For over a thousand years the hot air, or Turkish bath, has been used both as a luxury and therapeutic measure. Thirty years ago Mr. Urquhart, Dr. Erasmus Wilson, of London, and others, described and urged the bath as a remedy for many diseases; and since that time it has been slowly coming into practical use, and is now recognized as a remedy of positive value.
While it has been very largely in the hands of irregulars, who have claimed the most extravagant therapeutic powers, whenever it has been used in scientific medicine it has been retained and adopted as invaluable. In Europe many government asylums and hospitals have the most elaborate baths, and sanitariums and private hospitals for chronic diseases depend on the bath as a remedy. In this country much indifference prevails. Except in a few sanitariums and public baths in the large cities, it is almost unknown;