being below 50 deg., are these:--there is a diminution of the temperature of the skin and of the subjacent tissues; there is a certain feeling of shock diffused over the whole surface, and if the cold is intense it induces a slight feeling of numbness in the skin. It becomes pale and its capillaries contract. The further action of a cold bath reaches the central nervous system, the heart and the lungs, as manifested by the tremor of the limbs it produces, along with a certain degree of oppression of the chest and a gasping for air, while the pulse becomes small and sinks. After a time reaction takes place, and brings redness to the skin and an increase of temperature.

The colder the water is, and the more powerful and depressing its effects, the quicker and more active is the reaction. Very cold baths, anything below 50 deg., cannot be borne long. Lowering of the temperature of the skin may be borne down to 9 deg., but a further reduction may prove fatal. The diminution of temperature is much more rapid when the water is in motion, or when the bather moves about; because, if the water is still, the layer of it in immediate contact with the body is warmed to a certain degree.

A great deal depends on the form of the cold bath; thus one may have--(1) Its depressing operation,--with a loss of heat, retardation of the circulation, and feeling of weariness, when the same water remains in contact with the skin, and there is continuous withdrawal of heat without fresh stimulation. This occurs with full or sitz baths, with

## partial or complete wrapping up the body in a wet sheet which remains

unchanged, and with frictions practised without removing the wet sheets. (2) Its exciting operation,--with quickening of the action of the heart and lungs, and feeling of glow and of nervous excitement and of increased muscular power. These sensations are produced when the layer of water next the body and heated by it is removed, and fresh cold water causes fresh stimulus. These effects are produced by full baths with the water in motion used only for a short time, by frictions when the wet sheet is removed from the body, by douches, shower baths, bathing in rivers, &c. The depressing operation comes on much earlier in very cold water than in warmer; and in the same way the exciting operation comes on faster with the colder than with the warmer water. The short duration of the bath makes both its depressing and its exciting action less; its longer duration increases them; and if the baths be continued too long, the protracted abstraction of animal heat may prove very depressing.

_Tepid baths_, 85 deg. to 95 deg.--The effects of a bath of this temperature are confined to the peripheral extremities of the nerves, and are so slight that they do not reach the central system. There is no reaction, and the body temperature remains unchanged. Baths of this kind can be borne for hours with impunity.

_Warm baths_ from 96 deg. to 104 deg.--In these the action of the heat on the peripheral surface is propagated to the central system, and causes reaction, which manifests itself in moderately increased flow of the blood to the surface, and in an increased frequency of pulse.

With a _hot bath_ from 102 deg. up to 110 deg. the central nervous and circulating systems are more affected. The frequency of the pulse increases rapidly, the respiration becomes quickened, and is interrupted by deep inspirations. The skin is congested, and there is profuse perspiration.

_Very hot baths._--Everything above 110 deg. feels very hot; anything above 120 deg. almost scalding. Baths of from 119 deg. to 126 deg. have caused a rise of 2 deg. to 4-1/2 deg. in the temperature of the blood. Such a bath can be borne for only a few minutes. It causes great rapidity of the pulse, extreme lowering of the blood-pressure, excessive congestion of the skin, and violent perspiration.

In the use of hot baths a certain amount of vapour reaches the parts of the body not covered by the water, and is also inhaled.

_Vapour_ baths produce profuse perspiration and act in cleansing the skin, as powerful hot water baths do. Vapour, owing to its smaller specific heat, does not act so fast as water on the body. A vapour bath can be borne for a much longer time when the vapour is not inhaled. Vapour baths can be borne hotter than water baths, but cannot be continued too long, as vapour, being a bad conductor, prevents radiation of heat from the body. A higher heat than 122 deg. is not borne comfortably. The vapour bath though falling considerably short of the temperature of the hot air bath, raises the temperature much more.

