The Daily Spy

BATHING AND WASHING.
We have occasionally published articles on the importance of bathing and thorough washing. We now select from the Phrenological Journal a most excellent article on the mode of performing ablution according to different conditions of the system:
Bathing, with Directions for adapting its temperature to the State of the Patient. Of the utility of bathing, a very considerable portion of our communities are becoming so thoroughly convinced, that thousands practise it now where one adopted it ten years ago. The change is really astonishing. Mothers, by thousands, bathe or wash their children all over regularly. In the intelligent circles of Boston, for example, probably more bathe themselves and children than omit it. And this health promoting practice is rapidly extending throughout villages and towns, so much that an inquiry touching the best forms of bath, their temperature, times, etc., is becoming quite desirable and important. Hence this article.
Many, hearing cold ablutions so highly recommended, try them at first, perhaps, with benefit, but afterward with serious injury, which they attribute to the bath, whereas it belongs to the temperature. For many years after I began to bathe daily, I received unmingled benefits therefrom, and a great amount of it. By and by, my system became so reduced by excessive mental application, that reaction did not always take place, and it injured me. I therefore took it less frequently, and only when I was sure I possessed sufficient vitality to secure that reaction. Under this regimen my skin became weaker, colds and slight fevers began to make their appearance, and I became apprehensive for the future, till Dr North, of Saratoga, recommended not only the warm bath, but a very warm one; commencing at about 98 degrees Fahrenheit, and rising, at successive baths, to 110; remaining in it from fifteen to thirty minutes, as I could bear it. "Never mind," said he, "if it prostrates you for the time being.—You require that your blood should be brought to the surface, and this will do it, and thus fortify you against the winter's cold." He added this general rule, which struck me both as so reasonable and important, that I write this article mainly to promulgate it, namely—“When the system is over-excited, and requires to be reduced, take the cold bath; but when it is so debilitated as to require tonics, employ the warm bath." These warm baths did for me the very thing I required—namely, relieved my internal organs and head by directing the blood to the skin. A few hot baths so restored the action of the skin that it was benefited by the cold bath, which is always best when there is sufficient vitality in the system to produce the required reaction. He said he prescribed the warm bath instead of bitters, tonics, and stimulants—or where these were considered requisite in general practice; but the cold bath where depletion and salivation were formerly prescribed; that is, where the pulse was hard, the skin feverish, and the system required to be reduced. And this rule is undoubtedly correct. It will generally be found to agree with the patient's feelings—and this is, after all, the great test.
Another important rule is this: Whenever the patient instinctively shrinks from cold water, because it really pains him, use the tepid bath; but when cold water produces an agreeable sensation, and leaves a pleasant glow, the cold bath is preferable. Mark, I do not say when the bather thinks cold water will produce a painful shock; for many imagine it will affect them unfavorably, whereas, properly applied, it would produce delightful sensations. When the skin is hot and the system restless, and whenever there is positive pain, local or general, apply cold water; but when you feel weak or exhausted, use the warm bath.
Those whose nerves are over-excited or diseased, should generally use the tepid bath, because their nerves require quiet; whereas the shock caused by cold water only re-irritates them, and thus enhances disease; whereas tepid water soothes the nerves, and carries off diseased matter, besides opening the pores.
Our general rule, then, is this; that temperature of bath is best which feels best to you. But mark these three important directions: 1. Always, after the warm bath, wash off in cold water; for this closes the pores, and helps prevent taking cold after them, besides bracing the system. 2. Always, when you wash or bathe in cold water, employ sufficient action by swimming, or rubbing, or something else, to produce a subsequent glow; for this is indispensable, and its absence renders the bath injurious. 3. Keep up the circulation by subsequent exercise.
Many persons go shrinkingly and slowly into their baths. This is all wrong. Spring from your bed as though a great snake was crawling over you, jerk off your night clothes instantly, dash into the water as if for your life, rub as though you would blister your skin, wipe quickly, on with your clothes in double quick time, and go at something with might and main, till the blood courses briskly throughout your whole system, and you will feel almost like a new being.
The quantity of water bathed in is by no means unimportant. The body is charged with electricity, and water is a rapid conductor of this element. Hence none but robust persons should stay long in large bodies of water. One minute is too long for me to stay in a river, even in hot weather. Invalids should go only into small bodies of water, and will generally find the sponge, or hand bath, preferable, because small bodies of water become soon saturated with electricity, so that you can apply it the longer without its reducing the vital force below the re-acting point.
At warm or cold rooms best! Whichever feels best. When vigorous enough to insure re-action, I decidedly prefer cold rooms, and ice-cold water; but when not, warmer water and rooms. All these conditions each patient must determine for himself, and determine by that infallible guide, his own sensations.
Yet let all employ some kind of bath, either daily, or, at farthest, semi-weekly.