Domestic Economy: Chapter Nine

CHAPTER IX. ON CLEANLINESS.

The importance of cleanliness, in person and dress, can never be fully realized, by persons who are ignorant of the construction of the skin, and of the influence which its treatment has on the health of the body. Persons deficient in such knowledge, frequently sneer at what they deem the foolish and fidgety particularity of others, whose frequent ablutions and changes of clothing, exceed their own measure of importance.

The popular maxim, that "dirt is healthy," has probably arisen from the fact, that playing in the open air is very beneficial to the health of children, who thus get dirt on their persons and clothes. But it is the fresh air and exercise, and not the dirt, which promotes the health.
In a previous article, it was shown, that the lungs, bowels, kidneys, and skin, were the organs employed in throwing off those waste and noxious parts of the food not employed in nourishing the body. Of this, the skin has the largest duty to perform; throwing off, at least, twenty ounces every twenty-four hours, by means of insensible perspiration. When exercise sets the blood in quicker motion, it ministers its supplies faster, and there is consequently a greater residuum to be thrown off by the skin; and then the perspiration becomes so abundant as to be perceptible. In this state, if a sudden chill take place, the blood-vessels of the skin contract, the blood is driven from the surface, and the internal organs are taxed with a double duty. If the constitution be a strong one, these organs march on and perform the labor exacted. But if any of these organs be debilitated, the weakest one generally gives way, and some disease ensues.

One of the most frequent illustrations of this reciprocated action, is afforded by a convivial meeting in cold weather. The heat of the room, the food, and the excitement, quicken the circulation, and perspiration is evolved. When the company passes into the cold air, a sudden revulsion takes place. The increased circulation continues, for some time after; but the skin being cooled, the blood retreats, and the internal organs are obliged to perform the duties of the skin as well as their own. Then, in case the lungs are the weakest organ, the mucous secretion becomes excessive; so that it would fill up the cells, and stop the breathing, were it not for the spasmodic effort called coughing, by which this substance is thrown out. In case the nerves are the weakest part of the system, such an exposure would result in pains in the head or teeth, or in some other nervous ailment. If the muscles be the weakest part, rheumatic affections will ensue; and if the bowels or kidneys be weakest, some disorder in their functions will result.

But it is found, that the closing of the pores of the skin with other substances, tends to a similar result on the internal organs. In this situation, the skin is unable perfectly to perform its functions, and either the blood remains to a certain extent unpurified, or else the internal organs have an unnatural duty to perform. Either of these results tends to produce disease, and the gradual decay of the vital powers.

Moreover, it has been shown, that the skin has the power of absorbing into the blood particles retained on its surface. In consequence of these peculiarities, the skin of the whole body needs to be washed, every day. This process removes from the pores the matter exhaled from the blood, and also that collected from the atmosphere and other bodies. If this process be not often performed, the pores of the skin fill up with the redundant matter expelled, and being pressed, by the clothing, to the surface of the body, the skin is both interrupted in its exhaling process, and its absorbents take back into the system portions of the noxious matter. Thus the blood is not relieved to the extent designed, while it receives back noxious particles, which are thus carried to the lungs, liver, and every part of the system.

This is the reason why the articles worn next to the skin should often be changed; and why it is recommended that persons should not sleep in the article they wear next the skin through the day. The alternate change and airing of the articles worn next the body by day or night, is a practice very favorable to the health of the skin. The fresh air has the power of removing much of the noxious effluvia received from the body by the clothing. It is with reference to this, that on leaving a bed, its covering should be thrown open and exposed to the fresh air.

The benefit arising from a proper care of the skin, is the reason why bathing has been so extensively practised by civilized nations. The Greeks and Romans considered bathing as indispensable to daily comfort, as much so, as their meals; and public baths were provided for all classes. In European countries, this practice is very prevalent, but there is no civilized nation which pays so little regard to the rules of health, on this subject, as our own. To wash the face, feet, hands, and neck, is the extent of the ablutions practised by perhaps the majority of our people.

