There has recently been a marked revival in the practice of indulging in mud baths as an aid to beauty and as a curative treatment for various ailments. Mud baths are specially effective for rheumatism, sciatica, lumbago, and gout, and even where a person does not suffer from any of these troubles the mud bath has its advantages, for there is nothing like it for ensuring clearness of the skin and giving a general tonic to the whole body. It is becoming increasingly popular with women who are interested in the most effective beauty culture. The mud bath of the beauty experts is really a peat bath. Much of the peat used comes from the area around Goole in Yorkshire, and many tons are dispatched weekly to the centres where such baths are provided.
The taking of a mud bath is an acquired art. To attempt to jump in as one does sometimes when entering an ordinary swimming bath would be as foolish as to try and dive in. The bather steps gently into the peat mixture and forces the body into the mud until only the head stands clear. There he or she must remain for 20 minutes. Contrary to expectations the mud bath is not unpleasant. The muddy mixture gives a warm sensation. After 20 minutes immersion the bather scrambles out leaving as much of the mud as possible in the bath, and proceeds to a warm shower, which soon clears off the remainder of the peaty paste. Then, wrapped in heated towels, the body all aglow with reinvigorated life, the bather rests upon a couch.
A group of men sitting in mud baths at Diez on the Lahn in Germany, 1958. Photograph: Keystone Features/Getty Images
The novice in ‘mud wallowing’ is usually assailed with many qualms. Even the assurance that the peat has been specially prepared, that it is richly charged with organic acids and contains a proportion of iron, does not altogether calm one’s fears, but once the mud bath has been tried, and its beneficial qualities experienced, the novice soon becomes an enthusiast. How popular mud baths have become can best be realised when it is stated that at Harrogate, where the largest installation of peat baths in Europe is to be found, some 25 tons of specially selected peat are used each week in the season.
Although it is only in comparatively recent years that the benefits of the mud bath have been more widely recognised, the mud bath is not a new institution. It attained some popularity 150 years ago, and was recommended in those far off days as an excellent preservative for beauties. One of the most famous beauties, Nelson’s Lady Hamilton, was a mud bather, and at one time so far supported her belief in its effects as to sit immersed up to the neck in peat bath in some public place in order to advertise the theory of the ‘doctor’ who was at that time seeking to make popular the mud bath. The real doctors of that day would have nothing to do with the new idea, but medical men now recognise the skin clarifying effects of such a bath, and admit its benefits for all sufferers from diseases arising through the presence of uric acid.
The Guardian, 3 December 1925.
