LIII THE NEW TURKISH BATH IN VICTORIA STREET. WE can vouch for the perfection of the Ladies' department of Dr. Barter's new Turkish Bath in Victoria Street, which was opened to the public on the 19th of May. It is very large, lofty, subdivided into compartments, and ornamented with white arabesques and mouldings like the buildings in its native land. The hot air bath is now almost naturalized among us, not only as a medicinal agent, but as a luxury for the higher ranks of society. The new establishment contains three classes, of which the third costs only a shilling; the object being to bring it as much as possible within the reach of the industrious poor. In Turkey it is used by all classes, and is the chief remedy for numerous diseases. In a lecture delivered on the 14th by Dr. Barter at the Hanover Square Rooms, (the Earl of Albemarle in the chair,) he drew attention to the statements of Dr. Power, the physician of the extensive lunatic asylum of Cork, who has had the Turkish Bath in use among the patients for more than a year. Seventeen persons had been perfectly cured by it, and sent home to their friends, and from fifty to eighty patients are now daily submitted to its influence. Last year the percentage of cures on the cases admitted were more than double those in any asylum in England. Dr. Goolden of St. Thomas' Hospital, in seconding a vote of thanks to Dr. Barter, said that he had endeavored to introduce the Turkish Bath into that establishment, and that he had been supported by the bulk of his medical colleagues; he hoped that the new Hospital would possess one. In warmly recommending the beautiful new Bath in Victoria Street to Ladies, it is perhaps superfluous to add that sickly or very delicate people should consult their physician before resorting to it, and be strictly guided by advice in regard to the time and manner of the process. We have received the following letter on this subject, which we transfer from Open Council to this page : LADIES, To the Editors of the English Woman's Journal. I have followed with considerable interest the various discussions on medical subjects which have lately appeared in your Journal, and have often thought how much they may, and will, be simplified when your contributors turn their attention to an innovation now silently growing up among you-I allude to the newly revived Turkish bath, and it is not without surprise that I see a Journal, which devotes so much attention to sanitary subjects, overlook the most remarkable sanitary aid which Science has yet offered to modern civilization. Through Dr. Barter's rare appreciative qualities and great ability Ireland is now taking the lead as the Instructor of nations in the most important of all Social Sciences, and it is with no small pride that I refer to the Hot Air Baths, at Victoria Street, in your own Metropolis, not only as an evidence of Irish talent and enterprise, but as marking one of the greatest revolutions of our time. Through the aid of this blessed Institution many problems will be solved, and difficulties removed, out of the way of that portion of the female sex who wish to devote themselves to the service of others from simple love, as well as those whose circumstances require that their services should be remunerative. A small amount of medical knowledge will in future enable us to save life on a large scale, and whether admitted or not to the dignity of M.D., nothing but the will need henceforth prevent women from exercising to the fullest extent their vocation as the friends and consolers of suffering humanity. We are used to hear medicine called a two-edged sword, wounding while it heals. Without committing ourselves on the question, whether this treacherous and uncertain agent is necessary or not to the cure of disease, at all events we know how impossible it is to calculate the effect of medicinal substances, as, for example, the simplest opiate, on different constitutions; and no physician denies that secondary symptoms often so mask disease, particularly in its chronic form, as to make it almost impossible to fix on the organ first engaged. If those assertions are facts, does it not often require an amount of ability, verging on intuition, to decide on the best medicines to administer; and if the fortunate rich are lucky enough to have such talent at command, we know that this order of mind is only granted to the few, and that the great mass of mankind must necessarily depend on the ordinary, common-place physician. In this difficulty we find the advantage of a treatment which, based on general as well as certain physiological laws, can be made universal in its application by the most ordinary intelligence. This is why I venture to assert that the time is come when women can, in a great degree, combine the character of nurse and doctor. Their quick perceptions, ready sympathy, and patient endurance, qualify them for the duties of both; and we thank God the Oriental Bath, and a new hygiene, will facilitate their fulfilment of a trust which society will gradually repose in them. If these few words attract the attention of any one benevolent mind, and join it to our cause, my object is more than fulfilled. So much is involved in the question I advocate, that its advancement is one of the blessings I pray for in the daily petition, "Thy kingdom come." I remain, Ladies, with much respect, AN IRISHWOMAN. LIV.