Today, going

without a shower for even a day is out of the question for most people,

and to not shower for a week or more would be unthinkable. But most of

us have ancestors who probably shunned bathing to the greatest extent

possible. Even the Romans, who loved to bathe, took their baths in stagnant

pools of dirty water that they shared with hundreds of their fellow citizens.

They had no concept of bacteria, of course.

In ancient

times, the best a rich or royal person could do was to have a servant

dump cold water over them as they stood in a basin hardly a relaxing experience

Today, manufacturers

spend millions finding ways to make water do magical things in order to

make showering a luxurious, invigorating and revitalizing experience.

"The soothing

massage of a specially engineered stream of hot water is what people seek

in their showers today," said David Lingafelter, Moen Inc.'s vice

president of product marketing.

"We spend

a lot of time figuring out how to make water create the sensation of a

massage when designing shower fixtures," he added. "Our Revolution

showerhead actually spins each drop of water that it puts out and then

twirls the whole shower stream so that users feel enveloped in water.

Making the water droplets larger makes them feel warmer and the increased

speed and movement of each drop gives the sensation of higher flow and

higher pressure."

You don't get

that sort of feeling from your average ancient servant with a bucket.

But, at various

times throughout history, ancient cultures have embraced the notion of

showering for cleansing. During excavation of the Egyptian city of Akhenaten

at Tel-el-Amarna, which dates