In regard to the use of the bath, there is need of some information, in order to prevent danger from its misuse. Persons in good health, and with strong constitutions, can use the cold bath, and the shower-bath, with entire safety and benefit. But if the constitution be feeble, cold bathing is injurious. If it is useful, it can be known by an invigorated feeling, and a warm glow on the skin; but if, instead of this, there be a feeling of debility, and the hands and feet become cold, it is a certain sign, that this kind of bathing is injurious. A bath at ninety-five degrees of Fahrenheit, is about the right temperature. A bath, blood warm, or a little cooler than the skin, is safe for all constitutions, if not protracted over half an hour. After bathing, the body should be rubbed with a brush or coarse towel, to remove the light scales of scarfskin, which adhere to it, and also to promote a healthful excitement.

A bath should never be taken, till three hours after eating, as it interrupts the process of digestion, by withdrawing the blood from the stomach to the surface. Neither should it be taken, when the body is weary with exercise, nor be immediately followed by severe exercise. Many suppose that a warm bath exposes a person more readily to take cold; and that it tends to debilitate the system. This is not the case, unless it be protracted too long. If it be used so as to cleanse the skin, and give it a gentle stimulus, it is better able to resist cold than before the process. This is the reason why the Swedes and Russians can rush, reeking, out of their steam baths, and throw themselves into the snow, and not only escape injury, but feel invigorated. It is for a similar reason, that we suffer less in going into the cold, from a warm room, with our body entirely warm, than when we go out somewhat chilled. When the skin is warm, the circulation is active on the surface, and the cold does not so reduce its temperature, but that increased exercise will keep up its warmth.

When families have no bathing establishment, every member should wash the whole person, on rising or going to bed, either in cold or warm water, according to the constitution. It is especially important, that children have the perspiration and other impurities, which their exercise and sports have occasioned, removed from their skin before going to bed. The hours of sleep are those when the body most freely exhales the waste matter of the system, and all the pores should be properly freed from impediments to this healthful operation. For this purpose, a large tin wash-pan should be kept for children, just large enough, at bottom, for them to stand in, and flaring outward, so as to be very broad at top. A child can then be placed in it, standing, and washed with a sponge, without wetting the floor. Being small at bottom, it is better than a tub; it is not only smaller, but lighter, and requires less water.

These remarks indicate the wisdom of those parents, who habitually wash their children, all over, before they go to bed. The chance of life and health, to such children, is greatly increased by this practice; and no doubt much of the suffering of childhood, from cutaneous eruptions, weak eyes, earache, colds, and fevers, is owing to a neglect of the skin.

The care of the teeth should be made habitual to children, not merely as promoting an agreeable appearance, but as a needful preservative. The saliva contains tartar, an earthy substance, which is deposited on the teeth, and destroys both their beauty and health. This can be prevented, by the use of the brush, night and morning. But, if this be neglected, the deposite becomes hard, and can be removed only by the dentist. If suffered to remain, it tends to destroy the health of the gums; they gradually decay, and thus the roots of the teeth become bare, and they often drop out.

When children are shedding their first set of teeth, care should be taken, to remove them as soon as they become loose; otherwise the new teeth will grow awry. When persons have defective teeth, they can often be saved, by having them filled by a dentist. This also will frequently prevent the toothache.

Children should be taught to take proper care of their nails. Long and dirty nails have a disagreeable appearance. When children wash, in the morning, they should be supplied with an instrument to clean the nails, and be required to use it.

Domestic Economy Chapter Eight

ON CLOTHING.

It appears, by calculations made from bills of mortality, that one quarter of the human race perishes in infancy. This is a fact not in accordance with the analogy of Nature. No such mortality prevails [Pg 113]among the young of animals; it does not appear to be the design of the Creator; and it must be owing to causes which can be removed. Medical men agree in the opinion, that a great portion of this mortality, is owing to mismanagement, in reference to fresh air, food, and clothing.