_Hot air_ baths differ from vapour baths in not impeding the respiration as the latter do, by depositing moisture in the bronchial tubes. The lungs, instead of having to heat the inspired air, are subjected to a temperature above their own. Hot air baths, say of 135 deg., produce more profuse perspiration than vapour baths. If very hot, they raise the temperature of the body by several degrees. Vapour baths, hot air baths, and hot water baths agree in producing violent perspiration. As perspiration eliminates water and effete matter from the system, it is obvious that its regulation must have an important effect on the economy.

In comparing the general effects of cold and hot baths, it may be said that while the former tend to check perspiration, the latter favour it.

The warm bath causes swelling and congestion of the capillaries of the surface in the first instance; when the stimulus of heat is withdrawn their contraction ensues. A cold bath, again, first causes a contraction of the capillaries of the surface, which is followed by their expansion when reaction sets in. A warm bath elevates the temperature of the body, both by bringing a supply of heat to it and by preventing the radiation of heat from it. It can be borne longer than a cold bath. It draws blood to the surface, while a cold bath favours internal congestions.

But baths often produce injurious effects when used injudiciously. Long continued warm baths are soporific, and have, owing to this action, often caused death by drowning. The effects of very hot baths are swimming in the head, vomiting, fainting, congestion of the brain, and, in some instances, apoplexy.

The symptoms seem to point to paralysis of the action of the heart. It is therefore very evident how cautious those should be, in the use of hot baths, who have weak hearts or any obstruction to the circulation. Fat men, and those in whom the heart or blood-vessels are unsound, should avoid them. Protracted indulgence in warm baths is relaxing, and has been esteemed a sign of effeminacy in all ages. Sleepiness, though it will not follow the first immersion in a cold bath, is one of the effects of protracted cold baths; depression of the temperature of the surface becomes dangerous. The risk in cold baths is congestion of the internal organs, as often indicated by the lips getting blue. Extremely cold baths are always dangerous.

For the medical use of baths see BALNEOTHERAPEUTICS.

_Public Baths._--It was not till 1846 that it was deemed advisable in England, for the "health, comfort, and welfare" of the inhabitants of towns and populous districts, to encourage the establishment therein of baths by the local authority acting through commissioners. A series of statutes, known collectively as "The Baths and Wash-houses Acts 1846 to 1896," followed. By the Public Health Act 1875, the urban authority was declared to be the authority having power to adopt and proceed under the previous acts, and in 1878 provision was for the first time expressly made for the establishment of swimming baths, which might be used during the winter as gymnasia, and by an amending act of 1899, for music or dancing, provided a licence is obtained. By the Local Government Act 1894, it was provided that the parish meeting should be the authority having exclusive power of adopting the Baths and Wash-houses Acts in rural districts, which should, if adopted, be carried into effect by the parish council. Up to 1865 it seems as if only twenty-five boroughs had cared to provide bathing accommodation for their inhabitants. There is no complete information as to the number of authorities who have adopted the acts since 1865, but a return of reproductive undertakings presented to the House of Commons in 1899 shows that no local authorities outside the metropolis applied for power to raise loans to provide baths, of whom 48 applied before 1875 and 62 after 1875. In the year 1907 the loans sanctioned for the purpose amounted to L53,026. The revenues of parish councils are so limited that it has not been possible for them to take much advantage of the acts. In the metropolis, by the Local Government Act of 1894, the power of working the act was given to vestries, and by the act of 1899 this power was transferred to the borough councils. There are 35 parishes in London in which the acts have been adopted, all of which except 11 have taken

