# 2025-06-04 - Life in a Tub by Diogenes
       
       This title caught my attention in the Project Gutenberg new ebook feed.
       I thought of The Captain in The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Close
       but not quite.  This book is a description of the Victorian Turkish
       bath [1] AKA Roman bath [2], which is classified as a water cure AKA
       hydrotherapy [3].
       
       > By this simple process [of wet sheet packing] the pulse is often
       > reduced from 120 pulsations per minute to sixty-five, in the short
       > period of three-quarters of an hour, the circulation equalized
       > throughout the body, and a soothing effect produced on the patient,
       > which language fails to describe [and without drugs].
       
       Interesting!  I wonder if this uses the same physiological reflex as
       the hug machine [4] and weighted blanket [5]?
       
       The wet sheet packing process is described in detail in the following
       two books [6] [7].
       
       > The truth will ere long be acknowledged, that it is our mode of
       > life that makes us fit subjects for cholera, and that it is our
       > mode of treating it alone, which makes the disease so dangerous.
       > The wretch who is cast uncared for in a ditch, exposed to all tine
       > inclemency of the weather, with water along to quench his burning
       > thirst, has ten chances to one in favour of his recovery, compared
       > with the well-cared patient who is dosed with brandy and the
       > favourite specifics of the apothecary's shop.
       
       Interesting, a self-critical look at Victorian lifestyles.
       
       > Do not run away with the idea that it is Islamism that prevents to
       > use of [alcohol]--it is the bath.  It satisfied the cravings which
       > lead to those indulgences, it fills the period of necessary
       > relaxation, and it produces, with cleanliness, habits of
       > self-respect which are incompatible with intoxication. ... In
       > Greece and Roman, in their worst times, there was neither
       > "blue ruin" [8] nor "double stout."
       >
       > The Turkish bath supplies this stimulant, the desire for which
       > prompts intoxication, and so becomes, as Mr. Urquhart [9] argues, a
       > powerful engine in the promotion of temperance; by improving the
       > general health, it also removes the desire for stimulus.
       
       > The Turkish bath is, in short, an antidote for the unwholesome
       > lives we live--a peace-offering to outraged nature for our
       > non-compliance with her laws.  To ladies, to invalids, and men of
       > business, whose sedentary occupations preclude the possibility of
       > healthful exercise, the Turkish bath presents an inestimable boon.
       
       author: Diogenes
 (HTM) source: ftp://ftp.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/7/3/2/5/73251/
       tags:   ebook,health,history
       title:  Life in a Tub
       
       # Footnotes
       
 (TXT) [1] Victorian Turkish baths (wikipedia)
       
 (TXT) [2] Roman baths (wikipedia)
       
 (TXT) [3] Hydrotherapy (wikipedia)
       
 (TXT) [4] Hug Machine (wikipedia)
       
 (TXT) [5] Weighted Blanket (wikipedia)
       
 (HTM) [6] Hydrotherapy by Yogi Ramcharak, Chapter 9, p.103
       
 (HTM) [7] Rational Hydrotherapy by Dr. Kellogg, p.600
       
 (HTM) [8] Lexicon Balatronicum 1st edition (1811), Blue Ruin is gin, p.33
       
 (HTM) [9] Manual of the Turkish Bath by David Urquhart
       
 (HTM) [10] A History of Public Toilets, Private Space, and Gender
       
       # Tags
       
 (DIR) ebook
 (DIR) health
 (DIR) history