Hygiene Accessories Of The Fast

HYGIENIC ACCESSORIES OF THE FAST

BREATHING:
BATHING:
SLEEP:
EXERCISE

Not so long ago the bathtub was generally condemned by medical authority in the United States, and about the time this was happening the cultured city of Boston by ordinance made bathing unlawful, save on the advice of a physician. However, be it said in extenuation of the hygienic condition of the Bostonese, the ordinance was characterized by slack enforcement and was finally repealed, but not until 1862. The good doctors of that generation averred that bathing, especially in winter, led to phthisis, rheumatic fevers, inflammation of the lungs, and to the whole category of zymotic disease. In the public prints bathing was inveighed against as subversive of democratic simplicity and of pioneer hardihood. And even today the medical profession is chary of advice regarding the hot cleansing bath, as, they say, it is weakening in its effects.

It is said that the first bathtub to be built and used in the Republic was that of one Adam Thompson, a citizen of Cincinnati, who installed his lead-lined, mahogany-covered receptacle in the year 1842. Water was supplied from the kitchen stove by way of the tea-kettle. His temerity appeared as a gross misdemeanor in the eyes of the press, the public, the medical profession, and the legislatures of those days. Later, in 1851, President Fillmore braved public opinion and placed the first bathtub in the White House.

There is no doubt that today in the mechanical conveniences connected with the bath, America surpasses the bathing arrangements of other ages and other races, but socially and sanitarily we have yet some distance to go before reaching the bathing standards and facilities of ancient Persia, of Rome, and of present-day Japan. The ages-old warm bath habit of the Japanese causes them to look with the scorn of the elect upon those who are so uncivilized as to omit a daily hot cleansing bath. Yet it is this habit that is one of the great factors in that over-crowded land that makes for the remarkable health and vigor of the Japanese as a race.

The skin is the natural clothing of the body. Its protection to the parts beneath is aided by sub-cutaneous deposits of fat, a non-conductor of heat, distributed more or less uniformly over the body. When heated, evaporation of perspiration cools; when chilled, closed pores retain the.body warmth. Like the lungs the skin permits of blood oxygenation through the walls of the capillaries, those small veins that ramify its substance, and, as has been stated, it is an organ of elimination as well. In the conservation of body heat, the skin is thermostat of the organism. It regulates temperature, and acts as a governor of internal function. If its work be interfered with by the interposition of substances between it and outer air, evaporation from its surface cannot take place freely, and elimination of the products of the pores is impeded if not arrested. In the latter case temperature is heightened artificially and abnormally, for prevention of skin activity causes retention of heat developed internally, and health suffers.

A striking exemplification of the close sympathy noted as existing between the functions of the skin and those of the other eliminative organs is given in cases of cutaneous burns where large areas are affected. Respiration is increased to exhaustion, and kidney discharges are heavily laden with waste that in the ordinary instance is eliminated through the pores. If an extreme proportion of skin area is seared, virtual suffocation ensues. Fatal results accompanied with symptoms similar to those in asphyxiation also follow when the body is covered with a substance, such as gold-leaf, that is impervious to air.

In this connection it is not generally known that burns or scalds upon the skin may be sucessfully treated by submergence of the part affected in water. The exquisite pain of such injury is at once relieved by this procedure, and continuing the latter for hours or even days permits natural healing processes to act with despatch and surety. If the skin area seared is extensive, placing the sufferer in a full bath and keeping him there for the time necessary will often serve to save life. The water in the tub should be at constant temperature and must be frequently changed, while water in quantity should be given the patient to drink.

The customs entailed by civilization are responsible for a number of physiological evils. While modesty is, in its origin, independent of clothing, for nakedness of body by no means involves the absence of this quality, nevertheless in civilized communities the world over modesty compels body concealment, and, because of conventional covering, the skin has for ages been permitted but partial function. Since clothing is deemed essential to decency, in order to reduce its effects upon the skin to a minimum, it should be fashioned of material as light and as pervious to air as is possible, while the skin itself should be cleansed and cared for with constancy and diligence.

Because of clothing the two great mediums through which energy is delivered to the human organism, pure air and sunshine, are in large part denied contact with its outer covering Clothing prevents full elimination of perspiration and its products, the latter remaining to clog the pores. This condition may be relieved to a degree by daily exposing the naked body to the air and to the light of the sun, and air-baths and sunbaths will be found valuable agents in compelling the skin to functional activity. During a fast, weather permitting, these baths should be taken with the subject upon the ground in open air.

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