upon minutiæ? Every one, without being told, knows how to wash himself!”
I reply, “That very few people do know how to wash themselves properly;
it is a misfortune they do not—they would be both much healthier and
happier if they did!”
303. _Have you any remarks to make on boys and girls learning to swim?_
Let me strongly urge you to let your sons and daughters be _early_
taught to swim. Swimming is a glorious exercise—one of the best that can
be taken; it expands the chest; it promotes digestion; it develops the
muscles, and brings into action some muscles that in any other form of
exercise are but seldom brought into play; it strengthens and braces the
whole frame, and thus makes the swimmer resist the liability of catching
colds; it gives both boys and girls courage, energy, and
self-reliance,—splendid qualities in this rough world of ours. Swimming
is oftentimes the means of saving human life; this of itself would be a
great recommendation of its value. It is a delightful amusement; to
breast the waves is as exhilarating to the spirits as clearing on
horseback a five-barred gate.
The art of learning to swim is quite as necessary to be learned by a
girl as by a boy; the former has similar muscles, lungs, and other
organs to develop as the latter. It is very desirable that in large
towns swimming-baths for ladies should be instituted.
Swimming ought, then, to be a part and parcel of the education of every
boy and of every girl.
Swimming does not always agree. This sometimes arises from a person
being quite cold before he plunges into the water. Many people have an
idea that they ought to go into the water while their bodies are in a
cool state. Now this is a mistaken notion, and is likely to produce
dangerous consequences. The skin ought to be comfortably warm, neither
very hot nor very cold, and then the bather will receive every advantage
that cold bathing can produce. If he go into the bath while the body is
cold, the blood becomes chilled, and is driven to internal parts, and
thus mischief is frequently produced.
A boy, after using cold bathing, ought, if it _agree_ with him, to
experience a pleasing glow over the whole surface of his body, his
spirits and appetite should be increased, and he ought to feel stronger;
but if it _disagree_ with him, a chilliness and coldness, a lassitude
and a depression of spirits, will be the result; the face will be pale
and the features will be pinched, and, in some instances, the lips and
the nails will become blue; all these are signs that _cold_ bathing is
injurious, and, therefore, that it ought on no account to be persevered
in, unless these symptoms have hitherto proceeded from his going into
the bath while he was quite cold. He may, previously to entering the
bath, warm himself by walking briskly for a few minutes. Where _cold_
sea-water bathing does not agree, _warm_ sea bathing should be
substituted.
304. _Which do you prefer—sea bathing or fresh-water bathing?_
Sea bathing. Sea bathing is incomparably superior to fresh-water
bathing; the salt water is far more refreshing and invigorating; the
battling with the waves is more exciting; the sea breezes, blowing on
the nude body, breathes (for the skin is a breathing apparatus) health
and strength into the frame, and comeliness into the face; the sea water
and the sea breezes are splendid cosmetics; the salt water is one of the
finest applications, both for strengthening the roots and brightening
the color of the hair, provided grease and pomatum have not been
previously used.
305. _Have you any directions to give as to the time and the seasons,
and the best mode of sea bathing?_
Summer and autumn are the best seasons of the year for cold sea
bathing—August and September being the best months. To prepare the skin
for the cold sea bathing, it would be well, before taking a dip in the
sea, to have on the previous day a warm salt-water bath. It is
injurious, and even dangerous, to bathe _immediately_ after a _full_
meal; the best time to bathe is about two hours after breakfast—that is
to say, at about eleven or twelve o’clock in the forenoon. The bather,
as soon as he enters the water, _ought instantly_ to wet his head; this
may be done either by his jumping at once from the machine into the
water, or, if he have not the courage to do so, by plunging his head
without loss of time _completely_ under the water. He should remain in
the water about a quarter of an hour, but never longer than half an
hour.
Many bathers by remaining a long time in the water do themselves great
injury. If sea bathing be found to be invigorating—and how often to the
delicate it has proved to be truly magical—a patient may bathe once
every day, but on no account oftener. If he be not strong, he had
better, at first, bathe only every other day, or even only twice a week.
The bather, after leaving the machine, ought, for half an hour, to take
a brisk walk in order to promote a reaction, and thus to cause a free
circulation of the blood.