## action since 1875. These establishments, according to the return made in

1908, provided 3502 private baths and 104 swimming baths. The maximum charge for a second-class cold bath is 1d., for a hot bath 2d. In 1904-1905 the number of bathers was 6,342,158, of whom 3,064,998 were bathers in private baths and 3,277,160 bathers in swimming baths. In 1896-1897 the gross total had been only 2,000,000. In cases where the proportion between the sexes has been worked out, it is found that only 18% of the users of private baths, and 10% of the users of swimming baths, are females. In 1898 the School Board was authorized to pay the fees for children using the baths if instruction in swimming were provided, and in 1907-1908 the privilege was used by 1,556,542 children. The cost of this public provision in London--water being supplied by measure--is over L80,000 a year. No account can be given of the numbers using the ponds and lakes in the parks and open spaces, but it is computed that on a hot Sunday 25,000 people bathe in Victoria Park, London, some of the bathers starting as early as four o'clock in the morning. These returns show how great is the increase of the habit of bathing, but they also show how even now the habit is limited to a comparatively small part of the population. People require to be tempted to the use of water, at any rate at the beginning. There are still authorities in London responsible for 800,000 persons who have provided no baths, and those who have made provision have not always done so in a sufficiently liberal and tempting way. The comparison between English great towns and those of the continent is not in favour of the former.

For the literature of baths in earlier periods we may refer to the _Architecture_ of Vitruvius, and to Lucian's _Hippias_; see art. "Bader" in Pauly-Wissowa, _Realencyclopadie_ (1896), by A. Mau; "Balneum" in Daremberg and Saglio, _Dict. des antiquites_ J. Marquardt _Das Privalleben der Romer_ (1886), pp. 269-297; Backer's _Gallus_, and the article "Balneae" by Rich, in Dr Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_ (rev. ed. 1890); also the bibliography to HYDROPATHY.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The figure represents four strigils, in which the hollow for collecting the oil or perspiration from the body may be observed. There is also a small ampulla or vessel containing oil, meant to keep the strigils smooth, and a small flat patera or drinking vessel out of which it was customary to drink after the bathing was finished.

BATHURST, EARLS. ALLEN BATHURST, 1st Earl Bathurst (1684-1775), was the eldest son of Sir Benjamin Bathurst (d. 1704), by his wife, Frances (d. 1727), daughter of Sir Allen Apsley of Apsley, Sussex, and belonged to a family which is said to have settled in Sussex before the Norman Conquest. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and became member of parliament for Cirencester in May 1705, retaining his seat until December 1711, when he was created Baron Bathurst of Battlesden, Bedfordshire. As a zealous Tory he defended Atterbury, bishop of Rochester, and in the House of Lords was an opponent of Sir Robert Walpole. After Walpole left office in 1742 he was made a privy councillor, and in August 1772 was created Earl Bathurst, having previously received a pension of L2000 a year chargeable upon the Irish revenues. He died on the 16th of September 1775, and was buried in Cirencester church. In July 1704 Bathurst married his cousin, Catherine (d. 1768), daughter of Sir Peter Apsley, by whom he had four sons and five daughters. The earl associated with the poets and scholars of the time. Pope, Swift, Prior, Sterne, and Congreve were among his friends. He is described in Sterne's _Letters to Eliza_; was the subject of a graceful reference on the part of Burke speaking in the House of Commons; and the letters which passed between him and Pope are published in Pope's _Works_, vol. viii. (London, 1872).

HENRY, 2nd Earl Bathurst (1714-1794), was the eldest surviving son of the 1st earl. Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, he was called to the bar, and became a K.C. in 1745. In April 1735 he had been elected member of parliament for Cirencester, and was rewarded for his opposition to the government by being made solicitor-general and then attorney-general to Frederick, prince of Wales. Resigning his seat in parliament in April 1754 he was made a judge of the court of common pleas in the following month, and became lord high chancellor in January 1771, when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Apsley. Having become Earl Bathurst by his father's death in September 1775, he resigned his office somewhat unwillingly in July 1778 to enable Thurlow to join the cabinet of Lord North. In November 1779 he was appointed lord president of the council, and left office with North in March 1782. He died at Oakley Grove near Cirencester on the 6th of August 1794. Bathurst was twice married, and left two sons and four daughters. He was a weak lord chancellor, but appears to have been just and fair in his distribution of patronage.

