CLEANLINESS.
Physiology of the human skin. Of checking perspiration. Diseases thus
produced. "Dirt" not "healthy." How the mistake originated. "Smell of
the earth." Effect of uncleanliness on the morals. Filthiness produces
bowel complaints. Changing dress for the sake of cleanliness.
No mother will ever pay that attention to cleanliness which its
importance to health and happiness demands, till she perceives its
necessity. And she will never perceive that necessity till she has
studied attentively the machinery of the human frame--and especially its
wonderful covering.
The skin is pierced with little openings or _pores_, so numerous that
some have reckoned them at a million to every square inch. At all
events, they are so small that the naked eye can neither distinguish nor
count them; and so numerous, that we cannot pierce the skin with the
finest needle without hitting one or more of them.
When we are in perfect health, and the skin clean, a gentle moisture or
mist continually oozes through these pores. This process is called
_perspiration_; and the moisture which thus escapes, the _matter_ of
perspiration.
Perspiration may be checked in two ways. 1. by filth on the skin; 2. by
what is commonly called taking cold--for taking cold essentially
consists in chilling the skin to such a degree as to stop, for some
time, the escape of this moisture. Most persons have doubtless observed,
that in the first stages of a cold, they frequently have a very dry
skin. Whereas, when we are in health, the skin usually feels moist.
Our health is not only endangered, and a foundation laid for fevers,
rheumatisms, and consumptions, by stopping the pores of the skin with
dirt, or anything else, but there is also danger from another and a very
different source.
The blood, in its circulation through the body, is constantly becoming
impure; and as it thus comes back impure to the heart, is as constantly
sent to the lungs, where it comes in close contact with the air which we
breathe, and is purified. But this same purifying process which goes on
in the lungs, goes on, too, if the skin is in a pure, free, healthy
condition, all over the surface of the body. If it is not--if the skin
cannot do this part of the work--an additional burden is thus laid on
the lungs, which in this way soon become so overworked, that they
cannot perform their own proportion of the labor. And whenever this
happens, the health must soon suffer.
The strange belief, that "dirt is healthy," has much influence on the
daily practice of thousands of those who are ignorant of the human
structure, and the laws which govern and regulate the animal economy. It
has probably originated in the well-known fact, that those children who
are allowed to play in the dirt, are often as healthy--and even _more_
healthy--than those who are confined to the nursery or the parlor.
Now, while it is admitted that this is a very common case, it is yet
believed that the former class of children would be still more vigorous
than they now are, if they were kept more cleanly, or were at least
frequently washed. It is not the dirt which promotes their health, but
their active exercise in the open air; the advantages of which are more
than sufficient to compensate for the injury which they sustain from the
dirt. That is to say, they retain, in spite of the dirt, better health
than those who are denied the blessings of pure air and abundant
exercise, and subjected to the opposite extreme of almost constant
confinement.
There is something deceitful, after all, in the ruddy, blooming
appearance of those children who are left by the busy parent to play in
the road or field, without attention to cleanliness. If this were not
so, how comes it to pass that they suffer much more, not only from
chronic, but from acute diseases, than children whose parents are in
better circumstances?
I am the more solicitous to combat a belief in the salutary tendency of
an unclean skin, because I know it prevails to some extent; and because
I know also, both from reason and from fact, that it is a gross error.
It is, however, true, that years sometimes intervene, before the evil
consequences of dirtiness appear. The office of the vessels of the skin
being interrupted, an increase of action is imposed on other parts,
especially on those internal organs commonly called glands, which action
is apt to settle into obstinate disease. Hence, at least when aided by
other causes, often arise, in later life, after the source of the evil
is forgotten, if it were ever suspected, rheumatism, scrofula, jaundice,
and even consumption.
There is a strange notion abroad, that the _smell_ of the earth is
beneficial, especially to consumptive persons. I honestly believe,
however, that it is more likely to create consumption than to cure it.
Besides, in what does this smell consist? Do the silex, the alumine, and
the other earths, with their compounds, emit any odor? Rarely, I
believe, unless when mixed with vegetable matter. But no gases
necessary to health are evolved during the decomposition of vegetable
matter; on the contrary, it is well known that many of them tend to
induce disease.
I am thoroughly persuaded that too much attention cannot be paid to
cleanliness; and the demand for such attention is equally imperious in
the case of those who cultivate the earth, or labor in it, or on stone,
during the intervals of their useful avocations, as in the case of those
individuals who follow other employments.
I must also protest against the doctrine, that the smell or taste of the
earth, much less a coat of it spread over the surface, and closing up,
for hours and days together, thousands and millions of those little
pores with which the Author of this "wondrous frame" has pierced the
skin, can have a salutary tendency.
The opinion has been even maintained, that uncleanly habits are not only
unfavorable to health, but to morality. There can be no doubt that he
who neglects his person and dress will be found lower in the scale of
morals, other things being equal, than he who pays a due regard to
cleanliness.
Some have supposed that a disposition to neglect personal cleanliness
was indicative of genius. But this opinion is grossly erroneous, and
has well nigh ruined many a young man.
I am far from recommending any degree of fastidiousness on this subject.
Truth and correct practice usually lie between extremes. But I do and
must insist, that the connection between cleanliness of body and purity
of moral character, is much more close and direct than has usually been
supposed.
But to return to the more immediate effects of cleanliness on health.
There is one class of diseases in particular which, in an eminent
degree, owe their origin to a neglect of cleanliness. I refer to the
bowel complaints so common among children during summer and autumn.
Except in case of teething, the use of unripe fruits, or the _abuse_ of
those which are in themselves excellent, it is probable that more than
half of the bowel complaints of the young are either produced or greatly
aggravated by a foul skin.
The importance of washing the whole body in water will be insisted on in
the chapter on Bathing; it is therefore unnecessary to say anything
farther on that subject in this place, except to observe that whether
the washings of the body be partial or general, they should be thorough,
so far as they are carried. There are thousands of children who, in
pretending to wash their hands and face, will do little more than wet
the inside of their hands, and the tips of their noses and ears unless
great care is taken.
Few things are more important than suitable changes of dress. There are
those, who, from principle, never wear the same under-garment but one
day without washing, either in summer or winter; and there are others
who, though they may wear an article without washing two or three
successive days, take care to change their dress at night--never
sleeping in a garment which they have worn during the day.
It is a very common objection to suggestions like these, that they will
do very well for those who have wealth, but not for the poor;--that
_they_ have neither the time nor the means of attending to them. How can
they change their clothes every day? we are asked. And how can they
afford to have a separate dress for the night?
There must be retrenchment in some other matters, it is admitted. In
order to find time for more washing, or money to pay others for the
labor, the poor must deny themselves a few things which they now
suppose, if they have ever thought at all on the subject, are conducive
to their happiness--but which are in reality either useless or
injurious. Something may be saved by a reasonable dress, as I have
already shown. Other items of expense, which might be spared with great
advantage to health and happiness, and applied to the purpose in
question, will be mentioned in the chapter on Food and Drink.