306. _Do you think a tepid bath may be more safely used?_
A tepid bath may be taken at almost any time; and a bather may remain
longer in one, with safety, than in a cold bath. A tepid bath from 62 to
96 degrees of Fahrenheit.
307. _Do you approve of warm bathing?_
A warm bath may, with advantage, be occasionally used—say once a week. A
warm bath from 97 to 100 degrees of Fahrenheit. A warm bath cleanses the
skin more effectually than either a cold or a tepid bath; but, as it is
more relaxing, ought not to be employed so often as either of them. A
person should not continue longer than ten minutes in a warm bath. Once
a week, as a rule, is quite often enough for a warm bath; and it would
be an excellent plan if every boy and girl and adult would make a
practice of having one _regularly_ every week, unless any special reason
should arise to forbid its use.
308. _But does not warm bathing, by relaxing the pores of the skin,
cause a person to catch cold if he expose himself to the air immediately
afterward?_
There is, on this point, a great deal of misconception and unnecessary
fear. A person, _immediately_ after using a warm bath, should take
proper precautions—that is to say, he must not expose himself to
draughts, neither ought he to wash himself in _cold_ water, nor should
he, _immediately_ after taking one, drink _cold_ water. But he may
follow his usual exercise or employment, provided the weather be fine,
and the wind be neither in the east nor the northeast.
Every house of any pretension ought to have a bath-room. Nothing would
be more conducive to health than regular systematic bathing. A hot and
cold bath, a sitz bath and a shower bath—each and all in their turn—are
grand requisites to preserve and procure health. If the house cannot
boast of a bath-room, then the Corporation baths (which nearly every
large town possesses) ought to be liberally patronized.
309. _What is the best application for the hair?_
A sponge and _cold_ water, and two good hair-brushes. Avoid grease,
pomatum, bandaline, and all abominations of that kind. There is a
natural oil of the hair, which is far superior to either Rowland’s
Macassar oil or any other oil! The best scent for the hair is an
occasional dressing of soap and water; the best beautifier of the hair
is a downright thorough good brushing with two good hair-brushes! Again,
I say, _avoid grease of all kinds to the hair_. “And as for women’s
hair, don’t plaster it with scented and sour grease, or with any grease;
it has an oil of its own. And don’t tie up your hair tight, and make it
like a cap of iron over your scull. And why are your ears covered? You
hear all the worse, and they are not the clearer. Besides, the ear is
beautiful in itself, and plays its own part in the concert of the
features.”
If the hair cannot, without some application, be kept tidy, then a
little of the best sweet oil might, by means of an old tooth-brush, be
used to smoothe it; sweet oil is, for the purpose, one of the most
simple and harmless of dressings; but, as I said before, the hair’s own
natural oil cannot be equaled, far less surpassed!
If the hair fall off, castor oil, scented with a few drops of essence of
bergamot and oil of lavender, is a good remedy to prevent its doing so;
a little of it ought, night and morning, to be well rubbed into the
roots of the hair. Cocoanut oil is another excellent application for the
falling off of the hair.
CLOTHING.
310. _Do you approve of a boy wearing flannel next the skin?_
England is so variable a climate, and the changes from heat to cold, and
from dryness to moisture of the atmosphere, are so sudden, that some
means are required to guard against their effects. Flannel, as it is a
bad conductor of heat, prevents the sudden changes from effecting the
body, and thus is a great preservative against cold.
Flannel is as necessary in the summer as in the winter time; indeed, we
are more likely both to sit and to stand in draughts in the summer than
in the winter; and thus we are more liable to become chilled and to
catch cold.
Woolen shirts are now much worn; they are very comfortable and
beneficial to health. Moreover, they simplify the dress, as they
supersede the necessity of wearing either both flannel and linen, or
flannel and calico shirts.
311. _Flannel sometimes produces great irritation of the skin; what
ought to be done to prevent it?_
Have a moderately fine flannel, and persevere in its use; the skin in a
few days will bear it comfortably. The Angola and wove-silk waistcoats
have been recommended as substitutes, but there is nothing equal to the
old-fashioned Welsh flannel.