At birth, the circulation is chiefly in the vessels of the skin; for the liver and stomach, being feeble in action, demand less blood, and it resorts to the surface. If, therefore, an infant be exposed to cold, the blood is driven inward, by the contracting of the blood-vessels in the skin: and, the internal organs being thus over-stimulated, bowel complaints, croup, convulsions, or some other evil, ensues. This shows the sad mistake of parents, who plunge infants in cold water to strengthen their constitution; and teaches, that infants should be washed in warm water, and in a warm room. Some have constitutions strong enough to bear mismanagement in these respects; but many fail in consequence of it.

Hence we see the importance of dressing infants warmly, and protecting them from exposure to a cold temperature. It is for this purpose, that mothers, now, very generally, cover the arms and necks of infants, especially in Winter. Fathers and mothers, if they were obliged to go with bare arms and necks, even in moderate weather, would often shiver with cold; and yet they have a power of constitution which would subject them to far less hazard and discomfort, than a delicate infant must experience from a similar exposure. This mode of dressing infants, with bare necks and arms, has arisen from the common impression, that they have a power of resisting cold superior to older persons. This is a mistake; for the experiments of medical men have established the fact, that the power of producing heat is least in the period of infancy.

Extensive investigations have been made in France, in reference to this point. It is there required, in some districts, that every infant, at birth, be carried to the office of the maire, [mayor,] to be registered. It is [Pg 114]found, in these districts, that the deaths of newly-born infants, are much more numerous in the cold, than in the warm, months; and that a much greater proportion of such deaths occurs among those who reside at a distance from the office of the maire, than among those in its vicinity. This proves, that exposure to cold has much to do with the continuance of infant life.

But it is as dangerous to go to the other extreme, and keep the body too warm. The skin, when kept at too high a temperature, is relaxed and weakened by too profuse perspiration, and becomes more sensitive, and more readily affected by every change of temperature. This increases the liabilities to sudden colds; and it frequently happens, that the children, who are most carefully guarded from cold, are the ones most liable to take sudden and dangerous chills. The reason is, that, by the too great accumulation of clothing, the skin is too much excited, and the blood is withdrawn from the internal organs, thus weakening them, while the skin itself is debilitated by the same process.

The rule of safety, is, so to cover the body, as to keep it entirely warm, but not so as to induce perspiration in any part. The perspiration induced by exercise is healthful, because it increases the appetite; but the perspiration produced by excess of clothing is debilitating. This shows the importance of adjusting beds and their covering to the season. Featherbeds are unhealthful in warm weather, because they induce perspiration; and in all cases, those, who have the care of children, should proportion their covering by night to the season of the year. Infants and children should never be so clothed, as either to feel chilly, or to induce perspiration.

The greatest trouble, in this respect, to those who have the care of children, is owing to their throwing off their covering in the night. The best guard, against such exposures, is a nightgown, of the warmest and thickest flannel, made like pantaloons at the lower part, and the legs long, so that they can be tied over the feet. [Pg 115]This makes less covering needful, and saves the child from excessive cold when it is thrown off.

The clothing ought always to be proportioned to the constitution and habits. A person of strong constitution, who takes much exercise, needs less clothing than one of delicate and sedentary habits. According to this rule, women need much thicker and warmer clothing, when they go out, than men. But how different are our customs, from what sound wisdom dictates! Women go out with thin stockings, thin shoes, and open necks, when men are protected by thick woollen hose and boots, and their whole body encased in many folds of flannel and broadcloth.

