On the modified Turkish and vapour bath, and its value in certain diseases of the skin / by J.L. Milton.

  • Milton, J. L. (John Laws), 1820-1898.
Date:
[1873]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the modified Turkish and vapour bath, and its value in certain diseases of the skin / by J.L. Milton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    was as respects the latter. It is impossible to conceive how a remedy of this nature can aggravate such a disease. There is one affection which nearly always makes eczema worse, and that is “a cold.” I suppose few maladies have more effectually tried the resources both of art and common sense than catarrh. The very number of the remedies advised for it, and the totally opposite nature of many of them, more than suggest a suspicion as to the value of any. Now I do. not put forward the vapour or turkish bath as any specific, but this I do say, that, to the best of my judgment, the latter is infinitely the most potent remedy for a cold ever yet devised. The reader will inquire which form of bath it is that I recom- mend in these diseases, and if both forms of it may be indis- criminately employed in all the different complaints spoken of. I will state my experience, and then he can decide for himself. In lepra I have tried the vapour bath extensively, and have no reason to believe that anything more is called for. I have now and then treated a case with the turkish bath, but could not make out any superiority in its action; and as the former does not make such heavy demands on the patient’s time, I decidedly recommend it here. In the dry stage of eczema I have found the vapour bath very useful—the turkish bath still more so. In eczema siccum I like the vapour for the same reason that I prefer it in lepra. For prurigo I prefer the turkish. In acne and rosacea the benefits seem nearly, but not quite, equal; the turkish mode of employing it carrying off the palm by a little, and in rosacea perhaps, more than in the other: Still, the vapour bath is very useful; if, however, it brings on exhaustion, the turkish bath must be substituted. The sensations of the patient are the best, and indeed the only, guide. In ichthyosis and sclerema I have, as stated, only tried the vapour path. In gout, rheumatism, and neuralgia I have principally tried the turkish bath, and am disposed to consider it as the best; but I do not state this with authority. I now proceed to examine the objections raised by many patients so soon as ever the medical attendant recommends baths of this kind.