=The Hygienic Value of Water.=—If we except pure air, it may safely be
said that no other element in nature sustains so important relations to
the living system as does pure water. An individual will live much
longer on water alone, than if deprived of drink. Water constitutes a
large proportion of all our food, varying, in grains and vegetables,
from fifteen to more than ninety per cent. If the water thus contained
in solid food were wholly removed, an individual would doubtless be
enabled to subsist longer on water only than on solid food so treated.
Though water undergoes no change in the body, and hence takes no part in
the development of force, it is absolutely essential to the performance
of the vital functions, being necessary to enable the various organs to
perform their offices in the maintenance of the vital activities.
The circulatory system is especially dependent upon this element. Water
is the menstruum which floats the blood corpuscles and the varied
nutritive and excrementitious elements which form the blood. By its aid,
the nutrient particles destined to enter into the structure of the body
are conveyed to the most minute and remote fiber of the intricate human
mechanism where repair or growth is demanded. No other element in nature
is so well suited to this exact purpose as water. It is so limpid and
mobile that it can circulate through the most delicate capillaries
without friction, and can even find its way, by osmosis, into parts
inaccessible by openings.
=Thirst.=—Water is continually passing away from the body. The dry air
entering the lungs by respiration absorbs it from the moist surface of
the pulmonary membranes. A large portion is lost by evaporation from the
skin, upon which it is poured out by millions of little sewers, the
perspiratory ducts, for the purpose of washing away impurities from the
system. The kidneys remove a considerable quantity, with poisonous
excrementitious elements in solution. Through still other channels water
is removed, aggregating, in all, the amount of five pints in twenty-four
hours in the average individual. This loss must be made good, in order
to preserve the requisite fluidity of the blood; and nature expresses
the demand for water by thirst.
Some people rarely drink liquid of any kind. Others consume several
pints in a day. The nature of an individual’s occupation will in a
measure determine the amount of drink required. Stokers, glass-blowers,
and others whose vocation necessitates profuse perspiration, require
more water than others. It will be noticed, moreover, that the character
of the diet has much to do with the demand for drink. Those who subsist
mostly upon fruits and grains, and other vegetable productions, avoiding
the use of stimulating and irritating condiments, require little or no
addition to the juices contained in their food. Those who pursue an
opposite course in dietetics, using largely animal food, salt, pepper,
spices, and other condiments, and perhaps taking a little wine or
something stronger for their stomach’s sake, are under the necessity of
taking considerable quantities of fluid in addition to that provided by
their food.
Water is the only substance which will quench thirst. Beverages which
contain other substances are useful as drinks just in proportion to the
amount of water which they contain, and are unwholesome just in
proportion as the added elements are injurious.
=Regulation of Temperature.=—The evaporation of water from the surface
of the human body is one of the most admirable adaptations of means to
ends exhibited in animal life. All of the vital activities in constant
operation in the body occasion the production of heat. Sometimes the
amount of heat is greater than is needed, and so great as would destroy
the vitality of certain tissues if it were not speedily conducted away.
By evaporation of water from the skin, this is accomplished. When
external heat is great, perspiration is more active than when it is
less, and thus the temperature of the body is maintained at about 100°
F. under all circumstances. By this wonderful provision of nature, man
is enabled to exist under the great extremes of heat and cold presented
in the frigid regions at the poles and the torrid climate of the
equator. By the aid of clothing, human beings have survived a continued
temperature of 60° to 100° below zero; and, by the protective influence
of evaporation, an average of 100° above zero has been endured in
tropical climes. For short periods, so great a degree of heat as 350°
F., or even 600° has been borne with impunity in exceptional instances.
In these cases the extreme heat which would otherwise reduce the body to
a cinder in a few moments is rapidly conducted away by evaporation
without occasioning any damage.
=Depuration.=—Every thought, every movement, the most delicate vital
action, occasions the destruction of a portion of the living tissues,
which is thus converted into dead matter, and becomes poisonous. Many
kinds of poisonous substances are produced within the body in this way.
Some of them are very deadly, and must be hurried out of the system with
great rapidity, as _urea_ and _cholesterine_. Here the marvelous utility
of water is again displayed. It dissolves these poisons wherever it
comes in contact with them, and then as it is brought by the current of
the circulation to the proper organs—the kidneys, liver, skin, lungs,
and other emunctories—it is expelled from the body, still holding in
solution the animal poisons which are so rapidly fatal if retained.
=Cleanliness.=—The skin is one of the most important depurating organs
of the whole body. From each of its millions of pores constantly flows a
stream laden with the poisonous products of disintegration. As the water
evaporates, it leaves behind these non-volatile poisons, which are
deposited as a thin film over the whole surface of the skin. As each day
passes, the process continues, and the film thickens. If the skin is
moderately active, three or four days suffice to form a layer which may
be compared to a thin coating of varnish or sizing. The accumulation
continues to increase, unless removed, and soon undergoes further
processes of decomposition. It putrefies, rots, in fact, and develops an
odor characteristic and quite too familiar, though anything but
pleasant, being at once foul, fetid, putrid, pungent, uncleanly, and
unpardonable.
