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    aaa11111

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    aaa11111

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    Med HubPH
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    aaa11111

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    Bathing in the 18th century

    [edit]
    In the 17th century, most upper-class Europeans washed their clothes with water and
    washed only their faces with linen, feeling that bathing the entire body was a lower-class
    activity. The upper-class slowly began changing their attitudes toward bathing as a way
    to restore health later that century[why?]. The wealthy flocked to health resorts to drink and
    bathe in the waters. In 1702, Anne, Queen of Great Britain, travelled to Bath. A short
    time later[when?], Beau Nash came to Bath, and along with financier Ralph Allen and
    architect John Wood, transformed Bath from a country spa into the social capital of
    England. Bath set the tone for other spas in Europe to follow. The upper class arrived
    there on a seasonal basis to bathe in and drink the water, and as a show of status.
    Social activities at Bath included dances, concerts, playing cards, lectures, and
    promenading down the street.[7]

    A typical day at Bath consisted of an early morning communal bath followed by a private
    breakfast party. Afterwards, one either drank water at the Pump Room (a building
    constructed over the thermal water source) or attended a fashion show. Physicians
    encouraged health resort patrons to both bathe in and drink the waters. The next
    several hours of the day could be spent in shopping, visiting the lending library,
    attending concerts, or stopping at one of the coffeehouses. At 4:00 pm, the wealthy
    dressed up in their finery and promenaded down the streets. Next came dinner, more
    promenading, and an evening of dancing or gambling.[7]

    Similar activities occurred in health resorts throughout Europe. The spas became
    stages on which Europeans paraded with great pageantry. These resorts became
    infamous as places full of gossip and scandals. The various social and economic
    classes selected specific seasons during the year's course, staying from one to several
    months, to vacation at each resort. One season aristocrats occupied the resorts; at
    other times, prosperous farmers or retired military men took the baths. The wealthy and
    the criminals that preyed on them moved from one spa to the next as the fashionable
    season for that resort changed.[7]

    During the 18th century, a revival in the medical uses of spring water was promoted by
    Enlightened physicians across Europe.[15] This revival changed the way of taking a spa
    treatment. For example, in Karlsbad the accepted method of drinking the mineral water
    required sending large barrels to individual boardinghouses where the patients drank
    physician-prescribed dosages in the solitude of their rooms. David Beecher in 1777
    recommended that the patients come to the fountainhead for the water and that each
    patient should first do some prescribed exercises. This innovation increased the
    medicinal benefits obtained and gradually physical activity became part of the European
    bathing regimen. In 1797, in England, James Currie published The Effects of Water,
    Cold and Warm, as a Remedy in Fever and other Diseases.This book, along with
    numerous local pamphlets on composition of spa water, stimulated additional interest in
    water cures and advocated the external and internal use of water as part of the curing
    process.[7][16]

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