THE OTAGO TURKISH BATHS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1205, 2 January 1875, Page 3

THE OTAGO TURKISH BATHS.

The citizens of Dunedin may now be congratulated on the possession of such a luxury as a real Turkish Bath. As our readers are already aware, a company was formed some months ago for the purpose of erecting Turkish baths in Dunedin, and since its formation the Company has been making vigorous efforts to carry out the object of its existence. These efforts have been so far successful, inasmuch as the baths are now erected and open to the public, who, we feel sure, will gladly avail themselves of the opportunity of enjoying what has come to be regarded not only as a delightful luxury but almost a necessity in all civilised countries. We have already given an account of the mochts ojieramli, as well as of the buildings to be erected, and therefore will not trouble our readers with another description j but we may mention that the plans have been very well carried out, and the baths are now fitted up in a luxurious style, the Directors evidently having spared no expense in order to make the project a success. The baths are under the charge of Mr and Mrs Burton, who have had large experience in the management of Turkish Baths both in Great Britain and Victoria. One day in the week (Wednesday) is to be set apart exclusively for the benefit of ladies, who will be properly attended to by Mrs Burton and her assistants.

The ceremony of formally openingthe Baths was performed on|Monday by His Honour the Superintendent, assisted by the Hon. W. Fox. The premises in Moray Place were decorated for the occasion, and over the principal entrance was displayed a flag very appropriately bearing the crescent. His Honour and Mr Fox arrived at noon, aud were met at the door by some of the Directors of the Company and Mr Burton, the manager. They were first shown the dressing-rooms ranged along the main passage, and then entered the tepidariuin, sudatorium, and shampooing rooms. These rooms were all heated to a pretty high point, so that a lengthened stay in a full-dressed condition was found to b«3 scarcely possible by the party, who beat a rather hasty retreat into the large tepid bath-room, and thence into the cooling-room. This room is richly carpeted, with a comfortably- cushioned divan running all round, where bathers may recline, gracefully or otherwise, while enjoying a smoke or indulging in refreshments, which may be obtained on the premises. On reaching this part of the establishment, His Honour's party found a first-class

LUNCHEON spread upon temporary tables in the centre of the cooling room, and in a few minutes a numerous company, among whom were His Worship the Mayor and the City Councillors and several leading citizens, were doing ample justice to the good things provided. The Chairman of the Directory, Mr W. Asher, presided, and was supported on the right by His Honour the Superintendent, and on the left by the Hon. Mr Fox ; Mr Telfer acting as croupier. The Chairman, in proposing the health of the Superintendent, thanked His Honour for his courtesy in consenting to formally open the Baths, The Company, he said, waß now in a very good position financially. They had issued about 1000 shares, which were not yet called up, and they had another thousand as a second issue. As the baths, however, were now opened the latter thousand would probably be withdrawn. He trusted the Corporation would deal liberally with them in the matter of water supply, and, seeing the great benefit conferred upon the public by the establishment of the Baths, he thought the Company had a good claim for 'consideration at the hands of the Corporation. As it would take about 25,000 or 30,000 gallons of water to fill the tepid bath, the Company would be put to a very heavy expense if the Corporation did not make a liberal reduction upon the usual rate. He had much pleasure in proposing "The health of His Honour the Superintendent."

After the toast had been duly honoured, The Superintendent, in reply, said it must be gratifying to all of them to be present on such an interesting occasion ; and they might well congratulate one another, as well as their fellow-citizens, on having in their midst what he supposed was the first Turkish Bath in New Zealand. He had never had the chance of indulging in this luxury himself, but he hoped it would not be long before he should be able to speak from personal experience. There could be no doubt whatever that nothing was more conducive to health than baths in general, and the Turkish bath in particular, he supposed. Those who knew anything at all about the functions which the skin waa intended to perform in the economy of the human system must be fully alive to that fact — it required no very great knowledge of physiology to arrive at that conclusion — and he sincerely hoped that the Company would be enabled to regulate their charges so as to bring these baths within the reach of all. He believed that if a tithe of the money spent upon nobblers and tobacco were spent in bathing, the health and longevity of the community would be very greatly increased. He had often regretted that, engaged as they were in laying the foundations of a new nation at the Antipodes, they had not as a community gone in more for baths and washhouses. He thought those institutions were as much deserving of the support of the State as were schools and many other institutions. He recollected that as far back as 1860 one of his greatest hobbies as Superintendent of the Province was the establishment in Dunedin of public baths and wash-

