On Regimen In Acute Diseases   

along with the disease in question, in like manner as the other
compound medicines.
18. The bath is useful in many diseases, in some of them when used
steadily, and in others when not so. Sometimes it must be less used
than it would be otherwise, from the want of accommodation; for in few
families are all the conveniences prepared, and persons who can manage
them as they ought to be. And if the patient be not bathed properly,
he maybe thereby hurt in no inconsiderable degree, for there is
required a place to cover him that is free of smoke, abundance of
water, materials for frequent baths, but not very large, unless this
should be required. It is better that no friction should be applied,
but if so, a hot soap (smegma) must be used in greater abundance
than is common, and an affusion of a considerable quantity of water is
to be made at the same time and afterwards repeated. There must also
be a short passage to the basin, and it should be of easy ingress
and egress. But the person who takes the bath should be orderly and
reserved in his manner, should do nothing for himself, but others
should pour the water upon him and rub him, and plenty of waters, of
various temperatures, should be in readiness for the douche, and the
affusions quickly made; and sponges should be used instead of the comb
(strigil), and the body should be anointed when not quite dry. But the
head should be rubbed by the sponge until it is quite dry; the
extremities should be protected from cold, as also the head and the
rest of the body; and a man should not be washed immediately after
he has taken a draught of ptisan or a drink; neither should he take
ptisan as a drink immediately after the bath. Much will depend upon
whether the patient, when in good health, was very fond of the bath,
and in the custom of taking it: for such persons, especially, feel the
want of it, and are benefited if they are bathed, and injured if
they are not. In general it suits better with cases of pneumonia
than in ardent fevers; for the bath soothes the pain in the side,
chest, and back; concocts the sputa, promotes expectoration,
improves the respiration, and allays lassitude; for it soothes the
joints and outer skin, and is diuretic, removes heaviness of the head,
and moistens the nose. Such are the benefits to be derived from the
bath, if all the proper requisites be present; but if one or more of
these be wanting, the bath, instead of doing good, may rather prove
injurious; for every one of them may do harm if not prepared not
prepared by the attendants in the proper manner. It is by no means a
suitable thing in these diseases to persons whose bowels are too
loose, or when they are unusually confined, and there has been no
previous evacuation; neither must we bathe those who are
debilitated, nor such as have nausea or vomiting, or bilious
eructations; nor such as have hemorrhage from the nose, unless it be
less than required at that stage of the disease (with those stages you
are acquainted), but if the discharge be less than proper, one
should use the bath, whether in order to benefit the whole body or the
head alone. If then the proper requisites be at hand, and the
patient be well disposed to the bath, it may be administered once
every day, or if the patient be fond of the bath there will be no
harm, though he should take it twice in the day. The use of the bath
is much more appropriate to those who take unstrained ptisan, than
to those who take only the juice of it, although even in their case it
may be proper; but least of all does it suit with those who use only
plain drink, although, in their case too it may be suitable; but one
must form a judgment from the rules laid down before, in which of
these modes of regimen the bath will be beneficial, and in which
not. Such as want some of the requisites for a proper bath, but have
those symptoms which would be benefited by it, should be bathed;
whereas those who want none of the proper requisites, but have certain
symptoms which contraindicate the bath, are not to be bathed.

APPENDIX