Muscatine Weekly Journal

The following is from Dr. Mayo G. Smith on the subject, and is worthy of consideration:

There are in the human body 2,700,000 glands and 7,000,000 pores, from 2,000 to 3,000 to the square inch, and one-eighth of an inch in depth, making twenty-eight miles of human drainage.

"Five-eighths of all that is eaten passes off through those pores, and but two per cent of all perspirable matter consists of solid substances. The change in the muscle, tissues and bones, occurs in from one to two years and in the entire body in from six to seven years. If this old matter be retained, it causes disease—it is a real virus.

"Some diseases are relieved almost instantly by opening the pores. Diarrhoea is frequently cured. Matter from the mucous membrane is expelled through the skin, tobacco, opium, and mercury, have been thus exuded.—Whatever through the skin the body can expel, it can absorb. Hold your finger in spirits of turpentine; it is absorbed, goes through the system, and may be detected by its odor. Constant handling of arsenic has produced death by absorption.

The Doctor relates an account of a gentleman of the Barbadoes who was in the habit of daily intoxication, and had constructed a tub with a pillow to accommodate his head, and when in this state, was placed therein, and the tub was filled with cold water, in which he reposed for two or three hours, and would then arise refreshed and invigorated. When the wife or family required him, they would wake him up by taking out the plug and allow the water to escape, when he would pleasantly complain of the "loss of his bed clothes."

"Perspiration is eliminated from all parts of the body, and the excretions, cutaneously forced, may from some parts of the surface be re-admitted to the circulation, and if poisonous or injurious, whenever the blood visits it it must carry disease. Nature keeps her side of the interior clean and soft, and demands an unobstructed exterior and exudes to the surface the refuse matter for removal by bathing and evaporation. A dry, light powder, mixed with sweat and oil from the glands, and dust, clogs up the pores.—As all parts of the cuticle has pores, as well as the face and arms, all the body should be bathed at least one-third as many times as those are.

"On board a slave ship the small-pox suddenly broke out. Medical aid was powerless. Every morning the dead in great numbers were thrown overboard. In the midst of terror and anguish, the negroes cried out, 'Let us do as we do in our own country with the sick.' Permission being given, they gently lowered their sick companions into the sea, letting them remain a few minutes, and then raised them, and placed them in the sun-light on deck until dried, and repeated the process several times, when the disease left them, and they were cured.

"At Charleston, S. C., during the recent epidemic, among several Northern mechanics who had gone thither in company, but one escaped the prevailing fever, and he alone bathed frequently, and never slept at night in any of the clothes worn by day. The others cast off only their outer garments, slept in their perspiration, and died.

"Cold water is used and prescribed much more than formerly, though many would think a physician not worth sending for who would prescribe so simple a remedy. Abernethy's advice to one of his wealthy patients was, 'Let your servant bring to you three or four pailsful of water and put it into a wash tub; take off your clothes and get into it, and from head to foot rub yourself with it, and you'll recover.'—'This advice of yours seems very much like telling me to wash myself,' said the patient. 'Well,' said Abernethy, 'it is open to that objection.'

"Dr. Currie used fresh water generally, and by long and careful experience he found that bathing prevented or cured most diseases.