But the offense to the nose is not the extent of the evil. The unclean
accumulation chokes the mouths of the million little sewers which should
be engaged in eliminating these poisons, and thus obstructs their work.
Being retained in contact with the skin, some portions are reabsorbed,
together with the results of advancing decay, thus repoisoning the
system, and necessitating their elimination a second time.
Here water serves a most useful end if properly applied. It is
unexcelled as a detergent, and by frequent application to the skin will
keep it wholly free from the foul matters described. The necessity for
frequent ablutions is well shown by the fact that nearly two pounds of a
poison-laden solution, the perspiration, is daily spread upon the
surface of the body. It is not an uncommon occurrence to meet with
people who have never taken a general bath in their lives. Imagine, if
possible, the condition of a man’s skin, at the age of seventy or eighty
years, which has never once felt the cleansing effects of a thorough
bath!
One of the most serious effects of this accumulation of filth is the
clogging of the perspiratory ducts. Their valve-like orifices become
obstructed very easily, and depuration is then impossible. It is not
wonderful that so many people have torpid skins. The remedy is obvious,
and always available.
=How to Make the Skin Healthy.=—A man who has a perfectly healthy skin
is nearly certain to be healthy in other respects. In no way can the
health of the skin be preserved but by frequent bathing. A daily or
tri-weekly bath, accompanied by friction, will keep the skin clean,
supple, and vigorous. There is no reason why the whole surface of the
body should not be washed as well as the face and hands. The addition of
a little soap is necessary to remove the oily secretion deposited upon
the skin.
A lady of fashion, in enumerating the means for preserving beauty, says:
“Cleanliness, my last recipe (and which is applicable to all ages), is
of most powerful efficacy. It maintains the limbs in their pliancy, the
skin in its softness, the complexion in its luster, the eyes in their
brightness, the teeth in their purity, and the constitution in its
fairest vigor. To promote cleanliness, I can recommend nothing
preferable to bathing. The frequent use of tepid baths is not more
grateful to the sense than it is salutary to the health and to
beauty.... By such means, the women of the East render their skins
softer than that of the tenderest babe in this climate.” “I strongly
recommend to every lady to make a bath as indispensable an article in
her house as a looking-glass.”
When the foul matters which ought to be eliminated by the skin and
quickly removed from the body are allowed to remain unremoved, the skin
becomes clogged and inactive, soon loses its natural luster and color,
becoming dead, dark, and unattractive. When bathing is so much
neglected, it is no marvel that paints, powders, lotions, and cosmetics
of all sorts, are in such great demand. A daily bath, at the proper
temperature, is the most agreeable and efficient of all cosmetics.
=Bathing Protects against Colds.=—It is an erroneous notion that bathing
renders a person more liable to “take cold, by opening the pores.” Colds
are produced by disturbance of the circulation, and not by opening or
closing the pores of the skin. Frequent bathing increases the activity
of the circulation in the skin, so that a person is far less subject to
chilliness and to taking cold. An individual who takes a daily bath has
almost perfect immunity from colds, and is little susceptible to changes
of temperature. Colds are sometimes taken after bathing, but this
results from some neglect of the proper precautions necessary to prevent
such an occurrence, which are carefully stated elsewhere in this work.
=Aristocratic Vermin.=—Doubtless, not a few of those very refined and
fastidious people who spend many hours in the application of all sorts
of lotions and other compounds to the face and hands, for the purpose of
beautifying those portions of the skin exposed to view—while neglecting
as persistently those parts of the skin protected from observation—would
be very much surprised to learn the true condition of the unwashed
portions of their cutaneous covering. They instinctively shrink with
disgust from the sight of a vermin-covered beggar, in whose cuticle
burrows the _acarus scabiei_ (itch-mite), while troops of larger insects
are racing through his tangled locks and nibbling at his scaly scalp. It
is quite possible that many a fair “unwashed” would faint with fright if
apprized of the fact that her own precious covering is the home of whole
herds of horrid looking parasites which so nearly resemble the itch-mite
as to be at least very near relatives, perhaps half-brothers or cousins.
The name of this inhabitant of skins unwashed is as formidable as the
aspect of the creature, though it does not require a microscope to
display its proportions, as does the latter; scientists call it _demodex
folliculorum_.
The _demodex_ makes himself at home in the sebaceous follicles, where he
dwells with his family. Here the female lays her eggs and rears her
numerous progeny, undisturbed by the frictions of any flesh-brush, and
only suffering a very transient deluge at very long intervals, if such a
casualty ever happens. In studying the structure of these little
parasites, we have found several tenants occupying a single follicle,
pursuing their domestic operations quite unmolested by any external
disturbance.
The _demodex_ has been transplanted from the human subject to the dog;
and it is found that the new colony thrives very remarkably, and soon
produces a disease apparently identical with that known as “mange.”
