A Short Description of the Thermae Romano-Britannicae, or the Roman Baths Found in Italy, Britain, France, Switzerland, &C (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos or missing text. Not indexed. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1864. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... their waists. On the floor were pedestals on which were placed the busts of Gods and Goddesses, Emperors, Heroes, Senators, Philosophers, Generals, and distinguished men, and the full-length statues of iEsculapius the god of medicine, and Hygeia the goddess of health. From this apartment a doorway led into the Tepidarium, or warm room, which was intended to bring the bather into a partial state of perspiration, and to enable him, by a graduated process, to bear the greater heat of the Sudatorium or hot room. The bather then proceeded into the Sudatorium, the heat of which was elevated to such a degree as to make the perspiration burst forth profusely, and when in that state he was shampooed, or rubbed down by an attendant, and scraped by means of an instrument made of ivory, bone, or metal, called a strigil, which scraped off the scurf, impurities, and perspiration. In order to perform the process of shampooing, the patient was placed on a wooden bench: the rubbing and kneading of the flesh and extending the joints, which the Romans were fond of, were practised in this chamber; after which, the bather entered the Lavatorium or ablution room. Sometimes the Lavatorium consisted of a semicircular recess at the extremity of the former apartment, --sometimes it was a separate though contiguous chamber--here the patient was well washed from head to foot by copious ablutions of hot and then warm water. In this room a Loutron, a very large receptacle or basin, usually made of marble, porphyry, or granite, for entire immersion, was placed; it was seven or eight feet long, about three feet deep and three feet wide. Many of these superb granite and porphyry Baths, of enormous size, are in the Sculpture Museums of the Vatican and Louvre. The cold plunging bath or Pisci..