PART 18
The bath is useful in many diseases, in some of them when used steadily,
and in others when not so. Sometimes it must be less used than it
would be otherwise, from the want of accommodation; for in few families
are all the conveniences prepared, and persons who can manage them
as they ought to be. And if the patient be not bathed properly, he
maybe thereby hurt in no inconsiderable degree, for there is required
a place to cover him that is free of smoke, abundance of water, materials
for frequent baths, but not very large, unless this should be required.
It is better that no friction should be applied, but if so, a hot
soap (
smegma) must be used in greater abundance than is common, and
an affusion of a considerable quantity of water is to be made at the
same time and afterwards repeated. There must also be a short passage
to the basin, and it should be of easy ingress and egress. But the
person who takes the bath should be orderly and reserved in his manner,
should do nothing for himself, but others should pour the water upon
him and rub him, and plenty of waters, of various temperatures, should
be in readiness for the
douche, and the affusions quickly made; and
sponges should be used instead of the comb (
strigil), and the body
should be anointed when not quite dry. But the head should be rubbed
by the sponge until it is quite dry; the extremities should be protected
from cold, as also the head and the rest of the body; and a man should
not be washed immediately after he has taken a draught of ptisan or
a drink; neither should he take ptisan as a drink immediately after
the bath. Much will depend upon whether the patient, when in good
health, was very fond of the bath, and in the custom of taking it:
for such persons, especially, feel the want of it, and are benefited
if they are bathed, and injured if they are not. In general it suits
better with cases of pneumonia than in ardent fevers; for the bath
soothes the pain in the side, chest, and back; concocts the sputa,
promotes expectoration,
[p. 80]improves the respiration, and allays lassitude;
for it soothes the joints and outer skin, and is diuretic, removes
heaviness of the head, and moistens the nose. Such are the benefits
to be derived from the bath, if all the proper requisites be present;
but if one or more of these be wanting, the bath, instead of doing
good, may rather prove injurious; for every one of them may do harm
if not prepared by the attendants in the proper manner.
It is by no means a suitable thing in these diseases to persons whose
bowels are too loose, or when they are unusually confined, and there
has been no previous evacuation; neither must we bathe those who are
debilitated, nor such as have nausea or vomiting, or bilious eructations;
nor such as have hemorrhage from the nose, unless it be less than
required at that stage of the disease (with those stages you are acquainted),
but if the discharge be less than proper, one should use the bath,
whether in order to benefit the whole body or the head alone. If then
the proper requisites be at hand, and the patient be well disposed
to the bath, it may be administered once every day, or if the patient
be fond of the bath there will be no harm, though he should take it
twice in the day. The use of the bath is much more appropriate to
those who take unstrained ptisan, than to those who take only the
juice of it, although even in their case it may be proper; but least
of all does it suit with those who use only plain drink, although,
in their case too it may be suitable; but one must form a judgment
from the rules laid down before, in which of these modes of regimen
the bath will be beneficial, and in which not. Such as want some of
the requisites for a proper bath, but have those symptoms which would
be benefited by it, should be bathed; whereas those who want none
of the proper requisites, but have certain symptoms which contraindicate
the bath, are not to be bathed.
