[ad. mod.L. vaporarium, f. L. vapor vapor. Cf. L. vapōrārium a steam-pipe in a bath.] A medical preparation used in a form of vapor-bath.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 187. A vaporary consists of the same things a semicupium is made of.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., 504. Of a Vaporarie:… fiat decoctio … cujus vaporem excipiat.
1678. Phillips (ed. 4), Vaporary, a Decoction of Herbs, and other ingredients, the fume whereof ascends through the hole of a Chair where the patient sits. [Hence in later edd. and other Dicts. The additional definition in Bailey (1721–) ‘a stove, stew, hot-house or bagnio’ follows Kersey (1706), s.v. Vaporarium.]
