THE USE AND ABUSE OF BATHING.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2026, 2 July 1875, Page 3

THE USE AND ABUSE OF BATHING.

Dr. Bowditch in the Sanitary Record says:—ln immediate connection ■with the clothing naturally comes the care of the skin. This should be kept scrupulously, not only clean, but in a perfect healthy condition by daily bathing in cool or tepid ■vratcr. It. is not well to allow any skin diseases to become chronic, if it be possible to prevent them. At times I have seen the ceasing of a long-continued irritation of the skin coincide with a tendency ' to cough, I cannot say that the relation is that of cause and effect, but I simply note the fact. And therefore I do not like to know that any one threatened with consumption has had, up to about the commencement of the actual illnes", a ■ life-long cutaneous affection. We cannot, it is true, by any amount of cleanliness, always prevent these; affections from . showing themselves, as they are often ■Jkereditary; but, by want of cleanliness, 'Jmhe skin, even when not apparently "^jfcroased, is ill-fitted to perform it* im--^j&lant part in the operations of the body. In order, therefore, that a child, predisposed to .consumption, may have • every obstacle, even the slightest, removed from his path for perfect health, the care of the skin becomes very necessary. Daily bathing, then, of some kind, from childbirth to old age, should Tbe the rule. ~± Some direct that the cold bath should be always used. I cannot tlr'nk that this is a true doctrine. With a few children, and still fewer old persons, and very many adults, a morning^ cold bath is the most refreshing and exhilarating of operations. But with many either feeble adult, old, or too young persons, a chill remains for* some time after taking the bath, and the powers of life , are exhausted instead of being invigorated by the stimulus. But those who - suffer - from cold . bathing will usually be able to take with great advantage a daily tepid bath, and without the .least chili or discomfort following it. Each individual arrived at years of discretion should judge for himself which of the two to choose. At

certain periods of life he may use one- or •♦ the other, and be himself the judge as to the continuance of one or the other by the effect left upon him. The parent,.of course,- will notice the effect upon the child and decide accordingly. But there are various kinds of baths. The shower bath is rarely used now. If used at all it should be cautiously. Sponge bathing is admirable, either with warm or cold; wate* according to the circumstances of each; case. , But even this cannot be borne by many when a simple;:,hand bath, i.e., when the water is borne by the hand of the bather to various parts of; the body, and the same hand or -a warm towel used for friction afterwards. This is often infinitely refreshing when other methods failof being aoi Surf-bathing should be very cau> tiously indulged in by all predisposed to pulmonary difficulties. Gough of a permanent nature has been at times started by incautious "surf or any cold water, sea or river bathing, especially if the body be immersed for a long time. One of the most itriking cases of consumption I ever had was distinctly traceable to »$ very long and cold river bathing.l Hence, we see that bathing, like 'every, other good thing, if ■used immoderately,l tends' to cause evil rather than good. It mayr be asked if cold bathing be ever evil in its tendencies, how happens it that the " water-cure," so caHed;proves at times so good a thing? The answer is briefly this. A man onca fairly " packed in a cold wet sheet" becomes in a very few moments bathed in a;- profuse warm perspiration. But the water-cure, used incautiously by persons who are not aware of its power or proper mode of application, becomes destructive arid riot restorative. One of the severest forms of inflamed lung, and which lasted for months, threatening consumption, and which would probably have proved such in an older person, I saw in the case of a little. girl whose mother undertook to cure a violent fever by bathing her two or three times in one night, in cold' J water' drawn from a well in a country - house- at : which , they .were stopping. ■ The general rule, therefore, is, bathe daily, but choose that method which proves immediately grateful to the patient; and „ let all ■ consumptively inclined patients beware of lonK-continued surf, or sea-shore or,riyer bathing..