312. _If a boy have delicate lungs, do you approve of his wearing a
prepared hare-skin over the chest?_
I do not. The chest may be kept too warm as well as too cold. The
hare-skin heats the chest too much, and thereby promotes a violent
perspiration; which, by his going into the cold air, may become suddenly
checked, and may thus produce mischief. If the chest be delicate, there
is nothing like flannel to ward off colds.
313. _After an attack of Rheumatic Fever, what extra clothing do you
advise?_
In the case of a boy, or a girl, just recovering from a severe attack of
rheumatic fever, flannel next the skin ought always to be worn—flannel
drawers as well as a flannel vest.
314. _Have you any remarks to make on boys’ waistcoats?_
Fashion in this, as in most other instances, is at direct variance with
common sense. It would seem that fashion was intended to make work for
the doctor, and to swell the bills of mortality! It might be asked, what
part of the chest, in particular, ought to be kept warm? The upper part
needs it most. It is in the _upper_ part of the lungs that tubercles
(consumption) usually first make their appearance; and is it not
preposterous to have such parts, in particular, kept cool?
Double-breasted waistcoats cannot be too strongly recommended for
_delicate_ youths and for all men who have _weak_ chests.
315. _Have you any directions to give respecting the shoes and the
stockings?_
The shoes for winter should be moderately thick and water-proof. If boys
and girls be delicate, they ought to have double soles to their shoes,
with a piece of bladder between each sole, or the inner sole may be made
of cork; either of the above plans will make the soles of boots and
shoes completely water-proof. In wet or dirty weather, india-rubber
overshoes are useful, as they keep the _upper_ as well as the _under_
leathers perfectly dry.
The socks or stockings, for winter, ought to be either lamb’s-wool or
worsted; it is absurd to wear _cotton_ socks or stockings all the year
round. I should advise a boy to wear socks, not stockings; as he will
then be able to dispense with garters. Garters, as I have remarked in a
previous Conversation, are injurious—they not only interfere with the
circulation of the blood, but also, by pressure, injure the bones, and
thus the shape of the legs.
Boys and girls cannot be too particular in keeping their feet warm and
dry, as cold wet feet are one of the most frequent exciting causes of
bronchitis, of sore throats, and of consumption.
316. _When should a girl begin to wear stays?_
She ought never to wear them.
317. _Do not stays strengthen the body?_
No; on the contrary, they weaken it. (1) _They weaken the muscles._ The
pressure upon them causes them to waste; so that, in the end, a girl
cannot do without them, as the stays are then obliged to perform the
duty of the wasted muscles. (2) _They weaken the lungs_ by interfering
with their functions. Every inspiration is accompanied by a movement of
the ribs. If this movement be impeded, the functions of the lungs are
impeded likewise; and, consequently, disease is likely to follow; and
either difficulty of breathing, or cough, or consumption, may ensue. (3)
_They weaken the heart’s action_, and thus frequently produce
palpitation, and, perhaps, eventually organic or incurable disease of
the heart. (4) _They weaken the digestion_, by pushing down the stomach
and the liver, and by compressing the latter; and thus induce
indigestion, flatulence, and liver disease. (5) _They weaken the
bowels_, by impeding their proper peristaltic (spiral) motion, and thus
might produce either constipation or a rupture. Several years ago, while
prosecuting my anatomical studies in London University College
Dissecting-rooms, on opening a young woman, I discovered an immense
indentation of the liver large enough to admit a rolling-pin, entirely
produced by tight lacing!
Is it not presumptuous to imagine that man can improve upon God’s works;
and that if more support had been required the Almighty would not have
given it!
“God never made his work for man to mend.”