Flannel, worn next the skin, is useful, for several reasons. It is a bad conductor of heat, so that it protects the body from sudden chills when in a state of perspiration. It also produces a kind of friction on the skin, which aids it in its functions, while its texture, being loose, enables it to receive and retain much matter, thrown off from the body, which would otherwise accumulate on its surface. This is the reason, why medical men direct, that young children wear flannel next the body, and woollen hose, the first two years of life. They are thus protected from sudden exposures. For the same reason, laboring men should thus wear flannels, which are also considered as preservatives from infection, in unhealthy atmospheres. They give a healthy action to the skin, and thus enable it to resist the operation of unhealthy miasms. On this account, persons residing in a new country should wear such clothing next the skin, to guard them from the noxious miasms caused by extensive vegetable decompositions. It is stated, that the fatal influence of the malaria, or noxious exhalations around Rome, has been much diminished by this practice. But those who thus wear flannel, through the day, ought to take it off, at night, when it is not needed. It should be hung so that it can be well aired, during the night.

But the practice, by which females probably suffer [Pg 116]most, is, the use of tight dresses. Much has been said against the use of corsets by ladies. But these may be worn with perfect safety, and be left off, and still injury, such as they often produce, be equally felt. It is the constriction of dress, that is to be feared, and not any particular article that produces it. A frock, or a belt, may be so tight, as to be even worse than a corset, which would more equally divide the compression.

So long as it is the fashion to admire, as models of elegance, the wasp-like figures which are presented at the rooms of mantuamakers and milliners, there will be hundreds of foolish women, who will risk their lives and health to secure some resemblance to these deformities of the human frame. But it is believed, that all sensible women, when they fairly understand the evils which result from tight dressing, and learn the real model of taste and beauty for a perfect female form, will never risk their own health, or the health of their daughters, in efforts to secure one which is as much at variance with good taste, as it is with good health.

Such female figures as our print-shops present, are made, not by the hand of the Author of all grace and beauty, but by the murderous contrivances of the corset-shop; and the more a woman learns the true rules of grace and beauty for the female form, the more her taste will revolt from such ridiculous distortions. The folly of the Chinese belle, who totters on two useless deformities, is nothing, compared to that of the American belle, who impedes all the internal organs in the discharge of their functions, that she may have a slender waist.

It was shown, in the article on the bones and muscles, that exercise was indispensable to their growth and strength. If any muscles are left unemployed, they diminish in size and strength. The girding of tight dresses operates thus on the muscles of the body. If an article, like corsets, is made to hold up the body, then those muscles, which are designed for this purpose, are released from duty, and grow weak; so that, after [Pg 117]this has been continued for some time, leaving off the unnatural support produces a feeling of weakness. Thus a person will complain of feeling so weak and unsupported, without corsets, as to be uncomfortable. This is entirely owing to the disuse of those muscles, which corsets throw out of employ.

Another effect of tight dress, is, to stop or impede the office of the lungs. Unless the chest can expand, fully, and with perfect ease, a portion of the lungs is not filled with air, and thus the full purification of the blood is prevented. This movement of the lungs, when they are fully inflated, increases the peristaltic movement of the stomach and bowels, and promotes digestion; any constriction of the waist tends to impede this important operation, and indigestion, with all its attendant evils, is often the result.

The rule of safety, in regard to the tightness of dress, is this. Every person should be dressed so loosely, that, when sitting in the posture used in sewing, reading, or study THE LUNGS can be as fully and as easily inflated, as they are without clothing. Many a woman thinks she dresses loosely, because, when she stands up, her clothing does not confine her chest. This is not a fair test. It is in the position most used when engaged in common employments, that we are to judge of the constriction of dress. Let every woman, then, bear in mind, that, just so long as her dress and position oppose any resistance to the motion of her chest, in just such proportion her blood is unpurified, and her vital organs are debilitated.

The English ladies set our countrywomen a good example, in accommodating their dress to times and seasons. The richest and noblest among them wear warm cotton hose and thick shoes, when they walk for exercise; and would deem it vulgar to appear, as many of our ladies do, with thin hose and shoes, in damp or cold weather. Any mode of dress, not suited to the employment, the age, the season, or the means of the wearer, is in bad taste.