HENRY, 3rd Earl Bathurst (1762-1834), the elder son of the second earl, was born on the 22nd of May 1762. In April 1789 he married Georgiana (d. 1841), daughter of Lord George Henry Lennox, and was member of parliament for Cirencester from 1783 until he succeeded to the earldom in August 1794. Owing mainly to his friendship with William Pitt, he was a lord of the admiralty from 1783 to 1789; a lord of the treasury from 1789 to 1791; and commissioner of the board of control from 1793 to 1802. Returning to office with Pitt in May 1804 he became master of the mint, and was president of the Board of Trade and master of the mint during the ministries of the duke of Portland and Spencer Perceval, only vacating these posts in June 1812 to become secretary for war and the colonies under the earl of Liverpool. For two months during the year 1809 he was in charge of the foreign office. He was secretary for war and the colonies until Liverpool resigned in April 1827; and deserves some credit for improving the conduct of the Peninsular War, while it was his duty to defend the government concerning its treatment of Napoleon Bonaparte. Bathurst's official position caused his name to be mentioned frequently during the agitation for the abolition of slavery, and with regard to this traffic he seems to have been animated by a humane spirit. He was lord president of the council in the government of the duke of Wellington from 1828 to 1830, and favoured the removal of the disabilities of Roman Catholics, but was a sturdy opponent of the reform bill of 1832. The earl, who had four sons and two daughters, died on the 27th of July 1834. Bathurst was made a knight of the Garter in 1817, and held several lucrative sinecures.

His eldest son, HENRY GEORGE, 4th Earl Bathurst (1790-1866), was member of parliament for Cirencester from 1812 to 1834. He died unmarried on the 25th of May 1866, and was succeeded in the title by his brother, WILLIAM LENNOX, 5th Earl Bathurst (1791-1878), member of parliament for Weobley from 1812 to 1816, and clerk of the privy council from 1827 to 1860, who died unmarried on the 24th of February 1878.

ALLEN ALEXANDER. 6th Earl Bathurst (1832-1892), was the son of Thomas Seymour Bathurst, and grandson of the 3rd earl. He was member of parliament for Cirencester from 1857 until he became Earl Bathurst in February 1878, and died on the 2nd of August 1892, when his eldest son, SEYMOUR HENRY (b. 1864), became 7th Earl Bathurst.

BATHURST, a city of Bathurst county, New South Wales, Australia, 144 m. by rail W.N.W. of Sydney on the Great Western railway. Pop. (1901) 9223. It is situated on the south bank of the Macquarie river, at an elevation of 2153 ft., in a fertile undulating plain on the west side of the Blue Mountains. Bathurst has broad streets,, crossing one another at right angles, with a handsome park in the centre of the town, while many of the public buildings, specially the town hall, government buildings, and Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals, are noteworthy. Bathurst is the centre of the chief wheat-growing district of New South Wales, while gold, copper and silver are extensively mined in its vicinity. There are railway works, coach factories, tanneries, breweries, flour-mills and manufactures of boots and shoes and other commodities. The town was founded in 1815 by Governor Macquarie, taking its name from the 3rd Earl Bathurst, then secretary of state for the colonies, and it has been a municipality since 1862.

BATHVILLITE, a naturally occurring organic substance. It is an amorphous, opaque, and very friable material of fawn-brown colour, filling cavities in the torbanite or Boghead coal of Bathville, Scotland. It has a specific gravity of 1.01, and is insoluble in benzene.

BATHYBIUS ([Greek: bathis], deep, and [Greek: bios], life), a slimy substance at one time supposed to exist in great masses in the depths of the ocean and to consist of undifferentiated protoplasm. Regarding it as an organism which represented the simplest form of life, Huxley about 1868 named it _Bathybius Haeckelii_. But investigations carried out in connexion with the "Challenger" expedition indicated that it was an artificial product, composed of a flocculent precipitate of gypsum thrown down from sea-water by alcohol, and the hypothesis of its organic character was abandoned by most biologists, Huxley included.