houses, on something of the same footing as those established at Newoastle-on-Tyne and various othei towns in England upwards of quarter of a century ago. He recollected hie idea was to establish baths in connection with the Dunedin Athenteum and Mechanics' Institute, and perhaps it might surprise some of those present who were apt to think the Old Identities were very slow and behind the age, when he told them that so long ago as 1859 or 1860, he, as President of that Institution and one of its principal founders, entered into a contract for the erection of buildings in Dunedin to cost upwards of £7000, and he believed that if it had not happened that his political sun went below the horizon for a time, they would years ago have had a building of that description in Dunedin, They would have had a public library, a public reading-room, and baths, free and open to all without fee or reward ; and that was what he should still very much like to see amongst them. He thought if he were Dictator he would make it binding to have an institution of that kind established in every centre of population throughout the Colony. He was happy to say that there was a gentleman present who had a great deal of experience of Turkish baths in all parts of the world. He alluded to the Hon. Mr Fox — (applause) — who, he trusted, would favour them with a few words. Before sitting down he wished to express his gratitude to the Company and its Directors for their spirited undertaking, and the liberal manner in which they had carried it out. There was a large sum invested in the enterprise, and he sincerely hoped it would prove reproductive. In fact, he would be very glad, indeed, to see the time when the institution would become a public one and be taken over by the Government of the country, whatever that might be. The Chairman then introduced to the meeting

The Hon. Mr Fox, who said it would have afforded him great pleasure to give them an account of his experience on this subject if he had had any previous notice of this interesting event ; but, until calling upon his friend the Superintendent only a few minutes before he came here, he was unaware of the fact that this Turkish Bath had been established. He had had some little experience of baths himself. He had been a great bather, and since his boyhood, when he used to take a dip in the big herring pool between England andtheContinent, down to thepresent day, he was in the habit of getting into the water whenever he could. He had bathed in the Dead Sea, the Sea of Tiberius, and half the big seas of the world, and always with enjoyment, pleasure, and benefit to himself. In Tui'kish baths he had also had some little experience, and had given the subject some thought, and had also had the advantage of reading some works on the subject, which were of great value. In the first place, he need not remind them what a great institution bathing was in the time of the ancient Romans. Anybody who visited Rome and saw the ruins of the baths of Nero and Caracalla would be made aware that bathing was considered essential to the life of that very enlightened people — enlightened, at any rate, in all things concerning the physique and enjoyment of mankind. The baths of Caracalla, he believed, were fitted to receive 3000 people, and they could yet see the lead pipes and fittings of the baths, which gave a very good idea of the system o* the machinery. All that, however, passed away with the advent of the Dark Ages, and men ceased to wash themselves, and it was only of late years that in European countries the institution had been revived. In Turkey and the East, however, bathing had been kept alive in a form, he believed, not identical with the Roman system, but with that now known as the Turkish bath ; and of late years the practice had been re-introduced into Europe and England, not only in the form of the Turkish bath, but in a form and to an extent very superior to anything that could now be found in the East. He had bathed in Turkish baths in Damascus, Cairo, Beyrout, and various other places, and he had never seen anything to compare with what he had seen in England at various places. There they had the system developed to the extremest extent, with every possible comfort and medical advantage combined which could be wished for, and which he hoped they would see fully developed in this admirable little institution. There was a difference in the application of the pi'inciple of the Turkish bath in the East and of the principle in England, and he believed the English were the only people who carried out the baths according to the true principle, which was to a certain extent adopted in some of the Roman baths. The true principle of the Turkish bath consisted, not in the application of water in the first stage, but in the application of dry heat. With the application of dry heat to the human body, one was able to approach to a degree of heat utterly unbearable if the surrounding atmosphere were moist, or if water were heated up to that degree. It was a fact that in Turkish baths in England a heat of 300 degrees was reached, and there was no difficulty at all in staying in a room with the thermometer considerably over 250. He need not tell them that if they were put into water heated to 212 degrees they would come out very weak indeed. But, as had been done by Fire Kings and others in dry heat, they might roast a piece of beefsteak in their hands, and yet come out unhurt. That was the great fundamental principle, and it was thoroughly carried out only in England. In the Eastern baths more or less moisture is admitted, and they are consequently not able to raise the temperature to such an extreme degree as in English baths. In those Eastern countries the bath is regarded as a necessary of life, and the common porters of the streets — who carry immense burdens, much heavier than any English or Irish labourer would attempt to lift — instead of refreshing themselves with those nobblers to which His Honour had alluded, pay down two or three piastres, go into one of those baths, and come out as fresh as a kitten. The very beggars of the streets wait about the doors of the baths until someone gives them a piastre or two, to enable them to get a bath. In the East the bath was regarded as an absolute essential of life, and it was so in reality. It was one of the greatest luxuries that could be enjoyed, and those who had never taken a Turkish bath could not conceive what satisfaction and pleasure were to be derived