-OUR FRENCH CORRESPONDENT. LADIES, Paris, May 17th, 1862. Since my last letter was published in your Journal, the determination of the Carême has been, owing to the London Exhibition, quickly followed by the closing of the salons, and, to a certain extent, the suspension of social life in Paris. But as the yearly Promenade de Longchamp has been more than usually crowded by persons of a decidedly bourgeois aspect, the cessation of gaiety in this capital will, it may be hoped, be confined to the uppermost strata of society; for only those who are pretty certain of staying in town during the hot weather now take part in the gay pilgrimage which the Parisians make in the middle of the Holy Week. In the reign of Louis XVI. the contrary might have been augured from the style and rank of those who annually flocked to the Abbey built by Isabella of France, daughter of Blanche of Castille, and sister of St. Louis. In those days, light and air, or the right to amuse oneself in public, was confined to one class. The classe ouvrière had only narrow foetid streets to walk in; Parks and Royal Gardens were religiously closed against them. Neither did they frequent the dusty roads or the narrow alleys in and about old Paris, without being in danger of some possessor of a carriage driving over them. It is therefore not without a certain pleasure that the Longchamp promenade, such as it appeared three weeks ago, can be compared to those which took place about eighty years since. No white capped bonne or cleanly clad blouse with a dinner in a basket, and surrounded by lively little boys and girls flourishing skipping ropes about them, then made their appearance on the road between Porte Maillot and the spot where the Prefect's villa now stands. There was no medium between a few miserably clad peasants who appeared in the character of passive spectators, or most probably envious ones, and seigneurs and ladies, whose rich garments and luxurious air contrasted strongly with the ragged ones of Jacques Bonhomme. From the Faubourg St. Germain to Longchamp the road was, eighty years ago, filled with equipages and dashing cavaliers. The former, could modern springs be completely ignored, were more luxurious than anything of the kind that is now manufactured. Their panels were painted by masters in ornamental art. Reclining in them, on silken cushions, were powdered ladies in the most superb toilettes, and glittering with diamonds or precious stones. They included the most nobly born dames in the Court of Marie Antoinette, the wives and daughters of the Paris bankers, and the female celebrities of the Paris theatres, whom fashion then allowed to tutoyer the Queen. The spirit of rivalry was then as strong as it is now, or perhaps stronger, for the field was narrower in which the ambitious strove to shine. It is not therefore surprising that on the occasion in question all were bent on outrivalling each other, whether as regarded the paint upon their cheeks, the richness of their brocaded silks, laces, or jewellery, or the elegance of their carriages and servants' liveries. Amongst the cavaliers then and there who strove to trot their horses à l'Anglaise were Princes of the blood royal, Ministers of the Crown, Governors of Provinces, Fermiers Généraux, the gentlemen of the king's household, and the lions of the Paris salons. As their descendants yet do in the opera and other public places, they stared through lorgnettes at the ladies, and criticised aloud their dresses; while the milliners and tailors, who formed an item, but a very small one, in the bourgeois ranks, anxiously looked on to see which of the beauties was most likely to bring their cut and style into fashion. Such was the Longchamp pilgrimage in the reign of Louis Seize.. These gay-looking ladies and gallant cavaliers were all going to hear an Office called Des Ténèbres chanted by Mdlle. Lemaure, with even less devotional feeling than Paris feels when hurrying off to hear Rossini's celebrated Stabat chanted at St. Eustache. Without Mdlle. Lemaure, the Office in question would not have greatly interested the gay crowd that went to hear it. That centre of attraction was a favorite public singer who suddenly became disgusted with her profession, retired to the convent of Chaillot, but finding it too rigid in its discipline, decided upon trying how Longchamp would suit her. That religious house was entirely what answered an actress who was not altogether tired of the world, although she was tired of the theatre and jealous of Mdlle. Clairon's reputation. From the time of its foundation it had, unless at rare intervals, enjoyed a rather worldly reputation for a convent; and at one particular period greatly scandalized the truly devout Mère Angelique, the Superior of Porte Royale, and sister of the celebrated Pascal. From the date of its