BATHYCLES, an Ionian sculptor of Magnesia, was commissioned by the Spartans to make a marble throne for the statue of Apollo at Amyclae, about 550 B.C. Pausanias (iii. 18) gives us a detailed description of this monument, which is of the greatest value to us, showing the character of Ionic art at the time. It was adorned with scenes from mythology in relief and supporting figures in the round.

For a reconstruction, see Furtwangler, _Meisterwerke der griech Plastik_, p. 706.

BATLEY, a municipal borough in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, within the parliamentary borough of Dewsbury, 8 m. S.S.W. of Leeds, on the Great Northern, London & North Western, and Lancashire & Yorkshire railways. Pop. (1900) 30,321. Area 2039 acres. The church of All Saints is mainly Perpendicular, and contains some fine woodwork, mostly of the 17th century, and some good memorial tombs. The market square contains an excellent group of modern buildings, including the town hall, public library, post office and others. The town is a centre of the heavy woollen trade, and has extensive manufactures of army cloths, pilot cloths, druggets, flushings, &c. The working up of old material as "shoddy" is largely carried on. There are also iron foundries, manufactures of machinery, and stone quarries. The town lies on the south-west Yorkshire coalfield, and there are a number of collieries in the district. The borough is governed by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen councillors.

BATON (Fr. _baton_, _baston_, from Late Lat. _basto_, a stick or staff), the truncheon carried by a field marshal as a sign of authority, by a police constable, &c.; in music, the stick with which the conductor of an orchestra beats time; in heraldry, the fourth part of a bend, frequently broken off short at the ends so as to be shaped like a rod; in English coats of arms, only as a mark of illegitimacy, the "baton sinister."

BATONI, POMPEO GIROLAMO (1708-1787), Italian painter, was born at Lucca. He was regarded in Italy as a great painter in the 18th century, and unquestionably did much to rescue the art from the intense mannerism into which it had fallen during the preceding century. His paintings, however, are not of the highest order of merit, though they are generally graceful, well designed, and harmoniously coloured. His best production is thought to be his group of "Peace and War." Batoni painted an unusual number of pictures, and was also celebrated for his portraits.

BATON ROUGE, the capital of Louisiana, U.S.A., and of East Baton Rouge parish, on the E. bank of the Mississippi river, about 70 m. N.W. of New Orleans. Pop. (1890) 10,478; (1900) 11,269, of whom 6596 were of negro descent; (1910 census) 14,897. It is served by the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley railway and by the Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company; and the Texas & Pacific enters Port Alien, just across the river. The city lies on the river bluff, secure against the highest floods. Old houses in the Spanish style give quaintness to its appearance. The state capitol was built in 1880-1882, replacing another burned in 1862. At Baton Rouge is the State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College (1860), of which the Audubon Sugar School, "for the highest scientific training in the growing of sugar cane and in the technology of sugar manufacture," is an important and distinctive feature. The university grew out of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy, founded in 1855 near Alexandria and opened in 1860 under the charge of W.T. Sherman. In 1869 the institution was removed to Baton Rouge, and in 1877 it was united with the Agricultural and Mechanical College, established in 1873 and in 1874 opened at New Orleans. The campus of the university is the former barracks of the Baton Rouge garrison, occupied by the college since 1886 and transferred to it by the Federal government in 1902. The enrolment of the university in 1907-1908 was 636. Other important institutions at Baton Rouge are a State Agricultural Experiment Station, asylums and schools for the deaf and dumb, for the blind, and for orphans, and the state penitentiary. The surrounding bluff and alluvial country is very rich. Sugar and cotton plantations and sub-tropic fruit orchards occupy the front-lands on the river. The manufactures include lumber and cotton seed products, and sugar. The value of the city's factory products increased from $717,368 in 1900 to $1,383,061 in 1905 or 92.8%. The city is governed under a charter granted by the legislature in 1898. This charter is peculiar in that it gives to the city council the power to elect various administrative boards--of police, finance, &c.--from which the legislative council of most cities is separated.