Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1896 — CURED BY SWEATING. [ARTICLE]

CURED BY SWEATING.

Rheumatism Yields to the Air of an Old Cave in Italy. There is in Italy a bath, a natural vapour bath, in a mountain grotto, where men and women sit in simple robes and give themselves up to the passive process of perspiration. If they have gout it makes them better; if they have rheumatism it gives them great relief. Though not a fashionable resort, the Grotto of Giusti might well be one, so pretty is its situation at the foot-hills of the Apennines, not far from Lucca. Garibaldi was cured there, and Ludwig Kossuth—just by sitting within it and letting the humors of the blood sweat themselves out through the skin's pores. More than fifty years ago, while working in a lime quarry on land belonging to the poet Giusti, after whom the grotto is named, the discovery of the hole was made. The strange stalactite structure drew many visitors. The astonishing perspiration brought on by the strength of the air in it reminded one of a Turkish bath. But it was more than a curiosity—it was a cure. Old sufferers from the gout left the grotto entirely well, or else greatly helped, till the grotto’s reputation grew to such an extent that a building was erected by the owner for the accommodation of the patients. Each day at a specified time the patients, clad in long garments and light slippers descend through a sloping passage to a cellar-like apartment. The air now is warm and damp. Guided by a bath attendant clothed in a single robe, they continue through the long, widening way, lighted by side lamps and swinging chandeliers. The space widens. Ou one side there is an abyss in which there is water. Rocks throw shadows over the gulf. Then the passage narrows again, the air grows warmer, and presently the patient enters a large lighted cavern. With a “Perspire well,” the guide disappears. Seating themselves upon the benches the patients await with high hopes the results of the heat. The air is saturated witli dampness, yet light and easy to breathe. Crevices in the walls and ceiling provide fresh air to the cave. In a few minutes beads of perspiration cover the skin, and soon it runs off in drops. Patients remain in this state one or two hours or longer. Then they are rubbed off, and, wrapped in dry woolen clothes, conveyed to their rooms, where they rest quietly another half hour. Merely as a sensation this air bath is delightful. Men and women chat with one another while taking it, and so pass the time quickly. Its many cures, recently, have brought it into notice again throughout Europe.