The first of these laws of health is cleanliness. Be clean yourself
and make every one belonging to you be clean. Shun the company
of slovenly, unwashed, and dirty people. Cleanliness, like charity,
must begin at home, and if you ask how to begin, the answer is a
simple one, " Was/i and be clean." Many people, especially women
and children, are quite willing to be clean if they were not required
to wash in order to be so. "A lick and a promise " is the extent of
the children's acquaintance with soap and water. Some of them
scream at the sight of a bath-tub, as if the delightful feeling of plenty
of water on the skin were as painful as having a tooth out. This,
of course, is unnatural, and must be the result of unnatural train-
ing. Children are imitative little creatures, and if they are afraid
of the bath-tub, it is because they notice that their parents seldom
use it.
What do the parents too often plead in excuse for not bathing ?
The man, if he neglects it, pleads that he begins work too earl)- in
i8o THE hearthstone; or, life at home.
the morning to feel like bathing, and that he is too tired at night and
has to go to bed when the day's work is over. Women — some of
them, not all — object to the free use of the bath for themselves and
their families that it makes work ; that water is so often "spilled and
has to be wiped up ; that so many more towels have to be used that
it makes the washing too heavy, and so forth. The real truth is that
they have not vitality and energy enough to keep their bodies in re-
pair; they are too " tired" to keep themselves clean. Some of them
are so used to dirty faces and hands that they would feel as great a
transformation after a thorough, full length bath, with the head ducked
under often, and rough towels to dry with, as a Chinaman does when
his pigtail is cut off. They would not know themselves, and their
friends would not know them. What a dreadful shock it would be
to some families to be accused of being clean !
Those who omit to bathe regularly lose one of the greatest enjoy-
ments, as well as one of the greatest preservatives of health. Disease
loves dirt. Long life loves cleanliness. Some doctors think that
once in forty-eight hours — that is, a bathing of the whole body from
head to foot every other day — is sufficient ; but a bath every morn-
ing when one is in sound health cannot do any harm. Frequency in
ablutions, of course, depends somewhat upon the nature of the per-
son's occupation. Where copious perspiration is produced by the
daily work, a cold bath every morning is no more than health and
cleanliness require. Where there is little action of the skin and no
accretions of dirt to clean off, a man or woman can bathe every day
or every other day, at their own discretion. But even the finest flan-
nel or merino, or any other fabric next the skin, will render a thorough
cleansing of the pores conducive to health. And it is a fact beyond
all dispute, that those who have accustomed themselves to a cold
bath every morning, can get v/et, pass from a hot temperature of air
to a cold one, and the contrary, as when passing out of a crowded
theatre or church into the street, without ever taking cold.
Some people in bathing make a great rnistake by using tepid or
lukewarm water, because it feels so soothing and luxurious. This is
Page 113
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
The first of these laws of health is cleanliness. Be clean yourself and make every one belonging to you be clean. Shun the company of slovenly, unwashed, and dirty people. Cleanliness, like charity, must begin at home, and if you ask how to begin, the answer is a simple one, " Was/i and be clean." Many people, especially women and children, are quite willing to be clean if they were not required to wash in order to be so. "A lick and a promise " is the extent of the children's acquaintance with soap and water. Some of them scream at the sight of a bath-tub, as if the delightful feeling of plenty of water on the skin were as painful as having a tooth out. This, of course, is unnatural, and must be the result of unnatural training. Children are imitative little creatures, and if they are afraid of the bath-tub, it is because they notice that their parents seldom use it.
What do the parents too often plead in excuse for not bathing ? the man, if he neglects it, pleads that he begins work too early in
i8o THE hearthstone; or, life at home.
the morning to feel like bathing, and that he is too tired at night and has to go to bed when the day's work is over. Women — some of them, not all — object to the free use of the bath for themselves and their families that it makes work ; that water is so often "spilled and has to be wiped up ; that so many more towels have to be used that it makes the washing too heavy, and so forth. The real truth is that they have not vitality and energy enough to keep their bodies in repair; they are too " tired" to keep themselves clean. Some of them are so used to dirty faces and hands that they would feel as great a transformation after a thorough, full length bath, with the head ducked under often, and rough towels to dry with, as a Chinaman does when his pigtail is cut off. They would not know themselves, and their friends would not know them. What a dreadful shock it would be to some families to be accused of being clean !
Those who omit to bathe regularly lose one of the greatest enjoyments, as well as one of the greatest preservatives of health. Disease loves dirt. Long life loves cleanliness. Some doctors think that once in forty-eight hours — that is, a bathing of the whole body from head to foot every other day — is sufficient ; but a bath every morning when one is in sound health cannot do any harm. Frequency in ablutions, of course, depends somewhat upon the nature of the person's occupation. Where copious perspiration is produced by the daily work, a cold bath every morning is no more than health and cleanliness require. Where there is little action of the skin and no accretions of dirt to clean off, a man or woman can bathe every day or every other day, at their own discretion. But even the finest flannel or merino, or any other fabric next the skin, will render a thorough cleansing of the pores conducive to health. And it is a fact beyond all dispute, that those who have accustomed themselves to a cold bath every morning, can get v/et, pass from a hot temperature of air to a cold one, and the contrary, as when passing out of a crowded theatre or church into the street, without ever taking cold.
Some people in bathing make a great rnistake by using tepid or lukewarm water, because it feels so soothing and luxurious. This is