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# 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 AKA Roman bath, which is classified as a water cure AKA
hydrotherapy.
Victorian Turkish baths
Roman baths
Hydrotherapy
> 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 and weighted blanket?
Hug Machine
Weighted Blanket
The wet sheet packing process is described in detail in the following
two books.
Hydrotherapy by Yogi Ramcharak, Chapter 9, p.103
Rational Hydrotherapy by Dr. Kellogg, p.600
> 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" nor "double stout."
>
> The Turkish bath supplies this stimulant, the desire for which
> prompts intoxication, and so becomes, as Mr. Urquhart argues, a
> powerful engine in the promotion of temperance; by improving the
> general health, it also removes the desire for stimulus.
Lexicon Balatronicum 1st edition (1811), Blue Ruin is gin, p.33
Manual of the Turkish Bath by David Urquhart
> 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.
See also:
A History of Public Toilets, Private Space, and Gender
author: Diogenes
source: gopher://gopher.pglaf.org/1/7/3/2/5/73251/
tags: ebook,health,history
title: Life in a Tub
# Tags
ebook
health
history
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