from it. After giving an amusing description of the mode of taking a Turkish bath, Mr Fox went on to say that perhapß he waa not duly qualified to speak as to the efficacy of the bath in cases of disease, but it was now acknowledged to be one of the first curative processes in existence, and was largely introduced into all the hospitals in England. The great prophet of the baths in England might be said to be Sir John Fyfe, the medical officer of the Newcastle Infirmary. Being a close friend of Mr Urquhart, that gentleman placed all his notes in Sir John Fyfe's hands, and the latter wrote a very interesting book on the subject, developing the whole system. Sir John Fyfe personally introduced the baths into the large infirmary at Newcastle, and they had since been established in every part of England and Ireland. One could scarcely go anywheT« without finding admirable institutions of the kind, and they were now almost a necessity in every considerable city or community. He therefore hailed with great satisfaction the announcement they had received that these baths were now completed and open to the public j and he hoped that the intelligent public of Dunedin, which was certainly the most progressive community in New Zealand by far— (applause)— would liberally support the new institution. The Directors need only blow their trumpet a little ; and those gentlemen who first experimented upon themselves would play the part of decoy clucks towards the rest of the public. He was sure that the personal appearance of those who would use the baths would be the bestpossible recommendation of them. Referring again to the curative properties of the baths, he should observe that they had been proved to contain a power in dtaling with hidden diseases — diseases of the joints — diseases that the doctor could find no clue to, and to which he could not even give a name — which enabled many persona suffering severely to recover in a very short time. This was found to be the case very often in diseases which one -would imagine should be the very last to be exposed to great heat. Such was the character of this application of heat that it altogether baffled the medical men, and possessed a power which was altogether unknown to the pharmacopeias of the profession. Still, he was glad to say that medical men availed themselves of its use, which was not looked upon as quackery, but as one of the finest pieces of sanitary machinery which the world possessed. He was sorry he was not able to adduce any further argument or sympathy in favour of this excellent institution, and he would simply express the very great gratification which he felt himself, and the warm congratulation which he might offer the community of Dunedin on the possession of this new institution. He trusted it would be but the beginning of many Buch, and that the large mass of the people, whether in a state of health or disease, would derive great benefit from it. — (Applause,)

Dr Borrows, in reply to the toast of "The Medical Profession," Baid he was happy to be present,* although he would have wished, however, that the name of an older resident had been associated with the toast, and that the Provincial Surgeon of Otago had been present as their proper representative. However, he could assure them it was owing to no lack of interest in the progress of this undertaking that his medical brethren were absent, for he was quite certain that they all had much desired to see such an institution in the city. It would place within their reach a means of treatment hitherto unattainable, and would be a great convenience to them, as well as a blessing to the people. He would not enlarge on the bathing systems of many lands as the Hon. Mr Fox had so eloquently done in relating his own personal experiences, but he fully endorsed all that the honourable gentle, man had said. However, the wonderful cures he described were not so inexplicable as he seemed to imagine, for the action of the Turkish bath in the cases cited was precisely what the modern practitioner of medicine would expect and desire to attain. Regarding the tariff oi charges, something had been saidabout future reduction ; but ho really thought it moderate already, as the charge — 38 — was only very slightly above that of Glasgow, where it was 2s 6d. He believed the people here were quite willing to pay the slight difference. He was sure the medical profession to a man wished the Company every success as social ben efao tors, and hailed their institution as a means of promoting the health of the healthy and the recovery of the sick.

The toasts of "The City Council," "The Chahman and Vice-Chairman," "The Di> rectors of the Company," and "The Man* ager, Mr Burton," were all duly proposed and responded to, and the company then broke up after enjoying a very pleasant hour. The catering was performed in excellent style by Mr A. T. Dunning.

It is again our painful duty (says the Southland Times) to chronicle a case of drowning. The particulars, aa near as we can glean them, are as follow :— The unfortunate man, named Henry Creber, has for some time back resided upon Stewart's Island, being engaged as clerk at the sawmill there, and has, we believe, a wife and family in Melbourne. He left the Bluff Wharf at about 7.30 p.m. on the 23rd inst., in a small cutter named the Jessie Traill, with four other men on board, bound for Stewart's Island, but being unable to beat out of the harbour, as the f1o«d-tide came in against them, they dropped anchor at Tewais Point to wait the ebb-tide. Two of those on board went below to go to sleeps The third person fell asleep against the hatchway, and the deceased refused to go below, and went asleep on deck. At 9 p.m. one of the men was awakened by a splash alongside, and on looking on deck missed Oreber. He at once gave the alarm to the other two, and on coming on deck the deceased was distinctly heard swimming asterp of the craft, being carried away by the tide. The anchor was got up with all haste, and the vessel pulled astern, but no trace could be discovered of the missing man. It is surmised that he must have awakened suddenly, and either rolled or walked over the side (the bulwarks not being sufficient to prevent this) before being awake. This is another case which can be added to the long roll, either directly or indirectly, caused by drink.