318. _Have you any remarks to make on female dress?_
There is a perfect disregard of health in every thing appertaining to
fashion. Parts that ought to be kept warm, remain unclothed: the _upper_
portion of the chest, most prone to tubercles (consumption), is
completely exposed; the feet, great inlets to cold, are covered with
thin stockings, and with shoes as thin as paper. Parts that should have
full play are cramped and hampered; the chest is cribbed in with stays,
the feet with _tight_ shoes,—hence causing deformity, and preventing a
free circulation of blood. The mind, that ought to be calm and
unruffled, is kept in a constant state of excitement by balls, and
concerts, and plays. Mind and body sympathize with each other, and
disease is the consequence. Night is turned into day; and a delicate
girl leaves the heated ball-room, decked out in her airy finery, to
breathe the damp and cold air of night. She goes to bed, but, for the
first few hours, she is too much excited to sleep; toward morning, when
the air is pure and invigorating, and, when to breathe it, would be to
inhale health and life, she falls into a feverish slumber, and wakes not
until noonday. Oh, that a mother should be so blinded and so infatuated!
319. _Have you any observations to make on a girl wearing a green
dress?_
It is injurious to wear a _green_ dress, if the color have been imparted
to it by means of _Scheele’s green_, which is arsenite of copper—a
deadly poison. I have known the arsenic to fly off from a _green_ dress
in the form of powder, and to produce, in consequence, ill health.
Gas-light green is a lovely green, and free from all danger, and is
fortunately superseding the Scheele’s green both in dresses and in
worsted work. I should advise my fair reader, when she selects green as
her color, always to choose the gas-light green, and to wear and to use
for worsted work no other green besides.
DIET.
320. _Which is the most wholesome, coffee or tea, where milk does not
agree, for a youth’s breakfast?_
Coffee, provided it be made properly, and provided the boy or the girl
take a great deal of out-door exercise; if a youth be much confined
within doors, black tea is preferable to coffee. The usual practice of
making coffee is to boil it, to get out the strength! But the fact is,
the process of boiling boils the strength away; it drives off that
aromatic, grateful principle, so wholesome to the stomach, and so
exhilarating to the spirits; and, in lieu of which, extracts its dregs
and impurities, which are both heavy and difficult of digestion. The
coffee ought, if practicable, to be _freshly_ ground every morning, in
order that you may be quite sure that it be perfectly genuine, and that
none of the aroma of the coffee has flown off from long exposure to the
atmosphere. If a youth’s bowels be inclined to be costive, coffee is
preferable to tea for breakfast, as coffee tends to keep the bowels
regular. Fresh milk ought always to be added to the coffee in the
proportion of half coffee and half new milk. If coffee does not agree,
then _black_ tea should be substituted, which ought to be taken with
plenty of fresh milk in it. Milk may be frequently given in tea, when it
otherwise would disagree.
When a youth be delicate, it is an excellent plan to give him every
morning before he leaves his bed, a tumblerful of _new_ milk. The
draught of milk, of course, is not in any way to interfere with his
regular breakfast.
321. _Do you approve of a boy eating meat with his breakfast?_
This will depend upon the exercise he uses. If he have had a good walk
or run before breakfast, or if he intend, after breakfast, to take
plenty of athletic out-door exercise, meat, or a rasher or two of bacon,
may, with advantage be eaten, but not otherwise.
322. _What is the best dinner for a youth?_
Fresh mutton or beef, a variety of vegetables, and a farinaceous
pudding. It is a bad practice to allow him to dine exclusively, either
on a fruit-pudding or on any other pudding, or on pastry. Unless he be
ill, he must, if he is to be healthy, strong, and courageous, eat meat
every day of his life. “All courageous animals are carnivorous, and
greater courage is to be expected in a people, such as the English,
whose food is strong and hearty, than in the half-starved commonalty of
other countries.”
Let him be debarred from rich soups and from high-seasoned dishes, which
only disorder the stomach and inflame the blood. It is a mistake to give
a boy or girl broth or soup, in lieu of meat for dinner; the stomach
takes such slops in a grumbling way, and is not at all satisfied. It may
be well, occasionally, to give a youth with his dinner, _in addition to
his meat_, either good soup or good broth, not highly seasoned, made of
good _meat_ stock. But after all that can be said on the subject, a
plain joint of meat, either roast or boiled, is far superior for health
and strength than either soup or broth, let it be ever so good or so
well made.
He should be desired to take plenty of time over his dinner, so that he
may be able to chew his food well, and thus that it may be reduced to an
impalpable mass, and be well mixed with the saliva,—which the action of
the jaws will cause to be secreted—before it passes into the stomach. If
such were usually the case, the stomach would not have double duty to
perform, and a boy would not so frequently lay the foundation of
indigestion, etc., which may embitter and even make miserable his
after-life.
