Health: How to get it and keep it.: The hygiene of dress, food, exercise, rest, bathing, breathing, and ventilation.Woods, Walter V.
Science
Health: How to get it and keep it.: The hygiene of dress, food, exercise, rest, bathing, breathing, and ventilation.
Woods, Walter V.
Health; Hygiene
=Sun Bath.=--The value of sunshine to animal and vegetable life is
apparent to all. Plants become blanched and tender, and lack hardihood,
if left without sunlight. Fishes in the subterranean lakes are dwarfed,
and have no eyes. Tadpoles kept in the dark never develop into
full-grown frogs. Men, growing up in mines or in dark prison cells, are
sallow and ill-formed. When Fashion smiles upon brown arms and a tanned
face, health is improved, and the darker skin is rendered more hardy
and better able to resist exposure.
Sand Baths have, at different times, been held in high esteem. The
patient is buried in sand, except his head, and exposed to the full
rays of the sun. The surface irritation caused by the sand, combined
with the effect of the heat, produces a copious perspiration.
Mud Baths and Pine Baths are popular in parts of Germany. In the
former, the body of the patient is imbedded, for a time, in the thick
paste or mud deposited by some of the mineral springs, or formed of a
mixture of moor-earth and water. In the Pine Baths, a strong decoction
is made of the fragrant limbs and tops of the resinous pine trees,
which, blended with water, has a stimulating action on the skin.
=Surf Bathing.=--Sea bathing is more invigorating than fresh water
bathing. Persons who cannot bathe in fresh water are often benefited by
surf bathing. The stimulating action of the salt water, the impact of
the waves, the exhilaration and excitement occasioned by the incoming
breakers, and the wholesome exercise which usually attends a sea bath,
all contribute to the benefit of surf bathing.
While the danger of chilling and taking cold are less in sea bathing,
yet the usual precautions should be observed. If warm, do not wait
to cool off before going into the water. This is always hazardous.
Plunge boldly in, taking care to wet the head, neck, and face as
quickly as possible. Exercise to keep up the circulation. Dive through
the rollers, or jump up to prevent being overwhelmed by them. If,
after being in the water a few minutes, there is a growing sense of
chilliness which cannot be overcome by exercise, the bather, for his
own safety, should withdraw at once, however enjoyable the occasion,
and seek comfort in dry, warm clothing. A prolonged stay at the
sea-shore will enable him to renew his bath daily, and gradually
increase its length. At most, it should not exceed thirty minutes.
Persons of vigorous constitution may take two dips a day with
advantage. A short rest should follow the bath, whenever possible. But
if reaction is not established by rubbing and putting on dry clothing,
it should be restored by taking a short brisk walk before the rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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