We have not space to describe in detail these savage little brutes, with
their eight legs, armed with sharp claws, bristling heads, sharp lancets
for puncturing and burrowing into the skin, and their powerful suckers
for drawing the blood of their victims. We only care to impress upon the
mind of the reader the fact that neglect of bathing and friction of the
skin is sure to encourage the presence of millions of these parasites,
and that the only remedy is scrupulous cleanliness of the whole person.
Like their relatives, the itch-mite, they do not thrive under
hydropathic treatment, and are very averse to soap and water. The best
way to get rid of them is to drown them out. They do not produce the
irritation which characterizes the presence of the itch insect, so that
this evidence of their presence is wanting. But they are sure to be
present in a torpid, unhealthy, unwashed skin, no matter how delicate or
fastidious its possessor.
=Prevention of Disease.=—Neglecting to keep the skin active and vigorous
by frequent ablutions is one of the most prolific causes of nearly all
varieties of skin diseases, which are too often aggravated by gross
dietetic habits. The relation between the cutaneous function and that of
the kidneys is so intimate that neglect of the kind mentioned, resulting
as it must in obstruction of function, is a very common cause of most
dangerous disorders of the renal organs. Inactivity of the skin is also
very commonly associated with dyspepsia, with rheumatism, gout,
hysteria, and other nervous derangements. It is also a not uncommon
cause of bronchial and pulmonary affections. It is quite evident, then,
that the proper and most efficient means of preventing these diseases is
to maintain the functional vigor of the skin by the proper application
of water.
The value of water as a prophylactic, or preventive, of disease, was
recognized by the ancients, and the bath was employed by them to an
extent which has never been equaled in modern times. The great Hebrew
lawgiver, Moses, enjoined upon his followers the most scrupulous
cleanliness, making bathing a part of their religious duties. His
example was followed by the ingenious founder of Mohammedanism, who
required his disciples to bathe before each of their five daily prayers.
Among the Greeks, and especially the temperate Spartans, the bath was
regarded as one of the most essential means of securing physical health.
Daily ablutions were practiced by them, every person participating in
the bath, from the newborn babe to the oldest inhabitant. The Romans
cultivated bathing to a remarkable extent, making it a luxury rather
than the dreaded penance which many moderns seem to regard it.
=Modern Neglect of the Bath.=—The most celebrated physicians, from
Hippocrates down to Galen, Celsus, Boerhaave, and a host of more modern
physicians, have agreed in eulogizing the bath as an invaluable means
for preserving the health. Notwithstanding this fact, it seems that as
civilization and enlightenment have advanced, the importance of the bath
has been increasingly disregarded. The magnificent public baths of the
Romans were neglected as that empire declined, until they were finally
destroyed. Michelet, a historian of some note, tells us that for a
thousand years during the Dark Ages the bath was unknown in Europe. This
fact alone is in his opinion sufficient to account for the terrible
plagues and pestilences of that period. A modern writer declares that in
Spain the religious instincts of the people have become so perverted
that it is considered sacrilege for a woman to bathe more than once in
her life, which is upon the eve of her marriage. In more enlightened
countries, it is to be hoped that the condition of the feminine cuticle
is not quite so bad as this; but another writer, an Englishman, asserts
that a large proportion of his countrymen “never submitted themselves to
an entire personal ablution in their lives, and many an octogenarian has
sunk into his grave with the accumulated dirt of eighty years upon his
skin.” American customs in this respect are not much better than the
English; but it is gratifying to know that a very perceptible
improvement is becoming evident in both countries. Our intercourse with
Oriental nations and barbarians has taught us wholesome lessons in the
care of the person. There is scarcely a savage tribe to be found in the
deepest jungles of tropical Africa the members of which do not pay more
attention to the preservation of a clean and healthy skin than the
average American or Englishman.
=Bathing a Natural Instinct.=—All nature attests the importance of the
bath. The rain is a natural shower bath in which all vegetation
participates, and gains refreshment. Its invigorating influence is seen
in the brighter appearance, more erect bearing, and fresher colors, of
all plants after a gentle rain. The flowers manifest their gratitude by
exhaling in greater abundance their fragrant odors. Dumb animals do not
neglect their morning bath. Who has not seen the robin skimming along
the surface of the lake or stream, dipping its wings in the cool waters,
and laving its plumage with the crystal drops which its flapping pinions
send glittering into the air? No school boy who has ever seen the
elephant drink will forget how the huge beast improved the opportunity
to treat himself to a shower bath, and perhaps the spectators as well,
for he is very generous in his use of water.
If man’s instincts were not rendered obtuse by the perverted habits of
civilization, he would value the bath as highly and employ it as freely
as his more humble fellow-creatures, whose instinctive impulses have
remained more true to nature, because they have not possessed that
degree of intelligence which would make it possible for them to become
so grossly perverted as have the members of the human race. Man goes
astray from nature not because he is deficient in instinct, but because
he stifles the promptings of his better nature for the purpose of
gratifying his propensities.