Meat, plain pudding, vegetables, bread, and hunger for sauce (which
exercise will readily give), is the best, and indeed, should be as a
rule, the only dinner he should have. A youth ought not to dine later
than two o’clock.
323. _Do you consider broths and soups wholesome?_
The stomach can digest solid much more readily than it can liquid food;
on which account the dinner specified above is far preferable to one
either broth or of soup.
Fluids in large quantities too much dilute the gastric juice and
over-distend the stomach, and hence weaken it, and thus produce
indigestion.
324. _Do you approve of a boy drinking beer with his dinner?_
There is no objection to a little good, mild table-beer, but _strong_
ale ought never to be allowed. It is, indeed, questionable, whether a
boy, unless he takes unusual exercise, requires anything but water with
his meals.
325. _Do you approve of a youth, more especially if he be weakly, having
a glass or two of wine after dinner?_
I disapprove of it. His young blood does not require to be inflamed and
his sensitive nerves excited with wine; and if he be delicate, I should
be sorry to endeavor to strengthen him by giving him such an inflammable
fluid. If he be weakly, he is more predisposed to put on either fever or
inflammation of some organ; and, being thus predisposed, wine would be
likely to excite either the one or the other of them into action. A
parent ought on no account to allow a boy to touch spirits, however much
diluted; they are to the young still more deadly in their effects than
wine.
326. _Have you any objections to a youth drinking tea?_
Not at all, provided it be not _green_ tea, that it be not made strong,
and that it have plenty of milk in it. Green tea is apt to make people
nervous, and boys and girls ought not even to know what it is to be
nervous.
327. _Do you object to supper for a youth?_
Meat suppers are highly prejudicial. If he be hungry (and if he have
been much in the open air, he is almost sure to be), a piece of bread
and cheese, or of bread and butter, with a draught either of new milk or
of table-beer, will form the best supper he can have. He ought not to
sup later than eight o’clock.
328. _Do you approve of a boy having anything between meals?_
I do not; let him have four meals a day, and he will require nothing in
the intervals. It is a mistaken notion that “little and often is best.”
The stomach requires rest as much as, or perhaps more than (for it is
frequently sadly overworked) any other part of the body. I do not mean
that he is to have “_much_ and seldom”: moderation, in everything, is to
be observed. Give him as much as a growing boy requires (_and that is a
great deal_), but do not let him eat gluttonously, as many indulgent
parents encourage their children to do. Intemperance in eating cannot be
too strongly condemned.
329. _Have you any objections to a boy having pocket money?_
It is a bad practice to allow a boy _much_ pocket money; if he be so
allowed, he will be loading his stomach with sweets, fruit, and pastry,
and thus his stomach will become cloyed and disordered, and the keen
appetite, so characteristic of youth, will be blunted, and ill health
will ensue. “In a public education, boys early learn temperance, and if
the parents and friends would give them less money upon their usual
visits, it would be much to their advantage, since it may justly be said
that a great part of their disorders arise from surfeit, ‘_plus occidit
gula quam gladius_’ (gluttony kills more than the sword).”
How true is the saying that “many people dig their graves with their
teeth.” You may depend upon it that more die from stuffing than from
starvation!
AIR AND EXERCISE.
330. _Have you any remarks to make on fresh air and exercise for boys
and girls?_
Girls and boys, especially the former, are too much confined within
doors. It is imperatively necessary, if you wish them to be strong and
healthy, that they should have plenty of fresh air and exercise;
remember, I mean fresh air—country air, not the close air of a town. By
exercise, I mean the free unrestrained use of the limbs. Girls, in this
respect, are unfortunately worse off than boys, although they have
similar muscles to develop, similar lungs that require fresh air, and
similar nerves to be braced and strengthened. It is not considered
ladylike to be natural—all their movements must be measured by rule and
compass!
The reason why so many young girls of the present day are so sallow,
undersized, and ill-shaped, is for the want of air and exercise. After a
time the want of air and exercise, by causing ill health, makes them
slothful and indolent—it is a trouble for them to move from their
chairs!