foundation till an early period of the fifteenth century, it did not, however, set a very bad example to the other houses of the Order of St. Francis, but ostensibly followed the rules prescribed by him. Henry IV. frequently left off hunting wolves in the Bois de Boulogne, to breakfast with the Nuns living in its outskirts. Anne of Austria, during her young days, was the means of introducing a still greater laxity of discipline. Shortly after she first took refuge there from sundry domestic torments inflicted on her by Louis XIII., the sisters adopted the custom of wearing jewels and colored clothes instead of the habits in which they made their vows. This innovation was followed by another still more obnoxious to the religious world of that day, for the nuns discovered that it was no sin to take walks outside the precincts of the Convent, or to receive gay courtiers of either sex in their parlor. St. Vincent de Paul deplored these deflections in a long letter to the Archbishop of Paris, who, acting on the advice given in it, put a stop to such practices as he judged to be scandalous to religion. But during the early part of the reign of Louis Quatorze, a relapse took place, Longchamp became gayer than it had ever been, and treated very lightly the Franciscan discipline till it was dissolved by the Revolution. When Mdlle. Lemaure retired to it, a number of the habitués of the Opera went to hear her sing in the chapel. This so greatly pleased the Superior that she determined to outrival the stage, and accordingly did all in her power to fill the choir with fine voices, some of which she drew from the choruses of the opera by means of higher wages. This rivalry became known in the salons, where it was considered " original and amusing." The leaders of fashion became curious to hear the voices of the conventual troupe, and fancied that they could by going there during the Holy Week not only serve their souls, but find an opportunity of showing to advantage their new spring toilettes. A fleeting fashion soon became a custom, and devotion failed to mask dissipation and vain ostentation. The Archbishop of Paris interfered, but Voltaire had converted the nobility and beau monde into révolutionnaires, without their ever suspecting anything about it. They therefore laughed at the Prelate's orders, and went on with their annual pilgrimage to the abbey, where, instead of listening to hymns chanted by the choir, the pilgrims sang songs not the most moral, in some cabaret which it became the fashion to frequent. The destruction of the convent did not destroy the prestige which was attached to it. The Reign of Terror had hardly ended when Mesdames Tallien, Beauharnais, and some other celebrities of the Directory, agreed to revive the pilgrimage, which has since fallen into the hands of the bourgeois and ouvriers. But the spot possesses some strange fascinations for the great and wealthy. When it was proposed to have the annual racecourse of La Marche at Vincennes, the fashionable world was unanimous in rejecting it, and carried their point more successfully than they had expected. The Sunday before last the aspect of Longchamp was more brilliant than it had ever been in its palmiest days of yore, although the plebs of France were very numerous in their attendance there; more than eight hundred ladies were seated in the stand-houses, an Emperor and Empress, King and Queen, and divers reigning Princes and Princesses, were in the balcony, to say nothing of the foreign Ministers, Ambassadors, and other European celebrities. Within the past month several printers and compositors have been brought before the Correctional Tribunal for uniting in a strike which took place among the workmen employed in M. Paul Dupont's establishment, because some women were admitted there to work as compositors. A few of the accused have been acquitted, and the rest sentenced to be fined and imprisoned, which has caused a great deal of discussion in the newspapers. Owing to the threats of their operatives, the directors of some of the principal journals who lately advocated the admission of females into whatever trade or profession in which they could succeed, wrote against the innovation of M. Paul Dupont. They alleged, that were women allowed to enter the trades now exclusively appropriated to men they would injure the latter by causing a reduction of wages, and do no good to themselves by the attempt. But a visit to the Imprimerie Dupont would convince any reasonable person that such conclusions were too hastily formed. There are about sixty women employed in it, some as folders and binders; and all the composition, proof reading, and ruling of an immense establishment, is done by about a dozen girls. The maximum wages of the folders and those who stitch the leaves together are not more than three francs a day, and the minimum two francs. The compositors' wages vary from four francs to six francs, and those who do the ruling and proof reading obtain from four to eight francs. The director says that he has every reason to be satisfied with the result of M. Dupont's philanthropy, |