bath

1. The immersion of the body or any of its parts in water or any other yielding or fluid medium; form—spray, or the application of such medium in any vapor, affusion, jets, etc. to a part or the whole of the body. 2. The apparatus employed in giving a bath of any form. The term is qualified according to the medium used: water bath, air bath, sand bath, mud bath, etc.; according to the temperature of the medium: hot, warm, tepid, temperate, cool, and cold (see below); according to the form in which the medivun is applied: spray baths, vapor bath, douche bath, etc.; according to the medicament added to the medium: acid bath, alkaline bath, alum bath, astringent bath, mustard bath, sulphur bath, etc. and according to the part bathed: full bath, foot bath, sits bath, etc. Baths are given in therapeutics for their local effect upon the skin in cutaneous disorders or for their effect upon the nervous or circulatory system, either relaxing or stimulating. The science which treats of bathing, especially bathing in the sea or in the waters of mineral springs, is called balneology; the branch of therapeutics which deals with the local or general application of water in various forms and at various temperatures, chiefly for its systemic effects, is called hydrotherapy or (incorrectly) hydropathy, air b., the exposure of the naked body to the air, either cold or warm, an'imal b., the application of the warm ti ue of a, recently killed animal to any part, blood b., a, b. in the warm, freshly drawn blood of an animal. Brand b., see Brand. cold b., one in water at a temperature of 45° F. (7.5° C. or lower), cool b., one in water at a temperature of about 68° F. (20° C). douche b., the local application of water in the form of a large jet or stream, elec'tric b., electrotherapeu'tic b., (i) one in which the medium is charged with electricity; (2) the application of static electricity, the patient standing on an insulated platform, foot b., pediluvium. full b., one in which the entire body is immersed, grad'uated b., one in which the temperature of the water is gradually lowered, half b., one in which only the hips and lower extremities are immersed. hot b., one in water at a temperature of about 106° F. (41° C.) or over, hydroelec'tric b., electric b. (i). moor b., immersion of the body in thin mud taken from a swamp or other uncultivated tract. Nau'heim b., see Schott* treatment, nee'dle b., one in which water is thrown forcibly against the body in the shape of many very fine jets, rain b., (i) one taken by standing naked in the rain; (2) a very gentle form of shower bath. Rus's ian b., a warm vapor bath