The following general rules should be carefully studied and thoroughly
understood by any one who expects to employ the bath. Much injury to
health and most of the discredit cast upon the use of water as a remedy
have arisen from a disregard of some of them:—
1. A full bath should never be taken within two or three hours after a
meal.
2. Such local baths as fomentations, compresses, foot baths, and even
sitz baths, may be taken an hour or two after a meal; indeed, compresses
and fomentations may be applied almost immediately after a light meal,
without injury.
3. Employ the thermometer to determine the temperature of every bath
when possible to do so; if not, employ the other methods described.
4. The temperature of the room during a bath should be 70° to 85°.
Invalids require a warmer room than persons in health. Thorough
ventilation is an important matter; but draughts must be carefully
prevented, by screens of netting placed before openings into the room
when necessary.
5. Never apply either very cold or excessively hot treatment to aged or
feeble patients. Cold is especially dangerous.
6. Hot baths are rarely useful in health. The warm bath answers all the
requirements of cleanliness.
7. Never take a cold bath when exhausted or chilly. A German emperor
lost his life by taking a cool bath after a fatiguing march. Alexander
came near losing his life in the same manner. Many have been rendered
cripples for life by so doing. No harm will result from a cool bath if
the body is simply warm, even though it may be in a state of
perspiration. Contrary to the common opinion, a considerable degree of
heat is the best possible preparation for a cold bath. The Finlanders
rush out of their hot ovens—sweat-houses—and roll in the snow, without
injury.
8. Cold baths should not be administered during the period of
menstruation in females. At such times, little bathing of any kind is
advisable with the exception of a warm or tepid sponge bath, or such
treatment as may be advised by a physician.
9. Bath attendants should carefully avoid giving “shocks” to nervous
people or to those inclined to apoplexy or affected with heart disease.
Shocks are unpleasant and unnecessary for any one.
10. Never apply to the head such treatment as will cause shock, as the
sudden cold douche, shower, or spray bath.
11. A light hand bath every morning will be none too frequent to
preserve scrupulous bodily cleanliness. More than a week should never be
allowed to elapse without a bath with warm water and soap.
12. The best time for treatment—especially cool treatment—is about three
hours after breakfast.
13. Always employ for bathing purposes the purest water attainable. Soft
water is greatly preferable to hard on many accounts.
14. Those not strong and vigorous should avoid drinking freely of cold
water just previous to a bath.
15. The head should always be wet before any bath; and the feet should
be warmed—if not already warm—by a hot foot bath, if necessary.
16. In applying a bath to sick persons, it should always be made of a
temperature agreeable to the feelings.
17. One very important element in the success of a bath is the dexterity
of the attendant. The patient should be inspired with confidence both in
the bath and in the skill of the attendant. The mind has much to do with
the effect of a bath.
18. In general baths, the patient, unless feeble, will derive benefit by
assisting himself as much as possible.
19. Patients should receive due attention during a bath, so that they
may not feel that they are forgotten. Nervous patients often become very
apprehensive on this account. It is also important, in most cases, that
a reasonable degree of quietude should be maintained.
20. When any unusual or unexpected symptoms appear during a bath, the
patient should be removed at once.
21. In case symptoms of faintness appear, as is sometimes the case in
feeble patients, during a hot bath, apply cold water to the head and
face, give cool water to drink, lower the temperature of the bath by
adding cool water, and place the patient as nearly as possible in a
horizontal position.
22. The temperature of a warm or hot bath should always be decreased
just before its termination as a precaution against taking cold.
23. In health, a cool or cold bath should be very brief, lasting not
more than one or two minutes. A tepid bath should last not more than ten
or fifteen minutes. A warm bath may be continued thirty or forty
minutes, or even longer, but nothing could be more absurd than the
custom prevailing in some places of prolonging the bath to great length.
At Pfeffers and Leuck, in Switzerland, many persons spend the whole day
in the water, taking their meals on floating tables, and occupying their
time in reading, playing chess, and other games. Some remain in the
water as many as sixteen hours out of the twenty-four. Of course,
certain baths may be advantageously prolonged in cases of disease; but
no intelligent physician will now recommend the antiquated practice
which we sometimes see represented by a patient seated in a tub, with an
open book in hand.
24. It is of extreme importance that the patient should be carefully
dried after any bath. A large sheet is much better for this purpose than
a towel. An old linen or cotton sheet is preferable to a new one, being
softer. Full directions are given under the heading, “Dry
Rubbing-Sheet.”