Bains liquides ou bains de vapeurs : concurrence entre deux états de l’eau (France – premier xixe siècle)
Medical brochures promoting steam baths proliferated in the first half of the 19th century. Although these publications were devoted to fumigations, they included several references to spa towns. Despite the therapeutic proximity of the two water-based treatments, liquid baths and vapor baths were s...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Presses universitaires du Midi
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Histoire, Médecine et Santé |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/hms/7384 |
| _version_ | 1797402659980836864 |
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| author | Mathilde Martinais |
| author_facet | Mathilde Martinais |
| author_sort | Mathilde Martinais |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Medical brochures promoting steam baths proliferated in the first half of the 19th century. Although these publications were devoted to fumigations, they included several references to spa towns. Despite the therapeutic proximity of the two water-based treatments, liquid baths and vapor baths were systematically pitted against each other, although no medical theories could justify the superiority attributed to fumigations. The latter were elevated to the status of miraculous cures through stories of healing, whose repetitive pattern underlined the artificiality of a rhetoric designed to discredit spas. At the time, spas were the main competing remedy to steam baths in a booming therapeutic market. This opposition was primarily commercial rather than medical, as demonstrated by the transformation of Lyon-based physician Toussaint Rapou’s fumigatory establishment into a balneo-fumigatory institution in 1828. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T02:27:40Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b60b4dc849424915b8f9a06f61a7e350 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2263-8911 2557-2113 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T02:27:40Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Presses universitaires du Midi |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Histoire, Médecine et Santé |
| spelling | doaj.art-b60b4dc849424915b8f9a06f61a7e3502023-12-06T15:51:44ZengPresses universitaires du MidiHistoire, Médecine et Santé2263-89112557-21132023-12-0124779110.4000/hms.7384Bains liquides ou bains de vapeurs : concurrence entre deux états de l’eau (France – premier xixe siècle)Mathilde MartinaisMedical brochures promoting steam baths proliferated in the first half of the 19th century. Although these publications were devoted to fumigations, they included several references to spa towns. Despite the therapeutic proximity of the two water-based treatments, liquid baths and vapor baths were systematically pitted against each other, although no medical theories could justify the superiority attributed to fumigations. The latter were elevated to the status of miraculous cures through stories of healing, whose repetitive pattern underlined the artificiality of a rhetoric designed to discredit spas. At the time, spas were the main competing remedy to steam baths in a booming therapeutic market. This opposition was primarily commercial rather than medical, as demonstrated by the transformation of Lyon-based physician Toussaint Rapou’s fumigatory establishment into a balneo-fumigatory institution in 1828.http://journals.openedition.org/hms/7384baths and showersspassteam bathstherapeutic marketToussaint Rapoumineral waters |
| spellingShingle | Mathilde Martinais Bains liquides ou bains de vapeurs : concurrence entre deux états de l’eau (France – premier xixe siècle) Histoire, Médecine et Santé baths and showers spas steam baths therapeutic market Toussaint Rapou mineral waters |
| title | Bains liquides ou bains de vapeurs : concurrence entre deux états de l’eau (France – premier xixe siècle) |
| title_full | Bains liquides ou bains de vapeurs : concurrence entre deux états de l’eau (France – premier xixe siècle) |
| title_fullStr | Bains liquides ou bains de vapeurs : concurrence entre deux états de l’eau (France – premier xixe siècle) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Bains liquides ou bains de vapeurs : concurrence entre deux états de l’eau (France – premier xixe siècle) |
| title_short | Bains liquides ou bains de vapeurs : concurrence entre deux états de l’eau (France – premier xixe siècle) |
| title_sort | bains liquides ou bains de vapeurs concurrence entre deux etats de l eau france premier xixe siecle |
| topic | baths and showers spas steam baths therapeutic market Toussaint Rapou mineral waters |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/hms/7384 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT mathildemartinais bainsliquidesoubainsdevapeursconcurrenceentredeuxetatsdeleaufrancepremierxixesiecle |