Gell, William: Pompeiana: the topography, edifices and ornaments of Pompeii ; the result of excavations since 1819 ; in two volumes (Band 1) (London, 1832)

126

POMPEIANA.

sus, Book I. c. IV., seems to have given
real information, and that which is applica-
ble to the Pompeian thermee, when he tells
us that people perspired a little in the tepi-
darium, thence entered the caldarium or
laconicum, and retired in order through the
hot, the tepid, and the cold apartments.

Galen says that he who neglects the cold
chamber, or cold water, is in danger from
open pores on passing into the open air.
This may serve to show that the tepidarium
was not the last chamber recommended by
him; and it is not improbable that some, who
were ordered by the physician to pass " from
the laconicum to the caldarium, and thence
to the apodyterium, from whence they are
to use the solium frigidum," might, in the
baths of Pompeii, have plunged into the na-
tatorium, 18, as a termination of the pro-
cess. Solium is defined to be either a ves-
sel to wash in, or a hollow into which those
who washed descended.

In places not aifording the convenience
for immersion in the solium frigidum, as-
persions of cold water, like a shower-bath,